Ol' shoot 'em in the leg

[Thad]

So far he's extended the freeze and said he's looking into the logistics of forgiving $10,000 of each loan. It's not full-on loan forgiveness but it's not nothin', either.

[Brantly B.]

He ain't Bernie but he's a little Burnesque.

[hngkong]

Yeah, but that's less than 10% of what I owe. I'm just angry and depressed that I've done everything to not have student loans, but have gotten fucked over and over again. Public Service Loan Forgiveness? Met all the requirements, but was turned down with no reason given. GI Bill? Government has lost all records of my military service. I'm going to die with the loan, and it's fucking depressing after 11 years of payments I owe more than I took out.

[Blossom]

So far he's extended the freeze and said he's looking into the logistics of forgiving $10,000 of each loan. It's not full-on loan forgiveness but it's not nothin', either.

It's essentially nothing. He could cancel all student loan debt outright by executive order, instead he's going through Congress with the already-negotiated-down asking price of piddly shit. The window of people for whom ten thousand of forgiveness will make a meaningful difference in their debt burden is almost nobody.

[Mongrel]

(But being able to see press briefings happen and headlines not describe them using words like "combative" and "surreal" is nice too.)

Well, Biden might get those adjectives eventually, though not in the same way as Trump.

There are plenty other adjectives that would only apply to Trump and not Biden though.

[Thad]

So far he's extended the freeze and said he's looking into the logistics of forgiving $10,000 of each loan. It's not full-on loan forgiveness but it's not nothin', either.

It's essentially nothing. He could cancel all student loan debt outright by executive order, instead he's going through Congress with the already-negotiated-down asking price of piddly shit. The window of people for whom ten thousand of forgiveness will make a meaningful difference in their debt burden is almost nobody.

Well, my wife, for one.

Obviously I wish it were more. But dismissing ten grand as "essentially nothing" is, well, I'm gonna have to disagree on that one.

[Mongrel]

[Büge]

[Blossom]

boy i'm so glad we elected this racist pedophile to give us the support and relief we need

[hngkong]

boy i'm so glad we elected this racist pedophile to give us the support and relief we need

I had zero expectations, but goddamn, this kind of shit from democrats is making me even more depressed.

[Blossom]

Biden to abolish private prisons*†¹!

* in the federal prison system only, consisting of less than seven percent of federal prison facilities
† seriously it's three prisons with 14k prisoners, out of the 2.2 million people we have in prison
¹ offer not valid for private detention centers being operated on contract for ICE

[Blossom]

[Blossom]

[Mongrel]

In a way, it's better that it all happens at once instead of agonizingly slowly where people desperately cling to false hopes that maybe, maybe, [X] won't get hit.

[Blossom]

wonder how long it'll be before we switch from "he's only been in office a month, what do you expect?" to "shh, you want to lose us the midterms? now isn't the time"

[Mongrel]

They've already lost the midterms.

[Thad]

They've already lost the midterms.

This is the kind of definitive predictive statement I've got less and less patience for as time goes on.

It's February 2021.

[Brantly B.]

Whether they lose the midterms or not depends entirely on whether or not the GOP fractures in an irreconcilable way in the next couple of years or not. There is no need for non-destructive politics any more and pursuing them is a waste of precious resources that could be used for offense.

[Thad]

I'd probably go with "largely" rather than "entirely", but yeah, otherwise agreed.

I do think it's still too early to tell how much of the attempts at bipartisanship are performative. I still think it's possible, for example, that Sinema and Manchin will eventually support some sort of filibuster reform that's not full-on repeal, and all this show about how they oppose eliminating the filibuster is preparation to say "Well, we tried, but the opposition wouldn't stop stonewalling and we had no other choice." It wouldn't be the first time a senator from Arizona made that play.

[pacobird]

They've already lost the midterms.

This is the kind of definitive predictive statement I've got less and less patience for as time goes on.

It's February 2021.

yeah, if he actually did all this stuff tomorrow, 2/20/21, it would have zero impact on the midterms, because nothing happening right now will

not that I'm suggesting this is 4d chess or whatever