Author: Californiacontrarian

Agree or disagree with the following … a drop in the price of eggs is a good thing. Undoubtedly, a good thing.
From the Epoch Times Morning Brief:
Egg prices in the United States have dropped by $1.85 since the Trump administration unveiled a plan to combat bird flu and reduce costs, according to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
The Department of Agriculture reported that, having stopped culling defenseless hens for bird flu mania, the price of eggs is falling. A dozen eggs now costs less than when Trump took the oath … now just over$6.00 a dozen.

Agree or disagree with the following … a drop in the price of gas is a good thing. Undoubtedly, a good thing.
From Forbes:
The average price of gasoline in the U.S. dropped for the third straight week, falling to $3.03 per gallon, according to GasBuddy—reaching the lowest average price for the month of March since 2021.
The price fell 0.6 cents from last week’s average of $3.04, and is down 8.9 cents from one month ago and 36.7 cents from a year ago, hitting the lowest March price in four years, GasBuddy reported Monday.

Agree or disagree with the following … a drop in the rate of inflation is a good thing. Undoubtedly, a good thing.
From Newsweek, 3/11/25:
“Inflation plummeting, new data shows.” The inflation rate has plunged to its lowest point since December, 2020— when Trump was last in office. Recall that Biden-flation peaked at over 11.5% back in June 2022!
Newsweek cited Truflation, a blockchain-based provider of real-time economic data. The non-governmental service reported yesterday that inflation has slowed to around 1.3%, falling below the 1.5% mark at the start of March, less than half of December’s 3.1% rate. Inflation is also now well below the Trump team’s stable target of 2%. Even though Trump promised that inflation would come down, however to me the amazing thing is how rapidly inflation has come down. Undoubtedly, a good thing.
3/18/25

In 2021 the Taliban overtook the equipment after the botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal done so by former President Joe Biden.
From Townhall:
“Now President Donald Trump is demanding the return of a staggering $7 billion in U.S. military gear left behind during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan under the Biden administration. Trump has called on the Taliban to recover the equipment, which includes advanced weapons, vehicles, and other critical resources. The request has sparked debate with Trump arguing that the gear should never have been abandoned in the first place. However, the Taliban is refusing to give it back to its rightful owners.”
How will Trump deal with this challenge?
It will certainly be interesting!
3/17/25

Some would say that playing a musical instrument outside in a war-zone is crazy, but to Vedran Smailovic it was patriotic.
From the Epoch Times:
It was May 28, 1992, the early days of the Bosnian War. Into the dust and debris of Vase Miskina Street in Sarajevo strode a strange figure, carrying an instrument case and impervious to the distant rumble of explosive shells battering the city.
He wore a tuxedo, as though he was on stage at a posh concert hall instead of walking through a warzone where the only backdrops were the husks of bombed-out buildings.
The musician stopped in the middle of the hollowed-out marketplace, set up a plastic folding chair, and took his cello from its case. He seemed to be plucked from another world, a saner time, and dropped into the nightmare of the siege of Sarajevo like a falling star.
Surrounded by broken stone and twisted metal, his eyes deepened, and he began to play Albinoni’s Adagio in G minor.

With his music, the cellist, Vedran Smailovic, honored the dead, not because he knew them, but because they were his fellow human beings. He repeated this performance every day for 22 days, in honor of the 22 innocent victims killed by a mortar shell that exploded there the day before, on May 27.

This simple act of defiance turned him into a legend the world-over: “the cellist of Sarajevo.”
3/26/25

A question recently came to my mind about the validity of then President Joe Biden’s blanket pardons. I know the Dems will call my concern frivolous, but hear me out, as I have three separate concerns.
First: Is there any past history of any other President issuing pardons for things for which an individual has not been found guilty and furthermore has not even yet been charged? … No!
Think momentarily about the absurdity of this. For instance if it is learned next week that one of those pardoned individuals might have participated in a murder or a plot to commit murder, would Biden’s pardon cover it? Or on a more mundane level if it is discovered that a pardoned individual has accumulated thousands of dollars in parking tickets, should we just assume “abracadabra” that Biden’s blanket pardon covers these also and just ignore them?

Second:
While Joe Biden may have signed all of those pardons, did he actually know what he was signing? Remember that President Biden vowed not to ever pardon his son, Hunter. What happened?
Special counsel Robert Hur released a 388-page report on President Biden’s retention of classified material, finding the president frequently showed limitations with his memory and recall.
“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur wrote.
“Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
Note that Hur specifically referenced Biden’s “poor memory” as well as questioning his “mental state of willfulness.”

Third: is it possible that Joe Biden’s signature on all or some of his pardons was made by an autopen? Is there a way to tell if signatures have been made by an autopen? Possibly, as autopen signatures are usually of the same thickness and pressure throughout, and resemble a signature in black marker pen. Uniformity of the signature is typical of autopen signatures.
If some of these pardon signatures were in fact made by an autopen, are the pardons legal? Could there have been more than a singular autopen signature which, of course, would be more difficult to identify which are valid and which are not. If an autopen signature was used even once, was Joe Biden even aware of what he had supposedly signed?

So in conclusion I am dubious of the validity of President Joe Biden’s multiple pardons. … Hmmm!
3/15/25

To me this issue is a common sense issue. What issue? … one of Trump’s ideas. Certainly, President Trump has many ideas, some of which are deemed frivolous and not commonsensical. However, this particular idea of his makes a lot of sense to me … the idea being the U.S.’s acquisition of Greenland.

Let’s think about this for a minute.
A lot of what follows is from shortlists.com:
Greenland joining the United States would have strong economic, military, and geopolitical advantages. The island is rich in untapped resources, which include rare earth minerals that are crucial for modern technology and defense industries.
As China continues to aggressively expand its influence in resource-rich regions, the idea of America obtaining control over Greenland could potentially secure vital materials needed for national security and U.S. technological advancement.
Beyond its wealth of natural resources, Greenland also holds strategic military value. The United States already operates the Thule Air Base there, which is a key site for American missile defense and Arctic operations.
In a scenario where Greenland joined the U.S., America would gain a much stronger foothold in the Arctic. This is an increasingly contested region where both China and Russia are expanding their presence.

But would Greenland becoming the 51st state benefit Greenland?

Acquisition by the United States would likely boost infrastructure, create jobs, and modernize the island’s economy, which would make the island far more self-sufficient than they are currently under Danish rule. Although many Greenlanders favor independence, achieving it as they currently stand is highly unlikely, and U.S. investment could help them build the stability they need.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede has resisted at every turn, arguing that the island values its autonomy and prefers to foster relationships with nations that respect its sovereignty. Despite Egede’s claims and recent polls that suggest 84% of Greenlanders support its independence, the island is not able to financially support itself.
Greenland’s economy heavily relies on an annual block grant from Denmark, which covers around 60% of its budget. This makes economic self-sufficiency a major obstacle. The island’s economy is primarily based on fishing, although there are hopes that resource extraction (rare earth minerals, oil, gas) could eventually provide the revenue needed for their independence.
However, these industries are still underdeveloped, and the infrastructure required would need a vigorous economic foundation — something Trump’s proposal claims to offer.

And finally from Denmark’s perspective holding on to Greenland is now, and will to be a continuous drain on its economy, with little if anything in return. The enormous distance between Denmark and Greenland is just a small part of the problem, and the finances that would be needed to develop Greenland is out of reach for Denmark.
In conclusion, I look for the U.S. to acquire Greenland in the next four years. It’s just common sense!
3/14/25

Those of you who have followed this blog for a while know that I have been a consistent advocate of school choice.
“Every child deserves the best education available, regardless of their zip code. However, for generations, our government-assigned education system has failed millions of parents, students, and teachers,” a fact sheet from the Trump White House stated. Trump’s ultimate goal is to bring school choice to every state in the nation.
What do the people feel about the issue?

Texas Southern University poll
February 2025
63% of Texas voters support universal school choice.
This support includes:
78% of Republicans
69% of Black voters
65% of Parents
64% of Independents
(FYI: Democrats were <50% supportive.)

Many states including Wyoming, Tennessee, Idaho, and Texas are presently in the process of passing school choice laws, and I foresee many more following this same trend. Furthermore, if this continues, look for a continued exodus of parents and families from blue states to red states.

To me it looks like President Trump has picked another winning issue … again doing what the people want!
3/12/25

Those of you who read this blog regularly might recall that recently, I suggested that perhaps RFKJr might suggest a study in which a few counties in some, and perhaps many, or all states might serve as the participants in a study. The study would involve withholding something in these selected counties which would be different from the rest of the counties in that state, which would then serve as the control group, doing just as they are doing now. I opined that this sort of study could involve looking at some childhood vaccines as well as the fluoridation of water.
As it turns out some of this is already being done.
From C&C:
“While Florida became the first state last year to recommend against county-level fluoridation, Utah is taking it one toothier step. Last week, Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R) said he will sign a bill banning fluoride from public water systems. “It’s got to be a really high bar for me if we’re going to require people to be medicated by their government,” Governor Cox told ABC4-Utah. In other words— medical freedom.”

But … what about those poor kids who are not getting fluoride in their water?
“Half of Utah already does not fluoridate their public drinking water. Governor Cox said dentists in those counties reported no higher levels of tooth decay than dentists in fluoridated counties. Grocery shelves are flooded with fluoridated toothpaste for anyone who wants it. So why force everyone to drink the chemical, which is not meant to be drunk anyway?”

But … what about those that suggest that there may not be a downside to fluoride?
“Last September, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen issued an 80-page ruling finding that the evidence — based on 72 different studies — supported a conclusion that fluoride was possibly a neurotoxin associated with IQ loss in children. The EPA, corporate media, and dental associations reflexively dismissed the finding as another conspiracy theory and have never looked back.”

So my suggestion that some sort of controlled study be done to look at the benefits and possible downside of putting fluoride in the drinking water is already inadvertently being done in both Florida and Utah. Granted it may take ten years or so to see if there is a downside to fluoride in drinking water, but, to me, this is well worth the risk.
3/11/25

One of the things that is becoming increasingly clear to me is the contempt that President Biden, or whomever was making the decisions for him, had for those who had been in the military.

Compare the dichotomy between Exhibit A and Exhibit B and then think about it.
Exhibit A from the Epoch Times:

Along the lonely stretch of highway between Navajo and Apache counties in east central Arizona, homeless veterans set up tents and shelters to find peace and privacy away from others.
Marty Jarvey, an outreach volunteer, frequently visits this remote area near the White Mountains to assist homeless veterans and people in need. The encounters are usually productive. But, she never knows what she will find.
This winter, Jarvey discovered the bodies of four male veterans who had succumbed to hypothermia. They had been living in makeshift shelters with little to call their own.
“I may seem strong on the outside,” said Jarvey, a former member of the Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War. Still, she said, it’s difficult to maintain that strength in the face of tragedy.
With each grim discovery she made, Jarvey found herself kneeling, crying, and praying for these lost souls.

Exhibit B from Daybreak Insider:
Biden’s HHS Left Taxpayers on the Hook for $22.6 Billion for Giveaways to Illegal Immigrants
New York Post: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ramped up grants for migrants from 2020 to 2024 — which included cash assistance to buy cars, homes and even build credit for startup businesses, according to a shocking watchdog report that found taxpayers were left on the hook for $22.6 billion. HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)

So compare Exhibit A and Exhibit B:
Homeless veterans freezing to death in Arizona vs. giving billions to illegals.
Hmmm!
3/10/25

On Sundays I write about individuals that we can praise and respect. Xavier Hamlett is such an individual.
From ABC 10News, San Diego:
“I’m from San Diego actually, Southeast, and I’ve seen a lot of homeless people growing up,” said Xavier Hamlett, a senior cornerback on the San Diego State University football team.
Hamlett said he always had a heart for those in need of some help.
“I always told people when I was in elementary school and they asked us what we wanted to be when we grow up and I told them I wanted to be a football player so I can give money and help people,” Hamlett said.

He’s making good on his goals of years past.
In January, he started a GoFundMeto help raise money to help the unhoused.

The SDSU senior told ABC 10News that he and others used that funding to help the homeless in downtown earlier this month.
Hamlett said those who attended the donation handout helped give food, clothing, and haircuts and donated sleeping bags from the Lucky Duck Foundation to the unhoused.

Hamlett told ABC 10News the goal is to eventually move beyond the GoFundMe as Xavier plans to build more partnerships with local businesses. He said he currently has partnerships with Tony’s Pepperoni Pizzeria and SimplyG Meals.

Xavier Hamlett not only talks the talk, but he also walks the walk.
3/9/25

In 2021 I asked a group of five retired physicians if any of them would take Ivermectin for Covid if it were readily available. I was surprised when each of them individually said, ‘no,’ as I would have taken it in a New York minute back then if I had Covid and it were then available. Subsequently, after I was able to acquire Ivermectin from south of the border, I did take it twice for two separate episodes of Covid … another story for another day.
However, despite the reticence of some, Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine prescriptions “soared far above” levels before the COVID-19 pandemic.
From the Epoch Times:
“According to a new study researchers from the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA) and other institutions said that nearly 3 million ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine prescriptions were issued during the pandemic, totaling some $272 million, according to a news release issued on Feb. 20.
The dispensing of ivermectin “from US pharmacies was nearly 1,000 percent higher than prepandemic rates,” the study said.

Usage of the two drugs was three times higher in people aged 65 and older, compared with people aged 18 to 64, according to the study published in the Health Affairs journal.
“Ivermectin use in particular was higher among people living in the most socially vulnerable neighborhoods and markedly higher in the southern United States,” they stated.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that it has not authorized ivermectin for use against COVID-19 and that it has received multiple reports of people using ivermectin that was designed for animals. The agency said that it has received no evidence to suggest that ivermectin, which is approved as an anti-parasitic medication, is effective against COVID-19.

However, some studies have shown that ivermectin has led to positive outcomes for some people who took the drug for COVID-19, including one study that showed it led to “large reductions” in deaths from the virus.”

After reading this I have a few questions.
First:
$272 million spent for 3 million prescriptions amounts to an average of $90+ for each prescription. Somebody was making a lot of money here as Ivermectin is dirt cheap. (I paid $20 for my three day course of surreptitious Ivermectin, fully realizing that I had overpaid. But $90+ … outrageous!)
Second:
Why was Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine usage markedly higher in the southern United States? Are physicians in the southern U.S. just smarter or more attuned to the needs of their patients? … Hmmm!
2/8/25