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.
@#106 ... Trump didn't like it, you say, because "the border would then be a non issue."
How's that? It didn't solve the problem. How can anyone claim that? ...
Simple, Candidate Trump campaigned on the border issue. Not solving the border issue was a big political benefit for his campaign.
I am quite surprised you have not seen that.
Indeed, until ICE's actions, Pres Trump's views and actions regarding immigration were a huge political benefit for him in the polls.
Lately, not so much ...
President Trump Job Approval - Immigration
www.realclearpolling.com
...
RCP Average 4/8 - 4/28
Approve: 45.3
Disapprove: 51.9
Spread: -6.6
...
Yeah, Pres Trump used to be in the +5% to +15% area of polling on immigration.
Now, not so much.
He's underwater ...
But I again go back to my #50 post and wonder why you have been deflecting so strenuously from it?
These U.S. industries can't work without illegal immigrants (2019)
www.cbsnews.com
... The nation's attention is once again focused on the southern border, where President Trump claims the U.S. is facing a "crisis" over illegal immigration.
Sometimes forgotten as the nation focuses attention on migrants currently trying to cross the border is that millions of undocumented immigrants continue to live in the U.S. " and most of them work.
And in fact, these workers play vital roles in the U.S. economy, erecting American buildings, picking American apples and grapes, and taking care of American babies. Oh, and paying American taxes.
My work as the director of the Cornell Farmworker Program involves meeting with undocumented workers in New York, and the farmers who employ them. Here's a snapshot of who they are, where they work " and why Americans should care about them.
A snapshot of who they are
Pew Research Center estimates that about 11.3 million people are currently living in the U.S. without authorization, down from a peak of 12.2 million in 2007. More than half come from Mexico, and about 15 percent come from other parts Latin America.
About 8 million of them have jobs, making up 5 percent of the U.S. workforce, figures that have remained more or less steady for the past decade.
Geographically, these unauthorized workers are spread throughout the U.S. but are unsurprisingly most concentrated in border states like California and Texas, where they make up about 9 percent of both states' workforces, while in Nevada, their share is over 10 percent.
Their representation in particular industries is even more pronounced, and the Department of Agriculture estimates that about half of the nation's farmworkers are unauthorized, while 15 percent of those in construction lack papers -- more than the share of legal immigrants in either industry. In the service sector, which would include jobs such as fast food and domestic help, the figure is about 9 percent. ...
Airlines scramble to help stranded Spirit passengers after budget carrier collapses
www.reuters.com
... Major airlines and the U.S. government scrambled to help stranded passengers and employees after bankrupt discount carrier Spirit Airlines (FLYYQ.PK), opens new tab ceased operations on Saturday, the industry's first casualty linked to the Iran war. ...
United Airlines (UAL.O), opens new tab , Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), opens new tab, JetBlue (JBLU.O), opens new tab and Southwest (LUV.N), opens new tab are all capping ticket prices for Spirit customers who now need to rebook canceled flights and customers must provide a Spirit flight confirmation number to qualify. Rival airlines are also offering free seats to help Spirit employees get home. ...
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?
@#110 ... Why you opposed to the bipartisan bill on immigration and the border. ...
The strange part about that opposition is that the bill was mainly what the Republicans wanted.
That is, the Democrats caved in order to get the border bill passed.
Mr Stephen Miller probably was doing back flips in the White House hallways about that bill.
Until Pres Trump came out and said that the bill had to be killed because immigration would be a valuable political issue in the upcoming election.