Category: Uncategorized

Unfortunately it seems that President Biden and the Dems have painted themselves into a corner as far as EVs are concerned. For a while I have been saying that EVs will not take over the auto market, and the other day I read something practical that encapsulated the way I feel about the future of EVs. 

From America Out Loud:

“The EV market hits the brakes as sales hit a speed bump!”

“The elites have bought EVs, and elites may continue to buy EVs, BUT we’re quickly running out of elites.

The current EV ownership profiles are reflected in the oligarchic elite owners are that they are:

• Highly educated.
• Highly compensated.
• Multi-car families.
• Low mileage requirements for the families’ second car, i.e., the EV.
• Reside in a “temperate” climate like CA or FL. Almost 40% of EVs are in CA, and CA has 6 times as many EVs as FL.”

However, the same truths about “elites” and EVs  will also start to soon apply to California. Whereas California certainly has a lot of elites, it also has quite a share of non-elites that are mostly owners of internal combustion engine vehicles, and they are dramatically different from most potential EV vehicle owners.

• Many are single-car owners,
• Most of the potential car buyers are not as highly educated.
• Nor as highly compensated as the elite EV owners.
• Mandating a change to EV ownership and forced austerity, may face a rebellion from those that need affordable vehicle transportation.

The average debt in America is almost $60,000 across credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, and student loans. The common folks need a workhorse vehicle, not just a second car toy that sits in the garage to be used on short ventures!

Mandating a change to EV ownership and further financial austerity onto those who can least afford it is facing a rebellion from those who need transportation. The problem is that manufacturers are loading up the “supply chain” with EVs on dealer lots, but they’re not seeing the “demand” for EVs coming from the public.”

And in a similar vein last week Apple announced that it was pulling out of the EV market despite working on an EV for ten years and investing $10 billion over that period of time. 

Does Apple know something or realize something that other makers of EVs do not?

3/12/24

www.californiacontrarian.com

Was the entire January 6th debacle a set-up?

For a long time now I have been suspicious both of what happened on January 6th and of the infamous subsequent January 6th Committee.

As everyone is aware those on the January 6th Committee were hand picked by Nancy Pelosi to make it appear bipartisan even though those chosen by Republicans were not allowed to be on that so-called “bipartisan” Committee. Those “Republican” members were way more far left than even typical RINOs.

On 3/10/24 I read something in BlazeMedia that only goes to further validate my suspicions. The headline read:

“Liz Cheney, Jan. 6 Committee suppressed key evidence of Trump pushing for 10,000 National Guard troops to protect Capitol: Report”

A transcribed interview conducted by the committee from January 2022 appears to show evidence that Trump urged Democrat leadership to bring in thousands of National Guard troops to prevent any widespread violence on Jan. 6, according to a new report from The Federalist.

Then-Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato was interviewed by the committee on Jan. 28, 2022. The transcripts show that he told Cheney and other investigators that he overheard White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows urge Democrat D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to request as many National Guard troops as she needed to protect the city before the demonstrations centered around the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“Ornato testified that Meadows ‘wanted to know if she need[ed] any more guardsmen.’

“And I remember the number 10,000 coming up of, you know, ‘The president wants to make sure that you have enough.’ You know, ‘He is willing to ask for 10,000.’ I remember that number,” Ornato told the January 6 Committee. “Now that you said it, it reminded me of it. And that she was all set. She had, I think it was like 350 or so for intersection control, and those types of things not in the law enforcement capacity at the time.

“As Blaze News previously reported in January, the Jan. 6 Committee has been accused of deleting password-protected files that contained “critical information” just days before Republicans seized the majority in the House of Representatives. (The former Democratic-led House Select Committee on January 6 allegedly deleted password-protected files that contained “critical information” just days before Republicans seized the majority in the House of Representatives, Fox News Digital reported on 1/22/24.)

So it appears that Trump basically begged for more National Guard, and that his requested number was denied, and the number of National Guard that was called up was slow-walked. … Hmmm!

Then not only did this “bipartisan” Committee ignore and dismiss testimony this contrary, but just to make sure that such info never came to light, the January 6th Committee allegedly deleted their password protected files! … Hmmm!

3/11/24

As many are aware on Sundays, I write about heroes that we can praise.

From Epoch Times, Bright:

Charlotte County Sheriff’s Deputy Dave Musgrove doesn’t normally work nights, but on this particular late evening, on Thursday, Feb. 8, he was patrolling near Englewood, Florida.

It was dark, around 7:30 p.m. He was driving in the right-hand lane when he was passed by a speeding motorcyclist—who had just moments to live.

Approaching from behind, the motorcycle zipped by him, moving at what the officer guessed to be about 100 miles per hour. As both vehicles continued down the road, they approached an intersection.

“I saw a bright flash up ahead of me and a cloud of smoke,” Deputy Musgrove later told Fox News, describing what unfolded.

Within seconds of his arrival at the intersection, it was obvious that the motorcycle had collided with a car near the median. 

“My initial reaction was trying to find the motorcyclist,” Deputy Musgrove told the station. “But then I heard Kayleigh screaming.”

A mother, Kayleigh Foley, and her two babies were trapped inside the car that had been hit by the motorcycle. As Deputy Musgrove is seen approaching, her desperate screams can be heard, calling for him to save her two baby daughters.Her 3-year-old is still alive in the backseat. The officer manages to free her, yet he cannot leave the little girl unattended at the busy intersection while continuing to save the family.Speaking to Fox News later, he expressed gratitude for two bystanders who stopped, a mother and a man named Hunter, who held the toddler as he continued rescuing the family.Ms. Foley is heard hysterically pleading for her 6-month-old, who is still trapped in the back seat. Deputy Musgrove finds her in the car seat—trapped under the body of the deceased motorcyclist inside the car.After managing to free the baby from the wreckage, the deputy’s work is not done yet. He finds the infant isn’t breathing and begins chest compressions on her while bystanders hold back the terrified mom.

Finally, the tense moment gives way to hope as Deputy Musgrove hears the 6-month-old take a deep breath. Just then, EMS arrives.EMS take over the lifesaving efforts and soon detect a pulse, immediately informing the waiting, worried mother. Though in critical condition, the baby is doing well.

Deputy Musgrove is a true hero, saving a three-year old and a six-month old in a span of just a few minutes!

3/10/24

Granted although I was a practicing physician for many years, in no way, shape, or form do I profess to have expertise in infectious diseases. Likewise, I am certainly not an ‘anti-vaccer,’ having gotten flu-shots every year for close to fifty-five years including this year, and similarly having gotten the initial Covid vaccinations (the first two plus one booster).

Today I read an interesting article from The Hill, entitled:

“Is it long COVID or long vax? Does the government want to know?”

The gist of this article is that while there certainly appears to be what is called, “Long Covid,” a large portion of patients with this group of symptoms relate the onset to the Covid vaccine.

From the article (The Hill, 3/6/24) one of the two authors states:

“In two years, the practice has evaluated and treated over 1,000 individuals. Approximately 70 percent of these patients said their reported symptoms occurred in the minutes, hours, days and weeks after COVID vaccination, as opposed to after COVID infection. This could be tied to a new condition that’s flown under the radar until recently.

“This syndrome, dubbed “long vax,” is just starting to make its way into the medical literature. Dr. Harlan Krumholz at the Yale School of Medicine published a survey of 241 patients who described post-COVID vaccination symptoms of exercise intolerance, excessive fatigue, numbness, brain fog and neuropathy, a nervous system disorder that can cause pain, tingling sensations, numbness or weakness. Long COVID patients were excluded from the study, which is now undergoing peer review.”

As part of my Hippocratic Oath, I occasionally feel somewhat obligated  to report on pertinent medical issues that are unlikely to be mentioned in the Main Stream Media (MSM). Dollars-to-Donuts because this new info goes against what the MSM has been lecturing to us about for the last few years, the issue of “long vax” will not make it to WaPo, the NYT, USA Today, etc. in the foreseeable future!

3/9/24

Well, I must admit that I did not see it coming in Biden’s SOTU address.

But just when I think that JB could not stoop any lower, he continues to surprise, or perhaps better said, “disgust” me by showing his true character. I guess the best I can say is that at least he is consistent. 

By this time everybody is familiar with Lakin Riley, the Georgia nursing student who was recently viciously murdered … “allegedly” by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant, who was only in this country, because of Joe Biden’s border policies. 

One would logically assume that JB would reflexively avoid any mention or any reference  to Lakin Riley. However, while JB could have acted like a responsible person, and apologized to the dead girl’s family, he did something even more cowardly while on national TV during his SOTU address … he somehow tried to blame Republicans for her death because the House has not voted on the present Senate’s immigration bill. A young girl is dead, and for some political gain, Joe Biden somehow tried to blame her death after the fact, on the House of Representatives.

If JB would have avoided mentioning the name of Lakin Riley, I would have understood it, but to mention her name and then somehow allude that her blood on the hands of the Republican House of Representatives

is Disgusting and Revolting.

I have to admit that I did not see it coming … him mentioning her name! Just when I thought that I could not have any less respect for Joe Biden, his true character again surfaces, exceeding my expectations.

As an aside I have to complement the Speaker of the Hose, Mike Johnson, who calmly sat behind Biden while he was giving the speech. Johnson certainly showed his character as he showed respect for the Office of the President by remaining mostly straight-faced. I point this out to contrast Mike Johnson’s respectful behavior with that of then Speaker Nancy Pelosi a few years back at a President Trump’s SOTU speech. While Pelosi’s behavior was a true representation of her character, so too was Speaker Mike Johnson’s behavior a true representation of his character! Indeed they were both consistent.

3/8/24

While the hot news of the day out of Fulton County, Georgia is about the relationship between Fani Willis and Nathan Wade … when did it start? Did they use funds to pay for lavish vacations? Etcetera, etcetera. However, I think that an equally important issue has to do with the meetings between the Trump prosecutorial team and the White House.

While appears that there were at least two such meetings, my question has to be … why were they conferring at all?

From the N.Y. Post:

Mr. Wade was reimbursed $4,000 for two eight-hour meetings at the White House on May 23 and Nov. 18, 2022, which were listed as “Conf with White House Counsel” and “interview with DC/White House,” 

Another invoice shows that he met with the Democrat-led House January 6th Select Committee in April 2022, giving Willis’ attempts to gather evidence for her case a “boost,” Politico reported.

Hmmm!  Meeting with the White House to give the case a “boost!”

In addition from the Epoch Times:

Ashleigh Merchant, lawyer for a Trump co-defendant in Fulton County, Georgia, alleged that District Attorney Fani Willis met with Vice President Kamala Harris before she indicted former President Donald Trump last year.

Ms. Merchant on Wednesday showed a Georgia Senate committee White House records that showed Ms. Willis had a meeting there on Feb. 28, 2023, or months before she handed down the indictments in August of that year. The mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dickens, she claimed, was also at the meeting.

“I did an open records for the White House access,” the lawyer said, adding that “we have records that Ms. Willis and the mayor of Atlanta at a meeting with [the] vice president,” or Ms. Harris. The White House record appeared to show that the district attorney had a meeting with “VPOTUS” on the “side lawn/tent” on Feb. 28 of last year at 4:50 p.m. ET.

Hmmm! Why meet with Kamala Harris?

To me it certainly seems as if the White House was colluding with the Fulton County DA to persecute a political opponent. It’s hard for me to envision that this sort of collusion could be on the up and up!

3/7/24

From the WSJ (3/5/24):

Electric Cars Emit More Soot

They have greater tire wear, the source of most particulate matter. California is trying to conceal that fact.

“[B]anning gasoline cars would do little to reduce particulate emissions, and it could even increase them,” they conclude. 

But the news gets worse for proponents of electric cars: they’re not “zero-emission” at all:

California calls electric cars “zero emissions vehicles” because they don’t have tailpipes. That is deceptive. Generating the electricity that powers those cars creates particulate pollution, and of course electric cars still use tires, which are made from petroleum. Electric cars weigh far more than gasoline-powered ones, so their tires degrade faster, as electric car buyers are learning. 

From Red State:

“California says tailpipes are the problem with fossil-fuel-powered cars, but the WSJ writers argue that tire wear from the far-heavier EVs is more contaminating:

Where do most particulate emissions attributed to cars come from? California speaks as if their primary source is the tailpipe. That was true in the past. But today most vehicle-related particulate matter comes from tire wear. Cars are heavy, and as their tires rub against the road, they degrade and release tiny, often toxic particles. According to measurements by an emission-analytics firm, in gasoline cars equipped with a particle filter, airborne tire-wear emissions are more than 400 times as great as direct exhaust particulate emissions.

But the news gets worse for proponents of electric cars: they’re not “zero-emission” at all:

California calls electric cars “zero emissions vehicles” because they don’t have tailpipes. That is deceptive. Generating the electricity that powers those cars creates particulate pollution, and of course electric cars still use tires, which are made from petroleum. Electric cars weigh far more than gasoline-powered ones, so their tires degrade faster, as electric car buyers are learning. 

So it appears that EVs are not the saviors that they are advertised to be.

I look forward to a response to this WSJ article by Biden and Newsom … but, of course, no surprise, nothing will be forthcoming!

3/5/24

For a long time I have argued that it is common sense to prove your American citizenship to vote … and here I mean to vote in any election, perhaps with the exception of class president.

Those of you who have read my opines regularly know what kind of I.D. is necessary to cast a vote in Mexico – a picture I.D. with a fingerprint. Here I am not just guessing or assuming as I have seen and examined such a Mexican voting I.D. In addition I was told that there is a serious penalty for an individual if he/she attempts to vote with a fraudulent or tampered with voting I.D.

From Townhall:

“Arizona Federal Judge Rules Voters Must Prove Their U.S. Citizenship Status In Order to Vote In Elections”

The background –

“In March 2022, a group of plaintiffs led by the Hispanic voting rights organization “Mi Familia Vota” filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, claiming that the state’s law was unconstitutional. 

The Biden Administration filed a separate complaint that was consolidated in the case.”

Of course, the Biden administration felt it necessary to chime in. After all before long the law will probably require that even a dead person will not be allowed to vote!

Arizona Judge Susan Bolton concluded:

“Considering the evidence as a whole, the court concludes that Arizona’s interests in preventing non-citizens from voting and promoting public confidence in Arizona’s elections outweigh the limited burden voters might encounter when required to provide (documentary proof of citizenship).”

FYI: No ,Judge Bolton was not appointed by President Trump. In fact she was was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Arizona , and was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 3, 2000.

3/4/24

On Sundays I write about individuals whom we should respect because 

of a variety of different reasons. 

Valerie Johnson certainly showed impressive determination on Feb 24.

From The Epoch Times

She is a South Carolina woman who tripped on the way to a polling place on Feb. 24 and broke her hip. 911 was called, but she refused to be loaded into an ambulance unless she could cast her vote.

She is now recovering from hip surgery at an area hospital following her fall in the parking lot on the way to a polling place at the White Knoll High School in Lexington, South Carolina. She told The Epoch Times that she tripped over her own feet when she was hurrying in to vote. Ms. Johnson, who is in her 60s, said she was in a great deal of pain after she fell but was determined to vote.

“I told myself, I’m going to get there and vote. No matter if I got to crawl there,” she said.

Brian Shiel, a local security guard who was volunteering at the polling place that day, said he saw Ms. Johnson fall and called 911. “She was hurting, really hurting,” he said, adding that she had to be loaded onto a stretcher.

Mr. Shiel told The Epoch Times that he was shocked when she refused to be taken to the hospital until after she cast her vote.

Mr. Shiel said he admired Ms. Johnson’s dedication to her civic duty to vote.

“[There are] a lot of people who won’t even go out to the polls if it’s raining,” he said.

Because Ms. Johnson was lying on the ground, the curbside voting machine had to be taken down from the cart and placed on the ground. The machine is usually wheeled to a car and lifted toward the window.To qualify for curbside voting in Lexington County, you have to either be 65 years or older or unable to walk or stand.

“Ms. Johnson definitely qualified,” said Lenice Shoemaker, director of registrations and elections in Lexington County!

3/3/

Right from the git-go let me be clear … I have a lot of awareness of and sympathy for the masses of impoverished people in Central America. However, my “one brick at a time” solution to this issue is to try to make life better for these individuals … in their own country!

From Townhall: 

A billboard in Times Square went up on Thursday, 2/22/24, highlighting how the Biden administration’s failure to secure the border is affecting communities across America. The billboard reads, “Hey Joe! If cops aren’t safe because of your open borders, nobody is,” and shows video of NYPD officers getting assaulted by a group of illegal immigrants last month.”

Meanwhile closer to home from Fox News, on that same day, 2/22/24:

“In San Diego County a migrant center announced it will be forced to close its doors after running out of funds to assist the overwhelming number of asylum-seekers who have illegally crossed into the county.

The mayor of nearby El Cajon, Calif., told Fox News  that he fears the welcome center’s closure will quickly become a ‘serious problem’ for his community.

‘Over the past few months, we’ve seen 100,000 migrants come across the San Diego border,’ Mayor Bill Wells told ‘Fox and Friends First.’

‘A lot of those have been absorbed by this county shelter that used taxpayer money. They asked for $3 million and they spent over $6 million and now they say they’re out of money. So we’re going to see migrants congregating in our streets.’

‘I think it’s going to become a pretty serious problem pretty quickly.’

U .S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data obtained by Fox News reveals that nearly 140,000 illegal immigrants in total have crossed into the San Diego sector since Fiscal Year 2024 began on October 1st.

‘The Border Patrol tells us we’re going to go from about 300 drop-offs a day to maybe a thousand drop-offs a day,’ Wells said.”

My question is, “How long before San Diego starts to experience the same, and becomes as dangerous as New York City?”

3/2/24