Divemedic

Silencing the opposition

 In the middle of a 3 week Facebook Ban that began on September 17. It all started when I posted this on September 3:

Kyle Rittenhouse shot a child molester, a domestic abuser, and an armed communist. He is only 17 and has completed half my bucket list.

That earned me a 24 hour ban for violating Facebook’s Community standards. Then they went all the way back to July 31 to find this comment to a friend posting an article about Iran doing practice runs on a mockup of a US aircraft carrier:

I saw that. The Iranians are idiots. Maybe they should remember operation Praying Mantis.

They said that it violated Facebook’s ban on hate speech and added a 7 ban. Then they went back to March 11 and found where I posted a link to a scientific study that claims masturbation increases your immune system. I believe that I made the comment that “This is why teenagers aren’t getting COVID,” or something along those lines. 

They added another 7 days for that one, because it violated the Facebook ban on sexual activity. 

Then they went and added another 7 days for a post that they claim violated community standards back in November, but they won’t tell me which one it was. According to them, the next violation will get me another 30 days. This 3 week ban is the 5th time I have been banned this year. I was banned 3 times last year. 

Before I get any snarky comments about how it is Facebook’s site and they can do as they please: I get what you are saying. It’s just that I think that there are two problems with that statement:

1 The rules are not universally enforced. It seems that FB picks and chooses who catches a ban. I have had actual death threats against me that FB did not find were a problem. 

2 Which means that FB is inserting its political beliefs into its Community standards. That means that FB is not just a platform. Its policies are in fact statements of their own- they are editorializing by what they allow and do not allow. 

In my opinion, this should make FB legally liable for any statements that they allow to be posted on their site. After all, those statements are there because FB approved of them. You either allow all comments, whether you agree with them or not, or own them and all of the legal consequences that go with them. 

In the meantime, my ban continues. 

By Divemedic, ago

Failed court, failed state

 Slate says that Trump selecting a new justice before the election means that we are living in a failed state. My response to you is this: If you think that the Supreme court is there to pick sides in political fights and manipulate the Constitution to whatever ends the party in power deems expedient, then we are already in a failed state. 

The Supreme court was never intended to be an elected board of directors for the nation, yet that is what it has become. The states were never intended to be mere subdivisions of the Federal government. The Federal government was supposed to be a subservient arbiter of interstate disputes- a Republic. I would argue that the original idea of our Republic became ill during the Lincoln administration, went into a coma with the passage of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments, was placed on life support during the FDR administration, and died in 1968. Our nation has been a rotting corpse since then. 

By Divemedic, ago

Unarmed

 Read this article and tell me that an unarmed man can’t still be deadly force. 

At some point, the victim was struck in the head by a 6 foot tall man with a goatee wearing a light blue T-shirt and light blue jeans, records show…The victim, who was unconscious when police arrived, was taken to a hospital to receive treatment for a head injury. Police said she was severely injured and remains hospitalized.

By Divemedic, ago

Some people need to see this

 To those on the Democrat side who are opposed to Trump’s potential SCOTUS pick because she is Catholic, I would point you to Article 6 of the Constitution (I know you need to see this, because you have obviously not read the Constitution):

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

By Divemedic, ago

SCOTUS to become Politburo

 Don Lemon said on CNN that he wants to eliminate the electoral college. That isn’t what my post is about, because we have heard that for the past four years. It was what followed that I wanted to post about:

Cuomo responded by noting a constitutional amendment — which requires two-thirds approval from Congress and three-fourths approval from states — is required to eliminate the Electoral College.

Lemon shot back, “If Democrats, if Joe Biden wins, Democrats can stack the courts and they can do that amendment and they can get it passed.”

So what he is saying is that he wants Congress to change SCOTUS to a larger number of justices, who would then declare the electoral college to be unconstitutional. Since the EC is specifically laid out, as is the process to amend the Constitution, what Lemon is really saying is that he wants SCOTUS to declare the Constitution to be unconstitutional. 

Since it is the Constitution itself that grants the SCOTUS (as well as the rest of the government) its legitimacy and power, the government of the Republic will cease to exist at that point. SCOTUS will effectively be the Politburo. Let’s call this the Ouroboros plan.

What Lemon is saying is that he wants to start the revolution next spring. 

By Divemedic, ago

Louisville

 The pending Grand Jury announcement in the Breona Taylor case from Louisville is expected within days. (Side note: I initially thought the cops had screwed up. I was wrong.) 

Either way, the crowds on both sides of the issue are waving guns around. A convicted felon pointing a gun at a passing car, yet the same people want to take Kyle Rittenhouse to task. 

The next battle will be fought in Louisville. Likely before the end of the month. 

By Divemedic, ago

Unfunded mandate

 I had a lefty tell me today that the Florida Governor had violated the Constitution by issuing an unfunded mandate. Specifically, he stated that the State was requiring schools have armed guards and fences, but did not provide enough funding to pay for it. 

I told him that I disagree- there was a way to provide the armed guards and fences without having to spend more than the state had given them: The guardian program. Instead of paying two deputies to stand around and flirt with the school secretaries, simply allow teachers to volunteer to go through the training and carry firearms. 

He argued with me, claiming that schools wouldn’t want the liability, that no teacher would want to go through all of that training, what if a teacher went nuts and shot a student, all of the typical antigun talking points. 

I shot each one down with calm logic. He walked away after changing the subject. 

By Divemedic, ago

SHALL

 Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2 of the US Constitution:

and [the President] shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: (emphasis added)

Note that is says “shall” not “may” and it also mentions nothing about the President waiting for the next election, if the election is within a certain timeframe. If the Senate consents to the nomination, then the appointment is made. 

The Senate didn’t consent in 2016. Now they do. That is how it was designed to work. 

By Divemedic, ago