from Robert Reich:

[elleng]

'It’s no secret that West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is cozy with fossil fuel lobbyists. But what receives less scrutiny is how deeply tied Manchin’s personal fortune is to the industry.

Manchin founded two coal companies in the 1980s, which are led today by his son, Joe Manchin IV. While Manchin’s ownership is held in a blind trust, he has personally made $4.5 million from the firms just since 2010. He also holds stock options in the larger of the two companies, Enersystems Inc., valued at $1 million to $5 million. That company is tied to a handful of mines and power plants that have received numerous safety violations and environmental sanctions over the years.

So the next time you hear Manchin claim $3.5 trillion is too expensive, know where his motivations come from. It’s not just the corporate campaign cash — his family’s fortune relies on allowing the fossil fuel industry to keep wreaking havoc on our planet. If that’s not a conflict of interest, I don’t know what is.'

[unblock]

1. How is it a blind trust if he knows what's in it?

[Duppers]

2. K & R

+1000

[progressoid]

3. Let's not forget his daughter.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is shaking down the Biden administration | Letter
Updated: Sep. 14, 2021, 10:45 a.m. | Published: Sep. 14, 2021, 10:45 a.m.
By Express-Times Letters to the Editor

Look no further than West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s daughter, Heather Manchin Bresch, to understand the “good” Democrat’s greed and manipulation.

Back in 2016 Ms. Bresch, as CEO of Mylan Pharmaceuticals, jacked up the price of EpiPens over 400%, from $100 to around $600. EpiPen, for readers who may not know, is a life-saving medication used to treat people who are severely allergic to food, drugs, stings or bites. Because Ms. Bresch so greedily stuck it to those people who were dependent upon Mylan’s medication, her annual compensation rocketed to nearly $20 million from just over $2 million before the price hike.

Is it any wonder that her father is now shaking down the Biden administration and the working and middle classes who desperately need an infusion of infrastructure cash to jump-start their pandemic-stricken lives and local economies?

FYI Sen. Manchin, West Virginia isn’t the Upper East Side of New York City. The residents of your state need the infrastructure money as much as anybody. Quit pretending to be so pious and Christ-like! You’re nothing but a seeming clone of the daughter you raised.

Bob Fried

Allentown


https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/opinion/2021/09/west-virginia-sen-joe-manchin-is-shaking-down-the-biden-administration-letter.html