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The Supreme Court has invalidated President Joe Biden’s student loan debt relief plan, meaning the long-delayed proposal intended to fulfill a campaign promise will not go into effect. The justices, divided 6-3 on political lines, rejected the Biden administration’s arguments that the plan was lawful under a 2003 law called the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, or HEROES Act. The law says the government can provide relief to recipients of student loans when there is a “national emergency,” allowing it to act to ensure people are not in “a worse position financially” as a result of the emergency.
Biden said the ruling was disappointing and vowed to take additional steps to relieve the financial burden on those holding student loan debt. “I will stop at nothing to find other ways to deliver relief to hard-working middle-class families,” he said. “My administration will continue to work to bring the promise of higher education to every American.”
Biden has been talking a good game for quite a while now, and we have to ask ourselves why we’ve been so supportive of him. It could be because he was President Obama’s right hand, which, for some, gave him an automatic stamp of approval. Or, it could be because in the 2020 election he was the lesser of two evils, which caused us to be more receptive to the storyline he was feeding us. Biden has always hooked us in, but he has a long history of being disconnected on the issues of race and economic development in the Black community.
Biden won 92 percent of the Black vote in 2020, and he needs just as much to win re-election next year. But the reality is that he hasn’t honored the current soil or done the real work to fulfill promises that he made. The truth is, he’s made no difference in Black people’s lives.
Student loan debt has been the culprit for making the racial wealth gap wider over the past few decades. Black families had 25 cents for every dollar of white family wealth, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Because Black families have less wealth, their children typically need to borrow more for their education. Nearly 85 percent of Black students graduate with their bachelor’s degree holding student debt, compared to nearly 70 percent of white bachelor’s degree recipients.
Because of historic racial and economic inequities, Black student loan borrowers struggle to repay their debt more than their white peers. Without student loan forgiveness, these challenges will only get worse.
Biden’s Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona called out Republicans by name for their hypocrisy on student loan forgiveness and for accepting “millions of dollars” for their businesses through COVID-era loans. “It’s outrageous to me that Republicans in Congress and state offices fought so hard against a program that would have helped millions of their own constituents,” Cardona said.
I had the opportunity to attend a virtual White House briefing with Cardona, Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal, and Deputy Director of the White House National Economic Council Bharat Ramamurti to discuss the Supreme Court’s decision and what happens now.
The administration has three immediate focal points.
- First, under an alternative authority, the Higher Education Act, they will seek to provide debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible. The first step is a public hearing to take place later this month that will be in partnership with the public’s opinion.
- Second, with loan repayments beginning in the fall, they are focused on the most vulnerable borrowers who may not be able to make their payments. It’s a 12-month on-ramp period in which payments will be due and interest will continue to be accrue. However, if a borrower misses a payment or two, they will not be put into delinquency, go into default, or be reported to a credit agency.
- Third, they are rolling out an income-based repayment plan which they call “extraordinarily generous” plan for lower income and middle-class borrowers. Under this plan, those who had been making significant monthly payments before will be paying substantially less and, in some cases, nothing at all. These borrowers would also still qualify to have their loans forgiven under any new plan.
Honestly, I didn’t hear anything hopeful within this briefing. It’s more of the same, and these are not permanent solutions. The alternative plan they are aligning with now is from 1965. I don’t understand why they continue to force a square into a circle.
Student debt as a means of running a mass higher education system dependent on tuition has failed. The income-based plan, in particular, will not work in my opinion. As student loan balances escalate, repayment has become increasingly difficult. The solution for student loan default has been complex, including refinancing defaulted loans with loans that are not yet in default. Perhaps, they believe the answer is to simply reduce required payments to a give back a percentage of disposable income. What I see is converting the short-term problem of delinquency into a long-term problem of nonrepayment.
I believe that Black voters are just tired of being tired; tired of being disappointed whenever our issues are never addressed. The seeds always seem to get planted — to pacify us — but the soil is never tended to. Biden has been pandering to us for years, especially when it’s time to vote. His pledge to achieve his first-term promises have forced most of us into frustration because those promises have fallen by the wayside. The fact that he will not directly and progressively address this student debt issue is a disgrace. When things don’t go according to what you said publicly, Joe, you can’t just sweep them under the rug and think we’ll forget.
Canceling student loans completely will grow the economy. Student debt changes how Black households decide where to live, what type of career to have, and whether to start a family or a business. Biden has to create a progressive plan that will cancel student loan debt and not just temporarily remediate it.
The Supreme Court has invalidated President Joe Biden’s student loan debt relief plan, meaning the long-delayed proposal intended to fulfill a campaign promise will not go into effect. The justices, divided 6-3 on political lines, rejected the Biden administration’s arguments that the plan was lawful under a 2003 law called the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, or HEROES Act. The law says the government can provide relief to recipients of student loans when there is a “national emergency,” allowing it to act to ensure people are not in “a worse position financially” as a result of the emergency.
Biden said the ruling was disappointing and vowed to take additional steps to relieve the financial burden on those holding student loan debt. “I will stop at nothing to find other ways to deliver relief to hard-working middle-class families,” he said. “My administration will continue to work to bring the promise of higher education to every American.”
Biden has been talking a good game for quite a while now, and we have to ask ourselves why we’ve been so supportive of him. It could be because he was President Obama’s right hand, which, for some, gave him an automatic stamp of approval. Or, it could be because in the 2020 election he was the lesser of two evils, which caused us to be more receptive to the storyline he was feeding us. Biden has always hooked us in, but he has a long history of being disconnected on the issues of race and economic development in the Black community.
Biden won 92 percent of the Black vote in 2020, and he needs just as much to win re-election next year. But the reality is that he hasn’t honored the current soil or done the real work to fulfill promises that he made. The truth is, he’s made no difference in Black people’s lives.
Student loan debt has been the culprit for making the racial wealth gap wider over the past few decades. Black families had 25 cents for every dollar of white family wealth, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Because Black families have less wealth, their children typically need to borrow more for their education. Nearly 85 percent of Black students graduate with their bachelor’s degree holding student debt, compared to nearly 70 percent of white bachelor’s degree recipients.
Because of historic racial and economic inequities, Black student loan borrowers struggle to repay their debt more than their white peers. Without student loan forgiveness, these challenges will only get worse.
Biden’s Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona called out Republicans by name for their hypocrisy on student loan forgiveness and for accepting “millions of dollars” for their businesses through COVID-era loans. “It’s outrageous to me that Republicans in Congress and state offices fought so hard against a program that would have helped millions of their own constituents,” Cardona said.
I had the opportunity to attend a virtual White House briefing with Cardona, Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal, and Deputy Director of the White House National Economic Council Bharat Ramamurti to discuss the Supreme Court’s decision and what happens now.
The administration has three immediate focal points.
- First, under an alternative authority, the Higher Education Act, they will seek to provide debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible. The first step is a public hearing to take place later this month that will be in partnership with the public’s opinion.
- Second, with loan repayments beginning in the fall, they are focused on the most vulnerable borrowers who may not be able to make their payments. It’s a 12-month on-ramp period in which payments will be due and interest will continue to be accrue. However, if a borrower misses a payment or two, they will not be put into delinquency, go into default, or be reported to a credit agency.
- Third, they are rolling out an income-based repayment plan which they call “extraordinarily generous” plan for lower income and middle-class borrowers. Under this plan, those who had been making significant monthly payments before will be paying substantially less and, in some cases, nothing at all. These borrowers would also still qualify to have their loans forgiven under any new plan.
Honestly, I didn’t hear anything hopeful within this briefing. It’s more of the same, and these are not permanent solutions. The alternative plan they are aligning with now is from 1965. I don’t understand why they continue to force a square into a circle.
Student debt as a means of running a mass higher education system dependent on tuition has failed. The income-based plan, in particular, will not work in my opinion. As student loan balances escalate, repayment has become increasingly difficult. The solution for student loan default has been complex, including refinancing defaulted loans with loans that are not yet in default. Perhaps, they believe the answer is to simply reduce required payments to a give back a percentage of disposable income. What I see is converting the short-term problem of delinquency into a long-term problem of nonrepayment.
I believe that Black voters are just tired of being tired; tired of being disappointed whenever our issues are never addressed. The seeds always seem to get planted — to pacify us — but the soil is never tended to. Biden has been pandering to us for years, especially when it’s time to vote. His pledge to achieve his first-term promises have forced most of us into frustration because those promises have fallen by the wayside. The fact that he will not directly and progressively address this student debt issue is a disgrace. When things don’t go according to what you said publicly, Joe, you can’t just sweep them under the rug and think we’ll forget.
Canceling student loans completely will grow the economy. Student debt changes how Black households decide where to live, what type of career to have, and whether to start a family or a business. Biden has to create a progressive plan that will cancel student loan debt and not just temporarily remediate it.
Soon the world will meet a new Clark Kent in Superman: Legacy. DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran are rebooting the most famous superhero in the world as they transition the franchise from the DCEU to the DCU. Who will play the Man of Steel on the big screen this time around? What kind of story will we see him in? And who will bring it to life?
Gunn also neither confirmed nor denied whether Lex Luthor will appear in his Superman movie. But he did agree with Rosenbaum that if Lex Luthor does appear in the DCU, he’ll be grounded and real.
Here’s everything we know about Superman: Legacy…so far.
Title
The DCU’s first official movie (though not its first official release) is titled Superman: Legacy. That will kick off the film side of what James Gunn has called the franchise’s first chapter, “Gods and Monsters.” He has also called Superman: Legacy “the true beginning” of the DCU.
Superman: Legacy‘s Plot
While the film still has no official synopsis, Warner Bros. did provide a description of what we can expect from the story, which James Gunn says is not an origin tale.
Superman: Legacy tells the story of Superman’s journey to reconcile his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent of Smallville, Kansas. He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way, guided by human kindness in a world that sees kindness as old-fashioned.
Gunn announced the film with art from the cover of All-Star Superman by writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely. Whether or not that means the story is influenced, inspired by, or adapted from the 12-issue comic series in any way is unclear. What Gunn has said is the movie will focus on “an earlier part of Superman’s life,” where he is still old enough to already be working for the Daily Planet.
In a recent interview, Gunn did tease that a potential fan-favorite character might be part of the movie. The idea of Krypto the Superdog appearing in Superman: Legacy was batted around by James Gunn and Chris Pratt. But whether everyone’s favorite heroic canine will really appear is yet to be 100% confirmed.
Superman: Legacy‘s Cast
We now know who will play both Superman and Lois Lane in the movie! While the last several weeks saw James Gunn dropping hints about the process, like on the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast, Gunn confirmed on June 27 that he’d found his Clark and Lois. Deadline reported Gunn and co-CEO Peter Safran have selected David Corenswet to play Superman. The actor has a number of credits, including Pearl and We Own This City, however this will be his first leading role in a major studio movie.
As for Lois Lane, while other names like Emma Mackey and Phoebe Dynevor were on the finals list, Gunn chose Emmy-winner Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) to play the intrepid reporter. Honestly, you absolutely need someone brassy and self-assured to properly assay the role of the star Daily Planet journalist, and Brosnahan has that for days. Excellent choices.
In addition, four more actors have joined the cast of Superman: Legacy. Isabela Merced will play Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi will play Mister Terrific, Nathan Fillion will play Green Lantern Guy Gardner, and Anthony Carrigan will play Metamorpho.
Behind the Scenes
James Gunn wrote the (definitely completed) script and is directing. On Twitter he also announced pre-production has already begun on the film.
For fans worried about possible interference from Warner Bros. Discovery executives, Gunn said his DC Studios operates independently and he won’t be getting any notes on his script from them.
Superman: Legacy‘s Release Date
Superman: Legacy will soar into theaters faster than a speeding bullet on July 11, 2025.
Originally published on April 11, 2023.
The post Everything We Know About the DCU’s SUPERMAN: LEGACY appeared first on Nerdist.
We love ourselves some Judy Greer here at Nerdist. Put her in more things. Put her in everything! She’s always good. When she was in Halloween (2018)? We loved it! (And subsequently we did not love what happened in Halloween Kills.) Greer takes center stage in Aporia, a new sci-fi thriller which is set to premiere at the 2023 Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal. In it, Greer deals with debilitating grief by messing with time. It doesn’t go how she wants. Take a look at the trailer below.
Aporia feels like a mix of Primer and The Butterfly Effect, but completely centered around loss. Greer’s character so badly wants her husband (Edi Gathegi) back that she allows a machine to send a “bullet” through time. The results aren’t just as clean as “yay, my husband’s back!” Wouldn’t be much of a movie if they were, yeah?
The movie comes from writer-director Jared Moshe and also stars Payman Maadi. Gathegi, as you probably recently learned, will play Mister Terrific in James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy. Check out the cool poster below as well.
Aporia will have its world premiere at Fantasia Film Festival on July 27 ahead of the film’s August 11 US theatrical release.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.
The post Judy Greer Messes with Time Travel in Sci-fi Thriller APORIA appeared first on Nerdist.
You would think stopping the literal end of the world would earn you some serious bonus points with Heaven. That’s not what happened in Good Omens first season, though. Angels wanted to fight Satan’s army just as much as demons wanted another war with God’s. Neither side cared billions of innocent people would die as a result. Only one angel and one demon did. So what happened to our favorite supernatural beings once they helped foil Armageddon? Here’s where Crowley and Aziraphale stand with the forces of Heaven and Hell ahead of Good Omens season two.
Why Did Angels and Demons Both Want War on Good Omens?
“Wars are to be won” and “not avoided” is an obviously evil stance for anyone to take. It’s the kind of attitude we’d expect to hear only a truly evil leader say. But those were the words of Heaven’s archangels on Good Omens. Ten million celestial beings wanted to take up arms against ten million equally excited soldiers of Satan. After thousands of years of anticipation both sides were eager to finally destroy the other.
Neither Heaven nor Hell worried all humans would die in the ensuing war. Angels and demons alike certainly didn’t care about destroying Earth itself, either. If not for one single angel and one single demon Heaven and Hell would have had the Apocalypse they so desperately wanted.
Why Did Aziraphale and Crowley Want to Stop Armageddon?
Azariphale and Crowley had called Earth home since Adam and Eve resided in the Garden of Eden. Over six thousand years the two had not only grown quite fond of each other, they’d grown fond of the lives they’d built for themselves among humans. Working with little supervision, they’d been mostly free to partake in Earthly delights. Whether reading, listening to Queen, or getting drunk, they both had it good on Earth. They also both had a soft spot for humans and a general dislike of their respective kind. Hell is dreadful and full of uninteresting cretins. Heaven is sterile and full of smug elitists. But Earth is full of interesting things and people.
So once the two learned Satan was sending his son the Antichrist to trigger the Apocalypse, Aziraphale and Crowley conspired to work together and stop it entirely. Their initial plan didn’t come together as they’d hoped, but in the end they helped prevent the End Times. Good news for mankind, yes. But you don’t stop a war every other angel and demon crave without creating armies of supernatural enemies.
How Did Heaven and Hell Punish Aziraphale and Crowley
Heaven kidnapped Aziraphale and Hell kidnapped Crowley shortly after the pair stopped Armageddon. Both faced the ultimate punishment.
Despite claiming to be on the side of good, Heaven’s highest ranking officer delighted in ordering Aziraphale’s death. The Archangel Gabriel had wanted war with Hell more than anyone. Not getting to lead Heaven’s forces caused him another big problem, too. Gabriel had to deal with a lot of frustrated, bloodthirsty angels.
Meanwhile, Gabriel’s counterpart in Hell, Lord Beelzebub, served as judge over Crowley’s trial. Once Hell’s demons convicted Crowley for treason, Beelzebub sentenced “the traitor” to a painful death, too. For him that would mean bathing in Holy Water, delivered to Hell by the Archangel Michael herself. Crowley had killed a Duke of Hell the same way earlier in the season.
In Heaven a demon delivered literal Hellfire to aide Gabriel in murdering Aziraphale. But once more the duo ruined their superiors’ plans.
How Did Aziraphale and Crowley Avoid Death in Good Omens Season 1?
Angels and demons might be supernatural beings, but they’re not especially smart or competent. They were no match for their two Earth-wise counterparts with millennia of experience working as unlikely partners. Especially not when the final nice and accurate prophecy of the witch Agnes Nutter warned Aziraphale and Crowley their respective factions would come looking to punish them for stopping Armageddon.
Thanks to her warning they had planned for their death sentences by swapping bodies. That’s how Crowley was able to survive his Holy Water bath. it was really Aziraphale splashing around in a liquid that is totally harmless to angels. And in Heaven it was actually Crowley bathing in Hellfire, which couldn’t possibly hurt him.
Why Do Heaven and Hell Fear Aziraphale and Crowley?
Not only did their clever switcheroo save their lives, it also granted Aziraphale and Crowley another measure of protection. Gabriel and the other archangels couldn’t understand how Aziraphale survived Hellfire. Nor could Beelzebub and the other Dukes of Hell make sense of how Crowley could be immune to Holy Water. As a result both factions grew fearful of the two friends.
They seemed more powerful than any other angel or demon. So as “Crowley” told Beelzebub, it was probably best if they simply left the two of them alone.
That’s where the two stand before Good Omens second season. Each has been branded a traitor by their former faction. Heaven and Hell both hate Aziraphale and Crowley, but they also fear them. So as Crowley had said the night they stopped Armageddon, the two no longer have a “side.” They don’t belong to Heave on Hell. They are on their own side.
But Heaven and Hell will come calling on the two again. “They’ll leave us alone,” said Crowley. “For a bit.” Good Omens season two trailer show it won’t a very long bit.
Probably not the best news for our favorite angel and demon. But it will be for fans.We need Aziraphale and Crowley just as much as Heaven and Hell ever did.
Good Omens returns for its second season on Prime Video on July 28th.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
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