That Mississippi damage is frightening

[malaise]

I’ll take hurricanes over tornadoes every day of the week

[we can do it]

1. Same here.

[PJMcK]

2. But Mississippi doesn't have much money for disasters

It's at the top of the list of states that gets far more from the federal government than they contribute in taxes.

A very telling point: Half of the state flag is the Confederate flag.

It's a shit-hole state.

[malaise]

3. I'm sure Bennie Thompson and his supporters

are against that - these are his constituents

[PJMcK]

5. Right you are, as usual

I've been to Mississippi. Never again.

However, there are fine people everywhere and Mississippi is no exception.

It's just that it's such a regressive state and government that it seems beyond salvage to me.

[Polly Hennessey]

7. I, too, was once in Mississippi. Hattiesburg area to be exact.

Never again. No doubt there are some good people there. It is not a state I would go back to.

[a kennedy]

24. Oh, the crook, Brett Favre homestead.

[nolabear]

6. If I said what I was thinking I'd get TS'd

That is a mean, cruel, not just uncaring but malicious thing to say about a bunch of people who are suffering the loss of friends, family and everything they own and know. Most are poor or working class, none has done a thing to you, and frankly no matter who they are they are in agony today and if we believe ourselves to be in favor of helping others we don’t pick and choose who among the ordinary folks we help.

[Polly Hennessey]

8. Well, one would hope the State of Mississippi would take

care of their own. Doubtful 🤨

[PJMcK]

14. Sorry but I think you missed my point

The state of Mississippi doesn't care much about its citizens as demonstrated by the lack of services to assist the people you're writing about. I don't feel malicious because I'm directing my points at the state's government, not its people.

And yet, they are the voters who elect the officials who don't improve the state. That's a huge unanswered question to me.

Individual people are obviously hurting and they need help. Their communities will need great assistance to rebuild. It will probably be up to President Biden to determine if they get Federal relief because the state doesn't have the resources and it doesn't seem to plan for the inevitable eventualities. That strikes me as malice by the state government. After all, it's not as if this is the first tornado storm to hit there.

To be clear, my observations were not about the people but about Mississippi's regressive state and local governments.

As far as their state flag is concerned, I stand by my observation until you or someone else can explain why they display a flag of treason and how that demonstrates their love of the United States.

Lastly, nolabear, if you want to let me know your unvarnished thoughts, use DU's email. I don't shirk from discussions and I'm not a tattletale who cries "foul" to the Administrators.

[CatWoman]

16. isn't Mississippi the state Brett Favre ripped off?

[a kennedy]

25. Yup, loser he is. Ugh.......

[nolabear]

23. All right. I respect the clarification. The problem is broad brushing.

Saying something is a “shithole” shames people who don’t deserve it. That’s always bothered me when done by anyone. In time it’s too much like what the RW does. It’s a lot of trouble to separate out the good and bad among populations or even within a single person, but it’s usually more accurate and not as likely to shame and upset people like me, who was raised in that state, have family and friends there, and know one person who lost everything she owns. Among those friends and family are people who believe themselves to be good people even as they do some of the things you describe—or at least don’t fight against those things. In many ways they are good. And in many ways they support things I cannot fathom. I have to choose whether to engage them about such things and listen and talk or to blanket condemn them with the most egregious.

I couldn’t agree more about the government. Or at least the higher echelons. There are some good things happening at some of the local levels, and I have some hope for the future. The state has some of the largest minority populations in the country, and conversations are happening. They just don’t get the attention the fights do.

I hope you get my point. I was angry, because this happens a lot here. I don’t want a DM fight at all.

[pandr32]

4. I read about baseball sized hail stones.

Sounds utterly hellish. The climate crisis is real.

[Marcus IM]

9. According to Reagan, this is terrifying language: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help"

Reagan's 9 most terrifying words in the English Language are: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help"

[malaise]

10. that monster

Good reminder

[Marcus IM]

11. Watching these Mississippi GOPee insurrectionists demand "reimbursement" from the Fed Gov't ...

... is laughable

"Reimbursement"??

Nice NLP.

Mississippi receives more federal monies than it contributes.

"Reimbursement"??

[malaise]

12. Parasites indeed

You'd think that would buy the governor a better rug - ah well!

[Marcus IM]

17. LOL.

Even their head coverings are bad in Mississippi.

[malaise]

20. The enemy is us

[CrispyQ]

15. I used to network with a republican woman.

We'd talk politics, a little, enough to know she hated democratic programs that helped people. Sometime later she said something about if it hadn't been for some program that offered her daughter & her children rent assistance, she wouldn't be able to afford to live in the town she went to college in. I said, isn't that one of those dem programs you disapprove of? She said, yeah but if dems were stupid enough to create programs like that, then she was going to use them.

[Marcus IM]

18. Yep. Blind as bats.

[malaise]

21. It is their disconnect to reality that gets me

They tangle themselves up in contradictions.

[mvd]

19. I thought it may have been an EF-5

Still was given a strong EF-4. Every time I complain about the weather, I’ll remember what those in MS went through. Sometimes hurricanes and tornadoes go together. The storms spawned from a hurricane caused a tornado outbreak locally in PA/NJ a couple years ago.

[malaise]

22. Good point

Folks here remain convinced that we had tornadoes during Hurricane Gilbert

[mountain grammy]

26. It's devastating..

Of course we will donate to relief organizations and do what we can but we don't do prayer like they do in these red states, so I'm thinking they just need to pray harder.