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?