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:

Tip about taxes: Politician and author Stacey Abrams, a tax lawyer by training, told The Atlantic that all voters need to be better informed about tax policy. Why? “You tax the people you think can’t fight back,” she said of lawmakers. Then, “You spend the money on those you’re afraid of.”

President Biden’s 2023 budget proposal for $5.8 trillion asks for tax increases on the wealthy and corporations (which were cut under Trump) and an early end to 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy. Columnist and historian Heather C. Richardson said it would increase the tax interest on stocks and bonds, which currently are not taxed until those assets are sold (but, she noted, wage earners pay “full freight” on their incomes).

Under Biden’s plan, households worth more than $100 million would pay a tax rate of at least 20% on their income as well as on gains from unsold stocks and bonds. The corporate tax rate that was cut from 35% to 21% under Trump would be raised to 28% under Biden’s plan.

That could raise $1.5 trillion over the next decade, according to the White House. Those new funds would go to paying down the deficit, public housing, science, police departments, climate change, education, pandemic preparedness and increases for the military. Under Trump the national debt went from $19.9 trillion when he took office to $23.2 trillion by the end of 2019.

Saying voters deserve to know where his party stands (the party has not had a platform), Republican Sen. Rick Scott’s “11-Point Plan to Rescue America” calls for an income tax on those who don’t earn enough to be taxed. It also calls for sunsetting all laws after five years, which would include Social Security and Medicare.

CNN says the plan includes abolishing the Department of Education, finishing the southern border wall (parts are already falling over), cutting IRS funding by 50% (which prevents the agency from going after major monied tax cheats), and minimizing efforts to address climate change.

A recent Gallup poll: a minority of 17% are satisfied with how it’s going in the U.S. Satisfaction with their own lives is up 85%.

Researchers in Malaysia looked at 490 C-19 patients who were 50 or older and considered high risk due to both age and underlying health. Half were given Ivermectin for five days and the other half received fever-reducing medications. [Some doctors disagree with reducing fever, saying fever can aid healing.] Two percent of the Ivermectin group needed ICU care as compared to 3% of the control group.

But the Ivermectin group had more side effects, including heart attacks and anemia, THE WEEK reported. A study co-author said Ivermectin does not reduce risk of deterioration to severe disease.

After a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases, Philadelphia has become the first major U.S. city to reinstate indoor masking, The National Review reported.

Last week Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to become the first Black female United States Supreme Court justice in a bi-partisan 53-47 vote. It’s suspected Jackson will primarily be involved with writing dissents since the Court’s dominant far right-wing members will be hearing cases brought against abortion, gay rights, business regulation, limitations on EPA’s ability to address climate change, and voting rights, according to The New York Times. Jackson will be seated in October.

Headlines from the Russia-Ukraine situation, perhaps more aptly called “Putin’s Genocidal Derangement Syndrome”: Biden administration imposes new sanctions on Putin's daughters and Russian banks; The world was shocked by Russian atrocities in Bucha, ABC found new horrors in Berestyanka [a woman war victim said to ABC, "Look at these 'liberators’...what did they liberate us from? From a good life, a cozy house, a stable family. Now everyone is trembling... We have nothing here, no light, no gas, no warmth. So what did they liberate us from? Let Putin answer that question. I don’t know how we are going to keep living.”

Other reports say Russian soldiers devoured potatoes that were to be used for this year’s crops]; UN suspends Russia from Human Rights Council; Shell to write off up to $5bn on Russia exit; Congress votes to strip Russia’s trade status, ban its oil; Europe freezes $32 billion of oligarchs assets [those with Kremlin ties]; Teacher in Russia fired and fined after her eighth-grade student…turned her in for saying 'Ukraine is a separate country'; Putin's former chief economic adviser says Russia would likely halt the Ukraine war 'within a month or two' if the West slapped a full embargo on Russian oil and gas; and, US doubts new Russian war chief can end Moscow's floundering.

The Emmet Till Anti-Lynching law has been signed; lynching is now a federal hate crime.

Blast from the past: This month 157 years ago the Confederate’s General Robert E. Lee sent a message to the North’s General Ulysses S. Grant saying he wanted to meet for the purpose of surrender. Grant had been suffering from a horrid migraine, “…but the instant I saw the contents of the note I was cured,” Grant recalled. Once surrender papers were signed, Lee asked for food for 25,000 starving Confederate soldiers; Grant quickly agreed. Four years earlier the South had stated they would be able to beat the North in just one battle.