Kentucky Justified

I know next to nothing about Kentucky, other than what I can see on TV. 
TV has shown me Mitch McConnell, one of the sleaziest Senators ever to slither across a television screen, and then there is "Justified" which depicts the denizens of Harlan County, Ky as amusingly inbred, determinedly small minded and resistant to learning anything which might upset their long held, cherished beliefs, leading small, brutal lives. 

This morning a judge from Harlan County explained the outcomes of the state elections which put a Republican in office who vowed to dismantled Obamacare in Kentucky, a program which has provided new health care coverage for over 500,000 citizens of Kentucky and has been widely popular as KYnect, which, apparently, most Kentucky residents do not know or do not want to know is actually Obamacare.

They hate Obama in Kentucky. They hate him, the judge explained because he seems intent on closing down coal mines and there were 500 active mines when Mr. Obama took office and only 5 remaining, and this is because Mr. Obama hates coal.

The Best Kentucky Can Hope For

Apparently, nobody in Kentucky is buying the idea they might find jobs making solar panels or windmills rather than going down to the coal mines.

A Career to Cherish and Protect

All this reminded me of driving through western Washington state, on the way to the Olympic peninsula and seeing pathetic little shacks, with broken down trucks and cars in the front yard, just behind enormous signs saying, "We make our living from logging. Support logging. Damn the EPA!"  Just beyond these homes the landscape looked like the surface of the moon, or maybe Hiroshima just after the bomb--miles of hills denuded of what was once forest. "Clear cutting" they called it. 

The Good Life In Kentucky Coal Country

Another example of people who made their living despoiling the planet and thinking it was the best life they could hope for, and it was a life barely better than what people in the worst parts of the third world in India and Africa have.

The judge also noted that a lot of people around Harlan County were angered by the way Kim Davis was treated for taking a stand against gay marriage. She, after all, was listening to God, whose voice she clearly heard and obeying his command. 

Good Christian Boy Listening to the Lord

For the republic to thrive, citizens have got to achieve at least a modicum of knowledge, enough so they can see what is in their own best interest. But, apparently,  if you are ignorant enough and poor enough and fearful enough, not even Obama can help you.

God Bless America.