If I were the President

If I were the President, I think I would have a bit of fun with the Democrats in Congress. What I would do is issue an order from my home in Florida under Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution:

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States. (emphasis added)

Since no one could argue that an impeachment is anything but extraordinary, it would be within the President’s powers to order the Democrat held House into session until such time as they transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Keep them there over the Christmas break. Alternatively, he could order both houses into session, thus eliminating the ability of Democrat presidential candidates to be on the campaign trail until the impeachment trial is concluded.

Breaking

Shootout between Indiana police and a subject who reportedly has 1,000 rounds of ammo in his house. That sounds like a lot to people who do not shoot, but to shooters that is nothing. There have been times when I shot more than that in a single day. Other than shotgun shells and .32 ACP (I don’t own a firearm in that caliber any longer since I sold my Tomcat), I don’t have a single caliber that is below 1,000 rounds.

However, the police say that they have been “pinned down” for the past two hours by the high volume of fire. Miami police reportedly called them and advised the Indiana officers to find a family or some small children to hide behind. (OK, the last part isn’t true, but that is apparently how Miami cops do things?)

Good riddance

On Tuesday, a man robbed a convenience store at gunpoint. During that robbery, he stole the clerk’s car. The police were actively looking for him for two days when a Eustis police Captain heard gunshots and saw a vehicle pulling out of the same convenience store, so the Captain followed it. Without being pulled over, the car stopped and the wanted man jumped out shooting, without warning or preamble. The Captain was shot in the chest and is still in the hospital with that bullet lodged in his back.

Police later caught up with the assailant and ended his life when he refused to obey commands.

It turns out that the dead criminal had just been released from 13 years in prison. He had convictions for armed robbery, vehicle theft, drug dealing and possession, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, kidnapping, and armed burglary.

This guy is one guy that I am glad is no longer with us. The world is that much better without him in it.

Case in point

My post of this morning, discussing the police officers who used families as human shields:

I was at the Law of Self Defense website, where a commenter using the handle YERONIMUS PRETORIUS said:

You’re demanding perfection in an imperfect world. Where should the cops have stood in that situation, right out in the open where they would have been shot? You’re confusing prudent behavior with suicide.

What chapter in the police training manual, or where in the Peelian principles does it teach police officers to use children as shields? Remember how we slammed Hamas and Iraq for building military headquarters in the same buildings as hospitals and schools?

If police officers honestly feel that it is appropriate to hide behind children and use them as human shields, then I don’t want to hear another cop EVER tell me how brave they are or how they risk their lives. In fact, I would rather that we have no cops at all. Pussies.

Sick of the thin blue line BS

I have been catching hate from people claiming to be police because I have a problem with the way that the cops handled the UPS shooting in Miami. The police turned this robbery into a double homicide:

Watch this video of cops taking cover behind an SUV with a woman and kids in it. She tries to get out of the line of fire, and the cops stay with the vehicle, using that family as meat shields to protect their cowardly asses:

Now I don’t have a problem with the cops chasing the suspects. I don’t have a problem with shooting them, and I agree that the cops didn’t necessarily have a lot of choice as to where that shootout took place. What I do have a problem with, is the tactics that the police used during the shootout, the most egregious of which was to use Susie Soccermom as a meat shield.

The second was in using citizens as a backstop as 18 of them fired more than 200 rounds downrange without regard for where those bullets were landing:

To paraphrase Steve Martin:

I have a dream. It’s not a big dream, it’s just a little dream. My dream – and I hope you don’t find this too crazy – is that I would like the people of this community to feel that if, God forbid, there were a crime taking place, calling the police department would actually be a wise thing to do. You can’t have people, if their family is being raped, robbed, or murdered, saying, “Whatever you do, don’t call the police department!” That would be bad.

In this case, while I agree that the criminals needed to be apprehended, the tactics that the police used resulted in two people being killed. That, in my opinion, is more of a tragedy than allowing the criminals to escape with the loot.

Don’t sit there and tell me that I can’t judge this unless I have been a cop. Any moron knows that real men don’t hide behind women and kids in order to save their own candy asses. Or is my toxic masculinity too much for today’s police departments?

From an away game

On social media, I made the same point that I did in this post about the $15 minimum wage.

Disney union employee/ complainer: Being a 10+ year cast member, and union representative in my area, sadly I know all too well the financial plights of many of my fellow cast members. Iger will reach hundreds of millions in salary, bonus and options and Disney posts record profits to it’s shareholders every quarter. They can do better.

Divemedic: Your post makes the point that the CEO should be paid millions without even meaning to. See, when a CEO runs a company and that company has record profits, the CEO gets large bonuses and salary raises because record profits means that the CEO is doing a good job. Kind of like how a quarterback who leads a team to the Superbowl gets a larger contract.
Pay raises and bonuses are how a company keeps talented people from leaving and taking their skills with them. If Disney didn’t pay Iger those bonuses, he would simply take his talent and ability to make a company profitable somewhere else, as soon as that somewhere offered him more money. In the case of minimum wage employees, they make minimum wage because whatever skills they bring to the table don’t matter- you are so ordinary and untalented, that if you quit, you would be replaced the next day, and no one would notice the difference.
The stockholders invest in the company because they expect to get profits. Otherwise, there is no reason to invest in the company. Who are the stockholders? They are the pension funds and 401(k) accounts of millions of hard working Americans.
So instead of sitting here with no marketable talent or skills and complaining that you don’t make as much as you want, what you do is channel all of that energy that you are using to whine and complain, gain more skills and experience, and then make yourself more valuable. If instead you succeed and get wages increased, you will eventually hit a point where you will be replaced with automation because you have priced your low value labor out of the market.

Second Disney complaining employee:  u are insane and stupid! Rude too. Cast members are what makes Disney go! You can’t automate smiles. Talking to guests. Showing empathy. U have obviously never worked for Disney. U are ignorant. Educate yourself before you make ignorant comments

Some people don’t understand business or economics, and this is why they will NEVER understand why the CEO is making so much more than they are- they are just as incapable of understanding the concepts of running a business as a spoon is incapable of tasting the soup.

Plumbing mystery continues

So my mystery toilet problem update:

After two days of not working, the toilet spontaneously started working again. This is always the pattern. I think it is somehow related to the weather. I suspect that it is caused by the winds blowing from the northeast. I am going to keep track of it. Why do I think that?

Well, I do believe that all of those who commented on my previous post are correct in that it is a vent problem. Let me explain:

I live in a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house. The roof is a gabled roof, with the roof ridge running east to west across the house. This is important to my hypothesis.

There are two lines for sewage that are under my house. They both run north-south. One line is on the east side of the house and services the kitchen and laundry room. It has two vents: one vent pipe that runs up the wall and emerges from the northern slope of the roof, and the second is an under sink AAV valve that is in the island that my kitchen sink is mounted upon.

The second sewage line runs down the west side of the house from the master bath’s commode (which is on the southwest corner of the house), past the his and hers sinks, under the shower, and on through the guest bathroom. There is a vent that extends up the wall and emerges from the roof above the guest bathroom, again on the northern slope of the roof. The only other vent for this western line are two AAV valves located under the master bathroom’s sinks.

Both vents are clear. The sewage lines are clear. I know, it cost me a $500 plumbers visit, after which they told me nothing was wrong with the plumbing.

My hypothesis is this:
The vents are both on the northern slope of the roof. When the wind is blowing from a certain direction (probably a northern one), the wind is pressurizing the pipes through those northern vents. Once the sewage line is pressurized, this pressure prevents the toilet from flushing. The only thing that could destroy this hypothesis is the fact that no other fixtures, including the toilet in the guest bathroom, which is still on the other line, continues to work.

I don’t think it is malfunctioning AAV valves, because while the toilet was malfunctioning I removed the valves under the master bathroom sinks, and the toilet remained dysfunctional.

I am frustrated, the wife is getting aggravated, the plumbers are clueless (yet still billing me for visits), and I am out of ideas.