I'll Stand Where it Makes Sense

Sometimes I clash with someone purely on politics. We all know the type. But I don't just flip the switch and tune them out. Disagreement, to me, doesn't mean total disqualification. Even when I am at odds with someone nine times out of ten, there's always room for a tenth time surprise.

Take James Carville. Or hell, John Fetterman. Even Bill Maher. These guys often say things that make me wince, rolls my eyes, or wonder what planet they're from. But every once in a while, even if it is rare, they drop a line that hits.

So, what do I do with that? Pretend I didn't hear it? Toss it out because the political playbook says they're hacks, and I'm supposed to stay in my lane?

That kind of purity test feels more like self-sabotage than using my own common sense.

If I tell someone I'm not being herded like a sheep—that my politics are my own—I have to mean it. It can't just be a badge I flash when it's convenient to do so. That principle has to live in how I think, not just what I say.

That means I have to listen. Really listen. I have to sit with what I hear, let it rattle around, and form an opinion that's mine—not just something that's spoon fed by a tribe, a group of my fellow think-alikes, or a pundit with a punchline on my favorite news outlet.

Otherwise, I'm just another echo pretending to be a voice.

And this cuts both ways. I can disagree with my own side just as easily as I can agree with the other. That's not betrayal—it's being human. It's being honest. It's doing the work of thinking for yourself.

Because the moment I let someone yank me around the stage on strings, it's no longer my dance. It's someone else's choreography I am dancing to. The act stops being mine.

Yeah, it's a dressed-up way of saying I refuse to be a puppet.

This, I think, is where the political conversation has gone off the rails. It's turned into a one-way street, paved with loyalty tests and echo chambers. And for what? Not progress. Not clarity. Just noise.

You can't stand for something if you don't know why.

We've split ourselves into camps so deep as a country, it's beginning to feel like trench warfare. And that kind of division doesn't serve us—it sabotages us. When emotion or blind loyalty drives the way we think, it fogs our judgement almost every time.

There are good ideas and there are bad ideas. From both sides. That's not radical—it's reality.

But we've got to hear them all. We have to be willing to. Let them stand on their own legs. Decide for ourselves what holds up and what crumbles. Not just echo what we're told, or tiptoe around the fear of challenging the status quo we're supposed to defend.

How many times do I have to hear it? I take a different stance, maybe echo a point from the other side, and suddenly it's, "Who's side are you on?"

As if thought has to come with a team jersey.

Can I disagree with Donald Trump? Sure. Can I agree with John Fetterman? Also, yes. Why not? If I dismiss everything the other side says out of reflex, I might miss something worth hearing. And if I blindly nod along with my own side, I might help to usher in something I should've stood against.

We've got a two-party system. Fine. Most of us lean one way or the other. But we don't have to be a two-party People. Loyalty to a party isn't the same as loyalty to the country. Or to principle. Or to our own damn judgement.

We owe something bigger than just blind loyalty to any one or any thing. Or, for that matter, absolute opposition.

We owe it to common sense. To the common good. To the idea that thinking for yourself isn't treason—it's the bare minimum.

Politicians thrive on division. It wins them votes, airtime, and power. But most of us? We just want a country that makes sense. One we can live in, build in, and even laugh in. A place that offers real opportunity and lets us chase happiness without tripping over chaos.

We want a country that works.

But it won't work if we're silent. It won't work if we're siloed. It only works when we speak up, think together, and aim for something bigger than party lines or pundit points.

We don't need perfect unity. We need honest effort. Shared purpose. A collective voice that's loud enough to matter and clear enough to move things forward. We are not Republican or Democrat. Left or right. We're Americans.

They chose division. We can choose not to accept it.

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©2025 Jim Bauer

You Cancelled Us and Now We Cancel You

The left birthed cancel culture. They cheered when Aunt Jemimah was erased, when the Redskins were renamed, and when Uncle Ben quietly disappeared. They toppled statues and called it progress.

But they never imagined the blade might swing back.

Stephen Colbert? Fading. Jimmy Kimmel? Flailing. The View? On life support.

There's an old warning: Be careful what you wish for—you might just get it. And they did. They got the culture war they wanted. But they didn't count on the majority waking up.

They thought "woke" was popular. That it was righteous. That it was winning.

Then Bud Light happened. Then Target. Then Cracker Barrel. Then the 2024 election when the Democrats lost everything and Kamala Harris conceded to Donald Trump.

Now the cancellations are coming for them. Not out of spite, but out of clarity. The progressive movement is being rejected—not by fringe voices, but by the silent majority who never bought the message in the first place. 

It was easy to shout when the megaphone was theirs. It was easy to silence dissent when the media played backup. And thus, it was easy to pretend the country had changed.

But it hadn't.

We hadn't.

Our values didn't shift. Our principles didn't vanish. The foundation of this nation—its decency, its grit, its common sense—remained intact. The left just tried to convince us otherwise. Like magicians, they used smoke, mirrors and camera angles to sell the trick.

But we saw through it.

And now the same cancel culture they weaponized is being turned on the false narratives, the curated outrage, and against the phantom majority.

We're setting the record straight.

They stood at podiums, hijacked sporting events, hijacked award shows, and told us what to think. And for a while we listened. Some even nodded along.

Maybe the word DID change, and we just fell a bit behind getting the memo?

But then we talked to each other. We looked around and we realized, "This isn't us. This isn't the whole. This isn't the truth."

So, thank you for the invention. We'll use it now for the common good. Because good always wins. And your mistake was believing evil could prevail.

You tried to cancel everything we hold dear. Now, we're cancelling the lie.

We win.

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©2025 Jim Bauer

Law and Order: Trump Steps in Where Bowser Checked Out

By sending in the National Guard to support overwhelmed police in Washington, Trump has spotlighted the failure of "soft on crime" policies that plague many Democrat-run cities. While the Guard isn't trained for law enforcement, their presence is a force-multiplier, giving police breathing room to do their jobs.

And say what you want, but DC police have actually welcomed the federal backup, though you wouldn't know it from the silence of the media—except for them to go on and on about police states and more echoes of Trump the Dictator.

Meanwhile, Mayor Muriel Bowser was sipping Pinot at Martha's Vineyard while Trump stepped in to handle the chaos she couldn't—or wouldn't—control. Kind of reminds you of Mayor Bass who vacationed while her city burned to the ground.

Where there's disaster, always look for a Democrat to be behind it, either absent from it, or absent minded about it, with their first priority being only to find someone to put the blame on for everything that goes wrong.

Her only answer to rising crime? Leniency, no matter what the offense is. But again, that's a Democrat for you. Bass is guilty of it too. And don't take your eyes off Chicago and all the chaos happening on a daily basis there.

In cities like this, drug dealers and gang bangers rule the roost, and the citizens can only live, entrenched in a domestic terrorism that their so-called leaders just turn a blind eye to.

Some liberals do get it, but they are few and far between, and of course, many don't speak out because if you tell the truth, there may be dire consequences from doing that. Take MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, who's no fan of Trump, mind you, who admitted on air that DC's crime problem is out of control despite whispers in his ear from Chuck Schumer saying, "DC is safe."

Hey Schumer, you know eggs look better on your plate than on your face, right?

Granted, if you ask any one of these Democrats about crime rates, they will tell you they are all going down. But of course, the numbers tell a very different story and the grieving families and ruined lives their ineptitude creates, know better.

A 3-year-old girl was shot and killed while watching fireworks on the 4th of July. Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, a young congressional intern, was gunned down on June 30th walking near 7th street.

And so much of this crime? It's done by kids. Kids know the score. In cities run by liberal DAs, crime pays, and punishment is a slap on the wrist. That message spreads fast. I mean, look at liberal Milwaukee—you can't park a car anywhere without it being at risk of being stolen and taken for a joyride, and the same kid who steals your car today just stole one two days ago and got off easy for it. The jailer should just hand them a set of keys on their way out the door and tell them, "See you again next week, I'll have a sandwich waiting for you."

The bottom line is that accountability isn't cruelty—it's protection. The question isn't complicated. Should we shield criminals, or defend the law-abiding citizens who live, work, and visit our cities?

A justice system that turns a blind eye, offers endless second chances, and defunds or hog ties the hands of the very people who are there to keep order isn't justice at all. It's surrender. And regardless of what anyone thinks about what Trump is doing here, there's only one place one needs to look to place the blame on it, and that's Mayor Muriel Bowser. If she was doing her job, the National Guard wouldn't even be a thought.

It's gone on too long. People are tired of rampant criminals running loose on our streets and making life difficult and miserable. Someone has to do something, and if that means taking drastic, tough measures then so be it. Maybe it is akin to a police state that we don't really want. But think about, didn't people vote for it when they put these people in a position that created it?

There can only be two solutions here. One is to run the crime out of town, and the other is to vote out the people who allowed the crime to run the town.

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Check out more content by Jim Bauer at HubPages:

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Misunderstanding Trump's Words: Fact vs. Fiction

Is it a Rift or Just Business: Elon Musk vs. Donald Trump

Boy, how the tides turn in Washington. Once, Elon Musk was the quirky face of liberalism, and of course, Tesla's eco-friendly (kinda sorta) cars won over the tree huggers all caught in the web of the terrifying prospect of a global climate crisis.

Well, he's still quirky. Maybe even still a bit liberal.

But he's clearly leaned right, seeing more promise in a Trump presidency than a Harris one. Where are his allegiances? Well, it might just be that Elon Musk really doesn't have one. And hey, I'm not saying that's all bad. Who wants to be a sheep? Really, he's just being who he has always been. Elon Musk. A man who has always danced to his own tune, unapologetically doing what suits him in the moment, and not always really giving much of a damn what anyone thinks about it.

Really, hasn't controversy and Elon Musk always pretty much gone hand in hand?

His so-called rift with Trump now? Maybe it's just business. Without a doubt, his darling company, Tesla, took a major hit when he aligned with MAGA—dealerships and charging stations got bombed and the cars were attacked.

Look, it's no secret that Tesla buyers are mostly liberals. If Musk wants to sell cars, he has to restore the Tesla brand—and perhaps his own—by softening his conservative ties. Like it or not, if he's chasing profits, he has to appeal to the people buying, and that's not the MAGA crowd.

Musk's tactics? Disconcerting, to say the least—linking Trump to Epstein's list and suggesting he owed his presidency to him. But let's be honest, the Musk we see now is the same Musk we've always had. Same goes for Trump, really. When Elon Musk was launching his Tesla into outer space or Donald Trump was calling Rosie O'Donnell nasty names—what we see is what we get.

So, are we really all that surprised by Musk's moves? The product hasn't changed. Whether it comes to Trump or Elon Musk, they do seem to be genuine articles in that they speak what's on their mind and really aren't all that interested in what some people might think about that.

For whatever it's worth, and however uncomfortable it can sometimes make me, I can actually admire that. Who wants someone who cow toes like a sheep?

That's not to say that Musk's sudden sprint to the MAGA side didn't have an agenda behind it. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn't. We can't necessarily get deep into Musk's brain to figure out exactly what was on his mind.

We just know that Musk now seems to have sort of changed his mind.

But again, it may be more about business than anything. Or maybe he is actually a little bit crazy as I have always suspected. He's certainly always been able to stay in the news and on people's radars. Maybe that works for him. Maybe his antics work for him now going against Trump, even if, at the same time, it might leave more people on both sides more confused than convinced about what he actually thinks or where he actually stands.

Many might be asking, "Who's side are you really on, Mr. Musk?" Maybe the reality is that he's not on anyone's side. He's on his side. And really, when I look back at all the positions Musk has ever taken, that seems apparent that that's the only side he has ever been on.

Again, that's not necessarily a bad thing even if I don't entirely like or agree with what he's saying now.

What he has effectively done to now is to stir the pot really good and get everyone talking. Democrats. Republicans. MAGA people and liberals. 

Either way, whether this rift is a good thing or a bad thing is to be seen. Who knows what the outcome will ultimately be? He'll lose some new friends and regain some old ones, perhaps. He's done it before. I think it's likely he'll do it again.

Like I said, he's quirky. He's Elon Musk. This is what he does. It's what he's always done. Can you really get angry about it? Or do you just accept that this is what it is, take it for what it is, let the cards fall where they may, and go about our days?

In the meantime, watch what Tesla's stock does. What Elon Musk is at the end of the day is a master marketer, and he's a pretty damn smart businessman. Maybe not being able to actually know what side he's actually on is the best strategy he can have. And that might ultimately be what all this is really about.

Or he's subtly sending us a different message. That we aren't all that interested in ideas or truth as much as we're interested in agreeing with each other all the time.

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© 2025 Jim Bauer

A Potential Trade War Explained Through a Really Stupid Analogy

Life throws you strange curveballs sometimes, but mostly you just roll with it, you know. Until you start to catch on that things quite possibly aren't the way they ought to be.

Take my buddy who has me over for dinner all the time. Great food, warm company. Yet, every single time he hands me a bill for $30 after the meal. It's always been this way. Although, I will admit, even though I have always just gone along with it, for years it always left me a bit flabbergasted. Especially considering when he eats at my place, he's treated to a free meal.

So naturally, one day I asked him about it. He casually explained, "It's just the cost of having dinner at my house." And sure, he's a phenomenal cook, so I let it slide. But after dozens of $30 dinners, I couldn't hold back anymore. I finally said, "But when you come over to my house for dinner, I don't charge you a dime!"

He shrugged and said, "That's just the deal. You eat in my house, you pay. I eat in your house, I pay nothing."

Oh really? So, I replied, "Alright, fine. Fair enough. From now on, I'm charging you $15 for dinner at my place."

Cue absolute chaos. He slammed the table, his face turned red, and he shouted that he'd burn my house down if I dared charge him. "That's it!" he roared. "If you're going to charge me $15, then I'm raising my price to $45. Either I keep eating for free, or we're going to have some serious issues!"

Enter the ye olde record scratch here.

Does this sound familiar? That's how tariffs play out on the world stage. The United States is simply tired of footing the bill while others dine on the house. Is it coming into focus now? Or do we need another analogy? 

Dinner's on me. Well, so long as you give me $15 or until we renegotiate the terms of our dinner arrangements. 

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© 2025 Jim Bauer