Divemedic

Machiavellian Movements

The Democrats are in full fledged panic mode over Biden’s performance in the debate last night. His dementia was on full display and obvious to all, even the Democrat faithful. This generates a couple of interesting questions. The inner circle of the left KNOWS how bad Joe’s mental state is, yet his campaign allowed the debate. This tells me that either the Dems WANTED to showcase how bad he is, or the campaign really is clueless.

We know that they aren’t clueless, so that leaves us with it being purposeful. After all, if they are simply going to cheat the election, all they had to do was- nothing. But they decided to let the world see what Biden is all about. To what end? Do they want to replace him? There are a few options.

  • Gavin Newsome. The rainbow coalition of the Democrat party is not going to accept another cis-gendered (straight) white male as its candidate if Biden is out. I just don’t see him being the pick.
  • Kamala Harris. If it’s possible, she is even less popular than the President. Sure, she will garner some women, the party faithful, and the black vote. Is that enough to win her the Presidency, even with the margin of cheat? I don’t think so.
  • Big Mike. I know that he has said he isn’t running, but that can change. This is the most viable of the picks, and people would be salivating for another Obama White House.
  • Whoever they pick, it will be interesting to see it unfold.

But how do they get Joe out? 25th Amendment? Assassination? Simply replace him?

I still say that the left won’t allow Trump back in office. He is too dangerous, and he is pissed. They will assassinate him before he ever gets near to the inauguration podium. The FBI alone will never allow him to gut their agency, which is sure to happen if he gets in office again.

By Divemedic, ago

Medicine

Our series on preparedness continues. We have looked at records, did an extensive (and ongoing) examination of power, and now we move on to medicine. When people think of medicine, they think of the sexy parts: usually trauma. Yeah, using a ballpoint pen and a pocketknife to open an airway in someone’s throat makes for great television, but isn’t really something you are going to have to do.

Trauma is a surgical emergency. The only thing I can recommend with trauma, beyond first aid is stabilize the injury and get the victim to a location that is equipped and able to perform the necessary surgery. If things have gotten to the point where that isn’t possible, the victim probably isn’t going to make it. To stabilize the patient, it helps to have a decent first aid kit like this one. Here are the basics of how to treat a gunshot wound from a talk I gave at the 2021 Florida Blogshoot. There are all sorts of people that will tell you to carry IV equipment, BVMs, and all of that, but frankly, you don’t need that stuff. There are plenty of studies that bear that out.

I have seen medical bloggers insist that you need to stock a room full of sterile, disposable dressings. Hogwash. All you need to do is cut up some old sheets, put them in a pot of boiling water for ten minutes, wring them out with hands freshly washed in clean, potable water, then dry them in the clothes dryer. Now you have clean bandages.

No, the important medicine that you need are the less sexy parts of the medical profession. The most important thing that you can have from a medical standpoint is knowledge. Start with a first aid and CPR course, something like First Responder or EMT. You can get an EMT certification in as little as two months for the cost of a single handgun. The more you know, the more you know, and one thing that you learn may be the difference between saving a life and not.

What medicines do we need? First, recognize that the biggest killers of people in a SHTF scenario will be contaminated food/water, and sepsis. Having things on hand to deal with those things will go a long way. So here we are with a list of medicines:

  • Iodine (Betadine will do)- wound disinfectant
  • Soap- cleanliness prevents infection
  • Rubbing alcohol- disinfectant
  • Vinegar- it can be used as a disinfectant
  • Loperamide (Immodium)- diarrhea is a huge killer, as it can cause severe dehydration and electrolyte imbalances
  • ondansetron (which is a prescription drug) and meclizine (over the counter) to prevent vomiting. They are dangerous for the same reasons that diarrhea is.
  • Acetaminophen (for fevers)
  • Ibuprofen (for inflammation)
  • hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin (for parasitic infections)
  • if possible, grow an aloe plant. Aloe is useful for burns and as a powerful laxative. If you can’t have an aloe plant, you need some burn ointments and a laxative.
  • hydrocortisone cream for inflammatory rashes
  • diphenhydramine, both pills and ointment
  • triple antibiotic cream
  • At least three of the following six broad spectrum antibiotics: Augmentin (amoxicillin and clavulanate), ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, metronidazole, azithromicin, cephalexin
  • Pseudoephedrine (Sudafed)
  • Aspirin
  • Famitodine
  • Clotrimazole cream

Those will handle most of what you will need in a SHTF situation.

If you want to read more in my preparedness series, click here for the complete library of posts on the subject. You can also refer to the training materials page.

By Divemedic, ago

Saber Rattling and Hollow Shell

The US is talking about making some B52s nuclear capable again. The ten bombers had been “denuked” in compliance with nuclear treaties with Russia. This is nothing more than bullshit saber rattling. It will take years, and will not make a difference. Not only that, but the Air Force admits that it no longer is capable of putting nuclear bombers on alert, because it just doesn’t have the men or equipment. Of course, this makes one wonder what use is an Air Force that can’t take to the air to employ force, but that is a different discussion.

The Navy chose to flex its nuclear muscles by having an E6 Mercury and an Ohio class missile submarine sail around in full view of the Russians off the coast of Norway. The message is clear- we have nukes, and they are at your back door. At that range (less than 1200 miles), missiles fired from that submarine would detonate over Moscow in less than 8 minutes. Not nearly enough time to react.

The Navy only has the capability of the Nuclear ballistic missile submarines for nuclear weapons at sea. Ever since the first President Bush pulled the nukes from the rest of the fleet. The personnel and equipment needed to put nukes back on to the rest of the Navy just no longer exists. Our carriers, attack submarines, and surface ships just do not have the ability to maintain or carry nuclear weapons. Nuclear armed Tomahawks and carriers with nuclear weapons just don’t and can’t exist in today’s US Navy.

Now consider that the Navy doesn’t even require its sailors to pass a physical fitness test any longer.

So for the US, it’s use ballistic missiles or nothing. Our military is an overly expensive, hollow shell that can’t accomplish many of its core missions. Any war against a near peer adversary is therefore likely to end with the exchange of strategic nuclear weapons as our military gets its ass handed to them.

By Divemedic, ago

First Shots

The first shots have been fired directly between US and Russian forces. The Russians have declared the entire Black Sea to be a “no fly zone” and have just shot down a US RQ-4 Reaper drone.

By Divemedic, ago

Farewell to a Giant

Gun Free Zone is ending as a blog. (No- the title of this blog is not a dig on the size of anyone over there, lol) Truth be told, the end of that blog came two years ago when Miguel announced that he was retiring from blogging. The quality that I came to love about that blog dropped sharply from that point forward.

He has been blogging nearly as long as I have, but was a far more prolific blogger than I ever was.

I respect and loved reading Miguel’s stuff so much that he was the very first blogger that I met and spoke to in real life. I trusted him enough that I confided things to him about my former employer that would have gotten me fired, and he wrote articles based upon those news tips.

Miguel- if you are reading this, you are always welcome to guest post here. Let me know if you are ever interested. Godspeed, my friend.

By Divemedic, ago

Panels

IcyReaper wants to know more about the panels that we selected. I checked through the previous posts and realized that I hadn’t talked about them at all. The PV panels are the heart of any solar system, so let’s review them.

When considering which manufacturer I wanted to go with for our PV panels, we wanted to go with a large, reputable panel manufacturer. SunPower, REC and Panasonic are three manufacturers widely known for producing some of the highest quality solar panels with low degradation and good warranties. For that reason, they cost up to 30% more, but I wanted reliability.

Although REC was originally a Norwegian company with a good reputation in the industry, their panels are actually made in Singapore. The company has been bought and sold several times, and is now owned by another company headquartered in India. The company makes panels with higher efficiency and more output at up to 470 watts per panel, but they are more expensive than some of their slightly less efficient models. It winds up costing more to get the extra output than it would to simply add more panels, and roof space isn’t an issue for me, as I have a lot of sun facing southern roof to work with.

We decided on the REC Alpha Pure 2 panel for our PV panel. The spec sheet can be found here (pdf alert). The panel is 1.8 meters by 1 meter, and has an output of 420 watts with an efficiency of 22 percent. It has a 20 year warranty and has been tested as retaining 92% of its rated output at 25 years. If the REC panels are installed by a certified installer, the warranty is extended out to 25 years. You can read a review on REC panels here.

REC solar panels operate at high efficiency, have a low 0.25% annual degradation rate and come with an excellent 25-year performance, product and labor warranty. As I mentioned in earlier posts, the panels are designed for 140 mile per hour winds and hailstones of up to 35mm. In my book, that made them durable enough to withstand some serious weather.

The panels look nice, because they are pure black with no light colored lines. They simply look better than the older panels.

The disclaimer: I don’t advertise, and receive nothing for my reviews or articles. I have no relationship with any products, companies, or vendors that I review here, other than being a customer. If I ever *DO* have a financial interest, I will disclose it. Otherwise, I pay what you would pay. No discounts or other incentives here. I only post these things because I think that my readers would be interested.

By Divemedic, ago

Engineering is Done

It’s been a busy week here at the Sector Ocho support facility. Aside from working three 12 hour days, I also had two days of training tossed in, for a total of 52 hours this week. Let’s see if they pay the overtime or not.

I also got the final engineering report on the solar project. The 24 solar panels have a total surface area of about 500 square feet. That works out to 46.5 square meters. The panels have an efficiency of 22 percent, meaning that we generate a maximum of 10,260 watts at full daylight (full, direct sun is 1,000 watts per square meter). What is interesting is that even in heavy clouds, we still get 230 watts per square meter of sunlight here in Florida (I measured it), and the panels will still produce more than 95% of full output at that light level:

The panels themselves are rated for wind up to 140 miles per hour, and hailstones up to 35mm in diameter.

Now that the engineering report is done, we are applying to the electric company and the city for our operating and construction permits. I have to clear out one side of the garage for the wiring, panels, and mounting of the Tesla powerwalls. Installation should be within the next two to three weeks, depending on permit times.

By Divemedic, ago