DL Open Thread: Thursday, August 25, 2022
Student Debt Forgiveness: More Creeping Incrementalism From Biden. Did you expect anything–more?:
The Biden administration has already approved nearly $32 billion in loan forgiveness to 1.6 million people through targeted actions for disabled borrowers and those defrauded by their colleges.
But Biden had drawn the ire of activists and some student loan borrowers who were growing tired of waiting for a decision on broader cancellation, a pledge he first made as a candidate. Biden had previouslyexpressed reluctance to grant forgiveness to people who attended elite universities, while moderate Democrats and Republicans derided the policy.
“With the flick of a pen, President Biden has taken a giant step forward in addressing the student debt crisis,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a statement. “No president or Congress has done more to relieve the burden of student debt and help millions of Americans make ends meet.”
Gotta love this from the Rethugs, though:
Conservatives immediately assailed the move as fiscally irresponsible and patently unfair to the millions of Americans who never attended college, never borrowed or paid off their loans.
Why Do Lawns Have To Look Like Golf Course Fairways? They, of course, don’t. It’s time to end this fetish forever to help the environment:
We’ve been sweeping our anxieties under these green comfort blankets for quite some time. A “smooth, closely shaven surface of grass is by far the most essential element of beauty on the grounds of a suburban home,” wrote Frank J. Scott in 1870, around the time of the first lawn mower patent, in a book titled “The Art of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds of Small Extent” (Chapter XIII: The Lawn).
It is now a half-century later. Specifically Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. Mattei, a landscape designer, is standing on a lawn in a leafy crook of Bethesda, Md. She is talking to the owner of the lawn about getting rid ofit.
“It contributes nothing,” says M.J. Veverka about her lawn, which she’s watered and weeded and mowed for 31 years — and for what? The lawn is static, nonfunctional, tedious. Last year Veverka filled in her backyard pool, removed the surrounding lawn and enlisted Mattei’s company to turn the space into an oasis of native plants, a “homegrown national park,” in the words of a grass-roots movement for regenerating biodiversity. Veverka so loves the backyard — which is now an evolving work of horticultural art and a functioning component of the surrounding ecosystem — that she wants to do the same thing with her front yard.
“Wasn’t there something a bit decadent about millions of Americans applying millions of pounds of fertilizer and pouring millions of gallons of water on the ground to grow something you couldn’t eat unless you were a Jersey cow?” columnist Ellen Goodman wrote in the Boston Globe all the way back in 1977. “Wasn’t there something bizarre about their spending millions of gallons to cut it off?”
Yes. Everyone’s lawn, or perhaps more accurately, natural footprint, can help environmental sustainability. Time to rethink your lawn, folks.
Starbux Sux: Creates a climate of fear for those seeking to unionize:
More than 85 workers at Starbucks who were heavily involved in union organizing efforts at giant coffee chain have been fired over the past several months, according to the workers group Starbucks Workers United.
Workers have filed numerous unfair labor practice charges over the firings and a federal judge recently ordered the reinstatement of seven workers in Memphis, Tennessee, who were fired in February, a ruling Starbucks has said it disagrees with and intends to appeal.
The National Labor Relations Board has issued 21 official complaints against Starbucks, encompassing 81 charges and 548 allegations of labor law violations that are currently under review.
Starbucks has accused the NLRB of favoring the union campaign and called for union elections to be temporarily suspended. The company has vehemently opposed unionization efforts as more than 220 stores have won union elections since December.
Their coffee sucks, too. Why do they have such a monopoly on, say, the Pennsylvania Turnpike? A Democratic Governor should look for a more union-friendly alternative.
Amanda Fries Nails Corrupt Wilmington Towing Scheme. City doesn’t give a shit. After all, it’s only the residents who suffer. And not the residents who reside in the Highlands. It’s official: Fries is the best reporter currently working here. Meaning, she’ll be gone soon.
What do you want to talk about?
Visited Seattle two years ago. None of the city dwellers have grass or lawns. They have flowers, fruit trees, vineyards, Humming birds and Butterfly attractions. It is just wonderful walking to catch a bus and see the gardens of Eden. Makes you feel so good.
Grass does suck and is useless.
And he is right about Starbucks coffee. It is the worlds worst shit. I order my beans from Toronto and they are magnificent.
Starbucks coffee is burnt-roasted so it holds up in the milkshakey concoctions it is usually served in.
At one time lawns were useful for childhood recreation. I took part in many pre-teen baseball or football pickup games on various neighbors’ lawns.
Now, there aren’t enough kids around to play a game. Back then the neighborhood kids all went to the same school. Now they go to different schools spread across the county and get home too late to start a pickup game, and they don’t know each other anyway.
Besides, outdoor recreation has been replaced by social media and online gaming.
A lawn can be maintained in a sustainable way without replacing it with a rock garden (depending on climate).
lol, I drink my coffee black and I love starbucks french roast. Your taste might be off. Oh, I also shop at Amazon and Lowes as well as Walmart and MacDonalds on occasion and I vote Liberal. I also don’t listen to music. Let the hate begin.
Saw a tweet about right-wing Christians who resent loan forgiveness:
Would they have bitched about Jesus giving out free loaves and fishes because it was unfair to the people who brought their own lunch?
Well, yes, probably.
How many of the opponents of student loan forgiveness had their PPP loans forgiven?
My patriotic themed bbq shack with attached shooting range got a quarter million in Covid relief totally forgiven. But 10 grand in student loans is Communist.
I got a small PPP loan an followed the rules. I also Still have balance on a parent plus loan got for my kid who graduated in 2001!
Apples and oranges. PPP was duly passed by congress. College loan forgiveness wasn’t.
I believe the discussion is about the morality, not the process.
That’s a stupid argument. Even Pelosi acknowledged the president does not have the power to forgive the loans. But thanks for playing.
No, actually, it’s not an argument, and it’s not your blog — you don’t get to decide who plays. Indeed, if you keep that attitude you’ll be gone shortly, because we decide who gets to play. Assholes aren’t welcome.
So the discussion — not an argument, discussion — is about whether it’s moral or, if you prefer, fair.
Try again.
Ive looked at installing artificial grass for ease and no maintaince but at $12-$15sq foot, i’ll keep cutting it
I’ve got two acres of what ever cares to grow, long ago gave up on fertilizer and reseeding so it’s all au natural. Good enough for me. On Long Island they’ve had water shut downs on sprinklers for many years. Speaking of student loans I worked in bands to pay for school and lived at home, now impossible. I have no problem in forgiving college loans, known more then a few still paying on them into their forties and it’s not right.
The only weeds I care about in my grass are the ones that leave thorns in my feet and I pull those out (the weeds and the thorns), I don’t use chemicals. Clover is good for a lawn and for bees and rabbits, and needs to be left alone. Grass isn’t a bad thing it’s good, it absorbs CO2 the same way trees do.
No, grass does not retain carbon the same way trees do. Trees live for many years; the wood is made of carbon. Grass is carbon, too, but it weighs a lot less.
Ok. Substitute the word “discussion” for argument. Leave everything else the same.
Yeah, nobody cares about the process, and if it were some other subject you probably wouldn’t either. As I said, the discussion is about the issue, not the process.
If you can’t add to the discussion, well…
Ok. In this “discussion “, please explain government mandated business shut downs and (the properly legislated) PPP, EIDL and other programs are in any way similar to a non-constitutional give away of tax payer money to fund loans that were voluntarily obtained by students who contractually agreed to re-pay them.
You’re just fixated on the process. I’m not interested. Nobody here is.
The discussion is about government programs and who they help. Whether a vote was rigged up for it or not is of no interest to me. The issue is that businesses were helped whether they deserved it or not. The issue for opponents of student debt forgiveness is that it’s not fair to others. That was the point of the comparison.
You want to short-circuit that discussion by citing process, so you can “win” the “argument.” Yawn.
Who voted for what isn’t of interest here. It is to you, obviously, but just as obviously you’re in the wrong place. Take your tendentious point elsewhere. You’re not wrong, I’m just not interested.
So go file a lawsuit princess. Why does anyone give a shit what a facebook university lawyer thinks is constitutional?
Not interested? Uninformed on how a constitutional republic operates is closer. You don’t have a logical retort to my question and simply dismiss it as you are “bored”. Pathetic.
Dude, you are boring. Your cut & paste GOP talking points are dull and lifeless. There are blogs for your style of tediousness, this isn’t one of them.
No, dude, not interested. Been around a long time, don’t give a flying fuck about the arcane rules of a creakily built republic that’s gasping its last. Let’s say you’re right. So what? What are you going to do about it? Whine on somebody else’s blog?
Did you complain like this every time every president issued an executive order, or is it just the money? Why is the bug up your ass about this? I don’t care about the rules, I’m just curious about why you’re so upset about it.
Dude you are lame and boring, let’s talk policy…..but I do not think you can.
Looks like the rethuglicans made some nominations recently. Anyone know these folks? What do they have to file and when? https://delawaregop.com/2022-candidates/
Although I’m not sure what the deadline is (was), parties may fill vacancies on the ballot up to that date. These post-filing day candidacies are almost always of the ‘name on the ballot’ variety.
GOP: Eradicating smallpox is unfair to all the people who died of smallpox before. Back in MY day, we died, and we LIKED it.
Regarding lawns, coincidentally I was looking at some projects of the Delaware Lenape Tribe. There was a concept I had not heard of — Edible Forest Garden — a multi-layered planting area which mimics natural ecosystems in form and function. It does provide various edibles, but also includes plants which restore the soil. https://tcpermaculture.com/site/2013/05/27/nine-layers-of-the-edible-forest-garden/