Government

Gas tax

During October, gas prices in Florida were 25 cents lower, thanks to a “tax holiday” signed by Governor DeSantis. That tax expires this morning. I’m sure the headlines from the MSM will be how it is DeSantis’ fault that Florida gas prices just went up by 25 cents a gallon.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden is slamming oil companies for making “record profits” while “price gouging” the American public.

Exxon Chevron made a combined profit of $29 billion for the second quarter for all sales of everything they sell, worldwide. During that same quarter, Americans used about 35 billion gallons of gasoline, meaning that the Federal government collected $7 billion in profits from the sales of gasoline. Then there are the taxes on other Exxon products: oil, natural gas, diesel, propane, and more. Who is making the record profits here?

Ronald Reagan summed it up nicely: Tax and spend.

Meanwhile, the US has less than a three week supply of diesel fuel, which is less than half of the normal amount. That doesn’t mean we won’t have any diesel in three weeks. What it means is that supply is short. That means that the law of supply and demand dictates a rise in diesel prices. Farmers rely on tractors, and our supply lines rely on trains and trucking, all of which depend on diesel. This will mean that the prices on everything will soon begin to climb. Right now, diesel stands at $5.25 a gallon in my area. Let’s see how that goes.

By Divemedic, ago

Teacher Arrested with Gun in Car

A Levy county teacher was arrested for having a gun in her car on school property. I think that the cops may have screwed up on the charges. She has been charged with a violation of 790.115 2b, possession of a weapon on school property, and two counts of 827.03 2d, willfully or through neglect endangering a child. The first charge might not fly. Granted I am not a lawyer, but the law reads:

A person shall not possess any firearm, electric weapon or device, destructive device, or other weapon as defined in s. 790.001(13), including a razor blade or box cutter, except as authorized in support of school-sanctioned activities, at a school-sponsored event or on the property of any school, school bus, or school bus stop; however, a person may carry a firearm:
<snip irrelevant parts>
3. In a vehicle pursuant to s. 790.25(5); except that school districts may adopt written and published policies that waive the exception in this subparagraph for purposes of student and campus parking privileges.

The question here is whether or not the school board has published a policy that states that no one may park on campus with a firearm in their vehicles. Most school districts in Florida don’t publish rules like that. A sharp lawyer might be able to beat this.

The child endangerment charges though, those are likely to stick. I mean, she gave two 4th grade children the keys to her car, knowing that there was a loaded handgun in it. She deserves to go down for that.

I would certainly suggest a plea deal.

By Divemedic, ago

First Amendment

If the government pays a burglar to break into your house to see what you have, then the police use that evidence to arrest you, they have just violated your right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.

If the government pays a private contractor to burn down your church, or throw you in prison, or even prevent you from publishing books, your rights have been violated. It doesn’t matter if a business did it, especially if they did it at the behest of the government. If the government and businesses work together to deprive their citizens of rights, that is fascism. In fact, that is EXACTLY what Mussolini did.

With all that being said, the Biden administration has passed a regulation that bans the sale or distribution of books written by certain people, and they are getting the world’s largest book seller to enforce it.

This is a clear violation of the First Amendment, and was even used as an example during oral arguments in the Heller case. It was Chief Justice Roberts who asked “Would it be constitutionally acceptable for a municipality to ban books as long as newspapers—a viable substitute source of expression—were still legal?” The answer is no, of course.

How far we have come since then.

By Divemedic, ago

Say What?

The vice principal of a Cleveland high school let three ski mask wearing, armed gunmen into the locked school with students inside, because he saw that police were chasing them and was afraid the police would shoot them.

A school security officer called 911 while watching teens with masks and guns. They had pulled up in three stolen cars and walked up to the school. The school went into lockdown. The police pursued the three, and one of them was able to escape.

The vice principal made a statement to police: “I confirmed the interior doors were locked and instructed the four suspects to come to the vestibule because it was unsafe to be outside because I saw police officers.”

The school district defended them by saying that the principal made sure that the doors to classrooms were locked, so the gunmen were not able to threaten students. Here is the official statement from the school district:

As one of the witness statements indicates, the males entered a controlled, secured area that is specifically designed to prevent access to the rest of the building. Cleveland police had already arrived on the scene and were able to make arrests. The staff member made a split-second decision that the individual thought was the best way to keep students and staff safe.

At the very least, the two vice principals are guilty of aiding a fugitive, or perhaps accessory after the fact. After all, he made an official statement that his purpose was in helping three masked gunmen avoid the police.

The police union had the best quote:

administrators at Garrett Morgan HS allowed MASKED GUNMEN to enter the school in order to protect the gunmen from wait for it police officers outside. They risked the lives of CHILDREN to show how woke they are. Can’t make it up.

Parents need to be down there at the next school board meeting and demanding some answers.

By Divemedic, ago

Bad Apple, again

A rookie cop is answering a disturbance call at a local McDonald’s. In the parking lot, he sees a car unrelated to the call that looks like one that had fled from him the day before for having the wrong plates attached to the car. Having never seen My Cousin Vinny and realizing that you can mistake a metallic mint green 64 Skylark with a 63 Tempest, he decided that running the tag to confirm it was the same car was silly, and figured that he would just walk over to this car and demand that the driver step out of the car.

Since there was obviously no reasonable suspicion that the driver had committed a crime, much less probably committed a crime, what came next was an entirely illegal stop. Let’s see what happened next:

So he dumped 10 shots into a car with a 17 year old in the driver’s seat. Now there are many who will jump in and say that the kid should have complied. Here is the issue- the entire stop was illegal to begin with. It doesn’t matter what the kid did or didn’t do.

Multiple bullets struck the teen, who stopped his car just down the road. He was transported to the hospital and is now on life support. He is not expected to live. Get this- the cops arrested the kid for evading detention with a vehicle and assault on a peace officer. The local prosecutor, realizing that this was a shitty case, refused to prosecute.

The San Antonio cops fired this cop immediately, which they can do because he is still in his probationary period. My guess is that this kid’s family has got a very large paycheck coming. I’m sure that they would rather have their child back.

Perhaps if this kid had been armed with an AR-15, the cops would have stood around for an hour and a half before deciding what to do. This was a cop who was pissed that a ‘bad guy’ got away, and was looking for a little cop revenge. Instead, the cop lost his job and has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault by a police official. When this kid dies, and he probably will, the cop will be facing a murder charge.

Here is Donut’s take on the shooting:

By Divemedic, ago

Gov’t Tracking Your Stuff

Last month, the FMCSA released a new proposed regulation for public comment. The proposal is for a electronic ID system that would place a transponder in every interstate commercial motor vehicle that would transmit a unique electronic ID number. This number would allow police to remotely track every single commercial vehicle and its contents. The government claims that there are no “credible” privacy concerns for carriers and drivers.

The proposed regulation takes effect in early December.

By Divemedic, ago

More Shortfalls

In a continuation of a trend I have been reporting for awhile, the military is shrinking because of a fall in retention and enlistment. First the Army and now the National Guard reports that they are falling short in meeting manpower targets, falling short by about 7,500 troops. Senior leadership is blaming a large decrease in troops reenlisting for the shortfall.

Officials claim that people are not reenlisting because they are disappointed by not being able to deploy and get shot at. I think that’s bullshit. They are failing to reenlist for a few reasons:

It seems that most of the nation’s military isn’t as excited about woke bullshit as the left would have us believe.

By Divemedic, ago