Another somewhat unrelated thought....at what point will campaign rallies stop being held? All the major presidential candidates are in their late 70s, this Covid-19 virus could inflict some damage on all of them at the same time. It would be utter chaos.

....Ditto...

Again, ditto...

Yeah I meant rich Dems like Silicon Valley CEOs. Seems like every day there's some rich liberal saying he'd rather have Trump than Sanders. And I meant the politicians who serve their interests.

Katzchen:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has proposed some of the most robust plans for tuition and student loan debt reform of any of the candidates so far. In April 2019, Warren and her team published a proposal on what she would do to solve these issues:

*Mass student loan forgiveness. Warren proposed forgiving up to $50,000 in federal student loans for all borrowers with a household income of $100,000 or less. Her plan would offer partial forgiveness to those who make between $100,000 and $250,000, and no forgiveness to those who make more than $250,000.

Warren’s campaign website now has an interactive tool that shows borrowers how much loan forgiveness they could receive under her student loan cancellation plan.


Joe Biden, former vice president and former U.S. senator

*Simplify income-driven repayment plans, and allow student loan borrowers who make less than $25,000 to reduce their payments to $0 without accruing interest on their debt. Borrowers who make more than $25,000 annually would pay just 5% of their discretionary income (the current plans cap payments at 10% or more) and be eligible for forgiveness after 20 years.

*Simplify the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and allow eligible borrowers to get $10,000 in forgiveness annually for up to five years


Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

*Cancel all outstanding U.S. student loans, totaling $1.56 trillion, regardless of borrowers’ income levels, a move which Sanders says would boost the economy by about $1 trillion over the next 10 years and create 1.6 million new jobs annually. He also says canceling student debt would give millions of Americans the resources they need to buy a home, purchase a car or start a small business.

*** Information above is NOT what these candidates will do for present and future school loan holders. Hope this helps you and the others vote for what is in your personal interest.

This is why i stayed with Sanders. I have more than 50k in loans and more than 100k in (household) income

The new polls show that Biden got a huge bump from Klobuchar and Buttigieg leaving. He might get Texas now. That's all fair. I'm not whining, but CNN and the Press this morning just can't contain their delight. And that pisses me off.

Biden will for sure get Texas. I'll be very interested to see who gets my county, though. We elected a socialist judge last time

Thanks!

Here is the problem that is I see with all their so-called remedies: That Loan Forgiveness piece? There is no such thing as getting your loans forgiven under the long-held remedy of working for a company that offers to have your loans forgiven if you work X amount of years and make timely payments during those X amount of years. I've spoken with a number of call centers with loan servicers who service my 6-figure school loans and all of them confirm that there is no such remedy, which used to be a remedy offered to people who took jobs in the government sector (which paid low wages, yet offered health benefits you ordinarily can not get with the standard American employer).

Second problem: Every year I apply for an Income Driven Repayment plan, especially since that horrid person took office in the WH, loan servicers (FedLoan, Navient, US Dept of ED, etc) -- each agency used to have reliable inter-office communication practices whereby each agency used the same set of data stored on file, but now they don't. It's like none of them talk to each other like they used too all along. Now you have to print off three or more copies of the same document and ship them out to each loan servicer so they can all be on the same page, yet they are not on the same page.

It's like some mind boggling chess game they play with student loan borrowers, hoping to trip the levers that spell: Default, whereby then? They raid all of that person's earnings and leave no earnings for the loan borrower to survive on, even if they are lucky to have an extra job or several 'side hustles' to earn extra money to live on. It all spells serious trouble, if you ask me.

I have six figures in Student Loans. I earn less that the imaginary amount of $50K. None of the plans offered by *any* presidential contender stand out to me as a plan that will go into effect IF they are elected to be POTUS.

What is said, is not always what goes down. That's my experience.

I think the last lines of your post A. Spectre state it perfectly because it is exactly the experience I have been experiencing for the past several years (see quote below):

This is why I am having trouble believing any of the 'promises' any contender uses as their party-line platform to attract voters.

None of their plans work. Not of those plans ever worked in the past.

It's maddening and terribly frustrating and I find it insulting that they think student loan borrowers (with all our yearly issues of hurdling paperwork by any loan servicer) cannot connect the proverbial dots as to whether their plan will work or not.


But thanks my friend, I appreciate you.

Super Tuesday Is Here!

I'm so nervous and excited at the same time. I'm sure happy for the last few days. What I'm looking for:

Biden: There are strong indications that he is getting a huge bounce since South Carolina. I believe it will be evident in the results, despite all the early voting. As long as he is fairly close to Sanders in delegates after this I will be happy. I honestly don't know how close he needs to be but most of Sanders best states are today and more favorable states for Biden coming up.

We actually probably won't know for sure where things stand due to all of the mail-in votes in California, which can take days if not weeks to count. I think Sanders will win California but Biden will hold his own. There are plenty of moderates and more conservative voters in the state. Also, early voting is huge in California but looks to be down by quite a bit this year and a lot of it seems to be with people over 50.

Sanders: We keep hearing about massive turnout - especially the young and new voters. We haven't seen it yet - well we saw massive turnout in South Carolina but it wasn't those people. If it doesn't happen today then when will it? The theory from Sanders and his followers seems to be that he is the best to go up against Trump since he will have the biggest voter turn out in history based on the youth and new voters loving Sanders. I am HIGHLY skeptical of this. I'd rather take my chances with a fired-up base, and Obama campaigning hard for Biden than risk me and my country's fate on unreliable voters - especially when there is no evidence that Sanders is doing this.

He does have rabidly loyal followers, a strong ground game, and overall is running a good campaign. The bottom line is I do think Sanders does have a definite ceiling that isn't enough for him to legitimately win the nomination. Maybe 25-30% at most of the Democratic Party voters want him. The rest do not.

The best bet for any change at all is to keep or expand our majority in the House and win back the Senate. Without that, nothing passes.

Bloomberg - I hope he bombs bigly. He has donated a lot of money to help Democrats get elected, and on issues that I care about, but he is now running a vanity campaign that is just hurting Biden. Based on a recent interview he thinks he can "horse trade" at the convention even if he has significantly fewer delegates. No. I don't believe he has purchased any advertising beyond Super Tuesday, so maybe he will drop out after today. Or if he does stay in he has less than a week to advertise for the next states coming up and that seems unlikely to be effective.

I don't want the message to be that billionaires can buy elections. Not all will be as "benevolent" (not really sure how much he is at this point) as him. I want him to fail big time.

Warren - I don't know that she will do very well compared to Sanders and Biden but it will be interesting to find out.

p.s. I really would like a diverse ticket if Biden wins the nomination but I loved Klobuchar's endorsement speech - yes a lot was re-worked from her campaign speeches and debates - but I do think she would be a great Vice President and ready in case something happened to Biden. And her campaigning in the Midwest could really help against Trump. So I do agree with kittygrrl on Klobuchar.

Wow, so much rambling from me. I'm nervous, lol.

Biden won my county 121k to 92k Sanders
Bloomberg beat Warren 47k to 36k

341 for Marianne.

Biden
 

Well, Biden is sweeping delegates across the U.S. - Clyburn's endorsement had a huge effect on Biden's way to doing well throughout the southern states - as well, the effect of Buttigieg & Klobuchar dropping out and having endorsed Biden, and even Beto O'Rourke's endorsement of Biden.

In a funny way, Warren is sticking in and has said she will stay in right through to the convention. I have seen how many delegates she has taken (I think, 42 so far !), and it seems she is spoiling it against Bernie (at least in one state), although no way she can win the nomination. Considering how dismissive Bernie has been to Warren (even the time he accused her falsely of being a liar in one debate - and she confronted him about this, and he blew her off), I don't blame her for staying in and, whether deliberately or not, sticking it to Bernie. I will always like and respect her for speaking truth to power, to both Bloomberg and to Bernie. In real time, I have done the same, and yes, I have paid a price for that, but at least I sleep with a clear conscience.

And, breaking news - Bloomberg has dropped out of the presidential race - and has endorsed Biden!

Earlier this week Paul Begala at CNN predicted Trump would select Nikki Haley as VP. I think this will happen now that Trump will probably go up against Biden.

I had been hoping the nominee (Biden or Sanders) would choose a woman as his running mate, but if the Democrats have to go up against Trump/Haley, then I think the only ticket that may work is a Biden/Sanders ticket with Sanders as the VP.

Still, I just don't see how we can win the 2020 election.

And that is the simple truth. Without a House and Senate to back them up, there is a limited amount that the President can do. The President can pass Executive Orders all he/she wants, but those can easily be overturned as soon as somebody new is in the President's seat.

Joe Biden
 

I have just checked Joe Biden's chart, and on the 3rd of November of this year, Biden has Jupiter (luck and prosperity), Pluto (power), and Saturn (responsibility) all trine (the best of good aspects that one can have) his MC (his place in this world), which augurs very well for him winning the presidency. There are other indications which I won't go into, which have much to do with his destiny - and encompass his sense of service, compassion and humanity, traits which mark him and his life. :)

Yes, definitely, and Biden definitely understands this and talks about how important the Senate and House are all the time, so I am confident his campaign in November will focus on this as well as the Presidency if he is the nominee. Maybe if Bloomberg's ego isn't too bruised he will help with that as well.

Well, I am pumped and ready for the Blue Wave! Biden did better than I expected - I never dreamed he would win Massachusetts and Minnesota. I guess Amy Klobuchar knew what she was doing, lol.

I am also ecstatic that Bloomberg did indeed fail bigly! Kudos to the American voters.

Sanders indeed does have a ceiling and still no signs of his huge turnout of youth and new voters. He should go all out to try to win Michigan next week. It was his most impressive win in 2016. I don't think he can overcome Biden overall at this point though.

With all that has happened, I think the bottom line is that most voters are voting strategically and think Biden is the best to beat Trump.

Warren should drop out but hopefully, she doesn't endorse Sanders. After the way he and his followers have treated her, he definitely doesn't deserve it.

Very disappointing day. I don't see a way to the nomination now. Sad day for the planet. I don't see Biden doing a lot about economic inequality. It will be more if the same.