Donald Trump Absolutely, Positively, Doesn't Give A Damn About Anyone Except Himself.

Even if you are a Trump supporter, and your life is at stake.

Permit me to provide two examples.

By now, whether you like it or not, you know that Trump "digs coal."  During his presidential campaign, he build a lot of his appeal to blue-collar America on the unkeepable promise of bringing back to America blue-collar jobs that had fled this country decades ago, specifically aiming at workers in fossil-fuel industries--and, even more specifically, on coal miners.

It utterly amazes me that this appeal worked.  Even if it's all you've known, coal mining is, and always has been, incredibly dangerous work.  People often lose their lives while performing it and, even if they don't lose their lives on the job, they lose it eventually through the damage that coal dust does to their lungs in the form of black-lung disease.  And, putting all of this aside, which is a lot to put aside, the reality is that coal power is a dying industry, and is beyond the efforts of any President or other political leader to save it.  The future is in renewable, clean energy sources, whether Trump, the coal mining industry or the miners can accept that fact or not.  Had the Democratic candidate gone into coal country to explain how this future could be made to work for them, and put them back to work in safer, more reliable jobs, the miners and the rest of us would be better off.  It didn't happen, so we're not.

And who pays the ultimate price?  The same people who always have--the miners.  Efforts to enforce mine safety under Barack Obama have apparently been undone under Trump, with the result that mine deaths are increasing.  That's right.  For all practical purposes, Trump is killing the people who are his most dedicated supporters.  Do you honestly believe Trump cares?  Not so long as he can point a finger of blame elsewhere, which he will no doubt do if this receives any media coverage beyond the linked story.

And then, there's Trump's use of members of the armed services as political props.  This was highlighted this past Thanksgiving week in a particularly ugly way, as Trump used an opportunity to send holiday greetings to troops on overseas active duty to tell them that they had been losers under Obama but, thanks to him (and, presumably, only to him) they could now consider themselves winners.  Seriously.  What level of narcissism does it take to use a moment that should be as above politics as anything and use it to score points against your opponents?  All you need to is take a look at this to view Trump's revolting behavior from the vantage point of someone putting his or her life on the line for the sake of the country.

Trump is on your side, but only so long as you're Donald Trump.  Which means that the rest of us may well be seriously screwed.  I hope and pray that I'm wrong.