Government

Stolen Cars

The person who stole that car isn’t a car thief. No, they are an undocumented car owner. It’s unfair to take a car from the person who needs it, as this is their only transportation, their only way to get to their job and earn money to feed their families.

That’s why I am proposing a path to car ownership. Once a person has been in possession of a car for 24 months, there should be an automatic title issued on that vehicle to the person that’s in possession of it. They’ve been working, paying taxes, and using that car to contribute to the economy. That’s only fair.

That’s the argument being made here:

By Divemedic, ago

Feeding the World

The Orlando Sentinel did a story this week about several families who can’t afford to eat because those mean people won’t give them food stamps.

For starters, no one in that picture is missing meals. Every one of them is overweight. Next, let’s talk about the facts involved here. The woman, Keaidy Bennett, is a so-called “freelance writer” which to me means “unemployed writer who occasionally sells a story.”

So I looked her up. She has an Amazon page. It turns out that she is a liar or a grifter. Here is the bio from that page:

Keaidy Bennett is a poet, publisher, ghostwriter, and advocate whose work sits at the intersection of storytelling and strategy. For more than thirteen years, she has run LexxiKhan Presents Publishing, a hybrid publishing house that has produced over 150 bestselling titles and partnered with clients ranging from first-time authors to Fortune 500 executives and professional athletes.

Her debut, Charge It to the Game, follows protagonist Tamia Santiago through an Afro-Latina coming-of-age story that traditional publishers passed on, so Keaidy published it herself. That decision became the foundation of everything she has built since, including her managed imprints, Moxey’s Way Publishing and 2 Crowns Publishing, along with her media ventures.

A former debate student, Keaidy brings the same discipline and clarity to her advocacy work as she does to her writing, with a long history of involvement in domestic violence advocacy and memoir work centered on transformation and reclaiming narrative. She writes under her own name because every story she tells, and every author she serves, deserves to be met with that same honesty.

She lives and works in Central Florida, where she continues to write, publish, and build platforms for authors who refuse to let a “no” be the end of their story.

There is more to the story. She was married and living in Fort Worth until she filed for divorce from her husband in 2020. She talks about how she wishes her and her husband had kept their home and lived in it together after the divorce.

I pay $1,598 for my townhome, and with extras like internet and the in-unit washer and dryer, it comes to almost $2,000 a month. It’s more than our previous mortgage of $1,738.

The number of stories written by and about this woman tells you her real career- she is a story teller for the media. She makes up sob stories. In this story, it wasn’t a marriage that just fell apart, but one in which she fled the marriage because he was abusing her.

In fact, her company (a publishing company) claims over $250,000 a year in sales.

But she needs your tax dollars to feed her and her fat kids.

By Divemedic, ago

Just a Kid

People on Social Media are up in arms because an 11 year old kid has been arrested and charged for riding an electric motorcycle (he called it an ‘electric bike’) to the pond down the street to go fishing.

Here is a link to the actual news story about the case. In the recording of that court appearance, Cade can be heard saying he knew his e-bike was actually a motorcycle. Police said the motorbike was capable of traveling 50 MPH and was powered by a 4,500-watt motor. It was likely this one.

After the hearing, Cade’s father, Chris Kirchner, commented on the court appearance.

“How ridiculous that he had to miss school for that,” Chris Kirchner said.

I have a different take from my own personal experience: Jacob was just 12 years old when he was struck by a car while riding his bike on a dark country road 30 years ago. When I found him unconscious and covered in his own blood on the side of the road, I ran my hands down his back to check for injuries and the fingers of my right hand sunk into his lower back. His entire back was ripped open by that hit and run driver. He died right there on the side of the road, not 40 feet from the bike he had been riding.

As a paramedic who has seen this play out time and time again, I think this child has no business riding a motorcycle on the road, whether it is 300 feet or 300 miles. The roads are a dangerous place, and an 11 year old child doesn’t belong there. Not only should he be charged for riding it, the parents should be charged for letting him buy and ride a motorcycle.

Those cops may very well have saved his life. I’ve seen comments where people say something like “Maybe he should get a Glock with a switch,” or “Why aren’t the cops out there catching REAL criminals?” Like it or not, this IS a real crime, and it’s one that is intended to save lives. According to the National Institutes of Health, auto accidents are the leading cause of death in children and adolescents.

Then the lilbertarians showed up.

everyone should be allowed to drive around with no tags dl or insurance. unless there’s a valid reason to stop them. I don’t view cars and motorcycles any differently than I view bicycles or horses, neither of which need those things (in most places).

Completely ignoring the fact that this is an 11 year old child.

By Divemedic, ago

Rediscovering the Tenth

The left is rediscovering the Tenth Amendment. Judge David Leibowitz in Miami tossed a case against a Jamaican national accused of voting in our elections for years with a fake birth certificate. He ruled that the 1996 law making noncitizen voting a federal crime is unconstitutional because only the states get to set voter qualifications.

These are Federal elections for President and Congress, and a Federal judge just said the Federal government can’t punish a foreigner for voting in them. Reports say about 45 more of these cases are pending around the country, and we’re 33 days from the midterms.

What does this mean? It means when the left says there is no evidence illegal immigrants are voting in our elections, they are lying.

There is no way we can vote our way out of this. First, even if we could, it wouldn’t be allowed. Second, the two parties are virtually indistinguishable in practice. One party openly claims to be socialist, while the other says they are different, but votes like the socialist party.

I’ve said this before and I will say it again- just because Democrats are your enemy doesn’t mean the Republicans are your friends.

By Divemedic, ago

That Will Fix It

Keep telling me how voting for Republicans will save us all.

Even the name of the Act is in Spanish with an English subtitle.

By Divemedic, ago

Because it was mentioned

Plague Monk says the sailors on the USS Lincoln were served moldy food. I want to set the record straight. The source of that “fact” was a story published by USA Today. Take a look:

That picture is a crop from this photo:

A few things that are important to note: Navy ships don’t have cinderblock walls. They don’t have drop ceilings in the enlisted mess (some officer messes do and the chief’s mess does, but this isn’t the officer mess, the tables are wrong). There is no bullseye on any of the walls. Note how the only two people visible in this photo aren’t wearing military uniforms. This isn’t from the USS Lincoln. It’s fake news ragebaiting bullshit.

In the Navy, the commanding officer and the embarked admiral get the best food. On a carrier, they don’t eat with the officers. He has a private mess, and he can’t eat in the wardroom without permission for reasons I will soon explain.

Next down are the chief petty officers (E7 through E9). They get great food. For example, the rest of the crew gets Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, and Special K. The chiefs get Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, and Apple Jacks. I used to find reasons to sneak own there and pilfer cereal from the Chief’s storeroom. One of my favorite tricks was to pull the fuses on the lights to their storeroom and show up to fix it with a tool bag. Once I wasn’t being watched, I would stuff the bag with all the food I could fit in it. Here is a pic of the Chief’s chow line. Note the food looks great, and they eat on real plates. There is also a battle lantern and a first aid kit on the bulkhead:

The officers are paid BAS, and pay for their food out of their own funds via payroll deduction. That’s why the CO and Admiral can’t eat there. It isn’t their food, that food belongs to the officers.

Here is the chow line for enlisted sailors (E6 and below). Note the woman getting fed. Does she look hungry or malnourished? This is how food is served on Navy ships- a line, and they give you as much or as little as you want. If there is an actual plate looking empty, that is because the person getting the food didn’t ask for more. Note the plate, electrical boxes, and piping and ductwork in this photo.

Here is the dining area. Note the plates again. There isn’t a divided plate in sight. Any photo you see where the Lincoln food is supposedly on divided trays is fake. See the bulkheads? Piping, wiring, no drop ceiling. Look at the light fixtures. Those are sealed against water, because it’s a ship. As an Navy electrician, I repaired thousands of those in my 6 years of service- the ones pictured are authentic. There is an officer in this photo wearing a flight suit. He is a Captain, likely the Commander of the Air Group (CAG), because this dinner is for a Mother’s day celebration.

This is what Navy ships look like, and any photo that doesn’t look like this is a fake.

By Divemedic, ago

Psychological Torture

In August 2018, Thomas Perez Jr. called the police in Fontana, California, to report that his 71-year-old father, who had dementia, was missing. Police arrived, searched the house with his permission, and claimed to find “visible bloodstains.” A police dog allegedly “detected the presence of a corpse.” Despite Perez Jr.’s cooperation, the officers found his demeanor “suspicious” and brought him to the station for questioning.

Police questioned him for over 17 hours. Detectives falsely claimed they found his father’s corpse and bloodstains, denied him blood pressure and anxiety medication, and brought in his dog to falsely claim the animal would be euthanized because it witnessed the murder.

The interrogation began with hours of questioning while police obtained warrants to seize Perez Jr.’s electronic devices. After some time, they took him for a drive, claiming they were looking for his father. The ride was a pretense, just another way to continue questioning him. All it accomplished was a visible decline in Perez Jr.’s mental state.

Back at the station, Perez Jr. asked for his medication and requested to be taken to a hospital. The officers refused, saying, “We’re not going to go to the hospital, because that’s not going to help you.” From there, the pressure intensified.

By this point, Perez Jr. was in clear mental distress—rocking, pulling his hair, crying, shaking, and pleading for help. When he fell to the floor and hugged his dog, the officers laughed and told him he was stressing the animal out. Sixteen hours into the interrogation, the detectives told Perez Jr. they had found his father’s body in the morgue with stab wounds. It was a lie. But Perez Jr., mentally broken and physically exhausted, confessed. Under severe psychological distress and a complete mental breakdown, Perez falsely confessed to killing his father.

The detectives then received a call from Perez Jr.’s sister: Thomas Sr. was alive and at LAX, about to board a flight to visit her. They didn’t rush back to tell Perez Jr. the good news. Instead, they let him sit alone in the interrogation room for another hour. During this time, Perez Jr., hopeless and defeated, untied his shoes and attempted to hang himself.

The officers intervened—not to reassure him but to Mirandize him for the first time. They then sent him to a psychiatric hospital, leaving instructions with the staff that he was to have no contact with family members. On their way out, they dropped the dog at the pound as a stray.

In May 2023, a federal judge ruled the interrogation tactics were unconstitutional, stating:

“[Perez] was berated, worn down, and pressured into a false confession after 17 hours of questioning. [The officers] did this with full awareness of his compromised mental and physical state and need for his medications.”

Perez filed a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing the Fontana Police Department of false imprisonment, due process violations, and what a judge described as unconstitutional “psychological torture.” The city agreed to a nearly $900,000 settlement to resolve the lawsuit, admitting no formal wrongdoing while maintaining that their tactics, though involving extreme ruses, did not break laws.

This would be illegal to do to a POW in time of war, a violation of the Geneva convention. The cops of Fontana think this is good police procedure.

When the police want to talk to you about anything, pretend that you are a POW in time of war:

  • Shut the fuck up. Don’t answer questions.
  • Ask if you are free to leave
  • If you are not, the law requires that you identify yourself.
  • After you do that, tell them you want a lawyer.
  • Then shut the fuck up.
  • The police aren’t your friends. They can lie to you. They can use your weaknesses against you.
  • Did I mention that you shouldn’t answer questions, and should just shut the fuck up?
By Divemedic, ago

Firefighters

I spend a good number of posts in pointing out police malfeasance. Now I am going to take some firefighters to task. Those who read this blog know that I was a firefighter for more than 2 decades, and I have a drawer full of certifications that back this up. I want you to look at this video, then I will give you my 2 cents’ worth.

Firefighters are permitted to break and move things, as well as forcibly damage property in order to deal with exigent circumstances. The emergency does not give them unlimited authority, but firefighters are not generally permitted to do more than is reasonably necessary for the exigency. Courts assess the need and the response in light of what responders reasonably knew at the time. The controlling court case here is Bowditch v. Boston, 101 U.S. 16 (1879).

The exact authority, compensation rules, and potential liability also depend on the state and local law governing the fire department. Bowditch, for example, addressed a Massachusetts statutory compensation scheme, while the Fifth Circuit’s Baker v. City of McKinney limited its ruling against compensation to damage objectively necessary to prevent imminent harm during an active emergency.

So the question becomes: Was that path for the hose objectively necessary to gain access to the water supply? I would argue that there was a better path for that hose, and taking that alternate path to gain access to the water supply would have taken less time than breaking the windows on the car. Here is a picture of Engine 82 (the same exact fire truck). If you look at the area within the red circle, you will see that there is pump intake in the middle of the fire truck, and the yellow circle is the front bumper intake of the fire truck.

Looking at the video, the firefighters spent 41 seconds breaking out the windows on the car, and another full minute passing the hose through the car from the hydrant to the front intake. So, it was nearly two minutes to connect the hose by going through the car.

Now take a look from the video of the firefighters breaking the window:

Which method do you think would be faster? The question then turns, according to the court cases involved, was it necessary for the firefighters to break this car’s windows?

Note the New York firefighter who posted this admits they weren’t doing it to gain access to the hydrant, they did what they did to “deliver justice like this to the bad guys,” and also calling this an “act of justice.”

Delivering justice as some sort of ad hoc parking enforcement court is not the firefighters’ job. Go ahead, Google “FDNY engine 82 break car windows” and see just how many times FDNY is “delivering justice” by doing thousands of dollars in damage to car owners whose only transgression is illegal parking.

This is wrong. Had I done this in my department, I would have been fired, and rightfully so.

By Divemedic, ago