Category Archives: Progressives

by Barry Kelly | October 2, 2013 · 11:58 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS-78 THE ADVISOR

BEWARE OF THE MESSAGE

The Advisor was pacing in his office. It was day two of the government shutdown and the President had just appeared on TV to blame it on the Republicans. The Advisor could see right through him and surrendered himself to the journals.

He wrote: I’ve studied politics and the struggle for power all my adult life. The essence of all efforts to gain power is the developing and dissemination of “the” message. Truth is usually not necessary. The believers don’t need the truth. No great takeover of power ever involved the truth. Russia, China, Cuba, Eastern Europe, Germany, and various third-world countries are good examples. But the current administration of the Progressive Democrats is a world-class messaging machine.

For example, the blame game of who is responsible for shutting down the government. All the President had to do was agree to applying Obamacare to the Congress and to delay the application of the law to individuals, in the same way the President gave a year’s delay to big business without any consultation with the Congress, in itself an unlawful and unconstitutional act. He made 16 other changes in the law also without consulting the legislative branch. Yet the message is that Republicans wanted the government shutdown. That’s not the truth. In the struggle for power, truth is a bystander. Why didn’t he compromise? There was plenty of political space for him.

The reason he didn’t is ugly. The President’s actions can only be understood if you understand he must use every issue to destroy the opposition. The goal is a one-party government. He cannot escape Alinsky’s teaching that the issue is never the issue. Ultimate power for a Progressive elite is the end game. The transformation of America cannot be accomplished as long as there is even a bewildered opposition that still doesn’t understand the rules have changed. Only a very few of the Republican Party’s elite talking heads are learning the new rules, but very slowly.

Obama’s war is here, in the homeland. Iran, Russia, South America, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa are of no interest to him, unless he can shape the issue to diminish the opposition party. He is willing to sacrifice our former international position of respect, won at the cost of much blood and treasure if he can improve his domestic power position. He doesn’t want to be a world power. He just wants to be an equal part of a one-world order governed by a United Nations on steroids. A world of talk, legal maneuvering, and equality. Where wealth must be redistributed to achieve the equality of nations. Anything to achieve this goal is good: climate control, cap and trade, energy resources controlled by an international group. Limitations on the size and quality of troops and weapons. The keeper of the new world order dictates when, where, and what force is needed to maintain equality. It is Utopia by the same, old, tired wishes for a fairy-tale land that has failed everywhere it has been tried, now lives anew in the minds of the new Progressive elite. While dreamers may think the end is a beautiful creation, the process is ugly and never ending. Beware of the message. Search for the truth for only it will make you free.

The author has 27 years of Government service, including two years serving President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as an

advisor. Considering today’s volatile political situation, you are encouraged to share this on Facebook and to click the “like” button below. Comments and dialogue are welcome.

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Filed under Alinsky, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, political solutions, Progressives, totalitarianism

by Barry Kelly | September 2, 2013 · 2:25 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 73-ADVISOR

SYRIA

It was after midnight when the Advisor answered his red line phone and heard the codeword indicating the President was on his way. Minutes later, the President opened the steel door off the tunnel between the White House and the Treasury. As soon as he stepped in, he said, “I need a cup of your special coffee and a cigarette.”

“It’s poured and waiting for you. It’s late and you must be tired. Do you want to sit at the table or in my little conversation nook?”

“Lead me to the softest chair. I am beat. This Syrian thing has gotten out of control. All my advisors have spoken with their usual, on the one hand or the other comments they think are helpful advice. I decided to come and see you. I seldom like what you tell me but you make me think and clear up the fog of political chatter.”

“Thank you, Mr. President. You by now know that I like to start from the beginning. The Syrian problem was out of control during your first term with people from your Cabinet and key Progressive congressional figures rushing out to Syria and coming back with stories like the message Secretary Clinton brought back about President Assad being a reformer your administration could work with. As you understand, Mrs. Clinton is out of her element in the demanding nature of international diplomacy. She represented you and left you with a mess. A mess that now has little chance of turning out well for the nation and your presidency.”

“I understand and agree with you, but the decision I have to make is simply whether I should authorize a limited strike against Assad and under what conditions.”

“With all respect, Mr. President that is not the decision confronting you. It is much deeper and more complicated. The time when limited support to the opposition would have made a difference was at least two years ago. That window is now closed. Don’t think Syria. Think Iran and Russia. Syria is a weak arm of Iranian power in the Middle East. Syria’s role for Iran is primarily as a conduit for supplies to Hezbollah. Without that safe passageway for Iranian aid to Hezbollah, the ability of Hezbollah to control Lebanon and threaten Israel would vanish. On the Russian side, their primary interest is in securing a warm water port for their fleet. Ostensibly they now have one in Syria that is even now supporting a Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean. For that reason Russia will not allow you to get UN support for any military action in Syria.”

“The Russians must know I’m not going to invade Syria. I’m only planning on a limited strike.”

“Again with respect, Mr. President, there is no such thing as a limited strike. You can order a limited strike, but your opponents, understanding the lack of enthusiasm for another war in the Arab world resulting in a flood of body bags and an outflow of our treasure, can respond in a way to expand the conflict. Then you will feel a response is necessary. For example, if one or two of our ships are attacked and sunk, you will have to respond in self-defense. This will not be a Ben Ghazi where you can do nothing. Your choices are limited. You can do nothing. You can do a limited cruise missile strike and hope for the best or you can destroy Assad’s air power and punish Syria for using chemical weapons and give the rebels a much better chance to overthrow Assad. Whatever you decide, the power position of the United States in the Middle East has been seriously eroded.

“There is one other option. Take the problem to the Congress and blame them for whatever happens. They can be made to be at fault, no matter what they decide to do. This is an Alinsky-ite dream. The issue is never the issue. Use all issues to destroy the obstacles preventing you from seizing total power. Your former Secretary of State who wants to replace you will be pleased. Your decision can damage your influence in the Progressive Party. If Secretary Kerry had any thoughts of seceding you as President, you have destroyed that possibility for him. He took the bait and now looks like the man who turned on his country in the Vietnam War.”

“It amazes me that you can sit down here in a modern cave and have so many insights. You even understand my anti-colonial bias. I do not like to use American military power to restore western power in the Middle East. I can’t bring myself to attack Syria with only the French, with their legacy of subjugating Syria in the Colonial period, as an ally. What would you do in my place?”

“That is too hypothetical even for me. When in doubt, doing nothing is often the best choice. Remember the sarin gas killed approximately a thousand people in a terrible agony that was captured by the cameras. Assad’s forces killed a hundred times that many prior to the chemical attack. My last comment is where did Assad get that quantity of chemical weapons? He certainly didn’t produce them in Syria. Do you think a large part of them came from Iraq? The country that had no weapons of mass destruction even though they used chemical weapons against the Kurds and Shias. Mr. President, my best advice is to surround yourself with people who live in the real world, not in some virtual world they can control with propaganda and an endless mantra of untruths chanted in unison to the American people.”

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels. The author has 27 years of Government service,

including two years serving President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as an advisor. Considering today’s volatile political situation, you are encouraged to share this on Facebook and to click the “like” button below. Comments and dialogue are welcome and helpful. Find and connect with the author on Goodreads.

Russia, Syria, and a warm water port: http://factsandfictions.com/2013/06/10/eight-decades-of-insights-55/
Mr. President!!! the Gop Is Offering You the Perfect Out on Syria. Take It!!! (xbjllb.typepad.com)
Hezbollah declares state of high alert (aworldchaos.wordpress.com)

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Filed under Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, political solutions, Progressives

Tagged as assad, Obama, Syria

by Barry Kelly | August 15, 2013 · 7:00 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSTIGHTS 69-ADVISOR

PROBLEMS

The Advisor sat slumped in his chair. For the first time in his life he felt inadequate. His President and the nation needed help. There were so many problems, he wasn’t sure where to start or even if he should start.

Only one thing to do, he thought. Pull out your journal and put down your problems. If you can’t help President Obama solve them, at least you can record them. The record may help another President and his Advisor.

He uncapped his Waterman fountain pen, dipped it in the open inkwell to get the flow started, and wrote in large printed letters at the top of a clean page, PROBLEMS. Wondering what to write next, he just started to write. The words flowed like they were pouring from a deep wound in the Nation’s body.

Obamacare: Here’s an unpopular program that addresses a national need. Nearly everyone believes health care in America is broken and needs fixed. If this President could get over his revolutionary philosophy that pushes him to use every issue to destroy the opposition, it would be easy to pass a bipartisan bill that keeps the good parts of Obamacare and meets the nation’s needs without polarizing the populace. There is a constitutional process that could make this happen. President Obama has to take the lead. He shouldn’t worry about the opposition. They are without leaders and nearly hopeless. Also the President and his Progressive supporters must accept constitutional limits on executive powers and the role of the states. This is not a hard problem. Ignoring it can lead to impeachment talk.

After health care, the sweeping ink trail took up the energy problem.

To start with, energy is too important to be left to spineless politicians and those progressives who believe humans can control climate and its worldwide effects. How can anyone trust politicians or executive department heads such as EPA who refuse to recognize that the world’s climate has and does change, almost constantly in historical terms? The changes are not caused by humans. Humans weren’t even present for many of the changes. How about the time when there were two miles of ice over the place now occupied by Chicago? How many emissions from cars and coal-fired plants did it take to warm up the Earth then? Any objective person of science knows that minute changes in the Earth’s orbit, the energy put out by the sun, and the occasional meteorite might have been instrumental in changes in the world’s temperature.

Again, a bipartisan energy program would not be hard to accomplish if the President could bring himself to cast aside the misguided environmentalists and focus on an intelligent use of fossil fuels while investing modest sums in finding a cleaner form of energy in this century. In the meantime, I must help him recognize that the civilization we have today and may have tomorrow, is because of fossil fuel. Pipelines, drilling on- and off-shore for oil and natural gas and building refineries are good for the nation and cheap energy will bring manufacturing jobs back to America. Massive amounts of tax dollars, poured recklessly into solar cells and wind turbines, will not magically develop even ten percent of our energy requirements.

The Advisor liked to write and ponder problems by candlelight. The flickering light was a constant reminder of how close we are to the past. He felt we are much closer to the time of our founders than we are to the citizens of the next century. Of course, that is what history is all about. Knowing the past will help us get safely into the future. Maybe, that is the message I can get across to the President.

Even I have to get some sleep. I’ll leave National Security, overstepping of executive power, and the economy for another session. If the President comes back, I will have something for him.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels. http://www.factsandfictions.com. The author has 27 years of Government service, including two years serving President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as an advisor. Considering today’s volatile political situation, you are encouraged to pass on this blog or parts of it to your contacts and friends. Comments and dialogue are welcome and helpful.

Marita Noon Commentary: We Win They Lose (fggam.org)
Eight Decades of Insights 67 – the Advisor (factsandfictions.com)

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

Tagged as Climate change, Obama, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, United States

by Barry Kelly | July 15, 2013 · 6:00 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 64 – THE ADVISOR

The Advisor on Big Goverment

“Good evening, Mr. President. Are you ready to hear my advice on the size and scope of government? Really, the same principles apply in some fashion to any very large organization. It’s not primarily dependent on which political party is in power. President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence, against the advice of my predecessor, two of the worst examples of growing the size of government to fix some problems.

“Conservatives grow the government’s bureaucratic forces to provide security. Liberals grow the bureaucracy to make things equal or to provide welfare services. Both are misguided. All bureaucracies are created to regulate and control the actions of people who actually produce goods and services. These people are the ones who built this nation and who have created the most productive and free society the world has ever seen. They are the substantive force in our civilization. They care little for regulation that makes production more costly or inefficient. They rely on the forces of a free market to guide the economy. The regulators are the process people who do not have creative skills or the individual skills to build or manage but are driven to control the process which means to control the means of productions and distribution. It would be foolish to believe regulation is not needed at times but only in the smallest amount.

“Left to themselves, the regulators will centralize and grow the size of government to the point no business can function efficiently. Today we are close to that point where the founders and leaders of industry have to pay more attention to the impact of government regulations and taxes than to the worldwide forces of the market place.

“The introduction was a bit long and you must want your cup filled and a cigarette. May I pour you some coffee? You’ll find your brand of cigarettes on the table. Any questions so far?”

” Yes, I’m ready, please pour. Although I’m beginning to doubt my sanity. I already think you must be a timeless relic from some faraway ancient civilization and wonder what beyond curiosity brings me back to your cave? Do you ever leave here?”

“Mr. President, the first eight decades of my life were spent above ground. It is much easier underground. We all eventually get here. But we can’t spend too much time talking about me. My past years are of no significance. Advising the President of the United States is a full-time job, especially when we don’t agree on a common set of facts.”

“Second question. Yes. I’ve been here several times now and I still don’t know what I should call you.”

“You may call me anything. I am and have been many things. I’m old enough to have learned names and titles are of little importance compared to the impact a man or woman makes in improving and protecting our world.”

“Maybe I should call you a professor. You know I was one once.”

“Mr. President, I was once a professor but do not prefer that title and you shouldn’t, either.”

“Why not?”

“Well, to start with your academic grades are not good and you were an instructor, not an assistant professor, an associate professor nor a professor. Your current title far surpasses your academic credentials. But let’s get started before you get up and leave. Remember, down here we must have honesty. All pretensions and embellishments must be left at the door. You can pick them up when you leave.

“My worry about big government is the embedded drive in humans to continue the process of centralization. Defined as combining segments of government, business, or religion into fewer and larger segments where fewer and fewer people make decisions. This process expands the scope of control beyond the ability of anyone to be an effective manager and steward of public funds. It is all part of the desire to make things better. Watch, when things go ‘wrong’ the cry is, ‘put someone in charge. Make someone responsible.’ 9/11 gave us that opportunity. Something was wrong. How else could such blow strike our homeland? A conservative government, under President Bush, moved to fix the problem by, of course, putting pieces of government together under a central control. To start with the pieces of government in their separateness, were not well managed. Many of them were already too large. Today Homeland Security is an example of centralizing management until you reach numbing inefficiency. Another example is the DNI organization. The Director of National Intelligence is about the worst fix anyone could have made to improve the collection, analysis, and dissemination of intelligence. I defy anyone to prove money is being saved or that the product produced has been improved. Top managers of such over-centralized organizations don’t have a clue to what is happening in the trenches. Their main concern is often getting enough reporting from the far reaches of their commands to make them look credible, especially when briefing the President or appearing before an aggressive group of journalists or legislators.

“Unfortunately, both our main political parties are vulnerable to the drive to fix things by centralization. National Health Care or Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, over reaches of OPA and the Department of Energy are other examples of good intentions leading to disastrous unforeseen consequences. While some centralization is necessary, decentralization is the sure path to renewed growth and vitality in both business and government. Good people in charge of manageable organizations can fix problems. Over centralization cannot. Creating a larger population of civil unionized workers is not a good thing even in the short run. To start with, U.S. Government employees should not be members of any union. Who or what does unionization protect them against? They are hired by the people, work for the people and are the people.

“You don’t need anymore union powers lobbying your presidency. Nearly every political pundit comes to realize that the growth in government beyond that which is absolutely necessary, threatens individual freedom and the overall freedom to create and produce new goods and products. Look at all the cases in history where freedom has been lost or eroded by governments grown beyond the need. The growth of government is always pushed by people who have good intentions and a poor understanding of history and management principles. Don’t let your presidency be the one that pushes growth of government beyond need and endangers freedom and economic growth.”

“I’m not sure I believe any of that but I will think on it.”

“Mr. President, thank you. You must make the final decisions. Not all advice is good. Maybe I am not 100% right all the time. But I have no personal or organizational agenda. What do want to cover at our next meeting?”

“You decide. I must go now. It’s a good thing you serve the best coffee and I have the freedom to smoke without anyone giving me disapproving looks. That alone makes me come back.”

The author of the Jack Brandon novels is a Korean War veteran and served in the Vietnam War as a CIA agent who has 27

Meeting with President Reagan, Vice President Bush, Deputy National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci and General Colin Powell in the Oval Office.

years of government service, including two years serving President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s as an advisor. Considering today’s volatile political situation, you are encouraged to pass on this blog or parts of it to your contacts and friends. Comments and dialogue are welcome and helpful. www.factsandfictions.com.

Eight Decades of Insights 32 (factsandfictions.com)
The High Cost Of Maintaining ‘Homeland Security’ (warnewsupdates.blogspot.com)

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Filed under Capitalism, centralization, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, management theory, Politics, Progressives

Tagged as big government, Bush, Department of Homeland Security, director of national intelligence, George W. Bush, Oval Office, President, United States

by Barry Kelly | May 23, 2013 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 52

American flag (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

IT MATTERS

The Benghazi cover up matters. The lying regarding the “Talking Points” matters. The failure to provide adequate security to the Americans serving in Benghazi matters. The decision not to attempt a rescue matters. The president’s role during and after the attack matters. The triumph of re-election politics over protecting Americans serving in dangerous locations matters. The IRS‘s broad discrimination against conservative groups matters. The lack of leadership and accountability in the Obama Administration matters. The Justice Department‘s, including the FBI‘s, monitoring of phone calls made to AP reporters matters.

These wide-ranging activities matter because they all diminish our freedom.

Freedom is not a constant state of being. It needs to be protected and nourished. All of us who have served our nation took an oath to protect the nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Perhaps the biggest concern is that if these things don’t matter, what is to prevent the same progressive group from building on this foundation of deceit and political spin? Once the system of “checks and balances” is ignored and government corruption is accepted as just partisan politics and the critical press is silenced, freedom of the individual will be a vanishing concept instead of the very anchor of our democracy. For without individual freedom there is no freedom at all.

The stakes are very high. Already we have re-elected a president who probably would not have won if his inner circle hadn’t been successful in delaying the disclosure of Benghazi, the IRS, or the Justice’s abuse of the privacy of AP reporters. These abuses of power do not stem from a vacuum. They are part of the teachings of Saul Alinsky, i.e., “the issue is never the issue.” The translation is to use all issues to destroy all opposition and seize political power. The issues themselves are not important. Do you think President Obama would be in the Oval Office if the Benghazi murders, the IRS’s attack on conservative groups and the AP phone tap debacle had come out a few months before the election?

I don’t think so. There are wise people in our history, who believed that when more people want government assistance and value security over freedom, American democracy is in its last stages. I hope they are wrong. We shall soon see.

By the author of the Jack Brandon Thriller Series. www.factsandfictions.com