Month: September 2023

A headline from the New York Post:

“Inflation squeezes Americans as 61% say they live paycheck to paycheck”

To put this in perspective over six in ten Americans are struggling to survive, and if they were to miss a paycheck … an impending disaster?

Similarly from Yahoo Finance:

It’s not just low-income Americans drowning under inflation and interest rates — some higher-income folks are feeling the strain on their wallets as well.

Data from a June survey conducted by personal finance software company Quicken revealed that 32% of Americans earning at least $150,000 a year are currently living paycheck to paycheck, while 36% of folks earning $50,000 to $150,000 and 55% of households earning less than that reported the same.”

Impending disaster?

Credit card usage has been escalating amid high inflation.

In fact, according to the New York Fed, credit card balances topped $1 trillion in the second quarter of 2023.

As some Americans are waiting for their next payday to afford everyday expenses, credit cards may be the only tool left at their disposal. But relying on them too heavily comes at a cost.

The Quicken survey found that 46% of higher-income groups are more dependent on their credit cards than they’ve ever been — compared to just 40% of middle- and 39% of lower-income groups. About a third of folks earning $150,000 a year or more also admitted they won’t be able to pay off their balances before the end of the year. Truly an impending disaster! 

Notice that the last “impending disaster” is with an exclamation point and not a question mark. It’s only a matter of time before the “sh*t hits the fan!” … Thank you, President Biden!

9/20/23

First of all I am far from being a green-enthusiast. The green pie-in-the-sky dreamers are just that … dreamers!

The following is a headline from a piece that was published almost one year ago on 10/2/22 in Fox Business:

“Energy experts sound alarm on Europe’s energy crisis as ‘clear and present warning’ for America

Six experts warned congressional leaders not to follow Europe ‘blindly into the same disaster’”

From the same piece:

“In a letter the coalition of six experts urged congressional Republican leaders — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. — to consider how green policies have contributed to the energy crisis in Europe. They added that the crisis proves the U.S. lawmakers need to bolster, not “compromise,” energy security.

In recent months, European consumers and businesses have been hit with massive energy bills due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which upended global oil and gas markets due to Russian producers’ dominance, and an aggressive transition to green energy sources like wind and solar pushed by several major European nations.

Amid the crisis, Europeans have been forced to take drastic measures to conserve energy and keep bills low while governments have imposed rationing rules and introduced relief programs. The letter noted that the crisis has forced manufacturing plants to close and will likely lead to major blackouts throughout the winter in Germany.”

It didn’t take long for this warning to come to fruition in Germany. 

From Fox Business (10/27/22):

A German energy company is dismantling a wind farm to allow for an adjacent coal mine to expand its operations, officials said. 

One of the wind farm’s eight wind turbines was dismantled last week, and two others are expected to be taken down next year. The remaining five turbines will be dismantled by the end of 2023, said a spokesperson for the company that builds and runs the wind farm.

One of the wind farm’s eight wind turbines was dismantled last week, and two others are expected to be taken down next year. The remaining five turbines will be dismantled by the end of 2023, said a spokesperson for the company that builds and runs the wind farm.”

It appears that reality has set in in Germany, and hopefully reality will soon set it here in the US also!

9/19/23

Approximately three years ago we started on masks, Covid lockdowns, social distancing, etc. which facilitated voting by mail which facilitated widespread voting irregularities, that some of us refer to as “voting fraud.” Finally, after two plus years of Biden mandates, we are finally escaping from the ushered in Covid tyranny.

But, hey, there is another election coming in 2024. Biden’s numbers are horrific, and you can smell the panic emanating from behind the closed doors of the Democrat higher-ups, as they wish for another “Covid.” They hope there is a light at the end of the tunnel with Nipah.

I realize that most of you have no idea what I am talking about, but the question is whether it  will be “here we go again?”

From Jim Ferguson UK on X:

“Breaking News: World is on Alert.

Reports are emerging from India of a highly dangerous Virus with a kill rate of 75% which is far deadlier than anything previously seen.

Nipah Virus is spread by fruit bats who can transmit the virus to people via contact with infected bodily fluids like saliva or urine left on fruit.

The spike in cases of this virus, which inspired the Hollywood pandemic thriller ‘Contagion’, has already killed two people in the southern state of Kerala.

Five other cases have been detected, including a child of one of the victims, with over 800 people being testing.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) stated it was ‘closely’ monitoring the outbreak.”

From Jeff Childers C & C,

“Nipah virus is a relatively-new, high-fatality respiratory virus that first appeared in India back in 2001. It’s a nasty bug. It features a startling 40%-75% mortality rate, is rated for BSL-4, the highest biolab security requirement, and is a CDC designated “Bioterrorism Agent.” Articles describing the current two human deaths variously suggest a zoonotic (animal) origin for the virus either from pigs or, wait for it, fruit bats.

It reportedly spreads through body fluids.

Nipah virus is NOT airborne. Of course, that’s not stopping everybody in Kerala, India from maniacally wearing masks. Masks can stop any kind of virus using their magical mask powers. You just have to make the right sacrifices to the mask gods, or something.

Two deaths is not an outbreak. The official alarm seems to stem from the fact that the second guy who died was contact traced to the first victim. The second guy ran into the first guy at the hospital, which strongly suggests human-to-human transmission. And that’s what has everyone so excited.

One case of human transmission.

In spite of the fact that all post-pandemic studies of lockdowns concluded lockdowns don’t work, and cause enormous unintended harms, the article reported that India’s health ministry has already declared 45 Kerala wards as a “containment zone” after discovering the two Nipah deaths. The containment order imposed a useless lockdown, restricting access to the 45 wards, shuttering schools, prohibiting public gatherings, nixing “non-essential” businesses, mandating masks, requiring testing and tracing, and setting a 5pm curfew.”

So I ask: Is Nipah coming? Will lockdowns etc. be facilitated or even mandated by JB? 

Here we go again ?

9/18/23

On Sundays I like to praise to individuals who go above and beyond what would ordinarily be expected. Deputy Anthony Bussell is such an individual..

In the United States, if you apply for any law enforcement job, there’s always a question,” Deputy Bussell told us, adding what that is, “Why do you want to be a police officer?”

“It’s kind of cliché, but it’s to help the community,” he said.

From Epoch Bright:

Deputy Anthony Bussell isn’t used to seeing the young male motorists he pulls over on the roadside break down in tears.

Upon seeing exactly this at 3:30 a.m. during a traffic stop south of Kansas City last month, he was more than ready to lend a shoulder to cry on.

Through tears, a young man wearing a white ball cap in the car driver’s seat asked, “Can I have a hug?”

The request for a hug was granted by the man in uniform, who has served in law enforcement for 23 years. His unhesitant reply to the young man’s asking for a hug was, “Sure, yeah.”

So the deputy gave him one.

Everybody’s got hard times, no matter who you are, Deputy Bussell said. The officer tried to make someone’s worst day his best.

The traffic stop was on a country road, on 199 Street, just off Homestead Lane in Johnson County. The young male driver allegedly had been doing 70 miles (112 kilometers) per hour in a 45-mile-per-hour zone.

Did he still get a ticket in the end? You bet. “Actions have consequences,” Deputy Bussell said. “The rural area that in Johnson County that we’re at is a two-lane road.

“There could have been a deer, there could have been another car with a family that you could have hit.”

So here Officer Anthony Bussell helped the community in two different ways. He did his duty by patrolling 119 Street and ticketing a speeding motorist. He also went out of his way by showing empathy to the distressed crying young man by giving him the wanted hug.

9/17/23

It seems more and more to me that the teacher’s unions are grasping at straws, trying to keep themselves relevant, as school choice becomes a bigger and bigger issue. Everyone knows the biggest drawback to parents sending their children to a school of their own personal choice is cost. The more affluent can send their kids to whatever school they choose, whereas the less affluent essentially cannot because they cannot afford it.

During Covid, before Covid, and now after Covid, the policies of the teachers’ unions has done more harm to the less affluent than to any other group. Which group of students are the furthest behind because of the policies of the American Federation of Teachers and its president, President Randi Weingarten, who likened parental rights and school choice advocates to segregationists: She says the words “choice” and “parental rights” are the same kind of words that were used in reaction to school desegregation by opponents of the Brown v. Board of Education decision (X).

Randi Weingarten, have you no shame!

CNN hostess Abby Phillip called out the head of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) over the revelation that she sends her son to a private Catholic school. Stacy Davis Gates has harshly criticized school choice as racist and hateful. Phillip asked her: “Do you think your rhetoric, at some point, went too far when you are making a choice – because perhaps I assume you can afford to do that – that a lot of Chicago parents don’t because they can’t afford it?” 

As expected Stacy Davis Gates danced around the issue, and did not answer the question. 

Stacy Davis Gates, have you no shame!

Similarly … CV NEWS FEED // A new report exposed backroom deals that gave Louisiana’s unionized public school teachers access to school choice for their children – despite teachers unions’ hardline opposition to school choice for families in the general public.

Louisiana’s unionized public school teachers, have you no shame!

9/16/23

If you have a spare minute, stop and ask yourself why is the Biden administration pushing to ease marijuana restrictions. I have written many times that I am against marijuana legalization as long as there is no test to document whether or not someone is “driving under the influence of marijuana.” If one is driving under the influence of alcohol a breathalyzer will detect that, however because marijuana stays in the tissues for a long time, there is no test that can determine whether or not the reckless driver just smoked a joint before stepping behind the wheel.

My feelings about legalization were fixed before I listened to Dr. Raymond Wiggins speak about the physical and psychological side effects of marijuana usage.

Marijuana is the #1 drug detected in toxicology screens in suicides. Coincidence? I don’t think so, as there is increased anxiety, increased depression, increased violence, and increased bipolar disorders in marijuana users. Similarly if one starts using marijuana prior to the age of eighteen, there is a two & one-half risk of developing schizophrenia.

With these very significant increases in mental illness with marijuana use, I have to ask why the Biden administration wants to ease restrictions on its use. Hmmm!

At present it is estimated that one in six Americans have tried this drug. This is of significance because the risk of a heart attack is increased significantly (4.8x) in the hour after smoking marijuana, and this risk continues (1.7x) for an additional hour. Similarly the risk of a heart attack (>2+ risk) continues for up to three years after using marijuana.

Knowing this increased cardiac risk with marijuana, I again have to wonder why the Biden administration is pushing to ease marijuana restrictions. 

The only answer that I can come up with is as to why JB wants to ease restrictions on its use, is that he probably figures that it is easier to control the population if they are stoned!

9/15/23

 AB stands for Assembly Bill, and in reality this means that it was passed by the California legislature. Those of us who live in California know that the California legislature is overwhelmingly liberal, and part of being a staunch liberal is never to have to say that you are sorry.

From the Liberty Justice Center:

“Assembly Bill 2098, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 30, 2022, authorizes the Medical Board of California to sanction and even revoke the licenses of doctors. Specifically, this affects doctors who share information about COVID-19 that is not consistent with what the Medical Board deems to be the official “scientific consensus.”

Under the terms of this law, California’s Medical Board was authorized to punish doctors who shared COVID-19 “misinformation” with their patients. The law defines ‘misinformation” as anything that “is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus.’

The goal of California’s AB 2098 law was to chill free speech, specifically, the views of any doctors whose assessment of available medical facts differed from the State of California.

What makes AB 2098 even more incredulous is the composition of the California Medical Board. Not all Board members are doctors, or even hold a medical degree. The Board President, for instance, is a lawyer.

So in the eyes of the astute California legislature … take decision making and free speech out of the hands of the doctors who are actually caring for patients, and instead put it solely in the hands of bureaucrats, many of whom are not physicians. 

Think about that for a short minute. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence would concur that this is not only blatantly wrong, but also likely unconstitutional.

From C&C:

“A few days ago, California bill SB815 was sneakily amended to include a provision to repeal AB2098, the state’s currently-enjoined doctor censorship law. Everything you need to know is in the LA Times’s description of that law as ‘a well-intentioned  poorly worded and ultimately doomed effort to curb the most flagrant cases of COVID-related falsehoods by people wielding medical licenses.’

The LA Times reported there are four separate pending lawsuits attacking AB 2098. The state clearly doesn’t like its chances of winning, especially since one group of plaintiffs has already obtained a preliminary injunction against the unconstitutional law. Judge William Shubb of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California ruled that the law’s ‘unclear phrasing and structure’ could have a ‘chilling effect,’ and even called the law ‘grammatically incoherent.’”

So, in essence, instead of the California legislature saying “we were horribly wrong on AB2098,” they just quietly sneak its repeal into something else, hoping that the unsuspecting voters will not notice. 

FYI: Here in California, they probably will not notice! 

Also worth noting is the fact that a potential future Democratic presidential candidate signed the “grammatically incoherent” AB2098 into law.

9/14/23

President Biden may be a lot of things, but “empathy” is not in his bailiwick. In fact lack of “empathy” may be a good description of his basic personality. Somehow when the situation calls for empathy and understanding, Joe Biden is the antithesis of both. This has happened so often that now even KJP does not try to spin his lack of feeling. I recognize that some of you do not like President Trump, but one thing on which everyone must agree is that on innumerable occasions, President Trump displayed Empathy.

On 9/11/2023, JB not make it to one of the three sacred 9/11 sites. He was the first President to not do that in 22 years. To make it worse on the day which should be a solemn day for all of us, Joe Biden again tried to make himself the center of attention, when he spoke in Anchorage, Alaska on 9/11/23. Here he described how difficult it was for him to be at ground zero the following day, 9/12/01. The problem here … it was a lie! He was in Washington on 9/12/2001. Note to JB: “Empathy does not start with I!”

This sort of self-aggrandizement is very reminiscent of his odd self-centered speech during his token appearance in Lahaina, after the disastrous fire. Not only did he attempt to tell jokes, (totally disgraceful in that situation), but he then attempted to shift the focus to himself with the story of his kitchen fire. Note to JB: “Empathy does not start with I!”

His lack of feeling was again exemplified when he greeted a Gold Star mother after he son was killed in Biden’s disastrous pulling out of Afghanistan. Here he commented to the distraught woman that he and Jill understood how she felt, as his son, Beau, was brought home in a similar coffin. Here also, that was a lie, as Beau died from a malignant brain tumor. JB inserting himself inappropriately into someone else’s tragedy seems to be his modus operandi! Note to JB: “Empathy does not start with I!”

9/13/23

Dalbir Bala, who lives in the Winnipeg area of Canada, wanted an environmentally friendly vehicle as owning one is “responsible citizenship these days.”

From Yahoo/Finance:

He bought a Ford F-150 Lightning EV in January, 2022, for $115,000 Canadian dollars (around $85,000 U.S. dollars), plus tax. Ford said the Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) on the vehicle is $77,495 U.S. dollars.

The vehicle compelled him to install two chargers – one at work and one at home – for $10,000. To accommodate the charger, he had to upgrade his home’s electric panel for $6,000.

In all, Bala spent more than $130,000 – plus tax.

Not long after the purchase, Bala got into a minor accident which, he said, required “light assembly” on the front bumper. Bala took the vehicle to the body shop and did not get it back for six months. He said no one from Ford answered his email or phone calls for help.

The limitations of the EV truck became even more apparent when Bala embarked on a chaotic 1,400-mile road trip to Chicago.

Fast charging stations – which only charge EV’s up to 90% – cost more than gas for the same mileage. On the family’s first stop in Fargo, North Dakota, it took two hours and $56 to charge his vehicle from 10% to 90%. The charge was good for another 215 miles.

On the second stop, in Albertville, Minnesota, the free charger was faulty and the phone number on the charging station was of no help, he said. The family drove to another charging station in Elk River, Minnesota, but the charger was faulty there as well.

“This sheer helplessness was mind-boggling,” Bala wrote in an online post. “My kids and wife were really worried and stressed at this point.”

There were no other fast charging stations within range of Elk River and his vehicle only had 12 miles left.

Bala ultimately had the vehicle towed to a Ford dealership in Elk River and rented a regular gasoline-powered vehicle to complete the family’s trip to Chicago. The family picked up the F-150 Lightning on their way back to Winnipeg.

Remember this nightmare started because Dalbir Bala wanted an environmentally friendly vehicle as owning one is “responsible citizenship these days.”

Bala’s closing comment, “I can only drive in city – biggest scam of modern times.”

9/12/23

Last week I read something that was very unusual for two different reasons. First it was totally nonsensical, and second it occurred in Alabama.

The headline from BlazeMedia:

“School suspends first-grader for pretending fingers were a gun during game of cops and robbers.”

“A school in Alabama suspended a first-grader for pretending his fingers were a gun during a game of cops and robbers with another student, according to reports.

Jarrod Belcher said his six-year-old son was suspended from Bagley Elementary School in Jefferson County, Alabama. The first-grade student was reportedly suspended for using his “index fingers as a gun” while playing a game of cops and robbers with another boy at school.”

I would think that those who work in an elementary school would be cognizant of the fact that six year olds have only a rudimentary concept of right vs. wrong. Even if we stretch the limit of rational thinking, pretending that your fingers are a gun while playing cops-and-robbers, is not a reason for school suspension.  A reasonable person might caution  first grader that playing with guns can be dangerous, but suspension … totally ludicrous!

The father, Jarrod Belcher  told WBRC, “I asked her, I said, ‘Well did he threaten anyone?’ ‘No.’ ‘Was there violence?’ ‘No.’ ‘Was there any indication of a current or future threat?’ ‘No.’ ‘I said, ‘Well this kind of seems benign to me, it sounds like two students playing,’ and she said it was but in this climate, this day and age, we have to take all incidents very seriously.”

Now keep in mind that this is a school administrator. This nincompoop is someone that we, as citizens, have put in charge of our children. To make this even more nonsensical is that this occurred in Alabama, where I have thought that old fashion common sense was prevalent. If this had occurred in California or in Portland I probably would have thought, “what would you expect from these liberal yahoos.”

What makes this entire senselessness even worse is that the other boy playing cops and robbers was also suspended, according to reports. Did the second little guy pretend that he had been shot? … or did he pretend bullet missed?

The school claimed that the “shooter” boy committed a “3.22 Threat” violation, which the Student and Parent Handbook for Bagley Elementary defined as making a threat or intimidation of another student.

Fox News reported, “Potential violations include ‘A threat to do serious bodily harm or violence to another student by word or act, cyberbullying, or intimidation that may induce fear into another.'”

In my book this is not a “3.22 Threat,” but this is called  “playing!” Perhaps if we had more children outside playing, we would engender more common sense in school administrators … not only in Alabama, but also even potentially in California and Portland!

9/11/23