Government

Message Sent

Trump used the military to eliminate a burr under his saddle. The ruler of Venezuela openly defied and taunted him, as did the rulers of several other nations (Cuba, Columbia, Mexico, and Canada).

Trump doesn’t do subtle. Well, he did during his first term, but no one got the message. This second term is about sending messages that can’t be ignored, and if they are, well… This is what he had to say about Mexico:

“We’re very friendly with her, she’s a good woman,” Trump told Fox & Friends Saturday. “But the cartels are running Mexico — she’s not running Mexico.”

Then there was the message to Colombian President Gustavo Petro:

“He has cocaine mills, he has factories where he makes cocaine. And yeah, I think I stick by my first statement: He’s making cocaine. They’re sending it to the United States. So he does have to watch his ass.”

Trump also labeled Cuba, which relies on Venezuelan oil and furnished Maduro with security guards, and its president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, a “failing nation.”

This is about a subtle as a kick in the nads. This is a clear message that the carrot of negotiation hasn’t worked, so now it’s time for the big stick of unlubed diplomacy. In my opinion, Venezuela was the fastest, easiest, and most likely to succeed. Still, the entire operation only took a few hours. That sends a clear message that SHOULD be sending shockwaves through the hemisphere, but it doesn’t. Military power in the area:

  • Brazil: Approximately 360,000 active-duty personnel. It is the largest military in South America and ranks 11th globally in overall military power.  Brazil maintains the largest inventory of armored vehicles (including nearly 300 tanks and over 22,000 armored vehicles) and the largest air force in South America, with over 600 aircraft.
  • Mexico: Approximately 412,000 personnel, the largest standing force in Latin America. Still, the largest problem with Mexico is the cartels, which effectively run the country. It would require a full scale invasion and a long term occupation to quell the issues there.
  • Columbia: Approximately 310,000 active personnel. 
  • Venezuela: Approximately 120,000 active personnel, but we saw how long that lasted.

For all of the public bluster coming from those nations, I am sure that they are taking note of what Trump just did. This will give Trump some leverage at the negotiating table.

EDITED TO ADD:

Because I found it to be funny as hell, here you go:

By Divemedic, ago

Double Standards

The American Association of University Professors says that a professor is exercising his First Amendment rights when he gives a student with a different opinion a zero on an assignment.

They also say that students’ rights are violated when a professor refuses to say that the US is built upon student land.

if it wasn’t for double standards, the left would have no standards at all. The left’s only real standard is forwarding the narrative and furthering theor cause. They otherwise have no core beliefs or principles.

The entire education system has been corrupted- from kindergarten all the way through college.

By Divemedic, ago

Federal Firearms License

Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Andy Kim (D-NJ) introduced the Federal Firearm Licensing Act, legislation that would require that individuals obtain a federal firearm license before purchasing or receiving a firearm. A license would require:

  • Fingerprints and background checks
  • Signoff from local officials
  • Be required for each firearm
  • Expire in 5 years
  • even being arrested or accused of a crime is enough for denial
  • License holders would be placed on a ‘watch list’ called “RAP Back”
  • prohibit a licensee from giving or loaning a firearm to someone else without using a dealer

No. Just no. This is so incredibly unconstitutional.

By Divemedic, ago

Weed, Guns, and Prostitutes

In a move that signals just how much of a fascist tyrant he is, Trump signed an executive order reclassifying marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III on Thursday. Schedule III drugs are things like Ketamine, Testosterone, and Codeine. That sets in motion a number of things that are important. The most obvious of these is that users of medical marijuana are no longer unlawful users of the drug, which also means that those with a medical marijuana card are no longer prohibited from buying a firearm, and can now legally put no on a 4473. It also means that BATFEIEIO will have to revise and rewrite their form 4473 questions.

Republicans are incensed because police unions have long opposed such a move, as busting people for weed is a huge source of police employment and a great way to conduct warrantless searches: “I smelled weed.” As evidence to support their ire, Republicans made the following points:

  • Reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug will send the wrong message to America’s children, enable drug cartels, and make our roads more dangerous
  • According to a recently published fifteen-year review of medical research, marijuana has no real medical value, and 30% of medical marijuana users have an addiction to the drug
  • Under Schedule III, pilots, truck drivers, and other safety-sensitive professions will not be tested for marijuana.
  • Marijuana is already imperiling safety: over 40% of fatal car crashes today involve THC. Rescheduling will exponentially worsen this crisis

First, let me say that I am one of the only people that I know that has never even tried the stuff. I have no interest in it, and I just never felt the need to try it. My only oppositions to marijuana are practical ones.

  1. I hate the smell when it is smoked. It reeks. I don’t care if they legalize it, as long as I don’t have to smell it. Make it an edible, or make patches. Do that, and I won’t care.
  2. Pass limits beyond which someone is considered impaired, and come up with a test that can reliably determine if someone is beyond that limit. I don’t want someone flying my plane or surgeons operating on people while they are impaired.

Now that that is out of the way, let’s address the Republican claims:

America’s children aren’t sitting there saying “Oooh, Trump said doctors can now prescribe weed. I think I will go out and smoke it now.” Ridiculous. Anyone who wants weed gets it now. I know that it’s anecdotal, but I would say that half of the people under the age of 30 who come to the ED test positive for marijuana, and probably 1 in 5 who are over 30 do as well. The patients I don’t test smell like weed a good bit of the time, too. Your policies aren’t doing shit to prevent people from using.

Half of the states (almost- it’s 24 now) have already legalized marijuana in some form or another. The Federal government is just catching up with what the states are doing, and what the citizens obviously want.

Marijuana DOES have medical uses. The fact that studies are showing that it doesn’t is a reflection of science being for sale. The government pays someone to conduct a study on marijuana to prove it has no legitimate use, and what do you know, the preexisting opinion of the study’s sponsor is confirmed. Far too much of what we call “science” is actually paid propaganda. Most “scientists” are actually whores who sell the weight of their credentials to the highest bidder.

Truck drivers, pilots, and the like can still be tested for weed as a Schedule III drug. They are tested for intoxication on things like alcohol (no scheduled at all), Schedule IV drugs like Xanax, Ativan, and Valium, as well as other Schedule III drugs like Ketamine and Codeine. This is just a stupid and downright untruthful argument that I classify as fear mongering, no different than “every traffic accident will result in a gunfight.”

In my several decades as a paramedic, I can say that nearly every traffic accident occurring after midnight involves an alcohol impaired driver, and we aren’t making alcohol illegal. If fatal accidents involve a driver with marijuana in their system 40% of the time, I ask how many people have marijuana in their systems. Correlation doesn’t imply causation. I could easily say that 60% of people who die in a traffic crash eat sandwiches, but that doesn’t make sandwiches the cause of traffic deaths. Keep in mind that current testing for marijuana doesn’t test for intoxication, it tests for presence. Because they are fat soluble, the metabolites of marijuana stay in your system for up to 90 days. That doesn’t mean that you were intoxicated at the time you were tested, which is my second point, above.

Overall, I think this issue is a loser for Republicans, and I support the action Trump took here. I just wish I didn’t have to smell that stuff everywhere I go.

By Divemedic, ago

Dangers of Imagination

A middle school in the Orlando area was placed on lockdown after a student was seen carrying a clarinet by an automated weapons detection system, which decided the child’s clarinet was actually a gun. My thoughts here are that your automated weapons detection system sucks. That isn’t how the principal of the school saw it, however.

A student was walking in the hallway, holding a musical instrument as if it were a weapon, which triggered the Code Red to activate. While there was no threat to campus, I’d like to ask you to speak with your student about the dangers of pretending to have a weapon on a school campus.

What danger was there, actually? None. No one was hurt. No one could be hurt. The real danger was that your system doesn’t work correctly, and it caused unnecessary panic. Not only that, but just like The Boy Who Cried Wolf, it creates alarm fatigue in that people will be less likely to believe future calls for lockdowns when they remember all of the times that they were forced to hide because of stupid nonsense like this.

By Divemedic, ago

Divide

What we have here is a sharp divide. On the right, there are those who want immigration laws enforced.

On the left, there are those who want open borders and unlimited money giveaways, just not their own money.

This is nothing new. America has been sharply divided many times before: Vietnam, civil rights, women’s suffrage, the temperance movement, and the trade war that brought about the civil war.

What makes today a problem that’s as serious as 1860 is the the judiciary is just as polarized and perfectly willing to twist the law and the constitution to fit their own views.

Thats evident in the Trump kangaroo courts, and in many immigration hearings. Read this one for an example.

When this illegal couple was approached by ICE, they attempted to flee to a local police station in the belief that the cops would rescue them from the Feds.

By Divemedic, ago

Guns Aren’t Probable Cause

A man is pulled over by the police for a minor traffic infraction. He notifies the cop that he is carrying a firearm and hands over his concealed weapons permit. The cop said: “Once I knew he had a gun, that gave me reason to search for more contraband.” Note that the cop had no reason to believe that there was any crime being committed- after all, the man had a permit and had notified the cop that he was carrying. Still, the cop used that information to pull the man from his car, handcuff him, and leave him locked in the back seat of his patrol car for more than 30 minutes while the cop tore through and searched his vehicle.

I had a similar run in back in 2001 with an Orange county deputy in Orlando, and he threatened to kill me. That’s why I don’t tell cops shit. In this case, the victim of this roid raging idiot sued. Anyhow, here is a lawyer’s take on this case.

Some of the things that this lawyer says, and I grant that they are sensible pieces of advice, is upsetting to me. They are:

  • Keep your hands visible
  • Don’t make any sudden moves
  • Don’t reach for anything, not even your wallet

Because cops are nervous, they tend to overreact, and will assume that you are about to use a weapon.

Cops are basically scared little boys with weapons and carte blanche to use them to kill you. That’s a bad combination, and something that speaks volumes about American law and American policing. You are the enemy and a threat- despite the fact that there are 20 million traffic stops per year and only about 120 of them result in cops being shot. (That’s a 0.000006% chance that any given traffic stop will involve cops being shot.) Cops are more likely to have a heart attack on duty, yet they don’t go around shooting people that sell fatty food.

By Divemedic, ago

Zone 2

With this news, Salt Lake City is now a Zone 2 city- authorities have ceded some measure of lawful control to Antifa.

By Divemedic, ago

Uh, Drug Dealer

A woman is complaining that her husband is refusing to take his medication or eat because he is being held in Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz. He is asking to be deported because he now hates this country.

They are calling it inhumane and have complained to Amnesty International.

The rest of the story?

He is an illegal immigrant that has had a deportation order for nearly 30 years since he was convicted of being a Cocaine dealer.

I don’t care. Ship his criminal ass back to Cuba. We don’t need more criminal drug dealers. We have plenty of those already.

By Divemedic, ago