Month: August 2024

In Part One I spoke about the decreasing number of young adults who could qualify for the military. However this is only a part of the reason that the U.S. Army is struggling on many fronts. For the second year in a row the Army has failed to meet its recruiting goals. The result is that in 2023 total full-time Army personnel stood at 452,000, a 7 percent decrease from 2021 and the smallest Army since 1940, before the United States entered World War II.
From the Epoch Times:
Could it be that the Army’s biggest hurdle in recruiting and retention is a lack of trust by the people group that has formed the backbone of the U.S. Army since it was established in 1775?
Historically, this people group has been patriotic males who are generally conservative and believe in traditional Judeo-Christian values. Many came from families with a long heritage of military service. And even today, the overwhelming majority of new Army recruits, nearly 80 percent, come from a family with members who have served in the military.

Since the 1980s, we have seen the gradual supplantation of the warrior culture and meritocracy with quotas, sex-based double standards, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. This change, including the repealing of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and a push to support transgenderism in the military, has created a military that is increasingly unattractive to the kind of men you need to fight and win wars.
All of this has resulted in military heritage families advising their children not to enter the military.

Army leadership needs to acknowledge that the ideology with which the military is now thoroughly infected has made it less attractive to honorable men. And until the Army rejects equality and social justice ideologies and returns to traditional American military values and meritocracy, it is going to find it increasingly difficult to meet its recruiting goals, much less recruit the kind of men our country needs to fight and win wars

How to address these issue? … Elect Trump who has pledged to reverse these woke dictums and these liberal military shenanigans on his first day in office.

8/30/24

If any of you listened to RFKJr’s recent speech you may have been as surprised as I to learn that only 23 percent of young adults qualify for the military. Now let’s be clear, that drop to 23% is not because the military standards have increased, but rather because our young adults are no longer what they used to be with the main impediments being obesity and chronic diseases.
Other than the fact the we should all be concerned for the health of our young adults, these impediments are now having a real effect on our military strength. 2024 represents the smallest active-duty force since 1940. In 2023, military shortfalls reached around 41,000 recruits, with the Marines and the sixth Armed Forces branch, the United States Space Force—former President Donald Trump created— being the only branch to reach its recruitment goals
In addition from the Daily Caller:
“The U.S. Navy is reportedly considering drastic measures to tackle manpower shortage, sources told USNI News. The Military Sealift Command (MSC) is reportedly facing operational challenges due to a shortage of qualified civilian mariners. This prompted a strategic plan to sideline 17 Navy support ships, USNI News reported, citing three people familiar with deliberations. This proposal, termed as a “force generation reset,” reportedly aims to alleviate the staffing strain by putting two Lewis and Clark-class replenishment ships, one fleet oiler, twelve Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transports (EPF) and two expeditionary sea bases into extended maintenance while reassigning their crews to other vessels.”

While you may or may not be paying any attention to RFKJr, what he is pointing out in terms of what is happening to our youth is potentially affecting all of us vis-à-vis in regard to our military strength and readiness.

How to address this issue? … Hear more of what RFKJr has to say and what he wants to do by electing Trump in November.
8/29/24
californiacontrarian

In the guise of trying to be fair, I have to ask an obvious question … especially close to 8/26/24, which is the three year anniversary of the Biden/Harris disastrous Abbey-Gate pullout from Afghanistan in 2021.

Biden’s botched withdrawal killed roughly 170 civilians on top of the 13 American troops and left behind roughly $7 billion worth of military equipment that is now in the hands of the Taliban. Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the Biden-Harris State Department, called the withdrawal the “correct policy choice” just two days after the Gold Star families spoke out against the withdrawal in August 2023.

Leading up to the withdrawal, several White House officials like Secretary of State Antony Blinken, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki and the president himself, went on vacation. Biden was also captured in various photos and videos checking his watch while he was waiting for the 13 fallen soldiers to return from overseas.
“Checking his watch” was the ultimate insult to the gold-star families, and just to remind all of us who are ex-military how callous and disrespectful the Biden/Harris administration was, former President Donald Trump’s campaign unveiled a new ad on Monday featuring GOP veteran lawmakers recalling the Abbey Gate suicide bombing that left 13 service members dead at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
The ad, titled “Veterans on Abbey Gate,” included several Republican lawmakers criticizing President Joe Biden’s leadership during the withdrawal and subsequent bombing that killed over a dozen service members on August 26, 2021. In contrast, the lawmakers point out Trump’s treatment of Gold Star families whose relatives died during “one of the deepest failures” in recent American military history.

“I’ve dealt with Gold Star families my entire military career, and naturally, the grief is deep and palpable,” Republican Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida, who served in the National Guard, said in the video. “But I’ve never dealt with a group that’s so angry at Biden and how they’ve been treated.”

“So I said, you know, ‘I’m going to call President Trump,’” Waltz said. “It was literally a 30 second conversation. I laid this out, he said ‘Michael, get them up here.’ He was up at Bedminster, we arranged to get several families up there. We had scheduled about an hour for him to talk to them. He ended up spending about six hours with them.”
Six hours for one presidential candidate, Trump, while the other, Joe Biden spent most of his time checking his watch!
From the Daily Caller:
“Despite Harris’ ‘key role’ in the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, she has failed to express any regret with her administration’s actions,” Brian Hughes, senior advisor for the Trump campaign, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Unlike Kamala Harris, President Trump is willing to say the names of the 13 American heroes who paid the ultimate price for our country.”

I watched the ad, and I think it is not only powerful, but also is done quite well. I recommend that everyone who reads this, should also watch it.
So in summary I again ask, “How can any retired military individual vote for Biden/Harris? For that matter how can anyone who has ever been in the military vote for Biden/Harris?
8/28/24
californiacontrarian

On July 13, 2024, a blade on a Vineyard Wind turbine in Massachusetts snapped and fell into the Atlantic Ocean, damaging the turbine and scattering debris on Nantucket’s beaches. The blade was 107 meters long and was about 20 meters from the turbine when it broke. The blade didn’t fully break, and for several days it hung parallel to the tower. The blade broke into hundreds of pieces, some as large as a car, and other pieces that were small enough to fit in a hand. The debris included fiberglass and foam, and was sharp enough to injure people’s eyes. The turbine is one of a dozen installed so far in the ocean. Each blade weighs more than 70 tons and is longer than a football field. 

A freak occurrence? … or something we should expect more of in the future?
Gordon Hughes is a senior fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics and Professional Fellow of economics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He has studied wind power in several countries. As the turbines get larger, the time of first failure becomes shorter. This applies to both onshore and offshore turbines. Further with salt spray, offshore turbines do not last as long as onshore turbines. Yet, the political trend is building larger offshore turbines in deeper water, making repairs more difficult. Based on data from Denmark, which keeps good records, a graph compiled by Hughes shows that the first-time failure rate (half-life) of large offshore turbines is less than 4.2 years.

How are the people of Nantucket feeling about this?
While environmental groups have said they have not observed any harm on marine life, attendees told Nantucket’s Select Board they’re worried about lasting impacts from small plastic particles that might have fallen off the damaged blade.
Galen Gardner, a retired teacher, said Vineyard Wind and blade manufacturer GE “contributed gobbledegook science and corporate-speak to address the situation.”
“We are here tonight in a packed house to express our anger and dismay over the rape of our oceans, our peace, our prosperity, our beloved marine life,” Gardner said.
Hmmm!

8/27/24

Thanks to a friend (“thank you, Caroline”) I was alerted to RFKJr’s recent speech on 8/23/24. She said that she watched/listened to the whole RFK Jr. speech on why he left the Dem. party and endorsed Trump, and she was captivated.
I, too, watched/listened to RFKJr’s entire speech, and I was also captivated. I think it’s gold!
Of special interest, I think, particularly to those of you who have kids or grandkids is the part on chronic diseases of children. Rather than repeating RFKJr’s concerns about the health of our nation’s children, I thought your time would be better spent listening to RFKJr’s own words.
Listen to his entire speech. I guarantee that you will not regret it.
(Keep in mind that he also speaks about the history of what is happening in Ukraine, and also about the surreptitious actions of the DNC to keep him off the ballot in many states … both of which I also found interesting.)

Google: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. full video of Friday press conference.

I am looking forward to RFKJr speaking both for and with Donald Trump. He will be a valuable addition to the Trump campaign.
8/26/24

As is my usual modis operandi on Sundays I write about individuals who have gone beyond the call of duty. Stuart Hetrick is such an individual.
In the middle of the night Stuart Hetrick was awakened by a call from his daughter, Sarah. As a retired doctor, Stuart Hetrick had spent his life being awakened during the night, but this phone call was special as Sarah had just been involved in a horrific car accident.
On May 27, Ms. Hetrick was on the first leg of a 30-hour drive from Austin to northern Montana to spend her summer months hiking and reconnecting with friends. At half an hour past midnight, she was just north of Amarillo, only 30 minutes from the town she was planning to stay in that night, when she was hit head-on by a driver who was on the wrong side of the road.
Regaining consciousness in her wrecked car, confused and in shock, the marketing professional realized she couldn’t feel her leg.
“I tried to move and get myself out but realized my leg was stuck in the door, and I couldn’t reach my phone,” she told The Epoch Times.

A passerby who stopped to help asked Ms. Hetrick who she wanted to call, and she gave him her dad’s number as she knew it by heart.
At one of the darkest moments of her life, being able to talk to her father, Stuart Hetrick, a retired doctor, was an invaluable experience. He stayed on the phone with her while paramedics and emergency services arrived, assessed the scene, and started the process of getting Ms. Hetrick out of her crushed vehicle.
Ms. Hetrick was then taken to a hospital in Amarillo where she immediately underwent extensive emergency surgery to place a rod in her femur where it had snapped in half.
Being in San Diego meant that Dr. Hetrick couldn’t get to Amarillo until 1 p.m. the following day.
However, as soon as he arrived, he poured all of his energy into supporting his daughter. He was there “probably 75 percent of the time,” only leaving over the weekend of Father’s Day to spend time with his 92-year-old father.

A week after her accident she had a second surgery to insert another rod in my tibia/fibula and plate on her ankle.
With his daughter bed-bound, Dr. Hetrick, who owns a private medical practice, answered her questions, addressed her worries, and advocated for her.
In addition, he also brought her mail and food, opened packages, tidied her room, and retrieved her belongings from her smashed vehicle. He did everything possible, so his daughter could focus on her recovery.

Following her eventual discharge from the hospital on June 19, the crash survivor went to recuperate with her dad and stepmom in San Diego. Functionality is slowly returning to her damaged leg. She has also been progressing in her physical therapy and dealing with the aftermath of shock and trauma, aided immensely by those close to her.
“I’ve learned there’s purpose in every trial,” she said. “Even in the dark moments, God is with us, and no matter what happens to us, we can trust him. … We’re never alone.”
Stuart Hetrick’s response to what he has done for Sarah … “I just did what fathers are supposed to do!”
8/25/24

Was it revenge?
Or was it just a coincidence that RFKJr announced that he was withdrawing from the November presidential race right around the time that the DNC was winding down.
Why could it be that RFKJr might seek some revenge on the Democrats?
First off, some might think that a presidential candidate, RFKJr, who had both his father, RFK in June 1968, and his uncle, JFK in November 1963, struck down by an assassin’s bullet might be at high risk for some wacko to try the same thing. To me, a rational person would have to admit that an attempted assassination of RFKJr was not entirely out of the realm of being a possibility. But the Biden administration did not think so! Was it because RFKJr had the audacity to challenge Biden?
For whatever reason this was like a slap in RFKJr’s face. Could it be that this snub played a role in RFKJr’s recent decision making?
When RFKJr realized that he was not going to be elected, he sought a meeting with Kamala. Whereas Kamala refused to meet with him, President Trump recently met with RFKJr on more than one occasion. Could this snub of RFKJr by Kamala have played any role in his recent decisions?
From C&C:
“Contrary to the many misinforming headlines, Kennedy is not “suspending his campaign.” He will withdraw from the ballot in ten tossup states, and will ask his supporters in those states to vote for Trump. By remaining on the ballot in the other states, Kennedy acts both as a firewall for cheating and also as a brake on any unexpected Biden surge. (A third-party candidate protects against cheating because, in a 3-way race, it is much harder to figure out how many ‘votes’ cheaters need without giving the game away.)”

For whatever reason I am happy that RFKJr has now thrown his support behind Trump. Even though RFKJr was only projected to win about three percent of the vote, in some swing states this very small number of votes could well shift the total in the direction of Donald Trump. While I do not think that Trump will only win some of these swing states by a small margin, wouldn’t it be the perfect piece of satire if these two snubs by the Dems actually gave the Presidency to DJT!
8/28/24

As, many of you are aware our local “newspaper” is very liberal. Long ago I stopped writing letters to editor because that same “newspaper” only prints those letters with a leftward bent. So the other day I was surprised when a rational letter was actually printed.
The headline above the letter read:
Cash grants helped those in need, but should our government adopt such programs?
The letter was as follows:
“In experiments, San Diego researchers gave cash to low-income people. Here’s what they learned.” (Aug. 10) Kudos to the cash aid programs of Jewish Family Services for making progress toward helping people get a new start on life.  Impoverished families and individuals are worthy recipients of such gifting and in need of help.  The economic stability, wealth-building potential and ability to plan for the future are worthy attributes of this kind of funding.  Such programs go upstream to head off homelessness before it gets embedded in people’s lives.
But I caution against unforeseen problems that such entitlement programs can create when adopted by government.  Government programs are by their nature coercive, anonymous, and incomplete. The recipients of support and the taxpayer never meet. Individual relationships and community social support are never realized except by chance. Cash programs generally meet material needs, not relational needs.  Citizens need to help each other by directly investing in each other’s lives. That can’t easily be done in a government-funded program.”

The other issue with government entitlement programs is that there is never a choice for the individual tax payers as to whether or not they approve of the recipient individuals or recipient groups. For instance, is it appropriate for the government to give away the money paid by an agnostic taxpayer to a solely Christian group? Would it not be better for Christian taxpayers to give to Christian individuals or groups, and allow the agnostic to give to individuals or groups that are more aligned with his philosophy?
If the answer to that question is ‘yes,’ then the way to accomplish this would be the same as it is to innumerable other questions and quandaries … strive to get the get government more and more out of our lives!
8/23/24
www.californiacontrarian.com

After having read the vast majority , but not all, of Stephen King’s books, I am now forced to wonder if his most recent one, “You Like It Darker,” is mere feint. Certainly it is not one which I can advise anyone to buy. It is not up to what I have come to expect from this author. It is a compilation of short stories, and I am having trouble wading through it! So last night instead of starting another mediocre short story, I switched to You Tube to watch parts of the Trump rally in Asheboro, North Carolina. Without question I made the right choice!
As opposed to the ramblings at the DNC, Trump’s speech was full of policy. (No! I have not watched any of the DNC where Trump’s name has apparently been mentioned about ten times more frequently than any statements concerning those issues which concern Americans the most … inflation, the economy, immigration, and crime.) The DNC appears to be one feint after another.
One of things Donald Trump spoke about was fixing our military. He plans to demand those involved in the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan to resign. “I will ask for the resignation of every single senior military official who touched the Afghanistan disaster,” Trump promised, adding “I want their resignations immediately.”
He also commented on his plan for critical race theory and transgenderism in the military. “On Day One, I will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our US armed forces,” Trump promised hotly. “We’re taking it out.”
“If you want to have a sex change or a social justice seminar, then you can do it somewhere else. But you’re not going to do it in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Space Force, or the United States Marines. Sorry.”
He explained, “Our warriors should be focused on defeating America’s enemies, not figuring out their genders.”
BRAVO !

One interesting happening during that rally was that Trump left his now see-through protective bulletproof glass box to go to an older woman who had fainted in what appeared to be the first row of the audience. Medical help was asked for, and Mr. Trump immediately left the stage to be at her side. Soon she recovered enough to receive a hug from him.
Not exactly the mean curmudgeon that the Dems have painted him to be!

Tonight I plan to try to again read Stephen King’s latest book as it cannot be worse than listening to tonight’s DNC speech by Kamala.
8/22/24

The other day someone asked me, “Do you think that the Justice Department is evil?”
Initially, I thought the question was rhetorical, but she pressed on, “I’m serious. Do you think that the Justice Department is evil?”
As I had not previously thought about the Justice Department in those terms, I put the question right back to her. “Do you?”
She had apparently given that question some thought, as she replied, “Absolutely! Think about the following.”
She then proceeded to tell me about the following from the Daily Wire:
“A group of Christian pro-life activists, including an 89-year-old survivor of a communist prison camp in Eastern Europe, face over a decade in prison after they were convicted on Tuesday in a federal trial in Michigan. A jury found Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Cal Zastrow, his daughter Eva Zastrow, and 89-year-old Eva Edl guilty of engaging in a conspiracy against rights and violations of the FACE Act. Edl was forced into a camp as a young child by Yugoslavian communist dictator Josip Broz Tito before fleeing to the United States. The seven were prosecuted by the Biden administration, which has been using the conspiracy against rights charge, originally designed for the Klu Klux Klan, to go after pro-life activists. They face over 10 years in prison and hundreds of thousands in fines upon sentencing. The charges stemmed from a peaceful demonstration, which the defendants called a “Rescue,” where the group sat and stood outside of the Northland Family Planning Clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan, alongside a group of other pro-life activists.”

She then continued, “Who other than the devil would prosecute an 89 year old concentration camp survivor for standing quietly outside a Family Planning Clinic? When Eva Edl dies in prison, do those prosecuting lawyers, U.S. Attorney Frances Carlson, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sunita Doddamani, and trial lawyer Laura-Kate Bernstein, get extra kudos on their Justice Department scorecard?
“I get that there are different opinions about abortion. But, come on, using the conspiracy against rights charge, which was passed in 1870 to deal with groups like the Klu Klux Klan, not peaceful protesters, seems like a bit much to me … unless the Justice Department is evil! … I rest my case!”
When she finished, I briefly thought about what she had just said, and responded, “Yes. It does seem to me that the Justice Department is indeed evil!”
8/21/24
www.californiacontrarian.com