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:

Looking for fat to trim? At the Congressional Hearing on Defense Spending, Rep. Summer Lee asked Defense's Contracting Director about the cost of their annual Viagra budget. He didn't know, American Military News said, but Lee did: $41.4 million annually; $2.3 million was spent on crab meat.

Bank of America has been fined $150 million for customer abuses, such as double-charging for overdraft fees and secretly opening card accounts in customers' names, The New York Times reported.

Farmers Insurance has pulled coverage out of Florida, CBS said, with an impact on close to 100,000 customers. Due to large payouts for storms, other Florida insurers have gone out of business. Warmer air and water has made hurricanes stronger, resulting in more property damage.

Currently, extremes of flooding in the East and extraordinary heat in the Southwest are being experienced. As well, ocean temps off South Florida's Coast have been close to 100 F.

Using existing street lamps London has devised an eye-pleasing way to install charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. There are now 1,300 such installations, Optimist Daily reported.

Out on parole: After 53 years behind bars for a notorious double murder orchestrated by Charles Manson, Leslie Van Houten was recently released to transitional housing. She admitted to, at age 19, holding down victims and stabbing them. She has since said she was mentally ill, saying that was linked to LSD use and she totally believed at the time that Manson was "Jesus Christ."

Using existing income repayment plans for borrowers with student loans, CNN said President Biden announced that 804,000 borrowers will have their debt wiped away, a total of $39 billion.

Fox News is being sued by Ray Epps for defamation and upending his life when Fox claimed he was an undercover FBI agent, and in that capacity incited a riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, various media reported. Epps blames Fox's deliberate election misinformation for his actions at the Capitol.

Lawyers for Donald Trump have asked that his trial regarding illegally retaining classified documents be postponed indefinitely, The New York Times said.

Based on interviews with people close to Trump and a review of his campaign policy proposals, The New York Times recently wrote that there is a broad goal of increasing Trump's power if president to have authority over every part of the federal government.

Many sources equated that to dictatorship.

Red states are benefitting the most from Bidenomics, The New Republic reported. Commerce Department figures show they had the fastest personal income growth January through March.

In U.S. Congress: The "must-pass" Defense Authorization Act passed the House 210 to 219 and was

loaded with restrictions on rights, making it a "dead" deal when it reaches the Senate.

The Green New Deal has a goal of clean 100% renewable energy within the next 10 years. Critics say it's too expensive; proponents say critics are not factoring in the costs of climate inaction, such as property destruction and health costs from weather extremes, rising sea levels and wildfires.

Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust, is in the House; in the Senate there's Protecting Social Security for All: Making the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share. Both plans eliminate SS shortfalls. Social Security Works says they have no benefit cuts for the next 75 years and beyond. (Recent polling by Data for Progress shows only 3% of voters and 2% of Republicans favor a reduction in SS benefits.) Also: the "No Taxpayer Bailout for Defamation Act" would not allow corporations to use defamation settlements as an income tax deduction. And, on July 20, the Judiciary Committee will vote on Supreme Court ethics legislation.

Blast from the past: 160 years ago this month New York City saw the "most destructive" riot in U.S. history.

The party then labeled as Democrats - but known today as Republicans - rebelled against the upcoming Republican Lincoln Administration's opposition to South Carolina's plans to secede from the Union. New York City's Democrats aligned with enslavement; NYC's mayor said the city should also secede, apparently due to their significant economic engagement with the South's cotton trade.

Democrats' rage was further ignited when drafting of soldiers to fight for the Union began. They framed it as white people dying for Blacks and said Republicans wanted to elevate Black

Americans over whites. Early in the Civil War Blacks were not regarded as citizens and could not be drafted.

After the city's first draft lottery Democrats attacked federal draft officers with rocks and clubs; property of prominent NYC Republicans was burned, as was the Orphan Asylum for Colored Children.

The tally after three days was 119 confirmed deaths (but possibly 1,200), and up to $5 million in property damages. Union soldiers came from the battle fields to put down the Democrats' riot. Days later the first Black regiments, freed to fight due to the Emancipation Proclamation, suffered 42% casualties in a brutal battle with Confederates.

Historian Heather Cox Richardson: "The contrast between white mobs railing against the government and murdering their Black neighbors while Black soldiers fought and died to defend the U.S. was stark. No fair-minded person could miss it."