"I thought he was going to do good things. He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting."

[ehrnst]

‘It’s Just Too Much’: A Florida Town Grapples With a Shutdown After a Hurricane

MARIANNA, Fla. — A federal prison here in Florida’s rural Panhandle lost much of its roof and fence during Hurricane Michael in October, forcing hundreds of inmates to relocate to a facility in Yazoo City, Miss., more than 400 miles away.

Since then, corrections officers have had to commute there to work, a seven-hour drive, for two-week stints. As of this week, thanks to the partial federal government shutdown, they will be doing it without pay — no paychecks and no reimbursement for gas, meals and laundry, expenses that can run hundreds of dollars per trip.

“You add a hurricane, and it’s just too much,” said Mike Vinzant, a 32-year-old guard and the president of the local prison officers’ union.

If nature can be blamed for creating the first financial hardship, the second is the result of the even less predictable whims in Washington: President Trump warned last week that the shutdown might last “months or even years.”

.................................................................

In Florida, where Republicans dominated the November midterms and the state’s only Democratic senator went down in defeat, conservative towns like Marianna — along with farm communities in the South and Midwest, and towns across the country that depend on tourism revenue from scaled-back national parks — will help measure the solidity of public support for Mr. Trump and his decision to wager some of the operations of the federal government on a border wall with Mexico.

Jim Dean, Marianna’s city manager, said he had already been concerned, even before the shutdown, that the hurricane would prompt public agencies to consider reducing their footprint in the region. What if an extended shutdown contributed to keeping the prison closed indefinitely?

“I worry about the government pulling out of rural America,” he said.
................................................................

A few miles away, another prison employee, Crystal Minton, accompanied her fiancé to a friend’s house to help clear the remnants of a metal roof mangled by the hurricane. Ms. Minton, a 38-year-old secretary, said she had obtained permission from the warden to put off her Mississippi duty until early February because she is a single mother caring for disabled parents. Her fiancé plans to take vacation days to look after Ms. Minton’s 7-year-old twins once she has to go to work.

The shutdown on top of the hurricane has caused Ms. Minton to rethink a lot of things.

“I voted for him, and he’s the one who’s doing this,” she said of Mr. Trump. “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/us/florida-government-shutdown-marianna.html

[Squinch]

1. At the very least, it is good that she understands this is all on Individual 1. And we know

she's being honest because she blurted the REAL motivation of most republicans: to hurt those they feel have wronged them, namely women and people of color who are "taking" the white men's jobs.

[ehrnst]

7. And the Gays. They're also needing to be "hurt."

They want to Take America Back to the days when there were lots of good union jobs... which were well paid and plentiful in part because women and POC could be excluded from them.

The social injustice legislatively instituted at the time created the economic injustice that Trump supporters assumed was "merit based."

They want to go back to race and gender aparthied in this country, because they didn't need to take any low wage jobs - those were for women and coloreds....

And the only brown people that came to the US were exotic and light skinned entertainers, like Carmen Miranda and Desi Arnaz.

[Squinch]

10. Oh, yes, of course. The gays. Because the gays living their lives and minding their own business

is what's wrong with Murica.

(In case it's needed)

[Hermit-The-Prog]

22. don't forget the bathrooms

I have a Fox cultist neighbor. For 8 years, he claimed Obama was coming for his guns. Sometime early in 2016, that morphed into, "They're coming for our bathrooms!" (Yes, that's a direct quote). I asked him, "Do you really give a shit whether somebody chooses to stand or sit to pee?" His answer, "Well, no."

I will never understand.

[Squinch]

23. And I spend a lot of time in neighborhoods with "illegals" and recent immigrants.

Don't get me started on the horrors. First, all the decrepit buildings get renovated, and then the window boxes show up. THEN, as if all that was not bad enough, the CHALK DRAWINGS begin to appear on the sidewalks!!!!!22!
Little pink and blue and yellow houses and flowers and suns! It's terrifying! It's CODE!!!(@@!

It has to be stopped.

[Cousin Dupree]

2. Who should be hurt, Crystal?

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. Why, brown people and libtards, dontchaknow

And anyone else she can think of after watching Hannity and Carlson

[Achilleaze]

3. "republican family values" like this are fundamentally anti-Christian

...and unAmerican.

[FM123]

4. "He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting."

Really?
Did you vote for this monster because you wanted him to hurt people you didn't like?

[marybourg]

6. Apparently.

[FM123]

9. actually, I think I have just answered my own question

yes, the cruelty is the point!
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/

[yardwork]

13. Yes. That was Trump's entire platform.

[riversedge]

17. That struck me as a horrible, crude comment. Why would a President hurt anyone?

[Vogon_Glory]

5. Some Trumpistas' Painful Getting Of Wisdom

Donald Trump is a nightmare come true. I had feared that the US would elect a President as horrble as Donald Trump for decades. When President Obama was elected, I gave a sigh of relief, thinking that the citizens of our Republic had finally wised up and gotten over the psychosis called Movement Conservatism. We haven’t, and I fear it will take months more of shame, suffering and deaths before the electorate FINALLY Wise’s up.

I hope the next set of Democrats run against each and every subsequent Republican presidential candidate like they were running against the Trump administration.

[Dulcinea]

8. Why do you think the POTUS's job is to hurt anyone?

And why on earth would you think he gives a shit about you, Crystal? Donald Trump cares about only one person: Donald Trump.

[agingdem]

11. Nauseating!

There is nothing redeeming about this repulsive person ..it's ok to cause untold pain to "the other" but g-d forbid this cretin should be in the line of fire...

[WeekiWater]

12. This person should not be involved in overseeing inmates.

That thought process is horrifying. Such people should not have serious power over a group of people they should be working to guarantee safety.

[MyOwnPeace]

14. True!

The thought that this person is responsible for the safety and welfare of others - and using her own concept of "right and wrong" in making critical decisions and judgments is terrifying - and wrong!

[Javaman]

15. "He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting."

and just who would that be, ms. minton?

you fucking moron.

[MaryMagdaline]

16. Astute of the mayor to realize that rural America depends on the federal government

I cannot believe the opposition to Obamacare was so strong in the rural parts of this country. It (along with its built-in expansion of Medicaid) was helping to keep rural hospitals and clinics going. When will they learn?

[AJT]

18. Hmmmm, I wonder who the lovely Ms.Minton thinks 45 "needs to be hurting"?

What a horrible person.....as are most trumpelstiltskin worshippers.

[area51]

20. "He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting."

Stupid tribalism. It's part of the reason why we don't have healthcare as a basic human right; the attitude of "I've got mine, screw everyone else."

[Initech]

21. When you fall for a con artist, don't be surprised when you get conned.