“August 27, 2022,” Heather Cox Richardson, (substack.com) In a speech Thursday night, President Joe Biden called out today’s MAGA Republicans for threatening “our personal rights and economic security…. They’re a threat to our very democracy.” When he referred to them as “semi-fascists,” he drew headlines, some of them disapproving.A spokesperson for the Republican National Committee called the comment “despicable,” although Republicans have...
Read More »Student Loans
America is the land of equal opportunity. Well, yeah, truth be, your odds are little bit better if your parents can afford to send you to a good university. Other that, it’s even stephen. What if those who weren’t born to means could borrow the money? That would almost be as good, no.? Before 1965, if they went to their friendly banker, he asked them if they or their family had an account at the bank. If the answer was that their parents did have...
Read More »Means Testing
First warnings — as usual I am writing on a topic discussed by many experts and I am not an expert. It is very often debated whether social welfare programs should be means tested (available only to people with low income or to people with low income and low wealth). An alternative is universal programs which are provided also to high income people (Medicare, Social Security old age and survivor pensions, K-12 public school, police protection, fire...
Read More »PPP Loans forgiven and Students holding Loans can pound sand
All the delays in getting to this point. I certainly was not fooled. Biden has an extensive history of believing students will renege on their loans, when there was no evidence to support his contention early-on. By early, let go back to 1978 (link is provided). I have added other Angry Bear links to build a foundation for my words. Amateur Socialist brought up a point at Naked Capitalism, which makes sense: Reading through the comments I’m...
Read More »Coronavirus dashboard for August 24: the post BA.5 wave respite
Coronavirus dashboard for August 24: the post BA.5 wave respite In general, things are headed in the right direction for now in the pandemic. BIobot’s latest wastewater update from one week ago shows a 1/3rd decline in COVID particles nationwide. Here’s the regional breakdown: The West, spearheaded by CA, is down 50%, and the South 33%. The Midwest is down the least, perhaps due to the larger % of BA.4.6 in that area. Speaking of which,...
Read More »At Hand
In each of the coming years, we will see more floods destroy billions upon billions of dollars worth of property, crops, and infrastructure, and take hundreds of lives; more frequent, more deadly, tornadoes and hurricanes that will do the same; an increasing lack of water for crops cause food shortages and higher food prices, which will lead to more people going hungry, starving. Before long, in America, we will begin to see the lack of water cause...
Read More »What News was in My In-Box
Kind of a mixed bag on articles this week. Quite a few articles on what I would call general interest, kind of interesting stories. An abused elephant tears his owner into two pieces. An article about a pod of penguins(?) save a swimmer from a shark? It is worth a read just to find out the author meant dolphins (which is in the text). Sad Good Byes Judith Durham obituary | Pop and rock | The Guardian, Garth Cartwright, As you age, you begin to...
Read More »Night time temperatures impacting rice yields
Doherty Labs out of North Carolina State University offers some insights: Research that addresses rice yield losses is important because rice is an essential crop for feeding hundreds of millions of people each year – and because a changing climate poses challenges for global food security. “Warmer nights throw the rice plant’s internal clock out of whack,” says Colleen Doherty, an associate professor of biochemistry at North Carolina State...
Read More »“Letter to an American,” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
This is a 100% copy and paste as taken from Steve Schmidt’s Substack “The Warning. “Friday reflections: ‘Letter to an American'” (substack.com) I thought you might enjoy a good read. Certain versions I have access to which I am allowed to share. ~~~~~~~~ I read this letter for the first time in the museum behind Utah Beach. Sometimes it helps to see the present by looking back. Americans should have extraordinary gratitude for the...
Read More »GAO: Government Losses on Federal Student Loan Programs?
As you “should” know by now, Alan Collinge is an activist and has organized the Student Loan Justice Org a number of years ago. The Organization attempts to represent those student loan borrowers who have no recourse for forgiveness or bankruptcy as every other person in the nation has when taking out a loan? Alan and his thousands of followers having gathered well over 1 million signatures on a petition seeking relief from these loans. The...
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