Author: Californiacontrarian

Donald Trump has done it again! Done what? you may ask. He has appealed to another group of voters who have been forever caught in a trap. Here I am talking about the parents whose children who are trapped in failing schools. These parents, including many single parents cannot afford to send their children to any sort of private school. In addition, there are those who cannot home school their children, either because they have to work or do not have the schooling or the wherewithal to do home schooling. Because these families do not have a school choice option, these children are basically trapped in substandard schools. Consequently, in all likelihood, they will never achieve their full potential and thus will possibly be trapped in poverty for their entire life.

From CV NEWS FEED:

“Former President Donald Trump announced that if elected in November, he would support universal school choice as well as comprehensive tax credits for families who homeschool their children.

‘I will support a policy of universal school choice,’ Trump said while speaking at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention, in Nashville, TN, Thursday:night, 2/22/24.

The Republican frontrunner indicated he would allow ‘parents to choose the public, private, charter, or religious school that best suits their children.’

Trump stated that he would ‘support America’s homeschool families including allowing 529 Education Savings Accounts [ESAs] to be used for homeschooling expenses up to $10,000 a year per child completely tax free.’”

“In addition Mr. Trump said that he intends to ‘close the federal Department of Education, and … move everything back to the states where it belongs.’

Furthermore, Trump emphasized that he would make it a ‘top priority’ to ‘take back our education system from the communists and the freaks that are destroying it.’

‘On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory [CRT], transgender insanity, and all other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto our children.’”

Kudos to DJT! It’s about time that someone is finally standing up for the mainly lower class children and their parents. When Trump is elected these families will have some realistic hopes for their children who will no longer be trapped.

2/24/24

As almost all of you are aware on 2/16/24 Alexei Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died  in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence, Russia’s prison agency said. He was 47.

Right from the beginning let me be clear … I am not a Putin backer. Navalny and Putin have been enemies for a very long time, and the presumption by many is that Navalny was murdered and that Putin was responsible. In actuality at this point we do not know what actually happened to Navalny, and we may never know. It is common knowledge that Navalny and Putin were political enemies, and most of us would agree that it is pure evil for anyone in politics to physically go after one’s political enemies. Certainly, if it is true that Putin was responsible for Navalny’s death, then this is the lowest an individual can go. 

However, what about going after one’s political enemies by attempting to put him/her in jail on trumped-up charges? What about attempting to bankrupt a political enemy by fining him/her a ridiculous amount for a trumped-up fictitious crime? While I would never try to equate murder with jailing or financially ruining a political opponent, nonetheless both of these would also be judged as pure evil.

Speaking of trumped-up charges for trumped-up alleged crimes, isn’t this exactly what Joe Biden and his intermediaries are trying to do to his political opponent, Donald Trump? Is there a difference between what an intermediary allegedly did to Putin’s political opponent, Alexei Navalny, and what Biden’s intermediaries are now doing to Biden’s political opponent, Donald Trump? 

2/23/24

Last night I happened to watch part of Laura Ingraham’s interview with Donald Trump, and in my opinion it was a very good interview.

At one point in response to his $354 million fine from his recent civil fraud trial in New York, Trump pulled out a copy of the 8th Amendment from his his pocket. He then read the section which states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

To me this is exactly what this enormous fine is, especially when there was no victim.

When asked about potential revenge for a series of mistreatments by Democrat prosecutors, Mr. Trump said, “My revenge will be my success.”  I thought … good campaign slogan!

The other interesting part of the interview had to do with potential debates with Biden. When asked Trump responded, “I’ll do it right now on your show. I’ll challenge him right now.”

Everyone knows that JB will never debate Donald Trump for a multitude of reasons, even though many Libs will have pity on the well-meaning, but tottering senile old man.

At the end of the interview Laura Ingraham asked, “Why not drop out instead of face all of these legal battles?”

President Donald Trump: “I can’t because I want to make America great again.”

A good answer from a good American!

2/22/24

What if I told you that the Biden “Admin Paid German Agency to Help Teachers Turn Kids Against Conservative Media.” (This is a headline from Catholic Vote.) My sense is that at first you would not believe that headline. What if I added that this censorship program was funded by .American tax dollars? … again my sense is that you wold say, …”no way!”

What if I added that over 700 educators participated in a year-long series of State Department seminars hosted by the University of Rhode Island’s Media Education Lab (the ‘Rhode Island Lab’).”

These seminars introduced the teachers to various “censorship tools.” These included “video games designed to entice children to embrace leftist narratives and to compel them to use tech platforms that collude with the government to surveil and censor.”

What if I told you that this curriculum included lessons on promoting street protests for leftist causes, and detailed instructions on how to turn schoolchildren into media producers who advocate against free speech.

By this time my sense is that you would be saying, “NO WAY!”

However, the Media Research Council’s (MRC) Censorship Investigation Project uncovered the secret collaboration through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and analyzing public records.

MRC Legal Associate Tim Kilcullen reported Tuesday that both the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security funded the effort.

Kilcullen added, “Under the Biden administration, the U.S. embassy set up a “year-long, cross-national professional learning community,” dubbed the “Medialogue on Propaganda,” in order to export German socialist ideas of censorship to American educators.

If you haven’t bought in so far, what if I told you that according to Kilcullen, “A portion of the curriculum was ‘funded in part by leftist billionaires George and Alexander Soros.’”

If only a portion of what I have just told you is true, how frightening is that!

2/21/24

As most of you realize, I do not profess to be an expert on “climate change.” In fact, recently a friend lent me “Green Murder” by Ian Plimer, an Australian “climate change denier,” and I am having a tough time comprehending it.

Nonetheless, recently I did struggle through a piece by Daniel W. Nebert, a professor emeritus in Gene-Environment Interactions at the University of Cincinnati, and thought I would pass on the part related to Glacial Periods. Please bear with me and these large numbers as the end-message is quite clear.

It is my understanding that the following will be included in a future piece in American Thinker:

“From his seminal work while prisoner of war during WWI, Serbian mathematician Milutin Milankovitchexplained how climate is influenced by variations in the Earth’s asymmetric orbit, axial tilt, and rotational wobble — each going through cycles lasting as long as 120,000 years.

It is widely recognized that Glacial Periods of about 95,000 years, interspersed with Interglacial Periods of approximately 25,000 years correspond with Milankovitch Cycles. Multiple incursions of glaciers occurred during the Pleistocene, an epoch lasting from about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago, when Earth’s last Glacial Period ended. Around 24,000 years ago, present-day Lake Erie was covered with ice a mile thick. 

 Within each Interglacial Period, there’ve been warming periods, or “Mini-Summers.” For example, within the current Holocene Interglacial, there have been warmer periods known as the Minoan (1500 – 1200 BC), Roman (250 BC – 400 AD) and Medieval (900 – 1300 AD). Our Modern Warming Period began with the waning of the Little Ice Age (1300-1850). Today’s Mini-Summer is colder so far than all previous Mini-Summers over the last 8,500 years.”

So let me get this straight. 

Is the earth warming? … Yes, it is, but this is not the first such “Mini-Summer” that the earth has had. As with past “Mini-Summers” these  warming periods typically occur during periods of extreme cold referred to as Interglacial Periods.

Comparatively speaking this so-called period of “global warming” is not so much compared to prior episodes that have occurred over the past 8,500 years.

As any intelligent person knows warming is to be preferred to cooling as far as how the earth’s inhabitants get along. Death rates are much higher with extreme cold than with extreme heat. Imagine trying to grow food in freezing conditions as opposed to hot conditions. Crops will not grow if it is freezing. Imagine what America’s bread basket would be like if Lake Erie was covered with mile thick ice. Millions would starve if temperatures plunged!

At what point will this global warming paranoia cease? In my opinion, probably not until we get a Republican back in the White House!

2/20/24

Well it finally happened … in fact two things happened on 2/16/24 that I believe will clinch the 2024 Presidential election for Trump. Anyone who is not completely over the top anti-Trump will have to look at both of these things and think hmmm!  as both appear to be obviously political. I predict that most rational individuals will see right through what the far-left prejudicial New York judge and President JB are doing. Many will realize when they think about these two events that indeed, that neither of the emperors involved have any clothes!

First:

New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron issued a ruling on Feb. 16, ordering former President Donald Trump and Trump Organization executives to pay $355 million in damages, and barring the former president from doing business in the state for three years.

President Trump also posted a lengthy social media statement, and then called a press conference in front of his Mar-a-Lago residence.

“This ‘decision’ is a Complete and Total SHAM,” he wrote. “There were No Victims, No Damages, No Complaints. Only satisfied Banks and Insurance Companies (which made a ton of money), GREAT Financial Statements, that didn’t even include the most valuable Asset – the TRUMP Brand, IRONCLAD Disclaimers (Buyer Beware, and Do you Own Due Diligence), and amazing Properties all over the World.”

Again any rational person will recognize the absurdity of this case and the financial penalty imposed.

Second:

Finally on 2/16/2& President Biden finally made his to East Palestine. Ohio. Most of you probably remember that East Palestine is a small town of less than 5,000 located in eastern Ohio very close to its border with Pennsylvania, and it was the site of a toxic train derailment. This toxic train derailment occurred in February … however it occurred in 2023!  It occurred on 2/3/23 to be exact. So why was J.B. there on 2/16/2024, more than a year later? Everyone knows that JB finally made an appearance at East Palestine, because it is election season. Supposedly the reason why JB waited more than one year to visit this beleaguered small town was that he had a busy schedule! … and East Palestine voted Republican in 2020. 

How long would it have taken for JB to fly back and forth to eastern Ohio and spend thirty minutes in East Palestine some time in the past year? … 

probably an hour and thirty minutes! To me it seems that all suffering individuals in East Palestine had to wait in line while JB took his “well deserved” 140+ days of vacation time this past year.

One of the Democrat’s spokesman noted that for a time this area was toxic, and hinted that the reason JB has not shown up in over a year might be because air in the area could have been dangerous. This shill of a spokesman forgot to mention that Donald Trump was there less than three weeks after the derailment, visiting both the fire station and a McDonald’s for far greater than thirty minutes … without even wearing a mask!

2/19/24

Last week I read something and thought, “Is it possible that California finally got something right?”

When the Common Core State Standards were introduced in 2010, they explicitly referenced learning keyboard skills in grades 3 through 5. The standards require fourth graders to type a full page in one sitting. As a result, cursive was largely abandoned in most school districts.

However, this trend is now reversing, according to data from MyCursive.com, which tracks cursive writing requirements nationwide. 

Cursive writing is making a comeback in many U.S. states after being dropped over a decade ago. Currently, 21 states mandate some form of handwriting education. Most recently, California passed a law in October 2023 making cursive handwriting mandatory from first through sixth grade.

Is this the right thing to do? 

According to a recent study, the answer is “yes.”

From Epoch Health:

A recent study from Norway found that the old-school art of handwriting engages parts of the brain that tapping on a keyboard does not. The intricate movements involved in handwriting activate more regions of the brain associated with learning than typing does.

The new study published in Frontiers in Psychology and led by Audrey van der Meer, a neuroscience researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, examined the differences between handwriting and typing. Ms. Van der Meer and her team analyzed the neural networks involved in both activities to uncover their respective impacts on brain connectivity.

“We show that when writing by hand, brain connectivity patterns are far more elaborate than when typewriting on a keyboard,” she said in a press statement. “Such widespread brain connectivity is known to be crucial for memory formation and for encoding new information and, therefore, is beneficial for learning.”

So it does appear that our legislators in Sacramento do occasionally get something “write,” or should I better say, “correct!”

2/17/24

Most of my regular readers know that I also write fiction in the form of novels. (e.g. Charles Hyde & the #7,” “The Keneally Chronicles,” “Church Key,” and “Justice in 3 Acts” … all available on Amazon)

While writing a new work of fiction, I am always on the lookout for a topic/plot for the next one. Since I am presently writing a new work of fiction, I just had an idea for the next one, I thought I would just run it by my readers and see what the general opinion might be … perhaps it would be too far out to even be considered.

Please bear with me.I will try to be as clear as possible.

In general, the basic plot involves illegal election interference on an opponent in the next Presidential campaign, and illegal spying on U.S. citizens, all members of the opponent’s staff by various U.S. intelligence communities. This interference was initiated by the CIA under the auspices of the administration then in power, and involved convincing other English speaking nations (let’s call them, the “Five Eyes Nations”) to talk with members of the opposition candidate’s staff. After being coaxed into talking to these mostly lowly opposition staff members, an English speaking rep (let’s say a rep from Australia), then reports some of these conversations as “suspicious,” and thus the FBI has a supposed reason to investigate the opposing candidate’s staff, even though they are American citizens. 

To summarize, the CIA convinced by the present President’s administration initiated the intelligence hoax with the cooperation of our nation’s English-speaking allies. Other intelligence communities, including the FBI, then launched investigations of the opponent’s staff because of “suspicious” activities.

Would anyone read this book or this scenario too far out to be believed?

*** … News Flash!!  Apparently this exact scenario is presently being reported as having occurred prior to the 2016 Presidential election by author, Michael Shellenberger. 

Oh well, Back to the drawing board!

2/16/24

If you have some spare time … specifically twenty-six minutes and twenty-nine seconds of spare time, I would recommend watching Tucker Carlson being interviewed on the World Government Summit in Dubai. This interview is basically about Carlson’s interview with Putin. For the sake of clarity I did not watch Carlson’s interview with Putin, because it was too long. (I do not have two hours of spare time.)

However I watched this interview of Carlson on X twice from stem to stern! Be forewarned that this 26:29 is not like Cliff Notes solely focused on the recent Putin interview. It is about much more than just Putin, but covers Carlson’s opinions on multiple fronts.

If you are a big Joe Biden fan, you will not like it as Carlson refers to JB as “incapacitated” and “non compos mentis.” In addition metaphorically Carlson said that if there were a Putin-Biden boxing match, it would be called for medical reasons (a TKO with Putin being the winner)!

Carlson refers to Moscow as a surprisingly clean and safe city. In fact he comments that the city Moscow is what many American cities used to be like … but are no more because of crime, filth, and graffiti.

In terms of Ukraine Carlson thought that Putin would be amenable to compromise while the plutocracy in the US is clinging to non-achievable and non-realistic goals.

I did not feel that Carlson was fed softball questions by the moderator and in fact the moderator was on Carlson’s case for not asking Putin about certain things.

In conclusion I think that watching this was 52 minutes and 58 seconds well spent. (FYI: For those of you who attend public school in California 

26:29 x 2 = 52:58)!

2/14/24

This morning while driving the grandkids to school, I was reminded of skiing … snow skiing and the inevitable moguls, which are bumps or mounds of hard snow on a ski slope. Because I was never an exceptional skier, i would often ski around or between the moguls. Why was I reminded of skiing? … because of the potholes. I had thought when I left Chicago many years ago that I had left potholes behind. However last week while making a left turn at a reasonable speed … BOOM … a large pothole which caused my teeth to chatter!  Granted we have had much more rain than usual, but is this the sole cause of these now numerous potholes? I checked back for the rainfall totals for last forty-four plus years that I have lived in San Diego, and 2023 is not in the top five as far as total rainfall. 1980, 1984, 1993, 1995, 2010, & 2016 have had more rainfall than 2023. So why all of the potholes? Potholes which now requires drivers to pay extra-close attention to the street surface ahead in order to avoid the potholes – just like avoiding the moguls while skiing.

Could it be possible that there is actually another factor that could be accounting this pothole epidemic? Because here in San Diego we typically have a lot of sunshine, we now have a lot of rooftop solar panels, which have made it much easier to own an Electric Vehicle, and merely charge it at home.

As some of us are aware, the batteries for EVs weigh substantially more than the batteries of gas-powered vehicles. 

An EV battery for a sedan weighs 1,000 pounds, and if there are a lot of EVs on our local roads, to me it is likely that this multitude of EVs are wreaking havoc with our local roads.

Meanwhile, statewide there is a lot of posturing concerning the fact that the drivers of EVs are not paying any gasoline taxes. Here in California, the drivers of gas-powered vehicles in California pay 77.9 cents per gallon in tax. This gasoline tax is what is used to maintain highways, and at present those who drive EVs are basically mooching off the rest of us. Imagine what’s going to happen in the future if all trucks are forced to be electric, as a heavy-duty electric truck batteries can weigh up to 16,000 pounds, which is 16 times more than the Tesla battery.

One can only imagine how bad the damage to one’s car will be after going over a mogul, err a pothole, on a highway at 60 mph!

2/13/24