Comments

1

Abundant snow in the mountains (great news for skiers), lots of rain in the lowlands, icy cold arctic temperatures headed our way for a bit, our climate is delightfully normal.

2

Cancel the moratorium on payments? Cancel the ending of the moratorium on payments? Or cancel all student debt? I don't think Biden can unilaterally cancel all debt - it would take Congress.

I can see the generational backlash coming: "I paid my loans back, how is it fair that millennials get their debts cancelled?"

3

No canceling loans. That is absolute bullshit. However, I think all loans should be converted to zero interest, and any interest paid to-date should be credited toward the principal. This is fair.

4

Apparently the main reason Biden won't just go ahead and cancel student debt already is that much of it is securitized, meaning not only would the government take the hit on the loans but investors would also clamor for a bailout, which would be politically as well as financially costly as Congress would have to approve. Cancellation is not impossible but it's not quite the low-hanging political fruit many think it is. Read the Investopedia entry for Student Loan Asset Backed Securities (SLABS).

5

@1,

The weather is normal, not the climate.

7

@6: And rob them from the moral maturity committing to their obligations and being good citizens, how cruel.

9

College should be free. If you're accepted, you shouldn't have to worry about anything and just go. It's ludicrous that it isn't like that. I don't care that you paid your piddly-little loans back. Good for you! Go have a cookie. X, Y and Zoomers got absolutely wrecked by college costs, with each generation paying substantially more than the previous. "Rob them from the moral maturity..." whatever. Ok, Boomer! Enjoy your tax cuts.

10

@9: Public two year community colleges, sure. But you want tax revenue paying for the tenure of Ivy League professors and college deans? Wouldn't that be better going to the climate change?

11

Serious question: Did Durkan have regular meetings with the Council?

12

Of course debt cancellation would be unfair. Debt jubilees are always unfair, which is why they should be rare occasions (like, once in a century, if even that often). But we now find ourselves, due to decades-old bad policy choices, in a situation where tens of millions of young people can't start families, work in their chosen careers or plan for retirement (let alone their own children's futures) because they are saddled with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt that (let's be honest here) they had little choice under this system but to accept. A thriving civil society cannot endure under such conditions. It just can't! If you say it's unfair that you had to pay your debt if others don't, all I can say is you're right, and I'm very, very sorry. I sincerely mean it when I say I feel your pain.

I paid my own relatively small loans decades ago (I'm a trailing-edge boomer) but I recognize that a broad cancellation now (say, the first $50k for those making under $200k, with a gradual phase-out to avoid a cliff) is good social policy that outweighs its considerable inherent injustices. I'll freely admit to @2, 3 and 7 that is not an easy moral calculation to make. And yes, it absolutely must be accompanied by the kind of structural reforms that ensure that this injustice never happens again.

13

I think the cops in Graham will discover that the car was delivered to that auto yard by Winston Wolf.

15

@13,

I would have loved to have been there when they discovered the body. I can just see the slimy auto yard workers popping the trunk, then looking away in horror moments before the bass drums kick in from the Law & Order theme song.

16

The student loan forgiveness program is such BS. You only qualify if you had a certain kind of loan (though they DO make a big fuss about it being about being a public servant).

A friend of mine has been a legal aid lawyer since she graduated from law school in the '90s. She had to borrow $70K to go to college/law school. She paid back $179,000, every payment on time and never missed a payment.

Years ago she was told 4 years worth of those loan payments would be paid by the government. Nope. Never happened. And despite all the big talk currently happening, she won't receive a dime from the government.

Now, she didn't choose to be a legal aid lawyer to get her loans forgiven, but the U.S. government loves to make promises it never keeps.

If we an afford to have corporations and billionaires pay zero dollars in taxes and forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in PPP loans, then we can easily dispose of student loan debt. It is the single most effective way to increase the wealth of the population, specifically the poor and the non-white. FFS, the budget given to the Pentagon and DoD could be cut by 2/3, tax the corporations and billionaires their fair share (and more importantly make sure they pay it), and refuse to allow corporations to pad their corporate profits on the back of taxpayer dollars (read: food stamps and other social services) instead of paying real wages and this country could see an unprecedented economic boost.

But nah, we'll just push out people having to pay back their student loans by a few more months and that will solve everything.

17

We shouldn't cure cancer, it wouldn't be fair to all the people who already died of cancer.

18

@10 LOL! You think the Ivy League needs student tuition?! OK, Boomer!

19

As soon as Congress changed bankruptcy laws to exclude student loan debt it should have been clear to everyone that creating a modern form of indentured servitude for the managerial class is meant to be a feature, not a bug.

20

@10 You know what else? I think I'd be much happier with "my" tax money going to Ivy League profs than Erik Prince and his Merry Mercenaries of Blackwater.

I'd take that in a minute over another tax subsidy or government handout for Elon, Jeff, Bill and Warren.

I'd rather watch those Ivy League Profs sip their lattes and talk shit about Thomas Aquinas than watch uniformed border guards snatch little kids from their parents and ship them off to who-knows-where. I'm still paying taxes for the latter, by the way, and so are you.

Wouldn't you rather have Ivy League Profs benefiting from tax money than the widow-and-orphan-maker industry?

And about that Climate Change issue, why not just fix it? I mean, we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan to fix them and no one ever questioned the cost of that, and no one seems particularly concerned about it. Let's just do the same thing with the climate, Boomer.

21

@18: Actually, if there is public funding of education including vouchers for private elementary and high schools, the same courtesy should be extended to private colleges as well.

22

@9, @18, @20 TacomaRoma, the "Boomer" put-downs don't make you sound hip or cool, they make you sound like a first-rate asshat.

23

Thank you Pretty In Pink, more tedious stereotypes & so little knowledge.
My experience with university, was it was free. This was early ‘70s, and we had just elected a revolutionary PM. He Introduced socialised medicine, free University, pensions for single parents, beginnings of Land Rights for our First Nation’s Peoples, etc. The boomers brought this change, with our votes. Young boomers then.
Over the decades, uni costs again, without interest, I think, and only kicks in when the person has earned over a certain amount.

25

"Mayor Teargas"
"Gassy Jenny"

The Stranger has itself reported how the Mayor does not have the power to order the SPD to use, or to stop using tear gas. That is the reason her recall effort was unanimously rejected by the Washington State Supreme Court:

"...Durkan's camp argued that she did act to limit SPD's actions, that she couldn't have banned tear gas and pepper spray because that would have violated the consent decree, and that controlling SPD was Best's job."

(https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/12/10/53509808/supreme-court-unanimously-rejects-durkan-recall)

Does anyone really want the Mayor to command the SPD as if it was her own private army?

26

@25:

Well, SOMEBODY has to command them, since they've proven time and again to be completely incapable of commanding themselves...

27

Jas Keimig just moved to Seattle five years ago. Before that, she was going to school in Massachusetts. You can't expect these new grad transplants to be familiar with the details of Seattle public policy, like whether or not the mayor is entitled to direct the SPD on minutiae of crowd control techniques.

Fortunately, you don't have to know such things to get a gig at The Stranger. All you have to do is write juvenile shit like "gassy Jenny lol" and a bunch of idiots will give you likes on Twitter.

Of course, it's not working that well since The Stranger is financially spiraling despite scamming the COVID aid fund for millions of dollars last year (as documented by Erica Barnett). Expect all these new grad transplants to be unemployed in the near future.

28

Great attention to cops in other cities murdering folks, like Manny Ellis in Tacoma... just remember to ignore Seattle cops... way too close to home & scary... https://hjgale.tumblr.com/post/661009838278639616/what-seattles-investigation-of-the-spd-killing

30

What is it about lettuce and Dole Fresh Express salad mixes these days? First, frogs in Romaine, and now a Listeria outbreak?

31

@30: Okay. That's it then. Bring on the red wine and gluten free dark chocolate cake!
How many gluten free dark chocolate cakes have been recalled? And remember, folks, chocolate comes from a bean and beans count as vegetables, so it's healthy!


Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.