Category Archives: Corruption

This Just Doesn’t Make Sense!

Posted on by Standard 1

I live out in the boonies – a rural area in one of the poorest counties in South Carolina. And everywhere I drive out here I see big reels of fiber optic cable waiting for a crew to come along and dig trenches to install it.

Thanks, taxpayers, for ponying up the $50 billion plus to fund this misguided attempt to bring modern life to us hicks in the sticks. But your congressmen should have asked us before they wrote the contracts and checks to their big tech buddies.

When I carved out a spot in the woods for a new house and shop, I pondered how I was going to get internet and television service out here in the middle of nowhere. Satellite TV was and is available, of course, and we had been satellite customers before. But as the satellite carriers lose market share to streaming TV services they raise prices to stay in business, so satellite TV has become crazy expensive.

Unfortunately, the cable companies who pig out on taxpayer broadband funds have not reached our neck of the woods, and would not tell us if, or when, they would get here.

So we put a dish in our yard for TV, and a second dish for HughesNet satellite internet service. At the time HughesNet operated at the speed of dark – barely functional for email and maybe some web surfing, but forget about any kind of streaming. Another option was a cellular network hotspot, but we did not have towers close enough to make that practical either.

Then Elon Musk came to the rescue with his StarLink service – fast, reliable, and affordable. It replaced our cable and internet services with REAL high-speed rural broadband at half the cost of the fiber optic cable service our federal government is subsidizing. (Musk has donated Starlink devices to disaster areas all over the globe, providing free internet service in areas with no functioning infrastructure on the ground.)

SO WHY IS OUR GOVERNMENT STILL SPENDING SO MUCH OF OUR MONEY PUTTING IN OBSOLETE FIBER OPTIC CABLE WHEN STARLINK IS THE PROVEN FAST AND EFFICIENT MODERN WIRELESS INTERNET ALTERNATIVE?

Probably for the same reason they insist on replacing powerful, plentiful, affordable carbon-based energy with solar and wind electricity that can’t possibly meet our needs at any cost. Our government does not run like a business, continually maximizing profit and performance. No, our government officials only seek to pay off their lobbyists and campaign contributors. Once a spending program is approved by Congress, there is no turning back. Those dollars will be spent as allocated, regardless of whether it makes economic sense.

Now, take this senseless $50 billion broadband boondoggle and multiply it. How many more obsolete and nonsensical programs are burning through our limited tax dollars and exploding our debt?

Last year South Carolina’s Republican legislature gave $1.3 billion in taxpayer cash and incentives to VW to build an electric RV plant. The electric vehicle industry is flopping like a dying fish now, as it has become clear that even with taxpayer incentives electric vehicles will never be feasible. As obsolete EV production plants close all over the globe, new tech research shows hydrogen power may be the energy source of the future.

Godspeed to you, President Trump. You are the first president in many generations who looks at government spending from the taxpayer’s viewpoint, seeking real efficiency and transparency. And Elon’s DOGE effort was not wasted. It exposed, but failed to stop, the crazy wastefulness in our government spending.

If only our Republican legislators would see the light.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Well, the blues jumped a rabbit and run him a mile
The rabbit sat down and he cried like a child
The blues said son you got to learn one rule
Don’t place no trust in a educated fool
Educated fool, educated fool
Educated fool, educated fool

EDUCATED FOOL – Boz Skaggs

January 20, 2025 – Mixed Emotions

Posted on by Standard 1

What a historic day as President Trump is inaugurated to be our 47th president. The story is Braveheart revisited – pushed to the edge of the cliff, we let out a primal scream, and charged behind our leader into the teeth of our evil enemy. To victory!

The last four years has been nothing less than an existential battle for those of us who are engaged in the war to save our nation and culture for our children and future generations. I find myself in a swirl of mixed emotions today and am recording them for future reflection.

THANKFULNESS – thanks to God for answering prayers and for His perfect plan. Salvation is there for those who will accept it and it is our responsibility and honor to preserve and share that good news.

CELEBRATION – Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble! We have taken a daily beating from the press, from our political adversaries, from every institution in society. But we kept fighting, knowing that truth and justice always wins out in the end.

BROTHERHOOD – We had to stick together and keep each other inspired, informed, and encouraged in the face of withering attacks from a relentless enemy. For some of us it was a four year battle, but many of us have been in the trenches since the Tea Party days almost twenty years ago. I am so proud of all of my brothers and sisters who have led – and followed – when the going was tough.

HUMILITY – Our battle isn’t personal, although the other side wanted it to be. It’s tempting to shame and embarrass our vanquished opponents as they did to us. But some of those who have not been on our team just didn’t know any better. We should celebrate today and then get to work for all of our fellow citizens, because we know better and we are better than the few evil ones that did so much damage.

ANGER – I will try to release the anger I have toward those evil ones and will cut their sheep followers some slack. But it will take a while because of all the personal carnage they caused. And justice must be meted out to those with evil intent, as a deterrent to future villains. It will be hard to forgive those who arrested innocent protesters like my nephew on January 6, 2021 at the cost of prison time, loss of careers, homes, and savings. I’m confident that TODAY President Trump will pardon them all. He promised me.

DETERMINATION – I doubt most people know how close we came to losing our precious American way of life. Let’s make damn sure we don’t get pushed to the edge of that cliff again.

Onward! And may God continue to bless America!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Let’s grab the world by the scruff of the neck
And drink it down deeply and love it to death
So button your lip, baby, button your coat
Let’s go out dancing, let’s rock and roll
You’re not the only one with mixed emotions!

MIXED EMOTIONS – the Rolling Stones

Whistleblower Reveals Government is Too Damn Big

Posted on by Standard 1

Warning: the following reading material contains NUMBERS. If you are allergic to numbers, or if numbers make your eyes glaze over and your head throb, you were probably educated in government schools. You may wish to exit this page and check out the latest Taylor Swift news.
[correction 10/31/24: my numbers re: presidential campaign spending were off by one comma, s/b $1.8 billion and $356 million.] Sorry, my eyes glazed over!

Okay, the whistleblower is ME. I used that to get your attention, since whistleblowers are in fashion right now. But I think I have discovered the cause of all of our problems: OUR GOVERNMENT KEEPS GETTING BIGGER WHILE OUR PRIVATE SECTOR EMPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTION GETS SMALLER.

Our government has become so huge – in terms of employees, dollars received, dollars redistributed, dollars consumed in administration, dollars spent, and dollars wasted by errors and corruption – that it no longer fits our constitution or the economic formula that made us the greatest nation on Earth. Most Americans don’t understand that government does not produce anything or create any wealth. That only happens in the private sector, and sadly our private sector doesn’t create much of anything any more.

For those of you still with me, here’s are the promised numbers:

According to USAFacts.com, when President Trump left office in January of 2020, there were 2.86 million federal employees. In October of 2024 under the Biden/Harris administration that number had ballooned to 4.0 million, a staggering increase of 40%! And this does not even begin to consider the growth in state and local governments, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) fed by the Democrat machine, or the employees bought with taxpayer money that enriches crony corporations for “projects” that never seem to get done. Meanwhile, the labor participation rate in my state has dropped from nearly 70% in the mid 1970s to 57% in recent years. Government employment gets bigger while private employment shrinks.

Stats from Microsoft’s CoPilot: As of 2024, Federal employees earn, on average, $144,000 in total annual compensation. 68% of federal employees “work from home” full or part time. (First year Marines, by the way, earn $24,204 annually, and they don’t get to “work from home”!).

Back in 2012 I ran a little test to see if federal employees actually show up at work. My contention was that no federal employees other than secretaries who can’t escape are at work after 2:30 pm on a weekday or 1:00 pm on a Friday. So I randomly called several federal senior employees at 2:30 pm on a Tuesday. They were all “away from their desks”. I’m sure this test would bring the same results, or worse, today.

In 2023 government spending reached 34.4% of GDP. From 1900 until 2023, government spending averaged 25.68% of GDP.

Our national debt is now $34 trillion, up from $16.8 trillion in 2019. That’s more than double in five years. Lately I find myself repeating, “Do you know how hard it is to spend a trillion dollars? It takes a lot of people, effort, corruption, and time!”

Spending on the Biden/Harris 2024 presidential campaign has reached $1.8 billion. Trump has spent $356 million. Yes, that is trillion with a “T”! Where did all that Biden/Harris money come from? Any chance that some of it slushed through the recent multi-trillion-dollar spending bills to NGOs, unions, and crony corporations and found its way right back to the Democrats?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why so much of our private earnings is going to government and people who want to be close to big-government money. Or why there seems to be Corruption in every corner of every government office. “The consistent fear of government corruption shows a deep mistrust in government, with many Americans worried that powerful interests may be influencing it,” said Steve Pfaff, Ph.D., a sociology professor.

If Willie Sutton, famous bank robber in the 1930s, robbed banks because “that’s where the money is”, he would certainly be a US senator today.

In the heat of the current campaign, everybody is focused on personalities – who is dumb, who is mean, who is the next Hitler, who is going to give free stuff to everybody.

Nobody mentions the real problem: our government is TOO DAMN BIG!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Big money goes around the world
Big money give and take
Big money done a power of good
Big money make mistakes

Big money got a heavy hand
Big money take control
Big money got a mean streak
Big money got no soul

BIG MONEY – Rush

Are All Presidents “Crooks”?

Posted on by Standard 2

I remember a time before the internet when every television comedian did an impersonation of disgraced former president Richard Nixon saying, “I am not a crook!”

Nixon’s ultimate resignation resulted from the “Watergate scandal“, in which members of his re-election campaign and administrative staff, perhaps without his knowledge (at least at first), ran clandestine operations designed to protect him from his political enemies and a relentless news media. These operatives broke into the Democratic National Committee’s office in the Watergate complex, stealing documents and bugging phones. After that, Nixon’s defenders launched a series of coverups and sought to weaponize some federal agencies and personnel against those who sought to take him out of office. Nixon clearly did not get rich but was rejected by even his own party under intense public and media pressure.

Last week, the House committees released their report on the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and his family. The report said:

“From 2014 to the present, as part of a conspiracy to monetize Joe Biden’s office of public trust to enrich the Biden family, Biden family members and their associates received over $27 million from foreign individuals or entities . . . In order to obscure the source of these funds, the Biden family and their associates set up shell companies to conceal these payments from scrutiny. The Biden family used proceeds from these business activities to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to Joe Biden—including thousands of dollars that are directly traceable to China. While [brother] Jim Biden claimed he gave this money to Joe Biden to repay personal loans, Jim Biden did not provide any evidence to support this claim. The Biden family’s receipt of millions of dollars required Joe Biden’s knowing participation in this conspiracy, including while he served as vice president."

Biden and his administration continue to withhold subpoenaed documents and witnesses who would prove that Joe Biden IS a crook and have perfected the weaponization of federal agencies and personnel against any and all challengers. The DOJ conspired with district attorneys to attempt to jail Biden’s political opponent, Donald Trump, fearing a Trump landslide win in the upcoming election. The DOJ/FBI runs operations targeting conservatives for offenses as benign as public criticism of government policies and entraps and imprisons hundreds of innocent citizens with bogus claims of “insurrection”. Homeland Security refuses to enforce immigration law, welcoming millions of dangerous, unvetted foreigners across our unguarded border in hopes that they will vote for Democrats.

Democrats and their complicit media insist there is “nothing to see here”, denying and censoring the irrefutable facts. Republicans, ever the purists, are unlikely to pursue any criminal action against Biden, especially since he was taken out of the campaign by a Democrat coup.

A new expose of the Kennedy family by Maureen Callahan describes three generations of men, including President John Kennedy, who habitually abused women and girls sexually and psychologically. The details are hard to read. Not least was Ted Kennedy’s abandonment of Mary Jo Kopechne trapped upside down in his car in three feet of water gasping for her last breaths for hours while he walked home, took a shower, went to bed, and had a leisurely breakfast before contacting police the next day. The Kennedys repeatedly escaped jail terms through brute political power.

Meanwhile, Democrats and dishonest media have made Donald Trump the poster boy for “crooks” in high office. The Democrats have every thrown imaginary charge they can think of at him hoping something will stick. When each desperate smear attack fails, they shrug and try another. They even put together a case with a malevolent and biased judge solely to label him a “convicted felon”, even though the court can’t define the crime he was charged with. Trump’s record is not only squeaky clean, his generosity to the nation and his patriotic altruism (including getting shot in an assassination attempt due to Biden’s totally inept or intentionally inadequate secret service performance) will be immortalized over time.

Has our nation become so jaded about holders of high office that we assume all of them are corrupt, and there’s nothing we can, or should, do about it? As the election of 2024 unfolds, we will find out.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ on the Right Side

Now Watergate it does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth!

Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd

Child Trafficking – Compliments of Your Democrat Friends

Posted on by Standard 2

Friday night my son and I were in Nashville for a weekend vacation trip. We arrived back at our hotel late in the evening after a ball game to witness a shocking event.

Pulling into the parking lot was a large, nondescript white bus with no identification. About 50 Hispanic kids streamed out and entered the front door of the hotel. They were milling about the lobby as we walked in – young teenagers, ages about 12 to 15, mostly girls and just a few delicate boys. My first thought was church group. But we saw no chaperones, just one surly-looking driver and two laborers unloading bags. A church group would not have young boys and girls with no moms.

None of them spoke English. They did not look like street kids – these were clean cut, innocent teens, clearly having recently visited a shopping mall to buy new fashionable shirts, shoes and bags. They were quiet, but not frightened. It appeared they were well-fed and cared for and they seemed to be happy travelers with pocket money.

As I took in the scene my gut told me something is not right here. These kids have no idea what is ahead of them. But before I could engage anybody or try to investigate, they were hustled off to their rooms.

The next morning, I was up early to check out the situation, but the bus and the kids were already gone before they would be noticed by other guests. I stopped to talk to the hotel manager and her assistant. I asked them about the busload of kids and wondered if they knew any details that might assuage my concerns. They were anxious to exchange thoughts about the situation. Both of them were young black moms, and they were also fearing the worst. One had experienced a kidnapping attempt with her own daughter, so she is especially tuned in.

“This is the second time this bus has come through,” the manager said. “A month ago the same guy brought another load through, different kids. He calls ahead and asks if we have ten rooms available. He pays in cash and said it is a church group, but I tried to look up the church and it doesn’t exist. They arrive very late and leave very early.”

We tossed around ideas for what to do if they see this guy again. They could call local police, or ICE, and identify the bus and driver if possible. One of the clerks speaks Spanish and could try to engage one or more of the kids. But this is a fast-moving, well-controlled operation.

Child trafficking is a burgeoning industry throughout the United States thanks to the Biden Administration’s open border policy and new government practices that aid and abet the evil providers and customers.

The New York Post reported last week that whistleblowers from the Office of Refugee Resettlement said the department is not vetting “sponsors” who are receiving minors who come across the border unattended:

“What I discovered was horrifying: children were being trafficked with billions of taxpayer dollars by a contractor failing to vet sponsors and process children safely, with government officials complicit in it,” Deborah White, a federal employee detailed to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, told Republicans during a roundtable co-hosted by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

The Post further reported that Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary Shevaun Harris told the senate panel that she found it “frightening” that less than 10% of children apprehended crossing the border are being released to their parents. “It defies logic and is inhumane,” Harris said.

Last year a Newsweek report said “85,000 + illegal migrant children have gone ‘missing’ according to DHS Since Biden took office. MSM [mainstream media] didn’t report on this fact, why?” (That number is, of course, much larger now).

If you didn’t have a good reason to stop voting for Democrats before, perhaps you do now.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

No clever song with this one. It’s just too sad and serious.

How Do They Spend ALL THAT MONEY?!!

Posted on by Standard 2

Our annual government spending is $6.5 trillion. Our debt is $34.7 trillion and rapidly growing. CLICK HERE TO LOOK AT THE LIVE DEBT CLOCK. It reveals some eye-popping statistics. Click on the individual fields to get more information. For example our debt is more than double that of China with less than a quarter of their population.

If you wonder why there is so much crazy stuff going on in the government lately, consider how hard it must be to legitimately spend $6.5 trillion dollars. I mean, that’s a humongous number! Our 435 congressmen are only in session for about 150 days a year, so they have to work really hard to get rid all of that money. Each congressman has to spend $100 billion every day they show up to work! Wow, no wonder they are so exhausted they can only work part time.

It is so hard to blow through that much money that, after giving some to foreign oligarchs for their wars and corruption, and taking as much off the top as they can without being obvious, our congressmen have to start passing it down to state governments as “grants”.

But it’s hard for state governments to spend that much money too, because they already have $2 trillion of their own money to get rid of. So the states pass some of their taxpayer money down to the local governments as “grants”.

But the locals already have their own $2 trillion, so it’s hard work for them to spend even more.

Yup, that’s $10.5 trillion of our hard-earned wages going to government at all levels each year. How the heck can we expect our overburdened government employees to keep track of all that money?


The South Carolina state comptroller just discovered $1.8 billion that has been sitting in a “clearance” account on the state’s books for 5 years. And they have no idea where it came from or where it should go!

This from a state legislature that just gave $1.3 billion in taxpayer cash, tax incentives and other spending to a foreign electric vehicle manufacturer while American EV companies are closing plants due to lack of demand and profitability.

Our government is not working the way it was designed. The constitution was set up as a way to keep the government out of our private business as much as possible – to let us make and spend (or keep) our own money without interference. But it wasn’t long before politicians figured out they could buy votes with OPM (other people’s money), and before you knew it half the country was living on OPM without having to make their own. And the government doesn’t even need to collect taxes, they can just print money and build debt indefinitely. Can you say inflation?

It’s just too hard for our government leaders to actually have to make things work. So our city governments grab grants to buy abandoned properties on Main Street and fund more music and art fairs. Our counties take grants to work on “economic development” by giving tax abatements to speculators as roads and bridges fall apart. And our federal government funds foreign wars and endless caravans of illegal aliens, but our own military can’t keep our ships afloat, our fighter planes flying, or enough trained personnel who are not in gender transition.

It can’t go on much longer. The debt clock says we have $267,000 of government debt per citizen plus another $75,000 of personal debt. We are all already busted!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

My bills are all due and the baby needs shoes and I’m busted
Cotton is down to a quarter a pound, but I’m busted
I got a cow that went dry and a hen that won’t lay
A big stack of bills that gets bigger each day
The county’s gonna haul my belongings away cause I’m busted

BUSTED – Ray Charles

The Green New Deal is Dying

Posted on by Standard 1

Decades ago liberal political and cultural leaders found a topic that would frighten weak-minded people into doing things that are clearly illogical and against their best interests. “Global Warming” became the cause celebre of leftists worldwide, and has been used – often in conjunction with other concocted concerns – to bully people into accepting Marxist control over their lives.

For years we have been warned that the polar ice caps would disappear, the oceans would rise swamping coastal cities, the rain forests of South America would disappear, countless animals would be extinct, the air we breathe would be destroyed all because of fossil fuels or carbon dioxide or cow farts or something . . . it has been utter doom and gloom for all of my life, and I’m no spring chicken.

The goal of the Marxists is to shut down all energy sources that existed before they decided global warming was a thing. Petroleum has got to go, too “dirty”. Hydroelectric? Fish don’t like it. Nuclear power? The Russians melted down a nuke plant once. Coal makes people’s faces dirty. And there must be something wrong with natural gas, there is so much of it and Trump likes it.

Despite technological advances and resource discoveries that turn all of the Marxists’ fears upside down, they have persisted in trying to convert the world to new energy sources, whether they work or not, for the purpose of gaining control over our personal behavior.

Well, the new energy sources don’t work. And the world has begun to figure this out.

At the same time we are discovering that “renewable” electric energy sources are far less efficient and abundant than conventional power, we are converting our energy use to electric only.

Ford Motor Company did more to advance the standard of living for average citizens than perhaps anyone else in history by making gas-powered vehicles affordable for the masses. Then they were pushed by Marxists in government and other institutions to shift production away from internal combustion and toward battery-powered EVs. Now the car companies have announced that they are, again, cutting back on EV (electric vehicle) production, due to lack of demand.

It seems that consumers have figured out that even with huge taxpayer subsidies to both the buyers and the sellers of EVs, battery-powered vehicles are still no bargain. The range of an EV is about 300 miles, more or less, on a battery charge, and electricity is not free or readily available when all the power plants have been replaced by inefficient wind and solar and neighborhood grids can’t support the additional loads required to charge many cars overnight. The batteries must be replaced when worn out (eight to twelve years), at a cost of up to $15,000 plus installation. So the value of a used EV depletes quickly. The old batteries are a landfill disposal nightmare. The batteries require rare earth minerals to produce. Batteries don’t work well in extreme heat or cold. EVs weigh significantly more than gas-powered cars, so they are tough on tires and roads. Car battery fires are daunting for firemen, and EVs are proving much less reliable than gas-powered cars. Let’s not forget the sticker price for EVs is significantly higher than gas burners, and manufacturers are still losing a ton of money.

Any time the government has to bribe producers to make something, and/or consumers to buy something, you can bet it will end up being a bad deal for everybody, except those who take illicit advantage of somebody else’s forced investment. Free market supply and demand is perfect – producers are encouraged to make products that buyers want and can afford.

Last year the South Carolina legislature gave $1.3 billion in taxpayer-funded incentives and cash to Volkswagen/Scout to build a new EV manufacturing plant in the Palmetto State. The spending bill was pushed through rapidly and with little or no transparency and apparently not a lot of critical thought. One year later, car companies are cutting way back on production and plans for battery plants are being scrapped. The failure of South Carolina’s investment in the EV industry is predictable and it will be held against elected officials who voted for it.

Yes, people have wised up and the Green New Deal is now old news. It has been replaced by the Next New Pandemic.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Well you could search the whole world over
And never find another like it
It's got a built in lifetime guarantee
It's a one time only offer
And darling once you've tried it
You're gonna fall in love with it you'll see

Have I Got A Deal For You - Reba McEntire

The Economy is Fine – Inflation is Only 3%!

Posted on by Standard 1

Yeah, right.

The CEO of McDonald’s acknowledged a drop in sales due to increased menu prices. Customers have noticed and criticized the price hikes, especially the nearly $18 Big Mac combo. The company aims to focus on affordability in response.

Chris Kempczinski discussed this strategy on an earnings call, highlighting a shift towards making their offerings more affordable in 2024. Despite a 3.4% growth in global same-store sales, it fell short of the expected 4.7%. Rising inflation has particularly affected low-income customers, leading to a decrease in patronage.

Daily Patriot Report – 2/7/24

Since 2020, home prices are up 45%. Car insurance has increased by 36%. 

Some other mind-numbing stats from the Heritage Foundation:

Unless you are one of the elite, jet-set, Davos/WEF “beautiful people”, you know what’s going on. The middle class will soon be completely hollowed out as our federal government borrows trillions of dollars from our grandchildren, pouring it on their friends and oligarchs around the world, while inviting millions of third-world sparrows to our once-prosperous eagle’s nest.

We all know that there are “lies, damn lies, and statistics”. Our current administration is immune to embarrassment when it comes to issuing statistical propaganda. And their partners in crime, big tech and big media, are quick to cover up any bad news before it reaches the “smelly Wal-Mart people” they so detest.

I went to college before they were liberal indoctrination camps. My business and accounting mentor, a very wise and accomplished semi-retired CFO from Boston, taught me a succinct and powerful lesson he called “the test of reasonableness”: whenever you are given a number that someone is using to try to influence you, question it in your mind and apply some simple math. If the rough-cut calculation doesn’t make immediate sense, you are being conned! 

Hey Biden Administration! Credit card debt is through the roof. Nobody can afford to buy a new home. Working-class shoppers pick up an item, see the price, and sadly put it back on the shelf. Your inflation numbers do not pass the test of reasonableness.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

ENJOY SOME FINE ROCKIN’ BLUES BY JONNY LANG –

Lie to me
It doesn’t matter any more
It could never be
The way it was before

LIE TO ME – Jonny Lang

Trump’s “To Do” List

Posted on by Standard 6

1. Resign from the United Nations and NATO.

2. Eliminate the FBI, Homeland Security, Dept. of Education, ATF, IRS, CIA, Dept. of Commerce, BLM, Dept. of Agriculture, HUD, and any other programs and departments that have become inefficient, unmanageable, corrupt, or obsolete. Merge their necessary functions into remaining departments and a reformed, streamlined Dept. of Defense. Task the Dept. of Defense with securing all borders and ports.

3. Establish a new federal Department of Technology and Efficiency (DOTE), headquartered in the former UN building, funded with recovered spending from the UN, NATO, and the eliminated departments and programs. The DOTE would research, develop, and implement new methods, procedures, devices and facilities with and for all agencies of the federal government.  It would be directed by a board of carefully selected industry and government leaders under the authority and oversight of Congress via a workforce of world-class tech experts in engineering, defense and security, management, artificial intelligence, energy, and transportation. Priorities would include eliminating 50% of the federal workforce with efficient technology; restoring energy independence, and building modern infrastructure including a national satellite system for communication and security.

4. Push all federal functions not enumerated in the Constitution back down to state and local control, including health, education, agriculture, welfare, law enforcement, etc. Eliminate the federal taxes that were allocated to these functions and let states fund their own systems.

5. Challenge Congress to establish and maintain a balanced budget at the new, significantly reduced spending levels.

6. Restore integrity to our courts and system of justice. Enforce laws without discrimination with an intense scrutiny for corruption and fraud by government officials and employees.

Our federal government is so huge, with a budget beyond human comprehension, that corruption and inefficiency is inevitable. We have to make government smaller and eliminate politics as a source of personal wealth. That will take new thinking and big change for Trump and a rehabilitated Congress.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ on the Right Side

Someday, somehow
Something has to change

Am I ready for times such as these?
Emphatically no
Though I did see it coming
A long time ago

SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE – Rodney Crowell

We Should Declare War Against the Cartels

Posted on by Standard 3
photo courtesy NY Times

The United States has committed more than $75 billion to Ukraine, ostensibly to defend them from Russia, Russia, Russia. We can speculate how much of that taxpayer funding finds its way back to the Biden crime family and others, but that’s another story.

It is an enormous sum considering we have to borrow every penny of it. And for what? What is our national interest in the dispute between Ukraine and Russia? How many Americans have died in Ukraine in the last two years? Answer: Six.

Meanwhile, in the same period, how many Americans have died of fentanyl overdoses? Answer: 220,000.

Almost all of the fentanyl in our country comes through our open border with Mexico. And this only happens with, through, and by the Mexican drug cartels.

I join a group of friends every Wednesday morning for a men’s prayer meeting. Last week we were gathered at our fast food meeting place as always, and we invited a nearby diner named Philip to join us. He listened quietly as we complained about how badly things are going in the USA. Then he said he had a “miracle” testimony that might make us feel better, at least comparatively.

Philip said he had met his wife over 20 years ago in Matamoros, Mexico just across the border from Brownsville, Texas. She was a native Mexican translator at a Christian conference he attended. And even though she died a few years after their marriage, Philip still keeps in touch with her family, their son, and the church they supported in Matamoros.

On a recent phone call with his former father-in-law he learned that conditions in Matamoros are getting desperate – the drug cartels have taken over every aspect of daily life. It is now unsafe to venture out of your home at any time, and if you do, you must pay a bribe to the cartel for everything you do. There is no law and order and the economy is in shambles.

Philip told the story of a young member of his church in Matamoros who made a living buying cars in the USA and selling them in southern Mexico. On a recent trip he and two friends got caught in a cartel roadblock. They were robbed of their car, money, watches, and even their shoes. Then they were dragged into the ditch where his friends were both executed point blank. When the pistol was raised to his head he prayed for his life, and as he did the murderer’s cell phone rang. The thug turned and ran to his car, leaving the young Christian shocked but unhurt. With his miracle faith aflame, he soon became the new pastor of his church.

Just south of our border is a war zone. While we send endless billions to the Ukraine war where six Americans have died in two years, we do absolutely nothing to stop the war in our own backyard that kills over a hundred thousand young Americans, and countless other souls, every year. Quite the opposite, the Biden administration supports the cartels by enabling them to extort billions of dollars from their victims who have been invited by Biden to enter our country illegally.

Former presidents GW Bush, Obama, and Trump all tried minor military solutions to solve the border problem, without much success. During his term, Trump investigated more aggressive military options, even up to firing missiles into Mexico, according to Mark Esper, former defense secretary. But our current president, sheltered by fawning news and social media, clearly prefers sending military money and equipment to Ukraine, where he gets a cut returned to him, while the Mexican drug cartels run amok on our border.

Fortunately, most GOP presidential candidates are hawkish about the cartels. In addition to Trump, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Tim Scott agree that we should take unilateral action against the cartels if Mexican president Obrador refuses to. Asa Hutchinson and Mike Pence remain soft on the cartels. Vivek Ramaswamy has said he would use our military to “defend our borders”.

I have a hunch that $75 billion would buy more than enough whoop-ass to eliminate the cartels and finally establish immigration control at our border.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, ’n’ how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, ’n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind

Blowin’ In the Wind – Bob Dylan