Author Archives: Barry Kelly

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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 | August 26, 2013 · 8:38 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 71 THE ADVISOR

REPUBLIC OR DEMOCRACY

Safe in the Shadows

It was cold in the Advisor’s underground office. He thought, I shouldn’t complain. The long line of advisors before me lived under more Spartan conditions.

The Advisor journals from during and before the Civil War were full of the trivia of each Advisor coping with circumstances of a harsh existence. He sometimes regretted  that an Advisor two decades ago had blocked up the fireplace because some Advisor under stress in a crisis might begin destroying the sacred journals by throwing them in the fireplace. (Saving the journals when the British burned Washington is quite a story.)

One thing was sure. The Advisor journals told a different history of Presidents’ past than the words recorded in the media or popular books. No historian could reconcile the two. His own journals recorded a different history of President’s Obama’s reign than any history book selected by the Teacher’s Union or a University Board ever would. Since President Obama didn’t visit him very often, seldom would be a better description, he had time to put a few hundred pages of his own analysis and insights into the journals.

His pen began moving across a blank page of a new journal.

Presidents never seem to realize they form a continuous chain through time. Their actions or inactions cause ripples across the continuum of time. There have been a few straight lines through the history of the nation that  have  affected all.  The direct election of senators and the President and the process of centralization and the resulting expansion of government through the Commerce Clause accelerated the shift of power from the states to  the national government. 

President Obama, in his virtual world, thinks he has the power and will to change history by his push to “Transform America.” What is happening started long before his tenure. There are many people with political experience in the Legislature who fail to understand or even be aware of the changes occurring in the nation’s constitutional  fabric.  Others in Congress, in both parties, support the unfettered march to centralization and all power to the people.

In a Republic, there are checks and balances between the people and the selection of their President. These checks are real. In a Republic, the modern brown shirts like Acorn, under any name, would not have as much influence. The President would be elected by state legislatures via the Electoral College.  The senators by the state legislatures. Powers not expressly granted to the federal government would remain with the states. The existence of the Electoral College also protects the small states from being excluded. Who would bother to campaign in the states with small populations without the existence of the Electoral College? 

A democracy demands the rule of one person, one vote. There is nothing else. No checks. No balances. The huge difference is that under a republic the needs of the nation come first. In a democracy, the principle of one person, one vote is supreme. When the people begin, as many historical scholars have predicted, to vote benefits for themselves and when the takers can out vote the givers, individual freedom and the nation are in danger. The absolute  rule of the majority has an ugly side most people do not want to know about. My fear is that when they finally see it, it will be too late. 

The Advisor pulled a book out of the stack he had recently read and said to himself, “I hope the message in this book  reaches all Americans before it is too late.” The book is “Liberty Amendments” by Mark Levin.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels. http://www.factsandfictions.com. The author has 27 years of Government service, including two years serving 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 and helpful. Find and connect with the author on Goodreads.

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

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

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by | August 19, 2013 · 9:07 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 70 – THE ADVISOR

 EGYPT AND OBAMA

Safe in the Shadows

The Advisor sat in front of his wide-screen TV watching the streets of Cairo turn to chaos. Minutes later he was astonished at President Obama’s comments on nationwide TV. Advisors were not to be surprised by the actions and statements of their Presidents. For the past two weeks, since the President had not sought his advice, the Advisor had been frantically searching the Presidential Journals written by Advisors since Washington’s first term. He had a treasure of history lined up on the floor to ceiling book shelves. Surely there were bits of history that would help him advise this President, he had thought. His search had not turned up evidence of another Advisor being  continually surprised by the man in the Oval Office.

Recently, a thought had been trying to insert itself in his thinking. Maybe he was using the wrong assumption. All of his predecessors assumed, rightly, that their Presidents were seeking solutions to problems affecting the nation’s well being and progress. What if President Obama has a different vision? A vision that required the destruction of the present to usher in a period of greater fairness and equality for, not just America, but for the entire world? He definitely had a serious problem with the colonial past of both Great Britain and, a different kind of world domination by the United States. Nothing he was doing or planning to do would improve National Security or the nation’s economy. His record showed he was constantly putting obstacles in the way of national independence in the energy field from fossil fuels in favor of a vision of green energy from non-existent technology that was, at least, several decades in the future. Cheap energy in America would do more to bring back manufacturing jobs and products than all his cumbersome regulations and pronouncements. 

Egypt is what brought the President’s destructive words and actions into focus. Here, the people rejected a military dictatorship for free elections and democracy. Their sacrifices brought elections that put the most organized opposition into power. The Muslim Brotherhood  is not a political party. It’s like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Both are armed militias that do a modicum of social work. Once acquiring power, either by coup or the ballot box, they do not give up power. One person, one vote, one time. Germany under the Nazi party had a similar experience. Once the Muslim  Brotherhood under Morsi gained power they moved immediately to ensure their permanency. Their intent was not to benefit the Egyptian people or nation, it was to install an Islamic nation under sharia law.

The Egyptian people ousted the dictatorship of the Brotherhood with the backing of the Army. President Obama gave lukewarm support to the overthrow of Morsi, while lamenting the loss of democracy. The Brotherhood took the fight to the streets demanding the return of Morsi and democracy, vowing to fight to the death. The streets are jammed with Brotherhood supporters, even though they are a definite minority. Chaos is spreading. The already shaky economy is vanishing. The Army moves to restore order. The Brotherhood uses weapons to fight back. Casualties mount on both sides. Progressives, with the President at the point, condemn the Army’s brutality in putting down the Brotherhood revolt, demanding a return to the democratic process and canceling a joint U.S.-Egypt military exercise.

Clearly President Obama has sided with the Muslim Brotherhood. Both Progressives and their Presidential leadership forget that if you added two zeros to the number of dead in Egypt you would still have far fewer dead than in Syria, where a hands-off policy was Obama’s choice. Yet with Christian churches burning and armed Brotherhood roaming the streets of Egypt, President Obama calls for talks and negotiations to restore the democratic process.

The Advisor mused. Doesn’t he know there are times when talk is impossible? A return to democratic elections would only mean the best organized and ruthless group, Morsi and the Brotherhood would win again. This time there would be no return. The Camp David agreement between Egypt and Israel would end. Morsi would align Egypt with Iran and attempt to establish an Islamic Empire, forcefully rejecting all Western influence. The war for Islamic dominance is on and our President is supporting the Islamists. His circle of advisors has several Islamists pressing their version of the future.

I must find a way to show the President a different vision. A war between Islam and Christianity is not in America’s interest. Islam weakness is its rejection of reality and the absence of love and forgiveness in its theology. There is nothing democratic about Sharia Law. It is a real war on women.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels. http://www.factsandfictions.com. The author has 27 years of Government service, including two years serving President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as an advisor. Considering today’s volatile political situation, you are encouraged to pass on this blog or parts of it to your contacts and friends. Comments and dialogue are welcome and helpful.

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

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by | August 15, 2013 · 7:00 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSTIGHTS 69-ADVISOR

Safe in the Shadows

PROBLEMS

The Advisor sat slumped in his chair. For the first time in his life he felt inadequate.  His President and the nation needed help. There were so many problems, he wasn’t sure where to start or even if he should start.

Only one thing to do, he thought.  Pull out your journal and put down your problems. If you can’t help President Obama solve them, at least you can record them. The record may help another President and his Advisor.

He uncapped his Waterman fountain pen, dipped it in the open inkwell to get the flow started, and wrote in large printed letters at the top of a clean page, PROBLEMS. Wondering what to write next, he just started to write. The words flowed like they were pouring from a deep wound in the Nation’s body. 

Obamacare: Here’s an unpopular program that addresses a national need. Nearly everyone believes health care in America is broken and needs fixed. If this President could get over his revolutionary philosophy that pushes him to use every issue to destroy the opposition, it would be easy to pass a bipartisan bill that keeps the good parts of Obamacare and meets the nation’s needs without polarizing the populace. There is a constitutional process that could make this happen. President Obama has to take the lead. He shouldn’t worry about  the opposition. They are without leaders and nearly hopeless. Also the President and his Progressive supporters must accept constitutional limits on executive powers and the role of the states. This is not a hard problem. Ignoring it can lead to impeachment talk.

After health care, the sweeping ink trail took up the energy problem.

To start with, energy is too important to be left to spineless politicians and those progressives who believe humans can control climate and its worldwide effects. How can anyone trust politicians or executive department heads such as EPA who refuse to recognize that the world’s climate has and does change, almost constantly in historical terms? The changes are not caused by humans. Humans weren’t even present for many of the changes. How about the time when there were two miles of ice over the place now occupied by Chicago? How many emissions from cars and coal-fired plants did it take to warm up the Earth then?  Any objective person of science knows that minute changes in the Earth’s orbit, the energy put out by the sun, and the occasional meteorite might have been instrumental in changes in the world’s temperature.

Again, a bipartisan energy program would not be hard to accomplish if the President could bring himself to cast aside the misguided environmentalists and focus on an intelligent use of fossil fuels while investing modest sums in finding a cleaner form of energy in this century. In the meantime, I must help him recognize that the civilization we have today and may have tomorrow, is because of fossil fuel. Pipelines, drilling on- and off-shore for oil and natural gas and building refineries are good for the nation and cheap energy will bring manufacturing jobs back to America. Massive amounts of tax dollars, poured recklessly into solar cells and wind turbines, will not magically develop even ten percent of our energy requirements.

The Advisor liked to write and ponder problems by candlelight. The flickering light was a constant reminder of how close we are to the past. He felt we are much closer to the time of our founders than we are to the citizens of the next century. Of course, that is what history is all about. Knowing the past will help us get safely into the future. Maybe, that is the message I can get across to the President.

Even I have to get some sleep. I’ll leave National Security, overstepping of executive power, and the economy for another session. If the President comes back, I will have something for him.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels. http://www.factsandfictions.com. The author has 27 years of Government service, including two years serving President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as an advisor. Considering today’s volatile political situation, you are encouraged to pass on this blog or parts of it to your contacts and friends. Comments and dialogue are welcome and helpful.

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

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by | August 12, 2013 · 7:20 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 68 – THE ADVISOR

WHAT DOES OBAMA BELIEVE?

Safe in the Shadows

It has now been four weeks since the President had been to talk with the Advisor. The Advisor had gone over the handwritten journals of a few of his predecessors. The ones he found the most helpful were those associated with the long tenure of President Roosevelt. The  Advisor then had realized that the President and he were operating from an entirely different set of facts. If you don’t know what your President believes, it is very hard to advise him. Presidents Roosevelt and Obama have a number of things in common. Both liked good coffee and cigarettes. On the personalty side both had very thin skins for politicians and both believed they knew better than Congress or the Courts what would be the best for the nation. The Advisor’s predecessor believed that FDR’s policies would delay an economic recovery and change the relationship between the citizens and the central government for decades to come. Both were and are Populists with a strong sense that the elite knows better than the people how to run America. Those beliefs caused huge increases in the size and scope of the federal government.

While President’s change roles, the Advisor’s role is constant. He or she must give the President the best advice possible to protect the tenure and legacy of the President, even if the Advisor believes the President’s policies and actions are a threat to the Republic. The Advisor leaned back in his chair, put FDR’s ledger down, and thought, I’m not doing well. I’m replacing the President’s goals and policies with my own.  I have overstepped my role and driven my client, the President, away. I must do better. He is the one who got elected twice, not me.

He was soon to get a second chance.

The President sat alone in the Oval Office, letting his mind absorb the flow of historical, even life and death decisions, that his processors had struggled with. He might sound like he was indecisive and maybe at times he was. But he knew where he wanted to go. He also knew too many of his staff had their own agendas. He couldn’t count on anyone presenting alternatives. Now that David Axelrod was in Chicago and getting tired of his role, no one talked back to him or presented out-of-the-box ideas. He was trained as a lawyer and needed opposition to formulate strategy and tactics to bring into being the America he dreamed of, where everyone got a fair shot and the nation’s wealth was distributed equally.

It was ten pm. What the hell!  The old man in the underground office in the tunnel said he was there 24/7. Let’s see. With that thought, President Obama pushed the button that quietly called in the head of his Secret Service detail. Minutes later he opened the old vault door into the Advisor’s office. The Advisor, looking like clothing store ad with his stark white shirt and charcoal suit, red tie, and gleaming black shoes, greeted the President. He led the President over to the small conference table and poured both of them a fresh cup of strong, black coffee. The President thought it might be a dark Sumatra. The President didn’t say anything. Just sat sipping his coffee. The Advisor said, “Mr. President I have a confession to make. I believe I’ve been trying to impose my beliefs on you rather than helping you with the hardest job in the world.”

“Maybe so. But I need an honest opposition to help me think through what I’m going.”

“Mr. President I would like to try to better understand your beliefs and, with your permission, want to ask you the same questions one of my predecessors asked President Roosevelt.”

“By all means. You have my full attention. Ask away.”

“When you say you want to ‘transform America’ what do you mean by that? What do you want to keep and what do you want to change?”

As the President smiled and started to answer, his Secret Service escort knocked on the door. When the Advisor opened the door, the Secret Service Officer said, “Mr. President, you are wanted in the Situation Room now. Your National Security team will be here in two or three minutes.”

The  President waved goodbye and said, “I’ll be back” and disappeared down the tunnel.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels. http://www.factsandfictions.com.

The author has 27 years of Government service, including two years serving President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as an advisor. Considering today’s volatile political situation, you are encouraged to pass on this blog or parts of it to your contacts and friends. Comments and dialogue are welcome and helpful.

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

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

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by | August 5, 2013 · 8:17 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 67 – THE ADVISOR

FREEDOM IN DANGER

Safe in the Shadows      The President hadn’t been down to consult with the Advisor for more than three weeks. Nevertheless, the Advisor had his duty. He must continue to write advice for the President in the Ledger. The wall behind his desk was covered with shelves of presidential advice from his predecessors. When feeling unappreciated, he often pulled out a ledger at random and browsed through it. The ledgers were all filled with handwritten comments, arguments, notes, and laments. All in ink. The Advisor wondered how those who went far before him used quills and straight pens. He used a Waterman’s ebony black fountain pen. Earlier this week, on August 1st, he had seen a very good editorial on the Opinion page of the Wall Street Journal by Daniel Henninger.

President Obama probably hadn’t read it. Too bad, he thought. The article was right on target. Maybe if more media picked up the thread, the President would learn or, at least accept that managing power is very different than acquiring it. If only Saul Alinsky, the President’s ideological mentor, had written about using power instead of focusing on the means to get power. The issue is never the issue nonsense only applies to seizing power by destroying the opposition. President Obama is stuck on the destroying all opposition theology. That’s why he keeps serving up the same stale sound bites and only seems to know what he is doing when out preaching to the choir standing behind his altar.

The Advisor sighed out loud amid his musing.

The President has all the power he needs without usurping Constitutional powers of the judiciary and legislative branches. He pays no heed to the Constitution  or established law. A Republic like ours cannot endure a President who picks and chooses what laws to enforce. He has said he is done with Congress and will use executive powers to do what needs to be done. Those are the words and plans of a king or dictator. Individual freedom is seldom lost in some great struggle. More often it is eroded slowly in hundreds of small actions from the executive branch. The EPA, IRS, HHS, Homeland Security, and Justice Department have all been active in bypassing traditional safeguards to our freedom. Look carefully at the people he puts in charge of important Executive functions. They have every intention  of  establishing  a one-party system dominated by the Progressive Party. Some people still think of it as the Democratic Party. It isn’t.

If the people read and understand Mr. Henninger’s article they will know why President Obama says and does what he does. It is no secret. He has no interest in governing or finding solutions to problems like the economy, the Arab Spring, health care, education, energy independence, or the nation’s morale. He is the ultimate destroyer of the Republic. Without a much more resilient and smarter opposition party, the erosion of  our individual freedom will not end with Obama’s second term.

I must find a way to reach him. My mission is help the President protect and guide the nation. I cannot break my oath but neither can I help him destroy the Republic.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels. http://www.factsandfictions.com

The author has 27 years of Government service, including two years serving President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as an advisor. Considering today’s volatile political situation, you are encouraged to pass on this blog or parts of it to your contacts and friends. Comments and dialogue are welcome and helpful.

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