You Can't Silence Us

Stupidity.

Background: Some moron came to social media to simp for passing a law reducing the work week to 32 hours. Some people complained that they wouldn’t be able to pay bills with a 20% reduction in income. The response from the advocates of this claimed the law would require an hourly raise so the fewer hours would not affect the employees’ take home pay. That’s the background.

I objected, asking how businesses would pay for this. The response was “studies have shown that this schedule increases employee productivity so that this plan has no net impact on business operations.” I called bullshit- if this were the case, businesses would already be doing this.

In response, they attached a “study” done by the government of San Juan county, Washington. Since 2023, the county has only required employees work 32 hours per week. They have made it permanent by claiming an increase of over 200% in job applicants and an increase in employee productivity.

The catch is in how the government defines productivity. I will quote it here:

Maintaining Productivity: Employee timesheet data shows an average of 18% less sick time used after adopting the 32HWW, and 21% less sick time used during flu season. 

That isn’t productivity. That’s presence. Just because an employee doesn’t call in sick as often doesn’t mean he is doing anything while he is there. This is the kind of bullshit that people pass off as “scientific studies” today.

So I asked, if employee productivity goes up, why wouldn’t all businesses do it? His answer? Business owners are greedy. If by greedy, you mean “all business owners want to earn the largest profit they can,” Then I guess they are. However, if they are greedy and want to maximize profit, you do that by increasing productivity.

There are two types of costs that a business incurs:

  • Variable costs. These are costs that vary with the amount of product you produce. Things like labor, raw materials, etc.
  • Fixed costs: insurance, cost of the factory, administrative overhead like HR and accounting departments, things like that.

If a business is creating 3200 widgets and has 400 labor hours each week, there are 8 products being made per labor hour. That’s a measure of variable labor costs. If I could reduce that to 320 labor hours, but still manufacture 3200 widgets, I just cut my labor costs by producing 10 widgets per labor hour.

But there’s more. At the same time, the fixed costs stay the same, only now there is time in a week to work another 3/4ths of a shift in the three days remaining. If I hire a second shift to work an average of 240 hours per week and they can maintain the 10 widgets per labor hour, I am now producing 5600 widgets per week without increasing my fixed costs.

I just increased my profit margins. Why wouldn’t I??

The reason I wouldn’t? Because productivity doesn’t increase when you cut working hours. If a person can assemble ten widgets an hour, he won’t magically assemble 12 of them because you give him more time off.

So what happened? How did San Juan county’s government departments all meet their targets, even though they were working 20% fewer hours? Two ways: They made salaried employees work more hours, and they had an outsourcing contract that brought in outside contractors to complete the backlogged work.

That’s how leftists and governments define success. It’s all smoke and mirrors.

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By Divemedic, ago

Now It Makes Sense

If you will remember, I couldn’t understand why I was being disciplined at work. Now I know. If you will recall, the last time I was written up was because a charge nurse had botched a stroke patient’s care. Less than a week later, I received my semiannual evaluation, and it read “Exceeds Expectations” across the board. I just couldn’t understand what was going on. Now I know why.

I am a Board Certified Emergency Nurse, Critical Care Nurse, and a Board Certified Nurse Manager. I have multiple degrees in medicine and in management, including an MBA in Health Care Admin. I am by far the most experienced and qualified nurse who works there. That’s important, as you will see.

The manager for my location is being transferred to another ED. That leaves a vacancy in the management spot for the place. I made the mistake of mentioning to her that I would be interested in applying to fill the vacant position.

There is a policy in the company that you cannot be promoted if you have received discipline in the past 90 days.

The charge nurse who was in charge of the stroke patient? Yeah, she has an associate’s degree in nursing, and has no qualifications beyond working there for a long time. She was the one, it turns out, who was complaining about me being too slow, not taking enough patients, and not taking proper care of the stroke patient. The outgoing manager is her long time friend. They worked together to have me take the fall for the incompetent charge nurse, so they could propel her into the management spot.

That’s right- the same charge nurse who botched a stroke patient’s care is now the manager of the entire ED, after spending three months making sure that it wouldn’t be me.

This is why I dislike working with women. The scheming and backstabbing is endemic.

People who have read this post: 467
By Divemedic, ago

Being Overrun

To those who keep supporting immigrants, watch as the city commission of Lake Worth Beach, FL disqualifies a candidate for City Manager because he isn’t Guatemalan and doesn’t speak Spanish.

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By Divemedic, ago

Their Core Message

I don’t have much to add, but instead of a direct link, a quote:

It is genuinely upsetting how many people celebrated Charlie Kirk’s death with “Kirkiversary” posts. Some here, tons more on TikTok. The message is clear; if you disagree with progressive orthodoxy, they want you dead and will celebrate your murder too. That includes a young father like Charlie Kirk whose major “crime” was engaging in civil debate with them.

And these posts have thousands or hundreds of thousands of likes, these aren’t fringe edgelords, this is a major view at least among the progressive base. Violence and intimidation has become an accepted strategy for them.

I hate that I have to share a country with these broken people, they must be defeated and marginalized just as much as the brainrotted elements of the Candace Owens right.

I just can’t grasp their mindset. If some leftist commentator I despised was murdered for their views, I can confidently say I would not celebrate it, and you should really do some serious soul searching if that is who you have become. This shouldn’t even need to be debated.

Celebration of assassination and poltical violence is a very dark road to go down. But after Kirk, and their celebration of Mangione, and all the cheering for Trump assassins, it is safe to say it is what a significant portion of the progressive/DSA left now believes. This is who they are.

Oh, and they want to take your guns still. You know, for “safety.”

My only addition to this:

  • Of course they want you dead. I told you that YEARS before Kirk was murdered. They want us all dead or in camps, as they have boldly told us many times.
  • They are keeping enemies lists– even local school boards are keeping lists of who they want to imprison once they regain power.
  • It’s too widespread to be a fringe element. This is across the left wing spectrum. This is the position of the Democrats/Socialists/Communists
  • That’s why they want your guns.

I am not one to scream that we need to kick off a Civil War, because I know how horrific that would be. Millions would die, and the enemies of this nation wouldn’t sit by and watch from the sidelines.

However, I don’t think it will be up to me. It’s coming, and I can feel it.

People who have read this post: 422
By Divemedic, ago

Stepping on Your Johnson

Three times I voted for Trump. He was and remains a better choice than any of the three who ran against him. That being said, the Iran war clearly shows him to be stepping on his dick.

Iran is clearly prolonging the conflict until November, because their aim is obviously to influence the election. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out the Democrats are conspiring with Iran to make that happen.

Still,this is a disaster in the making for the Republicans. Fuel prices are sky high. Gasoline is averaging more than $4.30 a gallon. Inflation is high, and the Fed is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter percent today.

The nation, and perhaps the world, is about to enter a recession. Americans vote with their wallets. Republican lawmakers, sensing vulnerability to anti-Trump election pressures, are beginning to turn on him.

All of this signals a return to Democrat control of Congress. Trump is about to become a powerless lame duck.

That also means a likely stranglehold of both Congress and the Whitehouse. Imagine President AOC, but backed by Control of both the Senate and the House.

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By Divemedic, ago

It’s Not Your Job

Here is a case of a woman who decided that, because she had a gun, she was going to chase down what she believed was a criminal and be a hero. The story goes like this:

She was a witness to a car accident, along with an off duty police officer, another witness. Hannah saw the accident and believed him to be intoxicated, according to her own statements on the phone to 911. (It actually turns out he was having a diabetic emergency) The man who caused the accident left the scene. Hannah called 911 and engaged in a vehicle pursuit.

The dispatcher, upon finding out Hannah was engaged in a vehicle pursuit, said “We actually don’t want you to chase him,” then asked her to return to the scene of the accident.

Hannah replied, “There is a police officer at the scene, but this guy is drunk, and I am not NOT going to follow him, because he is going to cause another accident.”

When she caught up to him, Hannah pulled her vehicle into the path of the man’s car, to block him from going further. She got out of her car to confront him, yelling for him to get out of the car. She is heard to say, “He was fighting with me, and he pulled the trigger on my gun.” The thing is, he was still in his pickup with his seatbelt on. She claims her finger was indexed and not on the trigger. You decide, here is a screen grab from the video:

In 2023, Hannah was convicted of felony murder, false imprisonment, and weapons charges, and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, plus 8 years and 5 years. The story would end there, a wanna be cop with a gun who decided to shoot someone over a traffic accident she wasn’t even involved in, but there is more.

The Supreme Court of Georgia weighed in on her appeal just this spring. The prosecutor in the case had used AI to write her legal briefs and motions. The case law cited by the AI was fake, either made up cases, or the cases cited didn’t say what the lawyer claimed they did. So the Supreme Court of Georgia, as they should have, ordered the conviction tossed out, and granted Hannah a new trial.

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By Divemedic, ago

Laws

That’s what laws are for, Mr. Reardon. If the right people don’t break them, they are of no use whatsoever.

My recent quotes of Atlas Shrugged made me rewatch the trilogy. Part II was the best of the three.

It’s a fine balance we have. You depend on my coal for power, and to fill your hoppers. Hank uses my coal to make his steel. We use his steel to shore up my mines and to lay your rail. It’s perfect. Natural. Trading value for value.

The Hank Reardon in this episode was cast perfectly.

I honestly feel like going John Galt more and more often lately. My target for full retirement is 2030. Some days, I don’t know if I will make it.

People who have read this post: 347
By Divemedic, ago

Warrants? We Don’t Need Warrants

This case is a great example of why you should never open your door to anyone you don’t intend on allowing into your home. That’s the purpose of doorbell cameras, after all. Police in Greenville, North Carolina approached a woman who had a Ring camera on her house in the belief that the camera caught video evidence of a crime. They demanded she show them the video, and she refused, claiming the camera didn’t record. There are numerous reasons for this. You can set Ring cameras to record on motion, and it’s entirely possible that the camera simply didn’t record the incident because the motion was too far away to trigger the motion sensor. Even so, I wouldn’t want cops going through my phone. So the answer from me is going to be no.

The cop replied, “Listen to me, you pull it up and show me that it isn’t working, or I will rip it off the wall, get a warrant, and I will keep you up all night.”

  • First, ripping the camera off the wall won’t get you any footage. It’s an Internet camera. My cameras aren’t Ring cameras, but they don’t store any footage. Either this cop is a dumbass, or is going to destroy the camera because she can.

Listen:

So what did the cops do? They entered the home, took the woman’s phone, forcibly unlocked it, and stole the video, all without a warrant. The woman wasn’t suspected of committing a crime.

At some point, you are tempted to wonder if the officers are wearing Level IV plates, or if the plates they do happen to be wearing are capable of stopping .308 or .300 Blackout.

Look, I am not against it. I once had a thief in my neighborhood and the cops believed my cameras might have caught the thief on film. They contacted me while I was on vacation in Colorado and ASKED me for footage. they were a bit panicked because they were afraid the video would get deleted before I got back. They wanted me to give them permission to enter the home and get the hard drive. I refused, but I assured them it would not. I reviewed my videos, pulled up the relevant footage, copied it to a USB drive, and handed it over. They wound up catching and convicting the guy.

He was charged with 9 felonies, including arson, armed burglary, several counts of grand larceny, and theft of a firearm. He reached a plea agreement where he got 6 months’ probation and his records were sealed.

Then it became a habit. After that, the cops came over for every single incident that occurred anywhere near my house and wanted my camera footage. The cops wouldn’t even reimburse me for the USB drives. It started getting expensive after the 5th or 6th time, both in free USB drives and in the use of my time. I told them I should be eligible for a crime stoppers award. When they refused, I eventually had to tell them to get bent. I’m not going to keep doing your jobs for you for free, the cops were getting paid while I did their jobs for them at my expense.

I want to see cops defend the cops’ actions at this point. The person here wasn’t suspected of a crime. They weren’t even awake- it was 3am. The cops are investigating.

I will say it again- qualified immunity needs to be replaced with a requirement for liability insurance. The dirty little secret is there is no law establishing qualified immunity. That particular little benefit for dirty cops was created by the courts, who supposedly don’t have the power to make law, in a blatant example of legislating from the bench.

I ran a travel agency, and Florida law REQUIRES a bond in order to do so. Don’t you think liability for police with the power to take your life is more important than insurance for the travel agent who can ruin your vacation?

Here is another video on the incident, but it includes actual Ring camera video and some applicable court cases.

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By Divemedic, ago

Called It

I said the Clancy trial was jury nullification. The jurors now admit it was.

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By Divemedic, ago