Divemedic

Time Clutches Pearls

An article in Time magazine engages in some serious pearl clutching when they note that armed, private security is replacing the power vacuum left behind by the police that have been defunded all over the nation’s blue cities.

He seems unaware of the flutter of anxiety spreading through the store as customers see his weapon, handcuffs, and bulletproof vest. But if anyone asked, which they don’t, he’d assure them that he’s there for their own good, even though it’s hard to be relaxed in the presence of a loaded gun.

I thought that the left has claimed for decades that the only people who should have guns are the police, licensed security guards, and the military? The press certainly has no problem with their own, unlicensed security guards gunning down and killing people, nor do they have a problem when those guards get off scott free because the local DA is a known Antifa member.

Here is the naked truth: the police are there to first protect the public from criminals. When they begin, as they have in the country, to protect the government instead of the people, the people will find ways to protect themselves. It may be with paid security, or it may be with armed vigilance committees. This is also why the police have a second function: to protect the rights of accused criminals to have a fair, impartial trial. When the people form their own protection units, you get lynchings, which are soon followed by the anarchy of might makes right.

That’s where we are, the people are thoroughly disgusted with their government and are taking things into their own hands. I believe that this is being done on purpose as one of the tenets of the CIA Insurgent Manual. To be successful, and insurgency that wishes to overthrow the government must force the government to fail in providing basic services like police. The insurgents then step in and provide those services. “We can protect you from this violence, because the government can’t”

We are currently staring into the abyss.

By Divemedic, ago

Stroke of the Pen, Law of the Land

Another bureaucratic action is being taken by the Biden administration. This time, the EPA submitted a proposed rule for public comments that would ban most refrigerants by January 1, 2025. Industry experts weighed in against the rule, or at least pointed out that it wasn’t feasible on the timeline. As usual, the government ignored the comments and is passing it any way.

The replacement refrigerants are all toxic and flammable, with equipment needing to be redesigned and technicians needing to be trained to handle them safely. This cant be done in only 18 months. The EPA doesn’t care.

This regime is deliberately destroying the US. They’ve told you that’s the goal, why do so few people believe it?

By Divemedic, ago

Debasement

The Democrats want to continue spending the US dollar into worthlessness. The Republicans are trying to get some budget cuts in exchange, but Biden is saying his way, or default. He is laying the blame on Republicans because he is refusing to budge. The solution, some on the left are saying, is to mint a $1 trillion coin, and deposit it with the Fed.

The idea is to mint a worthless coin that has face value of $1 trillion. That way, the coin has one trillion dollars of seigniorage, i.e. profit for government, and the coin could be deposited to Federal Reserve treasury instead of issuing debt. In other words, they would be issuing new money by debasing the dollar, without generating debt in their balance sheet. It’s like issuing one trillion worth of cash, which is backed with just one worthless platinum coin. It’s not really different from just issuing debt that isn’t paid back, but this way they don’t have to raise the debt limit. This would instantly insert an additional trillion into circulation, creating a massive amount of inflation. Shenanigans like this will completely erode the trust in the value of dollar and make the dollar worth much less nearly overnight. It’s like writing a worthless check to pay your monthly mortgage payment.

This will allow Biden to continue spending money like the dollar is going out of style, which of course it is. God forbid we should actually learn to live within our means.

By Divemedic, ago

Unprofessional

For Fox News to leak “blooper” reels of Tucker Carlson to Media Matters so as to discredit him is beyond the pale, and indicates that Fox is perfectly willing to work with the very leftist organizations that they are nominally opposed to in order toss conservatives that they don’t like under the bus.

This is probably why I no loner watch any network news show or channel. They all have their agendas, and aren’t shy about misrepresentations in order to get what they want.

Remember when I reported on January 5, 2021 that hosts like Hannity, Levin, Shapiro, and Bongino were all threatened with their jobs if they ever mentioned that the election was disputed. They caved. Tucker Carlson is an illustration of what happens to hosts who won’t.

By Divemedic, ago

Situational Awareness

Note that, at 1:15, he tucks a handgun into the waistband of his pants. It is at this point that the bicyclist needed to either draw a firearm, or needed to immediately disengage and leave the area. He is lucky he wasn’t shot.

Also note who the racists are in this video. When dealing with blacks, you have to assume that they hate you. All of them. You also have to assume that they are all violent and will kill you out of a sense of entitlement.

By Divemedic, ago

Asshole

A guy is walking on the golf cart path of the golf course. Another guy, Eddie Orobitg, knows that this is against the rules, so he takes it upon himself to be the enforcer of rules, and reads the offender the riot act. The offender tells this guy on the rules committee to fuck off. Well, our self appointed referee wasn’t having that, so he spit in the guys face and then beat him with a golf club. The victim wound up with broken ribs, a traumatic brain injury, a ripped earlobe, a broken jaw, and multiple lacerations. Under Florida law, this is serious bodily injury, making this attack a forcible felony. Aggravated battery.

Orobitg’s juvenile son said his father had asked the couple to get out of his way. The son said the man “got into his father’s face” and a verbal altercation broke out. He said his father spit in the man’s face. The other man spit back and pushing began. The son said that was when his father “accidentally” struck the man with his golf club.

The deputy who wrote the arrest report noted that Orobitg did not have any injuries other than a cut on his hand. There was blood on his clothes and golf clubs.

For breaking a golf rule. Accidentally? He struck him half a dozen times “on accident?” Orobitg is a dentist that practices in the area and obviously has some anger control issues.

By Divemedic, ago

Why Navy?

Big Country asks why people would join the Navy. He asks, I will explain. Back when I was in high school, I took the ASVAB. That sucker is widely considered to be the best vocational aptitude exam ever. I got one point short of a perfect score. The only section that I didn’t get a perfect score on was called “speed coding.” It was the section where you are given a decoder sheet of random letters, an encoded message, and are asked to decode it for time. I missed a perfect score by a single point. IIRC, a perfect score at the time was a 99, and I got a 98.

So as a result, the offers poured in. Now I was one of those guys who had known that I wanted to serve for as long as I can remember. I was young, naïve, and loved my country. With this being the Reagan years, and being a kid raising himself on a diet of Heinlein, Mack Bolan, and the like, I wanted to serve. But where?

  • The Coast Guard wanted to send me to the academy and make me an officer. I would have owed them 8 years of service.
  • The Army was going to make me a Warrant Officer and a helicopter pilot
  • The Marines wanted to train me as an avionics repairman as an E3
  • The Navy wanted to make me a Nuclear Power plant operator for 6 years, with a rank of E4
  • The Air Force wouldn’t promise me anything in advance, sign up for 4 years and take your chances

As an 18 year old, I wasn’t ready for the 12 year commitment of the Coast Guard. The Air Force worried me, as I didn’t want to wind up as a wing washer or a cook. My father convinced me that the Navy would teach me skills as a power plant operator that I wouldn’t get in the Marines. He said that Avionics repair in the military was just swapping one black box for another. I took his word for it.

So it was between Army and Navy. The Navy recruiter’s pitch sounded sooo much better. What I didn’t know at the time was that the Navy was having difficulty filling the ranks with people who had done well on ASVAB because the Air Force was taking all of them. That’s why the AF didn’t have to make promises or offer big promotions.

So how did the Navy fix that? They promised all sorts of money, tech school, and promotions. Once you were in, they found every reason that they could to wash you out of the two year long training pipeline. The only program in the Navy with a higher washout rate is the SEAL program. That way, they can fill the ranks with smart people who otherwise would have been lost to other branches of the service. That’s why the washout rate is over 80%, even though the Navy claims its only around 10%. When I was in boot camp, one in five recruits were nukes, but the vast majority wouldn’t make it. This was before Top Gun made everyone think they were going to be a pilot and sleep with hot chicks while thumbing your nose at officers from the motorcycle you would ride down the runway.

I was washed out of Nuclear Power School and sent to the fleet. For what?

The school had a policy that you were assigned a study plan. The minimum GPA to remain in the program was 3.0. There were three levels to the plan: Voluntary, Suggested, and Mandatory. Being assigned suggested 16 meant that they suggested you study 16 hours per week. What we were learning was classified, so all studying had to be done in the classroom. Your notes had to stay in the classroom. Study hours were 2 hours a night Monday through Thursday and eight hours a day on Saturday and Sunday.

I had a GPA of 3.4 and was assigned mandatory 20. Another guy in my class was assigned voluntary hours, but his GPA was 3.2. When I asked about the disparity and pointed out its unfairness, I was told “That’s as good as I think he can do, but I think you can do better.”

Being a rather immature 18 years old, I wasn’t about to submit to this injustice and study 2 hours every weeknight plus six hours each on Saturday and Sunday, so I didn’t do it. Like I said, I was immature. Not only that, I don’t get a benefit from studying like that. I’m not that sort of learner. Not making excuses. It was immature and stupid on my part, but that is how washouts happen. They regularly catch people for various offenses and send them to the fleet. Someone has to mop floors, clean spaces, and serve officers their dinner as waiters in the officers’ mess.

So I went to NJP, was dropped from E4 to E3, got booted from Power School, and sent to the fleet, becoming what Navy people euphemistically call “Nuke Waste.” I was shocked when I arrived at my command, an aircraft carrier, and more than three quarters of the 200 non-nuclear electricians on board were nuclear waste. I still had a minimum of four years left on my enlistment. The guy who had been on voluntary hours? He got washed out the same week I did for drinking underage, also as an E3.

I spent nearly two years mopping floors, doing dishes, cleaning, and generally being untrained labor before finally being promoted back to E4. I spent the entire time wishing that I had taken the deal to be an Army helicopter pilot.

Does it come through that I am bitter? It should. I think that the six years I spent in the Navy was wasted time that I could have better spent elsewhere, although I know that college at the time would not have been a good idea for me. (Immature, remember? I would have found some other way to get in trouble.) Still, we make the best of where we find ourselves. I’ve done OK. I still discouraged my own kids from joining the military.

By Divemedic, ago