Author: Californiacontrarian

While the purchase price of EVs is prohibitive for the vast majority of Americans (see 5/2/23 blog titled “25% vs. 75%”), there are other additional costs that will push owning an EV even further out of the range of the majority of Americans. Granted that once you already own an EV … perhaps it was given to you by a rich uncle, the cost of driving that car is at present less for an EV, especially if you happen to have solar panels on your roof … again given to you by that same rich uncle. However, there is one big time additional cost that is often forgotten about, or more likely just ignored by those who are pushing EVs for all. That other big time expense is the cost of auto insurance, and once you already own an EV, auto insurance is a sine qua non.

In as much as insurance companies are in business to make a profit, the cost of auto insurance on EVs will go up and up. As most are aware these electric batteries are prone to spontaneous combustion. Even though this dreaded happening apparently does not occur that frequently, keep in mind that it is being advised not to park these EVs indoors, because, while a car fire is one thing, a fire that occurs in a garage is quite another kettle of fish, especially if your garage is connected to your house. Assuredly as time goes on and more people own electric cars, the insurance companies will ask where this EV is parked at night. Of course parking your $60K Tesla  on the street overnight is also no muy bueno.

Nonetheless, skipping over the potential of possible spontaneous battery combustion, there’s the issue of the cost of EV insurance for damages due to accidents.

From Just the News:

“The hidden costs of EVs: Ohio man gets $42,000 repair bill after fender bender in electric truck”

Landscaper Chris Apfelstadt of Columbus, Ohio, shared a post in a Facebook group for Rivian fans recounting how while driving his electric truck one day, he was struck from behind at a “relatively low speed.” No airbags inflated, he noted, and purported pictures of the accident show only minor damage to the rear bumper of his pickup. 

“I figured the repair would be expensive but had no idea!” Apfelstadt wrote on Facebook.

Some other potential costs for EVs:

 Battery Replacement:

The cost of replacing an electric car battery is significantly higher than replacing a battery in a gas-powered car. Whereas a battery for a gas car typically wouldn’t exceed a few hundred dollars, EV batteries can range anywhere from $5,000 to $22,000. ConsumerAffairs.com reports that replacement costs for older models like the 2014 Nissan Leaf or the 2014 Tesla Model S are a steep $13,500 and $17,269, respectively.

“Minor damage to an electric vehicle battery pack can lead to the entire car being totaled, leaving the expensive battery packs piling up in the scrapyard and causing higher insurance premiums,” the pro-market Institute for Energy Research warned recently on its website. 

“With no way to repair or assess slightly damaged battery packs after accidents, electric vehicles can lose up to 50 percent of their price, rendering it uneconomical to replace them,” the IER explained.

Charging the car:

Anderson Economic Group found that with gas prices falling from historic highs and electricity prices rising late last year, “the fuel cost for most Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles was comparatively cheaper in the final quarter of 2022 than charging an electric vehicle (EV).”

In Q4 of 2022, according to the Anderson study, the cost to fuel a mid-priced gas vehicle for a 100-mile drive was approximately $11.29, nearly 31 cents cheaper than it cost a similarly sized EV for a 100-mile charge from home, but over $3 less expensive than charging a vehicle at a public station.

Unfortunately, the installation price for an at-home electric vehicle charging station can also burn a hole in the wallet.

“Most American homeowners will spend around $1,150 to $2,750 to purchase and install a 240-volt charging station,” reports MotorTrend, noting a “good home charger” is about $350-$750, while installation can cost upwards of $2,000. 

Certainly insurance companies will not lose money insuring EVs! They will be raising insurance premiums … the only question is ‘how much?’

5/9/23

Until recently I have thought that all of this transgender secrecy nonsense was occurring at schools in some distant places, far far away. However, just today I learned that this B.S. is occurring just up the freeway in Escondido, California.

From Daybreak Insider:

National Review: Teachers from a California middle school sued their school district and the state education board on Thursday over policies that they say require them to hide students’ intentions to change genders from their parents. The federal lawsuit filed by attorneys from the Thomas More Society alleges that administrators at the Escondido Union School District and California State Board of Education violated the First Amendment with a policy that would compel teachers to aid in a student’s transgender “social transition.” The litigation was prompted by Escondido’s implementation of a series of new policies on the treatment of “transgender” or “gender diverse” students (National Review). Fox News: When encountering “a suspicious parent,” teachers were instructed to reply that they were allowed only to discuss “information regarding the student’s behavior as it relates to school, class rules, assignments, etc.,” according to the suit (Fox News).

This is especially scary to me me because it is happening close to where I live. Granted I no longer have any children in school, but what about those in Escondido that do? Escondido is basically a low/middle class town.  I think that it would be safe to say that most parents in Escondido cannot just move their kids to a private school if they are upset about how   they are being treated. They just cannot afford it! In essence, the parents and their children are trapped! 

Furthermore, if these shenanigans are occurring in Escondido, you can be sure that similar clandestine underhanded antics are occurring throughout California. What are the parents to do? The only answer is for them to rise up and demand “school choice.”

Will such an uprising ever occur in California?  Maybe, to use a hackneyed old saying … not until the cows come home! Since California voters, in general are not as smart as cows  … NEVER!

5/8/23

As usual, Sunday is the day that I pay tribute to heroes.

How many of you recognize this name, Dillon Reeves? 

He is a Michigan 7th grader who pulled off the heroic act of stopping a school bus carrying around 66 students after his bus driver lost consciousness at the wheel.

The seventh grader who took control of his school bus after the driver passed out told his parents he knew what to do because he watched the driver do it every day. 

The student was riding the bus home from Carter Middle School in Warren, Michigan, on Wednesday when the bus driver “became lightheaded and lost consciousness,” Superintendent Robert Livernois said in a statement.

Livernois wrote that the “quick-thinking” seventh grader — who was later identified as Dillon Reeves — “saw the driver in distress, stepped to the front of the bus, and helped bring it to a stop without incident.”

At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Livernois said Reeves had the “wherewithal” to know not to slam on the hand break, but to instead slowly press down on it until the bus safely eased to a stop.

In the video, Dillon Reeves stops the bus and is heard telling his fellow students, “Someone call 911, now!” Students can be heard screaming in the background.

His father Steve Reeves added that it probably helped that his son does not have a cell phone, which makes him more observant of his surroundings. 

When the chips were down, Dillon Reeves calmly acted like the hero that he is.

5/7/23

You were partially right if you said that it began with a ‘B,’ and one step closer if you said, ‘B O,’ because the definition of B O G U S is our southern  B O R D E R!

If you talk to a liberal about the border, he/she will tell you that we, as a nation, have a moral responsibility to accommodate the poor from other countries. To that I would partially agree. I would say that those of us who live in one of the more affluent nations in the world do have a moral responsibility to help the poor … the poor in our country as well as the poor in other countries. However, having just a bogus line of demarcation south of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California is fraught with many consequences which liberals never address. Besides the smuggling of Fentanyl which is killing thousands of Americans each year and the unknown number of children who will be sold into sex-slavery, there are also “bad guys” coming across … bad guys intent on doing us harm in the future. Think 9-11!  Few with a functioning brain actually deny any of these consequences of having a bogus border … that is except President BIden and the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, who has incredibly stated that the bogus border is secure!

But there is a more frightening aspect of having a bogus border. Its openness is making the Mexican drug cartels incredibly rich.

From AND, Expert Analysis and Commentary:

The scope of the invasion that is underway is difficult to comprehend. A few years ago the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended roughly half a million illegals annually. Last year, as a direct result of Biden’s policies, the Border Patrol apprehended 2.4 million. We are on track to break that record this year.

Those are just the people who are apprehended. No one has any real idea how many more are never picked up. Since Biden took office the Border Patrol has picked up 4.6 million people.

Those people and all the other countless “got aways” don’t cross the border on their own. They are moved by Mexican drug cartels.

As Todd Bensman,Center for Immigration Studies and author of ‘Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History.’ writes:

“Never have Mexico’s ruthless crime syndicates and their paramilitary forces earned so much money from their control of the crossings and from smuggling. And for the first time in memory, the cartel proceeds from this [human] smuggling event are said to have surpassed those from drug smuggling. And prior to this, they might have made, you know, 500 million (dollars) a year. Now they’re up to as high as $13 billion a year. All that money is going to buy what? Weapons, equipment, and influence in Mexico. Not good for U.S. national security.”

The implications of all this inside Mexico are dramatic enough. We face the very real prospect of having a terrorist state right next door. There is no magic reason, however, why the increasingly wealthy and powerful criminal enterprises in Mexico have to limit their reach to Mexican territory. They already operate across the United States, and inevitably the power they wield inside Mexico will be displayed here.

The DEA’s latest assessment found major Mexican cartels operating in at least 60 American cities. There is literally no corner of the United States where these terrorist organizations are not active.

There is no sign that the Biden administration intends to do anything to reverse any of the trends we are seeing. The cartels are getting bigger, and richer, and extending their reach onto our soil.

The question that we Americans should be asking, “Is the Biden administration doing this intentionally or are they just plain ignoramuses?”  My answer is … BOTH !

5/5/23

I do like to listen to good speakers. In fact many years ago an organization would put on a yearly symposium of about 6-8 speakers for one day. The entrance fee covered the entire day, and you were free to go in and out at any time. I cannot say that I remember every speaker, because I don’t. However, as I recall that one of the best speakers was Lou Holtz, the ex-coach of Norte Dame football coach. His speech was peppered with quotes and was very inspirational. One of the worst speakers at these yearly symposiums was Rudy Giuliani. I cannot remember what he talked about, but on the circular stage he rotated a quarter turn ever twenty seconds, and his constant rhythmic turning drove me crazy! Since Covid sadly the availability of these multiple speakers at a symposium is no more.

I went through this personal history of sorts, because I still have an interest in listening to good speakers. In line with this affinity, I never pass up an opportunity to listen to Senator John Kennedy (R,LA). I just finished listening to a ten minute speech that Sen. Kennedy gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee during a 5/2 hearing on “Supreme Court Ethics Reform.” As usual his speech did not disappoint. It was another jewel.

From Red State:

“Each of the committee members, of course, had their time to give an opening statement before questioning the witnesses. True to form, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) gave a statement that nailed the Democrats’ naked power ploy for exactly what it is:

‘Today’s hearing is an excuse to sling more mud at an institution some Democrats don’t like because they CAN’T CONTROL IT!’

Never one to shy away from the unvarnished truth, Kennedy, in his remarks, got down to the ultimate heart of the matter, observing: ‘The danger isn’t that rogue justices are operating without ethics – it’s that Democrats aren’t winning every fight and they find that reality intolerable.’”

Senator Kennedy also had many other good lines in this speech … for instance:

“My democratic colleagues should fill out a hurt feelings report and move on, for the sake of the Constitution!”

During this speech Senator Kennedy also took multiple well deserved shots at Sen. Chuck Schumer for his grandstanding threats on 3/4/2020 to Justices  Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, while Schumer was standing on the Supreme Court stairs. In addition, tongue-in-cheek, he warned Justice Barrett that she better not have any overdue library books, or else they would be coming after her!

If you are a fan of good speakers, listen to this speech. I guarantee that it will be ten minutes well spent.

5/4/23

I defy anyone to counter what this eighteen year old student at MLK high school in Riverside, California said to the school board at a school board meeting.

First the background from Jeff Childers Coffee and Covid:

In Riverside, California, a large, tall boy at MLK High School who’s been using the ladies bathrooms and locker rooms, beat up two girls, and that was after exposing his man stick and spitting on them.

I don’t know what the standards are these days, but tell me if the video looks like a fair fight to you.

In the video the boy, who looks to be over six feet tall and over 200 lbs is initially seen beating up on a girl who appears to be 8-10 inches shorter and at least fifty lbs lighter. Not surprisingly the shorter lighter girl is getting pushed around and then knocked down by the obviously stronger man.

Another girl comes to help and she gets punched multiple times and taken down by the man-boy.

At the school board meeting the eighteen year old female student lays out the facts and asks the school board a very reasonable question.

“Why are we affirming the mental confusion of this boy and putting the safety of women in jeopardy by allowing mentally confused men to use women’s spaces?”

(https://twitter.com/WomenAreReals/status/1651972223463473152)

I would guess that the school board did not have any reasonable answer to her question, because there is no common sense answer!

5/3/23

I realize that for whatever reason, many are enamored with saving the planet. I surmise that this group is predominantly comprised of those who live in the top 25% of the economic spectrum, whereas most of those in the lower 75% are concerned with more mundane things, such as putting food on the family table, paying the rent, making sure that their kids have decent shoes to wear, etc.

At some point we should force those in the enlightened top 25% to think logically about the future, and formulate a response. We could start with Electric Vehicles. and before the 25% try to shame the other 75% of us because “they are not doing their part to save the planet,” someone should ask the enlightened, “who will be buying these EVs?”

From Front Page magazine:

“Recently The New York Times reported that the Biden administration will abuse EPA regulations to eliminate most real car sales by 2030. The plan is to force 67% of car sales to be electric by 2032. Most Americans won’t be able to afford them.

Even the cheapest electric cars, which are still far more expensive than their real car counterparts and are just one battery problem away from turning into mostly unusable junk, are out of the price range of the majority of Americans who need an income of $80,000 to make an EV auto loan work. That’s fine in Washington D.C. where the median income of $83,567 is the highest in the nation, but this needed level of income will entirely price much of the country out of the new car market”

(FYI: The median income of 47 of the 50 states falls below the amount needed to buy an electric car.)

“53% of Americans earn less than $75,000. Some of the 16% who earn from $50,000 to $75,000 may be able to make an electric vehicle purchase work if they squeeze, cut back on food and clothes for the kids, but the remaining 37% will be completely locked out. And, unable to own a car, they’ll have even bigger monthly payments or, with no transportation, be unable to work.

The new poor will be anyone who can’t afford an electric car. And that’s 53% of Americans.

The Biden administration is fixated on racial equity, but its ban on cars cuts off the vast majority of black people, Latinos and for that matter white people from car ownership. With a median income of $46,400, black people would either have to dedicate a fifth of their pre-tax incomes to car payments or spend most of their annual salary on a car. With a $55,321 median income, Latinos won’t have an easy time of it and even with a $74,932 median income, white people will be left behind. The new equity will mean that hardly anyone will be able to afford to buy a car.”

So basically, as I see it, for the general population, this concept of saving the planet and simultaneously assuaging personal guilt by driving an electric car is just pure fantasy. At some point the general population will need to formulate a response, “Look at the numbers! Stop the E.V.- B.S.!”

5/2/23

The other day I read something that reminded me of The Wizard of Oz.

Although it originally came out in 1939, everybody has some familiarity with this movie. Who can forget the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the cowardly Lion? And likewise who can forget one of the more famous lines from this movie … Dorothy says to her dog at one point, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” It’s a phrase that has come to mean that we have stepped outside of what is considered normal, and certainly in many parts of the U.S.A. we have truly stepped outside of what is considered normal with regard to transgenderism.

Whereas in Dorothy’s mind Kansas was normal, today Kansas became the first state to legislate that normal is indeed normal!

A headline from the Epoch Times on 4/29/23:

“First State Passes Law Defining Gender as a Person’s Biological Sex at Birth”

The piece continues:

Kansas has become the first state to adopt a definition of gender with the passage of legislation that keeps men, no matter what gender they identify as, out of women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, sports, and other intimate spaces.

It also separates inmates and restricts participation in sports by biological sex.

The move came on 4/27/23 when the state legislature voted to override Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of S.B. 180, which became known as the “Women’s Bill of Rights.”

Under it, a female is defined as “an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova.” A male is defined as “an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female.”

It also defines gender words calling for “woman” and “girl” to be used to refer to human females and “man” and “boy” to refer to human males. It  defines “mother” as a parent of the female sex and “father” as a parent of the male sex.

Hallelujah!

How far have we fallen that we need laws to define what should be common sense? This new law in Kansas is the epitome of common sense!

Similar gender-defining bills to the one passed in Kansas are pending in other states, including Oklahoma and Montana.

Soon across the U.S. we may be hearing, “This doesn’t feel like Oklahoma anymore … or Montana anymore,” as normalcy and common sense surface in those places. Hopefully as time marches on, we have more and more Dorothys and fewer Karens, as common sense makes a comeback.

5/1/23

On Sunday I write about someone that deserves our praise and admiration.

The story from Epoch Bright:

Max Woosey was ten years old when 74-year-old Rick Abbott, a friend who enjoyed outdoor activities like kayaking and surfing with his father, passed away from cancer on Valentine’s Day 2020 after being cared for by North Devon Hospice. Abbot gave Max a gift before he passed away.

Rick Abbot gave Max a tent and said, “I want you to have an adventure.”Max said, “I promise you, I will. So I started raising money for North Devon Hospice. … We were in lockdown at the time, self-isolating, so I thought I would try and sleep outside in the tent he gave me, and try to raise money for the hospice that took such good care of him.”

When Max came up with this idea, it was still cold and icy in Devon, so Max’s first challenge was convincing his parents, Rachel and Mark, that camping was a good idea. Finally, after days of nagging, Max got a reluctant “Yes” on March 29, 2020. He headed into the garden with his tent, a Beano album, some soft toys for comfort, and the family labradoodle, Digby.

As days turned into weeks, the weather continued to be Max’s biggest challenge even though he sometimes pitched his tent in different places. He endured snow, wind, rain, slippery mud, and lightning storms.

Owing mainly to the weather, Max has been through 25 tents. He told Daily Mail they “don’t last very well,” with one even having to be erected in the middle of the night.

After exactly three years or 1,099 nights under the stars, Max thought he could call his mission complete on March 29, 2023. His final tally for the hospice was just under 800,000 pounds including Gift Aid, a U.K. initiative whereby the government donates a percentage of funds raised for charity.

Owing to Max’s massive donation, North Devon Hospice was one of the few hospices in the UK that did not have to make big cuts or redundancies during the pandemic. The money allowed them to provide 15 community nurses for an entire year, supporting around 500 terminally-ill patients in their own homes.

The teen still remembers his neighbor, Abbott, the man who set the ball rolling.

“He was absolutely lovely,” Max said. “He was the only 70-year-old I knew that had a climbing wall in his garage, and he was just an amazing person. I think the bond we had was we both liked the outdoors.”

Max Woosey is truly a boy for whom we can only have admiration for his determination and charitable instincts.

4/30/23

As many of you are aware, I have been against just about all of the Covid mandates, issued by “those that know best.” Unfortunately these all knowing individuals were obviously not familiar with “primum non nocere,” as it is turning out that most of their diktats, in fact, have done a lot of harm. Perhaps those that professed to know best were just not familiar with Latin, or more likely, they never thought that they could ever be wrong. 

However in the field of medicine this would certainly never happen. Those involved with medicine would not be hypocrites as surely all health care professionals would be familiar with the Hippocratic Oath.  

Historically, the commitment by health care professionals to ‘first do no harm’ has produced a focus on the absence of interventions that may cause adverse outcomes. This clinical approach links to the Hippocratic Oath which includes the promise “to abstain from doing harm”.

However, my response, going back to some of my Latin roots, “ne qua quam,” as it appears that in September 2021 the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) by no means acted in the best interests of patients.

Back then Michelle Gershman, a nurse at a California hospital, noted that in her experience, and the experience of doctors working with pregnant women, something very unusual was going on with pregnant patients . What she was observing, however, was contrary to official ‘safe and effective’ observation and advice, but no one was free to speak out because of a gagging order imposed in September 2021 by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG).

In fact, Michelle Gershman, who works in the neonatal ward had her bonus withheld because she spoke out about the rise in fetal deaths. “We used to have one fetal demise per month. That rose to one or two per week,” Gershman said.

At the beginning of the Covid vaccine rollout, in December 2020, pregnant women who were health care workers or deemed to be at risk from COVID began receiving the shots. By May 2021, the vaccine was being recommended to all pregnant American women.

“This is despite the fact that none of the vaccine manufacturers had completed reproductive toxicology reports in animals, and none had started clinical trials in pregnant women. Two months later, hospitals noticed a huge increase in miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm births, pregnancy complications, and menstrual abnormalities.”

Specifically, the data revealed a 27-fold higher risk of miscarriage and a more than twofold increased risk of adverse fetal outcomes across six different categories, according to board-certified internist and cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough.

“Primum non nocere?” Instead of adhering to their Hippocratic Oath, the ACOG were acting likehypocrites!

However, this hypocritical behavior was not limited to the U.S.

Birth rates in multiple European countries fell significantly at the end of 2021, months after COVID-19 shots became widely utilized. The data, compiled by a team of European researchers, found declines in birth rates in all the countries they studied. 

To me, the thing that is especially concerning here is not only that women of childbearing age were at very, very low risk from Covid, but also that the ACOG ignored warnings from reputable healthcare workers … Hypocritic Oath?

4/29/23