Today is Thursday, August 25, 2022. Republicans are falling all over themselves in irrationally attacking the President’s latest win in announcing a plan yesterday to wipe out significant amounts of student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans, saying he would cancel $10,000 in debt for those earning less than $125,000 a year and $20,000 for those who had received Pell grants for low-income families. This announcement is covered in an article in The New York Times today by Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Stacy Cowley, and Jim Tankersley entitled “Biden to forgive as much as $20,000 in student loans: Target relief for millions of borrowers after pressure from progressives.”

This debt forgiveness plan represents less than what some Democrats had been pushing for and comes after months of deliberations in the White House over fairness and fears that it could exacerbate inflation before the midterm elections. In remarks from the White House, Mr. Biden said, “All of this means people can start finally to climb out from under that mountain of debt.” He added, this forgiveness will allow these people “to finally think about buying a home or starting a family or starting a business. And by the way, when this happens, the whole economy is better off.”

Across the United States, 45 million people owe $1.6 trillion for federal loans taken out for college – more than they owe on car loans, credit cards, or any consumer debt other than mortgages.” Expecting criticism from the right and even from its own party, the White House sought to address the economic concerns by targeting the relief.

Those students who will be eligible for $20,000 in debt forgiveness on their loans are those who received Pell grants and they represent about 60 percent of borrowers. The majority come from families making less than $30,000 a year. So for those who plan to criticize this decision by the Biden administration for favoring rich families, they do not have their facts right – as always.

Millions of other borrowers will be eligible for $10,000 in debt relief, as long as they earn less than $125,000 a year or are in households earning less than $250,000 a year. The amount of the loan to these individuals will be assessed based on the income reported in 2021 or 2020. To me, this figure hardly characterizes people who are immensely wealthy getting loan relief.

Already the party of Dumpf is slamming the program as “Biden’s bailout for the wealthy.” Thus President Biden rejected claims that his plan would hike inflation and expand the deficit and wisely punctured repugnican complaints by indicating that many of them had voted for Dumpf’s 2017 tax cut bill, which disproportionately favored the wealthy and corporations that don’t pay taxes. Damn them, I say. This plan will certainly win favor among young voters who will vote during the midterms.

It was many other Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups who argued that addressing economic racial disparities would require forgiving $50,000 of debt, citing reports showing that Black and other nonwhite borrowers end up with higher average loan balances than their white peers. One of those progressives, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, said, “Targeting twice as much relief to Pell recipients helps close the racial wealth gap.” However, she praised Mr. Biden’s announcement as “historic.” She continued her approbation of this “historic” decision: “No president in history has reached so directly into the lives of so many millions of working people and said, ‘You invested in yourself to get an education, and the rest of the country wants to help you with that.'”

Recognizing the impact this debt forgiveness could have on the midterms, Representative Tony Cardenas, a California Democrat who met with the White House to advocate debt cancellation, said even this limited relief could be the galvanizing factor Mr. Biden’s party needs before the midterms. He said, “That’s a lot of young people that are going to be able to have a sigh of relief.”

One of those students who will benefit from this new program is Marlene Ramirez, 25, who relied on Pell grants and other aid to pay for her undergraduate studies. She is the first in her family to attend college, and she used the grants to cover two years of study at a community college, then transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles. After she graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, she was left with $25,000 in federal loans that she had used to cover her housing and living expenses. When she heard the news of Biden’s new plan, the young graduate said this, “I was standing in my dorm room when I heard this, and I just let out a scream.” She admitted that her loan forgiveness will “almost wipe out” her current debt and she confided that “I’m shaking right now. This is life-changing.” Well, there you have one excited supporter of this program. That number can now be duplicated millions of times over, as other college graduates react to the news.

With this new initiative, I hope this drives one more nail into the coffin of repugnicans’ expectations of achieving victory during the midterms in November.

Did you hear this? A federal judge recently ruled that the Justice Department must release a redacted version of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit by noon tomorrow. The affidavit lays out why investigators believe there was probable cause that crimes had been committed.

This developing story is reported by Tierney Sneed for CNN on my smartphone in “Justice Department ordered to release redacted Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit.”

Earlier yesterday, the DOJ submitted its proposed redactions to U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who issued the order for the public release. Justice Department prosecutors have emphasized that they need continued secrecy in order to not disrupt the ongoing criminal investigation – as witnesses who have or could share information are protected throughout the process, as well as keeping confidential grand jury activity.

In his order, Reinhart said he was convinced that portions of the affidavit should remain sealed because “disclosure would reveal (1) the identities of witnesses, law enforcement agents, and uncharged parties, (2) the investigation’s strategy, direction, scope, sources, and methods, and (3) grand jury information.”

All I can say about this news is that some overweight, narcissistic megalomaniac in Mar-a-Lago will have very little opportunity to have a good night’s sleep, knowing that more details about why his golf resort was “raided” by agents of the FBI will now be revealed to the public on Friday. I can’t wait until 12 tomorrow. What about you?

Today Elliot and I traveled to Orchard Street in Lower Manhattan in order to satiate ourselves – and to take my mind off my upcoming hernia procedure – at Russ & Daughters Cafe since our amazing housekeeper “Lareto” was scheduled to come to our apartment after 10. This legendary full-service eatery opened in 2014 and was closed all throughout the pandemic. I learned by accident that it had reopened very recently, so we decided to make the odyssey down to Elliot’s childhood neighborhood. We could not make a reservation earlier for a table for two, since the cafe does not take reservations for so few people.

All in all, we had a lovely day, despite the humidity experienced outside. We were able to sit on a bench inside the cafe after I gave the hostess my telephone number. We waited, maybe, ten minutes before the young woman called out my name and ushered us to a spacious booth.

Our breakfast consisted of having the chopped liver appetizer and then ordered the classic that consisted of gaspe nova-smoked salmon topped with cream cheese, tomato, and onion on a bagel. I preferred an everything bagel, while Elliot had a plain bagel. For a beverage, I had two cups of hot coffee, while Elliot had a cold drink.

After our satisfying but costly breakfast, we decided to walk toward the Angelika Theater, located on Houston Street, to see the film A Love Song at 2:45. Our enthusiasm for seeing the movie waned by the time we met at 2:30; Elliot went to get a haircut at his mother’s old nail salon which is now a barbershop and I trolled the bookstores, as usual. I went to the Mercer Street bookstore and then walked to the Housing Works bookstore on Crosby Street. When we met, we decided to separate; Elliot went home, while I stayed longer in the city.

At the point of separation, I walked to Bleecker Street where I frequented Codex Books. There I did buy a book, Philip Roth’s Zuckerman Unbound. I have always liked Roth’s writing, so I focused on this one book in a series of novels featuring the principal character of Nathan Zuckerman as Roth’s alter ego. I thought buying this book was coincidental since I just borrowed a memoir of one man’s friendship with the inscrutable author from the Forest Hills Library called Here We Are. Another coincidence is that the author of this latter book detailing his years as the friend of the world-famous writer is Benjamin Taylor whose memoir The Hue and Cry at Our House I had read recently. I didn’t even know I had Taylor’s book until I found it on one of my book shelves and deemed it interesting from reading the back cover. The book dealt with his family’s reaction to the assassination of John F. Kennedy while he was an elementary school student living in Texas. One other interesting fact about Taylor is that he’s gay, which I didn’t know until I began reading his book.

I then walked into Think Coffee for another cup of coffee and a peach muffin.

At that time, it was past 4, so I walked to Bleecker Street to take the F train back to Forest Hills.

Tomorrow I will be taking a break from the blog since I will be attending another one of Hedda Lettuce’s movie nights at the Village East Cinema. This time, she will be introducing the camp classic Mommie Dearest starring Faye Dunaway in the role that made her a gay icon, Joan Crawford. I must have seen it at least five times at this writing. Tomorrow could signify my sixth time of seeing this film. I saw it for the first time when it first came out, which was in 1981.

So I will say have a nice weekend.

Stay safe and be well.