The Trump Train Wreck
The Trump Administration is on a collision course, hurtling headlong into the relative normality of the GOP. All of the unpalatable, offensive things that many of us saw so plainly long before Donald Trump was elected, are apparently now crystal clear to them for the very first time.
I have always had cause to shake my head at the GOP and the religious right on occasion, but I have never constantly been aghast at the behavior of their leaders as I have been over the last couple of years. And only now – when their “prince who was promised” has, for all intents and purposes, endorsed the politely termed “alt right” (aka racists who call themselves patriots) – are they abandoning the ship in droves.
That was the last straw for them.
Do you know what the last straw wasn’t?
The last straw was not that Trump had dealings with Putin’s shady administration, endangering national security and putting our entire country in jeopardy (don’t tell me it’s not proven; the evidence is simply being ignored by his followers).
It wasn’t the fact that he built his cabinet largely of Wall Street fat cats and coal magnates, who have the sole objective to enrich themselves, damned the poor souls who are crippled with the burden of making them richer.
It’s not the fact that he has, with the stroke of a pen, hobbled our efforts to clean up the environment by crippling the very agencies charged with that task and installing a climate change denier to head the EPA, nor by brazenly walking away from the Paris Accord.
It wasn’t the firing of James Comey, for doing nothing more than his job, nor was it the fact that he threatened to fire Robert Mueller for investigating any collusion with the Russians in his bid for the White House.
It wasn’t for praising Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte for his murderous campaign against suspected drug criminals without evidence or trial.
It wasn’t that he effectively and efficiently disintegrated the United States’ credibility on the world stage, dragging our country from respectable to laughable during his first trips abroad.
It wasn’t the patently dishonest statements he has made on Twitter, in interviews and speeches, and at press conferences – all on camera – and denies having done so even when presented with the evidence.
It wasn’t the on-camera braggadocio in claiming that he can grab a woman’s genitals with impunity, or the number of lawsuits against him for sexual assault.
It was not the literally dozens of lawsuits against him for fraud and failure to pay his contractors.
The GOP and religious leaders drew a line in the sand when Trump became inconvenient and unprofitable for them. Displaying sympathy for racists was that last straw.
All the above mentioned straws before then were okay, I suppose.
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Betrayal of the Coal Miner
No, coal is not coming back.
Among President Trump’s many campaign promises was to bring coal back, claiming to increase jobs to miners who are unemployed. Experts disagree, and cite a number of reasons, not the least of which is that other forms – including natural gas, hydroelectricity, and solar – have replaced coal as a viable and sustainable source of energy.
This is nothing new. Alternative sources of energy have been outpacing coal for years now. While federal regulations aimed at improving public health increased the pace of decline, experts say that natural gas is largely to blame. Cheaper and cleaner than coal, natural gas has increased in market share, forcing out coal as the dominant source of energy in this country.
The entire coal industry employed around 53,000 in 2016 – 25,000 of which are directly related to the actual mining and processing of coal. The industry has seen a nearly 39 percent decline since its most recent peak in 2008. Coal makes up a very small percentage of total employment numbers in this country.
The problem with this empty promise is that the vast majority of coal mining jobs are isolated to small pockets of Wyoming, West Virginia and Kentucky, where some 585 million tons of coal are extracted and processed. This means that miners are concentrated in very small areas where it is just about the only game in town. This puts those who work in the mines in a very precarious position. Most employed in the mining industry come from generations of family members who also made a living that way. This small section of the labor force saw Trump as the hero of the coal miner. So far, his actions have been anything but heroic.
The main driver of the promise, however, is that Trump has friends in the coal industry. Coal magnates like Wilbur Ross, the current commerce secretary, have been tight with Trump for years. Ross was the owner of the Sago Mine at the time of the explosion in 2006, killing 12 miners. He is also indirectly responsible, along with other investors of a failing mine they purchased, for stripping the health benefits of miners – some of which had black lung disease. Trump, Ross, and other billionaires are no friends of the people. Their sole goal is to line their pockets without a thought to the people whose lives are destroyed in the process.
It could be that Trump and his supporters genuinely believe that coal mining can come back into favor. This is dangerously delusional and patently unrealistic, and the laughable and completely bogus campaign of “clean coal” is intended to bolster that belief.
The bottom line: Trump is selling a bill of goods. There is no possible way that coal can come back to employ all those who have suffered in the wake of the decline. But some organizations are trying to help the coal miners train for and find skilled work in other sectors. But, Trump is seeking to axe those programs, putting unemployed miners in greater jeopardy.