Author: Californiacontrarian

On 8/13/24 it was a month since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, and over that month what have we learned about what happened? … Basically we, the American citizens have learned nothing other than who the shooter was, and we knew his name on that on that same evening.
Thomas Matthew Crooks was the shooter. He was killed after firing X number of shots. How many shots did fire? Did the number of shell casings found close to Crooks’ body match up to the number of shots heard on analyzed sound audio recordings?
The 20 year old Crooks apparently flew drones over the area hours before the shooting but for some reason the Secret Service did not use drone technology to monitor the area. Also there was apparent disturbing lack of communication between the Secret Service and the local police. How could this any of this happen ? … and why?

As I have alluded to before there are but a few possibilities to attempt to explain (excuse) what occurred:
Poor leadership.
Incompetence at multiple levels
Lackadaisical or perhaps even purposeful inattention to detail

Let’s start with the leadership of the Secret Service and perhaps just as important, the philosophy of the leader of the Secret Service (USSS) at the time of the assassination attempt.

Kimberly A. Cheatle, who has since resigned, was in charge of the Secret Service at the time of the assassination attempt.
Her qualifications for this esteemed position? She had served in the Secret Service from 1995 to 2019, she worked as senior director of global security at PepsiCo from 2019 to 2022.
To me her background sounds reasonable enough with 24 years in the USSS, although going from security at PepsiCo to the head of USSS seems like quite a stretch. Was she a favorite of Jill Biden as has been reported, and did this connection grease the skids for her elevation to this prestigious position?
Hmmm!

Let’s be clear … Cheatle was not on site in Pennsylvania when all of this occurred, but did the philosophy of the leader of the USSS play any role in what happened on 7/13/24?

What was Cheatle’s philosophy?
In 2023, Cheatle told CBS News the agency needed to “attract diverse candidates and give opportunities to everybody in the workforce, particularly women,” outlining her goal that by 2030, thirty percent of its recruits would be female.
Pure and simple her philosophy is one of DEI! With three daughters and seven granddaughters, I have nothing against women being promoted based on their talents and skills, with my emphasis being on “talents and skills.” However, to outline a 30% goal of female USSS agents by 2030 is nonsensical and potentially dangerous. Did Cheatle’s DEI philosophy play any part on what happened on 7/13/24?
Could trickle-down incompetence have played a role in what happened?
Hmmm!
Although it would be easy to ascribe everything to Cheatle’s incompetence and trickle-down philosophy, I am not ready to solely assign the blame for what happened on 7/13/24 solely to Kimberly Cheatle. However, it is way too soon to stop asking questions. Even though the liberal MSM seems ready to forget what happened, while not asking pertinent and reasonable questions, I am not ready to sweep this entire thing under the rug.
Decide for yourself.

8/14/24
californiacontrarian

Veep Kamala Harris touted federal grants two years ago to replace thousands of gas-guzzling school buses with greener versions — yet fewer than 7% of the initial districts have actually completed the switch.
The administration announced its kick-off to the troubled program in 2022, with Harris crowing that the first billion dollars would help 389 school districts across the country purchase upwards of 2,400 “clean” buses.
But so far, just 27 of those hundreds of school districts have marked their project status as “complete,” according to an EPA tracker, which was updated  June 20.

But it gets worse than just non participation.
Who actually wants them? Perhaps we should ask some of those in blue Maryland.

From Daily Caller:
“An investigation into a Maryland school system’s electric bus initiative found that it resulted in millions of dollars in “wasteful spending” due to issues with the vehicles, according to a report from the county’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released in late July.”
Perhaps wasteful government spending is a recurrent blue state theme?
Are EV school buses safe ?
Rollouts for electric buses across the country have been plagued with issues, including reports of the vehicles bursting into flames due to battery malfunctions in Wichita, Kansas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Hamden, Connecticut, since July 2022. Additionally, eight electric buses purchased by a Democratic enclave in Wyoming became indefinitely inoperable in 2023 after the buses began experiencing mechanical issues and their manufacturer, Proterra, went bankrupt.

The Biden administration is handing out nearly $1.7 billion across 46 states and territories to buy electric and low-emission buses despite their susceptibility to catching on fire, the Department of Transportation (DOT) announced.
Hmmm!

The federal government has already spent $3.3 billion on the bus electrification projects prior to the recent announcement, and reportedly plans to spend a further $5 billion in the next three years as outlined in the bipartisan infrastructure law, according to The Associated Press.

Does the misguided wisdom of Kamala Harris on EV school buses actually suggest to anyone that she should be in charge in our country?
Will she suddenly have a “change of heart” on EV school buses, similar to what is now having on fracking?

8/13/24
californiacontrarian.com

I was in need of some uplifting news the other day. I have been struggling with a bad cold for days. (Covid tested, … negative, otherwise would have taken my one remaining dose pack of Ivermectin.) Anyway on top of feeling like crap I keep reading about the surging Kamala, and that just made me feel much worse. What I needed was an upsurge and I got it.
First, at a Trump rally in Bozeman, Montana, Trump played a montage of Kamala’s nonsensical meanderings, and that video clip actually brought a smile to my face. Could the USA really elect such an air-head??
Then following that uplifting Trump montage I came upon some fresh polling data which boosted my spirits. Many polls are apparently reporting that Kamala has taken the lead over Trump in many battleground states.
From Townhall:
According to Polling Plus, Trump is picking up steam in crucial battleground states.
In Wisconsin, Trump edges out Harris 49 to 48 percent.
In Pennsylvania, Trump’s 46 percent triumphs Harris’ 44 percent.
In Arizona, Trump is leading Harris 48 to 47 percent.
In Nevada, Trump outperformed Harris by three percentage points (48 to 45 percent), and in North Carolina, the 45th president took the largest lead, with 49 percent of the vote compared to Harris’ 45 percent.
Michigan is the only battleground state, in which the poll found Harris to be doing slightly better (49 to 47 percent).
Electora Map Based on Trafalgar/Insider Advantage taken on 7/29-7/30 shows Trump ahead 297-241.
Granted this was done early in Kamala’s honeymoon period, and she will undoubtedly get bump from the Democrat “convention.”
After these pieces of good news, my cold symptoms are now improving as is my overall attitude about the future of our country.
8/12/24
californiacontrarian

On Sundays I try to write about individuals who deserve our respect and admiration. Because today is the last day of the 2024 Olympics, Silina Pha Aphay of Laos is a perfect fit.
From NPR News:
It was on 8/2 during the preliminary heat of the women’s 100-meter race at the Paris Olympics. Lucia Moris of South Sudan, in Lane 1, was keeping pace after bolting from the starting blocks. But halfway through the race, she began to slow down and look unsteady, before crumpling to the ground. The fall occurred in front of Pha Aphay, who was in Lane 2.
The South Sudanese athlete laid on the purple track, unable to get back up. Even after the race ended, Moris, 23, remained on the ground alone, shrieking in pain and clutching her right thigh.
But before medics arrived, someone else rushed to her side: fellow competitor Silina Pha Aphay of Laos. The Laotian had just finished sixth, which was not high enough to advance to the next stage. And so, her time at the Olympics was over. But in that moment, Pha Aphay’s first action was to go to the distressed Moris.
Standing beside Moris, Pha Aphay called out for help. Once medics arrived, Pha Aphay continued to stay on the track, holding Moris’ sneakers while medics prepared to put Moris on a stretcher.
“All 100 meters athletes have to know how being hurt feels. And this is a big competition. It’s a big dream to come here. But you get hurt here. So everybody knows the feeling,” Pha Aphay later told the Washington Post.

On 8/2/24 Pha Aphay’s Olympic medal hopes were dashed, but in her moment of extreme disappointment, she rose above the others and offered consolation to her downed fellow competitor, Lucia Moris of South Sudan.
Pha Aphay did not win any medal, but in my mind she came in first place!
8/11/24

I used to think that the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) was a responsible medical journal, but for me that opinion changed as JAMA became progressively more leftward leaning.
Recently JAMA published a new study that shows a rise in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among American college students. PTSD rates increased by 4.1 percentage points, jumping from 3.4 percent in 2017-2018 to 7.5 percent in 2021-2022.
Over the five-year period from 2017 to 2022, the researchers also observed an increase in the prevalence of acute stress disorder (ASD) among college students. ASD prevalence rose by 0.5 percentage points, growing from 0.2 percent to 0.7 percent over the same timeframe.
The team examined student populations from a diverse array of 332 higher education institutions across the U.S., encompassing a broad geographic range and various institutional types. Their extensive survey captured data from nearly 400,000 college students, with females comprising a slight majority at 57.7 percent.
While I have no reason to doubt these increases in PTSD or ASD, I do doubt the supposed cause for these increases. Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who conducted the study, suggest the stark increase likely stems from a combination of events, including campus shootings, nationwide racial tensions, and the loss of loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.
JAMA apparently bought this claptrap and instead ignored the obvious.
First off, campus shootings are few and far-between. Nationwide racial tensions exist only in the minds of Democrats. Loss of loved from from Covid were not limited to the families of college students.
How could it be that a “reputable” medical journal and its “researchers” missed the obvious answers as to why this has occurred?
First: The lockdowns of young healthy college students during Covid to supposedly save them from a disease which basically had a negligible effect on their age group should be blatantly obvious.
Second: Because of the misguided concept that everybody should go to college, many students in college just cannot handle the unwarranted pressure on them. Additionally, a lot needed loans in order to pay for the college studies that they are not equipped to handle. This only adds to their stress especially if they do not finish with a degree, or if their attained degrees are not marketable.
Third: Young people today are being constantly overwhelmed because of “climate change.” Once one buys into this concept, depression (PTSD) and anxiety (ASD) are totally explainable, and college students are very susceptible to the persuasions of their left-leaning professors.
The fact that JAMA published this drivel only reenforces my opinion that it is no longer a responsible medical journal. JAMA is not what it used to be.

8/10/24

Some states have instituted common sense measures to attempt to insure that the only votes that count are legit.
For instance, from BlazeMedia:
On Wednesday, 8/7/24, Governor Youngkin of Virginia, issued Executive Order 35, which aims “to protect the casting of legal ballots by legally eligible voters in Virginia’s elections.” The EO listed several Virginia voting regulations that those living in other states likely wish they had:
* 100% paper ballots,
* strict chain of custody for all ballots as well as daily reconciliation during the early voting period,
* “no mass mailing of ballots” — application for mail-in ballot required,
* 24/7 monitoring of all drop boxes,
* no “voting machines,” only machines designed to count ballots, and
* strict prohibition against hooking counting machines up to the internet.

In addition, the EO explained recent efforts to clean up voter rolls by conducting audits and tracking voters who have since moved out of state or passed away. Nearly 80,000 deceased voters were removed from the commonwealth’s voter rolls in 2023 alone.
Perhaps even more importantly, 6,303 noncitizens who are still alive and who either “purposefully or accidentally registered to vote” in Virginia have likewise been removed, the EO claimed.

Why aren’t all of these regulations adopted by every state? They all seem like common sense if indeed one wants the voting to be legit. But there lies the rub … it seems that the Dems do whatever they can to make sure that legitimate voters can easily be neutralized by illegitimate or dead voters.
Why?
From Daybreak Insider:
Glenn Youngkin: Call me crazy, but I think American elections should be decided by American citizens, and Virginia elections should be decided by Virginians.

I agree with Glenn Youngkin.
What about you?

8/9/24
californiacontrarian

Back at the end of July as the presidential campaign entered the final 100-day stretch, Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, rallied supporters in a state that hasn’t backed a Republican candidate for the White House since 1972.
Was this a fake or was this part of the plan all along? What plan?
Could it be that campaigning in Minnesota, making the blue state of Minnesota appear to be in play, was something of a charade, potentially forcing Harris and Democrats to devote resources in a state they would likely otherwise ignore?
Likewise could campaigning in St.Cloud, Minnesota have been a part of the plan to persuade the Dems and Kamala Harris to pick the present governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, to be her running mate?
If this was Trump’s plan, it appears to have worked. There have been multiple explanations as to why this lackadaisical governor of a blue state was chosen as Harris’s VP choice. The reasons that I like the best include future impeachment insurance if Harris were to be elected … after all who want Tim Walz to be the president!
The other potential reason for this strange choice of a running mate was to try to win Michigan. It is thought that even though the governor of Pennsylvania as the VP choice might go further to gain Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, Josh Shapiro is not only Jewish, but also a strong backer of Israel in its conflict with Gaza, and this could potentially keep Arabs in Michigan home on Election Day. Of course if Trump were to win Michigan like he did in 2016, or if he should win Pennsylvania, then there will be plenty of second guessing about Harris’s VP choice.
But for me, I think that the “fake campaigning” by Trump/Vance in Minnesota was part of the plan to force Harris to choose Walz as her running mate and it is already paying dividends.

8/8/24
www.californiacontrarian.com

As we all are aware it’s summer and because it’s summer it is warm. At this point in some places this summer seems to be exceptionally warm, but comparatively speaking how warm is it? It seems that it depends on how many years back one goes back when comparing.
Per chance, I happened on this today.
From Watts Up With That:
“The past nine years (2015 to 2023) have been the warmest years within the 174-year observational record of the WMO.” Since WHO is one of the “internationally recognized entities” worshiped by NATO’s High Command, one would have thought that someone would have done enough basic research to work out that it only came into existence in 1950 and that, therefore, the 174-year global-temperature dataset is not WHO’s dataset. It is, in fact, kept by the Hadley Center and the University of East Anglia.
NATO also says:
“Global increase in the number of extremely hot days”: Yet again, NATO has failed to check its facts. In those parts of the world where temperature records have been kept for at least a century, it is plain that the Grapes of Wrath dustbowl years of the 1930s set far more heat records than have been seen since. The United States is a good example –

So yes, compared to the late 1960s and the early 1970s it does appear warmer … however, not compared to the 1930s.
Hmmm!
8/7/24
www.californiacontrarian.com

Over the years I think I have been pretty consistent about how I fell about certain things. For those of you that need convincing , go to www.californiacontrarian.com and check all the way back to April, 2017.
One of my constant and recurrent themes is how the Democrats consistently and repeatedly advocate for things that are going to be adversely felt the most by those among us who are the most economic vulnerable. Kamala Harris is no different from other Democrats in this regard.
From the Daily Wire:
“The Biden-Harris administration proposed a new rule that would allow illegal immigrants to access taxpayer-funded college preparatory programs that were meant to assist low-income American citizens. The new proposed rule from the Biden-Harris Department of Education would allow illegal immigrants who qualify for the Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA) to access federal TRIO programs targeted to serve and assist low-income individuals, first-generation college students, and individuals with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to post-baccalaureate programs.”
While at first glance this might sound kindhearted, when one puts on glasses, it becomes apparent that if a non-citizen is able to take advantage of this largess, it essentially means that some disadvantaged or disabled individual, who is a citizen, will be excluded.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) put it succinctly when he blasted the proposed rule from the Democratic administration, noting that it would allow illegal immigrants to take the spots of American citizens (Daily Wire).
I feel sorry for DACA individuals who are here through no fault of their own over the years. However, I have been consistent in stating that their situation should be similar to that of actual American citizens with the caveat that they should never be allowed to vote nor should they be eligible for handouts from the government.
8/5/24
www.California contrarian.com

On Sunday I write about individuals who act on principle, and should be praised for this. Tanja Benton is such a person … a person who had strong religious beliefs and refused to get the COVID vaccine, based on principle.
I was always against vaccine mandates for younger individuals, and so it easy for me to admire a person who stood firmly against vaccine mandates.
(For those of you who did not believe in religious exemptions for the COVID vaccine, the question that comes up is, “Could you admire a person who stands up for what he/she believes in, if you do not believe in that same thing?” Here you could be for the person, and not necessarily for what that person believes in … but I digress.)
From the Epoch Times:
“BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee officials told Ms. Tanja Benton in August of 2021 that she would need to be ‘fully vaccinated’ to keep her position. Ms. Benton refused, saying aborted fetal cell lines were involved in the development of the COVID-19 vaccines and she couldn’t ‘in good conscience consume the vaccine, which would not only defile her body but also anger and dishonor God.’
While Ms. Benton said her position became fully remote in 2020, BlueCross BlueShield said it would have involved some in-person interaction with clients.
Ms. Benton was told to pursue other positions within the company and applied for two. But she was fired on Nov. 4, 2021, and was told five days later that, ‘Unfortunately, all positions require the vax now,’ according to an email.
Tanja Benton had worked at the firm for 16 years when she was fired.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, presented with the case, cleared Ms. Benton to sue her former employer.
Her lawsuit charged that BlueCross BlueShield violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says an employer may not “discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment” because of that person’s religion. Employers can disregard religious exemption requests if they can prove accommodating them would create an undue hardship.
BlueCross BlueShield “cannot prove that allowing Plaintiff to continue her employment as a Bio Statistical Research Scientist without being vaccinated for COVID-19 constitutes an undue hardship,” the suit stated. The company “also cannot show that it made any good-faith efforts to accommodate plaintiff’s sincerely held religious beliefs.”
To make a long story short,Tanja Benton won her lawsuit.
She was awarded $177,240 in back pay, $10,000 in compensation, and $500,000 in punitive damages, according to a document made public by the federal court in eastern Tennessee on June 30.
Her sincere religious beliefs combined with persistence and resolve paid off for Tanja Benson.
8/4/24
www.californiacontrarian.com