Thank you Mr Buckley. 1. Lying Faucci. 2. Election knowledge. Yes, Santa Barbara and California really need to get dedicated public servants instead of self-appointed elites who have no regard for life, sustaibility, or the future sovereignty of our once great nation. I stand proud to align myself with the party that fights to protect life, liberty, and the preservation of our wildlands and natural resources. Nepotism, lies, and on-going exposure of profiteering from the Democrat party in this state has got to stop!!
Thank you for the link. I'm pretty sure I would have a hard time finding it. Considering that I have to type in exact links to find anything on Youtube these days.
To think we pay them with our tax dollars, to stonewall us. We pay for their work product, and they kick us in the teeth. Where are the stirrings for a Prop 13 type tax revolt? Repealing 16th Amendment would be a good start.
I agree that Steve Garvey is a good man, however as a former 1970's Big Red Machine fan, I remember his golden glove at 3rd base for the Dodgers, one of the Reds' perennial rivals. I don't remember him as a pitcher.
Probably most famous for his hairy forearms. Reference to hitting or forearms would have done the trick but Pitcher or golden glove third baseman? Not so much.
People are weak & timid. They are controlled by the public servants they elected & bureaucrats.
Reality most Americans are weak sheep. Perhaps because they’ve lived a cushy life away from wars & violence that influence many other countries. Not one world war or skirmish has touched Americans backyards.
Either way the people are the ones who are supposed to keep government in line to ensure the government serves the people.
Instead they bow down to government like the slaves they are to then dictators
Our forefathers would roll over in their graves seeing at how weak willed Americans are.
Allowing tens of millions of law breakers to run free & paying the law breakers, thanking them for breaking the law.
This is like a battered wife relationship or a cult.
I am not proud to be an American at this point. It is a joke.
A fleeting thought from someone addicted as a kid to Spy vs Spy in Mad Magazine, from the last century.
Did we in fact "fund" Wuhan research in order to spy on the Chinese gain of function research? But when caught, the US could not admit they had been spying on the Chinese all along. So they officially embarked on a tangled web of "covid" lies. Hence, all the double-talk about this "origins" of the allegedly new virus, as well as the patent over-kill response.
The US knew its fingerprints were on the Wuhan Lab research, but what they did not know is whether in fact this was a benign new Franken-virus unleashed from Wuhan that they helped fund to create, or in fact was this the dreaded Zombie Apocalypse that Matt Damon's prior shock film "Contagion" warned us could happen. One step more lurid than the prior sci-fi book and movie The Andromeda Strain. Life was now imitating art.
Missing in this entire calculation was a realistic analysis of the closed system Diamond Princess cruise ship incident in early 2020 -when they knew as much about "covid" as they would ever know. But instead did choose to embark on the 2020 election year Zombie Apocalypse version of "covid" for maximum partisan gain. And they got it.
Obamacare electronic medical records and the vast data compiled by health insurance companies have yet to be mined, before history will uncover what really happened in 2020 when the entire world when barking dog mad.
The damage Fauci, et al, have done to our confidence in"healthcare" is immeasurable. He did the same with AIDS, check out "Dallas Buyers Club" for a little edutainment. The mismanagement of Covid revealed Big Pharma (and Big Education) as corrupt greedy immoral forces. NEVER AGAIN.
This is huge. I regularly get reports from consulting doctors, ending with the boilerplate suggestion that our mutual patient get their a Covid mRNA Booster shot🙄
Clearly, they are captives of the reigning institutional orthodoxy which is destroying science and medicine. PHARMA money is pervasive and corrupting on a scale so vast that people can’t even believe what is in front of their nose.
Classifying biological research funded by taxpayers ...
Think about it.
If you understand biology, chemistry, and research funding by taxpayers ...
What? What - in the name of God, or your favorite Sky Fairy, or Reason, or Mother Earth -
What can justify that? The answer is nothing.
Btw ... most of this research is already a violation of treaties and laws. And what remains is under strict regulations that need to be followed - as if the whole human species is at stake. smh.
Every one of the Republican candidates Buckley endorsed for statewide races and in local SB races (except for Nelson) is going to get shellacked in California. This is the state of the Republican Party today in Ca and many other states, including battleground states.
Okay, Lou. What do we do? Vote Democrat? Not vote? Republicans are in a bind, as we have a non-thinking swarm of "voters" who'll drop their ballot wherever for whomever, just as long as what they see as their "gravy train" doesn't stop. And it won't; in the end, so as not to get the "blame," Republicans will vote for more crap if there is ever a showdown between common-sense voters and profligate Democrats. Worse, the idea of liar Adam Schiff going to the U.S. Senate is an abomination. But, you are probably correct that we'll lose most of those elections this year, as usual. But (and I'm an optimist) if those number can slowly crawl in our direction, who knows? By the way, tomorrow we'll point out the members of the Central Committee that you should vote for who we believe can begin to put a little steam in the Republican engine.
The first thing we can do is not disparagingly call any Republican a RINO because they don't get in step 100% with the MAGA agenda. If the Republican Party is going to win elections in California and elsewhere it has to become a big tent for moderates and conservatives. It has to appeal to independent voters, meaning it needs candidates that can appeal to a broader slice of the electorate. It doesn't mean we have to jettison core principles but why antagonize people with unpopular abortion policies and incessant rhetoric about stolen elections. I subscribe to Reagan's philosophy about compromise. He said, "If I get 75% or 80% of what I am asking for, I say take it and fight for the rest later." Today, the so-called Freedom caucus (Gaetz and others) in the House would they rather take nothing if they can't get 100%. This seems to be the mindset of many Republicans today. They rather lose than crafting policies that would appeal to enough people to win elections. And so I am clear about this, I am not suggesting we move away from core principles like limited govt, private property, free speech, low taxes, less regulation, free markets and strong defense.
Lou: But there is a primary in two weeks. What would you suggest we do right now? Tell people to vote for a Democrat because they'll likely win?? "Compromise," for example, with legislators who want to give sanctity to transgender youth whose parents are opposed to it? What's that compromise look like, the Senate bill to allow "only" 5,000 illegals into the country every day? Maybe limit the number of "transgenders" looking for sanctity? Go down the line and you'll see there is no deal that can be struck. There's no compromising with these folks. They have to be beaten. Probably won't happen in this state for some time, but don't give up principles for the sake of "compromise."
Jim, with all due respect, the Senate bill doesn't allow 5,000 illegals into the country every day. What it does do is totally shutdown the border to anyone with an asylum claim once we reach a seven-day average of 5,000 border encounters, meaning their asylum claim is automatically denied. However, because it abolishes "catch and release" people with asylum claims would be diverted to a new program where they would be detained and have 90 days until their asylum claims were adjudicated. No more being released into the country with cases scheduled many years later. Sen Lankford, a true conservative, negotiated the bill, and there is no way he is for an open border. The only way Trump was able to circumvent "catch and release" was to get the Mexican govt to detain people before they got to the border. In the end, we don't want to transfer enforcement of our laws to the Mexican govt because our laws are unworkable.
C'mon Lou, you're being naive. If Biden wanted to do something about the border he would have. And he did: he opened the border wide and invited the world to come on down. If some kind of crappy "deal" is made with Republicans on the border just before the election, the GOP would become the scapegoat for the the last three years of chaos at the border. Don't let the Democrats play you.
It's not a perfect deal. It certainly not the one I would have written if I was king for the day. But the reality is no new immigration law is going to happen without compromise since Republicans don't control the presidency and Congress and are unlikely to get a filibuster-proof control of govt even after Nov 2024. This is probably the best deal we can hope for. It's far better than the status quo, and if Trump is elected president he will have a much easier time securing our border with this law than the dysfunctional current set of laws which impeded him when he was president. During 2019-20 when Trump was president, there were 1.4 million encounters on the border and over 700,000 were released into the country. He was also impeded by our crazy "catch and release" laws.
Yeah, Lou, and they can rescind their 5,000 at any time (which is a joke for reasons outlined by others), and allow MASSIVE numbers in... just like they're doing now. Trust nothing. We do need Trump back.
If they actually **count** 5000 illegal crossing; no mention of those they cannot count if there is no physical barrier directing traffic to specific entry points.
I am reminded of the early cell phone restrictions when driving, **except** when taking only emergency calls. How did that work out? Loopholes quickly become the rule, not the exception.
People on our side forget that this is the first time Democrats have agreed to any changes in immigration laws that does not legalize the illegal entry of millions of immigrants already in the country or require a path to citizenship for them.
If you are looking for an immigration bill which will stop 100% of illegal crossings, you probably will be waiting for an eternity because it's not going to happen as long as we have divided govt. This bill is an improvement over the status quo. Half a loaf is better than none. In fact, it's the toughest immigration bill we have seen in many decades. If Trump is elected, he will be in a much better situation to secure the border with this bill than the incoherent laws we are dealing with today.
Good points, Lou. Calif GOP needs to borrow one of Kamala Harris's Venn Diagrams and it place over the Independent's political wish list and the GOP wish list. Where are we more together in our goals, than apart.
The one thing we do know is Independents have chosen not to register as Democrats. But they also have not chosen to register as GOP either. We also know Independent voter registration and GOP registration -together by numbers alone - is equal to the state's Democrat registration. What will finally win either the GOP over to the Independent camp, or vice versa?
Fauci's lies about gain of function research and Covid origin pale to insignificance compared to the damage caused by his policy recommendations that Trump followed and Rand Paul opposed -- the emergency declaration, the excessive funding, and the lockdowns, particularly of school children. And Trump's criticism of the Swedish response did further damage by misleading the public. For example, how many people know that Sweden ended up with the lowest excess death rate in all of Europe? And a per capita death rate one-third less than the US per capita death rate? All without ever closing a school, closing a business, or requiring a mask? Fauci and Trump needlessly disrupted the economy, borrowed and wasted trillions of dollars, suspended about a year of school, and scared a lot of people into wearing masks, many of which were ineffective against the virus
Facts do not support your conclusions. Have you read "A Plague Upon Our House" by Dr Scott Atlas who served on the WH "Covid Committee"? Best first hand reference to date regarding the 2020 "covid" sausage factory with the WH giving guidance - not directions, nor mandates -- to individual states.
Monetizing "covid" was a grave misdirection, mainly because it rested on the premise good people would only do good things in response to this generous offer to mitigate "covid" impacts. May we be forever reminded when you put "free money" on the table, all sorts of people quickly find ways to pick it up. How much did Gov Newsom lose just in California to "covid" payment fraud?
Yet the media and Democrat howls in response to "covid" were equally misguided. Demonizing Trump and deifying Fauci is on their hands; not Trump who originally took a fairly prudent course in response to this developing global hysteria. Dial back the clock and re-live those early days in 2020 in order to to appreciate the conflicting pressures at that time. After 2020, all "covid" missteps were entirely on Biden's watch if you want to assign blame at the federal level.
Ask also why Johns Hopkins in late 2020, withdrew a very early data analysis using 10 years of CDC morbidity data which could not find any "excess deaths" in 2020 - the first full year of "covid". But did find a curious pattern of re-labeling a proportional number of prior average causes of death due to cancer, heart disease, CPOD, end stage renal disease, etc in 2020 as "covid" deaths. Johns Hopkins, and the study was pulled in late 2020, because "the public might misunderstand".
This entire "covid" escapade does need a deep analysis, but the entire topic and data continues to be kept under lock and key. As Rand Paul just pointed out - pages of FOIA requests coming back completely redacted by government bureaucrats? C'mon man.
You tell me that "Facts do not support your conclusions." What facts? What conclusions? Please be specific. The best guess I could make was your assertion that "Trump . . . originally took a fairly prudent course in response to this developing global hysteria." Is that an example of a conclusion of mine that facts do not support? Are there any others?
I take issue with your statement: ......."Fauci and Trump........ needlessly disrupted the economy, borrowed and wasted trillions of dollars, suspended about a year of school, and scared a lot of people into wearing masks, many of which were ineffective against the virus."
(**Trillions** of dollars wasted in just one Trump year, or in the final three year long Biden accounting?)
I am in agreement with your opinion that the election year "covid agenda" indeed was exploited on every level, which is now more obvious in retrospect than when it was actually unfolding. Let's just look at what was unfolding locally, outside of any demand Trump alone should have had crystal ball and prevented this nationwide.
Who created even the local "covid" hysteria? Good to track this back to those early days when we were all held captive by our own county public health officials. Who shut down al the local blog discussions and rejected any wider discussion of the entire topic? Who turned former SBCC graduate Dr Malone, who came to town to speak as qualified medical researcher, into a shunned social pariah and SBCC even turned down his offer to create a scholarship? Who locally pushed the now highly questionable and very early "Bergamo Italy Hospital "documentary" as the sole response to anyone who questioned this early "covid" alarm? Who came before local elected boards demanding everything be shut down ......... "if it save just one life, it is worth doing everything". ....... all in election year 2020.
My own sense (opinion, not fact) was something else was driving this early mocking-bird agenda coming at us from all sides, including here locally. And that early stage, it was not just Trump and it was not even just Fauci who had not yet learned to exploit being anointed St Fauci by the media.
And I will even go so far as to claim when Nancy Pelosi tore up Trump's 2020 SOTU address in public, she kept a private copy to use as checklist for her Democrat operatives to destroy each and every Trump accomplishment using "covid" as her weapon.
So up front, I admit fulsomely what I just said does not sound in fact either. I simply reject any definitive statements still being made today or assigning blame to any one inidivual ex post facto, since the real covid jury has not even been called, let alone any evidentiary testimony presented under oath.
I hope we find ways to keep digging and uncovering whatever created this 2020 Year of Covid Hysteria. Our own personal reactions from day one are also part of the overall culpability .
If I understand you correctly the only "conclusion" of mine that "facts do not support"' is that Trump and Fauci did not waste trillions of dollars. Any reasonable attempt to monetize just the opportunity cost of lost school time would easily exceed that amount. But if you disagree, and think they wasted a lesser amount, I will accept your correction.
Your larger point, if I understand it correctly, is essentially that no one could accurately predict the effect of the disease at an early stage, and it is therefore unfair to criticize Trump and Fauci for their over-reaction. I disagree. It was obvious from Day One that the disease was dangerous and potentially deadly to the elderly, especially the obese, and far less threatening to the young and heathy. This was clear from the cruise ship nursing home data. Trump and Fauci ignored this and went the full lockdown and mask route instead. And when Sweden followed a totally different policy Trump and Fauci were extravagant in their criticism. We now know that Sweden was right while Trump and Fauci were wrong. Do you disagree with these two assertions? If so, why?
Any severe influenza is potentially dangerous for those with recognized co-morbidities. Did you notice mid-stream CDC lumped "covid" data into something called "PIC" because they too had difficulty sorting out what was what: PIC = Pneunomia+Influenza+Covid.
However early on I personally reached opposite conclusions (wariness?) than you did, relying on the early closed system cruise ship experiences, (ship happens) and accepting fairly early that many of the alleged early recorded "covid" deaths in fact were related to overly aggressive use of ventilators for "oxygen saturation" metrics.
Talk about a quickly discredited medical "fad". Remember all the hype about ventilators? And Trump's early intervention in response to various governors anguished demands for more ventilators? And how the major hospital ship Trump had dispatched to help NYC went unused.
The fact also the "covid tests" were so remarkably inaccurate and remain so today, gives one pause too. From time to time in the past, we have gone through various major flu epidemics - our schools finally closed down for a few weeks in the 1950s' because of "Asian flu" because so many kids were out with it there was no point having class.
Remember early on when Elon Musk had four different tests done the same day at the same lab and got back four different results? There was very little bedrock for anyone to make anything other than wild assumptions about "covid".
I, again personally, found the Great Barrington Declarations and the early Front Line Doctors approach the more credible approach, which may match your own conclusions too - protect the elderly, those with co-morbidities but let the rest of the world function with due cautions not untypical for any other severe seasonal flu.
Good God in Heaven! Of COURSE this comes from a Trump supporter. What a HORRID article. Rand Paul? Really? There is NO "profound conspiracy" by doctors and the medical field to hide anything about vaccines. Anti-vaxxers are anti-science and anti-intelligence. Your piece is FULL of misinformation and blatant digs at the Democrats, like the comment about the presidency being "all powerful". If it was, we wouldn't be dealing with this Draconian heinous effort to roll back women's rights 50 years!
The fact the Rand Paul for Senate committee was raising money on a website called firefauci.org suggests that politics, rather than public health, might be the motivation of the blowhard from Kentucky. Rand Paul has been spouting debunked misinformation about Faucci and vaccines since the pandemic began. He has NO decency at all.
The safety of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna is supported by the rigorous clinical trials run prior to their release and numerous studies conducted since. Hundreds of millions of people have been vaccinated in the U.S., many with multiple doses, and serious side effects are rare.
COVID-19 vaccines have also been shown to be effective in reducing the risk of long term severe forms of the disease. Multiple studies have estimated that the COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives across the globe.
But a recent article — written by misinformation spreaders who oppose COVID-19 vaccination — that claims to have reviewed the original trials and “other relevant studies” largely ignores this body of evidence. Viral social media right wingers have spread this misinformation and these lies. Even the authors of this article have since retracted it, based on an internal review that found multiple instances of data misrepresentation and incorrect or unsubstantiated claims.
But go on listening to Rand Paul and other conspiracy theorists slinging LIE after LIE after LIE.
NB: It was never a "vaccine" until midstream CDC tortured their official definition for "vaccine", to now include to what they claimed this experimental and untested injection claimed to do.
J. Livingston: Trump did the right thing in launching Operation Warp Speed. He was also right when he began to doubt Dr. Fauci early on. He did his best and "trusted" the experts. Little did he know they were complete frauds. I got the shot/s because I was traveling and couldn't get on an airplane without showing that blasted card. I should have faked it, dang it.
The insane idea of creating a synthetic virus, designed by the biological warfare establishment, to infect and kill huge numbers of people, is the central issue. Dr Rand Paul exhaustively proves that this virus did not jump from bats to humans. Read his book, titled Deception- The Great Covid Cover Up. Researchers worked for years before the pandemic, funded by your taxes, to CREATE this monster, and when “gain of function” research was briefly prohibited in the US, Fauci outsourced it to a lab in China. This lab was reportedly sloppy on safely containing viruses which could kill millions, if accidentally released. Predictably, this is exactly what happened. This fiasco should go down as one of the biggest crimes against humanity in history. Fauci, Collins and may others are culpable, and have been in full scale deceit and cover up, ever since their ill conceived project blew up. Millions died, and these people are on the beach or tennis court, collecting fat retirement checks, getting awards, and somehow trying to convince themselves and the world that they are heroes.
I didn’t get the shot and have never gotten Covid, despite numerous exposures. I’ve never had the regular flu in my life, either. Everyone I know who has gotten the vaccine has had Covid more than once.
Although I haven't "officially" gotten Covid, I do believe the monstrous 3-week flu I had coming back from Paris in December 2019 was probably Covid-19, but it had not been named nor discovered as early as that. In any case, I've not been hit with anything else since then (knock on wood).
My poor sister had it early in the pandemic and suffered for 10 days before we figured it wasn’t regular flu. Fortunately, we’d just moved to Florida so she went to an infusion place DeSantis set up and got the four shots. The next morning, she was up at 7:30 am feeling like a million bucks, all symptoms gone.
We too noticed that those who got vaxxed, particularly boosted, kept getting Covid. Those of us who did not..... did not. It was a scary time, and I have compassion for all of us. Except the smug poseurs who cry Fake News and Conspiracy Theory anytime we question the Narrative. "Denial" is a possibility... more likely it's fear... of being held accountable for the biggest medical fraud and subsequent damages' claims in U.S. history.
Smug is a good word to describe them, but it’s far worse than that. The fascistic edicts were met with such glee by the Left that non-compliance could result in jobs and businesses permanently lost by the non-compliant, to the point of wishing death on us even! They applaud it as long as it’s their side doing it. There can be no coexistence with that kind of evil.
I didn't get the shots, because I had been in health care for too long, and had become cynical over time about new medical "fads".
I had also watched the good Dr Fauci back in the 1980's strong-arm his way to the top of his NIH infectious disease division, by destroying any other HIV-AIDS researchers who did not agree with him. (Fauci vs Duesberg) I literally gasped when I heard his name again now decades later, strong-arming the "covid" agenda. I assumed he had been fired years ago. RFKJr covers these days very accurately in his book "The Real Dr Fauci".
Agree, Trump was handed an impossible political football during a tense 2020 re-election season. His gut was right, and he did want the country to re-open by late 2020. Plus public health policy decisions are made at the state level. Due to varying state responses, we can now have the best post-mortem opportunity to analyze the impacts of those various state responses.
There was never a just one size fits all federal response. But there was plenty of misleading federal level bureaucratic "guidance". So pinning any of this on Trump (Trump-Trump), is just plain disingenuous.
If he doubted Fauci why did he give him an award on the last day of his Administration? In fact, why didn't he just kick him off the Covid taskforce. You're right about one thing: he didn't have the discernment to know the so-called experts he was listening to were frauds. You know who did: DeSantis. He did everything right regarding Covid from almost the beginning of the pandemic.
This is all just academic. Trump is the candidate. He's going to do Republican things. Biden will not and cannot. Life will be better if Trump is president.
I don't know Lawrence, Trump received some 7 1/2 million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. I do believe something fishy happened to make him lose in 2020 and it had little to nothing to do with Fauci.
Your TDS is in full blown raging disease of the mind. There are treatments for it. You need to seek them ASAP. Fauci lied he funded the research that became Covid-19 and he has lied about it from Day 1 and millions are dead because of his lies. He killed hundreds of thousands gay people in the early years of AIDS with AZT. Go read RFK jr book the Real Anthony Fauci. Fauci is a horrible person and his reward will be eternity in a very bad place along with all of the other evil people from History.
Dr. Robert Malone, one of the inventors of mRNA, who was himself vaccine injured, would disagree with you. But by all means, get vaccined to the hilt if you like…no one is stopping you. Allow those of us who don’t want to risk injury to take a pass. Of course, the Democrat fascists can’t do that.
Sheryl, maybe you should be reading the Independent? Em, anyone who denies the VAX was a disaster is really not keeping up. I get that some people don't want to be reminded they got jabbed (as they now regret it). I get that we all got played by FEAR. For us, compassion is appropriate. But for smug hyperbolic types like you? Take it down a notch. You don't know it all and you use too many adjectives.
I read the Independent also, and many other news sources, I am 100% keeping up. I do not regret getting vaccinated at all, and I didn't get played by anyone. None of what I said is hyperbole, and no, I will not take it down a notch.
I think Andrew Coffin’s hair looks fine, and if your assessment was an attempt at humor, I’d recommend coming up with fresh commentary on more relevant material rather than piggybacking off of his joke.
Mags: Senator Paul's comment was a response about the bad hair day that Andrew Coffin described. I just wanted to begin as Rand Paul did: with a little humour. Sorry if that offended you.
Thank you Mr Buckley. 1. Lying Faucci. 2. Election knowledge. Yes, Santa Barbara and California really need to get dedicated public servants instead of self-appointed elites who have no regard for life, sustaibility, or the future sovereignty of our once great nation. I stand proud to align myself with the party that fights to protect life, liberty, and the preservation of our wildlands and natural resources. Nepotism, lies, and on-going exposure of profiteering from the Democrat party in this state has got to stop!!
For those who wish to watch the full hour with Senator Rand Paul, I’m attaching the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/live/Qgxg2p_y79c?si=4fjXBNX6AFcYvSyR
Thank you for the link. I'm pretty sure I would have a hard time finding it. Considering that I have to type in exact links to find anything on Youtube these days.
Rand Paul for Surgeon General under Trump!
C Schmidt: Rand Paul as Surgeon General is actually a very good idea. But, we need him in the Senate!
Head of NIH would be equally productive.
To think we pay them with our tax dollars, to stonewall us. We pay for their work product, and they kick us in the teeth. Where are the stirrings for a Prop 13 type tax revolt? Repealing 16th Amendment would be a good start.
I agree that Steve Garvey is a good man, however as a former 1970's Big Red Machine fan, I remember his golden glove at 3rd base for the Dodgers, one of the Reds' perennial rivals. I don't remember him as a pitcher.
Doug: Ouch! You're correct. I can only ascribe that unforced error to my lack of sleep last night! My apologies.
Probably most famous for his hairy forearms. Reference to hitting or forearms would have done the trick but Pitcher or golden glove third baseman? Not so much.
More known for consistent hitting rather than fielding.
First base you dope.
People are weak & timid. They are controlled by the public servants they elected & bureaucrats.
Reality most Americans are weak sheep. Perhaps because they’ve lived a cushy life away from wars & violence that influence many other countries. Not one world war or skirmish has touched Americans backyards.
Either way the people are the ones who are supposed to keep government in line to ensure the government serves the people.
Instead they bow down to government like the slaves they are to then dictators
Our forefathers would roll over in their graves seeing at how weak willed Americans are.
Allowing tens of millions of law breakers to run free & paying the law breakers, thanking them for breaking the law.
This is like a battered wife relationship or a cult.
I am not proud to be an American at this point. It is a joke.
A fleeting thought from someone addicted as a kid to Spy vs Spy in Mad Magazine, from the last century.
Did we in fact "fund" Wuhan research in order to spy on the Chinese gain of function research? But when caught, the US could not admit they had been spying on the Chinese all along. So they officially embarked on a tangled web of "covid" lies. Hence, all the double-talk about this "origins" of the allegedly new virus, as well as the patent over-kill response.
The US knew its fingerprints were on the Wuhan Lab research, but what they did not know is whether in fact this was a benign new Franken-virus unleashed from Wuhan that they helped fund to create, or in fact was this the dreaded Zombie Apocalypse that Matt Damon's prior shock film "Contagion" warned us could happen. One step more lurid than the prior sci-fi book and movie The Andromeda Strain. Life was now imitating art.
Missing in this entire calculation was a realistic analysis of the closed system Diamond Princess cruise ship incident in early 2020 -when they knew as much about "covid" as they would ever know. But instead did choose to embark on the 2020 election year Zombie Apocalypse version of "covid" for maximum partisan gain. And they got it.
Obamacare electronic medical records and the vast data compiled by health insurance companies have yet to be mined, before history will uncover what really happened in 2020 when the entire world when barking dog mad.
US points fingers rather than take resondolitu. It all started with US; was funded by US. When will we take international responsibility?!
The damage Fauci, et al, have done to our confidence in"healthcare" is immeasurable. He did the same with AIDS, check out "Dallas Buyers Club" for a little edutainment. The mismanagement of Covid revealed Big Pharma (and Big Education) as corrupt greedy immoral forces. NEVER AGAIN.
This is huge. I regularly get reports from consulting doctors, ending with the boilerplate suggestion that our mutual patient get their a Covid mRNA Booster shot🙄
Clearly, they are captives of the reigning institutional orthodoxy which is destroying science and medicine. PHARMA money is pervasive and corrupting on a scale so vast that people can’t even believe what is in front of their nose.
I agree with your voting recommendations, by the way. TDS is a disease as pervasive as Covid, and arguing with people so infected is usually futile.
Classifying biological research funded by taxpayers ...
Think about it.
If you understand biology, chemistry, and research funding by taxpayers ...
What? What - in the name of God, or your favorite Sky Fairy, or Reason, or Mother Earth -
What can justify that? The answer is nothing.
Btw ... most of this research is already a violation of treaties and laws. And what remains is under strict regulations that need to be followed - as if the whole human species is at stake. smh.
Every one of the Republican candidates Buckley endorsed for statewide races and in local SB races (except for Nelson) is going to get shellacked in California. This is the state of the Republican Party today in Ca and many other states, including battleground states.
Okay, Lou. What do we do? Vote Democrat? Not vote? Republicans are in a bind, as we have a non-thinking swarm of "voters" who'll drop their ballot wherever for whomever, just as long as what they see as their "gravy train" doesn't stop. And it won't; in the end, so as not to get the "blame," Republicans will vote for more crap if there is ever a showdown between common-sense voters and profligate Democrats. Worse, the idea of liar Adam Schiff going to the U.S. Senate is an abomination. But, you are probably correct that we'll lose most of those elections this year, as usual. But (and I'm an optimist) if those number can slowly crawl in our direction, who knows? By the way, tomorrow we'll point out the members of the Central Committee that you should vote for who we believe can begin to put a little steam in the Republican engine.
"What can do we do"
The first thing we can do is not disparagingly call any Republican a RINO because they don't get in step 100% with the MAGA agenda. If the Republican Party is going to win elections in California and elsewhere it has to become a big tent for moderates and conservatives. It has to appeal to independent voters, meaning it needs candidates that can appeal to a broader slice of the electorate. It doesn't mean we have to jettison core principles but why antagonize people with unpopular abortion policies and incessant rhetoric about stolen elections. I subscribe to Reagan's philosophy about compromise. He said, "If I get 75% or 80% of what I am asking for, I say take it and fight for the rest later." Today, the so-called Freedom caucus (Gaetz and others) in the House would they rather take nothing if they can't get 100%. This seems to be the mindset of many Republicans today. They rather lose than crafting policies that would appeal to enough people to win elections. And so I am clear about this, I am not suggesting we move away from core principles like limited govt, private property, free speech, low taxes, less regulation, free markets and strong defense.
Lou: But there is a primary in two weeks. What would you suggest we do right now? Tell people to vote for a Democrat because they'll likely win?? "Compromise," for example, with legislators who want to give sanctity to transgender youth whose parents are opposed to it? What's that compromise look like, the Senate bill to allow "only" 5,000 illegals into the country every day? Maybe limit the number of "transgenders" looking for sanctity? Go down the line and you'll see there is no deal that can be struck. There's no compromising with these folks. They have to be beaten. Probably won't happen in this state for some time, but don't give up principles for the sake of "compromise."
Jim, with all due respect, the Senate bill doesn't allow 5,000 illegals into the country every day. What it does do is totally shutdown the border to anyone with an asylum claim once we reach a seven-day average of 5,000 border encounters, meaning their asylum claim is automatically denied. However, because it abolishes "catch and release" people with asylum claims would be diverted to a new program where they would be detained and have 90 days until their asylum claims were adjudicated. No more being released into the country with cases scheduled many years later. Sen Lankford, a true conservative, negotiated the bill, and there is no way he is for an open border. The only way Trump was able to circumvent "catch and release" was to get the Mexican govt to detain people before they got to the border. In the end, we don't want to transfer enforcement of our laws to the Mexican govt because our laws are unworkable.
C'mon Lou, you're being naive. If Biden wanted to do something about the border he would have. And he did: he opened the border wide and invited the world to come on down. If some kind of crappy "deal" is made with Republicans on the border just before the election, the GOP would become the scapegoat for the the last three years of chaos at the border. Don't let the Democrats play you.
It's not a perfect deal. It certainly not the one I would have written if I was king for the day. But the reality is no new immigration law is going to happen without compromise since Republicans don't control the presidency and Congress and are unlikely to get a filibuster-proof control of govt even after Nov 2024. This is probably the best deal we can hope for. It's far better than the status quo, and if Trump is elected president he will have a much easier time securing our border with this law than the dysfunctional current set of laws which impeded him when he was president. During 2019-20 when Trump was president, there were 1.4 million encounters on the border and over 700,000 were released into the country. He was also impeded by our crazy "catch and release" laws.
Yeah, Lou, and they can rescind their 5,000 at any time (which is a joke for reasons outlined by others), and allow MASSIVE numbers in... just like they're doing now. Trust nothing. We do need Trump back.
Please enlighten me how they can rescind the 5,000 at any time. Where in the bill does it say that?
If they actually **count** 5000 illegal crossing; no mention of those they cannot count if there is no physical barrier directing traffic to specific entry points.
I am reminded of the early cell phone restrictions when driving, **except** when taking only emergency calls. How did that work out? Loopholes quickly become the rule, not the exception.
People on our side forget that this is the first time Democrats have agreed to any changes in immigration laws that does not legalize the illegal entry of millions of immigrants already in the country or require a path to citizenship for them.
"Perfect is the enemy of the good"
If you are looking for an immigration bill which will stop 100% of illegal crossings, you probably will be waiting for an eternity because it's not going to happen as long as we have divided govt. This bill is an improvement over the status quo. Half a loaf is better than none. In fact, it's the toughest immigration bill we have seen in many decades. If Trump is elected, he will be in a much better situation to secure the border with this bill than the incoherent laws we are dealing with today.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-border-security-bill-james-lankford-republicans-immigration-biden-border-patrol-asylum-bc2f9543
Good points, Lou. Calif GOP needs to borrow one of Kamala Harris's Venn Diagrams and it place over the Independent's political wish list and the GOP wish list. Where are we more together in our goals, than apart.
The one thing we do know is Independents have chosen not to register as Democrats. But they also have not chosen to register as GOP either. We also know Independent voter registration and GOP registration -together by numbers alone - is equal to the state's Democrat registration. What will finally win either the GOP over to the Independent camp, or vice versa?
Sorry for the typos in the last post.
Vote for the new slates offered for local GOP Central Committee membership in your own supervisorial district..
FYI - Garvey was a 1st baseman, not a pitcher.
Steve Garvey was not a pitcher. He played First Base.
Fauci's lies about gain of function research and Covid origin pale to insignificance compared to the damage caused by his policy recommendations that Trump followed and Rand Paul opposed -- the emergency declaration, the excessive funding, and the lockdowns, particularly of school children. And Trump's criticism of the Swedish response did further damage by misleading the public. For example, how many people know that Sweden ended up with the lowest excess death rate in all of Europe? And a per capita death rate one-third less than the US per capita death rate? All without ever closing a school, closing a business, or requiring a mask? Fauci and Trump needlessly disrupted the economy, borrowed and wasted trillions of dollars, suspended about a year of school, and scared a lot of people into wearing masks, many of which were ineffective against the virus
Facts do not support your conclusions. Have you read "A Plague Upon Our House" by Dr Scott Atlas who served on the WH "Covid Committee"? Best first hand reference to date regarding the 2020 "covid" sausage factory with the WH giving guidance - not directions, nor mandates -- to individual states.
Monetizing "covid" was a grave misdirection, mainly because it rested on the premise good people would only do good things in response to this generous offer to mitigate "covid" impacts. May we be forever reminded when you put "free money" on the table, all sorts of people quickly find ways to pick it up. How much did Gov Newsom lose just in California to "covid" payment fraud?
Yet the media and Democrat howls in response to "covid" were equally misguided. Demonizing Trump and deifying Fauci is on their hands; not Trump who originally took a fairly prudent course in response to this developing global hysteria. Dial back the clock and re-live those early days in 2020 in order to to appreciate the conflicting pressures at that time. After 2020, all "covid" missteps were entirely on Biden's watch if you want to assign blame at the federal level.
Ask also why Johns Hopkins in late 2020, withdrew a very early data analysis using 10 years of CDC morbidity data which could not find any "excess deaths" in 2020 - the first full year of "covid". But did find a curious pattern of re-labeling a proportional number of prior average causes of death due to cancer, heart disease, CPOD, end stage renal disease, etc in 2020 as "covid" deaths. Johns Hopkins, and the study was pulled in late 2020, because "the public might misunderstand".
This entire "covid" escapade does need a deep analysis, but the entire topic and data continues to be kept under lock and key. As Rand Paul just pointed out - pages of FOIA requests coming back completely redacted by government bureaucrats? C'mon man.
You tell me that "Facts do not support your conclusions." What facts? What conclusions? Please be specific. The best guess I could make was your assertion that "Trump . . . originally took a fairly prudent course in response to this developing global hysteria." Is that an example of a conclusion of mine that facts do not support? Are there any others?
I take issue with your statement: ......."Fauci and Trump........ needlessly disrupted the economy, borrowed and wasted trillions of dollars, suspended about a year of school, and scared a lot of people into wearing masks, many of which were ineffective against the virus."
(**Trillions** of dollars wasted in just one Trump year, or in the final three year long Biden accounting?)
I am in agreement with your opinion that the election year "covid agenda" indeed was exploited on every level, which is now more obvious in retrospect than when it was actually unfolding. Let's just look at what was unfolding locally, outside of any demand Trump alone should have had crystal ball and prevented this nationwide.
Who created even the local "covid" hysteria? Good to track this back to those early days when we were all held captive by our own county public health officials. Who shut down al the local blog discussions and rejected any wider discussion of the entire topic? Who turned former SBCC graduate Dr Malone, who came to town to speak as qualified medical researcher, into a shunned social pariah and SBCC even turned down his offer to create a scholarship? Who locally pushed the now highly questionable and very early "Bergamo Italy Hospital "documentary" as the sole response to anyone who questioned this early "covid" alarm? Who came before local elected boards demanding everything be shut down ......... "if it save just one life, it is worth doing everything". ....... all in election year 2020.
My own sense (opinion, not fact) was something else was driving this early mocking-bird agenda coming at us from all sides, including here locally. And that early stage, it was not just Trump and it was not even just Fauci who had not yet learned to exploit being anointed St Fauci by the media.
And I will even go so far as to claim when Nancy Pelosi tore up Trump's 2020 SOTU address in public, she kept a private copy to use as checklist for her Democrat operatives to destroy each and every Trump accomplishment using "covid" as her weapon.
So up front, I admit fulsomely what I just said does not sound in fact either. I simply reject any definitive statements still being made today or assigning blame to any one inidivual ex post facto, since the real covid jury has not even been called, let alone any evidentiary testimony presented under oath.
I hope we find ways to keep digging and uncovering whatever created this 2020 Year of Covid Hysteria. Our own personal reactions from day one are also part of the overall culpability .
If I understand you correctly the only "conclusion" of mine that "facts do not support"' is that Trump and Fauci did not waste trillions of dollars. Any reasonable attempt to monetize just the opportunity cost of lost school time would easily exceed that amount. But if you disagree, and think they wasted a lesser amount, I will accept your correction.
Your larger point, if I understand it correctly, is essentially that no one could accurately predict the effect of the disease at an early stage, and it is therefore unfair to criticize Trump and Fauci for their over-reaction. I disagree. It was obvious from Day One that the disease was dangerous and potentially deadly to the elderly, especially the obese, and far less threatening to the young and heathy. This was clear from the cruise ship nursing home data. Trump and Fauci ignored this and went the full lockdown and mask route instead. And when Sweden followed a totally different policy Trump and Fauci were extravagant in their criticism. We now know that Sweden was right while Trump and Fauci were wrong. Do you disagree with these two assertions? If so, why?
Any severe influenza is potentially dangerous for those with recognized co-morbidities. Did you notice mid-stream CDC lumped "covid" data into something called "PIC" because they too had difficulty sorting out what was what: PIC = Pneunomia+Influenza+Covid.
However early on I personally reached opposite conclusions (wariness?) than you did, relying on the early closed system cruise ship experiences, (ship happens) and accepting fairly early that many of the alleged early recorded "covid" deaths in fact were related to overly aggressive use of ventilators for "oxygen saturation" metrics.
Talk about a quickly discredited medical "fad". Remember all the hype about ventilators? And Trump's early intervention in response to various governors anguished demands for more ventilators? And how the major hospital ship Trump had dispatched to help NYC went unused.
The fact also the "covid tests" were so remarkably inaccurate and remain so today, gives one pause too. From time to time in the past, we have gone through various major flu epidemics - our schools finally closed down for a few weeks in the 1950s' because of "Asian flu" because so many kids were out with it there was no point having class.
Remember early on when Elon Musk had four different tests done the same day at the same lab and got back four different results? There was very little bedrock for anyone to make anything other than wild assumptions about "covid".
I, again personally, found the Great Barrington Declarations and the early Front Line Doctors approach the more credible approach, which may match your own conclusions too - protect the elderly, those with co-morbidities but let the rest of the world function with due cautions not untypical for any other severe seasonal flu.
Trump got fooled once. I don't think that will happen again. WE WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN.
Good God in Heaven! Of COURSE this comes from a Trump supporter. What a HORRID article. Rand Paul? Really? There is NO "profound conspiracy" by doctors and the medical field to hide anything about vaccines. Anti-vaxxers are anti-science and anti-intelligence. Your piece is FULL of misinformation and blatant digs at the Democrats, like the comment about the presidency being "all powerful". If it was, we wouldn't be dealing with this Draconian heinous effort to roll back women's rights 50 years!
The fact the Rand Paul for Senate committee was raising money on a website called firefauci.org suggests that politics, rather than public health, might be the motivation of the blowhard from Kentucky. Rand Paul has been spouting debunked misinformation about Faucci and vaccines since the pandemic began. He has NO decency at all.
The safety of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna is supported by the rigorous clinical trials run prior to their release and numerous studies conducted since. Hundreds of millions of people have been vaccinated in the U.S., many with multiple doses, and serious side effects are rare.
COVID-19 vaccines have also been shown to be effective in reducing the risk of long term severe forms of the disease. Multiple studies have estimated that the COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives across the globe.
But a recent article — written by misinformation spreaders who oppose COVID-19 vaccination — that claims to have reviewed the original trials and “other relevant studies” largely ignores this body of evidence. Viral social media right wingers have spread this misinformation and these lies. Even the authors of this article have since retracted it, based on an internal review that found multiple instances of data misrepresentation and incorrect or unsubstantiated claims.
But go on listening to Rand Paul and other conspiracy theorists slinging LIE after LIE after LIE.
For balancing information: Tucker Carlson and the Uncensored Vaccine* Interview:
https://tuckercarlson.com/uncensored-the-vaccine-interview/
NB: It was never a "vaccine" until midstream CDC tortured their official definition for "vaccine", to now include to what they claimed this experimental and untested injection claimed to do.
J. Livingston: Trump did the right thing in launching Operation Warp Speed. He was also right when he began to doubt Dr. Fauci early on. He did his best and "trusted" the experts. Little did he know they were complete frauds. I got the shot/s because I was traveling and couldn't get on an airplane without showing that blasted card. I should have faked it, dang it.
The insane idea of creating a synthetic virus, designed by the biological warfare establishment, to infect and kill huge numbers of people, is the central issue. Dr Rand Paul exhaustively proves that this virus did not jump from bats to humans. Read his book, titled Deception- The Great Covid Cover Up. Researchers worked for years before the pandemic, funded by your taxes, to CREATE this monster, and when “gain of function” research was briefly prohibited in the US, Fauci outsourced it to a lab in China. This lab was reportedly sloppy on safely containing viruses which could kill millions, if accidentally released. Predictably, this is exactly what happened. This fiasco should go down as one of the biggest crimes against humanity in history. Fauci, Collins and may others are culpable, and have been in full scale deceit and cover up, ever since their ill conceived project blew up. Millions died, and these people are on the beach or tennis court, collecting fat retirement checks, getting awards, and somehow trying to convince themselves and the world that they are heroes.
I didn’t get the shot and have never gotten Covid, despite numerous exposures. I’ve never had the regular flu in my life, either. Everyone I know who has gotten the vaccine has had Covid more than once.
Although I haven't "officially" gotten Covid, I do believe the monstrous 3-week flu I had coming back from Paris in December 2019 was probably Covid-19, but it had not been named nor discovered as early as that. In any case, I've not been hit with anything else since then (knock on wood).
My poor sister had it early in the pandemic and suffered for 10 days before we figured it wasn’t regular flu. Fortunately, we’d just moved to Florida so she went to an infusion place DeSantis set up and got the four shots. The next morning, she was up at 7:30 am feeling like a million bucks, all symptoms gone.
We too noticed that those who got vaxxed, particularly boosted, kept getting Covid. Those of us who did not..... did not. It was a scary time, and I have compassion for all of us. Except the smug poseurs who cry Fake News and Conspiracy Theory anytime we question the Narrative. "Denial" is a possibility... more likely it's fear... of being held accountable for the biggest medical fraud and subsequent damages' claims in U.S. history.
Smug is a good word to describe them, but it’s far worse than that. The fascistic edicts were met with such glee by the Left that non-compliance could result in jobs and businesses permanently lost by the non-compliant, to the point of wishing death on us even! They applaud it as long as it’s their side doing it. There can be no coexistence with that kind of evil.
I didn't get the shots, because I had been in health care for too long, and had become cynical over time about new medical "fads".
I had also watched the good Dr Fauci back in the 1980's strong-arm his way to the top of his NIH infectious disease division, by destroying any other HIV-AIDS researchers who did not agree with him. (Fauci vs Duesberg) I literally gasped when I heard his name again now decades later, strong-arming the "covid" agenda. I assumed he had been fired years ago. RFKJr covers these days very accurately in his book "The Real Dr Fauci".
Agree, Trump was handed an impossible political football during a tense 2020 re-election season. His gut was right, and he did want the country to re-open by late 2020. Plus public health policy decisions are made at the state level. Due to varying state responses, we can now have the best post-mortem opportunity to analyze the impacts of those various state responses.
There was never a just one size fits all federal response. But there was plenty of misleading federal level bureaucratic "guidance". So pinning any of this on Trump (Trump-Trump), is just plain disingenuous.
If he doubted Fauci why did he give him an award on the last day of his Administration? In fact, why didn't he just kick him off the Covid taskforce. You're right about one thing: he didn't have the discernment to know the so-called experts he was listening to were frauds. You know who did: DeSantis. He did everything right regarding Covid from almost the beginning of the pandemic.
This is all just academic. Trump is the candidate. He's going to do Republican things. Biden will not and cannot. Life will be better if Trump is president.
True, but that is no reason to gloss over the fact that Trump lost a close election last time in part because he went Full Fauci.
I don't know Lawrence, Trump received some 7 1/2 million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. I do believe something fishy happened to make him lose in 2020 and it had little to nothing to do with Fauci.
Your TDS is in full blown raging disease of the mind. There are treatments for it. You need to seek them ASAP. Fauci lied he funded the research that became Covid-19 and he has lied about it from Day 1 and millions are dead because of his lies. He killed hundreds of thousands gay people in the early years of AIDS with AZT. Go read RFK jr book the Real Anthony Fauci. Fauci is a horrible person and his reward will be eternity in a very bad place along with all of the other evil people from History.
Dr. Robert Malone, one of the inventors of mRNA, who was himself vaccine injured, would disagree with you. But by all means, get vaccined to the hilt if you like…no one is stopping you. Allow those of us who don’t want to risk injury to take a pass. Of course, the Democrat fascists can’t do that.
Sheryl, maybe you should be reading the Independent? Em, anyone who denies the VAX was a disaster is really not keeping up. I get that some people don't want to be reminded they got jabbed (as they now regret it). I get that we all got played by FEAR. For us, compassion is appropriate. But for smug hyperbolic types like you? Take it down a notch. You don't know it all and you use too many adjectives.
I read the Independent also, and many other news sources, I am 100% keeping up. I do not regret getting vaccinated at all, and I didn't get played by anyone. None of what I said is hyperbole, and no, I will not take it down a notch.
No, just the truth.
I think Andrew Coffin’s hair looks fine, and if your assessment was an attempt at humor, I’d recommend coming up with fresh commentary on more relevant material rather than piggybacking off of his joke.
Mags: Senator Paul's comment was a response about the bad hair day that Andrew Coffin described. I just wanted to begin as Rand Paul did: with a little humour. Sorry if that offended you.