Obama's Celebration of Obamacare: Based on a true story

President Obama's ability to spin, with the cooperation of those afraid that any criticism of Obama represented racism during his term of office, and the now entrenched Democrat submersion of facts into the world of narrative means that at best what we're hearing is similar to those media that claim to be BASED ON A TRUE STORY, regardless of how little that media has in common with the original facts.

And so weirdly Obama and Obamacare are being paraded before us as a "victory," April 5, not the anniversary of Obamacare, but closer to today's anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. And so the narrative begins.

Likely ignored in the narrative will be the fact that Obama was voted the liar of year, technically as telling the lie of the year, for his junk promise of if you like your health insurance you'll be able to keep it. (2013)

Also omitted will likely be the scandalous passage of the Affordable Care Act and Jonathan Gruber, an "architect" of Obamacare explaining that “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” Gruber said. “And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.”

We can anticipate that erased from the narrative will be the fact that the tradeoff for the faux achievement of covering those with pre-existing conditions was Obama's cave to the insurance lobby (AHIP, 2008) that an unholy alliance with the insurance industry would be formed and the US federal government would force people to purchase the consumer product of health insurance in exchange for the willingness of the insurance industry's agreement to offer insurance policies to those with pre-existing conditions.

Obama happily complied with insurance lobby demands and the Supreme Court upheld that nasty little partnership when it painfully twisted the reality of the individual mandate penalty by simply changing the narrative and saying it was a tax so that the provision could be upheld.

Uncovered by the based on true events, narrator Obama will likely ignore the consumer burden of the no-end-in-sight cost of prescription drugs.

Uncovered by the based on true events, narrator Obama will likely ignore the fact that enrollment in Obamacare health plans, NOT including enrollment in expanded Medicaid programs, has always been anemic never nearing the alleged 49 million uninsured (which number was adjusted downward by the Obama government in 2015).

Uncovered by the based on true events, the narrator Obama will likely ignore the fact that out-of-pocket expenses for consumers have also ballooned (aside from those eligible for government supported Obamacare and Medicaid) with everyone else paying more for deductibles, coinsurance, copays and premiums.

Obama is a great narrative composer and has misled the American public through his half-truth storytelling and narrative concoctions with a brazen confidence that his Dem pals will follow in lockstep and that the American public will remain "stupid." Worthy of his Netflix deal, Obama did plenty wrong and has decided to "fix it" through storytelling and narrative with the cooperation of his cronies and fans.

The Democrats have honored the dishonest legacy of Obama's style and its apparent success in fooling the American people with many less skilled storytellers, including our current President. Republicans have also enabled the stories and naturally, have many of their own, but without the widespread media support, censorship and manipulation.

We all like a good story, but we've become a nation of narrative rather than information, the good, the bad and the ugly that true information must leave room for in order for us to have enough self-respect to stop being stupid. Half-truths are lies.

So let's not say Obamacare "improved " things unless we understand that Obamacare caused a lot of damage in addition to creating a dangerous alliance between government and insurance salespeople and lobbyists.

Let's not say how great Obamacare is for the population of Obamacare signups without acknowledging the devastating cost increases to the hundreds of millions of our population who are not part of the measly 13.8 million enrolled this year in Obamacare.

Let's not self-congratulate that 2022's 13.8 million is the highest number of enrollees on Obamacare plans without noting that it was only because of the expanded thresholds designed to make more people eligible for government payouts under Obamacare health plans.

If you miss Obama, whether it's his scolding schoolteacher tone, his preacher tone or his politician tone, then have at it. If you're looking for some fresh from the garden good old-fashioned storytelling, have at it. If you're thinking of progress (as in moving forward, not simply trading one thing for another), likely you'll have to pass on the Obama entertainment and do some fact-searching.

 

Progressive Socialists and How to spot them: The Blurt Factor

It might be time to reject the hard-core progressive socialists as bad for mental health. Progressive socialists, extreme liberal, leftists, all terms used to describe the extreme "leftists," follow their beliefs and gods as a religion and employ tactics used by history's fanatics, intolerance, illegalization, marginalization and cancellation, which is nothing more than the modern word for shunning, excluding dissenters.

In the US it seems that about 30 to 35 percent of today's Democrats are part of this extreme group and ultimately may be people everyone else chooses to avoid because their endless criticism, intolerance, labeling and black/white thoughts amount to little more than bullying and abuse with the known negative impacts on mental health.

What does this have to do with health insurance? It's important to note that most psychologists and social workers and assorted individuals providing therapy identify as democrats but are not supposed to self-disclose in order to protect themselves and the people they counsel. That's been the case for a long time, but with this new breed of liberal, it's not merely a so-what moment if you are unlucky enough to deal with an extremist liberal because the absolute rejection of any view but their own may jeopardize your mental health or your progress. Politics has destroyed relationships, ended friendships and infiltrated schools and even counseling services.

The outspoken progressive socialists are lecturers and scolders, not teachers or tolerant listeners. They silence, demean and illegalize views that are not their own and for many present a clear and present danger to ourselves and our well-being. They present their opinions as fact, their ideas with piles of debatable statistics, their hunches as truth and leave no room for dissent.

The danger of today's progressive socialists is they believe they have the moral high ground and are willing to publicly advocate for their opinions and berate, demean and marginalize all others as wrong.

I am an old-time liberal and I fully reject what's being peddled by Democrats today. After years of the strange allegations that I deny climate change if I don't agree with the AOC's Green New Deal, that I must be an anti-vaxxer if I don't believe that the COVID vaccine should be mandated, that I must be a racist Nazi if I disagree in limiting Supreme Court justice selection only to a black woman, that I must be a racist if I vote for any Republican, I can honestly say that I now totally reject this group as they reject "others" like me.

With the big push today that "counseling" is the answer to everything, and the long-time disclosure that most therapists identify as liberals, it's critical that parents and individuals seeking counseling recognize that the brazen openness with which these progressives spout their views may very well influence your provider choice, especially if you do not identify as a progressive socialist.

This is an important criterion to include in your consideration of therapist choice along with education, specialty, availability, if you hope to achieve the goals for which you turned to counseling to begin with.

The good news is that the extreme leftists are easy to spot because of what I call the blurt factor. Certain that they are the moral high ground and correct, most often they can't resist revealing their views. This is good news because it doesn't take long to identify them and you don't have to suffer their abuse, putdowns and false allegations before saying, "Goodbye."

Here I offer some of the observable signs I've witnessed to spot liberal extremists or democratic socialists that often emerge as part of their blurt factor that can help others avoid them and their intolerance.

First, if the individual has a sense of humor, that humor often focuses on Donald Trump or has a made-up accent reserved for representing the uneducated "everyone else: besides them.

Second, if you express an opinion on anything that differs from their view you will be met with silence or a request for examples. The second play, the request for examples is a loser's game because if you muster up examples, do their research for them, those examples will be dismissed as a one-off or as a conspiracy theory. 

Third, they pepper their conversations with words that are designed to make you defensive by painting everyone different from them with the same brush as racists, climate deniers, anti-vaxxers, whatever name-calling term they're partial to. This play is designed to turn everyone who believes differently from them into apologists, "I'm not a …."

Fourth, they will dismiss your objections to their black/white views. For instance, if you bring up their party's anti-Semitism, they'll distinguish that as either some mentally ill person who happens to vote Democrat, or more dangerously in the case of persons of power like Representatives AOC who this week lied and accused Israel of putting children in cages, they'll recite that they're anti-Israel, not anti-Jew. They'll then tick off every extremist "other" who's done anything in the Republican Party or who identifies as Republican and assume that that is representative of all "others."

Fifth, they will steer you to their world view regardless of what topic you're discussing. If you're discussing shopping, it better be Target and not Walmart. If you're talking food it had better be about vegetarian options and not about steak restaurants. 

Sixth, when all else fails, they will argue that their choice is better than the alternative, usually invoking Trump again.

If you are not an extremist, likely you'll feel uncomfortable, insulted and marginalized by their approach, a pretty "normal" reaction to endless bullying. This article is about the good news with these endless moral judges, you can spot them because they simply won't be able to contain themselves and will employ their disapproval strategies in whatever context you deal with them and you can decide whether you will take it or leave it.