United States Governors

[GreyhoundFan]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

West Virginia Governor to Switch from Democrat to Republican 

This would just make my blood boil if I were a West Virginian and had purposely voted for him because he was a Democrat.

That he is friends with the Drumpfs makes this smell rather fishy. Let's register as a Democrat, get elected and then switch sides. 

He was a registered Repug until 2015.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Annnnnndddd.... wait for it...

Yes! It's Russia again!

'Jim Justice owes millions of dollars in unpaid company taxes, after a deal with a Russian coal company'

The presidunce is like Midas, except everything he touches links back to Russia.

 

Joy Reid has more info on that Russian connection:

 

Edited August 4, 2017 by fraurosena
Adding Joy Reid tweet

[candygirl200413]

Basically when in doubt, it's always leads back to Russia!

[GrumpyGran]

20 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Annnnnndddd.... wait for it...

Yes! It's Russia again!

'Jim Justice owes millions of dollars in unpaid company taxes, after a deal with a Russian coal company'

The presidunce is like Midas, except everything he touches links back to Russia.

 

Joy Reid has more info on that Russian connection:

 

So he belongs to the party of Financial Opportunity. Just like Trump. And is he laundering money? He sold the mines for $600 mil, at a time when coal mining was tanking? Then he just got them back for $5 mil.? I can see how this might make idiots believe he's bringing those fabulous coal mining jobs back. But what are the Russians getting for this? I find it hard to believe he just lucked into some incredibly stupid Russians five years ago.

[Cartmann99]

 

On 8/2/2017 at 2:12 PM, Penny said:

If the bathroom bill passes, I can see many companies moving out of state. I don't see any way it will pass but I ave been wrong before.

I'm down to hoping that Joe Strauss holds firm about not letting the bill on the floor for a vote. He's not batshit crazy enough on social issues to keep the nutters like Taliban Dan happy, so they have a plan to fix his wagon:

Quote

Some conservative Republicans are again trying to lay the groundwork to oust House Speaker Joe Straus, who they accused on Friday of blocking some of Gov. Greg Abbott's top priorities during the special session.

The San Antonio Republican has been able to overcome previous attempts by conservative groups to unseat him over the years. In 2015, he defeated then-Rep. Scott Turner by a 128-19 margin among House members to earn his fifth term as leader of the House.

Regardless, the newly formed Texas Freedom Caucus is taking the first steps to rewrite rules for how speakers are chosen to give them a better shot at getting a more conservative leader than what they believe Straus is. On Friday they held a conference call with supporters outlining their plan to force a meeting on a rule change that would require future House speakers to first get nominated from the Republicans in the House before Democrats get a chance to vote.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Some-Texas-House-members-explore-new-move-to-try-11735449.php

[GreyhoundFan]

Not about a governor, but the race for lieutenant governor has gotten fairly ugly here in VA. The female Repug candidate pushed a hideous bill requiring women who were seeking an abortion to have a trans-vaginal ultrasound. The bill got watered down, but she was none too pleased to be reminded of it: "Much-lampooned ultrasound bill revived in race for Va. lieutenant governor"

Spoiler

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Democrat Justin Fairfax used an infamous Virginia antiabortion bill to go after Republican Jill Holtzman Vogel on Wednesday, when the two rivals for lieutenant governor faced off at a candidate forum.

Vogel, a state senator from Fauquier County, sponsored a 2012 bill that would have required most women who get abortions to first undergo a vaginal ultrasound.

“Senator Vogel wants to take government out of everybody’s life [but] Senator Vogel sponsored the invasive ultrasound bill that forces women to have invasive ultrasounds,” said Fairfax, a former federal prosecutor. “I can’t think of a more intrusive thing that a government can do. . . . That made Virginia a laughingstock with late-night shows.”

The comment set off one of the sharpest exchanges of their 90-minute appearance at Piedmont Virginia Community College, with Vogel declaring, “The attacks that he just levied are 100 percent false.” Fairfax, who also criticized Vogel’s conduct in a mudslinging GOP primary, shot back: “Facts are not attacks.”

Fairfax and Vogel are fighting for a part-time, low-profile post with just two constitutionally mandated duties: presiding over the state Senate (and breaking certain tie votes) and taking over if the governor is incapacitated or leaves office. Moderator Bob Gibson, communications director of the University of Virginia’s Cooper Center for Public Service, listed a third duty: “Running for governor. They all do, and the winner will.”

Virginia’s lieutenant governorship often serves as a steppingstone in a state in which the governor’s mansion turns over every four years. Almost every lieutenant governor in modern history has run for governor, including the Democratic incumbent, Ralph Northam. He faces former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie in November.

The lieutenant governor’s office has become more powerful in its own right in recent years, with a closely divided Senate producing more ties to break. The GOP has a 21-to-19 edge in the chamber.

A Virginia Commonwealth University poll released this week had Fairfax up, 43 to 38. But Vogel had the advantage in the latest campaign finance reports, raising $1.8 million to Fairfax’s $1.3 million.

Fairfax and Vogel came face-to-face at the forum — sponsored by the college and by the public affairs nonprofit Senior Statesmen of Virginia — that was not technically a debate but still allowed them to tangle.

Vogel opposed new restrictions on guns, while Fairfax called for universal background checks. Vogel said she opposed changing Virginia’s no-limits campaign finance rules, saying caps would restrict speech. Fairfax noted a $600,000 donation Vogel received from a relative. That relative was her father, William B. Holtzman, founder of Holtzman Oil Corp. Fairfax said he supports limits so that wealthy interests “do not drown out other people’s voices.”

Vogel said cities and towns should not be allowed to “erase history” by removing Confederate monuments. Fairfax said localities should have the option.

Both agreed that climate change is real, that Virginia needs nonpartisan redistricting and that employers should have to check workers’ immigration status.

Fairfax, who narrowly lost the 2013 primary for attorney general to Mark R. Herring, said he would focus on the economy. He repeatedly credited the state’s high job growth and low unemployment rate to outgoing Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), Northam and Herring, who is seeking reelection.

Vogel billed herself as an experienced legislator who has crossed party lines to fight for nonpartisan issues, such as helping families with autism. She noted that she has bucked her party on a number of issues — by opposing uranium mining, for instance, and by supporting gay rights, medical marijuana and nonpartisan redistricting. She indicated that she would not support further restrictions on abortion rights.

“I am not running to take anybody’s rights away,” she said while discussing women’s health care.

When Fairfax invoked her 2012 abortion bill to attack that notion, Vogel pushed back hard.

“There was nothing in that bill that forced them to do anything against their will,” she said, a claim she based on the fact that abortion providers typically perform ultrasounds with or without a government mandate. “It was simply an informed consent bill.”

As originally proposed, Vogel’s bill would have required that women undergoing abortions first submit to an ultrasound and that they be offered an opportunity to view the image. The bill did not specifically mandate a vaginal ultrasound, but that would have been the effect in most cases because most abortions occur early in pregnancy, when the fetus is too small to be seen via abdominal ultrasound.

“Saturday Night Live” and late-night comics lampooned the measure, and Vogel eventually withdrew it. A House version was eventually passed but was amended to require an abdominal ultrasound — although in most cases, the test will not produce an image. Then-Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) signed it into law.

Oh yeah, nothing that forced them to do anything against their will, except to have a trans vaginal ultrasound. What a typical Repug.

[GreyhoundFan]

WTDH? "West Virginia governor wants to sell Trump on a $4.5 billion coal bailout by calling it a “homeland security initiative”"

Spoiler

Jim Justice, the born-again Republican governor of West Virginia, is floating a federal proposal to bail out the struggling Appalachian coal industry at a cost to taxpayers of up to $4.5 billion a year.

As Justice described it to the Wall Street Journal, under the proposal, the federal government would pay out $15 to eastern power companies for each ton of Appalachian coal they purchase.

Justice is attempting to sell the proposal as a “homeland security initiative” for protecting the eastern energy grid. He told a West Virginia newspaper that “if you’re all on gas or you’re all on gas and western coal and somebody puts a bomb at a gas junction point or somebody puts a bomb on a bridge coming from the west, you could very well lose the entire eastern power grid.”

Jason Bordoff, director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, said that “the claim that taxpayers should subsidize Appalachian coal for national security reasons is meritless.”

“Western coal production surpassed eastern coal production two decades ago,” Bordoff added, “and eastern coal has been in decline since the 1990s, but this has not led to grid reliability problems.” He noted that “the U.S. has a well-developed and integrated energy infrastructure and rail network, as well as storage system, and in the event of temporary disruptions, supplies could be rerouted and stocks drawn.”

The money in Justice's proposal would be used exclusively to prop up the northern and central Appalachian coal production regions, which include parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and far Western Maryland. Together those regions account for less than 25 percent of total domestic coal production, according to the Energy Information Administration. The remaining 75 percent of the domestic coal industry would receive no bailout.

...

Appalachian coal is struggling primarily because it is currently between four and five times more expensive to produce than coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, which now accounts for more than 40 percent of the nation's production.

Powder River coal seams are much closer to the surface than they are in the Appalachians, making them easier and cheaper to mine. Many of them are on federal lands, which are cheaply leased to coal companies, driving prices down further. It also contains significantly less of the air pollutant sulfur than Appalachian coal, making it more desirable from an environmental standpoint.

As a result, the price differential between western and eastern coal is so extreme that even with a $15/ton subsidy, Appalachian coal would remain roughly three times more expensive than Powder River coal.

...

At $4.5 billion, the bailout would have a hefty annual price tag. It's more than 1 billion dollars greater than the entire budget of the National Park Service, for instance. Looked at another way, $4.5 billion works out to roughly $132,000 in federal spending for each of the roughly 34,000 employees of coal companies in northern and central Appalachia.

Coal producers in other regions are already crying foul. “We very much think it’s best when the government’s not involved, and feel the free market instead should be allowed to work,” the executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association told the Wall Street Journal.

“Concerns about fuel supply reliability are legitimate, but picking winners by subsidizing production in the name of national security of one fuel that is declining due to market forces is not a smart or cost-effective solution,” Columbia's Bordoff said.

But Justice told Bloomberg News that he's found a receptive audience for the proposal in President Trump. “He’s really interested. He likes the idea,” Justice said.

Shaking my head.

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

WTDH? "West Virginia governor wants to sell Trump on a $4.5 billion coal bailout by calling it a “homeland security initiative”"

  Hide contents

Jim Justice, the born-again Republican governor of West Virginia, is floating a federal proposal to bail out the struggling Appalachian coal industry at a cost to taxpayers of up to $4.5 billion a year.

As Justice described it to the Wall Street Journal, under the proposal, the federal government would pay out $15 to eastern power companies for each ton of Appalachian coal they purchase.

Justice is attempting to sell the proposal as a “homeland security initiative” for protecting the eastern energy grid. He told a West Virginia newspaper that “if you’re all on gas or you’re all on gas and western coal and somebody puts a bomb at a gas junction point or somebody puts a bomb on a bridge coming from the west, you could very well lose the entire eastern power grid.”

Jason Bordoff, director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, said that “the claim that taxpayers should subsidize Appalachian coal for national security reasons is meritless.”

“Western coal production surpassed eastern coal production two decades ago,” Bordoff added, “and eastern coal has been in decline since the 1990s, but this has not led to grid reliability problems.” He noted that “the U.S. has a well-developed and integrated energy infrastructure and rail network, as well as storage system, and in the event of temporary disruptions, supplies could be rerouted and stocks drawn.”

The money in Justice's proposal would be used exclusively to prop up the northern and central Appalachian coal production regions, which include parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and far Western Maryland. Together those regions account for less than 25 percent of total domestic coal production, according to the Energy Information Administration. The remaining 75 percent of the domestic coal industry would receive no bailout.

...

Appalachian coal is struggling primarily because it is currently between four and five times more expensive to produce than coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, which now accounts for more than 40 percent of the nation's production.

Powder River coal seams are much closer to the surface than they are in the Appalachians, making them easier and cheaper to mine. Many of them are on federal lands, which are cheaply leased to coal companies, driving prices down further. It also contains significantly less of the air pollutant sulfur than Appalachian coal, making it more desirable from an environmental standpoint.

As a result, the price differential between western and eastern coal is so extreme that even with a $15/ton subsidy, Appalachian coal would remain roughly three times more expensive than Powder River coal.

...

At $4.5 billion, the bailout would have a hefty annual price tag. It's more than 1 billion dollars greater than the entire budget of the National Park Service, for instance. Looked at another way, $4.5 billion works out to roughly $132,000 in federal spending for each of the roughly 34,000 employees of coal companies in northern and central Appalachia.

Coal producers in other regions are already crying foul. “We very much think it’s best when the government’s not involved, and feel the free market instead should be allowed to work,” the executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association told the Wall Street Journal.

“Concerns about fuel supply reliability are legitimate, but picking winners by subsidizing production in the name of national security of one fuel that is declining due to market forces is not a smart or cost-effective solution,” Columbia's Bordoff said.

But Justice told Bloomberg News that he's found a receptive audience for the proposal in President Trump. “He’s really interested. He likes the idea,” Justice said.

Shaking my head.

Wow, another snake oil salesman. Of course Trump likes the idea. He's an idiot. And it panders to his give-me-my-coal-job-back base.

Trump is emboldening all these shysters. Sorry, coal job hounds, you won't see that $132,000.

And free market? Pfft. 

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

But Justice told Bloomberg News that he's found a receptive audience for the proposal in President Trump. “He’s really interested. He likes the idea,” Justice said.

And here we have the true reason Justice flip-flopped back to being a Repugliklan. 

[fraurosena]

This is not good. In fact, I find it absolutely horrifying.

Charlottesville: state of emergency declared amid violence before far-right rally

Spoiler

Violent clashes erupted between far-right nationalists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency.

The unrest came ahead of scheduled a “Unite the Right” rally at the city’s Emancipation Park. Riot police at the scene were trying to restore order after fighting broke out between the two groups. Several people have been hurt in the disorder.

The governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, declared a state of emergency while police declared an unlawful assembly alert.

The clashes came despite police efforts to keep the rival protesters apart following a confrontation late Friday in the University of Virginia’s campus in which counter-protesters claimed they were hit by torches and pepper spray.

On Saturday at the park, projectiles were thrown between the groups and some of those present could be seen pushing and throwing punches, or using pepper spray.

Police in riot gear were assembled nearby and initially stayed back from where the trouble was occurring.

 

By 11.15am ET, missiles such as empty bottles were being exchanged at the south-east end of the park. Far-right supporters formed a “Roman tortoise” shield wall at the gate. Counter-protesters cleared when a gas weapon was released.

Shortly later, smoke grenades were launched from the park into the crowd of counter-protesters. On both occasions, those in the street beat a hasty and uncoordinated retreat.

At around 11:40am ET, after almost an hour of missile exchanges, gas attacks and intermittent face to face melees, police declared the Unite the Right assembly illegal and cleared the park with riot troops. Largely the far right groups were compliant, but they were forced to run the gauntlet of counter-protesters as they walked west along Market Street. 

 

Earlier, amid heightened tensions, protesters and counter-protesters had begun arriving in force at the park, where police were supervising the construction of barricades around a 20ft statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee, which is the focus of the rally, and has been at the centre of other recent confrontations in Charlottesville.

With a police helicopter buzzing overheard, successive groups of mostly young men, carrying Confederate flags, rune banners, “Kekistan” flags and other racist symbols entered via the south-east and south-west ends of the park.

They then passed through gaps left in the barricades surrounding the protest and the Robert E Lee statue which it claims to be defending.

The passage of the far-right groups was watched over by Virginia state police, Charlottesville police officers, and armed “Three Percent” militia members, who were dressed in fatigues and open-carrying automatic weapons.

Facing them on Market Street were counter-protesters, many marching under the red and black banners of antifascist organizations.

The south-east entrance was briefly blocked by a group of about 20 clergy members, including Cornel West, who linked arms across the top of the stairs to the park.

The Rev Seth Wispelwey, of Sojourners United Church of Christ in Charlottesville, said of the group: “We’re here to counteract white supremacy, and to let people know that it is a system of evil and a system of sin.”

Just before 11am, a formation of around 200 people comprising members of the neo-Confederate League of the South, the Traditionalist Workers party and National Socialist Movement were briefly halted by protesters before moving towards the south-east gate. One of their number was seen to mace a young female protester who approached the group.

By the time they made it in, there were well over 500 far right protesters in the park, with around 1,000 counter-protesters in the street.

The far-righters were using mace and other gasses on the counter protesters. What's next? They use their assault rifles?

Oh, I just got an alert for the WaPo article on the subject:

Violent clashes between white nationalists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville

Spoiler

After a morning of violent clashes between white nationalists and counter protesters, police ordered hundreds of people out of a downtown park - putting an end to a noon rally that hadn’t even begun.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency shortly before 11 a.m.

Using megaphones, police declared an unlawful assembly at about 11:40 a.m., and gave a five-minute warning to leave Emancipation Park, where hundreds of neoNazis, Ku Klux Klans members and other white nationalists had gathered to protest the removal of a Confederate statue. They were met by equal numbers of counterprotesters, including clergy, Black Lives Matter activists and Princeton professor Cornel West.

But fighting broke out way before the noon rally, starting Friday night and then again Saturday morning.

Men in combat gear, some wearing bicycle and motorcycle helmets and carrying clubs and sticks and makeshift shields fought each other in the downtown streets, with little apparent police interference. Both sides sprayed each other with chemical irritants and plastic bottles were hurled through the air.

A large contingent of Charlottesville and Virginia state police in riot gear were stationed on side streets and at nearby barricades but did nothing to break up the melee.

A group of three dozen self-described “militia” - men who were wearing full camouflage and were armed with long guns - said they were there to help keep the peace, but they also did not break up the fights.

There were vicious clashes on Market Street in front of Emancipation Park, where the rally was to begin at noon. A large contingent of white nationalist rallygoers holding shields and swinging wooden clubs rushed through a line of counterprotesters.

By 11 a.m., several fully armed militias and hundreds of right wing rally goers had poured into the small downtown park that is the site of the planned rally.

At about 11:40 a.m., police appeared and ordered everyone to vacate the park. Columns of white nationalists marched out of the park, carrying Confederate flags and Nazi symbols, and headed down Market Street in an odd parade, as counterprotesters lined the sidewalks and shouted epithets and mocked them. At various points along the route, skirmishes broke out and shouting matches ensued.

Charlottesville officials, concerned about crowds and safety issues, had tried to move the rally to a larger park away from the city’s downtown.

But Jason Kessler, the rally’s organizer, filed a successful lawsuit against the city that was supported by the Virginia ACLU, saying that his First Amendment rights would be violated by moving the rally.

Tensions began Friday night, as several hundred white supremacists chanted “White lives matter!” “You will not replace us!” and “Jews will not replace us!” as they carried torches marched in a parade through the University of Virginia campus.

The fast-paced march was made up almost exclusively of men in their 20s and 30s, though there were some who looked to be in their mid-teens.

Meanwhile, hundreds of counterprotesters packed a church to pray and organize. A small group of counterprotesters clashed with the marchers shortly before 10 p.m. at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, the university’s founder.

One counterprotester apparently deployed a chemical spray, which affected the eyes of a dozen or so marchers. It left them floundering and seeking medical assistance.

Police officers who had been keeping a wary eye on the march jumped in and broke up the fights. The marchers then disbanded, though several remained and were treated by police and medical personnel for the effects of the mace attack. It was not clear if any one was arrested.

The march came on the eve of the Unite the Right rally, a gathering of groups from around the country whose members have said they are being persecuted for being white and that white history in America is being erased.

The Saturday rally was scheduled for noon at Emancipation Park, formerly Lee Park, home to a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that the city of Charlottesville voted to remove earlier this year. The statue remains in the park pending a judge’s ruling expected later this month.

Many city leaders and residents have expressed concern about the prospect of violence at Saturday’s event.

Saturday marked the second time in six weeks that Charlottesville has faced a protest from white supremacist groups for its decision to remove the statue. On July 8, about three dozen members of a regional Ku Klux Klan group protested in the city.

The torchlight parade drew sharp condemnations from Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer and U-Va. President Teresa Sullivan.

Sullivan described herself as “deeply saddened and disturbed by the hateful behavior”shown by the marchers.

Signer said he was “beyond disgusted by this unsanctioned and despicable display of visual intimidation on a college campus.” He called the chanting procession a “cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance.”

I cannot say how much I agree with the last sentence by Signer who called the chanting procession a "cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance."

Edited August 12, 2017 by fraurosena

[Tikobaby]

HuffPo has an article re Charlottesville with video.  Nauseating to see the Nazi flag being carried down the street and people wearing tee shirts with quotes from Hitler.  Don't they remember WWII?

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

1 minute ago, Tikobaby said:

Don't they remember WWII?

Alternative history to go along with alternative facts. Charlottesville is a rather fairly Democratic area in a sea of dark red BTs, so I'm not surprised it keeps getting attention from the KKK and their ilk. Couple that with the push to remove Confederate symbols, and the alt-right/KKK/BTs are going crazy. There are still lots of people in rural Virginia who are fighting the Civil War. I used to live about an hour from C'ville and there are far too many in that region who think "the south will rise again." Sickening, I know.

[fraurosena]

This is just atrocious.

At least 10 pedestrians struck along route of white nationalist rally in Charlottesville; one fatality, according to mayor

Spoiler

This picturesque college town devolved into a chaotic and violent state on Saturday as hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members — planning to stage what they described as their largest rally in decades to “take America back” — clashed with counterprotesters in the streets.

As the two sides traded blows and hurled bottles and chemical irritants at one another, police evacuated a downtown park, putting an end to the noon rally before it even began. Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency shortly before 11 a.m., saying he was “disgusted by the hatred, bigotry and violence” and blaming “mostly out-of-state protesters.”

Despite the decision to quash the rally, clashes continued on side streets and throughout the downtown. In the early afternoon, three cars collided in a pedestrian mall packed with people, injuring at least 10 and sending bystanders running and screaming. It was unclear if it was accidental or intentional. There was at least one death, Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer indicated in a tweet. The Post could not confirm the death.

Sometimes my faith in the inherent good of people is tested to the max. 

[sawasdee]

My dream is that the next time these right wing bigots decide to stage a march, the protesters do an MLK. Sit on the ground and sing 'We shall overcome'. Then let's see them blame the 'left'* for the violence.

*Sorry, but US liberals are, on the whole, equivalent to centre right groups like the Christian Democrats in Europe. You don't have a left wing party.

[Childless]

On 8/11/2017 at 10:27 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

WTDH? "West Virginia governor wants to sell Trump on a $4.5 billion coal bailout by calling it a “homeland security initiative”"

  Reveal hidden contents

Jim Justice, the born-again Republican governor of West Virginia, is floating a federal proposal to bail out the struggling Appalachian coal industry at a cost to taxpayers of up to $4.5 billion a year.

As Justice described it to the Wall Street Journal, under the proposal, the federal government would pay out $15 to eastern power companies for each ton of Appalachian coal they purchase.

Justice is attempting to sell the proposal as a “homeland security initiative” for protecting the eastern energy grid. He told a West Virginia newspaper that “if you’re all on gas or you’re all on gas and western coal and somebody puts a bomb at a gas junction point or somebody puts a bomb on a bridge coming from the west, you could very well lose the entire eastern power grid.”

Jason Bordoff, director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, said that “the claim that taxpayers should subsidize Appalachian coal for national security reasons is meritless.”

“Western coal production surpassed eastern coal production two decades ago,” Bordoff added, “and eastern coal has been in decline since the 1990s, but this has not led to grid reliability problems.” He noted that “the U.S. has a well-developed and integrated energy infrastructure and rail network, as well as storage system, and in the event of temporary disruptions, supplies could be rerouted and stocks drawn.”

The money in Justice's proposal would be used exclusively to prop up the northern and central Appalachian coal production regions, which include parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and far Western Maryland. Together those regions account for less than 25 percent of total domestic coal production, according to the Energy Information Administration. The remaining 75 percent of the domestic coal industry would receive no bailout.

...

Appalachian coal is struggling primarily because it is currently between four and five times more expensive to produce than coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, which now accounts for more than 40 percent of the nation's production.

Powder River coal seams are much closer to the surface than they are in the Appalachians, making them easier and cheaper to mine. Many of them are on federal lands, which are cheaply leased to coal companies, driving prices down further. It also contains significantly less of the air pollutant sulfur than Appalachian coal, making it more desirable from an environmental standpoint.

As a result, the price differential between western and eastern coal is so extreme that even with a $15/ton subsidy, Appalachian coal would remain roughly three times more expensive than Powder River coal.

...

At $4.5 billion, the bailout would have a hefty annual price tag. It's more than 1 billion dollars greater than the entire budget of the National Park Service, for instance. Looked at another way, $4.5 billion works out to roughly $132,000 in federal spending for each of the roughly 34,000 employees of coal companies in northern and central Appalachia.

Coal producers in other regions are already crying foul. “We very much think it’s best when the government’s not involved, and feel the free market instead should be allowed to work,” the executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association told the Wall Street Journal.

“Concerns about fuel supply reliability are legitimate, but picking winners by subsidizing production in the name of national security of one fuel that is declining due to market forces is not a smart or cost-effective solution,” Columbia's Bordoff said.

But Justice told Bloomberg News that he's found a receptive audience for the proposal in President Trump. “He’s really interested. He likes the idea,” Justice said.

Shaking my head.

Wait, wait, wait.  What happened to that "pull yourself up by the boot straps", "free market solves everything", "states rights", "rugged individualism", "anti-welfare", "the federal government does to much" mentality that Republicans love to spout?

[bashfulpixie]

12 hours ago, Childless said:

Wait, wait, wait.  What happened to that "pull yourself up by the boot straps", "free market solves everything", "states rights", "rugged individualism", "anti-welfare", "the federal government does to much" mentality that Republicans love to spout?

That's only when it benefits brown people.  Or women.  Or pretty much anyone other than the already rich white males who will likely pocket most of the money.

[GreyhoundFan]

The Repug party in Va is really crazy. They've attacked the Democratic candidate for governor because he thinks confederate statues should be removed: "The Democrat running for Va. governor wants Confederate monuments to come down. Republicans said he has turned his back on ‘heritage.’"

Spoiler

RICHMOND — The Republican Party of Virginia said Wednesday that Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, whose ancestors once owned slaves and fought in the Civil War, had “turned his back on his own family’s heritage” by calling for the removal of Confederate monuments.

The accusation drew swift condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans, who said it amounted to calling Northam a “race traitor.”

In a two-part tweet on its official account posted shortly after noon, the state party took aim at Northam, the Democratic nominee for governor, whose great-great-grandfather owned eight slaves in 1860 and nine slaves in 1850 on Virginia’s rural Eastern Shore.

“.@RalphNortham has turned his back on his own family’s heritage in demanding monument removal (1/2),” it read. “Shows @RalphNortham will do anything or say anything to try and be #VAGov - #Pathetic 2/2.”

The blowback was instant.

“I feel fine about turning my back on white supremacy. How does @EdWGillespie feel about the president’s position?” Northam tweeted in response, referring to his rival in the November election, former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie.

The Daily Beast ran a story under the headline: “Virginia GOP Calls Democratic Candidate a Race Traitor for Wanting Confederate Statues Removed.”

Even a conservative blog, the Reagan Battalion, jumped in, asking the Virginia Republican Party, “Was your account hacked?”

Former delegate David Ramadan, a Republican, tweeted: “Have you lost your minds — who is in control of your twitter act?”

After nearly four hours, the state party pulled down the tweet and replaced it with this: “Our previous tweets were interpreted in a way we never intended. We apologize and reiterate our denunciation of racism in all forms.”

Eric Boehlert, a writer, trolled the state Republican Party by tweeting, “It’s almost like yr trying to erase history when you deleted the tweets.....#monuments.”

John Findlay, executive director of the state GOP, said the party was not suggesting that Northam should stand with his ancestors as slave holders.

“We said that Ralph Northam is turning his back on his heritage and family. It is because his great-grandfather fought for the side of the Confederacy and was wounded during the Civil War,” Findlay said. “When he wants to tear down monuments dedicated to those killed in action and wounded during the war, he is literally talking about a member of his own family.”

Findlay noted a MassInc. poll released Tuesday that found a slim majority of Virginia voters — 51 percent — want the statues to remain on public property, while 28 percent would like them removed. A majority — 52 percent — of voters polled also consider the monuments part of Southern heritage, while just 25 percent believe the statues are symbols of racism.

“A substantial majority of Virginians believe these monuments are not about hate but about history, and we likewise share that opinion,” Findlay said.

Northam called for the removal of the state’s Confederate monuments after a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, which had been called to protest the city’s plan to remove a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee from a downtown park. One woman was killed by a car driven by a man whom police described as a white supremacist, and two state troopers patrolling the protest by air died when their helicopter crashed.

Gillespie, who like Northam notes that localities control the fate of their monuments, has said that his preference is to keep the statues but to add historical context.

“The RPV was right to apologize for the tweet and to take it down,” Gillespie spokesman David Abrams wrote in an email. “Though Ed disagrees with the Lieutenant Governor on the issue of statues, he knows we can disagree on issues like this without devolving into divisive rhetoric.”

The party tweeted about Northam after tangling on Twitter for days with former congressman Tom Perriello, who in June lost the Democratic primary to Northam.

Perriello, who grew up in Charlottesville, tweeted after the rally to denounce hate groups and President Trump’s equivocating response to the violent events. He also turned his fire on Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. after the prominent evangelical leader praised Trump for his “bold truthful stmt about #charlottesville tragedy.”

“The devil has his grip so firmly around @JerryFalwellJr that I’m praying for his exorcism. #Repent,” Perriello tweeted.

The former congressman also tweeted: “If you have a white pastor/priest who doesn’t preach on white supremacy as blasphemy against image of God in another, please say something.” And: “White evangelical leaders, your whiteness is the golden calf you choose to worship and idolize, in blasphemy of God’s word. #RepentNow.”

The GOP replied to the last of those with, “.@tomperriello Let’s not mince words: you are a Christian-hating bigot We were better off when you were out of the country #LeftWingBigot.”

Perriello, who served overseas in the State Department under President Barack Obama, later said he was not accusing all white evangelical leaders of racism, only those who do not preach that white supremacy is blasphemy.

“If they can produce a single Christian leader who agrees with their nonsense, I am happy to sit down with them,” he told The Washington Post. “Otherwise they should delete these tweets that insult Christianity and stoke hate.”

Democrats were quick to defend Perriello’s tweets.

“How rich @VA_GOP attacks @tomperriello (observant Catholic) for speaking out against white supremacy. They’ve been silent on Trump,” tweeted Kevin Donohue, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Virginia.

Ed Gillespie, the Repug nominee, has been like Paul Ryan, meaning very wishy-washy about the TT. He's worried because the BTs came out strong for his primary opponent, the loony Corey Stewart.

[47of74]

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds thinks anyone who doesn't genuflect in front of her, Trump, or other Republicans is unhinged.  The Register isn't buying her excuses about her statement

Quote

Some things are never appropriate: like wishing harm to children, even in irony or jest. Or mocking people’s mental or physical challenges. Or responding to criticism by belittling the critics instead of addressing their points.

At her first campaign fundraiser last Saturday, Gov. Kim Reynolds used vitriolic Facebook postings as evidence of a liberal pathology — or so she later claimed.

“As we all know as we travel the state," said the governor at her fundraiser, "the liberals are unhinged and they are out for us and we need to double down and do all we can.” The comment was captured by Radio Iowa, whose reporter Kay Henderson later asked Reynolds whom she had been referring to. The governor said it was a small segment of Iowans, and noted a Facebook post made on her page in July. Under a picture of her grandkids playing soccer, someone had expressed hope, Reynolds said, that they drink Iowa’s water and suffer negative consequences from it.

In person, Reynolds comes across as compassionate and caring. But her later reassurances notwithstanding, her sweeping comment behind closed doors suggests she really doesn't see herself as governor of all Iowans. Her selective outrage over intolerant behavior seems targeted toward a political end.

Go bleep yourself, Governor. 

[onekidanddone]

@GreyhoundFan... Did you take part in early voting? I'm on edge over here across the river thinking about tomorrow.  If you can, please report in on on turnout and how things look.  I voted early in 2016, but  drove by my polling place a few times like some kind of stalker. We all know how that turned out.  I'm an atheist Jew, but I'm considering saying Kaddish (the prayer for the dead) on Wednesday the 8th to mark the one year anniversary. 

[GreyhoundFan]

12 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

@GreyhoundFan... Did you take part in early voting? I'm on edge over here across the river thinking about tomorrow.  If you can, please report in on on turnout and how things look.  I voted early in 2016, but  drove by my polling place a few times like some kind of stalker. We all know how that turned out.  I'm an atheist Jew, but I'm considering saying Kaddish (the prayer for the dead) on Wednesday the 8th to mark the one year anniversary. 

No, in Va, you have to have a valid "reason" to vote early or by absentee ballot. I couldn't legitimately do so, even though I am disabled, the regular location is easier to get in and out of than the absentee location (yeah, it's stupid).  I read earlier today that the number of early voters was a record this year. I've actually felt sick about it for the last few weeks. I don't know what I'll do if Gillespie wins. He's such a slimy worm who will gladly throw Virginia back to the mid 1800s. I'm hoping enough people turn out in Northern Virginia, Richmond, Charlottesville, and Tidewater to counter-balance the rest of the state being ruby red.

My local polling place is right in the path I usually walk my dog, so I will "happen" to see how it's going at least a few times tomorrow. My precinct is not a good indicator of the rest of the state, however. The last time I looked, my precinct has gone Democrat since the Reagan days, in most cases by > 20 points.

[candygirl200413]

VA is my third home and I was just down there this past weekend telling everyone to vote that I was in contact with basically.  Really praying and hoping for the best!

[GrumpyGran]

13 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I'm hoping enough people turn out in Northern Virginia, Richmond, Charlottesville, and Tidewater to counter-balance the rest of the state being ruby red.

I'm hoping that some, okay lots of people in those ruby red areas have come to their senses and will atone for their vote a year ago by quietly voting for Northam.

Rufus, hear my prayer.

[onekidanddone]

14 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

No, in Va, you have to have a valid "reason" to vote early or by absentee ballot. I couldn't legitimately do so, even though I am disabled, the regular location is easier to get in and out of than the absentee location (yeah, it's stupid).  I read earlier today that the number of early voters was a record this year. I've actually felt sick about it for the last few weeks. I don't know what I'll do if Gillespie wins. He's such a slimy worm who will gladly throw Virginia back to the mid 1800s. I'm hoping enough people turn out in Northern Virginia, Richmond, Charlottesville, and Tidewater to counter-balance the rest of the state being ruby red.

My local polling place is right in the path I usually walk my dog, so I will "happen" to see how it's going at least a few times tomorrow. My precinct is not a good indicator of the rest of the state, however. The last time I looked, my precinct has gone Democrat since the Reagan days, in most cases by > 20 points.

What leads you to believe early voting = Gillespie? Everybody can early vote here but I think the number of early polling places vary by county. Last year I voted early because I was afraid TDs would be lurking around my usual voting spot.  Maybe I was just being  paranoid, but I so be it.

14 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I'm hoping enough people turn out in Northern Virginia, Richmond, Charlottesville, and Tidewater to counter-balance the rest of the state being ruby red.

I have this hope the people from Charlottesville had a good wake up call and voted blue.  Of course it could go the other way, and all the sick racists remember as well and vote en mass. @GreyhoundFan, from your option did Northrom figure out how to connect wit People of Color? Clinton was so fucking tone deaf and I fear  our side will never learn the lesson from  her.

[GreyhoundFan]

5 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

What leads you to believe early voting = Gillespie? Everybody can early vote here but I think the number of early polling places vary by county. Last year I voted early because I was afraid TDs would be lurking around my usual voting spot.  Maybe I was just being  paranoid, but I so be it.

I'm not sure what I think about the early voting. It kind of depends on my level of despair at the moment. Intellectually, I believe a large number of early voters = Northam, because younger voters are likely to have to work or travel during the regular polling times and I picture many of the BTs being more traditional and wanting the traditional experience. Then, in a fit of worry, I'll imagine that the secret BTs have voted early and they'll vote for Gillespie. I'm also concerned that the push with the ridiculous scare ads Gillespie has polluted the airwaves with with inspire some BTs/Corey Stewart supporters, who would have otherwise stayed home.

I guess time will tell.

I wish there were a nail-biting emoji...