Let Them Eat Trump Steaks - By Paul Krugman at the NY Times

[applegrove]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/opinion/trump-food-stamps-agriculture.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fpaul-krugman&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection

"SNIP..........


And yes, this means that some of the biggest victims of Trump’s obsession with cutting “welfare” will be the very people who put him in office.

Consider Owsley County, Ky., at the epicenter of Appalachia’s regional crisis. More than half the county’s population receives food stamps; 84 percent of its voters supported Trump in 2016. Did they know what they were voting for?

In the end, I don’t believe there’s any policy justification for the attack on food stamps: It’s not about the incentives, and it’s not about the money. And even the racial animus that traditionally underlies attacks on U.S. social programs has receded partially into the background.

No, this is about petty cruelty turned into a principle of government. It’s about privileged people who look at the less fortunate and don’t think, “There but for the grace of God go I”; they just see a bunch of losers. They don’t want to help the less fortunate; in fact, they get angry at the very idea of public aid that makes those losers a bit less miserable.

And these are the people now running America.

...........SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. I believe it is about more than contempt. It is about gumming up the lower ranks with

Last edited Fri May 11, 2018, 09:04 PM - Edit history (1)

people who will be hapless and incapable of making it into the top 20% of the income braket. It is about creating a permanent overclass. In places like Pakistan and Italy, bribes do the gumming up work. But bribery is illegal in the US. So instead they tank social programs that get people up a rung or two on the ladder. How else to explain the cost of college loans going up. Corruption by another name.

[kimbutgar]

2. An Italian man in Venice told me Italy is so corrupt because any projects to help the country are

Slow because the mafia has its hand in everything. You have to a bribe a mafia member to even build a shack. This is going to accelerate even more in the US under twitler.

[applegrove]

5. They are gumming up the system by using policy. End snap and support

for college, fewer educated people for the sons and daughters of the rich GOP to compete with. The ladder is pulled up. The effect is the same. Impossible for anyone to get ahead if they start out not at the top.

[erronis]

9. And the upper ranks with people that want to dismantle all these programs.

It's an incredible sleight of hand where they told the poor fools that they were going to "take care of them", and they end up taking care of them by killing them off.

[PatrickforO]

3. You're right. There is no policy justification at all for attacks on food stamps.

We already have about 25 million Americans that go hungry at some point during every month.

How can people be so wrought up in their ideology that they do not see suffering? The bottom line is that Republican policies, particularly these radical libertarian ones, CAUSE PEOPLE TO SUFFER AND DIE.

There is just no excuse for this level of immorality in a nation this rich. And, yeah, I AM talking about redistributing wealth, beginning with repeal of the giant tax cut for billionaires, cuts to military spending and a healthy tax increase so we can actually PAY for programs we need, depend upon and that make our lives better.

[lame54]

4. They'll still vote for him

[Girard442]

6. The key here is that the natural adversary of the very rich is the middle class.

The poor are too desperate and struggling to think beyond getting through the day. The rich needed the middle class into the eighties as a bulwark against Communism, but in the sixties it became clear to them that a burgeoning and affluent middle class was a threat and when Communism collapsed in the Reagan years, it was time for the middle class to go, and going it has been, ever since.

The model is Haiti -- a tiny handful of oligarchs ruling over a populace too ground down to revolt.

[erronis]

10. You're right. The biggest threat to the monarchies in Europe were the bourgeoisie.

Give them enough free time and money and they will be dangerous.

[yonder]

12. +1. nt

[CrispyQ]

7. 21st Century Feudalism - that's the goal.

Our government has been hijacked by those who believe it should serve them, not everyone. If the dems don't gain control of at least on chamber of Congress in November we could lose our country.

[ProfessorPlum]

8. Sadopopulism

see https://www.salon.com/2018/05/09/timothy-snyder-on-trumps-campaign-against-democracy-he-is-deliberately-hurting-white-people/

[Sam McGee]

11. Owsley County, KY

According to the 2010 census reports, Owsley County:
-- has the second highest level of child poverty of any county in the United States
-- the county is the poorest in the nation
-- between 1980 and 2014, the rate of death from cancer in the county increased by 45.6 percent, the largest such increase of any county in the United States

The racial makeup of the county was 98.7% white in 2010.

The median income for a household in the county was $15,805, which is the third lowest in the nation and the lowest among counties with a non-Hispanic white majority population.

In 2016, government benefits accounted for 53.07% of personal income.

The county votes overwhelmingly Republican -- 2000 - 80%; 2004 - 78%; 2008 - 76%; 2012 - 81%; 2016 - 84%.

The county has been steadily losing population since the 2010 census at the rate of approx 6-7% per year.

Will they stop voting Republican? NO.
If the presidential election were held tomorrow, Trump would get 85% of the vote or more.

This place is proof of Lyndon Johnson's comment:
" If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you. "

[RandomAccess]

13. Got a meme for this

[applegrove]

14. +1000

[yonder]

15. excellent thread and comments, all around. easy rec.

spot effin on.