Billionaires Say They Are "Victims" - They Are NOT!

Did you get a 25% raise this year? If you make minimum wage, that would be a raise of $3770. If you make about the median wage in this country, that would be in the neighborhood of about $15,000.

I doubt any in the middle or working classes got a 25% raise in 2019. In fact, I'll bet that most American workers didn't even get the $3770 raise to give a minimum wage earner that 25%.

Most Americans, especially the bottom 90%, are just struggling to keep up with inflation. A 25% raise would be a dream come true, but it's really a dream with no chance of coming true with the Republicans in power.

But the super-rich, the people who didn't need to make more than they already do, got a 25% raise in 2019. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the richest 500 people now have $5.9 trillion -- an increase in 2019 of $1.2 trillion (or about 25%).

Inspire of the richest Americans doing exceptionally well (not just the top 500, but the top 1%), they will tell you that they are the "victims" in our economy. And they whine that Democratic efforts to make them pay their fair share in taxes is an example of that victimhood.

Here's part of how Helaine Olen describes this billionaire victimhood in The Washington Post:

The Great Recession was supposed to embarrass the wealthy into slinking away embarrassed, grateful they didn’t land in jail or worse. “There’s an angry mob with pitchforks assembling, and they want to see some heads on pikes,” Fortune opined in 2009. But as the stock and real estate markets recovered, so did the self-regard of the most moneyed among us. Shame? That was so Dow 7,550. It’s now over 28,000. . . .

Elite gatherings such as the Milken Institute’s Global Conference and the annual World Economic Forum in Davos have become all but encounter sessions for misunderstood multimillionaires and billionaires to agree with each other in the face of calls that they pay their fair share. There’s private equity mogul Leon Cooperman, who actually began to cry on CNBC when complaining about Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax on fortunes in excess of $50 million. “I don’t need Elizabeth Warren telling me that I’m a deadbeat and that billionaires are deadbeats,” he said.

The rich victims are all around us. Craig Hall, the real-estate tycoon owner of the now infamous ostentatious Northern California wine cave where Pete Buttigieg held a high-dollar fundraiser? He told the New York Timesabout the criticisms, “It’s just not fair.” Jacqueline Sackler, wife of a Purdue Pharma heir, the company in part responsible for the opioid epidemic that’s taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans? The Wall Street Journal got a hold of an email where she complained what she calls the “situation” is “destroying” the family’s reputation, and “dooms” her children.

And no one is more practiced at the art of billionaire self-pity than our president, Donald Trump. He’s the victim of a Democratic “witch hunt.” Impeachment? “More due process was accorded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.” Yet he signed into law a tax plan so favorable to billionaires in general, and real-estate interests in particular, it might as well have been tailored precisely for him.

But according to Republicans, the obscene gains of the wealthy aren’t the problem. In 2012, GOP presidential nominee and multimillionaire Mitt Romney, speaking to a group of big-money donors, referred to 47 percent of Americans who didn’t pay federal taxes and needed government benefits to get by as “takers,” adding, they believe “they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name it.” (Entitled to food! Imagine that.)

The Trump administration, which boasts the wealthiest presidential Cabinet ever assembled, has spent almost three years attempting to make it harder for people to receive Medicaid, food assistance and even a free lunch at school. They are aided by self-appointed watchdogs, too, such as Minnesota retiree Rob Undersander, who outed himself as a millionaire so he could publicize the supposedly pressing issue of people who have six- and seven-figure net worth receiving food stamps because their income is below eligibility thresholds. (In fact, survey research shows such households account for about 3 percent of households receiving assistance via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

Meantime, of course, the wealthy make out. Studies show, not surprisingly, that their opinions carry much more weight with politicians than those of more ordinary voters. But the claim of victimization is one way they seek to protect themselves from some popular anger and the financial consequences they might otherwise face, ensuring their power, wealth and privilege remains intact while they can continue to promote their self-perceived unique virtue and smarts.

Public Says U.S. Lost More Respect In The World In 2019

The chart above reflects the results of the new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between December 22nd and 24th of a national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,240 registered voters). The margin of error for both adults and registered voters is 2.9 points.

Thanks to the ridiculous antics of Donald Trump, the U.S. lost a lot of respect in the eyes of the world in 2017 and 2018. The American public says overwhelmingly that the loss of respect continued in 2019.

5 Ways Trump Damaged The Environment In 2019

(This caricature of Donald Trump is by the inimitable DonkeyHotey.)

Donald Trump brags about the environmental record of his administration. He wants people to believe he is not damaging the environment. He is LYING!

Here, from Emma Newburger at cnbc.com, are five ways in which Trump seriously damaged our environment in 2019:

1. Regulations on methane leaks to be rolled back

The Trump administration in August announced plans to significantly weaken regulation on climate-changing methane emissions. If adopted, the government would no longer have to require oil and gas companies to implement technology to monitor and fix methane leaks from facilities and pipelines. The rule would also open debate on whether the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate methane as a pollutant.

Methane is dangerous because large amounts of it is escaping from oil and gas sites across the country and accelerating global warming. Methane levels have soared since 2007, with natural gas production as a primary suspect.

2. Repealing the Obama-era clean water rule

The EPA in September repealed a major Obama-era clean water regulation that curbed the amount of pollution and chemicals in the country’s rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands.

The repeal allows polluters to discharge toxic substances into waterways without a permit, which could significantly harm the country’s sources of safe drinking water and habitats for wildlife. The Obama-era rule had aimed to protect 60% of the country’s water bodies from contamination and keep drinking water safe for about one-third of the country.

3. Weakening the Endangered Species Act

The Trump administration said in August it would change the rules for the Endangered Species Act, making it harder to protect wildlife from threats of human development and global warming.

The new rules make it easier to take out protections for threatened animals and plants and allow federal agencies to conduct economic assessments when deciding whether to protect a species from things like construction projects in a critical habitat. The rules also remove tools used by scientists to predict future harm to species from climate change.

4. Weakening climate plan to help coal plants stay open

The Trump administration in June implemented a rule that will keep coal-powered plants open longer, replacing an Obama-era climate effort to reduce planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions and continuing the administration’s efforts to ease regulatory burdens for the coal industry.

The so-called Affordable Clean Energy rule gives states more power to decide how to control emissions and less authority to the federal government in setting emissions standards. One of the administration’s goals is to allow coal power plants a chance to remain in business despite the rise in other forms of energy generation such as natural gas and solar.

5. Loosening Obama-era rules restricting auto pollution

The White House this year also prepared to eliminate an Obama-era regulation in place to reduce automobile emissions that contribute to global warming. The administration argues that the rollback is necessary for economic and safety reasons, though environmentalists say consumers would spend billions more in fuel costs and accelerate climate change.

Fifteen Interesting Charts From 2019

The bipartisan Pew Research Center conducted many polls in 2019, and they used that data to produce many charts. Here are 15 of the most interesting charts they published in 2019.

All Roads Did Lead To Putin In 2019

Nancy Pelosi asked Donald Trump, "Do all roads lead to Putin?"

She had a point. Trump has tried to lift sanctions on Russia and refused to impose new sanctions passed by Congress. He still refuses to believe that Russia interfered in our 2016 presidential election, and has taken Putin's word that it was Ukraine (not Russia) that did that. Trump has also damaged our relationship with our allies in Western Europe, and still doubt the efficacy of NATO.

When it comes to Trump, all roads do indeed lead to Putin. But Trump is not the only road to Putin. Putin has had a very good year in 2019.

Here is how Andrew Higgins describes Putin's very good year in The New York Times:

Its economy, already smaller than Italy’s, may be sputtering but, two decades after a virtually unknown former K.G.B. spy took power in the Kremlin on Dec. 31, 1999, Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin, have just had what could be their best year yet.

The United States, an implacable foe during the Cold War but now presided over by a president determined to “get along with Russia,” is convulsed and distracted by impeachment; Britain, the other main pillar of a trans-Atlantic alliance that Mr. Putin has worked for years to undermine, is also turning inward and just voted for a government that vows to exit the European Union by the end of January.

The Middle East, where American and British influence once reigned supreme, has increasingly tilted toward Moscow as it turned the tide of war in Syria, provided Turkey, a member of NATO, with advanced missile systems, and signed contracts worth billions of dollars with Saudi Arabia, America’s closest ally in the Arab world. Russia has also drawn close to Egypt, another longtime American ally, become a key player in Libya’s civil war, and moved toward what looks more and more like an alliance with China.

PolitiFact Picks Its "Lie Of The Year For 2019"

The fact-checking website PolitiFact chooses one lie each year to elevate to its LIE OF THE YEAR.

You'll probably not be shocked to hear this, but the 2019 winner is Donald Trump. I admire the diligence of the PolitiFact staff. I would hate to have to wade through the thousands of lies Trump tells in a year, and try to decide which is the biggest lie.

Here is a small part of what they had to say this year:

Every year, PolitiFact editors review the year’s most flagrant inaccuracies in search of a significant false claim that can be elevated to Lie of the Year. 

The distinction is awarded to a statement that is more than ridiculous and wrong. The Lie of the Year — the only time PolitiFact uses the word "lie" — speaks to a falsehood that proves to be of real consequence and gets repeated in a virtual campaign to undermine an accurate narrative.

The whistleblower, who to Trump’s consternation remains unidentified, raised the concern that the president’s actions leading up to and on that phone call amount to interference in the coming presidential election. Agree or disagree with the conclusion, or whether the president’s conduct warrants impeachment, the actions described in the complaint stand up to factual scrutiny.

The claim that the whistleblower got his phone call "almost completely wrong" is PolitiFact’s 2019 Lie of the Year.

Americans Have A Mixed Outlook On What 2019 Will Bring

Will 2019 bring positive or negative changes? It seems that depends on specifics. In a new poll, Americans had mixed reactions to what the new year will bring.

They have a positive view of the unemployment rate and the stock market, thinking both will do well in 2019. They are split equally on both the economy and U.S. power in the world, with 49% being positive and 49% being negative about both.

The crime rate, world peace, and political cooperation were areas where the public had largely negative notions, believing that none of the three will improve in 2019.

The chart above was compiled using information in a recent Gallup Poll -- done between December 3rd and 12th of a national sample of 1,025 adults, with a margin of error of 4 points.