Keep in mind that while Kentucky has been losing coal jobs for decades..instead of moving Kentucky into renewable energy....they have been trying to hang on to coal. That is like trying to save black and white tv's. Instead of moving Kentucky into the job creating sector of renewable energy...both Rand Paul and Mitch McConell are trying to save a dying industry.
And now....ascoal jobs continue to be shed.. KGB Mitch and Rand are taking away their healthcare. They both should be booted out of office.
For some reason coal mines seem never to have cared much for their employees. All I can recall is horror stories whether in the US, Canada or Britain.
Trump has been building negatives since the election. I don't think even if he was successful he'd have gained many votes by bringing back coal jobs, it's too dirty & everyone not invested in it is aware of that. As it is it will be seen as one more failure to deliver on his campaign promises.
Republicans by and large take a perverse pleasure in fighting against climate change legislation, but many rural areas are getting excited about wind and solar. He loses votes there no matter what he does. If he sees the light he loses the Neanderthal Republican vote, and if he doesn't, the Realistic Republican's will shy away.
Russia is a huge problem. He ran on normalizing relations, but that now is seen as far too toxic a stand to take. If he does smooth things over the uproar will be deafening, if he doesn't he loses those who saw him as the peace candidate. He may be unable to halt the latest round of sanctions which could draw counter sanctions from Germany and the EU. Nobody outside Ukraine will be happy about that, but a Trump veto at this point might be suicidal.
If the domestic employment situation does not spike up going into the 2018 elections, everyone in either party will be running away from Trump, it probably won't help the Republicans and spells disaster for his 2020 campaign.
Healthcare is not going to be resolved to anyone's liking in the next two years. The rest of the developed world recognizes that healthcare is one of government's responsibilities. Eventually the US will develop a sensible single payer scheme, but it won't happen under this president, and any other method of payment is simply too expensive and therefor becomes unpopular in a short time. If the Democrats ran on this issue alone I think they'd sweep the elections, but the insurance, healthcare, and pharma pockets are too deep to allow this to happen without a civil war within the Democratic party.
Pelosi is telling her followers to stand down on Russiagate, but the Media Oligarchs aren't following their orders. Bezos in particular seems to be beating his drum ever louder. Remembering the Maine might be good advise this time around. When was the last time that the US got into a war that in retrospect seemed the right thing to do?
Droughts, floods, rising sea levels, CO2, CH4, we've serious work to do on many fronts. All of these require global cooperation. Perhaps these distractions are meant to keep the populace chanting
USA, USA, but at some time we have to pull our collective heads out of the sand, look at where we are, and chant,
It's The Climate Stupid.Terry