Tag Archives: government

by Barry Kelly | January 19, 2015 · 11:08 am

INSIGHTS 184 — STATE OF THE UNION SPIN

When you watch President Obama’s State of the Union speech, remember he deals in spin, flipping issues, and tailored numbers. The truth is not an ingredient for Obama’s speeches.

For example, he will take credit for an improving economy and the huge drop in gas prices. The economy is not improving and won’t under his tenure. Unemployment is still in double digits if the numbers were honest.

Dropping out of the work force and off the unemployment roles does not mean you have found a job. Job growth numbers are spun to maximize part-time workers and those who quit looking. The increased supply in crude oil is not due to anything Obama or his administration have done or are doing. Oil production from federal land has dropped. The increase in oil production in America from fracking is nearly all from private or state-owned lands.

The glut in the current oil market is because Saudi Arabia’s existence depends on revenue from crude oil production. Saudi market share was being reduced by cheap oil from Russia, Iran, ISIS, Venezuela, and America. The Saudis can not afford to lose market share. The Saudis know none of these oil producers can pump and sell oil under $60 or $70 per barrel. The Saudis can for a long time.

The Russian ruble is falling like a stone, many American crude oil producers of oil pumped in America are being hurt. Many are cutting back and laying off workers, some are in or close to bankruptcy. Venezuela is a financial shambles. They cannot support Cuba any longer. (Want to guess why the Castros were so eager to make a deal with Obama?)

Iran and ISIS both enemies of the Saudis are also being punished for marketing oil under OPEC prices. American companies with large stakes in Saudi Oil are doing fine. The days when Saudi Arabia and America were close allies are over.

The Saudis bear a large part of the blame for the upsurge of militant Islam. For many decades, the Saudi government funded the teaching of an extreme form of Islam throughout the world. That was their way of ensuring the radical imams did not preach revolution within Saudi Arabia. So far, their self-serving formula has worked. There is a good chance their costly punishment of competitive oil producers may also work for a while. Obama is not a player. He is just trying to use the issue to make his presidency look far better than it is.

The real issue for a response to the president’s State of the Union speech is: can the nation ever recover from Obama’s progressive transformation of America? The answer is probably not in a few years, but maybe in a decade. The damage is incredible. The entire government structure has supported Obama’s fictional view of America and the world. They no longer can separate the truth from the lies they live by every day. The IRS is a perfect example. Drastic change is necessary.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/mystery novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an e-book, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Insights: Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” is now published and available in paperback at $9.95 and on nook and kindle at $6.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, oil

Tagged as government, Obama, politics, speech, state of the Union

by Barry Kelly | January 9, 2015 · 8:16 am

INSIGHTS 183 — OBAMA’S WORLD VIEW, FANTASY OR REALITY?

America’s security is threatened by a president, an attorney general, and a Cabinet who do not believe Islam is waging a serious war on the West and American in particular.

The president, whose words and actions have clearly put him on the Islamic side of any issue, will not change his anti-west, anti-Israel position. You do not send the FBI, the courts, the Justice Department, or the Department of Homeland Security to the battlefield. You don’t mirandize terrorist prisoners. Instead you interrogate them and lock them up until reality tells us the war is over.

No president, especially this one, can declare unilaterally that the war is over. The president can withdraw America from the war, as he has done and is doing, but he cannot faithfully follow his oath to protect America by declaring the war is over. His words mean nothing on the actual state of affairs. Actions are the real determinants.

Releasing enemy combatants from Guantanamo Bay, trying enemy combatants in civil courts who, then have the full rights of American citizens is too absurd even for a fiction writer. The very necessary rules of gathering and presenting evidence, the right to confront your accusers, the right to counsel and judgement by your peers are the foundation of the American rule of law. They do not apply to enemy combatants captured by our armed forces in a combat environment.

They should be interrogated for timely and critical intelligence using enhanced methods of interrogation as required. We have done this in every war America has fought. Not this one, where the commander-in-chief won’t even say we are at war, will not acknowledge the enemy are Islamists, and whose rules of engagement further complicate the execution of the war by the very people whose entire lives have been devoted to preparing for and fighting America’s wars.

If you cannot identify your enemy, give enemy combatants the protection of our courts, and run the war out of the White House with people who have never been at war, one thing is certain, you will not win. We are not yet Europe, but moving that way. Prayer rugs may soon be on sale online from white house.fantasy/war.

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Filed under Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, ISIS, Israel, Obama, Obamacare, Politics, Terrorism

Tagged as government, Islam, Obama, politics

by Barry Kelly | January 5, 2015 · 1:02 pm

INSIGHTS 182 — WATCH THE SPIN DOCTORS

Every administration has had its “spin doctors” who massage every bit of news to make the president look good. If this administration’s spin doctors would work with wool rather than information, we would have something positive to show for the effort besides lies, which don’t have much lasting value.

First let’s look at the economy. Al Sharpton has joined the ranks of the economic spin doctors with his recent praise for the president’s efforts to build the now booming economy. Most of the numbers released by the administration are questionable or judiciously have excluded facts they don’t like. That is the way of spin doctors. Millions of people have dropped out of the work force (those actively looking for employment) because they have given up looking for a job. These people are not counted in the unemployment percentage number. The population of people coming of age to work, not including illegals, has continued to grow faster than job creation.

Wages have not keep pace even with a low rate of inflation which also excludes the increasing cost of many items that routinely are part of the cost of living. Wages increase when there is a competition among employers for workers. Without an increasing demand for workers, wages will remain depressed. Many Americans with jobs today are working far below their skill levels. Just check with college graduates over the last six years. Instead of one career job with good wages, many Americans are working two or three part-time jobs. How does that show up in figures that measure the economy?

The last argument progressives turn to is the growth of the stock market and the wealth it has brought to the economy. This is more spin. The stock market and the general economy where Americans mostly get their income are not closely linked. Only those wealthy enough to participate in the stock market have done well. Wall Street has benefited by the 80-plus billion dollars per month the Federal Reserve has pumped into the financial world. It is only now starting to taper off this incredible example of Keynesian economics whose primary tenet is that a nation can spend enough to enrich the general economy or increase the output of goods and services. This financial ideology has never worked to get a nation out of debt or increase its Gross National Product (GNP). High taxes, government deficit financing, and over regulation all depress economic activity.

Are things better for most Americans right now? Yes! But Obama and his administration had nothing to do with the improvement. Thank Saudi Arabia, which increased its pumping of oil to glut the market and force down the price of energy, mostly clearly seen at the gas pump. The Saudis have not increased their pumping and marketing of their oil to help us. They are doing this for their own national interests. A motivation this administration doesn’t seem to understand. The Saudi increased production to punish their competition that has sharply increased the world’s supply of oil and depressed the price of a barrel of oil far under the former OPEC price. The Russians, the Iranians, ISIS, and the United States are the culprits in the eyes of the Saudis. By bankrupting or punishing these over producers they hope to insure their long-term dominant share of revenue from the sale of oil on the world market. The Saudi strategy is working. The Russians, Iranians, and ISIS are suffering as well as some oil-producing companies in America.

The bargain price of fossil fuel energy is what is improving the American economy. That and the promise of a Republican-controlled Congress that might produce tax reform, the Keystone Pipeline, a cut in government size and spending, and a commonsense approach to the over-regulation of the current administration. Live in hope.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/mystery novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an ebook, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Insights: Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” is now published and available in paperback at $9.95 and on nook and kindle at $6.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Intelligence & Politics

Tagged as administration, government, Obama, politics, spin doctors

by Barry Kelly | November 17, 2014 · 7:28 am

INSIGHTS 173 — GOP, ACT LIKE A WINNER

I readily admit to being a proud right-of-center conservative, but I have mixed feelings about being called a Republican. The establishment party is both timid and dumb. No conservative should be timid in announcing what they believe and what they want to accomplish. The Republicans are afraid to tell the people their legislative goals and plans. They are afraid the progressives will challenge their programs.

Being dumb is harder to understand. The House and Senate Republican leadership have never understood what Obama is about. He is not a typical left-wing Democrat or liberal president that battles over issues with the opposition. He has told everyone he is about transforming America. He has steadily worked toward a one-party socialist system of government and a re-distribution of wealth. He controls the agenda of government. The Republican Party, with the energy provided by the various tea parties, just won a resounding victory. But who is controlling the government agenda? Not the victors, but the loser!

Instead of telling the American people what great things they are going to do to restore economic growth, protect the rights of the people, re-establish our military and diplomatic prowess, and preserve the separation of powers doctrine, they are letting Obama dictate the agenda. The Republicans charge as long as the master manipulator flicks the red cape of executive power. He doesn’t care about Hispanic immigrants. If he did he would have passed legislation in the first two years of this reign when he controlled both houses of Congress. He only wants the Republicans to keep their identity as the party of anti-immigrants.

Why let a defeated president control the agenda of politics? Let him do his immigration executive order and work to pass a real immigration bill that will supersede Obama’s executive order. Strengthen the borders and give more border authority and funds to the border governors to fix their borders. They’ll do a better job than the federal government ever has or will. Ignore the rambling rhetoric of the president. Draft and pass real legislation. So what if he vetoes it. Keep legislating. That’s what you do. That’s your power base. That’s what you know how to do. Do not spend your energy and our time battling the president on his turf and his rules. Take charge. Let him pout and threaten to rule America with his pen and phone. See how far that gets him. The people have said Obama is irrelevant. Why don’t you believe them?

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/mystery novels and “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an ebook, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Another analytical book on the transforming process, “Stepping Stones to Tyranny,” will be published before Christmas. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. Please forward this message to your Republican representatives.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, democrats, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, Progressives

Tagged as GOP, government, Obama, politics, Republicans

by Barry Kelly | October 15, 2014 · 7:30 am

INSIGHTS 166: UNDERSTANDING THE RELIGION

To understand your opponent’s beliefs, you need to take the time to identify their core beliefs. Today, I’ll look at what I believe are the core beliefs of those who are left of center along the political divide.

All of us must recognize that the core beliefs of political parties, religions, social groups, and even sports teams have beliefs that are a mixture of facts, myths, tradition, and emotional ‘need-to-believe’ items. I believe the core values or beliefs of liberals start with the tenet that capitalism is essentially evil and it needs constant and extensive regulation to mitigate the damage that it does. Certainly the liberal/progressives working in the Obama administration have pumped out thousands of regulations that affect commercial activities of corporations and small businesses. For everyone to ‘have a fair shot’ like the liberals want, they believe capitalism must be drastically controlled.

The pay gap between CEOs and workers must be reduced. Liberals believe in deficit financing because it is necessary to fund welfare programs and other important government spending. Keynesian monetary policies, based on the belief that a nation can spend its way to prosperity, are a mainstay of liberal economics. This theory was extensively tried during FDR’s terms. FDR’s Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. finally convinced his boss that deficit financing was not working. Nevertheless, ‘spending to prosperity’ is still a core liberal/progressive belief.

The liberal core belief on tax policy is that taxes on the rich and corporations should be high enough to fund extensive welfare programs. They are not concerned about the number of people on welfare. A high percentage of the population on welfare and paying no income taxes is a good thing. The government is doing the right thing when it takes care of people by welfare programs. This belief does not make the connection between high taxes on the rich and corporations and the failure of the economy to grow and produce jobs. Tax policy is a primary tool to income redistribution. Interestingly enough, liberals never point out the high salaries being paid to Hollywood and sports figures. They receive their wealth because they earn it when the rest of us are willing to pay for the products they produce. This is capitalism but it doesn’t apply to other commercial ventures.

The necessity for big government with increased centralization of government is another core belief of liberals. To manage education, commerce, welfare, law enforcement, health care, communications, and tax collection, a large centralized federal government is necessary. Liberals believe big government is not a bad thing for it protects and enhances freedom and individual choice.

The ‘big government is good’ belief does not extend to the Department of Defense. Nearly all liberals believe the defense budget should be cut and the savings allocated to welfare programs. Sounds good, but the basic responsibility of the government is to protect the people. The connection between cutting defense and reducing the ability of the government to defend us is not made. Even today President Obama is moving forward with his goal of cutting the armed forces back to pre-WWII levels.

Liberals/progressives believe that a small elite group of liberals can better manage the government than the free-for-all political system set up by the Constitution and years of tradition. This is why the liberal media and universities do not do their job of keeping government honest. Our founders knew liberty requires eternal vigilance. This belief is not part of the core beliefs held by the liberal/progressive elite in America.

Perhaps the biggest plank in the liberal platform is a deep guilt about American wealth and power. Why else would students studying at Harvard, recently vote that America is a bigger threat to world peace than ISIS? My worry is that by the time these smart wonderful kids learn the truth about their country and the world, it will be too late for them and the rest of us.

Written by the author of “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an ebook, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. If you think this message is important, please share it.