There’s tautology:
In grammar, the use of redundant words. In logic, a tautology is a formula which is true in every possible interpretation. Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein first applied the term to redundancies of propositional logic in 1921
and then there is tauntology:
The practice of making remarks in order to anger, wound, or provoke someone.
Which one do you think our ‘commander in chief’ prefers? Obama gave a speech to an audience of college graduates at University of California, Irvine in which he expounded on his advanced views of climate change:
“They say, ‘Hey, look, I’m not a scientist.’ And I’ll translate that for you: what that really means is, ‘I know that manmade climate change really is happening but if I admit it, I’ll be run out of town by a radical fringe that thinks climate science is a liberal plot,'” he said.
“There’s going to be a stubborn status quo and people determined to stymie your efforts to bring about change. There are going to be people who say you can’t do something. There are going to be people who say you shouldn’t bother trying. I’ve got some experience with this myself,” Obama said.
“It’s pretty rare that you’ll encounter somebody who says the problem you’re trying to solve simply doesn’t exist. When President Kennedy set us on a course to the moon, there were a number of people who made a serious case that it wouldn’t be worth it,” he continued.
“But nobody ignored the science. I don’t remember anybody saying the moon wasn’t there or that it was made of cheese,” Obama said.
Wow, grade school level logical fallacy. How…unpresidential.
I’m sure Obama’s mind, the taunting of the significant percentage of people in the United States who don’t think climate change is a significant problem worth doing something about is a winning strategy.
From: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/03/12/new-gallup-poll-shows-climate-change-near-the-bottom-of-things-worth-worrying-about/
From: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/06/11/despite-climate-edicts-from-the-white-house-even-liberals-dont-think-climate-change-is-a-top-priority/
Except in this case, Obama isn’t smart enough to realize that divide and conquer isn’t a winning strategy. Of course when you feel like you can do things without a mandate, and just dictate policy instead of following the path of democracy, I suppose the phrase “what difference does it make?” might apply to unpresidential tauntology.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.


I’ll say it
The problem you’re trying to solve simply doesn’t exist.
A great description of the President. I wish I could remember who said it. He is a pyromaniac in a field of straw men.
Perhaps B Hussein doesn’t care about any of those issues listed above climate change.
Sad really–has no intellectual tools to evaluate the science for himself and see how flawed it is, just jumps on the bandwagon and starts calling names. Useful idiocy goes all the way to the top.
I disagree with the President. Cool. He disagrees with me. Even cooler. In America it is cool to disagree with the status quo. One might say it’s my Patriotic Duty to disagree with the nation’s President, I mean, if the moon really really is made of cheese.
Climate Change is safe. It will take years before anyone finds out the effects of Obama’s policies. Climate is motherhood and apple pie, saving the future for the children.
The other issues, they are a different thing all together. People find out right away if economic policies are failures. Thus Obama avoids talking about these items, hoping that everyone else will be distracted enough by Climate to not talk about them either. Especially with mid-term elections in the fall.
He’s fixed the economy and health care and the Middle East, why not let him fix the weather?
ferdberple says:
June 15, 2014 at 6:13 am
But the economy is wonderful… the Dow Jones Industrial Average is over 16,000 with new highs!
/sarc
i just posted the Daily Mail version on the “lousy data” thread. i haven’t stopped laughing since i read it:
15 June: Daily Mail: AP: Denying climate change is like saying the moon is made of cheese, argues Obama as he takes on global warming deniers at commencement speech.
He says Congress is ‘full of folks who stubbornly and automatically reject the scientific evidence’ of climate change
While in Orange County, the president also attended a closed-door fundraiser at the Laguna Beach home of Getty oil heiress Anne Earhart…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2658079/Denying-climate-change-like-saying-moon-cheese-argues-Obama-takes-global-warming-deniers-commencement-speech.html
this guy wants people to pay skyrocketing electricity prices to keep the CAGW scam going!
15 June: ABC: Obama Longs to Break out of White House Bubble
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press
“I think frankly we’ve all been through a cold and bitter winter and the bear has cabin fever,” said Obama friend and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. “His cabin is a little bit bigger and harder to escape than most.”…
Obama interspersed his four-day weekend with official duties, including Democratic Party fundraising, a speech on climate change and calls to his national security adviser discussing military options to stop a violent insurgency in Iraq…
Obama has taken three weekends away in a golf-friendly place this year after kicking off 2014 on the links in Hawaii.
The Obama family also is planning a longer-than-usual summer vacation to Martha’s Vineyard for two weeks in August, where last summer the president golfed nearly every day on the island.
Obama has golfed every weekend since Washington’s weather got clear enough to allow it in April, save a week when he was in Asia…
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obama-longs-break-white-house-bubble-24144367
I’ve never said record antarctic sea ice was made of cheese. What kind of drugs is Obama on if he thinks people are telling him climate data contrary to AGW is made of cheese?
what Quinn said ^
On JFK’s decision to go to the moon, Obama said, “I don’t remember anybody saying the moon wasn’t there or that it was made of cheese,” Sorry to say, Obama wasn’t even born when JFK made his request for the moon program before Congress and worse yet, Obama had just turned one when JFK made his famous Rice University “We choose to go to the moon” speech.
What Quinn said.
When President Kennedy set us on a course to the moon, there were a number of people who made a serious case that it wouldn’t be worth it,” he continued.
===============
same argument today. there are a number of people that argue that spending $50 billion dollars a year to save 0.02 degrees of warming over the next century isn’t worth it either.
these people aren’t saying that 0.02 degrees doesn’t exist or that it is made of green cheese. only that it is so small as to not matter, while $50 billion dollars a year would be better spent fixing roads, building bridges, strengthening seawalls, etc. etc.
What Iron308 said Quinn said^
You would make a better point if you could spell tautology right.
[i think you missed the point of the satire, tautology is deliberately misspelled/changed to create a new word “tauntology”, which is the satire. -mod]
I assume you spelled “tautology” deliberately as “tauntology”.
It’s a new word. I like it.
With so little to worry about, I would focus on climate too. No deficit, no unemployment, no poverty, no illegals, no atomic bomb in Iran, no caliphate in Iraq or Syria, no al qaida, no boko haram, no scandals and a booming economy. He must be very bored indeed. Poor little fellow.
I was listening to this on the radio yesterday as I drove to San Diego to pick up my Marine son, who, btw, makes less than a hamburger flipper in Seattle, and Obama made the point that he knew global warming was real because last summer he gave a speech about it and it was 95 degrees out and he was sweating. (At that point I turned off the radio) Please don’t ever think he actually believes this crap. He knows the truth, and he knows that he needs to jam as much control over the economy as he can before the AMO flips and the Arctic ice puts the lie to all this climate change b.s.
I predict that when history evaluates the Obama administration, he will be judged among the worst American presidents. Climate science and its attendant hysteria will be a case study in mass psychosis and delusion and Michael Mann, Al Gore and James Hanson will be historical laughingstocks. Making predictions about the future is fun.
So who is it that denies the climate is changing? Because I don’t believe I have heard of anybody like that.
What I have heard people discussing is just what the causes of the climate change are and how to deal with those changes.
Not quite the same thing, Mr. President.
But why deal with the truth and with reality when lies, half-truths and sound bites are so much easier to deal with.
The link in article above goes to an ABC coverage of POTUS speech at a Walmart, rather than the speech at a commencement exercise, U of California, Irvine.
Here’s a ink to a Bloomberg article detailing the President’s speech before UC, Irvine graduates:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-14/obama-asks-college-grads-to-help-take-on-climate-change-deniers.html
Here’s a link to the NY Times coverage of the same event:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/us/obama-mocks-lawmakers-who-deny-climate-change.html?_r=0
The Bloomberg article is fascinating for the comments, in which a very obvious propagandist adds remarks to most comments and employs logical fallacies and rhetorical tricks, but not one word of truth, just like the President.
Of these:
Jobs
Deficit
Morals
Health Care
Immigration
Climate
One could argue that “Climate” shouldn’t even be on that list. We all concern ourselves about the daily weather as we decide what clothes to wear every day, but to actually do something, anything, about the weather other than protect ourselves as appropriate, is just not practical, if indeed possible, at this time in our development.
He says Congress is ‘full of folks who stubbornly and automatically reject the scientific evidence’ of climate change
===========
The difference between a good President and a bad President is clear to see.
A good president is able to convince Congress that his policies are correct. That is how the US political system is supposed to work. If the President cannot convince Congress that his policies are good for the country, then it could well be that the polices are not good for the country.
Sure, they may be good for special interest groups. They may be good for fund-raising for political parties, or for drumming up support on election night, but are they good for the country?
Look at history. Those Presidents that are today regarded as the best were able to convince Congress, even when Congress had a majority from the opposite party, that their policies were best for the country. And if they couldn’t convince Congress, they improved their policies and did some horse trading and arm bending until they could convince Congress.
The current end-run around Congress is a sign of policies that are not in the best interests of the country as a whole. Because it is Congress that has the authority to decide if the President’s policies are good for the country. The EPA should not be making this decision, because the EPA was never elected. In effect the EPA policies are “regulation without representation”.
I assume this will apply to some comment on this thread, it does on tauntology in general: Please don’t feed the trolls.