Author: Californiacontrarian

Last week I wrote about another apparently healthy athlete experiencing sudden death, and I queried whether this was due to Covid vaccine induced myocarditis. One of my RINO friends essentially told me that I was exaggerating the apparent numbers of young athletes experiencing cardiac sudden death.(Paraphrasing him … young athletes are dying all the time. This is nothing new.) 

Today I read something that piqued my interest … not because it involved athletes per se, but because it involved young people. 

From The Epoch Times:

Former BlackRock fund manager Edward Dowd is bringing attention to the surge in deaths and disability that has occurred since the COVID-19 shot campaign rolled out.

Group life policyholders, who are typically healthier than the general population, experienced mortality spikes of 40 percent in 2021

Disability numbers among the workforce reached a high of 33.2 million in September 2022, with numbers still trending up—a highly unusual increase.

Dowd’s book, “Cause Unknown” details data, some of which comes from private insurance companies, which love to sell group life insurance policies to large Fortune 500 corporations and mid-sized companies because they hardly ever have to pay out on a claim.

Workers at these corporations tend to be in good health, with industry data suggesting the group life policyholders have one-third the mortality rate of the general U.S. population. The death rates have historically been highly predictable among this group—until 2021. A report released by the Society of Actuaries found mortality spikes of 40 percent or more that year.

Insurance companies had sizable increases in payouts for death and disability. Dowd tweeted Feb. 1, 2022, that financial insurance company Unum reported a significant increase in their benefit ratio (payouts versus premiums) in their life segment. Dowd tweeted:

“In 2021 they saw a 17.4% increase vs 2020. This is higher than the 13.3% increase vs 2019. So the higher payouts in 21 are occurring with a miracle vaccine & less virulent strains … In 2019 the unit had $266 million profit, last year a profit of $82 million & this year a loss of -$192 million. A swing of $458 million lower over 2 years. Important to remember these are employed working age folks.”

Dowd also looked into the number of disabled people in the United States, using high-frequency data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency uses a monthly telephone survey that asks, “Are you or someone in your home disabled and not able to work?” Prior to COVID-19 shots, Dowd said, there were 29 million to 30 million disabled people on an absolute basis, a rate that remained steady for four or five years.

In February 2021, a trend change occurred, reaching a high of 33.2 million in September 2022, with numbers still trending up. That’s a three standard deviation rate of change since May 2021, which means that the chance of this happening is 0.03 percent—highly unusual.

Dowd explains, “Of the 3.2 million newly disabled Americans, 1.7 were employed but came from the employed population of the country.” This is significant, he says, because: “The employed people of this country are, generally speaking, by the very fact that they wake up in the morning, get in their car and drive to work, healthier than the general U.S. population.

“By the very nature of doing work, you’re healthier. And that’s a fact that’s never been challenged before. The health outcome for the employed has been disastrous. Since February 2021, their disability rate is up 31 percent … the general U.S. population’s disability rate is up 9 percent.”

Dowd and colleagues have been tracking what they call Humanity Projects at their website, Phinance Technologies.

These stats are not just in the U.S.

One trend they’ve found is that the more vaccinated the country, the higher the excess mortality. Denmark, which is one of the most highly vaccinated, stands out.

So, let me summarize something to my RINO friend:

Deaths in young people are up … impressively up, including healthy young people. Athletes are young healthy people, and so, it should not be surprising if their deaths were also up. Yes, athletes have been dying over the ages, but not at this rate. At this point my suspicion is that Covid vaccine induced myocarditis is the predominant underlying cause of this unusual statistical occurrence. Prove me wrong!

3/24/23

I moved to Southern California over forty years ago, and this winter has been the coldest that I can recall since I have lived here. Granted I do not claim to have a perfect memory, but I asked my neighbor who is in his forties what he thought. He agreed with me, and since he was born and raised here, I have to ask, “Is this the new normal?” While I know that daily/weekly variations in temperature are not supposed to have any relationship to Global Warming, I ponder whether or not this is what is what those that know best are referring to as Climate Change. Of course, if getting colder here in SoCal is indicative of the climate actually changing, I am struggling to relate this to CO2.

Be that as it may, today I read about another “new normal” in New York.

state where they are lowering cutoff scores for standardized tests due to ‘learning loss’ from COVID lockdowns.

From BlazeNews:

New York state will lower its threshold for what is considered to be “proficient” on its standardized tests to account for a loss of learning in students from 2019 to 2022, according to reporting by the Daily Caller.

The state’s scoring committee will being using data from 2022 as the benchmark for student scoring, despite standardized scores in subjects such as math proficiency dropping by 7.6 points compared to 2019, according to Spectrum News.

“Only a quarter of students in the 8th grade, which is the latest grade that we have test scores for, were able to be proficient in math,” said David Bloomfield, professor of education leadership, law, and policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

“That’s really worrisome,” he added.

Let me see if I’ve got this straight … because school children did not learn what they were supposed to learn as a consequence of government mandated school closures in New York, New York is going to lower their standards of achievement on testing. Are they doing this so that the children will not feel bad when their test scores are poor? I guess in New York, rather than trying to increase what the children are learning, it is more important that children feel good about themselves! If they ultimately do not learn as much, it might work out if the future new normal is that New Yorkers are only competing against other New Yorkers for future jobs. However, children of New York, a warning … “do not attempt to get future jobs on merit if you are competing against children from red states, such as Florida, because then the new normal will be that you will definitely feel bad about yourselves.”

3/23/23

As best I can tell very few, including yours truly, are familiar with Harold Shurtleff. Granted even though Harold Robert Shurtleff  (January 6, 1883 – December 6, 1938) was a Harvard graduate and an American painter, (who wrote a book describing who actually lived in colonial log cabins), this is not the Harold Shurtleff to whom I am referring. I am referencing the Harold Shurtleff who filed suit against the city of Boston in 2017 … Shurtleff vs. Boston.

From the First Amendment Encyclopedia:

U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Boston violated a private organization’s First Amendment religious free exercise rights by refusing to allow them to temporarily raise a Christian flag on a flagpole outside Boston City Hall, given that Boston had previously allowed various organizations to temporarily raise secular flags on the same flagpole.

The court’s ruling depended on its conclusion that, given Boston’s policies, temporarily raising a flag on this flagpole outside Boston City Hall was an act of private expression, not government speech.

The court’s decision was narrowly applied to the facts in this specific case. The court did not rule that as a general matter raising a flag on a flagpole outside a government building is an act of private expression. On the contrary, the court’s reasoning suggested that usually such acts are government speech.

There are three flagpoles outside Boston City Hall. One flies the United States flag. Another flies the Massachusetts state flag. The third typically flies the Boston city flag. But for many years, Boston has allowed other groups to request to temporarily raise other flags on the third flagpole. Most of the flags have been those of other governmental entities or have been associated with a day of observance in Boston.

In 2017, Harold Shurtleff — on behalf of Camp Constitution, a private organization seeking to “enhance understanding” of the United States’ “Judeo-Christian moral heritage” — requested to temporarily fly “the Christian flag,” which is a flag used to represent Christianity by many Protestant churches and denominations in the U.S.

Citing concerns about violating the First Amendment’s establishment clause, Boston twice denied Shurtleff’s request. After the second denial, Shurtleff sued.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court reversed the lower courts’ decisions. The key reason why the court reversed was because it disagreed with the lower courts that temporarily raising the Christian flag would have been government speech, not private action.

This decision is important for two reasons.

First: It was unanimous.

Second from PJ Media:

Shurtleff restored the right of every American to practice and express their religious beliefs, as guaranteed by the First Amendment. As Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver put it recently …

This 9-0 decision from the Supreme Court involving the Christian flag continues to have an impact across the nation. The clear message from the Supreme Court is that government must not discriminate based on viewpoint. The government cannot favor one viewpoint and censor another and cannot censor religious viewpoints under the guise of government speech. Any governments that are ignoring this ruling are setting themselves up for potential lawsuits.

As best I can tell, this decision will have far-reaching implications for a long time! 

Thank you, Harold Shurtleff.

2/22/23

The following is certainly is food for thought, and it comes from multiple sources.

Japan’s Toyota — is currently the world’s largest automaker. Toyota and Volkswagen vie for that title each year — each taking the crown from the other — as the market moves.

GM — America’s largest automaker — is about half Toyota’s size –thanks to its 2009 bankruptcy and restructuring.

Actually — Toyota is a major car manufacturer in the U.S. In 2016 about 81% of the cars it sold in the U.S. came off American assembly lines.

Toyota was among the first to introduce gas/electric hybrid cars with the Prius twenty years ago. The company hasn’t been afraid to change the car game.

All of this is to point out that Toyota understands both the car market and the infrastructure that supports the car market. Probably understands better than any other manufacturer on the planet.

Toyota hasn’t grown through acquisitions as Volkswagen has, and it hasn’t undergone bankruptcy and bailout as GM has. Toyota has grown by building reliable cars and trucks for decades.

When Toyota offers an opinion on the car market it’s probably worth listening to.

This week Toyota reiterated — The world is not yet ready to support a fully electric auto fleet.

Toyota’s Robert Wimmer (head of energy & environmental research) said this week in testimony before the U.S. Senate, “If we are to make dramatic progress in electrification it will require overcoming tremendous challenges – challenges including : refueling infrastructure/battery availability /consumer acceptance / and affordability.”

Wimmer’s remarks come on the heels of GM’s announcement that it will phase out all gas internal combustion engines (ICE) by 2035.

Tellingly, both Toyota and Honda have so far declined to make any such promises. Honda is the world’s largest engine manufacturer (when you include : boats / motorcycles / lawnmowers / etc) Honda competes with Briggs & Stratton in those markets amid increased electrification of [traditionally gas powered] lawnmowers / weed trimmers /etc.

While manufacturers have announced ambitious goals just 2% of the world’s cars are electric at this point.

Buyers continue to choose ICE over electric because of: price /range / infrastructure /affordability / etc. Only a small percentage of people would choose an electric car unless forced to buy.

There are 289.5 million cars just on U.S. roads as of 2021. About 98 percent of them are gas-powered.

Toyota’s RAV4 took the top spot for purchases in the 2019 U.S market — Honda’s CR-V is second and GM’s top seller (Equinox) comes in at #4 behind the Nissan Rogue. GM only has one entry in the U.S.top 15. Toyota and Honda dominate – each with a handful in the top 15.

Toyota warns: the US electrical grid and infrastructure simply aren’t there to support the electrification of the private car fleet.

A 2017 U.S. government study found we would need about 8,500 strategically-placed charging stations to support a fleet of just 7 million electric cars.

That’s about six times the current number of electric cars.

But no one should be talking about supporting just 7 million cars.

We should be talking about powering about 300 million within the next 20 years if all manufacturers follow GM and stop making ICE cars.

We are gonna need a biggerenergyboat to deal with connecting all those cars to the power grids – a WHOLE LOT bigger boat.

But instead of building a bigger boat we may be shrinking our boat. Power outages in California and Texas have exposed issues with power supplies even at current usage levels.

Increasing usage of wind and solar, — both of whichproveunreliable — has driven some coal and natural gas generators offline

We will need much more generation capacity to power about 300 million cars if we’re all going to be forced to drive electric cars, and we will be charging them frequently. Every roadside gas station must be wired to charge electric cars and charging speeds must increase greatly

Current technology allows charges in “as little as 30 minutes” – but that best-case fast charging cannot be done on home power. Charging at home (on alternating current) takes a few hours to overnight and will increase the home power bill.

That power, like all electricity in the United States, comes from generators using: natural gas /petroleum/coal/nuclear/wind/solar/or hydroelectric sources.

Even half an hour is an unacceptably long time to spend charging. It’s about 5 to 10 times longer than a gas pump takes. Imagine big rigs with much larger tanks. Imagine the charging lines that would form every day if charge time isn’t reduced by 70 to 80 percent

We can expect improvements but those won’t come without cost. Electrifying the auto fleet requires massive overhaul of the power grid and an enormous increase in power generation.

Toyota has publicly warned about this twice while its smaller rival GM is pushing to go electric. GM may be trying to win favor with those in power in California/ Washington / and in the media.

Toyota’s addressing reality, and they know what they are talking about.

Toyota isn’t saying none of this can be done. They are saying that conversations are not anywhere near serious and will not produce meaningful results.

3/21/23

There are a few things that we all know are true these days … namely what “those that know best” did during Covid did not actually turn out for the best. This is especially true for school children. Let’s review how this “enlightened decision” to keep kids out of school affected children both nationally, regionally, and locally.

Nationally:

Federal data released Feb. 9 painted a bleak picture for education in the United States. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many students were forced to learn at home due to lockdown orders instituted by state governments that closed down public schools. Over the past year, the nation has seen the consequences of these measures as children are struggling to maintain proficiency levels in subjects like math and reading.

The Washington Times reported:

“A paltry 26% of eighth graders were considered proficient in math in 2022 — down from 34% in 2019 before the pandemic, the most recent year the national report card was issued. Fourth graders in over 40 states saw their math scores decline. Only 36% scored proficient, down from 41%.

“Reading scores offered little solace, with only one-third of fourth graders marked proficient, continuing a slide that began before the coronavirus hit. Only 31% of eighth graders received proficient scores, the lowest average since 1998.”

From Liberty Nation News:

Almost half of K-12 public school students started this academic year behind in their grade level in at least one subject based on a national survey. The most common areas of concern were math and reading. However, it could be worse if your child lived in Democratic Baltimore, where a recent analysis of Baltimore public schools revealed that only 7% of their third through eighth graders were proficient in math.

The Washington Times reported:

“The 49% of 1,026 schools who told the National Center for Education Statistics’ [NCES] latest School Pulse Panel that their students started the year behind a grade level is statistically unchanged from last school year. But it’s much worse than the 36% of students before the coronavirus pandemic who started the school year on the wrong track, according to the agency, which is the statistical arm of the Department of Education.”

Mental health is also an issue, with experts explaining that safety concerns over recent school shootings, a shortage of teachers, and the increasing numbers of children seeking help for anxiety and depression all contributed to the decline in academic proficiency.

Regionally from EdSource:

After five straight years of gradual improvement, standardized test scores declined significantly last year for many California students, most of whom spent 2020-21 in distance learning. Gaps in achievement between Black and Hispanic students and their white and Asian peers, already wide before the pandemic, expanded in math and English language arts.

Locally:

Here in San Diego, a recent report confirmed what I have said innumerable times. Namely, that in this enlightened Democratic state, the Covid educational dictums significantly adversely affected those children in the lower economic spectrum. (In San Diego the school children who live in the less affluent communities south of I-8 did worse on standardized testing when compared to the school children who live north of I-8.) Of note, in general, the majority of the minority school children live south of I-8. Need I say more.

Again from Liberty Nation News:

“‘This data is tragic but expected. Every level of leadership in the school system is distracted from academics,’ said Sheri Few, president of United States Parents Involved in Education. ‘Government schools are so utterly focused on sexualizing children and indoctrinating them against their country and each other that real academic learning is clearly not the priority.’”

My question is … “Will the children that we have entrusted to be educated by the public school system ever recover?”

3/20/23

On Sunday I write about principled individuals that we all can admire. We have all heard the story of professional tennis player, Novak Djokovic, who refused to be vaccinated for Covid, and thus was not allowed to compete in Australia back in 2022, and still is not allowed entry into the U.S. because of his non-vaccinated status. Truly Djokovic is a man of principle. Are there other athletes who are similarly principled?

What about Cole Beasley?

A lot of the following has been exempted from a TMZ Sports article of 6/18/21, and it says all that you need to know about Cole Beasley, a man of principle. A man to be admired as principle is not something we hear a lot about these days.

“Hi, I’m Cole Beasley and I’m not vaccinated! I will be outside doing what I do. I’ll be out in the public. If you’re scared of me then steer clear or get vaccinated. Point. Blank. Period.”

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Cole Beasley  went on a passionate rant on his decision to NOT get vaccinated — not now, not EVER — saying, “I may die of COVID, but I’d rather die actually living.”

Years back, the 32-year-old had been going OFF on Twitter … calling out the NFL Players Association over new protocols for unvaccinated players during preseason.

Long story short — vaccinated players will pretty much be able to go back to normal, while unvaccinated will still be required to wear masks and stay at the team hotel … among other restrictions at team facilities.

While folks have raised the question — why not just get vaccinated? — Beasley makes it clear that’s not an option … and will sacrifice whatever it takes to stick to his beliefs.

According to ESPN in Dec. 2021

“Buffalo Bills WR Cole Beasley had been fined $100,000 for multiple COVID-19 protocol violations.”

“I don’t play for the money anymore,” Beasley added. “My family has been taken care of. Fine me if you want. My way of living and my values are more important to me than a dollar.”

Beasley says if he’s forced to walk away from football over his stance, he’ll welcome it with open arms and make up for all the time he’s missed with his family over the years.

“I’m not anti-vax or pro-vax — I’m pro-choice,” Beasley said in July. “With that being said, the issue at hand is information being withheld from players in order for a player to be swayed in a direction he may not be comfortable with.”

Kudos to Cole Beasley … truly a man of principle.

3/19/23

A Covid Dichotomy

As was apparent to me from the very beginning there was a wide discrepancy on how differently individuals acted with regards to Covid. Some of our friends would not come over to our house for “a bring your own food for dinner” in our back yard. Another friend, who is religious, has not been to live church for over a year, even though the church service is outdoors, with masks, and social distancing. 

Personally I have continued to have lunch with friends – albeit mostly in an outdoor setting. From the beginning of Covid my wife and I have continued to go to church, initially indoors, then outdoors and now indoors again both with distancing. We carried on as usual for both Thanksgiving and Christmas with our kids and grandkids from out of town. For the past year we have continued to babysit our young grandchildren who do go to preschool.

Why this Covid dichotomy? Obviously the reasons are multifactorial, with varied reasons for different folks. 

I just happened to read an article from the New York Times by David Leonhardt (yes, I do occasionally read things from the NYT, whereas I do not ever watch CNN or MSNBC – both of which have suffered recent dramatic drops in their ratings.) Mr. Leonhardt postulated that this dichotomy was primarily a Democrat-Republican thing, but personally I think this is an over-simplification of something more basic. 

I think that there are two things which have basically determined these dichotomous individual behaviors with reference to Covid.

First: As I have stated multiple times before, in general, individuals are basically either logical thinkers (frontal lobe) or emotional thinkers (midbrain). Granted logical thinkers tend to be conservative whereas emotional thinkers are liberal. With Covid, some can only focus on how serious this coronavirus infection can be . . .”if I get it, I could die!” On the other hand others can think more logically . . . “if I catch the virus, there is a good chance that I will be either minimally symptomatic or asymptomatic, and the risk of me dying from Covid is much less than one percent. Life is too short, and so I’ll take that very small risk.”

Second: Just as important, is where are individuals getting their basic Covid information. Most are getting it from local TV news, local newspapers, or from friends, most of whom are probably also getting their info from local sources. I point that  out because local sources are doing a piss-poor job of actually educating anyone. (When I asked one of the local “newspaper” columnists about this, he responded that his job was to report, not to educate or opine.) 

The following is from that same  Leonhardt article, Franklin Templeton-Gallup Economics of Recovery Study(NYT):

When asked what percent of Covid patients needed hospitalization, 69% of Democrats said more than twenty percent needed hospitalization, 51% of Republicans said more than twenty percent, and 60% of Independents said the same thing. To me these numbers signify just how misinformed the public actually is. (Amazingly 41% of Democrats thought that the chance of hospitalization for a Covid patient was . . . are you ready for this . . . more than 50%!!) No wonder these individuals are paralyzed with fear. The actual hospitalization rate is about 1%. 

How could so many people be so drastically misinformed?! 

Again from Leonhardt:

There is also the same basic sort of misinformation when it comes to the risk of school children and going back to school. Democrats are more likely to exaggerate Covid’s toll on young people and to believe that children account for a meaningful share of all Covid deaths. In reality, Americans under 18 account for only 0.04 percent of Covid deaths (4 in 10,000).

How could these individuals be so misinformed? Again I blame this on the news sources, both TV and newspapers. And as long as they are “not in the education business.” (because optimism does not sell newspapers

or boost TV ratings), this dichotomy will continue.

3/21/21

3/18/23

Was there some skulduggery involved in the recent bank bailouts? Keep in mind that I am not accusing anyone, but rather I am just asking.

What if the banks that were bailed out, namely Silicon Valley Bank (SVC) and First Republic, had been located in a red state, like Florida, instead of in California, a notoriously blue state?  And what if, in addition, the Governor in that red state had a significant amount tied up in either of those red state banks? Was the fact that California’s Governor Newsom’s wineries were hugely invested in SVC merely a coincidence? What if the Governor of Florida was hugely invested in one of the failed banks? Would anything different have occurred?

Hmmm! … Just asking!

Likewise what if the recent railroad catastrophe had occurred in a blue state like Illinois instead of Ohio? Would the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, have made time in his busy schedule to visit the beleaguered small town sooner? Similarly would Buttigieg have commented that railroad accidents are not a big deal as they occur all the time? Furthermore, would President Biden have found time in his important schedule to visit suffering East Palestine, if East Palestine had been located in Illinois?

Hmmm! … Just asking!

3/18/23

Just recently three examples of going woke leading to going broke.

First:

Hershey’s Canada recently had a controversial ad featuring a transgender activist.

Jeremy Boreing, co-founder of the Daily Wire, responded by launching an unapologetically gender-specific rival to the chocolate giant’s bars.

“We have two kinds: SheHer and HeHim,” said Boreing, in the 48-second ad. “One of them has nuts. If you need me to tell you which one it is, keep giving your money to Hershey’s.”

Boreing encouraged consumers to stop “giving your money to woke corporations that hate you” in the brief ad released Friday, 3/3. 

On Sat, 3/4 the Daily Wire tweeted, “We’ve officially sold more than 200,000 Jeremy’s Chocolate bars and it’s still climbing. Let’s keep it going.”

Similarly, with Harry’s Razors:

“Nothing is sweeter than truth,” account @JeremysRazors tweeted in response. Jeremy’s Razors, an alternative to Harry’s Razors, is another company born of Boreing’s capitalism-driven approach to directly challenging woke companies via old fashioned competition. His approach is simple: offer consumers an alternative to turning over heaps of cash to corporations that mock them and actively work against their most cherished values.

The websites for Hershey’s and the Harry’s alternatives are strategically easy to remember: ihateharrys.com and ihatehersheys.com. 

Second from BlazeNews:

Urban Christian Academy in Kansas City is closing after donors pulled the plug. The private school with an enrollment of 100 describes itself as providing “a tuition-free, high-quality, Christ-centered education for low-income students,” the ABC news network said.

The Christian K-8 school last year declared that “we stand with the LGBTQIA+ community and believe in their holiness” — but now Urban Christian Academy in Kansas City is closing.

Last year it added a statement to its website that read in part, “We are an affirming school. We stand with the LGBTQIA+ community and believe in their holiness. We celebrate the diversity of God’s creation in all its varied and beautiful forms.”

With that, donors stopped contributing — with many citing their Christian beliefs as the reason — and UCA announced that it’s closing at the end of the school year due to the loss of financial support.

Kalie Callaway-George, the school’s executive director and co-founder, told ABC News the aforementioned LGBTQIA+ language “is kind of what started the backlash from our donor base, which we anticipated. It was just that we anticipated a 50% loss in funding and made adjustments for that. We had an 80% loss in funding, and that was too much to overcome.”

“We lost our network” of donors, Callaway-George added to ABC News: “In December of 2021, right before we publicly supported the LGBTQ community, we raised $333,985. One year later, after we had posted on our website and made a stance, [in] December of 2022 we raised $14,809.”

One might wonder what did the school’s woke executive director, Callaway-George, think was going to happen? Of course with her hyphenated last name, the question might well be, why did UCA hire her in the first place! (Anyone who has read my prior pieces on this subject, knows the implications of hyphenated last names!)

And hot off the press, third, Silicon Valley Bank (SVC):

From Red State:

As it turns out, SVB was a massive donor to Black Lives Matter and other social justice causes, to the tune of nearly $74 million dollars. $73,450,000 to be more exact.

The figure comes from an extensive report dropped by the Claremont Institute on Tuesday. The report details $82 billion dollars in social justice/BLM investments by major American companies. SVB stands out as one of the larger donors, next to big donors like Apple ($100 million) and Comcast ($165 million). While at the top of the donation pool, those contributors do pale in comparison to donors like Blackrock ($810 million) and Citigroup ($1.1 billion). However, the group did pledge on their website to provide in total up to $11 billion dollars by 2026 for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs and racial justice causes.

“Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research, told The Federalist that SVB’s failure on the heels of its left-wing activism “is yet another indication that SVB was focused on woke virtue signaling instead of protecting their customers’ deposits.”

“Time after time we see the same pattern: companies that are the most concerned with ESG scores and woke politics do the worst jobs serving their customers,” Hild explained. “The rest of corporate America should learn from SVB’s failure now, before they are the next company to make headlines for comically poor management.”

Hershey’s in Canada, Urban Christian Academy in Kansas City, and Silicon Valley Bank in California all went woke -> going/ gone broke!

I predict that this scenario will not be confined to this infamous trio.

3/17/23

When will we actually learn the truth about what has occurred in the military as a consequence of vaccine mandates?

From the Washington Times in Nov, 2021:

A senior U.S. Army flight surgeon who warned that pilots could die in mid-air from COVID-19 vaccine side effects, testified in Nov, 2021, at a roundtable hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson on Capitol Hill.

Testifying under the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, Lt. Col. Theresa Long told the Wisconsin Republican at the event that she had grounded vaccinated pilots to monitor symptoms of myocarditis — including chronic fatigue — that could cause them to die of heart failure in mid-air.

“I made numerous efforts to get senior medical leaders to at the very least inform soldiers of this risk; my concerns were ignored,” Dr. Long said at the event.

Then in January, 2022 attorney Thomas Renz came forward with DMED data downloaded by several named and unnamed military physicians showing unnatural increases in numerous medical diagnoses in the military in 2021, completely out of sync with the previous five-year averages. He presented hundreds of these concerning safety signal data points to Sen. Ron Johnson and publicized several examples at the hearing. Three military doctors signed a sworn affidavit to be used in a federal lawsuit attesting to the fact that the data correlates with their clinical experience in treating soldiers in 2021 and that in their professional opinion, the mass vaccination is the most likely culprit of these increased injuries and ailments.

DOD’s explanation bordered on the twilight zone. They said that the data from 2021 was correct, however due to some “glitches,” the yearly comparison data from the years 2016-2020 were woefully underreported.

Officials compared numbers in the DMED with source data in the DMSS and found that the total number of medical diagnoses from those years “represented only a small fraction of actual medical diagnoses.” The 2021 numbers, however, were up-to-date, giving the “appearance of significant increased occurrence of all medical diagnoses in 2021 because of the underreported data for 2016-2020.”

If you believe that the DOD is conveniently being honest by exposing five years of glitches, and is telling the truth about 2016-2020, well … “I have a bridge to sell you!”

3/16/23