Republicans Preying on People

@edgarblythe,

https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1239851_726434067383243_427214854_n.jpg

@Ceili,

Quote:

The fact remains anyone at a certain income level can find it difficult from time to time to pay for everything. And when you're poor you learn to make sacrifices. Food shouldn't be one of them.

The whole concept is un-American. People living here, in the greatest country on Earth, with the most abundant resources, should be forced to go hungry because of the intellectual notion of fiscal conservatism and the ideological notion of self-reliance.

It is refreshing to read a post like yours, Ceili.....so illuminating of the real problem regarding the desperate need for food stamps in America....I agree entirely with everything in it. What I find even more unsettling are the veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, many with Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD), a mental problem that doesn't always reveal itself immediately, but which find many vets homeless on the streets. You would think our government would do far more for those who fought to keep us safe, especially for an *unnecessary* war like Iraq.

There are many people working two jobs which doesn't pay enough to fully feed a family after paying enormously high rents, who rely heavily on food stamps. It is indeed disgraceful that in a country as wealthy as the US that over 49 million Americans live in food insecure households and many young children go to bed hungry at night; now the cold-blooded reptilian Republicans are trying to cut food stamps further. I never would have believed that such coldness from a politician could be so intense toward many helpless American citizens. Now the snakes' latest is their heated effort to blackmail Obama into defunding his signature achievement or else shut down the government....That human garbage, the Republicans, would rather shut down the government before allowing millions of uninsured Americans to received Affordable Health care. The American Republican politician is the DARK SIDE OF THE SPECIES, Homo Sapiens.

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@Ceili,

Wow what an emotional tug at the heart strings from a Veteran. Well guess what I'm a veteran as well, and I have always wondered why people in the military are broke. Sure they don't make a lot of money, but that is just the straight pay check. If you look at everything else people in the military get, one begins to wonder.

Those in the military get a paycheck, they also get a choice of how they want to live. They can request base housing, in which case they pay no rent. They would have the normal bill associated with living in a house but they are already ahead in the game since they do not have rent or mortgage to pay. For those who chose to live off base, they get BAH, which is a basic allowance for housing. This is based on the zip code where they live, and can cover up to 80% of rent/mortgage. They also receive BAS which ends up being about $352 month. If you total this up, it turns out to be a decent amount of money. Granted it isn't a kings ransom, but it pays way better then min wage.

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To join the people who already basically agree, I think we have odd priorities in the US, and that this all developed in various ways over decades but is coalescing to us being world police hall monitors. There is arrogance to that, that has already been notated.

Plus we have built up a gigantic military industrial complex that would about kill us if it failed as so many are involved in the activities and support side - thus incentive for action by us.
Enemies and others more ordinary know that.

Peace could be a downturn, but at this point that's not a worry. You think we have people needing food stamps and health help now?

We have - at least somewhat - let our inventiveness and craftiness go, for, natch, financial reasons, though some firms are coming back here, somewhat sans employees due to new tech.

I remember arguing with a friend way more rad that I ever was, back in Venice, about our loss of manufacturing, and he was near screaming at me that I was wrong. That was twenty five years ago. Maybe, I can always be wrong. But small, really small, inventive businesses seem to be covered over with either desolation or chain shops of varied levels of wealth. Except for the IT businesses that work. (I'm reading about Bryan Goldberg in the last day or two.)

Me, I was inventive in design some of the time, usually at early client meetings, trying to lay out possible jumps in thinking after also listening to what they wanted. I/we tried to get them to understand choices, possible directions, and wait, as they might come up with ideas too. Some did. I wasn't a design bully, I don't want that done to me. Just wanted them to play and think what they'd like to see, including the comforting, just what is comforting, what they really liked - in my own business, no rush, think about it.

I once had the temerity to think I could propose a tv program re a certain station, and worked up a proposal (though not completely finished and never sent it) about a show about crafts around the world, including places that revolved as towns around a craft; a show about the place, the people, the craft. I had the temerity because I knew someone who got them to listen, at the time. But life intervened and I lost my 'what if' mode in favor of getting by. So it goes.

Somewhere back there, I proposed a plan to Borders re their bookstores and airports (easy enough to guess what I proposed, and I've said it here at a2k) and some vice president liked it and then he was never seen again by me. This was all pre pulling up books online.

I spent serious time researching piazzas, used to lecture about them, had an architectural book publisher send a letter of intent, and then I didn't follow up (divorce, personal deflation).

So, all about me, but it is also all about us -

we need to craft about who we are.

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@ossobuco,

Play seems a lost word.

JLN will understand me. We have usually talked about it regarding art, but it also affects life.

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@ehBeth,

John McCain is a total flake.

http://azconservative.org/2013/09/21/president-calls-house-vote-on-budget-personal-attack-on-me/

Quote:

McCain Tells Russians that “Putin Has Betrayed the Revolution”

In an op ed aimed over the head of Russian President Vladimir Putin and directly to the Russian people, US Senator John McCain tells them “you deserve better.”

“If you look at the pattern of Mr. Putin’s behavior it seems clear that he has deviated from the path set down by Lenin back in 1917,” McCain wrote. “If you look at the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, Russia is rising in the rankings. That means your country is becoming more capitalistic. Is this really the direction you want to go?”

“Mr. Putin has also taken a stance in defense of traditional religious values and institutions,” McCain continued. “He is reinjecting the opium of the masses. This undermines the secular values that so many of your countrymen have died to further for nearly 100 years. Is this really the direction you want to go?”

“Finally, his meddling in Syria has denied the world the opportunity for a major conflict and its uplifting potential for unifying both sides in a cause bigger than personal selfishness,” the op ed added. “Have you forgotten how good it felt when Stalin led your country into the great patriotic war against the Nazis? What noble venture will your generation enjoy under Mr. Putin’s reign?”

The Senator ended his piece by offering himself as a replacement for Putin saying that “if you, like I, have become disillusioned with backsliding and want to break free of namby-pambyism, I would gladly follow in the footsteps of that other great American Naval war hero John Paul Jones. If called upon to serve I will come.”

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed pessimism that Russians would accept his colleague’s offer, but agreed that “as slim as the prospects may be, it would give us another option for going to war with Iran. I’m confident that if John were calling the shots in MoscowIran would have no alternative but to give in or be blasted to rubble. McCain would not tolerate any disobedience.”

Graham’s main option is to try to get Congress to authorize President Obama to “use whatever force is necessary at whatever time is most advantageous against Iran or any other nation, organization, or individual if, in the President’s judgment, it is necessary for the advancement of US global objectives.”...

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Quote:

Already we have menus in Spanish

Big deal! I've had a credit card in Spanish for the past 5 years and I don't speak or read a word in Spanish.

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@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

food stamps will not solve hunger anymore than food banks.

Take a look at the adults who stand outside foodbanks waiting to get and get the food. About 80% of them are extremely overweight. Maybe, stopping the food stamps and the food banks is a good idea, if it reduces blood pressure and eliminates diabetes caused by excessive eating.

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Quote:

There are many people working two jobs which doesn't pay enough to fully feed a family after paying enormously high rents, who rely heavily on food stamps. It is indeed disgraceful that in a country as wealthy as the US that over 49 million Americans live in food insecure households

The real issue isn't the food stamps. It's birth control. Poor people who can't earn a decent living that provides enough cash for rent and food need to stay out of bed and quit the overpopulation crap.

Instead of food stamps, provide the poor with condoms and birth control pills.
If they don't conform and insist on having babies they can't afford, additional steps will be needed to make them conform.

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@Miller,

I'll say this once only, I hate Miller. Hate being too big a word, just that I find him or her or it, Kak of yore, distasteful.

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@Moment-in-Time,

In a way it's a sort of rejection of social contract, where the weak are thrown to the elements, leaving the rest free agents to compete for the wealth.

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@Miller,

I think I finally get it that Miller is a phantasm.

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@Baldimo,

Interesting, another article on the same topic points out that the member of your congress are entitled to a daily meal allowance of $127.41 while daily stipend per meal on food stamps is $1.40.
Surly your members of government are making a living wage? Why do they need a daily meal allowance paid by the public?
Why have subsidies to rich white farmers not been touched. Since they mainly grow corn for fuel instead of food???
I'm perplexed by your lack of insight into the plight of your fellow veterans. But then, one only has to walk any major U.S. city to realize the vast amount of homeless are vets. And nobody gives a **** about them either.
Your breakdown of benefits was amazing. Amazing that you think a family can survive on this. But ok, you win. They've hit the jackpot. It's better than minimum wage.
Uncle Sam wants you. To fight and die for your country. The wages are better than minimum wage. Hooray!!!!

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/09/republicans-we-were-too-nice-to-the-hungry.html

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@Miller,

You geniuses have blocked abortions too. Yeah! More unwanted pregnancies! More starving Children! Wooo hooo!
Land of the free.

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@Miller,

maybe we should start sterilizing the poor, eh...?

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@Ceili,

There is no reason why Politicians should be getting a food allowance. The same goes for they aides. They should all be making enough money to eat on. I fully support cutting their lunch money.

A majority of homeless are vets? You really believe that? I walk the street of down town Denver or down town Boulder, and most of the homeless are not vets. You are out of your mind and I demand some facts of your claim.

The amount of money they earn isn't horrible but it isn't living fat either. Lets look at an E2 with less then 2 years of service. They get 1,699.80 a month. Now if they live on post, they have no bills if they are single because they live in the barracks. If they are married with kids and live on post, then they still live rent/mortgage free. 1,699.80 and cheaper food shopping then you as a civilian on post. If they have a family they get an addition to their pay called BAS which is just under $400. So right off the bat, they are earning $2000 a month and they do not have to pay rent or mortgage.

If they live off post, they get all of the above plus BAH which is another addition to their check. Depending on where they live and their rank, depends on what they get. I just used the BAH calculator for my area, and that same E2 would get 1104.00 for being single and 1473 for dependents. Guess what, that pays my mortgage with $20 bucks left over. If you include the BAH for dependents, they are making $2473 a month, and that is for the soldier. While that isn't fantastic money, it does cover a bunch of stuff. It would be wise fr the dependent to have an income as well. I have lived on this much in the civilian world and I didn't need food stamps.

Want to talk about deployed soldiers? On top of the money already talked about, there is added pay for being deployed. You get combat pay, overseas pay and I believe there is another additional payment that they get as well. I know, I got it all when I was in Afghanistan. If you happen to have an aviation job like I did (Chinook crew chief) you get flight pay on top of the above mentioned pay. Did I mention that deployed soldiers get all of their pay tax free if they are deployed for a year? Think about that and how much extra that is.

So once again having been a soldier and having been deployed, who has received all of the pay mentioned, I do not understand why people in the military are on food stamps. The base grocery store is tax free by the way. $300 in grocery's there is about $400 in a regular grocery store due to no taxes. The military isn't a gold mine and is honestly WAY better then minimum wage. Which turns out to be about $1200 a month pre-tax. That is about $400 a month less then the base pay of an E2 with less then 2 years of service. An E5 (which is a Sargent) with 4 years of service earns $2524 a month base pay and $1635 in BAH (housing) just for those 2 they are making over $4000 a month. The military isn't to bad when it comes to pay. It is better then it was when some of the dinosaurs that comment here were serving.

Knowledge is power Ceili. Emotions only go so far and your argument is nohting but emotion.

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@edgarblythe,

Quote:

In a way it's a sort of rejection of social contract, where the weak are thrown to the elements, leaving the rest free agents to compete for the wealth.

Happy Sunday Morning, Edgar. This afternoon will be the beginning of Fall....It's pretty chilly this morning.

Ah, yes, the rebuffing of the Social Contract, that leaves the rich, opulent vultures to prey on the frail, the defenseless, those without power. I could not agree more. I recall perceptibly Mitt Romney's secretly taped spiel where he assailed 47% of Americans whom he in effect described as a worthless group of Americans with no value to society. Mitt Romney is the classic self-centered Republican. I predict unless they become a little warmer, making a true effort to extend the hand of welcome to minorities, they are doomed to forego the top job, the US presidency, again.

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@Baldimo,

I'll say it clearer this time. I never made any claim about the majority of homeless being Veterans. I said the vast amount I see walking the streets are.
There are homeless couch surfers, homeless in shelters, homeless living in vans down by the river. Whilst you are strolling the mean streets of Boulder, you only see the tip of the homeless ice berg, no? When I've walked in various American cities, I've met an inordinate amount of Vets who were down on their luck. Most of them are male, black, some are missing limbs. Although the US has a huge child homeless problem, you don't see many of them walking or begging on street corners. Do you? Does that clarify my view?
I've been to cities all over the world and I find the homeless vets to be far greater in the US cities than any of the others I've been to.
What I find ironic is that the military petitioned to stop these cuts. Obviously they had knowledge their members are using these services. Were they being emotional too?

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@Moment-in-Time,

Yet they retain the ability to stop government from functioning and in the early stages of implosion. In the end, it may take something major happening to them personally before they quit voting like that.

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@Baldimo,

http://nchv.org/index.php/news/media/background_and_statistics/

something is definitely whack

U.S. vets are disproportionately represented in the American homeless population

Quote:

Only 7% of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly 13% of the homeless adult population are veterans.

Quote:

In addition to the complex set of factors influencing all homelessness – extreme shortage of affordable housing, livable income and access to health care – a large number of displaced and at-risk veterans live with lingering effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse, which are compounded by a lack of family and social support networks. Additionally, military occupations and training are not always transferable to the civilian workforce, placing some veterans at a disadvantage when competing for employment.

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Republicans Preying on People

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