No more of those unfair offsets which amounted to outright theft of benefits, especially the misnamed "Windfall Elimination Provision."
I stand to get around $120 a month increase in my Social Security benefits.
The White House moved up the signing ceremony a day because of other things going on in D.C., especially the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter.
Repeal is now official.
Funny how nobody is talking about Donald Trump's obvious mental decline.
A few lines of vitriol from yours truly:
Trump has always been batshit, but his more recent antics demonstrate he is losing it even further.
I know...you can't lose what you never had in the first place...
But there remains a double standard when it comes to Biden and Trump.
I heard about George Clooney throwing a hissy fit, trashing Biden in a NYT op-ed, but his motive was personal having to do with his nepo baby wife (and I mean nepo baby not because she is married to him but because she was born into wealth and has a pseudo "job" as a "human rights" lawyer) and her case against Israel PM Bibi. Clooney is out of his depth and needs to shut the fuck up.
Meanwhile, the public doesn't give a tinker's damn about the debate of two weeks ago. It is all a bogus media creation.
No shit, Sherlock. This feeding frenzy was started by A.G. Sulzberger because his fee-fees were hurt when Biden refused to do an interview with his rag, the New York Times.
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I agree with many observers that Biden's State of the Union speech last night was excellent. It was even fun to listen to. The reason is he went beyond the prepared remarks. I was reading the prepared remarks at the White House site while listening/watching him on the YouTube stream, and a lot of what he said wasn't there. Everybody noted when he went off the script and put the GOP on the spot regarding Social Security and Medicare.. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida has come up with an absolutely insane idea that every government program or law would come up for renewal every five years. He is a crook to begin with and should be in jail. I don't know what in the hell is wrong with Floridians. They are really screwed up politically. Anyway, there are others like Mike Lee of Utah and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin who have similar insane notions about SS and Medicare, which are supported with separate taxes and are separate programs. These politicians are so much on the take from the billionaire class, they don't even hide their utter contempt for the voting public.
James Carville, never one to mince words, called these politicians "trailer trash":
Let's see how McCarthy and company act during this address.
One of many streams:
If you want to read the text, it is here.
Today President Biden unveiled the online application for student loan relief up to $20,000 if you have had a Pell Grant, and $10,000 otherwise within income limits. I know I am one of millions who are not high income and can benefit from cancellation of old, old, old federal student loans (I have three Stafford Loans).
I have previously written about my situation and how, after being illegally terminated back in 2008, was never able to get back on track financially and be able to pay off the entire loan, which ballooned some $4,000 over the years thanks to capitalization. All but about $2,500 will be forgiven, presumably, and I will be able to pay this off in a matter of months.
It is one thing if I were young and had decades to pay it off, but it is quite another to be pushing 70 and still having these old debts. Age discrimination is a bitch in the labor force even now with all the job openings. It is rampant, especially in the teaching field.
I might even be able to get my credit where it should be. I have had a history of lousy credit since the late 1990s.
Many others have worse stories. I am lucky in that I was very stubborn during most of my academic studies not to take out any student loans. I paid for everything until towards the end of my first licensure master's program in education, which meant I had to take all the graduate courses, plus all the undergraduate education courses, plus student teaching, the student teaching being the main reason I took out student loans. There were limitations on outside employment while doing it, and I had an apartment and bills to pay.
I don't think I really need to justify my applying for debt relief. I feel once this debt is out of the way, retirement may actually become a reality.
I will have to say that the Biden administration's forgiveness of student loans of 10k or 20k (depending on whether one qualified for a Pell Grant) is a step in the right direction, I for one will see almost my entire loan wiped out but for $2600. Furthermore, the directive permanently reforms the IBR program, which will cause a dramatic decrease in the debt burden. As head of the executive branch, Biden of course can direct the Department of Education to carry out these policies.
The GOP thinks they have an issue to run on by calling especially the poor and middle income people affected by this "bums" while trying to stoke resentment from those who paid their loans.
This of course is bullshit. By this logic, one should do away with bankruptcy laws because some people always pay their bills on time.
The media don't help matters when they lie about this directive being "challenged in the courts." By whom? On what grounds? Biden and other presidents have forgiven loans in the past, and nobody bothered to take these directives to court.
Meanwhile, the GOP is okay with rich people who were forgiven for the PPP loans.
Hypocrites all.
Obituary: Actor Larry Storch, 99, best remembered for his role as Corporal Agarn in the 1960s sitcom F Troop, has died. He was the last surviving major cast member of the series.
Storch died in his sleep. He was a frequent poster on social media.
Snip:
The comedic actor was renowned for his distinctive Bronx accent, which he lent to numerous cartoons including “Koko the Clown” and “Scooby and Scrappy Doo.” He additionally voiced Mr. Whoopee in the popular mid-1960s animated series “Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales.”
In his last credited role, the prolific TV actor voiced Willie on the TV series “Medium Rare” in 2010.
Along with his small-screen career, Storch also racked up multiple Broadway credits, including “Porgy and Bess” (1983), “Arsenic and Old Lace” (1986), “Annie Get Your Gun” (1999) and, in 2004, “Sly Fox” with Richard Dreyfuss and Irwin Corey.
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Speaking of which, I haven't posted a lot of content other than news briefs in recent years. I slacked off because of Trump getting in the White House, and I didn't want to waste my time writing too much about him or his radical right supporters. I also have a lot of other things going on. It seems my most substantial posts of recent years, if you can call them that, are noting the deaths of famous people. Well, rest assured as long as these famous people die, and as long as I am alive, this blog will remain active.
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Biden signed an executive order preserving abortion rights, but necessarily it is limited in scope.
here is a video of Biden's State of the Union speech of last night. His speech received high marks, but he did resort to pandering to sexual fetishists at one point:
President Biden marked the one-year anniversary of the storming of the Capitol by condemning his predecessor.
A video of the speech:
Hard to believe it has already been a year.
Given the fact Biden has already forgiven student loan debts for some 75,000, give or take a few thousand, borrowers who were ripped off by scam college and university programs, he can certainly do a $50,000 one-time loan forgiveness program as well.
This is not a legislative matter to begin with. This is an administrative issue. I just think Biden is testing the waters of support. I wish he would get with it.
I have written and talked about my debts from over 20 years ago that I have been unable to pay because I currently make shit pay. I had to take a loan out in order to pay for my student teaching since I was not allowed to work, at least full time, while teaching in the schools. I did have my part-time law library job, which didn't interfere. I don't have a massive amount of debt, but even the 10k forgiveness would almost wipe it out completely.
As it currently stands, I am on the income-based repayment plan. I would be 84 years old before my loan would be forgiven, and then I would owe taxes on it for the rest of my life.
Note:
Biden's Education Department has been addressing the $1.7 trillion student-debt crisis in the country. On March 18, Cardona canceled debt for about 72,000 borrowers who were defrauded by for-profit schools, and on Monday, he canceled debt for over 41,000 borrowers with total and permanent disabilities. Cardona has also expanded the pause on student-debt payments through September to 1.14 million borrowers with private loans under the Federal Family Education Loan Program.
Since virtually none of the Democrats in Congress have any goddamned clue the ramifications of the proposed "Equality Act," it is just as well it dies on the vine forever. It would have to be rewritten to throw out that ruinous "gender identity" crapola to be feasible, since it is being used as a way to completely destroy women's' rights. It is NOT acceptable. The fact is, unlike the insinuation of this dumb article, it is wildly unpopular with the public. I don't doubt Senator Manchin is getting calls that are a thousand to one against this POS legislation. You know the LGB part of it isn't the real bone of contention--it is that "T" part. Women need their own spaces and sports away from predatory males. To be in favor of this bill as currently written is to be against women's rights.
Manchin needs to hold fast on this. This idiot proposal is not a hill for the political left to die on. It is suicide with the voting public. Nobody outside their little bubble supports sexual fetishists--transvestites, which is what these are--in women's spaces and in their sports.
Biden needs to focus on more important matters than a surefire loser that will cost Democrats seats in 2022.
Ever since I was illegally fired from WCSD thirteen years ago--can it really be that long ago--I have struggled to try and keep my head above the water financially. I am still in the field of education, but I have had to make do with classified work, which is far less pay and provides a far smaller pension than if I had gotten a teaching position. Worse still is that it is part time. I will not substitute instead of doing what I am doing now because the vendor, which is not the school district or the ESD, does not pay into PERS. This is a deal breaker for me at my age, 66. It doesn't matter how much a substitute assignment pays, for the retirement is the reason I am still in the labor force. I want to be able to increase my PERS benefit and Social Security, but I know one thing. I will not be able to do what is being asked of me anymore. I just can't hack it with physical labor anymore. There is too much standing and bending with the increased hours, and there are people who are far younger than I am who are not doing any of the playground or cafeteria labor. Today was the first day schools in my school district reopened. I volunteered to work more hours a week--28.75--but with Wednesdays off until the end of the year. This might be a mistake. I think for the first time in my life, I finally feel "old," and it is a horrible feeling.
This is coming from somebody who has been physically active all her life, but having sciatica and scoliosis are finally taking a toll. Since I am unable to retire in the foreseeable future, I am going to have to find something else. I would have tried for a teaching position this year even with age discrimination rampant in education, but COVID got in the way. I am going to try my damnedest to find another job, if not MSD, then a nearby district.
Anyway, because I have been strapped financially, I still owe on student loans I took twenty years ago so I could student teach in Washoe County. I have not been able to pay on any of it since I was fired. I used up all the forbearances and deferments, and now I am on an income-based repayment plan. Even though I am in an at-risk school, I am not eligible for loan forgiveness because I am a part timer and classified. The forgiveness is ONLY for full time employees. It's really fucked up. If I stay on the income-based repayment plan, it will be done when I am 85 years old, if I live that long.
This segues into what Joe Biden is proposing about loan forgiveness. He is under the impression he can't propose a big amount legally, so he has been steadfast about limiting the forgiveness to 10 grand, which would be huge for me, but a drop in the bucket for other people. However, according to this video shared on Twitter, he can legally cancel more debt:
He doesn't need Congressional approval, either. I can get behind this. I can't work indefinitely, let alone make enough to make headway on decades-old debt. My body is not going to be able to take it much longer if I can't get less physically demanding work.Q: Does President @JoeBiden have the authority to cancel student debt with the stroke of a pen?
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) February 17, 2021
A: yes. pic.twitter.com/219bHyFbPo
I have a fairly deep cut in my finger, so I can't do a lot of typing, but today was almost anticlimatic, with the Biden and Harris inaugurations going as planned and without any hitch whatsoever. It was a perfect but cold day in D.C. with a small crowd of dignitaries thanks to COVID. If there were any protests at all, they were small and far away. Maybe the radical right has finally gotten a clue. Maybe they finally accepted the truth Trump didn't give a shit about any of them. Or perhaps these would-be terrorists decided to go underground, but that is increasingly difficult for them since they are now closely monitored by law enforcement.
Arrests continue with those involved in the January 6 insurrection.
Trump, whose wife Melania looked the happiest she has looked in years, gave a rambling speech to a very small group of admirers, and rambling as usual:
On a happier note, here is the main part of the Biden-Harris inauguration festivities:
As everybody knows, there was a rally of Trump deadenders that wound up breaching security blocks in place, and more than a few of them stormed the Capitol building today. This was, thanks to Trump's incessant lies, nothing but sedition, a coup attempt, by these rebels without a cause.
Today is supposed to be the counting of the Electoral College votes before this horseshit happened.
One of several live feeds:
Robert Reich talks about today's coup attempt:
The crowd has thinned out quite a bit now that the 6 p.m. curfew is near.
Joe Biden earlier challenged Trump to condemn the terrorists:
And Trump did give a short speech, but he hardly was forceful about what was happening. That's because he started it with this seditious attempt on our country.
These people are bound to get worse as it gets closer to Inauguration Day.
There needs to be arrests for sedition against the United States beginning with Donald Trump, then Roger Stone, and so on down the line including those in Congress who know better than to challenge the election results.
Twitter at long last took action.
This guy who was a witness to the shoot of a female rioter lacks total awareness against laws against vandalism, trespassing, and sedition:
INCREDIBLE VIDEO
— Assistant Groyper (@AsstGroyper) January 6, 2021
This guy was next to the woman shot and killed in cold blood by Capitol Hill Police. Could’ve been anyone, completely unacceptable!!! pic.twitter.com/dk0AneW3B9
The show must go on, however:
The death toll is now at four.
This dipshit is lucky she didn't end up in worse shape. What doesn't she understand about sedition and insurrection against the United States?
This woman was maced inside the Capitol. She told me, "It's a revolution!" pic.twitter.com/hMKYSzrkue
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) January 6, 2021
Some of the capitol police were clearly in on the insurrection. They need their asses out of there and charges leveled against them.
Good thing there is competent staff at the Capitol building, at least on the Senate floor:
Electoral college ballots rescued from the Senate floor. If our capable floor staff hadn’t grabbed them, they would have been burned by the mob. pic.twitter.com/2JCauUIlvg
— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) January 6, 2021
The thugs' access was aided and abetted by the so-called Capitol police. No doubt about it, and heads better roll:
Others let them in actually pic.twitter.com/VNDkKzUlmm
— 🦇Batman🦇 (@Batmancanceeu) January 6, 2021
Current stats (no link so far): 52 arrests, 4 dead, 14 police injured so far.
There is yet another angle of what happened today:
This video of the siege of the Capitol on TikTok is crazy and different than I had seen pic.twitter.com/JXwvKVLjxB
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) January 7, 2021
A handful of senators, including "Calgary Ted" Cruz, are going to grandstand for their insane QAnon and bugaloo faction and will register a "protest" against a duly elected president-elect of the U.S. from being certified.
Criminal charges should be brought because this horseshit will NOT stop. These people will continue to do this crap election after election until a Republican gets elected, and we know the GOP can no longer win a national election, at least with the popular vote. The radical right believes the Democratic Party is by definition illegitimate and they would not be past executing members of said party.
We know the far right tried this bullshit with Bill Clinton in the 1990s. It can be seen as the warmup of what is happening now. The ONLY reason there was all the shit leveled at Bill and Hillary was because Bill Clinton and VP Al Gore were threats to the GOP's Southern Strategy. Without that Southern Strategy, the GOP would risk becoming extinct.
This is the same thing that is happening now. It is pure desperation on the part of these clowns in D.C. They ALL know there was no "fraud," but they are playing to their base, the vast majority of whom have already moved on and accepted Biden as the 46th president.
I agree here:
It's not about if they succeed.
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) January 2, 2021
It's about the fact that defeated President Donald Trump was able to get at least 13 U.S. Senators and 140 members of the House of Representatives to violate the constitution and commit sedition.
This is a clear and present danger.
Democrats need to take this bullshit seriously. At least Republican Mitt Romney does.
As for Trump, he doesn't appear to give a shit.
Moreover, Rep. Louie Gohmert needs to understand he is basically calling for sedition against the United States, and advocating for it is a crime.
Updated at 5:15 p.m. with Gohmert denying he has advocated violence.
East Texas congressman Louie Gohmert suggested that “violence in the streets” may be the only remaining option to block Joe Biden from becoming president, after a federal judge rejected his lawsuit aiming to force Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a Trump appointee from Gohmert’s hometown of Tyler, threw out the lawsuit late Friday, ruling that he and other plaintiffs — including the GOP chairwoman in Arizona and that state’s defeated slate of Republican electors — lack standing.
Somebody must have told Gohmert about sedition because, as the article update notes, he is backtracking by denying he is advocating violence.
President-elect Joe Biden has some good proposals about reforming Social Security so that people like me won't have to work until we die.
I would like to see the Windfall Elimination Provision repealed. That is absolutely devastating to people like me who could use the extra $120 month.
Linked is an article about the proposed ideas. Let's see asshole McConnell try and destroy this sane and humane reform.
Snip:
and its time for the media to just "call it" and get it over with. There is no excuse for farting around with the results, which have been known since at least Thursday, and there has been no change to Trump. Either the media are dragging this out for ratings, or they are trying to make Biden's term hell even before he is inaugurated.
The media pulled this shit with Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton by second-guessing them before they were ever sworn in.
While it doesn't matter whether or not the media "call" the election--it has no legal standing, or whether Trump "concedes," which is ditto, the whole damned election coverage needs to be done and over with.
It is truly malicious:
Enough is enough.Lt. Gov. @JohnFetterman says “there isn't some enchanted village of all Trump voters that hasn’t weighed in yet” as vote count continues in Pennsylvania pic.twitter.com/vEFqQ78N34
— Alisyn Camerota (@AlisynCamerota) November 7, 2020
Asked about complaints from Trump campaign as Arizona counts votes, AZ Sec. of State Katie Hobbs says, "There have been no irregularities going on. Quite frankly, if he's saying that, he doesn't know what he's talking about." https://t.co/GwwRl4EUb3 #Election2020 pic.twitter.com/KKpbCtrw5w
— ABC News (@ABC) November 6, 2020
Update: CNN FINALLY projected Biden the winner of the presidential election.
CNN projects the US presidency for Joe Biden
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 7, 2020
Cartoon sums up Arizona and Georgia:
I decided to hang it up early on my blog last night and check in on the election results. I got very little sleep, but I took the day off from work today. It goes without saying the election should never have been this close to begin with. Hell, Trump never should have been taken seriously as a presidential candidate in the first place.
It appears Joseph R. Biden will be the 46th president of the United States, and Senator Kamala Harris will be the first woman vice president. The election was a nail biter for the reason that so many of the ballots were mail-ins, and those mail-in ballots in the "battleground states" were from heavily blue, heavily urban areas. Literally millions of those ballots had to be counted, and they are still being counted. Today Wisconsin and Michigan were called for Biden, and there is little doubt Nevada will go his way as well, which will put him at 270 electoral votes. Biden was making huge gains in Pennsylvania and in Georgia, with both states very possibly going in his column. Ditto for Arizona and the uncounted votes mostly in heavily Democratic Maricopa County (Phoenix). I believe the only question mark is North Carolina, but it will be days before the final results will be known.
Trump made all kinds of legal threats, but he decided not to contest the Wisconsin results, and therefore he is mostly showboating for his still-fervent followers. He probably has some other plans after he leaves the White House, perhaps a business he can create or buy and run it into bankruptcy. That is the one thing he is truly qualified to do. He also has to contend with trying to stay out of jail.
Sad, as he would say.
He also "blew it," as Keith Olbermann noted this afternoon:
Incredible scenes outside the Maricopa County Elections Dept in Arizona pic.twitter.com/cUcboOxnYS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 5, 2020
There are a number of places a viewer can go to watch the livestream debate between challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump. CSPAN is one such place:
My thoughts: That was the biggest shitshow I ever saw in a debate. The election was already pretty much over with the NYT Trump tax reports, but the debate, if it can be called that, shut the door on Trump for good. I don't see how anybody could have sat through that debate and feel Trump has any business whatsoever being president. The media, meaning CNN, created a Frankenstein monster with this orange-haired idiot.
Biden was presidential, he was calm, he got in barbs against this raging madman when he could, and he answered the questions. All Trump did was talk over and interrupt, in large part because moderator Chris Wallace lost control in the early going. Later on he got more firm. What happened was Trump displayed his pathology to the entire country, and I would think halfway intelligent people would ask themselves why the hell this guy ever got the GOP nomination in 2016, let alone get in the White House?
If there are two more debates, Trump won't be able to reverse course. I don't think at this point Putin or even Roger Stone could help him. Was it drugs that Trump was on, or did his handlers say to him to just let him be himself and try to smear Biden? Well, his attempts to smear Biden didn't work; Trump came off as completely childish.
It was 90 minutes long, but it felt like 90 hours.
Ms. Harris, 55, is the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to be nominated for national office by a major party, and only the fourth woman in history to be chosen for one of their presidential tickets. She brings to the race a far more vigorous campaign style than Mr. Biden’s, including a gift for capturing moments of raw political electricity on the debate stage and elsewhere, and a personal identity and family story that many find inspiring.
Mr. Biden announced the selection over text message and in a follow-up email to supporters: “Joe Biden here. Big news: I’ve chosen Kamala Harris as my running mate. Together, with you, we’re going to beat Trump.’’ The two are expected to appear together in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday.
Here are a few pictures I took at Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon today, including a couple of them from the historic lodge:
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