Category Archives: Progressives

by Barry Kelly | August 22, 2015 · 7:29 am

INSIGHTS 226 — ARE WE THERE YET?

The president hadn’t been back down to see the Advisor for several days. The Advisor spent his time going back over the last several meetings. The president’s motivation was becoming clearer. The Advisor felt he was now able to understand the president’s actions. Once you broke the code his actions were understandable, but many would always believe he was a failed president who was just inept with a strange view of the world. The Advisor decided to record his thoughts in his journal.

The president has only one goal and that is to transform America into a socialist nation to the left of the European model of socialism. He doesn’t care about solving problems that do not contribute to his transformation process. For example, he has long known the Affordable Care Act could not provide medical care to the nation’s population. But it does bring nearly 8 percent of the economy under government management. Under his health care program, the medical treatment of citizens, especially the aged, would be become so costly with growing chaos that the people would clamor for the single payer system of true socialized medicine. A giant step toward complete socialization.

Under the Dodd/Frank financial legislation, the nation’s financial system is steadily coming more under the control of the federal government. Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. Dodd/Frank regulations and the Keynesian economic policies of the Federal Reserve are forcing the closure of small local banks that provided credit to small businesses and new startups. Without access to local credit, many small businesses are downsizing or going out of business. Bringing all commerce under control of the federal government is a necessary step toward national socialism.

Large corporations are not immune from the impact of endless regulations flowing from the federal government. The coal industry is vanishing under this onslaught. Costs and regulations are preventing the building of new power plants and refineries. Exploration for new drilling sites is now limited to privately held or state-owned land. Even those areas are the target of increasing regulations. The tax structure with the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world is weakening the competitiveness of American businesses. You don’t need a revolution to convert a capitalist, free market economy into a socialist economy. The impact of high taxes, regulations that set standards for industry that cannot be met or are so costly they will destroy capitalism are enough. A few more years of progressive rule and the federal government will control whatever industries they chose.

Socialism cannot be forced upon a nation with a military force that is not totally controlled by a progressive/socialist elite and where the population is armed. Therefore, the government must use whatever methods necessary to take weapons away from the citizens. The military can be lured into socialism by cutting funds, discouraging the development of new weapons, reducing the size of the armed forces, and throwing thousands of young men and women out into an economy with no jobs. What will these disillusioned and angry young people do? Probably blame the wrong causes.

The last piece the president needs to transform America is to weaken the opposition. He has surely done that. Even though the people have spoken and rejected progressive control of the Congress and given the Republicans control of both Houses, the same hapless ineffective leaders are still in power. They don’t even know what is going on and are acting as if the president’s transformation of America is something they can handle over time by routine congressional procedures. By the time they wake up, it will be too late.

Example: The Iran deal. This is a treaty by any definition, yet the Senate let the president take this action under his executive powers. If this were a treaty, it would need 60 votes in the Senate to approve it.

Who can put a halt to transformation? The Supreme Court and the civil service are already won over to the progressive side. Only a new conservative strong leader can begin to turn this errant ship around. Time is running out.

This is a account written by a fictional advisor who doesn’t exist but should.

Check out the latest Jack Brandon mystery suspense novels at your local bookstore. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.

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

Tagged as affordable health care, dodd frank, Iran, Progressives, socialism

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 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 21, 2015 · 7:14 am

INSIGHTS 218 THE ADVISOR’S TURN

The Advisor thought back to the last time the ancient vault door had opened to the president’s touch. I was very hard on the president, he thought. I’m supposed to be his confidant and even his helper. I’ve failed in those regards. Perhaps more than any of my esteemed predecessors. They all had problems. Presidents are not easy to work with. But how can I help him if he listens but never takes my advice? I swear at times I think he comes here as if he was a Catholic going to confessional. It’s not something he likes but he believes he must do it. I feel for his above-ground advisors. He is not a happy president. I’ll step back today if I get the right opening.

The Advisor glanced up at one of his many screens and saw the President was approaching his door. He checked to make sure the coffee was ready and the ashtray was on the table, then walked over to the door as Chris, the President’s constant Secret Service companion, swung open the door for his commander-in-chief.

“Mr. President, come in please,” the Advisor said, smiling. “I look forward to your visits. I seldom get a chance to talk about important issues. When you’re here, that’s my only chance.” The two men sat down in their usual seats and the President lit a cigarette. “If you don’t mind, Mr. President, I’d like to ask you why you come to see me.”

The President smiled and took a drag. “Sometimes I ask myself the same question.” He blew out a puff of smoke before answering. “I come down here because among all the people I meet with, you’re the only one who tells me exactly what you believe. You have no political or personal agenda and frankly you are much smarter than the others and you never leak information that either helps or hurts me. So the time I spend with you is like playing political chess. You give me a safe opportunity to sharpen my messaging skills. Now please, continue with your stream of criticism. I’m ready.” The President sat back in his chair, a sly grin on his face, and took another drag from his cigarette.

“Well, you must be feeling good. You’ve had a number of victories recently. So let me begin with you successful negotiations with Iran. Your citizens are nearly all bewildered. Some of the political lemmings take the sound bites and pass them on. I found it interesting that the conservative wing of America is comfortable debating substance while the further left you go, the less willing people are to debate issues. Instead, they attack the messengers and not the message they carry. So your Congressional power base, with a few exceptions, will not argue with the tenets of the Iranian agreement. They will focus on attacking the debaters. You have brilliantly given them the ideal message: ‘There was no other option. Either this agreement or war.’ As simplistic as that defense is, it is working and will continue to work. You know, as the intellectual you can be, that there were and are scores of different approaches. By going to the United Nations with the lifting of sanctions on nuclear activity as well as lifting embargoes on conventional weapons, you have made Congress irrelevant. Your progressive message in the election period can now paint the Republicans as being anxious to go to war with Iran rather than giving diplomacy a chance.

“Here again the left will be attacking the anti-Iran agreement people and not debating the agreement issues. Therefore you have already used the issue and now have a winning strategy.”

The President smiled, ground out his cigarette and said, ” You are too smart. I’m thankful you’re buried in this underground chamber with your unique political insights. I don’t mind this. I’ll give you more time. It’s like being in a safe time warp.”

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.