A Truly Great Phony
Many years ago, I was a member of a committee that was
recommending to whom grant money should be awarded. Since I knew one of the
applicants, I asked if this meant that I should recuse myself from voting on
his application.
"No," the chairman said. "I know him too -- and
he is one of the truly great phonies of our time."
The man was indeed a very talented phony. He could convince
almost anybody of almost anything -- provided that they were not already
knowledgeable about the subject.
He had once spoken to me very authoritatively about Marxian
economics, apparently unaware that I was one of the few people who had read all
three volumes of Marx's "Capital," and had published articles on
Marxian economics in scholarly journals.
What our glib talker was saying might have seemed impressive to
someone who had never read "Capital," as most people have not. But it
was complete nonsense to me.
Incidentally, he did not get the grant he applied for.
This episode came back to me recently, as I read an incisive
column by Charles Krauthammer, citing some of the many gaffes in public
statements by the President of the United States.
One presidential gaffe in particular gives the flavor, and
suggests the reason, for many others. It involved the Falkland Islands.
Argentina has recently been demanding that Britain return the
Falkland Islands, which have been occupied by Britons for nearly two centuries.
In 1982, Argentina seized these islands by force, only to have British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher take the islands back by force.
With Argentina today beset by domestic problems, demanding the
return of the Falklands is once again a way for Argentina's government to
distract the Argentine public's attention from the country's economic and other
woes.
Because the Argentines call these islands "the
Malvinas," rather than "the Falklands," Barack Obama decided to
use the Argentine term. But he referred to them as "the Maldives."
It so happens that the Maldives are thousands of miles away from
the Malvinas. The former are in the Indian Ocean, while the latter are in the
South Atlantic.
Nor is this the only gross misstatement that President Obama has
gotten away with, thanks to the mainstream media, which sees no evil, hears no
evil and speaks no evil when it comes to Obama.
The presidential gaffe that struck me when I heard it was Barack
Obama's reference to a military corps as a military "corpse." He is
obviously a man who is used to sounding off about things he has paid little or
no attention to in the past. His mispronunciation of a common military term was
especially revealing to someone who was once in the Marine Corps, not Marine
"corpse."
Like other truly talented phonies, Barack
Obama concentrates his
skills on the effect
of his words on other people -- most of whom
do not have
the time to become
knowledgeable about the things he is talking
about. Whether
what he says bears any
relationship to the facts is politically irrelevant.
A talented con man, or a slick politician, does not waste his
time trying to convince knowledgeable skeptics. His job is to keep the true
believers believing. He is not going to convince the others anyway.
Back during Barack Obama's first year in office, he kept
repeating, with great apparent earnestness, that there were
"shovel-ready" projects that would quickly provide many much-needed
jobs, if only his spending plans were approved by Congress.
He seemed very convincing -- if you didn't know how long it can
take for any construction project to get started, after going through a
bureaucratic maze of environmental impact studies, zoning commission rulings
and other procedures that can delay even the smallest and simplest project for
years.
Only about a year or so after his big spending programs were
approved by Congress, Barack Obama himself laughed at how slowly everything was
going on his supposedly "shovel-ready" projects.
One wonders how he will laugh when all his golden promises about
ObamaCare turn out to be false and a medical disaster. Or when his foreign
policy fiascoes in the Middle East are climaxed by a nuclear Iran.
OPERATION OBOMB:
DESTABALIZE AMERICA TO LAY
GROUNDS FOR A MUSLIM-STYLE DICTATORSHIP
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/08/seth-barron-obama-and-building-of.html
*
“Obama’s
new home in Washington has been described as the “nerve center” of the
anti-Trump opposition. Former attorney general Eric Holder has said
that Obama is “ready to roll” and has aligned himself with the
“resistance.” Former high-level Obama campaign staffers now work with a
variety of groups organizing direct action against
Trump’s initiatives. “Resistance School,” for example, features
lectures by former campaign executive Sara El-Amine, author of the Obama Organizing .”
SOARING
POVERTY AND DRUG ADDICTION UNDER OBAMA
"These
figures present a scathing indictment of the social order that prevails in
America, the world’s wealthiest country, whose government proclaims itself to
be the globe’s leading democracy. They are just one manifestation of the human
toll taken by the vast and all-pervasive inequality and mass poverty
SOARING
POVERTY AND DRUG ADDICTION UNDER OBAMA
"These
figures present a scathing indictment of the social order that prevails in
America, the world’s wealthiest country, whose government proclaims itself to
be the globe’s leading democracy. They are just one manifestation of the human
toll taken by the vast and all-pervasive inequality and mass poverty
JAMES WALSH
THE OBAMA HISPANICAZATION of AMERICA
How the Democrat party
surrendered America to Mexico:
“The
watchdogs at Judicial Watch discovered documents that reveal how the Obama
administration's close coordination with the Mexican government entices
Mexicans to hop over the fence and on to the American dole.” Washington
Times
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