The Other Half of History Daily Blog

Thoughts on modern politics from a historical perspective.

Do Oil Companies Get “Subsidies”?

During his State of the Union speech last night, President Obama said “We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That’s long enough. It’s time to end the taxpayer givaways to an industry that’s rarely been more profitable, and double down on a clean energy industry that’s never been more promising.”

The President was stretching the definition of the word “subsidize” beyond anything reasonable here. Perhaps it wasn’t quite a lie, but it was a very creative use of the word.
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The Media Puts Racism on the Right

The partisan bias in the news media has had profound effect on the beliefs of the American people; not just on matters of opinion, but on matters of fact. There are many “facts” that are not actually true, that are none the less believed by a great majority of the American people, because of the power of constant repetition in the mainstream press.

The most striking of these might be the carefully-nurtured fiction that the Republican Party is the party of white racism.

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