Category Archives: Immigration

Mom, That’s Not Fair!

Posted on by Standard Reply

I watched several videos today of new secretary of state Marco Rubio at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing. His rebuttals to the pompous senators’ whining complaints were replete with delicious smack-backs. But more importantly, Rubio countered their childish posturing with adult thought process.

I have never understood liberals. Their worldview, positions on issues, and attempts at logic leave me shaking my head. While watching the dim-witted Democrat senators volley with intellectual powerhouse Rubio, I may have figured out what’s wrong with these airheads: they just never grew up.

Their moms raised them to believe that everything must be “fair”. If you get five M&Ms, your sister and your brother must also get five. Want to see a 7-year old have an instant sobbing hissy-fit? Just tell him his sibling gets to stay up another half-hour but he has to go to bed now.

Sadly, our culture has elevated the importance of “fairness” to ridiculous heights, seeking equality of outcomes instead of merit-based reward. Tee-ball teams often don’t keep score at all and some allow batters to run the bases even after they have been put out. We allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports because it wouldn’t be fair to exclude boys who think they are girls. Schools no longer hold back under-performing students. After all, it’s only fair to promote and graduate every kid who is breathing.

In the noble attempt to make life “fair”, we subsidize new apartment complexes in ritzy neighborhoods so the “poor” have a nice place to live. We give illegal immigrants free health care, food, and shelter. We turn repeat criminal offenders back out on the streets. We accept students who can’t read and write into top-tier universities based on their physical characteristics.

All of this is in the name of “fairness”, but without questioning whether it is fair to take money from a person who earned it and give it to someone who chose to not work. Or to give a job, promotion, or access to education to an unqualified person while denying it to one who deserves it. Allie Beth Stuckey digs deeper, diagnosing this irrational view of fairness as “toxic empathy”.

But back to Rubio.

Senator Tim Kaine smirked as he blasted the secretary of state for the new special refugee program that allows white South Afrikaner farmers, who are being murdered as their land is confiscated by gangs of black marauders, to immigrate to the US.

Kaine’s kill shot at Rubio: “Are you aware ever, during the apartheid era in South Africa, did the United States establish a special program to allow South African blacks, who were treated as second-class citizens, so that they could claim refugee status in the United States?”

Rubio: “No, because I was in the eighth grade at the time.” (Mom! Timmy got a popsicle 30 years ago and I didn’t!)

Kaine: “. . . should [we] try to do that in an even-handed way?” (Do you mean in a racist way?)

Rubio: “I think we should try to do what is in the national interest of the United States.”

What a refreshingly adult answer. Rubio pointed out that the big problem is numbers. We can’t continue to allow millions and millions of unvetted “refugees” from all over the world to move here. It is unsustainable economically, culturally, and from a security standpoint. But why not accept a small group of truly threatened, well-vetted people who would bring value to our society and assimilate well?

Senator Airhead says we should also be letting the black murderers of the white farmers in South Africa into our country because that would be “fair”.

I can’t help it, my head is still shaking.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

And life ain’t fair to me
But that don’t mean I ain’t ready for eternity
My mind weigh heavy, but the spirits still sing
And I might not get this lucky again

Life Isn’t Fair – Smooth Hound Smith

Draining the Swamp – Trump 2.0

Posted on by Standard Reply

The first few weeks of Trump 2.0 has been exhilarating for long-suffering conservative Americans. Early reports of young brainiacs with their AI algorithms revealing mountains of waste, fraud and inefficiency are music to our ears. Volunteer auditor-in-chief Elon Musk and newly-confirmed director of Office, Management and Budget (OMB) Russ Vought hit the ground running – no, they hit the ground flying at hypersonic speed! They are determined to streamline performance, knock down the debt and deficits, and get rid of federal flab. As Trump would say, they are attacking the Swamp with a speed and ferocity “no one has ever seen before”.

So far, so good. Trump 2.0 has already:

  • eliminated DEI departments, programs and costs
  • attacked woke and politically weaponized practices
  • exposed inappropriate spending, targeting foreign and domestic outlays that taxpayers would never approve
  • required federal employees to show up for work and prove their merit
  • closed the borders to illegal immigration and started deportations
  • negotiated favorable foreign trade arrangements
  • promised to get rid of unnecessary and duplicative departments, unused buildings and unneeded personnel
  • identified opportunities for upgraded technology and efficiency

But all this swamp-draining optimism seems eerily familiar. I recall a similar feeling at the beginning of Trump 1.0, and found an old article I wrote about it eight years ago. My enthusiastic and well-intended predictions turned out to be embarrassingly inaccurate.

For one thing, my article focused on one of many less-than-stellar Trump cabinet appointees, Mick Mulvaney. Mick was plucked by Trump from his gig as SC legislator to seek and destroy federal waste and corruption via the OMB. It didn’t happen.

When we first met, Mulvaney impressed me. He was very bright, had a real grasp of Tea Party conservative principles, and walked the talk as a founder of the fledgling House Freedom Caucus. And he hired Russ Vought, a friend and mentor from Heritage Action, as his right-hand man. But I got a chill when I asked Mulvaney if he could implement zero-based budgeting to get our spending under control. He said I should forget about reducing spending. “Our budget is so huge and complicated that nobody in government will even try to cut spending – ever.” Mulvaney said that the only way to reduce the debt, which was about $10 trillion at the time, was to outgrow it by revving up the economy and tax revenues. Tax revenues grew rapidly, but spenders gonna spend – and some of them will spend $2 for ever $1 taken in.

Needless to say, Trump’s success at draining the swamp was about as real as my photo-shopped picture of Mick wrestling an alligator. The swamp creatures from the left and right were bigger and badder than Trump 1.0 bargained for, and he got his nose – and ours – bloodied.

But nobody ever said Trump is a quitter. He recognized his errors, he listened to good advice, he meticulously studied and planned, he literally dodged bullets, and he returned victorious to implement Trump 2.0. The stakes are higher this time around as our debt has ballooned to $36.5 trillion and is growing by a trillion bucks every 100 days. We don’t yet know if our Republican Senate and House will support Trump 2.0 or prefer the fetid smell of the swamp.

Last November American voters peered over the edge of a steep cliff. At the bottom we saw the extinction of our freedoms, our prosperous and moral civilization, and the future of our children. We turned away from the edge and now have One More Last Chance before we’re through.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Give me just a one more last chance Before you say we’re through I know I drive you crazy baby It’s the best that I can do We’re just some good ol’ boys, a makin’ noise I ain’t a runnin’ ’round on you Give me just a one more last chance Before you say we’re through

ONE MORE LAST CHANCE – Vince Gill

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

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

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

Central African Nation Erupts in Violence

Posted on by Standard 2

[RockinRightSide News Service – 3/20/23] Civil war has broken out in the once-prosperous central African nation of the Ugandi States. Brutal violence in the streets has replaced the domestic tranquility and personal freedoms that made the nation a “shining beacon on a hill,” admired by all the world and a prized destination for immigrants fleeing oppression and poverty in their home countries.

The conflict started three years ago when the sitting president of the Ugandi States, Donno Trompo, was re-elected by a large majority of the populace, but the entrenched opposition party, who had maintained de facto control of the government throughout Trompo’s term, used a variety of dishonest and illegal tactics to steal the election. State media suppressed news of the election anomalies and proclaimed challenger JoJo Bidenu as the legitimate president of the Ugandi States.

As the Bidenu administration met to certify the illicit election, Trompo supporters who had gathered at the nation’s capital to protest, were beaten and sprayed with chemicals by state police on the steps of the Ugandi States capitol building. When police ratcheted up the violence, what had been a peaceful protest got out of hand. It was later learned that Bidenu government infiltrators aggressively attempted to instigate a riot and breach of the capitol building to justify their election theft. Despite allegations of protester violence by the Bidenu regime, no state officials were seriously harmed.

Four of the protesters were murdered by the authorities; one was shot in the face, one was bludgeoned to death, and two died after being struck with flash bang grenades. The Bidenu regime denied these atrocities, but the events were recorded on incriminating video. Hundreds more protesters were arrested and imprisoned on unfounded and unproven charges. Many of these prisoners were kept in inhumane, filthy jail cells for months and years without access to health care, families, attorneys, or court dates. Most Ugandi States citizens were unaware of the plight of these political prisoners as the Bidenu administration and state media hid their existence from public view.

All pretense of fairness and justice was abandoned in the Ugandi States court system as judges installed by the Bidenu regime refused to hear evidence or provide any form of due process. All of those charged with crimes were presumed guilty. The Ugandi States once-revered constitution was nullified, replaced by a spoils system that rewarded supporters of the Bidenu regime and punished Trompo loyalists.

Civil unrest grew as financial conditions in the Ugandi States deteriorated under the Bidenu regime. Citizens bristled at the government’s corrupt confiscation of wealth and distribution to connected cronies. Government overspending and manipulation of currency, interest rates and financial markets led to rampant inflation which fueled poverty and homelessness. Most banks were forced out of business leaving desperate depositors pondering how to recover their life savings.

Thousands of Ugandi States citizens died after a man-made weaponized virus escaped from a Bidenu-funded laboratory. Using the ensuing pandemic as cover, the regime imposed lockdowns which destroyed businesses and schools, and caused chronic depression. Then the government mandated forced vaccinations that turned out to be deadly rather than therapeutic.

Reports surfaced of Bidenu and his family members taking bribes from foreign governments and companies in exchange for favorable treatment and payments from the national treasury. Ugandi States taxpayers were enraged.

The tinderbox of public sentiment in the Ugandi States was already volatile when the corrupt courts of the Bidenu regime arrested former president Trompo on specious charges. It was the final straw in a long series of provocations that citizens could no longer tolerate.

The capital city of the Ugandi States is now under siege as military and other security officials contemplate which side of the conflict to join. Police departments that were defunded and abandoned by the Bidenu regime are unable to restore order as government loyalists loot and burn cities.

Meanwhile, adversary nations are weighing their military options with the resource-rich Ugandi States government in utter disarray.

Prayers are in order for this nation teetering on destruction. More news will be forthcoming as events develop.

** This article is a parody

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Trump won, and you know it
Trump won, and you know it
Fox News won’t even show it
Trump won, and you know it

Trump Won and You Know It – Natasha Owens



NGOs – the Death of Democracy

Posted on by Standard 1

The proliferation and power of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in recent years has become a threat to democracy in the USA and around the world.

Approximately 1.5 million NGOs operate in the United States. These NGOs undertake a wide array of activities, including political advocacy on issues such as foreign policy, elections, the environment, healthcare, women’s rights, economic development, and many other issues . . . Their sources of finance include donations from private individuals (American or foreign), private sector for-profit companies, philanthropic foundations, or grants from federal, state, or local government. Sources of finance may also include foreign governments. There is no prohibition in U.S. law on foreign funding of NGOs; whether that foreign funding comes from governments or non-government sources.

US Dept. of State – NGOs in the United States

Primarily a tool of the political left, the NGO has become the preferred method to funnel enormous amounts of money and power to those who implement their often-clandestine liberal policies.

For example, in the 2020 presidential election, the Democrat party mobilized an army of workers in blue cities all over the country to harvest ballots, work the polls as ballot counters, and perform whatever other work, legal or not, required to win. Most of these shock troops were hired and managed by NGOs using leftover Covid funds and other federal grants.

The most compelling evidence to date has emerged in “2000 Mules,” the upcoming documentary by conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, who draws on research by election integrity group True The Vote to expose suspicious ballot harvesting. Using cellphone geotracking and surveillance video, it shows a network of “mules” in battleground states busily collecting ballots from get-out-the-vote NGOs and stuffing them, a few at a time, into multiple drop boxes in the dead of night. 

NY Post – April 24, 2022

Meanwhile, at the southern border, millions upon millions of illegal immigrants cross into the USA aided and abetted by Democrat-operated NGOs. These immigrants are given first-class tourist treatment on the way to destinations all over the country where they are set up with taxpayer-funded housing, food, medical care, education, and often voting privileges. Texas is investigating the Biden administration’s unholy alliance with NGOs and its role in the border crisis.

Since none of this is legal and is strongly opposed by taxpaying Americans, it must be done in secrecy. NGOs are the perfect vehicle for corruption – they can be created and discarded quickly, leave no traces, have unlimited access to non-taxable grant funds and private contributions from zillionaires, and are accountable to no-one.

What’s worse is that Democrat legislators can grant taxpayer funds to NGOs with the full expectation that large sums of money will be returned to them as campaign contributions. Planned Parenthood rakes in about a half billion dollars from the government per year and gives at least 10% back to Democrat members of Congress, plus large contributions from well-paid Planned Parenthood executives. Is it any wonder this despicable organization gets funded year after year?

These unelected, unaccountable, shadow organizations are at the root of much of the corruption we decry in our government these days. Increasingly they are used by foreign governments as political weapons and agents of covert invasion all over the world.

It’s time for our new Congress to take a hard look at NGOs and their dirty deeds.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Dirty deeds (done dirt cheap)
Dirty deeds (done dirt cheap)
Dirty deeds (done dirt cheap)
Dirty deeds and they’re done dirt cheap
Dirty deeds and they’re done dirt cheap

DIRTY DEEDS – Joan Jett

It’s Time for a Rational Drug Policy

Posted on by Standard 2
photo courtesy The Guardian

What are the top domestic problems in the USA? We can negotiate the order of importance, but I bet we agree on the list.

  • Rising Net Cost of Living
  • Border Enforcement
  • Availability and Cost of Health Care
  • Broken Families
  • Homelessness
  • Failing Schools
  • Increased Crime and Lax Law Enforcement

On his daily radio update, Bill O’Reilly offered a pretty simple and cost-effective solution to the problem list. Stop drug and alcohol addiction. It really made me think.

He listed the problems caused by addiction. The majority of homeless people, criminals, and child abusers are addicts. Half of unemployed men are addicted to opioids. The economic cost of accidents, mistakes and absenteeism attributable to addiction is gargantuan. Businesses can’t find workers. Medical facilities are overrun with sick addicts who can’t pay for their care. Kids with horrible home lives due to addicted parents have little chance to become successful adults. Street crime is way up and most of it is perpetrated by addicts. Families are destroyed by booze and drugs.

O’Reilly reported that ever since we started viewing drug use as a victimless crime, and addiction as an illness, our drug problem has worsened. Now with lax law enforcement and a wide-open border, it is out of control.

Clearly, many of our domestic problems would be solved, or at least greatly improved, if we had a way to stop addiction. But that’s impossible, isn’t it?

Not according to O’Reilly. He said after WWII when the Chinese communists made the use and sale of opium illegal and in some cases punishable by death, addiction was reduced from 25% to virtually zero. And he points out that Singapore’s zero-tolerance policies toward drugs has made that nation nearly drug-free. This proves that drug addiction is not an illness, but a problem that can be solved by policy and enforcement.

Many Americans blame our open border, the “supply”, for the drug epidemic. Obviously an open border along with no consequences for selling and using drugs is a recipe for disaster. But what if we were to attack the “demand” side of the equation?

O’Reilly calls for a law that requires apprehension and “confined rehabilitation” for illegal drug use in the US. The deterrence effect would be dramatic. With no drug cartels extorting wannabe immigrants and smuggling fentanyl and other nasty stuff into our country, the border would become pretty manageable. And with drug overdoses and other drug-related illnesses down, some medical facilities could be converted to rehab lockups. Reduced crime would have a lot of benefits. Whole departments, like the DEA, TSA, ATF and others could be eliminated or merged, largely replaced by a drug enforcement and rehab agency with some real teeth.

Hmmm, a healthier, safer, more productive country and (bonus) a leaner, more functional federal government – Bill O’Reilly, I think you are on to something.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I caught you knockin’ at my cellar door
I love you baby, can I have some more?
Oh, the damage done
I hit the city and I lost my band
I watched the needle take another man
Gone, gone, the damage done

The Needle and the Damage Done – Neil Young

ENES KANTER FREEDOM – NBA JOURNEYMAN, CONSERVATIVE SUPERSTAR

Posted on by Standard 4
ENES KANTER FREEDOM – photo courtesy MSNBC

I love basketball. I played and coached basketball for most of my years on God’s green earth.

Okay, I know, it’s hard to love the NBA when the players, owners, and league officials cowtow to communist China, Nike, and anybody who promises MORE MONEY, while disrespecting the United States by kneeling for the national anthem.

But stick with me for a minute. I have always been a Utah Jazz fan. We lived in Utah back in the Stockton and Malone days – back when the “pick and roll” was sacred and all players stood at attention during the national anthem. I taught my daughter the pick and roll when she was 9 years old.

Like many fans, my team loyalties continued well after leaving the local markets. I still love my Utah Jazz and my Kansas City Chiefs, having lived in those areas, watching hundreds of games, and being caught up in the local pro team frenzy. (Add the Saskatchewan Roughriders Canadian football team from our Montana days.)

So when former Utah Jazz center Enes Kanter (now with the Boston Celtics) jumped into the headlines as a shining conservative star, outspoken in his opposition to Chinese dictator Xi Jinping’s oppression of Uigher Muslims and Venezuela’s totalitarian leader Nicolas Maduro, it got my attention.

Last year when the left gained the upper hand in US politics, the NBA was quick to play the race card, with LeBron James leading the charge against “systemic racism” and criticism of the USA, our values, and our history. At the same time, the NBA embraced Nike, a known civil rights abuser in China, and the Chinese Communist Party, whom the NBA had been courting for many years as a mass consumer of all things NBA, including broadcasts and licensed products.

When the Chinese abuse of Muslims, aggression against Taiwan and Nepal, confiscation of shipping lanes in the South China Sea and crackdowns on civil rights in Hong Kong hit fever pitch, the NBA, including its leading celebrity LeBron James, was dead silent.

Who stepped up in defense of civil rights and freedom? A first-generation immigrant from Turkey, Enes Kanter.

Kanter is, by NBA standards, a journeyman. I was struck by his athleticism and drive when he played for the Utah Jazz, and he plays the same role for the vaunted Celtics. Still, Kanter is not a “star” like LeBron.

But he is a superstar to American conservatives, because he is a strident, if lonesome, voice against totalitarianism, anywhere in the world.

Kanter, a native of Turkey, grew up in fear of totalitarian government. The New York Post quoted Kanter saying, “I remember a teammate posting something online against [then-President Barack Obama] and I got nervous for him,” he recalls of the high school incident in 2009. “I asked him, ‘Dude, what are you doing? They will put you in jail.’ He laughed hysterically and said I was confused. I was shocked that, within the next two days, the police did not come to his house and pressure him to say he was sorry or take away his family. If you did that in Turkey, you would be arrested for sure.”

Now, Kanter speaks out against oppressive regimes, and he understands the danger we face as the United States slides toward the same fate. He even legally changed his name to Enes Kanter Freedom to celebrate his new life in the USA. He recently became a US citizen.

Kanter’s fervor for freedom has not come without cost – he has been threatened by the Turkish government that imprisoned his father, and he faces kidnap and arrest if he leaves the USA.

Kanter has been a regular on conservative TV and radio stations as a beacon for freedom. NBA legend Dominique Wilkins recently surfaced as a supporter of Kanter and his mission. Meanwhile, the NBA continues to embrace the “woke” agenda while ignoring civil rights abuses.

“When I was nine years old, my mom told me to always stand up for what’s right — even if it means sacrificing everything,” he said. “From that day forward, I have always been outspoken. Now I am on a big stage and there are so many dictators out there who are destroying people. God gave me this platform, and I have to use it for the good fight.”

So my first pick for the NBA all-star team is not LeBron James, or Steph Curry, or James Harden – great players all. My favorite player is now Enes Kanter Freedom, a true – and new – American Patriot.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
A long way from my home
FREEDOM – Richie Havens