Category Archives: Alinsky

by Barry Kelly | August 7, 2015 · 10:59 pm

INSIGHTS 221 — THE ADVISOR ASKS WHAT MADE YOU DO IT.

The Advisor thought finally the President and I are getting comfortable talking about real issues. He has loosened up in the last few sessions. He knows I’m no threat and I won’t betray his candid responses to my questions. Hope he is in a talkative mood tonight. He should be here in another few minutes. I think he makes a real effort to be more or less on time and I appreciated it. He glanced up at the passageway monitor and saw the President and Chris approaching his door. Funny he has never commented on the wording on the old brass plaque. Even I don’t know its background. Maybe it is contained somewhere in the early journals. The only was to search them is to go thru them one by one. I just don’t have the time for that.

“Welcome Mr. President. Have you had a good day?”

“Can’t remember when. Everyday I get several problems that should never reach the Oval Office. I don’t know if some of my staff are afraid or just too limited to handle the problems on their own. The problems, or rather issues, that I handle always get some bad press. Fortunately I have very few consistent critics in the media. Some of them have gone out of their way to be supportive. Okay, you have some questions for me?”

“Yes I do Mr. President. Some of them are not important in the writing of history but I want to ask you why you did certain things that even your supporters do not seem to understand. My first questions is, why have you spent so much energy and time on closing Guantanamo Bay?”

“Well, the first thing is that I made a campaign promise to close this sore spot on our international record as a freedom loving nation. Gitmo is a prison and a place of torture. Students of international law believe it is a place that has no place in the twenty-first century. We can detain criminals in prisons in the Continental United States where my Attorney-General can protect their rights, examine the evidence, and bring them to trial under the American system of justice.”

“But, surely, there are cases when it would be appropriate to detain and try terrorist prisoners captured on the field of battle?”

“I just don’t trust the military to run trials of our enemies. Their rules of evidence, procedure, and concern for the rights of the accused do not meet my standards. I want America to look toward my leadership in prosecuting criminals, not the Pentagon.”

“We have both studied the law, both constitutional and international. Don’t you see the impossibility of collecting evidence, taking statements from witnesses and yet following the strict rules required by our courts regarding the chain of accountability and custody of evidence from the crime scene to the court room?”

“If we can’t get a conviction on the main charges, we’ll have to settle for prosecuting them for lesser crimes. If the military can’t or won’t meet the standards of American justice, they shouldn’t be conducting trials or detaining prisoners for years without charging and trying them.”

“Mr. President, there must be more than that.”

“Yes, in this room there is one more big one. Gitmo is a wonderful issue for me to use campaigning to attack conservatives. My base loves this issue. Elections are not won on facts. They are won by picking good issues and building them into major points. The time the conservatives spend defending Gitmo means they are playing by my rules and they can’t win. Take the Bergdorf guy who deserted his post and was held by the Taliban for years. He wasn’t important to anything, but he gave me a perfect opportunity to get five more top terrorists out of Gitmo. There was no other way I could justify their release. Who could argue sending those five criminals to one of the Gulf States for safe keeping. Who cares where they end up? Sorry I can’t continue but I must go. Thank you for the coffee and conversation. They were both good.”

As the steel door closed, the Advisor thought if you don’t want the answer, don’t ask the question. This may have been one of those times. Absolutely scary. No one would believe what I just heard. Especially since his words had the ring of truth. Get ready for an Executive Order to give Guantanamo Bay to the Castro’s.

The above is a fictional account of a meeting that never took place, but it could have.

The author’s latest Jack Brandon novel, ISIS Quiet Justice, is available at your local book store and in ebook format from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Follow the author on Twitter at @factsfictions80.

INSIGHTS 200 — THE BIG LIE

In the late 1930s and early 1940s the Nazi propaganda chief, Goebbels, coined the phrase, “The Big Lie.” I’m sure the concept wasn’t original with him, but the Nazis used it consistently in their propaganda. The essence of the idea is that if you tell a big lie often enough, people will gradually come to believe it.

I can take the theory even further. If you tell the same lie often and with conviction, you will believe your own lie.

Conservatives and traditional Democrats have their image issues, but it is nothing like the progressive radical left that is now running the country. Progressives believe from deep in their DNA that the end justifies the means as long as the intent is to overthrow and replace the current political structure. Saul Alinsky, the brilliant guru of the progressives, explains this issue in his books. Reading his “Rules for Radical” is enlightening. Both President Obama and Hillary Clinton are Alinsky disciples. Hillary Clinton had a personal as well as an intellectual relationship with Alinsky. Conservatives tend to avoid the consistent use of lies as their core culture values the integrity of the spoken word.

A clear and recent example of the progressive use of the big lie by a leading progressive is Harry Reid’s statement as the Senate Majority Leader in which he charged presidential candidate Mitt Romney with not paying his taxes. When confronted with this big lie, Reid said, “He didn’t get elected, did he?”

An even more famous example is President Obama saying repeatedly that, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” He said the same thing regarding your health care insurance, i.e. “If you like your insurance you can keep your insurance.” He knew all the while that neither statement was true, but the end justified the means in his mind. He delivered these lies with such conviction, I believe he actually believed he was telling the truth.

Below is a partial list of current big lies being supported by our progressive president and his followers:

AL-QAEDA IS ON THE RUN;
THE ATTACK ON BENGHAZI WAS THE RESULT OF ANTI-ISLAM VIDEO PRODUCED IN AMERICA;
WE WILL TRACK THE ATTACKERS DOWN AND BRING THEM TO JUSTICE;
ISIS, AL-QAEDA, AND ALL THEIR OFFSHOOT TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS ARE NOT PART OF OR MOTIVATED BY ISLAM;
THE ECONOMY IS GOOD AND UNEMPLOYMENT IS DOWN;
COUNTER-TERRORIST POLICES IN YEMEN AND ETHIOPIA HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL;
PUTIN’S POLICIES WILL LEAD TO RUSSIA BEING ISOLATED BY THE CIVILIZED WORLD;
MY ADMINISTRATION WILL FOLLOW ALL POSSIBLE PATHS TO ENERGY SUFFICIENCY IN AMERICA;
BUILDING THE KEYSTONE PIPELINE WILL NOT CREATE MANY FULL-TIME JOBS;
CREATING NEW JOBS IS OUR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY;
OUR NEGOTIATED DEAL WITH IRAN IS THE BEST WAY TO PREVENT THEM FROM DEVELOPING NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND STOP THEIR SPONSORSHIP OF TERRORISM THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST;
CARE OF OUR VETERANS HAS IMPROVED;
POLICE PROFILING AND TARGETING OF BLACKS IS THE CAUSE OF URBAN RACIAL VIOLENCE;
INCREASED GOVERNMENT SPENDING ON INFRASTRUCTURE, RESEARCH, AND EDUCATION WILL CREATE ECONOMIC GROWTH;
THE COLD WAR POLICIES OF PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH NO LONGER WORK. WE NEED A NEW WORLD ORDER;
THE BIGGEST THREAT TO OUR CIVILIZATION IS GLOBAL WARMING;
THE ROOT CAUSE OF PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD IS THE RESULT OF AMERICAN MILITARY AND ECONOMIC POWER OF THE PAST.

This last big lie explains most of Obama’s policies and actions. He really is a man who is mentally and psychologically from a different era. He believes his legacy will be the progress he has made in the transformation of America and in changing the current world order. To accomplish this task he must first destroy the America he was elected to defend and protect and then, to destroy enough of the old world order to allow the ensuing chaos to give birth to the emergence of a fairer national and international society devoid of any super powers and replaced by a revitalized United Nations.

“ISIS Quiet Justice,” a new Jack Brandon novel dealing with ISIS in America, is now available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble in print form and nook and kindle formats.

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Filed under Alinsky, Barry Kelly, Clinton, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, ISIS, Obama

Tagged as big lie, Obama, Progressives, Saul Alinsky

by Barry Kelly | April 14, 2015 · 7:36 am

INSIGHTS 199 — A WORD TO LIBERALS

I think I know how to talk to a liberal because I once was one.

Of course, that was before the progressives took over the Democratic Party and moved it so far left it would be right at home in Russia, China, or Cuba. No, it is not repressive enough yet for those bastions of central planning and re-education camps. But unless the more centralist members of the party retake control, a one-party system with increasing repression is coming.

I left the Democratic Party because I saw their fixation on the application of Keynesian economics was just not working and it doesn’t take years of pondering to see that growing the size and scope of government beyond absolute needs doesn’t in itself solve problems. Many times it only makes things worse by drafting and implementing more and more regulations.

It is not only the Democrats that grow government. There are big government Republicans who are just as culpable in the increasing size and scope of government. Two of the worse examples occurred with a Republican White House.

After Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush created two large and, I believe, nearly useless bureaucracies: the Department Of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Everyone was in shock over 9/11 and were making frantic efforts to fix whatever problems prevented us from thwarting this historical terrorist event. It is in our DNA to centralize anything at the slightest opportunity. When things go wrong, “Put someone in charge.” Is the cry that echoes across the land. The fact is that someone was already in charge but didn’t make the right choices or put their own agency’s interests over that of the nation. Replacing these people and changing the bureaucratic nature of their organization was what should have been done. We should not have put many diverse organizations that were already on the edge of being nearly unmanageable due to size and complexity under a single new manager. Adding layers of management seldom has improved anything.

Big government and its sister, centralization, is at the core of all socialist systems. Republicans and Democrats are both at fault. I can’t blame the Progressives for growing and centralizing the size and scope of government. It is what they do. It is their mantra. Leaving the Saul Alinsky followers and other Progressives aside under leaders like President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Elizabeth Warren, it might be possible for traditional Democrats and Republicans to have real discussions.

I believe a starting point for dialogue to save our country is to use the following principles as a foundation for cooperation:

Honesty and openness in the conduct of government;
Peace comes through the prudent use and display of strength;
A foreign policy that is loyal to our allies and respected by our enemies;
A recognition that freedom is not free;
We are an exceptional nation based on the rule of law;
Tax rich more than others, but everyone pays something in some way;
Corruption has no place in our government or in our economy;
The civil service must not be political and public workers should not organize against the people;
We can be judged on how we treat our children, the sick, the poor, the elderly, and our veterans;
A nonpartisan and objective media is a necessary part of our democracy;
We are a nation of immigrants and will always welcome newcomers who obey our laws and learn our language, history, and culture.

“ISIS Quiet Justice,” a new Jack Brandon novel dealing with ISIS in America, is now available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble in print form and nook and kindle formats.

INSIGHTS 191 — RULE ONE

It is six years into Obama’s transformation of America and I finally really understand what he is doing and why. It took six years because I forgot to apply RULE ONE.

I have a number of rules I use help me understand what is going on. I learned or refined RULE ONE in Vietnam in 1968. One of my jobs was to travel around the five northern provinces in I Corps in Vietnam and decide if our province staffs were under a military threat sufficient to have them evacuated until the crises past. I soon realized that when I evaluated the various staffs of these exposed provinces, the officers in charge were running their province by following what they knew how to do, regardless of the mission.

Many of these men came from backgrounds of very different skill sets. Thrown into a new situation they fell back on doing what they knew how to do. It didn’t matter how the mission changed, doing what they knew how to do remained at their core. I since have seen that this management phenomena applied to life everywhere. Why it took me so long to apply RULE ONE, people do what they know how to do, to President Obama, was a serious oversight.

He was a community organizer. He trained to be a community organizer. His ideological mentor, Saul Alinsky, was a community organizer in Chicago long before Obama became a community organizer in Chicago. Obama taught Alinsky’s philosophy during his days as a university instructor. I suppose Barack Obama was a very good community organizer. He has all the skill sets. The ability to conduct endless negotiations, to switch positions when necessary, to make it look like his negotiations are going well when, in fact, they have failed long ago. Never mind, just keep negotiating.

Community organizers lead from behind. They give never-ending speeches to try and control the narrative and messaging. They use the same sayings over and over. “Everyone should have a fair shot. Level the playing field. Everyone should pay their fair share. The rich can pay more. Protect the middle class.”

In addition to these sound bites, they give speeches suggesting class warfare and racism is rampant in the land, that police treat minorities unfairly, heavy and constant government regulation is needed to offset the inequities of the free market and capitalism, a redistribution of wealth between people and nations must happen, and negotiations require compromise by the powerful when negotiating with weaker parties. Community organizers are always on the side of the underdog who is being oppressed by the ruling elite. The goal is to take power from the rulers and give it to the oppressed. If the oppressed are hard to find, the innovative community organizer will create them. Military and economic power are never to be used by the powerful against the less powerful. Goodness and evil are never part of this doctrine. America has sinned, and now it must be punished.

If you have ever wondered about the president’s negotiations with Russia, Iran, China, and Cuba on the international front or his unwillingness to negotiate with the Republicans, look no further. It is because he is acting in total harmony with RULE ONE. He is a community organizer and will always be a community organizer. He is just doing what he knows how to do.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/suspense novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an e-book, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Insights: Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” is now published and available in paperback at $9.95 and on nook and kindle at $6.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. A new Jack Brandon novel dealing with ISIS in America, will be out by mid March.

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Filed under Alinsky, Barry Kelly, class warfare, Conservative views, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, Politics

by Barry Kelly | February 13, 2015 · 7:33 am

INSIGHTS 189 — DANGEROUS, OR JUST AN EMBARRASSMENT?

It won’t get any better.

I believe we have a flawed president who brought a heavy load of baggage with him to the White House. He can’t escape from his personal beliefs about the guilt of American power; the socialist creed of Saul Alinsky that wealth needs to be spread equally to all individuals and nations; and leading from behind and from a place where words are the same as action.

Add those beliefs to his real-life experiences of attending a ‘hate America’ church for twenty years, his early childhood years attending a Muslim madrassa in Indonesia, his grandfather’s enduring of abuse by the British colonial authorities in Kenya, and his pre-presidential association with an unrepentant American terrorist, Mr. William Ayers, and you have a man who comes from a very different background than any of our other presidents. Don’t expect him to address the problems and issues that threaten America. He can only use those issues to attack his opposition. When the opposition is weakened, the way is open for a one-party rule by a progressive elite.

President Obama cannot turn loose the power of the free market to create jobs and wealth, for he believes in a managed economy. He can only use his power to spread the wealth and to give everyone “a fair shot.” He cannot preside over a transparent administration, for with transparency comes full disclosure. In this case all the documents requested under our Constitution and the practice of the ‘separation of powers’ by Congress would severely damage his socialist goals. Instead of a transparent Obama administration, the one he promised, we have an administration that is known for lying and delaying for years legitimate requests for information by both citizens and Congress.

Probably the most egregious cover-up is the use of the IRS to target conservative groups applying for legal tax-exempt status. President Obama may be planning to use the increasing power of the IRS to destroy any opposition. The president said he was shocked and angry about this illegal use of the IRS but now denies it ever happened and is stonewalling Congress’ requests for documents. At one point, the administration claimed the documents were permanently lost when all of the computers of the people of interest crashed.

On the foreign front, the president’s desperate effort to make a deal with Iran is even more dangerous than his inept dealings with Putin. Iran is developing nuclear weapons. It is their stated national objective. Why does the president believe the Iranians are developing and testing ICBM missiles? They are not necessary for a peaceful development of nuclear power. For some reason beyond me, President Obama has mortgaged our war with Islamic terrorism, our relationship with the Sunni nations, and Israel over his constant concessions to Iran. I believe he has not been sending arms to the Kurds due to Iranian desires to keep the Kurds from being able to defend their land and people from ISIS attacks. If any people ever deserved our help to fight for their freedom, it is the Kurds. President Obama has sent only words and token shipments of weapons directly to the Kurds. Arms to the Kurds sent via Baghdad will never get shipped on to the Kurds.

All we can do for the next two years is to fight hard to delay the president’s illegal and dangerous domestic and foreign policy whims. We must also avoid a major war. Imagine being at war with our present commander-in-chief in control. Would that the Republican leadership in Congress be smart and courageous enough to thwart the worst of his socialist hopes? Not much hope there. Just more tilting of windmills and internal fighting. The people have spoken but neither the president nor the Republican leadership are listening.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/suspense novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an e-book, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Insights: Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” is now published and available in paperback at $9.95 and on nook and kindle at $6.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. “Quiet Justice” a new novel dealing with ISIS in America will be out by mid March.