These Aren't The Obama Scandals You're Looking for, Move Along, Move Along

P. Gardner Goldsmith | January 5, 2017
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There’s nothing quite like opening a new year with political lies on a so-called “news” network that, only twelve hours earlier, saw one of its bubble-gum hosts get embarrassingly drunk and have his ear pierced live on the air. But to help folks ring in 2017, White House Advisor and top Obama policy wonk, Valerie Jarrett, appeared Sunday on CNN’s silly “Fareed Zakaria, GPS” to offer what might be the most fittingly ironic lines ever uttered about her boss’s Administration:

The President prides himself on the fact that his Administration hasn’t had a scandal, and that he hasn’t done anything to embarrass himself. But that’s not, uh, because he’s being anyone other than who he is. That’s because that’s who he is, that’s who they are. I think that’s what really resonates with the American people.

Besides the ever-present opportunity to feel disdain and umbrage for yet another political hack turning individuals into a giant homogeneous gestalt called “The American People” (much easier to leverage a sense of patriotism and collective agreement that way), Ms. Jarrett in her soon-to-be-infamous eighteen second stream of nonsense gave people the ultimate “middle finger” as she and her lying, criminal boss stroll out the White House door. She couldn’t have created a better punctuation mark to emphasize the sheer disdain for honesty, and the towering hubris she, her co-workers, Mr. Obama, and the vast bulk of their pals in the pop news media have exhibited for the past eight years or more.

No scandals?

Let’s enjoy this look at a partial list:

  • Taxes. Prior to his election, Mr. Obama and his Democrat pals redefined “Middle Class” (“class” is a holdover from feudal Europe and royalty, and is logically impossible to apply to a non-royal system). They began to claim that those previously defined as "indigent" and receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) were part of the all-important “Middle Class.” This allowed Mr. Obama to say he was giving “Middle Class Americans” a “tax cut” when he was merely increasing wealth redistribution via the EITC. These EITC payments are “rebates” for Social Security and Medicaid/Medicare taxes taken from the paychecks of low-wage workers. But the EITC "rebates" total far more than what the government extracted, making them welfare payments via tax “rebate.” When it comes to taxes, only a liar would claim that Mr. Obama was anything other than an advocate for aggregate hikes.
  • Fast and Furious. Upon entering office, Mr. Obama and his scandal-pocked Attorney General Eric Holder brought to fruition a secret Bush Administration idea, “Operation Fast and Furious,” which saw 2,000 or more firearms delivered by the “gun-control-extolling” Obama-ites into the hands of Mexican drug lords. Many speculate that the Obama team actually wanted these weapons to be used in crimes inside the US border as a way to promote more anti-Second Amendment legislation. One of the firearms was cited as the murder weapon used to kill a US Border Patrol agent in 2010.
  • IRS. Then there is the ever-lovable Internal Revenue “Service.” (How does one decline their “service?”) Not only did the IRS arm itself with nearly $11 million worth of guns and ammunition from 2006 to 2014, it embarked on one of the most flagrant misuses of government investigative and coercive power in the history of the nation. It targeted 400 conservative and “tea party” groups for audit, investigation and prosecution. Then, when asked for documents regarding this massive political attack, IRS head Lois Lerner refused to turn them over. She skipped away with a $100,000 pension.
  • Arming Domestic Agencies Beyond Belief. Speaking of weaponized government agencies. It surely wasn’t a scandal at all when alternative media investigators discovered that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was buying billions of rounds of hollow-point bullets, bullets that are part of a general category of rounds banned from use in warfare by the Geneva Accords. The DHS claimed that the mass purchase was made to “save money," but as weapons experts note, hollow-points are much more expensive than most other kinds of ammo. Not to be outdone, the Social Security Administration and even the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration got on the bandwagon and purchased hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammo, as well. Gotta love those “gun control” advocates trying to limit the civilian right to keep and bear arms, even as they arm to the teeth.
  • "Transparency." Mr. Obama claimed that his Administration would be the “most transparent in US history,” but, instead, he used the 1917 Espionage Act against more whistleblowers and journalists than all other Presidents combined.
  • Drone Murders and Invasions. But why is this surprising, coming from a man who received a Nobel Peace Prize before he even entered office, then proceeded to drone-kill thousands overseas (and not report it for years), invade and overturn Libya (leaving it a basket case from which hundreds of thousands have fled), overthrow the government of Ukraine, and try to overthrow the government of Syria (again, leaving it a ruin from which millions have fled)?
  • Aid to ISIS. Why should anyone notice the scandal of the Obama Administration funneling funds, training, and weapons through Rat Lines from Qatar and Saudi Arabia to so-called “Syrian rebels” who bolstered ISIS?
  • Benghazi. We certainly shouldn't label a "scandal" the farcical actions of Mr. Obama and Hillary Clinton, et al, in trying to blame a barely watched video for the 2012 uprising in Benghazi that saw the death of Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods -- an uprising that came as a direct result of the Obama Administration meddling in Libya, and its attempt to move weapons from Libya to those “friendly rebels” in Syria.
  • Secretary of State Clinton's E-mails. Sure, we discovered via the release of e-mails she tried to hide that Mrs. Clinton never believed the “it was anger over a video” whopper she spouted for public consumption to distract people from the real reason Libyan people attacked the US compound in Benghazi. Sure, we also discovered that Barack Obama communicated with her via a code name in e-mails, evidently because he was aware she was using a private server. But "scandal"? Not according to Ms. Jarrett's dictionary.
  • Massive Breaches of the Fourth Amendment. Thanks to Edward Snowden, we also discovered the complete non-scandal that the National Security Administration was collecting data on everyone who uses electronic means to communicate, a reality that stood out despite the bald-faced lies of NSA head James Clapper to the contrary.
  • Obamacare. Then there is the jewel in the crown, the ill-named, Orwellian, unconstitutional “Affordable Care Act,” a law that not only saw the majority in the Supreme Court contort the meaning of “tax” to skirt the “Anti-injunction Act” (ACA) and rule the mess “constitutional,” not only saw the law originate in the Senate, which is unconstitutional, but saw Mr. Obama and pals like Jonathan Gruber hide the truth from people in order to pass it. For decades, people will hear Barack Obama’s nonsensical claim that, “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” as they see that they cannot. They will recall Mr. Obama telling them that the ACA would lower health costs, which it has not done on the cost of service level, nor on the insurance policy level. Folks will be able to remember the classic drivel of Nancy Pelosi, who told them that they would have to let Congress pass the bill in order to find out what was in the bill. And… they will recall the words of Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber, who openly admitted lying to the public about the economic ramifications of the ACA, and proclaimed his pride in taking advantage of the ignorance and stupidity of the American people.
  • Torture. Even before Mr. Obama entered office, he indicated that he would continue the unconstitutional practice and brazen breach of international law of “renditions” of “enemy combatants” that began under the Bush Administration. On January 11, 2009, when specifically asked by George Stephanopoulos whether he would continue the CIA program, Obama sidestepped, blamed the US Army (it actually was the CIA engaging in the rendition program), and never answered about the CIA one way or another. That was a bad sign, and it turned out that he did not stop the torture program that stood in the face of the US Constitution and international treaties the US government had signed.

But, why get upset about these things? We all know it was the fault of the Russians. Don’t feel upset by Ms. Jarrett’s foolish, bordering-on-pantomime statement. Don’t even feel bad that the President lied over and over, and never took seriously his oath to protect and defend the Constitution. This is bohemian America, where style and rhetoric are more important than principles and truth.

You know, the first of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary Sherlock Holmes short stories was entitled, “A Scandal in Bohemia.” One wonders how long Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson would be able to stomach all the scandals these contemporary bohemians have wrought. They certainly could have kept the team busy for many, many years.

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