Surviving a second Trump admin*

[Supsalemgr]

The state must be really good at fooling folks with all the people moving to TN.

[O Really]

The state must be really good at fooling folks with all the people moving to TN.

I don't know that the state has to try to fool people. There really are a lot of good things about Tennessee, depending on where you are and how much money you have. But a lot (maybe most) people move to a place in their imagination. They move to Florida for the sunshine and endless summer, along with no income tax. They only find out about the high insurance, property and sales tax, natural hazards, 95 degrees/95 humidity, palmetto bugs, republican infestation, and tourist traffic. They move to Seattle in the summer, loving the shade of the big trees and the views of the city and Mt. Rainier. They don't notice that they won't see anything but cloudy gray and mist from November to April and those beautiful trees will ensure their living in partial darkness even during the short daylight hours.

The good thing is that if all these people really are moving into Tennessee, maybe a lot of them will vote for people who can read and have family trees that fork.

[GoCubsGo]

The good thing is that if all these people really are moving into Tennessee, maybe a lot of them will vote for people who can read and have family trees that fork.

Ouch.

[GoCubsGo]

The cult is truly gushing in awe today.

[neoplacebo]

The state must be really good at fooling folks with all the people moving to TN.

I don't know that the state has to try to fool people. There really are a lot of good things about Tennessee, depending on where you are and how much money you have. But a lot (maybe most) people move to a place in their imagination. They move to Florida for the sunshine and endless summer, along with no income tax. They only find out about the high insurance, property and sales tax, natural hazards, 95 degrees/95 humidity, palmetto bugs, republican infestation, and tourist traffic. They move to Seattle in the summer, loving the shade of the big trees and the views of the city and Mt. Rainier. They don't notice that they won't see anything but cloudy gray and mist from November to April and those beautiful trees will ensure their living in partial darkness even during the short daylight hours.

The good thing is that if all these people really are moving into Tennessee, maybe a lot of them will vote for people who can read and have family trees that fork.

No reason to try to fool people around here. They're already fooled. Have been for over fifty years. This area of TN is a hotbed of ignorance and total belief in trump LAW (Lying And Whining) and no amount of facts or evidence will make them see reality. Hell, I'm surprised the snake handlers haven't whined about their religious practice being outlawed some years ago. There's already a law allowing anyone over 18 to carry a concealed weapon with no training or any sort of demonstration of abilty or demeanor. The only spots of reality in this state are around college towns, and in the larger cities. Between Memphis and Kingsport there is a vast wasteland of ignorance and delusion. Twilight Zone stuff. Oh, and the place next door to me has been vacant since early March. And I've not planted any Biden signs in front of it. Sort of makes me wonder why one of the alleged multitudes moving here haven't noticed it. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that three of the biggest employers in my town (a paper mill, a book printing business, a textile mill, and an Eastman chemical plant) have gone out of business over the past sixty years. Now there's just the Eastman plant; a huge place probably too expensive to shut down or abandon. That place and its offspin did a lot of important work during WWII. But i'm pretty sure there's a massive demand for supplicant sales managers around here somewhere.

[O Really]

They come for their own bit of mountain life:


They didn't check out the neighborhood a couple of miles down the road.

Spoiler:

[neoplacebo]

I feel there's a good chance that with a wider camera view, a trump sign would appear.

[O Really]

I feel there's a good chance that with a wider camera view, a trump sign would appear.

Probably so.
Those aren't my personal pics, but it is based on a real experience. Years ago Lady O and I were camping in the far west corner of Virginia close to the Kentucky line. It was a very pleasant campground, state park I think, with a "remote" feel but really not that far off the main road. We had taken a little ride away from the park and stopped at a newish shopping area - grocery store, clothing, hardware, gas, couple of restaurants, etc. close to the town of Duffield. She said that wasn't exactly what she had expected to find that close to Kentucky and not far from infamous Appalachia places like Hazard and Pikeville.
I thought that nice shopping area and the road past it was a facade and said I bet if we take a smaller road back to the park that within 5 miles we'd go back 75 years in time. Didn't take 5 miles. Less than two and we went past the first house, not unlike the one in the pic, and, all the way back to a mile or so from the park there were farm areas with mules, old cars (both on blocks and still running), barefoot kids in over-worn clothing - a living stereotype of Appalachia poverty. I think about those people sometimes - knowing that if they voted, it would have been for Trump. They would have no way of getting health insurance without Medicaid; the kids would be hungry without SNAP a school meals; they probably didn't even go to school much of the time. They were there - without opportunity to leave. Close to that modern shopping and the road that could have them in Kingsport in a half-hour or so, but they couldn't leave, and couldn't improve their lives in place. But yeah, Trump.

[1 CAT FAN]

Seattle is known for riots, vandalism, looting, torching vehicles and ambushing law enforcement.

[Vrede too]

I feel there's a good chance that with a wider camera view, a trump sign would appear.

Probably on both lots.

[1 CAT FAN]

Seattle is known for riots, vandalism, looting, torching vehicles and ambushing law enforcement.

Probably have murals on partially decimated structures.

[neoplacebo]

I feel there's a good chance that with a wider camera view, a trump sign would appear.

Probably so.
Those aren't my personal pics, but it is based on a real experience. Years ago Lady O and I were camping in the far west corner of Virginia close to the Kentucky line. It was a very pleasant campground, state park I think, with a "remote" feel but really not that far off the main road. We had taken a little ride away from the park and stopped at a newish shopping area - grocery store, clothing, hardware, gas, couple of restaurants, etc. close to the town of Duffield. She said that wasn't exactly what she had expected to find that close to Kentucky and not far from infamous Appalachia places like Hazard and Pikeville.
I thought that nice shopping area and the road past it was a facade and said I bet if we take a smaller road back to the park that within 5 miles we'd go back 75 years in time. Didn't take 5 miles. Less than two and we went past the first house, not unlike the one in the pic, and, all the way back to a mile or so from the park there were farm areas with mules, old cars (both on blocks and still running), barefoot kids in over-worn clothing - a living stereotype of Appalachia poverty. I think about those people sometimes - knowing that if they voted, it would have been for Trump. They would have no way of getting health insurance without Medicaid; the kids would be hungry without SNAP a school meals; they probably didn't even go to school much of the time. They were there - without opportunity to leave. Close to that modern shopping and the road that could have them in Kingsport in a half-hour or so, but they couldn't leave, and couldn't improve their lives in place. But yeah, Trump.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I can remember taking trips a couple of times to one of my mom's sisters and her family. They lived in Norton, VA. The husband was a brakeman on the railroad, so they were probably something like upper class in that area. But I distinctly remember the trip from Kingsport to Norton; mostly a two lane road all the way once you entered VA. Almost all the houses along both sides of the road were dilapidated to one degree or another but I remember that most of them had relatively new pickup trucks in the yard. Having grown up in what I didn't realize at the time as an idyllic suburban setting (neat houses and yards, sidewalks everywhere, schools within walking or biking distance of home, etc), I remember being struck by the general ugliness of it all. Back then, that whole area of VA was totally dependent on coal mines and tobacco farms. There may have a small general store maybe every twenty miles along that old VA road. I suppose that area looks about the same these sixty five or so years later. Or worse.

[1 CAT FAN]

Can't be any worse than Winston - Salem NC

[GoCubsGo]

Defund PBS!