Biden Bends On Filibuster

speaking of history

Vikings landed in North America more than 470 years before Christopher Columbus, new research shows – CBS News

these slivers of hope — like filibuster change, build back better bill on its way —  are setting us up once more for lucy to pull the football away and ruin charlie brown’s day 

Former U.S. Democratic Senator and current MSNBC Political Analyst Claire McCaskill says her sources on Capitol Hill are telling her that Arizona Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has agreed to a plan that would fund Pres. Biden’s infrastructure and social agenda. Democrats on the Hill tell reporters the framework for that Biden agenda deal could come soon.

wapo:

Tens of millions of Americans can sign up to get Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters beginning Friday after the nation’s top public health official endorsed recommendations from expert advisers that the shots are safe and effective at bolstering protection against the coronavirus.
The green light from Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, means that eligible Americans at risk of severe disease can choose any of the three boosters now authorized in the United States regardless of their original shot.
“The evidence shows that all three COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States are safe — as demonstrated by the over 400 million vaccine doses already given,” Walensky said in a statement Thursday night, several hours after receiving unanimous recommendations from the expert panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. “And, they are all highly effective in reducing the risk of severe disease, hospitalization, and death, even in the midst of the widely circulating delta variant.”
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a poem for vikings day

[apologies to jean marzollo’s “In 1492” poem and any plagiarism below]

in ten hundred twenty-one
chris columbus was outdone

vikings had a boat or two
in which they sailed the ocean blue

norsemen all, swede and dane
sailed through sunshine, wind and rain

they rowed by night, they sailed by day,
they used the stars to find their way

no compass helped them know
how to find the way to go

unlike chris no hi-tech trick
would guide them to their harbor pick

[…]
the first americans? no not quite
but brave they were and boy could they fight

Democrats move to finalize new ‘billionaire’ tax plan, targeting 700 wealthiest Americans as key source of revenue for spending plan – The Washington Post

[…]
Now, an unexpected compromise appears to be emerging over the billionaire tax proposal. Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is drafting the plan, but both senior Biden officials and other senior Democrats are cautiously optimistic Sinema and other centrist lawmakers support the effort, according to interviews with three congressional aides and two administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect sensitive negotiations.
“The Billionaires Income Tax is about fairness and showing the American people taxes aren’t mandatory for them and optional for the wealthiest people in the country,” Wyden said in a statement. “No working person in this country thinks it’s right that billionaires can pay no taxes for years on end, and sometimes never at all.”
The proposal would be incorporated into the reconciliation bill that Democrats hope to pass soon and could would help offset the roughly $2 trillion the bill is likely to spend over 10 years on a variety of new federal programs.
The administration recently briefed congressional Democrats on a series of other new sources of revenue that would raise trillions of dollars without increasing the corporate tax rate. Those include higher tax enforcement through the Internal Revenue Service and a new 15 percent minimum tax on corporations, among other measures.
The billionaire plan still faces obstacles. House Democrats in particular have balked at it, given they already advanced a roughly $2 trillion tax package that included rate hikes on the rich and on corporations. Some tax experts are also wary of creating a complicated new system of taxation in a matter of days. House Ways and Means Chair Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) said the Wyden plan could “become really complex.”
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