No, you didn't dispute it, you ignored it. If you derail a serious discussion by imputing the author's intention, I think you need some sort of documentation detailing how you know more about the author's intention than he seems to.

How do you know, or even suspect, that it makes him feel better to refer to citizens as 'dumb hillbillies' who 'don't know any better?"

Has he taken you into his confidence about just how he feels? Or are you projecting? Can it be that he was smart enough to say what he thinks, and that perhaps his analysis was unburdened by sarcasm or derision, and his column was a result of analysis and informed opinion?

And, if he was concerned, confused or alarmed or just observing that people v**ed against their better interests, is it right to think less of him?

Coal was certainly the main issue on that b****t, and Trump made grandiose promises about a new ers of "clean coal" that he would bring to the region. It was never going to happen.

Obama did not bankrupt the industry, as it was dead or dying even then. Obama acted to reduce emissions he felt were dangerous to the world, and science agrees and reaffirms it with him.

Remember, the e******n we are talking about is 2016, and that was the e******n Trump made his futile, dishonest and misleading promises--and it paid off for him, didn't it?

No matter what the numbers are, my opinion right now is that by the end of Tramps reign, all of these numbers will have changed.
At least on the west coast and certainly in Sunny CA there is a revolution going on to use self generated Solar Energy. Private homes, schools, business and government buildings at least all over this state are installing solar panels that not only produce a majority of the electricity used by the installer but channel any excess back to the grid.
Don't know to what extent this is happening in other states, but the potential is there to make a huge electrical generating difference and it's happening as we speak! Just saying
SS

So you dispute his numbers? You dispute that natural gas is cheaper than coal? You dispute graphs demonstrating persistent and perpetual decline in use of coal over, say, the last 100 years? You dispute the number of miners in West Virginia, compared to the total population, or compared to health and service workers?

In West Virginia Coal WAS nearly the only issue on the b****t, if you remember--that's precisely the story Paul addresses.

On the other hand, Hillary seems to totally own you: the e******n was nearly five months ago, Hillary lost, and you can't forget her. You ascribe every bad thing that happens to Hillary, who Wasn't elected five months ago. She, of course, IS the reason Obamacare wasn't repealed, and she insisted on General Flynn being part of the Trump administration. She also insisted upon 100% communications and submission to the Russians, and also insisted that nepotism and corruption be a major part of the administration, and that the primary activity of the President be playing golf--paying himself to play at his own golf club at public espense and also paying a million dollars a day to keep his wife in NYC.

They both have their place. However, some differences that the right wingers do not fully appreciate:

MSM news is gathered by an army of professional journalists (many reporting from the actual scene of the news) and curated by professional editors and fact-checkers. SM not at all.

Also, SM can be (and is) polluted by sock puppets and automated trolls that can flood the internet with hundreds pf thousands of messages and responses, all cleverly designed to look legit. In fact, we are learning that the Russians did just that all with anti-Clinton /pro-Trump messaging making rational discourse nearly impossible on SM. If one mentions a key word on twitter, one can be inundated with thousands of vile and insulting responses--not from thousands of people but from a single program.

The other thing one must never forget that on SM, even if a message comes from a real human being, it is just that. One message that can no better informed than my dogs. SM, even if one is dealing with actual human beings, is good for swapping brain farts and gratuitous insults, such like the UHH Attic.

Healthy skepticism is in order when deciding which news source is reliable. Healthy skepticism for SM should be multiplied by about a thousand.