Lies, Distortions and Doublethink in The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 10-11, 2017

Obama’s emphasis on income equality killed economic growth during his presidency and only produced more inequality. In other words, fighting inequality only leads to more inequality, in the same way that crying “racism” only leads to more racism.

Obama’s primary economic aim was to lure more people out of the workforce via increased entitlements, subsidies, and disincentives to work. Only an incentive-based economy can produce sustained economic growth.

Meryl Streep’s Trump thumping at the Golden Globes only amounted to the usual Dem sneers: the preening, the ritual invocation of victimhood, the belittling of working-class tastes, the idea that no right-thinking person might have a different view of this election. There is no truth to her claim that Trump mocked a NY Times reporter because Trump has often used the same hand gestures to criticize others. This absurd defense of course overlooks his tome of voice and his personal animus against the reporter who dared to criticize Trump.

Climate science has contributed very little to the understanding of climate change.

Obama’s Russian “reset” is the cause of Exxon’s Russian oil stake.

Right-to-work laws are pro-union because they lead to more jobs.

Trump’s cabinet has few women and minorities because it was picked on the basis of merit, not identity politics.

80% of police stops should be of young black males because they are eight times as likely to commit a crime than whites.

Democrats represent America’s elites, not Republicans.

Glossary: Key memes, counterfactuals, dog whistles, canards, euphemisms, innuendoes, insinuations, fake outrages, and obsessions in The Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories and fever swamps, Jan. 7-10, 2017

relevant

rhetorical claim: the lamestream news media and the lib-Dems are increasingly irrelevant in Donald Trump’s America. The people have spoken in a crushing landslide, so the libs just need to go along with the Trump agenda.

rhetorical effect: normalizes shouting down and bullying anyone critic as unAmerican, and contemptuous. It’s a short step from being judged irrelevant to being judged superfluous, dangerous, and, ultimately,  expendable. Relevance is of course a relative, relational, contextual term, and to claim it is to claim that only your version of reality is operative.

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hate crimes

rhetorical claim: The whole category of “hate crimes” should be eliminated. The hate-crime label diminishes actual crimes and promotes different standards of justice for different victims. It politicizes crime. Charges should be based on criminal law, not politics. Calling something a “hate crime” only leads to more hate because everyone distrusts the politicization of criminality and blames the other side.

rhetorical effect: makes it sound as if hate crime doesn’t actually exist, but is only a made-up  form of political coercion. Lays the groundwork for repealing any hate-crime laws, thus leading to more racist and homophobic speech.

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dignified

rhetorical claim: Lamestream media criticism of Trump or his followers on Inauguration Day would be undignified. The people should be allowed to express their support without being belittled or mocked by the media.

rhetorical effect: any political dissent or mockery of Trump is branded as morally-unworthy behavior. Dignity itself comes to be defined as supporting the true American values of Trump supporters. Everything else is, at best, a cheap shot, and, at worst, seditious.

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health care plan

rhetorical claim: to Dems, an expensive, constricting federal regulatory scheme that forces Americans to participate through a series of mandates; to the GOP,  a proposal for doing or achieving something. Dems believe that coverage can only exist either through phony state-run exchanges or welfare.

rhetorical effect: Opens the door to repealing but not replacing, or replacing with a so-called “free market” approach that will amount to no insurance policy whatsoever.  The GOP plan no regulation whatsoever, and the ultimate aim is to strip nearly 30 million people of health care insurance.

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Trump Derangement Syndrome

rhetorical claim: According to Los Angeles Times guest columnist Justin Raimondo.

The country is in the throes of a major epidemic, with no known cure and some pretty scary symptoms. It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome, or TDS, and it’s rapidly spreading from the point of origin – the political class – to the population at large. In the first stage of the disease, victims lose all sense of proportion. The president-elect’s every tweet provokes a firestorm, as if 140 characters were all it took to change the world…

In the advanced stages of the disease, the afflicted lose touch with reality. Opinion is unmoored from fact.

rhetorical effect: well beyond calling any criticism of Trump “undignified”. Pathologizes or psychologizes Trump critics. This is a classic totalitarian rhetorical move, in line with threatening more draconian libel laws, encouraging violence against political opponents, and aligning himself with the most virulent white power forces both domestically and internationally. As Chauncey DeVega argues in Salon,:

“Trump Derangement Syndrome” is a preview of the narrative framework that will likely be used by conservatives and their allies in a compliant corporate news media to silence Trump’s critics. To that end, those who oppose Trump and his administration will be described as “crazy” or “unhinged.” The mainstream news media — because of its slavish adherence to false equivalency and a “both sides do it” narrative — will insist that Trump’s critics should “give him a chance” and are somehow “hypocrites” if they complained about Republican obstructionism against Obama.

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driving the news

rhetorical claim: Trump’s tweets are said to be driving the news because any pronouncement of a President is inherently newsworthy.

rhetorical effect: legitimizes government by threat, innuendo and edict. As Robert Reich argues, this defense of trump tweets normalizes Trump’s bullying, and  rests on a tautology–they’re newsworthy only because they drive the news. And they drive the news only because they’re considered by the media to be newsworthy–that could lead to tyranny. As Reich argues, the media needs to pay attention to what Rump does, not what he says. But also keep in mind that what he says is itself a speech act, with real political consequences. Since most of his tweets are filled with lies or distortions, their overall effect is to make language and reality polar opposites if the media repeat the tweets in their misguided attempt at “balance”.

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workers of the world

rhetorical claim: Trump represents the workers of the world, in opposition to global elites.

rhetorical effect: the so-called “populist billionaire” performs egalitarianism even as his policies and cabinet picks ensure monopoly power for the wealthy and for corporations. Even as his administration erodes wage support, workplace safety, workers’ rights, guaranteed health insurance, environmental protections, etc, and even though its top priority is tax cuts for the wealthy and for business, it will insist that it is defending the “little guy”. The government is now at the disposal of business interests.

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civic engagement

rhetorical claim: the lib-Dem mantra for taking over college campuses with a New Civics agenda of  indoctrination for community activism, radical politics, and America-hating. College has become the center of left-wing brainwashing, not critical thought.

rhetorical effect: makes it un-American to question the status quo and argue for justice and equity. “Civics” in this case becomes less about dissent and questioning and more about conformity and silence with the federal government’s programs and policies. GOP civics takes power away from the people and transfers it to the federal government. Engagement comes to mean agreement, not questioning.

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pajama-boy Ivy League culture

rhetorical claim: Obama-era elitism is over, and the smug Ivy League elites and their political correctness are forever marginalized. Making something with your hands is infinitely superior to the abstract world of Ivy League culture.

rhetorical effect: no academics in any power positions in Washington; increased pressure on colleges and universities to allow right-wing speakers; threats to cut off federal funds to sanctuary universities. Emasculates ideals of learning, questioning, and advocating for social change.

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debunked


rhetorical claim:
whatever Trump  claims never happened or else anything claims he never did or said.

rhetorical effect: outright lies and denials. Makes it impossible to take anything he says seriously, so he can get away with anything once he has decoupled language from reality.  As Kellyanne Conway put it, “Why is everything taken at face value? You can’t give him the benefit of the doubt on this and he’s telling you what was in his heart? You always want to go by what’s come out of his mouth rather than look at what’s in his heart.” Of course, this is a circular, self-fulfilling argument: whatever is in Trump’s heart is known only to Trump’s heart and thus is unverifiable. The only solution is to ignore both what he says and what he feels, but look only at what he does.

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Judeo-Christian nation-states

rhetorical claim: according to Stephen Bannon, once there was a collection of Judeo-Christian nation-states that practiced a humane form of biblical capitalism and fostered culturally coherent communities. But in the past few decades, the party of Davos — with its globalism, relativism, pluralism and diversity — has sapped away the moral foundations of this Judeo-Christian way of life.

Humane capitalism has been replaced by the savage capitalism that brought us the financial crisis. National democracy has been replaced by a crony-capitalist network of global elites. Traditional virtue has been replaced by abortion and gay marriage. Sovereign nation-states are being replaced by hapless multilateral organizations like the E.U.

Decadent and enervated, the West lies vulnerable in the face of a confident and convicted Islamofascism, which is the cosmic threat of our time.

rhetorical effect: Bannon’s ethno-nationalistic populism leads the way to undo human rights and shift away from the postwar global consensus and toward an alliance with various right-wing populist movements simmering around the globe.

Lies, Distortions and Doublethink in the Wall Street Journal, Jan 6-7, 2017

The biomedical complex demonizes corporations and venerates academics. This prejudice has produced billions of wasted research hours and money because the true innovations come from the private sector.  We need to trust corporate research to guarantee safe medications because the corporations can police themselves.

The whole notion of “hate crimes” should be eliminated. The hate-crime label diminishes actual crimes and promotes different standards of justice for different victims. It politicizes crime. Charges should be based on criminal law, not politics. Calling something a “hate crime” only leads to more hate because everyone distrusts the politicization of criminality and blames the other side.

The Republicans’ free market solution to health care will excite the public by making health care more affordable, accessible and portable. Tax credits, entitlement reform, freer insurance markets, portable policies and fewer mandates will translate into a radically-improved health care system. Just  leave it to the market.

Lamestream media criticism of Trump or his followers on Inauguration Day would be undignified. The people should be allowed to express their support without being belittled or mocked by the media.

Obamacare and his economic policies are dismal failures, rejected by the electorate in a landslide election. Obamacare has done nothing but constrain economic growth and infringe freedom.

The US should either stop paying UN dues altogether or at least drastically cut back on funding UN peacekeeping operations, which are little more than full employment for humanitarian organizations that are essentially just caterers.

 

 

 

Glossary: Key memes, counterfactuals, dog whistles, canards, euphemisms, innuendoes, insinuations, fake outrages, and obsessions in The Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories and fever swamps, Jan. 3-6, 2017.

accountability

rhetorical claim: Donald Trump is only accountable to his supporters, who gave him his mandate.

rhetorical effect: Trump can do and say anything because his supporters are so fanatical and dismiss any critical reporting as “fake news.” Trump has never been accountable to anyone–shareholders, a board of directors, etc.–so why should he start now?

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fear-mongering

rhetorical claim: Liberals are so unhinged over Trump’s victory that they are caught up in a hysterical, irrational, ever-spiraling  anti-Putin campaign that does nothing but spread false fear. It is the equivalent of fake news, and spearheaded by the Washington Post.

rhetorical effect: makes any claim of Russian interference in US affairs sound cynical, panicky, and even dangerous. This could be another step toward making any veiled criticism of Trump dangerous and suspect. Calling news reporting fear-mongering suppresses free speech.

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government watchdogs

rhetorical claim: So-called “government watchdogs” are really just progressives posing as lovers of transparency but actually only advancing their own agendas. They wage fact-free outrage campaigns.

rhetorical effect: marginalizes or even criminalizes dissent. Watchdogs and whistle blowers are considered traitors and will be muzzled at any cost. The foxes will be guarding the hen house.

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wealth creation

rhetorical claim: Trump’s cabinet is the most promising in decades because almost all of them are already wealthy so won’t try and enrich themselves in office (and after they leave office) and so understand that wealth creation is the cornerstone of American society.

rhetorical effect:the American Dream of freedom, equality, and equal justice before the law gets reduced to wealth creation. In a society where everything is reduced to its cash value, there are no longer any moral or ethical values; or, to be more precise, morals and ethics are moot because you can’t price them. Americans’ morals and ethics get bought out by economic prosperity.

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white genocide

rhetorical claim: according to the About White Genocide Project, White Genocide includes:

▪ Moving millions of non-White immigrants into traditionally White countries over a period of years. This alone is not genocide, but the next step makes it a part of genocide.

▪ Legally chasing down and forcing White areas to accept “diversity“.This is known as “Forced Assimilation“.

A combination of mass immigration (of different groups of people) plus forced assimilation would qualify as genocide, as defined by Article II, part (C) of the United Nations Genocide Conventions:“Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

▪Government refusal to remove genocidal policiesthat are in place today. By keeping these policies in place, they ensure that the genocide is ongoing.

Society is widely aware that White people are becoming a minority in several countries, but anti-Whites don’t want us to bring an end to the policies which are turning us into a minority everywhere.

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has re-tweeted posts from this group.

rhetorical effect: whites get turned into the victims and everyone else, or anyone who speaks out against this hate group, is what Trump is now calling an  “enemy” and part of the anti-white conspiracy.

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inequality

rhetorical claim: freedom can’t exist without inequality. When  Obama claims that his presidency  helped reverse inequality in America (“We’ve actually begun the long task of reversing inequality.”), he is being disingenuous. Reversing  inequality inevitably requires reversing freedom–as in all totalitarian countries.

rhetorical effect: intentionally conflates inevitable human difference with systematic prejudice, racism, and exploitation of the less-well-0ff. Claiming the inevitability of unequal outcomes does not axiomatically mean that we should cease all efforts to reverse inequality. In its most extreme form, this rhetorical ploy is the same as saying since we all are going to die, we may as well not use medicine.

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globalism

rhetorical claim: the view that we should regard ourselves as having no greater obligations to fellow citizens than to foreigners.

rhetorical effect: enshrines “America first” as the cornerstone of our democracy–a historically dangerous and short-sighted view that will inevitably lead to displays of American strength in the form of wars or long-term foreign entanglements. Globalism should not always be a pejorative ter, especially when it refers to free trade, international canons of justice, universal human rights, etc.

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politicized intelligence

rhetorical claim: The appointed leadership of the U.S. intelligence community, under Barack Obama in particular, has been politicizing intelligence (downplaying ISIS and Islamic terrorism generally, hyping the extent of al-Qaeda’s degradation, soft-peddling Iran’s intentions, etc.). Skepticism toward what they say on the way out the door is warranted (though perhaps not in the way Trump has expressed it). Even if Russia meddled in the election, Trump was legitimately elected.

rhetorical effect: makes it possible to Trump to cherry-pick intelligence reports that help him politically, and dismiss inconvenient ones as biased. There of course won’t be any inconvenient reports once he gets all his own people in control of all intelligence reports.

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Obama as outsider

rhetorical claim: The Obama presidency has been different from any other administration in the last two centuries. From the start, he has gone out of his way to defy the very essence of the American Republic, our constitutional limits on the power of any single dictatorial individual. Under Obama, the US Congress and even the Supreme Court have failed to assert their constitutional independence, presumably out of fear of this president and the accusations of racism that followed opposition to him or his policies….For Obama, the US Constitution is just an obstacle to be circumvented or simply ignored.

rhetorical effect: Totally undercuts and delegitamizes any accomplishments of the Obama era. Calling Obama a jihadi Marxist may be over the top, but in more subtle ways Trump’s tweets really fall back on this point: that the liberal Dems are so outside the American mainstfream that the real Americans routed them in the election, even though they got three million more votes.

Lies, Distortions and Doublethink, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 5, 2017

Public safety is the new civil rights issue of our time. Protecting and defending the police is the new racial justice.

Under Obama, all the familiar inner city problems–unemployment, violence, underachievement–somehow got transferred to the issue of the police, as if the cops invented poverty and immobility, in Chicago, Baltimore, or Ferguson.

Donald Trump could well be the FDR for black Americans, liberating them, via jobs, from the liberals’ stranglehold.

Poverty is going extinct all over the world, and Trump will speed up this extinction because he will be the prosperity President.

Revoking onerous and crippling federal rules in such areas as fuel standards, fracking, environmental regulation, and labor laws will save the private sector billions of dollars and end the Dems’ lawless presidential rule-making.

 

Lies, Distortions, and Doublethink in the Wall Street Journal, Jan. 3-4, 2017

Chicago’s murder rate is largely caused by the demonization of the police by city and federal politicians and bureaucrats.

The UN is telling Israel that it must give up land captured in a defensive war. This is the first time in history  this has happened. Why is the winner of a war required to give the loser their own country? Why is the winner of the war being asked to commit political suicide?

The US should no longer support the UN, which has stood by while the slaughter of innocents goes on in Syria and also has turned virulently against Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East.

Higher minimum wages are job killers. The more workers are paid, the more disadvantaged they are.

Liberal institutions, such as a free press, constitutional courts and individual rights are often obstacles to effective government.

So-called “government watchdogs” are really just progressives posing as lovers of transparency but actually only advancing their own agendas.

Budget overruns happen because of union rules and unnecessary environmental regulation.

Trump’s cabinet is the most promising in decades because almost all of them are wealthy and so understand that wealth creation is the cornerstone of American society.

In a Judeo-Christian society such as ours, God is the ultimate authority over practical matters, and our policy on Israeli settlements should be considered in a Biblical context.

Racial bias does not cause racial disparities in inc0me. The welfare state has caused more racial disparities than even slavery.

Civil rights leaders claim to be acting in the interests of blacks but are really advancing their own agendas–which usually involve hanging on to power, money and relevance. The needs of the black underclass have nothing to do with the needs of the NAACP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary: Key memes, counterfactuals, dog whistles, canards, euphemisms, innuendoes, insinuations, fake outrages, and obsessions in The Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories and fever swamps, Dec. 27, 2016-Jan 2, 2017

ruinous

rhetorical claim: Obama’s presidency has been “ruinous” to US interests, especially in foreign policy. We have squandered both our moral and political world leadership, and given our economy over to the nameless, faceless forces of globalization.

rhetorical effect: makes nuanced foreign policy impossible. In a black-and-white world, you’re either defeating or condoning ISIS, Russia, Assad and the Iranians. The only proper response will be either military force or strong economic sanctions against any nation who doesn’t fully support US policies. There is no middle ground for subtle diplomatic or economic pressures, no moral leverage. If America has been “ruined” by Obama, any Trump initiative is automatically restorative

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stunt

rhetorical claim: the US abstention in the recent UN vote on Israeli settlements was a “graceless” “stunt” by the Obama administration, aimed at humiliating Israel. This betrayal cheapens the US.

rhetorical effect: a stunt is hardly a moral act, but, instead, a trick, an act of cowardice and petty political revenge. Makes any Obama foreign policy initiative sound cynical and self-serving and runs the risk of making any policy opposed to Trump’s–such as nuclear disarmament–also be undercut by being labeled a stunt.

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unity

rhetorical claim: supporting Trump. Everyone who doesn’t is a hater and a loser. The only path to unity is to stop complaining about him and rally around him.

rhetorical effect: Trump will only be President to the minority of Americans who voted for him. His opponents will not only have no standing politically speaking, and thus not even get their day in court, but will be subject to endless bullying, distortions, lies, and political repression.

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two-state solution

rhetorical claim: Palestinians can only have a state if it is demilitarized and not free to determine its own destiny. Otherwise, it will turn into another Yemen–a breeding ground for terrorists. The two-state solution has been a fairy tale all along, a two-state narrative, not a workable solution

rhetorical effect: makes a one-state solution inevitable and dooms Israel to forever be an apartheid regime with constant unrest and political repression of Palestinians and all Arabs. Guarantees endless deadly conflict and enmity in the region.

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wins

rhetorical claim: unlike Obama, under whose leadership America kept losing, Trump already has several domestic and foreign wins, and isn’t even President yet. He wins because he puts America first, not his political agenda.

rhetorical effect: makes any opposition to Trump’s foreign or domestic agenda a hypocritical, hyperpolitical ploy. Turns foreign and domestic policy into a zero-sum game, which can only have “winners” and “losers,” and the “winners” are tautologically defined as policies Trump supports. This circular argument is divisive to its core, equating his “enemies” with “losers.”

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The War on Israel

rhetorical claim: the Obama administration waged an eight-year war on Israeli sovereignty and even Israeli democracy. This war will end on Jan. 20. Israel is surrounded by enemies whose fondest wish is its elimination. Obama used the smokescreen of “negotiations” to advance the illegal Palestinian claim to disputed territories.

rhetorical effect: hardens the Israeli right-wing, marginalizes and demonizes the Palestinians, completely justifies illegal Israeli settlements and expansionism, and makes a two-state solution impossible. Any criticism of Israeli actions reveals how much liberals hate the Israelis.

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the freedom to fail

rhetorical claim: Liberals and progressives like socialism because it eliminates the notion of personal responsibility by eliminating the freedom to fail.

rhetorical effect: removes the social safety net on the way to creating a zero-sum, Darwinian world of winners and losers (those who fail). “Responsibility” is really a euphemism for laissez-faire society in which people can choose whether to succeed or not, and the only “freedom” the disadvantaged or discriminated against have is to “fail” without any government help.

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Pax Americana

rhetorical claim: until Obama undid it, American military strength controlled the world and made possible a productive peace with stable institutions. We need to return to these notions of “America first” and “peace through strength.”

rhetorical effect: justifies military intervention anywhere in the world; assumes that America is always morally in the right; glosses over America’s military and political failures–Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Will make the world safe for US corporate exploitation–call it “cash Americana.”

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climate religion

rhetorical claim: “climateers”–professional scolds, really–are incapable of discovering truths inconvenient to their theories about man-made climate change because they a dogmatic cult based more on faith than evidence.

rhetorical effect: belittling climate change science as a “religion” equates it with crackpots, fanatics, and zealots, and is an attempt to emasculate the scientific method. Once canons of scientific evidence and objectivity are discarded, truth becomes hostage to politics and reason gets reduced to being a “theory.”

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comprehensive workforce strategy

rhetorical claim: the Labor Department should be renamed the Workforce Department to set the stage for a new, comprehensive workforce strategy to make American business more competitive. The current Labor Department keeps American workers from finding jobs and holds them back once they are employed.

rhetorical effect: entirely eliminates workers’ rights from the formula of what qualifies as fulfilling work and a thriving economy and society. Redefines workers as cogs in a machine rather than human beings with inalienable rights.

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American retreat

rhetorical claim: Obama’s foreign policy of American retreat has left the world’s authoritarians advancing aggressively. We need to return to a realpolitik of carrying a big stick.

rhetorical effect: justifies an aggressive US foreign policy that will replace diplomacy with bullying, corruption,and intimidation.

Lies, Distortions and Doublethink in the Wall Street Journal, Dec 28, 2016-Jan 2, 2017

The Obama administration has waged an eight-year war on Israeli sovereignty and even Israeli democracy. This war will end on Jan. 20. Israel is surrounded by enemies whose fondest wish is its elimination. Obama used the smokescreen of “negotiations” to advance the illegal Palestinian claim to disputed territories. Israel is an embattled and bullied democracy.

Mishandled US diplomacy in the middle east foments Palestinian terrorism. Israeli intransigence and expansionism has nothing to do with Palestinian militancy. The feckless US has been an enabler of Palestinian terrorism.

Liberals and progressives like socialism because it eliminates the notion of personal responsibility by eliminating the freedom to fail.

The Obama administration’s so-called  domestic “war on terrorism” has only amounted to using policemen as human shields, but not going after the real terrorists. Obama’s motto ought to have been “terrorism–not our problem.”

President Obama’s entire post-Presidency is going to consist of whiny, self-justifying excuses for his ruinous presidency.

President Obama rarely accepts that people have honest disagreements with his policies. Instead, he characterizes any such disagreement as racist.

Until Obama undid it, American military strength controlled the world and made possible a productive peace with stable institutions. We need to return to these notions of “America first” and “peace through strength. These memes justify military intervention anywhere in the world; assume that America is always morally in the right, and gloss over America’s military and political failures–Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

A buoyant US economy under Trump will create enough wealth to go our and buy up distressed economies and properties around the world. This will be the real new Pax Americana.

Obama’s last-minute land grab of protected public lands is part of the liberal agenda of shielding land use decisions from public input.

The Labor Department should be renamed the Workforce Department to set the stage for a new, comprehensive workforce strategy to make American business more competitive. The current Labor Department keeps American workers from finding jobs and holds them back once they are employed

Obama’s foreign policy of American retreat has left the world’s authoritarians advancing aggressively. We need to return to a realpolitik of carrying a big stick. This justifies an aggressive US foreign policy that will replace diplomacy with bullying, corruption,and intimidation.

 

Lies, Distortions and Doublespeak in The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 27, 2016

Thanks to Obama, we are stumbling into another age of nuclear proliferation. He also has encouraged Al Qaeda and ISIS. Never mind that Trump himself is the one who has stirred the proliferation pot.

The fundamental aim of the US-Iranian agreement has less to do with curbing Iranian nuclear proliferation than aligning Washington’s interests with Tehran.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been protecting the wrong side of a financial transaction, because, after all, the financial crash was caused by greedy consumers.

Financial sector regulatory under Obama amounted to evidence-free money grabs against unpopular banks, corporations and financiers.

Gitmo is a secure and humanitarian location for holding dangerous terrorists.

Lies, Distortions, and Doublespeak in The Wall Street Journal, Dec 19-20, 2016

Unlike Obama, Trump cannot be intimidated by the Chinese, and will not separate economic from security issues.

Mark Ruffalo and other Hollywood celebrities convinced the EPA to assess that fracking can impact water quality. Liberals denounce anyone who cites uncertainties about carbon’s climate impact as “deniers.” So it’s ironic that they are now justifying their opposition to fracking based on scientific uncertainties. As for the EPA’s science, bending to public comment from litigants and actor Mark Ruffalo does not instill confidence in the agency’s integrity. The so-called “scientific community” of arch environmentalists are the real science deniers because there is no evidence that fracking harms the environment.

Environmental groups used to purchase land for conservation. Now they conscript government to seize it. The Imperial federal land grab is over.

Regulatory risks and costs  are the main driver in the decline of American manufacturing. Under Trump, these risks will go away and the manufacturing sector will boom.