CNN - Trump gives America's 'poorest white town' hope

[TomCADem]

The irony is that Trump's proposals attack the programs that many people in Beattyville depend on. Also, if coal production does get ramped up, then this would drive down the price of coal. Indeed, for all the complaints about President Obama's restrictions on the production of coal, coals prices have gone down, not up, due to competition from cheaper natural gas and oil. So, unless Trump somehow imposes restrictions on the production of gas and oil, coal prices will continue to stay low, and may go lower if Trump deregulates the industry further.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/06/news/economy/donald-trump-beattyville-kentucky/

"If you got a job here in Beattyville, you're lucky," says Amber Hayes, a bubbly 25-year-old mom of two, who also voted for Trump. She works at the county courthouse, but is paid by the Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program (K-TAP), a form of welfare.

Coal, oil and tobacco made Beattyville a boom town in the 1800s and much of the 1900s. Locals like to bring up the fact that Lee County -- where Beattyville is located -- was the No. 1 oil-producing county east of the Mississippi at one time.

Today, the town is a ghost of its former self. The vast majority of Beattyville residents get some form of government aid -- 57% of households receive food stamps and 58% get disability payments from Social Security.

"I hope Trump don't take the benefits away, but at the same time, I think that once more jobs come in a lot of people won't need the benefits," says Hayes, who currently receives about $500 a month from government assistance. She's also on Obamacare.

[elleng]

1. 'IRONY' is a kind way to put it.

'Today, the town is a ghost of its former self. The vast majority of Beattyville residents get some form of government aid -- 57% of households receive food stamps and 58% get disability payments from Social Security.'

[Foo Fighter]

7. Not only that but

"I hope don't take the benefits away, but at the same time, I think that once more jobs come in a lot of people won't need the benefits."

How exactly would more jobs help the 58% on disability? Why are so many disabled -- from working in the coal mines, perhaps? (Not sure as the article didn't say so that's pure speculation on my part.)

And from the article:

"I believe he wants to take care of us, the little people," says Coomer, the gas station manager. "I think he's going to quit giving money to all these other countries and take care of America. I truly do."

Poor bastard is in for a rude awakening. Trump doesn't give a damn about you, your town, or the "little people." He only cares about himself. You are screwed.

[Initech]

9. They've been brainwashed.

And it will be incredibly difficult to convert the brainwashed. It can be done but it's going to take some serious reprogramming.

[SHRED]

10. And some serious pain

[Blue_true]

29. They need to get hammered by reality. Lose their Obamacare

And welfare and disability checks, only then will they start to see the light. Republican voting people only see the light when they lose something or fear losing their lives, otherwise they are content to keep being ground into the dust.

[Johonny]

27. Trump made his money playing people like this

He's good at having you hear what you want to hear...it works until you figure out you've been played.

[hibbing]

2. Don't worry, the Republicans will "reform" these program

Welfare reform= cuts
Medicare reform = cuts
Medicaid reform = cuts
Social Security reform = cuts
Tax reform = cuts for the ruling class

But no need to worry, those coal jobs will be coming back, just don't plan on drinking public water.

Peace

[oasis]

3. +1

[ProfessorGAC]

31. You Forgot That Coal Will Be $20/Ton Cheaper, So. . .

. . .those jobs will pay around what they did in 1970.

[Hoyt]

4. I've only had to move from home a few times for work. It sucks, but it's a reality for lots of peopl

We need to get jobs, education where it makes sense, help for those who might have to move, and some kind of guarateed income for those who might not make it. That's the best promises are going to get these folks.Reality sucks sometimes.

[Wounded Bear]

5. "Take their benefits, not mine."

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. Exactly!

[2naSalit]

6. "She's also on Obamacare."

Say what? What is that supposed to mean? Does it mean she gets subsidized healthcare like medicaid or just help paying for the premium?

A more clarity in that statement would have been helpful.

[SHRED]

8. They voted to slice their own necks

They are truly fucked thinking someone like tRump will take care of them.

[SammyWinstonJack]

17. They voted to slice mine and many others too. So thanks for that, tRump voters.

[SunSeeker]

11. Idiots. I do feel sorry for their kids though. nt

[snooper2]

24. Religion and the dumbing down of public education

I bet 50% of the people in this town think the Earth is 6000 years old....

[get the red out]

26. THIS!

As a lifelong Kentuckian, I keep going between hate and pity with folks like this. They will virtually jump off a cliff because the preacher says so. Vote Republican or burn in Hell, ABORTION, GAYS!!!!!

They will take as many of the rest of us off that cliff with them as possible too.

[LanternWaste]

41. It would certainly be convenient were the cause so simplistic and easy to observe.

It would certainly be convenient were the cause so simplistic and easy to observe. Indeed, convenience of thought often becomes a higher priority than rational thought and critical analyses.

[gratuitous]

12. A community ripe for Democratic lobbying

Those benefits keeping your body and soul together? Democratic programs, each and every one. Who's trying to dismantle them with empty promises of jobs in the sweet by and by? Republicans. How long would you last, really and truthfully, if your KTAP benefits went away tomorrow? How large of a cut to your disability can you sustain? If a thousand good-paying jobs materialized tomorrow and your benefits went away today, would you be able to stay in your current house or apartment until your first paycheck came through?

The Republicans are long on promises but short on coming through on them.

[NewJeffCT]

23. I bet

if you went to the town that nobody from the state or county Democratic party has reached out to anybody in town - they get all their information from the local churches, the radio (almost all RW when not listening to local sports) and TV.

I don't even think you need to sell a lot of them on Democratic policies - just be out there in the community being good citizens, sponsoring a local event or two, and they'll see that the message they get that "Democrats are evil monsters coming to take your guns and convert your kids to homosexuality" isn't true.

That's why we need a return to the 50 state strategy and rebuilding every state Democratic party.

[gratuitous]

42. I bet you're right

And we should spend more time telling people in these areas what the Democrats have done for them as contrasted with what the Republicans have promised (and not done) for them.

[Jim Beard]

13. They could move to the cities and get a job, that what the immigrants do.

[NewJeffCT]

25. but then they might meet black and brown people

and Trump tells them that cities are scary places full of crime and carnage with bullets flying like the beginning of Saving Private Ryan.

[TeamPooka]

14. I want updates from this town every 4 months for the next 4 years.

[pat_k]

15. Dem leaders need to hit the road and sow some seeds of hope their own selves.

[Motown_Johnny]

18. Part of the reason Gas and Oil are cheaper.....

is because they are cleaner, relatively speaking.

If you remove the EPA and clean air restrictions from coal burning plants, the cost of burning coal goes down and it is easier for the dirtier fuel to compete with the somewhat less dirty fuels.


Yes, oversimplified but the point is still valid.

[Blue_true]

34. Wrong. The cost of using a fuel also include

Maintenance costs and up cycles. The cost also include waste disposal. Any smart business person look at all three and add in future costs. Even if power plants that burn coal remove scrubbers, the impact of burning coal shows up in more parts replacement, more and longer maintenance events compared to using natural gas. A single maintenance event at a power plant can cost millions of dollars per event, if a power plant owner can avoid 3-4 maintenance events every two years, that operator can save money that approaches or exceeds $100 million dollars, and that comes with not having to worry about getting sued years down the line for fouling air, land and water - suits that can cost billions of dollars if the operators lose. Trump approving running plants in an environmentally destructive way won't protect those operators, the federal and state governments once approved the use of asbestos, yet producers and big asbestos contractors have paid out billions of dollars to people sickened by asbestos.

[Blue_true]

37. I also forgot backup capacity.

By using natural gas over coal, a plant operator can avoid having to build in added backup generating capacity due to the much longer operating cycles of natural gas plants, that alone can save hundreds of millions of dollars system wide, right off the top before a single kilowatt-hour is generated.

[Buckeyeblue]

19. We have to figure out how to reach these people

There are many Beatyvilles out there. Poor people who routinely vote Republican. And we need to figure out exactly why. Why did the 25 year old buy the- so- called's message? And I'm not trying to be flippant. I have the easy answer that she votes out of ignorance. But I don't think that answer is good enough any longer. We've got to figure out how to change her mind.

[Maru Kitteh]

35. Did you miss the fact that it's a very WHITE town?

It's really not that hard to deconstruct.

8 years of racial hatred against the last duly elected president + female candidate championing minorities and the vulnerable + misogyny = Donald Fucking Trump.

[flygal]

38. 'fraid so

all I heard about from my relatives who voted trump was "so sick of Beyoncé" attacking the cops.

I'm doing this a lot lately

[Buckeyeblue]

40. That's too easy

I'm sure this town voted for Bush as well. The point I was trying to make is what do we have to do to convince these people that they are shooting themselves in the foot by voting Republican. What are the magic words?

[Blue_true]

39. A lot of those people are race haters. How do you

Reach people like that? Maybe their kids can be reached, but those kid's parents vote for lousy, bible thumping schools that produce idiots that deny science.

[a kennedy]

20. Here is exactly why tRump was voted in.......kinda long, but very informative.

She tugged 13 envelopes from a cabinet above the stove, each one labeled with a different debt: the house payment, the student loans, the vacuum cleaner she bought on credit.

Lydia Holt and her husband tuck money into these envelopes with each paycheck to whittle away at what they owe. They both earn about $10 an hour and, with two kids, there are usually some they can’t fill. She did the math; at this rate, they’ll be paying these same bills for 87 years.
In 2012, Holt voted for Barack Obama because he promised change, but she feels that change hasn’t reached her here. So last year she chose a presidential candidate unlike any she’d ever seen, the billionaire businessman who promised to help America, and people like her, win again.

Many of her neighbors did, too — so many that for the first time in more than 30 years, Crawford County, Wisconsin, a sturdy brick in the once-mighty Big Blue Wall, abandoned the Democratic Party and that wall crumbled. The rural county lent Donald Trump 3,844 votes toward his win. More came from formerly blue counties to the north and to the south, and on and on. Some 50 counties stretching 300 miles down the Mississippi River — through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois — transformed in one election season into Trump Country.

They voted for Trump for an array of reasons, and the list of grievances they hope he now corrects is long and exacting: stagnant wages, the cost of health care, a hard-to-define feeling that things are not getting better, at least not for people like them.

Here in Crawford County, residents often recite two facts about their hometown, the first one proudly: It is the second-oldest community in the state. The next is that it’s also one of the poorest.


Full article: http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/crawford-county-voters-await-economic-revival-in-a-part-of/article_cbe63563-4a17-524d-9ef8-7528c2efde98.html

[Blue_true]

44. Trump will make them poorer. The Coasts have gotten

Richer since Reagan ripped the manufacturing heart out of America and also promoted big money agribusiness over family farms. That trend won't change under Trump, manufacturers will locate as close as possible to big supplies of educated, skilled laborers, those places aren't where those people live.

[Maru Kitteh]

21. JFC.

"I hope don't take the benefits away, but at the same time, I think that once more jobs come in a lot of people won't need the benefits," says Hayes, who currently receives about $500 a month from government assistance. She's also on Obamacare.

Lady, the jobs are gone. They're not coming back. Now your ability to subsist and maintain health will go too, and it's exactly what you voted for.

[spanone]

22. what jobs? hope won't pay your bills, folks....you've been played.

[Blue_true]

46. Many of the people are afraid. They are poorly suited

For a modern world where smart machines are quickly making human labor redundant. Many voted for Obama because of hope that he would stop the backsliding they have experienced since Reagan put job outsourcing on steroids - they don't realize that those jobs are not coming back and that Trump is playing on their fears to con them.

[workinclasszero]

28. Trump has already screwed these people seven ways till Sunday

And they are to damn ignorant/brainwashed by Fox/hate radio to know it.

And even if the brainwashing fails at some point...they will cling to their racial hate till the day they die.

[Coventina]

30. I hope you don't whine when he does.

Because you won't get any sympathy from me.

[VOX]

32. On welfare, has Obamacare, votes alt-right fascist.

This is what you get when the education budget and teachers unions are "drowned in the bathtub."

And electing a fascist dictator only subtracts from that.

[Bengus81]

33. My favorite part of the interview...............

Beattyville residents want jobs, especially ones that pay more than the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. They think if anyone can bring jobs back, it's Trump.

Jesus...and when he doesn't do you think for a SECOND that Trump and the Republican owned Congress will VOTE you in a MW increase?? You people FUCKED yourselves when you pulled a handle for that CON MAN. That will REALLY sink in when your ACA is history and you try to buy something in YOUR price range in the open market RUN by the Health Insurance industrial Complex.

[workinclasszero]

36. Yeah the REPUBLICAN controlled Congress

Is gonna get right to increasing the minimum wage to 20 bucks an hour, any day now!

Just wait for it you dumb as a fucking rock working class Trump voters!!!

[BSdetect]

43. Simplistic slogans appeal to these desparate people.

The jobs ain't coming. If they do it won't be in some backwater town. 50% of jobs will be done by robots.

Because you don't read widely and get crap news from a few biased sources you did not evaluate Scrotus.

Now we all pay.

Coal sucks.

If Scrotus attacks CA much more we will stop subsidizing you.

I doubt you have the ability to project a future accurately.

You could help save yourself by asking your reps in Congress to keep the ACA.

[Charles Bukowski]

45. There are two types of Republicans.

Millionaires and suckers.

[GoCubsGo]

47. And, "hope" is about all he's going to give these suckers.

That, and a world of hurt.

[Vinca]

48. Wonder why the Trumps don't manufacture their clothing lines in the shuttered dress factory???

Wonder why the fools who voted for him have never thought to ask.

[FSogol]

49. I feel sorry for the Trump Chumps.