Category Archives: Obama

by Barry Kelly | July 3, 2015 · 7:38 am

INSIGHTS 216 –ADVISOR/ NOT THE ADVICE THE PRESIDENT WANTED

The Advisor picked up where he was the last time the president came down to his underground chambers. He was surprised the president was back and wanted him to continue with his discussion of the advice he would offer to the person who succeeded him next year. He had to give the man full credit for coming back for more. They were settled at the conference table. The Advisor said, “Should I continue?”

“Yes. You’ve listened to my defense of my policies over the years, I can put up with some more of your ideas, however outdated and inappropriate for the modern era of internationalism and governments who serve to give the people what they want and deserve. It’s time the ‘haves’ paid their fair share. But go on, please; this is your time.”

“When you were elected, you inherited a very bad economic problem largely brought on by the so-called housing bubble. The housing bubble was directly caused by government intervention in the housing financial market in the form of government loan guarantee agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These two government agencies pushed bad loans into the housing loan business that eventually caused a recession. This was not totally a Democrat Party error. The Republican president lost or misplaced his veto pen. The resulting response was a financial policy that inhibited economic growth. Current federal regulations, the closing of local banks, and taxation levels are preventing the growth of small businesses. Dodd Frank is a terrible bill and needs to be phased out. It is causing local banks to close and leaving no place for small businesses to get loans. The Federal Reserve system has seen its time. It should be in an advisory role, not an executive role.

“America’s educational system is getting worse, not better. The people to blame are those people who have run our educational system for the last several decades. The national government has no business controlling education. They have made a mess out of the system that is in the hands of an entrenched union that no longer puts our children first. Their first priority is the growth and power of the union and the well-being of all teachers regardless of their ability. Let the states and local governments be responsible for educating their citizens and make school choice a reality for all parents.

“Civilian control of the military is a cherished part of our Republic but no president should be permitted to destroy the force that defends us all without a strong national debate. Cutting back our military to fit some anti-colonialist ideology and putting White House staff in control of the details of military operations is dangerous and has failed every administration that has tried it. Civilian control does not mean civilian management of military tactics.

“The conduct of foreign affairs requires a strong national negotiating team, led by a strong, respected president. Today, we don’t have negotiations. We have a system of gradual appeasement. Serious national security issues from the Middle East to Russia to China are being ignored. Foreign nations, including our allies, have no respect for our word. Our Iranian policy is understandable only from the Iranian side. They get everything they want, including Iraq, and all we get are empty promises. Only a strong, involved president working for American interests can deliver foreign policy agreements that provide security to the nation.”

The president stared hard at the Advisor. “Are you going to send me a strong letter as well?”

“Not yet, I haven’t finished.”

“Never mind. Enough! I’m grateful you are kept down here in this hole. You would be a helluva critic if allowed out. Goodnight. I will be back to allow you to finish.”

The above is a fictional account of the writing of a legendary but fictional advisor.

“ISIS: Quiet Justice,” a new Jack Brandon novel by Barry Kelly dealing with ISIS in America, is now available nationwide from your local book store. This is the fifth novel in the “Justice”series. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.

INSIGHTS 215 — THE ADVISOR’S TURN

As soon as the president came in, the Advisor could tell he had a surprise planned. Seated at the table with his customary cigarette, the president said, “The last time I was here, I told you my behind-the-scenes plan for America. I could tell it bothered you. Today, I’m going to give you the floor. I want to hear what you think the next president should do.”

The Advisor smiled a knowing smile. He had suspected that eventually the president would give him the floor. The president is a man who likes to talk, and to hear himself talk, but politics over time had taught him the importance of listening, too. The Advisor folded his hands together and placed them on the table in front of him and took a breath before speaking.

“If the next president is from the progressive wing of the Democratic party, he or she will basically follow in your footsteps no matter what counsel I — or anyone else — provide. So let me talk about what I expect from a conservative president, should he win the next election.

“Firstly, I would not advise him or her to abandon health care. The nation’s citizens need affordable and excellent medical care and that means restoring the doctor/patient relationship without government control or constant regulation. Let the states be the government that intrudes, if necessary, into the doctor/patient relationship. If the motive for health care regulation is to improve care and reduce costs instead of bringing one-seventh of the economy under government control, popular bi-partisan pieces of legislation are possible. Nothing comprehensive. One piece at a time. When that piece starts working, add another piece. Allow insurance companies to compete across state lines. Limit tort proceedings. Patients and physicians are more important to national health than trial lawyers.

“Then onto energy. A broad energy policy can come from the government. But not management or the selection of what kind of energy is developed. This is a clear case for letting the free market decide. Large parts of the EPA and the Department of Energy need to be abolished. They are the enemies of energy self-sufficiency. We now have the energy resources and reserves to be the world’s primary producer of oil, natural gas, and gasoline. The development of these resources is clearly in our national interest and will allow America to use its resources to ensure world peace. With the support of both parties, America can have economic growth and prosperity for its citizens without endangering the environment.

“Immigration policy emanating from the federal government should be broad and general in nature. A couple of decades of presidential promises to secure our southern border have only been rhetoric. It is time the border is secured. After that we can have incremental legislation to establish a fair process for everyone who desires to come here. I feel strongly that they must learn English and American history. Let the legislature debate the process for dealing with illegal residents who are here now and have been for some years. Whatever the outcome it must be the result of bipartisan legislation. Not the court which is acting like a non-elected legislature of nine people or a presidential directive using executive powers not granted to the executive by the Constitution.

“I see you are looking at your watch. It might be better to break now and continue later with the rest of my recommendations to your successor.”

“Yes, I agree. There is also a limit to how much of this traditional version of America’s role I can handle in one sitting.” The president huffed a puff of smoke from his last drag and smashed out his cigarette, not letting the door hit him on the way out.

The above is a fictional account of the writing of a legendary but fictional Advisor.

“ISIS: Quiet Justice,” a new Jack Brandon novel by Barry Kelly dealing with ISIS in America, is now available nationwide from your local book store, This is the fifth novel in the “Justice”series. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.

1 Comment

Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, oil, political solutions

by Barry Kelly | June 16, 2015 · 7:01 am

INSIGHTS 212 — THE ADVISOR AND THE PRESIDENT’S “HIDDEN’ LEGACY

Advisor's vault door

The Advisor wasn’t pleased with the way The Council controlled and published his essays. They took far too much time to publish them and many had been censored or slightly rewritten. At times, they said, his essays were so unique that people would wonder about the sources of the essays. The title under which The Council published his essays had grown upon him. EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS wasn’t bad and the web page was very well done. It came right up when he Googled it. The pages of the website made it sound as if a group of elderly scholars sitting around a gentleman’s club had pooled their collective wisdom and published it for the benefit of the American people. The images used called up the deep roots of American history and their fierce rallying around the banner of freedom. Actually, it was better than he could have done. If only they weren’t so fearful and bureaucratic.

He busied himself with tidying up and getting ready for the president’s sudden notice that he would come down after ten o’clock tonight. At ten he heard the coffee finish brewing and a few minutes later his screen showed the president and Chris, his Secret Service escort, coming down the subterranean passageway. Like most people, the president was a creature of habit. He always sat in the same chair, pulled the ashtray a bit closer, and lit his cigarette with the same series of steps, the tapping of the pack to get a single cigarette to pop out of the pack, a few quick taps of the cigarette’s tobacco end, a strike of the wooden matches he liked to use, and the deep satisfied inhale of the blessed nicotine-filled smoke. Only then was he prepared to talk.

“Tonight, I want to go over my accomplishments going into my last phase of the presidency. I know nothing I say will leak out of here, unlike my above-ground world where everyone is thinking ‘spin and leak.’ My first goal was to seize as much of the economy as I could from the private sector and bring it under the control of the central government. The first big move was the Affordable Care Act where I brought nearly 7 or 8 percent of the economy under government control. I chose Cabinet officers who would follow my lead without question and begin to craft and disseminated a deluge of regulations to destroy capitalism and the free market. Nothing as big as my health care move but perhaps more effective due to the incremental steps of agencies like the EPA, Treasury, the IRS, and Energy.

“Most of my moves went unnoticed by most but they have been very effective in inhibiting national energy production. The constant delay of the Keystone Pipeline, even against the wishes of organized labor, has sent a clear message. Now we have to kill the recent surge of natural gas and oil, through fracking and drilling in privately owned land. I don’t want the United States to become energy self-sufficient. Nor do I want to use America’s potential to be a major exporter of natural gas, gasoline or crude oil be used to further American nationalistic foreign policy objectives. I want to end Western domination and change the existing world order. Iran and Russia are pleased and the Sunni old world order is very unhappy. Good!

“My efforts to further spread America’s wealth through international agreements on climate change and international trade agreements needs more pushing but they are progressing. Both of these measures will enhance the strength of the United Nations and world law. I will continue in the next year to support Iran, China, Russia, and Cuba in ways that level the world playing field and re-distribute wealth.

“The last, large, and most important step in diminishing America’s power to project selfish nationalistic goals is still incomplete. Even though I have severely weakened the American military, it is still far too strong. In what’s left of my tenure, I will continue to weaken America’s military so that they cannot do anymore evil in the world.

“You have been very quiet. Any comments?”

“No, Mr. President. I believe you are aware that your goals are unique for an American president in our history.”

“Yes, I am and am proud to be doing what so many have neglected. I’ll be happy to discuss this with you next week. Now I have to go.”

“Goodnight, Mr. President.”

The above is a fictional account of the writing of a legendary but fictional Advisor.

INSIGHTS 211 — THE ADVISOR’S LETTER TO AMERICANS

The Advisor turned away from his multi-screen display of world events in disgust. It was hard to watch the fall of American prestige and respect in all quarters of the world.

Like it for not, Mr. President, he thought, the American people expect you to be a leader. Leading from behind is only a fiction that obscures the fact nothing is being done, even from behind. What world power, in history, has ever so willingly given up a leadership role? The world may not have always liked the way we used our power, but the vast majority of nations recognized the world was safer when America was willing to be the the policeman when the need was dire.

There is also no leadership in domestic America. Look at the disgrace of the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore. The White House and the Justice Department led the racist riots by both their actions and rhetoric. The only sane thing for individual policemen to do is to avoid aggressive enforcement of the law. To stay out of questionable areas. To not take risks. It is not a matter of teaching people a lesson, it is a matter of the survival of every policeman and his or her job. Who would be willing to take real risks under national, state, and city admininstrations that pander to the mobs and professional race mongers?

Still disgusted, the Advisor turned off his screens that displayed the news and got up from his chair, pacing around his room.

On the foreign scene, what soldier is willing to go to war for a commander-in-chief who not only doesn’t have a bit of military experience but who actually despises the American military and is doing his best to destroy its former effectiveness while he tells lies about his successes? Iran, Russia, the Middle East, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iraq, and Syria have all profited by a feckless exercise of appeasement diplomacy conducted by emissaries who were and are ideally suited to enthusiastically play their assigned feckless appeasement diplomacy role on the world scene. How dumb can they be? A beginner’s understanding of history just before World War II clearly shows appeasement diplomacy leads to war not peace. To make matters worse, most of our once-respected media ignores the truth and supports the slide of American power and respect in the world. Where are the cries for things like justice, peace, truth, and honest leadership instead of a series of big lies told over and over?

Even from my traditional position of being an unbiased advisor to the president, I can not tell him these truths for he already knows them. Our president counts what I call failures as successes. In historical perspective, he is a destroyer not a builder. And from this strange ideology he is leading the charge to transform America. The real problem is not the president. He told us what he was going to do. The problem is the people who voted for him not once, but twice, and still think he and his former Secretary of State are and will be the best for the nation. As a nation and a civilization we are at a tipping point. If we tip much further it will be impossible to stop the decline. When the takers outnumber the givers, the odds are not good.

With nothing else to do, the Advisor decided to make a fresh pot of coffee. He wasn’t sleeping much these days, anyway.

The above is a fictional account of the writing of a legendary but fictional Advisor.

1 Comment

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

Tagged as America, government, Obama, politics, world affairs, world news

by Barry Kelly | May 27, 2015 · 7:48 am

INSIGHTS 208 — THE ADVISOR CORRECTS A FALSE NARRATIVE

During one of the long intervals between presidential visits to The Advisor’s underground office, the Advisor thought to himself: if no one else will get history right and correct the false narratives circulating from the White House and the liberal press, my journals and my Facebook account will contain a clear report of what was happening during my term as the Advisor.

The Bush regime won the war but paved the way for a failed Iraqi government when they destroyed the Iraqi army and the Bath party of Saddam Hussein. None of the existing infrastructure every government needs was left. To make matters worse, the Advisor thought, shaking his head, the Bush administration failed to understand a Shiite/al-Maliki government would never be a check to the Shiite nation of Iran. Instead, the Iranians ended up owning Maliki who preceded to further weaken the Sunnis and the Kurds. For all the American blood and treasure the Bush administration spent in Iraq, little was left for Obama to work with, especially given his primary motive to get out of Iraq as quickly as possible. I doubt President Obama, or either of his inept secretaries of state, ever saw the real geo-political problem a Maliki government would cause. You would think that President Obama, who leans hard in the direction of supporting Sunni Muslims, would have recognized the growth and consequences of Shiite power in Iraq. “Some would argue that he didn’t care about Iraq, his sights were set on using Iran to transform the traditional world order in the Middle East,” he said aloud to no one. “And I am one of them.”

The Advisor sat down at his desk and continued musing. You didn’t need timely intelligence, which Obama claims he never received, to see the Sunni Islamic radicals that joined the rebellion against Syrian Shiite President Assad could easily cross the border into Sunni areas of Iraq. The Sunni tribes alienated by Maliki were ready to provide support in the form of manpower, logistics, weapons, and money. Borders mean nothing if they are not defended.

The result of the ISIS invasion of Iraq is that tribal and religious areas no longer follow the lines drawn by western diplomats after World War I. All remnants of the Shiite/Maliki government are being forced to fall back into Shiite populated areas, primarily south of Baghdad. A realistic map of Iraq will soon show Sunniland, Kurdistan and Shiiteland. The Sunnis and the Kurds will never go back into a centralized Shiite-run government. That failed experiment is over. Only more American blood and treasure could delay the collapse of Iraq, and for what? Our government needs to stop believing an Iraqi centralized government is possible. It is not.

Our policy should be to support the Kurds with modern weapons and monetary aid until their own fighters get properly equipped and to persuade the outside Sunni world to help bring the ISIS under some restraint. In the meantime, use unfettered air power and required boots-on-the-ground to break the advance of ISIS and stop their atrocities against the Christians and other religious groups ISIS is now slaughtering. Some massive evacuations of endangered refugees may be necessary. All because two administrations failed to see the Middle East as it is. Hawks and doves are equally to blame.

With this president’s commitment to Iran. I don’t believe he will allow his administration to support the Kurds or Sunnis in Iraq. They certainly have not sent needed supplies to the Kurds despite their statements to the contrary.

The Advisor sat in silence for a few moments before picking up his pen and putting his thoughts down on a fresh page in his journal.

The above is a fictional account of the writing of a legendary but fictional Advisor.

“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.This is the fifth novel in the “Justice”series. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.