Posted on 06/15/2016 7:01:22 AM PDT by Lorianne
There are stories that confirm our worries that the whole industrial system is about to come apart; and then there are stories that scare the crap out of us because they indicate that the collapse is ongoing and accelerating. This is one of those latter stories, one of those pre-apocalyptic cracks of doom that, like thunder, tell you it’s time to get ready. A Google search this morning finds no mention of this story in the industrial media, but it rages in the alternative sources (many of whom are weaving it into their previously established conspiracy theories as a deliberate act, not another triumph of ineptitude).
The story? All over the country, especially since June 1, the SNAP card system, which is how we get food stamps to people now, is failing. Curiously, the failures seem to be selective, not blacking out areas-or states or regions, but cherry-picking individuals all over the county. Hundreds of people all over the country so far this month, and thousands this year, are experiencing late funding of their SNAP cards — some people are still waiting for funds that were supposed to be available on June 1. Many hundreds more are finding their SNAP cards won’t work at all.
According to a website that tracks these things, people are reporting problems at a rate that for parts of the day exceed 200 per hour. Fifty million individuals, including one out of every five American children, receive food stamps. If you know any families who rely on them — personally I mean, not through the viewpoint of the snarling “get-a-job” trolls who populate every online discussion of this subject (including, amazingly, the website designed to collect reports of problems in the system) — you know that the last few days before the stipend comes through are often hungry days. (The trolls sneer at that, but would you really be unaffected by a one or two week delay in your paycheck?)
But you do not have to be a bleeding-heart liberal to find this problem appalling. The SNAP, or EBT, card is how we deliver food assistance to people who otherwise would be in line at some government agency, lines whose size and desperation would dwarf anything seen in the Great Depression. There is virtually no margin for error here before people start to starve. (What’s that you say? A huge government computer system with no margin for error? What could possibly go wrong?)
And if you have no pity for the starving (because obviously if they had good character they would be successful like you), consider this: before they starve they are going to burn your country down around your hard of hearing ears.
People who have not read history and who have no empathy and are childishly simplistic in their comprehension of the world — you know, people like Donald Trump — have no idea what has happened in the past (“Let them eat cake!”), what is happening right now (People are dying in massive riots around empty grocery stores in Venezuela.) or what could happen any minute if another lit match is thrown into that tinder box (“Drug test them!” “Reduce and restrict benefits!” “Make ‘em work for it!”)
So move the second hand on the doomsday clock a little closer to midnight, and pray that the government that designed and built a computer system for the FBI that had to be scrapped entirely on opening day — the government that designed and built the original Obamacare website — can fix this problem before….
Oh, never mind. I gotta find my bugout bag.
I heard something about this a day or two ago and expected other stories would follow.
Silence.
Are they testing?
Is the left ready to throw the big switch on Cloward-Piven just in time for the election?
People who have not read history and who have no empathy and are childishly simplistic in their comprehension of the world — you know, people like Donald Trump — have no idea what has happened in the past (“Let them eat cake!”), what is happening right now (People are dying in massive riots around empty grocery stores in Venezuela.) or what could happen any minute if another lit match is thrown into that tinder box (“Drug test them!” “Reduce and restrict benefits!” “Make ‘em work for it!”)
Yes, I agree the author doesn’t get it.
Nobody can stop this from happening ... not Trump or anyone else ... but when it does, Trump and conservatives or Republicans in general will be blamed.
Hell they are already blaming Trump for everything and he has never held elected office!
Intent of making this post is appreciated.
However, I don’t think this left leaning cat turd will be appreciated by our FR community.
“People who have not read history and who have no empathy and are childishly simplistic in their comprehension of the world — you know, people like Donald Trump — have no idea what has happened in the past (“Let them eat cake!”)”
EBT is gonna SNAP completely someday without a doubt.
R
The article is so ideologically Left and continually is trying to score points that the author forgets to support his own assertion about the SNAP program failing and ultimately why. Is it just a computer glitch or lack of funding, ultimately? I just can’t follow it.
Some people have a pretty nice life living off the government via their baby mamas.
Hunger is a wonderful motivator.
Or maybe (hopefully) someone is finally cracking down on the abusers?
I agree
I think it is important to understand who will be the targets when SNAP (and much else) fails. This author has laid it out pretty plainly
I cannot even begin to imagine the hell that would occur in the major cities of the US if the SNAP system failed dramatically.
Martial law would occur even without a Presidential directive.
If anyone on food stamps is hungry at the end of the month, it’s because they wasted their stipend. I see them doing it all the time at the grocery store, loading up on junk food and prepared foods and paying with EBT.
Interesting that the author actually mentions that if welfare recipients had to actually line up at an agency window to collect their allotment, the lines would dwarf the Great Depression, and yet that comment is made off the cuff, as if it is utterly unremarkable.
And sure, there are probably a lot of blameless people collecting benefits thanks to the Obama economy, but there are also hordes of indolent parasites hooked into the system and draining it of resources.
About 2 years ago someone I know who has “connections” told me the Gov was planning to cut off food stamp and other funds, to foment riots. I dunno... just throwing my piece of wood on the fire.
They also told me in December that Hilary would not be indicted. A few other things, like whole towns would be vacated and replaced with “refugees”.....I dunno.....
So, let me get this straight. The author is saying we need to make sure the SNAP system keeps working or the poor starving masses will up and kill us.
Sounds like blackmail and extortion. Are we supposed to agree to this?
It certainly motivated me late in high school and in college while I was prepping for a career. There were a couple of times when my Grandmother gave me $50 in my college days, and it was very timely. I came from a family of very modest means and I STILL worry about being destitute at times, and I am almost 60.
That is basically what he is saying.
But what he misses is that SNAP failing will be nothing compared to what else fails.
Like many others, he has no understanding of the magnitude of what can fail (e.g. he doesn’t understand history).
Buying cases of the cheapest soda for their kids so they can get $20 cash for cans, under that the ribs and lobster tails...but the worst...I shop at a discount store, always loaded with the 20# sacks of polished white rice, no Asian community. I found out why they stock so much rice by overhearing; You simmer rice until it isn’t rice anymore but gruel, flavor it with coffee creamer and a minimum of baby formula for flavor, fill your bottles and you save money on formula with something the baby will stomach that leave Family Services inspectors none the wiser...looks like formula. Not making this up.
That is the thought that occurred to me too. Could also just be typical government stupidity and incompetence.
Is the left ready to throw the big switch on Cloward-Piven just in time for the election?
I think Professors Cloward and Piven's theories are based on societies such as what existed in Russia or Germany back in the 1900s.
I do not think Proffessors Cloward and Piven's ideas will operate correctly in a nation such as the United States.
We will simply shoot the bastards and then we will come for trouble making professor types such as Cloward and Piven.
Rioters? We can wipe them out in a few days. Problem solved.
Professors Cloward and Piven would not have liked the results of testing their theories in this nation.
Why is that?
Does Venezuela have no food, no ability to grow or import food?
No. It is due to Socialism/Communism.
The government is FORCING manufacturers and importers to GIVE their food and other goods AWAY at gunpoint. The manufacturers and importers can no longer make a profit, and therefore can no longer buy the raw materials or purchase deliveries from outside suppliers.
It always amazes me to see how people can be so stupid about something as simple as the law of supply and demand, and how there really is no such thing, no matter how hard you wish, as a free lunch.
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