Today is Halloween and there’s no doubt that folks will be buzzing about all the insensitive folks running around wearing Blackface or dressed as Trayvon Martin.
Others will be buzzing about Kanye West talking about the Obamas and how Kim is finer than Michele….
The big buzz here in the Bay Area is the woman driving her car and getting a ticket for wearing Google Glass..
All these things have their place in conversation, but the really scary thing this Halloween is House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and the push he and others made to make sure the Food Stamp program (SNAP) is gutted… If you think Halloween is scary wait until tomorrow (November 1st) when SNAP cuts kick in and tens of millions of folks find themselves seriously economically upended..
What’s scary is knowing that 75-80% of the new jobs added over the past 5 years are 7.25 hour jobs with the largest population of unemployed and underemployed being folks in their 40s and 50s .. Meaning that many lost their jobs in the 2008 economic melt down after working 15-20 years and never could get back in the market place…Those who have are now working at those low wage jobs taking care of kids and elderly parents with many on food stamps…
Eric Cantor
What’s scary is Cantor pushing a bill that would require folks to be enrolled in a job finding program for 20 hours a week in order to get Food stamps when many of those programs throughout various states have been cut or closed completely. In addition many of the people on food stamps work.. They simply do not make enough to cover cost for food.. But his flawed narrative appeal to those who have stereotyped those receiving help..
Even more frightening are the numbers of Democrats who have jumped into the fray and support the madness including democratic leader Debbie Wasserman Schultz out of Florida who said the Dems aren’t opposed to SNAP cuts.. Here in Cali Senator Dianne Feinstein voted for the Senate version of a Farm Bill which will cut 4 billion from SNAP….Topping all this off, many of the folks who voted to gut Food Stamps are getting subsidies for themselves and people in their district via agricultural subsidies..
While all this happening we have Big Banks successfully moving to not only write a bill but get it passed through Congress to free them of the modest restrictions placed on them under Dodd-Frank Act.. In short they will be free to do what they were doing in terms of investing money prior to the 08 crash..
Lastly we should pay attention to the public-private policies that are happening and the sway corporations have on law enforcement.. yesterday the Coast Guard was called to investigate a ‘mysterious’ barge out on SF Bay… Its owned by Google and no one knows whats on that barge.. The Coast Guard was made to sign a non disclosure contract.. I kid you not.. I’ll let you reflect on that for a bit…That’s pretty damn profound..
Here’s a few links to read up on all this..
1-http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/19/house-gop-food-stamp-cuts/2839343/
2-http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/20/some-congressional-food-stamp-critics-have-their-own-safety-net/
3-http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/10/30/house-passes-bill-on-derivatives/?_r=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEZ2vuWJaeI