Kathleen Naranjo was almost eight years into paying off her portion of $50,000 in student loans when a federal appeals court last month ended one of the most affordable loan repayment plans in history. That Biden administration-era plan had reduced her monthly payments to $92 and she was working toward the day when the remaining balance would be forgiven after 10 years of payments doing public service as a nurse.
Seismic data have captured the tense quiet of the COVID-19 lockdowns and the thunderous excitement of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. And now, another human experience has been written in seismic signals: the shock and awe of witnessing a total solar eclipse.
No specific topic or genre. Just what may be on your playlist this evening... The thread link is... Capital Cities - Safe and Sound, live at Lollapalooza Brasil 2014
Elon Musk seems tired and cranky. On Thursday, he took the stand for the third day in a four-week trial stemming from his lawsuit alleging that OpenAI abandoned its mission and should be blocked from taking the company public later this year. read more
The world's largest container carrier plans a new service linking Europe with isolated Middle East ports, using trucking across Saudi Arabia and smaller vessels in the Persian Gulf instead of transiting the blocked Strait of Hormuz.
Trump says he won't sign GOP's compromise immigration bill (2018)
thehill.com
... President Trump on Friday said that he would not sign the House GOP's compromise immigration bill, delivering a major blow to Republican leadership's plans.
"I certainly wouldn't sign the more moderate one," Trump said on "Fox & Friends" during an impromptu interview on the White House lawn. "I need a bill that gives this country tremendous border security. I have to have that."
GOP leaders reached an agreement to hold two votes next week on a pair of immigration bills including a compromise immigration bill, which is the product of weeks of negotiations between moderate Republicans and conservatives, and a more hard-line immigration measure from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) earlier in the week said that Trump was excited about the compromise bill and seemed to be on board with the plan, which sticks to the four main "pillars" outlined by the White House.
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, a hard-liner on immigration, told members of the Republican Study Committee earlier this week that the Trump White House expects to support both immigration bills coming to the House floor next week. ...
An all-time fav song (suite) of mine ...
Strawbs - Remembering; You And I (When We Were Young); Grace Darling
www.youtube.com
@#89 ... Letting people still come over the border in ridiculous numbers was insane.
Democrats blew it on that. ...
Was it the Democrats who blew that, or Pres Trump?
There was a bi-partisan bill in Congress that was going to be enacted.
Then Pres Trump chimed in and told the Republicans not to pass the bill.
So it died.
Now, that was a bipartisan bill, Democrats and Republicans both supported it.
But Pres Trump told the Republicans to kill the bill because it would be politically beneficial for Republicans to do so.
So, yeah, the results of those efforts are quite apparent in your alias' comment.
But what say ye about Pres Trump's dictum to kill that bi-partisan bill?
Trump just said he "certainly wouldn't sign" an immigration bill his White House helped write (2018)
www.vox.com
... Trump might have torpedoed a bill that even immigration hardliners in his administration like Stephen Miller were trying to pass. ...
@#34 ... If your answer to either of these questions is "no" then you are the racist" ...
Really?
Do you actually think that a Southern White Nationalist will properly represent non-white Constituents?
If so, why do Republicans seem to be going through great lengths to suppress the voting power of Black voters?
U.S. Appeals Court Strikes Down North Carolina's Voter ID Law (2016)
www.npr.org
...The appeals court noted that the North Carolina Legislature "requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices" -- then, data in hand, "enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans."[emphasis mine]
The changes to the voting process "target African Americans with almost surgical precision," the circuit court wrote, and "impose cures for problems that did not exist."
The appeals court suggested that the motivation was fundamentally political -- a Republican legislature attempting to secure its power by blocking votes from a population likely to vote for Democrats....
Georgia's GOP House Speaker says vote-by-mail system would be 'devastating to Republicans' (April 2020)
thehill.com
..."... a multitude of reasons why vote by mail in my view is not acceptable," [Georgia state House Speaker David] Ralston went on, before adding "the president said it best, this will be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia." ...
"The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you ever agreed to, you would never have a Republican elected in this country again," Pres Trump said...
And, for the record ...
President Trump Job Approval - Inflation
www.realclearpolling.com
...
RCP Average 3/30 - 4/28
Approve: 29.1
Disapprove: 67.9
Spread : -38.8
...
Oh, that ain't good ...
@#78 ... I think this last election was ... a broader focus on issues that didn't seem to match what a lot of people were dealing with day to day.
OK, going back to the promises of the last election ...
Has Pres Trump brought down prices on day one, as he promised?
That seems to be a major issue that people are currently dealing with day to day.
And speaking of the border (immigration) a major issue during the Trump campaign ... how does Pres Trump seem to be doing?
Let's look ...
President Trump Job Approval - Immigration
www.realclearpolling.com
...
RCP Average 4/8 - 4/28
Approve: 45.3
Disapprove: 51.9
Spread: -6.6
Oh, wow. More than half disapprove of Pres Trump on his immigration policies and actions.
So, what else yer got?
I was in Louisville, KY for the 100th running of the Kentucky Derby. The US Post Office even issued a commemorative stamp for the occasion.
I will say that the city of Louisville goes crazy for the Derby.
I saw residents selling parking places in their driveway for multiple hundreds of dollars, so that the out-of-state participants could park their cars.
OK, maybe because it was the 100th anniversary of the Derby that occurred.
But friggin' wow. The city of Louisville went crazy back then ...
1974 Kentucky Derby
en.wikipedia.org
... he 1974 Kentucky Derby was the 100th running of the Kentucky Derby. The race took place on May 4, 1974,[1][2] with 163,628 people in attendance.[3] The 1974 Kentucky Derby holds the title of the second-largest crowd in the history of U.S. Thoroughbred racing. [4] The 1974 running featured the largest field size in Kentucky Derby History with 23 starters. [5] ...
Trump says he is reviewing a new Iranian proposal to end the war
www.politico.com
... President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he was reviewing a new Iranian proposal to end the war.
"I'll let you know about it later," he said before boarding Air Force One, adding that "they're going to give me the exact wording now." ...

@#27 ... It's just the talking point de jouer. ...
Yeah. That's what I suspected.
But I posted my comment anyway, to try to draw some manner of an intelligent response.