The Ten Major Villains Of 2019 In Public Affairs

The year 2019 has brought us many villains in public affairs, and it is difficult to select those most villainous and against common decency and humanity.

But here goes:

President Donald Trump

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani

Attorney General William Barr

Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio

Republican Congressman Devin Nunes of California

Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina

Attorney Alan Dershowitz

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos

Fox News Channel Host Sean Hannity

8 comments on “The Ten Major Villains Of 2019 In Public Affairs

  1. Jeffrey Moebus December 27, 2019 1:56 pm

    Wow; talk about a partisan list of “Heroes” and “Villains.”

    i went to several other blogs of a different persuasion, and found almost the exact same Lists, but reversed. Virtually all of Your “Heroes” were their “Villains,” and vice versa. Imagine that.

    Here’s a partial NON-partisan List of Villains:

    1. Those Republicans and Democrats that crafted the Debt Ceiling Limit “deal” last summer that puts off dealing with America’s $23 Trillion and growing by $1 Trillion/year national sovereign debt until 2021 ~ and, crucially, after Election 2020 ~ so that no incumbent or candidate even has to talk about it, and no American voter will even have to think about it.

    2. Those Democrats and Republicans who gave America’s military-industrial complex its FY2020 $738 Billion NDAA, continuation of the AUMF, and the authorized continuation of the most intrusive, warrant-less surveillance practices of the PATRIOT Act.

    3. Those Republicans and Democrats who just blew off “The Afghanistan Papers” as water over the dam [and damned], and meekly accepted the 18-year, $6 Trillion Lie, Hoax, Scam, and Sham that is “The Forever War,” with no thought whatsoever as to ending it, let alone challenging it.

    4. Those Democrats and Republicans who did absolutely nothing this year to address ~ let alone begin to deal with ~ Climate ChangED: the gravest existential threat confronting America and the Planet today.

    5. Those Republicans and Democrats who did absolutely nothing this year to address ~ let alone begin to deal with ~ America’s crumbling Infrastructure, failed education and health care systems, and the looming bankruptcy of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and other “Entitlement” programs, federal, state, local, corporate, business, private, and personal.

    6. Those Republicans and Democrats who think that none of the above is nearly as important to America’s and the Planet’s future as Trump’s impeachment.

    The List of “Heroes” [“What is a ‘hero?’ asked The Stranger re The Dude] is quite short:

    1. Greta Thunberg and those of her generation who are waiting for some Adult leadership on this Planet.

    2. The people who wrote the US Army Report declaring that Climate Change is Real, is already happening, promises only to get worse, and that the Planet in general ~ and the United States in particular ~ is not in the least bit currently able to deal with the problems that it is already creating and will create.

    3. Those who denounce America’s $ 1 = 1 Vote political system, the Swamp it has created, and anything that promises to come out of it as guaranteed to make the current situation only worse. Ie; those who recognize that the Solution is not More Government when the biggest problem is Government itself.

    Like i said: Quite short.

  2. Rational Lefty December 27, 2019 6:00 pm

    Good list Professor. In relation to this…

    Republicans Are Fiscally Reckless and Irresponsible
    Their priorities are all about more money for the wealthy elite and an obvious power grab for those in office.

    https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/12/27/republicans-are-fiscally-reckless-and-irresponsible/

    One of the ways that Republicans demonstrate that they are the “post-truth” party is that, when Democrats are in office, they prioritize federal deficit reduction, but when they’re in charge, the deficit soars. Right on cue, the Wall Street Journal reported back in October that the federal deficit was about to reach $1 trillion.

    [A strong economy typically leads to narrower deficits, as rising household income and corporate profits help boost tax collections, while spending on safety-net programs such as unemployment insurance tends to decline.
    The U.S. economy has been growing for 10 years as of July, the longest economic expansion on record. Yet annual U.S. deficits are on track to exceed $1 trillion starting this year, due in part to the 2017 tax law, which constrained federal revenue collection last year, and a 2018 budget deal that busted spending caps enacted in 2011.]

    When even Rupert Murdoch’s paper credits the Republican tax cuts as a contributor, you can take that one to the bank. Steve Benen put together a helpful chart to demonstrate what has happened to the deficit over time.

    (See article for the chart)

    The blue bars during the Obama years were a result of the Great Recession when federal revenues plummeted, the demand for safety net programs like unemployment insurance rose, and one-time stimulus spending was required to kick-start the economy. But as the Wall Street Journal pointed out, we are now in the midst of the longest economic expansion on record, which means that the deficit should be shrinking. Instead, it is ballooning. In a world where truth mattered, that would mean the end of the Republican line about how tax cuts pay for themselves.

    When Republicans were negotiating among themselves over their tax cut plan in 2017, they made it clear that their main goal was to reduce corporate tax rates. At the time, they complained that, at 39 percent, corporate tax rates in the U.S. were among the highest in the world. What they didn’t want you to know is that the effective corporate tax rate (what was actually paid after all of the loopholes were incorporated) was around 29 percent, right in the middle of the pack for industrialized countries.

    After a full year of implementation, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy documented the effects of the Republican tax cuts, which lowered the corporate tax rate to 21 percent. Here are their key findings.

    [* The 379 profitable corporations identified in this study paid an effective federal income tax rate of 11.3 percent on their 2018 income, slightly more than half the statutory 21 percent tax.
    * 91 corporations did not pay federal income taxes on their 2018 U.S. income. These corporations include Amazon, Chevron, Halliburton and IBM…
    * Another 56 companies paid effective tax rates between 0 percent and 5 percent on their 2018 income. Their average effective tax rate was 2.2 percent.]

    The richest corporations are now paying an effective tax rate of 11.3 percent, while most of the huge monopolies are paying nothing at all. Rather than trickling down, those reductions are causing the federal deficit to soar.

    Meanwhile, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell went on a spending spree—literally bragging about his efforts to buy off Kentucky voters with what Mitt Romney once referred to as “free stuff” (emphasis mine).

    [Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is delivering more than $1 billion worth of federal spending and tax breaks to his Kentucky constituents, just in time for Christmas and ahead of a potentially tough reelection campaign…
    McConnell’s wins in the spending legislation included coal miners’ pension benefits; $410 million for the construction of the new Robley Rex Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Louisville; $314 million for cleanup of Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, a $40 million increase over last year’s funding level; a tax break for spirits distillers worth an estimated $426 million in 2020 alone; and $65 million for the construction of the Forage Animal Production Lab at the University of Kentucky.
    (bolded part): “I was directly responsible — directly responsible — for these items,”(end bolded part) McConnell declared at the press conference.
    He also secured a tax break for Kentucky’s thoroughbred horse racing industry, $16.5 million for the Department of Agriculture to implement the pro-hemp provisions McConnell got into the 2018 farm bill and $61.3 million for new military construction projects at Fort Campbell.]

    We can have reasoned debates about federal deficits, taxes, and spending programs. But the naked lies from Republicans demonstrate that their approach has nothing to do with what is best for the American people. They have made it abundantly clear that their priorities are all about more money for the wealthy elite and an obvious power grab for those in office. It is beyond time to bust the myth that the GOP is the party of fiscal responsibility. They are nothing if not reckless and irresponsible.

  3. Southern Liberal December 27, 2019 6:20 pm

    Seconded. Excellent lists of Heroes and Villains, Professor.

    When it comes to conservatives attacking government, I second what this blog has to say: https://governmentisgood.com/index.php

  4. Former Republican December 29, 2019 10:56 am

    The House has passed hundreds of bills regarding climate change, raising the minimum wage, jobs, education, etc. The problem is, Mitch McConnell is blocking those bills from coming to the Senate floor. Maybe Democrats need to run ads informing the public about that.

  5. Jeffrey Moebus December 29, 2019 9:55 pm

    No. The Problem is not w/ Mitch and the Republican Senate. The Problem is that 45% of the American People agree with and support what Mitch, the Republicans, and Trump have done, are doing, and intend to keep on doing. And the Democrats [be they corporatist, (neo)liberal/neo-proto-socialist have absolutely Nothing to offer as an alternative [or at least one that has ever worked].

    And as to Rational Lefty’s WMo’s dirge about “Republicans Are Fiscally Reckless and Irresponsible… .” That Debt Ceiling Limit Deal, the $738B NDAA, and FY2020’s $1T Deficit did not happen by Republican hands alone. And could NOT have happened without the Democrats’ dutiful willing and obedience to their pay-masters.

    And any website named “governmentisgood” has just GOT to be an objective, fact-based, reliable source; especially for those who want a dictatorship, as long as They are on the side of The Dictator.

    Well….. stick around folks: Your desire for a Dictator may happen sooner then You dare imagine.

  6. Jeffrey Moebus December 29, 2019 10:25 pm

    And “conservatives” love Government as much as the corporatist liberals and neo-protot-socialists do. Conservatives just like the way their version of “government” exercises power and takes and spends taxpayer money better than the Left does.

  7. Rational Lefty December 30, 2019 9:46 am

    Thanks for that Former Republican. The loony troll is showing he is ignorant.

  8. Southern Liberal December 30, 2019 10:33 am

    Too bad we can’t report him as spam.

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