Quote:Part of this is the fault of the president himself. He never once tweeted about his deal to his 42.8 million followers, but instead used Twitter to attack old foes on his trip, including the media (“While in the Philippines I was forced to watch @CNN, which I have not done in months, and again realized how bad, and FAKE, it is. Loser!”) and the leader of North Korea (“Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’ Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend — and maybe someday that will happen!”).

Quote:Last weekend in Beijing, as part of his 12-day trip to Asia, President Trump announced that the US and China had signed an $83.7 billion memorandum of understanding to create a number of petrochemical projects in West Virginia over the next 20 years.

Excuse us if we don't immediately start genuflecting. If anything ever materializes then he'll get all the credit in the world from me.

Y’all just be sure to wave that wand first!
Ya hear?!?

Cuz, you know... magic. smdh.


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(11-19-2017 06:24 PM)Crebman Wrote:  Born and raised in Southern Ohio coal country....the land still has some scars, but it's mostly to a point now where you have to know where to go and look to find them. Nature has done a pretty good job of engulfing what was once obvious. Still a few streams - creeks we call them - that have runoff that makes them largely dead, but no rivers.

Those places in the Ohio Valley as well as others are in dire need of middle class jobs and I can tell you right now, they will be willing to risk a bit of environmental stuff to get them.

I was born in the Valley and still have a lot of family there. Those communities have been ravaged in the past 50 years-- all the best and brightest in those towns have moved on to Columbus, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati-- anywhere but there. Most of the people left are either senior citizens or low-lifes living off their disability checks. Glad to see this happen, because without some sort of intervention some of those towns would not have existed in 20 years when the old folks die off.

(11-19-2017 02:39 PM)banker Wrote:  

(11-19-2017 02:29 PM)EagleX Wrote:  admirable. but to a certain extent, wva is empty calories. he needs to find $85 billion foreign investments for PA, WI, and MI. they punched his ticket.

Yeah, I couldn't disagree with that more. To an extent, WV is the poster child for the expanding rust belt economy. A turn around in the fortunes there shows that a turnaround can happen in the worst parts of those other states. Plus it hits at the heart of a Trump campaign promise as it pertains to helping those who were killed by Obama and his anti coal policies.

I understand what you are saying, but look at the percentages Trump pulled not only in WV, but in the bordering counties of the contiguous states. His margins in southern OH, SW PA and eastern KY are what allowed him to overcome deficiencies in the major metro areas of those states.

I couldn't disagree more with you being unable to disagree more with me.

I would submit that WVA is actually a bit of an economic one-off, and thus a particularly poor "laboratory" for Trumponomics. WVA, in particular, was devastated by the Obamite EPA's war on fossil fuels. Just blowing that agency up will go a long ways toward setting things in WVA as they were before the EPA spent 8 years trying to destroy it.

Now, as far as being a candidate for the national Trumponomics success story; (and I apologize for knowingly stepping on a sectional landmine here) it's just not a significant enough state. Not economically, and not electorally. unless WV suddenly grows the GDP of CA, no one is going to care. not to mention that west virginia only has so much potential for improvement to begin with.

Trump is in office because he flipped those three blue states. That's where he needs to focus. Those are also states he's going to need for reelection (and WVA is a lock, so no advantage there), so MI, PA, and WI are also crucial from a purely political perspective.