I am not sure how I missed this bit of information — local and state media suck in KY, but it was reported that Kentucky has FEWER jobs in the coal industry after Trump won the White House.
Two years since Donald Trump carried every Kentucky coal county by whopping margins after promising miners would go back to work if he became president, the state has fewer coal jobs.
Coal employment averaged 6,550 in Kentucky in the first quarter of 2017 when Trump was sworn in, according to the state Energy and Environment Cabinet.
The estimated average in the July-through-September quarter this year was 6,381, according to a cabinet report released this week.
Given the date this was released, I suspect my attention was riveted on the midterm.
And it really does not surprise me. I am not plugged into the coal industry and employment, but it does not take a genius to notice that coal industry jobs have been declining for decades. What makes this noteworthy is the Liar-in-Chief in the White House made some really grandious promises about bringing back coal mining jobs. And as this article point out:
But overall, the numbers show there has been no sustained increase in coal employment in the state. Coal jobs in Kentucky topped 18,000 in 2011.
Now, to be fair, according to this report, there have been a whopping 1,900 more coal jobs produced nationally under Trump. What was pointed out is that those coal jobs were in mining coal that is used in making steel, which Kentucky really does not produce. So what is the spin on this failure, at least the spin put out by the coal industry?
“We feel that the blood-letting that was happening as recently as 2016 has ceased,” said Tyler White, president of the Kentucky Coal Association. “We’re doing a lot better.”
That has put the industry on a more even keel and boosted optimism, White said.
The industry credits Trump for stopping the big job losses.
White goes on to say it all would have been WORSE if Trump had not been elected.
Therefore, for Kentucky, the line is “We have slowed the bleeding of coal industry jobs!”
Sadly, this bit of BS will probably work in Kentucky. Mitch McConnell has done nothing to stop the decline in coal industry jobs that has been occuring since he was first elected to the Senate back in 1984. But he and the other Republicans have been able to blame the evil Obama for the “war on coal.” Hillary Clinton served under Obama, and she told the truth that the coal industry is dying. Therefore, she was Satan’s bride in KY.
I’m afraid this attitude among Kentucky voters will continue for multiple reasons.
- The local and state media fail to cover anything of substance, besides crime and sports.
- Their is a bipartisan consensus among the worthless politicians in Kentucky not to take on the coal industry or mention the fact that coal is a dying industry.
- The poverty and lack of economic opportunities for people in Kentucky, especially coal country, breeds desperation and a willingness to reject the facts about the coal industry.
It is a grim situation.