Politicians have long promised "pie in the sky", "a chicken in every pot", "shovel-ready jobs", or whatever impossible trinket they think will seduce their constituents to vote them into office. In the case of Trump, it was "bring the coal jobs back" in order to get votes in what used to be coal country but now, sadly, has become "OxyContin country", a forlorn and hopeless region of few job prospects. Those jobs, as Trump should know (but probably doesn't, or doesn't care"), won't come back because, like the timber and mill jobs in Oregon, they have been eliminated forever by automation or what we euphemistically call "productivity growth". But at his signing ceremony authorizing the dismantling of the Clean Power Plan, Trump said to the washed-up (in both senses) miners standing behind him, ""C'mon fellas, you know what this says? You're going back to work." Mission accomplished.

This was a cruel joke at the expense of the miners, our nation, and the world.