Panic as welfare grinds to a halt

I note in a grim, "I-told-you-so" way, but with no satisfaction whatsoever, that food stamp and related benefits, typically paid to recipients by means of 'EBT' or electronic benefit transfer (issued by means of a card similar to a credit card), came to a temporary halt today.

People in Ohio, Michigan and 15 other states found themselves temporarily unable to use their food stamp debit-style cards on Saturday, after a routine test of backup systems by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure.

Xerox announced late in the evening that access had been restored for users in the 17 states affected by the outage, hours after the first problems were reported.

. . .

U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Courtney Rowe underscored that the outage was not related to the government shutdown.

. . .

Wasmer said the states affected by the temporary outage also included Alabama, California, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.

There's more at the link.

According to Twitchy, which 'mine[s] Twitter to bring you “who said what” in U.S. politics, global news, sports, entertainment, media, and breaking news 24/7. If it’s news, we’re on it', the breakdown immediately led to an outbreak of dystopian, doom-gloom-and-disaster messages.  Here are a few examples.

• EBT cards aren't working & Monday is a holiday. Holy s***. F*** You @SpeakerBoehner the gov could've already been opened w vote.
• @joshduggar my friend posted on FB that we now can't use our EBT Card. Are they going to starve us now? Please help us.
• Im hearing food stamps has stop nationwide. Ok.This is scary. Its about to go down across the map. Riot! And walmart ebt is down to. oh f***.
• Cuz lock your doors load your guns they cut off ebt cards nationwide.

Again, more at the link.

I wrote two years ago about the changing urban self-defense environment. If welfare benefits get shut off for any extended period, for any reason, look for those warnings to come horrendously true. The so-called 'welfare class' is utterly dependent on their government freebies and handouts. They're vulnerable to the slightest interruption, because they have no intention of providing for themselves, even if they were capable of doing so. They're 'entitled' to their benefits. The government 'owes' them.

That's not true, of course . . . but truth and logic won't help you survive an angry mob. That takes more firepower than most of us possess - so it's better to stay out of their way.

Peter