West Virginia Legislature
Just call it a jobs bill.
Mike Caputo is vice president of United Mine Workers District 31 and a Democrat member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, representing the 50th District of Marion County. A week or so ago, the state Democrat Party posted a Facebook video of a floor speech Mike made concerning jobs in the state.
His comments are reinforcement for a blog essay I wrote on
February 19, which pointed out that West Virginia voters have a history of electing
legislators who campaign on a pro-jobs platform but, once in office, do little
to bring employment opportunities into the state.
In his floor speech, Mike read off a list of bills passed
during the past few years – all with the promise of bringing jobs into West
Virginia. I encourage any interested West Virginian to watch this five-minute
video (click here and scroll down) but if you can’t, here is Mike’s list:
* Passed numerous tort reform measures that were supposed to
bring in jobs.
* Passed medical malpractice reforms. Same goal.
* Passed Workers’ Compensation reform because employers said
they couldn’t afford it.
* Passed unemployment compensation reform.
* Reduced and eliminated the business franchise tax and the
corporate net tax to attract businesses.
* Reduced coal mine health and safety “and called it a jobs
bill.”
* Repealed the prevailing wage law that guaranteed decent pay
for construction workers who work on public projects.
* Passed right-to-work legislation.
In Mike’s words, “We said we could put a toll booth up and
collect money for all of the jobs that were going to come into West Virginia,” but
no jobs were forthcoming. I wrote it
this way:
“Collectively, these
new laws were supposed to bring jobs pouring into the state from employers who
were put off by a strong labor presence. So far, I haven't seen that happening.
Meanwhile, the working men and women of the state got screwed over by the
Republicans they elected into office in 2014. So what did they do about it? Two
years later, last November, they went out to the polls and voted them all back
in again.”
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case.
The Russians Are Coming
Barack Obama served
this country as president for eight distinguished years. He made some mistakes along
the way, but for the most part he did a lot of things right under the worst of
circumstances. Still, he was called a lot of ugly and nasty things, the “nicest”
of which were “Kenyan,” “Socialist” and “Muslim.”
If President Obama
or just one of his cabinet members or advisors had forged a relationship with
Russian diplomats, leaders or spies, he’d have been branded a “leftist Commie traitor”
and either tried for treason or impeached.
So far, these Trump insiders have been shown to have questionable
ties to Russia:
- National Security Adviser Michael Flynn,
- Attorney General Jeff Sessions,
- Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross,
- Secretary of State Rex Tillerson,
- Foreign Policy Adviser Carter Page,
- Former Campaign Manager Paul Manafort,
- Trump’s daughter Ivanka,
- Trump’s son Donald Jr.,
- Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner,
- Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and
- Adviser Roger Stone.
How many Russian
connections does someone have to make before you begin to take collusion
charges seriously? I mean, one or two Russians might be passed off because Trump
sought real estate deals there or because he once held the Miss Universe
pageant in Moscow, but you’ve got 11 people listed above with dubious ties to
our Cold War enemy, and that’s just the ones we know about so far.
The Sessions connection
came to light only yesterday, and now I wonder if Trump administration
officials with Russian connections will keep popping up like dandelions throughout
the spring.
I wrote about Russia
twice under the headlines “If it walks like a Russian and hacks like a Russian…”
and “Oh, look, Martha, it’s those pesky Russians again!” I won’t rehash those essays here, but you can
click the links if you want to read them. I will, however, repeat my previous
conclusion:
I’m not in the intelligence business, but I
know one thing: If it looks like a Russian and hacks like a Russian, it’s
probably a Russian. I’d suggest to Trump that he either get ahead of this with
some “true truth” or get out while he can. This is likely to get worse before
it gets better, and I don’t think it will end well for him.
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