Posted on 09/04/2012 5:37:03 AM PDT by Travis McGee
You might want to rethink that... having taught kids who's parents collect their entitlements, I can tell you that as a group, when they see something they want, they just take it. No boundries, no respect for themselves or anyone else, and a LOT of violent behavior.
Practically speaking, an EBT cancellation is not likely to happen because America has always been awash in food, and one of our biggest agribusiness problems is too much food.
Since FDR, the government has purchased and (expensively) warehoused vast amounts of food that eventually rots. If EBT fails, no problem, the government just declares that EBT holders, instead of getting their food via retail distribution, get it issued to them by government food warehouses. Remember Reagan’s cheese giveaway? It saved the government millions of dollars.
A much greater threat to our food supply is if something very bad (like a strike) happens to our railroads. They transfer such *vast* quantities of food and merchandise continually, that a single day of them not operating could cost our economy a half billion dollars. And another half billion dollars every day thereafter.
The next big problem is a massive natural disaster, most likely either a massive California earthquake or a massive New Madrid area earthquake.
Close behind them would be a super tidal wave that devastated one or the other of our coasts.
There's a big difference between conflict and the occasional service outage due to a cell tower being collateralled, and the government coming in and shutting down the operation of the business. There are (or at least were) microwave dishes to the switches that chokepoint a lot of cell service. In case you don't believe it can be done, if the government has the desire: Taliban shut down cell phone service from dusk to dawn.
"Race hustlers of every stripe should be condemned.Most of us wish we could turn back the calendar to Norman Rockwell’s America. But we cannot ..."
I find myself wondering almost daily, which groups of Americans are awake enough to see that a very determined enemy of this Republic is dividing Americans along racial and ethnic lines ... planning to end the Republic or take it over? The answer is becoming very clear now, and the enemy is even meeting openly, partying over their glee at their success so far.
When Americans allowed their votes to be farmed out to overseas 'counters', the end of self governance by a moral people officially ended. Prepping is now all that we the people can do for this monster is no longer just stirring from slumber, it is fast-walking from Charlotte to activate an agenda.
One last warning from this old kook: the Book of Revelations does not speak of America, even in code. As the most powerful armed force ont he planet, if these are truly the end times then the internal crumbling of America is the only thing which could nullify that power for the global scene. Prepare, America, things will degenerate very rapidly, by design, demonic design activated by evil political powers who do not want to step aside for mere voters.
Note there’s even a handy recipe at Post 112.
Corrected for grammar and punctuation. ;)
A real disaster has a way of sobering people up quickly.
There are no more of those vast warehouses of food. They did away with them several years ago. They don’t eve keep strategic stores of grain any more.
The internet is different. It is a distributed, many-path method of communication. Packets persist from server to server, jumping around until A successful path is found. In cell phones, it's more like ONE path. Well, a bunch of towers, but you chokepoint at some point. Not the same in the internet. It's built on a no-chokepoint model, on purpose, to survive nuke bangy things. :)
First the block.
Second the subdivision or group of common streets.
Then the municipality which might not be at all like the old municipality.
This is exactly what would happen.
We've seen Matt's scenario before. It's called "the fall of the Western Roman Empire."
Remember - the reason the Germanic tribes started coming across the Rhine was not because the Huns were pressing on them, but because the Roman subsidy payments stopped flowing, and that because the western Empire was going broke, due to unfavourable balances of trade, economic stagnation coupled with political tyranny, and the collapse of the value of the currency due to debasement.
Then you started seeing Germans with swords ransacking, raping, and killing everyone they ran into.
Only after a few decades did things finally settle down and did you start seeing local petty kingdoms form, as both Germans and Romans started preserving the little bits of order in their localities, and driving everyone else out.
Two notable differences:
1) Things can happen much quicker now, because of our telecommunications, and because the "civilian" parts of the intruding populations are already here, instead of having to transport themselves by the thousands via wagon and foot.
2) The Roman populace was unarmed, by government order. This is not the case with ours, and will stay that way, regardless of any government orders.
If you haven’t been pinged before, I’m pinging you now.
Did you hear of the crazy stuff going on in that stadium after Katrina? And that was with a surrounded, heavily-policed situation. Imagine when the gloves (the police presence) comes off! Disasters bring out the best in some, but the most animalistic in others.
I think you are exactly correct. The government will likely try to compel food stores to accept pennies on the dollar in return for food and goods.
In fact, there is ample precedent for this with doctors and health care providers being paid pennies on the dollar for Medicaid and Medicare services. Right now this works because of both the health care provider's good will and because they can and do effectively subsidize those losses by charging others (private pay and private insurance)for those costs.
So, I agree, I don't think the EBT cards ever stop working and thereby having people point to the government as the source of the real problem. The government will try to force private businesses to find way to subsidize the force losses from EBT cards. Then the weakest (read: inner city) food stores will go down first and that's where the rioting will start and then expand.
Cell systems primarily enter the phone system Central Office (CO) of your local community in order to access the larger network connectivity. Some cell systems are wired to talk to each other but usually even then they connect via the CO. So, taking down the cell network is as simple as turning off the network switches at the CO. Bye-bye cell system. A CO usually serves up to 50,000 subscribers then another CO is built. So, doing a little math means a town/city of 250,000 might have about 5 COs and up to 15 if need be, depending on age of the phone network and terrain. So, 15 COs to turn off, gimme 5 minutes, those switches can be turned off remotely.
As far as the Internet, it talks like a web (gosh, go figure). No one computer controls much of anything and every computer can talk to any computer it can reach to pass a message. Eventually, maybe a bazillion connections later, the message actually reaches the intended computer. To take down the Internet would require taking down all major communications links. MCI used to control 90% of all Internet traffic, now bought by Verizon, but it still is the major hub. What is interesting is that much of their communications network is microwave relay links. It’s how MCI started in the first place in the 1960’s. There isn’t a simple link to kill the Internet, or a few massive pipes. The Internet still relies on older microwaves, copper cables, and older digital phone networks. Sure, much of it is carried on large pipes, but not all of it.
Taking down all that interconnectivity can be done but it would essentially blackout just about all communication links including those needed by FMSL (Federal, Military, State, Local) governments. It would also take days just to coordinate it all. Sure, there has been talk of an off switch to it all, controlled by the whitehut, but that simply has not happened. The feds could just give the order that all commercial systems must shut down but even then the FMSL would suffer, too. I also highly doubt that order would be followed.
Here is our pattern for a private observation drone for intel on strikeback ops: a VTOL-capable plane built with commonly-available RC aircraft parts, and microcontroller boards.
http://hackaday.com/2012/09/04/autonomous-plane-quadrotor-both-meet-the-atmos/
There aren’t that many inter-city food stores now. Most large chains pulled out years ago.
“There are no more of those vast warehouses of food. They did away with them several years ago.”
Correctamundo. I think right here on FR there were articles about no more government cheese as those programs had come to a complete stop. Comments were made that many food banks and shelters relied on such provisions.
“...Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past....”
Pretty much spot on. Thanks, Travis...
Sobering stuff...
“Did you hear of the crazy stuff going on in that stadium after Katrina?”
Most of those crazy things were fiction. It was not a good situation but workable.
I worked with a number of people from NO and they did not believe that others would help them at all. They were surprised and kept wondering at it.
New Orleans culture was quite weird.
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