Divemedic

Rules For Radicals

Let me start this post with a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon from 1988.

Have you ever played Monopoly? What if one of the people who is in the game is also the banker, and you know that he or she is giving themselves interest free loans from that bank? Would you do as Hobbes did and fight back, or would you simply refuse to stoop to their level and maintain your principles?

Participating in today’s society is a lot like that. The left has no principles or morals whatsoever, as long as they win. They define a win as imposing their will and desires upon others. That’s it- all that matters is that they impose their desires and will upon you. If you refuse to play- they win. If you stick to your principles and refuse to fight back- they win.

Every society in history that has fallen has done so because they refuse to stoop to the level of those who would destroy them. Sure, they call them names- things like barbarian, heathens, whatever the label, but those who refuse to play by any rules are the ones who win by the only rule that matters- winning. Vince Lombardi is credited with saying “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” and there is a lot of validity to that.

In Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals,” Alinsky lays out ten rules for defeating an enemy in the political arena. One of these is “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” That’s what the left does- this is why you see them quoting the bible and screaming that you aren’t being a good Christian whenever you say that you don’t want the government to care for an unlimited amount of illegals, or see your tax dollars spent on poor transgenders in Somalia. They are trying to shame you for abandoning your ideals, they are using your own morals as weapons against you.

That’s why the left hates Trump as much as they do, and why they are willing to get along with others on the right. Many on the right do one of two things- they cave in to the left’s desires, or they stick to their ideals. In other words, they accept defeat. Trump doesn’t do that, because his overwhelming personality trait is to win. That is all that matters to him, winning.

I recently posted about Stephen Smith making racist, self loathing remarks. The response was that we shouldn’t care what he says. I disagree. Using the left’s own tactics against them would be to hold them to their own rules- if anyone on the left makes a racist remark- you hammer them for it. Ridicule them, for that falls under another of Alinsky’s rules: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”

Let’s do to them what they are attempting to do to us. Hammer home the advantage, press the attack. No respite, no quarter. Winning the battle of ideas is easier and less costly than having to go out and kill one another in actual battle.

Keep up the fight.

By Divemedic, ago

This is Criminal

Here are some things that your tax dollars have been paying for:

1. National Squirrel Census $2.3M

2. Federal Committee on Sandwich Standards $5M

3. Bureau of Uneven Sidewalk Awareness $1.8M

4. National Soap Carving Championship Grant $700K

5. Bureau of Left Handed Scissors $250K

6. National Moth Appreciation Day Initiative $250K

7. The Federal Cheese Wheel Roll Off $1.2M

8. The Office of Inflatable Pool Regulations $500K

9. Duck Quack Research Fund $4M

10. National Database of Presidential Hairstyles $800K

11. National Pillow Fluffing Initiative $1.5M

12. Bureau of Elevator Music Standards $2.1M

13. Federal Bureau of Traffic Cone Counting $1.3M

14. Office of Seasonal Pumpkin Oversight $800K

15. National Chair Spinning Safety Council $400K

16. Federal Kazoo Orchestra Grant $2M

17.American Cloud Watching Fund $1.1M

18. The Department of Leftover Labeling $600K

19. The Bureau of Ice Cube Uniformity $2.5M

20. The National Velcro Noise Study $1.7M

21. The National Bubble Wrap Stress Relief Study $1.4M

22. Bureau of Mailbox Feng Shui $900K

23. Federal Balloon Animal Training Academy $2.3M

24. National Pretzel Untwisting Initiative $600K

25. Department of Sock Pairing $1.8M

26. Federal High Five Coordination Bureau $1.2M

27. National Ice Cream Cone constructural  Integrity Lab $700K

28. Office of Puddle Depth Measurement $3M

29. Bureau of Alarm Clock Testing $1.5M

30. Federal Litter Clean Up Task Force $2M

Of course, this isn’t REALLY where the money goes. This is a grift, so that people can steal money from the treasury.

By Divemedic, ago

Endless Corruption

USAID payments and funding were cut off by DOGE. I’m sure that it was just a coincidence that Politico didn’t make payroll for the first time ever.

Politico is owned by Germany-based Axel Springer SE, a global media holding company that was once publicly traded but is now privately held. The firm’s flagship publications and digital ventures are predominantly European, although its 2021 acquisition of Politico significantly expanded its US market footprint. This made the situation that despite being headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Politico’s strategic and financial decisions can be influenced by its foreign parent.

We were told that foreigners can’t interfere in US elections. Even so, Politico has received more than 200 payments totaling more than $8 million from USAID. It turns out that the US government has turned the entire MSM into a disinformation, wholly government funded propaganda machine.

Even establishment Republicans are involved in the grift. Our entire government, both parties included, are busy stealing us blind.

But Andrew Natsios, who ran USAID under President George W. Bush and is a lifelong conservative Republican, calls such moves “illegal” and “outrageous.” What Musk and Rubio are doing “is criminal. They can’t abolish the aid program without a vote of Congress.”

So Trump is reorganizing, and placing USAID under the State Department, with Marco Rubio being in charge of it.

Burn it all down. Quickly, before someone succeeds in assassinating Trump.

By Divemedic, ago

Another Brick In The Wall

A Mississippi court in the 5th Circuit has just ruled that a ban on machine guns is inconsistent with the text, history, and tradition of the 2nd Amendment, which makes the ban unconstitutional. Admittedly, this decision only applies to the defendant in the case, but it is the correct decision.

One court case at a time. There is a chance that, some time in my life, I will be able to go down to my LGS and walk out with a FA. That day will be a glorious one.

By Divemedic, ago

Racism of the Left

Leftist pundit Stephen Smith on Trump:

“The way that the Trump administration is handling it—’we want the most qualified, we want the smartest’—what you’re really saying is we want White dominance again. That’s what you’re really saying. You want White dominance!”

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to be a racist if you aren’t white. In this case, Smith is racist against his own race. This type of self loathing is the end result of decades of Democrat policies telling blacks that they can’t possibly make it unless they are given an affirmative action boost.

Also in the same clip, Chuckie Schumer has the audacity to call out President Trump:

“For [the President of the United States] to throw out idle speculation while bodies are still being recovered and families still being notified.”

Like you and your party have done after EVERY SINGLE MASS SHOOTING over the past three decades? Ass.

By Divemedic, ago

This is Why

I was asked why I hadn’t posted any stories on the DC plane crash. I replied that there weren’t yet enough facts, but I bowed to pressure from my readers and went ahead and posted a couple of stories.

It turns out that there are still more stories coming out about the pilot who was the apparent cause of the crash. Let me post a collage picture that shows you what I mean.

What do you know- a DEI hire because she hit the checkboxes for the Biden Administration- a lesbian LGTBQ activist.

This statement from her family reinforces that position:

Her sexuality wasn’t a factor in the crash, but her lack of experience was, and she was in the Whitehouse because of that sexuality. Once an Army officer is favored by the President, they tend to be promoted to and given opportunities that they are otherwise unqualified for. That certainly WAS a factor in the crash.

Sure enough, there are people who read this blog that are jumping to defend her because they don’t like to see me call out the military. One commenter said “It is enough time to know what you are doing, and he was an evaluator, which means his command thought he was experienced.”

So the commander of the helicopter squadron that has been responsible for transporting Democrat bigwigs all over the DC area would never bow to DEI pressure from the Whitehouse, I am sure. After all, we know that President Poopy Pants was in full command of his faculties, and there was absolutely no shenanigans from the lefties who were really running the show.

By Divemedic, ago

Solar Report

It’s been a bit since I updated the news on our Solar system. December went well. We generated 1121 kWh, and consumed 912 kWh, meaning that we sent an excess of 204 kWh back to the grid for credit. Our lowest power generated was December 6, with 12.6 kWh. Our best day was 54.1 kWh on December 2. That makes December the month where we generated the least amount of power of any month so far. Not surprising, since December has less daylight than any other month.

Temperatures for December were mild, so we spent most days with the windows open and the HVAC turned off, so we didn’t use a lot of power, which contributed to an excess. At the end of December, we had a total credit of 1121 kWh in case we ever use more than we generate, and it turns out that we needed it for January.

January was rough. There was a lot more cloudy days than there have been, and this month had the lowest average temperatures for any month in more than a decade. All of this contributed to our shortfall. There was a stretch of days from the 13th to the 23rd where 6 of those 10 days saw us generate less than 10kWh each day. We generated 1190 kWh for the month, still more than December, but we used 1238 kWh. Our highest use day was January 22 at 63 kWh. That was the day that the big snowstorm hit the state, and our temperatures dropped below freezing here, although it didn’t snow.

According to my weather station, the average temperature was only 54 degrees for the month. Since we maintain an average inside temperature of 70 degrees during the winter (68 at night, 72 during the day), the HVAC was warming the house against a 16 degree gradient.

Our bill didn’t change, thanks to our banked power that we have sold to the grid.

One small problem with our system has required a call to our installer, who put in a work ticket to Tesla. Our control system has been exercising the batteries by running them down to zero. It’s supposed to do that every 90 days, but it’s been doing it every 20 days. We are waiting for more word on why it is doing that.

By Divemedic, ago

Not A Conspiracy

There are many people who want to make the place crash in DC into some sort of deliberate attack. There is a saying- Don’t ascribe to conspiracy that which is adequately explained by incompetence. There is a video that I will embed below, where an instructor pilot explains how easily it would be to have such an accident with a relatively inexperienced pilot in crowded airspace. Some of the items he discusses are:

Her 500 hours of flight experience is laughably low. He points out that 500 hours is long enough for a pilot to THINK they know enough to handle everything, even when they don’t. I know from my own experience as a SCUBA diver that this is the case. There is a point, right around 40 to 50 logged dives, that a diver becomes confident in their abilities, but that usually comes to an end when the diver gets themselves into a situation that they shouldn’t have been in because they were overconfident in their abilities. That is where accidents happen. I think that was the case here.

Military people don’t have as much experience as their civilian counterparts. For example, the Captain of the last cruise ship I was on had been sailing as an officer for 45 years, and had been a captain for 25 of them. How many Navy captains have that level of experience? Zero, that’s how many. The same goes for pilots- the captain of a commercial airplane has thousands of hours as a copilot before taking command, then has thousands more as a captain. Your average airline pilot with 5 years’ experience will have between 3,000 and 5,000 hours of flight time.

He also says that the helicopter was going too fast for the conditions. When a helicopter is moving quickly, it is tilted forward, and in the UH60, this limits visibility of aircraft that are in front of you and at your same altitude.

He points out that the altimeter may have been set incorrectly, which an inexperienced pilot may easily forget to do, and this could account for the incorrect altitude.

It was a cascade of minor errors that an inexperienced pilot would make, and doesn’t require a conspiracy or a deliberate attack. I know that the video is half an hour long, but it is worth watching if you find this sort of thing at all interesting.

By Divemedic, ago

Blackhawk Pilot

The pilot of the Blackhawk that collided with a passenger aircraft over the Potomac has been identified: Captain Rebecca Lobach.

She graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2019. She began her Army career in July of that year. She was assigned to the White House to be a party planner, officially called a “White House Military Social Aide,” whose job was supporting high-profile events such as the Medal of Honor and Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremonies. She was a sexual harassment/assault response and prevention victim advocate.

As far as her skills as a pilot, she had 450 hours of logged flight time in the Blackhawk. According to a friend of mine who flies that same helicopter, a pilot is required to fly 96 hours per year MINIMUM in order to remain certified to fly it. That works out to 8 hours per month. 450 hours would mean that she has been a UH60 pilot for about 56 months. The Captain has been in the Army for 5 and a half years, or about 65 months. So this means that accounting for flight school, she was only doing the bare minimum to maintain certification in the aircraft.

Appears like she was a DEI hire.

By Divemedic, ago