Pizza Saves America!

According to NY Post:

It’s the late night fix favored by stoners and university students around the world.

And now pizza can claim to be the food responsible for ending the US government shutdown and averting a global economic disaster.

Senate leaders announced a bipartisan deal to reopen the US government and raise the debt ceiling overnight.

But only after industrial sized quantities of pizza were wheeled in for late night negotiations.

At least 20 huge boxes were delivered by a congressional aide to the office of Speaker John Boenher, along with bags stuffed full of sides.

I'd rather give pizza the credit for averting the crisis American politicians have been pushing for the past two weeks.  I sure as hell don't give any credit to anyone in Congress who caused the problem to begin with.  So thank you pizza for allowing the Federal Government to continue spending unlimited funny money and kicking the can down the road a few weeks.  

I for one was terrified of the EBT shutdown that was about to occur if the debt ceiling was not raised.  Rioting and looting are not quite as fun as people on Twitter make it out to be.  So any way to avoid massive riots and police crack downs is appreciated.  Again thank you pizza!

Fast Food "Benefits"

According to RT:

Over half of US workers employed by fast food restaurants rely on public assistance because their meager paychecks do not cover basic needs. The aid costs American taxpayers billions of dollars each year, according to a new report.

The average American fast food worker earns $8.69 an hour and regularly works less than 40 hours a week, qualifying them for a variety of government benefits. Fifty-two percent of families that include a fast food worker receive food stamps, Medicaid, or are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Compare that sum with the 25 percent of families eligible for those assistance programs from the overall workforce.

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Most fast food workers (68 percent) are single or married adults not currently attending school and 26 percent are raising children - debunking the stereotype that teenagers fill most of said positions.

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Only 13 percent of workers receive health benefits from their employers, compared to 59 percent of workers elsewhere. An individual working at McDonalds or Burger King, for example, also works an average of ten hours less than his or her full-time counterpart working for a non-fast food company.

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Experts have said that the estimated annual figures are likely low because they do not account for school lunch programs, home heating assistance, subsidized housing, or any state programs.

This is all pretty much common knowledge.  But it is always good to see a reputable news source covering it further.  Not to mention while most of us realize these facts, sometimes it is easy to forget about them when the main stream media focuses on such menial bullshit day in and day out.  

Costco Salmonella Outbreak

According to Natural News:

A San Francisco Costco store has recalled 40,000 pounds of cooked rotisserie chicken products due to confirmed SalmonellaHeidelberg contamination. Salmonella Heidelberg is an antibiotic-resistant strain that poses a life-threatening risk to those with weakened immune systems, including the elderly, kids and people with cancer or HIV. At least one cooked rotisserie chicken tested positive for the salmonella bacteria, leading the store to issue a recall for 8,730 rotisserie chickens and 313 units of soup, leg quarters and salad possibly containing salmonella. An expected 18-20 customers have reported illness directly linked to the contaminated chicken sold between September 11 and September 23.

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This recall is being linked to the Foster Farms antibiotic-resistant salmonella outbreak which caused The Kroger Co. to remove Foster Farms brand raw chicken from six of their grocery store chains in Nevada and New Mexico earlier this month. Despite consumer pressure, Foster Farms has refused to issue a voluntary recall, claiming that their chicken meets USDA standards, and reminded consumers that contaminated chicken is safe to eat when handled properly and cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. The USDA has issued supportive statements.

I worked for a super market that cooked rotisserie chickens in high school, they were gross.  It would not surprise me if one of these workers didn't wash their hands or used the same gloves to remove the chickens after they were cooked.  So yeah, cooking them would have killed the Salmonella, but if some idiot didn't wash his hands and he had some bacteria on them from preparing the chickens...

You get the idea.  As for the company that supplied the chicken, talk about classy.  Of course your chicken meets USDA standard, they barely have any!  Don't worry just cook that salmonella away... forget about the fact that it most likely spread to your chopping board and counter tops and if you just so happen to cook the chicken to 155 degrees you still might get sick.  The USDA says it is all okay, and the Government wouldn't lie to us, would they?  

EBT (Food Stamps) to Shut Down in November

According to InfoWars:

The USDA is directing states to withhold Electronic Transfer Benefits for the month of November until further notice, setting up a potential food stamp crisis that could very easily lead to riots and widespread looting if the government shutdown drags on.

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In other words, up to 47 million Americans who rely on food stamps to feed themselves face the prospect of going hungry next month.

An EBT system failure that occurred this past weekend led to “mini-riots” and looting at several Walmart stores. In Springhill and Mansfield, Louisiana, shelves were cleared as frenzied customers tried to exploit unlimited credit balances that had temporarily been applied to their EBT cards as a result of the system glitch. Store managers also had to close a Walmart and call police in Philadelphia, Mississippi aftercustomers began rioting when their EBT cards stopped functioning.

EBT card users responded by invoking the threat of widespread riots if the system went down again for any sustained period of time. More conspiratorial types even suggested that Saturday’s glitch was a beta test for a future total food stamp shutdown.

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Richard Phillips, a homeless man who relies on food stamps, told Fox 13, “It’s going to cause problems… because then you’re going to come to find out that you’re going to have people starting to steal and do what they have to do to survive.”

So the havoc we saw take pace in Louisiana this past weekend during a 2 hour EBT shut down is about to spread across the entire nation.  What do you think will happen for an entire month if it took just two hours for Walmart customers to nearly riot?  

Riots at Walmart

According to KSLA:

Shelves in Walmart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, LA were reportedly cleared Saturday night, when the stores allowed purchases on EBT cards even though they were not showing limits. 

The chaos that followed ultimately required intervention from local police, and left behind numerous carts filled to overflowing, apparently abandoned when the glitch-spurred shopping frenzy ended.

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Lynd explained the cards weren't showing limits and they called corporate Walmart, whose spokesman  said to let the people use the cards anyway. From 7 to 9 p.m., people were loading up their carts, but when the cards began showing limits again around 9, one woman was detained because she rang up a bill of $700.00 and only had .49 on her card. She was held by police until corporate Walmart said they wouldn't press charges if she left the food.

Lynd says at 9 p.m., when the cards came back online and it was announced over the loud speaker, people just left their carts full of food in the aisles and left.

"Just about everything is gone, I've never seen it in that condition," said Mansfield Walmart customer Anthony Fuller.

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 "I was just thinking, I'm so glad my mom doesn't work here [Walmart] anymore, that's the only thing I could think about, those employees working, that would have to restock all that stuff," said O.J Evans who took cell phone video of the overflowing shopping carts at the Mansfield Walmart.

Evans believes it was natural human reaction that led people to fill up their carts during the glitch, but Walmart shoppers Stan and Judy Garcia feel very differently. "That's plain theft, that's stealing that's all I got to say about it," said Garcia.

This was all with in hours of the system going down.  Imagine what will happen  when it does down a for a day or a week?  The masses will start rioting with in no time at all.  This was just a glimpse of what's to come. 

On a slightly positive note, although I could spin it otherwise, it seems Walmart actually did something good for others this one time.  The article goes on to say:

Kayla Whaling, a spokesperson for Walmart, tells KSLA News 12 that the company was "fully engaged and monitoring the situation and transactions during the outage."

"We did make the decision to continue to accept EBT cards (and purchases on WIC and SNAP) during the outage so that they could get food for their families.

Big Mac Causes Police Car Chase

According to The Smoking Gun:

After exiting a McDonald’s drive-thru lane, an intoxicated Ohio motorist led cops on a short chase because he “just wanted to eat his Big Mac before he stopped,” according to a police report.

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“I initiated a traffic stop and the subject failed to stop,” noted Officer Clifford Smith, who added that he chased Miller until the motorist pulled over. Miller, who smelled of booze and was slurring his speech, apologized to Smith, saying he “was too drunk and he just wanted to eat his Big Mac before he stopped.”

I'm surprised this guy wasn't shot to death for running from the cops.  But aside from that what else is there to say about this story except the fact that Big Macs are so addictive they will make a man risk arrest and possible execution just to finish eating one.  

Food Stamps (EBT) Not Being Accepted in 17 States.

According to a Boston CBS Affiliate:

People in Ohio, Michigan and 15 other states found themselves 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.

At about 9 a.m. Saturday, reports from across the country began pouring in that customers’ EBT cards were not working in stores.

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

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Shoppers left carts of groceries behind at a packed Market Basket grocery store in Biddeford, Maine, because they couldn't get their benefits, said fellow shopper Barbara Colman, of Saco, Maine. The manager put up a sign saying the EBT system was not in use.

“That’s a problem. There are a lot of families who are not going to be able to feed children because the system is being maintenanced,” Colman said. She planned to reach out to local officials. “You don’t want children going hungry tonight because of stupidity,” she said.

Glitch in the system during routine maintenance or a prequel of things to come...?