I know this isn’t the issue, and I am fully in favor of expanding social safety nets including food stamps, not reducing them…

That said, I find no conceptual issue with limiting the kinds of items food stamps can be used for to actual food. No one needs soda or candy bars or whatever other processed, practically poisonous crap we eat. We’d all be better off if we didn’t. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to limit tax-dollar funded food assistance programs to actual food items.

If you disagree, tell me why.

The population of the Chicago metro area (excluding the 2 WI and 2 IN counties that get lumped in) accounts for 66% of the population of the state.

The combined population of the Houston, Dallas, and Austin metro areas only account for 58% of the population of the state.

Not only that, most of Chicagoland is blue, but you cannot say the same for Texas cities where most of the outlying suburbs of the metro area are red.

The population of Houston proper, Dallas proper, and Austin proper combined only make up 15% of the population of Texas. But Chicago proper alone makes up over 21% of the population of Illinois. Throw in Aurora and Naperville to make the 3 city comparison a little more fair, and you get almost 26% of the population of IL.

Read the post title and rushed straight to the comments?

And every year states and schools lower the bars for what “x-grade level” is so they can meet minimum performance standards and not lose funding. Which circles back around nicely to the point of the OP.

That’s not a Trump original. I’m sure it’s been said before that, but it’s a line from The West Wing. The president’s chief of staff makes the comment “To sweep all fifty states, the president would only need to do two things: blow the Sultan’s brains out in Times Square, then walk across the street to Nathan’s and buy a hot dog.”

A good point. Though I was surprised to read this particular dissident only got 5 years in prison and exile from Beijing.

Yes, it won’t work. But tobacco use in the Maldives has apparently not followed the trend of the rest of the world since the 50s. From the article:

Smoking is especially prevalent among young people, with nearly half of those ages 13 to 15 consuming some form of tobacco.

Half is insane.

That unicorn looks like a constipated greyhound dog trying to shit.

The “holes in fingertips” you snuck into the middle of all of the other quirks easily explained by insect-related trauma really baffles me. Is this like a persistent, intermittent, idiopathic wound? Or a physical abnormality?

Clement Freud said “You don’t live longer, it only seems longer.”

A more succinct explanation is that they are just an asshole.

That sounds like an issue with your computer rather than W11. I just used Etcher on my W11 desktop to flash Mint XFCE yesterday with no issues.

First the trans people come for my energy, then they come for my trains? When will the madness end? Won’t someone think of the children!

That example proves the first users point. The answer to the German question is that they spend a great deal of money on having an excellent education system, and spend a lot of time educating their youth with an honest, unflinching look at the history of Nazism and fascism.

I’m not even saying don’t throw people in jail, I’m simply saying it is pure idiocy to believe that will do anything at all to help the underlying problem.

Their point is that not only does jailing them not deprogram them or prevent them from spreading their rhetoric, it is more likely to have the opposite effect.

Are you Lynyrd Skynyrd?

vk6flab Bush

This meme sucks.

He was a brave Italian avenger and in this Lemmy instance, Luigi Mangione is a hero. End of story!

This letter isn’t actually directed to Mark, it’s an ad.