by | March 9, 2014 · 9:21 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 105

LAW AND ORDER

Law and order is a wonderful concept. Our way of life depends on the police and courts of the cities, states, and nation to meet their responsibilities of keeping us safe and our republic functioning smoothly. Throughout our history there has been no or little conflict between the forces of law and order and those of our war fighting forces. Other nations have had to learn to manage the conflict. The British forces in Ireland had to augment their colonial struggle against the Irish and the guerrilla fighters in Malaya. The French in Algiers. The Germans against the underground opposition in occupied Europe. The list goes on.

In America, we had no such experience. Until the Twin Towers came down we had no need to change our ways of keeping our population safe and our property secure. Years before, during my tenure in the White House as a special assistant to President Reagan, we were getting close to the limits of using law and order tactics against terrorism. In one meeting in the Oval Office, I remember briefing President Reagan on our plans to combat terrorism. In that period, airplane hijackings, urban bombing, kidnapping were the tools of terrorism. My briefing explained how we were focusing the forces of law and order on identified individual terrorists with the intent of capturing them, no matter where they were hiding, and bringing them back to America for trial.

Now that seems like a very conservative approach. But it was pushing the envelope then and there was serious resistance to violating international law from high level officials. Had I been wiser about looking into the future, I would have included in my briefing that we needed to start working on a more aggressive approach to the growing threat of terrorism. We were already past the comfort zone of using traditional tools of law enforcement.

Instead of focusing on a few dozen active terrorists, we now are threatened by thousands. Instead of a handful of terrorists awaiting trial in our system of justice, there have been hundred of terrorists captured. Most of them are captured on the battlefield; there is seldom evidence that can pass our rules of acceptance for use in our justice system. There is even a problem of where to hold them. The Obama administration has made it a cornerstone of their ideology to close Guantanamo Bay as a place to hold terrorists and provide them with a trial by military tribunals. Our attorney general and the president do not recognize that we are fighting a war against terrorism and the capabilities and rules of evidence required by our courts are not suited for trials of terrorists who are not American citizens and who were captured on the battlefield, fighting for no nation state and wearing no national uniform. I don’t even believe that the rules of the Geneva Convention were meant to apply in these cases.

So now we have the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden being tried in a New York court. Why? Is Eric Holder a control king? Do he and the president want to cut the military justice system out? Do they want to control the information that comes out in trials? It certainly cannot  be on moral grounds. These are the same people who brag about killing terrorists with drone strikes. Being an American citizen doesn’t provide protection from drone strikes. Where is the due process and trial procedures there?  The American people deserve an explanation from the president re his policy of pretending there is no war on terrorism and his practice of giving foreign terrorists who have been caught trying to kill us access to a justice system that until now has been part of our constitutional rights reserved for citizens and legal residents. I suspect the motivation for such madness  is part of the extreme left progressive ideology followed by our civilian leaders. The core of this ideology is that if we show kindness and compassion to our enemies they will cease attacking us.

Not in this world.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels. http://www.facebook.com/factsandfictions | @factsfictions80

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by | March 6, 2014 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 104

CHAOS IN THE LAND

I wonder how many people when they hear the word “change” think of a new and better approach to individual and national problems. When I hear that word, I think, “hope and a better life are gone.” It seems that hope and change requires chaos as a required element of the way progressives bring about change. Our president isn’t very good about working on our issues, individual or national. Is it possible that a man who has won two national elections seems to be a reckless, incompetent leader when it comes to management.

Take Obamacare. It would take a battalion of Philadelphia lawyers to mess up the implementation of the Affordable Care Act more than President Obama and his minions. He’s been educated at our best schools, taught Constitutional law at the university level, given countless speeches, and served in the Senate of his state and nation.

Maybe he believes radical transformation of a long-standing national system of government requires widespread chaos as a midwife. When people are in despair over health care, lack of employment, a capricious and/or corrupt civil service, lost lives, and treasure in wars the president never explains or even mentions, the erosion of savings, a poor education system with no other choice for their children, welfare of the nation’s warriors, a government that no one trusts anymore, a national government that has lost respect at home and abroad, and an administration that destroys both individual initiative and American industries, they are ripe for change of any kind. We elected this president twice. Why should he doubt he and the progressive party can offer change people in despair will accept?

You would think the debacle of Obamacare, the rapid growth of the rate of spending more then we take in, the plan to cut back the Army to pre-World War II levels, the push to destroy first coal and then the rest of the fossil fuel sources, the thousands of returning veterans without civilian jobs or the option to remain in the military, the corruption in the IRS, that never seems to be investigated by the Justice Department or the FBI, would be enough to ensure a change in the White House in 2016. Not so. The growth of people who are dependent on government welfare, if incentivized to vote, will be enough to swing the popular vote to the progressives.

Don’t believe President Obama is inept. He isn’t. By his standards and those of Saul Alinsky, the progressives guru, he is right on schedule. The issue is never the issue. Traditional Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and independents —  you don’t have many chances. The 2014 and 2016 elections must be won by the opponents of the progressive party and its foreign ideology.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels. This blog is meant to be shared and encourage dialogue.

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by | March 4, 2014 · 7:40 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 103

PUTIN-OBAMA FACEOFF

Are Putin’s action in the Ukraine a surprise? I hope not, but for the group of amateurs in this administration, they probably were. Is there a foreign policy expert in the stack of dead wood the president depends on? Certainly not Secretary of State Kerry or Vice President Biden or the departed Mrs. Clinton. Reminds me of the surprise of the Carter White House when the Ayatollah was allowed to enter Iran from Europe. When have deeply committed religious radicals ever established a true democracy with regular free elections? I think the Carter administration was shocked when his followers took over the U.S. Embassy in Teheran and established an Islamic theocracy. When the Russians moved into Afghanistan, he was again surprised.

For centuries, the czars had tried to establish a geo-political foothold in South Asia. Through Afghanistan was the most direct route to a warm-water port and the riches of the sub-continent. Only the power of the British Empire thwarted the Russian plan. The Russians, seeing a weak U.S. president, made their move and thousands of lives were lost to add to the total killed by the Muslim aristocracy in Iran. History holds many keys to the future and weakness invites aggression. It has always been so. Now what about Ukraine?

The Ukraine was part of the great Russian Empire that President Putin wants to restore. Ukraine looks both east and west. To the west are its hopes for a close relationship with Europe to balance the threat from Russia. To the east it has a long border with a powerful nation that has shown its willingness to use its military power to achieve political goals, such as the forcible annexation of a part of the Georgia nation in the era of the Bush presidency. Ukraine’s current leadership knows it cannot afford a conflict with Russia without strong political support from the west.

What are President Putin’s plans? Well, even the Obama administration should understand that the recent upheaval in the Ukraine threatens Russia’s strategic interests. The only warm-water port in the entire Russian nation is in the Ukraine. This port is part of a settlement between Ukraine and Russia. Russia’s entire Black Sea Naval Force calls Sevastopol home. A large portion of the people in the area of Sevastopol are Russian ethnics. President Putin probably felt he had to move to protect his naval forces. The question is will he push to acquire Ukrainian territory beyond the strategic area of Sevastopol? He knows his history. There is not great love between the people of Ukraine and the Russians to the east. When the German panzers pushed into the Ukraine in World War II, many Ukrainians welcomed them as liberators. Some even took up arms and supported the Germans. Unfortunately, for those Ukrainians and the German Army, the German leadership treated the Ukrainians like the other people they had conquered. German cruelty knew no ethnic bounds in their drive to occupy Moscow.

President Obama has few options. One is to know that his plan to reduce the U.S. Army to pre-World War II levels is  another revealing sign of his weakness. He should immediately re-think his destruction of American power. Peace has never come from weakness. A strong America is necessary for a path to peace. The progressive party is well on the way to achieving what neither the aggressors of both World Wars and the Cold War could accomplish. Our president is a master of winning elections but he is way out of his league when dealing with a man who is not afraid of power and its use.

If Putin goes beyond the securing of routine access to strategic Russian bases in the Crimea portion of the Ukraine and annexes Ukrainian territory, the Obama administration will maybe learn that words do not count for much in the constant struggle to maintain world peace. Weakness only feeds the actions of dictators. It does nothing in the struggle to contain territorial aggression.  The willingness to maintain and use national power when necessary, sets apart real leaders from empty ones. Ronald Reagan was a real leader. Barack Obama is not.

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by | March 3, 2014 · 2:34 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 102

GOP MUTINY

The ship has run aground. The captain, who managed his own election, lost his touch. Part of the crew is loyal because they see no other alternative. The rest of the crew knows it needs a new captain, but can’t seem to summon the guts necessary for a mutiny.

The ship is named the GOP. The Speaker of the House didn’t see the shoals and allowed the ship to drift until his ship got moored in the soft sand. These are uncharted waters and the speaker is at a loss. He doesn’t know what to do. So he does nothing.

Sound like a parody of the Republican House of Representatives? Yes! The speaker and his top mates believe the situation calls for doing nothing. Their opponents, the progressive Democrats, have such a terrible record that the speaker believes the voters will reject them in the November 2014 elections. The voters might do that if they had any belief or trust that the Republicans had anything  to offer except negative votes.

But the House Republicans have failed to offer clear options. I’m a news junkie and a conservative of the Reagan school and I haven’t got a clue about what the House Republican leadership offers in health care, defense strategy, foreign policy, shape and size of government, welfare reform, tax reform, reforming a corrupt civil service, education, or immigration. Sure, every once in a while some representative offers a partial solution to one of these areas, but the House leadership acts as if they don’t know what to do with new ideas, except to ignore them.

I believe they are afraid to be innovative and precise about their plans because someone might use them against them in the battle for election of members in November 2014. So they never play their best hand and continue to hide their cards. A pot is seldom won with unplayed cards. House Republicans: Get out of your comfort zone and do what we sent you to Washington to do. Protect the nation and our individual liberties.

Sometimes a mutiny is necessary to save the ship.

 

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon novels. http://www.facebook.com/factsandfictions.

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EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 101

A COUP IN THE USA?

Is a coup possible in America? If enough of us keep our heads buried in the sand, it will happen sometime. It may not require violence or the deployment of uniformed troops; there have been coups without gunfire in the streets. A coup is simply the shifting of power from an existing norm to a new organization of government that becomes the new norm. A new structure that no longer permits individual freedom to criticize or work to change back to the old system. The slogan ‘one person, one vote, one time’  is an apt description. No violence or dramatic action is required. A coup can happen slowly over a period of years, one small step at a time.

The one thing that is essential for a coup to succeed is the coup sponsors must first destroy the opposition. In America the first opposition to a coup is the opposing political party. The law and courts also protect our current system. The concept of a separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government is another bulwark against inside coups. Lastly, our traditions and collective morality make drastic change harder for the coup makers.

Let’s assume that President Obama and his cadre of progressive radicals are working to turn America into a one-party government, run by a self-proclaimed progressive elite, in order to bring about their version of heaven on earth. Are they succeeding? The only way we can tell is to look at their policies and actions over the last six years.

What do they need to do?

(1) Control health care and associated industries. The Obama administration is well on the way to controlling the seven plus percent of the national economy and a very large part of the populace.

(2) Expand the welfare  system under federal control. The welfare system, including unemployment insurance and food stamps, has grown immensely under Obama.

(3) Ensure win at the polls. Using blatant delaying tactics, the administration withheld critical information on Fast and Furious (gun running to the drug cartels),  Ben Ghazi, the IRS targeting of conservative groups, the targeting of journalists, and the true nature of Obamacare. It also fought voter I.D. legislation in all the states aimed at reducing voter fraud. Why would anyone object to identifying themselves at the polling places? The Obama administration knows how to win elections using all possible tactics.

 

(4) Re-distribution of wealth. The increase of welfare programs, the pushing  for higher taxes on the wealthy, and constant messaging to promote class warfare are seen by many as an organized campaign to destroy capitalism and the free market. Plans for a death tax to destroy the economic power of wealthy American families are waiting in the wings. The administration is fully prepared to use the United Nations to re-distribute national wealth through programs like Cap and Trade (global warming).

(5) Shift control of industry from the private sector to federal control. The flow of regulations from the executive branch is at the highest level ever. Many of these regulations give the federal government more control over the means of production. (The killing of the coal industry comes to mind.)

(6)  Encourage class warfare issues. Do you remember President Obama ever giving a speech that did not include class warfare rhetoric like “protecting the middle class,” “the widening gap in income levels,” and “the top 2 percent must pay their fair share?” This is the big lie of the Progressives. Repeat it often enough and people will believe it. (A page out of the Nazi coup success.)

(7) Focus attention on domestic issues. Notice the president almost never gives a speech devoted to foreign policy issues. All his energy is devoted to transforming domestic America. He is so inept at foreign policy that it appears he just doesn’t care about foreign issues.

(8) Destroy the opposition. With considerable help from the hopeless Republican Party leadership, Obama progressives are  well on their way to establishing the ground work for a one-party system.

(9) Control the justice system and the courts. The Department of Justice is under tight control of the progressive agenda. Why else would investigations by Justice employees, including the FBI, be so slow and ineffective? The IRS’s deliberate targeting of conservative groups and the State Department and Joint Chiefs lies and failures of the Ben Ghazi affair are virtually being ignored by the FBI and Justice Department. Congressional inquires by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives are, at best, lackadaisical. After the debacle of the Supreme Court’s rewriting of the Affordable Care Act to make it constitutional, can we count on the judicial system to protect the Constitution from the executive branch’s routine usurping of the powers reserved to the Congress? Probably not.

(10) Corrupt the civil service. The IRS, FBI, STATE, EPA, HHS, ENERGY, JUSTICE, EDUCATION, DEA have all lost their claim to being politically neutral. They are, or seem to be, fully on board with the Progressive Party, once the proud Democratic Party.

(11) Weaken the military. Successive deployments have worn down the troops. They need more manpower, not planned cutbacks. New weapon systems need to be planned and procured. The Joint Chiefs of Staff needs to be composed of people who are not afraid to tell the truth and who will not lie to protect the White House. Mission creep turned the campaign in Afghanistan from victory into a defeat. Nation building is not something the military or any part of our government knows how to do. The War in Afghanistan under the current rules of engagement cost us many of our best and bravest.

(12):  Protect the message. Everyone in the Progressive Party must be on the same page. It doesn’t matter if the message is true. Over and over with the big lie while at the same time doing everything possible to censor the opposition. Outspend them, use the power of the government to criticize and punish the media outlets that print and broadcast news that is not favorable to the administration. Fox News and talk radio are examples of  uncontrollable media outlets. Witness the recent effort by the FCC to send its people out to newspaper media outlets to query them on how they decide to publish an article and what is their political position. Under a law-abiding administration, this would be prevented by the Constitution.

If the current governing process is continued, you won’t be able to recognize what is left. Your freedom and control of your own destiny will only be memories. It will  be a coup by a “thousand cuts.” Wake up, America, while there is still time.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels.

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by | February 28, 2014 · 7:30 am