Category Archives: trump

by Barry Kelly | August 12, 2016 · 12:49 pm

INSIGHTS 274: National Security managers versus Donald Trump

This week, 50 national security bureaucrats signed a document stating Donald Trump wasn’t fit to be Commander-in-Chief. Devastating? Not really!

National security specialists look at the world through a very murky lens. They are often wrong about their own specialty. In fact, some noteworthy national security advisors have missed what have been called the most important security issues of our times.

This whole class of self-designated security elitists have presided over the decline of American power and prestige. They lacked the courage and honor to stand up and be counted during the terrible Obama wartime decisions. They knew the military power of the United States was being systematically diminished. They knew about the fiasco over Benghazi and the failure of the leadership to even try to rescue the valiant men who died there. They knew the Obama infatuation with Iran was leading to a terrible deal that would reward the No. 1 terrorist sponsor in the world. They knew we should not have withdrawn all our forces from Iraq. They knew the Obama polices were failing to deal with Syria and the growth of ISIS. They knew Putin intends to reconstitute the Russian empire and that the Chinese were expanding their dominance in the China Sea. And they all stood quietly by, obeying orders from an administration they knew had a view of the world very far from reality.

Where were their petitions and outcries then? Why didn’t they resign in protest? To resign and protest in the face of a vindictive leader takes honor and courage. It seems these critical characteristics were missing. These men are not leaders. They are merely failed managers who valued their careers over the needs of the nation.

Donald Trump scares these timid managers. None of them would last in a Trump administration.

INSIGHTS 273: Donald Trump and the politically correct world

America faces several critical problems. The national debt; stagnant wages; a real unemployment rate of plus 12 percent; an administration that cannot be trusted to tell the people the truth; terrorism that has reached our shores and shows no signs of being defeated; cash payments of 400 million dollars to Iran in the form of ransom for hostages; territorial aggression on the part of Russia and China; class warfare in America; a crumbling infrastructure network of roads, bridges, airports and utility distribution systems; a military that has to salvage parts from museums and junk yards to keep ancient warplanes flying; military manpower approaching pre-World War II levels; a war against terrorism our commander-in-chief refuses to recognize or to develop a strategy to deny ISIS safe havens in the Middle East; anti-American regimes in Iran and North Korea whose main national objectives is to develop and use nuclear armed ballistic missiles against the homeland; a tax and regulation load that kills existing business and prevents new start-ups; health care for the people, especially our vets … the list could go on.

And what is playing endlessly on our news media? Certainly not anything from the above list. No, we have become a nation of petty politically correct issues. Not just from the liberal media but also from conservative news outlets. The polls swing on the impact of politically correct trivia and not on a discussion of important issues that threaten America. The tyranny of the novel “1984” has been replaced by the politically correct dominated modern world of 2016. The progressives of the Hillary Clinton party know they cannot win a debate on real issues so have skillfully made the election about the real or contrived statements attributed to Mr. Donald Trump.

A few examples: The furor over Trump’s statements that some of the immigrants coming unopposed across the southern border were criminals, murders, and rapists. The PC spin is that Trump said all immigrants were criminals. Or his statement that Muslims should be temporarily banned from coming into the United States until they could be vetted. Sounds reasonable to me. But the PC version is that he is opposed to all Muslims entering the country. Or all nations in NATO should pay their required yearly proportion of their annual national budget. Reasonable, I think, but the PC spin version is Trump intends to withdraw from NATO. On the tax issue. Mr. Trump has said he would lower taxes on corporations and individuals. Not a bad idea. The PC spin version is that Trump’s tax plan will only benefit the richest Americans.

The Khan family dust-up. The Khans were recruited by the Progressives to attack Mr. Trump at the Democratic Convention over his stand on Muslims by doubting he ever read the Constitution and that he dishonored their son, an American soldier who was killed in Iraq. Again the motive of the PC spin was to attack Trump’s position on Muslim immigration. A long stretch, but the Progressives turned this into an attack on ‘Gold Star’ mothers when Mr. Trump unwisely questioned why Mrs. Khan had not spoken up at the DNC. His record shows Donald Trump is very pro veterans and military families. His stance on the Veteran’s Administration is far ahead of any past or present candidate.

Candidate Trump is not a politician. He often isn’t careful enough about what the progressive spin doctors can and will do with his imprecise words. The political world of dialogue about new thoughts and possible actions is very different from initial discussion of ideas and proposals in the world of commercial projects where the first mention of an idea is just the beginning of the negotiating process. In the high offices of government. Ideas are most often discussed, debated, and scrubbed before they see the light of day. Mr. Trump needs to recognize this difference and we need to reject the PC responses of the progressives and turn the debate to the real problems facing America. If not, four more years of the same. We need change before it is too late.

INSIGHTS 269:HILLARY LAND

cbsnews.com

Let’s fast forward to January 2017. The election is over, the Inauguration is over and the process of a new president taking over the running of America has begun. Enough Republicans stayed home during the November voting period and too many independents decided no change was better than a wholesale turnover of the Obama government to Donald Trump. The election was close but the Obama electoral coalition held together and the voters gave the Progressives four more years to transform America.

President Clinton staffed her cabinet with proven left-wing Progressives. Her coattails were strong enough to pull in a majority of Senate Members and produce a nearly equal number of Progressive Democrats in the House. In short order Obamacare, now called Hillary care by the media, became the law of the land. A “single payer” system removed all doubt that America now had a true socialized medicine system. Some tenets of her medical care plan that she proposed under her husband’s presidency such as making it a felony for a doctor or patient to participate in providing or receiving medical treatment outside the government medical system were included. Cost savings were introduced by severely limiting medical treatment for all Americans over 72 years of age.

Taxes on wealthy Americans with incomes in excess of $100,000 and corporations were increased. The minimum hourly wage was increased to $20.00 and unemployment benefits were extended to four years. The resulting loss of income due to falling tax revenues and rising unemployment was offset by further drastic cuts in military spending. An easy path to citizenship was extended to all illegal or “undocumented” immigrants. The nation’s borders were virtually open, both to the South and the North. The nation’s health care and unemployment benefits as well as the food stamp program were expanded and extended to everyone residing in the United States. Residents and voters not contributing to the national revenue greatly outnumbered the tax payers.

Large infra structure programs were being pushed through Congress to provide jobs for the unemployed. Over runs of the budget were predicted. To manage the economy, various bills were proposed that would nationalize the large banks and credit institutions. A minority of Americans spoke and wrote of the dangers of a one-party system of government. The White House was lobbying for small changes to the Constitution that would allow national gun control, limit media outlets, including the internet, from political criticism of the government and provide more Government control over the curriculum of both public and private educational institutions. Many of these measures carried felony penalties for individuals and institutions that met the criteria defining prosecutable violations of the limits of free speech.

Pay attention! We cannot let this happen!

My latest novel, The Sub Rosa Manuscript by Barry Kelly gives, I believe, a clear understandable account of the steady erosion of the personal and economic freedom we inherited from the sacrifices of those who went before us. It is now our turn to protect our inheritance by rejecting the empty promises of progressivism.

INSIGHTS 267: Revolutions Trump Transformations

Is there any doubt that a people’s revolt is pushing through the barricades of the entrenched bureaucracies, both in Europe and America? Bureaucracies of the elites are systemically taking away choices from the people. In America, the elites in both political parties and the massive expansion of government by the Obama progressive process of Transformation are moving toward Socialism. In Europe, the increasing centralization of economic and political power by the EU in Brussels was moving steadily toward globalism. The British people successfully revolted against the erosion of their sovereignty.

What is happening in America? Our dominate political parties have the same names, but they are unrecognizable using any yardstick from our history. The Democratic party under the leadership of President Obama and the Clinton’s has move so far left, staunch party leaders from the past three or four decades would not recognize today’s Democratic Party. The Republican party has been captured by an elite of theoretical conservatives who are not interested in governing, only in pursuing a shining goal of pure conservatism with the zeal of a medieval priesthood. Both party leaders natter on with religious zealousness while the people suffer. Neither elite is worthy of any of our loyalty.

Both of these ideological driven elites have sponsored a corrupt primary election process to ensure they can select leaders who sound like them and worship at the same ideological altars. The Republican elites have rallied around defeating the candidate that overwhelming defeated all opponents. They would sooner give the leadership of the nation to the opposing party rather than support the candidate the people selected. This elite blinded by their inability to recognize what the nation is calling for, whine about not going to the Republican Convention in Cleveland unless they can figure out some way to overthrow Donald Trump for a more controllable candidate who worships at the same altar with the same conservative chant. Some other ideological Republican elites swear they won’t support the candidate, or even vote for him. Instead they announce they are leaving the party. Good. No one needs or wants them. Including past presidents and National candidates. The nation needs to dump them. Their day is over. We need leaders who put the nation and its people first. Leaders who can solve huge problems, not seek ideological purity.

The Revolution now gathering impetus in America will sweep away the vestiges of the Transformation pushed by the Progressives for the last seven plus years, if it can find leadership committed to addressing real issues instead of raving about some purist ideology. None of our great leaders, including President Reagan was a rigid ideologue. They put the nation’s needs first and that is what is needed today.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Books, centralization, Clinton, Conservative views, Convention, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, political solutions, Republicans, trump

by Barry Kelly | June 10, 2016 · 12:48 pm

INSIGHTS 262 TRUMP IS NO RACIST

Saying stupid things does not make you a racist. The way you live your life makes it clear if you are a racist or not. Although the Speaker of the House used the word in a reference to Mr. Trump’s stupid comments about an American judge with a Mexican heritage. Stupid undisciplined comments do not make you a racist, no matter how hard the left-wing media tries.

They do show, however, that Mr. Trump doesn’t seem to realize he is now the prime actor on the big stage. No one wants to hear about Trump University or how some judge is treating Mr. Trump unfairly. The subject is trivial and the unfair comments sound like whining. When he focuses on the trivia of his personal life, he is neglecting the millions of people who support him. They want to hear him talk about fixing America. Not about the tale of Trump University. Leave that to his lawyers and his very competent family. Let’s hope we never hear him talk about Trump University again. Win, lose or draw. We just don’t care.

Get on message about “Making America Great Again.” Mr. Trump has some great people around him. He needs to listen to them. He needs them. He has huge gaps in what we expect a presidential candidate to know and understand. The Nation needs his leadership now. The Progressive/Socialist campaign of President Obama has done extensive damage to our economy, national security, medical care and our traditional world leadership role. Our candidate for President needs to focus on the big picture and get on with saving America.