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Comment by notpiika | Hacker News Reader

If you haven't already seen them, John Oliver's Last Week Tonight episodes on Murray are great watches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw6RsUhw1Q8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN8bJb8biZU

I kinda feel like the Department of Labor should respond to Bob's request by telling him to eat something.

The people who endangered miners really shouldn't be entitled to benefits for miners, especially when that person, via bankruptcy, has guaranteed that the government is going to end up on the hook for providing that.

He really doesn't come off as a good guy here.

He is not a good guy. He doesn’t believe in climate change (and actively funded campaigns against it while his company speeded towards bankruptcy [1]), and is deeply committed to coal [2]. This article humorously demonstrates his hypocrisy, and his life’s work (as a coal company executive and ardent champion of the fuel) and beliefs backfiring on him in spectacular fashion.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/climate/murray-energy-cli...

[2] https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/a-coal-executives...

I have friends and acquaintances that have worked jobs like this and it absolutely destroys your health in the long term.

It’s a shame that the both the government and industry have not pursued a better path forward.

I've spoken to Congressional representatives about possible paths for coal miners to bridge them from coal mining to social security or the pension benefit guarantee corp (essentially buyouts, very inexpensive for the number of folks we're talking about), and quite literally have been laughed at. I have no sympathy anymore for anyone in the coal industry except front line workers who are being hung out to dry. It's Bob's turn to be hung out to dry. He's a terrible person (based on his actions, not just in the case of trying to prevent worker health claims but also wiping out pensioners of his company), and the evidence is very public.

I’m sorry for your friends and acquaintances. People care, it’s just always an uphill battle.

I'm always completely puzzled when people talk in positive terms about opening coal mines back up and revitalizing that industry. I get that there are areas where the economy was destroyed due to coal mines being shut down, but there has to be a better way to address it than putting people's lives at risk.

People are hard. Who you are as a person (ego, purpose, identity, and belief systems) are at play and at the core of these issues. It’d be a lot easier if this was just about cutting checks to folks every month for the rest of their lives.

Yeah, I get it. In some places it's part of the cultural identity. It just feels like giving them hope is a bad idea.

These are informative too. I had no idea that Murray was so publicly visible and involved in politics during the last two presidencies.

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