The Trump Presidency - how I stopped worrying and learned to love the Hair

1) We get a lot of oil from SA, which makes them an important partner. We would be less dependent on them if we got more energy domestically or from Canada but Obama fought against both fracking and the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada.

More than one way to approach a problem. Obama wanted to transition the country to renewables, which would have reduced our dependence. It doesn't have to be just fracking and Canadian oil, especially since the oil sands and shale deposits are more expensive than Saudi oil and price downturns can idle them, in essence putting the US back on square 1 buying from the ME until the prices increase again.

2) SA is an important regional ally. Trump seems to be trying to pit the entire region against two common enemies: Iran and ISIS, and in doing so bring about at least some level of cooperation and partisanship. Take as an example his flight from Riyadh to Tel-Aviv - pretty historic and allowed Netanyahu to immediate make a press statement wishing that he'll be able to make the same flight in the future.

ISIS, yes, but I'm worried about the long-term prospects of isolating Iran again.
 
Let's get off Saudi oil and look to the future like the rest of the world is doing, putting money on renewable lets look for more fossil fuels closer by and rump up our coal production.
 
Why not both? Currently renewables just aren't up to the task of reliably providing adequate amounts of energy so while we look for ways of improving that, why not shift our fossil fuel dependence away from the Middle East and towards North America, which would also put people to work? That's the general idea behind Trump's push for coal, for example.

Nobody in the current US cabinet is looking for improving the efficiency or capacity of renewables. You have the leader of the EPA who doesn't believe in global warming, a lot of industry money probably floating around trying to lower regulations as far as emissions go, the coal industry getting reactivated, etc.

But what about the jobs? Well, build some damn factories and start making solar panels and wind turbines.
 
Trump's "push for coal" is only to please his science denying friends. "But, but, clean coal". No. It's a terrible idea. It's a victorian energy source.
 
Can you delete tweets? I wonder how long it'll take before Trump deletes everything before let's say, January 2017.

Yes, but deleting things off Twitter doesn't delete them off the countless archives that store all tweets outside of Twitter.
 
I love how everyone just ignored this :p


The Trump defenders don't have a retort, and the rest of us are making popcorn. ;)
 
Why not both? Currently renewables just aren't up to the task of reliably providing adequate amounts of energy so while we look for ways of improving that, why not shift our fossil fuel dependence away from the Middle East and towards North America, which would also put people to work? That's the general idea behind Trump's push for coal, for example.

Why invest in a dying technology?

Coal is dead no matter how you look at it; natural gas is easier to mine, cheaper to run, and more efficient a power source. It's why coal plants aren't getting upgrades, or in some cases being converted to run on natural gas. Removing the Obama regulations can at best only slow the death a little, because it's not regulations killing coal, it's the free market. Trump and that abomination heading the EPA can bleat what they want about coal, but unless they want to betray Republican deregulation ideals, they can only continue to lie to the West Virginians who believed them.

Upgrading natural gas/other fossil sources for efficiency and cost will continue to happen, of course, as renewables get better and slowly collect market share.
 
Even the coal museum bought solar panels to reduce it's power bill.
 
Trump reminds me of President Dwayne Elizondo Camacho. Only with less stars and stripes.
 
You will defend every action of Trump, no matter what?
 
No, I won't and I haven't. Will you get your panties in a bunch every time he gets a scoop of ice cream? Nine out of ten "stories" about how bad Trump is are about nothing. Focus on shit that actually matters.

The global perception of our President as competent and culturally sensitive doesn't matter? It does matter, both in how America as a whole is perceived by the outside world, and also how we're able to navigate the tricky business of interacting with other world leaders.

It may not be "bad," in the conventional sense but this latest gaffe makes him look juvenile and immature.
 
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