The Goat Pen

"except she was hired into government by a sugar daddy

probably minor in the greater scheme of things"

Well, one good thing to come from Trump is, nobody is going to have to worry about shit like that anymore. Stuff that not long ago would've spelled the instant end of any politician's career now won't even make it thru one news cycle before it's forgotten...

i-n-s-t-a-n-t e-n-d

On a spring day in 2017, Stephanie Frame sat down in her hilltop home deep in the mountain hollows to record a video.

She began with the litany of local decline: the vanishing jobs in the coal mines, the shuttering stores, the school that closed down. During one stretch of unemployment for her coal miner husband, the two had resorted to selling ramps, ginseng and yellowroot that they had dug up in the forest.

But this video, aimed at her neighbors, was an announcement: Redemption was here. A nonprofit called Mined Minds, promising to teach West Virginians how to write computer code and then get them good-paying jobs, was looking for recruits.

“I wholeheartedly believe, and will always believe,” Ms. Frame said to the camera, “that God has sent Mined Minds to us to save us from what could have been a very bleak future.”

She had every reason to believe. Joe Manchin III, her Democratic senator, had invited the group to come into the state. The National Guard hired it to teach at its military-style academy. County commissioners arranged space rent free. National news outlets gave glowing coverage.

Many West Virginians like Ms. Frame signed up for Mined Minds, quitting their jobs or dropping out of school for the prized prospect of a stable and lucrative career. But the revival never came.

Almost none of those who signed up for Mined Minds are working in programming now. They described Mined Minds as an erratic operation, where guarantees suddenly evaporated and firings seemed inevitable, leaving people to start over again at the bottom rungs of the wage jobs they had left behind.

Over two dozen former students in West Virginia are pursuing a lawsuit, arguing that Mined Minds was a fraud. Out of the 10 or so people who made it to the final weeks of Ms. Frame’s class in Beckley, only one formally graduated. He is now delivering takeout.

“It was a too-good-to-be-true kind of deal,” said Billyjack Buzzard, 33, who attended another class and was the only former West Virginia coal miner to finish classes and get a job with the program. He was fired after 14 months and went back underground. “Just false hope.”

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Only in West Virginia would you be able to get a quote from Billyjack Buzzard - emphasis on Billyjack being one word

Why couldn't they get jobs?

basically the story was that this woman's brother lost her job in Pennsylvania, so her and her husband quit their consultant job in Chicago and went there to open up a training program mentioned in the article with the intent of developing a program that would get her brother a job. I'm assuming they had some inside track to matching government funds. In the end they did get her brother a job - teaching in the program after they sold the idea to Joe Manchin

The students in the program soon learned that the instructors had no idea what they were doing, the apprenticeship was a lie and their graduation project was developing a website for a pet bed-n-breakfast soon to be opened by the woman's mother-n-law. Meanwhile they were taking all the government money and blowing it on trips and booze parties.

Whenever someone was close to graduating to get the guaranteed apprentice jobs, they were fired from the program and for those they couldn't fire, the 16 week program turned into additional weeks of training in the hope they'd lose interest or funding to continue - described by the students as them sitting around playing video games on leased laptops waiting for someone to tell them what to do.

After I posted that article, I wish I had thought of that - I develop programs like this for my company and unlike those morons, I would have run it with the intent of helping these people get a skillset that would get their foot in the door. Its more than just teaching a viable skillset, you have to teach them basics like interviewing skills, creating a resume, effective communication and how to give a presentation.

A friend at work and I seriously considered opening a trade school of sorts, leasing space at the local vocational school, to teach condensed classes for just everyday guys who wanted to learn basics - like plumbing, electrical work, welding, auto and motorcycle repair, carpentry, masonry, small engine repair, etc - not to be certified, just small 6 week classes, meeting twice a week in the evenings, charging $800 to $1500 to teach them what they needed to know to be a competent DIY'er. What motivated me is that I always wanted to learn to weld, but could never find any way to learn unless it was enrolling in some crazy expensive certification class to be a professional - when all I wanted to do was be able to weld a bracket on a boat, or a broken motorcycle frame

Once we started realizing the time commitment and logistics we didn't follow thru on it, but I'd still love to do it.

I taught myself to weld. There are YouTube videos.

yea I probably could too

there just aren't enough hours in the day anymore.

What about JB Weld?

yea, I'm a damn expert at that

Hedge needs to be shot.

Hedge shall not be shot...

Oh yeah. It's coming.

UK has first coal-free week for a century

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48215896

It's interesting to see someone who is obviously extremely emotionally wrapped up in "politics" that they would do something like this, but also quite clearly have no real understanding of reality until it slaps them in the face.

[youtube]07bjyxgxG94[/youtube]

In aTm’s honor, congratulations to your Premiere League champions - Manchester City.

9x.......



Illegal immigration at the United States-Mexico border last month was nine times the level of the same month two years ago and is projected to outpace every year when former President Obama oversaw immigration.

As Breitbart News reported, there were nearly 100,000 apprehensions of migrants, border crossers, and asylum applicants at the U.S.-Mexico border last month. This is nearly nine times the level of illegal immigration compared to April 2017, when just a little more than 11,000 border crossers were apprehended.

Likewise, projections by Princeton Policy researcher Steven Kopits reveal that the U.S. remains on track this year to outpace every year of illegal immigration overseen by Obama.

At current illegal immigration levels, about 863,000 border apprehensions are expected for Fiscal Year 2019. This is a level of illegal immigration at the southern border that has not been seen since the last years of former President George W. Bush.

The only Fiscal Year that has reached a higher level of illegal immigration at the southern border dating back to more than a decade ago was Fiscal Year 2006, when more than one million apprehensions were made at the U.S.-Mexico border.

maybe they heard about all those new jobs over here

aTm wrote:It's interesting to see someone who is obviously extremely emotionally wrapped up in "politics" that they would do something like this, but also quite clearly have no real understanding of reality until it slaps them in the face.

[youtube]07bjyxgxG94[/youtube]

That is a free lesson she will have the rest of her life.

I bet she considers as being tolerant, open-minded, pluralistic, and inclusive.

Otto died doing the same thing. Stealing a poster. No problem though, Trump and Kim are buds.