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Tag: don blankenship
Donald Trump Jr.

Judge Upholds Coal Magnate’s Lawsuit Against Donald Trump Jr.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Although Donald Trump Jr. and former coal baron Don Blankenship have a lot in common — both are far-right bullies, both are extremists, and both are aggressive defenders of fossil fuels — there is a considerable amount of bad blood between the two of them. And in West Virginia, a 95-year-old federal judge has refused to throw out Blankenship's defamation lawsuit against Trump Jr., according to Law & Crime.

The lawsuit stems from comments that Trump Jr., the son of former President Donald Trump, made about Blankenship during West Virginia's 2018 U.S. Senate race, which found Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin being reelected.

The 71-year-old Blankenship is the former CEO of the coal company Massey Energy, and he served a year behind bars because of his role in a 2010 coal mining disaster. In his lawsuit, Blankenship argues Trump Jr. wrongly defamed him by describing him as a convicted "felon"; Blankenship was incarcerated because of a misdemeanor conviction, not a felony conviction.

In one of his anti-Blankenship tweets, Trump Jr. said of Manchin, "He's probably never run against a felon." That tweet, according to Law & Crime reporter Elura Nanos, appears to have been deleted.

U.S. District Court John T. Copenhaver, Jr., who was appointed by President Gerald Ford back in the mid-1970s and is now 95, ruled that Blankenship's lawsuit can move forward.

Copenhaver wrote, "Based on this article that Trump Jr. himself cites within his own quote tweet, there is a plausible inference that he had knowledge of the plaintiff's conviction history in association with the mine explosion, and in particular that the conviction was a misdemeanor, not a felony."

The bitter rivalry between Trump Jr. and Blankenship started in 2018, when Blankenship ran for the U.S. Senate in West Virginia and Trump Jr. — pointing out that Blankenship had been incarcerated — predicted that centrist Democrat Manchin would crush Blankenship in the general election if Blankenship received the GOP nomination. Although West Virginia Republicans rejected Blankenship in the primary as Trump Jr. hoped and Republican Patrick Morrisey won the nomination, Manchin won the general election. The centrist and relatively conservative Manchin, like Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, has often been a source of frustration among more progressive Democrats. But he is popular in West Virginia, a deep red state.

Blankenship, who left the Republican Party in 2018, is now a member of the right-wing Constitution Party — and in 2020's presidential election, he received the Constitution Party's nomination and ran against then-President Donald Trump, now-President Joe Biden, Libertarian Party nominee Jo Jorgensen, and Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins.

Danziger: Canary In The GOP Coal Mine

Danziger: Canary In The GOP Coal Mine

Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons and one novel. Visit him at DanzigerCartoons.com.

#EndorseThis: Lewis Black Takes On The Midterm Primary Election And Wins

#EndorseThis: Lewis Black Takes On The Midterm Primary Election And Wins

“It’s like the X Games, only with more brain damage.” Is there a comic other than Lewis Black who would describe an election that way?

The “Miserable Jew” is back (as his branding suggests) with an epic 5-minute rant on the 2018 primaries, which he describes as a group of base-pandering politicians each trying to act like more of a wing-nut than the next. Black points a shaky finger at the GOP for allowing Don Blankenship a chance in West Virginia, while playing a clip of Blankenship’s “Cocaine Mitch” ad. Mitch McConnell might not actually be on cocaine, but we could all use drugs of some sort if an ex-convict is seated next to him in the Senate.

Black turns his ire toward the Democratic primary in New York, where Andrew Cuomo and Cynthia Nixon are in a race to the far-left. The misanthrope heralds a new aromatic era of NYC in which plastic bags are made illegal, and the odor of cat and dog crap overwhelms all of Manhattan. “Hold your nose and vote” could take on a whole new meaning by November.

Press play for election-day giggles.

#EndorseThis: John Oliver Flips Off Trump And His Coal Barons

#EndorseThis: John Oliver Flips Off Trump And His Coal Barons

Donald Trump’s promise to “bring back coal” — a madly Faustian bargain on a warming planet — may well have swung some Rust Belt states his way, as John Oliver suggests. But his administration’s claims to have fulfilled that pledge with “50,000 new coal jobs,” ironically articulated by EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, are simply lies.

Behind the arguments over coal and employment, advanced by Trump, the Republicans, and the mining industry, are even bigger lies. The victims of those lies, of course, are the miners themselves — who, unlike the coal barons, deserve much more federal assistance than they have received.

But as Oliver demonstrates, it’s the coal barons like convicted criminal Don Blankenship who enjoy the tender concern of Trump and the far right. It is especially uplifting to watch him defy an attempt at intimidation by Bob Murray, the unappealing chief of Murray Energy Corporation.

Bonus: What Trump really thinks of coal miners, expressed in a Playboy interview from 1990.

As always, Oliver contrives to present an infuriating story with precision, compassion, and lots of laughs.