Asshole Idiot Nation: Grocery Store Clerk Humiliates Food Stamp Recipient

You really have to hand it to asshole conservatives and the doctrinaire libertarians for how successful they have been in turning us plebes against one another so that we don't turn around and see that it's the face of the oligarchs that is connected to the big red, white a blue dick they are shoving up our asses on a daily basis. The brillance of their campaign to demonize poverty even as they strive hard to drive even more members of the former working and middle classes into poverty was on display again this week, as reported by Digital Journal:

Cindy Nerger of Warner Robins, Ga., who has been on a waiting list for kidney transplant for five years, was brought to tears at a supermarket last week when a clerk ridiculed her in the presence of other customers for using food stamps. Local TV station WMAZ, reported the incident after Nerger posted her story on the station's Facebook page.

She said she went shopping last week Tuesday at the Kroger off Watson Boulevard. When she got to the register, the clerk insisted wrongly that $10 worth of items were not covered. She said: "He told me I owed him 10 dollars and some change. I am not exactly sure what it was, but I told him, I said I am sorry sir, but there is nothing in my cart that is not covered by food stamps." According to Nerger, Kroger employees kept her on the line for half an hour.

A store manager finally intervened and told the clerk to give her the items. When she complained about the treatment she received, the the clerk said aloud: "Excuse me for working for a living and not relying on food stamps!" Nerger said at this point she was so embarrassed that she broke down in tears. She said: "I was upset, so, I was like, you know, I told you that it was covered under food stamps, you know, so, there was no need for all of this, you know, and he said, 'Well excuse me that I work for a living and don't rely on food stamps like you.'" She added: "I honestly was angry. I was angry at first, but it turned into tears because when I turned around and I saw the people there I was like, oh my goodness, and I just started crying."

According to The Huffington Post, Nerger, 28. said she and her husband were not proud to use food stamp debit card. She told The Huffington Post, "I felt shy when I used them and my husband does, too. I would try to hide the card." She said, "I didn't want to have to go there, you know, nobody wants to have to ask somebody for help, but it got to the point it was either ask for help or starve."

The Huffington Post reports Nerger said she started receiving food stamps (Supplemental Nutrition Assitance Program) after she fell ill in 2008 and became eligible for Medicare and Social Security Supplemental Income. While she is on waiting list for kidney transplant she cannot work because of daily 12-hr dialysis treatment. According to Nerger, her husband runs a carpentry business but does not make enough income to sustain the family without assistance.

No doubt that idiot grocery store clerk, who is probably living paycheck to paycheck himself, never gave a moment's thought that he could very easily find himself in Cindy Nerger's shoes at some point in the future. Funny that it is often those who are the closest to actually needing the social safety net who often times are the ones who scream the loudest about it.

I'd so like to take that asshole clerk for a visit to the corporate headquarters of Dyncorps International, or SAIC or General Dynamics so maybe he could get it through his thick fucking skull who the real welfare queens are. Those war contractor assholes and others of their ilk are sucking down many, many times more of his precious little tax dollars that all of the Cindy Nergers of the world combined. Or maybe a little tour of Wall Street and all of the giant financial firms that have been bailed out to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars and whose executives continue to rake in millions of dollars in bonuses while laughing their asses off that fucking morons like him continue to listen to fat fucking pig Rush Limbaugh and to vote for the politicians that enable them to rob him and tens of millions of others like him of their livelihoods, security and futures.

Oh, who am I fucking kidding. Like there is ANY chance that a closed-minded simpleton who lacks even one iota of basic human empathy would fucking understand any of it even if you rubbed his fucking face in it. In fact, you know what? Fuck that asshole. Fuck him and every ignorant fucking piece of shit like him. I have had it with all of them. If someone in this country has to find themselves starving and destitute because of the heartless policies he so foolishly supports, let it someday BE him. I just hope I can be there when it happens to sneer and tell him to get a fucking job.


Bonus: Sorry, I think I was actually channeling angry Bill for a moment there

Central State Hospital (Georgia) to Lay Off 280 Workers

One of the few "bright" spots in the latest monthly jobs report was the supposed growth in health care industry employment. And yet, as I've posted here, there have been an awful lot of recent stories like this one from the Macon Telegraph:

Central State Hospital in Milledgeville expects to lay off as many as 280 employees in the next month as the hospital transfers out the last of its patients with developmental disabilities.

Tom Wilson, a spokesman for the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, said Friday the last 15 patients should be transferred to community care by June 30.

Central State Hospital will continue with a forensics unit that handles about 182 people with mental illness, and a nursing home that cares for about 138 patients, Wilson said.

The number of job losses could have been higher, but 80 employees at the historic state hospital left on their own in the last month as the number of patients declined, Wilson said.

“The number of employees has declined quite a bit in the past six months as we’ve been making this concerted effort, and the doctors and the nurses have gone to find other work,” Wilson said.

Central State Hospital’s total employment Friday was 1,439 workers, down from about 1,900 three years ago, said Kristie Swink, a spokeswoman with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. The layoffs represent about one-fifth of the remaining employees at the hospital.

Reading that last paragraph, I can't help but think that somebody's lying about the supposed boom in health care employment. Sadly, the article also included this little nugget:

Milledgeville Mayor Richard Bentley said the community is working hard to bring more jobs to the area. A public-private prison is about to expand, and the community has been looking at redevelopment efforts.

“We’ve lost upwards of 2,500, 3,000 jobs over the past three or four years, and we’re replacing them 100 or 200 jobs at a time,” Bentley said Friday.

I've also posted multiple stories here about prisons across the country shutting down due to state budget cuts. But I guess Mayor Richard Bentley prefers to bury his head in the sand when it comes to inconvenient facts.


Bonus: "Forty Miles from Atlanta, this is nowhere...going to Georgia"

Georgia Perimeter College To Lay Off 185

Another bad sign from the world of higher education. Here is the Atlanta Journal Constitution with the details:

Georgia Perimeter College will lay off about 185 people to close what could be a $25 million deficit next year.

Tenured and tenure-track faculty will be exempt from layoffs, but they will teach more courses. More students will be crammed into classrooms. And the college will hold off buying new computers and upgrading its network as part of an eight-step plan Interim President Rob Watts released Friday.

"Staff will need to stretch to take up the slack that will be created," Watts wrote in an email to faculty and staff. "My focus will be on our access mission and on preserving academic and instructional quality."

Questions remain over how the two-year college dug itself into this financial mess.

The college has been overspending for the past four years, according to state audits and university system analysis reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The school depleted its reserves to balance the books, leaving little money to bail itself out this time.

Auditors from the University System of Georgia are investigating the school's internal controls and how it recorded and communicated financial information, according to emails and documents the AJC obtained through an Open Records request. The system's chief auditor wrote the college failed to conduct regular audit reports.

State auditors will also review the school's books. And the Attorney General's Office is reviewing the situation because former President Anthony Tricoli alleged "fraudulent behavior by key financial personnel." Watts has since brought in new financial officers.

Of course, the biggest fraud of all is persisting in selling the need for a college education to young people who then graduate with huge student loan debts and can't find a decent job. But Georgia Perimeter is hardly unique in that regard.

Lithonia Plant in Cochran (Georgia) To Close, 440 To Be Laid Off

Factory closings are always tough, but they are particularly devastating whenever they hit smaller communities. Here is a local Georgia television station with the story:

A lighting plant that's been a fixture in the Cochran community for nearly 40 years is set to close its doors by the fall.

The Lithonia Lighting plant in Cochran will close within six months, putting more than 440 people out of work.

Workers at the plant swing by the gas station on Dykes Street everyday.

It's just across the street from the lighting plant, and its owner, Baliram Raveleker, says the employees keep him busy.

"I'm scared if they're closing because it'll hurt my business," he says.

But here is the real kicker to this story:

Cochran Mayor, Willie Basley says it's a move that will hit Cochran hard.

"Lithonia is our biggest employer, and there's a lot of people that are going to be affected by the closure of this company," he says.

Basley says he may have to cut down on city government because the water, sewage, and gas that they provided the company was a major part of the city budget.

But for now, he's holding out hope that they keep the lights on.

"We just prayin' to God that within this six month period things will change."

Cochran native, Emma Harris, says Lithonia keeps the city going.

"A lot of people dependent on that place for jobs and what are they gonna do? It's really gonna have a big affect on the community," she says.

What are they going to do, indeed? That is a question that is going to be asked more and more in cities and towns all over the country as the ongoing collapse of our economy continues.


Bonus: "Where do you think you're going? I think that you don't know. Where do you think you're going? There really is no place you can go."

Georgia College Students: "Without Food Stamps We Wouldn't Be Able to Eat"

Pardon me for being so crude, but I simply cannot think of another way to express my feelings here other than to ask the question: how many more ways can we fuck over our young adults in this country? We brainwash the poor kinds into thinking that the MUST have a college education in order to succeed in this society (even as that becomes more of a cruel lie with every passing year), send them to institutions of alleged higher learning which charge them exorbitant fees and then saddle them with massive amounts if student loan debt. And then, when some of them have the audacity to try to help support themselves by applying for food stamps, we cut off that meager support because its "too expensive." Here is a local Georgia television station with the story:

Georgia's college students are facing the prospect of the HOPE Scholarship paying less and less toward their tuition in the next few years.

So how are they dealing with rising tuition and fees?

Many are working whatever part-time jobs they can rustle up, mornings, nights and weekends. But they're also tapping into an unconventional form of student financial aid: food stamps.

The "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program" is providing college students who qualify with $200 a month toward their groceries, making them part of the 20 percent of Georgia's population currently receiving the benefit.

Here are two students' appalling stories:

"With the budget cuts, students are definitely going to have to think of different ways to get money and finances for things such as groceries," said Danielle Ford, a GSU Junior. "So food stamps will definitely be a big help, absolutely. Without food stamps, they wouldn't be able to eat."

Taylor is a full-time student with a part-time job.

"As a full-time student, my bill usually comes up to about almost $5,000 a semester. That's tuition alone," he said.

On top of that are his books and fees and his rent for an off-campus apartment, which is $600 a month.

One of the reasons he moved out of a campus dorm, Taylor said, is that GSU was requiring him to pay, in addition to his room cost, about $1,700 a semester for the university's meal plan.

Now, living off-campus and buying his own groceries, he understands why students are tapping into the SNAP program.

"I mean, I think it helps," said Taylor, "because these are students that I know that [like me] are working, like, jobs! And they're really tight on money. These are people who actually really, really need it, and they tell me it's a big help."

Alas:

Last year, Michigan cut 30,000 students from its food stamp rolls by tightening up the requirements for approval, in order to save $75 million a year.

Sadly, these kids don't know it but they are learning some hard lessons about the new realities in modern day America. They'd be much better off dropping out of school and joining the Occupy movement than driving themselves ever deeper into debt chasing an American Dream than has long since turned into an epic nightmare.


Bonus: "Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders...here are the young men, where have they been? We knocked on the doors of hell's darkest chamber...pushed to the limits, we dragged ourselves in"

The Atlanta Police Department is Also Full of Morons

As an addendum to this morning's post about the Social Security Administration's inability to accurately keep track of people's Social Security Numbers, here we have a story from the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the Atlanta Police Department's inability to figure out who exactly it is that they are placing under arrest:

Atlanta police are launching an internal investigation into the case of a woman who was arrested by mistake and held in jail for nearly two months, Channel 2 Action News reports.

Police are seeking to determine what happened and if any policies or procedures were violated in the arrest of Teresa Culpepper, who spent 53 days wrongfully incarcerated in Fulton County Jail because she had the same name, Teresa, as a woman wanted by authorities.

Well, gee, Teresa isn't exactly an uncommon name. From what I've observed, there are a lot of Teresas running around these days. Certainly, the cops have ways of distinguishing one from another. Right? Am I right? Anyone? Bueller?

“Her birth date didn't match. Her address didn't match. Her description didn't match. Other than the name Teresa, nothing matched,” said Culpepper’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant.

Channel 2 tracked down the Teresa actually wanted by police, and the woman told the TV station she had never been arrested for the alleged offense.

I really don't know what's the more depressing part of those last two paragraphs, the fact that the Atlanta Police Department utterly failed to do even basic due diligence before arresting the unfortunate Ms. Culpepper, or that the teevee station managed to go out and find the real culprit. You really can't make this stuff up, because if you tried no editor would ever buy it.

If the Atlanta Police Department's internal investigation ends like most such inquiries do, they will do doubt exonerate themselves of any wrongdoing. At which point, the Atlanta PD will be effectively telling the world that, yes indeed, our department is full of morons.

Thousands in Georgia Line Up for Free Dental Services

In yesterday’s post, I wrote about a poll showing that nearly two-thirds of all Americans could not even come up with $1000 cash in case of a personal emergency. In the post, I focused on the high costs of home and automobile repair. Even more challenging for many people, however, are unanticipated medical expenses. The uninsured are at particular risk, but even many who are lucky enough to have health insurance often find they have holes in their coverage that can easily lead them to being out of pocket by many thousands of dollars.

This is particularly true for dental care. I am one of those fortunate enough to have decent health insurance, and yet the dental coverage of my plan is virtually non-existent. Alas, I am just now reaching the age when the old filings I received as a child are causing my teeth to start breaking. Next week, I will be going in for the third time in the past two years to get a broken tooth replaced by a crown. The cost for each one of these procedures has been about $1500, and that’s without needing to have root canals, which would elevate the cost far higher.

So it was with great interest that I read an article that appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution this past Friday about this very subject. Here’s a snippet:

Thousands of people stood in line for free dental services Friday at a church in Woodstock.

The two-day clinic at First Baptist Church of Woodstock on Hwy. 92 is being sponsored by the Georgia Dental Association and its Foundation for Oral Health.

"The line went around the building, all the way through the parking lot and around a warehouse," said Dr. Richard Smith, who practices in Atlanta. He estimated the line at 2,000 yards and said that at its peak, 4,000 people were in line.

The article went on to say:

Dr. Michael Vernon of Augusta said he was moved by the patients' response to the massive effort.

"Two the first three patients that I saw actually sat in the chair and cried because they were so appreciative of what we're doing here and it just made me feel good about being here," he said.

First of all, let me give a big thumbs up to the church that arranged this charitable event in which around 300 dentists took part. It serves as a good reminder in these days when religious charlatans and haters like Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry are running for President that there are still plenty of Christians out there who actually take Jesus’s teachings to help the poor and downtrodden seriously. Bravo to everyone involved.

I think we can all attest that there are few things in life less enjoyable than having a chronic dental problem. The pain can literally be debilitating. Sadly, like everything else in the health care industry, the costs of dental care have skyrocketed to the point where even the most basic treatment is now beyond the financial means of a substantial portion of the population. It would be nice to see events such as this one become far more commonplace.

As for me, once I have this latest broken tooth replaced, I know I have about six more that are also at risk and will go the same way eventually. I’ve resigned myself to the need to be proactive and get them all fixed now while I still have the financial means and modern dental care is still widely available. So there will be a lot more $1500 charges in my immediate future. Nevertheless, for me it’s money well spent.