The Unalloyed Evil Of The Welfare State.

Everyone is aware of the radical change in America's attitude toward public assistance and government action in supposed defense of the welfare of Americans.

The vast array of government programs presented to any citizen who is not perfectly comfortable is mind numbing. They claim to provide everything! Housing, food, cell phones (!), internet access, medical care, child care, help with utility bills, transportation, discounts on taxes, higher education, and on and on. Whether those innumerable government programs actually provide those pie-in-the-sky promises is a different question, but we all know that if they do, it comes at an obscene and inefficient cost. And it is becoming increasingly obvious that the many billions of dollars spent each year are often stolen!

They programs are shoved at us every day, from signs at the market touting EBT benefits, to signs on highways with government phone numbers to call for aid, to emergency room medical coordinators frantic to find a government program to pay their exorbitant bills.

The list of who to blame is long, but the heavy hitters are FDR, LBJ, Nixon (Yup!), Obama, and Biden. They conspired to make the default attitude of Americans that of a supplicant, rather than a citizen with rights and responsibilities.

And it worked!

What the Welfare State Unleashed

Indeed, one of the striking features of early America is not that assistance was unavailable, but that many people who qualified for relief were reluctant to seek it. Contemporary accounts from several states—including New Jersey—describe respectable men and women enduring extraordinary hardship before accepting public charity. To modern ears, such reluctance may seem irrational. To them, it was a matter of preserving self-respect.
That moral instinct—that accepting public assistance should be exceptional rather than ordinary—formed an essential part of the American understanding of citizenship until the 20th century.
The first cracks in that understanding appeared during the Progressive Era and deepened during the New Deal. Faced with industrialization, urban poverty, and the Great Depression, Americans increasingly looked to government to perform functions that earlier generations had entrusted to institutions outside of the government. Much of that expansion responded to genuine crises, and programs such as Social Security reflected the extraordinary circumstances of their time.
Even so, the nation’s underlying philosophy was beginning to change. Government was no longer viewed simply as a safety net for those unable to care for themselves; it increasingly became expected to solve all social and economic problems. The shift was gradual and often justified by necessity. But it subtly weakened the older assumption that public assistance should remain exceptional, temporary, and closely tied to preserving personal independence.

Nothing here is surprising...it is the long and sordid story of our creeping socialism.

But another consequence of this plunge into the welfare state and the welfare psyche is that even people who have no need for government assistance in its many forms have been tarnished by it.

We see destitute people overwhelming our cities, and we recoil. We turn away from those in need. And that is a rational response to people who have lost their sense of morality and shame and pride and self-respect. We have come to expect that the government will take care of it, even though we know that government is incapable of that task, and we have the data to prove it! But government has placed obstacles in the way of regular Americans to help their less-well-off neighbors. Churches must jump through hoops to provide a hungry man a hot meal. Charitable organizations are buried under oceans of paperwork and, sadly, some have become vehicles for the self-aggrandizement of their sponsors. Just look at the Clinton's "charity" for evidence of that.

Have we lost all sense of goodness and charity? No, of course not. We are still the most generous people on earth, but the taint of government has injured even that!

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Good afternoon everyone

Posted by: Skip at August 02, 2026 12:01 PM (Ia/+0)

2 Nooded.

Posted by: Nazdar at August 02, 2026 12:01 PM (NcvvS)

3 The New Deal put Americans into wanting the Dole, your welfare was up to the government, they broke it so they had to fix it.

Posted by: Skip at August 02, 2026 12:05 PM (Ia/+0)

4 I never fail a Nood if first

Posted by: Skip at August 02, 2026 12:06 PM (Ia/+0)

5 Every one of those government programs, in spite of what their sponsors claim, is intended primarily to provide employment to otherwise unemployable drones.

Posted by: Nazdar at August 02, 2026 12:06 PM (NcvvS)

6 I saw a survey that said 1/4 people claimed to be disabled.

And as the adage goes, whatever you pay for you get more of.

Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 12:07 PM (sKqQm)

7 >>I never fail a Nood if first

This is true, but I always put up the Nood before trying for the first, and there were no comments here when I nooded.

Posted by: Nazdar at August 02, 2026 12:07 PM (NcvvS)

8 Every one of those government programs, in spite of what their sponsors claim, is intended primarily to provide employment to otherwise unemployable drones.

And create a reliable Democratic voting bloc.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at August 02, 2026 12:08 PM (aD4fx)

9 Hear Hear !!! Feed and care for your own children. You chose to have them.

Posted by: Ben Had at August 02, 2026 12:08 PM (abScH)

10 >>And create a reliable Democratic voting bloc.

Pretty sure that those otherwise unemployable drones are already a reliable Democratic voting bloc.

Posted by: Nazdar at August 02, 2026 12:09 PM (NcvvS)

11 We have so far discovered billions, almost a trillion in fraud.

So we are going to reduce the budgets of those agencies by the amount of fraud- right?

I mean, these politicians are all standing up there glad handing and back slapping each other for their shitty oversight that allowed this in the first place. So now they will embrace a new budget baseline and declare a lot of these programs much more solvent than the dark predictions they use year after year to justify the increase.

No, I’m serious. Stop laughing.

Posted by: That Guy at August 02, 2026 12:09 PM (egaJw)

12 "Perfect socialism grinds off all the projecting corners of the individual until it fits perfectly in its communal niche."

Posted by: Guy still on the last thread at August 02, 2026 12:09 PM (MWfyi)

13 > To them, it was a matter of preserving self-respect.
-----------
This right here... the loss of any and all self-respect. There's whole generations that don't have it.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at August 02, 2026 12:09 PM (2Cry5)

14 One other thing to note in all of this - if you go back 20 or 30 years the argument was about how generous of a welfare state we should have for heritage Americans.

But someone now its become instead a debate about how unfair, racist, and anti-democratic is to not give a generous welfare state to foreigners. Which is...insane.

Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 12:09 PM (sKqQm)

15 Every one of those government programs, in spite of what their sponsors claim, is intended primarily to provide employment to otherwise unemployable drones.

And comfortably so.

If gubmint jobs were mostly sending people out to clean the roads 40/h a week I suspect we'd have a lot fewer people interested in working for Uncle Sugar

Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 12:11 PM (sKqQm)

16 “When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more rapidly than their education . . . the time will come when men are carried away and lose all self- restraint.”—Alexis de Tocqueville

And all the free money, free internet, and free porn are destroying young men (and women) in believing that the "feelings', "desires", and "wants" are all valid.

The DSA and the Democrat Party have no problem in "feeding" these gratifications.

Posted by: r hennigantx at August 02, 2026 12:12 PM (/+uur)

17 Here is another thing is this area that is bothering me...

Every state has a generous EBT benefit now...AND...a hot breakfast/lunch program for school kids.

Well why the hell are we paying the parents of these kids to apparently NOT feed them?

Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 12:12 PM (sKqQm)

18 Its easier to get a person to want something for free and the Marxists knew that.

Posted by: Skip at August 02, 2026 12:14 PM (Ia/+0)

19 We see destitute people overwhelming our cities, and we recoil. We turn away from those in need. And that is a rational response to people who have lost their sense of morality and shame and pride and self-respect.

Those drug zombies you see on every street now? The only reason that can do that is they are getting free food.

Yes yes compassion for the unfortunate but the welfare system is specifically allowing them to do this to themselves so how the hell is that compassion?!?

Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 12:14 PM (sKqQm)

20 6 I saw a survey that said 1/4 people claimed to be disabled.

And as the adage goes, whatever you pay for you get more of.
Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 12:07 PM (sKqQm)

The disabled scam is destroying college education.
How can a professor teach demanding subject when 4 out of 10 students "need" additional time, tutoring, and external support?

Posted by: r hennigantx at August 02, 2026 12:15 PM (/+uur)

21 Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.

Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at August 02, 2026 12:15 PM (8E0Ba)

22 Well why the hell are we paying the parents of these kids to apparently NOT feed them?
Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 12:12 PM (sKqQm)

Parents?

Posted by: Sha'qua'dolicious Tavon Blevins, who my daddy? at August 02, 2026 12:16 PM (PiwSw)

23
I think it, therefore it is.
I feel it, therefore it is.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 02, 2026 12:17 PM (+yTe/)

24 To modern ears, such reluctance may seem irrational. To them, it was a matter of preserving self-respect.

One need only look at how many Americans conduct themselves in public now to know that that attitude is a thing of the past. Self-respect is not based on any actual achievement or behavior, it's assumed and pushed on people by Big Blackboard and others who want nobody to ever feel any shame.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 02, 2026 12:17 PM (Riz8t)

25 "Taint of government".

Posted by: Ewwww... at August 02, 2026 12:17 PM (JM9I6)

26 Where my EBT card at?

Posted by: La'Shondra at August 02, 2026 12:18 PM (2Ez/1)

27 The overriding purpose of government handouts is not charity or kindness. It is to make people dependent on the government. LBJ knew this.

If you are getting thousands of dollars a year in goods and services from the government who are you likely to vote for in the next election, the person giving you increasingly generous benefits or the person threatening to take them away?

Posted by: JackStraw at August 02, 2026 12:19 PM (viF8m)

28 "Where my EBT card at?
Posted by: La'Shondra"

If it was up yo ass youd know.

Posted by: Guy still on the last thread at August 02, 2026 12:19 PM (MWfyi)

29 Why can't I bring my emotional support elephant to class?
I am being denied. Build a bigger door for me.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 02, 2026 12:19 PM (+yTe/)

30 Every one of those government programs, in spite of what their sponsors claim, is intended primarily to provide employment to otherwise unemployable drones.

This was a deliberate policy choice. When Obama decided to spend trillions after the 2008 financial crisis, there was a move to use that money to build major infrastructure projects - a flood barrier to protect New York from hurricanes, for example.

The malignant dwarf Robert Reich and others argued that this would employ too many white construction workers, so they decided to use the money to expand government offices instead.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at August 02, 2026 12:19 PM (aD4fx)

31 It’s actually quite brilliant from a certain perspective. It’s even possible intentions were good, but like so many things, prone to re-purposing by unscrupulous people.

There was absolutely no possibility of importing millions and millions of illegal aliens for decades, absent a parallel system of “welfare” benefits, certainly not without causing open conflict. As it is now they are essentially paying the descendants of slaves to “advocate” for open borders, wage suppression, and loss of job opportunities.

The social planners effectively squelched what would ordinarily be a direct feedback loop, of the negative type or whatever.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 02, 2026 12:20 PM (dLnkr)

32 Good morning Hordemates.

But someone now its become instead a debate about how unfair, racist, and anti-democratic is to not give a generous welfare state to foreigners. Which is...insane.
Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 12:09 PM (sKqQm)

This!
I think Morocco gave the President and the Republicans the midterms, if they play it right. Thousands of military aged men swarming the beaches.
To hell with the foreigners.

Posted by: Diogenes at August 02, 2026 12:21 PM (2WIwB)

33 One third of the population of Oregon is on Medicaid, along with a majority of the children in Oregon.

One third.

The Democrats boast about this.

Think they're voting for Republicans?

Posted by: The ARC of History! at August 02, 2026 12:22 PM (aD4fx)

34 >>If you are getting thousands of dollars a year in goods and services from the government who are you likely to vote for in the next election...
---

Pass this Great Society bill and we'll have 'em voting Democrat for the next 100 years.
_paraphrasing LBJ

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 02, 2026 12:22 PM (+yTe/)

35 The welfare budget was 1.3 trillion last year. The Dept of war budget was 758 billion.

Posted by: Ben Had at August 02, 2026 12:22 PM (abScH)

36 Think they're voting for Republicans?
Posted by: The ARC of History! at August 02, 2026 12:22 PM (aD4fx

ARC,
Got a source for that? I'd like to use it.

Posted by: Diogenes at August 02, 2026 12:23 PM (2WIwB)

37 list of who to blame is long, but the heavy hitters are FDR, LBJ, Nixon (Yup!), Obama, and Biden.

—

GWB is to blame indirectly. He got millions of people off the tax rolls completely. If they ly no tax they’ll vote more “free” shit form themselves.

Posted by: Strategery at August 02, 2026 12:23 PM (uDDWT)

38 > Every state has a generous EBT benefit now...AND...a hot breakfast/lunch program for school kids.
----------
Around here the "qualifications" for free breakfast and/or lunch have been revised... downward. Many families do not qualify anymore, due to income. And the reduction in government funds for the program further limits who can take advantage of it.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at August 02, 2026 12:24 PM (2Cry5)

39 Paying off labor unions was also an obvious tack.

I saw an interview with Richard Trumka, who was asked about the effect of illegal alien labor on jobs and wages. He had no problem with it. Now that is really astonishing.

They’ve been paying everybody to look the other way for 50 years. Now of course none of the open air insane asylum nonsense we’ve all been subject to would be possible without a phony baloney confetti-buck currency untethered to sane fiscal policies. There isn’t enough wealth in the world to pay for this kind of insanity.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 02, 2026 12:24 PM (dLnkr)

40 We are to blame because we let it happen.

Posted by: Ben Had at August 02, 2026 12:25 PM (abScH)

41 I been pissed off ever since they went to direct deposit for all my gummint benefits. It was fun to cuss out the mailman when my check was late.

Posted by: Shiftless Sam at August 02, 2026 12:25 PM (JM9I6)

42 Major cuts are coming to the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s free healthcare program covering 1.4 million children and low-income adults. But the group of experts Gov. Tina Kotek charged with minimizing the harm of those cuts has given her no definitive recommendations.

Oregon has 4.3 million people.

The cuts will hit Oregon harder than most states in part because Oregon has expanded government-funded coverage to so many people.

Kotek and other Democrats have long used Medicaid as a tool to push toward universal health coverage, expanding the program to single adults and adding coverage for undocumented immigrants who meet the program’s income threshold. One in three Oregonians and more than half of children in the state now have healthcare through the program.

https://tinyurl.com/bdz747tf

Posted by: The ARC of History! at August 02, 2026 12:28 PM (aD4fx)

43 The New York City Correction Department has awarded a contract to teach persons in custody at Rikers Island and other municipal jails how to “vertical” farm in an urban setting.

Posted by: That should fix the problem at August 02, 2026 12:28 PM (MWfyi)

44 Welfare reform, which was an actual accomplishment of the Gingrich-era GOP House (passed over the idiot Clinton's opposition), was a striking development. Mid-90s. It was working, clearly and dramatically. Rolls and dependence were declining.

Then the country showed how absurd and unserious it wanted to be by electing the non-entity Obama (over the loathsome, stupid McCain - but these qualities were/are still not generally attributed to McCain nor were big factors in his defeat).

And with the stroke of a pen - not on legislation, just policy - poof, welfare reform was stopped, gutted, rendered irrelevant. Did anyone even notice? Without a press, and with a mostly useless inert GOP, an actual concrete attempt to reverse all the pernicious things discussed in this thread was undone.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 02, 2026 12:28 PM (U/Byj)

45 "A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."
~ G. B. Shaw

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 02, 2026 12:28 PM (2Ez/1)

46 OT: About 5,000 Hamasniks participated in the October 7th pogrom.

About half have been killed thus far, and the other half are really, really sorry that they videoed themselves committing atrocities with their faces uncovered.

It didn't occur to them that Israel would create a special unit to hunt each and every one of them down.

Sucks to be you.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at August 02, 2026 12:29 PM (aD4fx)

47 Plenty of folks in my yout' here in Smallville, Oklahoma, still regarded being on welfare as embarrassing, if not shameful. The elders who seemed to be from an ancient age.

CBD mentioned churches jumping through hoops. Private charity being hampered by government welfare is just typical of the market distortion of government intervening where it need not. Next thing you know, you'll have government-run grocery stores driving private stores out of business. Oh, wait…

And it's not just welfare, but also perversions of law: It's not just that mental hospitals are now few and legally limited, it's that there are now "rights" to do fentanyl and camp out in parks and sleep in a business's doorway.

Et too many cetera.

Posted by: mindful webworker - and government telling us how to set the clocks at August 02, 2026 12:29 PM (0poB+)

48 It was fun to cuss out the mailman when my check was late.
——-

They were probably less likely to get shot, for the most part, prior to direct deposit. “Where’s my Benefits!?” meant you still had to have someone willing to low crawl through the hood.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 02, 2026 12:30 PM (dLnkr)

49 If the gummint don't pay for my Circus Peanuts and Grap Soda, how I'm gonna pay for my weaves and nails?

Posted by: Not To Mention Caterpillar Eyelashes. at August 02, 2026 12:30 PM (JM9I6)

50 While maybe technically true … Nobody “let” this happen per se.

They are much more sneaky than that. How would you have stopped them, other than stringing them up from lamp posts? Widely considered unpleasant.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 02, 2026 12:33 PM (dLnkr)

51 The school breakfast thing was a shock when I first heard of it. The cultural collapse in terms of self-respect and responsibility has no greater example. Combined with the authoritarian compassion-fascist mindset - itself weaponized by the enormous % of the populace that's driven by imbecilic moral narcissism - you get what we have today. Which in many real ways is an unrecognizable shell of a society that existed just 1 generation ago.

Posted by: rhomboid at August 02, 2026 12:33 PM (U/Byj)

52 If the gummint don't pay for my Circus Peanuts and Grap Soda, how I'm gonna pay for my weaves and nails?

Or illegal immigrants living on government assistance, while all the money they earn under the table is sent back to their home country.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at August 02, 2026 12:34 PM (aD4fx)

53 Two black men arguing about, essentially, pre LBJ black America and post LBJ. He refers to it as MLK, who was the push of the troubles. 2minutes 24seconds

It starts out as a solid refutation to a Charlie Kirk lie then moves to the meat of black society before and after MLK. And he nails it.

https://tinyurl.com/3vmc7pmh

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 02, 2026 12:34 PM (+yTe/)

54 try to make sandwiches at home to provide to homelses people on the street. Government will land on you with both feet to prevent it.

Posted by: susan harms at August 02, 2026 12:34 PM (Kkd7F)

55 I went to the water park on tony Jekyll Island, GA last week. There were three young ladies there with two-inch long eyelashes. Must be some good glue they are using.

Posted by: Phil Swift at August 02, 2026 12:35 PM (JM9I6)

56 Thx CBD.
Welfare reform was done under Clinton, but right away he and his bureaucrats started putting in and changing regulations which made it easier to get on welfare.

Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 02, 2026 12:35 PM (BFvh9)

57 the gummint don't pay for my Circus Peanuts and Grap Soda, how I'm gonna pay for my weaves and nails?
Posted by: Not To Mention Caterpillar Eyelashes. at

Been fighting the urge to buy circus peanuts for a while now. Probably twenty five years since I've had any, must have bought some for the kids back then.
Thinking ie might give in. At 75, would probably be the last tme I subj myself to that particular oh, no I've eaten one two many rush.

Posted by: From about That Time at August 02, 2026 12:35 PM (sl73Y)

58 School lunches and take home food, school supplies, hair cuts, glasses backpacks and now even shoes along with dr.visits.

Posted by: Ben Had at August 02, 2026 12:36 PM (abScH)

59 "A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."
~ G. B. Shaw

What about us? Don't we get a chance to wet our beaks?

Posted by: Tom, Dick, and Harry at August 02, 2026 12:36 PM (Riz8t)

60 Another part of all this, one argument the left makes is that people can't afford the basic needs of life like healthcare or housing.

Well, ok, why are healthcare and housing so expensive? Illegals, welfare, and government interference.

You can't fix a problem caused by the government interfering by the government interfering more.

Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 12:37 PM (sKqQm)

61 Amazing to me that Trumka hasn't been disappeared like Hoffa 50 years ago.

Posted by: Two End Zones-No Waiting at August 02, 2026 12:39 PM (JM9I6)

62 $39.92 Trillion In Debt.

Posted by: Gimme Gimme Gimme at August 02, 2026 12:39 PM (ftsic)

63 You tube is littered with vids of cops having to go to these section 8 complexes that are filled with the most worthless, entitled, lawless pieces of shit you'll ever see. None of them work, they're living on the dole, they mouth off to the cops, then act surprised when the cops say fuck this and cuff them. The first thing they do is grab their obama phones and start filming while giving the cops shit. The best part is the tax payers pay for this special breed of absolutely useless oxygen thieves.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at August 02, 2026 12:40 PM (S41Gd)

64 Hey I see the left is tackling the important issues of the day. Today I saw one lefty complaining that jars are sexist.

See most men can open them and most women can't. Don't bore me with the physics, if we weren't so sexist we'd have a solution right now!

And the funny part? The comments are women discussing how in fact they can open jars.

Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 12:40 PM (sKqQm)

65 You can't fix a problem caused by the government interfering by the government interfering more.

We will fix the high cost of college by providing Federal student loans!

Posted by: The ARC of History! at August 02, 2026 12:40 PM (aD4fx)

66 Myriad studies and committees and academic symposium over the years were formed to study the habits and character traits, the psychology as it were of successful people. There really is no mystery. These things don’t guarantee a happy, productive life. But without them, there is no chance. None.

Now the problem of course, we know what works, and just as important - what doesn’t, down to the granular level. It’s clear to me at least there is a large political component to engineered failure - a class of dependent, dysfunctional people is Job Security, and dovetails neatly with their philosophy and goals.

They can make serious bank, while destroying the Nation. It is a perverse, ahistorical kind of thing that by definition cannot last. But it has done enormous damage and will continue to do so.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 02, 2026 12:43 PM (dLnkr)

67 @61 Trumka died five years ago , so no need to go Hoffa on him

Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 02, 2026 12:43 PM (BFvh9)

68 50 While maybe technically true … Nobody “let” this happen per se.

They are much more sneaky than that. How would you have stopped them, other than stringing them up from lamp posts? Widely considered unpleasant.

Posted by: Common Tater
---

They slip it in slowly with soft words.

In Ceuta the citizens took after the Moroccans with sticks and chased them out of their neighborhood. How did such bravery come about? Clarity. Suddenly. It wasn't a slow oozing or as happened here, at some far away place ( the south TX and CA borders) then secretly transported at night via airplane and silently disbursed.

No, it was sudden. One day they were in peace the next they were assaulted by thousands. And they reacted.

Our politicians should live in this fear.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 02, 2026 12:44 PM (+yTe/)

69 $39.92 Trillion In Debt

I think this is a number that LIVs just can't get.

Instead every GOP member should discuss how much of each taxpayer's wealth the Democrats stole and put it exactly like that;

Oh, my esteems colleague is upset about Trump sending the Haitians home? Well you stole $300K from each taxpayer to bring them here and put them on welfare you asshole. We should be taking that money out of your personal accounts...and maybe we will.

Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 12:44 PM (sKqQm)

70
If you find yourself pinned by Uncle Sam's taint,

just tap-out and be glad it's not Hillary(!)'s taint you're under.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 02, 2026 12:45 PM (iJfKG)

71 54 try to make sandwiches at home to provide to homelses people on the street. Government will land on you with both feet to prevent it.

Posted by: susan harms
----

Neighboring big city will put you in jail.
Cuts into their federal graft.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 02, 2026 12:45 PM (+yTe/)

72 58 School lunches and take home food, school supplies, hair cuts, glasses backpacks and now even shoes along with dr.visits.

Posted by: Ben Had
-----

Abbott do this?
Heard his is in deep payola with the high tech boys.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 02, 2026 12:47 PM (+yTe/)

73 That Time, go for Virginia peanuts from the Virginia Diner. Far better than Circus Peanuts.

Posted by: Pudinhead at August 02, 2026 12:47 PM (KGj36)

74 It was well known up until the 1980s perhaps, a strong sense of pride of the healthy kind and self worth made accepting welfare a decidedly shameful affair. Nobody wanted to be on the dole.

They definitely made any sort of shame or embarrassment a thing of the past, replaced by a belligerent sense of ignorant entitlement.

Only a Chump is honest, pays taxes, follows the law in modern America. Take whatever you can get, however you can get it. If you don’t, somebody else will.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 02, 2026 12:48 PM (dLnkr)

75 Braenyard, standard practice in Texas schools.

Posted by: Ben Had at August 02, 2026 12:49 PM (abScH)

76 The local news has an article about the walking/biking trail by the river was being extended, without mentioning all the tents and trash and bums down there already keep the regular people away.

Posted by: fd at August 02, 2026 12:49 PM (MWfyi)

77 Earlier today I watched an old interview of Thomas Sowell by Charlie Rose. From 1995 I think… Sowell is a treasure; his thinking is so crystal clear. He describes his evolution from young Marxist to conservative and a significant event along that path was a job as a college intern in the federal department of labor. Sowell thought long and hard about minimum wage and reported to his bosses how the data showed it was eliminating jobs. He thought he’d be praised; instead they recoiled in horror because all their jobs depended on administering the minimum wage. Same as welfare which is probably even more damaging than minimum wage. Government is not there to help anyone; it is only self interested

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at August 02, 2026 12:52 PM (ugElV)

78 Watching Casablanca on TMC. Ilsa is one lying bint.

Posted by: Archer at August 02, 2026 12:52 PM (wvc0i)

79 The dirty little secret is that the real beneficiaries of all this government "help" are the government (and NGO) apparatchiks who administer it.

I don't begrudge helping the truly need but I do begrudge the government parasites who would actually have to work for a living without these "programs" to administer.

Posted by: Chairborne!...Desk From Above! at August 02, 2026 12:56 PM (hwLGC)

80 #63.....Berserker

Yeah, that is about right. To get a job and earn your own way has never entered their minds. It may lead to responsibility.

Posted by: Case at August 02, 2026 12:56 PM (bqIVz)

81 The best part is the tax payers pay for this special breed of absolutely useless oxygen thieves.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division
---

Please watch this

https://tinyurl.com/3vmc7pmh

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 02, 2026 12:57 PM (+yTe/)

82 Wrt to helping the needy I'm also reminded of a brilliant line from comedian Dennis Miller - We don't mind helping the truly needy but we do mind providing a hammock for the lazy.

Posted by: Chairborne!...Desk From Above! at August 02, 2026 12:58 PM (hwLGC)

83 Heir to Rachel Corrie, sort-of, but non-fatal (h/t BlazingCatFur)

https://t.co/WKCbFWG317

Posted by: mindful webworker - fattened not flattened at August 02, 2026 01:00 PM (0poB+)

84 60 Another part of all this, one argument the left makes is that people can't afford the basic needs of life like healthcare or housing.

Well, ok, why are healthcare and housing so expensive? Illegals, welfare, and government interference.

You can't fix a problem caused by the government interfering by the government interfering more.
Posted by: 18-1

and the Brennan Undead change the tune once again and people just wanna dance to it...

Everything MUST be owned by everyone and enjoyed by NONE.
The Will of the People should be Preeminent and in evidence everywhere yet existant in NO ONE.
That SOME must be sacrificed so THEY may live -- and Gov't whose sole influence comes only in one flavor: coercive force, should not be abridged or denied.

If the Agency Heads didn't see this coming they wouldn't be very intelligent would they?
If something happens in politics
-- it was planned that way, to pit Man against other men until we exist no more.

https://tinyurl.com/forWARd-irlTheBRENNANcameo

Posted by: MANFRED the Heat Seeking OBOE at August 02, 2026 01:00 PM (4hyME)

85 The was an early 60's aged woman at the grocery store with what belongings she had. She was waiting for a ride but I guess they never showed up. She was still at the store the next day but she was going around the parking lot putting carts back that the slobs were too lazy to put up. I watched her for a while and she never asked anyone for a hand out. I asked her when she had last eaten and she tried to pass it off. I gave her $50 .

Posted by: Ben Had at August 02, 2026 01:03 PM (abScH)

86 You tube is littered with vids of cops having to go to these section 8 complexes that are filled with the most worthless, entitled, lawless pieces of shit you'll ever see. None of them work, they're living on the dole, they mouth off to the cops, then act surprised when the cops say fuck this and cuff them. The first thing they do is grab their obama phones and start filming while giving the cops shit. The best part is the tax payers pay for this special breed of absolutely useless oxygen thieves.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at August 02, 2026 12:40 PM (S41Gd)

I also recall that at Cabrini Green (a welfare high rise on the South side of Chicago) EMT's and paramedics had to have a police escort to go in and help people there. Because of all the boisterous "yutes on their way to kollidge" making it dangerous for them to go alone.

BTW - Cabrini Green was demolished but it just occured to me that it's been replaced. By Obama's 'Flak-Tower'. Heh.

Posted by: Chairborne!...Desk From Above! at August 02, 2026 01:04 PM (hwLGC)

87
I saw a survey that said 1/4 people claimed to be disabled.
And as the adage goes, whatever you pay for you get more of.
Posted by: 18-1

The Army broke me. Feet, knees, hips, and shoulders are shot. Some days I walk okay, but never more than maybe 3,000 steps before the pain starts. Some days, mostly when it's wet and cold, I need a cane to get around. The VA counts me as 50% disabled, with some digestion and abdominal issues thrown in with a side dose of ptsd and anger management. Some days I regret ever joining the Army, some days I feel like I don't deserve the disability payments. I get good parking, but I won't use it unless it's a bad day.

I think my case makes me look like a damned welfare tick, and it bothers me. It also makes me 100% agree with your comment.

Posted by: BifBewalski - at August 02, 2026 01:04 PM (QVmho)

88 I think the ads (yes, there are ads for welfare here) cater to certain demographics. Some look like something out of the depression era, mostly downtrodden whites.

Then there's the AI generated stuff. Glitzy. Like a movie poster. Also with whites.

Not the demographic I'd have thought, even with the "white trash" that occupies some of the landscape.

Definitely targeted.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at August 02, 2026 01:05 PM (2Cry5)

89 $39.92 Trillion In Debt
-------
I think this is a number that LIVs just can't get.

Because for many/most people, it's literally unfathomable. There is no way to relate it to anything in a person's "lived experience" which as we all know is now the definition of reality. Sort of like covid and the UK grooming gangs, the problem is simply too big to fix so the only coping mechanism is to pretend it doesn't exist.

Posted by: Oddbob at August 02, 2026 01:06 PM (vTZFs)

90 79 The dirty little secret is that the real beneficiaries of all this government "help" are the government (and NGO) apparatchiks who administer it.
---

It the same as what Trump did to improve the economy and bring manufacturing back to America. CUT REGULATION.

The way to get people off welfare is to CUT WELFARE.
Cut spending to agencies. Attrit all employment.
Slowly cut benefits and make them more difficult to obtain.
Beneficiaries will then decide that it's better to get a job.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at August 02, 2026 01:06 PM (+yTe/)

91 Over the years I've lost 60% hearing in my right ear and 40% in my left. This is due, I'm sure, to being around turning turbine aircraft engines while I was in the military in the '80s.

A friend of mine, a lawyer who specializes in obtaining VA disability payments for clients, told me my case would be a slam dunk for VA disability determination with a monthly benefit check.

I have repeatedly refused his offer to take my case to the VA.

Why?

Because I was young and bulletproof (or so I thought) and didn't follow the Navy's insistence that all personal in the vicinity of turning aircraft engines wear hearing protection (either those foam earplugs or Micky Mouse headsets, or both).

Young and bulletproof was actually lazy and an idiot. The government (read taxpayers) should not award me monthly payments for being a dumbass by not protecting my hearing while in service.

Posted by: one hour sober at August 02, 2026 01:06 PM (J4Dwc)

92 A FWP why I use to get TCM then after a switch to Hi-def can't get it

Posted by: Skip at August 02, 2026 01:07 PM (Ia/+0)

93
every GOP member should discuss how much of each taxpayer's wealth the Democrats stole

Posted by: 18-1

================

I always imagine, some GOPer shaking his fist and shouting, "You could have built 956 women's shelters with that much money. You could have made pregnancy and delivery free for every woman in this state with the money that slipped through your fingers!" Enumerate exactly the things California state taxpayers lost. Show an ugly Gavin Newsom barrio and AI it into a beautiful suburb.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at August 02, 2026 01:08 PM (mmrXZ)

94 It was my favorite channel as movies are better than anything else on tv

Posted by: Skip at August 02, 2026 01:08 PM (Ia/+0)

95 I think the ads (yes, there are ads for welfare here) cater to certain demographics. Some look like something out of the depression era, mostly downtrodden whites.

I love the Euro-videos against sexual harrassment/assault that always show a white guy bothering a black/muslim woman.

Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 01:08 PM (sKqQm)

96 Cabrini Green. Robert Taylor homes.

Horrific, but they did keep the atrocities localized or confined to certain locations. The social planners objected to this, naturally. In recent decades they’ve taken to sprinkling the Love far and wide well into formerly safe areas. On purpose. It isn’t “fair” to live somewhere without the risk of being robbed, beaten, raped, murdered, etc. This is how they think.

They can’t fix the problem without rejecting their deeply held fairy tale delusions, so their solution to the big Shit Sandwich is to make damn sure errybody gotta take a bite.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 02, 2026 01:09 PM (dLnkr)

97
Posted by: one hour sober at August 02, 2026 01:06 PM (J4Dwc)

==============

Thank you for your service and your integrity.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at August 02, 2026 01:09 PM (mmrXZ)

98 Money spent on Newsom's high speed train: $15B

Money it cost India to go to the moon recently: $75M

So, if you were just going to piss money away I mean Gavin could have instead had 200 statues of himself on the moon

Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 01:11 PM (sKqQm)

99 On purpose. It isn’t “fair” to live somewhere without the risk of being robbed, beaten, raped, murdered, etc. This is how they think.

As some lefty said it is white supremacy to want to be safe from crime

Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 01:11 PM (sKqQm)

100 Medical disability for hearing loss in the military went away a long time ago. At least that’s what we were told.

They instituted a program of yearly hearing exams, and issuing custom fitted ear plugs, and a campaign of raising awareness and all that good stuff.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 02, 2026 01:12 PM (dLnkr)

101 I love the Euro-videos against sexual harrassment/assault that always show a white guy bothering a black/muslim woman.
Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 01:08 PM (sKqQm)

Reminds me of the Alarm Company ads on TV when I actually watched TV. Some young lass would be heading out of her house and some white dude in a mask! would be skulking in the bushes, ready to rob and rape. He would break her door down, the alarm would sound, and the white devil would flee. Always a white guy in a mask. Made me laugh.

Posted by: ADT Security at August 02, 2026 01:12 PM (ftsic)

102 92 A FWP why I use to get TCM then after a switch to Hi-def can't get it
Posted by: Skip

TCM died when Robert Osborne passed away.

Posted by: Key Grip at August 02, 2026 01:14 PM (JM9I6)

103 As some lefty said it is white supremacy to want to be safe from crime
——

Do they really believe that? They seem to vacillate between this kind of rhetoric, along with “you deserve this”.

They are deeply hateful people, who plot revenge against people who didn’t do anything, supposedly on behalf of people, who’ve never actually been wronged.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 02, 2026 01:16 PM (dLnkr)

104 That $15B didn't all go into Gavin's pocket
Lawyers, specialists interests groups, unions, surveys ann got that money. And laughing all the way to the bank how rasy tje looting was.

Posted by: Skip at August 02, 2026 01:16 PM (Ia/+0)

105 "Where my EBT card at?
Posted by: La'Shondra"

If it was up yo ass youd know.
Posted by: Guy still on the last thread at August 02, 2026 12:19 PM (MWfyi)

Yo, man, tanks. Found it, yo!

Posted by: La'Shondra at August 02, 2026 01:17 PM (hmYU4)

106 Always a white guy in a mask. Made me laugh.
——

You left out the part in the commercial where it was a black guy who would be monitoring the situation on camera, back at the ADT headquarters honeycomb hideout.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 02, 2026 01:18 PM (dLnkr)

107 Do they really believe that? They seem to vacillate between this kind of rhetoric, along with “you deserve this”.

Yes with a caveat. Lefties believe that white people are evil and should be punished, unless, of course they are a white person in which case OTHER white people should be punished but not them because "I am one of the good ones"

Posted by: 18-1 at August 02, 2026 01:20 PM (sKqQm)

108 From the Tech thread:

62 I used to think autotune was an in-studio thing when artists recorded tracks. I didn't realize until I read something recently that many use auto-tune during live performances on stage, as well.
Posted by: one hour sober at August 02, 2026 06:58 AM (J4Dwc)

I think it's only recently that the hardware got powerful enough to run the algorithms in real time, between mic and speaker.

Posted by: SciVo at August 02, 2026 01:21 PM (Sy6m/)

109 >>Medical disability for hearing loss in the military went away a long time ago. At least that’s what we were told.

https://tinyurl.com/bddyamj3

Posted by: one hour sober at August 02, 2026 01:22 PM (J4Dwc)

110 Rain just north of my county, but traveling west to east

Posted by: Skip at August 02, 2026 01:22 PM (Ia/+0)

111 My sister lives in Section 8 housing. Little and I visited her during our recent road trip. That visit provided supreme motivation for my son to never fall to such a pathetic level of existence. Oh, his aunt is perfectly happy in that dark studio apartment with its tiny kitchen and single window. Little couldn't get out of there fast enough.

A thousand sermons from me on the subject of hard work and persistence would not have had the impact of first-hand experience with the consequences of sloth and surrender. Thanks, sis...

Posted by: Joe Kidd at August 02, 2026 01:23 PM (nbLIj)

112 the taint of government

This may be the only instance where prolonged exposure to sunlight is recommended.

Posted by: Josh Brolin at August 02, 2026 01:24 PM (0sNs1)

113
I grimly recall my naivete in 2008 when Obama gave his acceptance speech for the Dem nomination. I was attentively watching for his supporters and testimonials, to see people he had saved from a ghetto life of dependence and ignorance. I waited to see these inspiring stories because I wanted to see how he did it.

Not.

One.

All that action of "community organizing" and "walking them to the bus stop" (assuming he ever did a lick of it) was simply getting them on the dole. Creating dependence on The Man. Not guiding them to a local community college that offered 32 different certification programs for job skills or adult literacy. He did not create Black freedom. He kept them on the plantation.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at August 02, 2026 01:24 PM (mmrXZ)

114 Right, I’ve sort of sussed that out. They have a death wish, but it is more comfortably applied to others. They can’t bear to countenance they might have been completely wrong for years on some point or cherished delusion. So, they are willing to sacrifice others to try and maintain their worldview. Facts, logic, reason, none of this matters. Results don’t matter, in particular. Intentions, however, are everything.

“Your death, before their dishonor”. Anything to try and maintain those fairy tales. It is the result of starting with a faulty premise. Working backwards, they have to suppress anything that doesn’t comport with a bogus conclusion.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 02, 2026 01:25 PM (dLnkr)

115 108 From the Tech thread:

62 I used to think autotune was an in-studio thing when artists recorded tracks. I didn't realize until I read something recently that many use auto-tune during live performances on stage, as well.
Posted by: one hour sober at August 02, 2026 06:58 AM (J4Dwc)

I think it's only recently that the hardware got powerful enough to run the algorithms in real time, between mic and speaker.

****

That is my understanding, as well. The correction from an off-key vocal note is almost instantaneous.

Posted by: one hour sober at August 02, 2026 01:26 PM (J4Dwc)

116 113
I grimly recall my naivete in 2008 when Obama gave his acceptance speech for the Dem nomination. I was attentively watching for his supporters and testimonials, to see people he had saved from a ghetto life of dependence and ignorance. I waited to see these inspiring stories because I wanted to see how he did it.

Not.

One.

All that action of "community organizing" and "walking them to the bus stop" (assuming he ever did a lick of it) was simply getting them on the dole. Creating dependence on The Man. Not guiding them to a local community college that offered 32 different certification programs for job skills or adult literacy. He did not create Black freedom. He kept them on the plantation.
Posted by: Blonde Morticia at August 02, 2026 01:24 PM (mmrXZ)

In all the years that I've known of Obama as a public figure, I've never thought of asking that question. It's like being a community organizer was simply a job to put on his resume for self aggrandizement; nothing more.

Posted by: Darrell Harris at August 02, 2026 01:28 PM (Jys7s)

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