Panhandle Progressive

Donald Trump, The Occupier

Trump's deployment of National Guard troops and Marines in Los Angeles is unauthorized by the circumstances, and unlawful under the Constitution and federal laws. Using government troops against civilians has been hated in this country since the Boston Massacre in 1770. Trump is wildly out of his lane and, once again, it will require the courts -- or the people -- to stop him.
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Jefferson County’s GOP Legislators Yank Local Control of Data Centers Away from Residents

Jefferson County’s Republican delegation to the Legislature has just told local people it doesn’t matter what we think. Every one of Jefferson’s Delegates and Senators voted to approve HB 2014 authorizing data centers consuming massive amounts of electric power and water to be located pretty much anywhere in the state. And all this can happen without any local zoning or environmental control of the construction or operation of the data centers. This breathtaking anti-democratic law, dubbed the Power Generation and Consumption Act, is the first of its kind in the nation.
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Representative Riley Moore: Trump Toady

The behavior of Rep. Riley Moore has been embarrassing – both to his constituents and to himself. Since being elected to represent West Virginia’s Second Congressional District in November 2024, Moore has not had an original thought. Instead, he has let Donald Trump do his thinking, eagerly supporting every misguided and dangerous policy spun out from the Trump chaos. But the most shameful thing Moore has done is to fly to El Salvador and pose for gloating photos in front of a cell full of deportees hustled illegally out of the United States.
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What is “Due Process” and Why Should We Care?

Why should we care about due process? Just wait until your child or grandchild is rounded up in a drug bust simply because she hung out with the wrong people and had a tattoo on her arm. Then you’ll understand.
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A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: Senator Rucker’s Anti-Science Bill

Veteran watchers of the West Virginia Legislature will have noticed the trend to hide controversial bills behind innocent titles. This is the case with SB 599 introduced by Senator Patricia Rucker from Jefferson County on February 26. The title of the bill is Sound Science in Regulations Act, but the bill would impose an anti-science regime that would hobble the regulatory ability of state administrative agencies.
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The Folly of Trump’s Tariffs

Over and over in American history we have tried tariffs to solve economic problems. Over and over tariffs have failed to solve those problems, while creating new ones. Sometimes it takes the passage of years for us to forget how badly tariffs hurt us the last time we tried them. Other times we have a leader who just doesn’t know or care about history and recklessly promotes tariffs to fix an imaginary problem. We have that leader now.
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