Category Archives: Politics

by Barry Kelly | August 20, 2015 · 7:32 am

INSIGHTS 225 — WHO TAKES OVER THE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS?

The President leaned back in his chair with his cigarette and The Advisor in front of him and relaxed. He wasn’t a simple man but he enjoyed simple things. Visiting with the old man in the subterranean passageways under the White House gave him a chance to drop all the role-playing he had to do on a never-ending booking of stages. Most of the causes he spoke about didn’t interest him and the audiences certainly didn’t. Down here he felt safe. Not from any physical danger. He was safe from danger everywhere but from pretension of the sycophants and those just wanting face time, he was only safe in this underground chamber. He doubted if the old man even thought about pushing his own agenda, if he even had one. This was the only place where he really felt he was part of a long line of historical figures who at one time sat at the big desk in the Oval Office. No matter what he said here, there was no danger of any leaks. This might be the only place in the whole damn government where that statement was true.

The Advisor could see the President was deep in some thought and waited before asking him a question that he would not have even hinted at earlier in their relationship. But now he felt their relationship had changed and the President wouldn’t take offense. He topped off the President’s coffee cup and said, “You said last time it was critical that someone would follow you who could carry on your mission of transforming America and the world. Everyone thinks your former rival will be that person. Do you?”

“Not anymore. Knowing what I know now, I should have never put her at the State Department as long as her family foundation was tangled in foreign money-making projects. The temptation of the big amounts of cash must have been too strong. Without the foundation business, she wouldn’t have needed a private email server in her house. I think she is the only member of my Cabinet who broke clear federal laws by using private email channels for government business. It’s reached the point where I might have to let the FBI and Justice Department investigate the matter. The media really won’t really pick up the investigation. They are all far too partisan. Remember how they investigated the Watergate Affair? Here, I have to point out that it wasn’t the FBI or the Attorney General who forced Nixon’s retirement. Not even Congress seems to recognize that presidents don’t investigate themselves or their employees.

“To answer your question: No, I don’t think she will get the nomination. Just too much baggage. I need someone who can get elected and then, at least, hold back the conservative drive to terminate all the programs I put in place until another progressive revolutionary wins the White House and the task of transforming America into a socialist nation is completed. I’ve taken the transformation process about as far as I can.”

“Mr. President, I think the transformation benchmarks achieved during your administration will be the legacy historians write about. Thank you.”

“Talking to you does help me. I’ll be back in a week or so. Goodnight.”

The above is a fictional account of a meeting that never took place, but it could have.

The author’s latest Jack Brandon novel, ISIS Quiet Justice, is available at your local book store and in ebook format from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Follow the author on Twitter at @factsfictions80.

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Filed under Alinsky, Barry Kelly, Capitalism, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, political solutions, Politics, Progressives

by Barry Kelly | August 17, 2015 · 7:52 am

INSIGHTS 224 — THE ADVISOR ASKS THE PRESIDENT WHY DOESN’T HE GOVERN?

It was late at night when the President stopped in to talk with the Advisor. The Advisor thought as he sat down, He has put up with my pointed questions on our last several meetings. If he is still willing to talk about what I think must be touchy areas for him, I might as well push a little harder.

The Advisor said, “Mr. President, I have two basic areas I would like to hear you talk about. Are you okay to continue with my questions? It is not often anyone gets to really talk to a president about controversial subjects. You are a very different kind of president.”

The President nodded as he lit up a cigarette. The Advisor asked, “Mr. President, I often hear your critics asking things like, ‘Why doesn’t he govern? He doesn’t seem able to solve any problems. He just talks and never fixes anything. In fact, he often makes any problem worse by his rhetoric.’ How would you answer these complaints?”

The President laughed and said, “They just don’t understand. I’m not trying to solve problems to make their lives better or to maintain or increase American economic or military power. I’m doing just the reverse and my critics, especially those professional politicians in Congress, do not have a clue. They are still playing a game that no longer exists. But it’s the only one they know, so they keep playing the same cards over and over again and expect different results. What is that type of thinking called? It is called insane. They are so predictable it takes what little challenge they might have to my authority meaningless.

“I focus on the issues, whatever they are, and will take any position that increases my ability to use the issue to weaken the opposing side. They don’t seem to have a clue to what is happening. I’m well on the way to bringing this bastion of capitalism and individual freedom to a socialist economic and political system of government, one to the left of the European model, and the professional politicians believe I’m just a poor leader. An unfair description because I’m not even trying to be a leader. Here is progress in my plan,” the President said, putting his cigarette in the ashtray and counting off on his fingers. “Increase the debt to intolerable levels, raise taxes to destroy capitalism, if you can’t keep or use what you earn as a greedy business person, why struggle, increase numbers of people dependent on government, take over industry by regulation, control education, banking, the medical system, and make international law into the American justice system.

“Name anyone of my executive departments and I’ll show you an inept, by past standards, group of officials that can’t seem to get anything done right. There are no traditional accomplishments to point to. My slogan is that ‘worse is better.’ The IRS, EPA, DHS, HHS, VA and all the other departments of my executive look like bumbling fools. And some of them are. Some know or suspect my plan, others are just incompetent and that is good. Their job, whether they know it or not, is to make things so bad that socialist policies will look good and be embraced by the population.

“If I had four more years, I could complete the job. This two-term limit is very difficult to get around. The person who follows me must be a true believer, like Hillary, or just a natural bumbler like the rest. Hillary is a true believer, even more than I, in the Alinsky doctrine. Unfortunately, her Clinton money genes are rapidly making her unelectable. May have to do something about that. I should have told you my time for this visit was short. I have to go now. I’m not finished yet. I’ll be back.”

When the President left, the Advisor said, out loud, “This man is really dangerous and I can’t even tell anyone. He knows that. Otherwise he wouldn’t be so candid. I doubt the people in the future whlo read my journals will believe I’ve accurately reported this meeting.”

The above is a fictional account of a meeting that never took place, but it could have.

The author’s latest Jack Brandon novel, “ISIS: Quiet Justice,” is available at your local book store and in ebook format from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Follow the author on Twitter at @factsfictions80.

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

Tagged as Obama, policy, politics, socialism

by Barry Kelly | August 7, 2015 · 10:59 pm

INSIGHTS 221 — THE ADVISOR ASKS WHAT MADE YOU DO IT.

The Advisor thought finally the President and I are getting comfortable talking about real issues. He has loosened up in the last few sessions. He knows I’m no threat and I won’t betray his candid responses to my questions. Hope he is in a talkative mood tonight. He should be here in another few minutes. I think he makes a real effort to be more or less on time and I appreciated it. He glanced up at the passageway monitor and saw the President and Chris approaching his door. Funny he has never commented on the wording on the old brass plaque. Even I don’t know its background. Maybe it is contained somewhere in the early journals. The only was to search them is to go thru them one by one. I just don’t have the time for that.

“Welcome Mr. President. Have you had a good day?”

“Can’t remember when. Everyday I get several problems that should never reach the Oval Office. I don’t know if some of my staff are afraid or just too limited to handle the problems on their own. The problems, or rather issues, that I handle always get some bad press. Fortunately I have very few consistent critics in the media. Some of them have gone out of their way to be supportive. Okay, you have some questions for me?”

“Yes I do Mr. President. Some of them are not important in the writing of history but I want to ask you why you did certain things that even your supporters do not seem to understand. My first questions is, why have you spent so much energy and time on closing Guantanamo Bay?”

“Well, the first thing is that I made a campaign promise to close this sore spot on our international record as a freedom loving nation. Gitmo is a prison and a place of torture. Students of international law believe it is a place that has no place in the twenty-first century. We can detain criminals in prisons in the Continental United States where my Attorney-General can protect their rights, examine the evidence, and bring them to trial under the American system of justice.”

“But, surely, there are cases when it would be appropriate to detain and try terrorist prisoners captured on the field of battle?”

“I just don’t trust the military to run trials of our enemies. Their rules of evidence, procedure, and concern for the rights of the accused do not meet my standards. I want America to look toward my leadership in prosecuting criminals, not the Pentagon.”

“We have both studied the law, both constitutional and international. Don’t you see the impossibility of collecting evidence, taking statements from witnesses and yet following the strict rules required by our courts regarding the chain of accountability and custody of evidence from the crime scene to the court room?”

“If we can’t get a conviction on the main charges, we’ll have to settle for prosecuting them for lesser crimes. If the military can’t or won’t meet the standards of American justice, they shouldn’t be conducting trials or detaining prisoners for years without charging and trying them.”

“Mr. President, there must be more than that.”

“Yes, in this room there is one more big one. Gitmo is a wonderful issue for me to use campaigning to attack conservatives. My base loves this issue. Elections are not won on facts. They are won by picking good issues and building them into major points. The time the conservatives spend defending Gitmo means they are playing by my rules and they can’t win. Take the Bergdorf guy who deserted his post and was held by the Taliban for years. He wasn’t important to anything, but he gave me a perfect opportunity to get five more top terrorists out of Gitmo. There was no other way I could justify their release. Who could argue sending those five criminals to one of the Gulf States for safe keeping. Who cares where they end up? Sorry I can’t continue but I must go. Thank you for the coffee and conversation. They were both good.”

As the steel door closed, the Advisor thought if you don’t want the answer, don’t ask the question. This may have been one of those times. Absolutely scary. No one would believe what I just heard. Especially since his words had the ring of truth. Get ready for an Executive Order to give Guantanamo Bay to the Castro’s.

The above is a fictional account of a meeting that never took place, but it could have.

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Filed under Alinsky, Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, General, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, political solutions, Politics, Terrorism

by Barry Kelly | August 1, 2015 · 7:31 am

INSIGHTS 220 The Advisor and the President discuss the civil service

The President was back just two days after he had to leave in the middle of The Advisor’s question about the politicization of the Civil Service. The President lit his secret cigarette and said, “This is the only place in the White House I can smoke without getting hard looks or worse. And this is so far underground I’m not sure I’m still in the White House. Okay, you were asking me about my use of the Civil Service. Right?”

“Yes. I was wondering if you see how much you have politicized the Civil Service?”

“Of course. It is my Civil Service. Why should they not do what I want them to do? Notice I said want them to do, not what I tell them to do. That is the difference.”

“You make it sound as if by some magic all members of the service know what you would like them to do and they do it.”

“No magic involved. All Civil Service members take direction from appointed officials. I appoint them and I only appoint those who I know will follow my progressive ideology. Most Civil Service employees like their jobs and want to keep them. They also work hard to get good evaluations, earn promotions and bonuses, and to justify the size and scope of their unit. Their loyalty is to their units and to the Civil Service Union. No one has to tell them to follow the president’s lead. They have always acted the same way. I just have been more careful to make sure the leaders I appointed are doing their jobs.”

“You sound as if you have studied organizational structure and the behavior of workers in large organizations.”

“What’s to study? That’s the way I think. For example, I don’t have to tell civil employees to grow their organizations or to expand. The government doesn’t grow because some president wants it to. It grows unless some president works hard to control or stop the growth. In my case, I want the government to continue to grow. I need it to really transform the country.”

“Why then are you cutting the size of our military forces?”

“Even as the commander-in-chief, I don’t have the same power over the military as I do over the civilian workforce. I cannot put my people all through the uniformed military. Also their command structure is very tight. I have strategic influence but people loyal to me and my transformation goals are not in the day-to-day operational decision making. The military forces are not supporting my progressive goals. I am growing the power of the Civil Service for they are a willing ally in transforming America. I am cutting the size and power of the military because they are and have been an evil force used to project American power into less fortunate and smaller nations. To bring the military under control, I must reduce their size.”

“Then you say you are not breaking any laws by the way the IRS, the EPA, Justice, HHS, Veterans Affairs or Homeland Security have conducted their activities?”

“Right. There is no evidence of any wrongdoing; therefore, no crime.”

“What about the failure or unwillingness of the FBI to investigate the wrongdoing of the IRS and the failure of the Immigration Service to enforce the law?”

“You don’t seem to understand. The FBI has no charter or legal standing to investigate when there is no evidence a crime has been committed. Under my Justice Department, the FBI is not going out looking for things to investigate. They do work for the attorney general, and she works for the president.”

“What about the precedent of the Watergate affair and the erased tapes in the Nixon administration that led to his resignation?”

“Wouldn’t have happened under me. Nixon failed to understand how to use the law without being directly involved and the media did the investigating, not the FBI. Nixon and most Republicans have never understood how to use the media.”

Mr. President, I’m afraid I have exceeded my time.”

“No problem. I’m enjoying these sessions and I really think you are trying to understand me. Also, I want my record in your journal to be clear. See you next week but I don’t know when.”

With that, the President left with Chris who was patiently waiting in the dim passageway, and they retraced his steps to the above ground White House.

The Advisor opened his journal and began to record the last session. As he was writing in his journal, he thought, this man is delusional but very clever and dangerous.

The above is a fictional account of a meeting that never took place, but it could have.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, centralization, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, management theory, political solutions, Politics, Progressives

by Barry Kelly | July 29, 2015 · 7:31 pm

INSIGHTS 219 — The Advisor and the President debate the rule of law

The Advisor was pacing in his underground suite, waiting for the President. He knew these sessions were becoming more critical. He simply had to get the President to tell future readers of the Advisor journals not so much what he did, but why. History was nearly always based on what was done. Seldom did any writer of history really know why and how the whats of history were accomplished. He wasn’t exactly setting a trap for the President but, rather, giving him an opportunity to explain himself.

The fragrance of the dark roast Sumatra coffee filled the room. He and the President were both addicted to the flavor of strong coffee. Both took it black. The Advisor never objected to the President lighting up during his meetings. He had once been an addicted smoker himself and still enjoyed the smell of good tobacco with his coffee or single malt scotch. He was alone, and lonely too much, to have the temptation of a bottle or two within reach.

The phone buzzed. It was Chris, the President’s Secret Service escort alerting him President was on his way down. The room was perfectly arranged the President liked, as the Advisor had gotten into the habit of leaving it in the hopes the President would visit. The Advisor poured two cups of coffee and walked to the door to greet the President.

As he walked down the dimly lit short underground passageway to the steel vault door with 150 years of a dark green patina surrounding the even older brass plaque on the door inscribed with the words, “EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS,” the President thought, I must be almost as nutty as that old black man inside. When I miss a couple of weeks, I miss the conversation. It is damned near like being on a couch with some learned nerd telling me what is wrong with me. Hell, I know what’s wrong with me. I’m a president trying to take a nation where it doesn’t want to go. I don’t have time to convince or educate them. I just have to drag them kicking and screaming into the world of the future where there is no inequality in nations or among nations. Call it socialism or communism or progressivism. I just don’t care. It is where we are going. Talking with this old man, who is smart as hell, helps me stay on course. I do wonder how he managed to fit this old steel door with the modern sensors that read my palm print on the brass plaque.

The Advisor greeted the President and led him over to the conference table. Once seated and the settled in with coffee and the President’s cigarette, the Advisor said, “Is it still my turn?”

“It’s a go. This maybe a short meeting. I may get called out.”

“You are trained in the law, but seemed not to have a reverence for the rule of law. It is more like you approach each problem in a very pragmatic way. Whatever works to help you get your way goes. You seem to have a distinct aversion to both the judicial and legislative branches. Is that right?”

“Close. I don’t follow the law. I use the law.”

“Mr. President, no offense, but do you realize some of your predecessors were impeached or threatened with impeachment? For example, the use of the IRS to discriminate against conservative groups applying for a tax-free status during an election period.”

“For a crime, especially an impeachable one, you must have evidence that can be presented in a court of law,” the President said, blowing out a puff of smoke. “No evidence, no crime, no attempts at impeachment. I don’t write things down or talk in front of my staff, except for a very few loyal and trusted ones, about what I want done if it is at all questionable in the law. If the Congressional Republicans can’t collect evidence, there is no crime. I don’t help or hinder their efforts to get emails or other information for their own political objectives. I can’t help what department heads do. The Civil Service is required to support the president. After all, they serve as my staff. I don’t need to tell them what to do, they know or they would not be employed.”

“What you are describing is unique in American history and ….” the Advisor started.

The phone buzzed and Chris said, “Mr. President, you are needed upstairs.” The President said, “This was getting interesting. Let’s continue the next time.” He smiled, pushed his cup away and put out his cigarette before walking to the door. Over his shoulder, he said, “How do you stand it down here? You must have committed some awful crime.”

The Advisor thought, sometimes I wonder.

The above is a fictional account of a meeting that never took place, but it could have.