Monday, November 14, 2016

Last Call For The King Coal Con

Donald Trump's 30-point wins in Kentucky and West Virginia, and wins in Ohio and Pennsylvania were never, ever about "coal jobs".  They were about dismantling the Obama coalition and punishing the people who voted for the current president. But Mitch McConnell gave the game away over the weekend, and nobody will care.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hedged on Friday about when and if Republicans would be able to bring coal mining jobs to Kentucky, saying that is a "private sector activity." 
The issue has been a key campaign tool for Republicans who have accused President Obamaof waging a "war on coal." President-elect Trump promised during the campaign that he could save the coal industry in America. 
"Obama has decimated the coal industry, and we're going to bring the coal industry back,” Trump said at a speech in Louisville in March. “The coal industry is going to make a very big comeback.” 
But asked at a press conference at the University of Louisville if the GOP would be able to restore the industry that has shed jobs here and in other coal-mining states, McConnell demurred. 
"I certainly would like to see the war on coal come to an end," he said in a 20-minute press conference. "As I've said repeatedly over the last few years, the war on coal was not a result of anything Congress passed, there was no legislation. This was all executive orders or regulations that the president was involved in, unilaterally, on his own." 
The industry has been losing jobs for three decades and those losses accelerated under Obama, in part because of new environmental regulations, but more importantly, because of cheap natural gas prices
In 1985, there were 173,000 coal mining jobs in the United States, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. In October of this year, that number had fallen to 53,000. 
Eastern Kentucky has been especially hard hit because the easily obtained coal is gone and it costs much more to extract it from the ground there. 
"We are going to be presenting to the president a variety of options that could end this assault," McConnell said. "Whether that immediately brings business back, that's hard to tell because this is a private sector activity."

Oh.  Oh well then.  The rest of King Coal's court didn't have much more to add either.

The interim president of the Kentucky Coal Association was more direct about the future of coal mining in Eastern Kentucky. 
I would not expect to see a lot of growth because of the Trump presidency,” Nick Carter said in an interview. “If there is any growth in Eastern Kentucky, it will be because of an improved economy for coal.” 
Experts agree that environmental regulations placed on the coal industry contributed to a rapid decline of the coal industry over the past few years, but there have been other, more important economic factors at play. 
“The issues, particularly in the eastern part of Kentucky, are more than the increase of regulations,” said Ken Troske, Sturgill Professor of Economics at the University of Kentucky. 
One of those issues is a decrease in demand for coal. 
Carter said the low price of natural gas contributes to the lack of demand for coal. As the energy industry builds new power plants, it’s more likely to build plants that run on natural gas because the price isn’t as high. 
We don’t mind losing to natural gas because it’s the cheapest source,” Carter said.

Nat gas is good for the energy industry, but it's not going to bring back coal jobs.

That's because nothing will bring back coal jobs, and Kentucky made sure it elected people who will make sure those coal jobs will not only disappear for good, but that thos high-=paying union coal mining jobs won't be replaced by any jobs at all.

King Coal conned you, Kentucky.  But keep blaming the black guy while you have President Trump and the Democrats are wiped out in the state and across the Midwest.



Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article114197923.html#storylink=cpy

Black Lives Still Don't Matter, Con't

Meanwhile with all the election issues that America is neck deep in right now, it was very easy to overlook the fact yet another cop got away with killing a black man, and it happened right here in Cincy as the man accused of murdering Sam DuBose got a hung jury and mistrial last week.

After a judge ordered a mistrial in the Ray Tensing murder trial Saturday, it will be up to Prosecutor Joe Deters to decide whether or not he wants to retry the case. 
Deters said he was disappointed by the mistrial, but noted it's still a better result than a "not guilty" verdict for him and others who believe Tensing was wrong when he fatally shot Sam DuBose during a traffic stop last year.

"I am grateful for what the jury did in terms of the time and energy," Deters said. "I am very disappointed because I think we have put on an incredible case which demonstrated murder."
Tensing faced two charges in DuBose's death: murder and a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. 
"He intentionally shot him in the head," Deters said. "And that is not, in my mind, justifiable." 
Deters has repeatedly said he believes the evidence shows that Tensing is guilty. Whether or not he will retry the case depends on whether he thinks another jury would convict Tensing on one of the charges. He said he would keep the same charges, which were the charges returned by the grand jury. 
"If I think we can win, we'll retry the case," Deters said.

Look around, Mr. Deters.  Ohio is not a state where a jury would ever convict a cop for the execution of a black person.  The voters in this state made that loud and clear on Tuesday.  We're now to the point of questioning whether there should even be a trial.

Sam DuBose's life didn't matter, so like with everything else this week, we'll be told to "get over it" and move on to the next injustice.

When does that finally stop, I wonder?  When do black lives matter?

They haven't so far in this country's long history.  What will it take to change that?

Deportations, Lickety-Split

Donald Trump's first major interview since his election was with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Lesley Stahl spent time lobbing softballs and being shocked at Trump being serious about his alt-right campaign promises.  But his immigration and deportation comments are getting the most play.

Lesley Stahl: They’re talking about a fence in the Republican Congress, would you accept a fence?

Donald Trump: For certain areas I would, but certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I’m very good at this, it’s called construction.

Lesley Stahl: So part wall, part fence?

Donald Trump: Yeah, it could be – it could be some fencing.

Lesley Stahl: What about the pledge to deport millions and millions of undocumented immigrants?

Donald Trump: What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, we have a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate. But we’re getting them out of our country, they’re here illegally. After the border is secured and after everything gets normalized, we’re going to make a determination on the people that you’re talking about who are terrific people, they’re terrific people but we are gonna make a determination at that-- But before we make that determination-- Lesley, it’s very important, we want to secure our border.
[Paul Ryan: We had a fantastic, productive meeting.]

Lesley Stahl: So you were with Paul Ryan, you met with the Republican leadership, what was the-- one thing that you all agreed you want to get done right away?

Donald Trump: Well, I would say there was more than one thing, there were three things, it was healthcare, there was immigration and there was a major tax bill lowering taxes in this country. We’re going to substantially simplify and lower the taxes--

Lesley Stahl: And you’ve got both Houses?

Donald Trump: And I have both Houses and we have the presidency, so we can do things--

Lesley Stahl: You can do things lickety-split.

Donald Trump: It’s been a long time since it’s happened.

So two to three million deported and "then a determination".  Healthcare and tax reform too.  And lickety-split, for you folks playing at home in Red State America.

Things are going to move fast in 2017.

StupidiNews!