politics
https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1155305122911723526
"Yesterday I announced that, as president, I’ll establish a student loan debt forgiveness program for Pell Grant recipients who start a business that operates for three years in disadvantaged communities."
So let's see if I get this straight. If someone proves their worth by getting a grant AND then succeeding against some really steep odds for three years (which probably suggests a lot of financial support tucked somewhere), they get bailed out, and EVERY OTHER STUDENT in the fuckin' USA, trying to do ANYTHING else, can go fuck off and struggle with oppressive poverty.
This is not exactly a shining new hope I'm happy to vote for. Fucking Republican.
re: politics
@Leucrotta I mean, if they help everyone, then they might have time to develop thoughts beyond 'must survive, must not drown in debt'... And that's dangerous because then they'll actually have time to become aware of the shit around them and might not be passive pushovers to keep repressing.
Keep offering a carrot on a stick, give it to a chosen few, and keep the rest trying to run towards it in desperation to be the next one instead of seeing the pattern.
Maybe I'm extremely overly cynical by this point.
re: politics
@Veladynee It's the same old Democrat bullshit - we want everyone to be able to code in the next tech boom that makes our cities too expensive for Blacks and Latinos, but we don't need archaeologists, animators, fisheries scientists, social workers or anything that doesn't make money hand over fist, and we aren't interested in resolving how student debt is this huge looming problem.
It's at the point where outside of Warren (because they will never run Sanders, they're too committed to villifying and blocking him) the Dems just don't *have* a possible presidential candidate I'd feel okay voting for.
re: politics
@Veladynee And it bothers me because if they run anyone who's the same old crap, and *somehow* carry the Presidential election despite gerrymandering, voter suppression, and disenfranchisement among those of us whose vote can count, then we'd get... the same old crap, which means that even if we get a Democrat president in 2020, we won't have that in 2024 and I'm scared of what worse than this could be.
re: politics
@Veladynee Back in 2015 or so I thought that Sanders was running to drag the Dems back a little further left, and then they basically did this huge shutdown and character assassination job and kept on marching in the same old, you-vote-for-us-because-we're-not-them groove.
The whole thing screws with optimism, and this is personally painful (the older I get the more I discover I *like* and find utility in being sincerely optimistic).
re: politics
@Leucrotta Yeah, and the same old crap will just mean it'll swing harder next time... and it won't get any better because those who are committing the acts won't be stopped during the 4 years of an empty suit Dem. I just... Hope we get enough push this election to change something, because I fear the worst. I dread it, because we haven't gotten there yet... but we're spiraling damn well quickly towards it.