And Forgive Us Our Debts

 

In another BFD kind of day, President Biden announced the forgiveness of student loan debt up to $10K for borrowers with incomes up to $125,000 ($250,00 if filing jointly) and up to $20K for Pell Grant recipients. This is going to help so many people--

The White House said that 43 million student loan borrowers will benefit and that as many as 20 million borrowers will have their full remaining student loan balances wiped out.

That will be very significant for those households. Due to debt obligations, people have put off on home-ownership, starting their families, and more. Adjustments to the payments owed will also give people whose debt has not thoroughly been retired welcome breathing space. It may not be what they hoped for, but it is a change in the right direction.

Of course, people have to complain. I'm not going to focus on the more left-based criticism that the debt forgiveness should have gone further because I'm in agreement with it--I am a Gen X kid whose working class to middle class family was able to manage my education, and I acknowledge my privilege. My degree was invaluable to me, though, and I encourage people to get a good education because the broader your horizons, the better your damn time here on this earth. I got a BA in English Lit., which is one of the most humanities of the humanities degrees. It means I am proficient in my mother tongue and can discuss works people have been reading for pleasure for a long time. 

TWGB: Ultima Trump

Before I get into the week that was, I want to take a little note of this particular scene from Trump's Bedminster property where some folks spend a fuckton to be a member of. I've seen better carpets in bowling alleys. I know, my grand-dad made carpet for bowling alleys. And that tacky gold and black makes me cringe. I don't know exactly what the cachet of Trump country club life is worth, but then again, I have what Fuzzy Zoeller once pointed out were two real handicaps to a great swing and I prefer unmanicured nature to a giant lawn interrupted by bros trying to put something small into devious holes from a distance. I am not put off exactly by the scenario of hostile, shorted males and small, long-skirted females and the overall aura of "fuck you" radiating from the assembled Bedminsterites, for this is New Jersey. But yes, I am a little bit judging. And their posture knows folks like me exactly would.

Donald J. Coyote--Super Genius

The recent shutdown (the third of Trump's term in office, all three with Republicans in the majority for both houses of Congress) over Trump's desire for a big beautiful wall (or "Steel Slat Barrier", which is aesthetically more attractive, maybe, more politically correct, entirely as racist, and of course, see-through, which is important because Safety! and Transparency!) seems to have a lot to do with whether Trump is seen as weak in the eyes of such brilliants minds as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham. He knows that if he disappoints them, he will never hear the end of it from his base, who largely exist because of the brain-tenderizing skills of people like Limbaugh, Coulter and Ingraham. He could have had some pretty sweet funding for his wall, a shutdown or two ago, if he only agreed to DACA, but his fear of pundit disdain killed that notion. And Dems caved, because they didn't want to be seen as the problem, here.

This difference this time around though, is Trump already took vocal ownership of the shutdown and can't re-gift that son-of-a-bitch for political Pollyanna. And unlike last time, the House of Representatives is going to change parties in literally a matter of days. He might be facing quite a different situation.

One thing is, it's Christmas and he's just told a couple hundred thousand federal workers they need to work through this thing without a paycheck, a few hundred thousand others they don't actually know when they will be working or seeing a paycheck again (and sure, they could, would, should get back pay, but your bills are due when they are due, and that can be a problem for working and middle class people who may be living paycheck to paycheck especially when expenditures have been made to celebrate a holiday). And he's done so over a wall that won't work and appeals to really just his base.

Which would all by itself be a big old "whut?" that leaves us questioning his priorities and whether he gets what government is about at all. But when he also says things that makes us wonder if he knows that the "coyotes" we worry about on the border are not four-footed, then we are at the point where it is hard to parody Trump, because he is just so underprepared to fulfill the requirements of this job, even two years in, that it is hard to find the humor. He says he knows things, but he gets all his information, even after having gained access to the US' top intelligence, from goddamn Fox News. And Lou Dobbs has had brain worms for a very long time.

This could look like a situation to play solely for laughs, if we forgot that thousands of migrant children are held in US custody, and the head of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen can't say how many people have died in DHS custody, even though she should have intuited that this was sort of question she might have been asked in the wake of the death of a seven-year old girl, Jaklin Caal Maquin. The "wall" has become such an item of importance to DHS that they've lost their articles over it, because we needs wall, precious, and filthy libses thwarts us!

I have half a notion that if this wears on, instead of caving, Schumer and Pelosi should actually put DACA back on the table. Just give him the original $1.6 billion he originally rejected because he got his ass reddened by the RW talkers, and make a demand regarding how he even gets that much out of Dems. Because Trump's cards are all on the table. He wants his wall funding and he needs it to make his base happy. (His "art of the deal" is so terribly naked and on display here.)

Dems don't love a shutdown, but it might be really nice to see Trump's "My way or the highway" attitude get greeted with "Eat asphalt".  Because he is by no means a super genius. He's just, sadly, what the Republicans have got, and this is why they are sticking with him. And if what he wants is wall, well wall is just a major fucking concession to unracist our policies away. Let's leverage that shit.

Also wall will still not work and the separation policy is inhumane and Tornillo should be shut down.

I feel like there is a way to get better out of this schmuck. In spite of himself.

Trump is Having an Angry Weekend

CNN's latest reporting about Trump's weekend: He's "watching TV" and "getting riled up by his sons who are encouraging him to go harder on FBI" pic.twitter.com/BlRlHzC2AB

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 18, 2018

I think it's a little bit astonishing that after being relatively satisfied with the Mueller indictments and Deputy AG Rosenstein's press conference, and then a nice photo op with Broward County first responders (since he and Melania were already in the neighborhood) followed with a Studio 54 disco party but, sadly, no golfing!! Trump allowed himself to get all riled up by his two large adult sons and go a-Tweeting in the most disgraceful manner.

This collection is where Trump, annoyed at his press, starts blaming others for shit. He blames Democrats for not passing DACA (they are the minority party in Congress, and he himself actually ended DACA) and not passing gun control (see also--the minority party but they tried). He blamed the FBI for not catching "all the signals sent out" by Nikolas Cruz and blames this on the focus on the Russian meddling the ine 2016 election (specifically, the "collusion") but seems unaware that with 35K employees, the FBI can do numerous things at once, and that there really is no legal way of holding someone on suspicion of being really screwed up and dangerous forever--it isn't a crime to just be screwed up and owning guns. There was little they could actually do there because maybe the laws are kind of lax regarding dangerous people getting guns?  Seriously--using the 17 dead bodies in Florida to fig-leaf the investigation into his campaign ad Russia is damn low.

He also wants General McMaster to go beyond what the indictments or what Rosenstein said and publically waive him from allegations that the election results were impacted or...various conspiracy theory bits of glurge that I term the "Trump trots". If you are familiar with the "gish gallop", the Trump trot is the same thing, only a stickier mess of nonsense delivered by Tweet by a US President.  The Democratic party or the DNC never would have colluded with Russia to...smear Hillary Clinton and install Trump--that's just a fucking stupid thing to allege. There's no sign they did anything at all to boost Hillary Clinton during the election. Also, Uranium One is just really dumb and already debunked an awful lot. The Steele Dossier is not debunked, but holds up. The rest of the tweets that burbles about "Speeches, Emails, and the Podesta Company!" is just sad. Really sad. Throwing spaghetti at the wall.

Donald Trump doesn't seem to get that he is in office right now because these bullshit things got pushed even though they should not have mattered. Trump got paid large money for Wall Street speeches, just like Hillary Clinton. His transition team and his White House staff are using private email trust me. Also his son in law Jared (let me amend this here form) Kushner is not only not supposed to have a security clearance, but is requesting lots of classified info. 

What Trump is saying is bullshit, but he isn't thwarted, because he is apparently quite peevish:

Here we go--he references the dumb "pallets of cash" thing he swears he saw on Fox News which never happened to pretend there is a scandal about the thing where the US refunded Iran money they paid us for weapons they never got. He's just a bit mistaken as to what happened there.

He insults House Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff for a thing he hasn't said. And then he disgracefully lies about his long-held position regarding Russian meddling, which has been that Trump treated it as entirely a hoax. He hasn't admitted their wrongdoing even still, is blaming everyone else in sight, and never has either brought the additional sanctions requested by Congress or suggested any other punishment. In fact, I kind of think being back on his bullshit about why the FBI is supposedly wasting their time with the Trump connection to Russian meddling is, in a very real way--more obstruction, very much along the lines of firing Comey quite obviously for his attention to Trump's Russian connections.

Although I have not ever really figured out when Trump was at his smartest, I can safely say that the experience of angry Trump is fairly dumb. The position of President is stressful enough as it is--but most likely more so for a person woefully uninformed with a staff he either distrusts or which is also incompetent and probably not suitable to be there either.

This sort of thing is very sad and transparently an admission of knowledge of guilt and rank incompetence on his part.

Continuing, Resolutely

Consider me in the "not a cave" camp regarding the vote to end the government shutdown in exchange for six years of CHIP funding. a promise for a DACA debate, and the possibility of another shutdown.  The deal wasn't perfect--of course settling the situation of the Dreamers sooner rather than later would be better as the lives of hundreds of thousands are in the balance.  But Sen. McConnell already gave us a clue that that was not the binary choice Dems (and a handful of Republicans) were actually going to get. In the meanwhile, CHIP remained unfunded, and Sen. McConnell had blocked a bid to keep the military and other federal workers paid. Hostages were piling up.

It should be clear that, just as the party that has neither the majority in the House and Senate nor the Presidency is unlikely to be the main culprit in causing a government shutdown in the first place, that the party that does have those advantages is also responsible for determining what gets voted on. It should be obvious, but there is no counting on the media not to report this as a "both sides" problem. The framing coming from the White House and from Majority Leader McConnell presented the most negative light: Those liberals were ready to support illegal immigrants over American citizens. And sure--that's crap. Kids brought here when they were minors had no control over coming here, and are as American as anybody, except for the paperwork. But given enough time, and without the ability to easily reframe that debate, Dems were facing losing support for the trying to do what not only seems right but is actually popular.

The thing of it is, while DACA is popular, government shutdowns are not. So, I don't see this vote as a "cave" so much as choosing a different time and battlefield. Dems responsibly voted to end the shutdown. And if Mitch McConnell is a man of his word, he will allow a debate on DACA. He said so.

Now, that means an awful lot rides on the good word of Mitch McConnell. Senate colleague Bob Corker was optimistic:

Addressing questions about whether McConnell would stick to his word on DACA, Republican Sen. Bob Corker said, “He’s going to do it. He said he’s going to do it. I’ve never gotten any sense that he’s not going to do it."

Corker added that it would be an “affront” to a larger number of his colleagues if McConnell didn't keep his promise.

 (Wouldn't it just be an affront, now?) But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been luxuriating in his effrontery for some time, now. There was that thing about denying President Obama a hearing on his SCOTUS pick. There was giving assurances to Senator Collins and Senator Flake  for votes over things that did not come to pass. But what McConnell promised just now was public and maybe just a little harder to go back on. And in three weeks, if he was not a man of his word, he deserves to get well and truly dragged for his bullshit.

There's no guarantee that, even if a debate takes place, an acceptable bill will get passed by the House and Senate, what with the Freedom Caucus and all that. Or that a bill gets signed by President Trump, given who his particular base is, and all that. (There were no assurances this time around either, which makes me wonder what people think would have happened this go-around.) Our best option on a good DACA resolution would involve neither a Republican Senate, nor racist-ass Trump in the White House--and that takes elections. But the next time, the debate about immigration can't hide behind insurance coverage for kids. It rests on McConnell having the debate, and the spotlight being on what Republicans do with that debate.  All in an election year.

The Trump Shutdown

It isn't an entire year that Donald Trump has been president, and yet, with Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, the government is now facing a shutdown because, as everyone probably should have known during 2016 but just enough failed to take into account--he hasn't the least clue what he's doing. 

He articulated a lot of promises during the campaign about building a wall that Mexico would pay for (but it most certainly will not) and deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. That sort of thing doesn't seem very in line with the idea of crafting "a bill of love" with respects to DACA recipients, anymore than his basically ending it by executive order did. 

It really doesn't make sense then, that Democrats should be faulted for the GOP deciding to hold both DACA and CHIP beneficiaries hostage in the continuing resolution debate. And yes, this is exactly what they had done, as Mitch McConnell, may his neck skin rise up to swathe his breathing holes, clearly Tweeted:

The intention being to bully the Democrats into picking CHIP kids over DACA, and probably ensuring DACA protection would never happen. I mean, the GOP basically considers DACA to be an amnesty. Trump put DACA on the line. Majority Leader McConnell never did boo about renewing CHIP. If the GOP cared about either, they could have easily ensured their continuation--even without Democratic agreement (although they would have had it). Instead, they held them to lord over Democrats for a continuing resolution that there's no real reason to believe the Democrats would have been against if there hadn't been hostage-taking by the party that happens to be the "government shutdown experts" in the first place. Thus resulting in the first time a government shutdown has occurred with a White House and Congress both in the same party's power.

And of course it's Republicans. Because they can't govern, because they don't seem to know what government is for.

Trump, the populist common guy communicator and all around deal-making sonofabitch, who bragged to all and sundry that he could get shit done, got no shit done. The wall isn't happening, the GOP, trying to pin the failure of the CR on Dems not loving DACA enough just made it clear who really is supporting Dreamers, and in the meanwhile, funding CHIP is now and always has been a thing McConnell could introduce, right?

The GOP owns this, but as with so many things a lot of people have a piece of the ownership of, let's put Trump's name on this one. This is the Trump Shutdown. The Shithole Shutdown. This is his inaugural 1st anniversary present.  He said he alone could fix it--he can't even explain it. 

And tomorrow, there will be marches. Because we resist.

When Things Don't Go His Way--Boom!

After President Trump's self-contradictory immigration meeting with legislators yesterday, the White House plan to end DACA was blocked by a judge. And when you put that together with the up-ending of part of his Dossier complaint by Senator Feinstein's release of the transcript of the Glenn Simpson interview-- why, you get Trump to go Boom! on Twitter again.


It's like Old Faithful in a way. Can't say I'd miss it if he stopped. Also, congratulations on the new nickname, "Sneaky Dianne Feinstein"! You're my kind of nasty woman!

Welcoming 2018 With a Boom!

There is no greater sign that the President is back at work than his having a sustained Twitter rant (of the type I refer to as "going Boom!") that included kind of "negging" the Iranian people for "finally" acting against their government (because he has no idea what's going on there other than what he sees on Fox News, despite being, you know, POTUS), and slagging his predecessor's foreign policy, and also takes the time to mentally convict a top aid(e) of his political rival in the last election while calling his own Justice Department headed by his appointee "Deep State".

Because he's watching Fox and Friends, again, he feels good about the past year's accomplishments, like keeping planes in the sky with the power of (checking notes) strictness. And regulations. He doesn't like regulations, usually. He's back to calling North Korea's leader "Rocket Man" because this is obviously very mature.

Also he is still mad at journalists for not kissing his presumably orange peel-like bottom. And Democrats because they are Democrats.


In other words, 2018 is shaping up to be more of the same, only more so.

God Damn You All to Hell!

It's pretty much what we should have expected: a Republican POTUS and both houses of Congress being Republican--tax cuts were the irresistible force against which pretend moderate Republicans proved no immovable object. So tax cuts, for corporations and rich folks, is what got passed.  It's great news for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who dreamed of screwing with poor people's access to health care benefits and giving tax cuts to the wealthy since he was just a nipper, the passage of the Senate tax bill means he gets to vote on his best favorite thing again. I do believe his release from the first passage of this monstrosity was damn-near sexual. If this is the culmination of his congressional career, I surely wouldn't mind if he did decide to call it a day and retire. 

I know Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell puts this day right up there with employing Constitution-stretching measures to deny Barack Obama his SCOTUS pick, and Merrick Garland his vote. Mitch McConnell does not care about anything but Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell is probably biodegradable, but I would recommend lead lined interment for that toxic SOB when fate finally closes his chapter.  

The failed attempts to repeal the ACA gave us some kind of hope, didn't it, that Republican Senators, at least a few of them, wouldn't pass a giant giveaway to the rich and pass that cost along to future generations in the form of increased federal debt. The dramatic postures of folks like Sen. Corker, Sen, Flake, Sen. Collins and Sen. Murkowski, almost looked like hope that they wouldn't fuck up the economy for sheer partisan fanservice to GOP donors and wealthy motherfuckers. (I am leaving out Sen. McCain because of his condition, but if he was entirely healthy, he'd probably be doing the same damn two-step.)

Corker, of course, was "bribed" as were several other Republican Senators of means (well, they probably would have gone for it anyway) by a provision that benefits real-estate partnerships.  The kind even the President might be familiar with. Does a man who has already announced his retirement from the Senate and already has a net worth of nearly $70 million really need this juice? He's getting it. Senator Flake, despite what anyone thinks, is as Republican as a Republican can be. He never had to be bribed to screw over the poor and middle class and his posturing about DACA was just that. Posturing. 

Senator Murkowski wore her Incredible Hulk earrings to this vote in memory of Sen. Ted Stevens because finally, the Senate was voting to violate ANWR with stupid fossil fuel drilling for stupid jobs that will not grow the Alaskan economy and will hurt wildlife there, because she is a Republican, and believes stupid things.  Pro-tip: Wearing Hulk earrings to a showing of "Thor: Ragnarok" --totally appropriate. While voting to spoil a wildlife refuge, kill an important provision of the ACA that keeps people covered and premiums down, and will hurt your constituents? Not appropriate! 

And let's talk about Sen Collins, who was hailed as a hero for stopping the repeal of the ACA. She was going to wait and see if she got certain provisions regarding health care coverage, and didn't. And criticizing her for voting yes on this turd is sexist! (Why was the coverage so focused on Collins? Because she made it seem like she had a reason to vote no and was reachable. Our bad, obviously--but criticism of a US Senator isn't sexist--it's about whether she's good on her word. Was she being seen as reachable because she's a woman--or because she said she was? Hm. Seems like it's on her.)

I don't see an upside to this vote. I think what trickle-down optimists feel about the bill regarding economic growth are just wishful thinking. The debt issue bothers me, the curtailing of government support on the state level is frustrating, the idea that this bill was in part crafted to "stick it" to Blue States is abominable. This bill favors foreign investors and practically incentivizes off-shoring.   It does many things Trump the candidate implied he would never do, and sets the stage for "entitlement program" (Ahem! "Earned Benefit"!) programs getting cut to "pay" for a giveaway to the already well-off. This is reverse-Robin Hood. This is a tactic of shock and awe devoted to increasing income inequality. 

This is bullshit in each and every way, but it is entirely and solely Republican bullshit. Trump owns the economy that stems from this, as does every participant in this vote. I only hope Democrats run hard against this shit. It is a recipe for so much suffering. Trickle-down is a lie. 

Before the Immigrants Take it All

I don't usually recount personal stories here on the blog, because I try to keep my real life and my blog persona separate. You might have an image of me--cool. I mostly tell the truth on myself, when I do talk about myself.  But today (of all days) there was an exchange that left me a little disconcerted, because it was entirely offhand. It was a conversation an older lady had with a slightly-less older lady in the elevator in my workplace.

I'm outspoken enough online--that much you might have noticed. I try to keep civil with folks I disagree with, but I find it easier to link to bolster my argument than just state it, because people believe what they believe for reasons. Maybe they just don't drink from the same wells I do. I don't know how they get their ideas. I want to believe examples or published data help, even if some studies and published data have told me, they don't, necessarily.

And work is a different thing than any other kind of interaction--if I don't know a co-worker from my outfit well enough to know how they will take me, I know I have no reason to attempt a conversation, let alone try out a correction of my elders. 

But this lady said something so ignorant I kind of did not know where to start. She replied to a question about when she was retiring with "I have to start taking my Social Security before the immigrants take it all."

This person had no fucking idea how anything the hell worked. She just thought there was a sloppy pool of benefit money that randos were able to siphon off of at will. That immigrants paid into Social Security and never were able to collect because they didn't have legitimate SS numbers, was not anything she had logically taken into account, although it was true. That Social Security for her was paid by workers who came after her, just like her contributions were paying for current retirees, was something she did not seem to be aware of. That Federal budgets really shouldn't take Social Security contributions into their scope when talking about what budget money is available, was not on her mental horizon.

She was happily blaming immigrants for a lack of benefits she was not even going to experience. 

All the arguments were at my tongue-tip. She got off at her floor "Have a blessed day" and I took my alone time until I got to my floor to say out loud to no one at all "That wasn't correct in any way." Because I had to say something out loud, to no one at all, or I might scream. 

And this was not even a likely Trump voter. This was just the kind of stupid prejudice people have about other people because they feel like having prejudices against people, I guess. It made me mad. So I place it here. 

I don't know when we attack that kind of fucked-up wrong concept about how things work, but I suggest the elected leaders of The Left try it. Put on record how things work. Because I am not sure some of the GOP elected know how all the things work, either. 

Labor Day: DACA Protects Working People

I'm going to make this Labor Day post about the possible undoing of DACA, which is probably going to be announced tomorrow by AG Jeff Sessions, because why not? Trump wants to curry favor with his base, but also wants plausible deniability because he thinks he can "onboard" moderates--also he will dump this in the lap of Congress. Eh? His people might call it politics, I would call it cowardly.

I would also call it, not merely cruel or stupid, because his base doesn't care what I think is cruel or stupid, but very bad business. Deporting these young people who have made their lives here is a waste of investment, talent, learned skills, education, and a complete failure not merely of compassion, but imagination. Losing these fine people will cost our economy, not add to it. The zero-sum logistics of anti-DACA debaters is the worst of sheer nonsense--DACA recipients aren't "stealing jobs from American workers". For one thing, except for not being born here, they are raised as Americans. And for another, how is anyone stealing a job on American soil from a worthy American? Because if you apply for a job, interview for it, ace it, turn up, clock in, and then work that job, you are just doing your own job. That job did not belong to someone else. It is the job of the person doing it.

My sympathy for people who worry about competition from immigrants like no one else in the world ever competes in a job market is limited.

But DACA recipients are doing truly patriotic work--as US military personnel.  They are sometimes even heroes.  Sometimes even the saddest kind of hero--the lost. In troubled times, we need all hands on deck,  not discrimination, recriminations, bigotry and abuse. Business leaders know the value of these workers.

I believe it is only right that these people, brought here through no fault of their own, acculturated and educated here, and having so much promise, be permitted to continue to contribute to our society. If Trump thinks otherwise, I will chalk this up to his bad business sense and also spinelessness in the dance with the devil that brought him to the White House.  He is being dipped, and very low at that.