Author Archives: Barry Kelly

About Barry Kelly

Author of "Justice Beyond Law," "Justice Without Mercy," "Shades of Justice," "Justice Without Mercy," and "Run to Freedom," as well as two ,"nonfiction books ,"INSIGHTS-The Transforming of America," and "INSIGHTS-Stepping Stones to Tyranny. He also is the author of the blog "8 Decades of Insights." Barry Kelly is no stranger to the world of espionage, counter-terrorism, weapons, deep cover, and the inner workings of the governmental security apparatus. His immersion in the Cold War began with enlistment in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. Following his discharge, he earned a BA from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s degree from Duke. His career in the CIA included deep cover operations and overseas experience, primarily in South and Southeast Asia. He has been awarded the Certificate of Merit with Distinction, the Intelligence Medal of Merit, the Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal and the Intelligence Officer of the Year Award. After retiring from the CIA, Kelly served as a special assistant to President Reagan. He holds a first dan black belt in hap-ki-do. Visit www.factsandfictions.com or find the author on Facebook.

by Barry Kelly | November 15, 2013 · 7:45 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS-88

HEALTH CARE CHANGE

I just heard John Boehner, Speaker of the House, and President Obama comment on health care within the same hour. Not a pretty sight. Both need to do something else. We would all be better off. When queried about the Republican approach to health care, the Speaker referred to an obscure (to most people) government website for the Republican approach to health care. He has been in government too long. What is wrong or hard about a clear statement of the Republican approach? I am a conservative voter and I could not tell anyone what the Republican position on health care is in any detail. The leadership of the Republican Party is sadly lacking in talking to the American people.

On the Progressive side, we have plenty of detail. Plus 10,000 pages and hundreds of executive regulations and changes to The Affordable Care Act. A fog of words, both written and spoken. Many spoken by a man who consistently lies to sell his radical change agenda. I don’t believe a word of what President Obama said in his press conference on November 14, 2013. His goal was clear, however, and that is to keep the Congress from passing any legislation on Obamacare by engaging in another unconditional executive decree. If Democrats and Republicans ever got together, they just might come up with reasonable changes to health care that would benefit all Americans.

Since that probably won’t happen, as the Speaker seems to be comfortable with Obama doing his job, I’ll list the eight principles of health care that I think should guide fixing health care:

Help the people who do not have health care either because they can’t afford it or can’t qualify because of pre-existing conditions. After means testing, provide government subsidies to those who cannot purchase the coverage they need.
Do not include people who already have health care they have selected and like.
Allow insurance companies to sell their plans across state lines.
Pass tort reform legislation to limit the impact of lawyer profits from questionable malpractice law suits.
Allow children to be covered on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26.
Consider legislation to restore the doctor/patient relationship to control costs and improve patient control of their medical choices.
Allow policy holders to select what they want covered and the deductible they want.
People own their insurance coverage and it goes with them when changing employment or retiring.
Do not allow the executive departments of HHS and the IRS to be involved in the management of health care.

We have the best health care system in the world. Let’s fix only the things that are broken in a step-by-step approach.

Escape From ObamaCare (online.wsj.com)
Obama announces fix for canceled healthcare plans from Obamacare (nydailynews.com)

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Filed under Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, Obamacare, Progressives

Tagged as affordable care act, Americans, Barack Obama, Democratic Party (United States), health care, Insurance, John Boehner, Obama, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Republicans, solutions to health care, United States

by Barry Kelly | November 11, 2013 · 7:28 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS-87

BLIND OR STUPID?

The Swift Boat hero of the Vietnam War and now Secretary of State, John Kerry, in response to questions about negotiating with Iran, commented, “we are neither blind nor stupid.” I believe him. This Administration is neither blind nor stupid.

It is inept, has no understanding of history and is sharply tilted to the Muslim side in all disputes. Those three characteristics accompany this Administration into all negotiations with the Muslim world.

Iran wants nuclear weapons. Iran has endured hardships to attain them. Its people have suffered under American-led sanctions. Iran is not an Arab nation. Arab States are mostly Sunni Muslims. Iran is a Shia Muslim State run by extremist clerics. It wants to dominate the Arab Middle East. The first step after the acquisition of nuclear weapons is the destruction of Israel. When Iran, the leading terrorist-supporting nation in the world, gets nuclear weapons, they will use them. Mutual Assured Destruction policies that have kept nuclear peace will not contain Iran.

By smiling and offering negotiations, the Iranians are simply buying time. They are close. Why would a nation proclaiming their nuclear industry is only interested in the peaceful use of nuclear energy have a crash program to develop ballistic missiles? Why isn’t that question being discussed in the open? Obama needs an agreement with Iran to bolster his eroding stature, home and abroad. His over-eagerness to embrace negotiations has tied the hands of the Israelis. How can they launch pre-emptive action in the midst of negotiations between Iran and the Western world? They won’t. Obama will never back the Israelis or use our own military power to stop the centrifuges in Iran. He simply doesn’t have what it takes to protect America and the world from a nuclear Iran. Just ask the Saudis, Jordanians, Egyptians, or the Arab Gulf States. They are on the front lines and fear a nuclear Iran. The French ares carrying the ball for the West in negotiations with Iran. Who would ever have believed that?

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE BRANDON NOVELS. I ENCOURAGE YOU TO PASS ON THESE ARTICLES. I CITE NO SOURCES. CONTENT IS STRICTLY MY BELIEFS AND ANALYSIS.

Kerry, No Deal in Hand, Defends Negotiating Strategy on Iran (nytimes.com)
Netanyahu: Failed nuke talks with Iran were leading to “a very bad deal” (cbsnews.com)
US ‘not stupid’ about Iran – Kerry (bbc.co.uk)
Hague: Iran nuclear deal can be done (bbc.co.uk)

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS-85 THE ADVISOR

IS ANYONE OUT THERE?

Fighting loneliness in his subterranean office suite was the Advisor’s hardest problem. When he was approached a few years ago by the Keepers of the Book to become the next Advisor, he had had no idea how hard it would be to maintain perspective without face-to-face human contact. After his wife died, the Advisor had moved to an isolated cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains where he could write and think in peace and quiet. When the Keepers of the Book approached him, he had thought How hard could it be to go from my ridge-line cabin to an underground existence? Turns out it was very hard. He even looked forward to the twice a month delivery of food and supplies even though no conversation was permitted.

In reading of the Advisor Journals from long ago times, he could sense the isolation and loneliness that plagued his predecessors. He searched the journals for ways to cope but found none, only just to endure day by day. If only the President would allow him to get more involved it would help. Sometimes he thought, I may be the only person in America who enjoys talking to the man. He continued his musing.

Obviously, the President is tangled in the mess of the Affordable Care Act‘s rollout of its website. Another example of a hands-off management style. The President is a superb campaigner as long as the opposition cannot figure out what he wants. After five years, thousands of people have figured out Obamacare is primarily a giant step to a socialist government. Health care is not the prime issue. The real issue is capturing seven or eight percent of the nation’s economy. The cost doesn’t matter. Patient care doesn’t matter. Destroying the best medical system in the world doesn’t matter. The history of socialized medicine is ignored.

Every progressive/socialist is comfortable that the government knows better than the people what medical plan is good for them. The Progressives fervently believe that anyone who doesn’t like Obamacare is either a racist or a selfish-right-wing-tea drinking Republican. Why don’t they recognized health care can be fixed without destroying what works now? Tort reform, competition across state boundaries, concentrating on those who don’t have insurance coverage and want it would fix most of the health care system. Obamacare or any health care system cannot work without bi-partisan support and a full debate and discussion of each proposal.

If the people and states don’t fight it now, they will have little or no chance of fending off the imposition of a full socialist society. By the time the real Democrats wake up they will find their party gone. Big government bureaucrats will control all aspects of their lives. The people have to wake up and pay attention or the greatest democracy in the history of the world will be gone.

Overcome by his musing and in an effort to fight the quiet loneliness, the Advisor became to speak his thoughts out loud. “Elites don’t need to worry. They always get special treatment in totalitarian, socialist governments. After all, they make the rules and they know what the people need. Just ask any Russian senior citizen. All Progressive movements start with hope and change and end up with camps and no economic, religious , or political freedom. If you’re not in the elite Progressive hierarchy, prepare yourself for a quick slide to poverty and government medicine. Don’t worry, the issue won’t be you can’t keep your own doctor. The challenge will be you don’t have and can’t see any doctor when you want or need to. Fight now or pay later!” The Advisor hoped he was wrong, but was afraid he wasn’t, and there was no one to tell.

Meeting with President Reagan, Vice President Bush, Deputy National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci and General Colin Powell in the Oval Office.

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS-84 THE ADVISOR

THREE MORE YEARS?

The Advisor had been pacing up and down his office for nearly an hour. He was truly troubled. He hadn’t seen the President for two weeks. Even worse, if the President did come down to see him, he had nothing to say to him. He sighed heavily and sat down to drink some coffee and collect his thoughts.

The problem between us is deeply rooted in the President’s ideology and a long series of political successes by following the wishes of the far left. Only now, the President has the power. He is the President of what some still think is the most powerful nation in world history. Any historian can tell you that winning power and exercising power are two very different processes. In the struggle to seize power, you are not expected to solve the kinds of problems all presidents face. Words of inspiration and hope, and promising voters a better world are the tools of the power seeker. It doesn’t matter much if the words are true or not because the end justifies the means. To someone trying to win power, every action is good as long as the end is the seizure of power from your opponents.

The Advisor pulled out his journal and started to write:

To govern in a democracy or a republic, you must please the people by delivering security, economic progress, social services, and national pride. In a totalitarian government, force and fear are required tools of governing. In democracies, truth is important. In dictatorships, truth doesn’t matter. Mass murder and the abolishment of freedom is the usual formula for controlling the opposition. Our current President doesn’t seem to realize he is now the man-in-charge. He must now solve issues, not just use them to weaken the opposition. Americans want to trust the word of the President. President Obama is still in campaign mode during which he used untruths successfully to defeat political opponents. The constant blaming of others is not presidential. Holding back information that makes the Administration look bad is not presidential. I’m afraid people have lost faith in his word. Once that happens it is nearly impossible to reverse.

How can I advise a President whom the people no longer trust? What should I do for the next three years of his term? The nation is in some peril and President Obama is playing to the tune of “I didn’t know,” and “I will get to the bottom of this.” That might be right because I believe he has reached the bottom. He has used up the blaming of others. He needs to spend more time looking in the mirror. I doubt even his mirror image can trust his word.

All I can do is record my thoughts in the Journal for my successors to read. Truly, I would like to help him but when a President loses the trust of the people, his term is up. I have no idea what he or the nation should do for the next three years. Except for the progressive lemmings in the Senate and the media, there would be calls for impeachment on the grounds that he has committed at least five Watergates. Ben Ghazi and the IRS scandals being the worst. Only he is already being punished — by the sentence of three years of late-night jokes.

The Advisor put down his pen. He took another sip of coffee and reread what he had just written. It hurt him to read “I have no idea what he or the nation should do for the next three years.” He meant it, and it meant trouble for the U.S.

This blog is written by the author of the Jack Brandon novels. The author has 27 years of government service, including two years serving Meeting with President Reagan, Vice President Bush, Deputy National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci and General Colin Powell in the Oval Office.

President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as an advisor. Considering today’s volatile political situation, you are encouraged to share this on Facebook and to click the “like” button below. Comments and dialogue are welcome.

When You’re The President, What Counts As Need To Know? (npr.org)
Eight Decades of Insights-77 the Advisor (factsandfictions.com)

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, General, Intelligence & Politics, Politics, Progressives, totalitarianism

Tagged as Barack Obama, BarackObama, democracy, history, Leadership, Obama, politics, President, Ronald Reagan, Senate, the end justifies the means, Totalitarianism, United States

by Barry Kelly | October 28, 2013 · 10:24 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS-83

DANGEROUS END GAME

The few people who think about the end game being pushed by the polite and articulate Progressives know these social experiments always end up in mass murders and political repression.

We aren’t that smart; we just believe reading history and accepting the facts associated with the Communist Revolution in Russia, Cuba, China, and North Korea is instructive. Lenin came to power with a slogan, “Land, Bread, Peace.” Who could argue with that? Lenin and Stalin didn’t mention the mass killing of class warfare or the repression of innovative thinking or the right of free speech. The goals were income distribution, equal opportunity, and the sacrifice of the individual for the improvement of the masses. The regulation of commerce, the state ownership of production, health, education, the end of a free press, the punishment of dissent, the abolishment of parliaments or legislatures, and independent courts were all necessary to bring about the establishment of the Progressives’ dream.

Don’t let the passion of the Progressives convince you to go along. Many of them really believe what they preach. It’s just that they have their own set of facts. Their blueprint for a Progressive society has never worked anywhere. Their track record is so bad when they called themselves socialists that a name change was necessary. Although they lurk in the left wing of the Democratic party, they are fervent Progressives. Some of them, like Hillary Clinton, have the courage to say they are Progressives. Their goal is the transformation of America. Heard that before? They will use any means to achieve a progressive/socialist society.

They will even make their wealthy backers richer in the process. Why would any president refuse to permit the building of a pipeline from Canada to U.S. refineries? Even the unions are in favor. The creation of jobs to put people to work should be a good thing. But no! Remember the Gulf oil spill and the speed with which the president banned all deep water drilling? The ruling forced the deep water drilling rigs to go elsewhere. Some went to Brazil. The Obama government was reported to have sent a billion dollars aid to Brazil to encourage Brazilian deep water drilling for oil. President Obama on a visit to Brazil said he wanted to be able to import oil from Brazil. It was also reported that a major backer of the Obama progressive agenda, Mr. George Soros, had a significant investment in Brazilian oil drilling.

Now the pipeline: do you think any major investor in deep water drilling for oil would welcome a pipeline bringing cheaper oil from Canada? Maybe that’s why the president and his former Secretary of State Clinton, both ardent followers of Saul Alinsky, came down, after some positive comments, against the pipeline.

For Progressives the issue is never the issue except when their big money is involved. Progressive tactics to seize power are ugly but not as ugly as their dream state. Just say no!

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels. The author has 27 years of government service, including two years serving P

Meeting with President Reagan, Vice President Bush, Deputy National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci and General Colin Powell in the Oval Office.

resident Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as an advisor. Considering today’s volatile political situation, you are encouraged to share this on Facebook and to click the “like” button below. Comments and dialogue are welcome.