"For too long, politics has become about a person as opposed to a platform." - @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Mamdani Platform: I'm gonna freeze the - rent! Buses fast and - free! Universal - childcare! When your platform becomes a rallying cry, you're #Winning

Nearly 2/3 of West Virginians on #Medicaid are already working. Another 29% are caregivers, students or have disabilities. This ain't "fraud, waste & abuse!" "These are people doing their best, often under incredibly difficult circumstances." #WV westvirginiawatch.com/2025/06/17/w...

WV coal miners ask federal judge for injunction to keep NIOSH functioning to protect from black lung, reports @caitycoyne.bsky.social buff.ly/dYnGw35

MSJ is honored to have filed a lawsuit challenging RFK Jr.'s #NIOSH cuts - particularly those impacting WV coal miners' health and safety - alongside @squarejustice.bsky.social and AppalMad. @westvirginiawatch.com westvirginiawatch.com/2025/05/07/w...

WV wouldn't have a single four-lane highway if it weren't for DEI! The Appalachian Regional Commission is one of the original diversity, equity, & inclusion programs. #dei #appalachia #wvpol #wv

We must Block the Billionaires who seek to control our society. Whenever they keep someone else down, they get richer & we all suffer.

The beloved community is under attack... www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_e...

Closing the top agency (USAID) that combats child poverty is as hostile as you can get to religious values of grace, love, & mercy. 💔 To all Bible-believing Christians & all people of good faith, please reflect deeply at what is happening in our name as Americans.

"Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, you should expect a separation of power,” said long-time WV Legislative Auditor Aaron Allred as he attended a rally at the WV Capitol. “If Congress is not going to be a check on Musk and Trump, we’re going to have to have people peacefully protest..."

COMMENTARY: As a labor lawyer and community advocate in Southern West Virginia, I was inspired recently by visiting the coalfields in the south of Wales, writes @squarejustice.bsky.social.

My argument for investing in childcare as an economic diversification/transition strategy, based lessons from the decline of the regional coal industry in South Wales---very analogous to our current challenges in West Virginia. westvirginiawatch.com/2025/01/17/l...

"Pride" -- the film about an historic alliance between the Welsh coal miners' union & the lesbian & gay community. Worth a watch for all of us in Appalachia & America who believe in a brighter future! youtu.be/kZfFvsKDuUU?...

"If it is true ... that love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence, then any society which excludes, relatively, the development of love, must in the long run perish of its own contradiction with the basic necessities of human nature." - Erich Fromm

It's #SmallBusinessSaturday! Don't fritter away all your money at big retailers owned by private equity firms that are killing American jobs, local enterprises, & communities. The trinkets aren't worth those harms! #ShopSmall #HappyThanksgiving #NoCreditChristmas

The struggle between the #WorkingClass and Big Business is the root of all political struggle. No matter your party. No matter your place. Which side are you on? #1u

The struggle between the #WorkingClass and Big Business is the root of all political struggle. No matter your party. No matter your place. Which side are you on? #1u

300 healthcare workers organized as members of @steelworkers.bsky.social at Logan Regional Medical Center #WV! m.usw.org/news/media-c...

“That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” #gettysburg #notinvain www.nytimes.com/2024/11/23/u...

"American Coup: Wilmington 1898" @pbs.org.web.brid.gy tells the story of a deadly racist massacre and carefully orchestrated insurrection against a multiracial governing coalition — the only successful coup d’état in the history of the US. Valuable historical insights.

Sitting at a fast food joint in #WV, the cook/cashier (a full-time worker!) says she is cooking her family's Thanksgiving stuffing at work since she doesn't have an oven at her house. This is America, dammit. I am sick of watching our people suffer amidst such staggering wealth. #RAISETHEWAGE

Check out this riveting new documentary of the successful drive by rank-and-file workers to organize a #union at Amazon! #1u gathr.com/vod/15c99c8b...

The director of West Virginia Head Start, which offers education services to thousands of low-income children, is optimistic that the program will continue despite concerns it could be eliminated under President-elect Donald Trump, reports @amelianews.bsky.social.

CHART: Red states (like ours 👋🏽) that want to shutter the Dept of Ed and “send the money back to the states” — are the states that get more out than they put in and depend on it most. Again: We get ~40% of our state budget from the federal government. www.datawrapper.de/_/skaST/

🔥 AOC on Nancy Mace

"I will not accept the dystopian American future." - Jason De León @jasondeleon.bsky.social Neither will I. Neither should you. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/b...

If you need a starter pack for #Appalachia, we got you covered go.bsky.app/QwUpFwL

Let's recap WV's fight on poverty: In 1960, WV's poverty rate was 50+%. A broad multiracial coalition of unions & mass movements reduced poverty by over half during the next two decades (23.5% in 1980). Poverty spiked under Reagan to 38% in 1990. Now it's 16-18%. Let's see what happens from here...

"This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labour to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people,

“I have full confidence that the Senate Democratic Caucus will prevent the Republicans from blocking this new silica rule,” Petsonk said. “But ... if control of the Senate changes in the next year, this rule may be in jeopardy.” #EndBlackLung #silicosis @aflcio.org wvpublic.org/will-the-new...

Court finds Consol defrauded #coal miners with false offer of lifetime retiree benefits. "An entire generation of wealth that our miners thought they had earned is now gone because of these broken promises." - Sam Petsonk westvirginiawatch.com/2024/10/14/1...