A WV art form

I'm a bit behind in blogging (and I apologize for the annoying alliteration), but must call attention to an event earlier this week when Gov. Justice and representatives of extractive industries called a press conference to protest that old trope "the war on coal."

Here's coverage from the Gazette-Mail and WV MetroNews.

I get it. I mean, it's worked so well for them in the past, politically and economically.

This time the villain isn't a black man with an unusual name but rather rootless cosmopolitan New York financier Michael Bloomberg (do I hear another dog whistle going off?--that worked really well for them in the past as well.) This "limousine liberal" pledged to spend $500 million to put coal power plants out of business by 2030 in an effort to reduce the effects of climate change.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the short term profits of our rulers vastly outweighs the future of life on earth in terms of importance.

In any event, it had all the ingredients of a good old WV ruling class hissy fit, including a denial of climate change, the denunciation of  an "Other" from out of state and the portrayal of WV's colonial overlords as benefactors.

Here's my take: if they're that worried about it, they have a remedy within reach. $500 million is pretty close to the amount of regressive tax cuts business groups and the wealthy enjoy each year.

Golly, who could have seen this coming?

Remember all the hype about President Obama's "war on coal" and how Prince Joffrey President Trump would make coal great again?

This is from an AP report:

U.S. demand for coal to generate electricity will continue its slide in coming months despite efforts by the Trump administration to prop up the struggling industry, federal officials said Thursday.

Renewable energy sources are expected to fill much of the gap left by coal's decline, according to the Energy Information Administration...

Under President Donald Trump, officials have sought to ease coal plant regulations and mining restrictions. But after production briefly bumped up in the year after Trump took office, almost all coal mining states are now experiencing production declines.

This summer, coal's share of energy production is expected to be 25 percent, down by around half over the last 10 years. And it's market driven.

Maybe we should sacrifice another generation or two of West Virginians to the industry just to make sure?

Annals of hypocrisy

You really can't make this stuff up. As my friend Ken Ward reported in yesterday's Gazette-Mail, WV's Republican representatives in the US House, who rode to power in part by pretending to give a ____ (fill in the blank) about coal miners, voted to cut funding on the federal Mine Health and Safety Administration.  Fortunately, the measure failed to pass the entire House.

UMWA president Cecil Roberts had this to say about that: "I am gratified that a majority of the House agreed with our position that we should not be cutting coal mine safety at a time when we are experiencing rising fatalities and serious injuries in America’s mines."

I guess you get what you vote for.

Speaking of abominations, then there's this.

Subsidize this

The latest WV Public Radio Front Porch podcast/program is about Gov. Jim Justice's proposal to get the federal government to subsidize eastern coal as a matter of rent seeking national security and also about disasters like Hurricane Harvey.

More important, however, is the pressing question of what food item would be your nickname if sandwiched (no pun intended) between your first and last name? You may have to listen to make sense of that one.

Don't seek and you won't find

According to a news story was first reported by my friend Ken Ward Jr. at the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the Trump administration recently pulled the plug on a study by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine on the health effects of mountaintop removal mining. This occurred in spite of numerous scientific studies that suggest increased rates of birth defects, cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases 

 This shouldn't be too much of a surprise. As a Gazette editorial put it,  "This administration is anti-science and very pro-coal. It is not so pro-coal miner, or coal miner’s family or community. A clearer understanding of how and why coalfield residents get sick, die and have too many birth defects might get in the way of enthusiasm to mine more coal at all costs."

A serious scientific study of the health effects would have at least helped to clear the air, metaphorically speaking, about the issue. One thing's for sure: you probably won't find what you don't look for.

The road not taken

In the latest Front Porch, we talk about higher education, state budget priorities, and the decline of coal.  And big rabbits.

Rediscovered

If you're anything like me you are probably SOOO over the political convention season. Nevertheless, WV unusually got a lot of attention this time around. That's the subject on this week's Front Porch.

In case you were wondering...

...West Virginia's leaders have been on a major ruling class hissy fit over the Obama administration's proposed Clean Power Plan. Gee, nobody saw that coming.

IT'S NOT ALL BAD. On the other hand, two friends of mine who recently started a program to bring yoga to West Virginia's prison population got some nice coverage in the Gazette today. One of them was a guardian angel of mine on a triathlon I barely managed to finish. I now owe her a karmic debt.

MORE GOOD NEWS. WV continues to make huge strides in child nutrition. The Harrison County school board recently decided to dramatically expand its participation in a federal program that provides free breakfast and lunch to all students in schools with high poverty rates. They piloted the program at three schools last year.

Even better, one heretofore holdout county, Wetzel, recently decided to provide free meals to all kids county wide. On the cosmic scale, this might not seem like a big deal, but it's a huge one for the kids who no longer have to deal with stigma and the parents who no longer have to worry about another bill.

A big thank you to the adults in those counties who stood up for kids!

Talking sense about West Virginia

I'm not saying it doesn't happen very often, but I'm always glad when it does. Here's a article from the State Journal that talks sense about higher education, taxes and the state budget. And then Ken Ward at Coal Tattoo tries to do the same on a bit of a tender subject these days. 

In case you get really bored...

...here's a link to a podcast of a new program WV Public Broadcasting is trying out. It's called "The Front Porch," and it involves people with different viewpoints discussing issues in a civil way. The different viewpoints this time are yours truly and conservative columnist Laurie Lin discussing the future of coal. There may be more to come.

TALKING SENSE ON TAXES. Here's an op-ed by a friend of mine about what's next on the agenda of WV Republicans.

WHILE WE'RE AT IT. Here's Gazette statehouse columnist Phil Kabler pointing out how ALEC is running the agenda here.

Total randomness

First of all, I'd like to have one of these extinct carnivorous terror birds. They couldn't be that much worse than guineas.

Second, here's another look at the impacts of coal's decline.

Third, if you are really bored, here is what proclaims itself to be a Marxist critique of Game of Thrones.

How's that for variety?

In case you were wondering...

...truth in WV is what the ruling class says it is.

Beyond vile

Over 30 years ago, the sociologist Herbert Gans cataloged the various ways predatory capitalism feeds on the poor. You can find his influential essay "The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All" here. The latest twist on this kind of parasitism can be found in privatized programs that pretend to be community-based corrections systems and alternatives to incarceration but in fact might as well just attach suction pumps to suck the life out of those who fall into their clutches. Here's a good take on the subject from the NY Times.

MORE ON COAL'S DECLINE--and West Virginia's resource curse here, by way of the Washington Post..

Thought for the day

I thought I was pretty familiar with the writings of Frederick Douglass, but I came across another good one today that was new to me. The context was a press conference I attended whereat some heavy hitters, including legislators and a US attorney, called on WV Gov. Early Ray Tomblin to fully restore cuts to domestic violence and early childhood programs.

The governor partially restored funding to some programs yesterday, but this was one-time money taken from other revenues targeted for children. Those at the press conference wanted a full restoration of around $1 million in funding to be divided between several programs. One speaker pointed out that $1 million amounts to "a rounding error" compared with the size of the whole state budget. Specific sources of funding were identified as well.

But I digress...the quote was cited by Booth Goodwin, US Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia., who talked about how much cheaper it is to help kids get a good start in life than to deal with them once things have gone wrong.

Here's what Douglass said: "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." I think that would apply to women as well.

I WISH I'D WRITTEN THIS item on the water crisis, coal, climate, WV politics and all that mess.

SPEAKING OF WV, workers die on the job here at twice the national rate.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

It all started on Facebook

OK, so today, when I was technically supposed to have be working, I accidentally checked Facebook to find the following hilarious post by a pal  in regard to the West Virginia coal/poetry censorship episode that officially didn't happen.

Here's what he wrote:

"Practicing for next year's poetry contest: Roses are red, Violets are blue, coal is from heaven, and it is awesome too."

This inspired me to invite my fellow West Virginians to take part in an Acceptable Poem Contest in which we write pro-coal poetry that would be permissible to read aloud in public places in West Virginia. Here's what I came up with:

Once upon a midnight dreary,
coal kept the lights on.

Any takers?

Fear of success

It's becoming increasingly clear that what lies behind the mania of the US House majority to shutdown the government and crash the economy is fear that the Affordable Care Act will succeed.

I mean think about it. If "Obamacare" was a disaster, the thing to do would be let it roll out, capitalize on how bad it is, and ride that wave to victory. As Napoleon was supposed to have said, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." That isn't happening. Instead, West Virginia alone, over 50,000 people have signed up for the expanded Medicaid program since Oct. 1.

I wonder how much damage the Whackadoodles will do before it's over, but I don't think they are going to be able to put the genie back in the bottle.

AND THEN THERE'S THIS: a recent poll shows that a majority of Americans don't think the shutdown crisis should be linked to Obamacare funding.

HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION. Here's a look at why it matters.

BOOMS AND BUSTS. Here's a call for WV leaders to get real about the future of coal. I'm not holding my breath on this one.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

A man is made Providence to himself

The theme at Goat Rope these days, aside from occasional rants when things get on my last nerve, is the life and work of Ralph Waldo Emerson. At this point, I'm on his Harvard Divinity School Address, which managed to tick off even Unitarians.

As I've mentioned before, Emerson and Thoreau were both forerunners of American Buddhism. In this essay, Emerson expounds a subtle idea of karma whereby people become more like what they invest themselves in. Compassionate people get better at compassion. Greedy people get better at greed. He sees this as working like a law of nature:

See how this rapid intrinsic energy worketh everywhere, righting wrongs, correcting appearances, and bringing up facts to a harmony with thoughts. Its operation in life, though slow to the senses, is, at last, as sure as in the soul. By it, a man is made the Providence to himself, dispensing good to his goodness, and evil to his sin. Character is always known. Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls. The least admixture of a lie--for example, the taint of vanity, the least attempt to make a good impression, a favorable appearance--will instantly vitiate the effect. But speak the truth, and all nature and all spirits help you with unexpected furtherance. Speak the truth, and all things alive or brute are vouchers, and the very roots of the grass underground there, do seem to stir and move to bear you witness. See again the perfection of the Law as it applies itself to the affections, and becomes the law of society. As we are, so we associate. The good, by affinity, seek the good; the vile, by affinity, the vile. Thus of their own violition, souls proceed into heaven, into hell.

To which I can only say, with Hamlet's friend Horatio, so have I heard and do in part believe it. Or I'd like to  anyway.

COAL COUNTIES AND DEATH RATES seem to go hand in hand.

PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS WEBSITE to learn more about Medicaid expansion, whether you can qualify for coverage, and how you can take steps to make sure it happens here.

I CAN HANDLE BATS EATING SPIDERS, but the thought of spiders eating bats kind of grosses me out. Maybe it's a mammalian solidarity thing.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

R.I.P. Turk Lurk

It is with sorrow that I must report the passing of The Turkey Formerly Known As Diego, aka Turk Lurk. He has been a resident of Goat Rope Farm for about four years now. He died of apparently natural causes, although romantic rivalry may have had something to do with it.

There was never a more ardent suitor when it came to the ladies, although he seemed to have trouble sealing the reproductive deal. It does appear, however, that at least two of the baby turkeys now bopping around the farm have his genetic imprint.

He was a really sweet, gentle, genial and tame bird. For years now, I have amused myself (and torment co-workers on conference calls) by exchanging endless verbal greetings with him.

May he be reborn in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha, where he can work towards ultimate enlightenment under the most favorable of circumstances.

BY WAY OF LINKS, here are two on the politics and reality of coal from Ken Ward's Coal Tattoo.

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Cui bono?

The Latin phrase "cui bono?" can be loosely translated as "who benefits?" I asked that question recently to a resident of a county that is ground zero in Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling, aside from the companies involved. (By the way, there are a lot of different companies involved in the process. It's not like, say a US Steel plant back in the day where one company does the whole thing. One firm may clear pads, another one drill, another frack, another lay pipe, several others haul equipment, sand and water, etc.)

Here are some of the people identified as benefiting:

*the out of state workers who drive, drill, frack, etc.;

*the owners of businesses like motels, convenience stores, restaurants, and other businesses that cater to the industry and those who work in it;

*big landowners who own the mineral rights to their own land--something that doesn't happen as often as you might think--and who can locate some well pads far enough away from their living quarters to generate some income without ruining their quality of life. Ditto absentee owners.

I had a conversation with a union official yesterday asking about whether local and/on union workers (preferably both) were getting anything out of it. He said that some were, particularly in the pipeline end. Some unions represented at various points in the process are Laborers, Operating Engineers, and Teamsters, with some others.

I'm glad there are some winners outside CEOs and stockholders. But I'd like to see the numbers increase. Better regulation, more protections for the environment, more transparency, more efforts to hire local workers would be a start.

At the risk of being a broken record, West Virginia as a whole could be a winner if we set aside some of the revenue from natural gas to create a Future Fund to help transition our economy beyond mineral extraction.

LIES, TRUTH, THINGS UNSAID AND THE POLITICS OF COAL. Here's a great post from Ken Ward's Coal Tattoo that lays it all on the line.

GO NORTHEAST, YOUNG MAN (OR WOMAN). There's more social mobility there

CHIMPS have culture. And some plan ahead when it comes to stone throwing.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Would that it were so

Kudos to AFLCIO president and former UMWA leader Rich Trumka for calling for serious discussions about climate change and the future of coal. Of course, I don't expect political leaders in the Mountain State of Denial to pay a lot of attention, but every little bit helps.

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE, climate change may  make reptiles smarter.

NOT ONLY ARE CORPORATIONS NOT PEOPLE, but America isn't one either.

LOOKING AHEAD, Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz sees a rough year in 2012.

HAS ANYONE NOTICED that I've gone a week without mentioning zombies?

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