Sonali Kohatkar at Pressenza describes “Why Student Debt Cancellation is Reasonable, Not Radical.” Right-wingers love to use small business owners as a human shield, even though their own economic policies have driven most of them out of business (and, ah, small business owners have student loan debt, too!), but “student debtors are in trouble precisely because they didn’t get the same government benefits compared to their predecessors.” Remember when California’s state schools were tuition-free? That was true until 1967, when Gov. Reagan made Californians start paying – because, in the words of his advisors, an educated working class is a dangerous thing – and today’s students pay more than twice what students in the mid-’70s paid. Folks who think of this issue only in terms of Starbucks baristas majoring in gender studies won’t be convinced, but then nothing will ever convince them of anything, so how about we stop letting them set the terms of debate in America?
If you know someone who still thinks abortion should be illegalinallcasesnoexceptions, you may want to refer them to the story of Mayron Michelle Hollis’s ectopic pregnancy in Tennessee, a state with one of the “toughest” anti-abortion laws in America now that Sam Alito has worked his grotesque will. The story is harrowing from start to finish – and it’s still not over – and don’t brook anyone saying well she shouldn’t have gotten addicted to drugs ha ha ha snort high five where they ought to be saying “there but for the grace of God go I.” You probably won’t be surprised to learn that most of the legislators who voted for Tennessee’s abortion ban didn’t read it or understand it, but don’t feel sorry for them because they'll all face primary challenges from their right if they do their jobs. One of these Republicans should try fighting extremism, maybe? Anyway, I actually think the abortion issue is pretty simple to decide: if you’re against it, don’t get one, and don’t force everyone to be just like you.
Trinity Tran at TruthOut instructs us that “The SVB and Signature Bank Crashes Show Why We Need Public Banking.” The argument resembles conservative and moderate arguments in favor of Medicare-for-All: the private sector has screwed up so badly that our government couldn’t possibly do worse! And with our government swooping in to save every last dollar of the Silicon Valley Bank failure – even beyond the $250,000 FDIC threshold, do those rich clowns deserve that? – why not just cut out the middleman? And certainly we shouldn’t be giving welfare handouts to rich investors while decrying the “moral hazard” of, say, mortgage cramdown for families who only have one home. I’m starting to think I should just slap folks who use the phrase “moral hazard.” What, they're going to prove they’re substantial thinkers? Substantial thinkers don’t even have to theorize about public banking when they can just point to the Bank of North Dakota.
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