Divemedic

Fines

Remember the 2008 Financial crisis? The one where banks made loans to people who couldn’t afford them so those people could buy homes they couldn’t afford at inflated prices that far exceeded the actual value of the property, then bundled those loans into securities and had ratings agencies vastly overstate the value of those securities, all so they could make billions in profits? They then got bailed out at the expense of the taxpayers they just ripped off, all because they were too big to fail? Then they used the bailout money to pay huge bonuses to bank executives? Those actions crashed the economy of the entire world, destroying trillions in retirement savings that vanished virtually overnight? The banking regulators that were in charge of making sure stuff like that didn’t happen? They retired from government service, and all were offered high paying jobs with the same banks they were supposed to be watching and never even have to go to work. Isn’t that odd? They made a great movie about it, called The Big Short.

No one went to jail. Not one person. The largest fine paid by a banking executive was $67.5 million. For committing fraud on such a large scale that it was the largest transfer of wealth in human history to that point.

Ghislaine Maxwell trafficked in children for decades. She made money by providing children to be used as sex toys for no one, apparently. Not one person has been named as being one of her customers.

Why do I bring that up? Because today, Alex Jones was ordered to pay $1 billion in damages because he is an asshole and said mean things. Don’t get me wrong, he *is* an asshole. What he did and said hurt the victims of Sandy Hook and their families. I often wondered if he wasn’t a government disinformation campaign designed to make the right look like a bunch of nutjobs. That however, doesn’t come close to being in the same league with what the banks, their executives, and government regulators did.

I guess he wasn’t big enough for a bailout. I wonder, if one were to draw a Venn diagram of banking executives, government officials, and Ghislaine Maxwell’s clients, how much of those three circles would overlap? Now compare that to a Venn diagram of Alex Jones fans. Perhaps that is the real reason why he is paying out a billion bucks. He is being crushed as an example to all of the others: don’t you DARE question us.

By Divemedic, ago

Small Subset of Violence

Marcus McCowan Jr. is an 18 year old who was in an Odessa, TX hospital with his girlfriend, who was in labor. This “teen” entered the nursery and tried to choke and shake several babies to death. He attacked a new mother, several staff members, and attempted to take an arriving police officer’s gun. Drugs were found in his possession.

Those actions are enough to get a mention here. However, there is more to the story. The “teen,” you will note, is a “jr.” and has a father of the same name, who was in the news a few years ago, having lost an appeal to the Fifth circuit after being arrested. Let’s let the case speak for itself:

On October 13, 2004, police obtained a search warrant for the house and an arrest warrant for its occupants…Upon entering the dwelling in execution of the warrant, the officers encountered Heather Wilson, who informed them that McCowan resided there. The officers found two handguns in the living room, a.45 caliber handgun found under a couch and a.380 caliber handgun, with the serial number obliterated, found underneath a smaller couch…Beside the .380, approximately six to eight inches away, was a baggie of marijuana… They gave [McCowan] Miranda warnings and began to question him. He gave them a statement in which he admitted: (1) he and Love resided at the house; (2) the handgun in question belonged to his mother; (3) he kept the handgun at the house for protection; (4) he knew its serial number had been filed off; (5) he knew that possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number was unlawful; and (6) he thought the firearm probably had been stolen.

He lost the appeal. It seems that this particular apple didn’t fall very far from this particular tree, which just happened to be located in the orchard that seems to be incapable of living in accordance with the law.

But hey, Cassandra, these two just happen to be two more of what you call “a small subset of violent black males that disproportionately commit violent crimes.”

By Divemedic, ago

Bad Apple, again

A rookie cop is answering a disturbance call at a local McDonald’s. In the parking lot, he sees a car unrelated to the call that looks like one that had fled from him the day before for having the wrong plates attached to the car. Having never seen My Cousin Vinny and realizing that you can mistake a metallic mint green 64 Skylark with a 63 Tempest, he decided that running the tag to confirm it was the same car was silly, and figured that he would just walk over to this car and demand that the driver step out of the car.

Since there was obviously no reasonable suspicion that the driver had committed a crime, much less probably committed a crime, what came next was an entirely illegal stop. Let’s see what happened next:

So he dumped 10 shots into a car with a 17 year old in the driver’s seat. Now there are many who will jump in and say that the kid should have complied. Here is the issue- the entire stop was illegal to begin with. It doesn’t matter what the kid did or didn’t do.

Multiple bullets struck the teen, who stopped his car just down the road. He was transported to the hospital and is now on life support. He is not expected to live. Get this- the cops arrested the kid for evading detention with a vehicle and assault on a peace officer. The local prosecutor, realizing that this was a shitty case, refused to prosecute.

The San Antonio cops fired this cop immediately, which they can do because he is still in his probationary period. My guess is that this kid’s family has got a very large paycheck coming. I’m sure that they would rather have their child back.

Perhaps if this kid had been armed with an AR-15, the cops would have stood around for an hour and a half before deciding what to do. This was a cop who was pissed that a ‘bad guy’ got away, and was looking for a little cop revenge. Instead, the cop lost his job and has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault by a police official. When this kid dies, and he probably will, the cop will be facing a murder charge.

Here is Donut’s take on the shooting:

By Divemedic, ago

Don’t Call Us Names!

The Marines have turned into sissified little whiny bitch-assed pussies. They will no longer put up with drill instructors calling them names.

Go have a good cry about this post in your safe spaces, you fucking pussies. What are you going to do when you are getting shot at? Complain to HR? Oooh- send a mean tweet or email to their boss before canceling them.

They said allowing women to serve wouldn’t affect combat effectiveness.

Here are my suggestions for some new Marine Corps recruiting slogans:

  • The few, the gender friendly, the Marines.
  • We’re Looking for a Few Good People of whichever gender they choose to identify as
  • Semper Fellatus
  • First to Deescalate
  • Anyone can be a Marine, because we welcome everyone.
  • The Marine Corps builds people of many genders
By Divemedic, ago

Snopes is not a primary source

Robert Reich just tweeted that Denmark McDonald’s workers make the equivalent of $22 an hour and get 6 weeks’ paid vacation a year. I responded with a picture of a Danish McDonald’s menu, where burgers were listed at kr75, which at today’s exchange rate is about $10.

Other lefty’s responded with a link to a Snopes article saying that BigMacs are the same price there as they are here in the US, and saying that Snopes is a more reliable source than a picture of the actual menu.

By Divemedic, ago