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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Sultan Knish: Baltimore, Reality Check |
| 2015-06-04 |
| ...Obama called for "massive investments in urban communities". Last year, we spent $75 billion on food stamps. The year before that it was $80 billion. That's up from $33 billion in 2007. The number of participants has doubled approaching 50 million. Is spending $80 billion on food stamps alone for a sixth of the country not a massive investment? Food stamp use in Baltimore under Obama increased 58%, but even back in 2009, a quarter of Baltimore and a third of its black population were on food stamps. Baltimore already accounts for almost half of the food stamp using households in the entire state. Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings called for an "inclusion revolution" after the riots, but the revolution in his district happened a while back where a fifth of the households are on food stamps. Even though the household racial split in the seventh is about even, 85% of food stamp households are black. Cummings says that Baltimore needs to be a model for the nation. It's a hell of a model. The nation can't survive turning into Baltimore. The city is subsidized by Maryland taxpayers, a state full of bedroom communities for consultants and employees of the Federal government. Maryland didn't become the richest state in America through entrepreneurship and hard work, but by siphoning off massive Federal spending. Billions have already been "massively invested" in Baltimore with no return. Poor urban areas have not been "abandoned" by a cold selfish nation that spends all its time watching FOX News, as Obama claims, they have been subsidized up to their ears. Every poverty statistic is presented as if it were evidence of our guilt, when it's actually evidence of our incredible generosity. The angriest portion of the population lives in subsidized homes, goes to subsidized schools, shops with food stamps and even works at subsidized government jobs servicing the needs of the aforementioned. As a consequence, they're bored---and riot for entertainment MSNBC talking heads claimed that the rioters and looters targeted the grocery and check cashing places that were oppressing the community. The only community they were oppressing was that of taxpayers. Those were the places where urban dependents turned taxpayer subsidies into food and cash. They took their cut of a transaction that deprived millions of working families of their income and turned it over to looters. And when the looters found the opportunity, they looted them. Rioters don't gleefully loot stores of snacks and liquor while posing for selfies because they're outraged and oppressed, but because their sense of entitlement has turned them into amateur sociopaths. None of this is about oppression or poverty. It's about an incredible sense of entitlement. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #5 The 'draft' is the selective activation of the federal militia defined and regulated by Art. I, Section 8 of the Constitution. It's been on the books since the Militia Act of 1792 and continues today under Title X USC Para 311. Anything other than its proper use will invoke the 13th Amendment barring involuntary servitude. Besides, no one in their right mind would want to do it other than social engineers who don't understand they won't get what they're seeking. The Army collapsed because of drug abuse, high levels of both AWOL and disintegration of discipline at the end of the Vietnam experience with the draft. And, because they were 'drafted', no matter what the social behavior of the dregs were before entering, they became the problem of the Army afterward. You couldn't fire them. You had to rehab them which basically meant putting up with them till their 'time' ran out. Ask those who had to deal with troops in the 70s and those in the 80s, and they want no part of 'draftees'. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-06-04 22:22 |
| #4 Those who do not learn from History are bound to repeat it. Note: History is no longer taught in school. I think it was replaced by |
| Posted by: Crazyfool 2015-06-04 22:19 |
| #3 Fall of the Roman Empire : "Bread and Circuses" Update that to "Food Stamps and Riots" Or, perhaps I should say "Food Stamps and Looting" |
| Posted by: dlr 2015-06-04 21:38 |
| #2 Bring back the draft. 17-19 year olds desperately need discipline. Have them work in hospitals and as road crews (or building a big wall on our southern border) or something so that they don't screw up the military. Not a fan of the draft in general but generation after generation on the dole is not a recipe for success. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2015-06-04 14:43 |
| #1 That which you subsidize you get more of. (That which you tax you get less of.) |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2015-06-04 08:02 |