World Affairs Brief, February 15, 2013 Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World. Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief (http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com)
THIS WEEK’S ANALYSIS:
State of the Union–the Art of Lying
Rubio Rebuttal–Political Grandstanding
Messed Up LA Police Department
Take Down of Edgar Steel
US Attorney General Argues Against Homeschooling
Military Exercises in Urban Areas
Rampant Inflation in Latin America
STATE OF THE UNION—THE ART OF LYING
Reading or listening to the annual State of the Union address to Congress is an exercise of mental and spiritual anguish, as I work to unravel the sophisticated lies, flattery, half truths and distortions that speech writers weave into every sentence of the speech. Senator Rubio’s Republican response provided no respite. His speech was carefully crafted to focus more on the glories of the “poor working class” as he maneuvers for a future run on the presidency than it was to provide a strong rebuttal to Obama. In the end it was nearly as bad at pandering to social welfare programs and playing on the false hopes of conservatives for change.
Listening to the pundits on NPR praise Obama’s “assertiveness,” “boldness,” and broad strokes of “genius,” without ever addressing the dishonesty of his positions was equally painful. Here’s my straightforward rebuttal to Obama’s grand deception.

First and last, I find offensive the flattery and the inevitable pandering to various special interests such as the troops (currently a favorite all over) lauded as our “brave men and women in uniform.” Another platitude went out to the “grit and determination of the American people,” but the worst is the feigned religiosity with references to God himself—the ultimate blasphemy as he finishes with the inevitable and wholly hypocritical, “God Bless America.”
In between these showy words Obama focuses the audience attention on various “heroes” that the president’s PR staff has selected to provide political sympathy for Obama’s pet causes: parents of a victim of “gun violence,” a nurse who survived Hurricane Sandy representing all those needing more federal disaster aid and the102 year old Miami woman who had to wait 6 hours so she could cast her vote for Obama—to help justify making it even easier for people to get to the polls and help the favored candidate with registration and vote fraud.
Yes, these are victims—poor fools who have fallen prey to the political establishment who is using them to promote their deceptive gun control, vote manipulation and welfare agendas, and to their own soft thinking. Shame on the political hacks who use these people, and shame on the victims themselves for being so blind to the fact that they are being used.
Then there is the false credit Obama takes for the economy: “[we have] created over six million new jobs” and our “housing market is healing,” he said. The jobs are mostly created by statistical sleight of hand and the healing of the housing market is merely the inevitable result of constant inflation finally spilling over into the economy, coupled with the 5 year shake-out of bad mortgages at horrendous losses.
On behalf of government, Obama also takes credit for things which are merely the result of the past 5 years of deflation: “We buy more American cars than we have in five years, and less foreign oil than we have in twenty.” That’s what happens when the collapse of a bubble causes people to reduce spending. Then after 5 years, pent-up demand and worn out vehicles forces an upsurge.
Obama’s rhetoric wouldn’t be complete without playing the Marxist card on the downtrodden workers: “there are millions of Americans whose hard work and dedication have not yet been rewarded [getting paid apparently isn’t enough of a reward]. Our economy is adding jobs – but too many people still can’t find full-time employment [nearly half of all the unemployed are just plain unemployable, and there’s no easy solution to that problem]. Corporate profits have rocketed to all-time highs [only to the ones on the receiving end of government protection, cheap money and lucrative contracts such as Wall Street insider firms, military contractors, big oil and big Pharma. The rest are still downsizing to stay alive]. …but for more than a decade, wages and incomes have barely budged.”
The latter is true in part because most companies are struggling and can’t afford higher labor costs. Being ignorant of economic theory, Obama also fails to notice that there’s a glut of labor in times of high unemployment. Workers can’t demand increased salaries when there are ten other competitors wanting to do their job for less. That’s what really determines overall wages in any profession or skill—not company profits or notions about job worth or equality.
Obama also can’t resist weaving in false philosophies and distorting American history: to “restore the basic bargain that built this country – the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love [since when was acceptance of homosexuality part of American founding principles? But being free to think, believe and discriminate in the use of your own resources was and should still be an essential part].”
Anti-discrimination laws are, at the core, a denial of people’s right to determine who they will associate with and who they reject. Much as we may disagree with people’s choices, in the realm of free speech and free association, we have to defend people’s right to choose and even make mistakes about those choices as long as those choices don’t violate other’s fundamental rights—and there is no fundamental right to be accepted by others, period!
Perhaps Obama’s biggest lie is his attempt to mix his pretended goal to save the middle class and use it to justify tax increases, more government spending and new government programs. This is NOT, as he claims “to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth – a rising, thriving [hardly] middle class.” It’s simply pandering to the beleaguered middle class in order to obscure a bigger government agenda, paid for with tax increases and more deficit spending.
His deceptive claims about reducing the deficit tops them all: “both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion – mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances.”
Perhaps he’s got some economists in his pocket that can’t count but any honest analyst would laugh at the claim of $2.5T in spending cuts, when those have been so few, you can hardly list them. He mentions the huge tax increase on the wealthy as if it’s an afterthought to spending cuts, but it’s by far the largest component of the slight reduction in the federal deficit we’ll have this year. Of course, Obama wants even more tax money from the rich:
“But we can’t ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and most powerful [So far the wealthy are paying 80% of all taxes. Is that a fair share?].”
Calling for “balance” is a favorite talking point of all compromisers but it’s all one-sided tax increases for Obama: “broad-based economic growth requires a balanced approach to deficit reduction, with spending cuts and revenue, and with everybody doing their fair share. And that’s the approach I offer tonight.” As we will see, Obama will deride the sequester cuts and only offer huge tax increases via cutting deductions, and more government spending.
“To hit the rest of our deficit reduction target, we should save hundreds of billions of dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and well-connected.” That’s the same as a tax increase. These so called “loopholes” were put there by Congress specifically because the tax code was creating all kinds of perverse incentives and causing distortions in the markets. Those same crushing distortions will return and savage certain business investments if those loopholes are removed.
Now comes the BIGGEST lie: “Let me repeat – nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime.” Then he proceeds to suggest almost a dozen new government investments into pie-in-the-sky research and development (like the Solyndra boondoggle that went bankrupt after getting huge loans from the government) that supposedly is going to grow the economy.
“Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing [He then talks about the US developing global hubs for job creation—why global? Why not American?] And I ask this Congress to help create a network of fifteen of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is Made in America.” I smell corruption—more money for insider connected companies. Obama intends to magically fund all this without increasing the deficit, but when all these politically-correct projects (that can’t get enough capital from savvy investors) go south just like Solyndra did, the taxpayers will be left holding the bag.
For instance, Obama calls for “an Energy Security Trust that will drive new research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good.” -Another pipe dream.
He’ll finally admit he has no intention of allowing the sequester cuts to go through, as I have long predicted. That leaves us only with tax increases: “Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists have already said that these cuts, known here in Washington as ‘the sequester,’ are a really bad idea. These sudden, harsh, arbitrary cuts would jeopardize our military readiness. They’d devastate priorities like education, energy, and medical research. They would certainly slow our recovery, and cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
“Medical research” is an area that could use a shakeup. Many of these establishment research jobs are totally unproductive—especially establishment medical research. I never give money to any of the lavish campaigns asking for money to cure cancer or heart disease. Your money just feeds Big Pharma in their quests for new drugs and profits—which can never cure cancer or heart disease.
Then he brags about increased natural gas production—due in no part to the federal government—and propagandizes about the evils of carbon on the planet. “And over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen.” So why do we need his new “executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce [carbon] pollution”?
Obama claims “Solar energy gets cheaper by the year – so let’s drive costs down even further.” The prices reductions are in large part due to liquidation in the alternate energy markets as many solar panel companies have gone out of business and bargains have flooded the market. But the costs can’t come down dramatically without some elusive breakthrough in physics. None of the “sustainable energy sources” are efficient. The energy from wind and solar are still many times more expensive than gas, coal, water power and nuclear. And they never will be cheaper or more efficient. The only thing more “green energy” mandates ensure are shortages and high prices.
He even throws a false bone to China: “As long as countries like China keep going all-in on clean energy, so must we.” Well, China is building more nuclear, and more coal plants too (over 360!), but I hardly think that’s what Obama is intending for us. Putting China up as any example is laughable. China is the biggest polluter in the world, and getting worse—not better. This was put in there as part of the globalist agenda to keep painting China as a progressive partner rather than the predator enemy she is.
He urges “Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago,” Free market, my eye! He’s talking the old carbon tax credit gimmick that increases energy costs to utilities by many times, all of which is passed onto consumers—and it certainly isn’t voluntary as Obama brandishes his threats. “But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions…..” That’s both predictable and illegal.
“That’s why my Administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits [another outright lie, since the richest deposits and reserves on federal lands are still off-limits]. But I also want to work with this Congress to encourage the research and technology that helps natural gas burn even cleaner and protects our air and water [playing to the environmentalists. NG is already the cleanest burning fuel—unless you count carbon as a pollutant, which he does].
“Indeed, much of our new-found energy is drawn from lands and waters that we, the public, own together. [So rather than propose reasonable drilling on public lands, he proposes] we will use some of our oil and gas revenues… to cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next twenty years [half? -another pipe dream]. The states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make it happen [again supposedly at no cost to the deficit].”
Now, to really pump money into the economy, he proposes some other “costless” schemes: high-speed rail and internet; high-tech schools, and self-healing power grids (which are not possible as long as aerial power lines are widely used. These lines are the weak link in outages).
Then there is the “‘Fix-It-First’ program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country… And to make sure taxpayers don’t shoulder the whole burden, I’m also proposing a Partnership to Rebuild America that attracts private capital…” He even wants to “rebuild vacant homes in run-down neighborhoods [they are vacant for a reason—people are fleeing the area].” And I suppose that won’t cost anything either.
There’s a mention of business-government partnerships that use billions of seed money to bring private contractors into the benefit-corrupted world of government contracting and make them dependent forevermore. Believe me, companies don’t enter into these partnerships unless fully compensated —so there is no relief in his proposal for the taxpayer. Besides, it won’t be taxpayers but deficit spending. That’s why governments will never stop deficits—it avoids the pain of making taxpayers see the tax directly, but it comes out of their hide later as inflation.
“Part of our rebuilding effort must also involve our housing sector. [Here come the cheap loans again for the new housing bubble] Too many families who have never missed a payment and want to refinance are being told no… Congress should give every responsible homeowner in America the chance to save $3,000 a year by refinancing at today’s rates.” Denial of refinancing is done for a reason—their financial situation is not strong enough. Bypassing these checks and balances is what led to the last real estate bubble.
Education is always the way to charm even conservative taxpayers, but it’s a trap: Obama will give us Head Start on steroids (still at no cost, he claims): “high-quality preschool available to every child in America….” “We’ll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers… Through tax credits, grants, and better loans, we have made college more affordable for millions of students and families over the last few years [Really? Student loans are the main reason why colleges have grown rich and increased tuition much higher than the rate of inflation. Most students used to be able to work their way through public universities—not anymore]. But taxpayers cannot continue to subsidize the soaring cost of higher education [but they will. How can it be “more affordable” if there is soaring tuition?]. Colleges must do their part to keep costs down [not as long as student loans keep allowing them to raise tuition and fees], and it’s our job to make sure they do.
“Tonight, I ask Congress to change the Higher Education Act, so that affordability and value [word games to be manipulated] are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid [colleges already hire huge staffs to deal with all the federal demands for paperwork and statistics controlling every university which takes student loans. This will add more staff, encourage “reverse” discrimination and increase costs].
Now, comes the inevitable “time… to pass comprehensive immigration reform.” He begins with the token tip to “strong border security,” (but without a completed fence, that’s not possible) by – putting more boots on the southern border [National Guard troops on the border don’t do anything to stop illegals, and the Border Patrol is purposely located so far apart as to make sure illegals have ways to get in] than at any time in our history, and reducing illegal crossings to their lowest levels in 40 years [a lie because nobody knows these numbers. Who’s counting? And if they can count them, they should be able to catch them. Certainly the number of deportations is at an all time low—because of lack of enforcement].
“Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship – a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English, and going to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally [Another lie. There is no back of the line they can or will determine, or enforce. This is only a deception to placate the anger of all those who spent years coming in through the agonizing and decades-long legal process].
“And real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods, reduce bureaucracy, and attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy [and compete for jobs with skilled Americans. So much for the old excuse they used to use about immigrants only doing low paying jobs Americans won’t do].”
He’s wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. “This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families [and provide a negative incentive for employers to hire workers for any work worth less than $9/hr (especially entry-level work where someone is still gaining experience). The result is always higher unemployment for youth and the poorly skilled].”
But when it comes to private sector salaries, suddenly Obama is in favor of tying “the minimum wage to the cost of living,” so that it finally becomes a wage “you can live on.” But notice, the fed won’t do the same for its workers or its pensioners. Only the private sector needs to keep pace with inflation—and then only for workers, not the owners, self-employed or start-up entrepreneurs! We continue to pay higher taxes on increasing income that really isn’t income—only inflated dollar amounts.
On Foreign Policy, Obama continues to play both sides: “Today, the organization that attacked us on 9/11 is a shadow of its former self [He can’t leave it at that lest people cease to be driven by the phony war on terror, so he conjures up a modified threat]. Different al Qaeda affiliates and extremist groups have emerged – from the Arabian Peninsula to Africa. The threat these groups pose is evolving. But to meet this threat, we don’t need to send tens of thousands of our sons and daughters abroad, or occupy other nations [pandering to the legitimate anti-occupation sentiment—for the moment]. Instead, we will need to help countries like Yemen, Libya, and Somalia provide for their own security, and help allies who take the fight to terrorists, as we have in Mali. And, where necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to Americans [wide open mandate to continue intervening around the world].
“As we do, we must enlist our values in the fight [here comes his justification, without saying so directly, of killing citizens who present a mere suspected terror threat]. That is why my Administration has worked tirelessly to forge a durable legal and policy framework to guide our counterterrorism operations [Last week’s brief covered this lie in detail]. Throughout, we have kept [a compliant] Congress fully informed of our efforts [if you count giving a selective secret briefing to a few, “fully informed”]. So, in the months ahead, I will continue to engage with Congress to ensure not only that our targeting, detention, and prosecution of terrorists [he means citizens too who they claim are allied with terror, without proof] remains consistent with our laws and system of checks and balances, but that our efforts are even more transparent to the American people and to the world [The hypocrisy of this claim of consistency with our system of checks and balance is amazing. How can secret policies be represented as compliant or transparent?].”
Obama was forced to react to the North Korean nuclear test, but with no threat of actions compared to Iran, if she were to do the same: “The regime in North Korea must know that they will only achieve security and prosperity by meeting their international obligations. Provocations of the sort we saw last night will only isolate them further, as we stand by our allies, strengthen our own missile defense [defensive only], and lead the world in taking firm action in response to these threats [Hollow threat: the US has never taken firm action against NK and never will—as the puppet “bad boy” of China, NK is being preserved for a trigger for WWIII. There are a few stories on the net about the US beefing up troops in Okinawa, claiming that something is brewing. It is not. It’s way too early. NK regularly attacks the South Koreans to test US resolve, but it’s not a sign war is imminent].”
Of course, Obama is not through meddling in the Middle East: “In the Middle East, we will stand with citizens as they demand their universal rights, and support stable transitions to democracy [always the excuse, but never their intent]. The process will be messy [and that’s the way the globalists want it, to foment more conflict], and we cannot presume to dictate the course of change in countries like Egypt [but they do, behind the scenes]; but we can – and will – insist on respect for the fundamental rights of all people [carefully undefined so as to preclude any claim to true rights].
“We will keep the pressure on a Syrian regime that has murdered its own people, and support opposition leaders that respect the rights of every Syrian [-Jihadists and terrorists respecting rights of others? Watch the blood bath in Syria continue once they take over]. And we will stand steadfast with Israel in pursuit of security and a lasting peace [which will never come].
More and more we will see talk from Obama about the “new” terror threat—cyber terror aimed at the net. The fact is, the government employs huge numbers of hackers who are regularly creating worms and viruses and attacking the net, here and abroad. They keep a lot of software people employed defending against these threats, and eventually will justify controlling the internet because of them. Beware Obama’s new moves to “protect” you with his “new executive order that will strengthen our cyber defenses.”
Remember that Obama is no longer a Marxist, but a globalist. They bought him out years ago when they made him wealthy and put him into political power. Notice the globalists are pushing for yet another regional agreement in the name of free trade: “Tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union – because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.” The thousands of pages of fine print won’t be about free trade but locking the US into more international agreements with the EU.
If all these projects (that won’t raise the deficit one cent), weren’t enough Obama proposes to “eradicate such extreme poverty in the next two decades: and helping communities to feed, power, and educate themselves; by saving the world’s children from preventable deaths; and by realizing the promise of an AIDS-free generation.” Why not ask for the moon?
In his promotion of gun control, Obama’s speech writers deftly suggested that other public servants and 2nd Amendment believers are the prime promoters of gun control. “Overwhelming majorities of Americans – Americans who believe in the 2nd Amendment – have come together around commonsense reform – like background checks that will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun [we already have that]. Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals [or anyone else, without telling the government]. Police chiefs [there are plenty of yesmen who collude with the establishment] are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because they are tired of being outgunned.”
And American citizens are tired of being confronted with thuggish behavior of police, refusal to recognize their rights to an attorney and the use of excessive force when 40-50 armed SWAT members descend on small companies over a simple food violation, or a guitar maker’s use of foreign wood, or an IRS dispute. It is happening all too frequently, and it’s getting America accustomed to the encroaching police state. This shocking video is a “must see” example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFALonjLay0
In summary, the State of the Union speech is a stark example of all that is wrong with the country —lying politicians, half truths, deceptive language, false solutions, and failure to follow the constitution while pledging verbal allegiance.