Donald Trump, Weather, Climate
It seems coincidental to me, Linda, that today’s #SoCS prompt is weather. Why? Two reasons. This week, our President decided to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement. The second reason is that hurricane season in the U.S. started June 1, 2017 and runs through November 30, 2017. Mr. Trump has appointed no new director of either FEMA or NOAA, the two agencies that deal with disasters such as hurricanes and that forecast and track hurricanes. Perhaps this is an oversight. The people that a hurricane will affect who live on the Atlantic Seaboard, the Gulf Coast, and every part of Florida will suffer due to such an oversight.
The Paris Climate Agreement. Mr. Trump apparently does not understand the Paris Climate Agreement. If he does understand it, then his withdrawal of the U.S. from it is particularly hateful. He seems to think that polluting the environment of the U.S. will lead to job creation when all it will lead to is more pollution and the continued killing of our planet. The U.S. is well on its way to reducing the use of fossil fuels, like coal, and reducing the greenhouse gases we emit. Mr. Trump is trying to set us back 50 years. Instead of supporting the efforts to develop wind farms and solar farms, for example, he wants to go back to mining coal. Coal miners can and would be trained to work in the clean energy industries. One such industry has already relocated to an area where coal was previously mined. Many of our 50 states vehemently disagree with him and are going to follow the Paris agreement on their own. Many large corporations are going to do the same.
Why is all this happening? Mr. Trump is feeling desperate. With low ratings, he is trying to do something that, during the campaign, he told his base he would do. He told them he would drop environmental regulations in the name of job creation so that’s what he is doing. He has found government too complicated to do much of anything else. So he is pursuing his nationalist agenda by turning his back on the environment. It particularly pleased him because he could turn his back on Europe at the same time since he desires to be an isolationist. In just the short time Mr. Trump has been President, we have lost our position as leader of the free world and either China or a European country will assume that position.
Whether or not our President can or will pursue an agenda that appeals to more than 38 percent of the American people is still a mystery. From what we’ve seen so far, his priorities lie somewhere besides where the priorities of the majority of the American people lie.
The Write Scribe 
If only someone had a path to get into his brain to see how his thinking worked…
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As an answer to your last paragraph, maybe Mr Trump’s motto is, “You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” If it’s any comfort to you, he seems to us a pretty smart man. But we’re not Americans.
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He’s not a smart man, Christine. He knows nothing about how the federal government works. He’s an isolationist which is not good for America. Only 38% of Americans approve of him and he is a buffoon! It was a sad day when he was elected. Thanks for looking at the bright side….but with Trump, I’ve not yet seen a bright side! 🙂
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You may be right about his ability; I’m not really privy to his decisions here. But the way it seems to us, it’s not so much about Trump’s smarts or lack thereof.. I’m being quite blunt, but a lot of the griping we’ve been reading since Nov —to me — seems like evidence of a major loss of respect for authority in the US, probably on all levels and definitely fueled by the Press.(And possibly infiltration of the US press by political enemies who would love to create division and bring her down.)
I think back to when Kennedy dragged the US into the Vietnam War. There were a lot of unhappy people but no one painted him as an idiot.(Possibly respect for the Kennedy family restrained some criticism.) Ditto with LBJ upping US involvement. There were the Hawks and the Doves, but no LBJ-haters calling him an imbecile.
J Edgar Hoover was disgusted by JFK’s many extra-marital affairs, considering them a threat to national security. The Press—who could have raked him through the mud big time—was mute until after he was gone some years. No one breathed a word about impeachment, like they did when Clinton’s (relatively fewer) affairs came to light.
Not that any of this was right, but it seems there was a respect for the Office of the President that, even though people weren’t happy, they didn’t attack their leader on a personal level like Trump is being attacked now. Trump isn’t an idiot because of his lack of ability; he’s an idiot because he’s living in a time when the Press and Americans in general can and do call the President of the United States an idiot. (And this goes all the way down to the local street cop.)
What all this negative press is saying about the US internationally should delight her enemies. I’m sure they’re dancing on her grave. To us it seems America’s a nation barely holding together, most citizens are vocally unhappy, griping non-stop about every single action their Leader does, And of course you’re all faulting Trump’s ineptitude for this picture — but it’s the American people themselves who are painting it.
And there you have my viewpoint, for whatever it’s worth. While your politics are none of my business, it definitely make me sad to see the US crashing —and if you can’t get it together, you surely will.
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Wow. You really don’t like America. That was quite a rant. America is strong which, if you’ve read any American history, you know. We’ll be here for a long, long time even after would-be authoritarian fools try to take us down.
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The beauty of our democracy is a free press. Further, we have press that is conservative and press that is liberal and everything in between. I’m the first to admit they can be over the top – just like the press of the UK. Further beauty is freedom of speech for we Americans who can criticize and criticize! True, we are divided right now, but that too will pass. We do worry that Trump is trying to tear down our democracy and create authoritarianism. We won’t let that happen. His attacks on the mayor of London were horrible and I think your Trudeau handles him remarkably. Trump’s approval rate is down to 36%. Most of us are scandalized and embarrassed by this man in a way Nixon embarrassed us – not JFK, Johnson, or anyone else. You just don’t cozy up, if you are America, to Putin of Russia who is a murderous former KGB agent who tried, and perhaps succeeded, affecting our election. Now I’m ranting. Sorry.
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Well, it just goes to show that what sounds reasonable to me may sound way off the wall to somebody else. I’ll definitely check my attitudes again. 🙂
I’m a pessimist by nature and soon flip to the worst case scenarios. Of course the US will survive — thanks for the reminder. It’s a bit like when you open your door in the evening and hear the neighbors arguing. They may have been married 50 years, but they way they’re going at it now, you’re sure they’re headed for the divorce court.
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Ah, the beauty of it all: “This too shall pass!” 😉
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Your description of Trump makes me wonder, once again, why such old men are seen as being capable to do the job of a president. His ideas are antiquated and he certainly cannot keep up with the times as a younger man can.
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