Trump And His Pet Governors Oversee The Spread Of A Disastrous Second Spike

The Second Spike by Nancy Ohanian

West Virginia appears to have had a relatively mild pandemic-- just 2,694 confirmed cases and 92 deaths. Their 1,503 cases per million is better than every other state except Hawaii, Montana and Alaska. And just a little below average among states for their rate of testing. But... was the state sending fake statistics, the way China and Florida do, covering up reality for political expedience? On Wednesday, the state's crackpot governor said there is "every reason to believe" the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state are less than what was previously reported due to recovered cases not being removed from the active case count," before firing the state's well-respected chief health officer, Cathy Slemp. The Associated Press took a little look.

Trumpist Governor Jim Justice has adamantly refused to strengthen West Virginia’s weak and unenforced virus restrictions in response to recent spikes. "He has," reported the AP, "repeatedly balked on mandating face masks in public spaces, as other governments have done, saying such an order would be politically divisive. Instead, he has stressed that people should follow existing safety rules, encouraging people to get tested for the virus and to wear face masks. Justice has also asked that people avoid traveling to Myrtle Beach, which has seen cases rise in recent weeks, rather than ordering quarantines as people return from the popular resort city... [A]t least 72 cases in 11 counties have been linked to tourism travel to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and about 70 cases have been linked to church services in three counties.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice forced out the commissioner of his public health bureau on Wednesday, hours after he publicly questioned the accuracy of the state’s coronavirus data and detailed growing outbreaks in about a dozen counties.

The abrupt resignation of Cathy Slemp, who was also a state health officer, came after the Republican governor vented during a news conference that West Virginia’s active virus caseload may have been overstated.

“If we were on our game here, in DHHR (Department of Health and Human Resources) and Dr. Slemp’s office, if we’re on our game and you’re listening to the governor say that there’s six active cases at Huttonsville and you’re looking at the reports that you’re putting together and sending them to me on active cases and your looking at Randolph County and they’re reporting a hundred-and-some-odd cases then you’re not doing your job,” Justice told reporters, without additional explanation.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, the governor’s office said Justice had expressed his “lack of confidence” in Slemp to Bill Crouch, secretary of the state health department, who then asked for Slemp’s resignation. She resigned immediately, the statement said. In a separate statement, a spokeswoman for the health department said there were discrepancies related to virus caseload data at the Huttonsville Correctional Center in Randolph County.

Slemp, who was a regular feature of the governor’s daily virus news conferences, has decades of public health experience. She was previously the acting state health officer and was the founding director of the state’s public health emergency preparedness and response programs, according to a biography on the state health department website. Slemp is also on the board of scientific counselors at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Justice, a billionaire coal businessman without previous political experience, had showered Slemp with praise as he hosted press conferences about the virus during the outbreak, often stressing that his aggressive plan to lift virus restrictions was guided by his health experts. Slemp did not appear at Wednesday’s news briefing.

In her resignation letter Slemp wrote "COVID-19 is a crisis unlike any most of us have ever seen. I encourage all to stay true to the science, to further work to engage and empower communities to address such an unprecedented situation collectively, to meet people where they are and to move forward together."

West Virginia isn't unique in experiencing an uptick in cases in recent days. As Sam Baker and Andrew Witherspoon noted for Axios Thursday morning, The coronavirus surge is real, and it's everywhere. They wrote that the "pandemic is getting dramatically worse in almost every corner of the U.S. [and] getting closer to the worst-case scenario envisioned in the spring-- a nationwide crisis, made worse by a vacuum of political leadership, threatening to overwhelm hospitals and spread out of control. Nationwide, cases are up 30% compared to the beginning of this month, and dramatically worsening outbreaks in several states are beginning to strain hospital capacity-- the same concern that prompted the nationwide lockdown in the first place... Over half the country-- 26 states-- have seen their coronavirus caseloads increase over the past week. New cases are up 77% in Arizona, 75% in Michigan, 70% in Texas and 66% in Florida. California, which has seen steady increases for weeks, recorded a 47% jump in new infections over the past week. These steep increases come after weeks of steadily climbing cases or back-and-forth results across the South, Midwest and West Coast. Only the New York region and parts of New England-- the earliest hotspots-- have consistently managed to get their caseloads down throughout May and June."

And despite shrieks of protest from Death Cult leaders Trump and Pence, "Increased testing does not explain away these numbers. Other data points make clear that we’re seeing a worsening outbreak, not simply getting better data. Seven states, including Arizona, have set records for the number of people hospitalized with coronavirus, and the percentage of all tests that come back positive is also increasing. The whole point of the national lockdown was to buy time to improve testing and give infection levels a chance to level off without overwhelming hospitals. That worked in New York, but as other parts of the country begin to see their outbreaks intensify later, the same risks are back at the forefront."

In its exhaustive pandemic report yesterday, How The Virus Won, the NY Times noted that "Invisible outbreaks sprang up everywhere. The United States ignored the warning signs... At every crucial moment, American officials were weeks or months behind the reality of the outbreak. Those delays likely cost tens of thousands of lives."

Top federal health experts concluded by late February that the virus was likely to spread widely within the United States and that government officials would soon need to urge the public to embrace social distancing measures, such as avoiding crowds and staying home.

But Mr. Trump wanted to avoid disrupting the economy. So some of his health advisers, at Mr. Trump’s urging, told Americans at the end of February to continue to travel domestically and go on with their normal lives.

...By the time President Trump blocked travel from Europe on March 13, the restrictions were essentially pointless.

The outbreak had already been spreading widely in most states for weeks.

...Faced with an outbreak that had grown beyond their ability to test or trace, American officials had no option but to ask the public to stay home.

On March 16, weeks after health officials privately concluded a more active response would be needed, President Trump asked Americans to limit travel, avoid groups and stay home from work and school if they felt sick. One by one, states issued stay-at-home orders and closed businesses.

...By March 24, much of the country had followed. Within weeks, those shutdowns stopped exponential growth of the virus from overwhelming many parts of the country.

But every day mattered to halt the virus in New York City, where political leaders waited crucial days to close schools and impose a stay-at-home order as the virus spun out of control... [I]n New York City, the response was too late, said Lauren Ancel Meyers, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas at Austin. Other factors, such as the city’s density and its rate of international travel, also may have played a role, Dr. Meyers said. More than 22,000 deaths in the New York City area could have been avoided if the country had started social distancing just one week earlier, Columbia University researchers estimate. About 36,000 deaths nationwide could have been avoided by early May had social distancing begun earlier, the estimates say.

Even now, America remains in the dark.

Most infected people are never tested. There is little capacity to trace and isolate the contacts to those who do test positive. After the lockdowns expired, new cases spiked once again.

These 10 states had especially dangerous increases in their one day loads of new cases, from Wednesday to Thursday to Friday:

• Texas +6,177 ---> +5,960 ---> 5,614
• Florida +5,511 ---> +5,004 ---> 8,942
• California +4,966 ---> +5,540 ---> 5,619
• Arizona +1,795 ---> +3,056 ---> 3,428
• Georgia +1,703 ---> 1,714 ---> 1,900
• North Carolina +1,667 ---> +1,147 ---> 1,695
• South Carolina +1,284 ---> 1,125 ---> 1,313
• Mississippi +526 ---> 1,092 ---> 550
• Alabama +967 ---> +1,142 ---> 977
• Tennessee +932 ---> 799 ---> 1,410

Crooked West Virginia Crackpot And Billionaire Jim Justice Comes Out Of The Closet

Last year we warned DC and West Virginia Democrats not to trust crooked Trump-like billionaire Jim Justice when he ran for governor as a Democrat. At the time we wrote that Justice was West Virginia's only billionaire and that he represents absolutely nothing remotely related to the Democratic Party-- not in terms of values, principles or even team identity. He was outspokenly anti-Obama and anti-Hillary and bragged to the media that he' wouldn't vote for her. His campaign, was self-funded and-- in a state where Bernie won every single county in the primary and beat Trump in many of them-- West Virginia Democrats were urged to support the local equivalent of Trump. Justice has generally contributed to Republicans and to Blue Dog Democrats who vote with the Republicans. He contributed to George W. Bush's campaigns, Joe Manchin's campaigns, to the West Virginia Republican Party and to the West Virginia Democratic Party. When I called the Democratic Governors Association-- the DCCC for gubernatorial races-- they refused to comment on the West Virginia gubernatorial race at all. Not even a chirp or a grunt. Nothing. I wonder what they'll have to say about about the stunt he pulled last night at Trump's rally in Huntington. (The idiots at the Democratic Governors Association wasted over a million dollars on Justice even though he's the richest man in the state and didn't need their money-- though others in other states certainly did.)

Justice, who was a registered Republican until 2015, has far more in common with Trump than with any Democrats or even any normal Republicans. In fact just before Señor Trumpanzee let the cat out of the bag yesterday, the West Virginia Republican Party had tweeted this:

Justice’s decision to change parties will further isolate Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat and himself a former governor. Mr. Manchin has resisted the entreaties of Republicans to change parties and add to the two-seat Senate majority. Some Trump administration officials, eyeing Mr. Manchin’s seat, also had hoped to put him in the cabinet, but he has declined all overtures. Now he must stand for re-election in 2018 without the help of a friendly governor.

...In his first months as governor, Mr. Justice, a colorful and hulking figure who stands over six feet, seven inches, drew headlines beyond West Virginia’s border for bringing a plate of cow excrement into the state capitol to express his anger at a Republican-passed budget proposal.

“What we have is nothing more than bunch of political bull you-know-what,” Mr. Justice said, pulling the lid off a silver platter to reveal the scented prop atop a printed copy of the budget.

But the governor, who found his fortune with coal and now owns The Greenbrier resort, has also been dogged by some of the same financial issues that Republicans sought to use against him in last year’s campaign. The state tax department has filed four liens this year against of one of Mr. Justice’s companies, Tams Management Inc., citing nearly $1 million in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties related to his coal mines.

In West Virginia, Representative Evan Jenkins, one of the Republicans seeking Mr. Manchin’s Senate seat, said he would welcome the governor to his party.

“I simply couldn’t be a part of a liberal agenda that was so contrary to who we are and what we believe in West Virginia,” said Mr. Jenkins, who switched parties several years ago.

Shaking hands with constituents at a meet-and-greet at a hotel next to the stadium where Mr. Trump is scheduled to speak, Mr. Jenkins said he would understand if Mr. Justice felt the same way.

And that brings up the question, of course, of how many of the "ex"-Republicans, Blue Dogs and anti-Choice fanatics recruited and financed by Lujan and the DCCC will eventually flip to the Republican Party after being elected with Democratic money. If you like that concept please contribute to the DCCC since virtually all the money they collect, other than what lines the pockets of their special consultants, goes to electing conservatives.

West Virginia-- Its Own World Politically

National Democrats-- as opposed to reactionary "Manchin Democrats"-- have largely given up on West Virginia. In 2012 not only did Romney beat Obama 412,406 (62%) to 234,925 (36%), one of Obama's worst performances in America, but Romney won every single county in the state. This year doesn't look much better, although Hillary is ahead of Trump is Jefferson County (closest , and commuter-distance, to DC) and Monongalia counties and closing in on Kanawha, the biggest county in the state (Charleston) where Romney beat Obama by 12 points but where Hillary is just 4 points behind Trump. Still, the only two relatively recent polls of the state show Trump winning by either 18 points or 27 points.

The big turnout in the primary for Bernie, was just that-- a turnout for Bernie and his populist positions, not a turnout for the Democratic Party and not a turn out that's going to do much for Hillary a week from Tuesday. More Democrats (241,016 votes,) voted in the primary than Republicans (202,880). Bernie won every county (as did Trump). Bernie beat Hillary 123,860 (51.4%) to 86,354 (35.8%). There's been a ton of anecdotal evidence that many Bernie voters will either vote for Trump or skip voting for president altogether.

That said, there is also a gubernatorial race we've talked about before between a billionaire Trump-like fake-Democrat, Jim Justice, and a hack Republican careerist, Bill Cole. Justice won his primary with the same percentage as Bernie (although with more votes-- 131,845. Over 10,000 more Democrats voted in the gubernatorial primary than in the presidential primary. And polling shows Justice up over Cole by about 6 points.

However, there's another factor that isn't being accounted for in most polling. There is an actual Democrat in the race-- Mountain Party candidate Charlotte Pritt. The Mountain Party is the local Green Party affiliate and Pritt is a real life progressive Democrat who served in both the state House and the state Senate and once ran for governor as a governor, beating Joe Manchin, who-- to put it mildly-- holds a grudge and is doing everything he can-- and he totally controls the state Democratic Party-- to undercut Pritt on every level.

Thursday the Charleston Gazette-Mail endorsed Justice with an observation that they couldn't remember "a more uninspiring set of choices for West Virginia governor." The endorsement points out how excruciatingly bad both Justice and Cole are but then summarily dismissed Pritt as a protest vote that would only serve to elect the greater of two evils (Cole). A careful read of the endorsement would certainly be encouragement for anyone to stay home. But that would be a mistake. Pritt would make a great governor and she's worth supporting. I love the letter she wrote to the Gazette-Mail editorial board in response to their insulting endorsement of Justice.

I was shocked to see your endorsement of Jim Justice coming from the Gazette especially in light of the reports of Jim Justice’s mine safety and water pollution violations, and his default on taxes that could be used for dire educational needs.

It seems that a NON endorsement was in order for the Gazette, if you were unable to endorse Charlotte Pritt, the only candidate with “hands on” experience balancing the state budget (four years on the finance committee in the WV House), or the candidate with more legislative experience than all the other candidates combined, or the one with a 100% voting record on environmental issues like clean water, and fighting out-of-state toxic dumps coming to WV, or the only candidate who is against hydro-fracking and MTR, or the only candidate with a career voting record of 100% promoting senior citizens and AFL-CIO issues!

Perhaps the reason for the falsehood is that I am the ONLY candidate with the skill set needed to address the “budget crisis” and the ONLY candidate with a specific diversified economic development plan (See: charlottepritt4gov.com). What is most disturbing about this Gazette endorsement is the unprofessional and unethical creation of a false position that was NEVER discussed with me. That smear was your excuse for NOT endorsing the most qualified candidate for governor? [The paper realized they were wrong and removed the smear from their website.]

To say that I would not be a unifying presence for the state reveals either your ignorance of WV political history or else a complete misunderstanding of who West Virginians are. And more particularly, what we are capable of. According to Arch Moore, the 1996 Charlotte Pritt gubernatorial campaign was the most successful grassroots campaign in WV history: the 10,000 plus army of Pritt volunteers in my campaign were from ALL parties.

Only the most politically naive believe that there is any real difference between Jim Justice and Bill Cole. Both are Republicans and both will be controlled by ALEC/Koch Brothers. Jim Justice, Joe Manchin’s handpicked successor to Tomblin, will have a closer tie to ALEC/Koch Brothers because of Joe’s own close ties with ALEC since the early 1990’s. Both Justice and Cole are in an income bracket completely outside the range of those they would be governing.

As a Mountain Party governor, I represent ALL parties of WV because our members and those who vote for us are ISSUE oriented rather than LABEL oriented. In fact, a Charlotte Pritt governorship would be a mandate for governorship that empowers all West Virginians. My cabinet would consist of the best appointees from ALL parties. I would work with Senators, Delegates and citizens of ALL parties because my party and my base would come from BOTH and ALL party affiliations.

Despite your unfounded claim that I “would not be a unifying presence,” the only logical conclusion is that I am the only gubernatorial candidate capable of unifying our state.

Your opinion that “a vote for her is a vote for Bill Cole” not only underestimates my candidacy, it could have been directly lifted out of the Democratic party dirty tricks playbook used earlier this the campaign season.

A vote for Charlotte Pritt is a vote for my voting record and my principled stands for the eight years I served in the WV Legislature. A vote for Charlotte Pritt is a vote of trust by the people of WV!  A vote for Charlotte Pritt is a vote of principle not protest. They are voting for me because they have someone and something WORTH voting FOR!

Since the Gazette requires that those submitting letters to the editor give their names and telephone numbers, it seems only fair that the person who wrote the endorsement, including that smear, should follow the same guidelines that you demand from your contributors. The Voters and I deserve to know who on your staff actually wrote your Endorsement Editorial.

A poll from Global Strategy Group shows Justice ahead with 44% to Cole's 34% and with Pritt at 8%. Justice is winning self-described conservative Democrats 70-30%. Hillary is losing conservative Democrats to Trump 80-18%. Justice has said he won't vote for Hillary. Spending is pretty skewered towards the two reprehensible corporate party candidates. Justice has spent $4,361,913 ($3,274,403 of which is a loan from himself) and Cole has spent $2,557,341 (including a $500,000 loan from himself). Pritt has spent $5,176.

West Virginia Has A Candidate Running For Governor At Least As Bad As Trump-- And He Calls Himself A Democrat!

Charlotte Pritt With TweedleDee and TweedleDum

Last month, we took a quick look at the three-way race for governor in West Virginia, a race that pits progressive Democrat, Charlotte Pritt, running on the Mountain Party, against two corrupt conservatives-- garden variety reactionary Republican Bill Cole vs fake Democrat Jim Justice, West Virginia's very own Donald Trump.

Justice, West Virginia's only billionaire represents absolutely nothing remotely related to the Democratic Party-- not in terms of values, principles or even team identity. He's outspokenly anti-Obama and anti-Hillary and says he's not voting for her. His campaign, of course, is self-funded-- in a state where, of the 241,016 votes Democrats who voted in the presidential primary, 123,860 (51.4%) voted for Bernie and only 35.8% went for Hillary. Bernie won every single county in the state. And now West Virginia Democrats are being asked to support the local equivalent of Trump. And he's winning! The alternative for these Bernie-backing West Virginia Democrats is to vote for the Mountain Party-- the local affiliate of the Green Party-- candidate, Charlotte Pritt, a former Democratic state legislator and well-known and much-respected activist.

Yesterday Howard Berkes of NPR News and West Virginia Public Broadcasting did another exposé on Justice's career-long scumbaggery. This guy belongs in prison, not the governor's mansion. Following his campaign it's virtually impossible to think Trump and Justice weren't separated at birth.

[A]n NPR investigation shows that Justice's mining companies still fail to pay millions of dollars in mine safety penalties two years after an earlier investigation documented the same behavior. Our analysis of federal data shows that Justice is now the nation's top mine safety delinquent.

His mining companies owe $15 million in six states, including property and minerals taxes, state coal severance and withholding taxes, and federal income, excise and unemployment taxes, as well as mine safety penalties, according to county, state and federal records.

In the past 16 months, while fines and taxes went unpaid, Justice personally contributed nearly $2.9 million in interest-free loans and in-kind contributions to his gubernatorial campaign, according to state campaign finance reports.

Grant Herring, a spokesman for the Justice gubernatorial campaign, said Justice "won't be doing an interview," despite multiple requests after NPR provided details of its investigation.

But Billy Shelton, an attorney for Justice mining companies in Kentucky, responded to Justice's failure to pay $2.6 million in delinquent federal mine safety penalties, which are levied by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. MSHA and Treasury Department data obtained by NPR show that Justice has paid $675,000 this year as part of a payment agreement, but the agreement covers less than half of the total amount owed.

"Unlike the coal companies that filed for bankruptcy and walked away from their obligations, the Justice companies are being responsible and following the agreed-upon payment plan. ... The Justice companies are taking the proper steps to make good on all MSHA commitments," Shelton says. "To imply anything beyond that is purely for political reasons and ignores the facts."

Justice is celebrated in West Virginia for saving the historic and luxurious Greenbrier Resort, a major economic driver for the surrounding region. But dozens of his coal mines in West Virginia and other Appalachian states have a history of safety violations and failure to pay on time the penalties that are supposed to discourage unsafe practices, according to MSHA violations and penalties data.

That's what NPR and Mine Safety and Health News documented in a joint investigation in 2014. At the time, Tom Lusk, the chief operating officer of Justice's mining companies, insisted that Justice "does not run from his obligations. ... He's made it abundantly clear that there's no way we're going to not fully meet and satisfy these obligations."

NPR conducted another analysis of federal mine safety data exactly two years later and found that mines owned by Justice added $1.38 million in new and unpaid mine safety penalties.

Delinquent Justice mines also continue to have worse-than-average safety records, according to NPR's analysis of MSHA injury and violations data. NPR's analysis shows that injury rates (for injuries forcing time away from work) are twice the national average and violations rates more than four times the national rate during the years the Justice mines failed to pay penalties.

The MSHA data also show that those mines were cited for 3,657 violations while they were delinquent, including 699 violations that are classified by MSHA as factors in mine fatalities, fatal mine accidents and major disasters.

MSHA mine inspectors issued dozens of citations for excessive coal dust, which can feed mine explosions, and roof and wall violations, which can lead to mine collapses.

One Justice mining company, Kentucky Fuel Corp., owed more than $709,000 in delinquent penalties, according to MSHA data, and was admonished in an April decision from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Commission, which adjudicates penalty disputes.

"Kentucky Fuel's history regarding the payment of penalties is abysmal," the commission wrote. "The operator's record indicates that it has repeatedly disregarded final penalty assessments."

The Justice fines concern Celeste Monforton, a former MSHA official, mine disaster investigator and lecturer on workplace safety at George Washington University and Texas State University.

"I don't think we should forget that the reason that he has those penalties is because there were violations and hazards in his coal mining operations," says Monforton.

NPR found two more noteworthy developments in its 2016 review of delinquent mine safety data after the 2014 investigation:

• As NPR reported in 2014, five people died in in a mine explosion at Kentucky Darby in 2006. The $500,000 in penalties for that disaster plus $2.4 million more in fines at mines owned by Ralph Napier Sr. and his partners disappeared from the Mine Safety and Health Administration's books. The agency says the delinquencies were declared non-collectible and the IRS issued 1099 forms declaring the unpaid fines taxable income. But the companies are defunct so no collection is ever expected.
• NPR profiled D&C owner Horace Garrison Hill in our 2014 stories and detailed a fatal accident there. His mine owed more than $4 million in delinquent fines. That debt also disappeared from MSHA's records and resulted in a 1099 form. D&C is also defunct.

"That's the way the system is set up and it has to change," says Tony Oppegard, a former mine safety regulator who represents the families of miners killed at both D&C and Kentucky Darby. "There's no incentive to run a safe mine if you know that you don't have to pay your fines."

MSHA says it supports a bill in Congress that would give the agency authority to shut down delinquent mines six months after they become delinquent.

The agency did revive a little-used enforcement tool after NPR's 2014 stories. It cited a mine's failure to pay penalties as a failure to fix the safety hazards that led to those penalties. It then shut down the mine until the owner agreed to a payment plan. That's happened four times since.

NPR's stories also prompted an inspector general's audit of MSHA's penalties system and practices. A report is expected soon.

Kentucky Fuel also tops all of Justice's mining companies for delinquent fines, county taxes and state and federal tax liens combined, with more than $8 million due, according to county, state and federal records.

Justice was asked about safety at his mines when he announced his run for governor last year.

"I'm a safety fanatic," he said at a news conference. "So I'm the last person in the world that's wanting something to where you would put an employee in a situation that would be unsafe."

As for the delinquent mine safety fines reported by NPR in 2014, Justice said "we'll absolutely ... make sure that every one of them is taken care of."

Lusk and MSHA agreed to a payment plan in December 2015, after two years of discussions, and the Justice mining companies have made every $75,000 monthly payment since. But the plan does not cover more than $1.7 million in unpaid fines referred to the U.S. Treasury for collection, according to Treasury records provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The records show that some of the delinquent fines have been sent on to the U.S. Department of Justice for possible litigation and that others are pending referral to the agency.

Shelton says he is seeking a payment plan to cover the fines referred to Treasury.

The "Justice group has diligently pursued payment plans and full resolution of all outstanding issues," Lusk recently said.

Payment plans also exist in counties where Justice mining companies failed to pay more than $5.4 million in county taxes.

Media and legal pressure have been successful in getting the Justice companies to pay.

In April, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported that the Justice companies owed $3.9 million in delinquent 2015 property taxes in West Virginia. Most were paid within two weeks.

In Harlan County, Ky., in October, the county attorney sued. In Tazewell County, Va., in April, the county sheriff seized mining equipment at a Justice mine, citing back taxes. Both moves got the checks flowing.

In Knott County, Ky., multiple lawsuits were filed against Justice's Kentucky Fuel Corp. A suit last year sought $2.7 million for three years of back taxes. That triggered about $300,000 in payments, but those suddenly stopped in April, says Knott County Judge-Executive Zachary Weinberg.

Weinberg calls Kentucky Fuel a "habitual offender" that is denying the county critical funds.

"You're talking about maybe a grant writer, or to keep the senior citizens' program whole or to pick trash up or to keep lights on, [or] to keep the employees with good health insurance," Weinberg says, adding that the county health board, school board, conservation district and extension office share in and need the unpaid taxes.

Knott County sought court orders twice in the past two months and payments suddenly resumed again.

Even Shelton, Justice's Kentucky attorney, sued to get paid.

In 2013, Shelton filed a complaint in Pike County, Ky., seeking $85,220 in unpaid legal fees from seven Justice mining companies. Within a month, Shelton had a default judgment awarding him his money plus legal fees and interest.

"[The] lawsuit was the result of a misunderstanding," Shelton says now, adding that the right Justice executive wasn't aware of the dispute until the suit was filed.

Just last week, 26 Justice mining companies and the Environmental Protection Agency agreed to a $6 million settlement for thousands of water pollution violations, which have been the focus of news stories in the past two years.

It's not just federal fines and county taxes that have public agencies seeking money from Justice's mines.

NPR found in county records in South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia more than $6 million in state and federal tax liens for failure to pay state withholding and coal severance taxes, and federal income, excise and unemployment taxes.

Most of the state and federal liens-- more than $4.5 million worth-- are in Justice's home state of West Virginia, and more than 60 percent of that debt is for state coal severance taxes.

In 2014 alone, Justice's Kentucky Fuel Corp. failed to pay $1.14 million in coal severance taxes. That's documented in a lien filed by the West Virginia Tax Department, and that single lien made up about a third of the state's total coal severance tax delinquencies for the year, according to figures provided by the agency.

Justice generally contributes to Republicans and to Blue Dog Democrats who vote with the Republicans. He contributed to George W. Bush's campaigns, Joe Manchin's campaigns, to the West Virginia Republican Party and to the West Virginia Democratic Party. When I called the Democratic Governors Association-- the DCCC for gubernatorial races, they refused to comment on the West Virginia gubernatorial race at all. Not even a chirp or a grunt. Nothing.

You can find out more about Charlotte Pritt here. Last Tuesday, the two conservative males debated in Charleston and, of course, excluded the progressive woman from the debate. It didn't shed much light, other than to confirm that neither of these dirty hackish candidates will do anything for West Virginia families. The two spent the whole debate regurgitating campaign talking points, avoiding specifics, even when pressed for them by the moderator, and hurling accusations and attacks at each other. That said, here's an interview that Public Radio ran with Pritt:



The two of them "debate" again on Tuesday and have, once again, made sure Pritt would be excluded.

In West Virginia There's A Democrat So Far To The Right That Not Even Daily Kos Would Endorse Him

Charlotte Pritt, the real Democrat in the West Virginia gubernatorial race

Last May, West Virginia was Bernie territory. The Democratic primary-- which drew about 40,000 more voters than the Republican primary-- saw Bernie sweep every single county in the state. Statewide it was Bernie 123,860 (51.4%) to Hillary 86,354 (35.8%). Unfortunately for Hillary, many Bernie voters have told pollsters that they would vote for Trump rather than her. An exit poll by CBS News found that among the Bernie voters 44% said they'd vote for Trump, 23% said they'd vote for Hillary and 31% said they'd vote for neither. ABC'd exit poll didn't look as dismal, with Bernie voters going for Hillary with 48% and for Trump with 32%.

That said, more West Virginians voted in the Democratic gubernatorial primary than in their presidential primary-- 241,016 in the presidential race and 256,779 in the 3-way gubernatorial race, in which the state's only billionaire, Jim Justice, got 131,845 votes (51.3%). West Virginia was still voting Democratic in 1988 when it was one of only 10 states to go for Dukakis over George H.W. Bush. In 1992 West Virginia was Clinton country-- giving bill Clinton a double digit edge over Bush again-- and in 1996, the last time West Virginia voted for a Democrat, it gave Clinton a very comfortable 51.51% win over Dole (36.76%) and Perot (11.26%). Since then every election has seen West Virginia give bigger and bigger margins to the GOP in presidential elections. By Obama's reelection bid in 2012 Romney beat him 62.30% to a dismal 35.54%. Only Utah (24.75%), Wyoming (27.82%), Idaho (32.62%), and Oklahoma (33.23%) were redder.

The most recent poll I saw of West Virginia voters showed Trump wiping Clinton out 49-31%. The Republican gubernatorial candidate, state Senate President Bill Cole has attached himself to Trump, while Justice has done all he can do to distance himself from Hillary, even telling West Virginia voters that he won't vote for her. Justice has been "a Democrat" for about half a year. He and his wife contributed $100,000 to Kentuckians for String Leadership, a SuperPAC set up to destroy Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes. It spent $6,409,610 on negative ads. The only presidential race he's ever donated in was for George W. Bush 3 times. Most of his contributions have been for Manchin and other far right Democrats.

The most recent poll, 2 weeks ago, showed Justice beating Cole 46-32%. An actual Democrat, Charlotte Pritt, running on the Mountain Party line has 8% and Libertarian David Moran has 5%. Wednesday Mason Adams profiled the race for Politico.

Justice’s industry ties largely make him resistant to the GOP’s otherwise effective “war on coal” messaging, which has proven to be Democrat kryptonite around Appalachia, even in districts beyond the coalfields.

“If you’re going to win in West Virginia, you better be running against Hillary Clinton,” says Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, a western Virginia political consultant known for his so-called Bubba Strategy, designed to help Democrats appeal to white working-class voters. Saunders, who has said he’s voting for Trump, says voters don’t trust Clinton or care about her support for funding going to help coalfield economies transition to something else. “She said she’s going to put coal out of business. West Virginia coal miners don’t want a handout. They want their dignity. They want their jobs.”

But Saunders doesn’t have kind words for Justice either: “He’s screwed every coal operator in West Virginia at one time or another.”

Cole sees that reputation as his big opening. His spokesman, Gates, says the Republican campaign will open up attacks on Justice’s business record over the next several weeks. “Jim Justice is a coal operator, but he’s not a coal operator acting in the best interest of West Virginia,” Gates says. “His legacy of unpaid bills is documented across the land.”

That record extends from unpaid federal fines to unpaid vendors to unpaid state and local taxes in multiple states. In a 2014 series on delinquent mines, NPR reported that Justice “stands out” among mining operators, owing nearly $2 million in unpaid fines at the time. That same year, a federal agency issued 39 cessation orders against three Justice companies for reclamation violations at Tennessee mines, including hiring a contractor who planted trees upside down.

The problems have persisted. This year in Kentucky, Justice’s mines missed reclamation deadlines and owed nearly $2 million in delinquent property taxes. That’s an improvement from last year, when he owed $3.5 million in unpaid Kentucky taxes. In southwest Virginia, Tazewell County officials seized machinery, tools and other equipment from a Justice-owned mine this spring to make up for $850,000 in unpaid property taxes. When 2015 West Virginia property taxes became delinquent in April, Justice owed more than $3.9 million.

The pattern apparently extends to Justice’s other businesses, as well: Two companies sued the Greenbrier for unpaid work on its golf courses for the PGA tournament, eventually settling out of court.

Justice’s mining record, which includes extensive use of mountaintop removal mining, as well as his issues with mine reclamation, has made him the target of many an Appalachian environmental activist. The Cole campaign going negative on Justice might not push those green voters to vote Republican, but it might tip them toward Pritt, who is running for governor as the candidate of the Mountain Party, the West Virginia affiliate of the Green Party. Pritt served eight years in the state Legislature and is making her third run for governor. The last time she ran, in 1996, she defeated Manchin in a primary on the way to a loss in the general election.

...Trump will easily win West Virginia, but the winner of the governor’s race will be determined by how willing voters are to split their tickets, and whether Democrats remain loyal to their party or break for Pritt. That’s why Cole’s campaign is attacking Justice on his record as a coal businessman, even as they decry the federal “war on coal.” Whether those voters go to Cole or to Pritt ultimately doesn’t matter, so long as they’re not voting for Justice.

In his attacks on Justice, Cole spokesman Gates repeated one line a couple of times: “At the end of the day, Jim Justice is going to do what’s best for Jim Justice.”

That line has been used about Donald Trump, too. The question for West Virginia voters on Election Day will be whether what’s in Justice and Trump’s best interests is in theirs, too.

Pritt served in the state House of Representatives from 1984 through 1988 and then in the state Senate from 1988-1992, at a time when West Virginia was still a blue state. She was the first woman to ever be nominated by a major party-- the Democratic Party-- for governor. The Mountain Party is the West Virginia affiliate of the Green Party and was founded in 2000 as the state Democratic Party drifted further and further right. When Pritt decided to run for governor, the state Democratic Party, which is essentially a version of the GOP not as extreme as the actual GOP, freaked out. As the MetroNews put it back in July, "Pritt was once the darling of the liberal wing of the state Democratic Party. Her unyielding support of labor and environmental issues made her a counterbalance to the pro-business" conservatives like Manchin and Tomblin.

In 1996 Pritt beat Manchin for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in a 3-way primary-- 40% for her, 33% for Manchin and 20% for Jim Lees. Manchin was immediately out for revenge and like every conservative establishment Democrat always does-- as they're doing this year as well-- he refused to back Pritt and helped sabotage her election against GOP crackpot Cecil Underwood. Mantis's allies formed a Democrats for Underwood committee which siphoned enough votes away from Pritt to throw the election to Underwood 52-46%.

She joined the Mountain Party a few years ago, saying she had grown “disgusted” with what she said has been the rightward tilt of the state Democratic Party... Pritt’s established liberal bona fides may help her cull support from progressive Democrats and Independents, particularly those who backed Bernie Sanders.

Dishonest and deranged, the state Democratic Party, run by some crooked cousin of Joe Manchin's, put out a statement this week falsely accusing Pritt of being financed by the Republican Party and Bill Cole. Pritt's own statement was pretty inspiring:

For the record, I have NOT received one penny from Bill Cole, his campaign, or the GOP.

My candidacy is focused entirely on ISSUES that the Democratic Party once stood for. During the eight years that I served in the WV Legislature I maintained a 100% voting record on behalf of Senior Citizens, Labor, Small Businesses, West Virginians with Disabilities, women and children’s health issues and protecting drinkable water.  My legislative record of supporting people’s interests over corporations earned me the titles of "The Defender of the People" and the "Mother Jones of the WV Legislature."

The Democratic Party's campaign of fear and misinformation concerning me is not becoming to a party that once represented the people.

I am heart sick over the WV Democratic Party’s recent history of abandoning its progressive candidates. During my gubernatorial candidacy in 1996, Joe Manchin started Democrats for Underwood after I soundly defeated him in the Democratic primary. His Party has abandoned other progressive candidates since. Ask Sue Thorn about her First Congressional District run in 2012, or Virginia Graf about her Second Congressional District candidacy in 2010 or more recently, first Congressional Candidate Mike Manypenny or Mary Ann Claytor, the brilliant African American running for state Auditor. The Joe Manchin Democratic Party of today offers little support for candidates who put The People First!

Distracting registered Democrats from the fact that their own gubernatorial nominee only recently began calling himself a Democrat basically confirms that Joe Manchin’s corporate-controlled ALEC still owns both of WV’s mainstream Political Parties.