July 2020

My son came to see me today. We had lunch before he had to be at work. I have to give you a bit of background:
On July 6, he returned from working in New York . His fiance and her family are hard core liberals. As far as guns go, they are classic Fudds, in that they only support gun rights as they pertain to hunting, not self defense or any other reasons. Sometimes those opinions bleed through to my son’s outlook.

Just before my son got home (June 26), his fiance tested COVID positive after being exposed while out at a bar for drinks with some of her friends. Her two week isolation period would have ended on July 10. Since he arrived home on July 6, he was actively in the house with a person who was COVID positive.

His contract with the NY staffing company required him to isolate for a week (until July 13) after returning. They even paid him for that week as if he were working. Instead of isolating, he returned to work on July 11 by picking up a shift for a nurse who had called out sick. In  fact, he has picked up 4 different shifts during his “quarantine period.” This means that, even though his fiance was through with HER isolation period, he would have had to isolate until July 20 because he was exposed to her.

He came over and almost immediately began to criticize me because I am not wearing a mask when I go out. That then began a heated discussion about how businesses and the public need to listen to the experts. I pointed out that the experts have been changing their advice every few weeks, have been falsifying COVID test results, and listing motorcycle accidents as COVID related.

He responded by pointing out a few things that I thought were ridiculous. A few of the high points:

The people at the CDC are not experts, they are politicians. When I asked him who the experts are, he replied that HE and the doctors he had been working with in NYC were the experts, and actually said that he was now good enough that he could tell if someone were COVID positive by simply looking at them, and didn’t NEED a test.

 He also said that the tests were inaccurate, and 40% of negatives were actually false negatives, therefore he was more accurate than the COVID tests.

He said that everyone should be required by law to wear a mask as soon as they step out their front door. In fact, he went so far as to say that there should be a law that the public is required to obey the orders of physicians.

Also, businesses should all be closed so we can flatten out the curve and stop hospital overcrowding. He declared that all of the hospitals in Florida are currently at least at 115% of capacity. I asked him why, if they were all so full, were they still accepting elective surgeries, and why he and his fiance were still laid off. He replied “Because the people running the hospital are all cheap and greedy.”

I then asked him, if the rest of us have to stay home, why he was permitted to go to work after having a person living in his house testing positive. He replied “My boss knows. He doesn’t care.” I told him that this was hard to believe. How can a hospital not care that one of their staff is in a household were one of their other staff members is supposed to be isolated because they are COVID positive? And if that hospital in fact doesn’t care, then why should I be prohibited from going where I please, when neither my wife nor I have been positive?

This went on for over 20 minutes. My wife managed to eventually change the subject, which was good, because things were getting overheated. My son went to NYC for 3 months and came back as an arrogant, hypocritical ass.

I hope that effect will wear off soon.

I haven’t posted all week because I took a well deserved vacation to Biloxi, MS where we stayed at the Beau Rivage casino.

Here were the changes we noted:
Masks were required to be worn by everyone in the resort.
The table games only allowed half as many players. (Three per blackjack table.)
Every other slot machine was out of service, the chairs for the out of service machines removed.
The buffet has been shut down.

It was still a relaxing week and well worth the drive.

Isn’t it odd that Florida’s number of COVID cases was low until right after it was announced that the 2020 Republican National Convention would be in Jacksonville. Nope. Coincidence.

This entire shitstorm of COVID, the riots, and everything else is being orchestrated and used to influence the election. This is the big play. Expect voter fraud, dead people voting, and more irregularities than you have ever seen before, on top of a backdrop of escalating violence.

Teachers all over are being told that we have to teach the kids face to face when school restarts in two weeks. OK. I’m cool with that. However, I do have some questions:

1 What happens if I test positive? Am I required to stay home for two weeks? If so, is it without pay? Or is it considered an on the job injury, and would I be eligible for workers’ comp?

2 Same with medical expenses. Who pays? Me? My health insurance, or workers’ comp?

3 Since masks are not required of students, what happens if a kid comes in sick? Can I refuse to allow him in my classroom until he tests negative?

4 Considering the answers to 1,2, and 3: Then does that mean I can continue to come in as well, rather than have to burn my own sick leave?

5 If I test positive, a contact tracer will ask me a bunch of invasive questions about where I go, who I talk to, and other personal details. Am I required to answer? What happens if I don’t?

I am sure there are many more, and these are questions that no one yet seems to have answers for.

The number of sunspots is a great indicator of solar output. That is, the more sunspots there are, the higher the sun’s energy output. This has effects on cosmic rays reaching Earth, the Earth’s climate, and even how well radio communications work. Let’s take a look (courtesy of Spaceweather.com) at the number of sunspot free days over the last few years:

2020 total: 145 days (74%)
2019 total: 281 days (77%)
2018 total: 221 days (61%)
2017 total: 104 days (28%)
2016 total: 32 days (9%)
2015 total: 0 days (0%)
2014 total: 1 day (<1 p="">2013 total: 0 days (0%)
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1 p="">2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
2008 total: 268 days (73%)
2007 total: 152 days (42%)
2006 total: 70 days (19%)

You can see that solar activity is cyclical, and you can see that we have been sunspot free for the majority of the time for the past three years. The last solar minimum (2008-2009) only lasted for two, with a seven year gap to the current one.

Solar cycles are normally 11 years long, but can last as long as 14 years. The current cycle began on January 4, 2008. The maximum sunspot number for this cycle was the lowest since cycles 12-15 (1878-1923, also known as the Dalton Minimum). So far this year, the Sun has been blank 76% of the time, a rate surpassed only once before in the Space Age. Last year, 2019, the Sun was blank 77% of the time. Two consecutive years of record-setting spotlessness adds up to a very deep solar minimum.

Long periods of low solar output are followed by colder weather on Earth. 

For years, I have used the following to illustrate the insanity of the transgender position:

Let’s say that I believe myself to be a gorilla. No matter how strongly I believe it, I am still not a gorilla.
Let’s say that I take pills to make myself grow more hair to look more like a gorilla. I am still not a gorilla.
If I hire a surgeon to perform an operation to make myself look more like a gorilla, I am still not a gorilla.
If I get a million people to say that I can be whatever I identify myself as, and declare than I am a gorilla, I am still not a gorilla.
If I were to believe myself to be a gorilla and took the steps above, people would say I am crazy.

This is going to sound like a parody, but sadly, it isn’t. The social media platform Twitch now has a man who identifies as both a woman and a deer, and this nutcase is now a moderator: in charge of censoring the users of the platform for not having a diverse enough opinion.

Two days ago, I posted about shortages. To be honest, thanks to ammo shortages, I had not set foot in my LGS for about three weeks. I got called by some new shooters who wanted to take me up on my offer of a free shooting session, so we went. In return, they took us to dinner.

We started off with some .22 through a S&W M&P22. Then we moved to a suppressed 9mm, then unsuppressed. In all, I used up 100 rounds of 9mm, 50 rounds of .380, and 100 rounds of .22. I need to get some decent priced 9mm soon, or range trips in the near future will be made with .22.

Before we went shooting, they had to fill out the waivers, so I used that time to look over the gun shop.

The place was packed. Far busier than normal. There are 40 lanes, and most of them were full. Members went right in, there was a wait for non-members. We saw a large number of customers in the store who were looking for their first gun.  A Florida CCW class had just let out, and there were a few students still hanging out, looking at various handguns. In all, if you include the range, there were about 200 customers in the store. The place was packed.

The training schedule for July and August was up. There were 18 courses on the schedule for the rest of the month of July, and every one of them was booked. The schedule looks like this:
4 classes of “Intro to Handguns” and 2 classes of “Ladies Only Intro to Handguns” all full
6 classes of “First Shots” all full
5 classes of Florida CCW all full
1 “Youth Intro to Firearms” also full

It seems that the new shooters aren’t just buying- they are buying and getting educated. Awesome. I welcome all new shooters into the culture. I mean ALL. The more popular shooting is, the harder it is to ban guns.

Guns are back in stock. The gun cabinets were well stocked, and to the credit of the LGS, the prices were pretty close to normal. Ammo is a bit hit or miss. Limits on most ammo were still one box per person, with a few exceptions:
5.56mm is back in stock in a big way. They were selling it by the box or by the case. Same with shotgun, except slugs, which are still limited.

The hunting calibers seemed to be well stocked, as was revolver ammo. There was plenty of .38, .44, and .357 magnum. For handguns, it was hit or miss. Oddly enough, there was plenty of .45ACP. There was some .40 S&W, but there were only 5 or 6 boxes of expensive 9mm. 

The ammo situation is improving, but I don’t see us getting back to normal levels for months.

In comments to my post on the protesters having a point about good cops who stay silent are not good cops, it was pointed out that the numbers aren’t valid. Perhaps not, but the point is that the “blue wall of silence” makes the good cops into bad ones. Let me offer an example to you:

A female highway Patrol Trooper pulled over a Miami PD officer who was speeding to his off duty job in his cruiser. He was travelling more than 120 miles per hour while weaving through traffic.This incident caused the Sun-Sentinel to do an entire series of articles, where it was revealed that dozens of South Florida cops were routinely speeding off duty, reaching speeds of over 100 miles an hour. Other cops simply looked the other way. I guess they are all “good cops.”

She arrested him and was harassed for months because of it. 88 law enforcement officers from 25 jurisdictions illegally accessed her personal information more than 200 times, violating her privacy, and then used that information to leave notes on her car, and once they even left human feces on the hood of her car. She was harassed in a nationwide attempt by “good cops” to make an example of her, so other cops would know what happens when you cross the “blue wall of silence.” (Seriously, read the comments from the cops at that last link. That is the attitude of supposed “good cops.”)

She  wound up leaving law enforcement and had to move more than 600 miles away, and still they are stalking her. There were still police officers doing it in 2017, six years later.

As a paramedic, I got to see first hand what “professional courtesy” means. You didn’t think that cops put those “blue line” stickers on their cars just for the hell of it, did you? These protests have gotten out of hand, but that is what happens when you don’t police your own. Cops need to fix this, or it will get worse.

St Petersburg police have just announced that they will no longer respond to “non violent” calls, but will instead send social workers. Calls that police will no longer respond to:

• Disorderly intoxication
• Drug overdose
• Intoxicated person
• Mental health crisis
• Suicide crisis
• Mental Health Transport
• Disorderly juvenile/truancy
• Disorderly Juvenile at Elementary Schools
• Panhandling
• Homeless complaints
• Neighborhood dispute

Anything involving intoxication will be handled by social workers? Have you ever tried to reason with a drunk? With a person who is on meth? They can’t be reasoned with.

Overdose? As a medic, I am not going to an overdose call without police to secure the scene.

This is a shit sandwich that is going to get people killed at much higher rates than the handful of police misconduct that happens in a year.