Divemedic

George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020

The Biden administration introduced legislation that redefines deadly force to include “multiple discharges of an electronic control weapon.” That’s right- more than one discharge of a Taser is the same as a gunshot. It goes on to prohibit police from investigating other cops for use of deadly force. It grants to the US government the power to set universal standards that all US police agencies must adhere to- including standards on use of force, traffic and pedestrian stop policies, and even controls hiring and recruitment, dictating that police departments must engage in the “hiring and recruitment of diverse law enforcement officers who are representative of the communities they serve.”

That same law prohibits arrests in schools, dictating “restorative justice” practices instead of arrests. This will make our schools even worse than they already are.

The law defines “less lethal force” to include even pointing a gun at someone, and then prohibits the use of that force unless all reasonable alternatives have been exhausted.

The law goes on to prohibit the Federal government from giving firearms, ammo, silencers, vehicles, acoustic equipment, aircraft, drones, and other equipment to police.

It spells out that people must be notified when a body camera is recording and they then have the right to refuse being recorded.

The law goes on and on. In other words, the police will be effectively neutered.

Except that the law does not apply to Military Police, the US Army Criminal Investigation Command, or to Federal Protective Details. Go figure.

By Divemedic, ago

Unbiased

Just 135 days ago, the press, the Pentagon, and everyone else in Washington, DC called President Trump’s plan to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan “controversial” and said that “The Trump administration has thus far failed to explain how a troop withdrawal was in the national security interests of the United States to deny terrorists safe haven in Afghanistan, protect the United States homeland.”

Now Biden announces that the troops will be out on 9/11- and the MSM thinks it is the best idea ever.

Nope. No bias there.

By Divemedic, ago

Lynch mobs

Andrew Branca talks about the intimidation of the jury in the Chauvin trial, and he made some points that struck a chord with me. First, let me start with the relevant quote from the esteemed Mr. Branca:

If it cannot be expected that Chauvin can get any fairer a trial elsewhere in Minnesota than he can in the rage-mob surrounded Hennepin County Courthouse, the solution consistent with the “justice” any of us would want for ourselves or anyone we care about is not to compel him to endure an unfair trial where he is.

That is the point- if a person who is accused of a crime cannot receive a fair and impartial trial under the law, then the law has become nothing more than a codified lynch mob, and we can forget about calling our legal system a “justice system” because there will be no justice of any kind to be had.

The whole point of a trial is that the evidence is heard- both for and against- and then a jury decides whether or not the person is guilty of a crime. If we are to decide that a person is to be punished before the trial is even held, thereby making the trial a mere formality, then why bother with the trial at all?

Is that really what people, especially black people, in this country want? Are we to return to the days of lynch mobs? I fear for the times, the trials, and the tribulations to come. We are truly seeing the end of this republic, of very civilization itself, at least on the North American continent.

What comes next will be horrific.

By Divemedic, ago

Every summer

As I said in an earlier post, we were in New Orleans on the weekend of the 11th of April. While we were there, I lost the ability to connect to my house’s electronic monitors. Then at around 8 pm, a neighbor called to tell us that the house was dark. So we called my in-laws and asked them to stop by.

The UPS that powers some of the devices in the house, including my router, was off. My FIL restarted it, rebooted everything that was connected to it, and everything appeared to be working.

Today was my first day off that I could look into it. Reviewing security footage, it appears like my house was struck by lightning for the third time in the past four years. We were hit in July of 2018, which cost us a security camera, a weather station, and a couple of arc plugs. Then I was hit in July of 2019, which cost me my personal weather station, the video driver for the surveillance camera DVR, a cable TV box, and a wireless HDMI transmitter. My neighbor had a hole blown in his roof.

It seems like weather related damage is the bane of this house’s existence. In 2017, I lost a UPS and some electronic devices during Hurricane Irma, and last year, we had a minor electrical fire that necessitated about $1,000 in repairs.

So far, it looks like the strike from last week cost me very little- but it is annoying. The hygrometer on my weather station has been stuck at 99 percent humidity since the strike. That station is less than a year old and under warranty. I just have to decide if it is worth a trip on to the roof.

The weather station is vulnerable because it is on top of a mast that is mounted on the roof- highest point on the house, you know. I am really considering some lightning rods.

Incidentally, we have had more than 7 inches of rain in the past 10 days. There were 4 inches last weekend, we have had another 3 inches plus since Friday, and it is still raining.

By Divemedic, ago

Chauvin prediction

The jury will get the Chauvin trial today. I expect that deliberations won’t take long. We should have a verdict by tomorrow night. Here is my hot take:

Chauvin will go to jail. How he gets there, and what he is convicted of, will depend on a few of things.

The jury:

No matter what the evidence says, the jury hasn’t been in a news blackout. We KNOW that there are people who desperately wanted on that jury, and they made it. The jury also knows that eventually, they will be doxxed. For those reasons, I would have made sure that I was not picked for this jury. There is NO WAY I would put myself in this position, if I thought there was the remotest chance that I would be morally compelled to vote “not guilty” because I know what that would mean to my future. The people on that jury are not stupid, and they likely see things the same way. For that reason, I don’t see any verdict other than guilty being possible.

The Democrats:

Never let a crisis go to waste. The Democrats NEED Chauvin to be not guilty, at least of the most serious charges. What’s that, you say? Aren’t the Democrats the ones who WANT Chauvin convicted? No, they aren’t- what the Democrats need is an energized electorate who is angry enough to demand that things change. Mollifying them by tossing Chauvin in jail doesn’t do that. They need perceived ‘injustice’, they need rioting, they need anger. Now that doesn’t happen if Chauvin is convicted on the most serious charges. So mark this one down as “guilty, but of lesser charges” or perhaps even walking away on the state charges, but later tossed in jail on Federal charges like the cops in the Rodney King trials. That will produce rioting and allow more power to be seized on the heels of this ‘crisis’.

In the meantime, stay away from cities and stay away from large groups of black people, at least until things cool down a bit.

By Divemedic, ago

The Payoff

A Republican who was willing to sellout and voted to impeach Trump is probably going to be anointed as the next governor of New York, now that Cuomo has fallen from favor.

Cuomo was becoming too much of a force in the Democrat party, and the Harris administration couldn’t have a challenger for power, so Cuomo was politically eliminated. The Democrats need token Republicans who can be used for claims of “bipartisanship” but can also be controlled like the cucks that they are. Who better than a guy who values his chances in the next election so much that he will sellout if he thinks it will benefit his election chances?

Now that the Democrats have proven that they can outright steal an election and then publish a news story in Time Magazine admitting it and no one will stop them, no one gets into office over their objections. The ballots that were used to game the election in 2020 were a rush job, with Biden getting votes on ballots that had no down voting. Expect that to change in future elections. The next time, they will begin printing ballots weeks in advance. They will select the tame candidates from the President all the way down to dogcatcher.

John Katko has proven that he is tame and will vote as he is told to by his left wing masters.

By Divemedic, ago

Killing the rental market

There is a nationwide eviction moratorium. There is a push to eliminate security deposits. It sounds great, but now the landlord has to file a claim for any damages done to the property by the tenant. This increases costs and risk to the landlord.

Now the newest thing is laws that prohibit credit checks, using a prospective tenant’s rental and credit history in making application decisions, and makes the risks of being a landlord too great for most small businesses.

I know that my wife and I have decided that if this sort of thing comes to pass, the amount that we would have to increase rent to compensate for the added risk would price our rental out of the market. This means that we would no longer be making enough money to make up for the higher risk that this would entail. For that reason, we would likely not renew tenants’ leases, clean the properties up, and then sell them. I don’t think that we would be alone in that.

It’s like the left is deliberately destroying the country.

By Divemedic, ago