February 2012
1 post
3 tags
Politics Notes 1/2012
Happy New Year! Hope this year is filled with change for a better America, and hopefully a smarter, better informed America.
Monthly Notes:
In 1971 Nixon started the war on drugs
Over 1 million non-violent offenders are behind bars
War on Drugs = Prison Industrial Complex, War on Terror = Military Industrial Complex
The war on drugs is the longest, most costly war
$40B a year goes to private...
December 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Politics Notes 12/2011
Monthly Notes:
Bush expanded eligibility for food stamps
Department of Agriculture administers food stamps
OECD wants countries to tax rich more and did a study that dispels the Trickle Down theory
US has fourth largest inequity level after Chile & Mexico & Turkey in OECD
Top 1% has more than doubled income from 1980-2011
Top 1% make an average after tax income of $1.2M
Poorest 20%...
3 tags
Politics Notes 11/2011
Monthly Notes:
Obama is becoming known as the “Deportation President”, more have been deported under Obama so far than under Bush
Members of Congress have net worth of over $2B
Corporate tax breaks cost government $102B in lost revenue when the deficit was $1.3T
Average effective tax rate for corporations from 2008-2010 was only 18.5%
Reagan signed highest & largest corporate...
October 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Politics Notes 10/2011
Monthly Notes:
In 2005 25% of the largest US corporations paid no taxes
The top 6 financial institutions in the US have assets equal to more than 60% of our GDP
65% of people making 6 figures or more want higher taxes
66% of Republicans want higher taxes on millionaires
More than 1M people have top secret clearances, half of them contractors
There is little proof that companies or...
3 tags
Politics Notes 9/2011
Monthly Notes:
300K of 1M jobs created in Texas were government jobs
9.5% of hourly Texas workers earn minimum wage (national average of hourly workers who earn minimum wage is 6%)
51% of Texas workers make less than $33K a year, only 30% make more than $50K a year
Health Care Reform - CBO says more people would choose not to work because of better access to health care
26% of Texas...
September 2011
1 post
3 tags
Politics Notes 8/2011
Monthly Notes:
Pentagon’s budget rose from $307B in 2001 to $529B in 2010… 72%
Debt deal could subtract more than a percentage point from GDP next year
July jobs: +154K private jobs, -37K public jobs… Yeah, Obama’s increasing the size of government alright
TARP bail out cost more than 50 years of NASA put together
When Romney was governor, Massachusetts was 47th in job...
August 2011
1 post
6 tags
Politics Notes 7/2011
Monthly Notes:
Sony & Warner Bros & Universal & Walt Disney & Paramount & 20th Century Fox control 95% of US film industry
Sony & Time Warner & GE & Walt Disney & Viacom & News Corp have 90% of all US media
In 2007 the average American household borrowed 127% of its income, now 112%
Earnings for companies expected to raise 13.6% compared to a year ago
...
July 2011
1 post
6 tags
Politics Notes 6/2011
Monthly Notes:
Average American spends 52 cents of every dollar on housing and transportation
$2.8T spent on top 1%
Trade tariffs: US = 2%, China 20%, India 40%
Government isn’t about turning a profit
Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq are all Muslim countries which we’re bombing
Bush tax cuts promised growth in GDP, increase in wages, and more jobs but has only lead to...
June 2011
1 post
4 tags
Politics Notes 5/2011
Monthly Notes:
Michigan is taxing pensions to pay for tax cuts for corporations, 86% of businesses won’t pay taxes there
Average wage less than half of 1% of what a typical CEO makes
CEOs paid better now than in 2007 when the economy was booming (stock up, unemployment half)
Profit for companies in AP rose 41% from last year
39% of Republicans don’t think Obama deserves credit for...
April 2011
1 post
5 tags
Politics Notes 4/2011
Paul Ryan’s bill that passed the house:
Independent economists say it doesn’t reduce the deficit
Balanced budget in 2040
Monthly Notes:
For every $1 spent on unemployment $1.61 is put into the economy, for every $1 spent on the Bush Tax Cuts only 32 cents is put into the economy
This country buys extra sugar to keep it at a high price
Audit of Pentagon spending finds $70B in...
March 2011
1 post
7 tags
Politics Notes 3/2011
SCOTUS corruption:
Scalia & Thomas attended conservative events & fundraisers by billionaires who raise money for conservative candidates who ran ads against Democrats
Thomas’ wife formed non profit organization against HCR, formed lobbyist shop for Republicans to repeal law
Thomas failed to report his wife’s income from non profits
Scalia gave speech to Republican...
February 2011
3 posts
6 tags
Politics Notes 2/2011
Monthly political notes for February 2011:
Harvard study claims ending war on drugs could save $76.8 billion a year
3.2% of Americans on probation, in jail, or on parole since 2008
American incarcerates more of its citizens than any other country, 25% of entire worlds prison population
$70B a year spent on corrections
Top 1% = 34.6%, top 1-10% = 38.5%, bottom 90% = 26.9% (from 2007, note that...
1 tag
Politics Notes On Reagan
I’m a bit late for the centennial birthday celebration, but here’s a bunch of facts about Reagan the Republican’s don’t want to hear (and some even DENY hearing):
He raised taxes six times while president (7 of his 8 years he raised taxes)
He was for 0 nuclear weapons
He tripled the Federal Budget
He caused unemployment to jump with his massive tax cuts for the rich
He...
6 tags
Politics Notes 1/2011
Monthly political notes:
In addition to DADT repeal and START treaty, Obama also passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act
Over 4,000 government agencies for intelligence, 1 million people work on intelligence
Upper income people Americans are living longer than they used to, from 1972-2001 bottom 50% went up 2 years while upper 50% went up 7 years (life expectancy)
US #1 in the world for...
December 2010
1 post
3 tags
Political Questions 12/2/2010
Questions I’m pondering:
Unemployment insurance has to be paid for but tax cuts for the wealthy don’t? WTF???
Republican’s say if we extend tax cuts for less than $250k, we won’t get around to cutting taxes for the wealthy… Apply that theory to their ideas on repealing HCR? If they were to repeal it, they’d never get around to passing it again. WTF???
...
November 2010
1 post
11 tags
Politics Notes 11/2010
Monthly political notes:
Only 2% of the Tea Party knows Obama lowered taxes
Carter put solar panels on the White House, Reagan removed them & told American’s they didn’t need to sacrifice
How are the Republicans going to balance the budget when all they want is tax breaks?
The Democrats didn’t advertise what they did, that’s why they lost big in 2010 (HCR is popular...
October 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Politics Notes 10/25/2010
Doing some research into vacation time and maternity leave in the US vs other countries. Astounding how much other countries have and the US doesn’t even make either mandatory.
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/01/31/paid-holidaysvacation-days-in-the-u-s-versus-other-oecd-countries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave
20 tags
Politics Notes 3/2010 - 10/2010
Here’s an archive of my politics notes from March 2010 to October 2010. Once a month I’ll try and update this to reflect new things I’ve learned.
Defense - US has 4.5% population, 20% of budget goes to defense, US spends more in defense than next 15 countries combined, 47% of world’s total military spending, US outspends Iran & North Korea 72 x 1
Reagan - raised taxes...
September 2010
1 post
1 tag
Tumblr For Politics Notes?
I think I may start using Tumblr to organize my political notes. Since Bill Maher is back (for a few months), I’ll be taking a lot more notes and facts down regarding politics.
I’m not 100% sure about Tumblr as I’m used to WordPress and its amazing abilities, but I’ll give it a shot.
New Tumblr posts should post to my friendfeed.
Blog →
My personal blog.
Syntax Notes Blog →
A blog with problems that I’ve run into throughout my career and the solutions to fix them.
Quotes →
My quotes site where I keep track of funny/random things the people who I interact with say.
LongLiveTheMonkey Links →
All my social network sites, etc.
LongLiveTheMonkey Home →
My main website.
Dad's House Blog →
My blog specifically for the stuff I do regarding my father’s estate and stuff.
April 2009
1 post
