Author: Californiacontrarian

No, I did not watch the Harris/Walz softball interview on CNN, as I had something more important to do. However, I did read what two body-language experts had to say.
From Red State:
“But it should come as no surprise that a body language expert who analyzed Kamala’s performance during the interview told Fox News Digital that Harris lacked both confidence and a presidential demeanor.
According to Susan Constantine, Harris frequently looked down during the CNN interview, which suggested that she was “not confident in what she’s saying.” Constantine explained that Harris did not project the “presidential appearance” required to command her position, adding, ‘She definitely needs to make some tweaks into her body language to appear more confident.’”

In an interview with Just the News, Greg Hartley, a former U.S. Army interrogator, reached similar conclusions.
Hartley noted how Kamala broke eye contact often and explained that looking “down and right” is an “emotional access cue,” while “down and to left” indicates internal reflection, suggesting Harris was thinking about what not to say. He added that she was “prepped a lot to not engage” and to focus on “not being Trump” because she had “no content.” He bluntly stated, “She’s hollow.”

So here we have two experts, who agree with me, even though I did not watch the CNN shenanigans!

californiacontrarian

From recent news it’s apparent that there seems to be more to the attempted assassination of DJT on 7/13/24. As you might recall the FBI very quickly said that Thomas Crooks acted alone … “Crooks was a lone gunman with unknown motives.” This conclusion was formed within twenty-four hours after the assassination attempt. Why so fast?
To me such a speedy conclusion suggests either a superficial investigation … or perhaps some sort of cover-up.
From The League of Power:
“The most recent discovery about Crooks is that he was using encrypted messaging accounts on various platforms located overseas.
Crooks, according to Rep. Michale Waltz (R-FL), had secret communications accounts in Belgium, New Zealand, and Germany – but WHY?
Who was a dietary aide at a nursing home communicating with that was so top secret he felt the need to hide their communications behind encrypted channels?”
Why doesn’t the FBI just let us know what they uncovered?
Suspicions that there is something nefarious going on rise when it comes out that after Crooks was shot, the FBI bleached and cleaned up the crime scene to destroy any evidence AND subsequently ordered his body to be cremated before anybody could look into it any further.

Certainly the FBI has to know more than they are telling us.
WHY ??

9/4/24

If there is a hole in the dike, then sticking a finger in it might be of some temporary benefit, but inevitably there are going to be more holes and thus more potential trouble.
On 8/21/24 Ford chief executive officer Jim Farle did his best imitation of attempting to stop the nonprofitability flow from a hole in Ford’s dike.
From Tech by BlazeMedia:
Ford Motor Company announced that it is recalibrating its EV strategy over concerns about profitability, including scrapping an electric SUV. Ford is canceling plans to manufacture a large, three-row electric SUV.
Farley said, “We loved our three-row crossover and I was so excited to show everyone the work we did. But there was just no way it would ever meet our criteria of being profitable.”
Ford now plans to leverage hybrid technology for its next-generation three-row SUVs.
Ford forecasts smaller, cheaper EVs as the future, while hybrid technology will be utilized for powering larger vehicles.
“This is about us being nimble and listening to responses from our customers,” Ford vice chairman and CFO John Lawler said in a call on Wednesday. “Hybrid tech for those customers is the best solution.”

Bloomberg reported in May, citing sources, that Ford was losing $100,000 for every electric car it delivered in the first quarter of 2024.
As. Ford stockholder my question to Mr. Farle, “Why did it take so long to see the obvious?”

9/3/24

Things

In my home state of California there is a humongous problem with the finances of the state. Basically California is broke. The state’s deficit was roughly $ 32 billion in 2023, which grew to more than $46 billion earlier this year and is now around $60 billion.
The dire financial situation marks a far cry from the more than $100 billion surplus the state enjoyed roughly two years ago, but those revenue spikes proved only temporary as rising unemployment, inflation and a slowing of the tech industry has battered California pocketbooks.

As many are aware the state is run by Democrats, and as many are also aware Democrats really only know how to do two things … raise taxes and give stuff away. Again as any thinking person is aware, raising taxes in a state is a sure way to drive both individuals and businesses from that state. Of course, driving away businesses and individuals that pay taxes is a sure fire way to insure that less future taxes will be collected. Consequently, when less taxes are collected and the spending does not decrease the budget deficit gets worse. And thus we have California – the land of fruits and nuts!

But this is not bad enough. Remember that I said that Dems only know how to do two things. The other thing that Democrats are good at is giving stuff away. So in the midst of a budgetary crisis the Dems now want to give stuff away!
From the Daily Caller:
“California lawmakers are one step closer to making hundreds of millions of taxpayer-funded home loans available to residents living in the country illegally.
Democrats on the California Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved AB 1840 to move forward on 8/15/24 according to an official vote tally of the legislation. The bill has one last chance to be struck down on the Senate floor, where Democrats wield majority power, before it lands on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. The legislation seeks to amend the California Dream For All Shared Appreciation Loan program, an initiative launched last year that provides first-time homebuyers with a loan of up to 20% of the house’s purchase price for down payment or closing cost. If passed and signed into law, illegal migrants living in California would be eligible to apply for a piece of the pie.”

Approval of AB 1840 came on the same day that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign announced she would be unveiling a proposal similar to her home state’s current program: $25,000 in down payment support for first-time homebuyers, including greater support for first-generation homeowners. It’s not clear if the proposal from Harris would explicitly exclude illegal immigrants.
My guess is that initially Kamala would say that illegal immigrants would not be eligible, but she would quickly renege on that if she were to be elected.
8/31/24
californiacontrarian

In Part One I spoke about the decreasing number of young adults who could qualify for the military. However this is only a part of the reason that the U.S. Army is struggling on many fronts. For the second year in a row the Army has failed to meet its recruiting goals. The result is that in 2023 total full-time Army personnel stood at 452,000, a 7 percent decrease from 2021 and the smallest Army since 1940, before the United States entered World War II.
From the Epoch Times:
Could it be that the Army’s biggest hurdle in recruiting and retention is a lack of trust by the people group that has formed the backbone of the U.S. Army since it was established in 1775?
Historically, this people group has been patriotic males who are generally conservative and believe in traditional Judeo-Christian values. Many came from families with a long heritage of military service. And even today, the overwhelming majority of new Army recruits, nearly 80 percent, come from a family with members who have served in the military.

Since the 1980s, we have seen the gradual supplantation of the warrior culture and meritocracy with quotas, sex-based double standards, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. This change, including the repealing of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and a push to support transgenderism in the military, has created a military that is increasingly unattractive to the kind of men you need to fight and win wars.
All of this has resulted in military heritage families advising their children not to enter the military.

Army leadership needs to acknowledge that the ideology with which the military is now thoroughly infected has made it less attractive to honorable men. And until the Army rejects equality and social justice ideologies and returns to traditional American military values and meritocracy, it is going to find it increasingly difficult to meet its recruiting goals, much less recruit the kind of men our country needs to fight and win wars

How to address these issue? … Elect Trump who has pledged to reverse these woke dictums and these liberal military shenanigans on his first day in office.

8/30/24

If any of you listened to RFKJr’s recent speech you may have been as surprised as I to learn that only 23 percent of young adults qualify for the military. Now let’s be clear, that drop to 23% is not because the military standards have increased, but rather because our young adults are no longer what they used to be with the main impediments being obesity and chronic diseases.
Other than the fact the we should all be concerned for the health of our young adults, these impediments are now having a real effect on our military strength. 2024 represents the smallest active-duty force since 1940. In 2023, military shortfalls reached around 41,000 recruits, with the Marines and the sixth Armed Forces branch, the United States Space Force—former President Donald Trump created— being the only branch to reach its recruitment goals
In addition from the Daily Caller:
“The U.S. Navy is reportedly considering drastic measures to tackle manpower shortage, sources told USNI News. The Military Sealift Command (MSC) is reportedly facing operational challenges due to a shortage of qualified civilian mariners. This prompted a strategic plan to sideline 17 Navy support ships, USNI News reported, citing three people familiar with deliberations. This proposal, termed as a “force generation reset,” reportedly aims to alleviate the staffing strain by putting two Lewis and Clark-class replenishment ships, one fleet oiler, twelve Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transports (EPF) and two expeditionary sea bases into extended maintenance while reassigning their crews to other vessels.”

While you may or may not be paying any attention to RFKJr, what he is pointing out in terms of what is happening to our youth is potentially affecting all of us vis-à-vis in regard to our military strength and readiness.

How to address this issue? … Hear more of what RFKJr has to say and what he wants to do by electing Trump in November.
8/29/24
californiacontrarian

In the guise of trying to be fair, I have to ask an obvious question … especially close to 8/26/24, which is the three year anniversary of the Biden/Harris disastrous Abbey-Gate pullout from Afghanistan in 2021.

Biden’s botched withdrawal killed roughly 170 civilians on top of the 13 American troops and left behind roughly $7 billion worth of military equipment that is now in the hands of the Taliban. Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the Biden-Harris State Department, called the withdrawal the “correct policy choice” just two days after the Gold Star families spoke out against the withdrawal in August 2023.

Leading up to the withdrawal, several White House officials like Secretary of State Antony Blinken, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki and the president himself, went on vacation. Biden was also captured in various photos and videos checking his watch while he was waiting for the 13 fallen soldiers to return from overseas.
“Checking his watch” was the ultimate insult to the gold-star families, and just to remind all of us who are ex-military how callous and disrespectful the Biden/Harris administration was, former President Donald Trump’s campaign unveiled a new ad on Monday featuring GOP veteran lawmakers recalling the Abbey Gate suicide bombing that left 13 service members dead at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
The ad, titled “Veterans on Abbey Gate,” included several Republican lawmakers criticizing President Joe Biden’s leadership during the withdrawal and subsequent bombing that killed over a dozen service members on August 26, 2021. In contrast, the lawmakers point out Trump’s treatment of Gold Star families whose relatives died during “one of the deepest failures” in recent American military history.

“I’ve dealt with Gold Star families my entire military career, and naturally, the grief is deep and palpable,” Republican Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida, who served in the National Guard, said in the video. “But I’ve never dealt with a group that’s so angry at Biden and how they’ve been treated.”

“So I said, you know, ‘I’m going to call President Trump,’” Waltz said. “It was literally a 30 second conversation. I laid this out, he said ‘Michael, get them up here.’ He was up at Bedminster, we arranged to get several families up there. We had scheduled about an hour for him to talk to them. He ended up spending about six hours with them.”
Six hours for one presidential candidate, Trump, while the other, Joe Biden spent most of his time checking his watch!
From the Daily Caller:
“Despite Harris’ ‘key role’ in the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, she has failed to express any regret with her administration’s actions,” Brian Hughes, senior advisor for the Trump campaign, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Unlike Kamala Harris, President Trump is willing to say the names of the 13 American heroes who paid the ultimate price for our country.”

I watched the ad, and I think it is not only powerful, but also is done quite well. I recommend that everyone who reads this, should also watch it.
So in summary I again ask, “How can any retired military individual vote for Biden/Harris? For that matter how can anyone who has ever been in the military vote for Biden/Harris?
8/28/24
californiacontrarian

On July 13, 2024, a blade on a Vineyard Wind turbine in Massachusetts snapped and fell into the Atlantic Ocean, damaging the turbine and scattering debris on Nantucket’s beaches. The blade was 107 meters long and was about 20 meters from the turbine when it broke. The blade didn’t fully break, and for several days it hung parallel to the tower. The blade broke into hundreds of pieces, some as large as a car, and other pieces that were small enough to fit in a hand. The debris included fiberglass and foam, and was sharp enough to injure people’s eyes. The turbine is one of a dozen installed so far in the ocean. Each blade weighs more than 70 tons and is longer than a football field. 

A freak occurrence? … or something we should expect more of in the future?
Gordon Hughes is a senior fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics and Professional Fellow of economics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He has studied wind power in several countries. As the turbines get larger, the time of first failure becomes shorter. This applies to both onshore and offshore turbines. Further with salt spray, offshore turbines do not last as long as onshore turbines. Yet, the political trend is building larger offshore turbines in deeper water, making repairs more difficult. Based on data from Denmark, which keeps good records, a graph compiled by Hughes shows that the first-time failure rate (half-life) of large offshore turbines is less than 4.2 years.

How are the people of Nantucket feeling about this?
While environmental groups have said they have not observed any harm on marine life, attendees told Nantucket’s Select Board they’re worried about lasting impacts from small plastic particles that might have fallen off the damaged blade.
Galen Gardner, a retired teacher, said Vineyard Wind and blade manufacturer GE “contributed gobbledegook science and corporate-speak to address the situation.”
“We are here tonight in a packed house to express our anger and dismay over the rape of our oceans, our peace, our prosperity, our beloved marine life,” Gardner said.
Hmmm!

8/27/24

Thanks to a friend (“thank you, Caroline”) I was alerted to RFKJr’s recent speech on 8/23/24. She said that she watched/listened to the whole RFK Jr. speech on why he left the Dem. party and endorsed Trump, and she was captivated.
I, too, watched/listened to RFKJr’s entire speech, and I was also captivated. I think it’s gold!
Of special interest, I think, particularly to those of you who have kids or grandkids is the part on chronic diseases of children. Rather than repeating RFKJr’s concerns about the health of our nation’s children, I thought your time would be better spent listening to RFKJr’s own words.
Listen to his entire speech. I guarantee that you will not regret it.
(Keep in mind that he also speaks about the history of what is happening in Ukraine, and also about the surreptitious actions of the DNC to keep him off the ballot in many states … both of which I also found interesting.)

Google: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. full video of Friday press conference.

I am looking forward to RFKJr speaking both for and with Donald Trump. He will be a valuable addition to the Trump campaign.
8/26/24

As is my usual modis operandi on Sundays I write about individuals who have gone beyond the call of duty. Stuart Hetrick is such an individual.
In the middle of the night Stuart Hetrick was awakened by a call from his daughter, Sarah. As a retired doctor, Stuart Hetrick had spent his life being awakened during the night, but this phone call was special as Sarah had just been involved in a horrific car accident.
On May 27, Ms. Hetrick was on the first leg of a 30-hour drive from Austin to northern Montana to spend her summer months hiking and reconnecting with friends. At half an hour past midnight, she was just north of Amarillo, only 30 minutes from the town she was planning to stay in that night, when she was hit head-on by a driver who was on the wrong side of the road.
Regaining consciousness in her wrecked car, confused and in shock, the marketing professional realized she couldn’t feel her leg.
“I tried to move and get myself out but realized my leg was stuck in the door, and I couldn’t reach my phone,” she told The Epoch Times.

A passerby who stopped to help asked Ms. Hetrick who she wanted to call, and she gave him her dad’s number as she knew it by heart.
At one of the darkest moments of her life, being able to talk to her father, Stuart Hetrick, a retired doctor, was an invaluable experience. He stayed on the phone with her while paramedics and emergency services arrived, assessed the scene, and started the process of getting Ms. Hetrick out of her crushed vehicle.
Ms. Hetrick was then taken to a hospital in Amarillo where she immediately underwent extensive emergency surgery to place a rod in her femur where it had snapped in half.
Being in San Diego meant that Dr. Hetrick couldn’t get to Amarillo until 1 p.m. the following day.
However, as soon as he arrived, he poured all of his energy into supporting his daughter. He was there “probably 75 percent of the time,” only leaving over the weekend of Father’s Day to spend time with his 92-year-old father.

A week after her accident she had a second surgery to insert another rod in my tibia/fibula and plate on her ankle.
With his daughter bed-bound, Dr. Hetrick, who owns a private medical practice, answered her questions, addressed her worries, and advocated for her.
In addition, he also brought her mail and food, opened packages, tidied her room, and retrieved her belongings from her smashed vehicle. He did everything possible, so his daughter could focus on her recovery.

Following her eventual discharge from the hospital on June 19, the crash survivor went to recuperate with her dad and stepmom in San Diego. Functionality is slowly returning to her damaged leg. She has also been progressing in her physical therapy and dealing with the aftermath of shock and trauma, aided immensely by those close to her.
“I’ve learned there’s purpose in every trial,” she said. “Even in the dark moments, God is with us, and no matter what happens to us, we can trust him. … We’re never alone.”
Stuart Hetrick’s response to what he has done for Sarah … “I just did what fathers are supposed to do!”
8/25/24