Category Archives: democrats

by Barry Kelly | September 27, 2016 · 2:40 pm

The Professor and The Debate

The first Presidential debate of 2016 had just finished and the spin rooms were already active with talking heads. Professor Clark shut off the wide-screen TV that dominated his home office. He said, “It is a pleasure to have this class in my home for this historic debate. There is no question that this is the most important election period in my lifetime. There are serious issues at stake. Many have been postponed for years. The very direction of the nation is being decided. The kind of world you will live in for the rest of your lives is being debated now throughout the nation. To verge on the sensational for a moment, I don’t think it is a stretch to say the very existence of this unique nation could be a casualty of the election.

“I know it is late and the sleep time hard-working students get is precious, but I want to go around the room and get some one-liners from you. Alison, let’s start with you.”

Alison said, “Secretary Clinton stayed on message and showed very good debate discipline, but I don’t think she scored many points. Her poll numbers will remain relatively constant.”

“Robert, you’re next.”

“It’s hard to pick a clear winner. Trump missed several opportunities to score but he did as well as he needed to. The moderator was clearly helping Hillary and that will resonate with his followers.”

“Carlos, what’s your take?”

“I agree with Alison and Robert. The debate was a draw or close to it. Secretary Clinton had the worst hand, having to run on the direction Obama put this nation on when the people are screaming for change.”

“Katrisha, comments?”

“I saw the debate nearly the same as my colleagues, but was struck by the body language. Hillary was ‘smirky,’ stiff and her voice was too high-pitched. Trump showed anger and some petulance. He couldn’t get over his ‘counter-punching’ instincts. As a result, he let his opponent direct the substance of the debate.”

The Professor nodded at Paul and said, “Go.”

“I thought at a presidential debate even a moderator from NBC would play it fairly straight. It could have been worse, but his frequent interruptions of Trump, the selective fact checking and the avoiding of any questions on e-mails, illegal servers, BenGhazi, the Clinton Foundation and many others showed a clear network biases.”

“Barbara you’re on.”

“I was struck by the fact the contestants seemed to be unconsciously addressing different audiences. Hillary’s comments, I believe, were directed to the wonks and the Washington establishment. Trump seemed to be ignoring that audience and speaking to the people outside the handpicked inside audience. His pitch should have resonated with mainstream America. Especially the working people and those who are having difficult times just feeding and housing their families.”

“Edward, comment?”

“Yes. Irrespective of the judgments coming out of the spin rooms, the wonks and talking heads have been wrong about nearly everything associated with this campaign. And they have been wrong because they dislike the Republican candidate deep in their core. Trump is not of them, he doesn’t look like them. He doesn’t share their beliefs and perhaps worst of all, he is not an ideologically pure right-wing conservative Republican. The Conservative establishment class, including those in Congress and the feckless national security crowd, are giving, at best, very tepid support to the Trump campaign. The entire Bush crowd is an example of these political correct Brahmans.”

“Not exactly a one-liner but then the one-liners have been growing with each speaker. Alice, it is up to you to wrap this up.’

“I’ve enjoyed the comments and have to admit some of them surprised me. Indicating that while we all witnessed the debate, we saw different things. This is not a traditional presidential campaign. Maybe this is closer to a revolution than an election. Maybe, just maybe, in most countries these issues would now be being fought in the streets.”

“Excellent comments. This is a remarkable class. Go get some sleep and we will pick up these threads in our next class. Thank you.”

INSIGHTS 275: President Trump – What is the Risk?

These thoughts are for those of you who voted twice for Obama and are now in the Hillary Clinton camp.

After eight years of the progressive rule of Obama, what does your country look like? Have you noticed transparency of government operations never happened? The Obama administration can’t seem to tell the truth about issues as important as unemployment figures. Can you believe from what you see that the unemployment number is 5.5 percent? I hope not. Any accurate honest accounting would put the unemployment number at near 15 percent. If you drop all the spin and count people who have dropped out of the workforce because they have given up on finding a job, the figure would be much more accurate.

Have you noticed that the moderate centrist Democratic Party is gone? It has been taken over by the progressives, who will never give it back. The real goal of the progressives is to turn American politics into a one-party system where the government controls the economy and moves the United States into some form of an international world order.

Have you noticed that American economic, moral and military power has been greatly reduced from pre-Obama days? American warplanes have run out of the spare parts needed to keep our ancient planes operating and new ones are not being built. Our military manpower (male and female) is now near or below pre-World War II levels. Never has peace come from weakness, yet the progressive party of Obama and Clinton is trying the historical failed policy of peace through appeasement again. Part of the result is tragically apparent in the Middle East where the human costs of Obama’s failure to act is approaching world war levels and Clinton is promising more of the same.

Have you noticed the ‘Rule of Law’ no longer applies to government wrongdoing? No one or organization important to the progressives is ever held accountable. The Justice Department under Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch has been politicized beyond anything we have ever seen. The Watergate Nixon affair that we all thought was so bad now seems like an everyday executive action.

Have you noticed the national debt has doubled under the Obama administration and that the economy is stagnating even after unprecedented stimulus funds were poured into the economy? Wall Street and its investor class has prospered while Main Street businesses have suffered. The Clintons and their questionable foundation have grown rich. The Justice Department, reportedly, has prevented the FBI from investigating corruption and conflict of interest issues regarding the financial affairs of the Clinton Foundation.

Have you noticed nothing in the progressives’ management of the nation seems to have worked? The IRS, VA, EPA, DOJ, education, foreign policy, the Pentagon, intelligence gathering and analysis and immigration. Just pick an area. The result will be the same. The nation needs real changes. A lot of crockery needs to be broken. I believe Mr. Trump can do that. He has the ego and I hope the expertise to solve many of our problems. He’s not a perfect candidate and he needs to demonstrate a higher level of discipline and analysis. But the risk of a Trump Administration is far less than four or eight more years of Obama through Hillary. I know where that will lead and do not want to go there under any circumstances.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Clinton, Conservative views, democrats, Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, political solutions, Progressives, trump

Tagged as 2016, Clinton, hillary, Obama, presidential election, trump

by Barry Kelly | June 14, 2016 · 1:03 pm

INSIGHTS 263 THE CLINTON BAGGAGE IS STILL WITH HER

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.

This essay was first published on April 4, 2015. The title has been changed. The text is nearly word for word.

INSIGHTS 262 TRUMP IS NO RACIST

Saying stupid things does not make you a racist. The way you live your life makes it clear if you are a racist or not. Although the Speaker of the House used the word in a reference to Mr. Trump’s stupid comments about an American judge with a Mexican heritage. Stupid undisciplined comments do not make you a racist, no matter how hard the left-wing media tries.

They do show, however, that Mr. Trump doesn’t seem to realize he is now the prime actor on the big stage. No one wants to hear about Trump University or how some judge is treating Mr. Trump unfairly. The subject is trivial and the unfair comments sound like whining. When he focuses on the trivia of his personal life, he is neglecting the millions of people who support him. They want to hear him talk about fixing America. Not about the tale of Trump University. Leave that to his lawyers and his very competent family. Let’s hope we never hear him talk about Trump University again. Win, lose or draw. We just don’t care.

Get on message about “Making America Great Again.” Mr. Trump has some great people around him. He needs to listen to them. He needs them. He has huge gaps in what we expect a presidential candidate to know and understand. The Nation needs his leadership now. The Progressive/Socialist campaign of President Obama has done extensive damage to our economy, national security, medical care and our traditional world leadership role. Our candidate for President needs to focus on the big picture and get on with saving America.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, democrats, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, Politics, Republicans, trump

Tagged as Progressive, socialism, transformation

by Barry Kelly | May 6, 2016 · 3:22 pm

INSIGHTS 259 ENOUGH OF THE GOP PURISTS

How much of this whining do we have to hear from the ideological purists of the Republican establishment? They had their chances and failed every time. They supported two flawed candidates, McCain and Romney. We gave them control of the Senate and House and they failed again. Now the Bushes, Romney, George Wills, the National Review and Weekly Standard pundits, Paul Ryan in his Speaker of the House position, McConnell as the Majority Leader in the Senate and failed presidential candidate Senator Graham are vowing they cannot support or vote for Mr. Trump. In the long-term who cares about them but in the short run to the elections, they should grow up and do what is good for America. That is not a hard choice if they can get over their self-appointed political guardianship of intellectual conservatism and focus on what the nation so desperately needs.

Clearly the Obama Administration will leave the nation with several critical areas that need immediate bipartisan attention. The ideological conservative purists need to focus on what is good for America and not solely on worshiping at the altar of Conservatism. These areas need a pragmatic approach consistent with the Constitution and the rule of law:

Re-establish the co-equal branches of government with the checks and balances spelled out in the Constitution;

Control America’s national borders;

Rebuild our military force levels and weapon systems;

Replace OBAMACARE;

Make American companies competitive by reducing taxation and regulation by Executive Departments and Agencies;

As the national economy grows, pay down the debt and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure;

Shift responsibilities such as education and healthcare back to the States; and

Apply common sense to the size and scope of the Federal Government.

GOP leaders get over your purist problems and get on with fixing problems. No more ‘leading from behind’ or the ‘issue is never the issue.’ You are being paid by the people to make their lives safer and better, not to enforce your own brand of ideology of government. Get with the program. Take on the issues. You may not get another chance. Socialist and Progressive controlled governments do not give second chances.