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Demovictory9

(37,113 posts)
Thu May 8, 2025, 04:23 AM May 2025

Coal miners speak out as Trump strips away health protections, they voted for him and think he will change his mind

President Trump has vowed to reinvigorate America's coal industry, although critics say his administration has stripped away key protections for miners.

Eight retired miners, all who say they have black lung disease and most who say they voted for the president, are now sounding the alarm.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-coal-miners-speak-trump-strips-health-protections/story?id=121257399

Some of the more than 800 NIOSH employees placed on administrative leave -- around two-thirds of the entire workforce, sources said -- have taken matters into their own hands, setting up a guerilla "war room" around a Morgantown, West Virginia, dining table to do what little federal work they can before they're officially laid off in June, while campaigning for their important work to continue.

"So, what is going to happen now to the average coal miner if this work isn't being done?" O'Brien asked Dr. Scott Laney, a veteran NIOSH epidemiologist who was placed on administrative leave.

"It's going to lead to premature mortality and death in these miners," Laney said. "There's just no getting around it."

"Nobody else in the federal government does the work that we do to protect U.S. workers," Hall said. "Nobody else, you know, specifically at CDC, nobody else at NIH, nobody else in the United States does what we do. When we are gone, when our work is gone, our research is gone -- nobody steps up to take our place."

Amanda Lawson, who works at a health center in West Virginia, told ABC News that last week three miners came in and had horrible X-rays. She says she's already feeling the effects of the NIOSH cuts.

------------

In deep red coal country, several of the miners who met with ABC News have faith that Trump will reinstate protections for coal miners.

"If they'll give Trump time and let him work out his -- he's got a plan," Robinson told O'Brien. "I mean, he knows what he's doing. He's a smart man."

"What if he doesn't?" O'Brien asked.

"I feel sorry for the miners," Robinson replied.


24 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Coal miners speak out as Trump strips away health protections, they voted for him and think he will change his mind (Original Post) Demovictory9 May 2025 OP
Don't count on that happening... Meowmee May 2025 #1
I don't think they can. Aristus May 2025 #22
Yes I probably should have used a different phrase.. I will change it... Meowmee May 2025 #24
These stories give me great plasure Pototan May 2025 #2
Trump will change his mind if the bribe is big enough. Irish_Dem May 2025 #3
MAGAT tears are .delicious. gordianot May 2025 #4
Dear Lord the brainwashed stupidity from years of immersion in right wing lies 🤬 benfranklin1776 May 2025 #5
Unfortunately it is more than coal miners who are zombified into old man Trumps cult. riversedge May 2025 #19
Sadly true. benfranklin1776 May 2025 #23
Even in the face of death, they still believe their cult leader will save them. Oopsie Daisy May 2025 #6
Let every Trump voter reap the full consequences of their vote Orrex May 2025 #7
Nice! mtngirl47 May 2025 #14
drumpf is their daddy. how could ha do this? pansypoo53219 May 2025 #8
"Hurr Durr Hurr Durr" (cough cough cough cough) hatrack May 2025 #9
oh well RJ-MacReady May 2025 #10
Trump is a smart man? videohead5 May 2025 #11
Increase coal production, decrease health care. democrank May 2025 #12
"Ha ha. More suckers and losers. Ha ha." - Krasnov (R - Felon-Rapist) BoRaGard May 2025 #13
"He's a smart man" says it all. enigmania May 2025 #15
Aww I really really feel bad for them - I mean how could they have even known, I mean - Lokee11 May 2025 #16
They didn't actually think "revive the industry" meant protecting the miners, did they? tanyev May 2025 #17
Poor magats... they are just so fucking stupid. ananda May 2025 #18
Retired coal miners were more effective when they were in a diner speaking to the NY Times displacedvermoter May 2025 #20
So many Americans convinced that Trump the opposite of who he is. yardwork May 2025 #21

Meowmee

(9,212 posts)
24. Yes I probably should have used a different phrase.. I will change it...
Thu May 8, 2025, 12:30 PM
May 2025

Last edited Thu May 8, 2025, 02:07 PM - Edit history (1)

benfranklin1776

(6,982 posts)
5. Dear Lord the brainwashed stupidity from years of immersion in right wing lies 🤬
Thu May 8, 2025, 05:40 AM
May 2025

My four uncles were miners from the 50s to the mid 70s- two of whom had black lung. All four were UMW members and understood it was only because of that union and the pro-worker laws it and other unions supported, and the Democratic Party enacted, that they had a decent middle class existence, and that they would have medical treatment if and when they succumbed to the abuse of their bodies from their exceedingly dangerous jobs. None of them would have remotely considered trusting a criminal con artist, worker-abusing thug like Agent Orange. They would have cheerfully tossed him and his Faux News enablers and shills onto the talings pile with all the rest of the wretched refuse their labors produced. But then they were thinking men who had fought totalitarianism in a world war and at home against coal companies who had a stranglehold on every aspect of their lives. This mindset like nothing else demonstrates the pernicious lethal effect of the propaganda the right wing media bombarded working people with for the last 50 years that has led to this zombified Jonestown level of suicidal cult worship 🤬🤬

benfranklin1776

(6,982 posts)
23. Sadly true.
Thu May 8, 2025, 12:29 PM
May 2025

Which is why we must break the stranglehold of the pernicious disinformation the billionaire class has poisoned our society with.

videohead5

(2,873 posts)
11. Trump is a smart man?
Thu May 8, 2025, 06:20 AM
May 2025

They need a brain if they believe that. Trump is a con man for simpletons.

democrank

(12,125 posts)
12. Increase coal production, decrease health care.
Thu May 8, 2025, 06:43 AM
May 2025

What coal miner wouldn’t vote for the cretin offering those programs?

Lokee11

(394 posts)
16. Aww I really really feel bad for them - I mean how could they have even known, I mean -
Thu May 8, 2025, 07:18 AM
May 2025





Hopefully when they drive them there pick-em up trucks they can roll down the windows so the wind can dry their tears.



GTFOH - Any person who can listen to the orange idiot talk and/or observe anything he does and then come to the conclusion that Orange Fuck is " a smart man." pretty much deserves whatever the fuck happens to them.

No sympathy at all for those who CHOSE this - Fuck'EM

✊FDT!

ananda

(34,391 posts)
18. Poor magats... they are just so fucking stupid.
Thu May 8, 2025, 07:24 AM
May 2025

I wonder how they even survive in this world sometimes.

displacedvermoter

(4,128 posts)
20. Retired coal miners were more effective when they were in a diner speaking to the NY Times
Thu May 8, 2025, 08:07 AM
May 2025

bitching about Biden and how shitty his policies were. Too late now for them to do any good. That coal barge has sailed.

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