Another somewhat unrelated thought....at what point will campaign rallies stop being held? All the major presidential candidates are in their late 70s, this Covid-19 virus could inflict some damage on all of them at the same time. It would be utter chaos.

....Ditto...

Again, ditto...

Yeah I meant rich Dems like Silicon Valley CEOs. Seems like every day there's some rich liberal saying he'd rather have Trump than Sanders. And I meant the politicians who serve their interests.

Katzchen:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has proposed some of the most robust plans for tuition and student loan debt reform of any of the candidates so far. In April 2019, Warren and her team published a proposal on what she would do to solve these issues:

*Mass student loan forgiveness. Warren proposed forgiving up to $50,000 in federal student loans for all borrowers with a household income of $100,000 or less. Her plan would offer partial forgiveness to those who make between $100,000 and $250,000, and no forgiveness to those who make more than $250,000.

Warren’s campaign website now has an interactive tool that shows borrowers how much loan forgiveness they could receive under her student loan cancellation plan.


Joe Biden, former vice president and former U.S. senator

*Simplify income-driven repayment plans, and allow student loan borrowers who make less than $25,000 to reduce their payments to $0 without accruing interest on their debt. Borrowers who make more than $25,000 annually would pay just 5% of their discretionary income (the current plans cap payments at 10% or more) and be eligible for forgiveness after 20 years.

*Simplify the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and allow eligible borrowers to get $10,000 in forgiveness annually for up to five years


Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

*Cancel all outstanding U.S. student loans, totaling $1.56 trillion, regardless of borrowers’ income levels, a move which Sanders says would boost the economy by about $1 trillion over the next 10 years and create 1.6 million new jobs annually. He also says canceling student debt would give millions of Americans the resources they need to buy a home, purchase a car or start a small business.

*** Information above is NOT what these candidates will do for present and future school loan holders. Hope this helps you and the others vote for what is in your personal interest.

This is why i stayed with Sanders. I have more than 50k in loans and more than 100k in (household) income

The new polls show that Biden got a huge bump from Klobuchar and Buttigieg leaving. He might get Texas now. That's all fair. I'm not whining, but CNN and the Press this morning just can't contain their delight. And that pisses me off.

Biden will for sure get Texas. I'll be very interested to see who gets my county, though. We elected a socialist judge last time

Thanks!

Here is the problem that is I see with all their so-called remedies: That Loan Forgiveness piece? There is no such thing as getting your loans forgiven under the long-held remedy of working for a company that offers to have your loans forgiven if you work X amount of years and make timely payments during those X amount of years. I've spoken with a number of call centers with loan servicers who service my 6-figure school loans and all of them confirm that there is no such remedy, which used to be a remedy offered to people who took jobs in the government sector (which paid low wages, yet offered health benefits you ordinarily can not get with the standard American employer).

Second problem: Every year I apply for an Income Driven Repayment plan, especially since that horrid person took office in the WH, loan servicers (FedLoan, Navient, US Dept of ED, etc) -- each agency used to have reliable inter-office communication practices whereby each agency used the same set of data stored on file, but now they don't. It's like none of them talk to each other like they used too all along. Now you have to print off three or more copies of the same document and ship them out to each loan servicer so they can all be on the same page, yet they are not on the same page.

It's like some mind boggling chess game they play with student loan borrowers, hoping to trip the levers that spell: Default, whereby then? They raid all of that person's earnings and leave no earnings for the loan borrower to survive on, even if they are lucky to have an extra job or several 'side hustles' to earn extra money to live on. It all spells serious trouble, if you ask me.

I have six figures in Student Loans. I earn less that the imaginary amount of $50K. None of the plans offered by *any* presidential contender stand out to me as a plan that will go into effect IF they are elected to be POTUS.

What is said, is not always what goes down. That's my experience.

I think the last lines of your post A. Spectre state it perfectly because it is exactly the experience I have been experiencing for the past several years (see quote below):

This is why I am having trouble believing any of the 'promises' any contender uses as their party-line platform to attract voters.

None of their plans work. Not of those plans ever worked in the past.

It's maddening and terribly frustrating and I find it insulting that they think student loan borrowers (with all our yearly issues of hurdling paperwork by any loan servicer) cannot connect the proverbial dots as to whether their plan will work or not.


But thanks my friend, I appreciate you.

Super Tuesday Is Here!

I'm so nervous and excited at the same time. I'm sure happy for the last few days. What I'm looking for:

Biden: There are strong indications that he is getting a huge bounce since South Carolina. I believe it will be evident in the results, despite all the early voting. As long as he is fairly close to Sanders in delegates after this I will be happy. I honestly don't know how close he needs to be but most of Sanders best states are today and more favorable states for Biden coming up.

We actually probably won't know for sure where things stand due to all of the mail-in votes in California, which can take days if not weeks to count. I think Sanders will win California but Biden will hold his own. There are plenty of moderates and more conservative voters in the state. Also, early voting is huge in California but looks to be down by quite a bit this year and a lot of it seems to be with people over 50.

Sanders: We keep hearing about massive turnout - especially the young and new voters. We haven't seen it yet - well we saw massive turnout in South Carolina but it wasn't those people. If it doesn't happen today then when will it? The theory from Sanders and his followers seems to be that he is the best to go up against Trump since he will have the biggest voter turn out in history based on the youth and new voters loving Sanders. I am HIGHLY skeptical of this. I'd rather take my chances with a fired-up base, and Obama campaigning hard for Biden than risk me and my country's fate on unreliable voters - especially when there is no evidence that Sanders is doing this.

He does have rabidly loyal followers, a strong ground game, and overall is running a good campaign. The bottom line is I do think Sanders does have a definite ceiling that isn't enough for him to legitimately win the nomination. Maybe 25-30% at most of the Democratic Party voters want him. The rest do not.

The best bet for any change at all is to keep or expand our majority in the House and win back the Senate. Without that, nothing passes.

Bloomberg - I hope he bombs bigly. He has donated a lot of money to help Democrats get elected, and on issues that I care about, but he is now running a vanity campaign that is just hurting Biden. Based on a recent interview he thinks he can "horse trade" at the convention even if he has significantly fewer delegates. No. I don't believe he has purchased any advertising beyond Super Tuesday, so maybe he will drop out after today. Or if he does stay in he has less than a week to advertise for the next states coming up and that seems unlikely to be effective.

I don't want the message to be that billionaires can buy elections. Not all will be as "benevolent" (not really sure how much he is at this point) as him. I want him to fail big time.

Warren - I don't know that she will do very well compared to Sanders and Biden but it will be interesting to find out.

p.s. I really would like a diverse ticket if Biden wins the nomination but I loved Klobuchar's endorsement speech - yes a lot was re-worked from her campaign speeches and debates - but I do think she would be a great Vice President and ready in case something happened to Biden. And her campaigning in the Midwest could really help against Trump. So I do agree with kittygrrl on Klobuchar.

Wow, so much rambling from me. I'm nervous, lol.

Biden won my county 121k to 92k Sanders
Bloomberg beat Warren 47k to 36k

341 for Marianne.

Biden
 

Well, Biden is sweeping delegates across the U.S. - Clyburn's endorsement had a huge effect on Biden's way to doing well throughout the southern states - as well, the effect of Buttigieg & Klobuchar dropping out and having endorsed Biden, and even Beto O'Rourke's endorsement of Biden.

In a funny way, Warren is sticking in and has said she will stay in right through to the convention. I have seen how many delegates she has taken (I think, 42 so far !), and it seems she is spoiling it against Bernie (at least in one state), although no way she can win the nomination. Considering how dismissive Bernie has been to Warren (even the time he accused her falsely of being a liar in one debate - and she confronted him about this, and he blew her off), I don't blame her for staying in and, whether deliberately or not, sticking it to Bernie. I will always like and respect her for speaking truth to power, to both Bloomberg and to Bernie. In real time, I have done the same, and yes, I have paid a price for that, but at least I sleep with a clear conscience.

And, breaking news - Bloomberg has dropped out of the presidential race - and has endorsed Biden!

Earlier this week Paul Begala at CNN predicted Trump would select Nikki Haley as VP. I think this will happen now that Trump will probably go up against Biden.

I had been hoping the nominee (Biden or Sanders) would choose a woman as his running mate, but if the Democrats have to go up against Trump/Haley, then I think the only ticket that may work is a Biden/Sanders ticket with Sanders as the VP.

Still, I just don't see how we can win the 2020 election.

And that is the simple truth. Without a House and Senate to back them up, there is a limited amount that the President can do. The President can pass Executive Orders all he/she wants, but those can easily be overturned as soon as somebody new is in the President's seat.

Joe Biden
 

I have just checked Joe Biden's chart, and on the 3rd of November of this year, Biden has Jupiter (luck and prosperity), Pluto (power), and Saturn (responsibility) all trine (the best of good aspects that one can have) his MC (his place in this world), which augurs very well for him winning the presidency. There are other indications which I won't go into, which have much to do with his destiny - and encompass his sense of service, compassion and humanity, traits which mark him and his life. :)

Yes, definitely, and Biden definitely understands this and talks about how important the Senate and House are all the time, so I am confident his campaign in November will focus on this as well as the Presidency if he is the nominee. Maybe if Bloomberg's ego isn't too bruised he will help with that as well.

Well, I am pumped and ready for the Blue Wave! Biden did better than I expected - I never dreamed he would win Massachusetts and Minnesota. I guess Amy Klobuchar knew what she was doing, lol.

I am also ecstatic that Bloomberg did indeed fail bigly! Kudos to the American voters.

Sanders indeed does have a ceiling and still no signs of his huge turnout of youth and new voters. He should go all out to try to win Michigan next week. It was his most impressive win in 2016. I don't think he can overcome Biden overall at this point though.

With all that has happened, I think the bottom line is that most voters are voting strategically and think Biden is the best to beat Trump.

Warren should drop out but hopefully, she doesn't endorse Sanders. After the way he and his followers have treated her, he definitely doesn't deserve it.

Very disappointing day. I don't see a way to the nomination now. Sad day for the planet. I don't see Biden doing a lot about economic inequality. It will be more if the same.

As much as i love that Biden won so many states..i really am worried he will not be strong enough to deal with Trump..he seems tired...I guess we shall see what he will do when he debates Sanders. If he can't defend his policies and deal with his past mistakes, Trump will crush him...and we have to win this time or this country is toast...I have never been a Sanders fan but if he is able to vanquish Biden then it is probably for the best...i hate to admit that..but this is no time to play favorites. I think Sanders will run the country like he has his Senate seat, lots of flailing arms with no good legislation..look at his record...but at least it won't be Trump..I could stand 4 years of normal for a change. So i will hold my nose and vote for Sanders, if it comes to that:praying:

So Rachel Maddow interviewed Sanders tonight and she went over how there has been no significant increase in youth and new voter turn out in the primary so far, including all of the Super Tuesday states, and he just blew off the question and couldn't answer it. He still is claiming he would have record-breaking turnout in the general. Just unreal. His whole premise for being the best candidate to take on Trump is a huge fat lie. It's so irresponsible to make these claims with so much on the line.

I gather young voters did come out in California but not as expected elsewhere. Re Bernie, he did acknowledge that turnout was not what they had hoped though apparently not on Rachel Maddow. I might not admit weakness on her show either if I were Bernie. She would probably do a celebratory dance. She really hates him.

If the DNC and the liberal media help defeat Bernie again, they better follow through and elect their lame ass centrist candidate this time. Last time they couldn't and blamed it on us. Such complete bullshit. But maybe they learned their lesson. Surely no one could be as complacent, arrogant and incompetent as Clinton and her campaign.

I suppose, we will soon discover whether Warren is a less selfish, self-centred politician ( person ) than Sanders and quits the race. I suspect in all decency and selflessness, she will. Sanders supporters better pray she is, though there is no reason to think it will help them.

Sanders ( and all Americans ) just might reap what he sowed when his intransigence helped get Trump elected with the subsequent result of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh ( and who knows how many more will come ) sitting on the US Supreme Court long after Bernie has moved on to Valhalla.

Warren drops out
 

Apparently, Warren is ending her presidential campaign - it was a good & honest campaign; her plan was realistic, unlike Bernie's financial plan - which is still a big fat lie. He lies a lot, will say anything to win, to have power, and he doesn't apologize for his words; he also blows off women who confront him with his lies - like he blew off Maddow. I don't think Maddow hates Bernie, I think it was clear that she didn't trust him and was just being polite, you would have to be a fool to trust him. Another old white man who hungers for power, making promises that can't be realized.

All his financial plans, even that of wiping out student debt seems fabulous and over the moon. Here, in Canada, we pay for our education. [I paid off all my student debts, btw.] Loads of poc in the U.S. are poor, living simply, and just working check to check; they are poor and most of the things that Bernie is promising have little to do with their daily lives.

~
 

Biden is no one's fool ~ quiet thunder, he can take Trump on ~ w/ class :)

If I were an American and had an opportunity to vote for Warren, I'd risk "prison" and vote for her a hundred times over. What an amazing, graceful, decent, human being.

I see no evidence that Rachel hates Sanders. She was polite and professional as she always is with all of her guests. At one point she talked about being a progressive herself and that a lot of what he said made sense to her - I can't remember exactly what she said but she was empathizing with him.

It's not the DNC and liberal media taking Sanders down - it's the voters. He is losing at the ballot box. Full stop.

Another thing that bugged me about Sanders - talking about Biden taking money from corporate donors blah blah blah. He won many states on Super Tuesday without spending a dime, having field offices, or even visiting the states! He was the one running on a shoestring budget. Yes, it's his name recognition and people knowing him - Sanders has been in politics as long as Joe has.

People aren't just lining up behind Biden because he is "establishment." Joe knows how to connect with people and build teams and build consensus and build up goodwill just from being who he is.

Amy Klobuchar was asked by Lawrence O'Donnell last night whether she had talks with Biden about a position in his administration and she said no. Maybe she will end up there anyway. But she said she had known Biden for a long time. When he was in the Senate still (which would have been when she was a new Senator) she was giving a speech one day basically to an empty floor and felt no one was probably listening. Then she gets a call in her office. It was Joe Biden telling her he had listened to her speech and called to tell her it was good. He does stuff like that all the time and people remember - sometimes many years later.

Sanders is turning real negative on Biden now. His divisiveness and toxicity and negativity need to go. I hope Biden buries him at the ballot box very, very soon.

Elizabeth Warren is proof you can be a progressive without all of the divisiveness and ugliness. I wish her well and hope she doesn't endorse Sanders.

Rachel said a lot of rude things about Sanders in 2016. Even her own pundits called her on it. It was a thing. People noticed and talked about it. I am not going to argue that. Jeez.

Not just POC. There are many poor POC, but not all POC are poor, and not all poor people are POC.

If we keep sinking candidates like Elizabeth Warren, we’ll never get the leaders we need.
JOHANNA SCHNELLER
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL/PUBLISHED MARCH 5, 2020

I’m not going to feign impartiality here: I am heartbroken that Elizabeth Warren has dropped out of the U.S. Democratic primary race. Once again, a highly intelligent, qualified, organized, thoughtful, empathetic candidate couldn’t get traction with American voters – in large part because she is a woman. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

Democrats – I am one, a U.S. citizen who votes in Pennsylvania – insist they want the opposite of Donald Trump. No one is more opposite to an ill-informed, lazy, petulant, divisive, underqualified liar than Ms. Warren. So what stopped voters from embracing her? They call it caution: “Yes,” goes the conversation I’ve had dozens of times with dozens of people in the last dozen months, “it would be great to vote for my ideal candidate, but Trump is so dangerous, we must elect the practical candidate, the person who can beat him, and I just don’t think Warren can.”...

Meanwhile, the two males who defeated her are the embodiment of shouty, and of risky. To impersonate Joe Biden, Stephen Colbert puts on a pair of aviator sunglasses, tips his head back and YELLS. To do Bernie Sanders, Larry David hunches over, waves his arms, and YELLS. To do Ms. Warren, Kate McKinnon bounds around energetically and whispers. But somehow Ms. Warren is the one who’s too strident.

As for risky – the people I’ve been talking to admit their fears: that Biden is too bland, too middle-of-the-road to appeal to young voters; that Sanders is too divisive, too polarizing to attract the former Trumpers suffering from buyers’ remorse. But they consider those acceptable risks. We must be honest about why that is.

Full confession: I considered not voting for Ms. Warren, too.

Then in the most recent debate, Ms. Warren assailed Mr. Bloomberg, and shook me out of my fugue state. She called him out on his specific practices, his specific ethos. She critiqued things he had done, and explained clearly why they were not acceptable. I actually blushed with chagrin. The ways I’ve been conditioned to put men’s needs first! The things I am willing to forgive powerful men for! And if I’ve internalized the patriarchy to that degree, everyone has.

The spaces of power, the boardrooms and government offices, were not designed for women, or queer people, or people of colour. They’re not set up for our needs. Some of us get in there by accommodating, by contorting ourselves, by lying low or going high, by pretending we don’t notice that we’re being looked through or talked over.

Ms. Warren didn’t pretend to be less than she is. She is smart. She is organized. She does know what she’s talking about. She believes we should listen to her. She knows she’s right about a lot of things, and she doesn’t apologize for it. That threatens, consciously or unconsciously, the public’s comfort level. People love Mr. Sanders’ authenticity, and Mr. Biden’s. Ms. Warren’s authenticity, however – it’s just a bit too much./...

If we keep cutting and running from women candidates at the last minute, we’ll never get the leaders we want. We’ll just keep getting the ones we deserve.

I think Sanders is still viable. There are more than enough states left, and his campaign got a good look at where their weaknesses are. The youth vote did not turn out as expected, for example. Maybe the youth are freaked out by that and will flood the polls in the next few states.

Also Latinx. Texas has a lot of effectively disenfranchised Latinx, but maybe those in the next few states will see this as a wake up call, as well.

I will support Biden, though. It's like eating a Little Debbie when you could have had a donut, but i like Little Debbies ok

......:goodpost:

Referring to the Coronavirus, President Trump announced there was nothing to worry about and the virus will be gone in days.

It was a bit difficult to make out what he was saying because he was wearing a gas mask and in a bunker 30 feet below the White House.

His only concern was that there may not be enough oxygen down there for all his family so Tiffany may have to take one for the family.

watching Trump touring the CDC facilities ...he looks terrified and never takes his hands out of his pockets.

He's such a germaphobe. I'm shocked he even went there!

seems he was dragged by the hair...two minute delay while he go a combover.

~
 

I agree ! He doesn't have enough heart or the mind to have empathy for those who have been afflicted or what to do with a global crisis. Some leader he makes ~ he's deff. a bottom. lolololol bottom Donald. lol and I find your posts amusing as well ~ lol well put homeo !

I actually took a look at headline news on several major networks and it's looking like even mid-America is surging in Blue with support for former Vice President, Joe Biden.

And, while that is a good sign, I saw another tiny little news story (otherwise known as a giant big Red Flag) on how that horrid person in the WH is distracting voters with his latest wrecking ball plan: No payroll taxes.

What a massive load of baloney (BS). You can't run government without the tax base paying taxes. Hundreds upon thousands of government employees, including executive branch members of Congress, The House and other important executive branches operate on tax money procured from American tax paying payers. WTF is that person thinking (rhetorical)?

When will the Republican party come to see how this person is wrecking the country, one wrecking ball slammed into every corner of society? And put a stop, put the kibosh, on this mad person's lunacy???

I also read, partially, the news report about Cliburn (D-SC, House Majority Whip) talked about how he thinks it is a good idea to appoint a African-American woman as Biden's vice presidential running mate. Could they be tendering the name of Georgia's voter advocate warrior, Stacy Abrams?

She would make a helluva Vice President, is what I think.


Like a good many people in America, I am sick of the upending of our democracy by a person who should have never been seated as POTUS.

But it was good to see the mid-section of America making their voices heard loud and clear. Out with you know who, and In with Joe Biden.

Here's to the ever growing Blue Wave of voters who are making their voices heard. I hope it keeps snowballing to the end, and we see the official ouster of that disturbed person who is wrecking ever corner of America.