Month: August 2021

Is this just the beginning? The beginning of the liberal main stream media and Democrat politicians turning on their own – their own President and his inane and inept handling of the crisis in Afghanistan.

From CNN:

Nine members of one family were killed in a US drone strike targeting a vehicle in a residential neighborhood of Kabul, according to a relative of those killed. Those killed included six children, the youngest being a 2-year-old girl, the brother of one of the dead told a local journalist working with CNN.  The brother cried as he told the journalist that they were “an ordinary family.”

From Marc Thiessen, Washington Post, 8/30/21:

“Americans have been told that the fall of Kabul took the Biden administration by surprise, creating a situation — completely beyond our control — where the United States had to depend on the Taliban for security in the Afghan capital as the U.S. military conducted the evacuation.

That tale turns out to be untrue. The Post reports that the Taliban offered to allow the U.S. military to take responsibility for security in Kabul — but we declined. In other words, our dependence on the Taliban for security in Kabul was not a fait accompli, but a choice — an American choice.”

Again from Marc Thiessen on Twitter:

“Taliban offered to stay out of Kabul and let US forces secure the city. We told them we only needed the airport. We could have controlled the airport and Kabul and evacuated everyone but chose not to. The incompetence is stunning.”

Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), wrote in a lengthy Twitter thread on Saturday that he has been working diligently to get U.S. citizens and green card holders into the airport, but he has not been able to do so.

Kim wrote in part:

“They were outside one of the airport gates. They begged for someone to come out and get them. … They have little kids and were concerned by the chaos surrounding them. But they didn’t want to leave because they were mere feet from reaching safety on the other side of the airport wall.

Within minutes of receiving this request, I happened to be meeting in person with one of the most senior officials at the State Dept. … I asked directly for a phone number American citizens can call if in an emergency like this family stuck at the gate. If I could get a number I planned to excuse myself from the meeting and immediately send it to the family at the gate. I was told no such number exists.”

So within twenty-four hours the liberal CNN, the liberal WAPO, and a Democrat from the House all ragging on various aspects of the Biden screw-up. How much longer before this rivulet turns into a tidal wave?

8/31/21

My new favorite columnist, Wayne Allen Root (W.A.R.) has a brutal column in which he accuses Joe Biden of TREASON … multiple times for many varied reasons. Mr. Root proclaims that the only logical way to explain many of Joe Biden’s actions is to assume that he is basically acting on behalf of China. In words of W.A.R.:

“I’ve warned for many months now that Biden is the most corrupt president in history. I believe he and his family are owned lock, stock and barrel by the Chinese Communist Party.”

He continues:

“Everything Biden has done, every action, every statement and every policy since his inauguration has weakened America and enriched China. None of this can be a mistake or coincidence. Biden and his puppet handlers are beholden to China.”

Before W.A.R. went through the details about why he thinks Joe Biden is guilty of treason, I disagreed, because I thought that the simplest explanation for all of Biden’s missteps is that he is dumb. Plain and simple, he is a ne’er-do-well who graduated near the bottom of his law school class … and his smarts have not improved over the last fifty years.

I was on J.B.’s side! 

From W.A.R.:

“Who evacuates the military first, leaving thousands of American citizens unprotected from bloodthirsty savages? Everyone knows you evacuate the citizens first, then the equipment and lastly the military. No one could be stupid enough to send the military home first. This was no mistake. This is TREASON.”

Hmmm, I am starting to believe that no one could be this dumb!

W.A.R. continues:

“Second, who leaves $85 billion of military equipment on the ground? Overnight, we just made the Taliban the 26th most powerful military in the world — with your taxpayer money. Who does that? No one is this stupid. This was no mistake. This is TREASON.

W.A.R. is on a roll:

“Third, who puts the Taliban in full charge of security for American citizens? This is pure insanity. That would be like putting the Gestapo or SS in charge of getting Jews safely out of Germany. No one could be that naive. This was no mistake. This was TREASON.”

While initially trying to stick up for Joe Biden, my resolve is weakening.

“But wait, it gets worse. Biden gave the names of our citizens and Afghan allies to the Taliban to allow them through the gates of the Kabul airport. That’s a “Kill List” for the Islamic State group to hunt down all our people. The U.S. government has officially named the Taliban “terrorists.” And Biden is handing the names of our citizens to terrorists? This is no mistake. This is TREASON.”

At this point W.A.R. is convincing me!

He continues:

“What president would even consider leaving Americans behind to be murdered or held hostage for ransom? This is no mistake. This is TREASON.”

“Who spends 20 years, trillions of taxpayer dollars and American lives and limbs, then just runs away so China can waltz right in and take possession of all the lithium and rare-earth minerals? No one is this dumb. This is no mistake. This is TREASON.”

At this point I am finding it increasingly hard to believe that stupidity alone could lead to this big of a disaster. One idiotic decision … perhaps. Two bonehead decisions … possible, but against the odds! But multiple dopey decisions, one right after the other … at this point I am no longer at a loss for words. I am convinced. There is no P.C. way to say this as I am hearing more and more calls to … “string-up the treacherous bas***d.” 

8/30/21

If you are an author there are some things that you would be hesitant to put in your fictional novel, because they are so far out that a reasonable reader would have a difficult time actually believing that they could really happen.

Hopefully in the not too distant future reasonable people will look back at 2021, and say something akin to “I cannot believe that things were so askew and topsy-turvy back then!”

What sort of things might those in the future be looking back at?

Where to start? (The following are in no particular order of absurdity.)

On 8/26/21 the Supreme Court struck down a Biden-backed eviction moratorium in a 6-3 ruling. The Court said that Biden and the CDC did not have the authority to impose and renew the moratorium. Now one might ask why this threatens the limit of believability, as it certainly seems reasonable. The unbelievable part is that three of the Justices dissented. One might ask which constitution they were reading when they so voted? As Mollie Hemingway tweeted, “Scandalous that it wasn’t 9-0, given the Constitution and the law.”

On that same day Harvard University selected a man who does not believe in God to be the school’s chief chaplain. It difficult to think of a more woke definition of an oxymoron. As one might recall, Harvard University was established by Puritan colonists to educate American clergymen under the motto “Truth for Christ and the Church.” It was founded in 1636 as a Puritan/Congregationalist institution for training ministers. When I first read this headline I thought that for sure this was a make believe headline from the satirical Babylon Bee, but no! it was real!

Again on the same day to complete the “the world is topsy-turvy trifecta”:

U.S officials in Kabul provided the Taliban with the names of Americans and Afghan allies to evacuate. Note that the Taliban has a history of murdering Afghans who collaborated with the U.S. and allies. … So, of course, the logical thing to do is to help the Taliban identify all of them, so they that can be rounded up and slaughtered.

But lest one might be convinced that 8/26/21 was just a ‘bad topsy-turvy day’ for irrationality, a quick review of this entire year would offer some other tipsy-turvy things that have happened in 2021.

Granted most believe that the U.S. has been in Afghanistan too long. However, to pull out all of the American troops during the so-called fighting season in Afghanistan was nuts. And to give up the Bagram Air Base before getting the Afghan civilians out safely was even nuttier!  And how it was done was even more nuttier!!

From National Review:

“On the night of July 1, the United States military departed from Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan ‘without notifying the base’s new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans’ departure more than two hours after they left,’ the Associated Press reported at the time.”

If this entire topsy-turvy Afghanistan situation was not so tragic, one might be tempted to ask if Bozo the clown was in charge.

Then there are teenage boys that tell us that they are really girls. Insanity!

But even more insane is that some adults believe that at thirteen or fourteen these adolescents are indubitably correct. The absolute insanity doesn’t stop there, as now some topsy-turvy courts are going along with this nonsense. 

From Virginia:

A Virginia school board will pay more than $1.3 million to the American Civil Liberties Union after losing a court battle involving a transgender student who sued the school over its bathroom policy, thus marking the end of a lengthy six-year legal fight. Much more than topsy-turvy, this is insanity!

I could go on and on, but because this piece is already running long, let me close with just one more example of tipsy-turviness … our so-called “devoutly Catholic” President is a big supporter of abortion. However what is even worse is that my local Bishop, Robert McElroy, is not only a big Biden fan, but also encourages to all who would listen that Biden’s backing of abortion is somehow okay and acceptable. 

Oops … I am getting too dizzy to think about the topsy-turvy year of 2021 any more.

8/29/21

The wearing of masks is back in vogue in many places, whereas not so much in other places. The major question continues to be, do they work? The best I can tell, there has not been a definitive study that documents that wearing a mask prevents Covid. On the other hand, the argument for wearing a mask is something akin to, “why not, as they do no harm.” Likewise, the best I can tell, there is no definitive study on this position either. During the lockdowns a similar argument was made … “lockdowns are good – what possible harm can come from staying inside all the time?” Actually plenty of harm was done to certain individuals … increased drug overdoses, increased suicides, increased spousal abuse, etc.

One of my major disagreements with our present state of mask wearing is that all masks are not the same. Even though it should be common sense that all masks are not equal, again the best I can tell, there is no standard by which face masks are rated and/or compared. Europe does have a system of sorts for grading masks, but the U.S. does not. Hmmm!

A cloth mask blocks only 3% of viral particles from reaching the wearer, according to a study in the British Medical Journal(BMJ).

For comparison N95 or KN95 masks block 95% of incoming viral particles.

Flat surgical masks made from nonwoven polypropylene would be an improvement as they block out 56% of virus particles, according to the same British study.

Is there a downside to mask wearing? Again according to another article from the BMJ (BMJ 2020;369:m2003):

-Wearing a mask may give a false sense of security and make people adopt a reduction in compliance with other important infection control measures1

-People must avoid touching their masks and adopt other management measures, otherwise masks are counterproductive.

From that same BMJ article:

Other potential side effects that we must consider, however, are:

-The quality and volume of speech between people wearing masks is considerably compromised and they may unconsciously come closer

-Wearing a mask makes the exhaled air go into the eyes. This generates an impulse to touch the eyes. If your hands are contaminated, you are potentially infecting yourself.

-Face masks make breathing more difficult. Moreover, a fraction of carbon dioxide previously exhaled is inhaled at each respiratory cycle. Those phenomena increase breathing frequency and deepness, and they may worsen the burden of covid-19 if infected people wearing masks spread more contaminated air. This may also worsen the clinical condition of infected people if the enhanced breathing pushes the viral load down into their lungs.

What about masks and school children?

As David Zweig noted in New York Magazine, “many of America’s peer nations around the world — including the U.K., Ireland, all of Scandinavia, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy — have exempted kids, with varying age cutoffs, from wearing masks in classrooms” without experiencing more school-related COVID-19 outbreaks than the U.S. has seen. 

8/28/21

These days we seem to be having an epidemic within an epidemic. No I am not talking about the delta variant which apparently is as contagious as chickenpox and spreading even among the fully vaccinated.

This new epidemic is that of chaos and confusion.

With Covid the CDC seems to be in a state of chaos and confusion. 

From the NYT:

After saying in May that vaccinated people could go maskless both indoors and outdoors, the agency did an about-face last week, once again recommending indoor masking for everyone — vaccinated or not — in places where the virus is spreading rapidly.

Anthony Fauci even admitted the store-bought masks we’ve been wearing does zilch in curbing the spread of COVID (via NYT). Chaos and confusion.

Other than with Covid, the chaos and confusion continue elsewhere.

At the direction of President Joe Biden and in defiance of a recent Supreme Court ruling, the Centers for Disease Control issued a 60-day eviction moratorium on 8/3.

The new 60-day CDC eviction moratorium carries steep criminal penalties for individual landlords who break the law:

– Potential $100k fine and 1 year in jail if eviction doesn’t result in death

– Up to $250k fine and 1 year in jail if evicted person dies.

If this isn’t the epitome of chaos and confusion, I’m not sure what is.

The made up  penalties are stiff and arbitrary, but worse it is unclear where the CDC gets the authority to enforce a “law” that Congress did not pass. Apparently the CDC thinks that it is now a combination of the legislative branch (making laws), and the judicial branch (overruling the Supreme Court), while the executive branch is busy mimicking a Biden bobble-head doll. 

8/27/21

Before I get to the meat of this piece, I want to be clear on two things.

First: From my way of thinking there is no way that Joe Biden got over 80 million votes in the last election. He campaigned mainly from his basement and had no real message. In addition he had very small unenthusiastic “crowds” when he did venture out into the open, and yet we are to believe that he “won.”

Second: I do not know any way to put this in a politically correct way … to many Democrats, cheating is a way of life. They have no compulsion about being fair and on the up-and-up. They are the epitome of “the end justifies the means” philosophy. As Elvis sang back in June, 1963, “they’re the devil in disguise.” They cheated in multiple ways in and before November, 2020. At this point I have neither the time nor the proclivity to detail all of their shenanigans, but rather would like to just focus on one … mail-in voting.

As if I needed any proof that more skullduggery is afoot, the Democrats in Congress back expansion of mail-in voting in legislation known as HR 1 and S 1, dubbed the For the People Act, which also would allow the controversial practice of ballot harvesting, ban most voter ID laws, and restrict states in maintaining voter rolls. Again remember that in their game plan, the end justifies the means.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation, a conservative watchdog group on election integrity, released a research brief on 8/18/21 assessing the effect of mass mail-in balloting in an election with a close presidential race in key battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin. 

“These figures detail how the 2020 push to mail voting needs to be a one-year experiment,” J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, said in a public statement.”

Almost 15 million mail-in ballots were unaccounted for in the 2020 presidential election, and more than a million more ballots were undeliverable, according to a new study. 

The report found that 1.1 million mail-in ballots were undeliverable for various reasons. Election officials rejected another 560,814 mail-in ballots. Another 14.7 million mailed ballots met an “unknown” fate, the report says.

To further emphasize the importance of a million votes here or there, a Washington Post analysis in February found that flipping fewer than 43,000 votes across the three states of Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin could have changed the election outcome.

The Public Interest Legalized Foundation further said,

“To put these numbers in perspective, President Joe Biden carried Arizona by 10,457 votes, yet [the state’s] Maricopa County reportedly sent ballots to 110,092 outdated or wrong addresses.” The legal organization’s report also says, “The same scenario roughly happened in Nevada, where Biden carried with 33,596 votes, yet Clark County bounced 93,279 ballots.”

Another very suspicious fact:

The report identifies Maricopa County, Arizona, and Clark County, Nevada, as having the nation’s highest number of undeliverable ballots. The District of Columbia had the fourth-highest number of undeliverable ballots; all others in the top 10 were California jurisdictions.

Hmmm! Does anyone else notice the correlation between mail-in ballot incompetence and the blueness of the top ten jurisdictions? Always remember that in most blue states to the politicians, “the end justifies the means” philosophy prevails.

8/26/21

Back in April, 1975 President Ford was dealing with getting troops and civilians out of Saigon, Vietnam. That was over forty-six years ago. Exactly what occurred during Senate deliberations is somewhat fuzzy. We do know that Joe Biden was involved.

The following is from Snopes:

“On April 23, 1975, in a speech on the Senate floor, Biden argued that the president had constitutional authority to evacuate U.S. citizens, but the evacuation of noncitizens was an entirely different matter that should be negotiated‘through organizations that are available, and through diplomatic channels that we could use’.” 

On April 25, 1975, Biden opposed “The Vietnam Contingency Act of 1975” which would send emergency funds to South Vietnam for evacuation and relief efforts. 

Biden expressed his concerns over how aid money intended for evacuation was going to be used, and the limits of the powers of the U.S. president.”

Now fast forward to 2021. From Townhall:

“The need for a deadline extension has become increasingly urgent to many in the United States as President Biden — along with State Department and Pentagon leadership — have been unable to say both how many Americans remain trapped behind Taliban lines and how many Americans have so far been evacuated. Add in special immigrant visa applicants and other at-risk Afghans who helped the United States over its two decades of involvement in Afghanistan and there are still a lot of people who need to get past Taliban checkpoints and onto U.S. airlift flights in the next week.”

Compared to Vietnam in 1975, we have a worse situation now in Afghanistan in reference to getting both civilians and military safely out of that country. How many are still trapped in that country? How many are there? Conveniently, the Pentagon and the State Department refuse to say. Any reasonable person would say that getting these individuals out is the moral responsibility of the U.S., and if more time is needed to do this safely, so be it.

A strong leader would tell the Taliban that the U.S.A. was going to extend that August 31 deadline. A strong leader would not ask for an extension. A strong leader would not grovel, crawl, and eat Taliban dirt. A strong leader would admit to his thus-far bungled efforts, and perhaps ask for a shot of testosterone if that is what is called for. A strong leader would do what is right.

But unfortunately it appears that the once mighty U.S.A. does not presently have a strong leader. Looking back at the Joe Biden of 1975, no one should be surprised as a zebra does not change is stripes … or perhaps better said, “a zebra does not change his yellow stripes, especially in the face of a Taliban red line!”

8/25/21

As best I can tell the eminent Dr. Fauci has not commented on this other ubiquitous Covid piece of protection. As best I can tell he did not first say that they didn’t work, only to then swear that they were almost miraculous. As best I can tell his latest advice is not to double up on them.

No, I am not talking about masks, but here I am referring to the clear plastic dividers that are now just about everywhere. They are in supermarkets, in classrooms, and in a wide variety of different commercial establishments. I guess they are supposed to protect the customer and the business person from … ? each other.

From Townhall:

“Put up with the aim of blocking droplets from the noses and mouths of the COVID-infected among us, they became a sort of virtue signal for businesses to show that they cared about the safety of their customers and employees.

“Now that we’ve had more than a year of life peering through plastic at our fellow citizens, the science is starting to catch up with the craze and it turns out those measures may have actually increased the chances of people contracting the Wuhan coronavirus.

As The New York Times recently reported, “scientists who study aerosols, air flow and ventilation say that much of the time, the barriers don’t help and probably give people a false sense of security. And sometimes the barries can make things worse.”

The Times explains:

Under normal conditions in stores, classrooms and offices, exhaled breath particles disperse, carried by air currents and, depending on the ventilation system, are replaced by fresh air roughly every 15 to 30 minutes. But erecting plastic barriers can change air flow in a room, disrupt normal ventilation and create “dead zones,” where viral aerosol particles can build up and become highly concentrated.

A study published in June out of John’s Hopkins, for example, showed that desk screens in classrooms were associated with an increased risk of coronavirus infection. In a Massachusetts school district, researchers foundthat plexiglass dividers with side walls in the main office were impeding air flow. A study looking at schools in Georgia found that desk barriers had little effect on the spread of the coronavirus compared with ventilation improvements and masking.”

Wow, who would have thunk it! As best I can tell, the ubiquitous plastic barriers are going the way that the ubiquitous face masks are going.

www.californiacontrarian.com

8/24/21

“Mucosal Immunity” was a term that I was unfamiliar with until just recently. I know what the words mean, but was not attuned as to how ‘mucosal immunity,’ was relevant to Covid infections, reinfections, and vaccinations.

In a similar vein the recent data out of Israel was a bit perplexing until I decided to try to apply a dose of common sense, and this in combination with my newfound knowledge concerning ‘mucosal immunity’ proved to be useful.

To recap, in Israel the delta variant has caused a new spike in Covid infections. 40% of these new infections were in individuals who had been previously vaccinated, whereas less than 1% (72/7400) were in individuals who had had a prior documented Covid infection. The obvious implication from these numbers is that a prior infection with Covid is markedly more protective than vaccination in terms of contracting a reinfection.

The following is from a recent op-ed in the WSJ by Dr. Michael Segal:

“‘Mucosal immunity’ provides the first line of defense by protecting the nose and mouth, and by doing so also reduces spread to others. The mucous membranes secrete a particular form of antibodies of the Immunoglobulin A type, or IgA.

In contrast, ‘Internal immunity’ protects the inside of the body, including the lungs. This occurs by release of antibodies of the Immunoglobulin G type, or IgG, into the blood and production of T-cells. Vaccines injected into our muscles are highly effective at stimulating internal immunity. This largely protects vaccinated people from being overwhelmed by the coronavirus.”

Dr. Segal continues:

But vaccines injected into our muscles—including all the approved inoculations against Covid—are largely ineffective at stimulating the secretion of IgA into our noses that occurs after actual infection with a virus. As a result, vaccinated people can contract a Covid-19 infection confined to the mucous membranes. They may get the sniffles but can spread the virus to others even if they are asymptomatic.”

The other finding out of Israel is that the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine is waning over time, and thus Israel is using boosters to increase the protection afforded by vaccines. Similarly, boosters are now being advised for some individuals, and it will only be a matter of time before all vaccinated individuals will be advised to get a booster. And in the future will these boosters also lose their effectiveness over time requiring boosters for the original booster? Etc, ad infinitum.

So here’s my question:

If the effectiveness of vaccines is waning over time, and the protection from reinfection is very very high among those with a documented Covid infection, does it not make sense to allow those with a minuscule risk from Covid to actually get the infection? Here I am specifically referring to grade school children (who are not eligible for a vaccine), and high school students whose risk from Covid is quite low, albeit not zero. In fact I would extend this to college students. If masks, etc. actually work, would it be better to not impose mask mandates on these groups?

To summarize, I sent the following letter to the editor to the Wall Street Journal:

“If, as was stated in Dr. Segal’s op-Ed on 8/16, lasting mucosal (IgA) immunity is only achievable through an actual Covid infection, why are continued mask wearing and social distancing being advised for young children? Since young children tolerate Covid quite well, why wouldn’t logic dictate that they not be protected with masks, etc. in schools, thus allowing them to develop lasting IgA mucosal immunity on their own?”

8/23/21

This morning I found myself asking a question that perhaps many Americans are asking themselves … When should President Biden resign? Note that my question is not “should he resign?”, but when should he resign? Granted there is limited precedent as the only president to have resigned is Nixon, and his circumstances were totally different. Be that as it may, Joe, it’s time.

Whether President Biden is physically and/or mentally up to the challenge of being the President is now a moot point as he has demonstrated that his judgement is very suspect. In one of his recent statements after blaming just about everybody else, he said that he is taking full responsibility for his decisions on Afghanistan. Well bully for you, Joe, but at this point that doesn’t really help. We all realize that you are responsible. The Afghan fiasco is all yours. Nobody is disputing that. As of today I haven’t heard any remorse from you, and the horrific consequences of your decision will be felt for years to come. 

You apparently refused to listen to your military advisers, and for some reason it was important that you resolved the entire Afghanistan situation by 9/11/21. Why?

And then there is this from Townhall:

Despite standing at the President’s side while Biden declared “we know of no circumstance where American citizens, carrying an American passport have had trouble getting to Hamid Karzai International Airport,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reportedly told members of the House of Representatives that Americans are in fact being beaten by the Taliban in Kabul.

And then in addition from Townhall:

Another claim Biden made in his remarks was that al-Qaeda is gone from Afghanistan. But Pentagon Press Secretary, immediately following Biden’s remarks, said the opposite in telling a reporter that al-Qaeda is still in Afghanistan. 

Which is it? Either President Biden doesn’t know what is actually going on in Afghanistan, or he is purposely not telling the American people the truth. It is difficult to know which is worse!

To me the frightening thing is that this is not the only poor decision  that Biden has made in the past seven plus months that he has been in office … the border is a disaster, inflation is a real problem and getting worse, gas prices have skyrocketed because of your poor, primarily political decisions. 

When President Biden resigns, I realize that Kamala Harris will then become President, but realistically how much worse can she be?

It boggles my mind to think how many more poor decisions Biden might make over the ensuing three plus years of his projected term as President, and frankly I do not think that our country can take that risk.

Mr. Biden, for the good of the country, please resign! If not today, then certainly before 9/11/21. That is what an honorable person would do.

8/22/21