Bernie Sanders Aims to Forgive $1.5 Trillion in Student Loan Debt

Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is calling for a tax on Wall Street to pay for forgiving $1.6 trillion in student loan debt.

Sanders tweeted, “If we can bail out Wall Street (See The $26 Trillion Bailout) we sure as hell can cancel student loan debt,” and “We bailed out Wall Street in 2008. It’s time to tax Wall Street’s greed to help the American people.”

Sanders tweeted who he thought the opponents of his legislation will be: “I am going to make a prediction. The major opponents of our legislation to cancel $1.6 trillion in student debt—mark my words—will be the exact same people who said we had to bail out Wall Street to the tune of billions upon billions of dollars.” In other words, the entire RepubliCON party, most corporate Democrats, Wall Street and major corporate leaders will oppose the legislation.

Tens of millions of US jobs have been exported overseas since the 1970s, especially manufacturing jobs. That is a big chunk of the US tax base that supported such things as universities, K-12 public schools, etc…, and one of the main reasons college has become so expensive in recent decades. The difference between the old higher US wages and benefits and the new considerably less foreign wages with no benefits has gone into the pockets the rich by the trillions of dollars, which clearly represents a redistribution of income, which has fueled massive wealth inequality. Wall Street executives and the affluent have been the beneficiaries of these income redistribution scams.

As for Bernie’s plan to offset decades of the corrupt US government and both corrupt major political parties using trade treaties and legislation to redistribute income from working folks to the rich, he said: “In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, it is simply not acceptable for our younger generation through no fault of their own have a lower standard of living than their parents, more debt, lower wages, and less likelihood of owning their own homes.”

Sanders said this at a Monday news conference detailing the proposal, called the College For All Act.

He added: “That is why this proposal completely eliminates student debt in this country and ends the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation — the millennial generation — to a lifetime of debt for the ‘crime’ of doing the right thing, and that is going out and getting a higher education.”

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IS THIS ANOTHER BIG LIE? IRAN DID IT: Trump show us your proof!

Last week, two oil tankers were hit by explosives in the Gulf of Oman. President Trump immediately declared that Iran did it, and without any evidence to support such a statement. Bush, I mean Trump, claimed Iranian mines caused the explosions. According to crew members of both tankers, the tankers were hit from the air by things that looked strangely like drones.

The New York Times, the Washington Post and PBS have all reported this, but the rest of the billionaire owned corporate news outlets continue to report the Bush, I mean, the Trump lies as being fact. They are marching in goosestep formation with the president. The United Kingdom’s Express newspaper put it bluntly, “THE owner of the oil tanker attacked in the Gulf of Oman dismissed the US claims it was hit by a torpedo, saying two “flying objects” struck the ship,” which is precisely what the New York Times reported.

Some people have long memories, especially me. We remember how George W. Bush and the members of his administration lied us into a war, how they were so incompetent as to allow the most horrific attack on US soil in US history despite repeated warnings from the CIA, the FBI, M16, Mossad, and numerous other intelligence agencies of an impending Al Queda attack. Bush and every one of his major administration heads refused to meet with Bush’s own counterterrorism chief, Richard Clark, until September 12th. According to his biography, Clark wanted to warn Bush of the impending attack and take measures to prevent it, but Bush refused to meet with him. Then the attacks of 9/11 occurred, and Bush ordered an attack against the wrong nation in retaliation, but it had a lot of oil, which brings us back to the bombings of the tankers.

Big Oil is a big financial backer of the RepubliCon Party, Trump included. Escalation of tension with Iran will send oil prices, profits, and stock prices higher. The embargo against Iran has already sent oil prices and profits higher; this is the real reason why Trump is against the Iranian nuclear deal. Letting Iranian oil onto the world market pushes oil prices and profits down.

Of course, the presidential election cycle has also begun in earnest. Trump is way behind in virtually every head-to-head poll against literary every candidate in the Democratic primary. Maybe manufacturing a war with Iran is his way of galvanizing his base, which seems to be shrinking more and more.

Americans should not allow themselves to be lied into war again. Don’t let the media goosestep us into war with Iran with contrived evidence. Let Trump and warmongers come up with real evidence as to why we and our sons and daughters should shed our blood so the billionaires can become wealthier in another profitable oil war.

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Wall Street Joe Biden’s Quick Fade As a Presidential Candidate

The 99 percent of the United States need a champion in the White House (and a lot more in Congress) and Joe Biden is not that person. Biden is a virtual employee of the super-rich, Wall Street executives and big corporations.

The corporate news media made a big play for Biden’s candidacy both before and when he entered the Democratic Party primary. This pushed Biden out to a big polling lead over the anti-Wall Street progressive candidates, such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Biden initially polled in the mid-40 percent range after he announced his candidacy.

This was never a good sign for Biden because he needed to poll over 50 percent in order to win the Democratic Party candidacy. As the twenty or so Democratic candidates fall by the wayside during the state primaries, the eventual progressive candidate who will oppose Biden will likely receive the vast majority of votes that otherwise would have gone to the failed progressive candidates.

Biden’s poll numbers have gradually dropped to the mid to late 20s as his record as a representative of the filthy rich and as an opponent of the vast majority of American citizens are exposed.

For example, Biden has proposed cutting Social Security benefits for working Americans on three occasions. He has also proposed cutting Medicare. As a US senator, Biden was one of the few Democrats to vote to export millions of United States jobs, and redistribute hundreds of billions (if not trillions) of dollars from working Americans to the rich, when he voted for NAFTA. The difference between the old higher US pay the new lower Mexican pay goes straight into the pockets of the rich year after year for as long as those former US jobs exist in Mexico.

Likewise, Vice President Biden was a big booster of the ill-fated Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that would have exported millions more US jobs overseas and redistributed trillions of dollars a year from working Americans to the wealthy in the process.

Many American voters are worried about income and wealth inequality in favor of the affluent. Like Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden, Biden is an architect of these inequalities, and he has the record to prove it, though nobody will hear him brag about it unless it is to the billionaires in private.

Biden is the wrong person at the wrong time for the vast majority of US citizens, and more and more Democratic Party voters can smell the stench of Wall Street all over Joe Biden. Billionaire investors have marked Biden and Wyden the same as cats mark their territory and property.

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