Transgender bishop

Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos reported that the GOP has drawn a “red line” on repealing any aspect of the 2017 tax scam. But since Biden wants his infrastructure and jobs bills to be paid for, the GOP is now saying we should raise user fees, which come mostly out of the pockets of the poor and middle class. Alas, several Democrats like that idea. Eleveld wrote:

That is about the dumbest position Democrats could adopt as a message heading into 2022. Well, we wanted to raise taxes on those who could afford it to create jobs but instead we raised taxes on those who couldn't afford it.

Since it is also politically the dumbest thing Republicans have said, this can be a gift for Democrats heading into the 2022 election. Joan McCarter of Kos explained a bit more. One thing she explained is user fees are such things as a gas tax and toll roads. Biden has repeated he will not raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year. Rep. Pramila Jayapal tweeted:

An ultra-millionaire wealth tax would raise $13.3 BILLION from Bezos, Musk, and Zuckerberg alone. With that, we could invest in schools, infrastructure, renewable energy, and more. But don’t worry, they’ll still have $431 billion left between the 3 of them to buy super yachts.

That comment about yachts is that Bezos is soon to take delivery of a super yacht worth a half billion and is the length of one and a third American football fields. It comes with a support yacht which has the helipad. In all the bad news about the GOP bullying transgender people with onerous laws here is some good news. The Sacramento region of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has elected Megan Rohrer, a transgender person to serve as bishop. The term is six years. Aysha Qamar of Kos reported that Carlette Duffy, a black woman, received appraisals of her home for $125K and $110K. Duffy thought these were way low, so had a white friend’s husband pretend to be the owner’s brother. She also erased herself from the house decorations. That appraisal came in at $259K, more than double. Duffy filed a complaint with HUD alleging race discrimination against the mortgage lenders and appraisers.

"It's almost when people see Black neighborhoods, they see twice as much crime than there actually is. They see worse education than there actually is," said Andre Perry, a senior fellow for the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. "I think this is what's happening when appraisers, lenders, real estate agents see Blackness. They devalue the asset. They devalue the property."

This is another reason why black people have a much harder time accumulating wealth than white people do.