Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Demovictory9
Demovictory9's Journal
Demovictory9's Journal
December 11, 2020
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1337220913528532992
Trump tonight: "we won the Election anyway - 75,000,000 VOTES!!!"
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1337220913528532992
?fit=1200%2C675
December 11, 2020
Student Loan Cancellation Sets Up Clash Between Biden and the Left
Democratic leaders are pressing the president-elect to cancel $50,000 in debt per student borrower by fast executive action, but he wants Congress to pass more modest relief.
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is facing pressure from congressional Democrats to cancel student loan debt on a vast scale, quickly and by executive action, a campaign that will be one of the first tests of his relationship with the liberal wing of his party.
Mr. Biden has endorsed canceling $10,000 in federal student debt per borrower through legislation, and insisted that chipping away at the $1.7 trillion in loan debt held by more than 43 million borrowers is integral to his economic plan. But Democratic leaders, backed by the party’s left flank, are pressing for up to $50,000 of debt relief per borrower, executed on Day 1 of his presidency.
More than 200 organizations — including the American Federation of Teachers, the N.A.A.C.P. and others that were integral to his campaign — have joined the push.
The Education Department is effectively the country’s largest consumer bank and the primary lender, since 2010, for higher education. It owns student loans totaling $1.4 trillion, so forgiveness of some of that debt would be a rapid injection of cash into the pockets of many people suffering from the economic effects of the pandemic.
Student loans. Biden pressed to cancel $50,000 per borrower, he wants to cancel $10,000
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/us/politics/biden-student-loans.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=HomepageStudent Loan Cancellation Sets Up Clash Between Biden and the Left
Democratic leaders are pressing the president-elect to cancel $50,000 in debt per student borrower by fast executive action, but he wants Congress to pass more modest relief.
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is facing pressure from congressional Democrats to cancel student loan debt on a vast scale, quickly and by executive action, a campaign that will be one of the first tests of his relationship with the liberal wing of his party.
Mr. Biden has endorsed canceling $10,000 in federal student debt per borrower through legislation, and insisted that chipping away at the $1.7 trillion in loan debt held by more than 43 million borrowers is integral to his economic plan. But Democratic leaders, backed by the party’s left flank, are pressing for up to $50,000 of debt relief per borrower, executed on Day 1 of his presidency.
More than 200 organizations — including the American Federation of Teachers, the N.A.A.C.P. and others that were integral to his campaign — have joined the push.
The Education Department is effectively the country’s largest consumer bank and the primary lender, since 2010, for higher education. It owns student loans totaling $1.4 trillion, so forgiveness of some of that debt would be a rapid injection of cash into the pockets of many people suffering from the economic effects of the pandemic.
December 11, 2020
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9041655/Americas-deadliest-week-COVID-deaths-rise-40-percent-15-966-past-seven-days.html#comments
informative COVID19 chart - hospitalizations by state
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9041655/Americas-deadliest-week-COVID-deaths-rise-40-percent-15-966-past-seven-days.html#comments
December 10, 2020
In other mall Santa news, a man portraying Mr. Claus at an Illinois shopping center brought a 4-year-old boy to tears when he said he would not bring the lad a Nerf gun for Christmas. “Nope. No guns,” the Santa at the Harlem Irving Plaza Mall said upon hearing the boy’s request, the Hill reports. “I had to watch my sweet little boy fight back tears because Santa told him 'no' because of his own personal beliefs,” the boy’s mother wrote on Facebook. The mall sent another Santa to the boy’s house the next day to deliver a Nerf gun, per KTVU.
https://www.newser.com/story/299775/mall-santa-allegedly-exposes-himself-to-teen-co-worker.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_crime
mall Santa refuses boy a Nerf gun, "Nope. No guns"
In other mall Santa news, a man portraying Mr. Claus at an Illinois shopping center brought a 4-year-old boy to tears when he said he would not bring the lad a Nerf gun for Christmas. “Nope. No guns,” the Santa at the Harlem Irving Plaza Mall said upon hearing the boy’s request, the Hill reports. “I had to watch my sweet little boy fight back tears because Santa told him 'no' because of his own personal beliefs,” the boy’s mother wrote on Facebook. The mall sent another Santa to the boy’s house the next day to deliver a Nerf gun, per KTVU.
https://www.newser.com/story/299775/mall-santa-allegedly-exposes-himself-to-teen-co-worker.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_crime
December 10, 2020
apparently... Senator Feinstein experiencing sharp cognitive decline, Schumer having talks with her
Jane Mayer of the New Yorker is out with a new story that will make for uncomfortable reading for supporters of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Citing anonymous sources familiar with the 87-year-old California senator, the story asserts that Feinstein's memory and overall cognitive ability have dropped sharply. The issue came to the forefront last month when Feinstein—as the ranking Democrat on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee—asked a sharp question of Twitter's Jack Dorsey in a hearing. The problem is that after he answered, she immediately asked the exact same question again, "seemingly registering no awareness that she was repeating herself verbatim." Mayer also writes that staffers have been struggling to brief Feinstein on various issues because she sometimes forgets she's been briefed.
In one of the more troubling anecdotes, Mayer writes that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer had multiple "serious and painful talks" with Feinstein about relinquishing her leadership spot on the panel. But Feinstein kept forgetting they had the talks, and Schumer had to keep re-raising the issue, writes Mayer. “It was like Groundhog Day, but with the pain fresh each time," a source tells Mayer. The insider likens it to having a talk with an elderly relative about giving up the car keys, but this time, "it wasn’t just about a car, it was about the US Senate." Feinstein has since agreed to give up her leadership post in the committee. Read the full story, which includes the sentiment of some that Feinstein's problems are being exaggerated. It also explores how Congress' old-age problem applies to both parties.
https://www.newser.com/story/299857/for-feinstein-a-painful-groundhog-day-over-age.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_top
December 10, 2020
More than half of U.S. employees currently working from home say they’d like to keep their remote arrangements beyond the pandemic, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday.
One-third of those surveyed said they want the option to telework at least sometimes. Only 11% said they ‘rarely or never’ want to work from home, according to Pew’s October survey of almost 6,000 U.S. adults.
Most Americans won’t have a choice. While almost two-thirds of workers holding a bachelor’s degree or higher said their work can be done remotely, only 23% of those without that educational attainment can, according to Pew.
Pew poll..workers want to continue working from home post pandemic
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/vaccines-herald-return-to-offices-but-workers-don-t-want-to-go/ar-BB1bMCCwMore than half of U.S. employees currently working from home say they’d like to keep their remote arrangements beyond the pandemic, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday.
One-third of those surveyed said they want the option to telework at least sometimes. Only 11% said they ‘rarely or never’ want to work from home, according to Pew’s October survey of almost 6,000 U.S. adults.
Most Americans won’t have a choice. While almost two-thirds of workers holding a bachelor’s degree or higher said their work can be done remotely, only 23% of those without that educational attainment can, according to Pew.
December 9, 2020
Rising anxiety over declining social status tells us a lot about how we got here and where we’re going.
-------
Peter Hall, a professor of government at Harvard, wrote by email that he and a colleague, Noam Gidron, a professor of political science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, have found that
across the developed democracies, the lower people feel their social status is, the more inclined they are to vote for anti-establishment parties or candidates on the radical right or radical left.
Those drawn to the left, Hall wrote in an email, come from the top and bottom of the social order:
People who start out near the bottom of the social ladder seem to gravitate toward the radical left, perhaps because its program offers them the most obvious economic redress; and people near the top of the social ladder often also embrace the radical left, perhaps because they share its values.
In contrast, Hall continued,
The people most often drawn to the appeals of right-wing populist politicians, such as Trump, tend to be those who sit several rungs up the socioeconomic ladder in terms of their income or occupation. My conjecture is that it is people in this kind of social position who are most susceptible to what Barbara Ehrenreich called a “fear of falling” — namely, anxiety, in the face of an economic or cultural shock, that they might fall further down the social ladder,” a phenomenon often described as “last place aversion.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/opinion/trump-social-status-resentment.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Gidron and Hall argue in their 2019 paper “Populism as a Problem of Social Integration” that
Much of the discontent fueling support for radical parties is rooted in feelings of social marginalization — namely, in the sense some people have that they have been pushed to the fringes of their national community and deprived of the roles and respect normally accorded full members of it.
In this context, what Gidron and Hall call “the subjective social status of citizens — defined as their beliefs about where they stand relative to others in society” serves as a tool to measure both levels of anomie in a given country, and the potential of radical politicians to find receptive publics because “the more marginal people feel they are to society, the more likely they are to feel alienated from its political system — providing a reservoir of support for radical parties.”
"last place aversion", article in today's NYTimes about connection between social status & politics
The Resentment That Never SleepsRising anxiety over declining social status tells us a lot about how we got here and where we’re going.
-------
Peter Hall, a professor of government at Harvard, wrote by email that he and a colleague, Noam Gidron, a professor of political science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, have found that
across the developed democracies, the lower people feel their social status is, the more inclined they are to vote for anti-establishment parties or candidates on the radical right or radical left.
Those drawn to the left, Hall wrote in an email, come from the top and bottom of the social order:
People who start out near the bottom of the social ladder seem to gravitate toward the radical left, perhaps because its program offers them the most obvious economic redress; and people near the top of the social ladder often also embrace the radical left, perhaps because they share its values.
In contrast, Hall continued,
The people most often drawn to the appeals of right-wing populist politicians, such as Trump, tend to be those who sit several rungs up the socioeconomic ladder in terms of their income or occupation. My conjecture is that it is people in this kind of social position who are most susceptible to what Barbara Ehrenreich called a “fear of falling” — namely, anxiety, in the face of an economic or cultural shock, that they might fall further down the social ladder,” a phenomenon often described as “last place aversion.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/opinion/trump-social-status-resentment.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Gidron and Hall argue in their 2019 paper “Populism as a Problem of Social Integration” that
Much of the discontent fueling support for radical parties is rooted in feelings of social marginalization — namely, in the sense some people have that they have been pushed to the fringes of their national community and deprived of the roles and respect normally accorded full members of it.
In this context, what Gidron and Hall call “the subjective social status of citizens — defined as their beliefs about where they stand relative to others in society” serves as a tool to measure both levels of anomie in a given country, and the potential of radical politicians to find receptive publics because “the more marginal people feel they are to society, the more likely they are to feel alienated from its political system — providing a reservoir of support for radical parties.”
December 9, 2020
Zappos Tony Hsieh's extreme behavior..starvation diet and fascination with fires
"Drugs, alcohol, extreme behavior: How Tony Hsieh's life fell apart" https://twitter.com/i/events/1336012406510784520?s=09
https://twitter.com/newley/status/1335853445924831233?s=19
December 9, 2020
In pre-pandemic times, Sarah Sheehan always headed to North Carolina for a hectic holiday schedule that included hopping between the homes of several different relatives, a Christmas Eve midnight church service and caroling around the rural county where her extended family lives.
"On Christmas morning, my grandparents, mom and I get together at my mom's sister's house with my uncle and cousins," said Sheehan, 27, a content strategist and consultant in Virginia. "We always have biscuits and sausage gravy, quiche and cinnamon rolls with hot coffee or tea and eat breakfast together while opening presents."
This year, however — with Covid-19 both raging and a handy excuse to bow out of the festivities, Sheehan said — she plans instead to be "curled up with my dog (at home), watching zombie shows while drinking wine and smoking a blunt."
Sheehan looks forward to taking a break from her family's busy holiday celebrations as well as not having to appear as "religious, conservative, or docile as I have to pretend to be when I'm home," she said. "As much as I care for my family, we are incredibly different people. I love being with them in short doses, but a week or more at a time during Christmas is too much."
'Tis the season for avoidance
If you're looking forward to pulling the pandemic card for a hall pass on the holidays with family this year, too, you're not alone.
"Holidays can be a time of joy, but they can also be a time for obligation, so they don't always feel so good," said psychologist Wendy Rice of Rice Psychology Group, a general psychology practice in Tampa, Florida. "It's not easy to get out of things because this is what your family does. It can be hard to break with tradition."
Not everyone is sad to be missing the holidays with family this year
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/09/health/break-family-holiday-tradition-pandemic-wellness/index.htmlIn pre-pandemic times, Sarah Sheehan always headed to North Carolina for a hectic holiday schedule that included hopping between the homes of several different relatives, a Christmas Eve midnight church service and caroling around the rural county where her extended family lives.
"On Christmas morning, my grandparents, mom and I get together at my mom's sister's house with my uncle and cousins," said Sheehan, 27, a content strategist and consultant in Virginia. "We always have biscuits and sausage gravy, quiche and cinnamon rolls with hot coffee or tea and eat breakfast together while opening presents."
This year, however — with Covid-19 both raging and a handy excuse to bow out of the festivities, Sheehan said — she plans instead to be "curled up with my dog (at home), watching zombie shows while drinking wine and smoking a blunt."
Sheehan looks forward to taking a break from her family's busy holiday celebrations as well as not having to appear as "religious, conservative, or docile as I have to pretend to be when I'm home," she said. "As much as I care for my family, we are incredibly different people. I love being with them in short doses, but a week or more at a time during Christmas is too much."
'Tis the season for avoidance
If you're looking forward to pulling the pandemic card for a hall pass on the holidays with family this year, too, you're not alone.
"Holidays can be a time of joy, but they can also be a time for obligation, so they don't always feel so good," said psychologist Wendy Rice of Rice Psychology Group, a general psychology practice in Tampa, Florida. "It's not easy to get out of things because this is what your family does. It can be hard to break with tradition."
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHometown: California
Member since: Tue Feb 27, 2018, 10:32 PM
Number of posts: 32,453