Trillbilly Worker's Party - Episode 51: The Chosen Vessel, Part 1: A Tale of Two Dons

Episode Date: May 10, 2018

Appalachia: exceptional or nah? We attempt to tackle this burning question, along with providing some analysis on the recent loss of coal baron Don Blankenship and what it ~means~. But before we get started on all that, we take a little dive into our local newspaper's most famous segment: Speak Your Piece.

This fucking house. It's like the house of horrors. I need to take my shoes off. I just came home and I've been like a fucking middle schooler. Like when I was in eighth grade, I used to go to school. I would literally sit around in my class all day just dreaming of the moment that I could go home and play Mario. You just didn't want to be there? Nope.

You just weren't there for it? Nope. But now, it's sort of come full circle. Isn't it weird how, like, or maybe this is just me, being a 30-year-old with no children and no spouse. But it's kind of like, I'm just a teenager again. I play video games. You're a virgin. I'm a virgin.

I even like, you know, sort of like blasting my brain with radiation in the form of intoxicants. Know what I mean, man? I know what you mean, man. Know what I mean? I've reverted to it. I bought a Swatch Watch. Did you ever have a Swatch Watch when you were a kid?

Oh, yeah. Those are badass. Well, they're back, my man. Well, I don't know that they ever left, but... I saw you walking down the... That was me who yelled at you. I was... When? You were walking in front of. I saw you walking down the street. That was me who yelled at you. I was... When?

You were walking on the bridge. And I said, hey, man. That a go. Yeah. You looked around. I didn't know if it was you or not. You're dressed really nice today in a way that you're like a hybrid between Tom Morello and Don Flemons. The American Songster?

Yeah. And the American Songster? Right, right. I have a new exercise for us to get warmed up with. Okay. You know where I'm going already. Oh, why do we not think of this?

I don't know. They don't know about Wiley's. Yeah, it's funny because I sat there at my desk today reading the speaker pieces in the Mountain Eagle and just circling them. Yeah. Like Jim Webb would do. So for those that don't know, Speak Your Peace is a column in our local paper where you get to call in and speak your peace anonymously about the goings on in our home county. Yeah, there's some good ones. I was talking to Wes the other day, my coworker Wes, and he was like, man, Speak Your Peace totally invented subtweeting before Twitter.

It really did. It predates it by 30 years at least. Always shouting out someone, you know, some anonymous third person or whatever. Yeah. Did you get any water? I just downed it. You found some water? Yeah. I'm balmy.

I'm very balmy. It's that time of year. By that I mean summer dude yeah this house has been fucking mess lately dude I had to kill a fucking

vole yesterday and it really had to well they brought in one of the cats a half alive vole dude and it was on the floor

and I walked in and I was like oh so I poked it like I grabbed it by it's tail cause I was gonna throw so I poked it like I grabbed it by its tail because I was gonna throw it outside and dude it let out the saddest like death groan I've ever heard it just goes I was like god damn it dude so I took it out on this little brick fence out of here and I had to get a piece I had to get a rock and I just to get a rock, and I just smashed his head. Dude, I don't know what it was. It's just like death.

It's just, you know what I mean? Like, its back legs shuddered, and it, like, was kicking. And it only took about five seconds. And then I was like, well, I was fucking dead. And I went to work, and it just, like, the image just fucking hung in my head for hours. No wonder you are not in a great place. That's not even half of it. There's a fucking chipmunk in my kitchen.

Really? Right now? Yeah. It's been behind the counter there for like two weeks. I can't get it out. It's been hoarding cat food. And you like look back there and he just. been hoarding cat food in it's in survive it's in like Bear Grylls survivor mode he's hunkered down in a yeah yeah underground layer yeah he's been hoarding cat food in the silverware drawer and I

opened the silverware drawer the other day and he fucking jumped outred the absolute shit out of me. Ah! Yeah, I saw walking up to your house, there's like a dead possum in the road. And I thought, how funny would it be if like, that possum was obviously mangled and hit, but he was just like, ah, not dead! That's just me playing possum. Then a truck runs by and squashes. I know what you're thinking, but. Back in the day, I'd be driving around the county with Sylvia,

and we'd come across a dead possum every single time. She'd be like, we've got to get a picture of it. It's for the radio. A dead possum. A dead possum. I can tell that story now, because we've introduced the Sylvia character to our podcast. All right. Speak your pieces.

Wednesday, May 9th, 2018. We got some good ones. My wife left me and took me for $10,000. I still forgive everybody and wish everybody the best. I've made my stakes just like everybody else did. This one's pretty good I really think it's a shame That our pastor allows a certain man To sing and continue using our church

And members for his personal benefit First he can't sing Second he makes fun of other singers That I enjoy hearing I'm sure the people he used to work for will do a lot better without him. He was backstabbing those people while taking pay from them. I really just

wish our pastor would stop allowing this nonsense in our church. Signed, Tired of Fearing Lies in our church. I don't know. I just like that the first beef was he can't sing. First off, he can't even sing right um there's always some good ones there's some there's always some good um shout outs to president trump most of

them are really fucking insane and like uh you know of your garden variety immigrants are stealing all of our resources and that shit but there are some good ones um let's see mr president you owe mueller nothing you have no reason to even talk with this man but you're smarter than i am whoever you are buddy i assure you he is not oh yeah it's amazing how a grown man can get on Kentucky 15, the highway, at dry fork on a little kid's four-wheeler. Why haven't the state police caught this man yet? Insanity.

Oh, dude, this one is really good. I still can't get over what the swap shop did to my cousin Mark about this time last year. They cut him off the show because they said he was selling night crawlers and red worms for profit at $1 per dozen. If you want good night crawlers, go to Doty Creek and see my cousin Mark.

Hey, buddy, you want good night crawlers? Go to Doty Creek. Don't go to Walmart. Yeah, Swap Shop. That's so funny. Swap Shop, you may remember, go to Walmart yeah swap shop that's so funny swap shop you may remember is our local

buy and sell call in radio show yeah yeah we do have a we did a an early Patreon bit an early Patreon skit about it

yeah swap shop buddy I got 13 night crawlers that's a baker's dozen um that's pretty funny man uh let's see let's see let's see um i've heard a lot of people talking about heaven if somebody dies you can hear others say oh they're up there in heaven looking down people when you get in heaven you won't be looking back down here it just doesn't work that way heaven is supposed to be a happy place you think people up there are going to be happy with what

they're seeing if they're able to look down here no sorry but it just doesn't work that way hey where's the law yeah i know this person also gets at something that I find very funny, which is when Christians talk like they literally believe heaven is up there and hell is down there. They literally have a spatial orientation for heaven and hell, which is like a fourth grader's understanding of it. But also, more than that, is that they speak with absolute scientific-sounding authority of imaginary realm. Oh, yeah.

I mean, to say nothing of that. Well, a lot of, it's funny, a lot of Christian doctrine, or at least growing up in the church that I did, was trying to map out what heaven was like. Yeah. was trying to map out what heaven was like, which is kind of fun, especially if you're sort of of the utopian mindset, like, you know, me, you know, now communism is basically just my Christianity. Or it's like I try to imagine a future sort of utopia. I don't know.

It's a fun exercise in imagination. But go for it. Well, I was just going to say, go for it no well i was just gonna say but for like christians it was like it was always so over the top i mean goddy yeah heaven is very tacky yeah it's honestly it's like every person gets thrown trump tower yeah it's like yeah it's exactly like that streets of gold walls of jasper it's just like, what is this, 92? It's very, yeah, dude. It is like everything is ornate and covered in gold. They need to really update heaven like in the hipster bibles.

Like, you know, the hipster churches are big, like Nashville and stuff. Yes. And it's going to be like an Ikea exhibit with the really clean lines and nice Swedish design. Yeah, no, everyone in heaven gets their own tiny house. Tiny house, yeah. Kitted out with kerflugenflagen. Yeah, no, everyone in heaven gets their own tiny house. Tiny house, yeah. Kitted out with kerflugenflagen couches from Ikea. Right, lingonberry jam, and you get a yurt. Yeah, that's right.

That's heaven. Yeah. Oh, man. And there's a brewery on every corner. I went to college with this guy that I had a speech class with him and like we had to just

give up there and give these like just presentations about whatever and he did this like thing about how the conception of heaven

and that what's that Robin is it what dreams may come that Robin Williams movie I never saw it but I know and like he gave this

like very serious like oral dissertation about like how that like that's how it should be that's what i believe is that like whatever your vision of heaven is is what it becomes after you die that's kind of profound i mean i mean i'm kind of there i don't know do you think i carry on no no no I like this idea you know

yeah I like this idea it's also a good definition of hell though if you really think about it to all you school children oh boy you children need to listen to president trump he is full of wisdom and i think he's the chosen vessel to be placed in charge of the united states to give us guidance on how our country was set up and needs to be run

god bless you children put your hand over your heart During the national anthem Dude I mean Imagine being an adult Okay like I've met plenty Of People who voted for Trump I mean I live I live in Trump country

We live in Trump country Our mail actually comes to Trump country. Right. Both of my parents voted for Trump, even though they would hate me telling that. Not because they don't want anybody to know that they voted for Trump, but because they're of the generation of like, you never tell who you vote for. Where that's implied. Yeah.

Like, you don't tell me how much money you make or who you vote for. I remember asking my parents that as a kid. Like, who'd you vote for? I can't tell what do you mean you can tell me like it's a secret like it's a wish yeah exactly that day won't come true but i of all the trump people i know um i still don't know a whole lot that are suggesting that school children listen to this brain addled uh dipshit swiss cheese brain right and right um yeah and all those other mean things that leo scott say he looks like right right right it's just uh that's pretty funny he is full of wisdom and i think i think he's the chosen vessel trump has been probably called a lot of things

in his life i would imagine the chosen vessel is not one that's ever came up they've really well maybe now well it feels like they've really embraced the um you know it's really funny um it's really funny how the late 80s and early 90s really did anticipate this current moment because the um what would you say the sort of merging of gaudy 80s televangelism with gaudy like trump you know uh what would the word be? Just like their whole aesthetic. You know, very flashy, big hair, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. They've really embraced that aesthetic.

Yeah. And not just ideologically or just for votes. They've done it in the media. It's been a strategic thing. Remember we were talking a few weeks ago about that article. It might have been in, no, it was in ProPublica

about how the Trump administration had gone on like CBN, Christian Broadcasting Network, and Trinity Broadcasting Network five times more than any other administration. All right. They're just saying something, too. Yeah, they really think that he's the chosen vessel.

I don't really think that. I think that. I almost said real recognize real, but you know what I mean. The fix is in. It's like hucksters recognize their own. You know what I mean? Yes. Yeah.

One of these creatures is somehow able to talk, and he's going to talk with us right now. I think the main question that people have is, creature, what is it that you want? Fred, what we want is, I think, what everyone wants, and what you and your viewers have. Civilization. Yes, but what sort of civilization are you speaking about, Preacher? The noisities, Fred, the flying points. Diplomacy, compassion, standards, menace, tradition. That's what we're reaching toward.

Oh, we may stumble along the way, but civilization, yes. The Geneva Convention, chamber music, Susan Sontag. Everything your society has worked so hard to accomplish over the centuries, that's what we aspire to. We want to be civilized. I mean mean you take a look at this fail here now was that civilized no clearly not fun but in no sense civilized uh speaker piece wait let's uh i think there's one more that there's some really funny... You really also kind of get to see the sort of... You really also get to see the sort of...

How the ideological sausage gets made before it really goes through the factory. Nah. So look at this one. This one's Galaxy Brain. This one's pretty cool. But it's... Well, I'll just read it to you. Isn't it something how our

government can go to another country and wipe out people like isis and other terrorist organizations but here at home they can't do away with the ku klux klan no that's okay the skinheads all right the ms-13 huh the hell's angels what games. This is like very specific targets. Yeah. I say, yeah, my neighbor Jerry. We can't get rid of the Salvadorian gang. I think, I say we need to clean house here at home. So that's what I'm saying.

It's like, okay, yeah. I'm down with using the resources of the federal government to go after the KKK. Sure. I'm with you there. And after Nazis? Sure. I mean, like, after we get control of it, obviously.

Yeah. But MS-13 is just one of those right-wing dog whistles. Yeah. And Hells Angels? Are they even existing anymore Hells Angels are like All old middle aged guys That are on like statins and like blood pressure medicine

And like Are like quasi criminal Like they all work day jobs You know And are they still around They're still around yeah for sure You're my go to For biker gang

I just Like Have you noticed that I feel like when Sons of Anarchy Was on TV Biker gangs were very Yeah

You know Now Now I don't even really Think about them anymore Since like I think about them Once every month

The first weekend Of every month During bike first weekend of every month, during bike night. Bike night, yeah. Whitesburg bike night. What's that Migos song? I beat the pussy up like fight night. Like fight night. Now our Whitesburg version of that is going to be like bike night.

I piss Matt Carter off like bike night. He gets out of town every... Have you ever met my Uncle Don? I don't think so. He used to be the garbage man for the city. I don't think so. He's not like a big fat guy. He's just very tall and solid.

He used to be in a 1% bike gang called the Pagans in West Virginia. Pagans are still... They're like for real bad dudes. But in his day, like he's 80 now. He'll be 80 like maybe in a year or two or something like that.

He's like late 70s. In the early days, they were like a carny, but like, like they kind of have their origins in like the traveling carnivals and stuff.

The pagans there? Yeah, the pagans there. And now they're like, you know, racketeering, murder for hire, like all this like, bad deals. But in the early days, my Uncle Don tells. And now they're like, you know, racketeering, murder for hire, like all those bad deals.

But in the early days, my Uncle Don tells me the story that he goes, man, in the early days, we would turn on the scrambler. You know, like the carnival ride, the scrambler? Yeah. It's got like eight legs and like four buckets, and you get in there and just kind of twist everybody around. Yeah. And if you wanted to join the gang, here's what you had to do. You had to get on the control platform, turn the scrambler onto the highest setting. Like, you know,

they can fuck you up with that high setting. Yeah, yeah. And if you were like a, what do they call it, a prospect, you had to jump from the control deck

into one of the baskets while it was moving. Oh, dude. And he did it. He broke all of his ribs and his jaw. I would imagine that every person breaks.

Oh, he said said nobody stuck it. It's just you had to be stupid enough to do it. Yeah. And he says that it was actually after you got in, it was kind of pathetic because we all shared a 47 panhead. Like we all didn't have our own bikes. We just all took turns on one bike. So this is the pagans in their early days? In the early days.

They were known in the early days as the Cherokee Indians. Very problematic. But that club dissolved into the pagans. And he told me this wild ass story, dude. Not to go down too much of a rabbit hole, but I just think it's kind of funny. He's from West Virginia. He's from Clowdon, which is around huntington west virginia where marshall university is right and uh the national leader of the pagans was from there and it was his best friend his name was dallas divine which is a wild like this guy was born to be a big dick player yeah with a name like that and uh it like this is wild in this

like in the 60s or something they were in texas they were going through texas and they went like stopped off to get gas this is actually after they had like all went you know we're into like the real shit and we're like all riding their own bikes and stuff not sharing not sharing one bike yeah after that got grown is that how all biker gangs start they share like two dozen guys sharing three bikes you gotta you gotta crawl for you can walk my man oh yeah and this guy it's like this guy said they go in this gas station and they go in the bathroom and it's like that scene in donnie brosco where like the guy recognizes pistone oh yeah sick fuck yeah. And he goes, sick fuck, grab my cock. God damn, God tried to grab my cock.

Yeah. Well, apparently Dallas did that to this guy, but fucking shot him in the head in this gas station. Oh my God. Like in front of like 20 witnesses. Oh, damn. Some shit. And went to the pen, got out like a year or two ago

after doing like a crazy amount of time. Yeah. I mean, rightfully. You should shoot somebody in a gas station. Yeah, you're going to the clink. Right. And he wanted to come see my Uncle Don. He found him and everything.

Really? Yeah, and I guess that my Uncle Don went out and had the hot dogs at Dairy Queen with him, but this guy was the big dog, a very serious criminal syndicate. Amazing. So. Amazing. Anyway, that's my biker gang story.

Wow. My Uncle Don was a wild-ass one-percenter. Would you ever join a biker gang if you rode bicycles? Wait, I didn't mean to say that. Well, they have rules now like i think to join the hell's angels you have to have like a harley davidson with like an engine of a certain size and all this shit that's cool um i'm gonna turn this light on the pagans did you imagine that needs to be our producer tag we need to go by the pagans and make beats. The pagans.

We'll probably get fucking assassinated for putting this out there. Somebody's going to call us brochalists and have an uncle that's part of a biker gang that we're talking shit about. That's good. We'll get street cred for that. So, speaking of the state of West Virginia. West Virginia. Big primaries west virginia last

night there was um i wanted to talk a little bit about don blinkenship because i was thinking about it today and i saw this piece that someone had written in the rolling Stone about, did you see that piece? The Rolling Stone. The Rolling Stone. The Rolling Stone. Yeah, The Rolling Stone. And it was about, what was the title of the piece? I've got it pulled up right here, I think. It's Time for Experts to Start Treating West Virginians

Like Human Beings by Bob Moser. Oh, I did see that. I saw somebody screen, sarah jones or somebody had put that up i didn't read it though yeah it was um it's fine it's like uh it's whatever but i but the the basic premise of it is kind of dumb like which i guess that would mean that it's not fine i guess i'm about to shit talk it okay let's get into it i'm not it's whatever but the premise of it is like and i sped i sped read it i hope i'm not i hope i'm not misinterpreting what this writer said bob but uh the premise of it is don blankenship coming in third in this Republican primary is proof that West Virginians

don't respond to sort of like racist fear-mongering or whatever. You know what I'm saying. Like sort of racist code words and dog whistles and that kind of thing. And specifically he's talking about West Virginia Republicans. and basically like the kind of statement that he's trying to make is that it's you know good on these west virginian republicans

for saying no to ignorance and prejudice and all this no at some point he even says that in the article like to a certain degree i wish i had annotated this if i was a little more prepared i would have done that but um basically what he's saying uh is that well okay so i i could share an initial thought just on what you what you've up and i will share that initial thought sure is it's like when i see i see all this analysis around like like kind of in the post-trump place and in places like where we're from in west virginia and alabama like when a seemingly good election result in the case of alabama it's doug jones in the case of west virgin it's Doug Jones. In the case of West Virginia, it's Don Blankenship not winning the primary or whatever. Yeah.

There is always this kind of weird analysis that misses the mark. It's just proof that Alabamans or Westerners or whoever reject this. It's weird. It's just like, okay, let's look at here. Doug Jones beat a child molester. Don Blankenship killed 29 people. Roy Moore should have lost and Don Blankenship should have lost. In most places, anywhere, they would have lost.

The presumption is that we're getting over our racism here. We're making strides. I see what you're saying. And it's funny because if it was like Iowa or something, if this kind of piece was written about Iowa or whatever, or just the whole narrative around a person like Don Blankenship was running in Iowa, some just heinous farmer. Just a heinous, villain-esque farmer who...

This guy's mean to his dog. Yeah, it's hard for a farmer to be a bad... This guy beats his dog Hank. And now he's running for magistrate. Right. Yeah, like the farmer

or whatever in Watership Down. Like that kind of villain-esque. Yeah. Was there a farmer in that movie i just remember the rabbits were running from some kind of machinery remember confusing this with fern fern gully no i think you're right regardless fern go they run from machinery too yeah yeah you're right regardless anyway um i think that you would still see maybe some kinds of articles or whatever but it's so weirdly exceptionalist when it comes to Alabama or West Virginia.

They're always trying to pull some lesson out of it. It's always trying to, you're right, it always misses the mark just slightly. You know what I'm saying? It's just like, yeah, okay. It's well-intentioned, I think. Yeah, I think. Well, read this. This is the sentence I was talking about.

West Virginia Republicans sent these people an emphatic message on Tuesday. Tension, I think. Yeah, I think. Well, look, read this. This is the sentence I was talking about. West Virginia Republicans sent these people an emphatic message on Tuesday. When he's talking about these people, he's referring to libs who were saying that. So he's critiquing the libs here. He's talking about libs who were saying, like, oh, the racist people of West Virginia are going to vote for this guy or whatever. So he's saying, West Virginia Republicans sent these people an emphatic message on Tuesday. Fuck you and your prejudices. They not only punished Blankenship for both his ugly past and his shamelessly demagogic campaign, they also rejected the state-level nativism of Rep. Evan Jenkins,

who lost the primary to State attorney general patrick morrissey it's like let's get so wait here's what i hate so much about this patrick morrissey is probably a fucking ghoul too exactly it's just like i don't i don't know how to break this to you man if you're a republican you're shit you're shit. You've always been shit. I'm saying this as people, I have people in my life that I literally, I love dearly, and they're Republicans. This is a big conflict for me. And their worldview is shit. Their worldview is shit.

They literally believe in the repression of other human beings. That's what it means to be a Republican. Honestly, that's kind of what it means to be a Democrat, except you just want to dress it up in nice shit and you know make it palatable all right but it's the same like but i do think that like a lot of there are a lot of progressive democrats out there who aren't that i just need to put that caveat yeah all right Anyways, whatever. But the point being is that like sort of putting, lauding them, I guess, for doing the right thing in this scenario. Or something that's not even like that exceptional at all. Exactly.

It's like, let's just go to the tape here. You didn't vote for Evan Jenkins, who I think has been in Congress before, right? He's the incumbent, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, he is. Who's like., who I think has been in Congress before, right? He's the incumbent, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, he is. Who's like... No.

I think he is. Because correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't he do like... He's the guy that's from somewhere else but went to this part of West Virginia because it was cheaper to run there because you're not in that DC TV market. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. No, he's not an incumbent, but he's already elected. like it was cheaper to run there because you're not in that dc tv market and yes yeah yeah no he's not an incumbent but he's already elected but he had he had he has held some office in west

virginia yeah this is for so this is for the senate seat this is for right i think he's in the house he's in the house right now and i've heard his name a lot because a lot of people that i know who work on the reclaim act that is that is like i always hear his name in reference to that jenkins is like their guy in West Virginia. Yeah, Jenkins really came through huge for us on this, man. Like, Jenkins is people say. Yeah, exactly. Okay, well, we'll stick a pin in that.

We'll come back to that. So, stick a pin in that. Yeah. But, so yeah, so there's several things wrong with this. The first of all is just blanketing, saying that they rejected the state-level nativism of Evan Jenkins. A lot of people voted for Evan Jenkins. He didn't lose by that much.

Right. Second of all, I'm not entirely sure that Don Blankenship lost. Donald Blankenship. Donald Blankenship. I'm not entirely comfortable saying that he lost because these republicans said fuck you to his prejudices they lost he lost because like i if if i will i wish i kind of wish that i was still writing because if i did i'd make a real click baity article about like with

the headline don blankenship has already won or something like that. Yeah. Because he kind of did. I don't know if people understand the trajectory of this guy. In the early 2000s, he was so powerful in West Virginia, well, he at least had a lot of money in clout, that he was single-handedly able to get this one guy off the Supreme Court and get his chosen successor or whatever elected to the Supreme Court of West Virginia. Because he had a case moving through the court system in West Virginia. He had this $50 million, or I don't know if it was, I think that was what the settlement was for. But Don Blankenship was the CEO of Massey Coal. At one point it was the sixth largest coal company in the world, or something like that. And he had pulled out of some contract with some other company in the late 90s.

This other company sued him for a lot of money. Well, it was set to, like, you know, it was winding its way through the court system, and it was set to, like, go to the West Virginia Supreme Court. He got this guy, what was his name? I had it written. Brent Benjamin. And he basically got him to run against the incumbent, Warren McGraw, that was his name.

And he started this pack. Oh, man. Dude, listen to the name of this pack he started. Like, the guy, Don Blankenship, you know, we really don't need a lot more examples to just sort of demonstrate how profoundly stupid the people in positions of incredible power have to be. But Don Blankenship is a special case. He had started this pack to get this guy elected. What is the name of this thing? Stall for time, Tom.

Tell a... And for the sake of the kids. That's what it is. It starts with the word and. And for the sake of the kids. It's like in his weird rambling sort of like stream of conscious um absurdism it's like he just kind of like was like and for the sake of the kids that's the name of the pack that's the name of the pack and i want that to be the name of it it's like an

incomplete sentence he's just like so atonal like cold and chill like god damn dude he's frightening well okay so he's also insane yeah he's an insane person but i i really can't stress enough that like don blankenship who everybody is seeing the ad by this point that he put out like last week that was so kind of went viral of him saying a bunch of racist shit like china people and um i love that that gender neutral racism it's so weird um so you know that was bizarre and everything but people really like that is how corrupt politics are in coal country that the that that guy who is that fucking stupid got to be the CEO

of the sixth largest coal company in the world. Oh, dude. Yeah, a guy that's like... I know he holds like an MBA from like Marshall

or somebody, but like the guy... He has... He's a certified accountant. He is a certified... It's a CPA. Yeah, it's a CPA. i'd love that footage of somebody going to don blank and ship the old days to do their taxes right yeah no he would have how would you

like to pay 12 12 000 no 12 12 okay i could do that for you i'm don blank and ship baby 12,000? No. $12. $12. Okay. I could do that for you. I'm Don Blankenship, baby. And he really got to power, dude, by just being kind of the bootlicker fucking guy that was heavily involved in the union busting. Like he was just ruthless in that. Well, yeah.

I mean, one of the reasons why Upper Big Branch was such a terrible explosion, why it killed so many people, was because the dust conditions were so insane. Yeah. They did autopsies on all of the people who were killed in that. It's the 29 people that's often referenced.

There was like 17 of them had black lung. Which is a pretty astounding percentage. It's the 29 people that's often referenced. There was like 17 of them had black lung. Yeah. Which is a pretty astounding percentage. But it's also like Don Blankenship wasn't unique in that way. Yeah. He was just doing like everybody else did. Yeah. But he was very ruthless.

How do I put this? He was able to exploit the political system of West Virginia, like West Virginia politics, the same political system that allowed... Why am I blanking on his name, Tom? Who's that? Jim Justice to become governor. To become governor. He was still able to, in this sort of Trumpian way,

was able to sort of manipulate certain aspects of the political system to his advantage. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's like, and the reason a lot of that happens in like Kentucky and West Virginia, it's just a lower barrier to entry. Yeah. Like these guys oftentimes aren't like, Mitch McConnell's from fucking Alabama. Rand Paul's from Texas. Right. And West Virginia, I'm sure it's pretty similar.

I mean, I think Joe Manchin is from West Virginia. But like kind of like the Morgantown. God, he's- Like close is from West Virginia. Yeah, he is. But kind of like the Morgantown, close to the Pennsylvania area. Right. But yeah, a lot of these, but a guy like Don Blankenship who's actually from Kentucky, but rose to power

in West Virginia. You're right, he's from Stopover. Right on the line of West Virginia. Yeah, the Tug Valley, where it kind of like one second you're in Kentucky. You can see his house. Is it Williamson? He lives in Williamson, yeah.

Yeah, and you can see his house. It's out by a big mountain. It's literally the only thing up on that hill. Yeah. And doesn't he pipe clean water that's not municipal water up there? Probably. So I think that's...

Yeah, I've seen a lot of documentaries with people who live in the valley right beneath his house. It's just so so insanely feudal. It's just like, I mean, feudal. It's like this ornate mansion. In the valleys below, you've just got extreme poverty. I mean, some of the worst in the country.

Yeah, it's pretty crazy. And we just live an hour and a half from Don Blankenship. We could go like... Yeah, it's not even that far. We live an hour and a half from Don Blankenship we could go like yeah even it's not even that far we could go egg his house next Halloween we could even get

close to it right but I'd say he has so thoroughly discredited himself now of

you know not it's really bizarre to watch him try to sort of win back well he never really had public favor or anything he watch him try to sort of win back. Well, he never really had public favor or anything.

He's always been this sort of asshole. Well, what's so interesting, too, about him and the sort of the allegory I draw in it is like the story of the rich young ruler in the Bible when he goes to hell and he asks Lazarus to go just drop water on his tongue. Right. And like the arrogance of this guy that's already died and went to hell and he asked Lazarus to go just drop water on his tongue. Right. And like the arrogance of this guy that's already died and went to hell still asking his earthly servant to go fetch him water. Right. Like Don

Blankenship really just came in the Senate race late. Like this motherfucker thought he was going to win. Yeah. He really just half-dicked this thing. Oh yeah. He really did. I mean like this is the only ad that he ran this bat shit crazy one and he did it like a week before the fucking election. I know.

Yeah, it is interesting. I guess he thought that... He still thought he had the juice. Yeah. Well, it's just so confounding that he chose Mitch McConnell to be his sort of like bogeyman, weirdly enough. Which has no bearing in anything, really. Yeah.

Right. Right. enough which has no bearing in anything really yeah right right don't blanket ship definitely seems like the kind of guy if you egged him enough like hey buddy i saw mitch talking shit about you on twitter you should go over there you know if you got him drunk enough he'd probably do it oh yeah for sure come on out you lilivered son of a bitch. Right, right. But anyways, you know, back to this article. It's just kind of interesting that... I don't know. I don't know. I don't know, really. It's like you're so right.

There are so many articles that just miss the mark slightly. All of that, but too, another thing that pisses me off, and it doesn't even really piss me off, but it's like there are people like left-wing commentators on Twitter and writers that I really admire and respect that were all like, oh, ship's totally gonna win this i remember they were like showing that cnn article about the one guy who's like brother and uncle and cousin had been killed at big upper big branch you know and then like they would retweet screencap they

retweet that oh god shit's so dark he's so gonna win he's so gonna win like all this shit and it's just like dude you're in journalism. You should know. Like last week I was contacted by a French journalist that literally wanted me to find a coal miner of color that voted for Trump and has now come to their senses. Oh my fucking God. Like these people write this story. Like the guy you saw That had like three Relatives killed Like he was the unicorn

That CNN was using To make a story And these people That think they have A good critique And a good solid left critique Just totally bite on the shit You've been duped

Yeah And I'm sure we do too In contexts we don't matter Yeah yeah yeah Like I'm not ragging On them too bad But like Yeah cause I probably

Do it too with stories That happen like Fucking Houston or something. That I have no proximity to or understanding. It just sounds like, whoa, that's crazy. I want to retweet this and talk about how bad shit is. The only reason I'm laughing so hard is because I get the exact same fucking questions with the exact same frameworks. It's literally, I wish there was a fucking sitcom about this. Yeah.

Because I really wish people could understand this. Sometimes I go to work and have conversations with people about reporters that are asking for specific archetypes. Yeah. Like they write the story before they come here and they just want to like. It's so goddamn funny

because it's like how many identities can you add to this it's like they start with like a blank identity template and they're like all right i want a person of color you know just throwing god damn it i want a peruvian ex-sex worker current coal miner that's like getting wick benefits uh that voted for fucking uh mitch mcconnell right and is now regretting it i want a wiccan uh card playing um guy with ringworm who worked in the coal mine for three weeks he can do basic calculus, trigonometry. I want somebody of Dutch descent with gingivitis. That fucking worked. I want a coal miner.

The goddamn paper factor. Yeah, I want a coal miner who has a PhD in sociology, who voted for Trump, and is now maybe regretting it dude it's so funny it you know connecting this connecting this back to the biker gang thing for a second i i was doing this writing project back when i did such things about motorcycle gangs yeah and so like i was poking around with all these like people that like you know like knew things and had written things about like biker gangs and all this stuff and this guy that used to own he owned some like one of those like where you buy textbooks use textbooks yeah and then amazon bought him out

whatever that became right like cheggs or whatever yeah maybe cheggs or something like he owned that like and I sent this and he put me in contact with a professor at Oxford that was in the Hells Angels. Really? Like an Oxford literature professor is in the Hells Angels. So these unicorns do exist. There's precedent for when these people are looking for these people. That's the thing, yeah. Well, and that's the thing that this article actually does.

I'll give it props for that. It does give a good it does point out that um it does point out how ridiculous it is that like abc or or whoever would go to such extent to locate a guy whose cousin was killed at upper big branch three of his cousins was killed at upper big branch and was still voting for blake and chip these fucking outlets i don't like they're trying to sell you a product the product is is very sensationalized whatever i mean that's just what mass media is yeah i don't know man i we just really so badly need like sort of media literacy and stuff like that because i don't know it's like living here and i think tom i think that's why we feel like every time i see something written about this place it's just slightly off and it's not me nitpicking or naysaying or whatever.

It's just like, yeah, there are shades of truth to this, but unless you live here, it's the whole argument. It's the whole going back to what we were saying this weekend. You hate to fall into the trap of saying this place is unique and exceptional or whatever because people then use that for all kinds of nefarious purposes. At the same time my lived experience day-to-day experience here is that like there is no other place like this period it is so singularly insane sometimes yeah that like i don't know it's just so

absolutely bizarre yeah i can't like i just can't like i can't explain to people what it's like driving down a country road and on both sides of you is just wasteland destruction as far as the eye can see. As far as the eye can see. And the most extreme poverty you'll see in this country. Right next to a mansion or something? No zoning. Palatial battery mansions interspersed with fucking meth trailers. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And it's like cars impacted into the banks of streams and you know what I mean just like straight pipes straight into the creek I hate this so much because like yes I do not want like

Appalachia or Eastern Kentucky or West Virginia whatever you want to do with it whatever you want to call it I don't want it defined by its poverty. But, but, but like in this whole discussion, nobody also like tells the truth. Yeah. And then like the outside media only tells that bad. You. And then the outside media

only tells that bad. You know what I'm saying? Right. The truth is is that there's a lot of interesting and great things going on. There's also a lot of very, very dark, bad things going on.

Yeah. Just like any place. You know what I'm saying? Right. Only this place is kind of singularly exceptional. And the reason why is because of the coal industry. Right, because of the coal industry.

That's why it's so exceptional. Right. You know, you can go, I don't know, you can go anywhere else in this country, but like any other rural place in this country, and it'll have its own sort of political economy and it'll have it like the contours of its political systems will be shaped by the industries that are there for example i'm from hobbs new mexico where it is an extractive region exactly like this the main difference is that oil drilling and which is the main industry there oil drilling is so low

Maintenance like it's so it requires so fewer workers right then it does coal mining. Yeah and It doesn't rely on As a result of that it doesn't have this um sort of legacy in hobbs anyways where i'm from of having control over the entire sort of like political system and like how the uh how society sort of arranged both literally like geographically, and politically. So I guess where I'm going with that, I'm rambling, but where I'm going with that is that this place has the very unique experience

of having been constructed literally for coal. For the coal industry. Exactly. Whereas Hobbs existed before oil, and so the political system sort of got to make demands on the oil industry as opposed to here where the coal industry made demands on the political system right right if that makes sense well i don't know that could be off there but yeah i think what i'm trying to say is that like because because um the coal industry literally upended how society had sort of arranged itself before it came along.

Political systems and families and all these other sort of institutions were more sort of arranged by watershed and holler and all this other stuff. The coal industry swept that all away. And it said, you're going to live in these defined spaces. We're going to build them for you, but we basically own you. We own your house. We own everything. Your wife, in some cases.

Right. Seriously. Right, right. And as that has gone away, it's been very, very slow. But the last two years have been so catastrophically fast, like it's been so drastically fast, that things are quite literally falling apart. It's just fascinating to watch.

Yeah. I know it's coming, and know that all the feeble attempts to thwart that or to turn it around are futile yeah without socialism without without regalitarian vision well it's the same it's the same thing. It's like we know what the problem is in the county that we live in. Yeah. And it's just inequality like it is anywhere else. There is money here. Yeah. That's the thing.

It's just not distributed. It is just hyper-concentrated. In like six hands. Like literally six people. I don't mean like just a few. I mean literally there's six i can name one of them don childers don childers you know what i mean jim booth and martin martin there's exactly like every county really has its own like don childers and jim booth yeah and the problem is

or i'm sorry not the problem but the goal or the uh game is to get their shit and give it to everybody else. Redistribute it in whatever form property literal wealth and capital assets. And I literally mean this when I say this and I think that we should exhaust every option before we resort to

pitchforks and whatnot but short of some sort of ideological to pitchforks and whatnot. But short of some sort of ideological reconditioning, these people deserve to have their literal heads cut off. Yeah. I mean, the times that Don Childers has poisoned... We don't know the health effects of this stuff. Don Childers, if people don't know, we've talked about him a little bit on the show before.

He's sort of our local plutocrat oil guy that's worth hundreds of millions of dollars and enslaves people with cheap labor. This is a guy that thought he was doing people a favor when he was the first one to adopt the 725 minimum wage. Yeah. Or not the first to adopt, like he's like we pay them we we're proud that we pay them seven dollars an hour well it's funny because uh there you there was a county judge of um there was a judge executive of our county named carol smith that's the top position of power in the county yeah there's a guy named car Smith, and he wanted to raise the minimum wage. That's literally the reason why Childers basically got him out of office.

Don Childers with- Yeah, he wanted to come with a living wage, I think is what he called it. Jim Ward and whatever, yeah. They said, no, fuck that. That's not happening. Yeah. Because he knows. Yeah.

no fuck that like that's not happening yeah cause he knows yeah he can't have his I mean he owns eight uh

like probably a fucking dozen gas stations in the county maybe not a dozen Childers Childers owns gas stations like as far down

as North Carolina yeah and as far as north as Pike Pike County yeah he owns a lot of them

yeah he does well uh we gotta get his shit. Gas stations, man. That is really something that rich people really invest in. Franchise stuff, stuff like that. Think about how many times you go to a gas station in a week, though.

I know. It's probably one of my most frequented in rural areas that's really who you want to be targeting like the workers at gas stations yeah because they're the pressure points they're the pressure points and if you can if you can if you can start organizing gas station the problem is is that like well see i don't know man because there's a lot of gas stations in this county where the same person has worked there for a really long time. Yeah. And those are jobs that people have for a really long time.

Yeah. And if you can somehow get control over that, you can enact some serious damage to the economy. Oh, yeah. For sure. Which is what we want. Which is what we want. We want to do that. We want to enact serious damage to the economy.

The pagans. The pagans. to do that. We want to enact serious damage to the economy. The pagans. The pagans. God. Yeah, we need to do something with the pagans. That sounds cool as hell. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Organizing the gas station workers.

Organizing the general dollars. Dollar general. Dollar general. I know, but you... I always wanted to be a rapper and call myself general dollar. Yeah.

I knew I was setting you up for that one. I'm just watching this spider right next to you. Just start dangling and hanging out. Yeah. The gas stations,

the dollar generals, and the pharmacy. Those are the pressure points. That's how we cause the rupture. Yeah. Yep. I mean, really, maybe you could,

maybe you really could look at the opioid. The underground? Maybe you really could. Like the trap house? You want to organize the trappers? No, no, no. Now that I'm thinking about it, though, maybe what you could do is take over the pharmacies

and then you take control. Maybe you probably would need more than just the pharmacies. Take control of the drug trade. Yeah. For this episode, I want you... You know that ad that

dumbass Team Mitch put out where they put Mitch's face on the dude that plays Pablo Escobar? Dude, yes where they put mitch's face on the dude that plays pablo escobar on the uh dude yes will you please put your face on that for this episode cover tom it's the same concept as the coal industry it was creating huge profits for a very small amount of people when you got control over the coal industry you You brought them to their fucking knees. That's true. What if you could get control of the fucking opioid industry somehow? And say, you know, we're going to reproduce your whole, I don't know, you'd need some pretty. I can see you going to some pill mill. Oh, man, that's a really nice operation you got going here.

It's for the people. It's for the people. It's for the people. Wait, what? Yeah, my minions come in with fucking AKs. That's what we need to do, man. We take over these fucking pill mills. We take control over the fucking resources. We start with the drugs.

I'm not saying you got to stop doing drugs. I mean, in our communist society, I would like it if people weren't strung out and if addiction was not as painful. Because addiction is painful, man. It's a terrible thing. It ruins people's lives. And in a communist society, I really hope that we are able to cure addiction on a massive scale. But we're worried about that down the line right now. Right now we're trying to take the streets.

Right, exactly. Exactly. I always have tried to marry my Marxism to organized crime that benefits the people. For the people. For the people. I don't know how to do that Yeah I don't know

Dude the For the people See for me it's It's not organized crime It's Christianity That's the That's the void that communism Filled for me I guess

You know I mean You know I hate to say that but It's true Like when I was a Christian I had purpose Existential purpose You know what true. When I was a Christian, I had purpose, existential purpose. You know what I mean?

Yeah. I was winning people over to the kingdom of God. You're basically a travel agent. For? The kingdom of God. Yes, for the place where we have palatial mansions and everything is made of gold. Now it's the same thing, but now it's communism, the kingdom of distributed resources and abundance.

If you want to get galaxy brain about it, you should become a Christian, go to heaven, and then just go to God and say, streets of gold, walls of Jasper. Right. It's for the people And God's just like Not again I expropriate heaven

It's for the people Sorry God Oh my god That's such a fucking That's so good Oh my god. That's such a fucking... That's so good. Oh my god. Thank you. La Sosa, La Sosa, La Sosa Farewell, babe, world, I'm going home