So Much for the Massey Picnic

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.