7 Things: Students crushed less in Alabama during pandemic; state spared from RSV surge … so far; and more …

7. Student loan program paused

• After news last week that Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and a Bush-appointed judge declined to take up challenges to President Joe Biden’s student loan giveaway, an appeals court decided they would pause the program and take a look at it.
• The Biden White House will not be deterred by laws and rulings. WH spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said, “[Friday’s] temporary order does not prevent borrowers from applying for student debt relief at studentaid.gov – and we encourage eligible borrowers to join the nearly 22 million Americans whose information the Department of Education already has. It also does not prevent us from reviewing these applications and preparing them for transmission to loan servicers.”

6. We are still talking about Jim Crow?

• The non-stop narrative of voter suppression by the media and their Democrats shows little chance of slowing down in spite of a mountain of evidence showing Jim Crow, Jim Crow 2.0 and Jim Eagle are deader than Stacy Abrams’ ability to feel shame.
• Early voting is going on all over the country, but Georgia was the main focus of this ridiculous narrative and that state is seeing record turnout. According to the New York Post, “Monday, the Peach State’s first day of early voting, saw more than 131,000 ballots cast, an all-time record and nearly double the number for the first midterm voting day in 2018. By Wednesday, it was up to 434,546 between absentee and early in-person votes, with the latter tally soaring 76% over 2018”

5. Military will pay for travel for abortion, showing how ineffective federal law is

• Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin continues to lead a Defense Department that is more interested in acting as an ineffective campaign arm than a group of killers. The DoD has announced a new travel allowance for service members and their families to travel to get abortions.
• Federal law is pretty clear, abortions can only be provided in cases of rape, incest, or when the health of the mother is at risk. The Biden administration knows all of this and is asking people who know better to challenge their illegal behavior in court, which will happen.

4. How about no tax rebates or cuts at all?

• State Sen. Garlan Gudger (R-Cullman) believes the calls to use surplus money to provide money back to Alabama citizens is the wrong thing to do with the money. Gudger believes we should put the money in savings and prepare for the coming rainy days.
• Some legislators want tax rebates, some want tax cuts, some want both but Sen, Gudger says, “I’m in favor of what Greg Albritton’s plan is – to have kind of a safety account and savings account for the state of Alabama and continuing to pay off our debt. I think that’s the right thing to do as you have a surplus, just like you’d do in your home.” He’s probably right but the legislators see the pile of money and want to do something with it.

3. A subpoena for Trump on a Friday, less than 3 weeks from the election, seems legit

• With Democrats seeing their hopes fading for the elections taking place in a little over two weeks, their narratives of election deniers and democracy are failing, it appears a new push to make the next election about a riot at the U.S. Capitol and a former president’s behavior is on. The subpoena of former President Donald Trump from the ultra-political, ineffective and prejudiced Jan. 6 committee on the last day of their last public hearing less than 3 weeks before an election reads like a bad plot from “Veep.”
• The Department of Justice will surely treat Trump more like Steve Bannon and less like former Attorney General Eric Holder, so this battle will go on past the next election. However, it is obvious this committee is trying to make an impact on an upcoming election, which most people thought was their ploy, anyway. The media tells us “democracy” is on the ballot in 2022 and 2024 but the American people see it differently. A New York Times/Siena poll shows that 84% of Americans view the media as the biggest threat to democracy.

2. Hospitalizations of children up nationwide, Alabama not there, yet

• The RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is impacting children in large numbers all over the nation. The CDC believes this is only going to get worse: cases have tripled in two months and the numbers are near the peak numbers of 2021.
• Alabama may not be getting the brunt of this right now, but Georgia and Mississippi are. Fear of less immunity due to how COVID-19’s pandemic kept kids from being exposed to seasonal viruses. Twenty-six states say their hospitals are beginning to be stressed and more than 70% of pediatric hospital beds are full nationwide.

1. We screwed these kids

• The state of the American public education system is bad, a new report shows that it is getting increasingly worse because of the pandemic. The impact is real and devastating for both math and reading. Fear not, Alabama sucked less than others, holding steady in reading and dropping less than most in math.
• The report states that math scores for fourth-graders fell 5 points since 2019 and 8 points for eighth-graders. For reading, average scores for both grades fell 3 points, this is being caused by the disruption of the pandemic and reliance on remote-learning being forced by the media, medical establishment, teachers and Democrats … but I repeat myself.