Sharing some headlines and statistics
price of a pack of cigarettes: $55 million.
Amount of National Rifle Assn. spending on presidential and Senate races: a record $36 million, including $21 million to aid Trump and $12.6 million to attack Clinton. Number of gun violence deaths so far this year in the U.S.: 12,416, including 2,632 teenagers and 568 children 11 and under.
Biggest spender on California legislative races by outside (independent expenditure groups): $17 million by charter school proponents.
Annual shortfall of money needed to repair the nation’s deteriorating schools: $46 billion.
Number of times Clinton and Trump were asked questions about education policy in three nationally televised debates: 0.
Dollar amount of donations between 2008 and 2013 from people with a link to the developer of a $72-million housing development near the Port of Los Angeles: more than $600,000. Number of such donors who told Times reporters David Zahniser and Emily Alpert Reyes they did not write checks or could not remember doing so: 11.
Percentage of voters who say this presidential election is more important than most: 71%.
Unfavorable rating for Trump in latest Gallup poll: 63%.
Unfavorable rating for Clinton in latest Gallup poll: 55%.
Melania Trump’s plea for more civility online: “Our culture has become too mean and too rough.”
Number of people, places and things insulted by Donald Trump in tweets, according to a New York Times tally: 282. Number of Trump tweets calling someone a liar: 42.
Percentage of Trump statements judged half true, mostly false, false or “pants on fire false” by Politifact: 85%.
Percentage of Clinton statements judged half true, mostly false, false or “pants on fire false” by Politifact: 50%. Number of emails deleted by Clinton from her personal server: more than 30,000 (she said they were personal or non-work-related).
Number of those emails the FBI said were indeed work-related: thousands. Average tax cut to the top 1% of earners under Trump’s tax plan according to Tax Policy Center: $215,000.
Average tax increase to the top 1% of earners under Clinton tax plan: $118,000. Politifact analysis of Bernie Sanders’ claim that the top 1% of Americans with the highest income have as much wealth as the other 99%: mostly true.
Percentage of Trump supporters who say the economy is very important to their support for him: 90%.
Number of Nobel laureates in economics, including the World Bank’s chief economist, who signed a letter lamenting Trump for “fake and misleading” statistics, “reckless threats to start trade wars” and exaggerations on the negative effects of immigration: 19.
Impact of Clinton economic plan over 10 years, according to the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget: a $200-billion increase in the national debt.
Impact of Trump economic plan over 10 years, according to the same group: a $5.3-trillion increase in the national debt.
I could go on, but I’m running out of space and we’re running out of time.
What you need to know, dear readers, is that wherever you stand, and however optimistic or frightened you might be, you’re not powerless. You can scream. You can march. You can vote.