Day: April 12, 2024

Biden Administration Announces $7.4B Student Debt Cancellation

Biden Administration Announces $7.4B Student Debt Cancellation

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on proposed spending on child care and other investments in the "care economy" during a rally at Union Station, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on proposed spending on child care and other investments in the “care economy” during a rally at Union Station, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

OAN’s James Meyers
8:28 AM – Friday, April 12, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/biden-administration-announces-7-4b-student-debt-cancellation/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

The Biden Administration has announced they are canceling an additional $7.4 billion in student loan debt just ahead of the upcoming presidential election. 

Biden said the latest student loan forgiveness plan will target an estimated 277,000 borrowers across America, with the national debt topping $34.5 trillion. 

The president praised his Savings on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, which came after the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) stopped Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. 

“These 277,000 borrowers are enrolled in my administration’s SAVE Plan, or were approved for relief because of fixes we made to Income-Driven Repayment Plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness,” Biden said in a news release. “From day one of my administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity.”

Additionally, Biden said he will promise to “never stop” working to cancel student debt, which took a shot at Republicans who have been in opposition to student loan repayment plans due to the knowledge that taxpayers nationwide would be “picking up the check,” even if they have never attended college.

“Republican elected officials across 18 states want to protect their own constituents from benefiting from the SAVE plan,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “They want to end SAVE and make their constituents’ monthly payments go up and keep them under mountains of loan debt with no end in sight.”

“The president will continue fighting to give people more breathing room and use every tool at his disposal to help borrowers.”

According to the Department of Education (DOE), it said that the new plans would wave built-up and capitalized interest for millions of borrowers, automatically discharge debt for borrowers, and eliminate student debt for borrowers in repayment for 20 years or more. 

Additionally, the plans are also there to help those enrolled in low-financial-value programs, and assist borrowers who experience hardship in repaying their loans. 

The newly announced student loan forgiveness plan comes as 18 states have sued against Biden’s student loan plan. 

Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, North Dakota and Oklahoma have joined a growing number of states and filed a complaint against the plan on Tuesday.

Furthermore, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s (R-Mo.) lawsuit has argued that Biden’s “SAVE” plan, which was originally announced in February, is illegal and would cost taxpayers an estimated $475 billion. 

“With the stroke of his pen, Joe Biden is attempting to saddle working Missourians with a half trillion dollars in debt. "The United States Constitution makes clear that the President lacks the authority to unilaterally ‘cancel’ student loan debt for millions of Americans without express permission from Congress,” Bailey told Fox News Digital.

“The president does not get to thwart the Constitution when it suits his political agenda. I’m filing suit to halt his embarrassing attempt to buy the 2024 election in direct violation of the law. The Constitution will continue to mean something as long as I’m Attorney General.”

According to the DOE, the public will have an opportunity to comment on the proposed actions “in the coming weeks.”

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Democrat Senator Van Hollen’s Tirade Against Israel

Providing more fodder for the Unholy Alliance.

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SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/democrat-senator-van-hollens-tirade-against-israel/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

[Pre-order a copy of David Horowitz’s next book, America Betrayed, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on May 7th.]

Maryland’s progressive Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen is one of the leading members of Congress demanding that President Biden take a much tougher stance against Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza. Bowing to the pressure that is coming from congressional Democrats and from the pro-Palestinian progressive voters the president needs for his re-election, President Biden is buckling under.

President Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their April 4th phone call that future U.S. support for Israel in the Gaza war would depend upon Israel taking concrete, verifiable measures to protect civilians and humanitarian workers. The Biden administration allowed a United Nations Security Council resolution to pass last month that demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza without any linkage to the immediate release of the hostages held by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists.

But Senator Van Hollen, like his fellow Israeli-bashers, is still not satisfied.

Senator Van Hollen wants to immediately cut off the U.S.’s resupply of any weapons that Israel has been using in Gaza to destroy Hamas and free the hostages, which he considers to be “offensive weapons.” During his April 7th broadcast interview on CBS, Senator Van Hollen identified the weapons he said the U.S. should not be sending to Israel as “any more airplanes, bombs, artillery, everything that’s being used right now in Gaza.”

Senator Van Hollen said he was willing for the U.S. to continue providing Israel with purely defensive weapons for use in Israel itself, such as the Iron Dome. But no more weapons that Israel’s military needs to finish destroying Hamas’ fighting capabilities at their source.

It was as if the Democrat senator from Delaware was trying to turn the clock back to October 6th. He wants Israel to respond reactively only after Hamas has already launched its lethal rockets and sent its fighters from Gaza to murder more innocent civilians in Israel. The unprovoked terrorist invasion and massacres in Israel on October 7th proved that such a wait-and-see approach will inevitably lead to a disastrous outcome. Nevertheless, Van Hollen has no problem putting Israel back again in that same vulnerable position against a revived Hamas, leaving unarmed civilians in Israel exposed to more October 7th-style genocidal attacks or worse.

Senator Van Hollen’s willingness to give Hamas space and time to regroup and rebuild its fighting capabilities rather than help Israel finish off Hamas for good is no surprise. He blames Israel, not Hamas, for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

For example, Senator Van Hollen accused Israel of “textbook war crimes” in Gaza by, according to Van Hollen, “deliberately withholding food for children.” This is unmitigated blood libel against the Jewish State of Israel. Van Hollen is propagating the same lies uttered by the United Nations’ Israel-hating so-called “experts” and by biased, self-righteous “human rights” organizations.

Hamas not only started this war with its genocidal attack October 7th on Israel. Hamas has been responsible for the suffering endured by Palestinian civilians in Gaza ever since that horrible day.

Bassem Eid, a Palestinian human rights activist, explained the Hamas-imposed humanitarian crisis this way in his article entitled “My Fellow Palestinians: Stop Blaming the Jews—Hamas Is Starving Our Brothers and Sisters in Gaza”:

“As a Palestinian human rights activist deeply sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinian people and the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I can tell you beyond the shadow of a doubt that the terrorist group Hamas is responsible for the suffering of Gazans.”

“Hamas breached all precedent with an all-out invasion of Southern Israel, massacring over 1,200 innocents in a single day—including 300 young people at an all-night nature dance party celebrating peace… As a human rights activist and a human being, I recognize that it defies all rules of geopolitics, morality, and human nature to suggest that Israel not respond militarily to dismantle Hamas and rescue its people, who we now know are being raped and psychologically tortured in captivity. And yet, amidst the intensity of the ongoing war, Israel has facilitated the transfer of international aid to Hamas-controlled territory—while Hamas has been seizing these essential supplies and transferring them for military purposes.”

Mr. Eid condemned the “failures of an international policy that has foolishly coddled a brutal tyrant and implacable foe.” By leveling false charges of “war crimes” against Israel, Senator Van Hollen is doing the same thing as the UN “experts” and others in the so-called international community, who wear their bias against Israel on their sleeves, are doing. He is amplifying the pro-Hamas propaganda that blames the victim of aggression, Israel, for the sins of terrorist aggressors against Israelis and Palestinian civilians alike.

More than seventy Maryland rabbis of all different Jewish denominations spoke with one voice against Senator Van Hollen’s inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric. “Following the worst pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust,” they wrote in their letter to Van Hollen, “we here at home have faced the worst wave of antisemitism in our lifetimes." Yet to our dismay, rather than standing with us, your efforts in the Senate have only stoked deeper divisions and further isolated Israel and our Jewish community. While Israel fights against terror and threats of annihilation, we are aghast by your claims about war crimes and your portrayal of Israel as the aggressor.”

Any reasonable people who understand that Israel’s survival is at stake as a safe haven for Jews in a world rife with anti-Semitism should be appalled at Senator Van Hollen’s patently false accusations against the Jewish state. They should also be appalled by his calls for immediately cutting off the delivery of weapons that Israel urgently needs to save itself from more genocidal terrorist attacks on its soil. Van Hollen is recklessly providing more fodder for Israel’s enemies to exploit against Israel itself and Jews everywhere.

Muslim Convert Planned Ramadan Attack on 21 Idaho Churches

“I will use my knives and machete to slit their throats and kill them."

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SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/muslim-convert-planned-ramadan-attack-on-21-idaho-churches/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

[Pre-order a copy of Daniel Greenfield’s first book, Domestic Enemies, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on April 30th.]

Coeur d’Alene, an Idaho city with a population of over 50,000, had too many churches. Alexander Scott Mercurio, a new teen convert to Islam, had a plan to “fix that real soon.”

Ramadan was almost over and Mercurio was unhappy because he believed that he was a bad Muslim who hadn’t even assaulted, let alone killed any Christians, and would go to hell.

“I am a hypocrite who has not even spat in the face of a kafir (non-Muslim),” he complained in online chats. “Let alone spilled their blood and induce terror into their hearts and minds.”

Mercurio wasn’t sure if he could be considered a good Muslim without killing Christians.

“I really don’t want to miss out on the opportunity for jihad in Ramadan,” he worried.

While the bloody Islamic holiday of Ramadan is often used as a pretext to warn America, Israel and other countries to stop fighting Islamic terrorists lest it offend Muslims, it’s a time of redoubled terrorism. Mercurio wanted to get in on that murderous spiritual opportunity.

“I’ve been thinking about Jihad. Well, I always am, but I mean it’s Ramadan,” Mercurio agonized. “I have motivation for nothing but fighting, like some kind of insatiable bloodlust for the life juice of these idolaters, a craving for mayhem and murder to terrorize those around me… primarily against churches.”

There are “three or five churches within walking distance of me” who would be objects of his “insatiable bloodlust: for the blood of non-Muslims.

Mercurio decided that he would strike on “the last few days of Ramadan, probably on Sunday, their special day.”

The special day was April 7th also known as the Octave Day of Easter or the Sunday of Divine Mercy, and would have been well known to the Muslim convert who was raised as a Christian by his parents. But Islam has no mercy, certainly not divine and not human either, and neither did Mercurio who fantasized about massacring Christians on “their special day” of mercy.

Alexander Scott Mercurio started out as a white supremacist before converting to Islam at the age of seventeen. He took on a user name meaning ‘total submission’ in Russian (because of his Russian immigrant mother) and whined about North Idaho and his “very Christian and conservative parents” who “want me to stop being Muslim” while he fantasized about building weapons that would allow him to “heap massacres upon the kuffar (non-Muslims) daily”.

The Muslim convert was allegedly working on sending cryptocurrency donations to ISIS while taking part in an online group that attacked the Taliban for not being murderous enough.

Mercurio had allegedly begun chatting with a Muslim terrorist in Gaza who was moving money to ISIS, but then his pal, whom the FBI only says was “believed to have died”, presumably in fighting with Israel, went offline and an informant took over the account and became the receptacle for the convert’s fantasies about killing all the Christians.

“Walk to the nearest church. Stop close by the church, equip the weapon(s) and storm the temple, kill as many as possible…. then burn the temple to the ground, flee the scene, then move onto the next church, rinse and repeat for all 21+ churches in the town until killed.”

Later, the Muslim convert elaborated that he would “walk into a church and then start beating people with the baton; hit them first on the kneecaps and elbows… I will beat them only to incapacitate them, I will use my knives and machete to slit their throats and kill them.”

Then he would set the church on fire.

While Mercurio searched for knives and axes, he really needed something more powerful. After exploring the possibility of building some sort of flamethrower, he decided to get his dad’s guns. Initially he thought about killing or beating his father over the head with a pipe to get the key to the gun safe, and then decided he could just break in and grab the guns while his dad was out.

Mercurio got his ISIS flag, developed his plans, and finalized a script for his ‘martyrdom’ video which included responding to the call of the Islamic State by “killing Jews and Christians” and “his message to the disbelievers to go to hell”.

But his plan to massacre churchgoers with guns, knives and fire ended when he was busted.

What had worried Mercurio most of all was not being caught, but having his act of Islamic terror misrepresented by the media. He was concerned that they would “slander me in the media and call me a mentally ill psycho who did this out of desperation and not as an act of religiously motivated terrorism.”

It would be easy for the media to dismiss Alexander Scott Mercurio as a teen who fantasized about killing people, and if he hadn’t done it for Islam, would have done it as a Neo-Nazi or just a random school shooter. And yet the documents released show that he agonized about trying to be a good Muslim. Failing at other traditional Islamic practices and prone to lapsing into pornography, he found a traditional Islamic loophole to get into 'paradise' through murder.

Mercurio is one of a growing number of American teens who convert to Islam, often in out-of-the-way places and then get involved in Islamic terrorism. Recent cases include Trevor Bickford, 19, of Maine, who tried to attack NYPD officers in Times Square with a Machete, Xavier Pelkey, 18, also of Maine, who tried to recruit two teens for a terrorist attack in Chicago, Cole James Bridges from Akron, Ohio, Mateo Ventura, a high school student in Wakefield, Massachusetts, and Jonathan Xie, a 20-year-old from a New Jersey suburb.

There is a pattern of teenage boys, resentful of their parents and society, with nothing to aspire to and nothing to believe in, drifting into fantasies of violently terrorizing everyone around them.

Islam, like Neo-Nazism, gave Alexander Scott Mercurio something to believe in and kill for.

“I will not live to see the day that the flag of Tawheed (Islam) flutters over every land, nor the day that the entire Earth is governed by the Sharia of Allah,” he wrote. “I will gladly spill my blood again and again to make that a reality.”

Both Islam and Neo-Nazism offered and offered young men the opportunity to kill and then die for a glorious cause, destroying everything around them so that a new dark order will rule the earth.

This primal evil impulse at the heart of Nazism, Communism, Islam and so many other evils is a perversion of the good impulse to build, uphold and to protect that America once used to offer.

Troubled young men seeking direction used to join the military, but now they find only wokeness there. The culture banishes young men, telling them they suffer from toxic masculinity as they drift into movements like those run by Muslim convert and alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate or into Islam itself which preaches they can find meaning by killing Christians.

America needs to do more than spy on these young men, it needs to give them something to fight for. Because if it does not, Islam will. And they will become agents of our ancient enemy to kill, burn and bring down America, Europe and the entire civilized world under the flag of Islam.

Biden Demands Israel Stop Attacking Hamas Even If It Doesn’t Release the Hostages

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SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/04/biden-demands-israel-stop-attacking-hamas-even-if-it-doesnt-release-the-hostages; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

A total betrayal.

The grim farce of negotiating with Islamic terrorists always plays out the same way.

The terrorists keep attacking while playing the victim, make escalating demands and once you start negotiating with them, the negotiations never produce peace and don’t even reliably ensure the release of hostages.

The Biden administration initially rejected the Islamist/Leftist demands for a ‘ceasefire’ during which Hamas would be free to attack Israel. Then came around to proposing to them in exchange for the release of the hostages. And now adopting the Leftist/Islamist position is just demanding a unilateral Israeli ceasefire without the release of the hostages.

Spanish-language television network Univision aired an hour-long, pre-recorded interview on Tuesday in which U.S. President Joe Biden criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The U.S. president appeared to state a previously unarticulated public position in an interview with the channel’s Enrique Acevedo.

“So I what I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks total access to all food and medicine going into the country,” Biden said.

No mention of Hamas here, but then again it has never abided by a ceasefire anyway.

Israel is expected to stop attacking Hamas.

Hamas is not expected to either stop attacking Israel or release the hostages.

So Biden is dropping the pretense that this is about the hostages or about anything other than the supreme victimhood of the Islamic genociders of Gaza.

The Biden administration has demanded more and more concessions from Israel to Hamas. Even as Hamas keeps rejecting the U.S. proposals as not being good enough.

Much like under Kerry, where the State Department negotiated with the terrorists and then demanded that Israel meet the demands of the terrorists, the Biden admin is doing the same thing, except with Hamas.

Hamas has informed mediators that it rejects the latest U.S. proposal for a renewed hostages-for-ceasefire deal, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing sources as saying that the terrorist organization intends to put forward a roadmap for a permanent end to the war.

The U.S. offer would have seen Jerusalem release 900 terrorist prisoners, including murderers, in exchange for 40 hostages, along with a partial IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the unrestricted return of Palestinians to the northern part of the coastal enclave.

The plan proposes that Hamas release more hostages at a later stage following the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza.

Speaking at a women’s event in Jordan late last month, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal declared that the organization’s leadership is “waging a negotiating battle no less fierce” than the military conflict with the IDF, according to a readout of his remarks posted to Telegram by Hamas.

“Inshallah [‘God willing’], we will defeat them in the field and in the negotiating battle,” said Mashaal, adding that the group is also fighting “intense battles” in the media and on the political battlefield.

The terrorists never win the wars, but when the White House is in charge, they win all the negotiations.

Hamas has no reason not to keep turning down deals since those are its only hopes of survival and victory. Thank you Biden.

Guess Which Michigan Politicians Passed Up Chance to Condemn ‘Death to America’ Chants

Robert Spencer | 8:20 PM on April 10, 2024
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/04/guess-which-michigan-politicians-passed-up-chance-to-condemn-death-to-america-chants; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
For politicians, one would think it would have been an open-and-shut case, and in earlier, saner ages in our national life, it would have been. If a group of people in America get together and scream “Death to America,” officials ought to be lining up to condemn them, and there should be investigations and, if non-citizens are involved, deportations. We live, however, in Old Joe Biden’s America, in which the America-hating left is the dominant cultural force, and so some high-profile politicians have been notably wary about condemning calls for the destruction of the nation they have vowed to protect and defend.

The ugly scene unfolded last Friday at the International Al Quds Day rally in Dearborn. Al Quds Day is an annual event that Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini started in support of the Palestinians; even at its most peaceful, its rallies frequently feature calls for the destruction of Israel and a new genocide of the Jews.

In Dearborn, however, as a pro-Hamas activist named Tarek Bazzi denounced the United States as “one of the rottenest countries that has ever existed on this earth,” some of the people in the crowd screamed “al-mawt li Amrika,” that is, “Death to America.” As they did so, Bazzi stood with head bowed, waiting for them to go silent so that he could resume speaking. He gave no hint of disapproval of the chants.

When asked to condemn the chants, some Michigan politicians acted the same way. The Daily Caller reported Wednesday that it had contacted several Democrat elected officials in Michigan and asked them to condemn the chants, and not all of them were eager to jump on any patriotic bandwagon.

Some members of Michigan’s Congressional delegation had no problem doing so. Rep. Hillary Scholten declared: “I fully condemn this dangerous and disturbing rhetoric and will stand strong against hatred, bigotry, and anti-Semitism wherever it exists.”

Rep. Dan Kildee chimed in with this: “I unequivocally condemn such extreme and dangerous speech. Calling for violence, including the destruction of America, is wrong and should be denounced.”

Rep. Elissa Slotkin agreed: “Violent, hateful language has no place in our communities, no matter the cause." I’m grateful to the Dearborn leaders and others for making clear that these statements do not reflect the views of Michigan’s communities.”

All this was pro forma, standard-issue stuff: violence, hate, and bigotry have no place in our diverse blah blah blah. Modern-day politicians can rattle off this tired rhetoric in their sleep, and anyway, condemnations are easy: it is unlikely that Scholten, Kildee or Slotkin will take any action to try to address anti-American sentiment among Muslims in Dearborn. Call for schoolchildren to be educated in America’s virtues and contributions to the world? Call for a recovery of patriotism as a core value of any healthy society? Come on, man! That sort of thing could get them to lose the next election! At least they did, however, go on record condemning the “Death to America” chants. The courage it took to do so was apparently in short supply.

    Related: Yes, It Has Come to This: They’re Screaming ‘Death to America’ In Dearborn

Rep. Shri Thanedar’s office, in contrast, opted to “politely decline” to condemn the chants. The office wonks, however, apparently thought it over and decided that a condemnation was a politically safer path, for subsequently they issued a statement saying that “the Congressman condemns any chants calling for death to America.” Thanedar himself added: “I love America; I immigrated to the USA in 1979 and became a proud citizen in 1988. Any hate towards this great country must be condemned with the strongest words. I am deeply saddened by such attacks on American soil."

Thanedar was not alone in having cold feet, at least initially: Reps. Debbie Dingell, Haley Stevens, Debbie Stabenow, Gary Peters and (what did you expect?) Rashida Tlaib “refused to share their stance on the matter.” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer likewise “did not respond to a request for comment.”

It’s not hard to see why. The Muslim population in Michigan has grown rapidly. Just as Old Joe Biden is betraying Israel to try to ensure that he carries Michigan in November, so also Whitmer and the others have to reckon with the Muslim vote when considering whether they really want to come down against chanting “Death to America.” Of course, if the “Death to America” chanters get their way and America really dies, those who declined to stand for this nation in order to secure short-term political support will look awfully silly. But they aren’t thinking that far ahead.

IN FOCUS: AZ Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Almost All Abortions with Seth Gruber

Tonight IN FOCUS... A CIA contractor brags they can lock anyone up and chop Alex Jones off at the knees to shut him up - who's next? Establishment actors have been issued new scripts on artificial intelligence in an effort to manufacture consent from the masses for their ultimate enslavement. Plus, the Arizona Supreme Court upholds a ban on almost all abortions in the state. Dr. Naomi Wolf joins us to discuss one of her latest theories survival of the weirdest.

Inflation Rises More Than Expected, Posing Dilemma For Federal Reserve

Today, inflation rose again, surpassing expectations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index (CPI) underscores the ongoing challenge faced by the Federal Reserve in meeting its target goals of reducing inflation to 2%. Inflation increased by 3.5% compared to last March, marking a faster pace than February's 3.2%. What implications does this have for interest rates?Eddy Gifford, Wealth Advisor at TACTIVE, joins OAN's Alicia Summers to shed some light on the matter.

Dan Ball W/ Steve Moore, New Damning Inflation Report Out Today, 4/10/24

Inflation Rises More Than Expected, Posing Dilemma For Federal Reserve

Today, inflation rose again, surpassing expectations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index (CPI) underscores the ongoing challenge faced by the Federal Reserve in meeting its target goals of reducing inflation to 2%. Inflation increased by 3.5% compared to last March, marking a faster pace than February's 3.2%. What implications does this have for interest rates?Eddy Gifford, Wealth Advisor at TACTIVE, joins OAN's Alicia Summers to shed some light on the matter.