So what is a former coal company CEO to do after being indicted by a grand jury for conspiracy to violate mandatory federal safety and health standards, conspiracy to impede federal mine safety officials, making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and securities fraud--then getting chucked into a federal prison for a year after being convicted of the first charge?
I mean other than screeching you were Barack H. Obama's political prisoner and blaming the disaster, which killed 29 miners, entirely on government inspectors and regulations?
Well, in the case of Don Blankenship you run in the West Virginia republican primary for senate. You also claim the GOP Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell is an unrepentant cocaine fiend, then make sure we all know he is married to, Elaine Chao, "a wealthy China person." Just to ensure the message is clear, you add, McConnell is soft on trade with China--creating scads and scads of jobs for Beijing--because of his, "China family."
Hey, why not? Politics isn't for pussies you know. It is eat, or be eaten. Take no prisoners, burn your enemies homes to the ground and put their children to the sword. That's how those no nonsense ancient Romans dealt with the Carthaginians. Besides we are in the era of Donald J. Trump. Truth and decency have about as much use as those rotting VCR tapes sitting around the house gathering dust.
Of course, The Big Orange Guy has been down this road before. He bet on the wrong horse in the Alabama republican primaries, then ended up backing Judge Roy Moore, who he later said was doomed in the general election from the very beginning.
Don T. is getting out in front of this one. Through a tweet he urged WV republicans to vote for just about anyone besides Don Blankenship, because, in his words, Blankenship, "...can't win the general election."
Blankenship isn't taking that sort of shit lightly. He snapped back with a convoluted version of what happened in Alabama by claiming Trump had asked voters there to elect an accused pedophile--which he did, but only after Moore was the last republican standing. He also bragged, "I'm Trumpier than Trump," while conveniently avoiding the truth. You know, the truth that Moore has never been charged, or convicted of child molestation, while Don Blankenship has most certainly been convicted and done hard time for his part in facilitating the worst U.S. mine disaster since 1970.
Waiting in the wings for the winner of the primary will be democratic incumbent, Joe Manchin. In normal times he would be considered a centrist, if not an outright conservative. However, as we've noticed, these are anything, but normal times. Every democrat alive is accused of all manner of crimes, from socialism to running child trafficking rings in the back rooms of pizza parlors.
And there are multitudes of dim bulbs and trailer park fascists out there who believe every word of it.
Out going GOP Senator Jeff Flake knows the terrible score. As he said earlier today, "It isn't that Don Blankenship can't win the general election, it's that he shouldn't."
The trouble is shouldn't doesn't mean squat any more. Trump, more than anyone else realizes how bat shit crazy things have become--hell, his very presence in the Oval Office proves it. That's why he took to twitter. The latest polls show Blankenship's numbers are surging upward.
Yes, in a sane world Don Blankenship would be beaten like a gong in any political race he entered on general principle alone. Tomorrow, in WV the odds are better than 50-50 the worst he will do is come in second.
Such is the state of the republic in this, the year of our Lord, 2018.
sic vita est
5-7-18
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