Divemedic

Why is it my responsibility?

Amanda Rinehart is a mother in Pennsylvania who left her job to care for her 8 year old child. She complains that her child is too young to receive a vaccine, so she has to keep her child out of school until there is a vaccine for children. For that reason, the US taxpayer should continue to pay for her to not go to work, according to her. In all, she has received more than $37,000 from the government since she quit working, if you only count unemployment, the free money for having a kid, and the COVID stimulus money.

On the other hand, only 39 percent of the US public paid Federal taxes last year. I was one of them. While a large part of the US population was sitting at home for the past year, not doing anything, I was working, investing, and providing the money for her to sit on her ass and complain that she isn’t getting enough of MY money.

I would argue that Ms. Reinhart isn’t losing HER unemployment. She is merely losing her ability to suck even more of my money out of my wallet, and the wallets of my fellow taxpayers.

You will note that there is absolutely no mention of a Mr. Rinehart. Where is the father of this child? How am I responsible to provide for his child, yet he is not?

The people on the left will say that I am greedy because I don’t want to help her. I have no problem helping the poor, as long as they are attempting to help themselves. I don’t see how it is greedy for me to want to keep my money for my own use, yet not greedy for this woman to demand access to my money with the only claim to it being that she couldn’t keep her legs closed.

By Divemedic, ago

Disturbing escalation

From Miguel, I learned today that the US military is threatening to expand the application of the UCMJ with regards to retired military saying disparaging things about the President. The Article to be used is Article 88. One thing that strikes me as odd is that Article 88 only applies to commissioned officers. I am sure that they will find another article to go after enlisted retirees.

Most obviously, the UCMJ applies to those who are currently serving on active duty in the armed forces, students enrolled in a federal service academy, and prisoners of war. After an amendment in the 2010s, the UCMJ also applies with equal force to contractors or other individuals “serving with or accompanying an armed force in the field.”

Now it is not unheard of for the UCMJ to be applied to those who are no longer in the military, but the use has been very narrow and specific before now.

The UCMJ does not apply to veterans who were discharged before reaching 20 years of service. The UCMJ also does not apply to retired reservists. However, it does apply to service members who retired from active-duty service, especially the Navy or Marines. This is because marines and sailors who leave active duty after more than 20 years in uniform but less than 30 and who want to collect retiree pay move into the Fleet Reserve, or Fleet Marine Corps Reserve. That’s right- retirees from the military are actually reservists.

Before 2021, I could not find any case of a retiree being prosecuted for a minor offence. Each incident I found involved serious offenses like kidnapping, sexual assault, or murder.

The problem here is that using the UCMJ changes everything. The application of UCMJ jurisdiction to retirees is significant because courts-martial are not Article III courts and are therefore not subject to some of the basic protections contained within the Bill of Rights. For instance, court-martialed defendants do not have the right to a jury trial; instead, an eight-person “member panel” selected by a high-ranking officer serves as the trier of fact.

That all changed after January 6. That was when the US military began using the UCMJ to go after military retirees for participating in the protest. This is a major expansion of military authority. This administration truly HAS declared war on the right. In unequivocal terms, they have said that no one can criticize this President without risking jail time.

By Divemedic, ago

Why get a test?

I just heard from my daughter. Her children (my grandkids) are staying at their (other) grandparents’ house. My granddaughter, the oldest of the two, was complaining of a headache and had a fever. So the grandparents took her to the Doc in a Box, who tested her for COVID.

You guessed it- she has COVID. Now at seven years old, she is unlikely to have much more than a mild illness from it. Any of you who have raised kids know that the little ones get mystery illnesses all of the time, and most of them come with a fever. You treat it with children’s Tylenol, fluids, and rest. What HAS changed is now my daughter can’t go to work, the kids can’t go to school, and my grandson is now going to get tested as well.

I just don’t understand what you gain by getting a COVID test. Whether it is COVID or some other illness, what you do to treat it is the same: Tylenol, fluids, rest, and maybe something for any other symptoms you have. How does knowing that it is COVID change anything? The only thing it changes is transforming you and the other members of your household into pariah for the next two weeks.

If your curiosity simply MUST be satisfied, take the at home test. At least with the at home test, no one else but you has to know if you have COVID.

In case you are keeping score, the members of my family who have had COVID:

  • Daughter in law to be (vaccinated)
  • Father in law (half vaccinated at the time)
  • Mother in law (half vaccinated at the time)
  • Daughter (not vaccinated)
  • Mother (vaccinated)
  • Brother (vaccinated)
  • Granddaughter (not vaccinated)

In addition, I have eight other friends who have had it. Most of them caught it before the vaccines were available. Two of them had COVID after being vaccinated. Not one of them had a serious infection.

The most serious of them were my mother in law and father in law, both of whom were sick at home for a couple of weeks. Everyone else had symptoms best described as a cold.

Again, we need to be spending our resources finding out why a small percentage of the public is having serious problems with this infection. Why them? What is different about them?

By Divemedic, ago

Escaped

We woke this morning to see a social media post from our friend who was trapped in Kabul. It had no text, but was instead a picture. It was a picture of a bottle of Italian wine, next to a wine glass that was half full. They were both perched on the balcony of a building with the city of Rome in the background.

Our friend made it out.

In another development that has absolutely nothing to do with the above, the CIA announced that the last of their personnel are out of the country, and their base of operations (Eagle Base) was blown up in a controlled demolition.

By Divemedic, ago

Scope

I am looking for a Primary Arms scope, because I like the illuminated ACSS reticle calibrated for 308. I want a variable optic with a max near 14x or 18x. Everywhere that normally stocks it is sold out. Anyone know where I can find one?

By Divemedic, ago

No credit scores

Something that missed my eye when it came out back in May was this story. It says that banks are going to be issuing credit cards to those in the US without credit scores. The claim here is that there are as many as 50 million people in America who do not have a credit score. Who in America has no credit score? That would mainly be people with no Social Security number, or those who deal only in cash.

Illegal immigrants? Criminals? This strikes me as a two fold policy:

  1. Allow illegals to get access to credit cards.
  2. Bring those who deal in cash, and are thus largely untraceable, into the full view of the government.

This will also give a large amount of short term spending cash to those who don’t otherwise have credit. Where did this idea come from? The Biden administration. They call it “Project REACh.”

REACh stands for Roundtable for Economic Access and Change and brings together leaders from the banking industry, national civil rights organizations, business, and technology to identify and reduce barriers that prevent full, equal, and fair participation in the nation’s economy.

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Who were the people that the administration brought together to come up with this idea? Representatives from the National Black Farmers’ Association, US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the NAACP, Credit Karma, and the National Diversity Coalition, among others.

Fundamental transformation, great reset, and all of that. Minorities will think this is a great idea. It isn’t- not for them, not for investors, and not for the economy. This is another way for banks to get more people owing them more money. It will also increase consumer spending, which will increase inflationary pressure by injecting more money into the economy.

By Divemedic, ago