Category Archives: Conservative views

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

INSIGHTS 199 — A WORD TO LIBERALS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

INSIGHTS 198 — BRANDON NOVELS ARE NOT JUST GOOD STORIES

Since the beginning of the craft of storytelling, fictional situations have been used to describe subjects that were forbidden, too sensitive for plain talk, extremely complex, or buried in boring detail. To explain the message, the story has to capture the audience with suspense, mystery, intrigue, romance, and exciting action by attractive characters. The listeners can imagine themselves acting out some of the story. The author works to develop a captivating story that people will want to read and talk about. That is my top priority. But I also want these stories to give the readers a deeper understanding of issues that may invade their world.

My first novel, Justice Beyond Law, shows how a renegade KGB officer uses an abandoned network of KGB agents that was infiltrated into America years ago. The methods, Yuri, the renegade KGB officer, uses to turn his network into a profit-making enterprise and to manage his diverse network with agents of different skills is more than plausible. The methods he uses strain the traditional law-and-order approach to terrorism.

The second novel, Justice Without Mercy, shows the process an extremist Muslim group like al-Qaeda might use to set up a series of terrorist acts in America to weaken the resolve of the people and lessen their trust in government to protect them. The plot in this novel is more probable than most people believe. Traditional law-and-order process is not capable of dealing with the fast-moving action of terrorism in the homeland. The law-and-order process pushed by the Obama administration, particularly by the attorney general, is more political than an effective counter-terrorist approach. There is a war brought by Islamic jihadists against us. It needs to be fought with a similar approach. Foreign jihadists don’t qualify for the protections of our constitution.

The third Brandon novel, Shades of Justice, deals with human trafficking that can be a profit-making business both for terrorist organizations and criminals. Readers of this novel will see how simple it is to set up a human trafficking business in nearly any large city. They will also come away with an understanding of how the traffickers operate their business from the spotting and selection of targets to the capture, movement, holding and marketing of the victims. The ‘good guys and gals’ in this novel understand and attack all aspects of the human trafficking process. As you read this, note the challenge human trafficking poses to traditional law-and-order forces.

The fourth Brandon novel, Run to Freedom, is the prequel to the Jack Brandon adventure series. In this story I rely heavily upon my knowledge of the old USSR and its KGB intelligence apparatus. The story starts in 1920 in Siberia, with a little-known deployment of American troops just as WWI was wrapping up. In this novel the readers will travel from Russia, to Poland, to Canada and several cities in America as Peter Brandon, Jack’s father, tries to escape the KGB in America. The forces the KGB deploys in America to capture or kill Peter were and are entirely within the capabilities of Russian intelligence in 1970s America, as are the methods Peter uses to escape the dragnet.

The fifth novel, ISIS Quiet Justice, is to my knowledge the first novel using ISIS attacks in America as the central plot. The story shows the difficulty law-and-order forces have in fighting terrorism.

The blurb on the back cover of ISIS Quiet Justice reads:

ISIS is here!

Jack Brandon is back in the nick of time!

Follow Jack and his growing team as they join with the CIA to take down ISIS terrorists in Jacksonville, Florida; Minneapolis; Charleston, South Carolina; and on the terrorists’ own turf in Fallujah.

This latest adventure in the Jack Brandon series pits Jack’s wits against those of a terrorist known as The Fist of Islam, who has been converting U.S. citizens into warriors for Islam. Can Jack’s knowledge, planning, and execution skills save the day — and the nation — once again?

All of the Jack Brandon novels have been reviewed by the CIA to prevent the disclosure of classified information.

ISIS Quiet Justice is available on Amazon now as a paperback or an ebook, as are the rest of the Jack Brandon novels. The first three are available as a trilogy.

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Filed under Action thrillers, Barry Kelly, Books, Conservative views, Intelligence & Politics, Spy novels, Terrorism

by Barry Kelly | April 4, 2015 · 7:24 am

INSIGHTS 197 — HILLARY-THE DISAPPEARING CANDIDATE

cbsnews.com

The darling of the progressive left of the Democratic Party is fast losing her appeal. A bit of pragmatism is settling into the progressives. To complete the socialization of America by destroying its economy and military power to make this nation an average member of the world order with a one-party system of government, they need to capture the White House in 2016. If they don’t, the progress toward socialism made by Obama will be wiped out by a party of mainstream Americans. I believe they are increasingly coming to the belief that Hillary cannot win.

She just has too much baggage and few to zero accomplishments. She is not even a good campaigner. Her speeches are mind-numbing. Let’s look at the balance sheet of advantages and disadvantages of Hillary Clinton. Beyond name recognition, I cannot point out any other asset besides, of course, her relationship with Wall Street. On the bad baggage side, she lost a primary to a first-term senator whose only accomplishment was that he could flawlessly deliver a speech as long as it was printed on a teleprompter. Barack Obama outsmarted the Clinton’s at every turn. He knew she was a poor campaigner.

As Secretary of State I cannot think of a single accomplishment of hers beyond accumulating more frequent flyer miles than any of her predecessors. Our relationships with Russia, Sunni Arabs, China, Israel, NATO nations are all less effective now than when she took office. During her service as Secretary of State she acted as if she was above the law and government rules and procedures.

Perhaps the worst was the tragedy of Benghazi. She knowingly lied to the surviving families of the dead Americans at Andrews Air Force Base as their loved ones were arriving in flag-draped coffins from Libya. She knew they died in an attack by terrorists and that she had denied the repeated requests of the State Department personnel in Benghazi to improve their security. Instead, she blamed the attack on an offensive video and promised to bring the responsible film producer to justice. He was punished but not in the name of justice. Of all the things I have seen in government, this is the most despicable of all.

There is no end to the damage Hillary can cause. She can’t even leave government employment without breaking more laws with her incredible disdain for the use of government communications channels for all official communications. It is not only the need to maintain government records but also the protection of classified information that is ignored by the use of a private server in your own home. If anything, Hillary’s government operations are even less transparent than the president’s.

But she won’t be thrown under the bus for these failings but for the growing awareness that she will be a loser. The progressives will draft someone else before the convention.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/suspense novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an e-book, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Insights: Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” is now published and available in paperback at $9.95 and on nook and kindle at $3.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. “ISIS Quiet Justice,” a new Jack Brandon novel dealing with ISIS in America, will be out in early April.

INSIGHTS 196 — CONSISTENTLY DESTRUCTIVE

If it is consistency you value in a president, Obama is your man. He hasn’t changed his goals or his policies to reach those goals since he was elected twice by an electorate desperately wanting change.

We got change. Only, it was change the left-wing progressives wanted, a very vocal group. A very high percentage of journalists, editors, and publishers welcome Obama’s transformation of America. When you add the Teachers’ Union, university professors, and Hollywood’s entertainers to the power of the press, it is no wonder so many Americans wonder what is happening. What is actually happening is so far outside the American experience that those of us who try to explain the goals of radical progressivism seem like right-wing conspiracy nuts.

How is it possible that a president who handily won two national elections is dedicated to destroying the America he took an oath to protect? By any of my standards, the nation is weaker economically and militarily and more divided than it was before anyone ever heard of Barack Obama. None of the problems that need fixing have been addressed by President Obama. They are not part of his agenda. He uses the issues of immigration, health care, welfare reform, taxation, military strategy, education, racism, jobs, energy development, and international affairs to destroy domestic or foreign opposition, increase government control of all aspects of our economy and way of life. He doesn’t seek to problem-solve. He only wants to move forward with the development of socialism in America under the control of a progressive elite.

There is no other way to explain his actions. It is clear to me that he has corrupted the civil service of all government agencies to support his socialist agenda. Energy is a perfect example. He has done and is doing everything he can to hamper the development of natural gas and oil production in the United States. He mouths the words of national self-sufficiency in energy but uses the EPA and other agencies to block and delay efforts by the private sector (capitalism) to produce and export energy.

The Keystone Pipeline gave him a chance to create jobs, improve national self-sufficiency in energy, help our Canadian neighbors, reduce China’s control and stockpiling of energy, and improve the safety of transporting oil by ships, trains, and trucks. Even most radical environmentalists admit pipelines are safer than ships, trains, or trucks in the transportation of oil. The truth, I believe, is that our president does not want America to be energy self-sufficient. He wants to weaken our economy and our military by reducing our forces to pre-WWII levels and forcing us to rely on the United Nations to establish a new world order. You need to look no further than look at the president’s Iranian policy.

He has no intentions of bringing Congress into the agreement he is begging Iran to sign. President Obama will ignore the Senate’s Constitutional right to ratify an Iranian nuclear agreement. Instead, he will display his one-world ideology by taking any agreement to the UN. By the way, what the president is calling an agreement is, in fact, a treaty that must be ratified by the Senate. Whatever is good for the pre-Obama America, either domestically or internationally, he will remain consistent in his drive to move the country toward socialism and the traditional one-party rule. There will be no problem solving. But he will continue to befuddle Republican leaders. That is also a consistent part of his imperial presidency.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/suspense novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an e-book, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Insights: Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” is now published and available in paperback at $9.95 and on nook and kindle at $3.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. “ISIS: Quiet Justice,” a new Jack Brandon novel dealing with ISIS in America, will be out in early April.

INSIGHTS 195 — PICKING A CANDIDATE

Picking a candidate to replace President Obama should be easy. Just about anyone would be an improvement if they are a moderate Democrat or a small government Republican. At this point I like Governor Scott Walker and former democratic senator Jim Webb. They, along with some other candidates, share many of my list of what America needs after Obama.

My list is simple:

REDUCE THE SIZE AND SCOPE OF GOVERNMENT;
ENCOURAGE THE PRIVATE SECTOR TO GROW AND CREATE EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES;
BUILD THE PIPELINE;
REDO THE TAX CODE;
RE-ESTABLISH OUR FORMER MILITARY POWER, INCLUDING NATO;
RECOGNIZE IRAN AND PUTIN AS BEING REAL THREATS TO WORLD PEACE;
CONDUCT A REAL WAR ON ISLAMIC RADICAL JIHADISTS;
STAND WITH OUR SUNNI ARAB ALLIES, KURDS, AND ISRAEL IN THE MIDDLE EAST;
CANCEL MOST OF OBAMA’S EXECUTIVE ORDERS AND AGENCY-ISSUED REGULATIONS;
REPLACE MOST OF OBAMACARE WITH A PRIVATE SECTOR PATIENT/DOCTOR PLAN;
ACHIEVE A BALANCED BUDGET PROCESS IN FOUR YEARS;
BUILD BACK CITIZENS’ TRUST IN GOVERNMENT;
SPEAK THE TRUTH TO THE PEOPLE;
TAKE CARE OF OUR VETERANS; AND
NEVER USE THE FOLLOWING WORDS OR PHRASES: FAIR SHARE, SAVE THE MIDDLE CLASS, LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD, A NATION OF COWARDS ABOUT RACE, TRANSFORM AMERICA, EVERYONE PAYING A FAIR SHARE, CARBON TAX, WORKPLACE VIOLENCE, WAR ON COAL, DANGERS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, LEAD FROM BEHIND, DEPEND ON THE U.N., WAR ON WOMEN, AND I DID, MY ADMINISTRATION, I HAVE A PEN AND PHONE.

Use this list to evaluate your candidate and see how they score. In a coming blog I will talk about some individual candidates.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/suspense novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an e-book, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Insights: Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” is now published and available in paperback at $9.95 and on nook and kindle at $3.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. “ISIS,” a new Jack Brandon novel dealing with ISIS in America, will be out in March or early April.