Some of that is that we completely cluster****ed handling the Russian energy problem in europe. Something that those of us in foreign policy circles have been ringing alarm bells for some time about (to no avail, especially during the last admin). But I'd agree...I haven't been impressed so far. Biden reminds me a little bit of Jimmy Carter...although unlike Carter, Biden has the Congressional experience that would, in pre Newt/tea party times, probably help get things passed. I also think Biden, in part because of his age and tenure, doesn't think outside the box as much as a President should. Especially now that we're 20 years into the new millennium. The time to think creatively is now.
Federal employees less satisfied under Biden: report https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...-employees-less-satisfied-under-biden-report/
I wonder why Biden cares so much if the middle east has nuclear weapons. Every country should protect and armed themselves, especially from the hot and cold little presidency games the US likes to play. Trump racist ways gave everyone a wake up call.
Poll: Over 50 percent of Americans expect a civil war 'in the next few years' https://theweek.com/polls/1015291/p...cans-expect-a-civil-war-in-the-next-few-years discussing this study: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.15.22277693v1.full.pdf
The first U.S. case of polio since 2013 has been detected in New York https://www.npr.org/2022/07/21/1112802233/polio-case-new-york-live-vaccine
First, some context. An excerpt from Forbes: EDUCATION Betsy DeVos Really Really Really Really Really Hates Loan Forgiveness. Peter Greene Senior Contributor This week there’s a new chapter in the long saga of Betsy DeVos’s fight against loan forgiveness for students bilked by fraudulent for-profit colleges. To get us up to date, let’s take a quick look at the whole sad tale. It actually begins during the Obama administration, when Corinthian College, a chain of for-profits found themselves in trouble. They were following the standard model of using students as conduits for delivering federal loans, emphasizing recruitment over actual education, and leaving students holding a big bag of debt. When the feds announced in 2014 that they were going to get tough with such operations, Corinthian rose to the top of the list, chased by many, many state att0rney generals. They were in financial trouble as well, unable to pay faculty (but somehow able to pay lobbyists). By 2015 they were done, but they left behind a group of students who declared they would not pay back loans they took as victims of fraud. It was an ugly, tangled mess. One of the results was the issuing of new borrower defense on repayment rules, clarifying that students who had acquired debt via loans taken out to attend fraudulent colleges should have some measure of loan forgiveness. Those rules were set to take effect on July 1, 2017. But by then, Betsy DeVos was secretary of education, and she hated them. She said they entitled anyone who complained to “free money.” When she had to sign off on settlements approved by the previous administration, she added the words “with extreme displeasure” to her signature. She claimed that the previous administration had clearly intended to just hand out money without any due diligence, although internal memos later showed that the department had put considerable study into the cases. Before they could kick in, DeVos announced that she would suspend the rules until she had the chance to rewrite them. Immediately, eighteen states and the District of Columbia sued the department to have the rules put to work. The Corinthian students sued the department for continuing to collect on their loans even though an injunction had directed her to stop. The department admitted that they had “accidentally” collected on 16,000 loans; the court slapped the department and DeVos with a contempt citation and $100,000 fine, and some pointed words from Judge Sallie Kim (”I’m not sending anyone to jail yet, but it’s good to know that I have that ability.”) That was in October; in December, the department admitted that they had violated the injunction not for 16,000 students, but for 45,000. Just a paperwork accident. In 2018, a federal judge in DC ruled that the continued stalling was unlawful and directed DeVos to get rules in place and get the process rolling again. When DeVos finally rolled out her new rules, she bragged that they would save the government $11 billion dollars. That was because so little forgiveness would be given. Critics such as Douglas Webber (Temple University Department of Economics) found the formula to be “nonsensical and harmful to students.” It involved a formula used to determine if the student had suffered actual economic harm, and offered only partial forgiveness of loans. In hearings about the new rules, Rep. Lori Trahan demonstrated that it was mathematically impossible for many students to ever win forgiveness. The rules were so egregious that they actually sparked a bipartisan move in the Senate to overturn them. DeVos has continued to battle against loan forgiveness for defrauded students. She has argued that forgiveness should only apply to those who have suffered real financial harm, as if the loss of time, effort, and good credit are immaterial if someone is still getting some sort of paycheck. She proposed making that Federal Student Aid be separated from the education department; critics immediately suggested that this was simply a move to prevent a future President or secretary of education from forgiving the loans. In 2019, over 160,000 borrowers sued the department for stonewalling their applications for forgiveness; at the time, no decision on any application had been issued in a year. In April of this year, a settlement was reached in which the department promised to start working on the applications. That should have been the end of it; instead, last week DeVos was lambasted by yet another federal judge (she has spent much of her tenure on the wrong side of federal judges). Judge William Alsup described the process as “disturbingly Kafkaesque,” with 94% of applicants being rejected. The rejection letters are supposed to contain specific directions for appeal. Said Alsup, who has now voided the April agreement based on this new information, the department, after months of inaction, “charged out of the gate, issuing perfunctory denial notices utterly devoid of meaningful explanation at a blistering pace.” One might conclude that DeVos, having read the Presidential election polls, has decided to shut out all these applicants for “free money” before a new administration can come in to take a more forgiving approach. https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterg...eally-hates-loan-forgiveness/?sh=4cbee52b2b57
Thanks to Joe Biden. Now we have the result of an administration not run by a corrupt president, Mr trump, who himself operated a fraudulent "for profit" college that lied to the students, and who then appointed a Secretary of Education, Ms DeVos, who did everything she could to prevent the defrauded students of Corinthian College, and it's associated colleges, from getting the debt forgiveness due them under the rules of the Education Department. Department of Education Announces It Will Cancel All Corinthian Colleges’ Students’ Federal Student Loans June 03, 2022 On June 1, 2022, the Department of Education announced that it would cancel all of the federal student loans former Corinthian College students borrowed to attend those schools (Heald College, Everest Institute/College, and WyoTech) from Corinthian’s founding in 1995 through its closure in 2015. The cancellation is based on Corinthian’s widespread and pervasive fraud, including lies used to convince people to enroll and take out student loans. As Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said, “For far too long, Corinthian engaged in the wholesale financial exploitation of students, misleading them into taking on more and more debt to pay for promises they would never keep.” This action is meant to finally provide justice and redress to Corinthian borrowers. As a result of today’s action, 560,000 student loan borrowers–including approximately 200,000 in default – will have their federal student loans canceled without needing to file an application for relief. This is the largest borrower defense cancellation action the Department of Education has ever taken. All people with outstanding federal student loans for Corinthian should receive the discharge – including borrowers with Direct Loans, commercially-held FFEL loans, and Parent PLUS loans. And, importantly, the discharges will be automatic – the Department has wisely recognized that Corinthian borrowers should get relief without having to jump through any hoops. In addition to canceling outstanding loans, the Department also announced that it will delete adverse credit history associated with Corinthian loans, and that borrowers whose defaulted Corinthian loans rendered them ineligible for further federal student aid will have their eligibility restored. This will make it easier for former Corinthian students to go back to school and get another shot at education. Additionally, the Department announced that some Corinthian borrowers will receive refunds: borrowers who made payments on Direct loans or Department-held FFEL loans and who still have balances on their Corinthian loans will both have their balances discharged and receive refunds of amounts previously paid. The Department has said that it will take time for borrowers to receive notices and see the debt canceled from their accounts, and likely more time for refunds to be issued, but that the process of notifying borrowers should begin in the coming weeks. Borrower Tip: The Department has said all of this relief will be automatic, meaning borrowers will not need to do anything to receive it. But, since some people may be entitled to refunds, borrowers should consider contacting their loan servicer to make sure their current address and contact information is on file for any mailed refund checks. We know that this relief will change many borrowers’ lives. Many people have been waiting years if not decades for the Department of Education to cancel the debts associated with these exploitative schools. In the meantime, we know that most Corinthian borrowers have struggled–through no fault of their own–to repay their Corinthian loans, and that many have experienced default and suffered seizures of their tax refunds and social security benefits, garnishment of their wages, and damaged credit as a result. We would love to hear from you about what this loan cancellation will mean in your life. Please share your story with us here. If you attended a different school and are curious about how to obtain borrower defense cancellation, see a primer on borrower defense here, a summary of the Department of Education borrower defense findings (the types of claims from particular programs at particular schools the Department of Education will grant if they are alleged in an individual application, and a guide to submitting an individual application here. https://www.studentloanborrowerassi...hian-colleges-students-federal-student-loans/
It's a good outcome. And, one a returning Trump Admin would not be able to undo. They'll have to hoodwink those people all over again.
