“In the 2000 election, neither George W. Bush nor Al Gore spent more than $200 million, in today’s dollars. In 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the total spent by and for Barack Obama was $730 million. In 2016, total spending by Trump and Clinton came to around $1.16 billion.”
— Robert Reich, “Howard’s End” (2/21/19)
*****
“I have a few Republican friends tell me what upsets them is people who they feel should work more sit back and collect $200 for food stamps to feed child and parent. I tell them what bothers me is companies like Amazon making 11b and paying no tax. That is 104 PALLETS of shrink wrapped $100 Bill’s. And they get 120 million in refund on top! I tell them if they fix my problem their problem will just go away.”
Amazon will pay $0 in federal taxes this year — and it’s partially thanks to Trump.
— John Javenski, Facebook (2/22/19)
*****
“Here’s one way of grasping an idea of how much heat we have added to the oceans: If you took all of the heat humans have generated between 1955 and 2010 and placed it in the atmosphere instead of the oceans, global temperatures would have risen by a staggering 97 degrees fahrenheit.”
— Dahr Jamall, “The End Of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning In The Path Of Climate Disruption”, 2019 (p. 94)
*****
“We’re all just walking each other home.”
— Ram Dass
*****
“The United States is a corrupt oligarchy administered by a decadent aristocracy. The parade of outrages from top Trump administration officials has made this fact impossible for Democrats to ignore. But the trouble did not begin on Jan. 21, 2017. The Democratic Party itself has been much too cozy with corporate power for decades.”
— Zach Carter, “Democrats, It’s Time We Had A Talk About Power”, HuffPost (2/25/19)
*****
“I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.”
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