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West Virginia Worships Trump -- And He's Screwing Its Voters Hard

West Virginia Worships Trump -- And He's Screwing Its Voters Hard

West Virginia is one of the Trumpiest states in the country, with President Donald Trump winning the state by a whopping 42 percentage points in the 2024 election. So you’d think—having delivered for Trump so big—that they’d be winning all sorts of victories.

And yet …

According to the Des Moines Register, Trump’s plan to revive shipbuilding in the United States by charging massive fees for China-linked ship visits to U.S. ports is causing coal inventory to swell, stoking uncertainty in the already embattled agriculture industry as exporters struggle to find ships to send goods abroad.

As a result, West Virginia coal mines are preparing to lay off miners as unsold coal piles up.

But, but, but … Trump loves coal miners!

“After years of being held captive by Environmental Extremists, Lunatics, Radicals, and Thugs, allowing other Countries, in particular China, to gain tremendous Economic advantage over us by opening up hundreds of all Coal Fire Power Plants, I am authorizing my Administration to immediately begin producing Energy with BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL,” he posted on Truth Social just earlier this week.

Despite what Trump says, coal is a dead industry, and he’s doing his part to drive the final nail in its coffin.

“Enacting and implementing those fees could halt exports of U.S. coal within 60 days, putting $130 billion worth of shipments at risk,” Ernie Thrasher, CEO and founder of Xcoal Energy & Resources, wrote in a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “The fee structure could add up to 35% to the delivered cost of U.S. coal, making it uncompetitive on the global market. The loss of direct and indirect jobs would be catastrophic.”

Lutnick never responded.

There are fewer than 12,000 coal miners left in West Virginia, so … that sucks for them! But all of those newly unemployed miners can console themselves knowing that trans athletes are being punished.

So what about the state’s other industries—and its children?

As NBC reports:

Jennifer Gilkerson never imagined that her West Virginia farm’s freeze-dried fruits would get caught up in political fights in Washington, D.C. But last Friday, she learned that funding for a U.S. Agriculture Department program that helps schools and food banks buy products from local farmers like her had been cut. Without those federal dollars, Gilkerson no longer expects local schools to be able to buy her freeze-dried fruits, which she has already spent thousands of dollars preparing to produce.

“We’re just in such a state of shock. We just don’t really even know how to respond to all this. We thought that this was sacred and really untouchable,” Gilkerson said. “Everyone thinks all farmers voted for this, but we did not vote for this.”

The school and food bank program isn’t being cut because of “political fights” in Washington D.C. It’s literally central to the GOP agenda. A fight implies that the program got cut because of partisan warfare. This is a policy decision.

And yes, Jennifer, your state voted exactly for this—y’all just thought other people would suffer the brunt of it. But Project 2025 was very clear in its goal to slash all government spending—including the federal dollars that subsidize West Virginia.

“The overall goal should be to eliminate subsidy dependence,” Project 2025 says.

So yes, Jennifer. I don’t know who you voted for, but your fellow West Virginians overwhelmingly voted for this.

Common sense should dictate that if your state is the third most dependent on federal dollars you should maybe vote for the party that supports federal funding. I know, I know, trans this and trans that. But is destroying your entire economy worth the sacrifice for that bigotry?

“This is the economy of rural America. West Virginia is a wholly rural state, and so developing this agriculture economy in the state is extremely important. These farmers pay their property taxes, they’re business owners, a lot of times they’re commissioners or school board members. These are the drivers that keep rural communities alive. So it feels like a divestment in rural communities across the board,” Spencer Moss, executive director of the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition, told NBC.

It’s called the “Department of Government Efficiency,” and it turns out that subsidizing small, rural states is not efficient. Those farmers aren’t paying enough in property taxes to cover expenses, which is why urban and blue-state folks are subsidizing it. But we liberal voters were fine with paying those subsidies because we’re all American, and we’re all in this together!

But if West Virginians thought the federal safety net would have their backs, boy they’re in for some disappointment.

According toPolitico, the Agriculture Department has halted millions of dollars worth of deliveries to food bank leaders in six states, including West Virginia.

Chad Morrison, president of West Virginia’s Mountaineer Food Bank, said it’s “really challenging” to meet West Virginia’s needs.

“We can try to figure out how to make up the gaps, which is a hard lift, or ultimately there’s less food on the table,” he said.

States like West Virginia will be particularly hit by cuts to school lunches, food stamps, and other programs that deliver food to the hungry.

As for health care, West Virginia has 1.77 million residents, and more than 516,000 of them are on Medicaid, which also keeps the state’s rural hospitals afloat.

But hey, almost three-quarters of the state decided that wasn’t important enough to protect with their vote. And Trump certainly doesn’t care about leaving his supporters without health care.

Still, you’d think that the state’s overwhelming support for Trump would somehow translate into some tangible victories, but the news is grim. Trump is more interested in hawking expensive cars for his billionaire buddy Elon Musk, hyping crypto for his bros, fantasizing about ethnically cleaning Gaza, obsessing over Greenland, and golfing. Lots and lots of golfing.

As for his voters, they really shouldn’t be surprised. After all, he didsay, “I don’t care about you, I just want your vote. I don’t care.”

And he proves that every single day.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

'Insanity': At Pentagon, Musk Will Gain Access To Top-Secret US War Plans

'Insanity': At Pentagon, Musk Will Gain Access To Top-Secret US War Plans

South African centibillionaire Elon Musk — one of President Donald Trump's closest advisors — is now reportedly scheduled to receive a top-secret briefing involving the United States' top-secret plans in the event the nation goes to war with China.

The New York Times reported Thursday evening that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO will be visiting the Pentagon on Friday to get "access to some of the nation’s most closely guarded military secrets." Those war plans are detailed in "20 to 30 slides" that reveal exactly how the U.S. would plan to fight a war against the world's most populous nation and second-largest economy. The Times Julian E. Barnes, Maggie Haberman, Eric Lipton, Ryan Mac and Eric Schmitt noted that the briefing comes despite Musk having "extensive financial interests in China."

"If a foreign country was to learn how the United States planned to fight a war against them, it could reinforce its defenses and address its weaknesses, making the plans far less likely to succeed," the reporters wrote.

Some Musk critics expressed worry that China has significant leverage over the centibillionaire. Progressive activist Murshed Zaheed opined that the Times' reporting included "bats--- crazy" details about Musk's potential conflicts of interest toward the end of the report. In the final five paragraphs of the article, the Times reported that the Tesla factory in Shanghai — which was "built with special permission from the Chinese government" — is responsible for "more than half of Tesla's global deliveries." Tesla also has a $2.8 billion loan agreement with Chinese lenders "for production expenditures."

Consultant Matt Ortega pointed out that Chinese President Xi Jinping could simply tell Musk to "provide us with the U.S. war plan or we will close your Shanghai factory." Journalist Radley Balko exclaimed that Musk getting access to Chinese war plans was "insanity." Former FBI counterterrorism official Frank Figliuzzi called Musk getting the war plans a "clear and present danger." And author and journalist Tim Weiner reminded his followers that Vivek Ramaswamy — who co-founded the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with Musk — once said in 2023 that the tech billionaire would "jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need."

"If you give the war plans to Musk, you might as well give them to China," Weiner wrote on Bluesky.

Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell implied to the Times that Musk's visit was merely casual, saying: "The Defense Department is excited to welcome Elon Musk to the Pentagon on Friday. He was invited by Secretary Hegseth and is just visiting."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Why Is Trump Sabotaging The US Auto Industry?

Why Is Trump Sabotaging The US Auto Industry?

If Chinese leader Xi Jinping wanted to take down the U.S. auto industry — and he probably does — he couldn't have a better helper than Donald Trump. The American president's tireless efforts to slow America's shift to electricity-run transportation is a dream come true for China as it leads the world in that transition.

Electric vehicles are the cars and trucks of the future. In some parts of the world, that future is here. Norway now has more fully electric cars on its roads than the gas-powered kind.

China has put enormous resources behind the development and manufacture of EVs. The U.S. was on the case when Joe Biden was president. Trump is taking away those subsidies, thus messing with U.S. automakers' big plans to compete in this growing market.

The politics of it are also wild. About 80% of the Biden-era clean energy investments are in red states (or if they are rescinded, were).

In North Carolina, Toyota just unveiled a $13.9 billion battery plant in the small town of Liberty. Another maker of cutting-edge batteries will soon open near Raleigh, not far from a factory that builds charging infrastructure.

Trump also wants to take away money Congress appropriated for EV charging stations. That appears to be illegal, but Republicans in Congress seem more afraid of Trump than voters who could lose jobs.

But one Republican, Alabama's Gov. Kay Ivey, defends that funding. "Having strategic electric vehicle charging stations across Alabama not only benefits EV drivers, but it also benefits those companies that produce electric vehicles, including many of them right here in Alabama, resulting in more high-paying jobs for Alabamians."

All true.

Some observers surmise that Elon Musk sees a personal gain in slowing down the growth of charging stations. His Tesla currently has the largest network of fast chargers in the country. Adding chargers could help sales of EVs other than Elon's.

Potentially hurting the American automakers are the 25% tariffs Trump wants to slap on the parts they get from Canada and Mexico. This shared production arrangement makes U.S. cars more price-competitive on world markets, thus protecting the jobs of American workers.

But get this: Musk is now suing the European Union over its decision to put hefty tariffs on EVs made in China. Tesla, you see, makes more than half its EVs in China.

MAGA has been brainwashed to see evil behind efforts to direct American drivers away from fossil fuels. As a self-pitying Arizonan told The Wall Street Journal, EVs are "being pushed down our throats."

A Morning Consult poll taken last spring found that 4 in 10 Americans have unfavorable views of EVs. And 38% of those respondents said their political views were a factor.

One must ask: What mean man is forcing Americans to buy electric vehicles? No one is stopping you or me from going to an auto showroom or used car lot and driving off with a 100% gas-powered machine.

Having the U.S. government help a new domestic industry is what we call economic policy. When Henry Ford's first Model T rolled out of the factory in 1908, America had almost no paved roads beyond the cities.

Ford was a strong advocate for the kinds of roads his new cars needed to run on. He became the first chairman of the Wayne County Road Commission. The Federal-Aid Road Act was passed in 1916 and the Federal-Aid Highway Act in 1921.

Back to the present, sales of Chinese-made EVs rose 40% last year alone. China also has the world's largest network of charging stations.

Something tells us President Xi Jinping likes the way things are going in the age of Trump.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Make America Great Again MAGA

Trump Clearly Prefers Billionaires To His MAGA Followers

Will the MAGA base ever figure out they've been played?

Farm country provided Trump with some of his most fervent support. Farmers are now being tossed aside by Trump policies, none of which he seems interested in dialing back.

A trade war would be disastrous. Farm products are a major U.S. export. Last year, the U.S. exported more than $30 billion in farm products to Mexico, $29 billion to Canada and $25 billion to China.

When a country slaps big tariffs on products from another country, that country can be expected to hit back with its own punishing tariffs. Trump's insults also add focus to the revenge: Offended nations are targeting products coming from Trump country.

American farmers rightly worry that a trade war would incentivize other countries to find more reliable suppliers of corn, wheat and whatever else they grow. As a soybean grower in Iowa told the Financial Times, "Farmers understand that trading relationships go up on a stairway, where you work hard to build them up, but go down on an elevator — very, very fast."

Trump's mania for tariffs was no secret during the campaign, nor were his deportation plans that are going to ravage rural workforces. What were U.S. farmers thinking when they voted for Trump? That he really loved them?

Trump is working on a plan to take away added funding from the Internal Revenue Service and use it for securing the southern border — as if the U.S. can't afford two important government functions at the same time. If anything, weakening the IRS's ability to collect taxes owed would deprive government of the money that could be used to defend the border.

Eroding the IRS's ability to enforce the tax laws is a gift to rich tax cheats. They have all sorts of tricks to hide income. The working stiffs do not. Their taxes get taken right out of their paychecks.

Medicaid buys health care for Americans who typically make less than $50,000. These low earners gave most of their votes to Trump. Republicans are now circling Medicaid as a fat target for spending cuts.

Their Project 2025 blueprint clearly states, "The dramatic increase in Medicaid expenditures is due in large part to the ACA (Obamacare), which mandates that states must expand their Medicaid eligibility standards."

During the campaign, Trump insisted he was "not running to terminate" the Affordable Care Act. But that wouldn't preclude stripping it of so many benefits and slashing so many beneficiaries that a walking corpse would be all that's left. And Trump will call it Obamacare.

Trump has named the mastermind behind Project 2025, Russell Vought, his budget director. In addition to Medicaid, Vought has it in for Head Start, veterans benefits and medical research.

Republicans vow not to touch a hair on Medicare, which covers the elderly, but that too is not entirely off the table. "In essence, our deficit problem is a Medicare and Medicaid problem," Project 2025 laments. It calls these programs "runaway entitlements."

The Department of Health and Human Services is home to both Medicare and Medicaid. How do you all feel about the crackpot Bobby Kennedy Jr. being put in charge?

Don't expect Republicans in Washington to publicly oppose Trump, even at the expense of their voters' health care. But some are quietly worried.

"If you cut Medicaid, you're, like, pissing off the people who put you in office — who Trump resonates with, right?" one House Republican (who did not share his name) told The Wall Street Journal.

But It's pretty naive to think that Trump cares about the people who put him in office. All he wanted was their votes. He got them.

Now scoot.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

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