Police State

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

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

Intrusive

My sister just got a letter in the mail from the US Census Bureau, claiming that she had to take the “American Community Survey.” The letter gives her 48 hours to take the survey by mail, online, or by calling some woman for a phone interview. The claimed penalty for refusing to answer is $5,000. There is an even larger penalty for lying.

The questionnaire is 28 pages long, and asks questions like how much you make, what your rent payment is, and what time you leave the house to go to work.

The Census bureau claims that they will keep your answers confidential. Uh, the CIA couldn’t even keep the identity of their spies confidential.

Fuck that. No one has been prosecuted for refusing to answer since 1970. Look, I will answer to tell you how many people live in my house, as the Constitution requires, but that is it. If there is a penalty for lying, that must mean that you are comparing my answers to some database somewhere. That tells me two things:

  • You already have the answers.
  • You plan on using the answers to incriminate me, which is a violation of one of those Amendments you keep ignoring.

So, no. I will take my chances with you ignoring me. Or maybe I can get an attorney. I don’t know if you can rely on the courts any longer, and I am sure that the ACLU isn’t interested.

By Divemedic, ago

Another bad apple

I have some inside information on this one. Some of the people involved are people that I personally know. I know them pretty well, actually. Back in November, a Kissimmee Police officer (that I don’t know) was at a party and got pretty intoxicated. Some people that I do know were at the party knew that he was too drunk to drive and begged him not to drive. He left anyway.

Nearly 20 miles away, he called 911 to report that he had been carjacked by “four dudes” who “pulled him the f*ck out” and took his truck. His truck was found in a retention pond just down the street. The cop was soaking wet from the knees down. A search revealed that the keys to the truck were found in his pocket.

Now at this point, most people would be in trouble: DUI, filing a false police report, etc. Heck, there are members of the Trump administration that got YEARS in prison for lying to the police. What did this cop get? He got a ride home from other cops.

So who are the bad apples here? Certainly the Kissimmee cop who was DUI for 20 miles, got in an accident, fled the scene, then called 911 and filed a false report of a carjacking to cover it all up. What about the Orange County deputies who let him call his buddies for a ride home? The Orlando police who failed to report it? The Belle isle cops who didn’t report it either? The Kissimmee cops who gave him a ride home?

Was this a case of a “few bad apples?” Or is this yet another example of the “thin blue wall of silence” protecting their own?

This isn’t the first time this Department has had a scandal like this. Not even in the first time this year, nor the past two years. Just another bad apple.

By Divemedic, ago

Police = Revenue Generators

This is me, shocked that the government is angry that all of the lockdowns are preventing their minions in the police department from robbing their citizens on the highway.

The amounts are staggering. Across the state, Florida’s 17.7 million drivers pay $410 million to $540 million a year in traffic fines. Miami-Dade county revenue police officers write nearly 700,000 traffic tickets a year.

In 2004, someone stole a $200 check from my mail box, forged it, and deposited it in their bank account. I went to the OCSO office and gave them a copy of the cancelled check with my forged signature, the signature of the thief, and his bank account # printed on the back when I filed the police report. I was told that there was not enough manpower available to investigate the crime. I passed three cops on the way home, all writing tickets. There is no profit for the police department in actually solving crime.

By Divemedic, ago

Papiere, bitte

A couple left for Hawaii for Valentine’s day. Aware of the COVID testing requirement, she got tested swabbing her own nose in the parking lot of a Walgreens, he got tested at the Mayo clinic.

Well, it turns out that the Mayo clinic hasn’t applied or paid Hawaii to be a ‘trusted partner’ so the husband was not allowed to stay Hawaii and had to fly back to Los Angeles. He is hoping to get tested and return to Hawaii in time to spend Valentine’s with his wife.

By Divemedic, ago