Tag Archives: politics

by Barry Kelly | March 23, 2015 · 7:05 am

INSIGHTS 194 — ACT NOW

Well, we’ve had several months of Republican control of both houses of Congress. With all the other conservatives who helped the GOP to victory, I’ve been waiting for them to act like they are in control of the legislative process. It hasn’t happened.

They are mired in the old tactics of their losing past. A lot of whining and posturing, but very little action. They act like Obama’s progressive puppets dancing to a tune they have heard endless times. The sad truth is that President Obama is too smart for the old GOP leadership. He jerks them around from immigration, to ISIS, to Iran and nuclear weapons, to the word of Israel’s prime minister and where he gives speeches, to climate change, to the minimum wage, to military strategy in the Middle East to Putin’s empire building, to oil and natural gas production. Congress is the only thing he can lead from behind. They are used to being led around.

The solution is not hard. Just cut Obama’s puppet strings. Ignore his dozens of misdirection moves and lies. Do what you were elected to do: pass legislation and put bills on his desk to sign or veto. Conservatives win either way. Get a positive agenda. Share it with the people. We are waiting for the Republican way to get America working, to have a responsible health care program to replace Obamacare, to have a clear energy strategy, care for our veterans, to prevent the further weakening of our military capability, to start the process for a new tax code, to cut funding and reduce the size and scope of government, to champion a foreign policy that supports our traditional allies and gives our enemies pause. This is all within the power of Congress. They cannot wait for a Republican to win the White House. Who would vote for a party that when it wins it acts like a loser?

I have long been convinced that the Republican Party cannot lead this country with its current leadership. They are both too timid and too prone to only be reactive to Obama’s lead. The only hope is for the new representatives in the House and the new senators to push out the old leaders. They have lost their way and are comfortable whining rather than winning.

The window is closing. Congress does not have the time to continue dithering and playing games. Yes, new leadership will make mistakes and not exercise prudent patience, but they will make things happen before they are all marginalized.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/suspense 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 both on kindle for $3.99. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. “ISIS,” a new Jack Brandon novel dealing with ISIS in America, will be out in March or early April.

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

Tagged as Congress, government, house, Leadership, politics, Senate

by Barry Kelly | February 13, 2015 · 7:33 am

INSIGHTS 189 — DANGEROUS, OR JUST AN EMBARRASSMENT?

It won’t get any better.

I believe we have a flawed president who brought a heavy load of baggage with him to the White House. He can’t escape from his personal beliefs about the guilt of American power; the socialist creed of Saul Alinsky that wealth needs to be spread equally to all individuals and nations; and leading from behind and from a place where words are the same as action.

Add those beliefs to his real-life experiences of attending a ‘hate America’ church for twenty years, his early childhood years attending a Muslim madrassa in Indonesia, his grandfather’s enduring of abuse by the British colonial authorities in Kenya, and his pre-presidential association with an unrepentant American terrorist, Mr. William Ayers, and you have a man who comes from a very different background than any of our other presidents. Don’t expect him to address the problems and issues that threaten America. He can only use those issues to attack his opposition. When the opposition is weakened, the way is open for a one-party rule by a progressive elite.

President Obama cannot turn loose the power of the free market to create jobs and wealth, for he believes in a managed economy. He can only use his power to spread the wealth and to give everyone “a fair shot.” He cannot preside over a transparent administration, for with transparency comes full disclosure. In this case all the documents requested under our Constitution and the practice of the ‘separation of powers’ by Congress would severely damage his socialist goals. Instead of a transparent Obama administration, the one he promised, we have an administration that is known for lying and delaying for years legitimate requests for information by both citizens and Congress.

Probably the most egregious cover-up is the use of the IRS to target conservative groups applying for legal tax-exempt status. President Obama may be planning to use the increasing power of the IRS to destroy any opposition. The president said he was shocked and angry about this illegal use of the IRS but now denies it ever happened and is stonewalling Congress’ requests for documents. At one point, the administration claimed the documents were permanently lost when all of the computers of the people of interest crashed.

On the foreign front, the president’s desperate effort to make a deal with Iran is even more dangerous than his inept dealings with Putin. Iran is developing nuclear weapons. It is their stated national objective. Why does the president believe the Iranians are developing and testing ICBM missiles? They are not necessary for a peaceful development of nuclear power. For some reason beyond me, President Obama has mortgaged our war with Islamic terrorism, our relationship with the Sunni nations, and Israel over his constant concessions to Iran. I believe he has not been sending arms to the Kurds due to Iranian desires to keep the Kurds from being able to defend their land and people from ISIS attacks. If any people ever deserved our help to fight for their freedom, it is the Kurds. President Obama has sent only words and token shipments of weapons directly to the Kurds. Arms to the Kurds sent via Baghdad will never get shipped on to the Kurds.

All we can do for the next two years is to fight hard to delay the president’s illegal and dangerous domestic and foreign policy whims. We must also avoid a major war. Imagine being at war with our present commander-in-chief in control. Would that the Republican leadership in Congress be smart and courageous enough to thwart the worst of his socialist hopes? Not much hope there. Just more tilting of windmills and internal fighting. The people have spoken but neither the president nor the Republican leadership are listening.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon thriller/suspense 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. “Quiet Justice” a new novel dealing with ISIS in America will be out by mid March.

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Filed under Alinsky, Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Israel, Kurds, Obama, Politics, Progressives, Sunni, Terrorism

Tagged as Iran, IRS, Obama, policies, politics, Progressives, White House

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.