Enemies of the People

"You can't mine coal without machine guns." Richard B. Mellon, March 19, 1858 – December 3, 1933, Testimony before Congress, quoted in Time Magazine, June 14, 1937

John L. Lewis

Mellon as a huge stockholder in the Pittsburgh Coal Company was a great enemy of  John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers. He was also a great donor to the Presbyterian Church.

Don Blankenship,  member, board of directors, US Chamber of Commerce, CEO of Massey Energy, operator of the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, where twenty-five died this week,

Mr. Blankenship is also a huge contributor to the "Tea Party/Tea Bagger" movement. 

Blankenship Quotes:

"Turn down your thermostats? Buy a smaller car? Conserve? I have spent quite a bit of time in Russia and China, and that’s the first stage. You go from having your own car to carpooling to riding the bus to mass transit. You eventually get to where you’re walking. You go from your own apartment and bathroom to sharing kitchens with four families. That’s what socialism and the elimination of capitalism and free enterprise is all about.”

 "We don't pay much attention to the violation count." 

"Some fear we are entering a new Ice Age. We must demand that more coal be burned to save the Earth from Global Cooling."

But, he added, "I don't like to see trade associations refer to global warming as "an issue" because it supports the idea something needs to be done about it." He said he has pressed Mr. Donohue [corporate flunky, former Postal Service Executive and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce] to take an even tougher stand against proposals in Congress to require companies to pay for their emissions. He said high emissions "mean you've got a better, more productive economy."-Wall Street Journal, Nov. 2, 2009

Quote of the Day

"He paid the market-price for politicians. Up in Western City I happen to know a lady who was a school-commissioner when he was buying school-lands from the state--lands that were known to contain coal. He was paying three dollars an acre, and everybody knew they were worth three thousand."

"Well," said Cotton, "if you don't buy the politicians, you wake up some fine morning and find that somebody else has bought them. If you have property, you have to protect it."

 Upton Sinclair, King Coal