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Computer Upgrade Blamed For Nationwide EBT System Shutdown On Saturday

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Author Topic: Computer Upgrade Blamed For Nationwide EBT System Shutdown On Saturday  (Read 1449 times)
Mark
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« on: October 12, 2013, 03:21:57 pm »

Computer Upgrade Blamed For Nationwide EBT System Shutdown On Saturday

A possible glitch in a computer system upgrade was causing major problems nationwide with the Electronic Benefits Transfer System on Saturday, as a countless number of shoppers found themselves stranded at the register.
 
Reports from around the country began pouring in around 9 a.m. on Saturday that customers’ EBT cards were not working in stores.
 
The glitch, however, did not appear to be part of the government shutdown. At 2 p.m., an EBT customer service representative told CBS Boston that the system was currently down for a computer system upgrade.
 
The representative said the glitch is affecting people nationwide. She could not say when officials expected the system to be restored.

People calling the customer service line were being told to call back later.
 
State officials said they were preparing a statement to further explain the issue.
 
The federal EBT website was unavailable due to the government shutdown.


http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/10/12/computer-upgrade-blamed-for-nationwide-ebt-system-shutdown-on-saturday/
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« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2013, 04:48:09 pm »

Sounds like a dry run(at least to me).
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Kilika
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« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2013, 04:13:49 am »

Yeah, something isn't right about that. They do upgrades on the weekend, when most people are out shopping? Makes no sense. And where was the notice of this "upgrade"?  Roll Eyes
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« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2013, 05:19:02 am »

Xerox: Access to food stamp system is restored in 17 states affected by outage

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/xerox-access-food-stamp-system-restored-17-states-affected-outage

Ya know, looking at this, the TIMING is real suspect. Right after Obamastops all negotiations again on the debt/gov shut down problem this happens. And we do have this for no reason what so ever.

Park Ranger: “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can."
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2013/10/04/park-ranger-weve-been-told-to-make-life-as-difficult-for-people-as-we-can-n1717297

So i really dont believe that an update glitch took the whole system down. I fully believe that the Obama Admin is trying to make life as difficult for people as we can.
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« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2013, 06:02:37 am »

Technologically speaking, yes, an update as such could cause a "crash". That's what makes the claim plausible. It CAN happen, but did it really? At some point the circumstantial evidence becomes so great and repeated that it's no longer "coincidence".
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« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2013, 04:19:29 pm »

http://money.msn.com/investing/article.aspx?post=98e537d4-b670-4681-a1a4-65c8d88f6b44

Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede

Shoppers swarm stores after a computer hiccup gives benefit cards unlimited purchasing power.

10/14/13

Wal-Mart (WMT -0.19%) stores in Springhill and Mansfield, La., saw a stampede and a shelf-clearing rush Saturday after a computer glitch for food stamp recipients led to benefit cards allowing unlimited purchases.

Police were called as entire shelves were being cleared out, until the glitch was fixed and low-income residents using the cards were no longer allowed to make purchases.

From news station KSLA:

"Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Wal-Mart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Wal-Mart was so packed, 'it was worse than any black Friday' that he's ever seen.

Lynd explained the cards weren't showing limits and they called corporate Wal-Mart, whose spokesman said to let the people use the cards anyway. From 7 to 9 p.m., people were loading up their carts, but when the cards began showing limits again around 9, one woman was detained because she rang up a bill of $700 and only had .49 on her card. She was held by police until corporate Wal-Mart said they wouldn't press charges if she left the food.

Lynd says at 9 p.m., when the cards came back online and it was announced over the loud speaker, people just left their carts full of food in the aisles and left."

No arrests were made.

"Just about everything is gone. I've never seen it in that condition," Mansfield Wal-Mart customer Anthony Fuller told KSLA.
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« Reply #6 on: October 24, 2013, 11:44:07 am »

Uh Oh: 47 Million Food Stamp Recipients Are Having Their Benefits Cut Back On November 1st
10/21/13

47.6 million Americans are about to have their food stamp benefits cut, and most of them have absolutely no idea that it is about to happen.  Needless to say, a lot of them are going to be very angry when they discover that they cannot buy as much food for their families anymore.  The reason that this is happening is because a temporary boost to food stamp benefits that was put in during the last recession is expiring.  But most of the people that are having their benefits cut will not understand this.  Most of them will just be very upset that the government is “taking money away” from them.  And considering the “mini-riots” that we witnessed earlier this month when the system that processes food stamp payments went down for a few hours, it is obvious that a lot of food stamp recipients can very easily be pushed over the edge.  So what would happen if we have another “debt ceiling crisis” in Washington D.C. early next year and food stamp benefits are temporarily cut off completely?

Wherever “austerity” has been tried in Europe, it has resulted in protests and riots.  Could a similar thing happen in this country?

NBC News is reporting that ALL food stamp recipients are going to have their food stamp benefits reduced in November.  This is certainly not going to put those living in poverty in a good mood…

Millions of American families could face a sparse holiday table when food stamps benefits get reduced in November, and that could be just the start of deeper cuts to the program to feed poor families.

The modern-day food stamp plan, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is scheduled to scale back benefits for all recipients on Nov. 1 because a recession-era boost in benefits is expiring.

Sadly, the truth is that food stamp benefits don’t even buy a lot of food right now.  According to the USDA, the average monthly food stamp benefit is approximately $272 per household.

And now it will be even lower.

The government says that a family of four will be getting 36 dollars less per month starting on November 1st.

That may not sound like a lot to you, but for those living on the edge of poverty it can make a huge difference.

What are impoverished families supposed to do?  Eat a diet that consists entirely of Ramen noodles?

Of course the real solution would be to provide good paying jobs for those families, but unfortunately our leaders continue to pursue policies that are systematically killing American jobs so that is not going to happen.

Meanwhile, those living in poverty continue to become angrier and more frustrated.

We got a glimpse of this earlier this month.  The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article posted on offgridsurvival.com…

Quote
Over the weekend, the debit system that allows people on government assistance to buy food, temporarily went down. The resulting chaos is a small glimpse at what I believe will happen, should the government plunge this country into some sort of economic collapse.

A couple of Walmarts in Louisiana decided to allow people to shop, even though the system was down and they had no real way of knowing how much credit people had on their cards. The resulting chaos had the store’s shelves in Springhill and Mansfield, LA stripped bare, as food stamp recipients attempted to defraud the grocery stores.

When the system went back online, the grocery store found people who had as little as .49 on their Food Stamp cards attempting to steal over $700 in food. Local police were called in as the crowd started to turn ugly, and overflowing grocery carts were left abandoned in the aisles.

But this is just the beginning.  To get an idea of what is eventually coming to America, just check out what is happening in Italy right now…

Quote
Demonstrators clashed with Italian police on Saturday as tens of thousands marched through Rome to protest against unemployment, government cuts and big construction projects they say take money away from social services.

Hooded protesters turned over garbage bins in front of the Economy Ministry and set several of them on fire. Using sticks and clubs, they attacked police in riot gear. The police charged and chased demonstrators up side streets.

The hooded demonstrators, who infiltrated a mostly peaceful protest, threw smoke bombs, eggs and bottles at the ministry and broke the window of a nearby bank.

As poverty continues to grow and government handouts continue to get cut back, the desperation of those living in poverty in this country is going to continue to increase.

At this moment, there are 6 million Americans in the 16 to 24-year-old age group that are neither in school or working.  In fact, a whole bunch of major U.S. cities currently have more than 100,000 “idle youth” living in them…

Quote
Just look at some of the nation’s largest cities. Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Riverside, Calif., all have more than 100,000 idle youth, the Opportunity Nation report found.

It is only a matter of time until we see massive riots and huge crime waves in many of those cities.

The conditions for a “perfect storm” are already here.

All we need is a spark.

According to a brand new Pew Research survey, only 19 percent of all Americans trust the government.   Back in 1958, 73 percent of all Americans trusted the government.

Right now, only 23 percent of all Americans have a favorable view of Congress.  Back in 1985, 67 percent of all Americans did.

Anger and frustration are growing and our society is breaking down all around us.
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« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2013, 02:11:14 pm »

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/28/riots_always_begin_typically_the_same_way_food_stamp_shutdown_looms_friday/
10/28/13
“Riots always begin typically the same way”: Food stamp shutdown looms Friday 

The head of the largest food bank says the $5 billion annual cut will take a week of meals off millions' plates


Food stamp recipients face a massive benefit cut set to kick in when stimulus funds expire Friday. The nationwide cut “is equivalent to about 16 meals a month for a family of three,” according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis using the USDA’s “Thrifty Food Plan.” CBPP called the roughly $5 billion annual cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program “unprecedented” in “depth and breadth.”

“If you look across the world, riots always begin typically the same way: when people cannot afford to eat food,” Margarette Purvis, the president and CEO of the Food Bank for New York City, told Salon Monday. Purvis said that the looming cut would mean about 76 million meals “that will no longer be on the plates of the poorest families” in NYC alone – a figure that outstrips the total number of meals distributed each year by the Food Bank for New York City, the largest food bank in the country. “There will be an immediate impact,” she said.

“The fact that they’re going to lose what’s basically an entire week’s worth food” each month, said Purvis, “it’s pretty daunting.” She told Salon that while policymakers “are attempting to punish people for being poor,” and “people are comforted by believing that they know that a person has to have done something wrong in order to be poor,” in reality, “I can tell you that more and more folks have more than one job and are still needing help.” (As I reported last week, audio recorded by a McDonald’s worker-activist showed a counselor on an employee hotline encouraging her to sign up for food stamps because it “takes a lot of the pressure off how much money you spend on groceries.”) Purvis added that cutting food stamps was “not even good business sense,” because each dollar of food stamps infuses over $1.70 of spending into the economy.

We were all told that these cuts for November 1 would not happen,” said Purvis. When “they decided they were going to take from some of the increases to food stamps” to fund First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” program, she told Salon, “We were told, you know, by the president…these cuts will not happen, we won’t get rid of the program. Well guess what? November 1 is around the corner, and no one has restored that money.”

Some prominent conservatives have questioned the significance of public assistance cuts for the poor. Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kistol contended during the government shutdown that “it’s not going to be the end of the world, honestly, even if you’re on nutritional assistance from the federal government. The state of Arkansas can help out, localities can help out, churches can help out, I believe no one is going to starve in Arkansas because of the shutdown.” Asked about such claims, Purvis said that citing the efforts of groups like hers as a reason not to worry about public assistance cuts was “one of the most ill-informed arguments on the planet.” She told Salon, “the first line of defense against hunger is a food stamp.” While some “have had this way of romanticizing charity,” she said, “charity is also a system that is based on capacity and resources.” Purvis added that politicians “didn’t make any additional resources available to these magical charities that they expect to step in for this devastation that’s geared at the poorest of Americans.”

Purvis said she and her colleagues are “begging” Congress to pass legislation by December to restore the expired funds. Rather than “trying to raise a dollar” to avert disaster privately, she said, a solution will require Americans to “raise their voices,” because “the avenue has to be activism.” In the meantime, she predicted “a very tough Thanksgiving.”
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« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2013, 02:46:39 pm »

Perhaps another "glitch"? Huh

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« Reply #9 on: October 31, 2013, 12:24:42 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/food-stamp-cuts-kick-congress-debates-more-051207441--politics.html
Food stamp cuts kick in as Congress debates more
10/31/13

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 47 million Americans who receive food stamps will see their benefits go down starting Friday, just as Congress has begun negotiations on further cuts to the program.

Beginning in November, a temporary benefit from the 2009 economic stimulus that boosts food stamp dollars will no longer be available. According to the Agriculture Department, that means a family of four receiving food stamps will start receiving $36 less a month.

The benefits, which go to 1 in 7 Americans, fluctuate based on factors that include food prices, inflation and income. The rolls have swelled as the economy has struggled in recent years, with the stimulus providing higher benefits and many people signing up for the first time.

As a result, the program has more than doubled in cost since 2008, now costing almost $80 billion a year. That large increase in spending has turned the program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, into a target for House Republicans looking to reduce spending.

Negotiations on a wide-ranging farm bill, including cuts to the SNAP program, began Wednesday. Five-year farm bills passed by both the House and the Senate would cut food stamps, reductions that would come on top of the cut that will go into effect Friday. But the two chambers are far apart on the amounts.

Legislation passed by the GOP-controlled House would cut food stamps by an additional $4 billion annually and tighten eligibility requirements. The House bill would also end government waivers that have allowed able-bodied adults without dependents to receive food stamps indefinitely and allow states to put broad new work requirements in place.

The Senate farm bill would cut a tenth of the House amount, with Democrats and President Barack Obama opposing major cuts.

Farm-state lawmakers have been pushing the farm bill for more than two years, and Wednesday's conference negotiations represented the opening round in final talks. If the bill is not passed by the end of the year and current farm law is not extended, certain dairy supports would expire that could raise the price of milk. Farmers would start to feel more effects next spring.

"It took us years to get here but we are here," House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said. "Let's not take years to get it done."

The biggest obstacle to a final bill is how far apart the two parties are on food stamps. Lucas said at the conference meeting that he was hoping to find common ground on the issue, but House GOP leaders such as Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., have insisted on higher cuts, saying the program should be targeted to the neediest people.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sent out a statement as the meeting opened that said food stamp recipients "deserve swift action from Congress to pass a bill that provides the much-needed nutritional support for our children, our seniors, our veterans and our communities."

As Congress debates the cuts to the program, charities say they are preparing for the farm bill reductions as well as the scheduled cuts taking place Friday.

"Charities cannot fill the gap for the cuts being proposed to SNAP," said Maura Daly of Feeding America, a network of the nation's food banks. "We are very concerned about the impact on the charitable system."

Daly says food banks may have to as much as double their current levels of distribution if the House cuts were enacted. The Congressional Budget Office says as many as 3.8 million people could lose their benefits in 2014 if the House bill became law
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« Reply #10 on: October 31, 2013, 04:17:21 pm »

Quote
If the bill is not passed by the end of the year and current farm law is not extended, certain dairy supports would expire that could raise the price of milk. Farmers would start to feel more effects next spring.

Again, the love of money is the motivation. This bill is being held up and manipulated over subsidies to corporate farmers. And of course they are using the scare tactic of threats of higher food prices to try to get their corporate way.
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« Reply #11 on: October 31, 2013, 07:49:07 pm »

All by design...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101159832?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cheadline%7Cheadline%7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=101159832%7CFood%20stamp%20cuts%20will%20hurt
Food stamp cuts' $10B effect doesn't tell the whole story
10/31/13

Margaret Purvis makes her living by ensuring that low-income people have enough to eat, and she sees that job as about to get a lot tougher.

That's because benefit cuts to food stamp recipients kick in Friday, a move that will siphon $5 billion off a program that helps out one in seven Americans put breakfast, lunch and dinner on the table.

As president of the Food Bank for New York City, Purvis expects those cuts will direct even more people to her organization, whose 1,000-plus member groups already provide 400,000 meals a day, she said.

"Our members are panicking," Purvis said as time wound down to the benefit decreases. "We're telling everyone to make sure that you are prepared for longer lines."

Recipients of food stamps—officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—are expected to lose an average $36 from a $275.13 monthly benefit per household. A near-record 47.6 million Americans representing 23.1 million households are on the program, the cost of which will hit $63.4 billion this year.

The cuts are a result of the expiration of a SNAP budget increase that was part of President Barack Obama's 2009 stimulus bill. Over the past few years, a bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans have voted in favor of the cuts in exchange for higher education funding and school nutrition programs.

A group of Democrats who initially supported the cuts organized a protest earlier this week to demand that funding be reinstated.

"It was a piece of legislation that said let's change nutrition standards, let's get junk foods out of our schools, and let's make sure that our kids can have those fruits and vegetables," Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro told the Huffington Post about the nutrition bill.

"There was no money for it. The price of it was $2.2 billion. That came from the food stamp program, and all of us here complained," she said. "And we were opposed to that, but we knew that it was a good first step in getting the Hunger-Free Kids Act."

There appears little appetite to reverse the cuts, however, despite the protests and worries from charity leaders such as Purvis at the New York food bank.

The repercussions go far beyond the city and are more than humanitarian.

Programs such as SNAP have what economists call a "multiplier effect"—in other words, a dollar given to an entitlement recipient has amplified economic benefits. In this case, those consist primarily of the grocers who benefit when food stamp users shop in their stores. The estimated multiplier effect for food stamps is as high as 2 to 1.

"This isn't just a New York issue," Purvis said. "In the world of hunger relief, food stamps are supposed to be the first line of defense."

Amira Watson, a working single mother of four in Brooklyn, recently had to sign up for food stamps after her marriage ended and she lost one of the two jobs she was working after taking maternity leave.

Though she applied a few months ago, her approval won't take effect until Nov. 1—coincidentally or not, the day the cuts kick in.

Watson, who works nights as a medical assistant at an assisted-living facility for the disabled, worries that the SNAP benefits won't be enough to feed her kids, ages 15, 13, 4 and 3 months.

"The job is good with medical benefits, but not with the paycheck," she said. "I'm always in the hole with bills. If I pay the rent I'm sacrificing the light. If I pay the light bill I'm sacrificing the gas bill. It's always something."

Having the pantry on hand helps.

"Thank God for the food pantry and the Campaign Against Hunger," she said. "While I'm waiting for all this processing—glitches here and glitches there—thank God I could go there and shop for some food. I got some baby milk for my newborn, got rice, got a nice amount of stuff that will sustain us until something comes up."

People on food stamps have become easy to demonize—many nonrecipients have stood in line behind those who pile their shopping carts high, using their allocation on beer and junk food.

And while there are some abuses, the need for the program says something about the dichotomy of the stock market's soaring to new heights while income disparity widens to Great Depression-era levels.

SNAP participation has doubled over the past 10 years and risen nearly 25 percent over the past four.

"Something has changed about America since the financial crisis, and the still widespread popularity of the SNAP program is emblematic of that shift," Nick Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx, a New York-based brokerage and investment research firm, said in a report. "The American economic record, based on the food stamp data, is still pretty lousy."

Colas said the economic hit from the food stamp cuts will be roughly $10 billion, with the numbers probably not telling the full story.

"It may not matter to the economic data on which Wall Street hangs its fedora, but it is certainly enough to spark a political response," he said. "How this plays out, I honestly have no idea. We are in uncharted waters here, as the historical record clearly shows."
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« Reply #12 on: November 04, 2013, 01:12:50 pm »

http://finance.yahoo.com/photos/food-stamp-cuts-hit-2m-illinois-residents-1383583655-slideshow/

Food Stamp Cuts Hit 2M Illinois Residents

Last Friday was the first day a temporary benefit from the 2009 economic stimulus bolstering food stamp money was not available. A family of four could see up to $36 less a month through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The cut also comes as federal lawmakers are negotiating further reductions to the program, which has more than doubled in cost since 2008.
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« Reply #13 on: November 06, 2013, 01:02:21 pm »

And it's coming at the same time the federal government is cutting just that...

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/11/06/surprise-obamacare-will-likely-increase-food-stamp-enrollment/
11/6/13
Surprise: ObamaCare will likely increase food stamp enrollment

Once all of the new ObamaCare mandates, regulations, and taxes are fully priced into the healthcare market we may all be lining up for government butter and cheese, but that’s not the story here. No, apparently the multi-million dollar ObamaCare marketing campaign signing up new Medicaid recipients by the millions will come with an unexpected bonus for fans of the entitlement state. Lots and lots of people finding out for the first time that in addition to free healthcare they are also eligible for a shiny new EBT card. Via Politico.

Quote
The Obama administration has ordered a study to determine whether the Affordable Care Act, by increasing the number of people eligible for Medicaid, will also increase the number of people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program based on how states enroll people.

The outcome of the study could show an increase of 3 percent to 5 percent in food stamp recipients in some states from people who were already eligible for SNAP benefits but had not enrolled in the program — which could translate to millions or even billions more in federal spending, Greg Mills, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who is conducting the study, told POLITICO.

“So in percentage terms, it’s not going to be very large, but we’re talking about a very large program,” said Mills, who is investigating the effects of the health care law on SNAP on behalf of the Department of Agriculture’s Food Nutrition Service, the agency that monitors food stamps.

How large? Well, we spent over $78 billion on the program last year so the expected increase would be something in the range of $1.5 to $4 billion. Which, surprise, would go a long way towards offsetting the cuts the GOP thought they had won in the recent budget deal. But here’s what I want to know: is a study on this really necessary? With the ObamaCare enrollment deadline looming, seems to me the bills for any new SNAP enrollees will start rolling in soon enough. Why doesn’t the White House commission something more useful instead? Like a study forecasting the number of employers likely to drop insurance coverage in the next couple of years, or how many part-time employees will have their hours reduced due to the employer mandate. The White House says there is no data to support these “anecdotal” claims, so let’s hop to it guys – prove us wrong.

Of course it wouldn’t be a food stamp story in a liberal rag without a quote from someone praising the proactive effort to sign-up even more people, and Politico doesn’t disappoint. I’m all for a helping hand-up to those in need but is it too much to expect we at least wait until they’ve made a conscious decision to reach out for help first? If our modern day Jeff Spicoli’s are going to get free check-ups now to go along with their sushi, I say we at least make them get off the couch before we sign ‘em up.
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« Reply #14 on: November 06, 2013, 01:17:11 pm »

So pretty much...

1) There are 1000s of people in this country who got their health insurance dropped so that they have to enroll in the more pricier Obamacare.

2) Since the 1st of this month, the federal government has been cutting the EBT/SNAP benefits.

3) Now the EBT/SNAP stuff is a big dangling carrot on Obamacare.

This is just my observations - but it looks like this train wreck's agenda may be just that - to stir up tension and riots slowly but surely, and once they start getting out of control, Caesar will find an excuse to declare their end game of Martial Law in this country(ie-former occultists John Todd and Doc Marquis warned about this - no I don't endorse either of them(as both of their testimonies just never added up), but nonetheless a lot of what they said has been confirmed by other sources).
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« Reply #15 on: November 06, 2013, 05:39:00 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/food-stamp-cuts-hit-elderly-164547526.html
Food stamp cuts hit 9 million elderly and disabled people
11/6/13

Cuts to the nation’s food stamp program hit 48 million Americans this week, including more than 9 million elderly and disabled people.

Nearly one in seven Americans uses the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which has doubled in cost since 2008 when Congress increased the benefits as part of the economic stimulus bill. Both Democrats and Republicans allowed the temporary benefits boost to expire on Nov. 1, and Republicans are pushing for far steeper cuts to the $80 billion program.

The average monthly decrease for a one-person household is $11. That doesn’t sound like much, but the vast majority of food stamp recipients say the assistance runs out in the first three weeks of each month, leaving them to cobble together food from other sources in the final week. The cuts amount to 16 meals a month for the average family of three, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Thrifty Food Plan.

“Even though it might sound little, for some people that’s a couple of meals that they have to choose whether they eat or don’t eat,” said Bobbie Sackman, the director of public policy at the Council of Senior Centers and Services in New York City, which helps elderly people sign up for assistance. “They have to go elsewhere to find food or they’re not going to have food.”

People can turn to food pantries for additional assistance. But it’s harder for older and disabled people to fill in the gaps left by the food stamp program, since going in-person to various soup kitchens and food pantries is not an option for many of them. About 9 percent of all food stamps go to households that include senior citizens. In New York, which has a large elderly population, it’s double that.

Marc Wolfson, a disabled 62 year-old who lives in Brooklyn, spent his Tuesday afternoon calling around to various food pantries to see if any of them would deliver meals to his apartment.

One food pantry, called “God’s Love We Deliver,” told him they could drop off groceries at his apartment, but only on days when Wolfson is undergoing dialysis for his kidney disease. So the pantry had to turn him down
. “They ain’t delivering it to me,” Wolfson joked.

Wolfson has diabetes and anemia, so his diet must be low in sugar and carbohydrates and high in iron-rich foods like red meat. The first two weeks, Wolfson can manage that diet on food stamps, but then the money runs out. “The doctors want me to eat all protein,” he said. “The last two weeks the only protein I’m getting is eggs.”

Nationally, one in seven seniors lives in poverty, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. In New York City, as many as one in three elderly people are poor. As many as half of elderly people who qualify for food stamps in New York do not apply, and surveys have shown that older Americans in particular feel there is a stigma associated with the program.

Sackman said the elderly, who are often living on fixed incomes, can become “invisible” in these debates, which often focuses on why young and healthy people need assistance.

House Republicans hope to cut the $80 billion annual program further, by kicking off 3 million people each year for 10 years. Under their plan, adults without minor children must enroll in a job training program or be employed to receive the benefits. The AARP, the powerful seniors group, opposes the proposal.

“We’re really worried,” Sackman said of the proposed cuts. “This is just the start. We’re looking at a rapidly growing senior population here and across the country and a lot of poverty.”

Wolfson said he tries not to worry about whether steeper cuts could be in the pipeline. In the meantime, he plans to scour the grocery store for sales to make up for the $11 less he gets per month.

“I’ll deal with it as it’s happening,” he said. “I’m not going to dwell on it.”
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« Reply #16 on: November 06, 2013, 05:44:14 pm »

Uhm...this was NO "glitch"! Problem. Reaction. Solution.

LA gov Bobby Jindal moves to strip food stamps from recipients who took advantage of a technical glitch last month
http://theadvocate.com/home/7514395-125/jindal-moves-to-strip-food
11/6/13

**I'm having a hard time copying and pasting this article - could someone do so for me? Thanks!
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« Reply #17 on: November 06, 2013, 07:57:31 pm »

Yes, it happened AGAIN!

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-super-low-prices-website-glitch/story?id=20804317
11/6/13
Walmart Website Error Allowed Customers to Buy $600 Electronics for $8.85

Walmart has said that it has resolved an issue that was causing an online frenzy among shoppers. An apparent glitch on the company's website early this morning led to $8.85 listings for items that included computer monitors and projectors normally worth hundreds of dollars.

The country's largest retailer was selling a 24-inch high-definition Viewsonic computer monitor, an InFocus IN2124 Projector digital projectors and other products, many for $8.85. The projector is listed for $578.89 on Walmart.com and $579.99 on Newegg.com.

As customers shared the deals on social media sites like Instagram, wondering if the site was hacked, products sold out in just hours.

A spokesman for Walmart said the company was scanning the millions of items on its site to see if there are still any technical errors causing price discrepancies.

"The issue has been resolved and Walmart.com is open for all," Walmart spokesman Ravi Jariwala told ABCNews.com. "Given the wide discrepancy in pricing, we are notifying customers who ordered these items that their orders have been canceled and that they'll be refunded in full. In addition, we will send these customers a $10 e-gift card that can be used toward future purchases at Walmart stores and Walmart.com."

Earlier today, Walmart assured the media that the site was not hacked.

"We experienced a technical error that caused some items to show incorrect pricing," Walmart said in a statement. "We are working quickly to correct the error and during this time, there may be intermittent site availability. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers."

"I want to make very clear this is not a hack. This is an internal technical error," Jariwala said earlier today.

When asked if the company will honor items sold to customers at the mistakenly low prices, Jariwala said the company is "still working through those details."

Just two weeks ago, Walmart stores in Louisiana experienced another frenzied shopping day, but that time with live customers. An error in the food stamps EBT system caused account limits to temporarily disappear, leading customers to load up shopping carts with hundreds of dollars worth of items.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
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« Reply #18 on: November 07, 2013, 11:06:16 am »

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/11/07/how-the-food-stamps-cut-will-affect-the-us-economy.aspx
11/7/13
How the Food Stamps Cut Will Affect the U.S. Economy

Following the U.S. National Debt Clock is frightening. America's national debt sits at $17 trillion already, and it increases an additional $2.63 billion each day. And government stimulus continues to pour into the economy. As seen in the recent food stamp cut debacle, government stimulus cannot sustain long-term success while necessary pullbacks cause rippling effects through the economy.

The backstory
In the wake of the 2009 financial crisis, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which, in part, increased funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). According to the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, the average increase of food stamp users was 20% in dollars per household. Then the one-time stimulus boost deadline arrived on Oct. 30. It ran its course. Now alarms and cries are resounding through the press — as if some retailers, politicians, and Americans were unaware that the temporary funding increase would cease.

The objective
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that not continuing the 2009 food stamp stimulus will give the government an additional $5 billion in 2014 and approximately $6 billion in the following two years. To put this figure in perspective, though, the Federal Reserve buys over $1 trillion in bonds a year through its seemingly unending quantitative easing policy. Comparably, the $78 billion a year food stamp program only comprises 7.6% of the Fed's bond buying stimulus. Still, spending must be held in check, and the impacts of the food stamp stimulus program's end are becoming more apparent.

The rippling effect
In addition to food stamp users, grocers, convenience stores, and dollar stores are wondering how they will cope with the adjustment. Smaller enterprises like Spartan Stores (NASDAQ: SPTN  ) , a grocery retailer and distributor in Michigan and Indiana, may take a harder hit than larger, cost-effective stores like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT  ) . For example, during its third quarter conference call, Spartan's CEO informed shareholders that the food stamp reduction is a potential reason for concern and that the reduction could be "a meaningful event for us."

Due to its economies of scale, ability to drive down costs, and many locations, Wal-Mart's chief executive for U.S. stores is more optimistic. William Simon reminded investors that because price matters more to food stamp users, Wal-Mart is more relevant than its higher charging competitors, for instance. And, Mr. Simon is right; but, Wal-Mart estimates that about 18% of all food stamp spending occurs within its store.

Running numbers, we see that Wal-Mart generated roughly $14 billion of its $443.9 billion from food stamps in 2012. Moving forward, assume food stamp users do not use cash to maintain their current purchasing patterns, and assume food stamp users who shop at higher priced stores do not begin shopping at discount retailer Wal-Mart. Combining these assumptions with the $5 billion cut to the food stamp program reveals that Wal-Mart will lose about $900 million in sales in 2014. But with a 0.3% increase in U.S. store sales in 2012 and a profit margin of 3.6%,  each dollar is critical for Wal-Mart's bottom line.

After Wal-Mart, about $60 billion is divided among the other companies that accept SNAP funding. Spread out over 248,000 locations, the effects of the decline will likely be minimal for these stores (click here for a list of all stores nationwide that are enrolled in SNAP).

While time will tell these retailers' fate, they likely won't be going bankrupt any time soon due to food stamp reductions.

The bottom line
The cut in food stamps will lead to difficult times for many Americans; after all, about 48 million Americans utilize the program, 15% of the country's population.

As a nation, we must recognize that stimulus issues do not exist in a vacuum and supply chains, capital, humans, and other resources are involved in the processes. So, if a 2009 temporary increase in food stamp issuances can cause such concern and conflict — even when the deadline is set in stone — what will occur once the effects of other stimulus efforts reach American consumers? Perhaps it's time we mend our national spending habits. And then, maybe, we can rebound.

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« Reply #19 on: November 08, 2013, 01:04:18 pm »

Crisis Accelerates: Food Banks Running Out of Food
http://www.infowars.com/pa-food-bank-head-warns-demand-cannot-be-met/

Food pantry organizers “unable to plug the hole”

Paul Joseph Watson
 Infowars.com
 November 4, 2013

The head of the Pennsylvania’s largest food bank has warned that demand for groceries following a $5 billion dollar cut in the food stamp program cannot be met.

Joe Arthur of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank “says the donor network for the food banks is already stretched too thin to quickly expand,” according to an Associated Press report.

From November 1st, $5 billion was wiped off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as a result of a planned stimulus withdrawal. Almost 50 million Americans who are supported by the program face an average loss of $36 dollars a month, which is a significant amount for those living near the poverty line.

Food pantry organizers will be “unable to plug the hole being left by a reduction in federal funding for food stamps,” which will leave families of four in Pennsylvania facing the prospect of 20 fewer meals per month, according to Arthur.

The Association of Arizona Food Banks sounds a similar warning, noting that the 5 per cent cut, although appearing minor on the surface, equates to about half a week’s budget for someone whose primary source of food is SNAP.

Spokesman Brian Simpson illustrated how the massive surge in demand for food was linked to the struggling economy.

Before the 2007 recession, the five food banks in his association were handing out an average of 69,000 emergency food boxes per month. Last month, 108,300 boxes were handed out, an increase of around 80 per cent.

The true impact of the cut will really be felt in the final week of November, when food stamp recipients will begin to run out of benefits.

According to Margaret Purvis, the CEO of the largest food bank in America, members of her Food Bank for New York City organization, are“panicking” over the decrease in benefits, fearing a rush of hungry Americans.

“We’re telling everyone to make sure that you are prepared for longer lines,” Purvis told NBC News.

Her comments were echoed by Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, who stated, “It’s going to send people into a charitable system that’s already overwhelmed and screaming for help itself.”

Purvis also invoked the threat of riots caused by millions of Americans going hungry when she told Salon.com, “If you look across the world, riots always begin typically the same way: when people cannot afford to eat food.”

This has prompted some to speculate that the Department of Homeland Security is gearing up for potential unrest with its recent hiring of security guards to protect government buildings in New York, as well as the purchase of half a million dollars worth of fully automatic pepper spray launchers and projectiles that are designed to be used during riot control situations.
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« Reply #20 on: November 08, 2013, 07:41:00 pm »

Again, all by design(and it wasn't a "glitch either, again)...

Louisiana Suspends EBT Cards for Food Stamp Cheats
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/07/Louisiana-Cracking-Down-on-Food-Stamp-Cheats
11/8/13

The Advocate reports that the Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal's office will cancel food stamp benefits for anyone who participated in a fraud and shopping spree catalyzed by an EBT malfunction.

More than 12,000 people were sent an insufficient funds notice when the problem with the EBT cards was fixed on Oct. 12; those who transgressed may lose their EBT cards for a year.

Suzy Sonnier, the secretary of state at the Department of Children and Family Services, released a statement saying: "We must protect the program for those who receive and use their benefits appropriately according to the law. We are looking at each case individually, addressing those recipients who are suspected of misrepresenting their eligibility for benefits or defrauding the system."

Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd said, “It was worse than any Black Friday.”

Stores were emptied of their merchandise. Walmart spokeswoman Kayla Whaling said Walmart decided to let the crowds go ahead and buy rather than cut them off. Once the system was fixed, it became clear how much fraud there was; one woman had an EBT card with a balance of 49 cents but still had $700 worth of goods in her shopping cart.

On October 11-12, at least 17 states experienced problems with their EBT card systems. In Springhill and Mansfield, Louisiana, cards indicated they had no spending limits, so EBT holders went wild with purchases.

The stores that were cheated are bound to come up with the cash they lost, which may prompt them to join local prosecutors to bring charges against the fraudsters.

The Advocate reported that violators will receive a letter stating their EBT cards have been canceled along with information as to how to appeal their cases. They may lose their EBT cards forever.
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« Reply #21 on: November 08, 2013, 07:42:57 pm »

Quote
The Advocate reports that the Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal's office will cancel food stamp benefits for anyone who participated in a fraud and shopping spree catalyzed by an EBT malfunction.

http://endtimesandcurrentevents.freesmfhosting.com/index.php/topic,5000.0.html
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« Reply #22 on: November 09, 2013, 02:21:51 am »

Quote
They may lose their EBT cards forever.

Hmm, imagine that. Who would have thought the government would cut of it's citizens for not towing the society line? Seems I've heard that agenda before.

"And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Revelation 13:17 (KJB)
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« Reply #23 on: March 14, 2014, 11:15:51 am »

3/13/14
Report: Target Was Warned About Its Massive Hack and Did Nothing
http://news.yahoo.com/report-target-warned-massive-hack-did-nothing-150618729.html;_ylt=A0LEVwlCKiNTuDwAvfxXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzaTg0azdkBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMgRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1NNRTMzOF8x

The hack that embarrassed U.S. retailer Target and left millions of customers' credit card information naked and exposed wasn't particularly complex or all that elaborate, according to new investigation. It only worked because, for some reason, Target didn't react to the safeguards it put in place.

Bloomberg Businessweek spoke with over 10 Target employees who were privy to the company's data security protocol and eight people "with specific knowledge of the hack" and came away with a less than flattering picture of Target's approach to security. The story basically says that Target was sitting on its hands while it was being hacked to smithereens. Businessweek explains:

Poring over computer logs, Target found FireEye’s alerts from Nov. 30 and more from Dec. 2, when hackers installed yet another version of the malware. Not only should those alarms have been impossible to miss, they went off early enough that the hackers hadn’t begun transmitting the stolen card data out of Target’s network. Had the company’s security team responded when it was supposed to, the theft that has since engulfed Target, touched as many as one in three American consumers, and led to an international manhunt for the hackers never would have happened at all.

The hack was malware that would steal credit card information with a swipe and store it on Target's servers. Hackers then uploaded more malware to spirit away the numbers to a different server, which Target's data safeguards caught.

That oversight ended with hackers compromising 40 million credit and debit cards, and costing banks and credit unions some $200 million. It also hurt Target pretty badly. "Partly because of the fraud costs, Target said its fourth-quarter profit was down 46 percent while revenue fell 5.3 percent," ABC News reported in February. And the company is still trying to figure out how to win back its customers' trust.
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