this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
391 points (99.5% liked)

politics

21589 readers
4156 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
all 42 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Griff@lemm.ee 3 points 8 hours ago

These kids need to go into debt and buy their food from Cargill as God intended.

[–] j0ester@lemmy.world 15 points 16 hours ago

Donald: some of you may die. But that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

[–] wanderwisley@lemm.ee 10 points 15 hours ago

Oh good please give all the food to the starving billionaires.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 11 points 17 hours ago

Those kids need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps!

Also, anyone else remember when Michelle Obama was being accused of all kinds of things when she was suggesting kids eat healthy meals and exercise?

[–] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 117 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Ah. Just like Jesus would do.

Well played Evangelists.

[–] b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 9 hours ago

Loaves & Fishes Inc.

[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 36 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Easiest way to figure out what modern day "Christians" would do is to ask what Jesus would do, then go with the opposite.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

Ask what the devil would do, then do that!

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 36 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Trans people exist.

GOP: We need to save the children from woke brainwashing!

Children go hungry during school.

GOP: Have you tried getting a job you little freeloaders?

[–] Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world 64 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I usually don't like tooting my own horn, but I'm speaking as someone with 18 years of experience in the financial aspects of school food service. I was one of those middle-management bean counters working for large districts around the Northeast.

This will absolutely wreck school food service in many schools. Even before Trump ever set foot in the White House, school food service was often the red-headed stepchild of many school districts that operated on shoestring budgets and were almost always the first to get cuts whenever the school district needed to tighten its belt. These food aid programs in many districts were the only things keeping these programs anything resembling solvent in the first place. I cannot emphasize enough how reliant that our NSLP programs are on this funding.

At least right now, schools are still required to continue serving lunch under federal law. Of course, I'm sure that this will be rectified once Trump realizes that the NSLP exists and decides to cut that too because the program is using food grown in Canada to feed gay kids or something. What this is going to lead to is that NSLP programs are going to be cut to federally required minimums. And without these grants to pay for it, other school services will have to be cut. Teachers will have to be laid off. Other programs will have to be cut in order to pay for school food service. All of this and students will end up receiving less nutritious meals than they received before anyway. Again, that's until Trump realizes the program even exists and just shuts it down entirely.

You know how we occasionally see those articles about students carrying huge lunch debts at school? Think that, except worse. And everywhere.

[–] cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 37 points 1 day ago (6 children)

"Huge lunch debts"??? WTF is this even? How does the US even function?

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 20 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, like this. This is pretty much where our "prosperity" comes from. We require everyone to be responsible for even the most basic of needs and in return we get to have crazy profit margins that disproportionately benefit the people that would still be embarrassingly rich if they paid for every kid to get a free school lunch.

[–] Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

We require everyone to be responsible for even the most basic of needs and in return we get to have crazy profit margins that disproportionately benefit the people that would still be embarrassingly rich if they paid for every kid to get a free school lunch.

I just want to clarify something for the record. Again, speaking as a person with 18 years of direct experience on this exact subject. It was literally my job to ensure that the districts I worked for received the maximum in grants and those grants were applied to maximum benefit for students.

The profit margins on school food service is borderline nonexistent. Not even pennies on the dollar. When I left the company I worked for last year, average costs per meal hovered around $2.50 to $3 per meal. The breakfast program as a whole has been a huge financial money pit for at least the past 15 years or so and is almost entirely subsidized by money generated from the lunch program. Overall, my company was making about 3-5 cents per meal by the time the dust settled. You're talking about profit margins of well under 1%. School districts have to put out an RFP usually every 3-5 years depending on local laws, and I have seen districts either receive single bids or no bids at all because there's almost no money to be made, particularly in smaller districts. I've seen companies pull out of districts mid-year because their projections were nowhere near reality, leaving districts scrambling to find new management companies.

Nobody is getting rich off of school food service. At least, not at the public school level. (Universities, hospitals, and even some private schools are a different story. I'm talking strictly about public schools.). The NSLP program has been severely under-funded for years. As a prime example, Michell Obama's Healthy meals act that was passed during Obama's presidency increased the average costs per meal in my area by about 14 cents per meal at the time, but compliance with the act only netted six cents in increased reimbursements. Doesn't sound like a lot, but if your district is serving 10,000 meals per day for 180 days a year, that 8 cent difference comes out to $144,000 that the district has to cover just to remain in compliance. School lunch programs are often the first to receive cuts whenever possible because school districts consider lunch a low priority. Many districts would do away with it entirely if they were legally allowed to. And federal reimbursements for free and reduced students are several years behind the times.

I could go on and on and on, but I'm sure you get the idea. Nobody's making money. If anyone has questions, I'd be more than happy to answer, but I just want to make sure everybody understands this.

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Nobody is getting rich off of school food service.

Thanks for your insight but I wasn't implying food service is profitable. I was trying to say money gets diverted elsewhere because it's so limited in its profit. American dollars chase profit above all else, even to the detriment of society as a whole.

[–] Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

I don't disagree.

I just felt I had to say that because I've had the argument with numerous people numerous times over the years, and there's a belief that the school food service companies that are out there are making money hand over fist off of school lunches. There's plenty of problems with school food service, but I can tell you that that is absolutely not one of them.

[–] turtle@lemm.ee 4 points 17 hours ago

You have no idea. The US is a complete capitalist dystopia. I finally realized this several months ago when I read news stories about "vanlords" renting broken down vans parked on the streets for people to live in, for hundreds of dollars a month.

[–] gothic_lemons@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

It's so refreshing to see non Americans react the way we Americans should. Feeding children, just one meal a day, is too big of an ask for too many Americans and "Christian" posers. There is even the added selling point, kids learn better when they aren't fucking hungry. Don't we want our kids smart or at least be able to learn? American is a shameful cruel place

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

How does the US even function?

Mostly by strip mining the rest of the planet for profit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_therapy_(economics)

Usually Economic Shock Treatment was doled out by countries like the USA via their clandestine operations of the CIA with the intent to subjugate potential trade partners and force absurdly good deals for the USA. This kind of tomfoolery is part of what has allowed the US to retain such economic dominance without having to deeply improve conditions internally, because we just steal the wealth of the rest of the world while never actually fixing our own shitshow of a government.

Only recently has it become the norm for nations to self-impose this insanity on themselves, like Javier Milei in Argentina or Donald Trump in the USA... Doing it yourself... doesn't work very well...

[–] Einstein@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf 1 points 8 hours ago

And bootstraps!

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

The US functions?

[–] Nursery2787@lemmy.ml 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

I'm sure that this will be rectified once Trump realizes that the NSLP exists and decides to cut that too because the program is using food grown in Canada to feed gay kids

Trump: And people are saying, many people, they’re saying that Canada was inserting food into the schools, and come to find out that the kids started turning gay, beautiful healthy kids, and the liberal radical school teachers weren’t warning the kids parents that their innocent children were confused, girls little girls wanting to chop off their breasts, it’s horrible, horrible I tell you. Canada is sending fentanyl into our country, they’re overdosing pesticides in their foods and giving it away to our schools. We’re going to make American farms great again, and my Executive Order requires all public state run schools to purchase solely fresh pesticide free organic food, fresh not that frozen crap, for our school kids!

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

To add to your comment, coming from the Northwest, food service in schools struggles so hard that they sometimes accidentally create cultural icons. "Cheese Zombies" and tomato soup were a staple of my childhood, and many in Washington are familiar with them, because they became extremely popular with children. Many in California are familiar with a similar recipe of the same name. They both came from schools trying to work within the constraints of the food they had available to them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_zombie

One type of cheese zombie was invented in Yakima, Washington, by employees of the Grandview School District in the early 1960s. The employees were under the direction of Dorothy L. Finch, the lunch program supervisor. Finch and her employees invented the cheese zombie while trying to come up with ways to use surplus Velveeta cheese. The Yakima cheese zombie consists of a layer of cheese baked between two layers of bread dough and then sliced into squares, giving them the appearance of sandwiches. The cheese zombie was so named because one of the cooks said the first batch looked like a zombie.

A similar dish with the same name was also invented in California around the same time by cooks at a California high school.

A second type of cheese zombie was invented in Concord, California, in 1963 by Decla Phillips and Helen Ballock, bakers employed at Mount Diablo High School. The Concord cheese zombie was also created by layering cheese, in this case American cheese, between two layers of bread dough. A key difference between the Concord and Yakima cheese zombies is that the Concord version is cut into circles and crimped with a special tool before baking, which helps to contain the cheese within the bun. The pair were possibly inspired by Ballock's husband's recipe for Pirozhki.

Also, thank you for your service to children by working hard to make the budgets work for food services in schools.

[–] Lenny@lemmy.zip 13 points 19 hours ago

Can’t let the kids have nutritious meals! Next thing you know they’ll grow healthy brains and might end up thinking for themselves instead of being slaves to their masters! Nope, nope, can’t have that.

[–] Gigameister@lemmy.world 37 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

MAGA will say this was an example of government "waste and corruption".

"Thank Obama"

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Fucking Obama, I wish he wasn't still our President. Gosh did you see what he and Biden just did to the stock market with their outrageous tariffs.

[–] venotic@kbin.melroy.org 13 points 1 day ago

This is what, 5th term? The nerve of that guy.

[–] Gigameister@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

hey my guy...

you dropped this /s

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 day ago

I took a gamble omitting it but I think the sarcasm was pretty evident.

[–] jared@mander.xyz 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've been using italics when I'm being a smart ass

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 21 hours ago

Hey, better to be a smartass than a dumbass 🤷

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

Why, you couldn't figure out Obama isn't still the president?

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How long will we let this factual supervillain trounce our lives and lives all over the world?

[–] Gigameister@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

  • Lincoln, 1838
[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

He called it.

[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What did people do to get Frankenstein's monster out of that tower in the old movies? It's on it tip of my tongue...

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Ironic considering how the book is about acceptance and how humanity can be found in unlikely places. The real question we should be asking is what happened to Dr Frankenstein? How was he prohibited from creating even more monsters to shun?

I fucking wish he'd freeze it, probably going to rot away in some warehouse as well.

[–] Dragomus@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

"Let them eat plastic straws!"

"Very tasty, very nutritious! High in fiber, especially the paper wrapper. It's the best food!"

[–] ricketyrackets@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

Bigliest. President. Ever.