I’m really relieved that April 1 is tomorrow so that people won’t read this and think that I’m just making stuff up.
1) Call Me Doctor Science–Have you ever heard of the White House Chief Technology officer? He had a staff of twenty-four people. Currently it’s down to one. Trump has not bothered to hire anyone yet for the posts, which is consistent with his total disregard for science. There’s no telling when or even if they’re going to be filling the posts. More likely they will simply shut down the office entirely. Then again, it may not matter in the long run because…
2) We’re all going to die–You remember China, right? The ones who ostensibly fabricated global warming for their own benefit? Well, Trump is tossing them the opportunity to take the lead in climate change because on Tuesday he threw out protections that had been established by his predecessor. Since he was unable to destroy Obamacare, thus causing people to live, he has instead declared war on the planet in the hopes of killing off pretty much everyone. “Trump Risks the Planet” declared the New York Times, and various environmentalists are declaring they will be launching countermeasures including law suits. Whether he’s going to actually be able to accomplish his goal is debatable: many of Obama’s clean air polices are covered by laws that can’t simply be countermanded by a pen stroke. Nevertheless, it is clear that he is happily ceding all responsibility for our survival on this world to pretty much anyone else who is willing to take the reins. Between this, his gutting of the EPA, turning directorship of it over to a man who repeatedly sued it, and his dedication to non-existent “clean coal” technology, it’s as if he has declared war on the world. Or at least the world’s inhabitants. Thousands of years from now when mankind is long extinguished, the planet will regenerate and be fine.
Speaking of coal…
3) Coal black–Trump keeps insisting that he’s going to be bringing back jobs to coal miners. No, he won’t. The jobs are not there. They are gone, for two reasons: first of all, coal has been diminishing in popularity, mostly thanks to natural gas. And second, the men have had their jobs replaced by machines, big haul trucks that do the mining, completely automated. Understand, I feel badly for the coal miners, but I feel just as badly that Trump is holding them up as props of achievements he’s going to make which aren’t going to happen. These poor guys supported him and helped him grab the presidency, partly because Hillary Clinton was honest enough to say that they and their industry were going to be out of work while Trump told them what they wanted to hear. I can’t believe they like what they’re hearing now.
4) Does anyone understand the meaning of the word “Intelligence?”–What in the hëll is going on with Rep. Devin Nunes? This guy, the head of the House Intelligence Committee, claims to have information that backs up Trump’s thoroughly discredited claims that he was being surveilled by Obama, and then goes to the White House to have private meetings with Trump about it? Is this guy out of his mind? Shouldn’t they be investigating the ties of the Trump campaign to the Russians? If the situation were reversed and someone during the endless Hillary Clinton investigations had gone to meet with her privately to bring her up to speed, the GOP would have gone insane. And they would have had a right to. Meanwhile Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner, met last December with people from a Russian bank that has been targeted by US sanctions. But hey, that’s no big deal, right?
5) Internet privacy? Yeah, right–Remember the days when Congress came up with ideas–or at least tried to–that would benefit people? Obama spent his time coming up with medical coverage, and whether you accept the final program or not, you have to admit that at least his thoughts were in the right place. What has the current congress come up with? A bill that rolls back protections of consumer privacy, allowing internet providers to sell your private information to advertisers. Because the thing we all most love about Facebook or Youtube is wading through ads or commercials. And we all just adore the notion of having our browsing history sold to whomever wants it. You might have thought that was your private property, but no, this information is now the property of the people who you are paying, to be used however they want to make money. And of course Trump will sign it into law, because making money is what he’s all about. The only good aspect of this is that the alt-right is freaking out because on-line Nazis and the spewers of online hatred would have their privacy threatened, their identities revealed. They are more than happy to lash out at anyone and everyone who is not them, because they do it from anonymity. If their anonymity is gone, they’re screwed. It’s almost worth it.
6) In like Flynn–Trump tweeted this morning that he thinks Michael Flynn should definitely seek immunity from prosecution regarding the “witch hunt” over his Russian connections. I don’t think Trump quite understands that Flynn’s testimony may well lead to him being impeached. Then again, considering how much Trump seems to enjoy fighting with pretty much everyone, perhaps he welcomes the prospect of impeachment so that he can use Twitter to lash out at more enemies.
Did he do anything right?Well, I doubt his people are thrilled about this, but I love it: Trump is going after the Freedom Caucus, stating that if they don’t back his agenda, then the GOP should declare war on them in 2018. Oh, and war on the Democrats, too, but that’s old hat. Not to mention misplaced: if the GOP came to the Democrats, hats in hand, asking to genuinely work with them to accomplish great things, the Dems would doubtless be happy to work with them. The Freedom Caucus, however, are opposed to working with anyone except themselves, and they really do need to go. Which won’t happen, but anything that helps split the GOP against itself is fine by me.
• 
“Remember the days when Congress came up with ideas–or at least tried to–that would benefit people?”
No. 🙁
Way, way back in November, Rob Kelnor (aka Flynn’s counsel) tweeted:
‘A prediction: Donald Trump will make novel and unusual use of the President’s pardon power.’
Admittedly, I don’t think someone can be preemptively pardoned, but I wouldn’t put it past Trump to try.
Yes, someone can be preemptively pardoned. Ford did it for Nixon.
More specifically, as in the Nixon case, one can be pardoned for crimes already committed, but for which one has not yet been charged. I don’t think one can be pardoned for future crimes. If that were the case, dJT would just advance-pardon himself and his entire family for the rest of their lives.
The coal jobs thing has me shaking my dámņëd head.
.
I wrote a piece called “What Politicians are Going to Finally Have to Say to West Virginia Families About Coal” on my on blog back in May of last year. The short version of the piece (and minus all the charts and graphs I tracked down for it) was that politicians were going to have to stop lying and playing to false hopes and start telling coal workers the truth about the fact that the jobs are never coming back the way they know them in “Coal Country”.
.
The natural gas thing isn’t even the tip of the main reason for why they won’t come back. The biggest reason was mechanization.
.
Let’s look at West Virginia.
.
Productivity by the industry was at its highest point somewhere around 2001. You saw more tons mined per worker in that period than at any other time since they were recording such things, and that record keeping goes back to 1880.
.
At the same time that they were seeing unparalleled productivity in the industry in 2001, they were employing the least amount of workers since 1892 or 1893.
.
The sad fact of the matter for families who have spent generations earning a living with coal jobs is the same sad fact of the matter that hit other trades over the centuries. We don’t have candle-makers like we used to because electricity and the light bulb took the place of the candle and the oil lamp in homes. We don’t have glass blowers in every town making the various items for our homes because mass production and machines do it now. We don’t have blacksmiths like we used to because most of what they provided can be mass produced by machines and sold for a cheaper price to boot.
.
The more “Coal Country” fights the future, the longer it resists the enviable change that’s coming, the worse the next collapse will be for the people there.
Jerry, that would require all of them to deal with reality, and there’s no way on God’s green earth that’s going to happen.
“The more “Coal Country” fights the future, the longer it resists the enviable change that’s coming, the worse the next collapse will be for the people there.”
.
Force them all to see THE HULA GIRLS.
.
I’m serious here.
.
The 2006 movie deals with Japan’s biggest coal producing region – near Fûkûšhìmá – which saw its economy collapse in the early-mid 60s as the country switched to oil.
.
Enter a crazed businessman who decided to revive the area by building a large, Hawaiian-themed resort there. Everybody thought he was nuts, only to see it succeed beyond anyone’s wildest dream.
.
When the Fûkûšhìmá tragedy occurred decades later, the resort was damaged and experts called it a write-off. THE FÙKÙSHÍMÃ HULA GIRLS was a documentary film made after the fact which showed how the resort owner refused to accept this and, a year after the accident, the resort (outside the ‘hot’ zone) was re-opened and had customers lining up to spend money in the area, thus helping it dig its way out of the calamity.
.
The message to the West Virginians being – think outside the box. You never know …