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What stupid shit has Trump done today?

On Grist The coal industry is still declining, so Trump is considering a bailout.
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Here’s the plan: The Department of Homeland Security will pony up $15 for every ton of Appalachian coal burned by U.S. utilities, thus keeping the industry — and the communities that rely on it — alive. Justice says these payments are necessary, because West Virginia coal would be too expensive to compete otherwise.

But, issues. For one thing, $15 a ton is expensive. In 2016, 110 million tons of Appalachian coal were burned — meaning a subsidy would’ve cost the United States $1.65 billion. For another, the industry has been shrinking for a while and shows no signs of stopping.
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It can't be denied Trump has a mandate to do something like that if he could get Congress to agree. Trump keeps on going back to West Virginia to feel the genuine affection his war on Obama's "war on coal" generated.

Article suggests a coal industry buyout and a retraining of the work force would be cheaper. That rather misses the point as that does not appear to be what the miners or wider GOP voters want. It's true there's plenty of potential skilled jobs in things like healthcare in these states. US liberals will point to jobs in renewables that often exist elsewhere but those don't substitute for the manly business of running coal. A sentimental attachment to well paid but grim work underground and the communities it spawned is understandable.
 
CrabbedOne said:
On Grist The coal industry is still declining, so Trump is considering a bailout.
It can't be denied Trump has a mandate to do something like that if he could get Congress to agree. Trump keeps on going back to West Virginia to feel the genuine affection his war on Obama's "war on coal" generated.

Article suggests a coal industry buyout and a retraining of the work force would be cheaper. That rather misses the point as that does not appear to be what the miners or wider GOP voters want. It's true there's plenty of potential skilled jobs in things like healthcare in these states. US liberals will point to jobs in renewables that often exist elsewhere but those don't substitute for the manly business of running coal. A sentimental attachment to well paid but grim work underground and the communities it spawned is understandable.
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Or, that slightly patronising notion of coal miner's romanticism aside, they could just suspect that retraining and new jobs will never come if they lose the industry they have. Something they'd have a whole heap of evidence to back up. I'd be cynical too.
 
On FP Are We Going to War with North Korea?

A Podcast discussion with a few wonks. A Pentagon insider at one point estimates 300K US casualties. Perhaps 100K SK civilian dead in first day. Points out the current US obsession with relatively slight terrorist threats has left the US intelligence community distracted and not really ready for such a war.

They're very unimpressed with Trump's chest thumping rhetoric but do point out he's really just responding in kind to NK's bombast and the situation isn't of his making.
 
YouSir said:
Or, that slightly patronising notion of coal miner's romanticism aside, they could just suspect that retraining and new jobs will never come if they lose the industry they have. Something they'd have a whole heap of evidence to back up. I'd be cynical too.
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Folk who never done hard manual work do tend to have a rosy image of it. Mining shouldn't really be any more special than being a shop clerk but it had a special place in Trump's campaign. He used the perception of its Obama assisted decline to batter liberal tree huggers while getting rather a lot of funding from Big Coal.

I recall lots of talk about retraining prior to NAFTA but that never happened either. It's pretty hard for anybody who has done a job for decades and has some pride in it to switch career. Coal mining jobs aren't that easy to replace where they exist. The industries decline was mourned in the UK as well.

Trump got that it's not just a matter of full employment or a higher minimum wage (as both Dem candidates offered) but the right kind of work at wage well above subsistence. The lower middle class voters he attracted can see the old blue collar jobs are steadily getting thinner on the ground.
 
In The Washington Examiner Coal to dominate US electricity market over next two years
U.S. coal production will see a sustained boost over the next two years due to increased use at power plants and a rise in exports, according to the federal government's latest energy projections.

"U.S. coal production is getting a boost in 2017 from higher coal exports and more coal-fired electricity generation," said Howard Gruenspecht, the Energy Information Administration acting administrator, as he released the agency's latest short-term energy outlook for the month of August on Tuesday.

"Coal-fired power plants are expected to be the leading source of U.S. electricity for the next two years, as the cost of coal is expected to rise by less than the cost of natural gas and renewable generation continues to grow," he added.

The latest outlook showed coal's power plant output will rise from comprising 30 percent of the nation's electricity output last year to nearly 32 percent in the second half of 2017.

That could put coal ahead of natural gas power plants that have dominated the market over coal in the last few years.

The only problem is that electricity demand is expected to drop going for the third year in a row, according to the report. But for now, it looks like natural gas power plants will take the biggest hit from waning demand, mainly because natural gas prices are rising and milder temperatures will reduce the need for electric cooling in the fall compared to a year ago.
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Report here, not really a final coal boom but significant.
Screen Shot 2017-08-12 at 11.00.17.png
 
In The Washington Examiner How Trump flipped this rural Iowa county by 42 points
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The county’s population is 99 percent white and its unemployment rate was under 3 percent on Election Day. The biggest economic challenge here isn’t unemployment but rather convincing people to move here to fill the available jobs.

What caused Howard County to transform from deep-blue to deep-red was a general discontent with the political establishment and the belief that only Trump represented a true break from the status quo. Jason Passmore, who heads Howard County’s business and tourism office, said that as an outsider Trump “was going to shake things up, wasn’t going to do things the way they’ve always been done. People like that. That sold well here.”

Trump also beat Clinton by showing up. He held campaign rallies in Davenport, Des Moines, Council Bluffs, Cedar Rapids and Sioux City. When my brother and I visited in June, President Trump had just delivered a speech in Cedar Rapids, south of Cresco.

Some people here still hadn’t come down from the high after attending it. Rachel Gooder described being at the rally as “one of the highlights of my life. Watching how people reacted to what he was saying. It gave me shivers, it was just really, really cool.”

“My hands hurt (from clapping),” her husband, Mike, said. “Trump won by speaking to the working-class guy. He’s still doing that.”
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Interesting case Howard County, not badly off but not thriving either, basically falling for Trump as another "hope monger" like Obama.

On Podcast John Bachelor Democrats for Trump in the Old Blue Wall of IA, WI, and PA. @danielallott @washingtonexaminer

Has Obama early on also being seen as an outsider candidate who would shake things up. Allot points out Trump is getting very little of substance done and that may also greatly disappoint the eternally optimistic swing voters of Howard County.
 
On The Hill Republican lawmakers criticize Trump response to Charlottesville

Trump's mealy mouthed condemnation of "bigotry and violence on many sides" has not gone down well with establishment Republicans.

It's the "cherish our history" part in Trump's speech that caught my eye with all those Confederate flags being waved and the far right protests being in part about the removal equestrian statue of General Lee it seems to be a very particular part of US history being cherished.
 
spring-peeper said:
sick and tired of hearing about Obama, Clinton et al. Thread is about Trump, the here and now - the present. not the past or the alternate present.

wanna discuss it? start an thread about it and spend your time over there.
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The past is relevant because it leads to the present in which we find ourselves. The past is also relevant to the future if the lessons it offers are not learnt in the present, see the Democrats.

I know it's convenient for some to pretend that the Democrats both now and in the past operate within some entirely separate universe from Trump in the here and now, but that's not how causality works.
 
NoXion said:
The past is relevant because it leads to the present in which we find ourselves. The past is also relevant to the future if the lessons it offers are not learnt in the present, see the Democrats.

I know it's convenient for some to pretend that the Democrats both now and in the past operate within some entirely separate universe from Trump in the here and now, but that's not how causality works.
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All these things are true but not in relation to the subject and majority of posts on the thread.
 
NoXion said:
The past is relevant because it leads to the present in which we find ourselves. The past is also relevant to the future if the lessons it offers are not learnt in the present, see the Democrats.

I know it's convenient for some to pretend that the Democrats both now and in the past operate within some entirely separate universe from Trump in the here and now, but that's not how causality works.
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Neo Nazis are brawling in Charleston but, by all means, yes let's dissect Hilary some more...
 
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I don't think Trumps response to what happened yesterday fits under this thread title at all, but here's how one nazi greeted the presidents' words of 'condemnation'.

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J Ed said:
The people who are fighting them are mostly Sanders supporters and other socialists you ignorant fuck. A socialist, DSA member, was killed by fascists yesterday and you're on here using it to red-bait. Fuck off.
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Yeah, they're getting on with the issue at hand not rehashing the coals of the last election 7 months after it happened, dickhead.
 
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