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For those of you who are unaware, I often use Sunday to highlight an individual who is, or has done something worthy of praise. This week I am highlighting someone who I think has done some praiseworthy things, but moreover, is an up-and-comer. …Byron Donalds.

To start with Byron Donalds is a Trump supporting, liberty loving, pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment black man. A black conservative congressman. Need I say more? 

He was recently on Fox Across America to bring attention to inflation and how it’s impacting average Americans. According to him, this issue is not being discussed enough by his Democratic colleagues in Washington D.C. or President Biden.

“The President has his own chef. They cook him whatever he wants whenever he wants it. He doesn’t work for anything. He’s not out there working 10 hours a day, and then he’s got to go to the supermarket and be like, oh wait a minute, this stuff’s more expensive. And then the gas he puts in his car, because the man hasn’t pumped gas in I don’t know how long, the gas he puts in his car  is more expensive too. He doesn’t deal with that. So in Washington, nobody’s even talking about inflation. What they’re talking about is how to get Build Back Better through the Senate, and now they’re talking about the continuing resolution. That’s all they’re thinking about. They’re not thinking about the implications of what Washington has done on the lives of the American people.”

If you thought that Byron Donalds is not a big fan of Joe Biden, you would be right. Not now, and not for quite a while. Remember back on the campaign trail when Joe Biden said, “I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” For Donalds, the comment hit home.

“It’s 2020,” Donalds said. “We’re in the middle of this pandemic, and this guy, because he’s trying to win an election, comes out and says that if I’m supporting Donald Trump, that I’m not black? Who the hell are you?”

Donalds, who has been vocal about his life growing up in Brooklyn and facing trouble with the law, said Biden has no right discussing what the black experience should produce. “You didn’t see my (single) mother struggle,” Donalds said. “You didn’t see me have to work hard to get through high school, get through college and make something of my life.”

I love this guy! Need I say more?

In a discussion with SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman in the House Small Business Committee last week, Congressman Byron Donalds was cautioned by the Democratic Chair for pointing out the President Biden “has not worked a day in his life outside of Washington.” His response at the time of his cautioning was that he was not saying anything that was not true … his mike was then cut off. Most in the hearing room already knew that Byron Donalds had worked in the finance, insurance and banking industries in Southwest Florida. Prior to his election to the House, he had worked as a partner in a local financial firm. 

A few nights ago, he joined Laura Ingram to discuss Congressional efforts to use $400M of taxpayer money to create a federal vaccination database. On her show he said, “This bill is a gross mishandling of tax dollars and infringes upon the rights of every American.”

He also has called the recent OSHA mandate unconstitutional and applauded the Circuit Court that stayed that mandate. He added, “Any President that has the power to make anyone take an injection that they don’t want, is a totalitarian President.”

And in addition to all of the good conservative stuff in which he believes, this Spring, The Congressional Black Caucus blocked him from joining! Need I say more?

12/5/21

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After looking at the title of this piece, one might assume that is about a baseball pitcher’s varying armamentaria of different pitches. But from a contrarian, you should not expect a fastball right down the middle.

First off the  South African doctor who first alerted the scientific community to a new SARS-CoV-2 — B.1.1.529, which the World Health Organization has dubbed “Omicron” — has described symptoms of the variant as “unusual, but mild.”

Similarly from the New York Times:

“Omicron seems likely to be more contagious than Delta, including among vaccinated people. Fortunately, the evidence so far does not indicate that Omicron is causing more severe illness.

Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, a top health official in Israel, emphasized yesterday that when vaccinated people were infected, they became only slightly ill, according to the publication Haaretz.”

From the Washington Times:

“New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will halt non-urgent, elective surgeries in the state amid an expected upcoming spike in the new Omicron COVID-19 variant.

Mrs. Hochul signed an executive order in hopes of preventing hospital staff shortages over an anticipated rise in cases. ‘While the new Omicron variant has just been detected (5 cases) in New York State, it’s coming,’ Ms.. Hochul said.”

To me it is peculiar that the New York Governor apparently is concerned about hospital shortages with the omicron variant, but is not concerned about hospital shortages that will possibly be an issue if a vaccine mandate is enforced.

Not to be outdone:

“The official Twitter account for President Biden issued a statement:

The @WHO has identified a new COVID variant which is spreading through Southern Africa. As a precautionary measure until we have more information, I am ordering air travel restrictions from South Africa and seven other countries. As we move forward, we will continue to be guided by what the science and my medical team advises.”

However, it’s difficult to overlook the hypocrisy of Joe and his Democratic cronies.

On Jan. 31, 2020, then-President Donald Trump declared a public health emergency in response to the global COVID-19 outbreak and temporarily suspended the entry of travelers from China. A day later, then-candidate Biden responded by saying Trump was xenophobic, “We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus. We need to lead the way with science — not Donald Trump’s record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering. He is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency.”

In January 2020, when Trump added new immigration restrictions on six African and Asian countries — Nigeria, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, Eritrea, Sudan, and Tanzania — Democrats claimed the policy was “driven by hate.”

Biden tweeted, “Trump further diminished the U.S. in the eyes of the world by expanding his travel ban. This new ‘African Ban,’ is designed to make it harder for black and brown people to immigrate to the United States. It’s a disgrace, and we cannot let him succeed.”

Kamala Harris responded by saying, “Trump’s extended un-American travel ban undermines our nation’s core values. It is clearly driven by hate, not security.”

At the time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement, claiming Trump’s immigration policy “undermined our Constitution” and was “bigoted.”

A change-up, a curve, and a screwball … which is which? You can decide, but it is clear to me that you spell hypocrisy … D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T!

12/4/21

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I have always liked math, but by no means do I consider myself to be a math aficionado. However, I still know the basics. For instance I know that one doubled is two, and twenty-five doubled is fifty. In this example both one and twenty-five are doubled, but doubling twenty-five is a lot more significant than doubling one, whether we’re talking about dollars, pounds, or stolen cars. So when we read that the number of Covid cases per million has doubled in the last week or in the last month, it’s critical to know what was the starting point. If the number of cases has gone from twenty-five to fifty per million that is certainly much more impressive and important than if the increase has been from one to two per million.

I bring this up because one always has to careful when “those in the know” speak in abstract terms. 

For instance at the STAT Summit in Boston this past week, Dr. Fauci said, “What we’re starting to see now is an uptick in hospitalizations among people who’ve been vaccinated but not boosted.” He continued, “ It’s a significant proportion, but not the majority by any means.”

To me the key words here are “uptick,” and “significant” … both of which appear to be purposely vague.

What is the actual incidence of previously vaccinated individuals who are either hospitalized or die from a breakthrough infection?

The CDC says fewer than 0.1% of fully vaxxed people are hospitalized or will die from covid. So again using my basic math, if the incidence was 1%, that would mean that 1 in 100 vaccinated individuals would breakthrough and be hospitalized or die. Likewise if the risk that vaccinated individuals will be hospitalized or die from Covid is 0.1% that means that this will occur in one person in a thousand.

Granted this recent 0.1% number may have doubled from 0.05%, and while this ‘uptick’ may be ‘significant’ to Dr. Fauci, 0.1% is a minuscule number. The odds of one in a thousand are very good odds, so the outlook for all of us vaccinated individuals is actually pretty good. Right? Actually, not so, according to Dr. Fauci who then said he believes a third shot “should be part of the actual standard regiment, where a booster isn’t a luxury.” 

The goal had been to get a large percent of the population vaccinated, and now it appears the Dr. Fauci wants to move the goalposts. I have to ask, “If a significant percent of the population gets a booster, and the same gradual waning of its effectiveness occurs, will Dr. Fauci suggest that the goalposts be moved again (second booster) and then perhaps later another move of the goalposts (third booster)?

What to do?

At this point with my odds being quite favorable, I am leaning toward the ‘no booster for me’ side.

12/3/21

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From Juan Chiame  (Senior Data Analyst, Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance):

“Mexico’s first outbreak took place on three fronts. An outburst of cases happened in its capital, Mexico City, in the tourist destination of Quintana Roo (Cancun) and to the north on the border with the United States. Rapidly from these three points, COVID advanced, without exception, throughout the country.

“After the buzz generated by the launch of the ivermectin. Driven by the distribution program in Peru, public interest in Mexico grew. Ivermectin Google searches and likely the use of it to treat COVID grew explosively in the country. Causal or not, estimates of excess weekly deaths lowered for 10 consecutive weeks from 13,294 to 5,217.

“On July 2020, the health authorities and the Mexican media started attacking the use of ivermectin. The same WHO published a statement advising against its use for COVID. At the end of August, the government removed ivermectin as OTC. In the state of Chiapas, the health authorities did not comply with the measures. Since the end of June 2020, they treated COVID with ivermectin. By July 2020, they began a massive door-to-door campaign to detect COVID cases and timely treat them with ivermectin.

“The results in Chiapas are amazing. Right after ivermectin national ban, COVID cases and deaths throughout the country grew. The numbers far exceeding the highs reached in July 2020. But in Chiapas COVID cases and deaths stayed at a very low level. Some analysts argued as the cause of the low levels, the little testing in Chiapas, however, the excess mortality shows, without a doubt, exemplary results. From August 2020 throughout June 2021, the number of deaths was much lower than the historical values.”

The reason that I find this very interesting is that it appears that here we have both an “experimental” group (Chiapas), and a “control” group (the remainder of Mexico). 

The Covid-19 death rate in Chiapas is approximately 30/100,000. For comparison about 95% of the other Mexican states the Covid-19 death rate is between 100-200/ 100,000. Mexico City is the worst with a Covid-19 death rate at almost 300/100,000. 

For those of us who are geographically challenged Chiapas is bordered on the west and northwest by the Mexican state of Oaxaca and on the south and east by Guatemala. The state of Oaxaca has the second lowest number of Covid-19 deaths in Mexico at about 70/100,000, and I wonder about Ivermectin spillover usage from Chiapas. For what it’s worth, Guatemala has a very low reported death rate from Covid with a recent 7-day moving average of 12 deaths per day in a country of over 3 million. However, keep in mind that Ivermectin usage is high in Guatemala. 

From the European Sting:

“Ivermectin has become such a popular preventive drug in Latin American countries, like Peru, Bolivia and Guatemala, that scientists performing clinical trials struggled to recruit participants because so many were already taking it.”

Likewise from Nature: “Researchers might never have sufficient data to justify ivermectin’s use if its widespread administration continues in Latin America. The drug’s popularity “practically cancels” the possibility of carrying out phase III clinical trials, which require thousands of participants.”

I find the dichotomy between the low Covid-19 death rate in Chiapas compared to the Covid-19 death rate in the rest of Mexico very difficult to explain without considering Ivermectin use to be causal.

Granted Chiapas is far, far from the U.S border with Mexico, but I did not read any of this in my local “newspaper” ever though Mexico is only a stone’s throw away.

www.californiacontrarian.com

12/2/21

For anybody who has been reading my pieces for a while, in general what I am going to say is already banal and hackneyed. Although there are variations on the theme, again and again Democratic politicians continue to advocate for things which inevitably will hurt the little guy. 

From Day real Insider:

“Biden’s transportation secretary said those who buy them will ‘never have to worry about gas prices again’ (The Hill), says Pete Buttigieg, representing the supposed party of the working class. In an MSNBC interview on 11/29/21, the occasional Secretary of Transportation told Americans that relief from high fuel prices were on the way — not by lowering fuel prices through more robust American production, however. Instead, Buttigieg asked everyone to get giddy in anticipation of buying hugely expensive electric vehicles and, um … not ask any questions about how much it will cost to charge them (Hot Air). From Dan Crenshaw: Imagine being so out of touch that you think spending tens of thousands more on an electric car is easy for most people. 78% of EV subsidies go to those making six figures. And the rest of us still worry about gas prices, because gas affects the cost of literally everything.”

As I have queried again and again in the past … “Are these Democratic politicians clueless or are they intentionally trying to hurt those on the lower end of the economic spectrum?” Granted I could elaborate on many of their other cockamamie ideas (shutting down pipelines, defunding the police, economic lockdowns, etc.) that have the most devastating effect on the less fortunate, but for now, let’s just concentrate on electric vehicles (EVs).

Besides the cost of EVs, there are other significant costs associated with EVs. While solar panels may provide the necessary power for EVs in the sunnier regions of the country, these solar panels are not cheap, and guess who cannot afford these solar panels? Furthermore, it is my understanding that the residential infrastructure cannot bear the load of innumerable EVs, as a home charging system for a Tesla requires 75 amp service. The average house is equipped with 100 amp service. On a small street (approximately 25 homes), the electrical infrastructure would be unable to carry more than three houses with a single Tesla each. For even half the homes to have electric vehicles, the system would be wildly over-loaded. Granted if one is more affluent and lives on lots that are not closely spaced together, perhaps pockets of homes with EVs are possible, but does Pete Buttigieg not know that in cities homes are one on top of the other? … or perhaps, he does know but just doesn’t care. After all it should be apparent that in cities and/or in the less sunny areas of the country that EVs just will not work, especially not for the common man. So I say again and again, “Are Buttigieg and his cronies merely clueless, or are they intending to purposely harm the little guy?

12/1/21

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The Mainstream Media has apparently forgotten that President Joe Biden promised to “shut down the virus” during his 2020 presidential campaign. Recall that on 10/30/20 then candidate Joe Biden said, “I’m not going to shut down the country. I’m not going to shut down the economy. I’m going to shut down the virus.”

Well, oopsie! The economy is not doing very well as inflation is out of control, and shutting down the virus … well, err, not exactly!

Again on 11/1/20 from J.B:

“More than 230,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 –– and Donald Trump has given up on trying to get the virus under control.”

Oopsie! Yet again as J.B. has topped that 230,000 number and there is still a month to go in 2021!

From USA Today on 11/23/21:

“COVID-19 has killed more people in 2021 than 2020, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows.

The disease was reported as the underlying cause of death or a contributing cause of death for an estimated 377,883 people in 2020, accounting for 11.3% of deaths, according to the CDC. As of Monday, more than 770,000 people have died from the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University data. That means over 15,000 more people have died in 2021 than last year from COVID-19 – and there’s still more than a month left.”

Oopsie!

Now here is my prognostication … it’s only a matter of time before the hapless Joe Biden reverts to his old strategy, namely “Blame Trump!” As the effectiveness of the vaccines continues to wane, President Biden will start to blame Trump for rushing into the vaccine. I can hear him now … “If President Trump was a little more patient instead of rushing into these vaccines, we would not be having this waning vaccine problem.”

As the continuing Biden-headlines are one disaster after another, do not be surprised when he reverts to his old trite “Blame Trump” standby.

It’s only a matter of time, and remember you heard it here first.

11/30/21

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At first glance on the same day two apparently contradictory things going on … or so it seems, but au contraire. Read on.

First off there is a new variant, B.1.1.529, that seems to have originated in South Africa, and has spread to neighboring countries in the southern part of the African continent.

From CNBC:

“[The] World Health Organization assigned the newly identified variant the Greek letter omicron and formally recognized the strain, previously referred to as lineage B.1.1.529, as a “variant of concern.”

Health experts are deeply concerned about the transmissibility of the omicron variant given that it has an unusual constellation of mutations and a profile that is different from other variants of concern. It is not clear how severe infections would be for vaccinated patients.

It is feared a sharp upswing of Covid cases in South Africa’s Gauteng province — where the heavily mutated strain of the virus was first identified — could mean it has greater potential to escape prior immunity than other variants.”

Then on the other hand last week from the A.P.:

“But there is something “mysterious” going on in Africa that is puzzling scientists, said Wafaa El-Sadr, chair of global health at Columbia University. “Africa doesn’t have the vaccines and the resources to fight COVID-19 that they have in Europe and the U.S., but somehow they seem to be doing better,” she said.

Fewer than 6% of people in Africa are vaccinated. For months, the WHO has described Africa as “one of the least affected regions in the world” in its weekly pandemic reports.”

So what do we have here? A continent with a generalized low incidence of Covid now experiencing an outbreak of a new, potentially more infectious strain. Is it possible that having a low overall incidence of Covid somehow induces new mutations? If so, then are we doomed? Low overall incidence of Covid … bad! High incidence of Covid … bad! OMG! 

However, do not despair as the continent of Africa is not uniform as far a few important things. The sub-Saharan section of Africa is different from the southern section that encompasses South Africa and the nearby  countries of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi. How so? First off, the occurrence of malaria in the vast middle region of the African continent is not the same as in the southern parts of Africa. Consequently, could it be that the widespread usage of Hydroxychloroquine in these malaria prone areas be the difference maker?

Could it be that the usage of Ivermectin is different in the middle of Africa compared to the southern region?

From Tokyo Medical Association Chairman Haruo Ozaki, August 13 2021:

“In Africa, if we compare countries distributing ivermectin once a year with countries which do not give ivermectin … I mean, they don’t give ivermectin to prevent COVID, but to prevent parasitic diseases … but anyway, if we look at COVID numbers in countries that give ivermectin, the number of cases is 134.4 per 100,000, and the number of deaths is 2.2 in 100,000.”

“Now, African countries which do not distribute ivermectin: 950.6 cases per 100,000 and 29.3 deaths per 100,000,” Ozaki added.

“I believe the difference is clear.”

So perhaps the African dilemma is not as much of a dilemma as it first appears. Could it be that our old friends, Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin are the heroes here in sub-Saharan Africa? 

I have my opinion on this, but it is curious that we have not heard from President Biden’s advisor, Dr. Fauci, on this issue. Hmmm!

11/29/21

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Since I started trying to devote my Sunday essays to individuals with courage and fortitude, it seems like there are more and more candidates for this honor. 

This week I chose Norfolk Police Lt. William Kelly. My guess is that very few of you are familiar with Lt. Kelly as his story is a poster child for “wokeness” destroying the life of someone, and as we are all becoming more aware, Main Stream Media does not report on this sort of thing. It was the Guardian, Britain’s liberal newspaper that “ratted” on William Kelly even though Lt. Kelly had expressed his opinion anonymously. 

What dastardly abhorrent thing did Mr. Kelly do? It certainly must have been pretty despicable as this Virginia police officer lost his job and his retirement as a consequence.

In terminating Kelly, Norfolk city manager Chip Filer said, “His egregious comments erode the trust between the Norfolk Police Department and those they are sworn to serve.”

“Egregious,” of course means shocking and outrageous, and certainly “egregious comments” cannot be tolerated in a police officer! Fire the s.o.b.!

Meanwhile, Norfolk Police Chief Larry Boone suggested that Kelly’s comments eroded trust between police officers and the public. Wow! There you have it … two high ranking officials publicly  saying that Officer Kelly’s action was “eroding trust between the police and those they are sworn to serve.” Wow! It had to have been pretty bad!  Firing the nineteen year veteran and thus taking away his pension is much too lenient for what he said and did. String the bastard up!

But wait. What did Lt. Kelly actually do?

From the New York Daily News in April of this year:

Kelly reportedly donated $25 to the fund using his department email address, and wrote a message of encouragement to Rittenhouse that read, “God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong. Every rank and file police officer supports you. Don’t be discouraged by actions of the political class of law enforcement leadership.”

By donating to Rittenhouse’s defense fund, Kelly said he was promoting the foundational American ideal that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

“I was interested in giving him the chance to defend himself in front of a jury. I know that lawyers are expensive, and it’s hard sometimes to get the message out there. I wanted to make sure that he had the means necessary to make his claim in court,” Kelly told the Daily Mail. “It mattered. The comments I made, my belief that he has a strong claim for self-defense was a personal opinion. I didn’t want my city or police department to be associated with it, so I chose to donate anonymously.”

Officer Kelly (or perhaps at this moment in time, I should say ‘ex-officer’ Kelly) continued:

“This is America. You can agree with your neighbors and other people in your community and you can disagree with them. Just because someone has a different opinion than you, it doesn’t mean you should destroy their lives, take their job away.”

“If I had a different opinion and I donated to a fund for the victims and made comments about how Mr. Rittenhouse was a murderer, nobody would have cared or tried to get me fired,” Kelly added.

So let me get this straight … A nineteen year police veteran was fired from his job and lost his pension, because he anonymously supported the concept of innocent until proven guilty.

Kelly has filed a grievance seeking to be reinstated.

In that grievance, Kelly accused Boone of hypocrisy for attending a Black Lives Matter protest in uniform last May after the murder of George Floyd.

Hmmm! Looks like another case ‘one-way wokeness’ which is especially interesting now the Kyle Rittenhouse has been found innocent.

11/28/21

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I find it very interesting, even beyond quirky, when on the same day,  I read things that appear to be diametrically opposed. Today I am going to look at the inane, insane way that Ivermectin is handled in the USA and compare that to recent common sense handling of Ivermectin in Japan.

First, as I have stated many times in the past, Ivermectin has been used in billions of people in Africa to treat River Blindness – used with an impressive safety record. Here we are not talking about an experimental drug, nor are we talking about a drug to only treat horses as those on the left would have you believe, but rather a remarkably safe drug that may be of benefit to treat Covid. 

The safety record of Ivermectin is not anecdotal, and obviously impressive … we’re talking about billions, not millions,of people treated!

First Ivermectin in the US; A story of a single individual from The Blaze:

Sun Ng, a contractor from Hong Kong, was visiting his grandchildren in October when he caught COVID-19. Ng was admitted to Edward Hospital in Naperville, Illinois, on Oct. 14 and was placed on a ventilator several days later. Like thousands of other patients, the hospital offered Ng no viable hope of survival but bitterly fought the use of ivermectin, even with the family’s own doctor, at their own cost, and with their own liability. Ng’s daughter, Man Kwan Ng, sued the hospital in DuPage County Circuit Court for the right to have Dr. Alan Bain administer a regimen of ivermectin.

According to a court affidavit, at the time Ng was “in the same state for many, many days … critically ill,” and a nurse suggested that Dr. Ng “stop all this aggressive care and let [her father] die naturally.” On November 5, after Ng was on a ventilator for three weeks, DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Paul Fullerton ruled in favor of the family and allowed Dr. Bain to administer 24mg doses of ivermectin from Nov. 8 through Nov. 12. The result? Within five days, he was able to breathe without the ventilator and on Nov. 16 walked out of the ICU. By this past Sunday, Ng was breathing without supplemental oxygen on a regular hospital floor.

Wow! Seems pretty convincing that Mr. Sun Ng is still alive because of Ivermectin. Anecdotal … obviously, but impressive nonetheless!

Now let’s look at Ivermectin in Japan.

First some background information. From 8/3/21 until 9/12/21, Japan had a dramatic spike in Covid cases. When one looks at the graphics, at the beginning, the increase in the number of cases was very dramatic. So dramatic, in fact that Dr. Haruo Ozaki, the Chairman of the Tokyo Medical Association, decided on 8/13/21 that he needed to do something. He stated that Ivermectin was going to be allowed to treat Covid. After 12 days there was a dramatic abrupt reversal of the slope depicting Covid cases in Japan, and I mean dramatic! 

Since mid August, continuing until now doctors in Japan can prescribe Ivermectin without restriction, and the Japanese people can buy legally buy Ivermectin from India. At present the number of Covid cases in Japan (with widespread availability of Ivermectin) remains close to zero! Compare this to an incidence of about 300/million and 600/million in the US and the UK respectively (in both Ivermectin is verboten.) Could this suddenly dramatically low incidence of Covid in Japan be due to a mishmash of different things? … certainly possible. However, the temporal relationship between the allowing of Ivermectin and the dramatic lowering of Covid cases in Japan is hard to ignore.

Anecdotal … obviously, but impressive nonetheless.

US vs. Japan on Ivermectin? To me a no-brainer.

11/27/21

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The inevitable string of consistently being on the low side of a teeter-totter is like the title of the 1984 recording by Phil Collins from a movie of the same name …. Against All Odds.

If anything or anybody was invariably a prototype for a bear market, that person or thing would not be around for long now, would they? Most would answer, “no,”  … but au contraire, there are actually two entities that continue to defy gravity, so to speak. And the winners are … the Mainstream Media and Public Education.

An interesting  recent quote by Andrew Sullivan from the Weekly Dish:

“2016 election. Rittenhouse. Covington. Russian collusion. Vaccines. Bounties on US soldiers. Lab-leak theory. Jussie Smollett. The Pulse shooting. The Atlanta shootings. Hunter Biden laptop. Inflation. Steele Dossier. The [Mainstream Media] got every single one wrong.”

This is indeed ‘Against All Odds,’ and yet MSM not only continues to survive but it is also like a Bible for liberal America. What will be the next faux pas for MSM? – Wait a day or two!

The other entity that is a consistent loser, but continues to survive is Public Education in America where a substantial portion of children “educated” in our large cities cannot do basic math or read and understand what’s in the newspaper. During the pandemic kids were kept out of schools at the behest of teacher’s unions, and the MSM backed these policies. How’s that turning out?

From the NY Post:

When teachers unions forced schools to close and the Biden administration allowed union leaders like Randi Weingarten to craft Centers for Disease Control and Prevention policy to make sure they stayed that way, some of us argued that treating schools as inconsequential would have consequences.

“Kids are resilient, we were told. They’ll be fine. So what if they sat at home for a year staring at a screen with no interaction with their peers? And so what if they were forced to do this when all the science said they should be in actual school? They’d bounce right back when Weingarten finally gave the OK for school to resume. It would be just that easy.

But it turns out the people who have been wrong about everything else were wrong about this too.

“The education Web site Chalkbeat reported in late September, ‘Schools across the country say they’re seeing an uptick in disruptive behaviors. Some are obvious and visible, like students trashing bathrooms, fighting over social-media posts or running out of classrooms. Others are quieter calls for help, like students putting their head down and refusing to talk.’

Where is the resilience we were promised?

We’ve treated kids like mini-robots who can be turned off for social settings and then on again, and they have sustained real damage from 20 months of being managed as an afterthought.

The stress kids are under is not because of the pandemic, it’s because of our response to the pandemic. Our leaders, doing the teachers unions’ bidding, disregarded all science showing kids were low risk.”

So they were wrong again, Against All Odds, but they are consistent, and they now want to add two years of universal preschool. How will that go?  In my estimation the chance for success is … Against All Odds!

www.californiacontrarian.com

11/26/21