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Foodstamp Nation In Turmoil: EBT System Goes Dark, "Glitch" Blamed
In the past five years it has become apparent that America can survive a near-fatal financial system collapse, an economy teetering on the edge and kept ticking only thanks to the Fed's now perpetual QE, a collapsing standard of living for everyone but the wealthiest 0.1%, declining wages, zero interest rates, surging food, energy, rent, tuition and welfare costs, and pretty much everything else, as long as the welfare state keeps humming along. Any be welfare state we mostly mean providing the daily bread to the nearly 50 million Americans living in poverty and surviving only thanks to the only thing to have exploded to epic record highs under Obama (in addition to the Fed's balance sheet of course): foodstamp usage. However, the true stability of the US may be tested very soon following reports that due to a "possible computer glitch" the Electronic Benefits Transfer System, aka EBT, ala Foodstamps, is offline. Cue mass panic among the best-weaponized population in the world. Naturally, this latest fiasco involving a country that has grown accustomed to sucking on the government's teat was immediately blamed on a "glitch" - just like everything else that is slowly but surely breaking in the New Normal.
CBS reports:
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.
People in Ohio, Michigan and several other states found themselves unable to use their food stamp debit cards on Saturday, after a routine check by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure. Shoppers from Maine to Oklahoma had to abandon baskets of groceries because they couldn't access their benefits.
Ohio's cash and food assistance card payment systems went down at 11 a.m., said Benjamin Johnson, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Ohio's cash system has been fixed, however its electronic benefits transfer card system is still down. All states that use Xerox systems are affected by the outage.
Xerox spokeswoman Karen Arena confirmed via email Saturday afternoon that some EBT systems are experiencing temporary connectivity issues. She said technical staff is addressing the issue and expects the system to be restored soon.
As a reminder, this is how many Americans and households were on foodstamps as of the most recent monthly update (hint: a record).
And now, it's time for the sequel to @MrEBT's hit masterpiece: "My EBT... has been rejected."
Xerox Statement on Temporary EBT Systems Outage
During a routine test of our back-up systems Saturday morning, Xerox’s Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system experienced a temporary shutdown. While the system is now up and running, beneficiaries in the 17 affected states continue to experience connectivity issues to access their benefits. This disruption impacts EBT beneficiaries who rely on the system for SNAP and WIC. Technical staff is addressing the issue and expect the system to be restored soon. Beneficiaries requiring access to their benefits can work with their local retailers who can activate an emergency voucher system where available. We appreciate our clients’ patience while we work through this outage as quickly as possible.
In short: Cue panic, because while the Nasdaq may be down for 3 hours and only a few vacuum tubes would notice, take down EBT, and you will have a full-fledged revolution in no time.
NOBODIES EBT CARD IS GOING THRU AT WALMART
—
Jazmen Ashley (@jazmen04o25) October 12, 2013
EBT cards in many states aren’t working today, and as you might expect, some Walmart shoppers aren’t very happy.
"@Creamteam_bitch: Government done shut down the #EBT cards in Ga… These folks going crazy in walmart lol"swearrrr—
J A N A E (@JanaeHudson) October 12, 2013
Walmart just made an announcement on the intercom that EBT for the state of Georgia is down…there are now full carts Left everywhere #awk—
Kelly gentry (@KellyKgentry23) October 12, 2013
EBT is down so Walmart is complete chaos right now, so glad I'm leaving in 2 hours—
Chelsey Oliveira (@chelseyoliveira) October 12, 2013
EBT down at walmart and MF going crazy!—
Lorena Bobbitt (@iNoUliKmYdReAdZ) October 12, 2013
THEY DONE SHUT DOWN EBT CARDS IN MISSISSIPPI…… Walmart fulla mad motha fuckas right now—
J.Thrash (@dreadsANDretros) October 12, 2013
I almost just killed some people at Walmart, EBT is apparently down today #madhouse—
cassidy davis (@cassEdav) October 12, 2013
EBT isnt being accepted at walmart and people are going crazy.—
Rudy Huxtable ? (@ForevaHisBadass) October 12, 2013
Walmart is in here announcing they not taking EBT due to state wide issues ???? ppl in here PISSED! Lol—
MS. UPTOWN (@MZUPTOWN) October 12, 2013
Heard a fight broke out at Walmart cause ppl EBT card stopped working lmao—
Pricetag (@AtoDa) October 12, 2013
in Huntsville Alabama,they are refusing ebt/food stamp cards at walmart. my daughter works there and says it's getting really bad—
dani (@danid373) October 12, 2013
Working at walmart while EBT is fucking up <<< I just might get shot today. Lol.—
. (@_KaylaJeann) October 12, 2013
Then again, every cloud has its silver lining:
OMG. MULTIPLE LANES OPEN! CASHIERS BEGGING FOR CUSTOMERS! IF ONLY EBT MACHINES WERE DOWN EVERY DAY!!!!! (at @walmart) 4sq.com/18YjLvZ—
Carolyn Ingold (@angelady1127) October 12, 2013
#EBT down?! Sweet, I can go to Walmart today! It'll be empty!!—
KatieKaBoom (@Katie_Ka_Boom1) October 12, 2013
Welcome to the Obama economy.
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Learning a new trick makes it a good day already. Thanks.
Amazing and simple. I suppose a rock would work as well? Going outside to try it now. Thanks for sharing. It's little things like this that will help when the SHTF.
Relax. It's coming back on line.
http://www.knoe.com/story/23675701/ebt-system-outage-across-the-country
Phew! I was about to eat my neighbor's dog.
This info is from 2012, so a bit out of date, but is something to behold:
http://demonocracy.info/infographics/usa/food_stamps/food_stamp_nation-S...
False flag.
Oh, I do believe it was intentional. I do believe it was a test run to see what might happen on an immediate basis.
The one problem with wargaming this in that regard is that, in this case, the money is already on the cards and it is believed that it will return "soon".
In the real scenario, the money never makes it there (because it no longer exists), and, at that point, there's no benefit to keeping the pretense up any longer.
If you truly are in the Tea Party camp, you may have as little as 96 hours before you better start shooting people.
You may not want to wait that long.
i wonder would food prices go down if EBT was down for longer ?
If Obama and EBT had been around during the depression, the Grapes of Wrath would never have been written.
Rethinking my living in downtown Manhattan (literally) across the street from a supermarket only a 10 minute walk from the PJs and on the first floor with windows facing the street.
And to think I was gonna watch Football today.
Then again...I might wanna watch" Zombieland" as a refresher course.
Rule#2 bitches.
Rule#1-always have a motherfucking gun.
Double tap.
Thats tough with a single-shot .700 Nitro express elephant gun.
Tyler, did you see this (in german)
http://www.blick.ch/news/ausland/usa-feierte-jahrelang-fake-zeremonien-i...
If the 'real' thing happens it might be that the cards work but they eventually buy only a pack of gum. Same difference as not working at all I guess.
So those idiots had the energy to fill the carts full of shit that I help pay for, but just left them sitting when they realized no free shit today.......then you wonder why we have stereotypes
FUCK
THAT
According to Martin Armstrong, 80% of US Debt comes from accumulated interest---that's interest being paid to whom? While China does get a chunk of it, who else is the beneficiary of this graft? Oh, I know, it''s not anyone who lives in the hood!
Newt Gingrich, a vocal opponent of welfare and the person who is chiefly responsible for TANF, got paid millions of dollars to produce a report on Housing while being employed by some politically connected law firm. But Newt is not a parasite, he is a hard working kleptocrat. Anyone ever read this report?
Why don't all EBT recipients become government consultants and get hundreds /$hr. Some of these EBT recipients could be put under the FARM bill and get paid millions to do nothing. When crops fail, they get paid by government for crop insurance.
Oh and one more thing, when interest rates rise, the government will make cuts to social programs and use such gimmicks like chained CPI to steal from Social Security; but, there won't be any decrease in total spending, coupon clipping rentiers will just get more money instead of 80-year old grandma. That's how this works: one dollar less for EBT, one dollar more for 'white' hardworking consultant in DC.
Do you not realize that its the USA that runs the slave labor camps in China? Like Apple. I bet you don't!
33% of SNAP recipients are White
22% are African-American
10% Hispanics
47% are under 18-years
That is pretty poor analysis. Borrow a trillion for social programs and then pay the lender 2.7% interest over ten years, without taking into account inflation, and you say the lender gets more benefit. Not to mention taxpayers.
How about Bernanke buying out Social Security IOUs? No, that couldn't be done? Bernanke can only buy 'stuff' that benefits the right people and SS recipients are not it.
All interest paid by the government is theft, the government should either collect enou8gh taxes or issue its debt-free money. But, that's not how things work in a kleptocratc society: the rich collect interest on money that should be paid as taxes; it's even worse the money was merely fabricated so it could be lend-out to collect interest.
Paying interest income in excess of inflation is a short-lived game that's called a Ponzi. I don't think your reasoning makes any sense--only in an MBA school, maybe?
You agree then that the government should not borrow at all?
Of course not! Government borrowing is a sham, government should levy taxes, but it does not. Why, so it could pay out interest on fabricated monies created for the sole purpose to be lend out.
One thing that Steve Keen repeats over and over again, because we're a all brainwashed, is that money is just made up, there is reserve ratio or so called money-multiplier, any reserves come only later.
So you're a marxist at the wrong place.
No, taxation is neo-feudal concept, it's purpose was and is to make rich richer.
I am not stupid idiot who thinks that utmost $30 billion that goes to the 'hood' in EBT benefits is a benefit too much, while government spends over $2 trillion to benefit 'crackers' who then pretend to be Adam Smiths.
Fair enough.
it should say there is no reserve ratio.
SNAP!
Someone needs to get in the media and tell the "poor" people that Obama, the Elitist-King, the All-Knowing One, is messing with their food.
He is creating another crisis to manipulate the masses. Heck the whole default thing is theater. We HAVE THE MONEY TO PAY OUR BILLS.
Then someone needs to get out this simple analogy....
All government derives its existence from an economy. It is a parasite on a host.
When the parasite grows so large that the host dies....the parasite dies. (Usually by revolution or coup in this analogy although a vote would be appropriate.)
We The People are the host. We have been enslaved with regulatons and we have been financially vampired in the name of one crisis after another.
Our parasite needs a surgical resizing until we can function efficiently again.
Some parasites are symbiotic....there is a mutual benefit and so it is with our government.
But our Parasite is WAY OUT OF FISCAL CONTROL. It is obscene. It must stop.
No debt limit increase. Downsize government. Live within our means. The time is now.
Would you rather default on 17 trillion or 50 trillion when we CAN'T PAY OUR INTEREST? The time is now. Wake up America.
What does interest on the debt purchase? It is a total waste. It buys nothing at all.
EBT voters good for the nation! YAY!
Not to long ago a supposed DHS insider named (Rosebud) stated that there will be no agreement(debt ceiling) and that there will be a cordinated on purpose events that will result in what we are just now going thru.I think that information is starting too happen.Its only going to get worse.
This is great news. The Purge will begin in 12 hours...
I'm in WA state and I called my local walmart to see if EBT was back up, but apparently it didn't go down here. Looks like WA isn't one of the 17 states affected. Seems like a dry-run...or maybe even a glitch like they said.
But when is anything ever what "they" say it is?
Same crony programmers that did 0bamacare website disasters? Don't they put anything out to independent bids these days?