Divemedic

This Smells

Nevada. It’s election night. Laxalt, the Republican candidate, is ahead in the count and it seems that the Republicans are on the way to winning control of the Senate. Check out this timeline from Wednesday, November 9:

  • The poll workers who are counting ballots and election observers go home for the night at 2230.
  • At 2324, all security cameras in the facility fail.
  • At 0753 on 10NOV, the security cameras are restored. 8 hours of no video, no observers, a completely unguarded and unobserved room containing up to 70,000 uncounted ballots with minimal security.
  • The election officials claim that no one entered the ballot counting rooms in the interim.
  • But no proof of fraud, right?

Then the Democrat wins. In every state with mail in voting where ballot counting is delayed, the Democrats pull out amazing wins that defy history, polling, and statistical analysis. There are anomalies like missing camera footage, ballots being delivered in the middle of the night, election observers denied access. People notice and comment on this.

Then the Democrats demand concrete evidence, knowing that it will never be found because they made sure there were no witnesses. They threw out observers, the disabled cameras, the “trust me” attitude of people who, just last week were wishing for our deaths and demanding we be fired because we didn’t want to wear a mask or take a vaccine. Then they called out two divisions of armed troops in the Capitol to prevent protests.

The movie 2000 Mules laid out evidence- there was video of people stuffing ballot boxes. The statistical anomalies. Tons of evidence. All dismissed out of hand. So to those who think that the election was on the up and up, what evidence would you be willing to accept that the election was a fraud? Keeping in mind that a rumor of Russian collusion was enough for many of you in 2016, how much evidence do you need now? What standard will you set?

I am betting that no amount of evidence, video, statistical improbabilities, or other evidence will suffice.

By Divemedic, ago

Twitter

Now that the assholes who were the censors over at Twitter have been fired, the platform is now fun again. I am involved in a discussion of voter fraud on the platform, and have attracted the attention of a few lefties who are frankly pissed off that I think the 2020 election, and by extension, the 2022 election, were rigged. They asked how it was possibly rigged. I responded with:

The same way it worked in Broward county Florida before it was fixed: the Dems keep “finding” boxes of Democrat ballots over several days until their guy wins.

So, they ask. How did Florida count votes so quickly this time? My answer:

Because Florida counts votes with machine. You scan your ballot in, and it gets recorded right there. In AZ case, they WANT it to take longer, so they have time to “find” more ballots in order to get their desired outcome.

One of them is claiming to be a lawyer with 28 years of experience is demanding that I provide evidence of this. When I did, he dismissed it all as “rantings of right wing click bait sites.” When I pointed out that a summary of my grievances was found at here at Larry Correia’s site, he dismissed it out of hand by saying that “some rando on the Internet calling himself a monster hunter isn’t reliable.” Then began with the statements about “Not one legal case has been brought that proves fraud.” Then began quoting cases that didn’t say what he claimed that they did. So I pointed out that Twitter isn’t a court of law, and I don’t need to build a legal case in order to have an opinion.

That was when a list of other lefties came in and began telling me things like this:

That’s no excuse for paranoid, delusional ranting on your part. Spreading election misinformation is against the rules here, by the way.

Then it progressed to this:

I have reported this guy to Twitter. With the way things are going, they probably won’t do anything.

Twitter still hasn’t done anything. Even if they do, it isn’t hard to set up a gmail account and use it to get a new Twitter account. You can’t silence us. The people who believe one way or the other won’t be swayed, but people on the fence can see these oddities for themselves. So I taunt them when I can.

By Divemedic, ago

Shotguns

This began as a single post, but quickly became too long for one post. So let’s make it a series.

Yesterday’s post talked about stopping power and how it is a myth. Today I want to tackle the topic of what you should be using for self defense. Remember that a bullet is simply a means of transferring energy from gunpowder to target.

Lets start with shotguns.

Shotguns are a great self defense weapon for short to medium range, say 10 to 50 feet. They aren’t the cone of doom that many people think they are-the rule for shotgun patterning is that you usually get about 1 inch of spread for every yard from the target. So at 50 feet, you get a 16 inch pattern. In the distances involved inside of an average house, say 21 feet, you are looking at a pattern that is only about 7 inches.

In shotguns, the most effective self defense loads are not birdshot, as many people claim. The problem with lighter shot is that it frequently doesn’t penetrate. To me, the lightest shot that is suitable for self defense work is number four shot. So let’s take a look:

  • Number 4 buck has 20 grain pellets that are 0.24″ in diameter travelling at ~1300 feet per second.
  • #0 shot has 49 grain pellets that are 0.32″ in diameter and travelling at ~1200 feet per second.
  • #00 shot has 70 grain pellets that are 0.36″ in diameter and travelling at ~1100 feet per second.

My opinion, #0 buck is the best for home defense, especially when being fired from a 12ga with a 3″ chamber. Why?

Remember that our goal is to cause one of three things: a hit to the CNS, massive and rapid blood loss, or disabling shots. #0 buck offers enough penetration to reach vital organs, and 15 of them means having a high enough pellet count to punch lots of holes in the vascular system.

If you are going to consider slugs, I think that a rifle or a pistol caliber carbine is a better choice. We will talk about this in a later post.

The main disadvantages to shotguns are that they are long and difficult to work in tight spaces, and are not precise in the event that you need to shoot at targets that are located in close proximity to non-threats unless you are using slugs.

I prefer pump actions, but I can easily imagine the pure shock and awe of firing a semi-auto magazine fed 12 gauge. I will admit that I don’t own a mag fed semi-auto shotgun, but I have thought about it from time to time. Still, for home defense, a shotgun is a great choice for home defense, but I would not use a break open in that role. I would go with either a pump action or a semi-auto.

By Divemedic, ago

Caliber wars? Not here.

The point of my post on stopping power isn’t to engage in caliber wars. Nope. I think that the suitability of a handgun caliber for self defense (against human sized opponents) is, like many things, a bell curve. On the left side of the curve, a caliber is unsuitable because it is underpowered, and on the right side of the curve handgun cartridges are so powerful that they are unsuitable because the handguns that fire it are just too large for practical carry.

In the center of the bell curve, the differences between one cartridge and the other are small and not really significant from a self defense standpoint. At that point, the features of the handgun itself overshadow the effectiveness of the cartridge to everyone except the writers of shooting magazines (the publications, not the feeding devices).

For the reasons above, I don’t get into caliber wars. My criteria is this: the left side of the curve for a self defense begins at the .380 level and progresses through .38 Special, 9mm, .40S&W, .357Sig, .44Special, .45ACP, and on to the right side of the curve with .357Magnum, .44Magnum, and 10mm. Mixed in there are the less popular calibers of similar capabilities. Outside of the ends of the curve are calibers like .22lr, .32ACP, and the .500 S&W.

The trick is to locate your handgun on that curve. Do you need a smaller caliber handgun like a .380 for concealability or control reasons? Or can you make a large from handgun like a 10mm work for you? I have a large selection of handguns, in most of the above calibers. (I don’t have a .44 or a 10mm- yet) I have guns by Beretta, CZ, Glock, Sig, Smith & Wesson, Taurus, and others. I have owned pistols by Colt and Kimber. I have revolvers and Semi Autos. I have each for a reason. Some I carry, others are only range guns.

Don’t become too much of a fanboi of one gun, brand, or caliber. Guns are tools. Buy quality. Learn to use them. I’m a gun guy. I, like many gun guys, have heard from my wife about how many guns I own. She thinks that it’s overkill. I just like guns.

By Divemedic, ago

Orlando Area Voters Approve Rent Control

Voters in Orange County, Florida, the county where Orlando is located, approved a rent control ordinance during the November 8 election. The full text of the ordinance can be found here, but the relevant part of it reads:

(a) No landlord shall demand, charge, or accept from a tenant a rent increase for a residential rental unit more than once in a 12month period.

(b) No landlord shall demand, charge, or accept from a tenant a rent increase that is in excess of the existing rent multiplied by the Consumer Price Index for any residential rental unit except as otherwise allowed under section 25-388 of this ordinance.

This ordinance’s limitations on rent increases shall apply regardless of change of occupancy in a residential rental unit except as otherwise allowed under section 25-388 of this ordinance.

For now, the law can’t go into effect because there is pending litigation. If the court allows this law to go forward, there are some real issues here.

By Divemedic, ago

Let This Sink In

In the time it has taken California, Arizona and Nevada to count 70-80% of the votes from this election, Florida counted 100% of 9 million votes. After doing that, the state was hit by a hurricane and then rebuilt a road that was damaged by that hurricane. The left (and Trump) can bitch about Ron DeSantis all they want, but the man gets results.

Florida was the laughing stock of the country in 2000, and all we heard about was how Floridians can’t count. We fixed that, even though the lefties counting votes in Broward did their best to cheat the vote.

Florida has the rep of being “Florida Man” and the rest of the country talks about us like we are incompetent morons. We know how to fix hurricane damage, though.

By Divemedic, ago

Washington to Ban Hunting

The state of Washington is about to get rid of hunting, with groups claiming that hunting is not needed to manage wildlife.

Ultimately, hunters aren’t really necessary to manage wildlife, says Kevin Bixby. Executive director of Wildlife For All, Bixby says predators should be considered the primary wildlife management tool by agencies, which should adopt values consistent with the animal-rights movement.

“If we want to save our own species, then we have to adopt an attitude of coexistence with all the other species,” says Bixby. “And we can’t do that if human needs are placed above other lifeforms. That is the bottom line. Some people will never agree to that.”

So if a few kids get eaten by wolves, that is part of coexisting with all lifeforms.

By Divemedic, ago