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.

Illegal Immigrants: Don’t Rock the Boat

Posted on May 29, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

rock the boat At breakfast this morning my daughter was relating a conversation she had with a neighbor-friend who is a third-grade teacher at a predominantly Hispanic public elementary school. They were discussing the problems caused by the extensive federally-required testing of third graders – the loss of instruction time, the stress for students and teachers, the declining scores. Then the teacher made a startling observation.

“It’s not just the testing that’s a problem, ” she told my daughter. “I have a room full of kids who don’t value education. That’s because they come from families who don’t value education.” She said nobody at home speaks English, so the children have no interest in learning English, or much of anything else, at school. They don’t see anything at home that connects education to success in life or anything positive. “They act out all day. Our classroom is chaos, and we are not allowed to discipline because the school is afraid of legal action.”

Another friend of mine is a kindergarten teacher who teaches entirely in Spanish. Her students receive no English instruction. She reports the same lack of discipline and respect in her students, and suffered a serious physical attack by one of them. Her administration warned her to not report the incident to police or other authorities.

Both of these talented young teachers are now questioning the wisdom of their career choices.

After breakfast, I flipped through the Sunday morning news shows, landing on the Fareed Zakaria GPS report about discrimination. He pointed out that many more schools are now segregated than were before Brown vs. Board, and went on to say performance and outcomes in these “minority” schools is much worse than in “desegregated” schools. He carefully avoided one critical detail. The segregation in today’s schools is English-speakers vs. non-English speakers. American-born vs. (mostly) illegal aliens.

The other Sunday news shows all had the obligatory segments with talking heads explaining how Donald Trump has no chance to be elected president because he offended Hispanic voters by saying Mexican criminals have come across our open border. The news producers shelved the video showing protesters at a Trump rally assaulting police while waving Mexican flags.

My sensibilities were a little bit rocked by all this turbulence before my third cup of coffee. I had to say: this is just not working.

We can not leave our borders unprotected any longer. We can’t continue to pretend that these are only poor “refugees” wanting to celebrate America, to do the jobs we won’t do, and to help raise the tide that floats all boats. The boats that were already here are taking on water. We don’t have enough jobs for our own citizens. Our schools and support systems are sinking under the weight of foreigners, many of whom have no intention of assimilating.

I’m not a bigot or a selfish meanie. I’m not broad-brushing Hispanics or any other minority as terrible people. I’m not saying no more immigration, ever. All I’m saying is, what we’re doing now – unfiltered, uncontrolled mass immigration driven by liberal public benefit programs – is not working. It has to change before the boats all tip over.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rock the boat, don’t rock the boat baby
Rock the boat, don’t tip the boat over
Rock the boat, don’t rock the boat baby
Rock the boat

Rock the Boat – the Hues Corporation

Lesson From Zimbabwe – It Could Happen Here

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard 1

farming in africa The US Constitution lists many of the rights we citizens enjoy: the right to assemble, to speak freely, to bear arms. The most important right of all is overlooked by most Americans. You never see it mentioned on a protest sign, or by a political candidate. It doesn’t have its own enumerated amendment in the Bill of Rights. It is the right of individuals to own property and use it for their benefit.

While the word “property” is only mentioned once in the Constitution, the right of citizens to own and control it is woven throughout the document. The Constitution even restricts the federal government from owning land that should be available to the citizens. The framers knew that private ownership of property is the cornerstone of a free and productive society, and history has proved them right again and again. Nations that defend the rights of property owners enjoy advanced economies and quality of life, while authoritarian governments who possess and control property doom their people to a life of suffering and subsistence.

Venezuela is on the verge of collapse and bloody revolution as the socialist government nationalizes more and more private industry and property. Cuban and North Korean citizens have been mired in poverty for generations. China and Vietnam, while still communist, have seen the economic light and have begun “sharing” ownership of property with individuals – a measured step in the right direction.

Perhaps the starkest example of the tragic battle for control of private land is the recent history of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe was colonized by the British in the 1880’s, and named Rhodesia after Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the chartering British South Africa Company. The colony was made up of Northern Rhodesia (which became Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (today’s Zimbabwe), and Malawi. White colonists claimed and developed most of the fertile and mineral-rich land, built a thriving agricultural industry, and brought employment and security to Rhodesia’s indigenous people. At its peak, Zimbabwe led the world in production per acre for as many as seven different crops.

In the 1960’s the colony was split up. In 1970 Zimbabwe’s white-minority government declared independence from Great Britain, although it was not recognized. A decade of civil war and violence followed, mostly driven by nationalist Robert Mugabe. In 1980, Great Britain finally granted independence to Zimbabwe, celebrating its new constitution and democratic government. But in the following decades, Mugabe set out to confiscate all white-owned property, and the constitution and courts were hollowed out. “Resettlement” laws were passed and the farmers, who were promised (but never received) compensation, lost their land to Mugabe’s cronies, who were unprepared and disinterested in operating the farms. Most of the white farmers and countless thousands of their employees were tortured and killed as Mugabe’s plan to eliminate Zimbabwe’s food production was carried out. Agricultural output evaporated, plunging the entire nation into dependence on the government for rationed handouts, mostly provided by other nations.

One of these farmers, Ben Freeth, documented the destruction of Zimbabwe in his book, “Mugabe and the White African”, and points out that the seizure of land and private property is a tyrant’s most effective weapon:

“Land reform is about controlling the land in order to control the people on it. People need to eat, and in hard times they rely on the land to be able to grow food so that they can survive. Dictators – like Stalin in Russia and Mao in China, Pol Pot in Cambodia and Mengistu in Ethiopia – all knew that once they controlled the land they could control the food supply and nothing could then stand in their way. They could stamp out all opposition by using food to control people, just as Pavlov used food in his experiments with dogs and got them to do whatever he wanted. It has happened in country after country in Africa. Property rights have been usurped in the name of land reform and tyranny reigns unchecked.”

Zimbabwe’s troubles continue even today as Zimbabwe’s sham government still pretends that it will pay restitution to the displaced farmers.

The history of Zimbabwe offers a lesson for Americans. When a news item hits the wire revealing another land grab by the federal government, we had better pay attention. Under President Obama the federal government has nationalized over 265 million acres. That’s about three times the size of Zimbabwe.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa

Africa – Toto

What If Our Government Ran Like A Business?

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

govt and business Our country was built on business. Free market, survival-of-the-fittest, improve-or-die business. The United States of America has always been the land of opportunity – a place where success is not only possible, but fully expected by those who follow the timeless and dependable business formula: work hard, be fair and honest, embrace change, meet the customer’s needs, strive for continual improvement. Roll up your sleeves, git ‘er done. Take care of business.

American business people know how to build success and wealth that is shared by all. It’s a perfect system, where vendors, employees, owners, and customers all benefit when the business model is executed right. Our Constitution was written by geniuses – all of them businessmen. It empowers individual citizens and protects our property rights, both of which build prosperity. The framers clearly viewed daily life as business.

We are, and always have been, good at business. So why do we suck so badly at government lately?

GDP growth is stagnant. As our labor participation rate shrinks, our debt explodes. Real wages and buying power have plummeted. Federal government gets bigger while the quality of its work gets worse. Our military has atrophied, our infrastructure is pathetic by international standards, and we have achieved banana-republic corruption status. TSA security lines at airports are three hours long. Our government can’t control our borders, but they are laser-focused on who goes in which bathroom.

It seems like our federal government can’t get anything right these days. Maybe it’s because we haven’t had any business people running the show for a long time. Washington, DC is now bulging with academics, lawyers, and career politicians.

If a business leader were in charge of our federal government, he or she would find a world of opportunities for easy and quick improvement.

A business leader would establish accountability. In business, if an employee or a manager is given adequate resources and training and still doesn’t get the job done, he or she is fired. In the federal government nobody is fired – ever – no matter how egregious their performance or corruption. We can no longer afford government employee unions. The outrageous pay rates and guaranteed benefits, the horrendous productivity, the protection of bad employees and the corrupt crony connections between government unions and politicians must stop. Without the drag of government unions, the cost of government could be significantly and quickly reduced, and performance improved.

A business leader would face fiscal realities. Unlike the current group of academic dreamers and socialists in government who think throwing taxpayer money at any problem will solve it, business people know that money does not grow on trees or printing presses and does not magically cure every hiccup. Believe me when I tell you that no company (at least none that survives) budgets like our government does. Can you imagine Ford increasing its budget for production of each model by 15% every year, regardless of sales and profit? Of course not. Ford, and every other company, large and small, operates by zero-based budgeting. Every department or product must justify every dollar spent with performance and profit, every year.

A business leader would set and maintain priorities, and establish a functional management structure. Sadly, our federal government has become a patchwork of obsolete and redundant agencies and departments with overlapping or obsolete agendas and nobody really in control. Survival and success in government work relies on political connections, not performance. Bureaucrats are rewarded based on the number of employees they acquire, not on their accomplishments – and certainly not for efficiency! Every successful private enterprise has a business plan. We need a government plan, with real and measureable objectives, and a solid management framework to ensure that the objectives are met.

Government insiders, and most liberals, would argue that government can’t be run like a business, because it does not exist to react to consumer demand and offer a product. I disagree. Citizens have needs that must be supplied by the federal government, and they are set forth in the Constitution. Unfortunately, our behemoth government cranks out mountains of products that we don’t want or need, and does a pretty lame job of providing the services we do. Some will say that most of the cost of government is “entitlements” that can’t be reduced. That’s BS. Built into the cost of entitlements is a huge bloat of inefficiency, fraud, and corruption.

Of course the nation’s executive must share power with Congress. But that’s no different than a private business being driven by consumer demand. The leader must have vision and the ability to direct and motivate others.

If Donald Trump is elected, we may have the opportunity to see if our government can be run more like a business, and if that results in improvements for American citizens.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

And I’ll be taking care of business (every day)
Taking care of business (every way)
I’ve been taking care of business (it’s all mine)
Taking care of business and working overtime! Watch out!

Bachman Turner Overdrive – Takin’ Care of Business

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!

Mixed Emotions When Mexican Driver Kills Mexican Child And Flees Back to Mexico

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard 1

photo courtesy Charlotte Observer

I have been following a story in the Charlotte, NC news for several days now which still grips my attention for a variety of reasons. I find myself wrestling with my reactions to each development, and trying to sort out the implications of the profound change Charlotte, and much of America, has gone through in recent years.

I write this post not to make any particular point, but rather to illustrate how our emotions are manipulated by the politically-correct news media.

The tragedy began when a mother was crossing a street in East Charlotte with her young son and daughter in hand. The girl let go and darted across the street, and her six-year old brother followed. He was hit by a beat-up white work van. The driver, identified by witnesses as “a Hispanic man in his mid-thirties with curly black hair,” stopped briefly, saw the child lying gravely injured on the street, and then sped away.

Like any parent, my first reaction was horror at the sudden death of a child, and sympathy. Immediately following that was my suspicion and anger that the driver is probably an illegal immigrant.

A year ago Charlotte’s political leaders chose to declare it a “sanctuary city”, one of hundreds of cities across the country that refuses to turn illegal immigrants, including criminals, over to federal authorities for processing and deportation. Since then Charlotte has attracted growing numbers of Hispanic illegals, and the crime statistics have tilted heavily in their direction.

In support of the sanctuary city stance, Charlotte news outlets do not identify illegal immigrant criminals as such. A respected African-American business owner was recently murdered in my Charlotte suburb by a Honduran laborer, and the fact that the killer was here illegally was never reported by the Charlotte press. But since the murder occurred on the South Carolina side of the lake, the Rock Hill (SC) Herald reported that federal immigration and customs officials were involved.

Here’s where the bouncing emotions and questions come in. My “I’ll bet the driver is an illegal” reaction to the hit-and-run incident probably matches the vast majority of my neighbors. If he is here illegally, the driver likely has no insurance, perhaps no driver’s license. Even though it was clearly an accident, and the driver is doubtless torn with guilt, his entire life in the USA is clandestine, so he had to run. I feel sorry for him. Wait, no I don’t, he fled the scene of a fatal accident. I noticed that the child’s family is also Hispanic, and I can’t help but wonder if they are also here illegally. But so what? The child’s death is no less tragic. The boy’s family told reporters they want the driver found and prosecuted. Would the Charlotte police have turned him over to ICE if they had caught him?

The driver has now been identified as Juan Antonio Quintanilla-Garza, and the press will only report that Charlotte police believe he is “out of state.” The words “out of the country” would be too revealing. Quintanilla-Garza probably left corrupt, backwards Mexico to try to help his own family. He became a criminal in the process.

The accident was not caused by illegal immigration. It could have happened to anyone, by anyone, anywhere. But it became more than an accident when the driver took off. And the flood of illegal immigrants to our country, plus the disproportionate incidence of crimes by illegals, plus the inexplicable “sanctuary city” policies that enable and protect illegal immigrant criminals all combine to scramble our emotions into an omelette of anger, fear and frustration.

It’s not about racism. It’s about borders, and security, and economics and enforcing the laws. And in the middle of it all is a dead kid.

What a mess.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

You’re not the only one
With mixed emotions
You’re not the only ship
Adrift on this ocean

Mixed Emotions – Rolling Stones

Trump’s Promise to Put “America First” – End of the World?

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard 1

I watched Clarence Mason’s interview on Lou Dobbs tonight. Mason’s enthusiastic support for preserving our traditional values and way of life was stimulating and inspirational.

Dobbs was reporting on Donald Trump’s foreign policy speech, in which Trump said his priority would be to put “America First” in any foreign policy decisions. Dobbs asked Mason what he thought of Trump’s pro-America stance, and it was like lighting a fuse under a bank of July Fourth fireworks.

“Of course we should put America first!” Mason cheered, explaining that he is tired of everybody blaming America for every problem in the world. He proclaimed his pride in the USA and his desire to rebuild our economy by taking a fresh look at foreign trade, mass immigration, and one-sided military agreements. He clearly reveled in what he sees as Trump’s common-sense mix of protectionism and patriotism.

Trump’s proclamation drew immediate scathing rebuke from all directions. “Trump’s ‘America First’ Has Ugly Echoes From U.S. History”, was the headline slam from CNN. Reuters piled on with “Trump’s ‘America First’ Speech Alarms U.S. Allies”. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of 15 wanna-be presidential candidates who took a butt-whoopin’ by Trump, tweeted “Trump’s speech is pathetic in terms of understanding the role America plays in the world, how to win the War on Terror, and the threats we face.” (Full disclosure: I voted for Cruz over Trump in the South Carolina primary, but an enemy of my senator Graham is absolutely a friend of mine!)

But back to Clarence Mason.

I have been listening to pundits from Glenn Beck to Meghan McCain to Steve Deace wailing that Donald Trump’s popularity and ascent to the top of the presidential ticket is the end of the world as we know it. They insist that Trump will lose to Hillary Clinton because ALL women hate him and ALL Hispanics hate him and ALL blacks hate him.

Here’s a news flash. Clarence Mason – black guy. And there are many, many more like him attending Trump rallies and talking politics after church and on coffee break. Women too. And Hispanics. People of every race, gender, and income bracket. They are tired of the big-promises-no-results Republicans. They have learned the truth about the we’re-from-the-big-government-and-we’re-here-to-help-you Democrats. Just like the angry white males that the media claims are Trump’s only supporters, they are not going to get fooled again.

The pundits and the insiders are apoplectic. They can’t understand how, and they won’t admit, that Donald Trump is very likely to be our next president. But it’s really so simple. After years of being told that we are the scum of the Earth, we Americans – white, black, Hispanic, male and female – want a president who puts America first for a change.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it,
And I feel fine!

It’s The End of the World As We Know It – R.E.M.

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