Government

CDC’s job is to destroy businesses

The cruise industry has been stuck in limbo for the past year. They have been waiting for CDC guidance on exactly how, and with what procedures, cruise operators will be permitted to sail again. All they have gotten for months is a constant stream of changing rules, empty promises, and conflicting regulations.

If you can’t beat them, move elsewhere.

Cruise lines all over the world are finding ways to begin sailing again. The biggest way is for ships to either “cruise to nowhere,” in other words leave, sail around, and then return to the same port, or they set sail from a port, hit several ports within the same nation, then return.

Already, cruises have popped up in Singapore and will begin in May in Israel, countries where virus rates are low and vaccine rates are high. The UK recently determined ocean voyages for domestic passengers could resume in May, leading lines such as P&O, Cunard, Fred. Olsen, MSC, Princess and Viking to announce domestic, “round Britain” cruises exclusively for UK residents.

The United States cannot allow this, because of a pair of little known laws that were passed over a century ago in order to guarantee the profits of the robber barons and their railroad empires: The Passenger vehicle Service Act and the Jones Act.

The Passenger Vehicle Service Act states that passengers traveling between U.S. ports must do so on ships that were built in the U.S., are owned by U.S. companies (ensuring that they pay US taxes), and that adhere to the strict U.S. Coast Guard regulations to be registered (flagged) in the United States. The Jones Act prohibits the transport of goods between two U.S. ports by ships that are not owned, built and flagged in the U.S.

What this means is that ships can’t cruise from one port to the other within the US, and the CDC is no longer allowing ships to go from any US port to another country, because COVID.

Since they cannot cruise out of ports in the US, cruise lines are taking their show on the road. Crystal Cruises is sailing out of the Bahamas, Celebrity is sailing at least one ship out of St Maarten, and Royal Caribbean will soon be sailing out of the Bahamas. Plans are already in the works to homeport more than one cruise line out of Cozumel.

The longer the CDC delays on its industry guidance, the more this trend will continue. As long as cruising remains on-pause within the United States due to the CDC’s long-standing No-Sail order, it is clear that more and more lines will go abroad to restart operations. And that will hurt U.S. homeports and American workers.

The United States is increasingly making themselves irrelevant in the cruise industry. Since 9/11, the primary focus for the cruise industry has been American cruise ports that do not require domestic flights for a majority of passengers. These homeports and their related itineraries haven’t measurably changed in two decades.

All of that is changing because of Government action, or rather, inaction. Until the CDC begins working more proactively with the industry, providing technical guidance on restart that still has yet to be delivered to cruise lines nearly five months after they were promised, things will not improve.

The lines are continuing to seek dialogue with the government, to no avail. Cruise lines are also subject to extensive regulations from the CDC that do not apply to other businesses or forms of travel, including hotel, resort or airline industries. Many of the protocols put in place by the cruise lines, like a vaccination mandate for both guests and workers, as well as robust and mandatory PCR testing, are not required for other forms of travel or high risk industries.

By Divemedic, ago

Hey DeBlasio:

The Mayor of NYC says that police will have a conversation with anyone who says mean things:

“If someone has done something wrong, but not rising to a criminal level, it’s perfectly appropriate for an NYPD officer to talk to them to say, ‘that was not appropriate, and if you did that on a higher level, that would be a crime,’” he said. “I assure you, if an NYPD officer calls you or shows up at your door to ask you about something you did, it makes people think twice,” he said. “We need that.”

My answer: “Officer, I do not have discussions with police or answer questions unless my attorney is present. Come back with a warrant. Now if you will excuse me, I have better things to do than speak with DeBlasio’s Gestapo.”

I have cameras that record everything. I also have a lawyer and, at least for now, the First Amendment is on my side. The entire purpose of this plan is to suppress free speech.

“And part of it is to report everything, track everything, and anything that might be criminal, prosecute. And anything that’s not criminal, still follow up on aggressively, so people feel the presence of law enforcement in the city watching them to make sure this does not happen again,” DeBlasio said.

By Divemedic, ago

Famous Felony

An 18 year old spring breaker decided to become famous by helping a prisoner escape from the back of a patrol car. The prisoner was quickly apprehended, and the attention seeker was arrested for aiding the escape of a prisoner, which is a third degree felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison, and a $5,000 fine.

He likely won’t do jail time, and will likely wind up taking a plea deal, even if charges aren’t dropped or reduced before hand. I have had people attack me on the job, get arrested for felony battery, and they only get 90 days of probation after pleading to simple assault.

By Divemedic, ago

Domestic Swatting

A woman in North Carolina accused her ex-boyfriend of domestic violence in a civil case, stating that he was in possession of explosives and weapons. She also claimed he was a right wing extremist. Over one hundred Federal agents raided his home in Montana with three armored vehicles, plus more than two dozen other vehicles and a helicopter.

Twice in my life, I have been accused of domestic violence. Both times, the accusation was proven false in court. In both cases, the woman made the accusation long after our relationship had ended.

The first time was in 2004, and the woman filed the complaint six weeks after we were broken up. Why? Because after we broke up, I asked for the return of my automobile that she was driving. She refused, then began hiding it. After some drama and a visit from the cops, I got my car back, so she filed a DV complaint against me.

Forward ten years later to 2014, my newest ex-girlfriend and I had broken up. Nearly five months later, she had read my account of the 2004 incident and thought it was a great idea. She repeated the process.

Both cases were dismissed, but at great personal cost. There are no repercussions for women who lie to obtain these DV orders, so they have become the weapon of choice for jilted women to use the courts in order to extort concessions from their former partners.

Now it appears as though the Democrats are going to use it to give the Feds an excuse to go all shooty on your dogs and steal your guns. Why not? This tactic is only used against MEN, and the cops are fine with that. Since white men are the “Jews in the attic” for the Democrats communists this works perfectly for them.

By Divemedic, ago

Coercion

This week, my wife was notified by her employer that the vaccine is voluntary. However, if she refuses to take the vaccine and is either exposed to or catches COVID, she will not be permitted to take sick leave during her two week quarantine and MUST take the time off WITHOUT pay.

This is how they will enforce the vaccine mandate- they will make it impossible to participate in society without it. Unless you are an illegal immigrant. Then you are good to go.

By Divemedic, ago

I am done

This article blames the school system because a high school student had a 0.13 grade point average and failed nearly every class he took. The student in question was absent 272 times in four years. He failed his classes for four years, and the first time the kid’s mother knew anything was during the final semester of his senior year? Yeah, mother of the year right there.

I have 133 students this year. Of those, more than half of them (68) are currently failing my course. Six of those students have a perfect zero for the current marking period, due to the fact that they have not turned in a single one of the fifteen assignments that has been assigned to them. In fact, more than half of my students have received at least 6 zeros. The mean grade for my students is a 48 percent.

Absenteeism is over the top. I have students who have been absent more than not. One of my students has only been in class six times so far this year. I have over a dozen students that I have not seen nor heard from since before Christmas.

There is nothing that I as a teacher can do. I teach, but the student has to show up and actually make an effort. I am tired of caring more about my students’ success than they or their parents.

In fact, I have had enough. I am done. I am putting in my two weeks’ notice tomorrow. Since spring break is coming up, my last day as a teacher will be next Friday. This morning, I was offered a job supervising techs at a nearby hospital. I accepted.

Back to the medical business.

By Divemedic, ago

Get woke, go broke

The University of Texas has had a long tradition of playing the school alma mater, “The Eyes of Texas,” at the end of each football game. Traditionally, the football team stands in the middle of the field and sings the song with all of the fans, alumni, and boosters.

Until this year.

This year, students and athletes decided that the song, with ties to Confederate General Robert E. Lee, was racist. Many students and athletes were organizing protests and circulating a petition to have the song banned. It all culminated in the team leaving the field and refusing to sing the song.

The backlash from the boosters and alumni was overwhelming. Hundreds of alumni and donors blasted off emails to the university president, demanding that the school stand up to “cancel culture” and firmly get behind the song — or else donors were going to walk away.

The press is roasting the benefactors, calling them the “worst” and claiming that they are racists.

The school, athletes, and students are free to change the traditions of the school. The donors and benefactors of the school are just as free to withhold donations and endowments. Remember when you lectured us and told us how Facebook and Twitter could do whatever they want? It cuts both ways.

Don’t like it? You can always go ahead and start your own school. Or continue to run the existing one without much of your funding. Isn’t that what you told the right when they complained about FB and Twitter?

By Divemedic, ago