Sunday, May 8, 2016

I have a lot of respect for underground coal miners, but this speech leaves one speechless: For the historical record: Trump's speech in Charleston WV.

They played John Denver "Take me Home, Country Roads" (Denver must be rolling in his grave, since he was an anti-oil, environmental activist)... Trump took the stage.  After being given an endorsement by the West Virginia Coal Association, he was presented with a hard hat – which he briefly donned and then took off, at which point he begin riffing on whether his hair was still in place, which took him down the road of comparing the regulatory control of hairspray to the regulatory control of the coal industry 

 He did acknowledge that  'Sanders knows we're being ripped off on trade, but I knew it a long time before he did.'  And he says the right things on trade, hits all the buttons about people being underpaid, says the education system needs improvement.  

 And, all of this is not to say that Hillary's message is much of an alternative, given complicity with past policies that have put people out of work and a less than robust vision of how we might seek a just transition for places like coal country going forward..but, for another day.

 But then Trump stokes up the corrosive hatred of the scapegoat – blame the Mexicans, blame the Chinese, blame Obama, blame Clinton (well, for NAFTA, yes), but, you get the picture.  For the record, here's the hairspray part (those younger than me will not remember that the battle over the ozone layer was first fought around aerosols, back in the 1970s.  Trump appears to dismiss that battle as much as he is now dismissive of the struggle against global warming):

 http://www.c-span.org/video/?409094-1/donald-trump-addresses-supporters-charleston-west-virginia

 From the C-Span transcript, you cannot make this stuff up:

MR. TRUMP: NICE. NICE. GOT TO PUT IT ON, RIGHT? THANK YOU, EVERYBODY. THAT IS GREAT. MY HAIR LOOK OK? GIVE ME A LITTLE SPRAY. YOUR ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE HAIRSPRAY ANYMORE BECAUSE IT AFFECTS THE ZOZONE. YOU ME TO TELL ME, BECAUSE YOU KNOW HAIRSPRAY IS NOT LIKE IT USED TO BE. IT USED TO BE REAL GOOD. WHAT I PUT ON IT HELMET. IT REALLY IS MINE, RIGHT? LOOK AT THIS, RIGHT? MY HAIR. GIVE ME A MIRROR. IN THE OLD DAYS HE PUT THE HAIRSPRAY ON, IT WAS GOOD. TODAY YOU PUT THE HAIRSPRAY ON, IT IS GOOD FOR 12 MINUTES, RIGHT? YOU KNOW THEY SAY YOU CANNOT -- WAIT A MINUTE, SO I TAKE HAIRSPRAY AND IF I SPRAY IT IN MY APARTMENT WHICH IS ALL SEALED, YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT AFFECTS THE OZONE PLAYER? -- OZONE LAYER? NO WAY, FOLKS. NO WAY. THAT IS LIKE A LOT OF THE RULES AND REGULATIONS YOU PEOPLE HAVE IN THE MINES. SO, I WANT TO THANK YOU FOLKS. BELIEVE ME IT IS AN HONOR. I GET ELECTED YOU ARE GOING TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS. IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN FAST, AND YOU ARE GOING TO BE BACK TO BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE. AND HONESTLY THAT BEAT -- MEANS ALL KINDS OF ENERGY. WE NEVER WANT TO BE AN A POSITION LIKE WE WERE IN BEFORE WHERE WE WERE LITERALLY CONTROLLED BY PEOPLE, OPEC AND OTHERS, BUT WE WERE LITERALLY, IN THE HANDS OF THESE PEOPLE. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN, FOLKS. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN. SO, CONGRATULATIONS. NOW I WANT -- WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO IS SAVE YOUR VOTE. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO VOTE ANYMORE. SAVE YOUR VOTE FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION COULD FORGET THIS ONE. THE PRIMARY IS GONE. SAVE YOUR VOTE FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION IN NOVEMBER AND WE ARE GOING TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING AND THEN YOU WILL SHOW ME SOMETHING, OK? LOOK AT THAT. OK, THANK YOU. SO, WE'LL TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT TRADE AND JOBS. WE WILL TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE BORDERS. ARE YOU BIG BORDER PEOPLE? THE WALL. EVERYBODY WANTS THE WALL. WE WILL HAVE TO WALL. WE WILL HAVE THE WALL. THAT'S VERY NICE. WE WILL BUILD THAT WALL.

Updated 5/9/16: Meanwhile, outside the venue, this unfolded:
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