Category Archives: Intelligence & Politics

Donald Trump had a remarkable impact on the Republican Party and the country. Most likely, he won’t be president again. In fact, both he and we should honor his past contributions and move on. He was a remarkable problem-solver. I can’t think of a better project manager or negotiator who ever sat in the Oval Office.  But he was not a competent manager of the government.

The team he assembled to run America was weak. Most of them had their own agendas. Often, the agendas of his top team members did not include the president’s program. It is still hard to believe that he lost an election to Joe Biden. Not an easy thing to do. Just look back at the race Mr. Biden ran in the Democratic primary. 

Was the election for president free of fraud? No, of course not. We may have never had a national election that was free of fraud. But the president is the official  who has the power and responsibility for making sure our elections are as free of fraud as possible. Did his team of top law-and-order managers focus on that issue? Don’t think so. I believe many top Republicans thought Donald Trump should not have a second term, or that he couldn’t beat Biden who now also has control of the law-and-order organs of government. 

For the Republican Party to win the up coming presidential elections, they will need every Republican voter.

Let’s give Mr.Trump credit for making the Republican Party much more inclusive, for showing us we can be energy independent, and that a strong military is a necessary part of the peace-keeping process.

Some years ago, I stopped blogging to take care of my wife, who was in a struggle with Alzheimer’s. She died last year at home surrounded by people who loved her. I am now 91 and believe I still have a few things to say about current politics.

First, a short look at my qualifications before I tell you what I think is important politically in our great nation.

I have two political science degrees, one from Pitt and a master’s from Duke. I am a Korean War veteran and later spent two years in Vietnam with the CIA. I have lived in a monarchy, a military dictatorship, a socialist government, and Russia’s version of a social democracy. My work led to extensive travel throughout the world.

I retired from the CIA after 21 years of service. Then I worked several years in the private sector and spent two years as a Special Assistant to President Reagan with staff responsibilities for terrorism, covert action, counter-intelligence, narcotics, and intelligence collection.

I have written a few hundred blogs on the Obama and Trump years, as well as five action novels and two political books. These can all be found on my website and on my pages in Amazon.

My recent and yet to be written blogs will present a different approach to political activities in America. Thanks for reading.

-Barry Kelly

The leaders and fundraisers of both parties define themselves and each other in ideological terms, liberal or conservative. To play their game, you have to align yourself with either group and give money and time to the one you select. Then you are bombarded with endless requests for money to avoid the terrible results of the other party winning power. Arguing over which ideology will save the nation leads nowhere. Most Americans aren’t comfortable debating ideological issues.

We are a pragmatic people who are much more comfortable discussing issues. The media, big tech, labor unions, universities, and the American political elite love their world of endless ideological discussions. Why? Because they know shifting the discussions to issues makes it nearly impossible for them to control the outcome. But issues are what governments should be focused on.

You don’t have to be a member of either party to be interested in the price of gasoline at the pump, increases in property taxes, the rate of inflation, the cost of money, law and order on our streets, jobs for our youth, the cost of medical care, the protection of our borders, or the well-being of our national defense forces. We can all talk about those issues and dozens of others without being a Republican or a Democrat.

We are good people who can discuss issues without invoking the “ideological political speak” of political parties who are dividing our nation by promoting discussion of ideologic political points rather than day-to-day issues that can be discussed with friends and neighbors as we go about taking care of each other.

It is clear to all but the left wing of the Democratic Socialist Party that our nation is in the hands of a leadership that wants to destroy America, not build it stronger. How did that happen? Well it seems more than half of those who voted, voted for Joe Biden who has been trying to fill the vacancies created by our democratic process with people who come from a group of Americans that have never done anything significant and who will leave our government worse than they found it. The rule of law and the democratic process require, no demand, an honest voting process. Did that happen in the 2020 Presidential election. I think not, but we will probably never find convincing evidence.

The Republicans did not have the foresight to make sure the balloting process was honest and lacked the courage to fight in the courts for a full investigation. Certainly there were a number of questionable actions in key democratic States. Today I believe a significant number of Americans have doubts about the legality of the balloting in 2020.

The real problem is we the people get the government we deserve. There are enough lemmings in America who do not have a clue to what is really happening. These people don’t believe or don’t care about the counter-culture movement, the rewriting of history, the under handed activities of some big tech, social media censorship, the change in our once honorable media to being mere propaganda outlets for socialist talking points. These people seem able and comfortable in looking at the mess the Biden Administration has created and not even thinking that they are responsible. When your candidate wins you are responsible for their actions. For the most part it was clear the pseudo socialists were molded in the anti Trump movement. When Americans die in Afghanistan, struggle with high inflation, pay much higher taxes, allow our streets to be violent and dangerous, lie to the people about nearly every crisis, and believe this nation is not a place to be proud of, we need to tell them straight on it is their fault. They are responsible.

There are not many real options. Take the battle into the streets of all our towns and cities, fight a lackadaisical struggle in the courts, push hard to reform the balloting process for the 2024 election, impeach President Biden. There certainly are enough reasons for an impeachment process but not enough votes in the House to start one. Maybe the only real option is to win an over whelming majority of the votes in 2024 along with enough poll watchers in sight during voting and counting of the 2024 ballots.

I was never a big dollar donor to the Republican Party, but I was regular. Not anymore. President Trump was remaking the Republican Party into a populist/national party. I was and am very comfortable with that goal. The leadership of the House and Senate was not. President Trump was rattling too many fiefdoms. That annoyed the big money people. You know the people that brought us the “rust belt.” Unfortunately many of the Congressional leaders were regularly funded by big tech and the Wall Street gang.

Certainly the leaders of the House and Senate remained true to their traditional funders. McConnell in the Senate and McCarthy in the House gave lip service at best to the President while the Special Counsel witch hunt was going on, followed by the tortured first and second Pelosi impeachment process. Follow the money is still a good strategy when you want to know the facts.

The real insight into the leadership of the House and Senate occurred after it appeared that President Trump had lost, legally or illegally, his try for a second term to a man who should not have even been in the race. Both of these leaders jumped at the chance to blame Trump for the incident at the Capital Building on January 6th. The recent FBI report showed that was not true. But, it was too late. Trump was out and the profit at any cost crowd were back in power and pushing American manufacturing back into very unfavorable trade agreements. What happened to energy independence in America?

But back to the question is the Republican Party a vital part of the two party system? I think for now the two party system is gone. Any Democrat who takes the time to look into a political mirror will see an image of a socialist looking back at them. The clear Socialist goal is to make America a one party political system. “The Republicans don’t know what they are. How can they support a Republican Congressman like Tom Rice from South Carolina who voted with Nancy Pelosi to impeach a Republican President on clear bogus charges? He said it was a mistake. I’ll say it was a giant stupid mistake. He represents my district. But not I hope after the next election. But here is a clear case where the Republican Party should have disciplined him by removing him from the Party. No way. They don’t have the guts. Without courage you cannot have a winning Party.