Government

Teens

A pair of 19 year old high school freshmen – read that again- 19 year old high school freshmen decided that they didn’t like something that their teacher told them and decided to ambush and beat him.

It happened in Broward county, which is one of the most left leaning counties in Florida, the site of a lot of election shenanigans. Of course it was the usual suspects, Amish Norwegian teens, in a Democrat stronghold, demonstrating that you can’t stop certain demographics from doing what they do.

When his defense attempted to ask for a reduced bond because McClover was on track to graduate and his mother would be unable to afford his bond, the judge had some harsh words.

“Counsel, he and another individual, without any provocation, walked up and started punching a teacher in the face, beating him,” the judge said. “He’s a danger to the community. $15,000 bond. Have a good day.”

By Divemedic, ago

Barbary, Islam, and Jizya

Let me lay out a few thoughts with regard to the current conflict in the Red Sea.

The Quasi War

The very first test of the new United States was just a decade after the ratification of the Constitution. France was at war with England, as it seems they have been more often than not. When the Republic of France went to war with Great Britain and the European coalition in 1792, the United States declared its neutrality, and the French didn’t like the fact that the new nation was neutral.

This was made worse from the French point of view when the US signed the Jay treaty with Britain, opening trade between the new nation and the British colonies in the Carribbean. As a matter of policy, France began permitting privateering against US shipping. This sparked the formation of a new US Navy to take on French privateers in a conflict called the Quasi War. In the beginning, merchant ships were converted to Naval service while the US built its first six frigates. The conflict ended in 1800. This is an important conflict because it was waged by President George Washington until he retired in 1799 and Congress never declared war.

Jizya

It should be well known to my readers that non-Muslims living in areas controlled by Muslim rule are referred to as dhimmi. The term dhimmi means “one whose responsibility has been taken” and refers to those who must be ruled over by those of the Muslim faith. Muslims believe that dhimmi must convert to Islam, serve Muslims as laborers or in their military, or pay tribute referred to as jizya.

This was the premise behind the Barbary pirates. The Barbary states were a collection of Muslim nations on the north coast of Africa: Morocco was an independent kingdom, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli owed a loose allegiance to the Ottoman Empire. The naval forces of the Barbary states were capturing US ships and holding the crews for ransom, some for more than a decade. They were doing this because they were Muslim and were demanding the US pay jizya in exchange for their ships being protected from the Barbary states themselves.

As we have posted above, and in previous posts, the practice of state-supported piracy and ransoming of captives was not wholly unusual at the time. International law said that pirates could be executed on sight. Granting a letter of marque made a pirate a legitimate member of a nation’s policy and not a pirate. This is where the Constitutional clause allowing letters of Marque came from.

Since the US was busy fighting off the French privateers at the time, they decided that it was cheaper to pay the jizya to the Barbary states than it was to fight them as well as the French. That’s what they did until 1801, when the Pasha of Tripoli, Yusuf Qaramanli, citing late payments of tribute, demanded additional tribute and declared war on the United States. The US chose to stop paying the jizya and instead sent their new Navy. The Marines still sing about the resulting military action to this day. The US negotiated a halt to the raids in 1817, but they continued raiding shipping of other nations until the French finally invaded Algiers and leveled the place.

Continued Problems

What we are seeing in the Red Sea is a continuation of the Muslim desire to force everyone to either convert or pay tribute. That is why piracy is a problem in the Red Sea and in the Gulf of Aden. The Muslims in Yemen and Iran have decided that people either pay tribute or serve them in their desires. Those morons wouldn’t be able to do anything if it weren’t for the Iranians supplying them weapons. Note that European nations’ shipping is being left alone. I wonder what that is…

The US has long taken the position that the open ocean is free for navigation. We can either try to fight another forever war of insurgency against Yemen, or we can cut their weapons off at the source- tell Iran to stop supplying missiles to terrorists or else. No need to engage in a long war- tell them to stop selling weapons to them. If the weapons continue to flow, then take out the Iranian navy. If they want to continue after that, we can bomb the missile factories. If we don’t want to do it, all we have to do is tell Israel that we will no longer hold them back from doing it themselves.

By Divemedic, ago

Hypocrisy

All of the pearl clutching about how Trump is evil for ignoring the judges orders opposing his executive actions is complete partisan bull hockey. Here is what AOC said two years ago when a Federal Judge in Texas suspended the approval of abortion pills:

When it comes to executive actions, I don’t believe that any low level judge has the power to overrule the President. Any order to stay or overrule a President’s executive actions can, in my opinion, only come from SCOTUS.

Why? SCOTUS is the only court that is explicitly created by the Constitution. Lower courts are established by Congress. A judge in a court created by Congress shouldn’t be able to overrule the chief executive.

By Divemedic, ago

Not Turning in Shit

The “Keep Americans Safe Act” is a proposed Federal law that would ban the sale, transfer, possession, import, or manufacture of magazines over 15 rounds, with the obligatory carve out for law enforcement.

“We in Las Vegas know all too well what happens when a mass shooter is armed with a weapon equipped with a high-capacity magazine,” Congresswoman Titus said, referring to the 2017 Harvest Festival shooting that claimed the lives of 60 people. “As a gun owner myself, I know these are not for sport or hunting, they are killing machines. The Keep Americans Safe Act would protect families, law enforcement, and community members from this deadly form of gun violence.”

It would require all magazines that are manufactured to have a serial number permanently engraved on it. It also mandates the mandatory buyback (which of course is a politically palatable way of saying confiscation) of all magazines holding more than 15 rounds.

I am not turning in shit.

By Divemedic, ago

Suppressors

The US Attorney’s office has just filed a brief stating that suppressors aren’t arms and are therefore not protected by the Second Amendment.

This is twisting the definitions, since 26 USC 5845 defines a firearm thusly:

The term “firearm” means (1) a shotgun having a barrel or barrels of less than 18 inches in length; (2) a weapon made from a shotgun if such weapon as modified has an overall length of less than 26 inches or a barrel or barrels of less than 18 inches in length; (3) a rifle having a barrel or barrels of less than 16 inches in length; (4) a weapon made from a rifle if such weapon as modified has an overall length of less than 26 inches or a barrel or barrels of less than 16 inches in length; (5) any other weapon, as defined in subsection (e); (6) a machinegun; (7) any silencer (as defined in section 921 of title 18, United States Code); and (8) a destructive device. 

By Divemedic, ago

PLAN

The Chinese, on the other hand, are a much more credible threat. PLAN (the Chinese Navy) is large, modern, and growing. Six modern, recent nuclear submarines. The diesel submarines that can’t do well in the open ocean work quite well in the shallow waters of the China sea, and PLAN has 45 of them.

They have 46 new destroyers, 44 frigates, and 3 carriers with more under construction.

Contrast that with the US Navy. We have :

  • 11 carriers (8 of them are more than 25 years old)
  • 9 amphibious assault ships (aka baby carriers, and half of them are more than 25 years old),
  • 9 cruisers (all of them are more than 30 years old),
  • 75 destroyers (a third of them are older than 25 years), and
  • 51 submarines (half of them are more than 25 years old, but all are nuclear).

Also keep in mind that we have to monitor 2 oceans. PLAN only has to cover one. Our Navy still has a decided advantage, but the Chinese are building a lot of ships, and the US isn’t.

Nuclear Weapons

The Chinese own an estimated 600 nuclear weapons and they are expected to have double that number by 2030. It is also estimated that only 24 of them are actually deployed on delivery devices. In both cases, I say estimated because no one really knows for sure. Since they are producing roughly 120 warheads a year, they are quickly growing in capability.

Contrast that with the US stockpile of 3700 operational warheads. That seems impressive until you realize that over 1900 of those warheads are in storage and are not available for use. While the tactical nuclear arsenal could once be deployed on NATO-designated aircraft within minutes, today the readiness level is measured in months. Since 2010, when Obama signed a new nuclear policy, the US has committed to not developing new warheads. He wanted to push us to a near unilateral nuclear disarmament.

For those reasons, China will be a near peer in deliverable nuclear warheads within the next 5 to 7 years.

Too Little, Too Late?

Forcing NATO to begin providing for their own defense and providing their own nuclear umbrella is a wise move, and one that I would like to see Trump continue to pursue. China is our most dangerous and most credible adversary. Russia is in the middle of asking for North Korean assistance in order to invade Ukraine. They just aren’t in a position to threaten the entire world.

China has all of the people it needs. They are in the middle of securing access to minerals and other natural resources worldwide. There are tons of natural resources just to their north, and the only reason that they haven’t gone to go get it is that those resources belong a strong nuclear power. Once Russia collapses, it is theirs for the taking. Opposing Russia and trying to get Europe and the US to fight them is exactly what China wants.

The time to begin producing systems to defend ourselves is now, but we are too busy seeing our tax money syphoned off by greedy, corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisle for that to happen.

The largest threat to the US is, in my opinion, the internal threat posed by the insurgent movement being backed by our own intelligence agencies/bureaucrats. China is our largest external threat.

By Divemedic, ago

NGO Bureaucrats

I have been trying to build a pool. The city has been denying my building permit for one thing after the other. I even printed and emailed them a copy of the city’s zoning laws for my area, showing that my pool is in compliance. They responded by forwarding an email from the consultants who handle their building permitting process, again denying my permit by choosing to infer something into the code that isn’t there, and drawing a legal opinion based upon that inferred phrase.

Looking up the consultants, they are a firm that specializes in “protecting the environment by controlling community growth.” The woman who is giving her legal analysis? She has a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, not law.

So I have a decision to make on whether or not I should sue. Suing them will be very expensive, like tens of thousands of dollars, with no guarantee that I will win.

I hate all levels of government. It’s things like this that sometimes make me believe that a Somalia style anarchy wouldn’t be as bad as this is. I am trying to build a pool, not commit genocide. This town is so small that it doesn’t have a fire department, and more than half of its residents don’t even have sewage and rely on septic tanks, but they are worried about protecting the environment from my swimming pool.

I should run for town council and, once in office, go on a DOGE style firing rampage.

By Divemedic, ago

Praying Mantis, part II

The Houthis fired missiles at a US aircraft carrier. They have announced that no US ships will be permitted to sail through the Red Sea. Trump is a President who is doing all that he can to keep this nation out of conflict. However, the US cannot ignore a state sponsored terrorist group telling the US that they cannot sail in a given area. The first time this was done has caused the Marines to sing about it for over 200 years after President Madison ordered them to go kick some Barbary ass. The Navy has a long tradition of enforcing freedom of navigation. That is the entire reason why we have a Navy.

In response, Trump could probably order US aircraft to do some serious damage to the Houthi encampments. That will be time consuming and expensive, but he will probably do it. More effective in my opinion would be to go ahead and back up his warning to Iran. They are supplying the weapons, they pay the price.

Initiate Praying Mantis II. For those who don’t remember, Praying Mantis was a naval action in 1988 that saw the Iranian navy get its ass kicked over an 8 hour period by the US Navy. I don’t think that they learned their lesson the first time.

The Iranian navy has 6 submarines, 7 frigates, 3 corvettes, and a whole bunch of smaller craft. I think that sinking most of their Navy would perhaps be appropriate. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of days. If they try to defend those ships with aircraft, shooting most of them down would also be appropriate. If the UN and International court don’t like it, that’s just too damned bad.

By Divemedic, ago

Court Says 21 Year Olds Are Minors

The 11th Circuit ruled that Florida’s law banning those under 21 from purchasing a firearm is Constitutional because:

The Florida law that prohibits minors from purchasing firearms does not violate the Second and Fourteenth Amendments because it is consistent with our historical tradition of firearm regulation. From the founding to the late-nineteenth century, our law limited the purchase of firearms by minors in different ways. The Florida law also limits the purchase of firearms by minors. And it does so for the same reason: to stop immature and impulsive individuals, like Nikolas Cruz, from harming themselves and others with deadly weapons.

The 11th Circuit on Friday ruled that the laws at the time of the nation’s founding restricted the purchase of firearms by minors and defined a minor as someone under the age of 21. The court stated that minors needed parental consent to access guns, even if they were performing militia service.

“First, minors generally could not purchase firearms because they lacked the judgment and discretion to enter contracts and to receive the wages of their labor. Second, minors were subject to the power of their parents and depended on their parents’ consent to exercise rights and deal with others in society,” Chief U.S. Circuit Judge William Pryor wrote on behalf of the majority. 

Except Nikolas Cruz wasn’t a minor. He was over the age of 18 when he bought that rifle. This means that those citizens who are 18, 19, and 20 years old are not adults, if one is to accept this reading of the US Constitution. If one were to accept this definition, then those in that age group cannot enter contracts, receive wages, and must be dependent upon their parents consent to exercise rights or deal with others in society. To say otherwise means that those in this age group are second class citizens.

This is a court that is clearly twisting the law to mean whatever they decide it will mean in order to achieve their desired results. Anyone who depends upon the courts to save them is sadly delusional.

Again, there is only one sure result- this nation will fall. Whatever replaces it is likely to not look like it did in George Washington’s day, or even in Teddy Roosevelt’s day. Those days are gone forever and will not return.

By Divemedic, ago