It was September of 2009, and our new president was to give his first speech to a joint session of Congress. Most Americans wished the young president well, and sincerely hoped that, as an African-American, he could bridge the racial gap and truly "..bring us all together." However, like a bolt of lightning, the president's speech to Congress was suddenly interrupted as Congressman Joseph Wilson of South Carolina cried out:
"You lie!" The general reaction of the moment was that Congressman Wilson was guilty of a serious breach of decorum. However, upon reflection over the past seven years, Congressman Wilson's hastily shouted words seem to ring forth more with clairvoyance than boorishness; and, indeed, they might even be taken as a synopsis for the disastrous presidency of Barack Hussein Obama.
On October 9, 2009, the quirky Norwegians making up the Nobel Peace prize committee made a bizarre announcement, namely that their prestigious award would be bestowed upon President Barack H. Obama. With the list of previous recipients including the likes of Rigoberta Menchu, Mother Teresa, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Theodore Roosevelt and Willy Brandt, many Americans scratched their heads, wondering what President Obama had accomplished in his exceedingly short career to warrant such an honor. And, indeed, there were many who asserted that the right thing for Obama to do would be not to accept the prize and suggest to the committee that someone with more substantial credentials in promoting peace should be selected in his place. But, of course, this did not happen, and the prize itself became a symbol of the fraud, deception and deceit of the Obama administration.
Early on, there was much ado concerning health insurance, with all sorts of statistics bandied about. Indeed, most Americans could agree that our healthcare system needed some fine tuning, especially when it came to the portability of policies and coverage being available for preexisting conditions. Coupled with the assertion that the average family would save $2500 annually and that one could keep the doctors that one had previously relied on, support for this area of change began to build. The hoped for savings seemed to go along with President Obama's campaign promise to take on the growing national debt. And, even more impressive, the promise was made that all proposed major changes would be debated in open and transparent forums, perhaps even using CSPAN as a medium to keep all Americans informed.
A story frequently told with regard to the government takeover of healthcare was that the president's own mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, died as a result of not having coverage for a preexisting condition. Subsequently, it was found out that Ms. Dunham did indeed have total coverage for her terminal condition but, instead, was turned down when she applied for disability status.
It was repeatedly stated by President Obama that not one dime of funds associated with Obamacare would ever go toward funding abortions, yet by 2016 there exist 1,036 medical plans signed, sealed and delivered through the auspices of the Obama administration that cover abortions and a multitude of birthcontrol pharmaceuticals. Consequently, the administration has placed in the cross-hairs of the Department of Justice such entities as the Little Sisters of the Poor, a religious order devoted to serving the indigent elderly, but whose deeply held religious convictions prohibit providing abortion and birth control coverage for any personnel employed by the order.
An issue that is especially troubling for those of us who live along the southern border is illegal immigration. Despite not working to provide adequate funding and support for effective border control, President Obama announced in 2009 that he simply did not have the authority to undertake immigration reform by himself. Consequently, thousands of illegal aliens have continued to storm the border and to scatter to locations throughout the United States. However, by early 2015, the administration was singing a different tune, as it was announced that by executive action more than 5 million illegal immigrants would be exempt from deportation. Federal District Judge Andrew Hannen in Brownsville, Texas, announced that the administration had exceeded its authority and placed an injunction on any plans to stymie immigration law in this regard. Subsequently, in 2016, the Supreme Court upheld Judge Hannen's action. This is at least one area in which illegal executive action did not stand.
A point of pride early in the Obama administration was a 780- billion-dollar stimulus package, which was designed to ameliorate the effects of the great recession. Integral to stimulating the anemic economy were "shovel-ready" projects providing immediate employment for out-of-work Americans. Looking back, there were never any shovel-ready projects and certainly no shovel-ready jobs. In subsequent interviews, the president admitted as much that all the talk about shovel-ready was much ado about nothing. Certainly, there were no programs in this administration that remotely came close to the WPA, CWA or CCC of the New Deal. As a Mexican colloquialism has it: "No burros, mas helotes!"
Lobbyists, lobbyists and more lobbyists! And with them comes the metastasizing cancer of K Street influence. Certainly, Americans were impressed when Senator Obama announced that if he became president he would not take one thin dime from lobbyists and would not allow any of them to serve in his administration. But, at last count, there were 12 former lobbyists holding high-level jobs in the administration. And, all the while, Congressional big shots like Harry Reid and Roy Blunt continue racking up fortunes from influence peddling and placing their children in choice lobbying positions. And all those dollars, to borrow a line from Evita, keep come rolling on in!
How often we have heard President Obama inveigh against the influence of foreign money on American elections! And, if you believe American politicians do not take advantage of deep foreign pockets, then you've got another think coming. There is no doubt that foreign funds have flowed into the Obama campaign coffers, and a prime example would be Mexican money streaming from the world's second richest person, Carlos Slim. But, you may say, how could it be that Slim would be able to bypass FEC regulations and distribute his largesse into grimy political hands? It's simple. Slim and his telecommunications empire have a virtual lock on the so-called "Obama phones," which are distributed to needy people in the U.S., where they are sold as "TracFones." So all that need be done is to get the money into the hands of American executives running the TracFone/Obamaphone sales operation, and they do the rest.
In 2009, President Obama, on the eve of his Middle East trip, announced that America is the ".. number-1 Muslim nation." In a 2014 interview with a French journalist, he described our country as a Muslim country. No, no, no, Mr. President! I lived and worked for 6 years in a Muslim country, and this is not one - at least not yet! God forbid that we ever become a Muslim nation! During my excursion into life in the Islamic world, I saw women oppressed, homosexuality criminalized, censorship imposed, religious freedom nonexistent and the brutality of Shariah law implemented on a wide scale. Perhaps this man's words explain his hesitancy to call a spade a spade, and place the blame for acts of terrorism on everyone but the actors and the religious motivations which drive them. And it is for certain that we all feel much more secure with individuals such as Arif Alikham, Mohamed Elibiary, Salam al-Marayati and Mohamed Magid shaping policy at the Department of Homeland Security and directly advising the President of the United States in lengthy meetings.
Without a doubt, all Muslims are not terrorists, but the great majority of terrorists are Muslims of one stripe or another. In the U.S., Muslims now make up 1.3% of the population, that is to say somewhat over 4 million adherents, but they account for nearly 60% of religiously inspired acts of terrorism. And, with that 1.3% figure, Muslims make up over 9% of individuals incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Come off it, Mr. President, your intransigence in this regard puts lives in jeopardy!
The Obama administration has consistently tried to claim that Operation Fast and Furious, the infamous AFT gun-walking scheme, which took both Mexican and American lives, was begun during the Bush administration. It was palpable that former AG Eric Holder was engaged in a cover-up from the word go, but bereaved families have never had their pain laid to rest, owing to a continuing effort to obscure the truth. Instead President Obama continues to excoriate legitimate, law-abiding American gun owners in his push to further empower the government to emasculate the Second Amendment.
The foregoing has been a mere smidgen of the extensive catalog of lies, deceptions and distortions that have wounded this country of ours to its very core. Those who seek the truth merely through the official pablum of this administration see only through a glass darkly.
In subsequent editions, John B. will seek to explore further the duplicitous politics of the Obama years.
Deo Vindice!
John B. has been a dean, instructor and provost through his 40 plus years in higher education.
Retired, he now resides in Brownsville, Texas, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where he lectures on Mexican history, culture and politics.
Nullification is usually associated with John C. Calhoun (1782 - 1850), a South Carolinian, who served as a congressman, senator, secretary of state, secretary of war and vice-president. If those of the millennial generation were asked to identify Calhoun these days, it is likely that the great majority would be at a loss. However, I digress.
