Author: Californiacontrarian

Back sixty or so years ago after I had just gotten my driver’s license my dad warned me about the Dan Ryan Expressway. For those with no real knowledge of Chicago, freeways are called expressways, and the Dan Ryan Expressway ran from the downtown area to and through the south side of the city. Back then my dad said, “Do not drive on the Dan Ryan. And if you accidentally find yourself on the Dan Ryan, do not get off. Too dangerous! Just keep going!”
Also back then my friends and I used to go to see the Cubs at Wrigley Field, but I was forbidden to go to Comiskey Park to watch the White Sox. Why? Simple. Wrigley Field was on the north side of Chicago, and Comiskey Park was on the south side. Even though we could take public transportation to both venues, the White Sox played on the south side and that area was too dangerous.
Now fast forward sixty years and the once dangerous south side of Chicago has gotten even more dangerous.

The violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua is clashing with gangs in Chicago, according to a report from the New York Post.
The Post noted that Venezuelan criminal gangs have flooded shelters and taken over apartment buildings in Chicago’s South Side.
“When the black gangs here get fed up with the illegalities and criminal activities of these migrants or non-citizens, the city of Chicago is going to go up in flames and there will be nothing the National Guard or the government can do about it when the bloodshed hits the streets. It’ll be blacks against migrants,” Tyrone Muhammad, a former Chicago gangster who did 20 years in prison and now runs a violence prevention program, told the Post in an interview.

Reportedly, Chicago has been helping more than 40,000 illegals in recent years (via NYP):
“The latest figures show Chicago has spent almost half a billion dollars over the last two years on the more than 42,000 migrants who’ve arrived since 2022.
Many have been given money for rent, food stamp cards and even cars — and some landlords have pushed out local African-Americans because they can get more government money for housing migrants.
Some belong to the one-time Venezuelan prison gang turned vicious multinational crime syndicate Tren de Aragua who sources in Chicago told The Post are heavily armed, brazen and spilling into areas of the South Side. Those areas are traditionally controlled by hundreds of entrenched gangs from the Gangster Disciples and Black P Stones to the Vice Lords, Latin Kings and Satan Disciples.”

These days no one wants to go and watch the miserable Chicago White Sox play, as the CWS are setting a record for the most losses in a single season by MLB team. However the south side of Chicago is a powder keg just waiting for someone to light the fuse. A word to the wise, “Stay off the Dan Ryan!”

9/25/24

As I have been alluding to for years, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are not going to be the wave of the future that certain segments of our population want them to be. As I have said many times there are multiple reasons for this, and now there is a survey that shows that what I have predicted, is, in fact, coming to fruition.

From CV NEWS FEED:
“The percentage of Americans who say they are in the market for an electric vehicle (EV) has fallen significantly in the past year.
Public sentiment toward EVs has largely soured despite the Biden-Harris administration’s years-long effort to push them as an alternative to gas-powered vehicles.
Yahoo Finance’s Pras Subramanian last week reported the “consulting firm EY found that only 34% of US consumers plan to purchase an [EV] as their next car.”
“That’s down from 48% in EY’s 2023 survey,” Subramanian noted. He explained that this percentage includes customers who were in the market for partially electric vehicles such as hybrids.”

“The percentage of consumers in the market for fully electric-powered non-hybrid EVs was cut in half over the past year, according to the same source.
Subramanian indicated that per EY’s 2024 survey, “a paltry 11%” customers said they considered purchasing “fully electric vehicles.” By comparison, 22% said they considered buying this subset of EVs in last year’s EY survey.”

As we all are well aware this is an election year, and so how does that influence the stance taken by the Democrat nominee, Kamala Harris?

An April CRC Research poll found that a strong majority (57%) of respondents across seven battleground states opposed Biden-Harris emission standards intended to regulate the presence of traditional gas vehicles.
As CatholicVote reported in May, the poll’s “respondents were equally distributed throughout the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.”

In recent weeks, the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has stressed that the candidate does not support a so-called “EV mandate.”
In a piece published late last month, The New York Post’s Victor Nava characterized the sitting vice president’s apparent policy change as “yet another walkback on behalf of the California Democrat and possibly the biggest one of them all.”

Harris, 59, co-sponsored legislation in April 2019 that sought to ban the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2040.
During a last Monday CNN appearance, Axios National Political Reporter Alex Thompson said that he asked Harris’ campaign if she “would sign a bill she co-sponsored in 2019 [in the Senate] that basically mandated automakers to only make electric vehicles by 2035, 2040.”
“And, it took six days for me to get an answer,” Thompson told CNN hostess Brianna Kielar. “And the answer at the end of those six days was ‘No comment.’”

No, I am not surprised on the recent data on EVs, although personally, I was surprised to find that Americans are also souring on hybrids, as I have forecast that hybrids are the wave of the future.
Kamala’s stance on EVs is well known, and we all know what this means if Kamala is elected in November!
Be very careful, Americans!
9/24/24
www.californiacontrarian.com

Last week Kamala Harris had an “interview”/townhall with Oprah. Let’s be clear, I do not watch Oprah … in fact I cannot recall ever watching Oprah! However, I saw many clips of this interview, and from what I saw, it was completely predicable. Whether or not Kamala had the questions beforehand turned out to be irrelevant as she did not answer any of the questions that were asked. She did talk a fair amount after each question, but calling her answers, “word salad,” would be doing an injustice to just about any salad. In fact after a few minutes of each answer it became almost impossible to remember what the question actually was!
Whether the question was about immigration and the border, or the economy and inflation, the answers were practically interchangeable. We learned again that she was from a middle class family, and along with her sister was raised by her mother and a neighbor lady. I challenge anyone to relate how this part of her past life relates to either the border or to inflation.

In general there are three groups of voters. Those that are going to vote for Kamala. Those who would never vote for her Harris no matter what. And those are independent or still on the fence. The first two groups are going to be unaffected by a similar Oprah-like townhall, but a true independent may watch in order to help clarify which candidate he or she was going to vote for. For this group, these interviews are critical, and for those of us who believe that Kamala Harris is an empty suit, they are perfect. A candidate for President can only laugh and smile without actually stating any policies for so long. Perhaps during the initial interview, but certainly during a second interview, any reasonable person will realize that Harris has actual positions on very few things.
I can hardly wait for Oprah 2!

californiacontrarian

It has long been my contention that there is a lot of good out there. On Sundays I highlight either someone who has strong beliefs and stands by them or individuals who do unexpected good.
From Epoch Bright:

The two Caldwell kids, Rebecca, 10, and Joshua, 8, had been busy entrepreneurs all summer, hawking lemonade in their normally-safe neighborhood for a little extra cash. That day they had a table and two chairs set up on the driveway and a sign offering lemonade for $2.
Young Josh and Rebecca Caldwell were tending a lemonade stand outside their house in Chesapeake Bay last August when they saw the stranger park his car beside them. But he wasn’t there to buy a cool cup of lemonade.
A man in a light-colored shirt and shades got out of the car, walked over, and in broad daylight swiped their jar full of dollar bills. He then ran back to his car and sped off.

Annetta Caldwell, the kids’ mom, rang the police and checked the security footage. It showed the suspect driving by several times, apparently waiting, she says, until she was inside the house before stopping by and making off with the money.
Police canvassed the area. Caldwell announced the brazen robbery on the neighborhood app: Nextdoor. “If you see this guy, let us know or the police know,” she posted. Although she learned that a suspect was eventually tracked down, she says it was the response from people that mended the injustice.

Who knew this simple post online would spark a community-wide gathering in support of the victims of the lemonade stand bandit?
What happened next was heartening.
An unlikely group of supporters also appeared at the Caldwell house to tell them they’ve got their backs: a gnarly bunch of motorcyclists from a local bike club.
“There must have been over 120 that showed up,” Caldwell said. One biker informed her that “when he heard what happened he just felt like he had to do something, and he told his friends.”
The club member expected only about ten of his biker buddies to show up, but a huge group arrived from all over the area. Caldwell says that though she has friends who ride motorcycles and knows “a lot of them are pretty good,” she was still blown away by how kindhearted this group was.
“They were amazing,“ she said, adding that they were part of a 757 motorcycle club. ”They were super friendly, really wanted to bless the kids, and there’s a softness to them I wasn’t expecting.”

There were also “tons” of non-biker people who showed up to cool off with cups of lemonade and refill the kids’ cache to make up for the theft.
“A bicycle group showed up—about 30 of them,“ Caldwell said. ”City council showed up. Five different fire department trucks showed up, and then I don’t know how many ambulances, and then several police departments.”
She guesses 650 people flocked in for drinks. She had expected a large crowd and had stockpiled gallons of lemonade, but ran out anyway.
Kudos to the 757 Motorcycle Club as well as to the others in the community to support the kid’s lemonade stand.
9/22/24
californiacontrarian

As we are all aware there was a lot of hypocrisy during COVID with high ranking officials telling us not to do certain things while they were doing the same things secretly by themselves.
Remember Nancy Pelosi and her visit to her hairdresser! … Hypocrisy!
Remember California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom sitting down at a fancy restaurant with friends while telling the rest of us California peons not to go to restaurants. … Hypocrisy !

But now we have HYPOCRISY personified … from C & C:
Dr. Jay Varma was the Advisor for Public Health, NYC Mayor’s Office 2020-21.
Before ‘epidemiologist’ Dr. Jay Varma became Mayor DeBlasio’s Senior Science Advisor on Covid-19 in April 2020, he worked in upper management at the CDC.

In the hidden-camera interviews Varma was obviously setup, in a James O’Keefe-style Citizen Swiper operation. The married doctor clearly thought he was on a “date,” was lubricated to the point of carelessness, and chatted merrily about his official role in New York City during covid.
In the clips, Varma bragged to his ‘date’ that he convinced Mayor DeBlasio to impose the City’s mask and vaccine mandates. Varma’s goal, in his own words, was to “make it really f—ing hard to be unvaccinated.” That, Dr. Varma explained, is “The way we do it in public health.” Leaving no doubt, Varma described public health’s vaccine strategy in detail: “You can’t get a job, you can’t go to a restaurant, your kids can’t go to school…it’s like f— it, I’m just going to get vaccinated.”

Here’s just part of what he chirpily confessed to his fake date on hidden camera:
“(During lockdowns) we went to some like, underground dance party underneath a bank on Wall Street. We were all rolling (taking drugs).
… I had to be kind of sneaky about it. I was running the entire Covid response for the city. We rented a hotel … we all took like, you know, molly (Ecstasy/MDMA). 8 to 10 of us were in a room (having an orgy) … like just being naked with friends … it was not Covid-friendly.”

So not only was Dr. Varma subtly forcing New Yorkers to get vaccinated, but he was also blatantly violating his lockdown and mask policies!

I guarantee that you will not read about this HYPOCRISY in either your local “newspaper,” or read or hear about this in any form of Main Stream Media!

Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom, ex-Mayor DeBlasio, and Dr. Jay Varma are all Democrats … just sayin’!

9/21/24
californiacontrarian

Are you one of the few who has noticed the eerie role that Pennsylvania is playing in this year’s election?
First off, Kamala Harris does not pick the obvious choice to be her vice-president, which would have been Josh Shapiro, the present governor of purple Pennsylvania. Choosing Shapiro would have probably put Pennsylvania’s electoral votes in the Dem column. Instead she chose Tim Walz, the present governor of blue Minnesota. Everyone already predicts that Minnesota’s electoral votes will go into the Dem column … so why choose him !?
Next President Trump’s assassination attempt occurred in Butler, which is outside of Pittsburg in western Pennsylvania. Granted Trump is presently now doing a lot of rallies in Pennsylvania, as the assassination attempt occurred two months ago.
Then recently the Trump/Harris debate took place in Philadelphia, in eastern Pennsylvania. Although Trump did less well than expected, the polling has not shown a post debate shift. This debate will long be remembered as the one in which both ABC moderators were blatantly pro-Harris.

9/14’s reversal of the lower court decision allowing undated ballots saw Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruling that mail-in ballots lacking correct dates may not be counted in November’s election. The story added that, under the new law, over 4,400 mail ballots were rejected in Pennsylvania’s recent primary due to date issues.

On Wednesday, 9/18, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Manager Romilda Crocamo canceled ballot drop boxes, citing the cost and security issues involved in having full-time staff personally monitor them 24×7.
In her announcement, Crocamo dismissed the option of video surveillance, which she said might be better than nothing, but was still not sufficient to prevent “illegal activities.” In other words, it’s live security or nothing.
As Jeff Childers commented, “This encouraging story is important for a couple reasons. First, it’s happening in Pennsylvania, and every single step toward more election integrity there is terrific news, because it might make all the difference. But second, Crocamo’s decision ripped into the brainless official narrative, which is the notion that ballot boxes are absolutely necessary and totally secure.
If they’re not secure in one county, how can they be secure anywhere?”

And finally, Lochel’s Bakery in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, had some big news in their big cookie poll. As of 9/13/24 the shop has sold a whopping 5,200 Trump cookies vs. 500 Harris cookies. 

Furthermore, the way it looks now the road to victory in November will very possibly go through Pennsylvania. For those of you who have contacts in Pennsylvania, your job will be to convince four undecided voters to vote for DJT.
In summary, I am finding all of this very eerie (not Erie)!

9/20/24
californiacontrarian.com

Last night I was up later than usual. Why?? … because by serendipity I happened to catch Donald Trump on the Gutfeld Show. In addition to DJT, there were three of Gutfeld’s usual other guests, with all five of them just sitting around in an oval semi-circle, shooting the breeze. Obviously President Trump did most of the talking because the host, Greg Gutfeld, was asking the questions. Of the other guests Tyrus got into it the most, and even commented that one day he would be able to tell his grandchildren that Trump took his chair. (Every night that he is on the Greg Gutfeld Show, Tyrus always sits in the same chair – but not tonight.)
This show was not a campaign rally, but more like a loose discussion among friends. No notes. No teleprompter. Gutfeld directed the flow of the various discussions, and various eclectic topics were covered. Everything from The Apprentice TV show, Howard Stern now being “woke,” Evangelical voters, and of course the recent debate.
One of the most interesting topics which started off about fentanyl, evolved into how China does not have a drug problem because drug dealers get the death penalty in China.
This was not a campaign rally. It was not a Townhall, and as usual, Trump did not back off talking about any issue, and in fact took a few non-political questions from the audience.
I stayed up late and continued to watch because I was mesmerized by how Mr. Trump, just like an ordinary Joe, was trading punchlines with Gutfeld and the other guests. I was pretty amazed at Trump’s good sense of humor, his smile, and his laugh.
Whereas before I had always said that even though I would back Trump politically, because of his brusque demeanor, he would not be a guy with which I would want to sit around and have a beer with … that has now changed! I will have a beer or dinner with him any time he wants.
If you have a chance, watch yesterday’s Gutfeld Show on You-Tube. I guarantee that you will enjoy it.

9/19/24

As is pretty obvious to me the situation in Springfield, Ohio must be only the tip of the iceberg. Why else would the libs be irresponsibly irate about what has happened to the people of Springfield, Ohio, a city of about 60,000 in southwestern Ohio located approximately half-way between Columbus and Dayton.
As we all have learned just recently this small city has received about 20,000 Haitians immigrants over the last few years. As I have previously pointed out, practically speaking this bolus of Haitians could have only arrived in Springfield by plane, and this scheme must have been coordinated … but by whom? Flying about 20,000 people to just about anywhere cannot be inexpensive. Who paid for all of this? Hmmm!

From CV Vote:
“During a Tuesday morning FOX News broadcast, Bill Melugin stated that the Biden-Harris administration ‘created two new programs [CHNV and the CBP One app] to allow migrants to come into the U.S. “legally.’”
Melugin stressed that these programs allowed migrants to ‘bypass border control entirely.’
‘Per newly released CBP data, nearly 530,000 migrants have flown into the US,’ Melugin reported on X (formerly Twitter) on 9/16/24.
He noted that these migrants ‘have been paroled into the country as part of the Biden administration’s controversial CHNV [Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans] mass parole program.’

One might reasonably ask, “what could possibly go wrong?”
530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans secretly flown into the U.S. with ?? vetting! Where else have these groups of illegal-now ‘legal,’ individuals been surreptitiously stashed by the Biden-Harris mandates?

I predict that we will be hearing about other towns/cities in which thousands of CHNV individuals have been secretly placed by the Biden-Harris dictates. Even though I am not a lawyer … how is this not illegal?

9/18/24
californiacontrarian

My friend called me immediately after the Presidential Debate had finished on 9/10. He was not happy with a lot of things concerning the debate … Trump getting fact-checked and Harris not getting fact-checked by the “moderators.” Harris not answering the questions, and Harris’s apparently successful attempt at getting under Trump’s skin. (Who actually cares how many, if any, attendees leave Trump rallies! -> boom!)
Oh well. Que sera, sera … but now there is some interesting info on the debate’s legitimacy from an ABC whistleblower.
Granted that you are not going to be reading about this in the Main-Stream-Media.
The following is from Coffee and COVID and Megyn Kelly on Sirius XM:
Thus far this whistleblower is anonymous, but has apparently worked at ABC for many years. He/or she has used some forethought to ensure that his inside info is taken seriously. He made his predictions before the 9/10 debate occurred, and his affidavit was prepared, signed, and notarized before the September 10th debate. He also anticipated that he would be challenged as to when he actually made his predictions, and so he sent a certified letter containing the affidavit to himself, postmarked September 9th, which remains unopened. He also dispatched a FedEx package with the affidavit on September 9th, delivered to his residence on September 10th, which also remains unopened. He also sent a certified letter with the affidavit to Speaker Mike Johnson on September 9th.
In other words, the whistleblowing affiant can prove he signed his prophetic affidavit before the debate. But he offered even potentially more evidence. In the affidavit’s most explosive claim, the whistleblower claimed he has recordings.”

There is a list of shenanigans listed by the affiant. Whether ABC’s deceit reaches the level of criminality has yet to be determined. ABC will, of course, deny the allegations, but I anticipate the Speaker Johnson will have a hearing to attempt to prove or disprove that that this ABC debate was stacked heavily in Harris’s favor. With the real possibility of audio recordings, it will be very difficult for the ABC lawyers to lie under oath -> BOOM!

9/17/24
californiacontrarian

Why did the moderators of the recent Presidential debate fact-check only Donald Trump, and not Kamala Harris?

From C&C:
The Washington Times ran a reverse-fact-check story yesterday headlined, “Data backs up Trump on crime increase, violence up under Biden-Harris administration.” So much for ABC’s debating fact-checkers?

On Tuesday night, after President Trump noted that violent crime is way up under Biden’s open-border “policy,” ABC moderator qua co-debater David Muir, fact-checked President Trump citing FBI data, and claimed that violent crime “is coming down in this country.”
ABC was wrong. It wasn’t just something the Washington Times came up with. The DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics runs an annual National Crime Victimization Survey, which contacts about a quarter-million people in 150,000 households.
The BJS Survey’s conclusions, taken directly from citizen reports, flatly contradicted the FBI’s carefully collated crime data.
Under Trump, nearly all local police departments reported their crime data to the FBI. Now, just three years later, over half of police departments don’t even bother.
A crime expert cited for the story concluded violent crime has increased overall by +37% under the Biden Administration, compared to a drop of -17% under the Trump Administration. Aggravated assaults fell by -24% under Trump, but accelerated +55% under Biden. Robbery reduced -6% under Trump, but rose +63% under Biden. Rape ran flat under Trump, but rose +42% under Biden.
In other words not only was Trump correct, but he was SPOT-ON, while ABC was lying!
Hmmm!
9/16/24