Government

Waste

Leesburg, Florida is the third fastest growing city in the United States. In fact, the city has increased in population by 18% in the past year. The city manager claims that 99% of that increase is due to The Villages, a nearby retirement community that is infamous for its frat house style elderly shenanigans. The houses in The Villages aren’t cheap- the average home in the area is selling for well over $400k.

Since Leesburg is located about an hour north of Orlando in Lake County, which is the county that wraps around the west and northwest side of the Orlando metro area, these new homeowners are paying school district property taxes, but the Lake county school district doesn’t have to provide any services. This is a huge cash cow for the county’s schools, with each home bringing in about $300 a year in school taxes. This means that the new construction is adding about $4.2 million in new tax revenue annually, and it’s being compounded each year as new homes are being built.

Other towns in Lake county are experiencing similar growth- Clermont, which is located about 20 miles south of Leesburg, has doubled in population in the past decade.

That’s why I was surprised to see that the Lake County School district is crying poor, claiming that they have a $35 million deficit, which they are attributing to a loss of 1,500 students. They said it’s partially because of the drop in birth rates in Lake County and the rise in private school vouchers. The county is claiming that they are losing $50 million a year to private schools. I say bullshit.

The county school board has an annual budget of nearly $730 million with a total enrollment of 48,500 students. If they are losing $50 million to vouchers, that represents 6,250 students, which is about 13% of total enrollment.

No, this deficit is due to mismanagement and waste, like most government money. For $15,000 a year per student, the taxpayers of Lake county should demand better. Our entire government, from the dog catcher to the President, is an exercise in poor management.

By Divemedic, ago

Protecting and Serving the Shit Out of You

A woman called police. When they arrived, she claimed that a man kicked in her door, beat her, and fled into the woods on foot. She named him, said he was her boyfriend who had just broken up with her, and was upset over the breakup. The police got a warrant for his arrest for domestic violence.

The only problem? He was a married paraplegic and had been confined to a wheelchair for the past 25 years. Instead of actually conducting a further investigation, the cops arrested him and told him that if he could bring proof that he was actually paralyzed to his trial, he could then prove his innocence. They arrested him and accused him of faking his medical condition to get out of going to jail. Watch for yourself:

The cops inform him 13 minutes into the video that he needs to get a lawyer so he can establish his innocence. Since when has that ever been the law? The cop even admits “She says you kicked down her door, but it doesn’t look like you can kick down anything.” So why are you still arresting him, you fucking idiot? This officer also admits that he spent nine months investigating this. How good is he at investigating when he didn’t even know that the guy he swore a felony arrest warrant for has been confined to a wheelchair for nearly three decades? He even says it’s been in his driving record that he requires a wheelchair and has a handicapped permit.

To make matters worse, the woman had an arrest record for lying in previous cases. This cop, his sergeant, and his lieutenant are all incompetent.

This is one area where Trump and I disagree. Cops don’t need more immunity, they need less. Qualified immunity needs to go away, and cops should be forced to carry malpractice insurance like other professions. I have a one million dollar policy that only costs me $150 a year, but then again, I am not an incompetent idiot who doesn’t know how to think for myself. They can get a policy, too.

To those who would say “Well, there was an arrest warrant, they have to follow it,” that is bullshit. I get written orders from doctors all of the time that I refuse to follow because they are stupid. Just last night, I had a doctor order me to conduct a pregnancy test on an 84 year old woman, and a second doctor wanted me to give a medication to someone when it was right there in the chart that they are allergic to that medication. I can use my brain and refuse to carry out an order that doesn’t make sense. So can cops.

It’s why they make us go to school and have a license. They expect you to not be a complete dumbass.

This story and others like it is why I won’t cry any time a cop gets killed.

By Divemedic, ago

Illegal Cops, or Invading Army?

New Mexico has just passed a law that allows non-citizen immigrants to be police officers. In 2024 alone, the Biden administration issued over two million new work permits to non-citizens — many of them illegal immigrants. Federal law prohibits illegal aliens from possessing firearms, which law enforcement officer must carry.

Now we have to consider that the people who will be enforcing the laws against YOU are themselves criminals who are flouting the law.

A few times in the past, I have told you that more and more states and localities are hiring immigrants to be police officers, and in some cases they are hiring illegal immigrants. This is right out of the CIA insurgency manual, which has been followed by the left since at least 2019. The plan is to make people distrust the government so that they can replace it with their own, alternative, government. You know, the alternative that they have created.

Keep in mind that the Governor of New Mexico, Grisham, previously suspended Second Amendment rights in the state. In 2023, she issued an executive order banning citizens from carrying guns in Albuquerque. The executive order expired in 2024, but picture a person here in violation of the law, carrying a gun in violation of the law, telling you that you are under arrest for having a gun because some politician said so.

Each of us as Americans will have to decide at what point we have been overrun. At what point do we consider a group of uniformed, armed, illegal invaders to be an occupying army? When does the real resistance begin?

Trust me, my resistance won’t consist of sitting in the road blocking traffic or gluing my hand to a painting.

By Divemedic, ago

Useless

Check out these young adults in Minneapolis trying to bait cops into chasing them:

When questioned about it, the police chief had this to say:

“If a vehicle is simply stolen, there’s no force, violence or gun involved, police are not allowed to chase stolen cars. Period,” said O’Hara, “The police department’s policy does not allow for a vehicle pursuit simply because the car is stolen. The car would have to have been taken by force, some sort of violence, there would have to be a gun involved or some other serious crime. If an individual is trying to just bait the officer into a pursuit, it’s not going to get safer once this, once the cop starts chasing them… The cops did their job. They had zero discretion in that case,” he continued. “It is just not worth the risk of endangering everyone’s lives, especially if, at the end result, even if no one’s hurt, we arrest a couple juveniles, we bring them downtown, and they’re immediately released. It is completely senseless.”

In the meantime, local residents and business owners voice complaint after complaint that the police do nothing. If the cops aren’t going to even try to catch criminals, there is no reason to have cops. This is a case for an immediate 50% cut to the police budget, to correspond with a matching tax cut for the residents of the city.

In the meantime, remove the plates from your car and simply refuse to pull over for any and all traffic stops. They can’t chase you. Period.

By Divemedic, ago

Educated, but Stupid

First, there is this:

My career in the fire department didn’t require college, and I was making a good living at it. I know many firefighters who were making over $100k a year, and that was more than a decade ago. That might not be much money in NY or southern Cali, but in Central Florida that was quite a good wage. I didn’t go to college until it was almost time to retire.

Then there is this gem:

How can you graduate from college and not understand how interest works? If you borrow $40,000 in a student loan at 8% per year before making payments of $250 per month, your loan balance at the end of the year will be higher than it was at the beginning of the year.

Math, it’s a thing.

So if I don’t go to college, I won’t find a wife and a career? I would rather not have a wife than marry one who is a gold digging moron. Trust me, I did that once. It sucked. I don’t recommend it.

By Divemedic, ago

Law Is Dead

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami has ruled that Florida’s law making it illegal to enter the state as an illegal immigrant violates the Supremacy clause and is prohibiting state enforcement of the law. The states, according to her, cannot have any immigration laws because the Feds already have them.

OK. I will accept that.

That also means that the states can’t enforce any gun laws. Or drug laws. Or laws on murder, kidnapping, or any other laws. In fact, let’s just get rid of the states. Make them political subdivisions of the Federal whole.

We know that isn’t what she and the rest of the activist judiciary want. If a case making the claim that California’s gun laws violated the supremacy clause were to come before one of these judges, it would be summarily dismissed. This isn’t about the Constitution or the law. It’s about twisting things to fit your side. Note that so called sanctuary states and cities haven’t had the same treatment.

We are living in a time when the law is nothing more than a tool to be used to get what you want.

By Divemedic, ago

Useless College Degrees

Seen on Twitter:

I freaking HATE the discourse around “useless degrees” that I’ve been seeing all day. Our society needs historians, philosophers, and English majors. Frankly, their decline is a huge reason our society lacks understanding of pol issues + the ability to scrutinize information

A useless degree is one that will likely result in its recipient not ever earning enough money to repay the costs associated with earning it. Here is a helpful guide of majors for four year degrees that are offered at University of Florida that are likely useless:

  • African American Studies
  • American Indian and Indigenous Studies
  • Art
  • Business Administration (unless you get an MA)
  • Classical Studies
  • Most Education Degrees
  • Environmental Science
  • Golf and Sports Turf Management (This one is a minor, but seriously?)
  • Music
  • Political Science
  • Nearly every language based Bachelor’s
  • Psychology (unless you go on to receive a Graduate level degree)
  • Sports Management
  • Women’s Studies (oddly enough, there is no Men’s Studies degree. This makes this major into Lesbian/Feminist studies)

These degrees may well have value to the person taking the classes. There may even be people making a living in those fields. However, most people with these degrees won’t make enough to repay their loans, and that is the problem.

A four year degree from UF will cost you about $100,000. To repay a student loan for that amount within ten years, you would have to pay $1300 a month.

This problem is even worse when you stop talking about state colleges and look at private ones. Not only are there even more useless degrees, the cost of those degrees becomes even higher. Rollins College would cost you $340,000 for a four year degree. University of Miami, about $380,000. Imagine earning a degree in elementary education, only to graduate and find out that your teacher’s salary isn’t enough to pay your $4600 per month student loan payments. Even consolidating your loans to a 30 year repayment is a $2600 per month loan payment. A starting teacher makes $4200 per month before taxes.

Student loans should not be granted to people that will result in this kind of situation.

By Divemedic, ago

Due Process

There are a lot of Democrats running around and bleating about the Constitutional right to due process and illegal immigrants. Where does the right to due process appear in the Constitution? The Fifth Amendment:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an illegal immigrant who was deported to El Salvador and is being held there in prison. A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release, an order affirmed by the Supreme Court, and to provide evidence of the actions it has taken to get him back.

Here is the problem with that- the Supreme Court doesn’t have the authority or the jurisdiction to order that. He is a foreign citizen who is in prison in his home country. The US government in general, and the US Supreme Court in particular, doesn’t have the authority to order the Salvadoran government to do a thing.

It doesn’t matter whether or not he is a gang member, an illegal, or a criminal in the US. The Supreme court cannot order the executive to invade another country, it just isn’t within the SCOTUS’ enumerated powers. The rest of the argument is moot.

Still, I will list the reasons why he wasn’t entitled to due process during deportation. Refer to the Fifth Amendment.

  • He isn’t being held by the US to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime,
  • He isn’t subject in jeopardy of life or limb twice for the same offense,
  • nor is he being compelled to be a witness against himself,
  • nor did the US government deprive him of life, liberty, or property, all they did was return him to his home country.

According to court filings, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was born in July 1995 in the neighborhood of Los Nogales in El Salvador, where he helped his family run a business making pupusas, a local cuisine.

He crossed the border illegally near McAllen, Texas, in March 2012 when he was 16 years old. From the border, Abrego Garcia made his way to Maryland to live with his brother. The Trump administration sent him back to his home country. No due process was required, because the Fifth Amendment doesn’t say he is entitled to it.

By Divemedic, ago

Law Goes Too Far

A bill in the Florida legislature is going too far, and I think that I know why. The proposed law says that a property owner that is being photographed by a drone in an area of his property where he has an expectation of privacy may use reasonable force to prevent that spying. The law is being sold as a boon for the privacy of a homeowner being photographed in their backyard pool:

If I’m at a park and I’m playing baseball with my kids, and somebody takes up a drone just to show what’s going on in the park, do I really have an expectation of privacy? But if my daughters are sunbathing in the pool behind my house, I have an expectation of privacy.

Picture that a drone has been flying over your house. You believe that it is taking pictures of your family as they sunbathe in your backyard. You know that this looks just like the drone owned by your neighbor, so you go to his house. Sure enough, he is standing on the porch, flying his drone. You happen to know that the law also says this:

2. A person who has a reasonable expectation of privacy on his or her privately owned real property may use reasonable force to prohibit a drone from conducting surveillance in violation of this paragraph, if such drone is operating under 500 feet over such property.

To stop him, you wind up and punch him square in his stupid face. That was reasonable force, right? The problem here is that there is no way for you to know if he is conducting what the law says is surveillance or if he was simply flying by your house on the way to another location.

In your case, it turns out that he wasn’t taking pictures of your house, he was taking pictures of your other neighbor’s house because that neighbor wanted to sell his house and was looking for some drone shots for the listing’s Zillow page.

This is going to create a mess. The law is vague and isn’t really intended to protect homeowners. The law requires that the person using force know the intent of the person operating the drone. Let me explain:

A person, a state agency, or a political subdivision as defined in s. 11.45 may not use a drone equipped with an imaging device to record an image of privately owned real property or of the owner, tenant, occupant, invitee, or licensee of such property with the intent to conduct surveillance on the individual or property captured in the image in violation of such person’s reasonable expectation of privacy without his or her written consent. -emphasis added

So why is this law being proposed? The real reason for this law has absolutely nothing to do with homeowners or their families at the pool. No, it has to do with the state’s powerful developers, like the developers of The Villages. That developer is engaged in a legal battle with local journalists who have been filming and selling video of the construction projects in the area. It seems that there is quite a market for this sort of thing, and people have been making money by selling drone footage. That particular developer owns their own newspaper and has been trying to make money by selling their own footage of the area, and is upset that others are trying to horn in on the action. This is purely a big company trying to use the law to create their own monopoly.

Developers in Florida have been trying to do this for over a decade. Back in 2011, there was a failed attempt to make it a felony to take pictures of a farm. It wasn’t about farms- developers will often claim that their property is a farm because property tax rates on farms are low. The developer will place a cow or two, or perhaps a couple of orange trees, on a property that they have bought in order to develop the land, and they claim it to be a farm so that they can avoid paying taxes on the land until the last minute.

They don’t want people photographing their land because the construction crews are frequently breaking all sorts of laws- most of the construction crews are illegal immigrants, there are frequent environmental and OSHA violations, along with other illegalities, and this is how they get the official protection from the government.

When my own house was under construction, I took pictures of the entire house. I have hundreds of photos of the house as it was being built. I did it to have a record of where each wire, pipe, and stud was located, just in case I needed to do repairs or renovations. The developer found out and had a fit. He told me that I couldn’t take any pictures unless there were no construction workers on site, or he would prosecute. It is a felony in Florida to be on a construction site without permission.

Officials know that they are breaking the law, but can’t ignore it unless there is no evidence staring them in the face.

A few decades ago, children of the large farmers in Florida decided that they didn’t want to be farmers, and realized that you could make a lot more money per acre by growing houses on the land and selling them to gullible retirees than you could by growing oranges or raising cattle on that land. They became developers. The Villages is one of those developers, but there is no shortage of them in this state.

Illegal immigration is the modern day equivalent of slavery. Too many people, Democrat or Republican, are making money from this. That is why so many entrenched politicians hate DJT. They are all, D and R, making millions in the graft and corruption, and can’t have him upsetting their golden goose.

A note on developers:

You can take an 80 acre farm, develop it into a housing neighborhood with about 250 houses. If you get cheap enough labor to build the houses, those homes will sell for more than $25 million in profit. Do you have any idea how long you have to operate an 80 acre farm to sell $25 million in oranges?

Do the math- an orange orchard grosses about $2500 per acre each year. It would take an 80 acre orchard more than a century to bring in that kind of cash.

By Divemedic, ago