Do limits on EBT of where and what "humiliate the poor"?

[soul food]

What I know for sure is that we are all in this together and we will rise and fall together as a society.

And they are all our kids. I recently saw one of those poor kids I mentored as a child. I didn't recognize him at first because he was grown up but he spotted me right away. The first thing he did was give me a big hug. Fifteen years later, he remembered.
We will all remember the love and care and gestures of kindness. Gestures of kindness preserve your humanity....preserve humanity.
Don't let the myth of economics that rules the world...the worship of economics..economic making it...cheapen your soul.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/books ... .html?_r=0

Our Kids,’ by Robert D. Putnam
By JASON DePARLEMARCH 4, 2015

soul food

I just posted this poem in another thread.
the wrong god would be economics
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-ritual ... ach-other/

If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider--
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give--yes or no, or maybe--
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
William Stafford

[bbq]

The flip side is also true. As I mentioned before, those cops were shooting those dogs and an innocent man while breaking into wrong houses. Their loved ones will always remember those scenes when precious lives were taken for no reason.

BTW, here's a little something about the number-cruncher game we're playing:

http://www.ashimmy.com/2008/04/mothers-let-your-sons-and-daughters-grow-up-to-be-hedge-fund-managers.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/16wall.html

Seriously, think about it. Hedge funds don't manufacture or make anything, they don't sell a product per se. They manipulate money and make bets on what will go up or down. Sort of the ultimate riverboat gamblers. They aren't teaching our kids to be better people, they aren't making the world safe or making the environment better. But the rewards for what they are doing are almost beyond belief. What message does this send as a society? When I see companies that won't spend a couple of dollars to make sure that your confidential information remains confidential and than see these kind of numbers, what does this society value?

Let's see, the so-called wealth and success in our society just happened to be based on merely a mathematical system of some sort. It's unbelievably rewarding to manipulate some digits by legal means and cha-ching.

What if we apply such mathematical models to a war? Numbers might be fabricated with ease, or they could also start shooting defenseless people for the sake of body count:


http://transcribecurtis.tumblr.com

Alain Enthoven, US Department of Defense 1961 to 1969: The approach we brought to the Pentagon was one based on rational behavior. Previously that had been at the high-level. It was kind of a political thing. And we were trying to make it more an analytical thing. In defense, most people thought it ought to be done on the base of patriotism. There was quite a bit of that emotion, feeling, are you patriotic, and so what. And I was there, with my slide rule and geeky sort of MIT’s sort of style. <00:53:20>

Curtis: what did the military think of you? <00:53:26>
AL A. and Tobin:Well, I think that they hated it. <00:53:32> <00:53:34>

what replace patriotism and notions of public duty in were mathematical measurable outcomes. But McNamara’s experiment had ended in disaster. When you try to run the Vietnam war and irrational mathematical way. The performance targets and incentives. The most infamous example had been the body count, it had been designed as a rational measure of whether or not, America is winning the war. But in fact, troops simply made it up or even shot civilians to fulfill their performance targets. And in 1967 McNamara had resigned. But, but Tobin was undaunted and next he applied his systems to design a rational way of managing healthcare. He began us in America, but in 1986. Mrs. Thatcher had asked him to come and do the same for the NHS in Britain. Just if you challenge the power of the generals in the Pentagon, now he would do the same for the doctors in Britain. <00:54:36>

That's a quote from the first episode of this documentary called "The Trap" by Adam Curtis:

https://vimeo.com/91091359
https://archive.org/details/adamcurtistrap1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trap_(TV_series)

[bbq]

Corruption is Legal in America
http://youtu.be/5tu32CCA_Ig

Princeton University study: Public opinion has “near-zero” impact on U.S. law.

One thing that does have an influence? Money. While the opinions of the bottom 90% of income earners in America have a “statistically non-significant impact,” Economic elites, business interests, and people who can afford lobbyists still carry major influence.

Nearly every issue we face as a nation is caught in the grip of corruption.



From taxation to national debt, education to the economy, America is struggling to address our most serious issues. Moneyed interests get what they want, and the rest of us pay the price.

They spend billions influencing America’s government. We give them trillions in return.



In the last 5 years alone, the 200 most politically active companies in the US spent $5.8 billion influencing our government with lobbying and campaign contributions.

Those same companies got $4.4 trillion in taxpayer support — earning a return of 750 times their investment.

It’s a vicious cycle of legalized corruption.



As the cost of winning elections explodes, politicians of both political parties become ever more dependent on the tiny slice of the population who can bankroll their campaigns.

To win a Senate seat in 2014, candidates had to raise $14,351 every single day. Just .05% of Americans donate more than $10,000 in any election, so it’s perfectly clear who candidates will turn to first, and who they’re indebted to when they win.

In return for campaign donations, elected officials pass laws that are good for their mega-donors, and bad for the rest of us.



Our elected officials spend 30-70% of their time in office fundraising for the next election. When they’re not fundraising, they have no choice but to make sure the laws they pass keep their major donors happy — or they won’t be able to run in the next election.

[f1jim]

It does appear hopeless on the surface but I maintain a different, sideways perspective on this "corruption."

The influence of money is a part of the human condition. From the guy in the tribe with the best hunting area or the best knife, or the smoothest talking person to todays giant companys.

The pharmaceutical industry was a bit player till just recently. They didn't have the muscle they now have. Where did there money come from? The millions of people on the medical train to nowhere. When people wake up to the fact that 85% of their product is worthless they will go back to being a small player. Whats the answer? Spreading the grass roots knowledge we share here in this community.

The energy sector is influential because? All of us buy gas and use their products. Before Rockefeller and the energy business the industry had little influence. People spoke with their wallets and they suddenly had muscle. Put soar panels on every roof and electric cars in every garage and what will be the oil industries influence? Who makes those decisions? We do.

Fear of certain sectors has been a factor for a long time. At one time many people in this country thought the railroads were going to control everything. Then in the 60's many people thought the same of the automobile industry. Now they come begging for assistance from the public. The "enemy" can and will change with the times. They are all trying to survive to the next generation. Many will not.

What's the answer? Learn what it takes to be as self sufficient as possible in all aspects of our life. With energy, with drugs, with transportation, with everything. The more things people can control in your life the more opportunities to exploit you. The more you can free yourself of those dependancies the less this "corruption" will influence your life.
We have to learn the McDougall lesson of eating healthy and freeing our self from the medical train and apply that to all aspects of our lives. It's all about educating ourselves and putting into practice what we learn.
Think you will stop corruption by changing political parties? The minute some young firebrand gets to Washington the transformation begins. THEY want to stay in their new position of power and influence as much as we want things to change.
Human nature doesn't change. Like trying to get someone I love to change the way they eat. It always has to come from within. Want things to change? Change yourself. Then change will happen around you.
The best lesson I learned from changing my diet and lifestyle was learning just how much I had control over. We just have to harness that control and change ourselves enough and the results will be there.
I am not saying to abandon asking for changes and voting for change...just that all that pales into implementing change in our own lives. If we focus on ourselves the rest will follow.
f1jim

[bbq]

That probably works until some cops are breaking into someone's door while the innocent is shot for no reason.

Yet another example. Let's not forget about what Edward Snowden told us before, we could change whatever we want on our own while they won't ever stop tracking everything we do even if that's already done without anyone's consent to boot. Not that we've got anything to hide at all, it's just the thought of what's REALLY going on behind the scene might be just a tiny bit unthinkable IMHO.