Category Archives: Eight Decades of Insights

by | August 5, 2014 · 7:34 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 136

IMMIGRATION ISSUE

The president is not concentrating on fixing the border. He is focused on the border/immigration issue.

Obama doesn’t care one bit about the plight of the people on either side of the border. But the issue is wonderful. He is using it to further marginalize the Republican Party: “They don’t care about Hispanics, not even the the little helpless children.” To find a parallel exploitation of children, you have to go back to the time of the Crusades when children were rounded up and led on a disastrous journey to the Holy Land. I’m not sure anyone knows or understands the political reasons for the journey of children to Palestine, but you can be sure there were benefits to some organization and that the issue was twisted and lived longer than the children.

Back to our southern border. Does anyone doubt that the president would close the border if it was in the interest of progressives? But he knows that

alankraft.me

alankraft.me

closing the border would close the issue and that is not an option. The immigration issue is too important to the progressive mission of destroying their conservative opposition to have it fixed. The solution is not hard and there are enough bi-partisan supporters to pass a decent and effective immigration bill. All conservatives and many non-progressive liberals agree closing the border is a critical part of any solution. There are a few conservative hold outs, but America is not going to deport millions of people living here now. Stop the flow across the border, issue temporary work permits when it is in our interest, and enforce the law that future immigrants wait their turn for legal entry. Anyone crossing after a fixed date is immediately deported. Anyone staying here beyond the limits of their work permit or visa gets deported.

That doesn’t sound hard and it isn’t until you realize that President Obama will continue to cause chaos in the border region to detract attention from his other problems. The potential gains of causing border chaos to his progressive agenda are huge.

  • (1) Convince Hispanic voters the Progressive, formerly Democratic Party,  is their best bet;
  • (2) Increase the number of Hispanic voters;
  • (3) make the unemployment problem worse so people will accept his socialistic solutions; and
  • (4) weaken the power of traditional influence in American so his phone and pen can finish with the transforming of America.

Only then will he focus on closing the borders, this time to keep people in his “paradise” of socialism.

Still have doubts? Read my book “INSIGHTS: Transforming of America — Is This What We Fought For?” which is free on Kindle for a limited time.

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by | August 4, 2014 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 135

OBAMA’S FOREIGN  POLICY

We all know our president does not like the tedious nature of foreign entanglements but by education and experience he is not prepared for working on the world stage. Maybe that’s why he is so eager to turn to the United Nations to handle problems our previous presidents, with one exception, understood and handled in house.

beforeitsnews.com

beforeitsnews.com

President Obama’s intellectual mentor, Mr. Saul Alinsky, wrote a brilliant guide for progressives (socialists and far left liberals) to gain power. Unfortunately, Mr. Alinsky never had any experience running a government. So even after the president is well on his way to seizing power, he is not equipped to use it to solve America’s foreign and domestic problems. He continues to use all issues as a means to destroy his opposition, the Republican Party. And that is Obama’s weakness. He doesn’t know how to use or keep power. Unfortunately for the nation, the Republican Party is not worth the title of the opposition party.

The president has not been helped by his two secretaries of state. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry are also clueless when it comes to solving intricate foreign policy issues. I have long been a student of foreign affairs. It is very hard to point to anything those two hapless secretaries of state have accomplished except to compete for leaving the heaviest jet engine carbon trail of any previous and hopefully future secretary of state. Their responses to any foreign affairs issue facing the president have been limited to causing chaos and confusion. The world is in worse shape than any time since WWII. Korea and Vietnam were not nearly the threat to world stability as current Russia, China, Iran, the Islamic Caliphate or the current conflict between Hamas and Israel.

The last troubled area is worth some more discussion. John Kerry, who I believe cannot be underrated, is proving again he can make any bad situation worse. Imagine the hypocrisy of bringing a truce agreement to Israel that was based on his consultations with leaders in Turkey and Qatar who are open suppliers and political supporters of Hamas, a recognized terrorist state. Any secretary of state with an ounce of common sense would have stopped in Egypt for advice. Egypt holds the overland gateway to Gaza and has a direct interest in stability on its borders since the Muslim Brotherhood is no longer in power in Egypt.

It is possible that Secretary Kerry was acting on the instructions of the president, who seems to be very pro-Muslim and, by his speeches and actions, clearly anti-Israel. If Kerry was acting on the president’s orders, it is clear that creating chaos and weakening the influence of America in the world still needs more attention from our president. In the least, it further exposes the ineptitude of our foreign policy secretary. There used to be a time when secretaries would refuse foreign policy approaches they did not feel were ethically or pragmatically acceptable.

Complicated? Hard to believe? Can’t be true? Read my new book, “INSIGHTS: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” which is free on Kindle for a limited time.

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by | July 28, 2014 · 8:20 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 133

VETS AND TRANSFORMING

There is something about duty and honor that all veterans understand. It starts with “who can I trust to have my back and who keeps their word?” Those who fail those two measurements don’t serve with duty and honor. They just do the time and collect the retirement pay.

veteransI have to be careful here, for it has been a long time since I saw a gun fired in anger and attitudes change. I can’t get inside the head of a young veteran who is  three or four decades younger than I am. But I can speculate on the issues they are facing. The big one concerns their ability to provide for themselves and their families. Thousands of well-trained, battle-savvy soldiers, sailors, Air Force personnel, and Marines will be summarily discharged by a commander-in-chief who dislikes and distrusts the American military. He has traveled the world apologizing for their actions over the last several decades.

The damage to the security of America caused by this unjustified downsizing is bad enough but the hardship this progressive ideology places on our best citizens, current and future, is a national tragedy. It is also dishonorable. The secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs should resign rather than preside over President Obama’s ideological motivation to make American more equal to the rest of the world. Active duty troops discharged against their wishes is despicable treatment for their service. Troops facing this surprise attack must resent the leaders who betrayed them.

Where will they find employment? Medical care for them and their dependents?  From a dysfunctional VA? This government-run service has been operating since the Civil War. It is an ironclad example that the no government can or should run a large medical system. Once Obamacare takes hold, we will ALL be in a VA-like system. At least we will be sharing that hardship with our veterans. The high odds of newly discharged veterans finding employment commensurate with their needs are not likely to improve under Obama’s anti-business administration. Training programs are of questionable use and unemployment compensation does end. Will our veterans discharged for a president’s ideological whim view their predicament as anything but the government’s breaking of a promise? I hope they will use their talents and skills to elect a government that will keep its promises.

The Republican Party needs to outline what it will do for these troops. The best plan would be to cancel Obama’s plans to severely cut military troop levels. Next in line would be to pass a G.I. education bill that will enable all who have kept their part of the bargain to get an education that will make them employable in the civilian economy. Unless the Senate and the White House are retaken by the Republican Party, I’m afraid we will find our young veterans turning to food stamps and other government subsidies. Having our veterans become dependent on the government is fine with the progressive ideology of the president and his closest advisers. Is it okay with you?

Read “INSIGHTS Transforming of America  Is this what we fought for?”

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by | July 23, 2014 · 7:35 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 132

YOUNG, HOPEFUL, AND WAITING

It’s been a long time since I was young, hopeful, and waiting for good things to come along. So please cut me some slack if and when I get too far off base. Republicans, Democrats, and whatever else weren’t even part of my fears, hopes, or wishes when I was young. By young, I mean those of you who are between 18 and 28. I doubt any of my blog readers are in that age group. I hope so, but doubt it. You don’t have the draft to simplify your life’s plans or those of the next six months. I think many of us used the draft and the armed forces as a place and time to grow up or, at least, wise up. We had no worries about getting a job right out of high school or college. Uncle Sam had plans for us and he paid for our time. Beyond that, for some of us he paid for our undergraduate education and in my case, a graduate degree as well. So people in their early- to mid-twenties graduated without debt and with several jobs to pick from. I don’t think anyone in my class of ’59 at PITT had less than four of five real employment interviews and two or three real jobs opportunities. No one had to go back home to live because they couldn’t find employment.

Contrast that with today’s young graduates five-plus years into the transforming of America. First the college seniors: you are probably deep in debt from getting a so-so education; few of you have employers coming on campus to beg you to consider working with them; you are not even sure where you will be living in the six months after graduation; most of the possible jobs are well below your hoped-for job level. The challenge of those jobs is to try and live on your salary. Getting married, raising a family, buying a new car, looking at real estate is part of a dream. It sure isn’t reality. Your medical insurance requires bigger monthly payments than the monthly mortgage payments your parents paid. Right after graduation some kind of transportation and auto insurance is as far as you can stretch. You don’t want to quit. That is no option for you. But the world is really unfair.

You just graduated from a place where most of your professors probably supported the progressive Obama administration. Is ‘progressive’ a bad word? It is the word a radical revolutionary, Saul Alinsky, adopted to replace the words “communism” and “socialism.” Those words just don’t sell well in America. Many of your professors were actively in favor of Obama’s plan of transforming America. They were in favor of hope and change. Great words but only if the hope becomes real and the change is acceptable. You see, the world has never been fair. Nobody owes you anything. Harsh, but true. The progressives want you to think the government is responsible for all your problems.

For those of you who could not afford or didn’t want to go to college, you have your own problems finding jobs that pay well. It is even harder. You’re expected to fill mostly service jobs. You know a college education is not for everyone. In America many people without degrees have created businesses, raised strong families, and held important management jobs in towns, cities, and states across America. The progressive ideology hurts you just as much as anyone. Nearly all the problems, both you and your college-educated peers face on a daily basis, are because of the policies of President Obama that do not provide an environment that encourages economic growth. President Obama’s economic recovery plan has not worked and will not work. In truth, the job market gets worse every year. Don’t believe the government’s employment figures. They are not real numbers. Just ask your friends who have been looking for good jobs and finding none. The affect of transforming America on you is that you do not now have a job commensurate with your education or current needs and probably won’t until the transforming process stops and the fixing process begins. Until then you are being made increasingly dependent on government support and that is the  intent of the progressives.

Like it or not.

Read “INSIGHTS Transforming America  Is this what we fought for?”  

By the author of the Brandon adventure/mystery novels.

 

 

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by | July 20, 2014 · 7:50 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 131

TRANSFORMATION AND SENIORS

Writers know they should write about what they know. In thinking how to write about the impact of President Obama’s transforming of America on senior citizens, I realized  this is right in my wheel-house because that includes me at age 83. So I started with my own reactions to transformation.

First of all, I must admit President Obama gave us full warning about his plans for change. I didn’t support him because of his lack of any kind of management or leadership experience and his very far left ideology. But I didn’t expect the media to be so incredibly locked in to his socialistic view of the world. Nor did I think the Republican leadership in Congress would be so timid.

After five-plus years of unconstitutional growth in the power of the executive branch at the expense of the legislative powers, the speaker brings a whining lawsuit against President Obama for taking his toys. Who does he think will enforce the courts ruling if he wins? Attorney General Eric Holder certainly won’t.  If  the speaker had any courage he would use his powers of the purse given to the House by the Constitution.

A few days ago I wrote about another disappointment. The civil service in many democracies is a check on an executive gone too far. I may have been too hard on the many loyal and capable civil servants but, as a senior citizen with years in the civil service, I am dismayed at the way the employees of the IRS, HSS, EPA, State, DHS, FBI, C!A, and the Joint Chiefs have fallen into lock step to support the president’s unlawful policies.  In a free society, government workers cannot enforce what they know is an unlawful course of action. I remember some trials after WWII in Nuremberg, Germany, that settled that issue.

Senior  citizens have seen how the massive printing of money (bonds) by the Federal Reserve called Qualitative Easing cheapens their dollars while their income has not kept up with real world inflation. Medicare will be destroyed by Obamacare, as will the best medical care in the world. Sure, far too many people had no insurance, but that could have been fixed without moving rapidly toward a single-payer system and socialized medicine. Social security, which most of us have grown to count on, is less sustainable now than it was five years ago. This program needs attention now.

The rule of law is all that stands between us and a chaotic system based on favoritism and punishment without due process. This administration, especially this attorney general, enforces the law selectively and only investigates when it is in the interests of his imperial president.  Many senior citizens have fought in wars, including the Cold War, and know the necessity of keeping a strong, well-equipped, and cared for military. We are nervous about the drastic reduction of our forces, the VA scandal, and the loss of respect for our views throughout the world. We have seen enemies who were impervious to diplomacy and endless talk with the threat of ineffective sanctions. We know America needs a leader whose word is respected throughout the world.

We are also concerned about the re-distribution of wealth, the growth of the government, the shift away from our close relationship with Israel, the so-called re-set with Russia, the debacle in Iraq, the rush to the good war in Afghanistan, the timid negotiations with Iran over the development of nuclear weapons, the anti U.S. development of domestic energy attitude, including the Keystone Pipeline.

Enough is enough.

Read my new book, “INSIGHTS – Transforming America. Is This What We Fought for?”

 

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