Author: Californiacontrarian

It’s almost like the FDA has suddenly had whiplash when it comes to my old friend, Ivermectin.  Perhaps it would be better said that the FDA is now doing its best to play CYA! As detailed in both the Epoch Times and Coffee and Covid, last week the attorney for the FDA came out with an amazing statement that “FDA explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID.” 

Hmmm!

The shocking statement arose during a hearing in a lawsuit against the FDA brought by Drs. Mary Talley Bowden, Paul Marik, and Robert Apter. The doctors allege that the FDA interfered with their free speech rights and their medical ability to prescribe ivermectin for covid treatment. “We’re suing the FDA for lying to the public about ivermectin,” explained Dr. Bowden.

Under U.S. law, the FDA “may not interfere with the authority of a health care provider to prescribe or administer any legally marked device to a patient for any condition or disease within a legitimate health care practitioner-patient relationship.”

But in various statements, the FDA repeatedly told Americans that ivermectin “isn’t authorized or approved to treat COVID-19,” and on its website’s Q&A, warned against such use: “Q: Should I take ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19? A: No.”

Who can forget this nonsensical FDA tweet?

As those of you who view my pieces regularly are well aware, I have been very pro-Ivermectin from the very beginning. I have written multiple blogs detailing the success of Ivermectin in other countries. To me not using Ivermectin made little sense, as its side-effect profile is negligible. At one point I asked multiple liberal and RINO friends if they would take Ivermectin if it were available … unanimously, they said, “No!”  … They probably all knew that they were not horses or cows!

At this point one might say … “for all intents and purposes Covid is over, so who cares?” 

I CARE!! And America should care for a multitude of reasons:

First – Here big government imposed its will on Americans, many of whom did not know better. Back then the FDA was obviously following directions from somebody. But who and more importantly, “Why?”

Second – Who’s to say how many lives may have been saved if the FDA had just kept its mouth shut? Maybe one … maybe ten … maybe hundreds … or conceivably thousands or even way more!

Third – Now that the FDA has changed its tune about Ivermectin, how many physicians who were punished by liberal medical boards will have redress? Hopefully, those on various medical boards will now be punished for their unconstitutional “we know best” dictums.

Fourth – Perhaps most importantly, when a similar thing happens again … and it will happen again! … will the physician-patient relationship prevail, or will we again be subjected to some sort of FDA whiplash?

8/14/23

On Sundays I write about individuals who demonstrate fortitude, sometimes against seemingly overwhelming odds, and Meryl Hass M.D. is such an individual.

As background, I am going to assume that most of you have some familiarity with Ivermectin,as I have written many informative blogs about Ivermectin in the past.

Also as background:

On February 7, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security issued its own dire warning about the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and a neologism: malinformation.

Shortly thereafter, the Maine Medical Board suspended the licenses of three doctors for writing waivers for COVID vaccines, spreading misinformation, and/or prescribing ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. (All of which are legal activities for doctors.) 

One of the suspended doctors was Meryl Hass.

She was surprised to find that on the day her license was suspended, there was massive national publicity about her case. The story was on the AP wire, covered by the San Francisco Chronicle to the Miami Herald.

She gathered that her situation was bigger than just a renegade Maine Medical Board: She thought that she had been selected to serve as an example to physicians nationwide who might be prescribing early treatment for COVID.

She is 70 years old, and her medical practice was set up as a service so that everyone could access COVID drugs who wanted them. Her fee was $60 per patient for all the COVID care they needed.

She is sure the board had calculated that, given all the above, she would not challenge the suspension and would simply surrender her license, since it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight the board’s actions in court. 

However, as Meryl Hass has the  fortitude and the spirit that many of us only dream of, she decided to fight back. Fortunately, Children’s Health Defense is helping with her legal expenses, which is what allows her to mount a strong defense against the bulldozing of free speech, patient autonomy and choice, and the doctor–patient relationship. There is a lot riding on the outcome.

BTW: Meryl Hass could be my doctor anytime, as she will stick up for her patients when they need her.

8/13/23

Perhaps the following conversation was overheard in a surgical waiting room.

“Since we think that the cancer is gone, the probability of a cure is high. As you are obviously aware the last few weeks have been horrible … pain, suffering, lassitude, apathy, listlessness – all of which can be traced back to the cancer. Of course, there is always the possibility that even though the primary cancer is now gone, there could be some residual metastasis. If that were to be the case, then down the road the cancer will slowly but gradually reappear. If this were to happen then the situation could be just as bad as it recently was.”

Whereas, I initially thought that this was coming from a cancer surgeon, I soon realized that it was not. The referred to “cancer” was Megan Rapinoe who started disrespecting the U.S. flag years ago. The cancer spread and soon most of the U.S. Women’s National team were imitating Rapinoe. One would have thought that the recent uninspiring performance of the Women’s National team would have been a tip that something was seriously wrong. But the increasing symptoms of discord were ignored until it was observed that many on the team were not singing the National Anthem before their first 2023 World Cup match. Was this because the cancer was infiltrating the body of the team? This disrespect was recognized by some of the commentators who predicted that the once vaunted U.S. Women’s team was in for a rude awakening. A rude awakening, indeed, as the once esteemed Women’s National team did not make it to the final sixteen in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

Many of us recognized what was happening … the cancer was slowly spreading amongst the team. I felt sorry for some of the younger players on the U.S. team, but this is what cancer does!

Hopefully, now that the cancer is retiring, the U.S Women’s National team will regain its patriotic health. Hopefully, in the near future they will enthusiastically sing the National Anthem in unison, and restore the pride that the fans once had in them.

8/12/23

As many of you are aware, I have never been a fan of LeBron James. His far left political views are about as far from my political feelings as one can get. Furthermore, when he comes with some reactionary statement that subsequently proves to be flat out wrong, he never apologizes … as was the case last year after a shooting in Ohio. 

Although he is admittedly a very good basketball player, I never have thought much of him as a person … until I read something on 7/30 which made me think that should take another look at LeBron James, the person.

Unbeknown to me LeBron James established the “I Promise School” in 2018 to help educate “at-risk” students. 

From BlazeMedia:

The ‘I Promise School’ proclaims, “With education as the driving force of change, the LeBron James Family Foundation is not only spreading that impact and improving lives of inner-city students and families, but also shifting the course of an entire community. Focusing on his hometown of Akron, the Foundation’s I PROMISE program provides year-round resources, access to opportunities, supportive skill development, constant encouragement and other wraparound supports to more than 1,300 Akron Public School students who have all been guaranteed college scholarships if they do their part.” (Underlining is mine.) “These efforts have culminated in the groundbreaking new public school – the I Promise School – that is taking an innovative approach to providing a challenging, supportive, and life-changing education, creating a new model for urban public education.”

Wow! Guaranteeing college scholarships for 1300 local students is indeed very impressive. Hats off to LeBron! … However, some bad news 

LeBron’s I Promise School – which teaches children from 1st to 8th grade – has recently been outed for poor performance in mathematics.

The Akron Beacon Journal reported this week: “This fall’s class of eighth graders at the I Promise School hasn’t had a single student pass the state’s basic math test since the group was in the third grade.”

The Akron Beacon Journal added, “The state has also issued its first concern about the school: two of I Promise’s biggest subgroups of students, black students and those with disabilities, are now testing in the bottom 5% in the state, landing the school on the Ohio Department of Education’s list of those requiring targeted intervention.”

Read back to the above ‘I Promise School’ proclamation … “ guaranteed college scholarships, if they do their part.”

To me, as a result of the extremely poor test results, it seems pretty obvious that somebody is not doing their part … and I doubt that it’s the students.

8/11/23

When one appoints someone to a position for which he/she has no qualifications, then it should be no surprise that chaos is likely to ensue. 

Such is the case with the person that Joe Biden appointed to be  the Health Secretary, Xavier Becerra. Where did Becerra receive his medical degree?  Err … he has no medical degree! Perhaps, rather, a Masters in Public Health ? Err … no! Any medical qualifications? Not really. 

Let’s be clear, Xavier Becerra is a lawyer. He has no medical experience or medical qualifications. Here I am not even referring  to marginal qualifications. He has zero, zip, nada qualifications for this office!

The United States secretary of health and human services the head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United Stateson all health matters.

But let’s not be too harsh on poor unqualified Xavier Becerra. What knucklehead would appoint such an unqualified person to such an office, especially with Covid being a major problem? Three guesses …Joe Biden!

Could it be that Becerra’s  obvious political appointment to such a post in the Cabinet was the reason the President Biden made such poor choices concerning Covid vaccinations and mandates?

Here just recently we have another example why a lawyer should not pretend that he has medical qualifications or knowledge. President Joe Biden’s administration concedes that there is no scientific evidence to support an apparent recommendation to receive as many as six COVID-19 booster shots in a year.

After Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Biden appointee, wrote in a social media post on Nov. 29, 2022, that people should get vaccinated “if it’s been over 2 months since your last dose,” the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents supporting the statements.

In a new response, the government said it had no evidence to support Mr. Becerra’s recommendation. Zero. Zip. Nada! None!

8/10/23

Is the recent podcast Dr. Paul Offit, a key FDA vaccine committee member was asked about myocarditis and the jabs. In response Dr. Offit made this startling admission, “There certainly is a causal link between vaccination and myocarditis and pericarditis. No doubt about it. The um … It’s unclear why. It may be, as was actually noticed in 2020, the SAR-Cov-2 virus, the spike protein, mimics one of the proteins on heart muscle cells, specifically the heavy chain of uh, uh, uh . So, If that’s true, while you’re making a  immune response to the spike protein, you’re also inadvertently making an immune response to your own heart muscle.”

Is the incidence of this myocarditis/pericarditis known or unknown? How many individuals are walking around with sub-clinical myocarditis/pericarditis? Do “they” know the actual incidence, and are just refusing to tell us? If so, Why? Similarly, to me there is a likelihood that myocarditis/pericarditis was the underlying cause of the ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrests in both Damar Hamlin and Bronny James. Why do “they” just not tell us what they think is the cause of what happened to both of these superb athletes? Furthermore, why did neither of them receive a defibrillator?

Are there other reasons why someone with sudden ventricular fibrillation

does not receive a defibrillator? Yes, and I will list them as follows:

Terminal or metastatic cancer

Other terminal diseases

Patient says, ‘no’

Alzheimer’s or other dementias

Very old or infirm

Severe electrolyte imbalance 

An acute myocardial infarction due to a blocked coronary artery

Severe respiratory failure

Which of the above is the case with either Damar Hamlin or Bronny James? None! Neither of them have had a defibrillator placed to insure that they would not die suddenly if their v. fib were to recur. 

If any of the above were true, then “they” would not have to resort to implicating commotio cordis in Hamlin’s case. As some of you are aware in Hamlin’s case, commodio cordis is practically impossible to prove unless there was an obvious direct hard blow to the chest, and nothing like that occurred. Likewise there has been no mention of commodio cordis even being fantasized with Bronny James.

So why are “they” continuing to keep us in the dark? Is the cause in either of them known or unknown? Hmmm! 

As we have all heard many times before … “the cover-up is often worse than the crime.” Does this apply here?

If the vaccine is the cause of a cardiac arrest because of vaccine induced myocarditis, what is the natural history of the new form of heart disease? The simple answer is … nobody knows!

In this regard Science Direct published a troubling study this week, featuring thirteen authors including the Chair of the University of Rome’s Pediatrics Department, titled “Relapsing myocarditis following initial recovery of post COVID-19 vaccination in two adolescent males – Case reports.” 

To summarize this article …two teenage boys, ages 15 & 16, had well documented myocarditis within days after receiving the Pfizer Covid vaccine. Months later after the symptoms had resolved, the cardiac blood tests and echocardiograms were stable. However in each individual both the echo-gram and the blood tests were again abnormal many months later.

From C&C:

Here’s what the researchers said about the young mens’ baffling prospects:

Long term outcome of myocarditis and pericarditis after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination is still a matter of debate since the recent onset of this condition and the need of a longer follow-up… The pathogenesis of COVID-19 mRNA-vaccination-related myocarditis still remains poorly understood… Given the short follow-up time and the recent history of the disease, it is still not known whether patients with a prior history of myocarditis after mRNA based COVID-19 vaccine are at increased risk of recurrent myocarditis… More efforts are needed to depict the underlying mechanisms beyond this phenomenon and to understand the risk of complications such as recurrence, potential evolution to dilated cardiomyopathy, and arrhythmias in the future.

While two well documented case reports do not indicate a trend, they do raise flags of suspicion. The nice thing about this article from Science Direct is that it is well documented and honest, which is more than I can say about any info on Damar Hamlin or Bronny James.

8/9/23

Last month I wrote about the apparent disconnect between what “those who know best” are “selling,” and what the rest of us are wanting to “buy.”

In that piece I concentrated on Germany, and today I would like to focus more specially on the U.S. … “What are the present feelings of Americans concerning Climate Change & EVs?”

From Watts Up With That?:

The Verge reports of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to announce tough new emission standards to force the phase out gasoline-powered cars while boosting the sale of electric vehicles to fulfil the Biden Administration’s climate policy goals. “Up to two thirds” of cars sold are mandated to be EV by 2032. Despite the relentless push for EVs, the working class has little interest. In a recent Gallup poll reported on Wednesday, just 2 percent of non-college respondents say they currently own an electric vehicle and a mere 9 percent say they are “seriously considering” purchasing one. The results are not much better for the population as a whole: just 4 percent own one and 12 percent say they are seriously considering one.

The University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute in collaboration with AP-NORC conducts an annual survey on climate attitudes. This year’s survey finds less, not more, urgency around climate change. The share of those who attribute climate change to humans, as opposed to natural changes in the environment, has fallen from 60 percent in 2018 to 49 percent. And where it matters most, putting one’s money where one’s mouth is, “the share of respondents who would be willing to spend their own money on tackling climate threats has also nosedived” according to the survey results. It would shock today’s privileged luxury believers that just 38 percent of Americans would support a carbon fee of just $1 on their energy bills each month. And that is 14 percentage points less than when they were asked the same question two years ago.

My question is whether or not “those who know best” will ever start paying attention to what the common man thinks and wants? If “those who know best” were a business, they would be forced to listen and pay attention … however, the ears of politicians seemingly only hear what they want to hear! 

californiacontrarian

8/8/23

As many of you are aware, I think that the 2020 presidential election was about as close to thievery as one can get. … no, that’s inaccurate. It was blatant thievery! Both Democrats and Republicans have told me that I am wrong, and I am sure that if Mike Pence knew me, he would also tell me that I am mistaken.

So what’s the big deal?

Well, the big deal is that the USA is still a free country. Thus, I am free to think whatever I wish. If I want, I can cite major irregularities in multiple states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Keep in mind that this is my opinion, and it is my right to think what I want to think. Even if I am wrong, it is still my First Amendment right to be wrong.

As many of you are aware, USA Today is a liberal newspaper, and Jonathan Turley is also basically a liberal attorney. However, that notwithstanding on 8/2/23 Jonathan Turley wrote an op-Ed in USA Today

in which he says, 

“If you take a red pen to protected free speech in this indictment, it would be reduced to a virtual haiku. Moreover, if you concede that Trump may have believed that the election was stolen, the complaint collapses.”

What if Trump lied? Apparently, no importa, as in the 2012 United States v. Alvarez decision, the Supreme Court held 6-3 that it is unconstitutional to criminalize lies in a case involving a politician who lied about military decorations. The court warned such criminalization “would give government a broad censorial power unprecedented in this Court’s cases or in our constitutional tradition. The mere potential for the exercise of that power casts a chill, a chill the First Amendment cannot permit if free speech, thought, and discourse are to remain a foundation of our freedom.”

And, this my friends, “Is a big deal!”

[FYI, A haiku is a major form of Japanese verse, written in 17 syllables divided into 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, and employing highly evocative allusions and comparisons, often on the subject of nature or one of the seasons.]

8/7/23

I assume that most readers are familiar with my Sunday pattern of writing about individuals that deserve our praise and respect. Ashleigh Taylor is such an individual.

On July 1, Sergeant Ashleigh Taylor of the Candler County Sheriff’s Department was called to respond to a vehicle crash on Highway 46. Sgt. Taylor arrived at the scene to find that the vehicle had driven off the road, into the woods and was on fire.

Georgia police have released dramatic body camera footage of a woman being rescued from a burning car. Due to the quick actions of the sergeant, a life was potentially saved.

After approaching the vehicle and shouting to get the attention of the driver, Sgt. Taylor smashed a front window with his baton and managed to haul the driver from her seat as flames grew along the underside of the car. In the meantime, a number of passing motorists, seeing the commotion, stopped by the side of the road to assist.

“Due to Sergeant Taylor’s swift actions, the driver was removed from a dangerous situation before it escalated,” Candler County Sheriff’s Office wrote on Instagram, sharing the footage. “Sheriff John Miles would like to commend Sergeant Ashleigh Taylor for a job well done.”

BTW:: The video from Sergeant Taylor’s body cam is quite impressive, and is available on YouTube.

8/6/23

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist …”

This quote is from a National  Pulse interview of Steven Sund  by Tucker Carlson. The “Tucker Carlson Tonight” interview, is being released by the National Pulse piecemeal, 

From BlazeNews:

Sund, a police officer for over 30 years, had been head of the U.S. Capitol Police from 2019 through the protests, but resigned Jan. 7 amid claims by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and others that “there was a failure of leadership at the top.”

Steven Sund, the former Capitol Police Chief, told Tucker Carlson in a controversial interview that “everything appears to be a cover-up” as it pertains to the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the U.S. Capitol.

“Everything appears to be a cover-up,” continued Sund. “Like I said, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but when you look at the information and intelligence they had, the military had, it’s all watered down. … I’m not getting intelligence, I’m denied any support from National Guard in advance. I’m denied National Guard while we’re under attack for 71 minutes.”

Sund continued, “Could there possibly be actually … they kind of wanted something to happen? It’s not a far stretch to begin to think that. You know, it’s sad when you start putting everything together and thinking about the way this played out. … What was their end goal? You look at what’s happening. Was that their end goal?”

Raheem Kassam, editor in chief of the National Pulse, noted on Twitter that the Sund interview is “absolutely extraordinary” and emphasized that “none of us are suicidal, for the record.”

Was Jan 6 a conspiracy or is this National Pulse video a conspiracy about a non-conspiracy?

8/5/23

californiacontrarian