After this was written, the courts ruled that the release of the emergency funds is not optional but mandatory (subject to SCOTUS appeal), but the point stands. Any reasonable observer can see that the Dems are starving and enslaving their own constituents to trigger an insurrection against the Trump Administration starting Nov. 5.
Peter, Do you know what is happening now to school funding for meals. Many schools offer free breakfast & lunches to the kids regardless of family income and in the summer provide the same thing regardless of age, so adults can access those meals also. “Starvation/hunger” shouldn’t be an issue for many families receiving those meals every day, in spite of lack of SNAP funding.🤷♀️
It would not surprise me at all to find that there are people who are adept at gaming the system, and there are states who make the system very easy to game.
That being said, Speaker Johnson also raised the possibility that if the USDA were forced to fully fund SNAP for November other programs such as some of the school lunch programs would be at risk for not having enough funding.
I don't think the Democrats fully grasp the extent to which modern welfare infrastructures are a house of cards. The more the shutdown disrupts the normal flow of funding through the government the more things start to break--in very public ways.
In most parts of the country most people are not at risk of real starvation. The apocalyptic rhetoric being employed by the Democrats is a level of exaggeration that exceeds even Trumpian levels of hyperbole.
But what we are likely to see is a surge in people going to food banks and food pantries--organizations that lack adequate resources even with SNAP fully funded.
Ethically and morally, neither Democrats nor Republicans should be using SNAP availability as a means of political "leverage". That it's happening it a disgrace to both Democrats and Republicans.
Practically, this is not the basis of food riots, no matter how much the progressives might want it to be exactly that.
Politically, the Republicans are playing the leverage card considerably better than the Democrats.
Thanks for this. I check Politico and the Washington Post daily and I have not seen any equivalent analysis of the negotiating positions of both sides. It's a shame that the mainstream media are ceasing to fulfill this function, but I greatly appreciate your stepping in.
I understand that people abuse the the usage of EBT cards and many think it is a right that they are entitled to. The problem arises when food and hunger is used as a playing chip in this poker game when many people "ACTUALLY" need EBT/Food Stamps.
Good article here from the Wise Wolf - "What Do You Tell God When You Let His Children Starve?
It's not a game, when you start playing with people's lives when it comes to surviving, although most things Congress does, involves playing with our lives. Why we let 500 people control all aspects of our lives is beyond me. Linking today @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
Right now, the SNAP disruption is a threat of hunger, not hunger itself. Morally, the one is as bad as the other, in terms of what Congress is doing.
Politically, it does change the calculus because it extends the timeline. Even after November 1, Congress has plenty of time to act to fund SNAP, if they choose to do so.
The SNAP disruption is perhaps the best argument of all for clean CRs when there's a budget impasse. If the Democrats had voted for the clean CR, which the Republicans passed in the House, this wouldn't even be an issue.
Yes, I have been poor and relied on food stamps. What concerns methe most is that we have people that make no attempt to put by extra food when they can. It's the first thing I did and I think it's true of most people that have gone hungry. And, parents have an obligation to feed their kids. I don't want to see anything else from parents that say the taxpayers are obligated to feed their kids. They aren't.
The degree to which SNAP recipients are using the resources they have to wait out the shutdown is a question. And there is no question that they should be doing exactly that.
Taxpayers are not obligated to feed anyone. However, the government is obligated to make good on its pledges.
It's one thing to want to throttle back or cancel SNAP. I probably would support such a measure.
But it's something else entirely to just not follow through with the requisite funding once pledged. Simply not picking up the tab is not the way to go about reducing SNAP.
Yes, and I agree with that. But emergencies like this always bring out calls to reform the system. The Dems always try to make programs that run on autopilot. Get on it and you are good for life. We need to make education a part of it, with followups to make sure people are learning. We need nutritional education, cooking classes and food storage, maybe even gardening. Maybe increases to benefits when people complete a class.
It reminds me of seeing a healthy young man in Portland, complaing that snow on the carport roof caused it to collapse and damage his car. He did nothing to take care of it himself. He just expected someone else to do that.
I will never forget seeing this on an online forum during the tech bust. A young man was out of work and trying to survive. He'd never learned how to cook and was buying food off the dollar menu at McDonalds! He asked for help, so people told him how to use a crockpot, how to shop for cheap food and recipes. I don't know how his life turned out, but I do hope he knows how to cook. Young people deserve to know this, just like they should be taught why taking out massive student loans is a bad idea.
I've been told of young men especially who can't cook, can't do their laundry, and can't even change a flat tire -- as in they don't know how to put the car in a jack and take the wheel off.
I can't wrap my head around that. I belong to the generation where you learned how to do for yourself because it was assumed that no one else would do it for you.
If you collapsed the service economy I do believe half of Gen Z would not be able to fend for themselves even a little bit.
They have no one to teach them. Do you follow @newemergingking onX? He is a black man that grew up with other men in his life. He runs a school for poor boys and teaches them things like how to work on cars and do carpentry. They how learn manners and how to dress up. We need more of people like that and fewer overeducated idiots. :)
Hate to be a cynic, but do you really believe any of what you wrote can or will happen? The Dems scream about even minimal work requirements for receiving benefits. And who is going to set up and monitor these programs? Government agencies? NGOs? No opportunities for graft or grift there…
If it doesn’t happen, then you face the real possibility of mass starvation. We can’t have a large percentage of our population treated as babies. It will take time so we need to start rolling it back now. And yes, we used to be able to monitor people getting unemployment. There will always be cheats, but people can be motivated when it is in their best interests.
The answer to that depends on how viable the Democrats remain as a political party.
Even corporate media concedes the Democrats are at historic approval lows. They are not building the case for a blue wave in the midterms, and are gambling everything on an "Orange Man Bad" strategy. They are not putting together a coherent platform on which to campaign.
That last is a major failure. Whether one agrees with a platform or not, the virtue of a platform is it gives candidates a basis for organizing their campaigns.
The MAGA Coalition has a platform -- two of them: Agenda 47 and Project 2025. That means Republicans have messages they can tailor to reach their constituents.
If the Democrats don't pull together soon as a party, they are not likely to do well in the midterms. If Trump's economic policies yield substantial jobs growth by next fall the Democrats could even face a shellacking which would doom them to being a minority party and an afterthought for the next generation.
Until the midterms are held, it is too soon to conclude the Democrats are collapsing. However, it is not too soon to observe that the signs are pointing to a collapse.
At which point all expectations have to be recalibrated.
If society ever collapses into the Great Depression of all Great Depressions, Peter, you will be able to make a living traveling from saloon to saloon cleaning up at poker. And I know you will be savvy enough to carry a loaded sidearm, as the other desperados won’t take kindly to your perfect strategies. Maybe then you will truly become known as the “Sage of San Antonio”, and Louie L’Amour types will write stories about you. You might want to line up a writer - and your share of the royalties - in advance!
When there is another Great Depression, the amount of starvation will be horrific. We will be due one when us Boomers die off as we were told those stories by the folks that lived through it.
Yes, I think you’re right. Peter has also written that the next financial reckoning will be horrific. I’m hoping it can hold off until I die peacefully of old age; I sure don’t want to be dealing with financial collapse when I’m in my 80s or 90s!
After this was written, the courts ruled that the release of the emergency funds is not optional but mandatory (subject to SCOTUS appeal), but the point stands. Any reasonable observer can see that the Dems are starving and enslaving their own constituents to trigger an insurrection against the Trump Administration starting Nov. 5.
I haven't seen it, but in Chicago, mass shoplifting is normal.
That is a distinct possibility.
So far, signs of unrest do not appear to be in abundance. At least I have not seen any news reports in either corporate or alternative media just yet.
Anyone who does see any accounts of mass shoplifting or other unrest please let me know. I am curious how much of that we will see.
https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/b89d9149-fc30-4d53-8b46-b5a6ddc9a758
Peter, Do you know what is happening now to school funding for meals. Many schools offer free breakfast & lunches to the kids regardless of family income and in the summer provide the same thing regardless of age, so adults can access those meals also. “Starvation/hunger” shouldn’t be an issue for many families receiving those meals every day, in spite of lack of SNAP funding.🤷♀️
It would not surprise me at all to find that there are people who are adept at gaming the system, and there are states who make the system very easy to game.
That being said, Speaker Johnson also raised the possibility that if the USDA were forced to fully fund SNAP for November other programs such as some of the school lunch programs would be at risk for not having enough funding.
I don't think the Democrats fully grasp the extent to which modern welfare infrastructures are a house of cards. The more the shutdown disrupts the normal flow of funding through the government the more things start to break--in very public ways.
In most parts of the country most people are not at risk of real starvation. The apocalyptic rhetoric being employed by the Democrats is a level of exaggeration that exceeds even Trumpian levels of hyperbole.
But what we are likely to see is a surge in people going to food banks and food pantries--organizations that lack adequate resources even with SNAP fully funded.
Ethically and morally, neither Democrats nor Republicans should be using SNAP availability as a means of political "leverage". That it's happening it a disgrace to both Democrats and Republicans.
Practically, this is not the basis of food riots, no matter how much the progressives might want it to be exactly that.
Politically, the Republicans are playing the leverage card considerably better than the Democrats.
Thanks for this. I check Politico and the Washington Post daily and I have not seen any equivalent analysis of the negotiating positions of both sides. It's a shame that the mainstream media are ceasing to fulfill this function, but I greatly appreciate your stepping in.
Thanks! I'm glad you find my work helpful.
I realize this is a serious subject but the absurdity of our childish elected officials makes me laugh and there are days it’s much needed!
Thank you for the (unintended) chuckle, Peter! Love your analysis!
Not so funny when its your paycheck they are playing poker with.
Crying won't help, so what else is there but laughter?
Thanks!
And we should laugh. The shutdown is political theater, and it's theater of the absurd at that.
Laughing is really the only sane reaction.
Laughter really is the best medicine!
I understand that people abuse the the usage of EBT cards and many think it is a right that they are entitled to. The problem arises when food and hunger is used as a playing chip in this poker game when many people "ACTUALLY" need EBT/Food Stamps.
Good article here from the Wise Wolf - "What Do You Tell God When You Let His Children Starve?
A Food Stamp Kid's Reckoning" - https://wisewolfmedia.substack.com/p/trump-snap-benefits-food-stamps
It's not a game, when you start playing with people's lives when it comes to surviving, although most things Congress does, involves playing with our lives. Why we let 500 people control all aspects of our lives is beyond me. Linking today @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
Right now, the SNAP disruption is a threat of hunger, not hunger itself. Morally, the one is as bad as the other, in terms of what Congress is doing.
Politically, it does change the calculus because it extends the timeline. Even after November 1, Congress has plenty of time to act to fund SNAP, if they choose to do so.
The SNAP disruption is perhaps the best argument of all for clean CRs when there's a budget impasse. If the Democrats had voted for the clean CR, which the Republicans passed in the House, this wouldn't even be an issue.
Yes, I have been poor and relied on food stamps. What concerns methe most is that we have people that make no attempt to put by extra food when they can. It's the first thing I did and I think it's true of most people that have gone hungry. And, parents have an obligation to feed their kids. I don't want to see anything else from parents that say the taxpayers are obligated to feed their kids. They aren't.
The degree to which SNAP recipients are using the resources they have to wait out the shutdown is a question. And there is no question that they should be doing exactly that.
Taxpayers are not obligated to feed anyone. However, the government is obligated to make good on its pledges.
It's one thing to want to throttle back or cancel SNAP. I probably would support such a measure.
But it's something else entirely to just not follow through with the requisite funding once pledged. Simply not picking up the tab is not the way to go about reducing SNAP.
Yes, and I agree with that. But emergencies like this always bring out calls to reform the system. The Dems always try to make programs that run on autopilot. Get on it and you are good for life. We need to make education a part of it, with followups to make sure people are learning. We need nutritional education, cooking classes and food storage, maybe even gardening. Maybe increases to benefits when people complete a class.
It reminds me of seeing a healthy young man in Portland, complaing that snow on the carport roof caused it to collapse and damage his car. He did nothing to take care of it himself. He just expected someone else to do that.
I will never forget seeing this on an online forum during the tech bust. A young man was out of work and trying to survive. He'd never learned how to cook and was buying food off the dollar menu at McDonalds! He asked for help, so people told him how to use a crockpot, how to shop for cheap food and recipes. I don't know how his life turned out, but I do hope he knows how to cook. Young people deserve to know this, just like they should be taught why taking out massive student loans is a bad idea.
I've been told of young men especially who can't cook, can't do their laundry, and can't even change a flat tire -- as in they don't know how to put the car in a jack and take the wheel off.
I can't wrap my head around that. I belong to the generation where you learned how to do for yourself because it was assumed that no one else would do it for you.
If you collapsed the service economy I do believe half of Gen Z would not be able to fend for themselves even a little bit.
They have no one to teach them. Do you follow @newemergingking onX? He is a black man that grew up with other men in his life. He runs a school for poor boys and teaches them things like how to work on cars and do carpentry. They how learn manners and how to dress up. We need more of people like that and fewer overeducated idiots. :)
Hate to be a cynic, but do you really believe any of what you wrote can or will happen? The Dems scream about even minimal work requirements for receiving benefits. And who is going to set up and monitor these programs? Government agencies? NGOs? No opportunities for graft or grift there…
If it doesn’t happen, then you face the real possibility of mass starvation. We can’t have a large percentage of our population treated as babies. It will take time so we need to start rolling it back now. And yes, we used to be able to monitor people getting unemployment. There will always be cheats, but people can be motivated when it is in their best interests.
It's fair to say that it will happen. When and with how much pain and suffering are still in question.
The answer to that depends on how viable the Democrats remain as a political party.
Even corporate media concedes the Democrats are at historic approval lows. They are not building the case for a blue wave in the midterms, and are gambling everything on an "Orange Man Bad" strategy. They are not putting together a coherent platform on which to campaign.
That last is a major failure. Whether one agrees with a platform or not, the virtue of a platform is it gives candidates a basis for organizing their campaigns.
The MAGA Coalition has a platform -- two of them: Agenda 47 and Project 2025. That means Republicans have messages they can tailor to reach their constituents.
If the Democrats don't pull together soon as a party, they are not likely to do well in the midterms. If Trump's economic policies yield substantial jobs growth by next fall the Democrats could even face a shellacking which would doom them to being a minority party and an afterthought for the next generation.
Until the midterms are held, it is too soon to conclude the Democrats are collapsing. However, it is not too soon to observe that the signs are pointing to a collapse.
At which point all expectations have to be recalibrated.
If society ever collapses into the Great Depression of all Great Depressions, Peter, you will be able to make a living traveling from saloon to saloon cleaning up at poker. And I know you will be savvy enough to carry a loaded sidearm, as the other desperados won’t take kindly to your perfect strategies. Maybe then you will truly become known as the “Sage of San Antonio”, and Louie L’Amour types will write stories about you. You might want to line up a writer - and your share of the royalties - in advance!
When there is another Great Depression, the amount of starvation will be horrific. We will be due one when us Boomers die off as we were told those stories by the folks that lived through it.
Yes, I think you’re right. Peter has also written that the next financial reckoning will be horrific. I’m hoping it can hold off until I die peacefully of old age; I sure don’t want to be dealing with financial collapse when I’m in my 80s or 90s!