Talismanic Incantations, Updated Yet Again

You may recall that I've written two posts on the topic of "talismanic incantations" - words and phrases that, when used in legal and political discussions, are the equivalent of the magic words invoked by witches and wizards. The title of the post came from a marvelous line in the 9th Circuit Court's 2017 decision in the case "State of Hawaii v. Donald Trump, John Kelly, and Rex Tillerson," which struck down Der Furor's proposed ban on travel to the US from six majority Muslim nations:

"National Security is not a 'talismanic incantation' that, once invoked, can support any and all exercise of executive power under §1182(f)."

As we know, Der Furor and his acolytes are fond of using talismanic incantations to magically deflect attention from unpleasant truths and to demean and insult those of whom they do not approve. You can review my earlier posts on the topic here and here, and today I add the latest talismanic incantations to the ever-growing list:

"radical left lunatic," "domestic terrorist," and "narco-terrorist" - these incantations invoke clouds of suspicion and mistrust around those who demonstrate against administration policies, fail to believe the questionable pronouncements of administration spokespersons, or have the temerity to operate small boats near Venezuela;

"low-IQ" - a spell cast to imply that a person more intelligent and thoughtful than the spell-caster is actually less intelligent, believable and honest; 

"anti-American" - used to cast aspersions on those who believe in traditional American values of restrained representative democracy under a lawful and competent government, it is often combined with other incantations such as "radical left lunatic" in an attempt to multiply its deceptive power;

"believe me" - an incantation intended to invoke the illusion of sincerity and honesty, it is commonly used to invoke blatant gaslighting in defense of an obvious falsehood (frequently invoked by Der Furor);

"absolute immunity" - invokes the power of the state to defend clearly illegal actions on the part of the president and, in particular, law enforcement or immigration authorities;

"highly respected" and "brilliant" - invoked to imply the excellence of judges who rule in Der Furor's favor, as opposed to "radical" and "lunatic," which imply the stupidity and incompetence of those who rule against him; and ,

"Russia, Russia, Russia" - an incantation, limited to use by Der Furor, which defines any thorough, evidence-based investigation with results damning for him, as illegitimate.

You should note that any of these may, at the option of the caster, be combined with other talismanic incantations to cascade their obfuscatory power.

Have a good day. Watch out for those talismanic incantations the administration uses in lieu of honesty.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo