Category Archives: centralization

by Barry Kelly | August 1, 2015 · 7:31 am

INSIGHTS 220 The Advisor and the President discuss the civil service

The President was back just two days after he had to leave in the middle of The Advisor’s question about the politicization of the Civil Service. The President lit his secret cigarette and said, “This is the only place in the White House I can smoke without getting hard looks or worse. And this is so far underground I’m not sure I’m still in the White House. Okay, you were asking me about my use of the Civil Service. Right?”

“Yes. I was wondering if you see how much you have politicized the Civil Service?”

“Of course. It is my Civil Service. Why should they not do what I want them to do? Notice I said want them to do, not what I tell them to do. That is the difference.”

“You make it sound as if by some magic all members of the service know what you would like them to do and they do it.”

“No magic involved. All Civil Service members take direction from appointed officials. I appoint them and I only appoint those who I know will follow my progressive ideology. Most Civil Service employees like their jobs and want to keep them. They also work hard to get good evaluations, earn promotions and bonuses, and to justify the size and scope of their unit. Their loyalty is to their units and to the Civil Service Union. No one has to tell them to follow the president’s lead. They have always acted the same way. I just have been more careful to make sure the leaders I appointed are doing their jobs.”

“You sound as if you have studied organizational structure and the behavior of workers in large organizations.”

“What’s to study? That’s the way I think. For example, I don’t have to tell civil employees to grow their organizations or to expand. The government doesn’t grow because some president wants it to. It grows unless some president works hard to control or stop the growth. In my case, I want the government to continue to grow. I need it to really transform the country.”

“Why then are you cutting the size of our military forces?”

“Even as the commander-in-chief, I don’t have the same power over the military as I do over the civilian workforce. I cannot put my people all through the uniformed military. Also their command structure is very tight. I have strategic influence but people loyal to me and my transformation goals are not in the day-to-day operational decision making. The military forces are not supporting my progressive goals. I am growing the power of the Civil Service for they are a willing ally in transforming America. I am cutting the size and power of the military because they are and have been an evil force used to project American power into less fortunate and smaller nations. To bring the military under control, I must reduce their size.”

“Then you say you are not breaking any laws by the way the IRS, the EPA, Justice, HHS, Veterans Affairs or Homeland Security have conducted their activities?”

“Right. There is no evidence of any wrongdoing; therefore, no crime.”

“What about the failure or unwillingness of the FBI to investigate the wrongdoing of the IRS and the failure of the Immigration Service to enforce the law?”

“You don’t seem to understand. The FBI has no charter or legal standing to investigate when there is no evidence a crime has been committed. Under my Justice Department, the FBI is not going out looking for things to investigate. They do work for the attorney general, and she works for the president.”

“What about the precedent of the Watergate affair and the erased tapes in the Nixon administration that led to his resignation?”

“Wouldn’t have happened under me. Nixon failed to understand how to use the law without being directly involved and the media did the investigating, not the FBI. Nixon and most Republicans have never understood how to use the media.”

Mr. President, I’m afraid I have exceeded my time.”

“No problem. I’m enjoying these sessions and I really think you are trying to understand me. Also, I want my record in your journal to be clear. See you next week but I don’t know when.”

With that, the President left with Chris who was patiently waiting in the dim passageway, and they retraced his steps to the above ground White House.

The Advisor opened his journal and began to record the last session. As he was writing in his journal, he thought, this man is delusional but very clever and dangerous.

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.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, centralization, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, management theory, political solutions, Politics, Progressives

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.

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Filed under Alinsky, Barry Kelly, centralization, complexity, Conservative views, democrats, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, political solutions, Progressives

by Barry Kelly | October 15, 2014 · 7:30 am

INSIGHTS 166: UNDERSTANDING THE RELIGION

To understand your opponent’s beliefs, you need to take the time to identify their core beliefs. Today, I’ll look at what I believe are the core beliefs of those who are left of center along the political divide.

All of us must recognize that the core beliefs of political parties, religions, social groups, and even sports teams have beliefs that are a mixture of facts, myths, tradition, and emotional ‘need-to-believe’ items. I believe the core values or beliefs of liberals start with the tenet that capitalism is essentially evil and it needs constant and extensive regulation to mitigate the damage that it does. Certainly the liberal/progressives working in the Obama administration have pumped out thousands of regulations that affect commercial activities of corporations and small businesses. For everyone to ‘have a fair shot’ like the liberals want, they believe capitalism must be drastically controlled.

The pay gap between CEOs and workers must be reduced. Liberals believe in deficit financing because it is necessary to fund welfare programs and other important government spending. Keynesian monetary policies, based on the belief that a nation can spend its way to prosperity, are a mainstay of liberal economics. This theory was extensively tried during FDR’s terms. FDR’s Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. finally convinced his boss that deficit financing was not working. Nevertheless, ‘spending to prosperity’ is still a core liberal/progressive belief.

The liberal core belief on tax policy is that taxes on the rich and corporations should be high enough to fund extensive welfare programs. They are not concerned about the number of people on welfare. A high percentage of the population on welfare and paying no income taxes is a good thing. The government is doing the right thing when it takes care of people by welfare programs. This belief does not make the connection between high taxes on the rich and corporations and the failure of the economy to grow and produce jobs. Tax policy is a primary tool to income redistribution. Interestingly enough, liberals never point out the high salaries being paid to Hollywood and sports figures. They receive their wealth because they earn it when the rest of us are willing to pay for the products they produce. This is capitalism but it doesn’t apply to other commercial ventures.

The necessity for big government with increased centralization of government is another core belief of liberals. To manage education, commerce, welfare, law enforcement, health care, communications, and tax collection, a large centralized federal government is necessary. Liberals believe big government is not a bad thing for it protects and enhances freedom and individual choice.

The ‘big government is good’ belief does not extend to the Department of Defense. Nearly all liberals believe the defense budget should be cut and the savings allocated to welfare programs. Sounds good, but the basic responsibility of the government is to protect the people. The connection between cutting defense and reducing the ability of the government to defend us is not made. Even today President Obama is moving forward with his goal of cutting the armed forces back to pre-WWII levels.

Liberals/progressives believe that a small elite group of liberals can better manage the government than the free-for-all political system set up by the Constitution and years of tradition. This is why the liberal media and universities do not do their job of keeping government honest. Our founders knew liberty requires eternal vigilance. This belief is not part of the core beliefs held by the liberal/progressive elite in America.

Perhaps the biggest plank in the liberal platform is a deep guilt about American wealth and power. Why else would students studying at Harvard, recently vote that America is a bigger threat to world peace than ISIS? My worry is that by the time these smart wonderful kids learn the truth about their country and the world, it will be too late for them and the rest of us.

Written by the author of “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an ebook, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. If you think this message is important, please share it.

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Filed under Capitalism, centralization, class warfare, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, Politics, Progressives

Tagged as core beliefs, government, health care, liberals, President Obama, Progressives

by starediting | September 18, 2014 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS – 154

OBAMA’S SCORECARD – PART 2

It will soon be six years since Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. The traditional way of evaluating a president is to judge how he has done as a leader to solve problems concerning the economy, national security, and foreign policy. We could do that here, but that wouldn’t be addressing what President Obama has been doing. To be fair, he should be scored on what he has been working to accomplish. To do that, we have to use the tasks relevant to progressive goals, for those are what is important to President Obama and his legacy.

President Obama’s overall goal is the transformation of America. That term means very little unless you examine the steps that are required in the process of transformation. The first step is to marginalize his opposition, the Republican Party, by a skillful manipulation of issues. Remember, the progressive mantra is “the issue is never the issue.” In short, that means you don’t try to solve problems or issues, you simply use every issue to instead attack the opposition. Changing sides on issues or lying about what you said previously about the issue doesn’t matter and happens often.

In Part 1 of this blog I scored Obama on redistribution of wealth and weakening America on a worldwide scale. Read that blog here.

All socialist ideologies require the move of the means of production from the private sector to governmental control. Beginning with Obamacare and moving to micro-managing regulations on manufacturing, coal mining, nuclear power, oil exploration and drilling, and energy use, the president has made an auspicious start but he still has a long way to go. His grade here for advancing progressive programs only rates a “C” minus.

To create a one-party political system run by a progressive elite, Obama needs to destroy the Republican Party and absorb the legislative power of Congress into the executive branch by using executive orders and department regulations. He has made the executive branch more powerful than the office he was elected to fill, but the stubborn resistance from the tea parties and other conservatives has slowed the process and the progressives will probably (hopefully) lose control of the Senate in November 2014. The president gets only another “C” minus here.

To prepare the way to move America into the control of an international organization, he needs to withdraw from foreign bases and weaken the U.S. military forces, which are still the best in the world. The president has announced his intent to cut the manpower of the Armed Forces to pre-WWII levels. The Defense Department, under timid civilian and military leadership, has rolled over and begun implementing manpower cutbacks by informing several hundred captains and majors they will no longer be needed. I’m sure notices to sergeants and others will follow. Majors, captains, and sergeants are the backbone of any military organization. It will take 15 years or more to replace the expertise being wasted. As long as the Pentagon is so gutless, Obama will succeed in diminishing both manpower and weaponry. He gets a “B” plus here.

Unless conservatives, independents, and moderate Democrats wake up, President Obama will eventually get higher grades as a progressive than he ever got during his academic training.

Do you like and understand what you’re reading? Share it with your friends and leave me comments here or on Amazon. I read them! You can also visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter. This content and more is available in my latest book, “INSIGHTS: Transforming America.”

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Filed under centralization, Conservative views, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, Politics, Progressives

Tagged as America, executive branch, government, military, Obama, Progressive, socialism

by Barry Kelly | September 9, 2014 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 149

THE GOP NEEDS TRANSFORMING

Is America in trouble? I think so.

How did it happen?

Well, you cannot blame President Obama for everything that’s happened under his watch. The Republican Party insider group is also guilty. The House of Representatives has the total Constitutional power to appropriate money. Everything the progressives have done with Obama’s leadership had to be funded. The government runs on money, our money. The House is supposed to be the place funding requests begin.

Where has it been? Republicans did not provide a single vote to the passing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Yet they funded every bit of its implementation. Obamacare couldn’t have survived just on the funds that were appropriated when it was passed. The government had to pay for all the overruns, including the rollout. Instead of providing good stewardship of our money, the Republican leadership whined and complained about President Obama’s executive orders and the greatly increased scope and power of the HHS, EPA, IRS, DOJ, and Labor Department but was afraid to use its appropriation to bring Obama’s transforming of America to a near stop.

When they did try to bring Obama’s spending under control by refusing to raise the debt limit unless the president delayed a part of the ACA, the president refused to sign the appropriations legislation with the Republican amendment to raise the debt ceiling. He then began shutting down the parts of the government that would dramatically affect citizens, parts that could have been easily funded. Congress offered to help with authorization by allowing the president to shift funds to where they were needed. He refused and cleverly and successfully passed the blame onto the Republicans for shutting down the government. Not only did the American people accept the blatant blame shift, so did the Republican leadership. Now the speaker of the House and the Senate minority leader are afraid to use their Constitutional powers to defund certain parts of federal spending. With an opposition as timid and as inept as the current Republican leadership, we cannot look to them to act as a check on the growth of the federal government and spending.

The Republican Party leadership in and out of government is afraid to rock the boat. None of them would have signed the Declaration of Independence. (That is my yardstick for judging the courage of politicians.) In my state of South Carolina, several politicians and Republican leaders would have signed. Among them are Representative Joe Wilson, Senator DeMint, now the President of the Heritage Foundation, Governor Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott, and Representative Trey Gowdy. It is this kind of courage that is needed.

President Reagan believed that “Government isn’t the answer. Government is the problem.” Of all the threats we face today, big government is the biggest threat to our freedom and economic growth. The Republican insider group just doesn’t believe this. While the size of government has grown spectacularly under President Obama, conservatives must remember that the eight years of President Bush saw large increases in the size and scope of government. Term limits would fix a lot of problems with the Congress.