Category Archives: class warfare

by Barry Kelly | August 11, 2012 · 6:02 pm

Eight Decades of Insights – 14

VOTE THE ISSUES, BUT NOT REALLY

It seems to me that voters in past elections could mull over the issues and decide which candidate supported issues important to them. It was then easy to go to the polls and vote for their choice. Not now. The rules have changed, but no one told you. You are being bombarded with issue-ladened ads extolling one candidate or the other, as if this election is about issues. It is not. Maybe the Republican candidate is still playing by the old rules. If he keeps that belief and keeps reacting to shifting changes in President Obama’s campaign, he will surely lose. It is not about issues for the Progressives. It is about getting elected and keeping power to continue the transformation of America.

If you are a person focussed on the ISSUES, you must be dizzy by now with all the shifts and changes of the Progressives (read Left Wing Democratic Party). Talk about: “I was for it, before I was against it, now I’m for it again but my opponents have taken my words out of context.” The same confusion is true of numbers. Does anyone believe that more taxes from the 1% of the richest of our people can make up, even marginally, the gap between spending and revenue? Only steady growth can provide the revenue needed.

Don’t think the hard core of the Democratic Party is dumb or uncoordinated. They are not. David Axelrod and team are extremely smart and street wise. They believe elections are not won by issues. Elections are won by winning a majority of voters in a few swing states. You do this not by fighting over issues, but by destroying the opposing candidate and making promises to the electorate that cannot be kept. Truth doesn’t matter. Perception does. The Big Lie or Lies told over and over in various forums can and has worked.

Yes, the rules have changed. No, no one told you. Studying what the president said when he was a candidate himself, or when he was a senator or when he was in Akron or some other place using Air Force One and all the trappings of the president to conduct political fundraisers doesn’t matter. He will say and do what is necessary to get elected. Don’t ever forget that the Progressive mantra is that the end does justify the means. Progressives are not worried about morality, truth, or even consistency.

Don’t pay attention to issues and political ads. Think instead what it will mean to America for more of the same under President Obama or for a change in direction by a more traditional politician who doesn’t believe in “transforming” America. Lean back and imagine what four more years of transformation could do. Forget the Progressive fog of bewildering issues and slandering attacks. In our history we have seen what a divided America can mean. Don’t let it happen again. Vote the big picture and change the rules back, so we can debate over real issues to improve our country. And may the good Democrats recapture their party.

God bless our Warriors and our Olympic athletes. They are wonderful.

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

Tagged as big lie, election

by Barry Kelly | July 25, 2012 · 11:36 pm

Eight Decades of Insights – 13

The following are my opinions based on years of government service and academic study. This piece is not about Republicans versus Democrats. I’ve voted both ways and miss the Democratic Party that has been taken over by the Progressives who are definitely not Democrats or believers in the American Dream.

This election is not about Obamacare, war in Afghanistan, fossil fuel vs green renewables, immigration/border control, nuclear weapons for Iran, the Arab Spring, radical islam, monetary policy or all the other burning issues that disguise the real struggle.
In November the contest is about power. Everything else is simply a distraction or tactic to further the Progressives only goal, which is to get power and keep it. Only the Progressive Socialists understand the only real prize is power. It is perfectly acceptable within this ideology to say anything and do anything as long as one is focussed on getting power. Truth doesn’t matter. Keeping your word is not important. They are only words that can be recycled for the faithful. The “end justifies the means” is the Progressive ideological mantra.

This is not a conspiracy of the Democratic Party. The traditional Democrats are not evil. They are Americans who believe they have won an election.They are focused on the Progressive dream of a perfect utopian America. Now the Democrats must join with their Progressive leaders to achieve the goal of transforming America. Heard that before. Believe it. It is real. Before transformation America was a nation whose political system was founded on the diversification of power. Checks and balances. Three equal branches of Government. The Progressive agenda cannot prevail with power diffused. Piece by piece it must be centralized. Control of the health industry, the financial structure, industry, especially manufacturing, housing, traditional power generating resources, commerce and, of course, the unions is the prize. Jobs and the economy are only important as a means in the struggle for power. A failing economy, burdened with debt and high unemployment presents Progressives with opportunity.

Does acceptance that the Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party is following a campaign focussed on centralizing power make current events and issues understandable? I believe it does. Mr. Alinsky has provided the plan. Now his disciples have only to carry it out. (Read Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals for more enlightenment.)

What traditional American political party would even consider undertaking the following issues and actions?
*Class warfare rhetoric about taxing the rich, taxpayers making more than $200K annually. Surely, they know the revenue gain would be marginal. But for the Progressives, the political appeal to the fifty per cent that pay no income taxes is a winning argument. The middle class is a force that must be destroyed. The middle class, in the Progressive scheme, is very different. We will all be in their middle class. It will be the only class. No one failing. No one succeeding. This is not the stuff of the American dream where hard work and sacrifice provide opportunity for the individual to advance. Try to get elected preaching the line that everyone gets the same income regardless of their success and work skills. It’s far too early for that political platform.
*Pushing an unpopular, poorly crafted health care bill through Congress was politically wise? Only for the goal of centralizing seven per cent of the economy was it worth the storm of protest. Thousands of new IRS officers will be policing the system. What better way to control people and their destiny. Is making the IRS even stronger and more pervasive an attractive political goal?
*Use of the Justice Department to challenge the power of the House of Representatives. Making the Congress look stupid is worth the few shouts of protests. The Justice Department will not investigated any White House leaks or anything else that reflects badly on the Administration. Forget border security and “Fast and Furious,” suing states, investigating voter ID laws in swing states is more likely. This is not the traditional Justice Department that protected our freedom. President Nixon misused the power of the executive branch and we know what happened to him.
*Deliberty dissing our traditional allies, the U.K. and Israel as well as India and Poland, all democracies. While catering to Russia, the Muslim world, Venezuela and China. Not a democracy among them. Is this traditional American foreign policy? Has it ever happened before?
*Supporting disruptive street demonstrations and the willful destruction of property by the “Occupy Wall Street” mob led by Van Jones, a former Obama Czar for Green industry and an avowed communist. Search your memory for the last time the Democratic or Republican Party publicly supported a similar action.
*Bringing back the very unpopular “Death Tax”. Why bring this up in an election year? Some believe that the Progressive wing of the Democratic party has always wanted to destroy wealthy family dynasties. They can weld too much power so they can be a check to Progressive attempts to gather power. And it appeals to the “want it now have nots”.
*Before any political group can usurp power, they must control the military. A weak military force with weak leadership is a much easier target. Taking money from Defense and using it on entitlement programs makes Progressive sense. It weakens the military and spreads more wealth to those who depend upon government and who vote for the hand that feeds them. Did anyone think sequestration would work? The Republican leadership that hasn’t yet figured out what is happening, fell for the sequestration bait. Now the nation has to cope with declining power in a dangerous world.
*What political party ever set out to destroy the American power industry? Or send billions of taxpayer dollars to make believe green solutions for energy independence? Progressives talk “all of the above,” but act differently. And routinely use the power of Executive Orders to marginalize Congress.

Does the above make sense within the American political sphere? Not for any traditional party. For the Progressives, it is the only platform they can use to transform America. Most of us will not recognize or like the end result.

Be careful Democrats! If the Progressives win, the next election could have very different rules and you won’t be part of it.

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Filed under Alinsky, class warfare, foreign policy, political solutions, Politics, Progressives, Uncategorized

Tagged as China, Democrat, Israel, Justice Department, military, Occupy Wall Street, Republican, Russia, U.K..India

by Barry Kelly | May 22, 2012 · 12:30 pm

Eight Decades of Insights – 11

My motivation in starting this blog was to publicize my novels. Along the way I couldn’t resist discussing other topics. But this blog, 11, is dedicated to fiction that carries several messages.

The first novel was titled JUSTICE BEYOND LAW. My second novel is called JUSTICE WITHOUT MERCY. Both are thrillers about a group of people who take extreme measures to combat terrorism with little regard for political correctness. JUSTICE WITHOUT MERCY will be available worldwide in a few weeks. Both books are or will be available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble in both print and as ebooks using Kindle and the Nook. Several professionals with military or intelligence backgrounds have given me a thumbs up. Below is the prologue for my second novel.

JUSTICE WITHOUT MERCY ©

ANOTHER JACK BRANDON THRILLER

By Barry Kelly

PROLOGUE

Five years ago Joel Hankins, known in the camps as Mohammed Abu Moussa, finished his training at the camp for foreign fighters in Afghanistan. He learned to handle most small arms and explosives but was near the bottom of his trainee group of twenty. His strength and toughness were not equal to the rest of the trainees. The camp was above nine thousand feet with very little vegetation. They lived in caves and were never really warm at night in the winter months. The people they lived among were incredibly poor. Every disease in the mountains of South Asia was visible in the small village near the training site. Even so, his experience at that camp was the highlight of his life. He was someone, someone special. He wasn’t the loser everyone said he was in Pittsburgh. He had even met Usama Bin Laden.

Just before he left the camp his leaders told him that they had been searching for months to find a westerner of the true faith to help carry Jihad to America. Joel wasn’t sure of the true faith, but he did pray at least twice a day and spent another hour each day reading the Koran. He had grown comfortable with the teachings of the Prophet and was proud to be a part of the holy war to establish a Muslim Empire that someday would include the United States.

His leaders knew they were not strong enough to have their own sovereign nation in the face of the forces aligned against them. Control of territory was necessary to recruit and train followers. In Joel’s training group there had been students from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia and several western nations. If the Taliban could not hold Afghanistan, where could the faithful train and plan damaging attacks against the infidel nations? Joel was happy he had been assigned to help locate a place within the United States where faithful Jihadists could find safe haven.

Before he left Afghanistan, he was taken to a compound in Peshawar and left in the care of a Palestinian trainer. This man was an expert with real experience in clandestine operations. The trainer told Joel that in the next three weeks he had to be ready for his assignment in America. He was told to forget his Muslim name. While he was in America his name would be his own, Joel Hankins from Pittsburgh, PA. When his training was over, he would return to Pittsburgh and tell his family he was done traveling around the world and wanted to prepare himself for a career in business. At first Joel objected to this plan but his mentor, a powerful man with intense dark eyes, told him there was no room for dissent. He had been chosen and he would follow orders, or he would never leave the compound alive.

Joel never doubted that Hakim meant every word he said. Putting on his most respectful look, Joel said he would obey and carry out any mission assigned to him. During the next three weeks, Joel was given intensive instruction in the methods of planning, supporting and carrying out terrorist activities in the United States. He had always been good at detail, and soon reached a level of competence that surprised Hakim. In the last week, Joel learned how to deal with hostile interrogations and to prepare cover stories for everything associated with terrorist operations. His first mission was to establish a rug merchant shop in Charleston, SC. The necessary money would be deposited in his name in a Charleston bank.

After Joel satisfied Hakim with his ability to use the tradecraft of espionage, he was delivered to a Taliban supporter in Peshawar who operated a rug manufacturing and export business. Another two months were spent learning how to appraise and sell rugs. From time to time, Hakim would drop by and give Joel a mission to accomplish. Joel never knew whether the mission was for real or practice.

When Joel left Peshawar, he had lost all the trappings of a devoted Jihadist. His thin blond hair was cut short in the style of young Western businessmen. His beard was gone and his new clothes tailored to his scrawny build. With his light blue eyes, wind-burned acne face and wearing his first tailored suit, he was ready to return to Pittsburgh where he had a personal mission and then on to Charleston. His long stay in Pakistan was covered by his learning the art of dealing in Oriental rugs. A hundred rugs were sent in his name to a holding address in Charleston as further evidence of his status as a rug dealer.

It had been two years since Joel left Pittsburgh for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Getting off the Greyhound bus at the downtown terminal on a sunny October day, Joel decided he wasn’t going home. His mother died while he was with the Taliban. He hated his father and only wanted to see him one more time, to kill him. Killing didn’t require any talk. Joel also had a mental list of girls he knew in Schenley High School whovhad laughed at his advances and talked about him behind his back. Shirley Bronson and Sally Hartley were the worst. Joel planned to look them up and see if they could still laugh when he was finished with them. His growing lust to kill young women was one thing he had never disclosed to his Muslim contacts. Now that he had the killing skills and the training to avoid being caught, he was ready to start.

Joel took a local bus out to a poorer section of Oakland and paid cash for a room at a rundown boarding house. No questions asked. Just cash in advance. Two days later he paid cash for a high-mileage 2000 model Dodge van. He wouldn’t kill his no-account father on this trip. No sense in giving the cops something to work on by getting the Hankins’ name involved. Four days later, he had killed both girls.

It was easy. They were both students at Pitt and lived at home with their parents. In two days he had their after-school schedules down pat. Both worked in the University’s library week nights and walked home together just after ten o’clock. His first try failed. Too many bystanders were close to his selected ambush site. He had learned patience. The next day Joel parked his dark blue van at another site along their route home. When the girls passed his parked Dodge van laughing and talking, Joel slipped out of the shadows behind them and slammed their heads together. Holding them up, he used his remote to open the side door and shoved the stunned girls inside. There were no lights on in the van. Pulling the right fuses had fixed that. In the darkness after gagging them, he put cloth bags over their heads and duct taped their hands and legs.

Just before midnight, Joel dumped their naked bodies in a wooded area of Schenley Park. He kept their clothes. Along with the photos he took while torturing them, he had a good start on his collection. With both girls his clumsiness caused him to miss the moment of death. The next time he would do better.

Early the next morning he got in his van and left for Charleston. He loved the news coverage. The killings made the front pages of the Pittsburgh papers and the evening news on the networks. With his new knowledge and training, it was easy to outwit the police. There was no evidence he had returned to Pittsburgh, and he left no evidence behind. Those feel-good murders were his business. His al Qaeda leaders didn’t need to know.

Two years later, Joel’s rug shop in Charleston was making a little money. He had found an ideal place for the shop in a rundown building on the western end of Meeting Street. It had an apartment above the shop and a two-story, three-car garage in the back with space on the second level for two bedrooms, a bath and kitchen with a small sitting area. It was enough to house four or five people for short periods.

Three or four times a year, an al Qaeda courier stopped in his shop to deliver instructions and wait for Joel to write a response. He had no electronic communications with al Qaeda. They used a simple code based on a particular edition of the King James version of the Bible.

Life was good. Joel continued the training regime he learned in the camps and joined a shooting club. At least twice a week, he took private Taekwondo lessons. Within a few months he would test for his blue belt. He was no longer the scrawny kid that left Peshawar two and a half years ago.

Joel made time for his passion for thrill killing, but he never killed in Charleston. His training had taught him the importance of patience and attention to detail. He set no pattern in his kills, except that his victims were all attractive young girls. No weapons were used to kill them. Joel never killed in any city more than once a year. He was addicted to the feeling of power he got from killing. He would take his prey his own way while he was young and alive. There was no rush like watching the light fade in his victims’ eyes. No one would ever have these bitches. In a few cases he had been lucky enough to catch the moment with his digital camera. Too bad he had to keep the images hidden. Rug business trips provided all the cover he needed for visiting other cities. The urges were becoming stronger. It was about time that he made a hunting trip to Myrtle Beach.

LIES ARE A TRAP, NOT A DECEPTION

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Filed under Action thrillers, Afghanistan, Books, class warfare, Conservative views, Intelligence & Politics, Spy novels

Tagged as arms and explosives, barry kelly, extreme measures, political correctness

by Barry Kelly | March 14, 2012 · 6:44 pm

Eight Decades of Insights – 8

I’ve noticed my ability to pontificate has increased with age. Since, at the same time, I believe I have some things to say, I’ll ignore this dangerous combination. Pushing on through the twin perils of giving birth to boring text and unproven assertions, I decided to use my new skills to probe the next decade. No matter where I begin, the probe hits the barrier of political polarization just under the surface. The sharp divide along class lines and ideology that has arisen with Obama’s reign is not as dangerous to our way of life as the fissures leading to the Civil War or the War Between the States. Nomenclature is the responsibility of the reader.

It is nowhere close. Calls for class warfare and the redistribution of wealth will not lead to a clash of arms. The more reasonable and largest segment of our political spectrum is the Center. Who are tired of the ideological cries that ‘the sky is falling’ from the extreme left and right wings. President Obama is not an evil entity. He is merely an inept man clinging to a discarded ideology. With different life experiences, he might have made a fair to middling President. So far he has not done irreparable harm. Any pragmatic experienced leader/manager can get us back on track for his replacement will have a great force to assist him or her govern in 2012 or 2016.

The Center, consisting of moderates and pragmatists, can rally all Americans in the name of national survival. The financial crisis will focus our attention on the need to drastically cut spending and balance the national budget, leading to a much smaller national government. The Center knows the lessons of history. Keynesian economics, that believes government spending, even of borrowed money, can stimulate the national economy has never worked. Not for FDR and not for Obama. Americans have always been willing to make sacrifices in the name of national security and the well-being of the next generation. No fear, in the next four to eight years, the threat from irresponsible spending and borrowing will be clear to all. Well, maybe the ideologues on the far left will still debate using their own facts. But they will truly be voices in the wilderness.

Along with fiscal responsibility, an overhaul of the tax budget is necessary. A tax code that is understandable, progressive in nature, and drastically reduces the over 40% who pay no income taxes will alleviate the impact of the strident calls for class warfare and the anti-business rhetoric emanating from the Administration. Term limits on Congress are necessary to improve their responsiveness to the people they represent. Three terms for a Senator and five for House members seems both fair and pragmatic.

The next decade will bring a crisis in national defense. Probably very early in the decade. Again the citizens will rally behind the need for a strong military. The conflict with Islam militants will not go away until moderate followers of Islam put their own house in order. Their past record does not lead to much hope. Again the Center knows that peace comes through strength. Respect is a stronger force for influence in world politics than striving to be liked. The dangers of a nuclear Iran, a rogue Pakistan, an unmistakable growing militarism in China, a probable increasing radicalization of Islam, especially in the Middle East and a democracy killing leadership in Russia will motivate us to make the sacrifices necessary to defend our country and our friends. These threats will clearly expose The UN for what is has become, a forum for discussion of popular causes. At times nice to have, but not worth the disproportionate share of American dollars.

The next decade will see the United States become a major supplier of oil and natural gas and their derivative products. We are moving that way now. As soon as the fossil fuel hating bureaucracy is changed for a less ideological and more pragmatic regime our production of fuel will jump ahead. At the same time responsible investment in alternative sources of energy will be market driven with seed money from the national budget when necessary.

The free wheeling days of the Federal Reserve will come to an end. The printing of money and the unnatural fixing of interest rates will require more than the deliberations of a group of experts meeting in secrecy. Another experiment that will run its course in the next ten years is the national control of education. It has not worked. The result has been a dumbing down of the educational system and the creation of the self-serving Teachers Union that has made a sham out of collective bargaining and failed to teach the nation’s children. The Department of Education will be abolished and replaced by a very small Presidential Advisory Council. The primary role of educating our children will be delegated to the States.

Two more important changes will occur. A centrist government and those who elected it, will wonder if the government having more union members than the private sector is a good thing. The government union members have no skin in the game and really no one with whom to conduct collective bargaining. Certainly the government bureaucrats on the other side of the table have no skin in the game. In the private sector where real collective bargaining takes place as long as the government stays out of it are moving toward having a real stake in the company they work for. That’s a good thing. My last look into the future is in the area of medical care. Any government elected by the Center has to take on medical care of the people. There are pragmatic solutions. Using the forces of the market place to the extent possible is a starting point. Any system that allows patients to deal with their doctors and to have a say in the cost of their treatment will have an impact on pricing.

Obviously you cannot do justice to the next decade in a thousand words. But we all need to think about this coming election and concentrate on the real issues at stake. If not now, it will get harder and more dangerous later. It is time to begin.

Thank you to those who have read this.

INSIGHTS FROM EIGHT DECADES #5

January is here and a new election experience faces all of us. What can we expect? All writers have biases. Mine is I used to be a Democrat and am now a Republican. The change is partly to age and changing values. The dramatically increasing influence of the Progressive Wing of the Democratic party also is a big factor in my bias. National Security issues are very important to me, having spent nearly all my working life playing a role in the Cold War. Two years as a Special Assistant to President Reagan made me more than a Reagan Democrat. So enough about my bias. First what can Republicans hope for: The Party will nominate the candidate that seems to be the most electable. Nothing is more important than the limiting of the incumbent to one term. Fiscal responsibility, a serious effort to decrease the national debt, a strong military, a smaller Federal Government that promotes an environment that stimulates growth and increases jobs, a simpler and fairer tax code, welfare and medical assistance delegated to the states,a President who respects the Constitutional bounds on his/her power, and a foreign policy that supports our friends and allies while earning respect for American power around the world. Those broad hopes seem to be appropriate to both parties and I think they are, but the rhetoric of the White House is beating a different drum.

The democratic drum of the Democratic Party leaders calls for a different kind of nation than I grew up in and served. I’m pretty good at understanding drum beats but I maybe a little off base here. For I hear a call to class warfare through the glorification of the middle class and the evil of the one percent. I also hear a cry for the systematic distribution of wealth in a quest for equality. The desire to increase the number of people on some sort of Federal assistance is prevalent. The shrinking of the military, both personnel and weapons budget, is a clear part of the message. The desire to protect citizens from all sorts of threats from our capitalist free market society is clear in past and pending regulations. Strongest of all is the belief that only government can solve today’s problems. What I distill from the total call of the drum is we must move to a European Socialist economy dependent on Keynesian monetary principles. Sorry, no thanks.