Category: Opinion

Sensible Joe, or Joe McNaughty?

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OPINION:

Sensible Joe, or Joe McNaughty?

OPINION:

Sensible Joe, or Joe McNaughty?

Is it about the interests of West Virginians, fossil fuel, or himself ? 

By William Jones

Hackles are Up

West Virginia lawmaker Joe Manchin has been raising a lot of hackles amongst the Democratic caucus. Joe recently  announced that he wasn’t on board with the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. In fact, he said he was considering voting no when the package comes up for a vote. He wants everybody to slow it down and delay voting on it until 2022.

Last Best Chance

The Biden spending measure is vital. The opportunity is here to raise millions out of poverty and pass a substantive climate policy. The clock is ticking. The 2022 mid-terms are just around the corner.  Historically, the party out of power will re-take the House of Representatives, in the first two years of a new president’s term. So Manchin’s latest hairpin turn has attracted a lot of negative attention from his Democratic colleagues. As for Manchin, he can’t walk down the halls of congress without a flotilla of reporters following in hot pursuit, desperate to find out if he will continue to thwart his political party’s platform and his party’s president’s personal agenda.

Praise From the Press

Since his declaration, a piece in National Review has praised what it saw as Manchin’s fiscal instincts and willingness to stand up to fellow Democrats. A Brookings blog post argued that “his main concern that additional deficit financed spending adds to inflation risks is not unfounded.” A former adviser suggested to The Washington Post that Manchin is fundamentally mysterious and his vote is, as usual, unpredictable.

Counting the Money

Joe Manchin, though, made half a million dollars last year off his son’s coal company, meaning that coal paid him roughly three times the $174,000 salary he made last year as a public servant. Pundits don’t need to look much beyond that to understand what’s driving him.

And There’s More Money

Manchin has earned more than $4.5 million from Enersystems Inc. and Farmington Resources Inc., two coal industry companies he founded in the 1980s. He probably likes all the attention he’s getting, too. Maybe he fancies himself a champion of the forgotten man. But if on a given day you are trying to understand what Joe Manchin’s priorities are, it’s probably best to look to the priorities of the companies he’s gotten money from.

Lobbyists and Donations

In June, Exxon lobbyist Keith McCoy told the Unearthed, a Greenpeace investigative outlet, that Manchin was among their key targets and that he’s participated in weekly meetings with company operatives. Overall, though, he’s received more donations from coal, oil, and gas companies this campaign cycle than every other senator.  Manchin got $10,000 from Exxon Mobil for his 2018 reelection campaign. His top donor so far for the 2022 cycle is Tellurian Inc., a gas company.

In Compliance 

Manchin’s spokesperson recently said the senator is in full compliance with all Senate ethics and financial disclosure rules. He also stated that Manchin continues to work to find a path forward on important climate legislation that maintains American leadership in energy innovation and critical energy reliability.

Denials All Around

Manchin has also denied the weekly meeting allegations in the Unearthed report. Manchin is working to ensure that the bill’s $150 billion clean electricity measure—the Clean Electricity Performance Program—will “protect and extend the use of coal and natural gas.” The senator has made it clear that he does not support legislation that would eliminate the burning of those fossil fuels — particularly coal and natural gas.

Conclusion

Politics can be ego-driven as well as cash-driven: Many politicians after all, just want to guard their piece of the congressional sandbox and yelp whenever that territory may appear threatened. But money certainly talks in Washington, and the kind coming to Joe Manchin from the fossil fuel industry appears to be screaming out against a progressive and meaningful climate policy.

References

https://newrepublic.com/article/163723/joe-manchin-vote-fossil-fuel

 

“Just Dave” 09/19/2021

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“Just Dave” 09/19/2021

“Just Dave” 09/19/2021

Today, Dave is talking about the unvaccinated. The current epidemic is one of the unvaccinated. How come suddenly people would rather die on the battleground of stupidity than take an incredibly safe deterrent. Nothing is perfect, and that includes vaccines. Yet when tossing the dice the odds of surviving the vaccine far outweigh surviving COVID. How could anyone in their right mind want to take the chance of being paralyzed with drugs, have a tube shoved down their throat, a catheter shoved into your bladder, turned every hour so you don’t get bed sores? Now this isn’t going to be a two hour or two day affair. This could go on for months, until you die, or improve. If you die, most likely your last moments will be alone.  If you are lucky there may be a nurse there to hold your hand as you pass. So unnecessary.

Please, stop the silly nonsense and get vaccinated. Do it for yourself, your community, and the country.

EDITORIAL: Who Will Judge The Judges?

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EDITORIAL: Who Will Judge The Judges?

EDITORIAL: WHO WILL JUDGE THE JUDGES?

By  D.S. Mitchell

Turtles All The Way Down

According to absurdist and other folks more clever than I, there is no inherent meaning to anything. Not that there’s no meaning, that would be nihilism, just that all things are arbitrary at their core. As famed genius Bertrand Russell put it, while addressing the issue of infinite regress, it is ‘turtles all the way down.’ An odd phrase based on the metaphor of the world sitting on the back of elephants, which in turn stood on the back of a turtle. Fans of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series of novels will likely recognize the concept.

The Price of Tea In China?

What does this have to do with the Supreme Court? Trust me, I’m getting there. The idea of ‘turtles all the way down’ also applies to society and the application of authority there in. Leaders, officers, and elites are not born. At least, supposedly, not anymore. Every position of power is designated by the people who constitute society. In a very real way the exercise of authority is ‘people all the way down.’ Humans chosen by other humans to hold power over them. In the context of a participatory democracy those humans are the elected officials.

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KAILL McNEIL: ALTER-NARRATIVES 09/21/2021

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Kaill McNeil: ALTER-NARRATIVES 09/21/2021

Kaill McNeill: ALTER-NARRATIVES 09/21/2021

A SENSE OF HISTORY

By Kaill McNeill

Not A Monolith

History can be a tricky thing. As complexed and nuanced as it is massive, existing roughly as long as humans have been self-aware. Given the depth and breadth of the subject matter, getting a handle on ‘sense’ history can be like nailing down Jell-O. Newtown knows many have tried. Because of this complexity, there has been a tendency to compress things into neat little boxes, monoliths of a sort. There is very little distinction made between the late-Georgian [1800-1837] and Victorian [1837-1901] periods in English history. The preference being to lump them into The 19th Century. Everyone from Jane Austen to Lord Byron referred to as ‘Victorian Authors’ despite both being in the ground by 1825, when George IV still had a good five years left on the clock.

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Kaill McNeil: Alter-Narratives 9/12/2021

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Kaill McNeil: ALTER-NARRATIVES 9/12/2021

ALTER-NARRATIVES

BAD Company

By Kaill McNeil

Backstory

If you want to know what someone is going to do tomorrow, look at what they did yesterday. Same with corporations, which are really just collections of people. Don’t stop there;  the same goes for nations. Although the term nation no longer applies, the state of Texas thinks it is a nation independent of the federal government.

Once a Nation

Texas was for a time an independent republic after it gained independence from Mexico in 1839. Immediately Texas began clamoring to join the United States. On 12/29/1845 Texas gave up its independent republic status and became the 28th state of the United States of America. Sadly, on 03/02/1861 Texas after 15 years in the union decided it would join in armed rebellion against the United States of America.  As part of the Confederacy, Texas attempted to secede from the union for the purpose of perpetuating slavery within its borders.

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Kaill McNeil: Alter-Narratives 9/4/2021

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Alter-Narratives

Today’s Topic: As Labor Day approaches, Let’s play an inter-generational game of Telephone with history and economics.

New Machines

By Kaill McNeil

Cycles and Shifts

History is a cycle of paradigm shifts. The reality of any era based  largely on context. Such a view goes a long way to explain how philosophies from centuries past still resonate. Particularly in diluted, misunderstood modern forms, like and inter-generational game of Telephone. As the new social media Cold War, between neo-Communism (as in China), and tenacious defenders of capitalism (such David Koch) will attest.

Without Understanding

In today’s warfare, keyboard warriors, often spill onto the streets, defending their chosen ideology, often without fully understanding it. Going by the rhetoric flying through the ether, bread-lines, gulags, Auschwitz, and the Berlin Wall have been erased from the record. Whereas the only kind of Capitalism that seems to currently exist is Laissez-Faire, guided by the Adam Smith’s imagined ‘Invisible Hand.’ effectively striking the contribution of any other economic theorists, not least John Maynard Keynes. It is notable that Keynes was a lone voice in the wilderness, arguing against the disastrous punitive measures levied on the Weimar Republic in 1919 at the end of World War I. Those punitive measure were in a large part resp0nsible for World War II a short twenty years later. Continue reading

Kaill McNeil Alter-Narratives 8/27/21

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ALTER-NARRATIVES

By Kaill McNeil

When, if ever, is war a good thing?

 

What Is War Good For?

 

Ideal World

One hears a lot about a perfect world, even in the political arena. Much of progressive philosophy is based on it. Working on progressing society to the way they wish it could be. Conservatives, on the other hand, are more likely to see things in terms of cold, hard reality, while also having little to no imagination on bettering the lot of mankind. Somewhere between these two extremes are what could be called ‘moderates.’ Neither caught in the mire of human filth, or off with the fairies, these folks are more able to see the forest for the trees. Particularly when it comes to things like military engagement.

War, What Is It Good For?

“War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin,’” according to the song. Edwin Starr apparently keen to be speaking Japanese. A nearly sure outcome of the Japanese campaign of WWII if the U.S. had not entered into the war.  One of Japan’s major targets being the west coast of the United States. There might not be good wars, but there are necessary ones. A fact recent generations have lost sight of due to the baby boomer experience in Vietnam and the more recent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, which were more about political face saving.

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Kaill McNeil ALTER-NARRATIVES: Nation States

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ALTER-NARRATIVES:

The U.S. experiment tried to unite a group of people living in a multitude of states,  separated by geography, economics, resources, ethnicity, and social issues into one united country. 

Nation States

By Kaill McNeil

Making A Nation

There are many ways to structure a nation. Some better than others, particularly according to one’s own priorities and preferences. More to the point, there are some that are more popular than others. Some coming to be phased out over the centuries. TO the point there are only a few nations based on such a system. America is one such nation.

Constituting A Country

One of the most popular basis on which to build a nation, is that of a constitution. In this way, America has very much followed the trend. Opting for a constitutional democratic republic. As opposed to a constitutional democracy found in much of the rest of the western world, from Canada to New Zealand (those Brits were busy). Both versions of government have their advantages, allowing for checks and balances.

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Kaill McNeil ALTER-NARRATIVES: “Maybe Logic”

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ALTER-NARRATIVES:

Today’s Topic:  Each generation feels they have moved past all the stupidity of the past and are now on the perfect path. In just a few paragraphs KM dumps that theory. 

‘Maybe Logic,’ Maybe Not

By Kaill McNeil

What do we know?

Many people have a drive to know. Language itself a means to categories and comprehend objects, beings and concepts. Humanity has doubtless made great strives over the last few hundred years. Societies shifting, merging and changing by grand forces of politics and economy. Each generation certain they have it right. They’ve leaned from the mistakes from the past and everything has now been set right. Inarguably true much of the time but not always. Particularly when it comes to something like science.

Never Wrong

The notion that science is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ is expressed almost exclusively by non-scientists. Tragically this is a misunderstanding of how the scientific method actually works. I’m no scientist myself, at least in terms of natural science, but I still have a basic understanding of empiricism. Empiricism is the core of the scientific method, which basically involves a process of trial and error, steeped in fancy technical jargon. The result of an experiment cannot be deemed wrong, because there is no way of knowing what is right. Hence the vital importance of replication. A hypothesis that has been tested and the test replicated with the same result can be said to be likely. Even in this case, however, most in the scientific sphere, would only go as far as to say it was “likely.”

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