America’s Most Odious

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Preface

Donald J. Trump is not on this list only because he is much so more than odious.

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1. Grover Norquist* Because; in any list there has to be a number one. Though it was tough choosing a number one, no one is more deserving. Using one’s intelligence to bully, to manipulate others, is the most odious of things any human can do. Bastard even had them sign an oath not to raise taxes lest he primary them.His tax scam wasn’t even his idea. He got it from Howard Jarvis who got it fishing around for something to replace yelling communism when he found that no longer worked, which was something he, Jarvis, learned from watching Richard Nixon, who, if he were still alive would have been high on this listing. So, too, Howard, if he were still alive. Lineage and legacy.Norquist has done great harm the Nation, while doing quite well indeed for himself. Under Jarvis’s Prop 13, California schools went from top to the bottom in a few years. Norquist helped do the same to schools across the Nation. Using those oaths, he coerced legislators to act in a manner that caused hunger and suffering, increased the National debt, whilst, all the while, making the wealthy wealthier. Quid pro qou, Norquist was benefactor to the rich, and they to him. Grover turned his, Jarvis’s, crap into gold.

2. Newt Gingrich Trump wasn’t the first, won’t be the last, politician who was both a pathological liar and a sociopath, and who knew how to manipulate the media. Newt Gingrich rode into Washington on the New Southern Republican, nee, Dixiecrat, ticket in 1978 without a scrap of scruple on, in, or about him. In a trait common to too many southern politicians, there was nothing beneath the man. Gingrich made people like Senator McCarthy look like paragons of virtue. He is, rightfully so, credited with playing a key role in undermining democratic norms in the United States, and hastening political polarization and partisan prejudice, And, no Judy, it wasn’t the Democrats doing it, too. There was never a stoop too low for Newt to take. He has kept at it for more than forty years now.

3. Mitch McConnell* When history is full writ, Mitch McConnell will probably be dead. Which is too bad, since what good is hell if he can’t feel the pain and we don’t get to watch? It would be well worth the price of admission to see Mitch, Mitch alone, burn. Leaving aside the question of misuse of personal intelligence, this man has pandered to his poor and ignorant constituents with one hand, and taken money from the rich with the other. Nothing is beneath him. To Mitch, it was most important to thwart Obama, lest he, Obama, did something that was for the good of the nation. It was completely OK for Putin to interfere if it meant Mitch got to stuff the Courts for his The Federalist Society, nee, The KKK. Mitch blamed Trump’s impeachment on the Democrats; refused to let witnesses to be called for the trial in the Senate. This is a man who didn’t want to provide enough pandemic relief lest it endanger economic servitude as practiced in southern states. So what if people of the working class died from the virus while working for nothing so that some rich bastard could benefit? That’s the way it’s supposed to be, eh, Mitch? Loved stealing the Yankee’s dollar, he did; bragged about doing so in his debate with Amy McGrath. Still re-fighting the Civil War, Colonel McConnell is ‘rising again’.

4. Rush Limbaugh The grifter’s grifter. For more than forty years now, daily, Rush has been working the hinterland’s AM ‘Lame Brain Circuit’ up into a frenzy, and, making himself a personal fortune doing it. Rush was Trump before Trump was Trump. While Trump was chasing porno stars, Rush went to the Caribbean to diddle underage prostitutes. He was Mr. Right-Wing propagandist about the time Roger Ailes was hawking the idea to Nixon. Denigration of Democrats was Rush’s Spécialité de la maison; his raison d’être. Chelsea, Hillary, Michelle, Malia, Sasha, …; he especially loved to denigrate the wives and daughters. Rush Limbaugh is a misogynistic, racists, bastard who has done everything he could to polarize the Nation.  One to whom Donald J. Trump awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom. Limbaugh, like Grover Norquist, has held tremendous political sway without ever being elected to anything.

5. Charles Koch Charles Koch is a Libertarian; got it, and his wealth, from his father. In brief, Libertarians believe that it’s whatever you can get by with is OK, i.e., as long as you don’t get caught; and they believe in benevolent dictatorships. In democracy, if, and only if, they get to control it. Toward these goals, Charles and CO have funded the likes of the CATO Institute, along with a long list of other libertarian institutes. Through contributions, he has co-opted numerous universities and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). Last week it was announced that Charles had experienced a come to Jesus Moment and regretted some of the things he had done to affect national politics. Too late, Charlie, Dante recently confirmed your irrefusable reservation for that special place.

6. Dick Cheney Cheney is the only person ever to have selected himself as vice president; he knew the Bush family well. A serial draft dodger, Cheney loved war as long as someone else was doing the fighting. Got his first taste of War as Secretary of Defense for Bush I; loved it. A real Chicken Hawk, he was. Early in Bush II’s Administration, as Vice President in charge, Cheney lied, lied as few had ever done before, the Nation into the Iraq Invasion. Afterwar, made lots of trips to the war zones in Iraq; he loved to visit the troops on the battlefield. Cheney was then, still is, really big on torture. Why, Lord, did you let this miserable man live this long?

7. Doug Collins Why Doug Collins instead of fellow extremists Darrell Issa, Jim Jordan, or Trey Gowdy? All of these fellows are given to expressing indignance known only to scoundrels; all are professional practitioners of character assassination; all are mendacious, nee, born liars, to their very cores. In all cases, their constituents knew what they were getting when they voted for them; share the blame for the harm they have done. So, what sets Doug Collins apart from, makes him the stand-in for, the rest? Because, on top of all else that he and they are, he alone is a Baptist Preacher.

8. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Graham or Ted Cruz? Both are certainly deserving of the odious distinction. Smarm and sleaze ooze from their very pores. They can’t even stand one another. Both need be kept in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid, else they ooze all over everything and everybody. Cruz, because of the ambition curse; Graham, because he was born that way and can’t help himself. Given their absence of character, neither can be held responsible for their actions; so, it is clearly the fault of the folks that sent them. Texas, South Carolina, what hath we, the Nation, done to you that deserves your sending us these two sorry critters to foul the chambers of the US Senate? Though loathsome, the both; Lindsey get the slot because he’s been around the longest.

9. Bill Barr Hark! From what, from whose, cellar cometh this fat toad? Certainly was not from the princess’s kissing of the prince. ‘Twas from childhood, or, so we’re told. Consigliere to Bush I, saved both Bush’s and Reagan’s arses. Barr was fetched forth from the cellar by Trump to replace Jeff Sessions in the co-opting of the Justice Department. Sessions wasn’t toad enough for the job; chickened out when it came to the overtly criminal part. Not Bill Barr; he stepped right up. First off, by sabotaging his best friend, Robert Mueller’s Report; from that moment, Trump knew that he had his Attorney General. Barr intervened in the Stone and Flynn cases; and removed Geoffrey Berman, US Attorney in order to protect a Turkish Bank as a favor to Erdogan from Trump. Now, Trump need only say, there, pee on that one my loyal lackey, and Bill peed. No New York City mafioso ever had a better consigliere. The nation has never had a more amoral Attorney General. Eric Garner’s death, George Floyd’s death, … unworthy of his time, or of the law; Lafayette Square, …; there is nothing beneath this cellar dweller.
10. Sarah, nee Huckabee, Sanders Why not Kellyanne Conway, instead? Lying does come as natural as breathing to the both. Kellyanne’s been at it longer, been around the longest. At this point, it is not clear that she even knows that she’s lying anymore. There are indications that Sarah may on occasion know that she is lying. She admitted as much to the Mueller team, while under oath.

*Leadership Institute Alumni. Other alumni include: Ralph Reed, Jeff Gannon (James Dale Guckert), Karl Rove, Steve Stockman, Mike Pence, James O’Keefe, new members of the 113th Congress, and elected officials in all 50 states.