It’s the end of the week and the weather’s been great. We might be seeing some rain next week, but until then it feels like late Spring. And with that in mind, let’s close out the week and get ourselves situated for Friday.
Due to the popularity of the bill, Joe Biden jumped the gun on signing the stimulus packages, called the American Rescue Plan. The package tallies up $1.9 trillion and will send billions into relief for the states, schools, programs the facilitate vaccinations, unemployment insurance, and all sorts of things. He was supposed to sign it today but figured, what the hell. Apparently, some folks are already seeing the checks deposited in their bank accounts.
Most everyone qualifies for something but there are caps on who gets what. Single folks who make over $80,000 are out as are married couples who bring home $160,000. Heads of households who’re under $120,000 will also see a check, but the closer you get to the cut off the smaller it gets. Dependents will also see the $1,400 checks, which is nice.
Despite not a single one of ’em voting for it, some Republicans are breaking ranks with the party and not condemning it. Mississippi’s slightly less sleaze senator Roger Wicker praised the bill on Twitter, for example, but neglected to say he voted against it. He caught hell for that. The vast majority of the party, however, intends to use it as a cudgel in the 2022 elections despite it being overwhelmingly popular with the public. Of course, it could all go south by then but these sort of things usually come across positively. In any event, their main selling point – the $3.7 trillion deficit – has shown to be not quite as important when it comes to giving tax cuts.
Speaking of tax cuts, Georgia Republicans are pitching a minor fit because the wording in the bill stops them from using the money they receive as an excuse to put in a $120 million tax cut. They’re petitioning Treasure Secretary Janet Yellin to let them give each and every Georgian in the middle class a whole hundred dollars in cut taxes, but the general consensus from the Biden Administration is “go skip rope.”
It’s unclear whether this rule will affect money taxed before the package came into being, but again, the word is the administration doesn’t want something designed to help people with their backs against the wall going to cut the taxes of the uber-wealthy even more than they are. This will affect how your taxes are figured next month, so it behooves you to do some research before filing.
Moving on, the Kentucky Senate has passed a bill that would make it a crime if someone insulted an officer of the law. Read that again. State Bill 211 would make it a Class B misdemeanor if someone “accosts, insults, taunts, or challenges a law enforcement officer with offensive or derisive words, or by gestures or other physical contact, that would have a tendency to provoke a violent response from the perspective of a reasonable and prudent person.” It goes without saying that the police officer insulted is the one to make that determination. The bill also makes participating in a protest that turns violent a Class D felony and demands no less than 48 hours in the pokey.
The bill passed the Senate on a 22-11 vote, with six Republicans voting against it. It goes to the House who has three working days to send it on to Gov. Andy Beshear for signing. The governor is a Democrat, so there’s no telling. Benton’s Danny Carroll sponsored the bill after the protests in Lexington last year over Breonna Taylor’s murder by police executing a no-knock warrant at the wrong goddamn house, despite Benton being 200 miles away.
He says the “silent majority” is with him, despite there never being any evidence of such a beast existing. Opponents claim the bill is an attempt to silence free speech and is aimed at African Americans protesting racism in the justice system. To that, we here at Enon Holler say “well, duh.” We’re also eagerly awaiting outrage over this blatant attack on the First Amendment from the folks who’ve been losing their shit over Dr. Seuss for the past fortnight. Any minute now, I’m sure.
In better news, the city of Minneapolis agreed to pay the family of George Floyd a $27 million settlement. Floyd’s murder by MPD Officer Derek Chauvin last year when the police responded to a possible $20 counterfeit bill being passed to buy cigarettes. Chauvin and the three other officers at the scene saw no other option besides kneeling on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes, resulting in his asphyxiation and protests against police violence popping up all over the country last summer. Turns out the twenty was legit, by the way.
Chauvin is currently on trial for second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The trial’s set to start within the month, and while this payment doesn’t mean he’ll get the book thrown at him, it doesn’t look good. Cynics that we are, though, he’ll probably just catch the manslaughter charge. The incident spawned the latest round of protests against police violence spearheaded by Black Lives Matter, and the current round of conservatives claiming it was a good thing, actually, and the January 6 Insurrection of Dunces wasn’t as bad, really. The trials for that are set to start soon and right now the number is up to 400 individuals facing charges because they were dumb enough to post pictures on social media.
Have a nice weekend.
Dear Y'all 