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 | September 12, 2012 · 9:41 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS #19

LETTER TO FAMILY & FRIENDS

I was asked recently to comment on the use of lies, flip flopping, and spin in the presidential campaign. Politicians from both parties and their surrogates are and have been guilty of all these methods of distortion. I will concentrate on those of the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party in this blog because I believe the distortions here are more dangerous to our nation than those of their opponents and are more outside the normal use of truth twisting. I am aware of my own bias in favor of centrist policies and hope I will not offend my many Democrat friends, present or past. I’m going to present the case in bullet form without paragraphs of evidence.

*President Obama is often mistakenly accused of lying when he simply failed to reach one of his goals: Unemployment under 8 percent and cut the deficit in half in his first term if he was given more than 800 billion of stimulus to spend. Those are not lies; they are simply failures of management and leadership.

* Obamacare will be deficit neutral. No one now believes that will happen. Lie? Probably not. But the denial of movement of 700 plus billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare is much closer to the definition of a lie. Many would say that is just slight-of-hand budgeting and more in line with spinning the truth. It seems clear this transfer happened but the faithful will say it was all going to a medical fund for the American people. The choice is yours.

* Repeated charges that the Republican Party is waging a war on women is a hard stretch to fit under political spin. Did Secretary Sebelius of HHS anticipate the firestorm that followed her decree that the Catholic Church had to pay for contraceptives for women who worked in all Catholic hospitals, clinics, and schools? The issue was and is, simply: Could the president force the Catholic Church to pay for something that is against their religious beliefs? To me this is clearly an example of the Big Lie strategy. Speakers at the DNC expanded on the extent of the “war on women” to fears of losing their right to vote or exercise of their right to decide on having an abortion. Maybe they were reading too much into the Republican Party platform. Platforms of both parties, no longer, if ever, follow principles. They are used to give radical and fringe elements evidence of their influence in return for their support.

Keynesian Economics

* If only Congress, especially the House, would pass the president’s Jobs Bill or bills, millions of jobs would be created. Lie or an example of the vast difference between Progressive and Republican financial theories? I think this is not the president or his surrogates lying. This issue is a philosophical chasm that divides conservative from progressive. The Keynesian theory, in simple form is that government spending or pump priming can grow the economy and bring an economic system from recession to a growth mode. It can add jobs in the public sector and in infrastructure improvements as long as the taxpayers continue to pay the costs. It does not create wealth or long-term growth. Only the private sector by expanding the supply of goods and services to sell in the free market can create wealth and improve the gross national product.

Henry Morgenthau, FDR’s Secretary of Treasury and financial guru, remarked after several years of trying Keynesian economics that it just doesn’t work. Contrary to folklore, the unemployment rate late into President Roosevelt’s tenure was more than 12 percent. Many communists and socialist nations have tried to develop growth and national wealth through varying forms of Keynesian schemes. All failed. Yet it remains a mantra of the far left, while to Progressives supply side economics is still the enemy of growth, even though its record shows a very high rate of success. While it is true that the House and the Senate have not passed the president’s jobs plan nor any of his budgets, their failure is due more to their lack of fiscal reality than to partisan politics. Not one Democrat voted for any of the president’s budgets. (This is an example of political spinning and differing beliefs and not lying.)

* Political spinning is also the answer to conflicts about the amount of jobs created, when, by whom, and at what cost. The whole rationale of how the unemployment rate is computed gives wide latitude to different claims. Progressive ads and political claims are often not lying, just avoiding the unpleasant facts in favor of partisan sound bites. And every time a politician, from either party, changes his or her mind in the face of new information or an internal conviction, their new position should not be called flip-flopping. Maybe it was the right thing to do.

Rather than labeling opposition statements as lies, wouldn’t it be better to shed light on the truth, even the relative truth?

http://www.factsandfictions.com The author of the Jack Brandon thriller series.

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Filed under Conservative views, Intelligence & Politics, political solutions, Politics, Progressives

Tagged as Catholic Church, contraceptives, DNC, FDR, flip flopping, Gross National Product, keynesian, Obama, pump priming, Sebellius

by Barry Kelly | September 6, 2012 · 12:54 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS #18

BEYOND THE WORDS

Words are the fuel of politics. During an election cycle as important as this one, Americans are bombarded with words that are interpreted according to the experience, education, and existing beliefs of the audience. One of these terms, “share the wealth,” has been a cry of the progressive utopians, socialists, and communists. Hitler’s Germany used the promise of shared wealth and “every one belongs to the government.” Nazi Germany was not a right-wing autocracy. They called themselves The National Socialist Party. Lenin and Stalin’s Russia was a dictatorship of the proletariat (today’s have-nots.) This, too, was extreme left wing group. Land, bread, peace was the early slogan. Class warfare was the end result. Share the wealth certainly fit this monstrous regime. Mao’s communist China also promised a wealth-sharing economy.

Is there anyone who would like to live under any of these regimes with left-wing roots who practiced genocide and class warfare in the name of “sharing wealth” and with all people swearing allegiance to the government and all benefits coming from the government? Everyone belonged to the government. Party and government were the same. Only the leaders of government or party benefited. To various degrees, the people under these regimes struggled to overthrow these totalitarian regimes.

We, in America, have a history of well-meaning populists, progressives, or socialists writing about the beauty of living in a utopian society where everyone worked for the good of the society, with all sharing in the common good. These societies all fell. The experiments all failed because the reality of leveling society means the exceptional or better than average have to be pulled down for everyone to have equality and sharing of the wealth generated by others. The field of civilization can not be evened by everyone being pulled up to be exceptional. Everyone can not be exceptional. But everyone’s status in life can be improved by hard work in a society that does its best to give everyone equal opportunity.

One of the enduring lessons of history is that some level of government is necessary and circumstances can cause the relative size of government to increase to meet threats. The more powerful a government becomes, the greater danger it is to individual freedom. Under President Obama, the federal government is constantly increasing in size and scope. The Executive Office has assumed powers formerly and constitutionally left to Congress and the states. Cabinet officers now routinely issue Department orders, not Executive Orders, that have the force of law. In the first two years of his administration, while we were all consumed with the push to nationalize health care, the ground work was laid to steadily increase the power of the Executive Office. Four more years of this type of government and Greece will look good. Beware of leaders who espouse class warfare, using the slogan “everyone pays a fair share” and sharing of wealth and the joy of belonging to the government.

http://www.factsandfictions.com Author of the Jack Brandon Thriller Series

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Tagged as China, Class conflict, Executive Orders, government, Nazi, Nazi Germany, Obama, share the wealth, United State

by Barry Kelly | September 1, 2012 · 9:55 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS #17

Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WHERE IS OBAMA COMING FROM AND WHERE IS HE GOING?

Those are two questions Americans have been asking themselves for nearly four years. He has written a book about that journey. Pundits have written articles, both in favor of the president and in opposition. The main-stream media, which we have counted on in the past to uncover the guiding principles and the experiences that have shaped the principles of our leaders, has been silent. It would be unseemly to dig deeply into the background of the first man with minority credentials to inhabit the White House. It was enough that he fought the Clinton machine and beat an inept McCain candidacy. The only good thing to come out of that debacle was governor Sarah Palin. Any conservative who questioned Obama’s birth, associations, education, and beliefs flirted with being branded a racist. I was personally proud of my country for electing a black man to the presidency, even though I had serious doubts about his capacity for the job. No nation embracing racist values could have elected Obama.

There are numerous problems in America Obama could have tackled. The inner city mess, failure of American K-12 education system that serves the union better than the children, jobs and job training, free trade agreements, supporting people struggling for freedom everywhere, stamping out the last vestiges of discrimination, and uniting our people. No, instead he set about gaining control of the means of production, righting America’s nearly nonexistent colonialist history, and seeking forgiveness from foreign nations for the actions of American power and influence. Where did that all come from?

We should have known some hidden demon was driving this man when one of his first acts in the White House was sending a bust of Churchill back to Great Britain. He was picking up the anti-colonist battle his grandfather and father fought in Kenya against British colonialism. He was mentored for many of his formative years by known communists and Islamists dedicated to the destruction of the “colonial empires of the west.”

This man is not evil. He is just marching to a different drum. The only one he can hear. He is not cruel or bad, just misguided. We can not change the beat of this ancient anti-colonist drum. He looks cool, but he’s living in the past. He’s trying to follow a path that is now faint and overgrown. One the nation does not want.

Go see the Documentary 2016. It is a good piece of scholarship. Well produced and very helpful in understanding a president who is mired in an anti-colonial past.

http://www.factsandfictions.com Author of the Jack Brandon Thriller Series

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS #16 A CINDERELLA STORY

Cinderella

A few weeks ago I held my beloved Cinderella in my arms as she was freed from pain to cross the Rainbow Bridge. Her story began 11,12 or maybe 13 years ago. We just don’t know much about her first two years or so of life in a cruel puppy mill. We do know that she had been beaten, had her vocal cords cut and had no understanding that all humans wouldn’t hurt her.

My wife is an active member of the Bouvier Rescue organization. In fact she will stop whatever she is doing to rescue any animal or bird or amphibian needing help. She got an urgent call that a terrible puppy mill had finally been closed by the Florida authorities. Several Bouviers needed foster care until a “forever” home could be found. There were also Giant Schnauzers but their rescue league had already taken all of them into foster care. The Bouviers had been moved to a home on the outskirts of Jacksonville until foster homes could be found. The huge fenced in back yard was running wild with breeding Bouviers and their offspring. A mother and daughter were pointed out to us. The daughter had one ear standing straight up and the other flat on her head. My wife named her Palmtree. The temporary foster care host had to catch the daughter so we could see her up close. As soon as I looked into Palmtree’s eyes, I knew we were going to foster daughter and mother. Only we are incapable of fostering. Once a dog crosses the threshold they are home. Anyway I did not see how I could write a persuasive ad that would get Palmtree adopted. She was not a Bouvier poster dog.

When we got the dogs home, my wife and two of her best friends worked for hours on Saturday morning to clean the dogs up. Coats matted with feces. Nails that had never been trimmed. Encrusted eyes. They were a mess. But patiently mother and daughter put up with all the indignities of being made presentable. One of the cleanup ladies named Palmtree, Cinderella, after she was cleaned up. In all honesty she was a very scruffy looking Bouvier, too tall and too long. Being my usual stubborn self I tried to make Cinderella look like a Bouvier. Meanwhile my more astute wife said more than once, all most daily, “Cinderella is not a Bouvier.”

A year later we accepted an invitation to visit with one of my wife’s college friends in Pensacola. Dropping our dogs off at a new kennel, I noticed they offered grooming for Giant Schnauzers. I was asking some questions and the groomer asked if I wanted our Giant Schnauzer groomed while we were gone. I got over my shock and decided it wouldn’t hurt and said, “sure.” When we returned three days later, we were met at the kennel by a beautiful Giant Schnauzer with her eyes flashing while she pranced up to us. “See look I’m beautiful and I am Cinderella. And she was still gorgeous when she pranced across the Rainbow Bridge.

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Filed under bouviers, dogs, Giant Schnauzers, Intelligence & Politics, puppy mills, Rainbow Bridge

Tagged as bouvier rescue, giant schnauzers, puppy mill, rainbow bridge

by Barry Kelly | August 16, 2012 · 7:31 am

Eight Decades of Insights – 15

YOU MUST PAY ATTENTION WHEN THE OPPOSITION DEVOUTLY BELIEVES THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS.

My last blog emphasized the need to focus on the big picture and not on shifting issues. The president and his whole administration know the goal is to get re-elected: “Nothing else matters. Say anything. Do anything. Never mind the law. Sort that out later. When we win, we will own the courts. Use the full power of the executive office where it is needed. Increase subsidies, extend payments, fight voter ID, sue states, block investigations, try to deny late voting to veterans, leak if it helps build short-term credibility.” These are things the administration is willing to do. And don’t expect a serious effort by the administration to find and punish the leaker.

I have seen real leak investigations. When the president is angry about leaks, the leaker is found and sometimes exposed. These leaks are so spectacular that only a few people could have provided the information to the NYT. The FBI and a counter-intelligence team could find the leaker in two weeks if allowed to do what they know how to do. Mandatory polygraphs of less than twenty people to start. But remember: The end justifies the means. Failing to get four more years is the only thing to fear.

These are smart people. Take immigration. President Obama showed the brilliance of his campaign when he bypassed Congress and issued the essence of the Dream Act by executive order. Senator Marco Rubio lost his unique platform and the Republican Party its chance to make serious inroads into the Hispanic community and to win Florida big.

The Obama brain trust has at least one more ace up its sleeve. They must now be talking about cutting some baggage. Does anyone believe that the vice president is a net gain for the campaign? He is a gaffe a speech and standing beside the president on the platform he looks and acts like he has been or never was politician. Can he debate Ryan? I think not. So, think about it, should this end justifiy the means and should ‘followers of Saul Alinsky’ even think twice about throwing the VP under the first bus?

No! Watch the convention when a tearful VP tells the convention that the campaign and the responsibilities of another four years is just more than he can do. It isn’t fair to the president or the American people and the highly respected financial genius replacing him will help the party and the nation, thereby challenging Ryan’s contribution to the Republican ticket.

That is my prediction. It will happen unless the Obama brain trust believes it can win with Joe. In that case, the Romney/Ryan ticket must have made some catastrophic blunder or blunders.