Author: Californiacontrarian

On 8/30 I blogged about Tucker Carlson’s interview of Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary. Today I am going to focus on Orbán’s view of the war in Ukraine. To briefly summarize, Orbán said that Ukraine is going to eventually lose, because of what he termed Ukraine’s eventual manpower shortage.

From californiacontrarian, 8/30:

“He stated very forcibly that there is no chance that Ukraine can ever win, because of “manpower” … meaning that Russia has an inexhaustible supply of manpower, whereas Ukraine doesn’t, and eventually, ultimately wars are won because of boots on the ground. He also politely commented in one word about the prospect of taking back Crimea from the Russians … ‘dumb!’”

 Whereas I have never before quoted myself, I felt that it was apropos because of what I just read from the UK Telegraph:

“Ukraine’s army is running out of men to recruit, and time to win.” 

The sub-headline even more controversially suggested, “Victory may be in sight for Vladimir Putin.”

Note that while Viktor Orbán is conservative, the UK Guardian is not, and yet the two conclusions are in unison.

Continuing from the Guardian:

“It’s a brutal but simple calculation: Kyiv is running out of men. US sources have calculated that  armed forces have lost as many as 70,000 killed in action, with another 100,000 injured. While Russian casualties are higher still, the ratio nevertheless favours Moscow, as Ukraine struggles to replace soldiers in the face of a seemingly endless supply of  conscripts.

Volunteers are no longer coming forward in numbers sufficient to keep the army at fighting strength: those most willing to fight signed up years ago. The latest recruitment slogan is “it’s OK to be afraid,” but there are still many attempting to dodge being drafted to fight on the front lines.”

Does it now seem that all are in unison? The logical consensus seems to be that Ukraine has no reasonable chance of success. While this is obviously bad for Ukraine, could this be good for the rest of the world? 

To me, … “yes.” Russia eventually winning decreases the chance for WWIII as well as the possibility of a nuclear war, since either of these two disasters would only come about if Russia’s back was forced against the wall.

Perhaps we should all shout in unison, “Peace talks now to forestall the inevitable.”

9/2/23

californiacontrarian

How many of you are familiar with “V-safe?”

I am not seeing many raised hands, but am not surprised as I did not know what “V-safe” was either. For the many of us who happen not to be tech savvy,do not worry because “V-safe” is no longer with us.

Let me ‘splain. 

From the  BROWNSTONE Institute:

“V-safe was a CDC Covid vaccine safety collection data base that collected personal information, lot numbers, dates and associated information as well as adverse reactions to the vaccine. V-safe was an active collection system geared towards a younger app-using demographic. 

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) V-safe website quietly stopped collecting adverse event reports with no reason or explanation. The V-safe website simply states: ‘Thank you for your participation. Data collection for COVID-19 vaccines concluded on June 30, 2023.’”

To me this seems very strange. If the CDC really wanted to collect long term data on vaccine side effects, then why abruptly stop collecting data? I am not a lawyer, but am familiar with a trial lawyer’s courtroom dictum that says, “Do not ask a question unless you already know the answer.” Was this what was happening to the CDC … were they asking questions that they did not know the answers to? Could it be that when they did not like the answers that they were getting, the CDC just decided to stop asking.

Again from the BROWNSTONE Institute:

“Today V-safe directs users to the FDA’s VAERS website for adverse event reporting, even though officials continually derided VAERS as “passive” and “unverified.” 

Existing data from the V-safe site showed around 6.5 million adverse events/health impacts out of 10.1 million users, with around 2 million of those people unable to conduct normal activities of daily living or needing medical care, according to a third-party rendering of its findings. In other words, despite mRNA shots still being widely available and the CDC promoting its continued use, it’s “case closed” with regards to collecting new safety reports, under today’s federal public health administration.”

V-safe was young and apparently healthy … and suddenly without any pre-existing illness, V-safe suddenly died! Does this eerily sound like what seems to be happening to some young and apparently healthy athletes … Hmmm!

9/1/23

Recently I thought about the 1957 movie, Witness for the Prosecution, which won multiple Academy Awards, and had great trick ending. Without spoiling it for anybody, the “witness for the prosecution” was, in reality, a “witness for the defense.”

I was reminded of this movie when I read what Alan Dershowitz had to say about the latest Georgia case against Trump. As perhaps you know, Alan Dershowitz is a Democrat and is on record as having voted for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In addition back in the controversial 2020 Bush-Gore, he partnered with Gore to try to get enough votes in Florida to swing the state and thus the electoral count to Gore.

Thus importantly he has inside knowledge of what occurred back then and how it is eerily similar to what they are accusing Trump of.

The fallowing is a headline from the DailyMail

ALAN DERSHOWITZ: Al Gore, his legal team and I tried to find uncounted presidential votes, lobbied officials and fought in the courts in 2000. The only difference now? The candidate’s name is Donald Trump… That’s why this prosecution is an outrage.

Dershowitz said,

“I was convinced then and I am convinced now that this result was wrong.

No one was indicted, disbarred, disciplined or even much criticized for those efforts, yet here we stand today.

President Donald Trump and 18 other defendants has been charged with election fraud, conspiracy, racketeering and more, under a law designed to take down criminal organizations, known as the RICO Act.

Should Al Gore have been charged in 2000?

What about me?

Dershowitz continued,

“During the course of our challenges, many tactics similar to those employed in 2020 were attempted. Lawyers wrote legal memoranda outlining possible courses of conduct, including proposing a slate of alternate electors, who would deliver our preferred election results to Congress.

“In 2000, Florida state officials were lobbied to secure recounts in selected counties in which we thought the tally would favor us. We were trying to find at least 600 votes that would change the result.

“This new indictment features Trump’s phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, which was captured in an audio recording. In the conversation, Trump asks Raffensperger to ‘find’ 12,000 votes.

In my mind, this call is among the most exculpatory pieces of evidence. “Trump was entitled as a candidate to ask a Georgia state official to locate votes that he believes were not counted. In 2000, attempts were made to influence various Florida officials to recount the votes. But if similar behavior was legal in 2000, how could it be illegal in 2023?

The only difference now? The candidate’s name is Donald Trump… That’s why this prosecution is an outrage.”

Since Dershowitz is a lifelong Democrat, perhaps he could be “a witness for the prosecution!”

8/30/23

If you have the time I would strongly suggest that you watch Tucker Carlson’s interview of the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, on X,

previously known as Twitter. The interview lasts for 30:26, and at no point could I force myself to break away or to even pause it momentarily for fear that I would miss something. Multiple topics were covered and Orbán did not shy away from any of Carlson’s questions.

When asked what he would do with the situation in Ukraine, which shares a border with Hungary, Orbán immediately responded, “make peace.” He stated very forcibly that there is no chance that Ukraine can ever win, because of “manpower” … meaning that Russia has an inexhaustible supply of manpower, whereas Ukraine doesn’t, and eventually, ultimately wars are won because of boots on the ground. He also politely commented in one word about the prospect of taking back Crimea from the Russians … “dumb!”

He maintained that the prospect of a peaceful solution is entirely in the hands of the U.S President, and that perhaps the only way for this to happen is to “call back Trump.” He further commented that although Trump is not perfect, that “facts count,” further explaining that Trump’s foreign policy results were outstanding.

In another unrelated topic, Orbán talked about the difference between liberals and conservatives. (As an aside, this was the clearest most concise explanation of this difference.) … Conservatives are about “we,” whereas liberal are focused on “me.” The “we” consists of family, nation, and God. The “me” is all about ego.

When asked about using “legal” means to thwart your political opponent, Orbán was again very forthcoming when he said that this was “communist methodology.” He further commented that whereas disagreement with your political opponent is to be expected, using legal means to defeat your opponent will negate any future chance to unify any nation.

After listening to this interview, I now fully understand why the Biden administration used big time U.S tax dollars to attempt to defeat Viktor Orbán in Hungary’s last election.

8/30/23

www.californiacontrarian.com

As this Blast from 12/1/21 intertwines with my blog from this morning, I thought it would be apropos to re-publish it again today.)

For anybody who has been reading my pieces for a while, in general what I am going to say is already banal and hackneyed. Although there are variations on the theme, again and again Democratic politicians continue to advocate for things which inevitably will hurt the little guy. 

From Day real Insider:

“Biden’s transportation secretary said those who buy them will ‘never have to worry about gas prices again’ (The Hill), says Pete Buttigieg, representing the supposed party of the working class. In an MSNBC interview on 11/29/21, the occasional Secretary of Transportation told Americans that relief from high fuel prices were on the way — not by lowering fuel prices through more robust American production, however. Instead, Buttigieg asked everyone to get giddy in anticipation of buying hugely expensive electric vehicles and, um … not ask any questions about how much it will cost to charge them (Hot Air). From Dan Crenshaw: Imagine being so out of touch that you think spending tens of thousands more on an electric car is easy for most people. 78% of EV subsidies go to those making six figures. And the rest of us still worry about gas prices, because gas affects the cost of literally everything.”

As I have queried again and again in the past … “Are these Democratic politicians clueless or are they intentionally trying to hurt those on the lower end of the economic spectrum?” Granted I could elaborate on many of their other cockamamie ideas (shutting down pipelines, defunding the police, economic lockdowns, etc.) that have the most devastating effect on the less fortunate, but for now, let’s just concentrate on electric vehicles (EVs).

Besides the cost of EVs, there are other significant costs associated with EVs. While solar panels may provide the necessary power for EVs in the sunnier regions of the country, these solar panels are not cheap, and guess who cannot afford these solar panels? Furthermore, it is my understanding that the residential infrastructure cannot bear the load of innumerable EVs, as a home charging system for a Tesla requires 75 amp service. The average house is equipped with 100 amp service. On a small street (approximately 25 homes), the electrical infrastructure would be unable to carry more than three houses with a single Tesla each. For even half the homes to have electric vehicles, the system would be wildly over-loaded. Granted if one is more affluent and lives on lots that are not closely spaced together, perhaps pockets of homes with EVs are possible, but does Pete Buttigieg not know that in cities homes are one on top of the other? … or perhaps, he does know but just doesn’t care. After all it should be apparent that in cities and/or in the less sunny areas of the country that EVs just will not work, especially not for the common man. So I say again and again, “Are Buttigieg and his cronies merely clueless, or are they intending to purposely harm the little guy?

12/1/21

As I have written about on innumerable occasions in the past, the Democrats seem to do things which inevitably hit the poor the hardest. Our current Biden caused inflation is just the most recent example of “save the world … the poor be damned!”

From Townhall:

“Duke Energy, a company that enjoys what is a near-monopoly on energy in North Carolina, is the target of a new campaign from Consumers’ Research for its pursuit of woke ESG — environmental, social and governance — policies that have come at the expense of the company’s customers in the form of higher energy costs amid already rampant inflation.

You see, while pursuing “net-zero” emissions goals, Duke Energy has moved away from reliable and affordable sources of energy to more costly and less-reliable wind and solar sources, leading the company to repeatedly — and predictably — raise rates for customers while warning them of more cost increases on the horizon.

Rather than pursuing cheaper forms of energy to help ease costs that already soared as a result of President Joe Biden and the Democrats’ work to kill off American energy independence, Duke Energy is apparently choosing ESG over its customers. Meanwhile, as something of a warped reward for executives, making energy more expensive for customers means Duke Energy’s leadership is taking home more money.”

Now who do you think are going to suffer the most when their utility bills go up and up? But the far left executives of Duke Energy just continue to go further to the left.

Keep in mind that this ESG propaganda is just the beginning.

Again from Townhall:

“While making customers pay more for less-reliable energy, ‘Duke brags openly about setting racial and gender quotas for their workforce’ to ‘increase diversity across all workforce segments’ by seeking to hire individuals based on their gender and skin color.”

Instead of hiring based on qualifications, hire based on  diversity! How will  that work out? All this will do is further increase the costs to the consumers … and which consumers will be hurt the most? … Guess!

8/29/

I have written multiple times about the causes of the sudden death episodes of Bronny James, Damar Hamlin, and other young athletes. It turns out that I am not the only one who has noticed this increase of SADS (“Sudden Adult Death Syndrome”), a term which recently emerged in June 2022 to label the disturbing trend of seemingly causeless deaths in the young. In other words, SADS is an ‘umbrella term to describe unexpected deaths in young people’ It is a phrase intended to sound like an explanation whilst signifying nothing but unexplained death.

From LifeSiteNews:

“According to the statistics published by the American Society of Actuaries, “15 to 34-year-olds saw a staggering 21.4% increase in excess deaths in 2021.”

Yet this is not the only age group to see a significant rise in the death rate. The same report shows “deaths among 35 to 44-year-olds, between October and December 2022, surged an alarming 34% above the expected 2015 to 2019 baseline.”

This risk has not been confined to U.S. citizens, as the work of Dr. John Campbell (England) and other investigative journalists has shown. John Campbell has twice noted this rise before, which coincides with the introduction of the mRNA “vaccines.” His  presentations in October 2022 and January 2023examine this purportedly causeless spike in mortality.

In Europe an Exposé article, cited an investigation in the previous month, which showed an increase in child mortality of almost 700 percent:

‘On the 29th of August 2022, we exclusively revealed that official mortality figures for Europe showed a shocking 691% increase in excess deaths among children up to week 33 of 2022 since the European Medicines Agency extended the emergency use authorization of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for use in children aged 12 to 15 in May 2021’

Despite these statistics, drawn from the EU’s own mortality monitor, the parliament of the European Union flatly denied that there could be any link between the so-called ‘vaccines’ and this otherwise inexplicable trend in child deaths.”

To me the EU parliament sounds remarkably like the FDA or the CDC!

The closing line of the LifeSiteNews piece:

“It is a hallmark of government and corporate policy that it steadfastly ignores the obvious explanation for anything. Yet this is not only a matter of political insincerity, or the maddening refusal to acknowledge the elephant in the room. It is a matter of life and death.”

To me, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck   … 

IT IS A DUCK!

8/28/23

As is my usual modus operandi on Sundays I write about individuals who are heroes. With the recent tragic Lahaina, Maui fire, I am sure that there were many truly heroic individuals. Here are just two examples.

Jubee Bedoya lived in Lahaina. I say ‘lived’ because he lost everything in that tragic Maui fire. Jubee had made it to the beach where he ran into a vacationing family of seven from Fresno. However, the high wind was pushing the fire toward them, and it became apparent that they would not survive there. Jubee Bedoya urged the family to follow him into the water where they were all able to latch onto a drifting piece of plywood which then became a makeshift life raft for the group. They all clung to the plywood, with the family’s two-year-old son tightly holding Jubee’s neck. “It was crazy,” Bedoya told a reporter. For more than two hours they floated in the sea with the fire raging, until a Coast Guard rescue boat was finally able to reach them.

Like most residents of Lahaina, Jubee has lost everything, but he was happy to learn that the family had safely reached Fresno. “Give them my love, tell them I am so happy they are safe and have made it home,” he told a family relative.

From Aleteia:

As Benny Reinicke was fleeing from the fire, he encountered two women in trouble. Lani Williams and her mom, Sincerity Mirkovich, had tried to escape the wildfire in their car, but traffic had been gridlocked. Their only recourse was to try and make it to the Pacific Ocean as burning embers fell all around them.

Unfortunately, Lani’s mother had limited mobility and needed a walker. When they finally reached a seawall, it was clear that Sincerity Mirkovich would not be able to make it over the wall to safety. That’s when a stranger (Reinicke) came to their rescue.

“Auntie, put your weight on me. I got you,” he told the elderly woman. Reinicke carried Sincerity Mirkovich over the seawall on his back. He then remained with the mother and daughter in the ocean for more than eight hours until it was safe.

The two women only learned the name of their rescuer when they were reunited with him on Good Morning America.

8/27/23

From BlazeMedia:

A district court ruled against parents of students in the Montgomery County school district who were demanding to be allowed to opt out of schools teaching LGBTQ propaganda.

The parents, who included many of the Muslim faith, were calling for an injunction ahead of August 28, when school is scheduled to begin again. They were originally allowed to opt out their students until the district changed its policy in March.

This case was in Maryland … Tamar Mahmoud vs Monifa McKay. The district judge in this case was Deborah Boardman, who was recently appointed by Joe Biden. An outrageous ruling by a judge appointed by an outrageous President!

Her ruling is being appealed.

Unfortunately, if these parents are forced to send their children into this hedonistic school, is there any option? Yes! … the parents should aim for the school’s pocketbook.

Schools get reimbursed by the number of students that they educate each day. If the number of students attending is less, then the  reimbursement to the school will be less. Ergo, to me there are two options. Either organize different groups of home schools, or just boycott the school by “being sick” and staying home.

If someone were trying to figure out a way to push school choice, it would seem that angering the parents would be a good first step!

8/26/23

From the beginning there was no way I was going to watch Fox News’ Republican debate. It should have been called the “Republican pseudo-debate,” because of the eight people that were going to be on that stage in Milwaukee, only two are actually realistic potential Republican presidential candidates.

I did not watch it, and I did not read about it. Instead the following day I watched the Tucker Carlson”s interview of Donald Trump on X (the new name  for Twitter). I watched the entire 46:12 of that interview. I have not yet seen the ratings for the Fox pseudo-Republican debate, but at last tally the Carlson-Trump interview had about 75 million views coming in just the first 20 minutes. (Update: The 46-minute conversation amassed about 230 million views so far. According to X, this number includes anyone who who views a post – those who scroll past, watch a little bit, and those who watch the entire interview.)

The Fox News pseudo-debate drew nearly 13 million — plus 1.7 million on the Fox Business simulcast.

Tucker Carlson asked a wide variety of questions, and as usual, Trump stepped up to the plate and answered them all. As we are all aware, Donald Trump does not hold back. He was critical of Bill Barr, Chris Wallace, and Mike Pence, and to this viewer … rightfully so. Neither did he hold back on Joe Biden …”crooked Joe.” In fact he referred to him as a “Manchurian Candidate.” Mr. Trump thinks, as do I, that somebody else is probably running the government, as JB is neither physically or mentally capable of running a government. 

He stressed that anything that the Democrats want to do as far as the elections is only to make it easier for them to cheat …for example, no voter IDs and mail in ballots. I agree 100%!

Trump’s four indictments came up, and as Tucker Carlson pointed out Trump’s poll numbers are not decreasing.

From I&I:

“If being thrice-indicted for alleged felonies is fatal to one’s political career, you couldn’t tell by former President Donald Trump. He’s still riding a wave of popularity within his party, and continues to maintain a comfortable lead over potential rivals for the Republican Party nomination in 2024, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

In recent months, I&I/TIPP has polled members of both major political parties and independents on their nominee preferences. What is surprising is not only has Trump held on to his lead among likely Republican voters, he has expanded it.

8/25/23