American Thinker: With reference to the much ballyhooed early September op-ed piece in the New York Times authored by “Anonymous,” which set off iterative bomblets throughout the kingdom of Donald and his closest and supposedly most trusted aides, several points to keep in mind:
With technology available to all, not least to tech-savvy Millennials trolling the current presidency, feigning (perhaps) respect for their CEO, President Donald Trump, it is a simple thing to suss out writers’ frequent usage of standout terms and phrases, such as, of course, the so-called telltale “lodestar.” Even specific grammatical constructs can be programmed and revealed by the same modality.
It’s called forensic linguistics.
A few days ago, TheWeek.com wrote about this in a piece called “The delicate art of using linguistics to identify an anonymous author.” It noted: “There’s the anonymously-authored book Primary Colors, closely paralleling Bill Clinton’s campaign…”
Mike Pence took a lot of the initial suspicion of being the author of the Times piece, but he denied it, and there is no other evidence besides a single word – his common use of “lodestar” – to argue he was involved. That White House chief economics man, Larry Kudlow, has used such words, too, is no guarantee of anything dispositive, either, as it would be highly uncharacteristic of Kudlow to pen such a combative piece against a man he has professed as worthy of our attention and respect. Thus, the frequency of such idiosyncratic terms as “lodestar” is debunked: any high-schooler could have divined that Pence, say, hit that word X number of times. It would be, furthermore, a usage that would deflect adults into a slotted canyon of blame; a Millennial would savor that. An adult over the age of normalcy and thought would not have done that word usage search and then planted that telltale, so-called.
Forensic linguistics can tell us a lot more. Example: Obama’s “biography,” inked by his longtime conspirator and domestic terrorist pal Bill Ayers, was figured out from this technique. Sailor and naval imagery appeared in that book repeatedly. Obama has never been near the Navy or anything deeper than his own exorbitant inch-deep talents as magnificent orator and ne plus ultra wunderkind of magical etiology and education. So Ayers was pinpointed, correctly, as the ghost for at least one Obama auto-bio. read more
“Anonymous” posts here a lot, but I would never have suspected he/she/it would have written that anti-Trump piece. But then, you never know about people.
The author of that AT piece certainly went deep into the thesaurus to impress us with his vocabulary.
lol RickeyG, it’s almost as if he’s trying to cover his tracks, and be like the serial killer who shows up at the crime scene to “help” the police.
Okay, okay, I admit I wrote it. But I only got one scoop of ice cream and Trump got two!
Stand tall, anonymous.
The latest speculation is that it’s Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation and wife of Mitch McConnell.
I’m still thinking it’s Trump himself, to demonstrate how the fakers will leap on any negative story without vetting the source.
If they screwed up there, their, they’re it was me.
I still believe it was little Jeffy Sessions.
It was really Helen Keller!
MUST SEE: “Trump At War” tonight at 8pm ET on OAN Network.
John McCain wrote it.
ya kin take dat to da bank
“magnificent orator” — some really claim Obama can deliver a speech. I say no.
No, he cant. His love of self and self-importance colors his delivery, the irritating rasp of his voice grates on the ear, and his teachy-preachiness tone irritates and indicates how he looks down on his audiemce.
His arrogance is beyond imagination. “We will award our friends and poon-nish out enemies.”
The tv is switched to another channel when he comes on.
The New York Times editorial board wrote it.