Tag Archives: Obama

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 | December 27, 2014 · 7:37 am

INSIGHTS 181 — WHAT’S WRONG WITH AMERICA?

All of us can find things that need improvement. But there is nothing fundamentally wrong with America that cannot be corrected by breaking the hold progressivism has on segments of our nation.

Progressivism, as an ideology, has no place in America. The very word itself was used by Mr. Saul Alinsky, a communist community organized in Chicago who wrote the book, “Rules for Radicals,” used by President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and many other left-wing university professors and very left-wing politicians. Alinsky chose the name progressive because he realized the terms socialism and communism were deeply unpopular in America.

Adherents of this ideology believe no matter what problems are facing the nation, do not try to solve them. Instead, use the issue they present to attack your opponents. Since the issue is never the issue in progressive ideology you may say anything and take any action that in the end helps secure political power. In other terms, this end, seizing power, always justifies the means. Seizing power means establishing a one-party political system run by a progressive elite.

For the first time in American history we have a president who talks and acts as if he truly wants to destroy America, past, present, and future, in order to establish a far better place for all citizens. He has said many times he intends to transform America. Believe him. He means it. I cannot think of any other reason for what he says and does what he does.

Remember, this president packed up a bust of Winston Churchill and sent it back to Great Britain during his first few days in office. Anything Churchill stood for, President Obama and his progressives are against. Not only was Churchill a British hero, many Americans from the WWII and Cold War eras also saw Churchill as a hero of the free world. That single act should have told us how deeply this president hates the Western world and its colonial past, real and imagined.

The progressives truly hate the history of America and our role as the super power. I don’t care what problem area you select, you will not find our president working to solve the problem for the good of the nation and its citizens. Take energy, the economy, the free market system, the role of the entrepreneur, anti-terrorism actions, dealings with Islamic radicalism, the Armed Forces (force levels and equipment), relations with Israel, Iran, Russia, Cuba, and our allies, and race relations in America.

We are not a racist nation. Yet President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, Mayor De Blasio of New York and the black racism champions whose positions depend on throwing the race card in all directions, say we are. What kind of a White House would have Rev. Al Sharpton as their primary advisor on race issues in America? ( I write fiction but that is too far out even for a fictional story.) I don’t see how the president can be working toward national unity with the statements that come from him, Al Sharpton, Eric Holder and Mayor De Blasio. The only answer is that the president is following his ideology and using the race issue to cause chaos and anarchy in America to further the establishment of a one-party progressive government.

The progressives are masters of misdirection to control the message and the media agenda. Otherwise, why focus the nation’s attention on closing Guantanamo Bay’s detention facility for hard core terrorists or recognizing Cuba at this time? The creation of chaos on the national level by using race-based politics may be necessary before the American people might accept one-party rule. Not you, not the country, only the progressive transformation plans are benefiting from the Obama administration.

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

Tagged as issues, Obama, Progressives, socialism

by Barry Kelly | December 5, 2014 · 7:35 am

INSIGHTS 176 — WHO IS TO BLAME?

Pulling the lever at the polling place for your party or candidate is a citizen’s duty. But it doesn’t begin or end there. When you vote for a winning candidate, you own a share of the candidate’s successes and failures. After all, you helped put them in office.

Being president of the United States is the most difficult job in our world. The decisions or lack of decisions the president makes affects the very existence of our nation and the continuation of life on planet Earth. How do you select a man or woman to move into the White House?

It is your responsibility to make an effort to size up the candidates, separate facts from fictions, and understand the difference between your emotional inclinations and the actual observable facts. You may believe your candidate would make a great president but recognize your candidate does not have the experience to be a president. You also know no one, no matter how cool or smart, can learn enough after taking office to be a good president. This is not a position for basic leadership nor ‘on the job’ training. Even highly qualified candidates have much to learn. The good ones have had years of management experience, are natural leaders, and realize their limitations require them to surround themselves with very good people who know how to do their jobs. A good staff makes a good president even better.

The qualification of experience is easy to judge. A candidate either has had years of command experience in management of large organizations with thousands of people or not. They have either learned the importance of keeping their word and know their actions will define them or they don’t know it. They either realize they are not defined by their speeches or they believe their speeches make their presidency a good one.

As a rule, senators and representatives do not acquire leadership or management skills in the performance of their responsibilities. They manage by manipulating individuals and playing one group against the other. These are not the primary skills a president needs. In their world, words are the tools they use, not actions. They are used to saying one thing when later say they meant another. When a candidate uses the words “I” and “my” many times in every speech, you know this person is not a leader and does not understand how to manage large numbers of complicated missions.

In American political life, leaders come from being governors, high-ranking military officers, and captains of industry. You still need to be careful in selecting from these ranks, but at least you know they have had the required management and leadership experience.

One of the things I have learned from life is that no matter what a job requires, people do what they know how to do. If that happens to be giving speeches, fundraising, and playing one group against another, that’s what you get.

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.