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As my regular readers are aware Sunday’s pieces are about someone that we can all admire. This Sunday is no different although this week all I have is a first name … “Jim,” and he is from Australia.

From Epoch Bright:

In 2020, Manly Beach resident—and wife of Jim—Maureen was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. She was given only four months to live. However, she has beaten the unimaginable odds, and four years on, she is spreading happiness with her joyful personality.

Whenever the couple spends time outdoors, Maureen can be seen waving at tourists and other people as they pass by. However, in the past, sometimes people didn’t reciprocate with as much enthusiasm, leaving Maureen disappointed. So Jim came up with the idea of printing a customized T-shirt with the words: “My wife has dementia, please say ‘HELLO’ to her.”

To set the wheels in motion, he contacted Jasmin Stockwell, of CRE8withJAZ.

“He didn’t want to just order a T-shirt online,” Ms. Stockwell told The Epoch Times. “He wanted to come in and talk to someone and discuss his idea and make it special.”

At Ms. Stockwell’s studio, Jim worked with her team to come up with the text for the T-shirt, right on the spot. The simple phrase touched Ms. Stockwell and her staff. Seeing Jim wanting to do this for his wife, she said she was moved to tears.

“It was just beautiful,” Ms. Stockwell said. “That’s probably one of the best shirts I’ve ever printed.”

A few weeks later, Jim came back with a request to modify the text—he wanted to add the word “beautiful” to the sentence.

The T-shirt now read: “My beautiful wife has dementia, please say ‘HELLO’ to her.”

This year, Jim and Maureen celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary.

“He’s just making the most of every moment they have together,” Ms. Stockwell said.

One thing is for certain—now, when Jim’s beautiful wife says hello, strangers won’t shy away from greeting her in return.

Kudos to Jim from Australia for multiple reasons!

4/21/24

Who can recall the TV show, “To Tell theTruth?” It was a show on which a celebrity panel questioned three contestants in an attempt to determine the actual person associated with a story. At the end of the questioning the celebrity panel each ventured a guess as to which of the three contestants the real actual person was. After the celebrity guesses the show ended with …”will the real XXX please stand up!” Typically there was feigning by one or two of the three contestants before the real XXX finally stood up. What made it a good show was that those contestants who were not XXX were quite good and believable.

While admittedly I have never been to Scranton, Pennsylvania I had been a loyal viewer for many years of “The Office,” which was set in Scranton. Like most of the viewers of “The Office,” I cannot forget the various antics of the different employees of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. I remember Steve Carell as Michael Scott as well as Dwight, Jim, and Pam. They were all believable characters. Interestingly, the series used an unusual casting process that did not involve a script. For example, the producers asked the actors several questions and they responded as the characters they were auditioning for.

Now compare this to Joe Biden’s recent campaign stop in Scranton. While everyone has been rightfully focused on J.B.’s ridiculous fable about his uncle who was eaten by cannibals in New Guinea, I was focused on the five individuals who were standing behind Joe Biden. OMG, what a sad group of four white men and one woman. The facial expressions of all five telegraphed perhaps what they were thinking , “Why am I here?” “Did I pick the short straw?” “That’s the last time I will let mom talk me into anything!” “Why did I choose to be here when I could have been having my root canal?”

What a sad group! If these five actually represented five of Biden’s Scranton supporters, then either Scranton is a woeful place to live or Biden picked them out himself. Not one of them ever cracked a smile. In fact none of the five ever had a change in their facial expression. In “The Office” there was Oscar (Hispanic) and Stanley (Black). Here there was no attempt at racial diversity. In addition both Jim and Pam were young, vivacious, and good looking … does the real Scranton have any similar individuals? Suffice it to say, I liked the Scranton-ites on “The Office” much more than those presumed Scranton-ites standing around JB … and thus I ask, “Will the real Scranton-ites please stand up.”

Whereas in 2016, Rolling Stone named The Office one of the 100 greatest television shows of all time, the production of this Scranton campaign stop has to be one of 100 worst campaign spots of all time … even before considering  “the fictional cannibals in New Guinea.” 

4/20/

Some of us have lifelong friends and we basically understand their opinions, their peculiarities, and their moral fiber. if one of those lifelong friends did something that seemed totally out of character most of us would be concerned that something is wrong with our friend. Is he sick? Is there some sort of internal family issue that he dealing with?  Is someone or something threatening him? However what most of us would not do is ignore the fact the some underlying thing is happening and thus turn a blind eye.

It seems to me that the same logic that should apply to a change in the basic behavior in a long term friend would also apply to a company … a company that has been like that same long term friend. If a certain company has been honest in its business relationships with its clients, and suddenly this company starts to act in contradistinction to that established trustworthy pattern, who among us wouldn’t suspect that something dire is going on.

And this brings me to the insurance and banking company, USAA. I have been doing business with USAA for well over fifty years, and have always found them to be trustworthy and on the up-and-up.

However, I just read something that concerns me, because what USAA has recently done to John Eastman does not at all sound like that same company that I have known for quite a long time!

From the Daily Caller:

John Eastman is a prominent well-respected conservative attorney. He is one of the left’s biggest political targets, and recently he found himself “de-banked” by USAA, with no warning and little avenue for recourse. 

“De-banking” is a phenomenon in which financial institutions refuse financial service to the targets of political activism, who often end up being conservatives.

Eastman was notified of his USAA accounts being closed on Nov. 20, 2023. A few weeks prior, a California judge made a preliminary decision saying that Eastman was culpable of ethics violations in a state bar disciplinary case, CNN reported.

USAA claimed in its letter that it was “exercising its right to no longer do banking business” with Eastman per its “Depository Agreement.” 

“We may close your account for any reason without advance notice. We may require you to give us a minimum of seven (7) calendar days advance written notice when you intend to close your account by withdrawing your funds,” a section of the agreement reads.

USAA did not respond to the Daily Caller’s multiple requests for comment.

When Eastman inquired about the closures, the banks said it was their policy to not provide any more information on the matter, he told the Daily Caller.

“What these banks are doing is they’re saying you’re either high risk, or we don’t want to do business with you, or whatever it is. There’s no methodology behind this. There’s no kind of reason that matches traditional indicators or traditional metrics that a bank would use to calculate your liquidity, your credit score, whatever it is. They’re using these non-financial factors, and then making these decisions and just like closing people’s accounts,” Eric Bledsoe, an expert on de-banking for the Foundation for Government Accountability, told the Daily Caller.

Hmmm! … to me this sounds very underhanded and bordering on vindictive. But why??

The other interesting suspicious part of this story is the Bank of America also “debanked” Mr. Eastman not long before he was “debanked” by USAA. I have no interest in what BOA is doing as BOA has not been my trusted confidant for almost a half century like USAA has been.

But come on! Two separate “debankings” I a short period of time!

I find it very difficult to believe that these two events are random. 

Why did my trusted insurance company and bank act in a manner that seems so out of character?

Who is putting pressure on these banks to separate themselves from Mr. Eastman?

 Oh, BTW, John Eastman was once an attorney for former President Donald Trump!

 4/19/24

The term “Gaslighting” means to cause (a person) to doubt his or her sanity through the use of psychological manipulation. 

“The economy is fine” and “Inflation is under control.” are recent examples of Joe Biden trying to convince all of us of what we know from our own personal experience is just not the case.

The most recent example of how bad things are has to do with the 99 Cents Only stores across the country. 

From an article by Michael Synder titled:

“I Cannot Afford To Live”: Americans Get Emotional As The U.S. Economy Goes Off The Rails”

“99 Cents Only is moving toward liquidating all of their stores…

99 Cents Only shops will begin shuttering its hundreds of locations as the company moves toward total liquidation.

“99 Cents Only Stores, together with its financial and legal advisors, engaged in an extensive analysis of all available and credible alternatives to identify a solution that would allow the business to continue,” the company said in a press release.

“Following months of actively pursuing these alternatives, the company ultimately determined that an orderly wind-down was necessary and the best way to maximize the value of 99 Cents Only Stores’ assets.”

Prior to the announcement, 99 Cents Only was operating 371 stores in the United States.

Of course we also recently learned that Dollar Tree and Family Dollar will be closing about 1000 stores.”

A lot of less affluent individuals do a lot of shopping at these low-price stores. When they start to close because the store can no longer make it, what are these individuals going to do? Where can they now shop? Who do they believe when the ‘Gaslighter-in-Charge’ says that things are fine. Do they believe what is happening in their day-to-day I lives or do they believe J.B.?

4/18/24

Donald Trump is involved in a trial in New York that is expected to last many weeks, and the judge told him that he must be in the courtroom every day. As is obvious to anyone who is paying attention the timing of this trial and the judge’s dictum mandating that Mr. Trump must be physically present in the courtroom for the trial’s duration is obviously a ploy to prevent Mr. Trump from campaigning.

Dirty pool? … absolutely!

But in my opinion this went from dirty pool to vendetta when the judge would not allow a one day pause so that President Trump to go to his son’s high school graduation. Can anyone explain to me how a one day pause in this trial will make any difference. High school graduations are planned well in advance. A son graduating from high school is a once in a life time experience, and for Donald Trump, his son, Baron Trump, is the last and the only child of his that is still at home. 

One wonders what the judge would do if one one the prosecuting attorneys requested a day’s pause for the same situation. I think we all suspect what the answer would be to that hypothetical.

Going a bit deeper into this issue, could it be that the judge is trying to provoke Mr. Trump into skipping the trial for one day? If that were to happen, then Donald Trump could theoretically be jailed for contempt!

Likewise, what are the odds that Mr. Trump will defy the judge and go to his son’s graduation despite the risk. Some think that politically this might actually be an advantageous way for DJT to project himself as a family man.

4/17/24

www.californiacontrarian.com

I think that my position on Electric Vehicles (EVs) has been pretty consistent … let those who desire and can afford EVs, purchase them. However, do not mandate their use for everyone, as not everyone can afford an EV. Mandating the use of an expensive vehicle that many of the least affluent among us cannot afford seems cruel and regressive, but it is actually worse than what first meets the eye.

From The Daily Caller:

“President Joe Biden’s massive electric vehicle (EV) agenda will subsidize the lifestyles of America’s well-to-do while hitting average people the hardest, economists and auto market analysts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Manufacturers are slashing prices of their EVs to make the vehicles more appealing to consumers, which will increase prices for internal combustion engine (ICE) cars to compensate; this dynamic will only pick up speed and infect the used-car market favored by lower-income consumers as the administration’s stringent regulations kick in over time.

‘As the mandated market share of EVs grows, the number of ICE vehicle sales must shrink. A decreasing number of ICE vehicle sales would have to prop up an increasing number of EV sales. The price hike per ICE vehicle would have to increase to offset losses on the ever-larger volume EVs sold,’ Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow for the Competitive Enterprise Institute. ‘Used cars compete with new cars for customers. If new car prices rise, so will used car prices. Even with generous federal, state, and manufacturer incentives, EVs cost thousands of dollars more than comparable ICE vehicles, and millions of middle-income households are already priced out of the market for new vehicles.’

In 2022, approximately 38.6 million used vehicles were sold, compared to 13.6 million brand new vehicles, according to data aggregated by Statista. The regressive impacts of the administration’s EV agenda stand at odds with much of its rhetoric on its environmental agenda, which broadly seeks to promote climate policy and social justice at the same time.

‘Even if it’s not explicitly stated, the only way that automakers can survive billions in losses from its EV division is to increase the profits from the other division (conventional car),’ Mark Mills, the director of the National Center for Energy Analytics said. ‘The long-term and downstream impacts of this cross-subsidization are “profoundly regressive,” he added, alluding to the fact that the government and manufacturers are taking actions in ways that make luxury EVs less expensive while driving up the costs of models favored by the everyman.”

4/16/24

I have my opinions about Joe Biden and whomever is actually telling him what to do, but what I just read convinces me that the clowns are running this circus. The circus to which I am referring to is the Joe Biden presidency and his re-election team.

From Cleveland.com

Ohio law says that a major party presidential candidate, in order to qualify for the ballot, must be nominated at their respective party’s conventions no later than 90 days before the general election, a date that falls in early August each year. This year’s Democratic National Convention is scheduled for Aug. 19-22, which is after this year’s Aug. 7 deadline. Meanwhile, the Republican National Convention is scheduled for July 15-18, which is well within the deadline.

But for at least for the past two elections where the date has posed a conflict with the Republican and Democratic parties’ plans, lawmakers have agreed to extend the deadline, albeit each time in a one-time fix.”

 But that is not the end of it!

From C&C:

“Following a similar announcement by Ohio earlier this week, Alabama’s Secretary of State announced  that, under state law, the Democratic National Convention is scheduled too late for democrats to get their nominee for president and vice president on the state’s November general ballot.

There’s an easy fix for both problems. The DNC could just move their convention up a few weeks earlier. That’s all it would take.”

More important to me, because the clowns seem to be running the circus,  it might be too late for the Dems to jettison either Biden or Harris from the ballot in either Ohio or Alabama. Hmmm!

4/15/24

For many Sundays now I write about someone who deserves our praise because of what he/she has done or what they stand for. Today is no different. Our man of the day is Kenton Lee., who accomplished something amazing even though it took him six years.

After college this Idahoan decided to take a year off to travel the world. At one point he ended up in Kenya at an orphanage where he noticed that a little girl was literally growing out of her shoes … the front of her shoe had been removed and her toes protruded way beyond the length of the sole. Likewise while in Kenya he observed that many parents could not afford new shoes for the growing feet of their children. After that he had a random idea … what if shoes could expand so as to continue to fit the feet of growing poor children.

Many told him that the idea of an expanding shoe just was not possible, but with the support of family and friends he was able to find a shoe company that would help design a prototype. He then did some fundraising, and established “Because International.” Kenton Lee came up with a mantra , “Small things can make a big difference.”

He raised money to initially to make one-hundred pairs of his expandable shoes, which he took back to Kenya. That was the first time that he was able to put a growing shoe on the foot of a child. It was a huge success and a Kenyon mother repeatedly told him “how important it was!”These shoes can grow five sizes and last for years. Since then Because International has distributed 350,000 pairs of these expandable shoes in 100 countries, mainly in Africa. The shoe is a game-changer for almost 1.5 billion people who need to contend with soil transmitted diseases.

Indeed small things can make a big difference!

Kudos to Kenton Lee.

4/14/24

Those who watched the NCAA Championship basketball game on 4/8 will probably easily understand what I mean by ‘momentum.’ For those who did not watch the game, early in the second half you could feel the momentum changing in favor of U.Conn. It wasn’t one particular play or one isolated basket, but rather a series of things which seemed to make it obvious that what had been a close game in the first half was changing. In other words the momentum was changing, and the remainder of the game was not that close. U. Conn won handily.

From BlazeMedia:

Earlier in the week a young black woman, Michaelah Montgomery, went viral for hugging Trump at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta. She explained why many young black voters support him: ‘He’s honest’

She also called Trump “relatable” and indicated he actually listens to the concerns of everyday Americans. “This is somebody who’s talking to them and not just saying what they want to hear,” she claimed

To me this marked the beginning of the ‘Mo.’

On 4/12 while I was at the gym my exercise bicycle was positioned directly in front of a TV that had Fox News, and luckily for me there was a press conference with Speaker Johnson alongside Donald Trump. Apparently they had just finished a private meeting, and each gave a short speech encapsulating what they had discussed. After that Donald Trump took questions. He had no list from which to call on the reporters who asked him questions. There was no teleprompter. The questions were not similar to the softball questions that are lobbed at Joe Biden. Mr. Trump answered them without notes. To me the entire Q&A was unscripted. This was eons different from the totally set-up Q&As that President Biden occasionally does. 

On my way home I had the distinct feeling that I could feel the momentum changing … the Big Mo!

4/13/24

Is it possible that one of the scourges of Covid could also be caused by the Covid vaccine? Here I am speaking about “long Covid,” and “post-vaccination syndrome. Long Covid is a chronic condition that results from a Covid infection and post-vaccination syndrome obviously results from the Covid vaccine. The symptoms of both can include headache, fatigue, brain fog, dizziness, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, etc. The cause of Long Covid is not precisely understood, although some think that it is due to the spike protein of the Covid virus.

From the Epoch Times:

Researchers from InCellDx, recently published a paper that demonstrated that the same spike protein could remain in immune cells for more than 245 days following vaccination. The study evaluated 50 patients who developed long COVID-like symptoms after the COVID-19 vaccine; none had been infected with the virus.

InCellDx also published a paper in 2022 showed that unvaccinated long-COVID patients could have spike protein persist in their immune cells for 15 months. In both papers, the spike proteins were detected in monocytes, immune cells that circulate the body.

The present study evaluated 50 patients who developed long COVID-like symptoms after the COVID-19 vaccine; none had been infected with the virus.

The authors extracted immune cells from 14 post-vaccine patients and found that 13 had spike protein in their immune cells. Asymptomatic vaccinated people had no spike present.

These findings indicate that the persistence of these spike proteins was likely the driver for the symptoms of long COVID and post-vaccine syndrome.”

In addition, just this week The Australian Journal of General Practice (the AJGP) came out with a long piece intimating that the spike protein in the vaccine could also be responsible for Long Covid. (AJGP is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. It is a well-respected journal indexed in all the major sci/med databases, and it is widely read by Australian doctors in general practice.)

So could it be that what “those who know best” told us, namely that the Covid vaccine would prevent Covid and thus prevent Long Covid, could have actually induced more Long Covid symptoms in patients because of the vaccine? 

The other interesting part of this Epoch Times article is that InCellDx founder and lead study author Dr. Bruce Patterson uses the same protocol for treating long COVID and post-vaccine syndrome. Both treatments entail curbing inflammation in the blood vessels and throughout the body. His protocol includes using maraviroc, an HIV drug, and atorvastatin, a type of statin, to target vasculature inflammation.

Could this be another use for statins? 

I wonder if there is any correlation between the taking of statins and the absence of either Long-Vax or Long Covid symptoms?

4/12/24

californiacontrarian