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:

According to The Daily Beast, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Poland is next after Russia is finished conquering Ukraine. Meanwhile, instability stemming from the war in neighboring Ukraine resulted in a governmental collapse in the former-Soviet republic of Moldova, with the sudden resignation of its pro-Western prime minister. A new pro-Western government has been installed, with leadership alleging that Russian influence contributed to the collapse.

Lev Parnas, a former associate of ex-President Donald Trump ally Rudy Giuliani — who participated in attempts to defame Hunter Biden — wrote this week in TIME magazine that his “real job” was to “undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government.” But he came to realize that he was enabling Trump’s dirty 2020 election tricks and setting Ukraine up to be “essentially unarmed when Putin invaded.”

President Joe Biden’s ordering of strengthened defenses against Chinese espionage is credited with helping to locate and down a one-ton craft flying over the U.S. Since then, as of this writing, media reports three other smaller craft downed: one off the Alaska coast, another over Canadian airspace and yet another over Lake Huron.

Last year, more than 3 million American adults were forced to evacuate due to harsh weather. The figures for 2008-2021 were 800,000 per year. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, worldwide 20 million people are displaced every year by “climate-fueled events.”

After shouting “Liar!” at President Biden at his recent State of the Union address for saying “some Republicans” want to sunset Medicare and Social Security every five years, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene demonstrated she may be unaware of her party’s lengthy history of trying to undo both.

When Social Security was first enacted, corporate and wealthy entities fought it, likely due to businesses having to pay in an employee match of 6.2% of earnings. The more recent history, according to various media: in 2020 then-President Trump vowed to make cuts to the program in his second term; a Republican senator recently called for a process of renewing funding annually; others are looking at changing what is owed in Social Security taxes; and, last year, the Republican Study Committee proposed raising the age of eligibility for both programs,

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

but dodged beefing up the programs by raising taxes on the wealthy.

As well, the RSC’s “Blueprint to Save America” calls for cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

In response to Biden’s challenge to Republicans about safeguarding Social Security, Sen. Missouri Republican Rep. Josh Hawley introduced the “Keep Our Promises Act,” intended to protect Social Security and Medicare (which 60 million receive) if House Republicans endanger the economy by opting to not raise the debt ceiling.

According to Social Security Works, economic experts determined it would do “absolutely nothing” to protect earned benefits. Another Republican proposal would increase funding for Social Security and Medicare by cutting $80 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act. Those funds aimed to help the IRS collect from wealthy tax cheats.

The Trump campaign hired Berkeley Research Group to prove the 2020 election was stolen. The consulting firm “looked at everything” but came up empty, The Washington Post recently reported. The group briefed Trump and staff, but its findings were ignored and Trump continued to insist the election was stolen.

The effectiveness of “strongman” governments has been on display after the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Details are coming to light about cost-cutting and bribery in Turkey to get around building codes, which made structures vulnerable to quake damage. As well, homeowners paid an earthquake tax, but, as Vox reported, those funds seem to have disappeared. Rather than explain that, Turkey’s president has called for unity while shutting down disaster coverage. Meanwhile, Syria has blocked Western aid in resistance to sanctions on the country for the president’s murder of his opponents.

Blast from the past: The NAACP was officially founded on Feb. 12, 1909, 100 years after Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. It was the 1908 Springfield, Ill., race riot that prompted NAACP to form. White Springfield rioters wanted extrajudicial revenge against two Black men accused of, but not convicted of, murder and rape. They invaded Springfield’s prosperous Black neighborhood, lynched two men and displaced most of the area’s population. Eight died, more than 70 were injured and damages totaled $3 million. A visiting journalist said whites justified the attack because Black citizens had forgotten “their place.” In 1918, the NAACP published Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, reporting on 3,224 known events. Soon the NAACP also focused on ending segregation.