Category Archives: Alinsky

by Barry Kelly | September 30, 2013 · 8:23 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS-77 THE ADVISOR

OBAMA’S WAY

The Advisor was shaken. It was after 2:00 AM and the Secret Service just called to say the Boss was on his way down. He turned the coffee pot on and got himself together. He could go to sleep most nights rather quickly but, after 82 years it took a while to wake up and function. Sometimes he wished for a schedule. It would never happen. The Journals told the story. Presidents seek advice where and whenever they like. That’s partially why the institution of the Advisors had lasted so long.

I think I must be the least effective of all the Advisors, he thought as he found two coffee mugs. The President listens but never takes my advice. I have no agenda. Protecting this bastion of liberty from all attackers is my agenda. Now for the first time an Advisor knows that the President has his own unique agenda that requires, in his words, “The transformation of America.” After five years the ugly shape of the transformation is becoming visible. That transformation if successful will mean the end of individual liberty in the world. Can I and should I help him to accomplish this goal?

The advisor paused. I have to. It’s my mission. I took the oath of office willingly and he was elected twice by the people. The question is if the people elect a man to be their leader, is that enough? I would argue that freedom can be lost through the tyranny of the majority. We fought for the right to establish a free Republic of the people, for the people, and by the people. We have now or soon will have a majority of voters who seem to favor a Democracy over a Republic. These are very different concepts. The President’s core supporters are the people who believe in an elite leadership of the masses who will lead the nation toward a managed equality and world government.

The Advisor was pouring coffee when the heavy steel door swung open and the President came in wearing a warm-up suit. He looked trim and healthy but very tired. Rather than his usual civil greeting, he said, “I’m pissed. Everywhere I go people are trying to tell me what to do. Even my own staff. At least down here nothing I say gets discussed the next day by some pompous talking head. I hate them. Especially those of the left. They should know better. This mess with Iran, Syria, and Russia has everyone chasing their tails or trying to step on mine. Damnit, on top of that the right wing radicals in the Congress are fighting ‘The Affordable Care Act and raising the debt limit. Obamacare is the damn law. I like to put them all in the Gitmo place they love so much.”

“Mr. President, how can I serve you?”

“I’m tired of talking. I want to ask you questions and just listen.”

“I’ll answer as if I was burdened with the same issues, which in my way I am. Okay?”

“Yes. My first question is how would you handle Iran’s nuclear weapons program?”

“I would not focus my entire efforts on stopping Iran from becoming a nuclear power. The issue is greater and has more points of danger. Iran’s unshakeable commitment to developing nuclear weapons is driven by their goal to dominate the Middle East in one Muslim Shia state ruled by Iran. Nothing the West can do will change this national goal. The best weapon against Iran is to motivate the Sunnis to actively provide an roadblock to Iran’s aggression. Syria is a pawn in that struggle. Assist the Sunnis in their effort to secure Syria for the Sunni sphere of influence. Hamas, Hezbollah, and a large part of the Jihadist movement would be weakened. Yes, I know al Qaeda is basically Sunni. But Iran is far more dangerous than the stateless organization of al Qaeda. No effort of yours to diplomatically stop Iran’s messianic drive to acquire nuclear weapons will do anything but give Iran more time to weaponize. Negotiation with them with the goal of exposing their treachery and rallying the Sunnis …in the end a military strike will be necessary. But get the Sunnis actively on your side first.”

“What about the budget issues and The Affordable Care Act?”

“That is an easier problem. You can solve that because you are the problem. Never mind the Alinsky theology about using every issue to diminish the opposition. Alinsky was never president. You are. Some issues must be solved. The American people do not trust a president that cannot solve important problems. You, yourself, have delayed and modified parts of The Affordable Act several times. Because it needed fixing. You stretched and maybe broke the law doing so. But that is another issue. Your problem is, do you want to give Americans better health care or do you want to use control of the health/medical industry as a big step toward socializing America? You can’t have it both ways. Negotiate health care with the Congress, both Houses. There are good things in Obamacare. Keep the good and modify the rest. Your ratings will soar and the budget crisis will disappear. The choice is yours.”

“That’s enough for me. I need to get some sleep. I’m not finished. I’ll work up to listening to more of your analysis. It helps me deal with my Republican enemies.”

The President took a last drag on his cigarette and walked out the door with an almost imperceptible over the shoulder wave to The Advisor.

The above is a fictional account of a meeting that never took place. Too bad.

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.

Historic phone call between Obama, Rouhani caps Iran’s big week at UN (csmonitor.com)
Syria Crisis Yet to Derail Iran Nuclear Talks (ipsnews.net)

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Filed under Alinsky, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, fiscal cliff, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, political solutions

Tagged as Iran, Obama, Obamacare, politics

by Barry Kelly | August 15, 2013 · 7:00 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSTIGHTS 69-ADVISOR

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.

Marita Noon Commentary: We Win They Lose (fggam.org)
Eight Decades of Insights 67 – the Advisor (factsandfictions.com)

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Tagged as Climate change, Obama, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, United States

by Barry Kelly | July 22, 2013 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 65

LEADING FROM BEHIND–THE ADVISOR

The Advisor was thinking about how forceful he could be in advising President Obama. The subject for his next visit would be the consequences in foreign policy of leading from behind. The President wasn’t a stupid or a cruel man. He was just a man who carried an enormous amount of baggage.

Could anyone walk away from the influences he was subject to in his earlier life? the advisor thought. Some he was personally responsible for, others he had no real choice. Parents from far to the left, several years in a Muslim Madrassi teaching Wahhabism. His father, an anti-colonialist Kenyan, whose family had been persecuted by the British Colonialists. For most of his formidable years he was exposed to radical leftist ideologies. Then, the influence of Ivy League progressives, Saul Alinsky and his radical plan for seizing power, Reverend Wright and his hate America sermons, William Ayers and his terrorist viewpoint and to top it off the ruthless and corrupt school of Chicago politics. The President never personally suffered from his associations and ideology. Therefore, he has no understanding of the consequences of following a revolutionary ideology. It is probably too late now but I must try. I will never knowingly give him bad advice or try to manipulate him. My mission code does not allow it. After all, he was elected twice and could probably win a third term if it were permitted.

The advisor’s musing is interrupted when the flashing red light and soft chiming called him to the phone.

The President arrived a few minutes later at nine o’clock PM. The President strode into the room, greeted the advisor and said, “Let’s get started. I have some extra time and need a cup of your coffee.”

“Mr. President, you look like a man who doesn’t have a care in the world.”

“Today was good day. No one was asking me to do the impossible. Why do my supporters and staff think I should get involved in everything?”

“You are the ‘point of the spear.’ They count on you to give them what they want without understanding that doing nothing is also, at times, a good action plan. There, a perfect opening for my talk. Remember, you told me to pick the topic. So I’m going to talk about the concept of leading from behind. Please interrupt at any time. I’m going to use foreign affairs as a backdrop for my advice.

“You are in the fifth year of your Presidency. That is long enough for you to own America’s position in the world. You will not like some of my statements. But I will assure you, the the facts are correct. My analysis may be faulty because I project it into the future where no one can be absolutely sure they are right. First our main adversary, Russia. They are stronger now than they were before your election. Today their fleet is in the Mediterranean, something that was inconceivable in the last several decades. They have nearly secured a warm water port in the Med, a Russian goal going back to the czars. They failed in Afghanistan to find a corridor to warm water. Russia’s ability to project power has been limited for centuries because they lacked a port with year round operations capability. The Syrian port of Tartous is the payoff for their support to Assad. Sure, they enjoy threatening American and Israeli interests in the Middle East, but Tartous is the real goal.

“To see more clearly the Russian move into the Middle East, imagine a monopoly game where the winner gains areas of influence and the losers, well, lose. You failed to negotiate a status of forces agreement in Iraq where it was in no one’s interest for the U.S. to abandon the country. Certainly sectarian violence would be lessened if we had a seat at the table. Iran could not supply Syria forces through or over Iraq. Iran could not threaten Iraq if we had maintained a presence in Iraq. Iran would have a harder time supplying Hezbollah and using that force to control Lebanon, another possibility for Russia to exploit to acquire a warm water port. Our anti-ballistic missiles on the ground in Iraq could bring more defense against an Iranian attack on Israel or the Sunni Middle East. ‘Leading from Behind’ policies have resulted in our loss of space supremacy, ABM land-based systems, and talks about unilaterally cutting force size and our inventor of ballistic missiles that have kept us from a nuclear war since WWII. Our loss of influence in Egypt, Libya, Iraq, and Pakistan is not a foreign affairs victory. Leading from behind means you are and will remain behind.

“Leading from behind does not win respect in the world. Your monopoly board does not look good. Putin has no respect for you as leader because he sees you weakening America and, therefore, believes you are not someone he should worry about. Most of the world respects power and distrusts weakness. To world leaders words don’t matter. Words without action are invisible. To start with I advise you to say less and do more. You can project American power without following the old colonial pattern you hate so much.”

The President puts his cup down, grinds out his cigarette.

The Advisor says, “Yes. I have known ever since you sent the bust of Winston Churchill back to England. Your constant concern is for the little nation, the poor people, the Muslim nations over the Colonial West. If you achieve your goal of leveling America and the world, you’ll destroy both and civilization of all will suffer. But that is for another time.”

The President gets up and strides to the door. He looks back as he leaves and says, “You can’t be right.”

The Advisor says, “Goodnight Mr.President,” to the sound of an automatic locking door.

He thought, that went well.

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.

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 60

(Photo credit: sigma.)

THE ADVISOR

No matter how hard he worked on giving his speeches, something was not right. His polls were dropping. The former friendly media was beginning to publish unflattering articles. Every day it seemed someone found a new scandal. His close advisors had nothing to say but “go explain yourself to the people.” He tried that. Not even the Germans wanted to listen. His brilliant speech at Georgetown University on climate change and the new war on coal went flat. His ace-in-the-hole, unilateral disarmament, got only disbelief and “who cares” from enemies and friends. He didn’t know where to turn for advice. He needed it. He always had. The word impeachment was whispered not so quietly behind his back, or maybe the voice was just in his head.

One possible source of good advice was left. He had pushed it out of his mind. But now seemed like the right time. He called in the head of his Secret Service detail for a private talk. When Chris Hammond showed up a few minutes later, the President said, “Chris, sit down and have a cup of coffee with me. You remember the last meeting I had with George Bush before I was sworn in?”

“Yes, Mr. President, I do.”

“You were there. Tell me what you heard him say.”

“President Bush said when he had his last talk with President Clinton, President Clinton told him that when he really needed advice from someone whose only agenda was to serve the President and protect the nation there was only one place to go for advice. Presidents starting with Lincoln had gone there for advice.”

“Can you take me there now?”

“Yes, Mr. President. Give me just a few minutes.” Chris searched his phone’s memory, selected an obscure number and said, “Sir, I’m bringing the President down now,” and ended the call.

Chris led the President down into the tunnel running from the White House to the Treasury Department. He stopped at door that said “NO ADMITTANCE” by order of the Secret Service. Chris swiped his card and at the faint click pushed the door open for the President. They were now in a dimly lit passage. Chris stopped at the second door. The President studied the faint copper plate on the door. He could barely make out the words. Chris said, Mr. President, “I’ve been told that copper sign has been in use since President Lincoln’s time.” The words said “Eight Decades of Insights.” Chris said, “Mr. President, put your right palm in the center of the sign.” He did and the door swung open into a small, modestly furnished room. An elderly black man was sitting behind a desk, the wall behind him was covered with full bookshelves. The old man, in a very well tailored suit, got up and extended his hand to the President, saying, “Mr. President, welcome. Please have a seat. I’ve just brewed some fresh Sumatra Roast coffee.”

President Obama said he would love a cup and took a seat at the small table set for two. Chris said, “Mr. President, I’ll wait for you outside the door. I’m not permitted to stay in the room.”

“What if I want you to stay?”

“It doesn’t matter. The protocol here is very strict. There has never been a leak from this room. You, of course, can leave anytime. This man is only here to serve you. Whatever you say will stay here in this room.” Chris closed the door softly behind him. The President asked, “Who are you?”

“You can know my name but it is not important. I’m merely one in a long unbroken line of men and women who have occupied this room waiting to serve the man sitting in the Oval Office.”

“How can I trust your advice if I know nothing about you?”

“Mr. President, it is your decision. I’m only here to respond to your questions. Some Presidents have used us, others not so much.”

“Tell me how you got this mission.”

“Through the history of this small office each incumbent advisor picks his successor. The successor takes over only on the death or incapacity of the incumbent. There is no training. The advisor is picked solely because of their experience and service. Also they must be at least 80 years of age. Now how may I help you?”

“What do you know about me? Living in this subterranean room is not a very impressive setting for a Presidential advisor.”

“I’ve read all your speeches and watched you deliver many of them, actually too many. I have your records as a Senator, both of the United States and Illinois, as well as all your academic records and papers. I know about the development of your progressive ideology and the influential people in your growth, such as Saul Alinsky, Reverend Wright, and others we both know from your early life. I have access to the internet, including many data bases. Some restricted. Mr. President, the person sitting behind this door waiting to help does not approve or disapprove of the President or his agenda. We are only here to help you govern and protect the United States. Now how may I help you?”

“I feel my speeches are not as effective as they used to be and want your advice on the IRS mess and Ben Ghazi.”

“How much time do you have?”

“Unfortunately, I have some things I must attend to. So I’ll have to come back.”

“I’m always here. You may come at anytime. What you have asked me are not hard questions. Please don’t make any more speeches until we have met again. Thank you, Mr. President.” As soon as the President left, the Advisor quietly went to work. He would be ready by nightfall for the next visit.

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

Parts or all of this blog may be passed on.

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Tagged as current-events, politics

by Barry Kelly | May 23, 2013 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 52

American flag (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

IT MATTERS

The Benghazi cover up matters. The lying regarding the “Talking Points” matters. The failure to provide adequate security to the Americans serving in Benghazi matters. The decision not to attempt a rescue matters. The president’s role during and after the attack matters. The triumph of re-election politics over protecting Americans serving in dangerous locations matters. The IRS‘s broad discrimination against conservative groups matters. The lack of leadership and accountability in the Obama Administration matters. The Justice Department‘s, including the FBI‘s, monitoring of phone calls made to AP reporters matters.

These wide-ranging activities matter because they all diminish our freedom.

Freedom is not a constant state of being. It needs to be protected and nourished. All of us who have served our nation took an oath to protect the nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Perhaps the biggest concern is that if these things don’t matter, what is to prevent the same progressive group from building on this foundation of deceit and political spin? Once the system of “checks and balances” is ignored and government corruption is accepted as just partisan politics and the critical press is silenced, freedom of the individual will be a vanishing concept instead of the very anchor of our democracy. For without individual freedom there is no freedom at all.

The stakes are very high. Already we have re-elected a president who probably would not have won if his inner circle hadn’t been successful in delaying the disclosure of Benghazi, the IRS, or the Justice’s abuse of the privacy of AP reporters. These abuses of power do not stem from a vacuum. They are part of the teachings of Saul Alinsky, i.e., “the issue is never the issue.” The translation is to use all issues to destroy all opposition and seize political power. The issues themselves are not important. Do you think President Obama would be in the Oval Office if the Benghazi murders, the IRS’s attack on conservative groups and the AP phone tap debacle had come out a few months before the election?

I don’t think so. There are wise people in our history, who believed that when more people want government assistance and value security over freedom, American democracy is in its last stages. I hope they are wrong. We shall soon see.

By the author of the Jack Brandon Thriller Series. www.factsandfictions.com