Government

New Gun Laws

Biden’s ATF released new gun laws today. I tried to get a quick read on its impact, but that will be impossible. The released document is nearly 400 pages long, and is a complicated, confusing mess that will take lawyers and the courts years to settle. Read it for yourself (pdf warning) as I have hosted it here at Sector Ocho for your convenience.

The Biden administration has, through the ATF, completely circumvented Congress and rewritten US law.

My initial opinion on this new law is that it is vague and open to numerous interpretation, which is exactly how the ATF has always done business. For example, it defines an externally visible housing or holding structure or one or more fire control components to be considered as a frame or receiver. Examples of fire control components may include but are not limited to any of the following parts: bolt, bolt carrier breechblock cylinder, firing pin, hammer, striker, slide rails or trigger mechanism.

Does this mean AR upper receivers and slides for handguns will begin to be considered as firearms too? It’s quite possible!

This will be a mess.

By Divemedic, ago

The Death of Satire

Last February, an article posted as satire managed to go viral. The article claimed that the potato that resides in the Oval Office was going to defund the department of Veteran’s Affairs. As has been the case lately, that satire has become reality.

VA hospitals are being closed. My first question is “The VA is fully funded in Joe’s next budget. Where is all of that money going, if hospitals are closing?”

It turns out that the funds are not being used for veteran care, they are being used for something else.

That’s right- the personnel are reportedly being used to establish treatment and COVID vaccine centers for illegal immigrants.

There is a joke that says the difference between satire and reality is about 12 months. That is looking more and more accurate as time goes on. This year’s satire will be next year’s reality.

By Divemedic, ago

The Story Keeps Changing

As far back as February 8, Russia claimed that the US had secret laboratories in Ukraine that were and are researching biological weapons. Russia claimed that they had destroyed 7 of the 11 laboratories using missiles during the early hours of the Russian invasion. Politifact, the same people who told us all about COVID and totally debunked the rumors of a stolen election, immediately fact checked the entire story as being “false”

On March 8, China echoed Russia’s claims that the Pentagon has been funding bioweapons labs in Ukraine.

The US called the claims absurd on March 9th. The US press secretary took to Twitter to call the claims made by Russia “preposterous” and made the claim that it was a disinformation operation by both China and Russia.

In a statement, Ned Price, spokesperson for the Department of State, accused Russia of “inventing false pretexts in an attempt to justify its own horrific actions in Ukraine” and said Washington was “in full compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention, and it does not develop or possess such weapons anywhere.”

John Kirby, Pentagon spokesperson, called the Russian accusations “absurd,” “laughable,” and a “bunch of malarkey.” “There’s nothing to it. It’s classic Russian propaganda,” he told reporters.

Then on March 10, the US government admitted that there were biological research laboratories, but stated that the labs were not secret and were not being used to research weapons. The US maintained that, even though the labs were funded through the Department of Defense, they were for purely scientific in nature and totally not for biological warfare.

On March 11, the World Health Organization advised the Ukraine to destroy the pathogens in the laboratories so that they wouldn’t fall into Russian hands. You know, because the pathogens that are in the labs are totally for peaceful research and couldn’t possibly be weapons, but would be dangerous if they fell into the wrong hands. We all know how forthright and trustworthy the WHO is, since they so masterfully and truthfully handled the worldwide COVID response.

Then on March 14, White House press secretary Jen Psaki cautioned officials to be on the lookout “for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them.”

On March 15, the UK intelligence community predicted that Russia would use fabricated claims of weapons of mass destruction to discredit the west and justify their invasion of Ukraine.

By April 1, the US government’s story had changed. Now the Pentagon was telling Congress that there are “no offensive biologic weapons in the Ukraine laboratories that the United States has been involved with.”

According to a Pentagon fact sheet released in March (pdf warning), since 2005, the United States has “invested approximately $200 million in Ukraine … supporting 46 Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and diagnostic sites.”

Robert Pope, the director of the DTRA’s Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, told the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in February that the labs might contain Soviet-era bioweapons and warned that the conflict in Ukraine could accidentally lead to the dangerous disease-causing pathogens being released. Wait a minute- I thought the Pentagon said that there were “no offensive biologic weapons in the Ukraine laboratories that the United States has been involved with?”

The ever changing nature of the story being released by the Pentagon is what smells like disinformation. Have you ever caught someone in a lie, so that person then modifies the lie to fit the newly discovered facts? That is what this looks like.

The most likely story that fits these facts is that the US, along with the rest of NATO, has been engaged in illegal research into biological weapons in China (don’t forget that Fauci was funneling money into the Wuhan lab) and the Ukraine. The Ukraine was kicking some of the money back to the then Vice President of the US in order to keep the money train moving. They did this by hiring Hunter Biden at an outrageous salary to be in charge of a fake company that he was wholly unqualified to run.

It is looking more and more like our government is evil, corrupt, and willing to do anything to gain more power.

By Divemedic, ago

Let Me Explain My Position

https://twitter.com/returnofbrian/status/1511053152333832193

“Free Speech” means that you can say whatever you wish without fear of government reprisal. It doesn’t free you from all consequences. Twitter is well within their rights to lock you out of their service.

However, people are responsible for the things that they say. A great example of this is slander, libel, and defamation of character. If I make a statement as if it were a fact, yet I know to be false, and I made that statement with the intent of harming the person who is the subject of that statement, I am liable for that. Even if I made that statement with a careless disregard for any harm it would cause or a disregard for the truth of that statement, I am still liable.

For example, let’s say that I make the statement that someone is a pedophile. At the time I made the statement, I didn’t know or care whether or not it was true. If the community heard that statement and his business, career, or reputation is harmed, I am now open to being sued by him.

The reason why the press can publish stories about people is they make every effort to ensure its veracity. The truth is an absolute defense. This is why news organizations retract false statements publicly as soon as they realize it was false. Or at least why they used to.

The reason why sites like Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites don’t get sued is that they have claimed to be a virtual town square where the site doesn’t have anything to do with the content, and are merely serving as a vehicle for free speech.

As soon as Social Media sites began controlling and eliminating speech that they disagreed with, they became editors who ensured that anything posted on their site was something with which they agreed. At this point, the statement is essentially their statement and not simply a posting of someone else’s statement. They are trying to avoid this by calling it “fact checking” and dodging their responsibilities. I think this is a fig leaf that should be eliminated, but we know how the courts are going to go.

I just don’t believe in our legal system or its courts. Heck, I no longer believe in our entire government. Sadly, it has been completely subverted.

In the case of Musk blocking people, he isn’t eliminating their ability to speak. He is simply refusing to listen to them, and that doesn’t violate anything.

By Divemedic, ago

Trannies in Space

China and Russia are quaking in fear of the US Space Force. Is that a rocket in her pocket? Nope. She is actually a dude.

The Lt Col proves that men are better at being women than women are. Is there nothing that men can do better than women?

By Divemedic, ago

Judges Aren’t Partisan

A judge in California ruled that President Donald Trump likely broke the law when he “corruptly” attempted to obstruct the confirmation of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College win by Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

Now this judge, nominated by Democrat Sex Addict Bill Clinton in 1998 made his ruling by strictly following the law, facts, and Constitution, and not because he is a partisan hack who is located in one of the most liberal circuits in the most liberal district of the US court system.

Nevermind that this is the same judge who issued a 110 page ruling that required LA to provide housing for all homeless people on skid row, a ruling that was later overturned by the Ninth Circuit as being too liberal of a ruling.

This is also the same judge that dismissed the lawsuits against Obama’s presidential campaign when voters demanded that he provide proof that he was eligible to run for office, claiming that voters do not have standing to demand proof of eligibility for office.

Nope. The judiciary is completely above things like politics, even though this judge has carried Democrat water for decades.

By Divemedic, ago

From the Group that Believes in Science

The same group of people that keeps lecturing us on how science allows boys to be girls, masks can stop a virus, and other claims to own the science world, comes a complete lack of understanding of physics and math.

Four years ago, I wrote about the scam of creating fuel for free by using a machine to make hydrocarbons out of the carbon dioxide in the air. For many reasons, not the least of which is the First Law of Thermodynamics, this system is a scam.

Then a year ago, I told you how that same company announced that they can take carbon dioxide from the air, liquefy it, and pump it into the ground, thereby saving us all from global climate change. Again, those pesky laws of physics.

Now they are building these things. They do not, and cannot, work to reduce atmospheric CO2. Even using so called “green energy” sources.

Science. It’s a thing.

By Divemedic, ago

Extremes

When I was in the military, one thing we were frequently told was, “If we wanted you to have a family, we would have issued you one.” Admittedly, that was a bit extreme, but what the country is doing now is even more so.

The military isn’t a jobs program. It’s supposed to be how our nation is protected. Our current force isn’t up to the task.

By Divemedic, ago

Stupid and Evil Parties Unite

Republicans and Democrats have decided to jointly start WW3. I was watching Hannity on FOX News last night, and he had several Republicans and talk show pundits on there. All of them were pushing for US military involvement.

The biggest idea that I have heard, one that 72% Americans support, is a no fly zone. A no fly zone means that anything flying over Ukraine would have to be shot down. As soon as a NATO aircraft shoots down a Russian aircraft, it’s on. Russia will surely down a few NATO aircraft. On top of it, it’s pretty likely that NATO airfields would receive attention from Russian missiles and aircraft. NATO is now in a full on war. What if the Russians sink a US aircraft carrier? How will US citizens respond to the loss of 6,000 sailors?

If that isn’t enough, Marco Rubio has decided that he wants to simultaneously take on China.

So then what? You think the supply chain issues are bad now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. As for me, I have been buying stock in oil companies and agriculture companies.

By Divemedic, ago

Your Parental Responsibility

I support people who want to homeschool. I don’t agree that parents can’t get others to instruct their children. As parents, we should all want our children to be at least as successful as we were, perhaps even more so. That frequently means letting or hiring others to teach our children things that we cannot.
There are simply some subjects that I don’t feel qualified enough to teach others. So I subcontract it out.
The problem with today’s education is that parents have abdicated much of their parental duties to teachers. School has become more of a babysitting service than it has a place of learning. Parents need to be involved in their children’s education. They aren’t. Even most of the ones who think that they are involved aren’t involved in their education, they only care about their child’s GRADES, and that is not the same thing.

  • What are your kids learning in school this week?
  • Do you know the names of their teachers?
  • Is your child behaving? Who are his friends? Does he hang out with one of “those kids?” Is your child one of “those kids?”
  • Have you seen his text books? If you are in Florida, schools involve parents in the selection of textbooks. Did you know that? If you did, have you participated in that process?
  • Did you know that most teachers maintain a web page that lets you know what your child is studying? Do you check it frequently?
  • Most schools have online gradebooks. What grade did your child receive on his last 5 assignments in each of his classes? If you don’t know, do you at least know where to find out?

Or do you just wait for report cards to come out, and make sure his grades look good?

Look, after the seven years I spent as a teacher, I can tell you that there are many problems with our kids’ education. Yes, there are poor teachers. Yes, there are poor schools, and poor school boards. The way that we got there was through parents not being truly involved in the lives and education of their children. This didn’t happen overnight.

I had parents who were surprised at the end of the year to learn that their child was failing my class. Every week, I would call the parents of students who were failing my class, so we could work together to salvage their grades. I couldn’t get ahold of most of them. Some even deliberately gave the school the incorrect phone number so they wouldn’t be bothered by “all of those phone calls from the school.”

You are the single best advocate for your children. No one cares more for them than you do. So act like it. If your school involves parents in the selection of textbooks, get involved. If your teacher has a website explaining what is going on in the classroom this week, read it. Learn the names of your kids’ teachers. Go to open house. If you can’t be bothered to spend two hours a week being involved with your child’s education while he is in school, you sure aren’t going to be any better at homeschooling.

By Divemedic, ago