When Will People Start Referring To The GOP As The Party Of Felons?

Make America Great Again

I was pretty shocked how the Senate Democrats allowed Trump to slip Sago Mining Disaster mass murderer and Putin operative Wilbur Ross into his cabinet without much of a fight. He was confirmed as Secretary of Commerce on February 27, 2017, 72-27 with x Democrats-- Michael Bennet (CO), Sherrod Brown (OH), Tom Carper (DE), Bob Casey (PA), Chris Coons (DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), Joe Donnelly (IN), Tammy Duckworth (IL), of course Dianne Feinstein (CA), Maggie Hassan (NH), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Tim Kaine (VA), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Claire McCaskill (MO), Bill Nelson (FL), Gary Peters (MI), Brian Schatz (HI), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), John Tester (MT) and Mark Warner (VA)-- joining every single Republican to confirm him. Conservative Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who remembered what ole Wilbur had done in his state, joined progressives like Bernie, Elizabeth Watten, Tammy Baldwin, Jeff Merkley, Al Franken, Mazie Hirono, Tom Udall and Ed Markey in voting NO.

What happens when, instead of protecting the government from predators-- like Wilbur Ross, not to mention Señor Trumpanzee and the rest of his cabinet-- the predator become the government? That's one of the essential questions in the aftermath of Putin helping Trump to gain the presidency.

So... speaking of crimes against humanity in West Virginia... Who remembers Massey Energy monster Don Blankenship? It was just 7 years ago we noted that "Massey Energy Co.'s sprawling Upper Big Branch mine, which is operated by serial bad faith players Performance Coal (a Massey front company history of violations for not properly ventilating highly combustible methane gas) is half an hour south of Charleston, West Virginia. Yesterday afternoon a massive explosion of the kind Performance has never been properly punished for, killed at least two dozen workers in the mine. Following 8 years of lax enforcement of safety rules from the Bush administration-- if you can equate no enforcement with "lax"-- Massey has been fined $382,000 for repeated serious violations at Upper Big Branch as Labor Secretary Hilda Solis worked to fix the concerted damage corrupt conservatives have done to mine safety. The company's CEO, Don Blankenship, has neither committed hari kari nor been lynched-- or even arrested. He did offer some p.r. hack's crafted condolences though: 'Tonight we mourn the deaths of our members at Massey Energy.' Am I saying billionaire Blankenship should be executed for murder? Well... he should get a fair trial." We kept writing about Blankenship until he was finally sentenced to a year in prison-- but not for murder. He's too rich for that. The wrist slap is for "conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards."

Like Mikey Suits, Blankenship is now out of prison-- and running for office. He's running for the U.S. Senate against Joe Manchin. He filed on Tuesday-- as a Republican, of course. The GOP already has two high-profile candidates in the race, Congressman Evan Jenkins and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.

Blankenshit said he considered himself a political prisoner because the jury pool in Charleston was biased against him, the prosecution was politically motivated and the trial was controlled by rulings unfair to the defense. He recently wrote that Manchin has blood on his hands because he failed to "successfully advocate for effective mine safety regulations."

Welcome to the GOP kakistocracy