Author: Californiacontrarian

About forty-five years ago due to an unusual confluence of circumstances, I found myself in a new location with a new boss, Vic V. As time went on I learned this new boss was a wise leader. He was always looking out for those of us in our division, which was only one of many divisions.

Early on of the things I learned from him was … “never give up something without getting something in return.” He did not say this in a vindictive way, but in a practical sense, as one of the duties of a leader is to look out for those under him, and this is exactly what he did.

I was reminded of him and his mantra when I read about the chaos the Democrats have brought on themselves in Ohio. For those not familiar with this example of incompetence, it goes like this:

According to Ohio law the date to include someone  on Ohio’s general election ballot is the statutory filing deadline of August 7th. Joe Biden will miss that deadline because the Democrat National Convention in Chicago starts weeks afterwards, on August 19th,  so Joe won’t yet be the official party nominee when the August 7th deadline comes and goes.

Oops! Did the DNC  make a big boo-boo by scheduling their convention so late this year. As an aside, I must ask if they did this purposely. … Hmmm! … If for some reason Joe Biden turns out not to be the Democrat’s nominee, then he cannot/should not be on the ballot in Ohio. Is this apparent rookie mistake actually a fail safe way to replace Biden on the ticket if he continues to tank in the polls?

Nonetheless, the Republican Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio has called a special legislative session, hauling all Ohio’s lawmakers back to Columbus on May 28, so they can change Ohio’s laws to accommodate the democrats’ tardy convention schedule. I realize that Governor DeWine is not familiar with Vic V., but if he is listening or reading this, he needs to be familiar with Vic V’s  prudent statement … “never give up something without getting something in return.”

5/28/24

On this Memorial Day morning I was thinking how lucky we all are that Irving Berlin was born when he was and thus was able to write “God Bless America” when he did. 

From Wikipedia:

As you may or may not be aware Irving Berlin originally wrote the song while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York at the end of World War I, but decided that it did not fit in a revuecalled Yip Yip Yaphank, so he set it aside.

In 1938, with the rise of Adolf Hitler, Berlin, who was Jewish and had arrived in the U.S. from Russia at the age of five, felt it was time to revive it as a “peace song”, and it was introduced on an Armistice Daybroadcast in 1938, sung by Kate Smith on her radio show.

Try to conceptualize what would have happened if Irving Berlin was born in 1988 instead of 1888. Would he then have written “God Bless America” in 2024? More to the point could he have written that same song in today’s political milieu? Which words in that title would have been acceptable to the general public? “God” … no! “Bless” … no!  “America” … not likely, as these words are only acceptable to those on the right!

Today Kate Smith would probably not be able to sing “God Bless America” on a nationwide show as the left would never stand for it. The major networks (ABC,CBS, & NBC) would neither be able to say “God” or “Bless” on live T.V nor would they be able to convince a lot of their viewers that there could be such a thing as a patriotic song.

Personally, I love “God Bless America” and tear-up a bit each time I hear it sung, especially when sung by Kate Smith. I think we all are fortunate that Irving Berlin was born when he was.

5/27/24

Lauderhill Police Officer Jason Reyes arrived at the scene of crash Thursday night, 5/23/24. The video appears to show surveillance footage of one car attempting to turn, only to be crashed into by a second.

The video shows Reyes rush to the burning vehicle. Another individual at the scene can be seen trying to douse the flames using a fire extinguisher as the officer arrived.

“Anybody else in there? Is there anybody else inside?” the officer asked in the video.

“Walking up to it, you’re not knowing if anybody’s there to begin with … there’s a risk you might get burned in the mix, but you have to check to see if there’s somebody inside that car,”  said Reyes “You kind of have to put yourself aside and, you know, act.”

The officer worked to put the flames out until firefighters arrived on the scene and assisted in rescuing the trapped driver by breaking the car’s window with his baton, according to the outlet. He recalled the the rescue.

“She was scrunched up almost underneath the steering wheel, so getting her out-I was very surprised when she was breathing,” said Reyes.“There was a little bit of relief, and shortly after that, the car was engulfed. So it was a tight, tight timeline.”

A tight timeline! … to say the least!

“You kind of have to put yourself aside and, you know, act.”

Jason Reyes is a true hero!

5/26/24

It appears that the Dems, vis-à-vis Joe Biden, have done it again. They (he) have done things that end up hurting those who are the lowest on the economic ladder, the worst off. In fact, as I have pointed out many times before, this happens so often that one wonders if the Dems are doing it on purpose.

The latest … Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has been drastically effected by the sky-high inflation experienced under and caused by President Joe Biden.

His policies continue to degrade what families could afford on federal food assistance in 2023, according a recent report from the Urban Institute. 

From The Daily Caller:

“The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) failed to cover the cost of a modestly priced meal in 98% of counties in 2023, far higher than the 21% gap experienced in 2021 due to rampant food inflation, according to the report. The price of food on average has risen 20.4% since the start of Biden’s term in January 2021, higher than the overall rate of inflation, which measured 19.3% in that same time frame.”

Yes, inflation hurts just about everyone, but it is hurting those who have to rely on SNAP, the most!

From X, formerly known as Twitter:

“An Urban study found that many families turned to credit card debt, payday loans, & other options to put food on their tables.”

In an attempt to bring inflation down, the Federal Reserve has set its federal funds rate to a range of 5.25% and 5.50%, increasing the cost of debt across the economy, particularly for Americans using credit cards to make ends meet.

Can anyone explain to me why JB thinks it’s a good idea for less affluent families to go further and further into debt just to eat? Perhaps someone could explain to President Biden that credit card debt and payday loans, unlike debt from student loans, does not just magically disappear!

To make matters even worse Biden’s inflation is even worse for those needing to rely on SNAP in mostly Democratic cities.

In 2023, SNAP benefits were on average $49.29 lower than what monthly meals cost for an individual, being $73.31 short in urban areas and $44.38 short in rural areas, according to the report. Urban areas had meal costs that were 28% higher than SNAP benefits by the end of 2023, while rural areas had a gap of 17%.

So Biden’s inflation not only hurts the poor the most, but those poor individuals who live in mostly blue cities are hurt even more! 

5/25/24

To say that a true leader must be principled seems like a “no brainer.”  Likewise to say that a politician is principled is for the most part, an oxymoron. When I look at Joe Biden, do I see a leader or a politician? With out a moment of hesitation, I see Joe Biden not merely as a politician, but I see him as the antithesis of a leader. I see him as a confused sheep who just follows along where his undisclosed shepherds tell him to go. 

Look at the Hamas-Israeli conflict. Although Biden proclaims to be supporting the Israelis, he is now withholding military aid to Israel that was voted for by Congress, and which he subsequently signed. What’s up with that?

While some of you may be anti-Trump, DJT does not waffle. He makes decisions. You may or may not like the positions that he takes … but when he takes a position, he stands by it.

That leads me to the Americans being held hostage by Hamas. A real leader would have gotten these Americans out of Gaza a long time ago. 

What the most recent on the five American hostages that were captured by Hamas on Oct. 7?

From a press briefing on May 27, 2024:

REPORTER: “The five American hostages who are still unaccounted for. Is there any new intelligence about their whereabouts or their potential wellbeing?” 

National Security Council spokesman, JOHN KIRBY: “Sadly, no.”

On May 17, when National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was pressed about the status of the American hostages during last Friday’s 

White House press briefing, there was “sadly, no” new intelligence that Kirby had to share. “We don’t have any information that–that leads us to a conclusion that they’re–that they’re no longer alive. But we just don’t have any additional context whatsoever,” he offered.

Now let’s all try to be honest here. … Is this or is this not disgraceful?

Would a real leader tolerate American citizens being held hostage by terrorists? Would a real leader then withhold aid to a country that is fighting these same terrorist?

Case closed!

5/24/24

On May 7 a majority of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit said

that a Colorado university’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate violates the U.S. Constitution. 

The mandate, first handed down on Sept. 1, 2021, “clearly violates the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause as interpreted by our precedents,” 

As many of my readers will appreciate from the beginning I have been opposed to these college Covid vaccination mandates for a variety of different reasons. Furthermore,  I hope that this specific ruling by the U.S Court of Appeals will open the flood gates to many more suits with colleges having to defend their authoritative vaccine mandates.

Granted this case was an obviously over-the-top application of subjective policies on this college’s application of religious accommodations on the vaccine.

From the Epoch Times:

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in 2021 required COVID-19 vaccination of all students and employees. It initially offered religious exemptions to anyone who checked a box, but it later stated  that administrators would “only recognize religious exemptions based on religious beliefs whose teachings are opposed to all immunizations.”Officials, for instance, said Christian Scientists would qualify for an exemption but Buddhists would not. They also said exemptions would be granted only to people who never received any vaccinations.

Seventeen students and employees, all of whose applications were denied, sued over the policy, alleging that it was discriminatory.

Under the original policy, Anschutz administrators “rejected applicants’ beliefs based not on their sincerity, but rather on their perceived validity,” according to the new ruling. Even after the administrators received numerous pages of explanations of religious beliefs, they denied each application. They rejected one application because officials claimed that it was “morally acceptable” for Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines, judging any position otherwise as a personal objection as opposed to a religious one.

The policy was “explicitly non-neutral” because, according to a ruling in a separate case, the First Amendment does not allow governments to “discriminate in favor of some religions and against others,” according to the majority.

One amazing part of this case was that the defendants claimed to know what the individual was thinking, as opposed to what the individual was saying. Whenever any party claims to really know what one is thinking, one can be pretty sure that this supposition is frivolous. It reminds me of instances where individuals were praying silently and arrested for doing such. … “Even though you haven’t vocalized it as such, I know what you are really thinking.”

In this case, I say “good job” to the plaintiffs, and I hope that this is just the first of many victories over these past college Covid vaccination  mandates.

5/23/

The other day I read a recommendation, the likes of which I have never have read before. Furthermore it was said by someone with some standing … not some political schmo.

Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons made the following recommendation following what happened to Dr. Wei-Hsung Lin in Washington state.

She recommended doctors avoid Washington state if they’re able.

Wow! That is a very strong statement!

What egregious offense did Dr. Lin commit? … Are you ready for this? … I am shocked! … Dr. Lin prescribed Ivermectin for Covid!!

Hmmm, he must have prescribed Ivermectin for thousands … Shock & awe!  … No, he prescribed Ivermectin for five patients … 5! … cinco!  OMG!

From Epoch Health:

According to an order signed by the Washington Medical Commission on May 2, Dr. Lin was fined $5000, and must also take continuing education classes, according to newly filed documents. In addition, the order prohibits Dr. Lin from prescribing ivermectin off-label to patients in Washington state and from prescribing any medication or providing care for patients without first establishing a doctor-patient relationship.

It also requires him to review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and UpToDate websites for current COVID-19 guidelines, take continuing medical education classes on preventing, treating, and managing COVID-19 and establishing a doctor-patient relationship, and write two papers of at least 1,000 words describing what he learned from the websites and classes. 

Again shock and awe! … write two one-thousand word papers! To me it sounds like the Washington Medical Commission was made up of elementary school teachers. Perhaps just a rumor, but word on the street has it that in his initial punishment, Dr. Lin had to write “I will not prescribe Ivermectin ever again!” one hundred times on a white board.

Of course, there is no mention of any adverse effects in the five patients for whom Dr. Lin prescribed Ivermectin … not at all surprising as Ivermectin has an extremely tiny side-effect profile … probably less than 99% of all drugs.

Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, said that the conditions are “extremely onerous” and require work that would “enormously increase the burden of practice and probably drive most physicians out of practice altogether.”

“Ivermectin is an extremely safe drug—much safer than most drugs physicians prescribe without all the ‘informed consent’ discussions demanded here,” Dr. Orient told The Epoch Times in an email. “As to informing patients of alternatives, the reasons patients were calling this doctor was likely that no alternatives were available. It was ‘isolate and go to ER if you get worse.’”

Did the almighty Medical Commission state if any patients were improved because of the Ivermectin? Not that I am aware of, as that info could possibly destroy their already formed biased omnipotent opinion!

Now I have only been to Washington state a few times, and did not particularly like it there. Notwithstanding, if any one in the medical field were to ask, I would echo Dr. Orient’s advice, and tell them to “avoid Washington state at all costs.”

5/22/24

The other day I was reading a piece by John Seiler about the folly of the mandating of Electric Vehicles in California by 2035, and President Biden’s national goal of more than half of all vehicles sold being EVs by 2030.

In this article Mr. Seiler references some scientific papers, and ends up reminding everyone that this entire CO2 Kabuki theater is hypothesis rather than proven fact.

The following is from that article:

“The carbon monoxide emitted by gas and diesel engines is being shown not to cause global warming. Reported No Tricks Zone, “Three Polish physicists have focused their attention on this saturation principle as it applies to CO2 in three recently published papers (Kubicki et al., 2024, 2022, and 2020). Their latest (Kubicki et al., 2024), published in Applications in Engineering Science, summarizes the experimental evidence from their 2020 and 2022 publications substantiating the conclusion that ‘as a result of saturation processes, emitted CO2 does not directly cause an increase in global temperature.’”

Now thIs is something that I have not read anywhere in the Main Stream Media, and I would guess that Joe Biden is not familiar with the publication, Applications in Engineering Science.

“The authors are concerned about the recent push to rely on modeling and assumptions about CO2’s capacity to drive changes in global temperature rather than observational evidence. They point out the current CO2-is-the-climate-control-knob zeitgeist is no more than a hypothesis.”

The scientists themselves wrote: “This unequivocally suggests that the officially presented impact of anthropogenic CO2 increase on Earth’s climate is merely a hypothesis rather than a substantiated fact.”

 A hypothesis!! To remind everyone that we are basically being told by “those that know best” that we must change our entire life style based on a hypothesis!

5/21/24

It seems a bit strange to me that all of the sudden Joe Biden is suddenly all-in for two presidential debates.

The challenge was initiated when Biden released a 13-second video, which apparently contained “five jump cuts” because he “could not get through the whole thing.”

“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, and since then he hasn’t shown up for debate. Now, he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice. So, let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays,” Biden said in the short video.”

Why?

Peter Doocy asked KJP if Biden’s apparent change of heart was because of recent polling in which JB was behind in five of six critical states. As usual KJP responded but did not actually answer his question.

What I find the most strange is that the first debate is at the end of June. This is well before the Democratic convention. This is an extremely unusual time to have a Presidential debate … Hmmm!

Could it be that the real reason for the timing of this first debate is a “plan B” of sorts? Perhaps this first debate is meant to be somewhat of a test for J.B. If he does well then it could provide a necessary shift in momentum for old Joe. However, if he does poorly, it could be stimulus for his managers to figure out a way for him to exit the race prior to the convention. For instance, if his debate performance was poor, he could “develop” some “unplanned” illness or infirmity that would “unfortunately” necessitate that he withdraw from the race … serendipitously right before the convention. 

As Doocy brought up Biden is falling further behind  in some swing states, and if this continues, he basically cannot win. Once he is nominated at the convention, it becomes extremely problematic to substitute another candidate in his place. Ergo … “plan B!”

5/20/24

As many of you are aware on Sundays I write about individuals who deserve our respect and praise. Omri Michaeli is such an individual.

From the Epoch Times:

On the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked, Israeli reserve Master Sgt. Omri Michaeli didn’t wait for orders to report. The veteran reserve commando kissed his girlfriend goodbye and headed to his base outside Jerusalem.

At the base, he quickly loaded weapons in his car, teamed up with three buddies who were ready to go, and drove south—to kill the terrorists who were killing Israelis.

They headed first to Yad Mordechai, a mile north of the Gaza frontier. They killed terrorists along the way, All the roads near Gaza were filled with terrorists. There were an estimated 3,000 terrorists on Israeli soil, the equivalent of a brigade.

Mr. Omri Michaeli was a reservist in the Duvdevan elite commando brigade specializing in urban counterterrorism. Its members sometimes go undercover in classified operations. Duvdevan regulars arrived at Kfar Aza via helicopters at about 9 a.m.

Inside the kibbutz, their commander sent them to clear the youth area. It had small apartments where young kibbutzniks moved upon leaving their parents’ houses. The apartments, on the kibbutz’s edge, back up to its fence. The Gaza Strip is a little more than half a mile away across the fields.

The IDF soldiers faced a unique situation: They were in Israel, attacking dwellings that might have Israelis inside. They couldn’t just toss in a grenade.

“The officer said, ‘OK, who’s going first?’ And there was a silence.

Omri stood up and said: ‘Are you joking? Come on behind me.’”

Mr. Omri Michaeli’s team of six got started and cleared three apartments in about an hour. At the fourth apartment, the team ran into trouble.

“Behind me.” Mr. Omri Michaeli was about 6 feet, 2 inches tall—and strong.

He went in, and they saw three guns, three terrorists, in the front room.

“When he made the first step, they shot him from up to down,” his father said.

Omri Michaeli died a hero!

5/19/24