Bits 'n pieces from east, west and beyond
East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling, still pivoting around the U.S. Capitol:
Newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden quickly got to work. His first actions, according to multiple media accounts, included: requiring the federal government to reduce overseas purchases in favor of goods made in the U.S. to boost employment; rejoining the Paris climate accords; revoking the Keystone XL pipeline permit; rejoining the World Health Organization; repealing the Muslim and African travel ban; offering the Russian president a five year extension of the New START Treaty (which limits the U.S. and Russia each to no more than 1,550 strategic offensively deployed nuclear weapons); planning for citizenship for Dreamers; ending the ban on transgender servicemen and women; reversing the rollback of vehicle emission standards; ensuring that people who refuse jobs due to COVID-19 safety concerns are not denied unemployment benefits; continuing a pause on federal student loan interest and principal payments; and putting a freeze on all new regulations put in motion by former President Donald Trump so they can be reevaluated.
Actions made via executive order do not require Senate approval; other plans, such as a few of those involving immigration, will need congressional support.
Biden’s tax reform plan includes changes for investment income, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. Currently, that income is taxed at less than the average person’s taxes from working a job. Under the Biden plan, that would change for people with capital gains of more than $1 million.
Biden also plans to look at restructuring payment into Social Security. Currently, those making more than $137,700 don’t get taxed after that amount has been reached. For Americans making under $400,000, the $137,700 Social Security rule would hold, but not for those making over $400,000. Most households would not see an increase in Social Security taxes.
Trump, in one of his last official acts, pardoned 143 people. Those pardoned include Steven Bannon, who is accused of defrauding Trump’s supporters, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Before exiting his position as senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told his colleagues that Trump was a central figure in the Jan. 6 sacking of the Capitol building that killed five, saying that “the mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful interests.”
House Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has stated that impeachment of Trump, already approved by the House, will begin soon.
The Washington Post says that, as of last weekend, 62 senators were in support of convicting Trump, and others were either opposed or had not made their positions known. Conviction for incitement of an insurrection could bar Trump from ever running for public office again.
Court documents filed last week showed that “self-styled militia members” from several states planned to breach the capitol building on Jan. 6, to disrupt Biden’s confirmation, but to also hunt lawmakers and make “citizens arrests.” So far those charged face federal counts of conspiracy, including obstructing government proceedings, impeding or injuring government officers and destroying U.S. property.
According to the Washington Post, the FBI’s “aggressive” investigation is determining whether the Capitol event was a concerted conspiracy or if rioters “got caught up in the moment.” Conversations by the insurrectionists, recovered by the FBI from a two-way radio app, included instructions to seal members of Congress in the tunnel they were in and then “turn on the gas.”
The Proud Boys, participants at the riot, sent a welcoming telegram to Biden, commending his administration for being “honest about their intentions.” In a New York Times interview, Proud Boy leadership said they were not happy that Trump had denounced the Jan.6 Capitol violence. They said Trump had betrayed them.
An attorney at the Justice Department, Jeffrey Clark, plotted to help Trump overturn election results, The New York Times reported. Clark’s last-minute plan to derail election results was thwarted by revelations that Trump pressured Georgia to change their election count, and by top Justice Department officials threatening to resign if Trump installed Clark as acting attorney general.
Blast from the past: “There are years that ask questions and years that answer,” said Zora N. Hurston, 1891-1960, an American author, anthropologist and filmmaker.