tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post7982962272929472337..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Veep Debate (UPDATED)Dale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-82493513311844783472016-10-07T15:54:30.808-07:002016-10-07T15:54:30.808-07:00That's for sure.That's for sure.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-72393722265730143072016-10-07T12:28:35.939-07:002016-10-07T12:28:35.939-07:00I feel like somewhere there is a good steampunk st...I feel like somewhere there is a good steampunk story to be from war on coal. Though when victorian ideas are the first you think of in Veep debate somethings wrong.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05812503574018469872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-86169855418132780402016-10-05T15:35:37.266-07:002016-10-05T15:35:37.266-07:00I suspect the "War on Coal" is on its la...I suspect the "War on Coal" is on its last lap as a culture war site. The places where that resonates are becoming electoral backwaters, the political system is becoming less responsive to them as their numbers dwindle and their politics abrade winning national coalitions. That's terrible news for the precarious citizens with legitimate concerns and urgent unmet needs in such places. <br /><br />Of course, fracking has killed way more coal jobs than solar panels or EPA regulations. If anything renewable infrastructure looks like one of the better employers for coal country at least in the short term. HRC has an elaborate plan for economic revitalization in extractive economies which the GOP just lies about while they otherwise ignore the issue in the usual manner (coal country and the demographic for which it is synecdochic would also benefit from HRC's drug treatment/mental healthcare-not-jails programs and early childhood education and support and environmental justice infrastructure proposals -- not that they'll vote for her for it, but the problem is ours to solve anyway). <br /><br />I agree with you that a "war on coal" would actually be a good idea anyway, and a war on fracking when it comes to it. Battles against fracking look to remain state-level for now, national politics can't see past the electorally unpredictable volatility of energy pricing spikes during the too-long transition to public renewable energy/transportation infrastructure investment, which looks like it is going to have to be stealthed through Defense rather than stealthed in the historically usual manner through Highway and Education funding due to dysfunctional Congressional GOP obstructionism. <br /><br />I do also like the rhetorical gesture analogizing dirty extractive energy to tobacco -- but Gore really pushed that analogy in the An Inconvenient Truth era of mainstream eco-activism and it really didn't go anywhere. Maybe HRC's more jingoistic "World's Green Superpower" rhetoric will work better for my dumb fellow Americans. Who knows?Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-25641422468941710072016-10-05T05:14:06.952-07:002016-10-05T05:14:06.952-07:00You could have made a regular drinking game around...You could have made a regular drinking game around the slogan "war on coal." Did you see that coming? I must confess that I actively tune out horse race coverage and didn't. Do you think they're hoping "coal rolling" makes a comeback during this last month of the campaign season? Do you think Mr. Kaine made a critical mistake by not unapologetically taking that one head on, or would that have amounted to taking the bait and feeding the troll? "War on coal" sounds like a very good idea to me, and no, I'm not motivated by "war on coal country" as a culture war gambit. I mean rehabilitating the both the coal belts and the coal consumption belts (almost all of America) to more honest and honorable (AND prosperous) livelihoods. Sort of like the largely successful and much needed "war on tobacco" that we have been waging for the last few decades. Coal is an entire product category we'd be better off without.<br />Lorrainehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13567383019731167967noreply@blogger.com