Month: December 2022

For the past year or so one of my goals was to be banned, even temporarily, from social media. I had chosen Facebook as a vehicle to more broadly disseminate my blog, and being the contrarian I am, getting temporarily banned should have been a slam dunk. Many of my positions on various topics clearly went against the grain. Even though I had gotten the sequential initial Covid vaccines as well as one booster, I was, and still am against vaccine mandates … this position was clearly not in agreement with what “those that know best” in our government were pushing. Likewise, my positions on vaccinating school children as well as younger individuals, unending lockdowns, the coercive closing of churches, the use of Ivermectin, etcetera were all clearly against the policies of “those that knew best.” 

Why was I not banned? I suppose that the answer could have something to do with my total number of readers. Perhaps those that read my blog do not tell enough of their friends. However, I prefer to think that regrettably I had chosen the wrong social media site. If only I had chosen Twitter, my odds of being cautioned, temporarily restricted, or banned would have been much higher.

From BlazeMedia:

“In the latest Twitter files installment, New York-based reporter David Zweig shared how the United States government pressured the social media platform to silence and suppress users spreading information about COVID that did not align with the establishment’s narrative.

According to Zweig, Twitter participated in rigging the COVID debate by ‘censoring info that was true but inconvenient to U.S. govt. policy,’ ‘discrediting doctors and other experts who disagreed,’ and ‘suppressing ordinary users, including some sharing the CDC’s *own data*.’

Internal Twitter files revealed that the U.S. government requested that the social media site elevate COVID content that corroborated its stance on vaccine efficacy while suppressing dissenting information.”

I was robbed!! If only I had been on Twitter, things may have been different. Nonetheless, since I am still a contrarian by nature, perhaps there is still some hope that next year this goal of mine might be achieved.

12/31/22

ThIs is my blog from 7/20/20

Enjoy!

Hmmm!

Facebook has taken down a video posted by right-wing news site, Breitbart, and retweeted by President Trump, showing a doctor at a press conference vehemently making claims that antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine is a “cure for Covid.” The Facebook post had allegedly racked up 17 million views before being removed. . . .Hmmm!

Luckily I was able to view this post before it was censored, and listened to the entire “press conference.” The best part was a fervent plea by a black primary care physician basically begging that hydroxychloroquine be given a reprieve from politicians who are not doctors. She also challenged Dr. Fauci to stop his aloofness on the drug (he had famously said, “we need to do controlled studies”) She wondered out loud if he had ever treated a Covid patient. FYI,  the answer is undoubtedly, “no.” In a retort to Dr. Fauci’s haughty demeanor, she stated that she was seeing 10+ Covid patients a day, and had prescribed hydroxychloroquine hundreds of times with excellent success and no significant side effects! In fact she and many of her clinic staff are presently taking hydroxychloroquine 200 mg. twice a week for prevention. . . . Hmmm!

Then just this morning I read about an article in Newsweek by Harvey Risch, a professor of epidemiology at Yale as well as the director of that school’s Molecular Cancer Epidemiology Laboratory. He argues in an op-ed that “the data fully support” the wide use of hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment of COVID-19.

“When this inexpensive oral medication is given very early in the course of illness, before the virus has had time to multiply beyond control, it has shown to be highly effective,” Risch argues in the column.

Risch adds that multiple studies over the past several months have demonstrated that the drug is a safe and efficacious treatment method for COVID-19. . . . Hmmm! (I guess that it would be very difficult to censor Newsweek at this point!)

Recently I read about a study treating for severely ill Covid patients with hydroxychloroquine. The study was out of Henry Ford hospital in Detroit, and the mortality of patients treated with this drug was half compared to those without this drug. That sounds very impressive to me, but I have not read about these results in our local paper. . . . Hmmm!

Does anyone think that the pooh-poohing of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19 has anything to do with the fact that in March, 2020 President Trump came out in favor of using that same drug? . . . Hmmm!

July 20, 2020

12/31/22

A cousin of mine often refers to “his rabbi.” On the surface his comment would not be viewed as unusual … except that my cousin is not Jewish. “His rabbi” is Dennis Prager. Okay, so who is Dennis Prager? He is a syndicated radio talk show host out of Los Angeles. ( A bit of background is appropriate here. My cousin had been an FBI agent, and consequently did a lot of stakeouts in Southern California. While doing stakeouts he would listen to the radio, and from 9am until noon on weekdays, he would faithfully listen to Dennis Prager. He thought that Dennis Prager was a brilliant Jewish man … and consequently “his rabbi.”)

I thought about my cousin as I recently read some comments that Dennis Prager made on his radio show on December 22.

“I have lost all faith in the medical profession and in the medical journals. I mean, if a medical journal writes about colon cancer, I believe it. But if it writes about anything that has to do with society and now with vaccination — you see, you can’t lie to people and then expect them to believe you. You lied about the vaccine. You lied about lockdowns. And you lied about masks. You ruined tens of millions of people’s lives around the world. You brought hunger to vast numbers of people. You brought unemployment around the world. You ruined American kids’ lives in the millions. They are more suicidal and depressed than ever because of your goddamn — excuse me for the language. I don’t know why that’s bad language. God should damn the lockdowns, but I’ll say g-damn if you prefer that.”

My cousin’s rabbi is right on! While the medical profession, especially here in America (e.g. The New England Journal of Medicine) and in Britain (e.g. The Lancet) were busy preaching to us, all they really accomplished was to make things worse. Dennis Prager is correct when he said, “You ruined American kids’ lives in the millions.”

From the Wall Street Journal: 

Learning loss could shave $70,000 off the lifetime earnings of children who were in school during the pandemic, according to a new study by a Stanford economist. The sobering forecast is based on an analysis of the sharp declines in the scores of eighth-graders on national math tests taken between 2019 and 2022. If the learning losses aren’t recovered, K-12 students on average will grow into less educated, lower-skilled and less productive adults and will earn 5.6% less over the course of their lives than students educated just before the pandemic, said Eric A. Hanushek, a Stanford University economist who specializes in education. He said the losses could total $28 trillion over the rest of this century.

Maybe from now on Dennis Prager will be “my rabbi” too.

12/30/22

Today I read about two separate legal decisions that give me hope. In each case one wonders, “what did they expect?”

First from the Epoch Times:

In Illinois a U.S. judge approved a multimillion-dollar settlement on Dec. 19 for workers who were fired by an Illinois health care system for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

U.S. District Judge John Kness, issued verbal approval for the settlement during a hearing, lawyers for Liberty Counsel and NorthShore University Healthsystem said. 

Like many health care systems, NorthShore imposed a vaccine mandate on employees in 2021.

NorthShore told workers that they could file a request for a religious exemption using a form that said the worker in question needed to provide “a description of my sincerely held religious principle or practice that guides my objection to receiving the required vaccination.” Northshore explicitly instructed applicants to not fill out lengthy answers.

NorthShore initially approved some of the exemption requests but then reversed the decisions and denied “all or virtually all of them,” according to filings from the plaintiffs. Officials said the employees failed to meet the standard for religious exemptions.

“Instead of engaging Plaintiffs in good faith, NorthShore denied Plaintiffs’ religious exemption requests en masse, providing nothing more than copy and paste responses, informing them that they lacked ‘evidence-based criteria,’ whatever that means,” one filing reads. “By failing to engage any of the Plaintiffs and its numerous employees with religious objections in good faith, NorthShore had no way to know whether an acceptable accommodation might have been appropriate. The only responses received by Plaintiffs and NorthShore’s employees were one-size-fits-all blanket denials.”

Whereas I can understand the concern of any health care system about employees being vaccinated, the en masse total disregard of possible religious objections is not acceptable.

The second legal decision is from a different type of legal case.

The background from Blazemedia:

In November 2016, three students attending the liberal arts school Oberlin College were involved in a scuffle in Gibson’s Bakery. The son, Allyn Gibson, confronted three students for stealing wine. The students accused Allyn Gibson of racial profiling and assaulting them.

When police arrived at the scene, they observed Allyn Gibson on the ground, surrounded by the three students, who were punching and kicking him.

Following the tense incident, Oberlin College staff and students protested outside the bakery and encouraged patrons to boycott the business. The school’s vice president and dean of students distributed flyers that claimed the Gibson family had a “long account of racial profiling and discrimination.”

The college also provided protesters with food and other supplies to support their rallying effort.

In September, the bakery owners told the New York Post, “A week after the incident, the school canceled all of our standing orders. … The school put out a statement that implied that this wasn’t an isolated incident.

“Our business from the students themselves and administrators … dried up completely. And the students kept showing up to protest,” the family added.

Even though the three accused students eventually pleaded guilty to theft, the bakery’s reputation had already suffered a devastating blow.

“Our business from the students themselves and administrators … dried up completely. And the students kept showing up to protest,” the family added. The family-owned bakery in Ohio recently won the lengthy defamation lawsuit against Oberlin College for falsely accusing the small business of racial profiling. The award … $36 million!

In this case the liberal Oberlin College got what it deserved. One might ask, “what did they expect?”

Interestingly, the response of Oberlin college after the award was some drivel about the “justice system.” Even though the initial three wine thieves owned up, and came clean, Oberlin College apparently still doesn’t see the ruination of a family business because of their lies and their subsequent vindictive response as wrong. Hopefully, when the college pays out the $36 million, a lightbulb will go on! Personally I wonder if the school’s Vice President and Dean of students are still employed by Oberlin.

12/29/22

For those who watch CNN, the name Leana Wen is a familiar name. She is an emergency doctor and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. She was previously president of Planned Parenthood and has also served as a medical analyst on CNN.

In July 2021, Wen spoke to Democracy Now! bemoaning vaccine hesitancy and claiming that “we know that we can’t trust the unvaccinated.”

The health policy professor suggested to CNN’s Chris Cuomo that societal reopening must be tied to vaccination status.

She said, “We need to start looking at the choice to remain unvaccinated the same as we look at driving while intoxicated. … You have the option to not get vaccinated if you want, but then you can’t go out in public.”

Wen also stressed that mobility rights and other human liberties should be tied to vaccination status.

However! Wen has ostensibly come a long way in her thinking in a short period of time.

From BlazeMedia:

On Dec. 9, Wen wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post calling for an end to the vaccine mandate for members of the military. The so-called health expert, in another piece in the Washington Post, now admits that natural immunity is optimal and that those who are vaccinated but had not previously caught COVID-19 are more susceptible to infection.

The CNN analyst appeared to defend stances she had taken earlier in the pandemic. However, Dr. Wen noted that things and standards changed when the Omicron variant turned up.

Wen said that research has shown that vaccines’ “effectiveness in reducing infection against the omicron subvariants is low and not lasting.”

What Dr. Wen seems to be saying is that she was right before and is right now, even with opinions that appear diametrically opposed. While some may be happy to see these long-censored claims printed in the Washington Post, others have suggested that what is missing from these public confirmations is an apology.

When is Wen going to say, “I’m sorry?” … Perhaps wen hell freezes over?

12/28/22

Now in its fourth week, I am continuing to address the topic of “global warming.” As was the case in the past three weeks all of the following is taken from a long treatise on this topic, written by Terry M. Campbell and posted on 10/28/22 in Rip’s Newsletter:

“All of the doomsday weather predictions are from faulty computer simulations with faulty input data, real facts were ignored.   Professor Phil Jones generated his infamous “hockey stick graph” back in the mid-eighties when he was the director of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit.  The raw data he used to produce this fraudulent graph has never been produced for peer review (now has been deemed lost or nonexistent).  After East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit released the results of their multimillion-dollar research grant in 1984, I requested a copy of the raw data through the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) they used to generate their “Relative Forcing Formula” (∆F = 5.35 x in C/Co Wm-2).  They informed me that the data was not available to do a peer review and that East Anglia had moved their archive storage to a new facility and the data could not be located.  Now we find out that it may never have existed (2009 e-mail releases). Their “Relative Forcing Formula” with the infamous ‘hockey stick’ graph it generated is what all the environmentalists religiously have used to forward their cause is not supported by current temperature readings.  The formula has been proven to be bogus.  The UN’s political non-scientific IPCC has based its global warming doomsday predictions on this graph and its faulty non-science.  They cannot predict accurately the weather next week much less hundreds of years in the future.   All of these simulation programs use statistical analysis as their basic or root algorithm. Their warming “science” is based on the supposition that Earth can absorb only so much CO2.  The fact is, over the past 160 years the Earth’s absorption of CO2 has remained unchanged, only 45% of all CO2 remains in the atmosphere as opposed to 100% that the warmers claim.  The East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit “Relative Forcing Formula” that all of the doomsday climate procrastinators use does not take this into account. More dissenters, who were silenced for years by the media, and ostracized by colleagues, are stepping forward.  Earth’s ecosystems are more complex and robust, meaning that the pseudo-scientists crying humans contribute to climate change, were limited in their comprehension.”

Well, well, none of the original data from “research” published in 1984 is available for review! Isn’t that just a bit too convenient! Hmmm!

12/27/22

After serious reflection could it be that I have been too harsh on the Covid vaccine, it’s side-effects, and it’s effectiveness? While the mRNA vaccines do have side-effects, and lose their effectiveness, perhaps, I should be more “fair and balanced!” I say this because of the latest news out of China, which as most are aware had its own vaccine, which was not the Moderna or the Pfizer mRNA vaccines. It now appears that China has possibly passed a Covid tipping point, as their medical resources are being thoroughly overwhelmed.

From the Epoch Times:

“As many as 37 million people are contracting COVID-19 in a single day in China, according to leaked minutes from a meeting of the country’s top health body confirmed by multiple news outlets.

In the first 20 days of December, 248 million people—accounting for about 18 percent of the population—were likely to have been infected with the disease, officials said during the National Health Commission’s internal meeting on Dec. 21. The figure is exponentially higher than the regime’s official virus tally, and if accurate, would mean that China’s outbreak is the largest in the world.”

Could this recent overwhelming number of Covid cases in China be a consequence of the less effective vaccine used in China? Certainly this is a possibility. Nonetheless, the other possibility is that the present explosion of cases is a consequence of their prior stringent isolation policies.

Again from the Epoch Times:

“Nearly three years under the regime’s stringent zero-COVID policy has left the Chinese public with little natural immunity against COVID-19’s highly contagious Omicron variant, which appears to be spinning out of control in the country.

The virus surge has overloaded morgues and hospitals across China. Beijing Tongzhou Civil Affairs Bureau told state-owned Beijing Youth Daily that the funeral home in its district is cremating 140 to 150 bodies each day as of Dec. 22, a stark contrast with the 40-per-day workload in the past. More than half a dozen funeral homes have confirmed a similar situation with The Epoch Times in recent days.

“A Beijing resident told The Epoch Times that he lost five family members over 10 days, at least two of which were COVID-positive. All of them had been vaccinated with homegrown vaccines from Sinovac, which has received heavy scrutiny in the past for alleged side effects from diabetes to leukemia.

“These fake vaccines really haven’t provided any protection,” he said in an interview on 12/21/22, requesting his name be withheld for safety reasons. “The commoners who contract COVID have nothing but their own immunity as a defense.”

The combination of an ineffective vaccine, crowded conditions, no herd immunity, prior strict isolation policies which have recently been loosened, and the highly contagious Omicron variant have combined to cause a humanitarian disaster in China. While I have contempt for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), I feel very bad for the commoners who are now paying the price for the CCP’s poor judgement and fallacious policies.

12/26/22

In accordance with my regular Sunday habit, Haley Bridges is someone we can all look up to and admire, especially on Christmas Day. Why ? Because  she did something above and beyond what was expected.

According to Today, 17-year-old Haley Bridges of Appleton, Wisconsin, gifted a vehicle to her 19-year-old friend and co-worker, Hokule’a Taniguchi, who had been commuting to and from work on a bicycle all fall and winter long.

As many of you probably know, it gets quite cold in Appleton, Wisconsin in the winter. Furthermore riding a bike anywhere on icy streets and sidewalks is not only a challenge, but also miserable.

From BlazeNews:

The background is that Bridges was in attendance at the 2020 Christmas banquet hosted by Chick-Fil-A, where she works. At that party, she received five raffle tickets to win the grand prize — a car. Bridges said that she couldn’t believe her ears when she heard her name announced as winner of the new vehicle. Bridges then promptly gifted the new car to her friend, Hokule’a Taniguchi.

Taniguchi told WLUK-TV that she feels incredibly blessed to be a part of the Chick-fil-A family.

“I really just started crying, because I was so happy, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! I can’t believe this is real!'” Taniguchi recalled of the moment she realized she would have a new car. “Now I can go grocery shopping. I can, like, go to work, like, five minutes before now instead of, like, two hours earlier just to get here on time. There’s a million more opportunities and possibilities for me now!”

All of this was made possible by the initial generosity of Chick-Fil-A, but also by the mind-boggling generosity of Haley Bridges.

12/25/22

A lot of us have become dubious of Covid stats from the CDC, including cardiologist, Dr. McCullough, who said, “The CDC death data has to be interpreted with caution, because they’re not adjudicated as dying of COVID. They can actually die with COVID.”

Apparently in the U.S. CDC’s website currently estimates that only 10 percent of COVID-19 deaths have COVID as the contributor of deaths. Therefore, there may be cases counted as a COVID mortality even if COVID was not the primary driver for the death.

Perhaps it might be elucidating to look at Covid stats from other English speaking countries. (It is not that I have anything against non-English speaking countries, but I have an easier time looking at stats in my own language.)

The following is from the Epoch Times:

“As of early January, 2022, hospitalization data coming out from the state of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia showed that a greater proportion of hospitalized patients were vaccinated. The vaccinated contributed to 50.3 percent of ICU presentations as compared to the 49.1 percent who were unvaccinated.”

Basically 50/50 in Australia almost one year ago.

Again from the Epoch Times:

“The most recent weekly data from NSW continued to show that the vaccinated make up the majority of COVID hospitalizations, ICU admission, and deaths. The most recent report, dated to Nov. 12, showed that unvaccinated patients contributed to 21 percent of COVID deaths, and less than 1 percent of hospitalizations and ICU admissions.

However, it should be noted that there was only 24 cases of COVID deaths reported in the report, with 440 hospitalizations and 40 ICU admissions, suggestive of a decline in disease severity.”

The following is from a second English speaking country:

Mortality data from Manitoba in Canada in the week July 31 to Aug. 6, 2022 also showed that while the boosted population made up 70 percent of all COVID mortalities, the unvaccinated contributed to less than 10 percent of deaths. This is with 43 percent of the population boosted.

(Here, in Canada, it seems that being unvaccinated is a big advantage.)

Likewise, again from the Epoch Times:

“Reports out of the UK also showed similar findings. A report (pdf) published on March 31, 2022 showed that almost 73 percent of COVID mortalities were in boosted individuals while 10 percent were attributed to unvaccinated people. At the time, over 57 percent of the population received a booster shot and 73 percent received their primary doses.”

So in these three English speaking countries, being unvaccinated appears to be advantageous at the present time with respect to Covid. Why am I not seeing this data in our mainstream media ?

12/24/22

This is my blog from 12/23/20

Not Essential ? 

During the pandemic, the arbitrary regulations and lockdowns that have forced small businesses to close and kids to remain out of school have had serious consequences. Pandemic-induced depression and suicide is a serious problem that seems to have been overlooked by many of the leaders imposing lockdowns.

From CBS Philadelphia:

Pandemic depression is a new disorder linked to COVID-19 and it’s growing. Research shows people in major metropolitan areas, like Philadelphia, are being hit harder by mental health challenges.

It’s not just physical ailments as emergency departments are also being bombarded with the emotional fallout from the pandemic. Over a six-week period this summer in Montgomery County in Pennsylvania, 400 people went to hospitals because of self-injury or suicidal thoughts.

A new study in Britain shows school lockdowns are having a big impact on children. “We found quite a substantial increase in ratings of depressive symptoms during lockdown,” said Duncan Astle, a developmental psychologist for the University of Cambridge.

The research tracked about 200 elementary students before and after the lockdown and found a 70% chance that depression increased with isolation.

From PJ Media:

Meanwhile, religious worship was deemed nonessential by some Democrat leaders during the pandemic. And houses of worship were forced to remain closed, allegedly out of health concerns. According to some Democrats, you could social distance in a Walmart, a restaurant, or even an airplane, but not a church or a synagogue—so they ordered them closed.

But a recently released Gallup Poll suggests that churches and synagogues should never have been deemed nonessential, and may have been the most essential thing Americans needed to get through the pandemic.

Gallup has been polling Americans annually, as part of its November Health and Healthcare survey, to assess whether their mental health is excellent, good, fair, or poor. While Americans’ mental health overall declined in 2020, frequent churchgoers (weekly) did not experience a mental health decline at all, and were the only group in the U.S. not to experience a decline. In fact, they saw a slight increase, with 46 percent rating their mental health as excellent in 2020, a 4 point increase over 2019. This compared to:

Monthly churchgoers = -12

Seldom or never churchgoers = -13

For comparison, some other groups in the Gallup poll – 2020 vs.2019:

White = -10

Non-white = -8

Married = -8

Non-married =-10

All different age groups = -8 to-10

Democrat =-1   (polled  in November after the election)

Republican =-15    (     “.        “.           “.             “.  )

Independent =-11.  (.  “.       “.      “.             “.        “. )

Jenna Ellis, who is also an attorney for the Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., which is suing Governor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for their unconstitutional COVID-19 restrictions, has argued that restricting religious worship has nothing to do with protecting Americans. “Church is essential, and the government has no power to arbitrate whether religious organizations are essential. This is not about health and safety, it is about targeting churches.”

At this moment in time, it appears that the Supreme Court agrees. 

State tuned.

12/23/20

12/24/22