Premiering tonight on PBS in 20 mins (9 pm EST) is the Mine Wars. It’s something you absolutely must understand if you want to know why modern West Virginia is what it is today. It’s a sad irony that as this premieres, our GOP legislature is advancing right to work bills.
BTW- I am a PBS donor, and you should be too.
Just Some Fuckhead
The mess that is West Virginia started with an illegal secession. Come back to Mama Virginia and we’ll make it all better.
BruceFromOhio
Tape it and watch Maddow. Just saying.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I think I’ll have to record this. Thanks for letting us know about it.
Mike J
One Rodney Anonymous got absolutely wrong.
Tommy
I am almost scared to watch. As an avid hiker/camper that lived just a hop, skip and fall from WV I’ve always felt it was a very under appreciated state from a beauty POV. So clearly blowing up mountain tops and poisoning streams and rivers pisses me off to no end.
raven
My grandfather spent 30 years in the mines in Southern Illinois. The Herrin Massacre is not widely known but nonetheless:
His father was killed in the wheelhouse when a cable snapped and I have the DuQuion Register with “Hiram Thornseberry Killed in the Mine” as the head line and a small piece about Archduke Ferdinand being buried that day.
Steve from Antioch
Reparations for miners!!!
SiubhanDuinne
@BruceFromOhio:
Any particular reason to watch Maddow tonight? I have marked my calendar for tomorrow night, when she’s doing the Flint water crisis Town Hall special, but hadn’t heard about anything out of the ordinary his evening. (I like her and if I had a TV I’d watch her every night, but I don’t, so I don’t.)
Tommy
@efgoldman: Yeah I had heard that. I give to NPR but not PBS, although I used to. When I got rid of cable awhile back I got about the best HDTV antenna you can buy. I can’t even get my local PBS station. The only upside is PBS has an amazing Roko channel.
raven
@Tommy: And you can go down to Giant City and you’ll be in the belly of the Southern Illinois mine country.
Bloody Williamson’s History of Mine Massacres
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Steve from Antioch:
No, I don’t think so. First of all, its likelihood of getting through Congress is nil. Second of all, I think it would be very divisive.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
I remember that! I mean, I don’t remember 1914 (whatever some at this blog may believe), but I remember that on the 100th anniversary of the WWI outbreak, you scanned and shared the newspaper page that had the article about Ferdinand, and the much bigger article about your great-grandfather.
Felonius Monk
If Steve “The Cat Who Saved West Virginia” plays the hero, I’ll watch it. Otherwise, I been to West Virginny on a fast train, honey.
Tommy
@raven: I recall you posted those links before and I had never heard of it. When I get on my road bike I head by a Peabody coal mine not that far from my house. Heck several people on my block work there. I flipping hate coal with a passion and the number of jobs are not what they used to be, but they are a powerful, powerful lobby. Heck that is why Obama was for “clean coal” (whatever the heck that is) when he ran for the Senate here and then POTUS.
lamh36
PBS is where I was introduced to ALL my fav old school movies. I was a poor kid, not extreme poverty, but not much money for luxuries like cable and stuff…so PBS or the library was my only source for movies sometimes..
I discovered Prime Suspect, BBC Pride and Prejudice, Doris Day, Bringing Up Baby…etc type of movies I’d never probably see in my youth.
I have a soft spot for PBS
BruceFromOhio
@efgoldman: OK, so which station? I could see some big city megabucks gig pulling something like that off, esp with a sleepy BoD.
The one I volunteered at is a block of concrete in the middle of a parking lot next to a freeway, staffed mostly by volunteers. People busted their ass to put this little station on the air, and fundraising was a combination of cruelty and drudgery. They partner with the local public radio station, and manage to pull off quite a diversity in programming. If someone is padding the budget or skimming for extras, it sure as hell ain’t here. And a bunch of $10 and $20 donations probably can go a ways.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Yea it was an interesting side note. I always remember that my dad’s first coaching job was down in Benton, Illinois. He spent all of WW2 in the Pacific on a small destroyer and participated in over 30 landings. He went down in the mine with my grandfather and said it was one of the most frightening things he ever did.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy:
I often drive from Atlanta up to visit my cousins in Ontario, and like to take the route through West Virginia so I can cross at either Buffalo or Niagara Falls. WV is a spectacularly beautiful state. As is western Pennsylvania.
raven
@Tommy: Yea, the mines he worked were Peabody. After he died we found all his Black Lung documents. He never got a dime.
BruceFromOhio
@SiubhanDuinne: Nothing in particular, sounds like you are more informed than I. I recommend watching Maddow any night, tomorrow night for certain, based on your comment. She has a way of sketching a narrative, and this one is already pretty damning.
(… waits to see who puns first … )
ThresherK
@raven: Aren’t you working “Lawyers Guns & Money’s” side of the street?
@Tommy: I have two nearby public radio stations that kick ass in local programming, which have fed my belief that the NPR mothership wants to create the next David Brooks and has no room for a host too liberal and confrontational for their pet inbreds.
Does your local create any programming I should be searching out from my place inthe Northeast?
(Let’s just say that one of my NPR affilite locals did not spend an hour in a polite chitchat with Rich Lowry today.)
Betty Cracker
Rachel Maddow loves Senator Claire McCaskill. God help me, I like her too.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: The run up 77 is nice.
raven
@ThresherK: Hmm, no bic?
Baud
@Betty Cracker: She has moxie.
lamh36
@Green_Footballs 41s41 seconds ago
Breaking Report: Shots Fired at Oregon Standoff – Ammon Bundy Arrested by FBI
Mike J
@efgoldman: Station or net?
Walter Amos
Watching now. Posted the following to my Facebook page about 2 hours ago:
“What I’ll be watching tonight, and if you have a chance, you should too… sounds like an important examination of some of that American history that apparently isn’t worth teaching in those special “USA Capitalism rah rah only” history books they’re trying to introduce in Texas and elswhere…”
Baud
@lamh36: Holy cow. So much for going to bed at a decent hour tonight.
Steve from Antioch
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Some people like to ask questions about how the reparations would work, but I want to know why we can’t even have a conversation about reparations for miners in this country.
My great grandpappys bones are still buried somewhere deep in Big Sandy #4 in Mingo County
Patricia Kayden
@BruceFromOhio: Maddow is always informative. She does a great job of making politics fun.
Patricia Kayden
@lamh36: Not seeing that on MSNBC.
Tommy
@ThresherK: They do a ton of local programming if for no other reason then they can’t afford to purchase many of the national shows. I’ve never counted the hours of their schedule but I’d think close to 75% is local programming. Well that might be inaccurate because they do go to PRI from like 10 PM until early AM. I also give to KCRW out of Santa Monica. Their musical programming is the best I’ve ever heard.
Tim C.
I live in Portland, OR. Local media is reporting that the highway into The bird refuge has been closed and the local hospital is locked down. Somethings happening.
lamh36
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
It’s very scenic, and the tunnel at the VA-WV border is always exciting :-)
ThresherK
@raven: “Bic”? I prefer snowy egret quills dipped in the amniotic fluid of fourth-trimester aborted baby parts sold to me by PP. Yes, I am the one lefty Carly has warned you about.
But LGM did address the Herrin Mine on its most recent anniversary.
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36:
Whoa
raven
@ThresherK: No Bic, Vietnamese for I don’t understand.
Mike J
@efgoldman: So PBS isn’t in your experience a bad donation, the local station is.
lamh36
This is why I cannot with Craigslist!
Police: Colorado homeowner kills man who tried to rob him after responding to Craigslist ad
Tim C.
KATU (Portland TV, ABC affilliate) Link to Bundy Story.
http://katu.com/news/local/leader-of-oregon-occupation-ammon-bundy-three-others-arrested
Iowa Old Lady
Twitter stream on Oregon standoff
Tommy
@Mike J: I bet it depends where you live. I refuse to give to my local PBS station because they don’t carry much local programming, plus I can’t even get it on my HDTV antenna. My NPR station is much better with local programming. Plus they cover stuff on my side of the river from St. Louis. I often joke although I live in Southern Illinois but I feel like I live in MO because there is so little coverage in the Post-Dispatch or the local TV stations. Sure I can get my news online but when I am cleaning or cooking and want local news NPR is really the best I have.
Granite
Trump. Is. Coming.
And there’s nothing you can do about it.
Trump is the best tool we’ve ever had to win the presidency in this climate.
Does anyone doubt he is the inevitable GOP nominee?
different-church-lady
@Granite: I think you just doomed him.
You personally.
Granite
Trump is the winner.
All he has to do is talk about winning and being a winner and he’s the next President, with enough working digits to sign GOP Congressional legislation.
He will beat Hillary like a fucking rented mule.
Gin & Tonic
@Granite: Why isn’t Jeb inevitable any more? You guaranteed us he was.
Granite
@different-church-lady:
He’s leading in all the polls.
Donald J. Trump: 45th President of the United States.
Get used to it.
Patricia Kayden
@lamh36: LGF is covering the end of the stand off. Doesn’t sound like it’s ending well for the Terrorists.
ThresherK
@raven: Oops, sorry. The website “Lawyers Guns and Money” taught me everything about mining, farming and factory disasters that I never learned in school. They really cover the scene from a legal and historical perspective.
different-church-lady
Bundy busting?
Ohio Mom
@lamh36: Well that was a dumb move on that Craigs list seller’s part. He should have arranged to meet the buyers in a neutral spot — a mall food court or something like that. Not his home, and probably not by himself.
I once bought a Craigs list rug in a bookstore’s parking lot. We rolled it out on the asphalt for inspection before I forked over the money.
Really, would you invite a blind date over to.your place?
different-church-lady
@Granite: Every single prediction you’ve ever made here has crashed and burned.
Every… single… one.
Trump should sue you just for opening your mouth.
raven
@ThresherK: Ah, I had Zevon on my head! Thanks.
Gin & Tonic
@Granite: Hey, remember this?
You, last September.
amk
LOL.
#OregonUnderAttack #oregonstandoff Bundy to occupy new Federal lands
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
A few years ago, some random thing that I was looking up on the intertubes led to something else, which led to something else, which led to… Anyway, I found out about the Paint Creek Massacre, which happened a little over 100 years ago, at a mine town in West Virginia. There was a Senate hearing, at which a guy from New Jersey I’d never heard of slapped around the mine owner something good. Got myself a new minor hero in life in James E. Martine, who’s all but forgotten today, but was quite the rabble-rouser in his day. You can read some of the back and forth here.
Baud
@amk: :-)
jl
News update is Trump definitely not in Fox debate, ’cause Fox won’t donate anything out of their yoooge profits to Wounded Warriors, and the stupid lightweight (Trump’s characterization) Megyn Kelly will be allowed on stage.
I heard on pundit say it was suicidal and one say it was (maybe) a brilliant move (but that was Sabato, who is a hack).
Trump is getting bored, to Trump self-destructive implosion commences, or Trump political genius marches on.
Who knows?
Granite2Rise should put some money on it, though.
Granite
@Gin & Tonic:
I adjust my views based on the evidence.
Trump is boycotting the newest Fox News debate. This will be a total disaster or Fox, the demise of their channel. They are huge losers with falling ratings. Trump is the big victor yet again.
jl
@Baud: Trump out of debate. Now’s your chance. Get out those cheekless chaps and practice the fart pranks. A slot is opening for you tomorrow!
Gin & Tonic
@Granite: How about this classic?
lamh36
@TheWrap
Biggest deal in festival history as FOX acquires ‘Birth of a Nation’ for $17.5 million
Granite
Fox News is an embarrassment, a dying channel with pathetic ratings. They need Trump more than Trump needs them. Fox is a loser channel.
Schlemazel
http://katu.com/news/local/leader-of-oregon-occupation-ammon-bundy-three-others-arrested
looks to be true
Patricia Kayden
@amk: That’s exactly the Federal property that all those Terrorists should occupy.
Iowa Old Lady
Here’s a local investigative reporter’s twitter feed. Reliable guy.
Baud
@jl: Do you think I can pass as a Republican?
Mandalay
Say what? Even gofundme has a gazillion causes far more deserving than PBS. Seriously.
You are free to do whatever you want with your money, but giving to PBS is one of the least worthwhile causes I can imagine.
jl
@different-church-lady: First three, now eight arrested. I hope no one hurt with the shots fired.
I guess they were waiting for a critical mass of those crooks to leave their commandeered headquarters so would be easier to pick off.
I suppose the Bundy Gang will say the traffic stops are unconstitutional because no one word about automobiles in the Constitution. Not one single word.
Baud
ShaneDeitertCNN Verified account
@ShaneDeitertCNN
At least 8 of Ammon Bundy’s associates detained by authorities after traffic stop and brandishing weapons.
SiubhanDuinne
@Granite:
It’s past your bedtime. Go put on your jammies, brush your teef and say your prayers, and Mommy will come tuck widdle wun in for the night.
Granite
Fox News is pathetic.
They used to ask Trump on all the time, they begged him to appear to boost their low ratings. But now that Trump refuses to appear before biased debate moderators, they don’t like him now. They used to want him for his ratings boost, but reject him now?
Pathetic!
Fox News is a joke.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
has the thread been busted wide open?
Trump don’t talk to losers and sidekicks! Except Joe and Mika
jl
@Baud:
” Do you think I can pass as a Republican? ”
Hell if I know. From what I know of your campaign, I wonder if you can stay on your feet all the way through.
But Trump has paved the way, and I trust Baud! “We have until November to mess this up!” 2016 can forge ahead into brave new politics from there.
Tim C.
Very little local or national coverage of Bundy arrests at the moment, Either everyone is dropping the ball or media has been asked to hold off saying everything until it settles down out there. Hoping everyone stays safe and minimal violence is going on.
raven
@jl: There is very little chance than no one was hurt if shots were fired.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: Yep. Sadly we can’t watch the takedown. Strange that CNN or MSNBC aren’t live with this breaking news.
gwangung
@lamh36: A good film, in the right place and the right time
And I hope the film makes ten times that amount next year.
Gin & Tonic
@Granite: Little Donnie is scared of a *girl*.
jl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
” Except Joe and Mika ”
They are the help. Trump treats the help nice if they do a good job. Everyone knows that.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: No. You’re way too smart.
eclare
Mine Wars being repeated at 1 am CST. Set to record.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: Thank you for the correct answer.
raven
@Patricia Kayden: Rachel has to pimp her special tomorrow and CNN is in the middle of one now.
Granite
@Gin & Tonic:
Trump is just above all of them. Fox News is pathetic, and Megan Kelly what a joke!
Cheryl Rofer
Stuff is still happening at the Oregon standoff. Law enforcement says they will have a statement in an hour or so, but what I’m seeing from local sources suggests that they may be busy enough that the time of the statement is indefinite.
Tim C.
@Patricia Kayden: Nothing on the local channels except the basic info at the moment. They aren’t even speculating. Like the story started getting told and then they shifted and stopped talking about it at all. Very very strange.
Edit: What Cheryl said.
Mai.naem.mobile
@lamh36: I’ve bought off craigslist several times. Never sold. You just have to use your common sense.
PsiFighter37
I think Trump skipping out on the debate is a bad move by him (not that I have his well-being in interest) – it makes him look like he can’t take the heat from Megyn Kelly, and it gives everyone else on the stage license to bash him. That said, every time someone has bothered attacking the Donald, it seems to have backfired…so who knows? On the clown car side, it seems like ordinary rules simply do not apply this year.
Re; Bundy getting arrested – good. Sentence him, throw the key away, and see how Papa Cliven likes it.
Schlemazel
@raven:
The tweets from the investigative reporter mentioned above says an air ambulance was dispatched. The word is one of the Y’all Quada, Ryan Payne, has multiple gunshot wounds/ FWIW
Patricia Kayden
@raven: Yep. Or maybe Law Enforcement asked the media to stand down. Oh well. At least a few blogs are covering the takedown.
Granite
@PsiFighter37:
Trump runs the GOP debates;
His absence will make the Fox ratings fall through the floor.
Pathetic!
It will further demonstrate the irrelevance of Fox News The winner, as always, is Trump.
Keith G
@PsiFighter37: From local TV in Ore.
ThresherK
@raven: No prob. Of course the website was named by people who love the song.
Patricia Kayden
@Tim C.: Have to admit that this is exciting though. Didn’t think the takeover would end so soon.
Mandalay
@Gin & Tonic:
Well one reason is that he fucked up massively today – his PAC put out an ad with Terri Schiavo in it.
Putting aside the crassness and stupidity of doing that, Jeb reaped a brutal (but richly deserved) verbal shit kicking from Terri Schiavo’s husband:
Jeb is generally treated here as a hapless doofus, but but let’s not forget than underneath that bland persona is a thoroughly vile and nasty human being.
SiubhanDuinne
Hope Adam is getting ready to post his thoughts on the Bundy arrests. I look forward to his take, and also to whatever Jim Wright at Stonekettle Station has to say (although Jim will likely not put anything up for a day or two).
Mike in NC
@Granite: Hey, Right to Laugh, can’t we all agree that JEBzzz bouncing back! Surely he didn’t piss away $15M on ads in NH where everybody despises his clan. Open your eyes!!!
lamh36
BREAKING: FBI statement confirms Ammon Bundy in custody. … #KOIN6News #Oregonstandoff
Schlemazel
@Keith G:
yeah I posted that link earlier
Here is a good tweeter feed from a local reporter
says one of the loons is dead. That will not be a good thing I fear
Cheryl Rofer
https://twitter.com/LesZaitz/status/692179439594135552
https://twitter.com/LesZaitz/status/692179522968494080
hilts
“I am a PBS donor, and you should be too.”
Cole, this is one of the smartest statements you’ve ever written on this blog.
@efgoldman:
Many of the best television programs I have ever seen aired on PBS.
I’m thinking of shows like these: Alistair Cooke’s America, American Experience, American Masters, The American Short Story, American Playhouse, The Ascent of Man, Austin City Limits, Bill Moyers’ Journal, Cosmos, Frontline, Globe Trekker, Great Performances, Independent Lens, Independent Focus, Live from Lincoln Center, Masterpiece, Nature, NOVA, The Open Mind, POV, Rick Steves’ Europe, Theater Talk, and Wide Angle.
Say what you will about PBS, but for me, their travel programs beat anything on the Travel Channel, their history programs beat anything on the History Channel, and their news and public affairs programs beat anything on CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News.
Even if what you’ve written is 100% accurate, it does not detract one iota from the the high quality of the programs I have listed.
Origuy
FBI statement with details from Twitter.
hilts
@Granite:
Trump has exposed himself as the ultimate CHICKENSHIT COWARD.
Schlemazel
Oregon line story
Ryan Payne shot but OK, 1 dead, unnamed.
trollhattan
re. Oregon, what about the guns? DID SOMEBODY SAVE THE GUNS?
Fvckers. Hopefully they’re arresting dad at the same time.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@hilts: Yup.
Cutting funding from public goods doesn’t make them better.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who gives to PBS, NPR, EFF and lots of other groups, even when he doesn’t agree with all they do.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan: and whither the cannoli?
BruceFromOhio
@trollhattan: @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Whither The Cannoli, opening for SOMEBODY SAVE THE GUNS. Tuesday 1/26 @ The Agora.
Doors 10:00pm – Show 11:00pm.
Mandalay
@efgoldman:
I hope those here who consider PBS to be such a deserving cause are mindful of that.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@efgoldman: Boston is different from, say, mid-size cities in Ohio. PBS was often the only source of decent programming for much of the country – even these days. Sure, the shows have underwriters, but the stations have to have the funding to get the shows and put them on the air. The Dayton PBS station struggled for decades but were an essential resource.
I know there are many, many examples of waste in non-profits and public service outfits. But, IMHO, the way to get them to straighten up is not to weaken them by reducing their funding, but for people to scream bloody murder at the board of directors and the heads of the organization to straighten up and fly right.
One of my previous neighbors transferred down here and worked for PBS – in fulfillment or something. She hated her job because of the management. She wanted to go back to Boston because things were so much better at the station there… ;-)
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
SteveinSC
Matewan
NCSteve
@SteveinSC: Engrossing, indispensable, heartbreaking, and about as accurate as any historical movie ever is.