Justice and Trump conversation

From Metro News on Wednesday:

Last Saturday, Justice was coaching basketball at Greenbrier East High School when he said Eric Trump called him and then handed over the phone to his father, President-elect Donald Trump.

The two spoke for about 15 minutes, according to Justice.

He said, ‘It’s high time two good men that are running for the right reasons won,'” Justice said of the phone conversation with Trump who opted not to endorse Senate President Bill Cole (R-Mercer, 06) ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.

Justice, a registered Democrat, said President-elect Trump instructed him to tell all West Virginians that coal miners would be going back work with him in the White House.

We shall see.

If you're not yet worn out by presidential politics, the speculation has begun for 2020

I'm not kidding. Last week, the Boston Globe weighed-in on who might be running for president in 2020. Among the possibilities:

Joe Manchin. Manchin, currently a US senator from West Virginia, is a former governor as well. He’s now one of the few centrists in the Senate, which could be a problem for the Democratic Party’s left wing if he were to run. But Manchin has consistently won as a Democrat in a state full of white, working-class voters who have made a hard right turn over the last decade.

Before you toss it out as filler or idle speculation, think about how many people took Donald Trump seriously two years ago, two months ago, or even three weeks ago.

The "king of bankruptcy" gets the commerce job

Last week I mentioned that Wilbur Ross, who owned the Sago Mine at the time of the mine disaster which killed 12 miners, was being considered for the secretary of commerce post. Apparently, he will be nominated according to a number of sources. Interestingly, only a few sources mention the Sago mine disaster in their article but almost all use his nickname, "the king of bankruptcy."

Quite an honor.

WV voter turnout - some good and bad news

The numbers are in on voter turnout on a state-by-state basis. The good news for West Virginia is that the state increased its turnout by 4.7% which was the biggest gain in the country. The bad news is that our increase moved us up to a tie for 48th place with Tennessee. (Only Utah and Hawaii had lower turnout rates.)