The Massey picnic always seemed a little strange to me — a blatant attempt by the very worst of corporate citizens to buy a little good will from the public with corn dogs and country music. That said, Don Blankenship was always able to get better acts for the people of Logan than we ever see around here. I wish the people who run the Regatta could book Dwight Yoakam.
The line from the Daily Mail article that stood out to me was this one:
Company spokesman Jeff Gillenwater said the cancellation was a business decision, based partly on the struggling U.S. coal market and other economic factors.
What? Uhm, actually the coal market has been doing alright. Pretty good even. It’s Massey that hasn’t been doing so hot.
And that’s because Massey is run by a goddamn ignorant hayseed with half a college education who’s more worried about influencing state politics on the company dime than doing his job.
Why Massey or its shareholders continue to stand for this remains a mystery to me.
April 26, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Okay, this is what is happening. Massey placates stockholders with a public display of fiscal belt-tightening. The Blankenship, who was larded up with about $27 million in the past 1.5 years, rides in, removes his black hat, mops the sweat from his brow, and says he’ll pay for the party hisself because, well, we need Toby Keith for the sake of the kids. Just the kind of image polishing Blankenship is in need of, politically, so that the next time he’s caught tying a damsel to his railroad track, we’ll remember that yummy funnel cake we et.
April 26, 2007 at 9:30 pm
I agree with 4:49 anonymous. Just wait for the Don to sweep in and pay for it hisself (nice corn-jawed vernacular flavor on that pronoun, 4:49!).
Don will look good and everybody’ll know just who their friend is.
April 26, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Let them eat coal.
April 27, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Without a party what will our local TV news media report on? Guess they’ll have to find a different way to suck the ol’ black cock of coal.
April 27, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Actually(unfortunately!) Massey earning have increased 5fold over the same quarter as last year, according to the DM, giving more creadence to the Don to the rescue theory. Don’t know how this stacked up against other cos.
May 8, 2007 at 11:34 am
Thats because this quarter last year massey’s profits were completely in the shitter.
July 15, 2008 at 3:09 pm
It should be noted that Massey Energy has been the best performing stock in the S&P 500 over the last year. Many people seem to forget that coal is a commodity and those markets have always been cyclical. Given the ever-increasing global demand for energy, I would assume that Massey Energy will be a fairly stable to steadily growing company over the next few years. Not too bad for “a goddamn ignorant hayseed with half a college education” When you compare the growth of Massey Energy to many of its competitors of the 1980s, it is actually quite a remarkable achievement.