Bill Tells Loretta, “Don’t Worry, Baby!”

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard 5

bill clinton jet Loretta’s jet pulled off the runway and onto the tarmac at the executive end of Sky Harbor Airport. Glancing out the window she spotted a familiar sight.

“Oh look! There’s Bill’s plane!” she said, pointing to the big gray Gulfstream parked on the outside edge of the field. “I’d recognize it anywhere.”

Moments later, her phone rang. “Hi, Loretta, it’s Bill. Do you have a minute?” Soon he was bounding up the steps into her smaller, but comfortable government-issue Lear jet.

“That’s a beautiful plane you have there, Bill,” Loretta said.

“Oh, that old thing? It’s all the foundation could afford. Shoot, you ought to see the 727 my friend Jeff Epstein had. We called it the “Lolita Express” because of all the young honeys Jeff kept on the plane for those trips to Orgy Island. Yeah, heh heh, I was on that thing about every other weekend for a few years . . . ”

“Oh, um, Mr. President, I’d like you to meet my husband . . . ” Loretta interrupted.

“Nice to meet you, man,” Bill said, shaking hands. “You must be pretty proud of Loretta here. I remember when I put her on the bench, and now she’s the AG. You know if my wife gets elected, she’s going to need some good people – Supreme Court justices, cabinet positions. Of course that’s if she doesn’t get indicted.”

“But, Mr. President, I don’t think we are supposed to talk about that,” Loretta said, with a worried look. “After the FBI investigations are finished, it will end up on my desk.”

“Oh, I’m not worried about that, Loretta,” Bill grinned. “We’ve been through some little scuffles like that before, and nothing ever comes of it. It’s like I told Ron Brown when the FBI and all those other guys were after him, you know, right before the election? Yeah, he said he would have to testify against me and ‘Hil’ to the grand jury in a few days. I told him, ‘Don’t worry Ron, things will work out’. Too bad about that plane crash.”

Loretta gulped. “But Mr. President, there is so much evidence about all the billions of dollars you and your wife raised for your foundation, and it looks like you were doing favors for other countries and bankers and . . . I just don’t know how I can stop it from coming out . . . ” She looked liked she might cry.

“Now, Loretta,” Bill crooned, patting her on the shoulder. “You’re not the first one who faced a tough decision. Our friend Vince Foster was in charge of handling the information on our little Whitewater problem, and some things for Hillary, and he was really worried too. But look, nothing came out of that either.”

Bill got up to leave. “I sure do enjoy those grandbabies of mine. I’ve got a new one, you know.”

“Yes, I have grandchildren too, from my husband’s previous marriage,” Loretta whispered, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.

“Keep an eye on those grandkids,” Bill said as he started back down the steps. “I’m sure nothing will happen to them. Take care now, I’ve got a tee time.”

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Don’t worry baby.
Don’t worry baby!
Everything will turn out all right.

Don’t Worry Baby – the Beach Boys

Trump: Hillary Does the Hanky-Panky

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Last week Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said, “Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency.”

My reaction was, “She’s got some big shoes to fill, there, Donald!”

Politics has always been a dirty business, but for the most part our presidents have been on the up and up. Some, like Grant, Arthur, Harding, and Reagan were surrounded by corruption but didn’t actually line up at the buffet themselves.

Then Hope and Change happened, and suddenly presidential corruption was elevated to an art form and a lucrative industry. While presidents have always found ways to reward their friends and supporters, the $800 billion blank check President Obama received for stimulus and recovery packages opened the floodgates for rampant, criminal cronyism.

Getting elected to the top political office in the world takes money. A lot of it. And big contributions usually come with expectations of payback. President Obama did not disappoint. Peter Schweitzer points out in his corruption expose, “Throw Them All Out”, how ten members of Obama’s 2008 campaign finance committee parlayed $457,000 in contributions into $11.3 billion in grants and guaranteed loans for companies they own and/or direct. And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

The half billion dollar Solyndra scandal was one of the few crony boondoggles that hit the presses. According to Schweitzer, there were many more, and larger, that were never publicized: Solar Trust of America, $2.1 billion. First Solar, $4.7 billion (primary owners include Ted Turner). Leucadia Energy, $3.5 billion. Brightsource, $1.4 billion (primary owners include Robert Kennedy, Jr.).

The purpose of the stimulus was to create jobs, but Schweitzer says most of the grant and taxpayer-guaranteed loan money ended up in the pockets of uber-rich Obama campaign donation bundlers. A $100 million grant to Basin Electric in tiny Beulah, North Dakota created just 8 jobs. Former Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers loaned $10 million to the National Democratic Convention when the hometown (Charlotte, NC) event ran short of funds. He was rewarded with environmental waivers and $300 million in grants – a good portion of which was allocated to projects already completed!

Yes, Obama sets the Hanky-Panky bar plenty high for his successor.

But Hillary is no piker. She sold access and influence to cronies and foreign governments for billions of dollars that were laundered through the Clinton Foundation, even during her tenure as Secretary of State. As Secretary, she brokered lucrative deals between foreign countries and US corporations in exchange for huge checks.

But unlike Obama, who has no shame about how he distributes the taxpayer’s money and makes no effort to hide it, Hillary goes to great lengths to avoid transparency. Umm, I mean getting caught. She removed records of 75 secret meetings with donors when she was Secretary of State. She set up her own personal email server and deleted perhaps 30,000 messages, putting national security at risk just to hide her Hanky-Panky. She was paid enormous sums for speeches she made to banker friends on Wall Street.

Meanwhile, Democrats giggle at Donald Trump because he is not raising cash at Clinton’s torrid pace.

After Obama, and with the possibility of a Clinton presidency looming, maybe it would be good to elect a leader who doesn’t have to do the Hanky-Panky to pay back his cronies.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I never saw her, never never saw her . . .
My baby does the Hanky-Panky!

Hanky-Panky – Tommy James and the Shondells

Big Government Elitists Are On The Run

Posted on June 24, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard 1

cartoon by Gary Varvel

Voters in Great Britain took a courageous stand against their heavy-handed, uber-liberal, politically correct, elitist big-government overlords at EU headquarters in Brussels yesterday. They said NO to open borders. NO to uncontrolled Muslim immigration. NO to global-warming hoaxes. NO to stupid monetary policy and negative interest rates. NO to profligate gender-bending. NO to anti-Christian aggression. NO to over-regulation of businesses and micro-management of personal lives. NO to identity politics and fear of offending everybody. NO to corruption and croynyism. NO to rampant welfare programs. NO to top-down decision making by unaccountable bureaucrats.

Other European nations will likely follow Great Britain’s lead and jump ship soon. Enough is enough.

Could this be the start of a world-wide movement back to “normal” government? Mainstream America has repudiated its permanent political class, and despite the best efforts of the DC insiders (both Democrats and Republicans) to barricade the Beltway, the ascendance of common-sense outsiders to national leadership looks more likely every day. Don’t be fooled by the liberal-media polls who try their best to throw cold water on the “throw-the-bums-out” movement. European pollsters predicted right up until election day that the Brits would stay in the EU – and were embarrassingly wrong.

Government is nothing more than dollars-in, dollars-out, just like any business. And every competent business manager knows that the way to make good decisions is to push them down to the lowest possible level of the organization. Family decisions should be made at the family level. Cities, counties, and states can manage their own affairs. We shouldn’t expect or allow our federal government to handle much more than borders, national security, and foreign policy. When condescending, elitist government officials try to micromanage every aspect of human life, the result is Venezuela.

Socialism has never worked. It never will. America will be great again. And those who jump off the socialist European Union ship first will be healthy and robust again too. Those who don’t are in for some tough times. Other confused nations (Canada? Australia?) will see the stark contrast and will move back to sanity.

It’s been a long wait. But something tells me we are in for something good.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Something tells me,
I’m into something good!

Something Good – Peter Noone (Herman’s Hermits)

Yep, Herman is still around! He does a great weekly “British Invasion” radio show on Sirius/XM radio, full of salacious stories about his young teenage years which he spent bar-hopping with his older (and reportedly decadent) Beatles and Stones buddies. Herman admits the stories may or may not all be factual, but they sure are entertaining.

Hey! Obama! Get Off Of My Cloud! (and out of my neighborhood)

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

Here we go again. This month President Obama, through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will enact the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Act”, a mandate that will force communities and developers to mix section 8 welfare housing into more affluent neighborhoods.

“HUD is working with communities across the country to fulfill the promise of equal opportunity for all,” a HUD spokeswoman said. “The proposed policy seeks to break down barriers to access to opportunity in communities supported by HUD funds.” — the Hill 6/11/15

“The Fair Housing Act has two goals: to end housing discrimination and to promote diverse, inclusive communities. The second goal is referred to as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), and it embodies our strongly-held American values of fair access and equal opportunity.” — National Fair Housing Alliance

There are so many things wrong with these statements that I don’t even know where to start.

“Equal opportunity for all” is a noble goal – and it’s what made our country great. All Americans should have the opportunity to work hard, earn, save, and succeed, and I believe that for the most part we still do. But equal opportunity is not what this ruling is about. Remember Joe the Plumber? President Obama told him we need to “spread the wealth around.”

People who live in nice, expensive homes did not get there by accident. They weren’t just lucky. And it’s not “white privilege”, because there are plenty of minorities barbecuing in those big back yards and inviting their white neighbors over.

No, this is just one more blatant overreach by a President who believes in equal outcomes, but not equal effort. He thinks in the interest of “fairness” it is not enough to take money from earners by force and give it to non-earners – now he wants to make them live together.

Yes, there is discrimination in housing. People who study, work hard, make good decisions and save their money are able to buy nice homes and raise their families in clean, safe neighborhoods with nice streets and good schools. Slackers and fools are neither entitled nor welcome there.

Economic discrimination has been in place since the dawn of civilization. It’s normal. It works. It encourages people to be smart and industrious. Is it fair? Yes! Allowing people to earn property, keep it, and use it as they wish is the epitome of fairness!

Fortunately most people are blessed with a sense of charity, and will voluntarily help care for those who are unable to support themselves due to physical or mental disability or disaster. And taxpayers know that public services for all are necessary. But there is nothing charitable or voluntary about the government forcing one to open his home, his neighborhood, or for that matter his nation’s borders to another only to “spread the wealth around.”

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has proposed an amendment that would defund Obama’s executive action, but on different grounds. He says implementation of the HUD rule is taking planning and zoning authority out of the hands of local officials, and he’s right. But his amendment won’t pass (has Congress defunded anything lately?) The federal government has had great success in recent years at pushing “social enlightenment” out to the communities through the promise of grants for “free money” that will be withheld if the local authorities don’t follow their mandates.

How sad is it that city “A” takes grants that are paid for by the citizens of city “B”, and vice versa, and both cities think the money is free?

Citizens will have to get involved in local government, educate local leaders to the dangers of taking grants with strings attached, and elect congressmen and executives who honor the fourth amendment. We need to get the federal government back in its box and out of our back yards!

Hey, you, get off of my cloud!
Hey, you, get off of my cloud!
Hey, you, get off of my cloud!
Don’t hang around ’cause two’s a crowd
On my cloud, baby!

The Rolling Stones – Get Off of My Cloud

Hard to believe this music is fifty years old. It still rocks!

Can’t Decide? Third Party? Not Voting? Make A List!

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard 2

Donald-Trump-and-Hillary-Clinton The Sunday news show pundits all shook their heads about the difficult choice voters face in the upcoming election. They said most voters don’t really like either of the two presidential nominees. How on earth will voters decide?

If you, or your friend or relative, are unsure how to vote, there is a pretty simple solution. My wise wife, the primary decision-maker in our family, says, “Make a list!”

What do you really want? What is most important to you? When you have to make a choice, just list your priorities in order and it will point you to the right decision. Hillary, or Donald? (There is no other choice – one of them will win, so failure to vote for one is a vote for the other).

If your top priority is your job, income, and financial security, which candidate would be better for your pocketbook? Who would increase or decrease government spending, and your tax bill? Who is more likely to protect your job from being taken by a legal or illegal immigrant? Whose economic policies – government and court interference in business, fair trade practices with other nations, support for manufacturing and energy industries, etc. – would cause our economy (and your finances) to improve or decline? If you rely on government handouts for your income, you might prefer the candidate who would give you more money and free stuff. Keep in mind, though, your children, relatives and friends are paying your tab.

You might be more worried about the health and security of your family. Which candidate supports law and order and police departments? Who believes our national defense requires a strong and well-organized military and secure borders? Who would defend your right to own a gun for your own protection? Who has a better long-term solution for improving the quality and reducing the cost of health care?

Some voters’ top priority is one or more social issues. You might be upset by racial division, gender discrimination, global warming, abortion, freedom of or from religion, or the academic drift away from functional knowledge and toward “social enlightenment.” Which candidate is more likely to pit groups of Americans against each other, causing more friction, anger, and crime? Who has the right take on education? Who is more likely to “live and let live”, and not try to control our personal behavior?

A common complaint about both candidates is their apparent lack of “likeability”. If you think “niceness” is the most important job requirement for a president, put that at the top of your list. The same applies for trustworthiness. Both are pretty hard to quantify, but each candidate has a history that can be judged.

If you are already settled on the Hillary vs. Donald question, please pass this advice on to anyone in your circle of influence who is struggling with the decision, perhaps even to the extent that he or she is frozen and refuses to choose. Tell him or her: Make a list! Prioritize what you want from your president. Then decide, issue by issue, who is on your side. You might prefer either candidate on a given issue. That’s okay. Apply weight to the top part of your list, and ignore the bottom.

See? Decision-making is not so tough.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Make a wish baby, and I will make it come true
Make a list baby, of the things I’ll do for you
Ain’t no risk now, let my love rain down on you
We could wash away the past, so that we may start anew

Ambrosia – Biggest Part of Me

God, I love live music! Please check out this fantastic amateur video of David Pack (Ambrosia) and smooth-jazz saxophone goddess Mindi Abair at a little winery, singing and playing their butts off for a small but appreciative audience. This is how it’s done!

Joe Walsh Donates All Of His Profit to the ACLU! REALLY! We Believe You, Joe!

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

I’m a rock guitar player. I grew up riffing to “Funk 49“. I lived in the Rocky Mountains and reveled in singing along with Joe Walsh’s irreverent “Rocky Mountain Way.” I always LOVED guitar god Joe Walsh, the goofy leader of the James Gang and the only member of the Eagles who would make sure you got your $50 worth of entertainment from your $150 row 175 ticket.

So now Joe Walsh is coming to Charlotte for a gig! Woo hoo! But wait. I’m not sure his heart is in it.

You see, ever since Charlotte passed a law saying anybody can use any bathroom or locker room or dorm room or sports team or single-sex school they want to at any time regardless of their personal plumbing, and then the state of North Carolina passed a law called HB2 saying, “Wait a minute! There could be some big problems there!”, concerts in the Tar Heel State have been cancelled left and right. Bruce Springsteen was first, cancelling his show in Greensboro. Bruce questioned Governor McCrory’s objection to junior high co-ed showers, saying, “To my mind, it’s an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress.”

Adam Levine, famed judge from the hit TV show “The Voice” and lead singer of Maroon 5, was next to put his ticket sales where his mouth is, saying, “WE FEEL EVERYONE SHOULD BE TREATED EQUALLY.”

That started a “me-too” tsunami of cancellations that included Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, Pearl Jam, Jimmy Buffett, and even my childhood hero Ringo Starr (arrow in my heart!). The NBA has threatened to pull the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte due to the raw injustice of HB2. PayPal decided to not build an office in North Carolina, that horrible place that refuses to let transgendered people pee. Never mind that PayPal does business in nations all over the world that routinely execute gays.

And then there’s Joe. “My shows are a place where all are welcome and all can feel safe. This is why I have chosen to proceed with concert dates as planned in North Carolina and will be donating my net profits to Equality NC and the ACLU.”

Um, Joe, can we audit the books? I mean, I don’t doubt your accounting integrity or anything like that. I’m sure you wouldn’t overstate your expenses. Heck, you will probably give the ACLU every single penny of profit you earn from those $150 seats. I don’t doubt your sincerity at all. Shoot, you just want to make sure that both transgendered people in Charlotte are treated fairly. I trust you!

Sheesh.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

My Maserati does 185.
I lost my license, now I don’t drive.
It’s hard to handle this fortune and fame.
Everybody’s so different, I haven’t changed!

Life’s Been Good To Me So Far – Joe Walsh

I still love ya Joe, even if you are a total knucklehead. Watch this AWESOME cut from Daryl’s House.

Liberal Democrat “Divide and Conquer” Strategy Is Doomed

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

divide-and-conquer Liberals fervently believe in protecting women and women’s rights. They claim that anybody who is not a liberal Democrat must hate women. Meanwhile, they insist on accepting hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants, most of whom require that their women are not allowed to show their faces in public and must be totally subservient to their husbands. So which is it, liberals? Are you for women, or for Muslims?

Liberals also claim to be the champions of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transvestites, and all other sexual subdivisions. Most Muslims don’t tolerate sexual nonconformity, and in some Muslim countries LGBT’s are routinely executed. If I were gay, I sure wouldn’t join the Democrat support for the Islamization of the western world.

Radical environmentalists are almost universally liberal Democrats. So are labor union members. But wait, isn’t the liberal war on coal and fossil fuels responsible for the loss of countless jobs in those industries? Hmm, it would be hard for me to vote for Hillary if I had just lost my high-paying energy sector job while billions of taxpayer dollars are still being dumped into dead-end solar projects to pay off Democrat campaign contributors. In fact, no American worker can be happy about job-killing policies like rampant immigration and anti-energy regulation with no proven benefits.

Well, at least the liberal Democrats can still claim that they are the only Americans who care about blacks and Hispanics, right? After all, it is their policies that have resulted in all the progress enjoyed by minorities over the last sixty years. Look at how much better off the citizens of Detroit and Baltimore are thanks to their monolithic Democrat governments. And check out how our first African-American president has improved race relations, and education, and employment, and income equality. Oh, that’s right, those things have all gone straight down the toilet for minorities and everybody else (except politically-connected Wall Street bankers) since Obama’s coronation.

This mind-numbing hypocrisy is why common sense Americans can’t understand how liberal Democrats get elected and re-elected.

The liberal game plan has always been to divide Americans into as many sub-groups as possible, and then claim to be the champion of each one. But wouldn’t you think they would have to actually show some kind of success to keep winning the support of all of these groups?

Fortunately, the “divide and conquer” strategy is on its last legs – common sense Americans of every stripe can’t go for that any longer. We know that all people have the same wants and needs, so pitting groups of us against each other is ill-fated. A good education is as important to a minority family as it is to a white family (who will soon achieve minority status anyway). We all need good jobs at fair wages. Nobody wants his wife, mother, or daughter to be abused, or likes dirty air and water, or would put the sick and elderly out on the street. And certainly nobody wants a government so huge and awkward that it can’t get out of its own way, much less provide cost-effective benefits.

We’ve had enough political promises that pander to one group or another. Candidates, tell us what you will do for America.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I can’t go for being twice as nice.
I can’t go for just repeating the same old lines.

I can’t go for that, no!

I Can’t Go For That – Daryl Hall and Rumer

T-Rex Trump Devours Low-T Ryan

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard 3

Ryan vs Trump Paul Ryan attended the University of Miami (Ohio) where he got a degree in economics and political science and worked for John Boehner’s congressional campaign. After graduation he immediately moved to Washington, DC and became enmeshed in the Republican machinery. But for a short stint selling hot dogs, Ryan has never held a non-government job. In 1998 he ran for Wisconsin’s first district congressional seat, and won. Since then he, like most incumbents, has been repeatedly re-elected, and in October of last year he replaced his old friend Boehner as Speaker of the House, causing a uproar among grassroots conservatives. He promised to bring “regular order” back to Congress, whereby the budget would be broken into spending bills which would by voted upon individually. Instead, he rammed through another hideous “omnibus” spending bill chock full of Boehneresque pork and political paybacks. Like his predecessor, Ryan has shown no desire to stand up to the Obama juggernaut of executive overreach. Now Ryan says he is “not ready to support” Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate for president. (170 words)

Ryan is a Washington Insider. (5 words)

Ryan was elected to Congress by receiving a few hundred thousand votes in his Wisconsin district. Trump, meanwhile, is set to smash GW Bush’s all-time record of almost 11 million Republican primary votes nationwide. Despite his delusions of grandeur, “Low-T” Ryan’s position on the political food chain is significantly beneath than that of “T-Rex” Trump. While a few conservative members still sheepishly defend their support of Ryan’s speakership, many have already had enough, and there are whispers in the DC jungle of an insurrection.

Like many other Washington Insiders, Ryan thinks it is still safe to look down his nose at Trump and Trump’s legions of supporters. His arrogance is exactly why Trump enjoys such historic public acclaim. They still don’t get it. And if they don’t get it pretty soon, they risk extinction.

T-Rex Trump, ever the populist, knows what’s bugging voters. While Ryan and the Insiders whimper that government will have to cut back benefits for seniors, Trump says let’s rev up the economy. As the Insiders fuss over how many hundreds of transgendered Mexican environmentalist college safe-zone dwellers they can win over from the Democrats, Trump invites the every-man masses to join him in making America great again. While the insiders fear alienating women voters, Trump promises to protect them from invading hordes of Muslim immigrants, many of whom believe in the systemic abuse of women (and gays).

Sorry, Paul Ryan. T-Rex Trump is stomping around the jungle, hunting for breakfast, and you Insiders are looking pretty tasty.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Open the door, get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur!

Walk the Dinosaur – Was (Not Was)

Let’s get funky with Was (Not Was)! Get up out of your chair, get your blood pumpin’ a little bit!

To My #NEVERTRUMP Friends: Let’s Roll the Dice!

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard 3

Trump I voted for Ted Cruz in the South Carolina primary. Last night, after getting Trump-thumped (again) in Indiana, Cruz pulled out of the presidential race.

Many of my friends and acquaintances who “Rock on the Right Side” are really bummed today. They say they will never vote for Trump. A number of them have disowned the Republican Party or proclaimed it dead. Some express fear that Trump will start a trade war with China and trash our economy (presumably worse than it already is). The angriest among them shout that Trump is a Democrat plant, intent on destroying the nation once and for all.

I remember how bummed I was when Obama was re-elected in 2012. I knew what to expect from his second term, although I admit my surprise that Congress didn’t put up any resistance at all. So I understand your despair on V-D day (Victory for The Donald). If I could, I would buy each of you a beer and we could all cry in them together.

But just one beer.

I agree that Trump, at times, sounds like an idiot, despite his insistence that he “has a good brain” and is “very smart.” I know that he is not all that interested in the Constitution, that he has supported liberals, and that he is on the wrong side of some pretty important values issues. He’s rude. He’s coarse. He’s arrogant. I get it. But I will be voting for him in November anyway. Here’s why.

First of all, it must be repeated that we know for certain how awful life under Hillary will be. If you don’t know that, or are in denial, I can’t help you. Hillary will be Obama on steroids – ten times more aggressive and fearless – and we won’t be able to count on Congress or the Supreme Court to defend us. This alone should be all the motivation you need to take a chance on Trump, or maybe you have children or grandchildren to think about. On the other hand, if you strongly believe our priorities should be making safe zones for college students, building special bathrooms for .06% of the population, shutting down energy production in the USA while China builds a new coal plant every week, and igniting warfare in our country over race, sex and income level, just let Hillary win.

Consider, too, that for the last eight years our nation has been led by politically-correct academic knuckleheads. Is it any wonder our economy has tanked when nobody in the administration knows anything about business, economics, trade, foreign relations, military strategy, or anything else? What if, for a change, we have a president who brings in qualified experts from the real world to replace the self-serving government weenies and delirious socialist academics currently running our federal government?

I can’t guarantee that Donald Trump will do that. He hasn’t shown a whole lot of depth or detail to back up his populist promise that he will “make America great again.” But he might.

He might make the EPA back off and let the USA become the energy powerhouse of the world. He might beef up our military, knock out the terrorists and regain the respect of other nations. He might protect us from the plague of uncontrolled immigration that is destroying Europe. He might clean house on our bloated, inefficient and corrupt federal government and make it work for the people. At least Trump won’t have to pay back crony campaign contributors and lobbyists.

There is the chance that things could be a hell of a lot better than they are now, and fairly soon.

I’m willing to roll the dice.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Say now baby, I’m the rank outsider,
You can be my partner in crime.
Baby! Baby!
You got to roll me and call me the tumblin’ dice!

the Rolling Stones – Tumblin’ Dice

My boys are getting a little bit wrinkled – but they still rock!

Shiny Objects Distract Us From Making Our Mark On History

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

Battle-of-Verdun Many people today think that our time in history is oh, so important. They believe that life today is more dangerous, more difficult, more demanding than ever. By the very definition of evolution, we must be the smartest people who ever lived. We are the result of human progress. The Western world is now “progressive”, so our collective decisions about how we live and what we do must be better than ever before. We are the current revision level. The latest. The best.

Maybe it’s time to think honestly about our place in history.

Sometimes when I catch myself whining about what a rough day I had, I think of the guys who stormed the beachhead at Normandy in the face of withering machine gun fire. Or the men who charged the enemy at Khe Sanh. Or Verdun. Or Gettysburg. Or Lexington. Or Fallujah.

I think of the frontier families who left all their comforts behind to travel west on a wagon, taking a life-or-death chance to find peace and prosperity in a new, untamed land.

I think of the kids who went to work at the age of 9 in a coal mine or sweat shop because they knew the family had to eat. And the people who face disability, disease, and injury and keep on working.

Our grandparents worked harder every day than we will on our best day. And knowing the challenges they overcame, they were probably smarter than most of us, too. Throughout history people have endured tremendous hardships, and have accomplished remarkable achievements. Many gave their lives to protect others from evil. How do we stack up against our predecessors?

The news pundits tell us that the 2016 presidential election is the most important one ever, to the exclusion of all other topics and events. With seven months until the election, there is nothing else on planet Earth worth reporting other than what our presidential candidates have to say about the most critical topics.

Sadly, the most critical topic right now seems to be whether the few hundred transgendered individuals who exist in our country should use a bathroom labeled “men”, “women”, or “other”.

We may not be fighting for our existence in a global war, but it’s not like there aren’t still serious challenges facing today’s world. Poverty still exists. Genocide continues. Despots and ideologues threaten peaceful citizens. Unborn children are slaughtered. But these big, historic issues are kicked aside by academic, media and political leaders who distract us with frivolous, fraudulent shiny-object issues, and our candidates are only too happy to join them in changing the subject: Climate change. Women’s rights. Safe rooms for college students who fear “white privilege”. Perceived police brutality. Gay wedding cakes.

Frankly, life in these United States is pretty good for most of us. We can preserve the qualities we inherited. We can make life even better, both at home and around the world. But it won’t happen unless we find and elect political leaders who have learned from history, who have a vision of what our place in history can be, and who don’t get distracted by shiny objects.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Those were the days my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance forever and a day
We’d live the life we choose
We’d fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.

Those Were the Days – Mary Hopkin