PTB, Little Pink Houses, Fools for the City, a Population Explosion, and Chicken Nuggets.

[Jeep Driver]

Anyone who has ever actually listened to Melloncamp's songs knows he's mocking the American culture. But there is some truth in his mockery. 

 

What's happening here is what happened in FL from the early 80s to the mid 2000s, population explosion and mass urban sprawl, and from what I can tell it continues to this day, maybe at a slower pace. 

 

I'm watching it happen, again, but you can't tell anyone about it, the PTB, the common slugs, like the marching of ants, are oblivious. 

 

The people here are backwards, slow, extremely religious and even more ignorant. It's common knowledge that 70% of the residents here are on the dole, EBT and SSI (and every other form), if they are not meth-heads, drunks, or homeless, if you cannot see it for yourself, ask anyone and they'll tell you about it. Tattoo parlors are thriving, as well as are the pawn shops. The food sucks, man does it ever suck. 

The only sanity around here are the 20% who work and us 'foreigners'. 

 

E TN is experiencing a population explosion, it's great for business, however.........

 

I live in a sleepy little town north of Newport Tn, to go any direction but north we have to pass through Newport or go the long way around.

Four lane highways to the north, four lane to the south (not complete yet), and I40 east and west. But Newport? no, all of which is choked down to two lanes, multiple red lights, and one RR crossing at which the gate routinely malfunctions and is replaced at least once every three months due to being hit and broken. 

 

I have nicknames for these little cities which cannot be mentioned here. 

 

Today. 

 

Driver is lucky to be alive, trailer was hit just behind the tractor, train came to a stop little less than a mile away.  I could not get to the other side of the tracks to get pics of the trailer but you can imagine. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kryptronic]

PTB? 

[Jeep Driver]

Powers That Be. 

Those in charge. 

 

Cocke County is somewhat of an enigma and you have to live here for years to understand what is going on.

 

You wouldn't know it but there is tremendous wealth here, tremendous wealth. 

Newport is the county seat of Cocke. Cocke truly was, and still is to some extent, the Wild Wild East. Organized crime, prostitution, drugs, murder, thievery, corruption at the highest levels, doctors, lawyers, judges, cops, all on the take. And of course, the moonshine capital of the country, moonshine is now legal here. 

 

I work in Gatlinburg now, I have not worked in Cocke for about three years. Some of my customers here are very wealthy and yet they refused to pay me fairly for my work, and now that they know what my prices are, they don't hire me at all. They got theirs and damned if they will allow you to have any of it. 

One customer is now a widow and I continue to take care of her. 

 

Edit-

 

 

I was going to give a couple of examples, however, my wife works for a quasi govt entity........we are very close to some of the people in charge here. Trust me, I've got stories. 

[kryptronic]

Thanks.  I thoight you were refereing to the populace and was trying to infer the meaning of the abbreviation from that angle.

 

Bread and circuses.  This has all happened before.  I worry about our future too.

[Jeep Driver]

If I'm fortunate, I've got 20 productive years left, I'm no longer worried about the future. 

 

Wife and I have a 10 year plan. The crotch of TN, VA, NC, is still nice and quiet, in the next couple of years we will begin looking for a few  acres up there to build our own house. Then I could still work out of Bristol or Johnson City, when I want to. 

My son will be out on his own, we will be at the height of expansion here and I should be able to get premium dollar for my house, wife and I will finally be free to do what we want. My wife has been raising kids for 36 years and I have been for 32 years, it's time for a little selfishness. 

 

Ten years ago we left the congestion of a major metro for the quiet peaceful life of small town USA, I was delusional. The Bible Belt, where people were friendly, warm, honest, trustworthy, kind, and most importantly, -Godly-, WTF?, again, I was delusional. Churches are political, where deals are made and 'god' is used was a weapon to destroy enemies or to corral the sheeple into submission. Cliques, you are either in, or out, once you are out, there's nowhere else to go. You never ever question authority here. 

Think you'll find panacea in a small town? Think again. 

 

Think of an hourglass, Newport is the meter of the hourglass. 

We were supposed to get a Newport bypass, connecting 321 to the north to 321/411 to the south, a direct route to Pigeon Forge/Seveirville/Gatlinburg. Construction was supposed to begin 5 years ago. The county just completed an 8 mile stretch of 321 to the south, a highway to nowhere. From what I hear the PTB are dragging their feet on the bypass because they fear that the bypass will reduce business traffic through town, backwards thinking. Cherokee Nation Forest/Gatlinburg is the most visited national park in the country, that's where the money is, that's why I work there, and the people are slightly more metropolitan. Those of us who need to get through town, just need to get through town, and trust me, Newport has little to offer anyway. 

There is a lot of truck traffic here with ConAgra to the east and Bush Bean to the west, and a lot of through traffic also, trucks have no business downtown but they are forced to come through anyway.

 

E TN really should be it's own state, we have nothing in common with W TN, middle TN just doesn't matter much. I could drive to Montreal faster than I can to the TN/MO line, that's how wide TN is. 

E TN is desperate to attract major enterprise, automakers top the list, infrastructure is being built all around us, highways and gas lines and so forth. When it comes, and it will, this area will explode. 

Large businesses have been reluctant to come here because the labor force is so......well.......pathetic, if one exists at all, but that is changing with the influx of us foreigners. Cheap land and no income tax, and state tax incentives are paving the way. 

 

The few here with any ambition at all are waiting, waiting for an entire generation to die, it's sad but it's true. Change comes slowly, I guess. 

 

It was a simple truck/train incident, so why all the blathering?

Pete has tried desperately to get you guys talking. To no avail. 

Are Jeep people this boring? or have people in general become a bore? Or do I just piss you off?   Sheeeesh...............

 

 

 

[Jeep Driver]

The county rag blames the train when clearly is that the truck driver's fault.

 

I sat out the very first election, local or national, since 1986, I've never missed the opportunity to vote.......civic duty and all......

 

It just doesn't matter anymore, same families, same names, same PsTB.........the people here are so stupid. Do what you did, get what you got. 

 

 

 

[Pete M]

does that intersection have lights?  crossing barriers?  I've noticed an alarming number of train crossings down south that don't have them.     maybe it's more rural than southern. 

 

although it doesn't always matter as we had a truck/train collision near my old house in michigan just a few weeks ago and that spot has lights and crossing barriers.  the guy drove his tractor/trailer around them.  idiot.  

 

https://wwjnewsradio.radio.com/articles/semi-truck-collides-train-downriver

[500 MJ]

I work for a railroad and this happens more often than most people know. It seems that people automatically turn into idiots when they see the track.

 

 

(Insert natural selection based comment here)