When the Putin Puppet ran for office, he promised he would bring back coal jobs.  Is he going to do it?  The coal industry doesn’t seem to think so.

In this article from The Guardian, a coal executive named Robert Murray talks about how excited he is that the coal industry is going to be freed from all of those onerous regulations that keep them from destroying the environment for profit but he also makes clear that the jobs aren’t coming back and suggests 45 should “temper” expectations about coal mining jobs.

The jobs didn’t leave because of regulations.  The jobs left because of technology changes in the industry and competition from other sources of energy, most notably natural gas.  Actually, it’s Capitalism at it’s…um…best?  A better product is being offered for a better price.  If coal can’t match the benefits of other options, coal’s day has passed.

There’s a quote in this article that caught my eye: Mr Murray opines that, “We have to get the government out of the manipulation of energy markets.”  I know he believes it.  To a guy like him, the only people who should be “manipulating energy markets” are the masters of the fossil fuels.

I’ll tell you this: coal is yesterday’s news, like all of the fossil fuels.  I know they’re not going down without a fight but they’re going down and it’s not because of regulations.  It’s because there’s a better way, now…

Well, tired of winning yet?  Yeah, I know, gloating a bit and, truthfully, I don’t much like gloating.  (Bad idea.  Fires up the competition…)

So the Republicans had to pull their ‘American Health Care Act’ (aka, “TheGOPDon’tCare”).  But it’s important to remember: there are only two reasons they couldn’t make it happen: 1, it wasn’t cruel enough to the most vulnerable members of our society and 2, it didn’t do enough for the pampered class.

I’ll tell you this: you’d better keep your powder dry because I’m pretty sure they’ll be back – probably when nobody’s looking…

‘The Blaze’ is a far right conservative media outlet founded by well-established far-right nutball Glenn Beck.  If you search ‘The Blaze’, their tagline comes up as “Authentic.  Unfiltered.  Fearless”.

Recently, one of their more obnoxious presenters, Tomi Lahren, went on ‘The View’ and said she’s for less government and in her mind, that included leaving the government out of women’s personal decisions regarding abortion.

According to the BBC, Ms Lahren said: “I’m someone that is for limited government, so I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say I’m for limited government, but I think that the government should decide what women do with their bodies.

“Stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well.”

That seems like a fearless, authentic pro-choice comment.  So, ‘The Blaze’ filtered her ass right out of the picture – suspended for now but the word is her show is going to be cancelled altogether.

…and conservatives love to tease progressives about unrelenting lockstep political correctness…

You know that feeling you get when you want to laugh – but you can’t ?  Maybe your toddler covered himself with toothpaste and made a huge mess.  You need to teach him right from wrong but he looks so silly.  Maybe you made an inappropriate joke and someone is telling you why it wasn’t funny but the joke just keeps playing in your head and, in fact, it was funny.  Perhaps you’ve completely failed at “humanity” and you’ve figured out how to inflict pain and suffering  on huge swaths of the most vulnerable Americans – all so you can give rich people even more – and you can barely contain your glee.  It’s the mouth gives you away.  You try to sit, all serious and important but the edges of your mouth keep involuntarily pulling up at the edges, betraying your true feelings.

Paul Ryan has managed to come across as one of the more sane members of the House (admittedly, a low bar) through most of his career – until now, anyway.  He’s finally able to unleash his “vision” on Americans and he doesn’t seem to give much of a fig about who he harms or how he harms them – so long as the rich get more.

Enter the Republican excuse for a “replacement” plan for the Affordable Care Act.  They call theirs the ‘American Health Care Act’.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, it will eliminate health care for up to 24 million people.  The Affordable Care Act is credited with providing coverage to 20 million people who didn’t have it before.  One does not need to be a math genius to see that MORE people will be without health insurance once Ryan is done with them than before the ACA.

But, hey, they’ll only be old folks, poor folks, the disabled, and kids.  The Ryan/Trump plan is SO cruel, even Tucker Carlson of Fox “News” says it goes too far.  Ryan just shrugs.  “We said we were going to repeal all the Obamacare taxes…”  Watch the clip.  (…if you can.  This is my first foray into “clip-inclusion” and I may have screwed it up…)  Ryan seems to be having fun with the entire subject.  NOTHING is as important to him as giving rich people the break they so sorely need.

It’s the smirk that irks.  He seems to be having such…fun with it.

The only saving grace is that he seems to be the only one.  I guess his district is pretty safely gerrymandered so he’s not too worried about potential backlash but many of his colleagues are not so sanguine.  They see elections looming and they’re worried people might hold them responsible for their actions.  (It seems like that should happen, sooner or later…)   They fear they won’t be able to blame Democrats since the Democrats have no power in Congress.

So, they’re already introducing changes.  The GOP has long depended on the support of old folks who have come to realize this Ryan/Trump plan does them more harm than good so the plan now offers higher tax credits to seniors.  Lest the GOP be seen as too soft, though, they’ve included a provision to make it even tougher on the poor.  According to Reuters, “U.S. House Republicans are working on changes to their healthcare overhaul bill to provide more generous tax credits for older Americans and add a work requirement for the Medicaid program for the poor, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Sunday.”

Because, you know, those poor people just have it too easy in life…

I’ll tell you this: I don’t know if this affront to humanity is going to pass or not but it’s rare when one gets to see a “person” having so much fun at the mere prospect of inflicting so much pain into so many lives in such a short period of time and, for me, it’s that smirk that gives him away…

Am I wrong or am I right?

Ah, Daylight Saving Time again.  I mean, at least I think it is.  Really, I’m too groggy to know for sure…

I don’t like Daylight Saving Time.  It’s not just the disrupted sleep that bothers me, although that’s a problem, too.  I don’t like Daylight Saving Time because I’ve come to believe it’s nothing more than a scam to benefit power companies.

The days get longer and shorter throughout the year.  So what?  We adjust.  In the winter, it’s dark at 6 pm.  In the summer it’s still light at 6 pm.  Humanity evolved during this process and we move through our days without ever really thinking about it.  I make more decisions about doing things outside based on ‘warm or cold’ or ‘rain or dry’ than I do ‘dark or light’.  I’ll happily sit outside in the dark on a warm, dry night but if it’s raining and cold, I’m staying indoors – even if the sun is up.  Go figure…

Still, we’re sold on Daylight Saving as “extending the day” so we can all enjoy our summer evenings.  But, as is so often the case, that’s not what we’re doing at all.  Well, we ARE extending the day but the key is about using more energy, not enjoying summer evenings.

Now, stay with me here because this gets a bit confusing.  See, in the evenings, we get to choose what we do.  If it’s cold out, we MIGHT turn on the heater.  But we MIGHT just go crawl into bed and read a book or watch a little TV.  So even though we’re told Daylight Saving is about the evenings, it’s really about the mornings.  The mornings are the time when most of us are moving specifically in accordance with a clock.

Say you have to be to work at 8 am and it takes you two hours to get up and get there so you dutifully set your alarm to 6 am.  With no time change, you would find yourself getting up with the sun and then after the sun rises as the days get longer.  This means you can get ready for work using the sunlight.  But if we jump the clock forward one hour just as the days get longer?  Well, we’ve guaranteed that you’re getting out of bed while it’s still dark and colder outside.  You have no choice but to turn on the lights, assuming you’d like to avoid a stubbed toe.

It’s not just speculation, you know.  Daylight Saving Time used to run from the first Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October…like (ahem) clockwork.  In at least one case, that’s literally true.  I have a computerized clock that changes its own time according to the old rules of Daylight Saving.  Now, it’s wrong for two weeks twice a year…

George W. Bush was such a poor President, he even messed up time!  In 2005, he signed an energy bill that extended DST by four weeks.  At the time, he said it would reduce energy consumption.  Like everything else he touched, that was a “mistake.”  According to Scientific American, a study done in 2006 in Indiana discovered a 1 percent RISE in residential electrical use.  One percent, you say?  Well, in this case that one percent equated to nine million dollars!

In fairness, a 2008 report to Congress showed a small (.5 %) reduction but that study included commercial use, not just residential.  Is it possible the Republicans created a law that hurt homeowners but helped business?  Perish the thought!

I’ll tell you this:  I could live without Daylight Saving and I’d REALLY like the chance to sleep on it…

Have you noticed?  Gas prices are on the rise, again.

I heard on the news the oil companies are offering up their usual “explanations”.  OPEC is cutting production and, in California, the “summer blend”.

You’d think gas producers would know by now they’re going to need the summer blend and plan for it in advance.  You know, like they do with everything else.

Then, I see this article from Reuters that says the price of crude is slipping worldwide because there’s such a glut of oil.  We’re told by supply-siders that means the price should be going down – and it is for a barrel of oil.  So why is it going UP at the pump?

I’ll tell you this: my suspicion is that the ACTUAL reason prices are going up has nothing to do with supply or the summer blend and everything to do with the fact that Republicans are running the show and the oil companies simply know they can get away with gouging…

I offer for your approval a new term: BreitBull.
– BreitBull is any news or “information” in the conservative bubble (from any source) that cannot survive the transition from conservative bubble into the real world…

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We see these folks all the time.  One runs into them in social media commonly, sometimes at work.  Maybe it’s your obnoxious uncle who shows up to Thanksgiving dinner and rails the whole time about how, say, Hillary sold the moon to the commies and they blew it up and are now delivering individual pieces to every liberal in equal portions and Obama never even did anything about it!  Someone tries to point out to Uncle Obnoxious that he can just look out the window – the moon is still right there.

“You Libtards are all the same!” he spittles over everyone’s dinner.  “You’re always drinking the Kool-aid!  Everyone knows that’s just a reflection of the Sun!”
“Well, yes,” someone points out, “but it’s reflecting off the moon, which…is still there.”   He’s furious.  “She always gets away with things like this and the DemocRAT party will never investigate!”

It’s no different, really, than any other person whose head is stuck in the conservative bubble.  (To be sure, there is such a thing as the liberal bubble, as well.  It’s just not the focus of this piece.)  They hear some bit of BreitBull, they internalize it, and they run with it.  Boy, do they run with it.  But, in this case, Uncle Obnoxious happens to be the so-called President of the United States.

Right now, 45 seems to believe the BreitBull that Obama had him “tapped” during the campaign.  Some pundits are trying to figure out of this is some kind of long play – a strategy to distract from his ties to the Russians.  I don’t think so.  I think he believes it because a far right radio host, Mark Levin, made it up on the air – and then Breitbart picked it up.  (Levin offered no evidence to support his claim but little things like that don’t bother conservatives.  Lack of evidence is actually easier for them than the normal “all-evidence-contradicts” fights they usually take on.)

So now we’ve got Uncle Obnoxious in the Oval Office repeating one spurious far-right claim after another.  It’s frustrating with our own Uncles Obnoxious since he gets to shout to his heart’s content and there’s little or nothing anybody can do to get him to acknowledge that, for example, the moon is still out there.  Any decent far-right conservative knows that when actual, factual evidence is presented, one should, properly, close their eyes, cover their ears, and scream “la la la” until the offending fact goes away.

45 tries.  His problem is, he’s not just some doofus in the conservative bubble anymore.  Facts simply won’t go away.  Worse, they keep coming back from every direction and from many sources.  You know why?  Because as it happens, when the so-called President says “someone should investigate”, someone investigates – always a problem for BreitBull…

From time to time, we’ve seen 45 back away from some piece of BreitBull.  Once it gets to a point where there’s too much evidence to continue to defend defenseless positions (outside of his rallies, of course) he throws his source under the bus in an attempt to deflect criticism from his own glorious self.  “All I can tell you is I heard it on such and so…”

This suggests that, at some point, the Donald begins to perceive that people think he looks like an idiot.  He doesn’t want to look like an idiot so he provides his source – try to make the source look the fool.

I’ll tell you this: I’m hopeful that his ego will eventually come into conflict with the BreitBull.  I wonder how many times his narcissism will allow him to look dumb in the face of evidence before he begins to question his sources.  I think I perceive a glimmer of possibility that, perhaps, THIS Uncle Obnoxious might be tamed over time – or at least learn to distinguish facts from BreitBull…