In Kentucky's coal-mining country (solidly Trump country too) a group of miners have blocked a mine and a train full of coal to protest not getting paid. Their company, Blackjewel, declared bankruptcy on July 1. The company never technically laid them off, so they can't get paid, and they also can't get unemployment. Altogether, the company is believed to owe its 1700 miners some $5 million total in back pay, or about $3000 per miner. A local mayor said that ""Some of these guys have family members who are sick. They don't have healthcare. They can't get their unemployment just because it was cut out of their checks but it was never paid in..."Their 401Ks are deadlocked because they haven't technically quit. They haven't been laid off. Then you've got child support that, you know, it's been cut out of these guys' checks, never got paid in, so now some of them are getting warrants. And it's just not right."
Guess who they want to come in and save them? Donald Trump. Because he cares about the miners so much: "We're struggling," Brandon Pearson said. "And I hope and I pray that Donald Trump can see my message and hear my voice. I'm just one of many voices crying out, saying we need help we need something and we need him here." In this region, which largely voted for Trump, they don't blame him for this current crisis and even credit him with spurring economic development in the area. But they are disheartened that he has not acknowledged or tried to help them with their current plight. Others encouraged the President to come visit them.
"A tweet would be great," Pearson said. "You know a lot of us country folks, we don't tweet. We like to see some more face-to-face. And I know he's an extremely busy man, and I know this is a small thing going on when you're the most powerful man in the world. But man, if he could show up. You're talking about filling a void, you're talking about making some people feel special. Maybe if he could just come here and get a bird's eye view of what's really going on, he could change a lot of people's lives. He really could."
Trumpworld really has become a kind of new religious cult, with Trump as the New Messiah. If only he would pay attention to them, and send some tweets their way, they would all feel so much better! They're all being conned, and refuse to acknowledge it. If anything, Trump would probably side with the company.
Link:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/02/us/kentucky-blackjewel-coal-miners/index.html
