and it's a bad sign that they don't. I say "they" even though I'm still a precinct coordinator. hmmmm

I've been doing political organizing with anarchists since I was a teenager -- a lot of the older ACT-UP folks where I was were anarchists, and a lot of the protest methods they taught us kids back then were anarchist methods -- so the notion that anarchists would show up in solidarity with people who are being fucked over by powerful interests is exactly what I'd expect from them. Also, there is probably no political group on the planet which gives fewer fucks about how people organize their sex/gender/sexuality identities than anarchists, which is yet another thing I love about them.

In my household there are two descendants of different families of coal miners, one out of Harlan County. We remember where we came from, and we stand firmly with the working class.

Saw a photo of police asking the coal miners to get off the tracks. Never had the impression that the police were pro-coal miners. Looked up to see if any major media outlets had anything. Nada. Story in local TV stations, otherwise just reported out of alternative media.

Seems from what I can tell, Hollywood treats Harlan as a crime drama involving violent white drug addicts. Saw a few episodes of Justified and nothing about coal miners and their plight. Appears there was some documentary called Kentucky Justice which followed sheriffs, and from the description nothing about coal miners--just a cop drama.

My great grandfather on my father's side was a boiler maker in Scotland. He, my great grandmother, and three of their four children emigrated to the US in the late 1800's because of coal. They settled in the mountains in western Pa. and my great grandfather went to work for the Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Company, first as a boiler maker and later as a regional manager. Their fourth child, my grandfather was born in the US after they emigrated.

The R & P Coal Company was at one time a Fortune 500 company back when coal was king. Of great grandfather's four children, only my grandfather went to work for the company. Eventually he also became a regional manager of the company. In that part of Pennsylvania, coal was a major employer and often owned whole towns along with the stores and banks therein. The Tennessee Ernie Ford song, "Sixteen Tons" described life in coal mining towns perfectly. Being in management, my grandfather hated that song.

Near my parents' home town, the electric company built a huge coal fired power plant with one of the highest smoke stacks in the US. Apparently back in those days, a coal fired power plant could be sold because the residents did not see the soot directly on their homes because it was being discharged high into the air.

Coal is a dinosaur, like the animals that helped make it. Strip mining, which is how much of coal is now mined scars the land permanently even though in western PA, the coal company was required to "reclaim" the land. Mining families cling to their way of life because it is often the only way to make a living. Coal made those towns and broke those towns as the mines were worked out. What the government needs to do is offer the miners and people living in coal country a well paying alternative working in the renewable energy field.

and I've been in this apt. fourteen years,so I've grown accustomed to the sound of trains passing by but the rail traffic has gone up so much in the last few months it started to get my attention because trains with anything other than coal, or tanker trains, are very few and far between. In fact even one in a day is noticeable and hot on their heels from both directions are always the other trains bringing loads northward and and the empties back southward. 24/7.

I'm well aware of the coal terminal across the border and anyone that has ever taken the ferry to Victoria (on Vancouver Island) or from there to the mainland can't help but see when they are at the Tsawassen terminal the huge piles of coal across the way and the many long trains coming and going.
It's named 'Robert's Bank' coal terminal and many years ago as a brakeman on Canadian Pacific Railway it was one of the terminals I was assigned to for a few months at a time.
However all our coal was from Canada and all the empties were headed back to Canadian coal fields, I never saw a Burlington Northern train anywhere near Robert's Bank and I was coming and going from there all hours of the day and night.

So I'm wondering if PM Justin 'lets spend billions to get into the gas pipeline business' Trudeau has essentially let the tRump administration know that even though through local activism we stopped the planned construction of the largest coal terminal in North America to just dig away because we have a terminal for you ?

The New York Times (2016) does its usual slanting of the facts, and attributing the failure for the permit on 'the market',fish and native rights (how many projects like this one were stopped by that concern?) and gives just one paragraph mentioning opposition groups never mentioning that groups organized town halls, public meetings with officials, and marches all over the State for over two years.
Letters to newspapers,members of Congress, State and Federal, visits to politician's offices,some people arrested for blocking the railroad tracks, petitions,...you name it.

U.S. Denies Permit for Coal Terminal in Washington State
"...The $665 million project, called the Gateway Pacific Terminal, was already hitting headwinds. The developer asked last month that the state environmental review on the project be delayed, citing “uncertainty and related costs.” And one of the largest potential suppliers of coal, Peabody Energy, filed for bankruptcy protection last month."

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/us/washington-state-army-corps-denies...