Rod and Karen discuss being mention on a Mashable list, Taco Bell delivery, Tasha Smith divorce, food stamp restrictions, Air India fight, baggage handler falls asleep in cargo hold, Pat Robertson on Hillary Clinton, Suge Knight victim won’t snitch, Amber Rose vs Kylie, atheist billboard, nurse refuses to treat kid won’t say pledge of allegiance, pharmacy don’t service woman with miscarriage drugs, New York on Botched, Dennis Quad “rant”, spring break sexual assault, dirty Philly cop, Love and Hip Hop ATL, Momma Dee song revisited, BallerAlert, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Cheetah exhibit, baseball bat date, military mistress and sword ratchetness.
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Awww shoot! I got an epic shout out on the show! *Booty pops*
Love you cousin-spouses in that order!
Oh yeah and what everybody else said about entitlements. Since the 90s it’s a set up for failure at least back in the day a mom could go to all four years of schooling while on assistance and land a livable wage job like nursing or teaching after she finished school oh yeah and with no student loans!
Oh yeah and of course I bought all the lobsters when I got laid off and was in grad school with my $16 a month in food stamps. Scrimp, lobster, champagne, caviar every day in that order! And we went on a cruise every weekend because Obama is a racist, Muslim, Kenyan, polygamist dictator.
XOXO,
Miss Krysable
The story about the kid who didn’t stand for the pledge of allegiance struck a cord with me, because through out grade school I just assumed you had to do it. It never occurred to me that I could have stayed seated. As for that asshole of a nurse? Terrible fucking person. The fuck they think this is? Nazi Germany?
As for the people who are against public assistance? Not only are those people ignorant about public assistance, they are also arrogant as hell. They think that they are some sort of special snowflake and everybody else is lazy. And I find that to be really pathetic, get some real self esteem and stop looking down on folks.
Oh, and in regards to that Air India fight? I hope somebody yelled out Worrld Starrr!
The problem with how our society regards those who receive public assistance is exactly what y’all spoke of: a pure lack of empathy. It is that lack of empathy that lets people and politicians alike believe that they can shame and police what poor people do, what and how they eat, and so on. A lot of the people that they talk about as scofflaws actually work; some of them two jobs. But, as Karen mentioned, since they work jobs that most consider menial and unimportant, jobs that they see as “easy” compared to their 9-to-5 pushing paper-at-a-desk job; they don’t care.
It’s amazing how much of what keeps people in poverty is based on lies. “Go to school” to get a degree that doesn’t guarantee you’ll even get the job, then you wind up in debt. “Just work hard”, while the company you work for doesn’t have to pay you much, doesn’t promote you if you do, and take your job away in a snap. “Bootstraps”, when you cut every possible thing that could help people be more self-sufficient, while congressmen are out here paying for lavish furniture for their offices, and passing laws allowing corporations to pay minimal tax rates.
What I’d ask the people who want to police what others buy on SNAP is: do you support an increase in the minimum wage above $10? If the answer is no; if the excuse for that answer is protecting the interest of “small businesses”, then they should shut the fuck up. Every business that doesn’t pay workers enough or give workers enough hours to be able to live on is a contributor to the so-called welfare state; some of them to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars. But you don’t hear a damn word from the the same people who would say that folks on SNAP should stop buying sodas, chips, and steaks, because that’s “too much.”
As one of those workers who is on SNAP assistance? A steak is a luxury I can rarely afford, and if so, it’s going to be less than $10. And funny how they want to regulate that, and candy, claiming the program is about “nutrition”, but those salty-ass frozen meals somehow don’t come up.
I had a friend that dropped out of college because that college really wasn’t him after our first semester. He worked at Goodyear plant in Fayetteville, NC. About two years into the job he got laid off and had to go on unemployment while he searched for another job. One day he was kicking with a group of people on campus discussing how tough his situation was. As soon as he left someone brought up the fact that he had a iPhone 3GS which was new at the time.
This is the attitude that a lot of people have against anyone receiving any government assistance. If someone is doing bad, they better look the part. They can not possess anything of value especially if it is something everyone else can not afford. They consider anyone receiving aid to be a peasant and expects them to look like one. The truth is that they will always find a way to nitpick your life. You will never suffer enough in their eyes.
This is compounded that those same people do not want the minimum wage to be raised. I saw a dumb ass Facebook post from a woman stating that minimum wage should not be raised because people working those jobs don’t deserve more. She then stated that the minimum wage(in North Carolina) is more that enough to live on as long as they budget correctly. She really thinks that having a low paying job is the rightful punishment for not being educated or motivated to do better. And of course, her advice to anyone struggling on minimum wage was to get a better job. She represents a large segment of America that wants the minimum wage to stay low because they want to be able to judge and look down at those workers. Its really about protecting the status of their class.
Lastly, let me finish up the story I used to start this comment. I explained to them that the phone was under contract and locked so the couldn’t sell it. Then they all started going in on how he shouldn’t have dropped out of college. I then stated that “at least he left early, it will take some of y’all years to NOT earn a degree.” I was talking about one girl in particular and everyone got mad. I never kicked it with that crew again. And ole girl stayed at FSU for six years and left without graduating.
You two covered everything regarding assistence. It is not set up to truly help people in a supplementary way. I remember when I was laid off and since I was still in my early 20’s I was offered school assistance along with my unemployment. Help paying for school? I’ll take it! but wait hold up I was not allowed to have a job while receiving assistance for school. How am I supposed to pay for, I don’t know food, shelter, the damn bus to get to school if I can’t have a job? Oh more assistance you say? Nah I’m good. People have this weird idea that having any job at all means you can afford everything and if you can’t afford something, it is your fault. No if it was true assistance it would regularly bring people up and eventually off assistance. Many people get off and prosper but there is no leeway given to those that aren’t getting off of assistance as fast as the almighty “They” want you to.
So Rod you said that we can’t equate the anti-gay pizza place and the pro-gay (or at least non-homophobic) bakery. I say we can. You bigots don’t like that a bakery doesn’t want to make your hate speech cake tough shit. They don’t have to because they don’t believe what you believe. Morally, they cannot agree with your purchase and therefore can refuse it. Sound familiar? If they want to take it to that simple of an argument then fine. If it is not fair, it’s not fair. Beliefs are beliefs. Either every damn body can discriminate or nobody can. So if you want to make a bakery make a homophobic cake then you, Bigot Bob, have to cater my gay wedding and let me have my birth control and abortion pills and every other thing you try to deny ME because of YOUR beliefs. If I truly believed it would do any good I would want other religions to deny these “so-called christians” because they do not adhere to their particular belifs. Jewish establishment? If you don’t eat kosher. I’m sorry as your bank teller I cannot give money to a person that eats unblessed meat. Member of the Nation of islam? I’m sorry you’re buying bacon and as your grocery cashier I can’t sell that to you. Jehovah’s witness? Sorry can’t sell you a birthday cake, card or balloons because I put no day above Jehovah. See this is the foolishness that “christians” would bitch and moan about but of course no other religion gets such privileges. Sorry I went on a rant but dammit it’s all such BS. I’m done.
PS. I hate you for playing Momma Dee’s song. I had completely avoided it until now. Still love you both.
Thank you guys for delivering a word about public assistance. Those who aren’t one check away from homelessness are just one illness away from homelessness. The older I get, the more disgusted I get when people make blanket statements about the people they see as poor and beneath them. Even more, when the ‘talented tenth’ do it, I go AWF!!! Nothing burns my toast more than people looking down at others because they perceive them as less human. (Don’t even get me started on how people talk about people in jail and prison for non-violent crimes.)
Anyway, I think the stigma is created and spread purposely. We do an awesome job of reinforcing the idea that needing financial help means you’re a useless failure at life. I was unemployed twice and ASSUMED I didn’t qualify for benefits. Oh but best believe, if I am unemployed again, instead of running through my savings, I will be signing up for EVERYTHANG! I’ll be sliding my EBT card at the grocery store like it’s a black AMEX card while humming 5 Star Chick. I have deposited into this system why should I feel bad about withdrawing from said system?!