Category Archives: Barry Kelly

by Barry Kelly | November 1, 2013 · 7:30 am

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 | August 19, 2013 · 9:07 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 70 – THE ADVISOR

EGYPT AND OBAMA

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.

Muslim Brotherhood Defiant as Death Toll Passes 500 (hispanicbusiness.com)
Neoconservative Propagandist Supports the Massacre of Muslim Brotherhood Supporters (lataan.blogspot.com)
Writing the Wrongs: Egyptians Enraged by U.S. Outreach to Muslim Brotherhood (writingtw.blogspot.com)

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Obama

Tagged as Barack Obama, Cairo, Egypt, Egyptians, Islam, Muslim Brotherhood, Obama, United States

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.

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

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Filed under Alinsky, Barry Kelly, centralization, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, General, global warming, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, political solutions, Politics, Progressives

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

by Barry Kelly | April 18, 2013 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 45

English: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy chamber for a single diving casualty (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

BLESS EACH DAY

Usually I can’t wait to get to my iMac and dash off another blog pointing out the dangers of the Obama administration. Writing blogs helps me keep my balance and cool as Mr. Alinsky’s Chicago acolytes work to drag America down to their level.

Today as I stare at the monitor, I muse about 12 years ago when I was in a very different place. I was still recovering from prostate cancer in Florida. Both the prostate and the cancer were gone and I was feeling good. Looking in the mirror as I shaved, I noticed a lump on the side of my neck. I had seen it earlier but now it was bigger. Big enough to see my doctor. My wife’s father was a doctor and her mother a nurse so there is no room for procrastination about medical issues in my family.

After brief examinations by two different doctors, the Jacksonville medical world said cancer. Terminal without treatment and possibly with. Head and neck cancer. Specifically, a 3 centimeter by 3 centimeter by 2 centimeter tumor on the base of my tongue that had spread to the lymph nodes in my neck. The Jacksonville doctors offered no hope. My wife contacted the internist in Washington, D.C., who had saved us before. Three days later he had put together a dream team of leading specialists in chemotherapy, neck surgery, tooth removal and radiation. We were in our car headed to Washington with our Bouvier des Flandres and African Grey.

Radiation mask used in treatment of throat cancer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was told the odds of a cure were tiny but the radiologist had researched the latest protocols and pulled one off his printer several days later on my birthday. The others involved agreed it was my best and only shot. I would have radiation daily for eight weeks (7,000 rads), along with simultaneous chem therapy one day each of those weeks. First I had to have a biopsy, then before any treatment could begin six perfectly good teeth had to be removed, and because I would lose the ability to swallow shortly after the radiation treatments began, a gastric tube was implanted in May to come out in November. After the radiation and chemo ended, there was a couple of weeks for a break, which we spent in Florida, and then I had a modified neck resection. There were tanks in front of the doctor’s office in Washington when I saw him on Sept. 12. At the beginning of it all, the radiologist told me the treatment would be the hardest thing I had ever experienced. He was right although I didn’t believe him at the time. No one mentioned that I would need 40 days of two-hour treatments in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber afterwards to restore the heavily damaged marrow in my jaw bone.

A wonderful couple who were our long-time friends gave us their guest cottage for as long as we needed — we were there for three months. Who else would have taken us all in? The last five weeks we stayed with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law.

The treatment was very hard on me, my-never-give-up wife, and all those who loved us. At times I wanted to quit. My body weight kept going down and my muscles weakened. I had plenty of time to read but no focus to do so. TV helped pass the time. Programming didn’t matter. If I could never swallow again, I wasn’t sure I wanted to take more treatments, especially the radiation. The only way I managed the daily treatment was to recognize the beauty and glory of each day. I swore, if I lived through the cancer and the treatment, I would for the rest of my life be aware of the blessings each day brings.

For those of you fighting through cancer and the effects of the treatment, take it one day at a time. Set aside a period each day to pray and give thanks for what your days have brought you and promise yourself you will recognize the joy of each day. They are all good.

by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller series.

Hyperbaric Treatment. (onthehillgilayjun.blogspot.com)

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Filed under Barry Kelly, cancer, chemotherophy, General, Progressives, radiation

Tagged as Cancer, chemotheropy, Radiation therapy

by Barry Kelly | March 14, 2013 · 8:14 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 40

TRIBUTE TO PAT BOONE

Last night as I was watching Fox Business news, a rarity, anchor Neil Cavuto was interviewing Pat Boone, a famous singer and successful entertainer. During the interview when Cavuto was musing about what President Obama is doing, Mr. Boone pulled out the red-covered book by Mr. Saul Alinsky titled Rules for Radicals and commented that the president is following the guidance contained in this book. Cavuto, following a long line of intellectuals, scoffed at the idea the president was using Rules for Radicals to govern the country and, murmuring pleasantries, politely blew off Mr. Boone. Even worse, Cavuto said he had read the book but didn’t believe President Obama was following Alinsky’s rules.

speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 12, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Where has he been? We depend upon our media and especially those wearing the mantle of an economic guru to recognize that conservative intellectuals similarly blew off Das Kapital by Karl Marx, the writings of Lenin, Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler, and Chairman Mao’s Red Book. How different the world might have been if only enough of our opinion leaders had paid attention. These men and their followers meant to carry out the logic and guidance put forth by their writings. All fought their way into power.

Once in power, they transformed their societies and governments. Freedom fell to centralized control by the elite. There were not anymore votes. Millions perished in the name of differing ideologies. Economies were destroyed. Are we so special that our nation cannot be transformed and freedom lost? I don’t think so. The Republican party, the opposition party, is in disarray struggling to understand what is happening. They, too, do not understand Alinsky. The essence of Alinsky’s teaching is: the issue is never the issue. What is hard to understand about that? Take any of President Obama’s points engraved on his teleprompter. He uses whatever side of any issue to destroy the opposition, the Republican party. After they are marginalized he will have total power to transform America just as he promised.

Listen to that promise, America.

Take something as straightforward as closing the White House to tours. His first position is that the “Republican-caused” sequestration will cause economic havoc. Streets and airways will be unsafe. Thousands will lose their jobs. All his lackeys preached the sky is falling. Closing the White House to tours was just another cheap dig to show up Republicans as monsters, locking school children out of their planned visit to the White House. That backfired and Obama’s narcissistic mirror showed falling ratings. So change sides. It was the Secret Service who closed the White House tours, not the president, “who has never made a mistake.” I served President Reagan in the White House and know a Secret Service director would not ever close the White House for tours without being positive he was carrying out the president’s wishes.

President Obama is following Alinsky’s guidance right down the line. I wish he wasn’t. Wake up, you intellectual gurus of America. Show the courage and insight Pat Boone showed last night.