EBT System Down - Shutdown Propaganda or SHTF?

Brandon Turbeville & Heather Callaghan
Activist Post
October 12, 2013

Early on Saturday morning, EBT customers all across the United States began experiencing issues with their EBT cards, the card which allows them to access their SNAP benefits (aka Food Stamps) with the system refusing to process the transactions. The technical issues were first being reported by shoppers through word of mouth but soon hit the national press with confirmation of transaction failure in as many states as Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Maine and Ohio.

Officially, at the time of the writing of this article, the explanation (although government officials could not be reached for comment) is that a power outage at the Xerox facility, which processes the cards and their transactions, caused the system to go down. However, other reports suggest that a computer system upgrade was the culprit.

Despite the contradictory explanations for the failure of the EBT system, it should be noted that SNAP benefits and their distribution were not affected as a part of the government shutdown, although many individuals who are slightly less informed as to the recent government controversy may assume that they were. Indeed, SNAP benefits are being considered for cuts with the discussion of the raising of the debt ceiling and related Congressional legislation but NOT the Government shutdown.

With this in mind, one would be justified in wondering whether or not the current “glitch” in the EBT card transaction program is really a system malfunction or whether or not it is a cleverly timed propaganda move designed to dramatize the government shutdown and support the implementation of a Grand Bargain consisting of both austerity measures and the full implementation of Obamacare – in other words, the economic worst of both worlds.

Keep in mind, both Xerox (with 14.59 million shares of its stock owned by Goldman Sachs) and J.P. Morgan are the main administrators of the EBT program, with Wall Street (banks and corporations included) standing to gain from such a Grand Bargain where millions of customers are forced into an oppressive system of health care rationing and where social safety net benefits are slashed for the aggrandizement and further enrichment of international bankers.

While most Americans may assume that SNAP has been included in the results of the government shutdown, it is unfortunately all too easy to use the sudden “glitch” to propagandize many Americans into a panic or false conclusion and thus lead them to the inevitable Grand Bargain solution.

Unfortunately, observers from both sides of the aisle and even in the alternative media have bought into the false narrative that a government shutdown is the same as a government default, allowing a massive ignorance to serve as an exploitable weakness.

Regardless of whether or not the EBT system “glitch” is truly an accident or whether it was a carefully orchestrated propaganda ploy, it is vital that Americans not react in an uninformed panicked fashion. After all, details are still only emerging.

Still, one may also justifiably wonder whether or not this “mistake” is a warning or the sign of something more ominous.

Read other articles by Brandon Turbeville here.

Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor's Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius -- The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, and The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria. Turbeville has published over 275 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville's podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV.  He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com. 

Heather Callaghan is a natural health blogger and food freedom activist. You can see her work at NaturalBlaze.com and ActivistPost.com. Like at Facebook.

Read Other Articles by Heather Callaghan