"We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business"

During the 2016 presidential campaign, I heard repeatedly that Hillary Clinton had callously remarked that in coal country, "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business." (I just watched the Anthony Bourdain "West Virginia" episode and saw a W.W. miner using it to explain why Trump had defeated Clinton decisively in West Virginia.)

Well, she did say exactly those words. But when you put them in context, it's a message of empathy and concern for the coal workers:

Look, we have serious economic problems in many parts of our country. And Roland is absolutely right. Instead of dividing people the way Donald Trump does, let's reunite around policies that will bring jobs and opportunities to all these underserved poor communities.

So for example, I'm the only candidate which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country. Because we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right?

And we're going to make it clear that we don't want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories.

Now we've got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don't want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on.

So whether it's coal country or Indian country or poor urban areas, there is a lot of poverty in America. We have gone backwards. We were moving in the right direction. In the '90s, more people were lifted out of poverty than any time in recent history.

Because of the terrible economic policies of the Bush administration, President Obama was left with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and people fell back into poverty because they lost jobs, they lost homes, they lost opportunities, and hope.

So I am passionate about this, which is why I have put forward specific plans about how we incentivize more jobs, more investment in poor communities, and put people to work.

The Trials And Tribulations Of H.R. McMaster

Click here for an article in The New Yorker by Patrick Radden Keefe, entitled "McMaster and Commander."

It tells the story of H.R. McMaster's year-long stint as Trump's national security adviser. Tough job! A warrior/scholar, McMaster has written a book entitled "Dereliction of Duty," published in 1997, which described the failure of the advisers around President Lyndon Johnson to tell him the truth about the Vietnam war. I was struck by this paragraph:

McMaster describes Johnson as “a profoundly insecure man who craved and demanded affirmation,” and notes that Johnson—who came into office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy—suffered from a sense of illegitimacy, a fear that he was “an illegal usurper.” McMaster points out that Johnson had “a real propensity for lying,” and that he surrounded himself with “advisers who would tell him what he wanted to hear.” The book’s title refers to the reluctance of military advisers to offer Johnson unvarnished assessments of the war’s progress. McMaster argues that they should not have allowed themselves to be politicized, sanctioning the lies that the Johnson Administration told the public.

Remind you of anyone?

Hillary Clinton Killed Kennedy!

Sean Hannity on Fox, by Stephen Colbert:

This Is Extremely Dangerous To Our Democracy

Here is a video from an article by Scarce, at Crooks & Liars, entitled "Sinclair Broadcasting Enlists Journalists To Wage Trump's War On 'Fake News'":



Sinclair Broadcasting Group consists of 200 stations across the U.S.

The script, as transcribed by ThinkProgress based on the KOMO (Seattle) version, reads:

Hi, I’m(A) ____________, and I’m (B) _________________…

(B) Our greatest responsibility is to serve our Northwest communities. We are extremely proud of the quality, balanced journalism that KOMO News produces.

(A) But we’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media.

(B) More alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories… stories that just aren’t true, without checking facts first.

(A) Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control ‘exactly what people think’…This is extremely dangerous to a democracy.

(B) At KOMO it’s our responsibility to pursue and report the truth. We understand Truth is neither politically ‘left nor right.’ Our commitment to factual reporting is the foundation of our credibility, now more than ever.

(A) But we are human and sometimes our reporting might fall short. If you believe our coverage is unfair please reach out to us by going to KOMOnews.com and clicking on CONTENT CONCERNS. We value your comments. We will respond back to you.

(B) We work very hard to seek the truth and strive to be fair, balanced and factual… We consider it our honor, our privilege to responsibly deliver the news every day.

(A) Thank you for watching and we appreciate your feedback.