Obama gave a priceless gift to the GOP: immunity from prosecution and accountability for war crimes, torture, and other criminality. Still, many Democrats treat him as a hero. In 2008, it appeared that the GOP was destined for many years of repudiation. They’d proven themselves corrupt, incompetent, and imperialistic. Obama had a chance to reorient…
Turnout for last month’s election was low — under 37% nationwide and under 50% in Washington State. National turnout for youth (18 -29) was at about 21.5% according to The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. Under 30% of registered voters voted in Texas and New York. Why was turnout so…
I’m reading David Stockman’s book The Great Deformation — the Corruption of Capitalism in America. Stockman was Reagan’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He criticizes the GOP for its militarism and its whoring for the rich. He says there was no need to bail out Wall Street. The speculators who would have…
I presume Microsoft would benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Rep. Suzan Delbene and her husband, Kurt DelBene, both used to work for Microsoft in senior management positions. Both of them have personal ties to the company and presumably own considerable stock in Microsoft. Shouldn’t she recuse herself from votes concerning the TPP? Or…
From FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform) and https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=134733849408 (June 30, 2009). See the section in bold for how the bill benefits Microsoft and for Rep. Ross Hunter’s role in promoting it. Hunter also led the charge for tax breaks for Microsoft. Under a new Washington State law, foreign guest workers — and their families…
Microsoft Admits Keeping $92 Billion Offshore to Avoid Paying $29 Billion in US Taxes Microsoft could find payoff, take high road by paying up taxes Microsoft doesn’t need our tax break Microsoft’s Staggering Tax Dodge Alone Would Fund the Entire State of Washington for Two Years Microsoft’s tax avoidance schemes: national and in Washington…
WHEREAS the copyrighted (and therefore unchangeable) Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a set of controversial top-down K-12 academic standards that were promulgated by wealthy private interests without research-based evidence of validity and are developmentally inappropriate in the lowest grades; and WHEREAS, as a means of avoiding the U.S. Constitution’s 10th Amendment prohibition against federal…
Using aggregated income tax data from the IRS for 2012, I calculated some statistics about zipcodes in Washington State and nationally. As you can see from the first chart near the end of this article, the average income in Medina, WA (home of the world’s richest man, Bill Gates) is $625,056. That’s over twice the…