President Zelensky walks the walk and talks the talk!

https://www.herald-dispatch.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-zelensky-is-an-inspiration/article_8cda349e-a128-5b5e-be82-63b6170e5fde.html

Echo opinion published in the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Virginia from William Huron from Chesapeake Ohio:  

Ukrainian President Zelensky is a true hero who is putting his country first, before his own safety. 

President Zelensky in Kyiv refuses US offer to evacuate, saying 'I need ammunition, not a ride': Walks the walk and talks the talk!

In fact, Zelensky is staying in Ukraine's capital, (Kyiv) leading the battle against the brutal and unprovoked Russian invasion of his country.

Russia's president, Putin (war criminal!) spreads the false information that Zelensky has fled the capital, which was under siege.  Zelensky responded using his phone from a recognizable location outside the presidential office in central Kyiv, saying, "Good evening, everyone. Your leader is here. Your government is here. Your soldiers are here. We are all protecting our country and we will continue to do so. Glory to Ukraine."

Several days later, still repelling the Russians, Zelensky, in reply to the United States' offer to evacuate him from the war zone said, "I need ammunition, not a ride."

It is so refreshing to have a leader stay in his country and lead the battle against brutal invaders. One opposite example of so many leaders under threat from an overwhelming force is Afghanistan. Recently, when the United States deserted Afghanistan*, and the Taliban was taking over the country and headed toward the capital the Afghan president and other top leaders raided the treasury and fled the country leaving its citizens to tend for themselves. 

 The United States and our NATO allies must give Zelensky whatever he needs to protect his country from Russia. Were Russia to prevail, and defeat Ukraine, who would be next?

Our own American hero, George Washington, having to use his own financial fortune and fighting the strongest army in the world at that time against formidable odds, prevailed and gained our independence from Great Britain (BTW, with the assistance of the French!). Zelensky and other heroes who fight for their countries' independence are an inspiration to freedom loving people everywhere. 

From William Heron in Chesapeake Ohio

* Maine Writer post script:  I cannot imagine how the United States could maintain such a high level of support for President Zelensky and the brave Ukrainian people if the country was still trying to prop up the failed Afghan government that was abandoned by Ashraf Ghani.

President Zelensky is an example of competent leadership in action! 

Followers of the #FormerGuy revealed

Echo opinion letter to the editor published in the Charleston Gazette-Maine, in West Virginia:

Saturday Night Live gave Americans more truth about the #FormerGuy than any other media- Maine Writer.

The followers of #FormerGuy Donald Trump go far beyond ignorance, poverty, carelessness and thoughtlessness. It’s no secret that those at the bottom of the income scale and lowest in educational achievement are desperate enough to back anybody, even someone as depraved as that cluster-fornicator, Trump.

His followers are a lot like their leader: ignorant, unable to read, write or think like a normal human being.

I don’t have a lot of hope for the future of West Virginia. 

As long as the leaders of our Legislature are in the pocket of that imbecile, people who think and care about others are going to have to wait a very long time before this level of hatred and lack of compassion go away.

Mike Harman, in St. Albans, West Virginia

Former Guy is responsible for thousands of COVID deaths

"A lot of blood on his hands", Anastacia Kelley in West Virginia.

Echo article published in RawStory by Travis Gettys:

Woman blames Trump for anti-vaxxer friend’s COVID-19 death: ‘He could have saved so many lives'

After a West Virginia woman died from COVID-19, her best friend blames former president Donald Trump's refusal to enthusiastically embrace vaccinations.

The former president got his shot in private before leaving office and has offered meager approval since leaving the White House, and Anastacia Kelley feels certain her college roommate would have gotten one for herself, if Trump had gotten his in the public eye, reported The Daily Beast.

"The exact quote was, she was not going to put that shit in her body," Kelley said, asking to keep her friend's last name private. "I said, 'You'll eat a cheeseburger from McDonald's and you have no idea what's in it'."

Kelley knew her friend's husband was a strong Trump supporter, and she regrets not pushing her friend more to get the vaccine, despite her skepticism and their political differences.

"I was the one person she listened to," Kelley said. "She might have listened to me. I just let it go with her, not thinking the worst would happen."

Kelley saw a March 19 Facebook post by Lizzie's sister lamenting that her family had COVID-19 after making "one mistake" after being careful about the virus, and she knew that Lizzie must have caught it, as well.

She called her friend, who confirmed she had tested positive, on the following day, and Kelley shared

"Absolutely, without a doubt," Kelly told the website. "If he had come out and even taken a picture of himself getting it, he could have saved many lives."

Kelley and Lizzie had remained friends since college, but Lizzie had drifted toward conspiracy theories after moving back home to West Virginia, and she expressed skepticism about the vaccines.

"The exact quote was, she was not going to put that shit in her body," Kelley said, asking to keep her friend's last name private. "I said, 'You'll eat a cheeseburger from McDonald's and you have no idea what's in it.'"

Kelley knew her friend's husband was a strong Trump supporter, and she regrets not pushing her friend more to get the vaccine despite her skepticism and their political differences.

"I was the one person she listened to," Kelley said. "She might have listened to me. I just let it go with her, not thinking the worst would happen."

Kelley saw a March 19 Facebook post by Lizzie's sister lamenting that her family had COVID-19 after making "one mistake" after being careful about the virus, and she knew that Lizzie must have caught it, as well.

She called her friend, who confirmed she had tested positive, on the following day, and Kelley shared tips for dealing with the infection, but Lizzie texted March 26, to notify her that she was being admitted to a hospital after other family members had been, as well.

"I can't breathe, I feel awful. This is the worst thing I've ever been through," Lizzie said in the text.

Once in the hospital, she was placed in isolation with COVID-related pneumonia in both lungs, but an allergy prevented her from receiving steroid treatment and she was placed in intensive care on March 28.

Lizzie's condition worsened March 31, and her Trump-loving husband sent a Facebook message later that day notifying Kelley that she had died, and Lizzie's sister died Tuesday in ICU unaware that her sister had preceded her.

"All this could have been avoided," Kelley said, haunted by the vaccine hesitancy that she blames on the former president. "He has a lot of blood on his hands."

Group think and racism

God is the author of all colors- An opinion perspective about the history of racism.

"It’s a man’s heart that makes his actions good or evil. His color neither contributes, nor distracts from such things," T.J. Coleman.

Opinion letter published in the West Virginia newspaper, Mineral Daily News-Tribune:

I read with interest the letter by T.J. Coleman in the Feb. 11, news paper. It was entitled "God is the author of all colors,” and I commend him for the writing of it. 

His premise that God is the determiner of our skin color pigment is on solid Biblical footing. His premise we're all equal in God's eyes in that regard, is confirmed in Acts 17:26 wherein God "...hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth...".

Many hurtful and terrible things have occurred throughout history because one group thinks it's better than another. Millions of people have been murdered or enslaved because one group thinks they're entitled to impose their will upon another. Hitler's extermination of the Jews, and the British extermination of the Aboriginals of Australia, are two awful examples. Our own treatment of native American Indians and African Americans are two shameful examples in our own history.

Unfortunately, our own public education system contributes to the underlying belief that multiple races have evolved on the earth. (Instead of the biblical teaching of one 'human race', "made of one blood"). Every single public school in America today embraces the teaching of evolutionism as put forth by Charles Darwin in his 1859 book. Prior to that teaching being promoted by the federal government for inclusion in text books in the 1960s, the Bible was the accepted version of the origin of man. And the scattering of the nations (after God confounded their languages at the Tower of Bable) then began the genetic drift of skin color in the widely separated groups.

One wonders how many defenders of Darwin's "theory" realize he was actually a racist himself. His 1859 book title is always said to be "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection"; but no one ever tells you the second half of the title: "Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.” Well...did you catch that? Darwin believed in the "Preservation of Favoured Races.” Gee, I wonder who the favored races were? And...do you imagine that personal belief might have influenced his conclusions on evolution? Darwin believed himself to be in a "Favoured" race. And so he imagined the less favored races hadn't evolved as far as his.

Darwin's own son wrote after his death that his father had a very "vivid imagination.” That's how Darwin was able to look at 14 varieties of finches, and conclude they were evolving on different tracks. He didn't know about genetic variation within the same kind of animal. Which is why we have over 300 varieties of dogs...but a dog never changes into a different kind of animal. Genetic variation is limited. And God says in Genesis that each type of animal shall bring forth "after his kind.” That's why we never see any plant or animal change into a fundamentally different kind. Apples produce apples, cows produce cows...and finches produces finches. There are no exceptions over the thousands of years of recorded history of mankind. None.

And, speaking of mankind, it's dangerous to teach our kids various races of man evolved separately. From that teaching, it's a small leap to the idea some races are evolved ahead of the others. That's why American Indians and Australian Aboriginals were often called "savages" in the 19th century. They were considered subhuman...less evolved. Today we should know better - and condemn such thinking.

Sincerely & respectfully,
Gary Klavuhn

Donald Trump and his freaky ally Rep. Matt Gaetz

Echo opinion published in the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Virginia - Trump tries to scare up a win

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Donald Trump frantically tries to frighten voters with the fake specter of “anarchists” and “looters” and planes full of black-clad “bad people” coming to menace your suburban neighborhood, take a trip down memory lane. 

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz- R, reminds me of Frankenstein with a face lift! His right wing personality is bizarre.

Recall those desperate days of 2018, when the nation was sacked, pillaged and reduced to smoking ruins by vast, unstoppable caravans of marauding Latino migrants.

Except the invasion never arrived; the invading force, as Trump depicted it, never even existed. Which is my point.

This is not the first time Trump tried to manufacture fear and loathing to swing an election in his favor. Two years ago, it didn’t work. Democrats seized control of the House, flipping 40 seats and transforming Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., from minority leader into speaker.

That doesn’t mean the ploy is certain to fail now: Americans are under great strain from the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic consequences of suppressing it. But 2018 does provide some context for Trump’s decision to use the continuing protests for racial justice as a wedge issue, abandoning any pretense of trying to promote understanding or heal long-festering wounds. Anyone who thinks this strategy is a guaranteed winner for Trump is simply wrong.

Trump’s rhetoric in September and October of 2018 was as apocalyptic as his fantasies are now. Aided by the right-wing-media machine, the president seized on a long-standing phenomenon — groups of Central American asylum seekers banding together in groups to safely make the dangerous trek through Mexico to the U.S. border — and portrayed it as an acute threat.

There were “some very bad people” in the caravans, Trump warned. “Go into the middle of the caravan, take your camera and search,” he dared a reporter. “You’re going to find MS-13,” referring to the notorious street gang, “you’re going to find Middle Eastern, you’re going to find everything.”

Fox News sent reporters deep into Mexico to breathlessly chart the progress of one caravan that was nearly 1,000 miles from the border. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who can be even Trumpier than Trump, tweeted an unverified video of a man handing cash to would-be migrants in Honduras and suggested, falsely, that financier George Soros might somehow be behind the payments. (OMG!!!! Rep. Gaetz is an evil creature! He looks like Frankenstein with a face lift.)

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R- Fl 01,  looks like Frankenstein with a face lift, JMO. He's a freaky Trump ally.

Barring Latin American migrants at the border was seen as Trump’s most reliable issue, his sweet spot. He and the GOP demagogued the daylights out of the caravans in an attempt to hold on to the House — and failed miserably. Outside of the party’s hardcore base, voters just didn’t respond.

Trump’s ploy failed at a time when the economy was rapidly growing, unemployment was steadily falling and Republicans were triumphally touting the massive tax cuts they had rammed through. Today, the political landscape is bleak and daunting — not just for Trump, but for many Americans.

There are two obvious differences between 2018 and 2020 (beyond the wild-card logistics of holding a national election in the middle of a pandemic). One is that Trump himself is on the ballot this year. That will surely bring out some true believers who sat out the midterms but also more Democrats determined to make Trump a one-term president. The other difference is that the issue Trump has seized on is race — a cleavage so fundamental and incendiary since the nation’s founding that it led to the Civil War.

Trump has chosen not just to decry violence and property damage, which Joe Biden and the Democratic Party also denounce, but to deny that systemic racism exists — even in policing, even in the killing of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake and all the other victims whose names are emblazoned on Black Lives Matter banners and T-shirts.

Trump is right that ranting about race and violence is probably better for him than talking about his dismal failure on the COVID-19 pandemic. But there is a very good chance it won’t be enough. Those caravans never arrived, and neither did Trump’s midterm victory.

Eugene Robinson is a syndicated columnist.

Donald Trump must accept the opinion of scientists - letter echo

A West Virginia echo opinion letter published in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, submitted by Merri Morgan in Greenville, West Virginia

Donald Trump desperately wants people back to work as soon as possible and is now urging the governors to end stay-at-home restrictions.

The scientists say we cannot possibly do that safely without more testing. Indeed, they are insisting about the need for much more testing.

Trump congratulates himself that over 4,000,000 Americans have been tested. HELLO? That is just over 1% of the U.S. population.

Trump says it’s up to the states to do testing. Still, the governors are doing all they can in dealing with the virus, and scientists say testing is severely hampered by shortages of swabs and chemical reagents.

Also, Trump stated that he takes no responsibility for anything, and he’s been doing a great job. If former president Harry Truman were still alive, that might astonish him. The sign on Truman’s desk read: “The Buck Stops Here.”

For one, I am listening to the scientists. 

Lying Traitor Trump has zero interest in protecting American lives. He is ignorant and ignores medical science.

Indeed, day after day, Trump’s pronouncements on the virus consist of misinformation, disinformation, nonsense and outright lies. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s medical hero, is forced to contradict him. Some people don’t like it when Dr. Fauci contradicts Trump. Apparently, some people want their medical decisions made by Trump.

Again, I, for one, do not want my life or that of my very vulnerable grandson with cystic fibrosis endangered so the economy can flourish while people die.

From Merri Morgan, writing from Greenville, West Virginia, an opinion letter published in the Charleston Gazette-Mail (A Pulitizer Prize Winning newspaper.)

West Virginia echo - Donald Trump stupidity words matter

Dear Editor of the Wheeling West Virginia The Intelligencer:

Donald Trump’s verbiage and deportment continue to be troubling and, at times, bizarre — he recently referred to himself as “the chosen one” while lifting his eyes skyward and, also, incredibly, as “the king of Israel.”

At the same time, he is not holding White House briefings as was done previously, quite often on a regular basis by all presidents since the practice’s inception. Trump’s failure is most inappropriate. Such an obvious lack of transparency is quite disturbing.

Also, in Trump’s trade war with China, although he has oftentimes stated that such would be no means have a negative fiscal impact on our great nation but, rather, on China, it has been reported by J.P. Morgan that the tariffs will actually cost each U.S. taxpayer “in excess of $1,000 per year” while in effect.

Remember also that the $2 trillion of Trump tax cuts, which are designed to disproportionately benefit large corporations and the wealthiest among us, are in the process of creating an astronomical $1 trillion deficit for the current year and for many years to come.

(Debt held by the public will rise by more than $12.8 trillion over the next decade – from $16.5 trillion today to $29.3 trillion by 2029. Debt as a share of the economy will rise rapidly, from today’s post-World War II record of 78 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 95 percent of GDP by 2029 (up from 92 percent under the previous baseline in May). If the 2017 tax cuts and other policies are extended, it would reach 101 percent by 2029.)

This, after Trump promised that such would actually “pay for themselves” and would “greatly reduce our federal deficit.”

Also, it has been extensively and recently reported that President Trump had scheduled a “secret” meeting with Taliban leaders at the U.S. Presidential Retreat at Camp David, Maryland — incredibly and inexplicably during the anniversary week of the September 2001 attacks on our great nation by al-Qaida, and as a result, our nation has since been waging war against the Taliban, who have been long harboring members of al-Qaida in Afghanistan, with over 2,400 U.S. troops being killed during the 18 years of warfare, to date.

Thankfully, perhaps, the above-mentioned summit was canceled abruptly by Trump.

In addition, as a result of the horrible carnage that took place recently in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, where 31 individuals were shot dead, Trump shortly thereafter stated that he was then “strongly in favor of strong background checks” on individuals attempting to purchase firearms. Then, he completely reversed his decision by stating that universal background checks were now “off the table,” as a result of a conversation he had on the matter with Wayne LaPierre, who is chief executive officer of the National Rifle Association, and is an avid Trump supporter.

It has also been reported that coal jobs continue to be in decline in the U.S., which is contrary to comments candidate and later Trump has made on numerous occasions when he said he would revitalize the coal industry of our country.

The aforementioned, as well as a myriad of additional disturbing words and actions of our current president have, without question, greatly contributed to Trump being the only U.S. president to never reach the 50% approval plateau in the history of Gallup polling, at any time while in office — perhaps indicating that his re-election may not be the “sure thing” he often professes it to be, after all.

Richard Hord from Martins Ferry, West Virginia

Coal Miners are not hearing from the "realDonaldTrump" who they largely voted for - Black Lung is choking them without help from Donald Trump

Although I am not a psychic, I believe years of past Maine Writer blogs have predicted this sad outcome....a classic example of how coal miners were sold a political "pig in a poke" when, in 2016, they supported Donald Trump.

“Somebody needs to do something.” By Heidi Przybyla NBCNews

Coal workers fight for benefits as industry struggles under Trump

Coal workers have been among Donald Trump's strongest supporters, but their pensions remain at risk as industry barons thrive.

Coal workers fight for benefits as industry struggles under Trump
Coal workers have been among the president's strongest supporters, but their pensions remain at risk as industry barons thrive.

WASHINGTON, DC — Dozens of retired miners, some in wheelchairs and using oxygen tanks to manage black lung disease, recently visited Washington DC, seeking federal help for their failing pension plans.

A day later, Donald Trump traveled to the miners’ home state, West Virginia, to raise an estimated $2.5 million for his re-election campaign at an event hosted by Robert Murray, who owns America’s largest underground coal company.

As an insurgent candidate in 2016, Trump promised miners he would restore the industry — and their jobs — after years of steady decline.

But as the president gears up his 2020 re-election campaign, coal magnates like Murray, whose company has a history of labor violations, have been among the biggest beneficiaries of his agenda.

The rank-and-file miners Trump showered with attention as a candidate have been less fortunate as their job prospects dwindle and their communities languish.

The year 2018, was second only to 2015, for coal plant retirements this decade, as the industry contends with strong competition from natural gas and renewable energy. At the same time, safety protections for miners, enacted after deadly mine collapses, have been weakened. Waves of retired and retiring miners concerned about failing pension plans have become a fixture on Capitol Hill, often holding vigils to gain attention.

At issue is the Miners Pension Protection Act, legislation that would transfer public funding into the miners’ troubled pension fund in order to guarantee their pensions and health care. Estimates suggest Congress would need to increase its appropriation by $260 million annually to keep the fund solvent.

Every day for the last seven months, Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, has tweeted at Trump asking him to help protect the retired coal miners living in fear of losing everything.

Trump hasn’t publicly responded, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose state of Kentucky employs over 6,000 miners, has blocked a separate measure that would shore up miner pensions.

“The President is committed to all Americans, including our great hardworking coal miners," White House spokesperson Judd Deere told NBC News. "It is because of President Trump’s economic policies of tax cuts, deregulation— including rolling back the previous administration’s harmful and unlawful so-called Clean Power Plan — and energy independence that coal miners are winning.”

Mine owners are Trump’s fifth biggest source of individual/family contributors, directing at least $6.1 million toward joint fundraising committees, his inauguration and related super PACs, according to an NBC News review. And they’ve won plenty of regulatory breaks in return, most notably a rollback of the Clean Power Plan, which President Barack Obama enacted in 2014 to help curb carbon emissions.

The Trump administration has also loosened rules governing coal ash disposal and mercury pollution from power plants. A former coal lobbyist, Andrew Wheeler, now leads a shrinking Environmental Protection Agency.

Manchin’s office says Trump has been privately supportive of the miners, yet the president has said nothing publicly to pressure McConnell to act. While McConnell has sought a broader fix to shore up the federally chartered Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the miners have said they don’t have time to wait for it.

That pension program covering union workers in transportation, mining, construction and hospitality is facing insolvency as several individual plans struggle to stay afloat.

“We’ve worked years in the coal mines. It was promised to us,” said Tom Phillips, a miner who voted for Trump in 2016. Phillips, who has numerous disabilities, said he believed Trump’s promise of a coal revival.

“I’m kind of up in the air” on Trump now, Phillips told NBC. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”

Tom Gibson, who worked as a miner for 33 years, has been walking the halls of Congress.

“I don’t like doing this, but we have no choice,” Gibson said. “Somebody needs to do something.”

David Popp, a McConnell spokesman, said the majority leader met with miners this year but believes the looming pension insolvency “is best addressed through a broader bipartisan and bicameral pension reform effort” that includes other industries.

Meanwhile, under Trump, coal executives thrive.

Among those beneficiaries are Joe and Kelly Knight Craft of Alliance Resource Partners, the largest coal donors to Trump. The Crafts, who are worth from $1 billion to $1.2 billion, according to a public disclosure form from 2017, contributed over $2 million to Trump’s joint fundraising committees, his inauguration and related super PACs. Alliance Resource Partners, of which Joe Craft is president, did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump named Kelly Craft the U.S. ambassador to Canada, where she served for 20 months. This month she was confirmed as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Other mining executives have reaped millions in retention bonuses as their companies undergo the bankruptcy and restructuring process.

“Many of the coal miners recognize there is a distinction between them and their bosses,” said Art Sullivan, a mining consultant and former miner.

Murray, who hosted the Trump fundraiser in late July, has donated $1.4 million to Trump and related super PACs. Since his company is privately held, he discloses little about his wealth.

A Murray spokesperson said the premise that coal executives are faring better than miners is “false.”

“Coal miners make up the coal industry. Coal miners, and the coal mining industry, have been, and are continuing to be helped by the Trump administration,” the spokesperson said.
“Draining the Swamp”

The state of coal country illustrates how Trump’s 2016 mantra of “draining the swamp” in Washington has, in many cases, yielded the opposite — windfalls for donors and lobbyists.

“I will never put the special interests before the national interest. I will never put a donor before a voter, or a lobbyist before a citizen,” he said at a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2016. “I am the change candidate. Hillary Clinton is for the failed status quo to protect her special interests, her donors, her lobbyists and others.”

Three years later, hedge fund companies continue to gobble up bankrupt mines and miners lose their jobs while their bosses get lucrative “retention” bonuses during bankruptcy proceedings. 

Coal mine closures are forecast to continue, particularly in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, according to BloombergNEF, a research service covering energy.

In early July, two coal mines in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, which has provided most of the nation’s thermal coal in recent decades, shuttered and abruptly put 700 individuals out of work. That was months after Westmoreland Coal Co., another large coal company in the state, filed for bankruptcy and agreed to sell its Kemmerer mine to investor Tom Clarke, who’s purchased several iron and coal mines out of bankruptcies.

Much like other mine bankruptcies, Clarke was able to stop paying retiree’s health and pension benefits.While Congress in 2017 acted on a permanent fix for health care coverage for miners, it has not acted on pensions.

Meantime the miners interviewed by NBC said their communities, many hard hit by the opioid crisis, are reeling, and include “grandmas and grandpas” raising grandchildren on as little as $300 per month.

“I’m not just saying this," Gibson said. "That’s just the way it is."

Protect women's health care - opinion published in West Virginia news

Opinion letter echo: Government must stay out of women's health care (Charleston Gazette-Mail Opinion)

Editor: A rule that would prohibit doctors, nurses, hospitals and health care centers around the country from discussing every method of birth control with their patients is under review by the Office of Budget and Management in Washington, D.C. 

This “gag rule” would keep health care professionals from sharing all available information with their patients.

This concerns me, and it should concern everyone. Government has no right to step in to regulate what health care professionals should and should not be telling their patients. That is between the patients and their doctors and nurses.

Why is government doing this? Well, it’s a direct attempt to tie the hands of organizations that provide reproductive health care to individuals through the Title X program. This includes the health care provided by Planned Parenthood.

Title X was created to ensure that everyone has access to basic, preventative reproductive health care, such as birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment and well-woman exams. 

In fact, the majority of people who receive reproductive health care through Title X are below the federal poverty level and do not have insurance.

This newly proposed rule is not about providing better health care to low-income people, which is something that directly affects the people of West Virginia. It is about politics, and it is an attack on these organizations at the determent of public health. As a former longtime member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, I fully understand what should be governed and what should not.

And, I believe the attempt to prohibit certain health care providers from discussing every birth control option with their patients is a prime example of an overreach by government.

I hope Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., will see through the facade around this rule change. And I encourage him to do everything in his power to see that this rule change will not be implemented.

Virginia Mahan
Charleston, West Virginia

Black Lung Disease on the rise - where is Donald Trump's help?

The work described here was performed at the request of Congress and with the support of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Donald Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell (Senate Majority Leader) should demand for access to quality health care for coal miners.

Black Lung disease has been on the rise since 2000

MaineWriter-Donald Trump made a campaign promise to improve the lives if coal miners through creating more jobs for them.  But, it's obvious, the health of these minors is just as compromised today as it was twenty years ago.  Nothing has been done to improve the quality of healthcare for coal miners and the treatments for the chronic black lung disease has not progressed.

West Virginia: Black lung disease didn’t go away with pickaxes and carbide lamps. 

Today’s coal miners may use diesel-powered equipment to break through rock and light their way with LED bulbs, but they still get black lung, an irreversible and potentially fatal condition. 

In fact, black lung has been on the rise among coal miners since 2000.

In a report published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, West Virginia University researcher Michael McCawley and his colleagues pinpoint shortcomings in how miners’ exposure to respirable coal-mine dust is monitored. 

Inhaling this dust over time leads to black lung disease.

McCawley served on the National Academies’ committee behind the report.

“The first thing we pointed out to regulators was, ‘OK, you say nobody’s being overexposed, but the way you’re measuring it assumes something about the person you’re sampling that may not necessarily be the case. So, prove it.’ This is science after all,” said McCawley, a clinical associate professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences within WVU’s School of Public Health.

Ergonomic, inexpensive, portable dust monitors

Current regulations dictate that the miner in a crew who will encounter the most dust underground must wear a dust-monitoring device.

“Rather than sample everybody in the mine, you go to the highest one and say, ‘If they’re in control, then everybody else should be in control,’” McCawley said. 

The device, called a continuous personal dust monitor, or CPDM, gives users near-real-time information about how much dust they’re breathing in. If the device indicates a hazardous level, a miner can move away from the dust source.

That’s prudent, but it skews the data. The amount of dust may stay high in that space even after the worker has left and other miners—who aren’t monitored—enter it. As a result, the exposure of those miners goes unmeasured. 

Why not just outfit every miner with a monitor? First, the equipment is bulky. It hangs from a shoulder strap and weighs “about as much as a light briefcase,” McCawley said.

The monitors can make it hard to balance on a mine’s shifting, pebbly floor. Second, they cost a lot: $15,000 each. If scientists and engineers could develop a lighter, more affordable version, more crew members might be able to wear it, and the pool of monitoring data could deepen.

Monitors to fix in place, not to wear

Stationary monitoring devices installed at fixed locations throughout the mine could supplement these wearable monitors. Using stationary devices would give a more complete picture of where dust comes from. It might also inform changes that make the mining process safer.

For instance, if dust levels are consistently high where the teeth of a continuous miner are chewing through a coal seam, workers may spray more water there to suppress the dust. 

“Really, the regulations require that you provide a safe atmosphere for miners—not just a safe exposure. So, the atmosphere itself has to meet the standards,” McCawley said.

More robust silica monitoring

Another drawback of current monitoring practices is that miners only have to wear the monitors as coal is being extracted. They don’t wear the devices while tunneling through rock to reach the coal. However, that’s when their exposure to the mineral silica can peak. As a consequence, it’s unclear how much coal mine dust they really take in.

Inhaling silica, a component of coal mine dust, can cause silicosis, a lung disease that makes breathing difficult and increases the risk of tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis and lung cancer. As McCawley explained, silicosis “scars your lungs and stops them from working.” 

“Fifteen, twenty years ago, the continuous miners weren’t powerful enough to cut into rock, which can be high in silica. The machine would burn out. But there were increases in the power of the equipment and now they can and do cut through parts of the mine that are only rock,” he said. 

The rock can contain a lot more silica than the material in the actual coal seam, and the miners can be exposed to more silica than when cutting coal. This increase seems to correlate with an uptick in silicosis cases, as well as a greater occurrence of progressive massive fibrosis, an aggressive form of black lung disease that is similar to silicosis.

The committee identified these gaps in monitoring data at the request of congress, which instructed the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to study the matter. NIOSH, in turn, convened the committee.

“Our feeling behind this was, ‘We’ve been working on this for 50 years,’” McCawley said, “‘and damn it, it’s time we got this right.’”

The work described here was performed at the request of Congress and with the support of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Citation

Title: “Monitoring and Sampling Approaches to Assess Underground Coal Mine Dust Exposures”

DOI: https:/doi.org/10.17226/25111 

Link: https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25111/monitoring-and-sampling-approaches-to-assess-underground-coal-mine-dust-exposures 

-WVU-

see/10/18/18

CONTACT: Kimberly Becker, WVU School of Public Health
304.293.1699; kimberly.becker@hsc.wvu.edu

A Valentine from Donald Trump to Kim Jong Un

Echo Opinion: Donald Trump 'Fell In Love' With Kim Jong Un

An essay by Scott Simon on National Public Radio Weekend Edition

MaineWriter - With Trump, Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump the world is witnessing a strange and real time ménage à trois.

Simon commentary:  In the crush of urgent news, some astounding events can almost slip past.

At a rally in West Virginia last Saturday, President Trump told the crowd about feelings he has developed for Kim Jong Un. Remember when the president mocked North Korea's supreme leader as "Little Rocket Man," and Kim ridiculed Trump as a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard"?

Something else was going on.

Trump said, "I was really being tough. And so was he. And we'd go back and forth. And then we fell in love. OK? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters. And they're great letters. We fell in love. But you know what? Now, they'll say 'Donald Trump said they fell in love, how horrible. How horrible is that? So un-presidential.' "

At least unprecedented.

Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt were uncommonly close leaders during the darkest hours of the Second World War. FDR once cabled Churchill, "It is fun to be in the same decade with you."

But Kim Jong Un, the leader for whom Donald Trump has declared his devotion, presides over a cruel kingdom of repression, torture, starvation, assassinations, abduction, forced abortion, public executions and slave labor. It isn't fun to even be in the same hemisphere with Kim Jong Un.

It wouldn't be surprising for any president to toss an occasional bouquet toward Kim, if it encourages him to abandon nuclear weapons. When Hitler's Germany invaded the U.S.S.R. in 1941, Winston Churchill, who had long denounced Stalin, welcomed him into alliance, and explained, "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons."

But Senator Lindsey Graham, who has recently supported the administration, said this week, "I'm telling President Trump: Enough with 'I love you.' ... There's nothing to love about Kim Jong Un."

The letters between President Trump and Kim Jong Un haven't been made public. But don't you wonder what charm and blandishments have made President Trump so besotted with a man who had his own half-brother poisoned, and his uncle executed? Maybe there's just something about a despot in a high-buttoned pinstripe suit.

Olympics raised the international bar for Korean diplomacy

Political leaders should learn from the powerful symbolism of the Olympian gestures.

An "echo" opinion letter published in the Charleston Gazette-Mail newspaper in West Virginia ~

Senators should ensure Trump can't attack North Korea

The 2018 Winter Olympic Games offered an important lesson in diplomacy. Even while political tensions between South Korea and North Korea remain high, athletes from the two countries walked together during the Opening Ceremony’s Parade of Nations. Athletes from both nations were be represented by one Korean Unification Flag.

Political leaders should learn from the powerful symbolism of these gestures.

In recent months, as Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have lobbed insults at one another about the strength of their nuclear arsenals, the threat of conflict between our two countries has become increasingly real. This drum beat toward war undermines decades of diplomacy and dialogue that have prevented conflict and slowed nuclear weapon development in North Korea.

To go to war now would be catastrophic. (MaineWriter ~ Now that Donald Trump doesn't have a Secretary of State, he's capable of anything.)

Military experts estimate that, even if such a war did not involve nuclear weapons, it would be lengthy, expensive, would require significant U.S. ground forces and would result in tens of thousands of deaths in just the first few days of fighting on the Korean Peninsula. If the war did involve nuclear weapons, the costs would be all the more substantial.

Members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, have been too silent on this issue. However, Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., has introduced a bill (S. 2047) that would bar the president from launching a military attack on North Korea without explicit congressional approval or an imminent threat. 

Signing this bill is an opportunity for senators to support diplomatic efforts over military action and would ensure that the president does not have the unilateral ability to begin a costly and dangerous conflict.

We should urge Senators Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin to co-sponsor bill S. 2047. The stakes are too high for any other option.

Jamie Shinn ~  Morgantown  West Virginia