Anonymous ID: 1bf22f July 18, 2023, 10:22 a.m. No.19201521   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>1992 >>2162 >>2220

Updated: July 18, 2023 - 9:21am

‘Reprehensible.' Congress skewers Biden education chief for email to students attacking SCOTUS

President Joe Biden's education chief sent a mass email to student loan borrowers claiming the Supreme Court erred in striking down the cancellation of their debt, a fresh attack on the integrity of the justices that generated an instant rebuke from Congress.

"We believe the Supreme Court got it wrong," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote in the email, which was sent to Just the News by several borrowers who received it over the last few days.

The department is "taking action aimed at opening an alternative path to debt relief for working and middle-class borrowers," Cardona added in the email. "We started the process to provide relief to as many people as we can, as fast as we can, through the rule-making process."

DoECardonaStudentLoanLetter.pdf

Members of Congress told Just the News on Monday they found Cardona's email to be an inappropriate attack on the legitimacy of the nation's highest court.

"It's reprehensible number one. I mean, this flies in the face of the Supreme Court ruling," Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., a member of the House Education Committee, told the Just the News, No Noise television show Monday night.

"This is the Supreme Court, the law of the land, and you have Secretary =•Cardona who says 'Man, don't worry about the Supreme Court. Really the only voice of reason, the only voice that really matters is mine==. I mean, at the end of the day, who does this? Who does this guy think he is?" she said. "I mean, we have three co-equal branches of government for a reason. It's the Supreme Court's job to interpret the law, not Cardona's. So stay in your lane."

Georgia Republican Rep. Austin Scott condemned what he said was disrespect for the Supreme Court, saying Biden effectively reneged on the debt limit deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy by claiming he was resuming student loan payments then abruptly offering a new plan to forgive the debt.

Biden's actions, Scott told the John Solomon Reports podcast, "is just proof that there's an intent to mislead from the administration as much as there is a lack of respect for the Supreme Court."

Rep. Austin Scott: Biden public rebuke of SCOTUS on student debt program after deal with GOP is effort ‘to mislead’Rep. Austin Scott: Biden public rebuke of SCOTUS on student debt program after deal with GOP is effort ‘to mislead’

Biden’s student loan "relief" pledge dates to his 2020 campaign, when he called for "a minimum of $10,000/person" of federal student debt to be wiped out, and was likely a motivating factor for young voters, who showed up in droves for Biden in the 2020 election. The 6-3 ruling by the justices late last month negated the plan as unconstitutional.

After the court decision, Cardona emailed borrowers that hisagency was employing "every tool" possible to "provide debt relief to borrowers" in spite of the ruling.

The alternative path in question is a plan announced Friday to cancel $39 billion in student loans for 804,000 borrowers on the grounds that payments made under income-driven repayment (IDR) plans "should have moved borrowers closer to forgiveness" but "were not accounted for," according to the Education Department.

Biden, writing in a Friday press release, said the plan goes into effect immediately.

“Starting today, over 800,000 student loan borrowers who have been repaying their loans for 20 years or more will see $39 billion of their loans discharged," he stated. "When the Supreme Court made the wrong decision, I immediately announced a new plan to open an alternative path to relief for as many borrowers as possible, as soon as possible."

Defense of Freedom Institute President, Bib Eitel, also told Just The News Sec. Cardona is "attacking the Supreme Court and the rule of law."

"He doesn’t get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow."

 

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/education/email-shows-sec-cardona-touting-loophole-student-loan-bailouts-after

Anonymous ID: 1bf22f July 18, 2023, 10:42 a.m. No.19201622   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>1638 >>1992 >>2162 >>2220

18 Jul, 2023 16:45

US pressuring Ukraine for ‘decisive breakthrough’ – WaPo

Washington fears Kiev’s counteroffensive may not be able to deliver as powerful a blow as previously expected, the outlet claims

 

US officials are reportedly concerned that Ukraine is not making enough progress in its much-lauded counteroffensive, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday citing anonymous sources.

 

According to the outlet, Washington is urging Kiev to commit to a decisive breakthrough as Ukrainian commanders have yet to employ the large-scale offensive tactics they were taught by Western instructors.

 

An unnamed US official explained to the Washington Post that the West had trained Ukrainian forces in integrated offensive maneuvers, as well as provided mine-clearing equipment, andstressed that it was “paramount” that Kiev’s troops quickly apply those capabilities to breach Russia’s defenses.

 

Western officials have reportedly criticized Ukraine’s military for embracing an attrition-based approach aimed at firing artillery and missiles at command, transport and logistics sites at the rear of Russian positions instead of usingWestern-style “combined arms”operations that involve large-scale maneuvers featuring tanks, armored vehicles, infantry, artillery, and air power, the outlet said.

 

Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War have pointed out that Ukrainian commanders have chosen to embrace more low-profile advances involving groups of 15 to 50 soldiers in order to preserve manpower. The Washington Post also noted that Kiev has so far only fielded “four of a dozen trained brigades in the current campaign.”

 

Kiev’s attemptsto breach Russiandefenses have so far been met with “overwhelming artillery, anti tank missiles, loitering munitions and helicopter fire” which have caused significant losses. Russia’s extensive use of drones has also presented a challenge that “not even American forces – for all their combat experience in recent decades – have faced on this scale,” the Post said.

 

Experts have said that while advances on foot would likely reduce the attrition sustained by the Ukrainian army, such tactics would be much slower and be much less likely to provide an opportunity for a rapid breakthrough.

 

Ukrainian officials, in turn, have rebuked demands from their Western counterparts to speed up the operation and have instead stressed the need to avoid unnecessary losses and complained about the lack of air support.

 

Kiev has repeatedly pleaded with its Western backers provide its forces with US-designed F-16 fighter jets, arguing that they would play a key role in countering Russian air power.

 

Western officials, however, have reportedlyinsisted that the jets would not be a “game changer,” while Russia has responded by saying the aircraft would be destroyed like any other foreign military equipment in Ukraine.

 

https://www.rt.com/news/579915-us-pressuring-ukraine-breakthrough/

Anonymous ID: 1bf22f July 18, 2023, 10:48 a.m. No.19201650   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>1992 >>2162 >>2220

18 Jul, 2023 14:27

Crimean Bridge damage hasn’t affected Russian military potential – White House

NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby has pointed out that Moscow has many alternative routes to supply its troops

Crimean Bridge damage hasn’t affected Russian military potential – White House

 

John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, speaks at the daily White House briefing at the White House on July 17, 2023 in Washington, DC. © Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

The attack on the Crimean Bridge in the early hours of Monday does not appear to have disrupted Russian military supply routes in Ukraine, according to the White House. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow had already stopped using the bridge to move military cargo.

 

During a press briefing on Monday, the US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, John Kirby, said that officials in Washington “haven’t seen any impact of the strike on the bridge to Russia’s defensive posture and their military capabilities in Crimea or in Southern Ukraine.”

 

He noted that Russian forces continued to actively engage the Ukrainian military, “trying to push back elements of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.”

 

According to Kirby, while it is still too early to predict if and how the attack will affect Moscow’s military capabilities in the long run, it still has “many, many, many other ways of providing logistics and sustainment to their troops in Ukraine.”

 

“So, my hunch would be that this won’t have a dramatic effect on – on them,” he said.

 

Kirby went on to mention that the US was not prepared to attribute the incident to any party. He added, however, that even if Ukraine was behind the blast, it had every right to attack the bridge as “Crimea is Ukraine.”

 

Speaking that same day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Washington’s position that the Ukrainian military has carte blanche in terms of choosing its targets.

 

Russian authorities say two seaborne drones were used in the attack which took out one span of the road section of the bridge.

 

President Putin denounced the incident as “yet another terrorist attack by the Kiev regime,” and stated that the “Crimean Bridge has long not been used for military transport.”

 

While Ukrainian officials have not claimed responsibility for the attack, they have welcomed it. Several Ukrainian media outlets have reported that thebridge was damaged as the result of a “special operation” by the country’s security services and naval forces.

 

The structure, which was built in 2018 to connect Crimea to the Russian mainland, was targeted by a truck bombing last October.

 

(Is Kirby telling Kiev to stop attacking useless targets that are civilian use only?)

 

https://www.rt.com/news/579903-white-house-crimea-bridge-supply-routes/

Anonymous ID: 1bf22f July 18, 2023, 10:54 a.m. No.19201673   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>1992 >>2162 >>2220

18 Jul, 2023 14:41

US believes Western warplanes won’t help Ukraine – WaPo

Kiev’s forces should instead focus on a “combined-arms approach,” American officials have told the newspaper

 

Even if Ukraine receives modern Western-made jets, they will be of little use because of Russia’s powerful air defenses, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed US officials.

 

Amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive that Moscow claims has failed to gain any ground, officials in Kiev have stepped up requests for advanced aircraft, particularly US-designed F-16s, arguing they could play a key role in countering Russian air power.

 

While Kiev’s Western backers have announced a training program for Ukrainian pilots to fly the jets, they have yet to greenlight their delivery.

 

According to the Washington Post, Ukrainian officials have rebuked their Western counterparts, claiming that ifthey were in the same situation as Kiev, they would never have pressed ahead with a large-scale offensive without air support.

 

“So, to say that it [the offensive] is slow or too fast is at least ridiculous to hear from those who have no idea what it is,” the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny, told the paper.

 

However, according to unnamed US officials interviewed by the Post, “Western jets would have little utility” for Ukraine in the current circumstances because of Russia’s “extensive air defenses.” Instead, one source argued that Kiev’s best tactic would be to rely on a “combined-arms approach.”

 

Another US official told the paper that while Washington has trained Kiev’s troops how to conduct offensive maneuvers and has provided them with mine-sweeping equipment, they are still struggling to overcome strong Russian anti-tank defenses and drone strikes. “We don’t underestimate or under-appreciate that it’s a very tough situation,” the source added.

 

Citing F-16 pilots, Bloomberg reported in May that while the jets would definitely help Kiev,they would not be a “game changer” because their radars and missile systems are inferior to modern Russian equipment. That would mean using the warplanes either defensively or as part of high-risk operations.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that if the West proceeds with F-16 shipments to Ukraine, the aircraft “will burn” just like other hardware. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that F-16 deliveries would be an escalatory move as they can carry nuclear weapons.

 

https://www.rt.com/news/579907-western-planes-little-use-ukraine/