I Have Never Been More Afraid for My Country's Future

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/15/opinion/trump-administration-china.html

https://archive.ph/kuddp

I Have Never Been More Afraid for My Country’s Future
April 15, 2025
By Thomas L. Friedman

So much crazy happens with the Trump administration every day that some downright weird but incredibly telling stuff gets lost in the noise. A recent example was the scene on April 8 at the White House where, in the middle of his raging trade war, our president decided it was the perfect time to sign an executive order to bolster coal mining.

It’s commendable that the president honors men and women who work with their hands. But when he singles out coal miners for praise while he tries to zero out development of clean-tech jobs from his budget — in 2023, the U.S. wind energy industry employed approximately 130,000 workers, while the solar industry employed 280,000 — it suggests that Trump is trapped in a right-wing woke ideology that doesn’t recognize green manufacturing jobs as “real” jobs. How is that going to make us stronger?

This whole Trump II administration is a cruel farce. Trump ran for another term not because he had any clue how to transform America for the 21st century. He ran in order to stay out of jail and to get revenge on those who, with real evidence, had tried to hold him accountable to the law. I doubt he has ever spent five minutes studying the work force of the future.

He then returned to the White House, his head still filled with ideas out of the 1970s. There he launched a trade war with no allies and no serious preparation — which is why he changes his tariffs almost every day — and no understanding of how much the global economy is now a complex ecosystem in which products are assembled from components from multiple countries. And then he has this war carried out by a commerce secretary who thinks millions of Americans are dying to replace Chinese workers “screwing in little screws to make iPhones.”

But this farce is about to touch every American. By attacking our closest allies — Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and the European Union — and our biggest rival, China, at the same time he makes clear he favors Russia over Ukraine and prefers climate-destroying energy industries over future-oriented ones, the planet be damned, Trump is triggering a serious loss of global confidence in America.

The world is now seeing Trump’s America for exactly what it is becoming: a rogue state led by an impulsive strongman disconnected from the rule of law and other constitutional American principles and values.

...

[kerry-is-my-prez]

1. Some coal magnate gave Trump a lot of campaign money.

Alliance Resource Partners, led by Joseph W. Craft III, a billionaire coal magnate who helped lead Mr. Trump’s fund-raising during the presidential campaign, was up nearly 5 percent.

Coal emits more carbon dioxide when burned than any other fossil fuel — making it a major contributor to climate change.

[lissabella]

2. He then returned to the White House, his head still filled with ideas out of the 1970s.

He then returned to the White House, his head still filled with ideas out of the 1970s.

[Cha]

3. He went into the WH with Orders from Putin & returned with

Orders for him and musk to "Destroy America".

He's a fucking Traitor to the United States of America.

This whole Trump II administration is a cruel farce. Trump ran for another term not because he had any clue how to transform America for the 21st century. He ran in order to stay out of jail and to get revenge on those who, with real evidence, had tried to hold him accountable to the law. I doubt he has ever spent five minutes studying the work force of the future.

[marble falls]

15. One and out. That was an MI. What 70s "values" were they talking about? ...

... cheap energy coal/petro culture or counter culture?

[marble falls]

7. What ever in the world do you mean?

[NEOH]

11. More like the 1980s on steroids...nt

[raccoon]

4. Thanks for posting this.

[B.See]

5. And most of the ones who voted him in

had that same malevolent hate and thirst for revenge against some demonized "other." And the rest, all too READILY bamboozled.

All in all, a cult of willful and spitefully deliberate IGNORANCE.

It was NEVER about making America great.

[dalton99a]

10. +1

[malaise]

6. Good read

Rec

[elocs]

8. Our country's sin is one of national pride in that we have been sure that the US is not like other nations.

We are too good and great for anything like this to ever happen here--that only occurs in lesser nations than mighty America. Our hubris has brought us low. How art the mighty fallen, a collapse in a blink and not a bang.

[oasis]

9. I'm in total agreement with the author.

[Johnny2X2X]

12. We are rapidly approaching the point where speech will get you thrown in prison

And not a normal US prison, but a gulag in El Salvador.

We're starting to see that with people visting the US and immigrants. But there has already been some cross over to just people who disagree with Trump. If things trend the way they are, we're about 12 months from the secret police breaking down doors to ask DU posters about their posts here and haul them away.

[dalton99a]

13. +1. Which is why posters should never reveal personal info - don't make it easier for fascists to find you

[Cha]

14. TY Kick

[kentuck]

16. Trump is a power-hungry mad man.

We have no idea where he is taking our country?