Fondly Remembering Obama – 5/17/2017

White House Halloween for children of military families, October 30, 2015

Wondering why a few conservative friends are less than impressed.

8 thoughts on “Fondly Remembering Obama – 5/17/2017”

  1. “President Obama, even though I am only Pope Francis’ mini-me, I too am not very happy with some of your decidedly un-Christian policies, sir.”

    1. Kind of interested in what conservatives believe to be unChristian.

      Ending the 2008 recession might count, since conservatives resisted every step.

      Reforming Health Care could be unChristian, since 50% of all bankrupcies had been caused by the cost emergency medical treatment. We know how conservative Christians feel about helping those in need.

      Regulating big banks to no longer take big risks with taxpayer insured deposits might be unChristian, since conservative Christians are pretty much okay with financial abuses – unless they suspect it of impoverished families.

      Killing bin Laden? I suppose conservative Christians might oppose that.

      The Nuclear agreement taking mass weapons out of hands of Iran? I know conservative followers of the Prince of Peace were against that.

      Increasing support for veterans? Credit card reforms? Food safety inspections? Cracking down on Trump-style “colleges”?

      Which of these decidedly unChristian policies were you most against, T. Paine?

  2. Halloween for military children. What a buffoon! Not impressed.

    And I’m sure the Pope prefers our new Christian capitalist president over the Marxist buffoon, despite his Holiness’s words about war, torture, immigration, and economic injustice from under-regulated corporatism.

  3. “Kind of interested in what conservatives believe to be unChristian.” ~ Burr

    With nothing but respect meant, I don’t think you really are interested, my friend. This is not meant to be snarky but rather a factual observation. I think it makes very little difference to you and how your faith will continue to guide you. You believe things differently than what I do, as is your right. (and it is a right I will defend.) That said, a century or so ago, nearly every Christian faith believed the same basic principles on morality, and on right and wrong that us stodgy old conservative Christians still believe today. Truth does not change with the ages. It is not relative based on political ideology or geography, sir.

    “Ending the 2008 recession might count, since conservatives resisted every step.” ~ Burr

    Oops. Sorry. I threw up a little on that one. That anemic economic growth under the Obama administration seemed to occur almost in spite of his efforts and often disastrous policies. Although I despise him, Trump already seems to be doing remarkably better than Obama ever did economically. Indeed, most of the economic “growth” under Obama was typically under 2%. The Atlanta Fed is forecasting that this 2nd quarter is already looking to be at 4% growth. Obama never saw anything over three in his eight years, if I am not mistaken.

    “Reforming Health Care could be unChristian, since 50% of all bankrupcies had been caused by the cost emergency medical treatment. We know how conservative Christians feel about helping those in need.” ~ Burr

    President Obama and the Democrats had no interest in reforming healthcare. They simply wanted to enact the first collapsing step into a single payer government run health care system. In doing so they caused many doctors to leave medicine, caused premiums to soar astronomically for most Americans, and caused access to health care to be greatly diminished for most folks, especially for many of the poor as one after another Obamacare health care exchanges continued to go bankrupt. Yep, that is Christian alright! (By the way, anecdotally I have seen many “conservative Christians” help the poor in need with their time and treasure on numerous occasions. Many of my progressive friends seem to think that is the government’s job instead.)

    “Regulating big banks to no longer take big risks with taxpayer insured deposits might be unChristian, since conservative Christians are pretty much okay with financial abuses – unless they suspect it of impoverished families.” ~ Burr

    This is another case of progressives regulating a problem that they created. They insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac etc. provide loans to high risk individuals that didn’t have the income or collateral to financially warrant a home loan. But we didn’t want to appear to be “prejudiced”, so we gave these unqualified borrowers loans anyway. When they defaulted and the housing bubble burst, it was the very politicians that coerced the banks and lenders providing these loans who were at fault. It wasn’t necessarily the evil banks. The politicians had to regulate those evil banks and lenders to correct their PC policy conundrum they created accordingly. (Yes, I understand that some banks were doing unscrupulous practices, but the federal government still came to bail them out and not send any of the executives responsible to jail. I guess that might have interfered with campaign donations from them, huh? Seems to me one of the crooks even got to be Secretary of the Treasury for Obama after leaving Goldman Sachs.)

    “Killing bin Laden? I suppose conservative Christians might oppose that.” ~ Burr

    No, not particularly. It is ironic that bin Laden was tracked down through some of the intelligence gathered by means that Obama shunned. Further, it was foolish for Obama to break operational security by publicly disclosing the means, methods, and units that were responsible for bin Laden’s take down simply so he could toot his own horn. He could have easily stated that bin Laden had been killed, without disclosing details that would throw a critical intelligence source under a Pakistan bus as well as put bounties on the heads of SEAL team 6 members. I guess that “do unto others” thing doesn’t apply when directed towards our special forces though.

    “The Nuclear agreement taking mass weapons out of hands of Iran? I know conservative followers of the Prince of Peace were against that.” ~Burr

    We wouldn’t have been against that if that is actually what the deal had done instead of providing the more unfettered means for the leading state sponsor of terrorism to develop nuclear weapons… errr… I mean nuclear power. That deal was and is a complete farce. Further, Iran has already violated it with no repercussions accordingly.

    “Increasing support for veterans? Credit card reforms? Food safety inspections? Cracking down on Trump-style ‘colleges’?” ~ Burr

    Really? The VA under the Obama administration was horrific and care for veterans has reached an all time low accordingly. Oh, and Obama’s federalizing of student loans has only seen the increase in costs for college educations go through the roof too.

    When we look at the facts of what Christian things President Obama and the Democrats purportedly did, there really isn’t much there, there. When you look at the flip-flopping on Obama’s support for traditional marriage to “gay marriage” in his second term, that sure seems to be an anathema to traditional Christian morality. So does the administration’s support and funding of abortion. After all, we don’t want our kids “punished with a baby”. So does protecting the modesty, decency, and morality of our students with his whole genderless bathroom nonsense. Many of these things and others are also explicitly or implicitly stated as sins in the Bible and in Judeo-Christian traditional morality.

    We definitely need to love all sinners, as we all fall into that category, but we shouldn’t be embracing their sins too in the name of kindness and inclusiveness. Love the sinner, hate the sin. But I bet that is also old archaic conservative Christian thinking too, huh? 🙂

    1. Thank you for telling us why you are personally opposed to many Obama policies. As usual, you are eloquent.

      No policy you mention is inconsistent with the teachings of, or belief in, Jesus as Savior.

      Which is to say my question remains unanswered and your initial comment remains undefended.

  4. Burr,

    I’m impressed with Mr’s Paine’s expository talents as well. That was quite a passionate summary of debunked and unfounded conservative media talking points. I will absorb all of these assertions in my efforts to learn “how to think like a conservative”. As I have learned, the primary belief system must be founded on the Right’s own politically correct and ideological truth that print and broadcast journalism purvey liberal and biased fake news, while talk radio is truthful and FOX is fair and balanced.

    Did I just see Mr. Paine mistakenly endorse and credit torture, and insult Obama for not doing so? That doesn’t sound very Christian to me. But what do I know? I’m just a lapsed Catholic. Mr. Paine is the true Catholic. For some, the archaic, authoritarian inquisition tendencies seem hard to shake.

    But it was important to chastise Obama for allowing America to know how bin-Laden was killed. Republicans and conservatives would never do that, I think. Except for the part where they say torture works and is quite acceptable. (It’s not just Catholics. Compared to atheists, a higher percentage of Christians approve of torture for some reason.)

    I’m also impressed, or confused, that Obama the Marxist hired someone from Goldman Sachs. Trump would never do that, I understand.

  5. Mr. Deming, I apologize for my wordiness in my last response. Let me attempt to be more concise as to your point.

    1. Ending the 2008 recession: My contention is that Obama did very little to help the poor affected by this bear market. Indeed his policies exacerbated the recession in some instances and actually caused for an anemic growth out of that recession instead of a robust growth which we are now seeing. While I suspect his motives were pure in trying to help the poor, his policies were foolish in doing so. Whether this entire point you cited makes him more or less Christian is almost an aside on this topic. He was foolish; not unchristian, in my estimation.

    2. Healthcare reform: Despite protestations to the contrary, Obama’s motives did not seem to be to fix healthcare for the poor and middle class. Indeed some few did initially benefit by government paid healthcare; however, Medicaid was already available to help such poorer individuals. The rest of us working poor and middle class have been largely harmed by lack of access and exorbitant cost rises. Is this another case of simple foolishness on the part of President Obama? I don’t think so. This was a matter of ideology trumping real world results where people were harmed because of it. That is unchristian.

    3. Big banks regulation: This was a simply matter of providing political cover for a mess that the Left created. Very unchristian.

    4. Bin Laden: putting the very people physically responsible for killing this terrorist in greater potential danger simply to score political points is very unchristian.

    5. Iran’s nuclear agreement: this act of hubris insisted that seemingly ANY deal with this terrorist regime that would appear to restrict their nuclear program would be a success. This defied common sense as it actually gives a legal pathway for Iran to expand their nuclear program, and that is if they DO abide by the agreement. They already haven’t. Putting one’s legacy above that of the safety of one’s fellow citizens is very unchristian.

    6. Caring for veterans: saying you care about vets and then overseeing some of the worst healthcare for them that the VA has ever provided is not only hypocritical, it is unchristian.

    Hope this helps clarify things some. Cheers!

  6. It is interesting to see the blame go to Obama for the massive increase of veterans that need care. It was “Christian” Bush who lied and sent them to their maiming and deaths in Iraq, and he didn’t expand the VA to accommodate them. Thus, Obama is the bad guy and is to blame for everything.

    This is conservative thinking. Big Banks are the “left” and their swindles that precipitated the Bush Great Recession are all the fault of that liberal Wall Street mentality. Liberals cause, and are to be blamed, for all problems. This is the dogma. This I have learned well.

    And the Seal who killed bin-Laden gave more information about the raid than Obama did. But Obama is the villain, of course. And speaking of leaking top secret info, IOKIYAR. Hillary was the real villain, not Don the Con. (She didn’t leak top secret info, BTW) This is conservative thinking, as I am assimilating it.

    And the Iran deal was an evil machination by Obama alone, it seems. Only far Right false assertions must be believed. It is “hubris” to monitor Iran’s nuclear program and reduce their uranium stockpile by 98%. In July 2015, Iran had almost 20,000 centrifuges. Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it will be limited to installing no more than 5,060 of the oldest and least efficient centrifuges at Natanz for 10 years.

    And the Pope welcomed the Iran deal.

    How “un-Christian” indeed.

    Iran “violated” the conditions by what, again? Missile tests were not banned, BTW.

    Facts do not matter. It is all about believing the worst about those you hate. This is modern American con-servatism. This is the core of their belief system. Sort of like “tax cuts for the rich grow the economy, create jobs, and trickle down to the rest of us”.

    It has NEVER worked out that way. It is a cover for outright greed. Anything that facilitates upward distribution of wealth is fine with them. You are a commie if you disagree. Anything that makes voting more difficult for minorities is fine with them. You are on the “Democrat plantation” if you disagree. And these are ALL “progressive” Trump’s value$.

    And on, and on, and on it goes.

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