You Can't Silence Us

Pray I Don’t Alter It Further

A couple of examples of people being shady and not doing honest business on a handshake. The first is:

Because I am no longer a full time employee, there are benefits I no longer receive. One of them is insurance, so I just bought life insurance on my own. We don’t have a lot of debt, so two months ago, I got a small policy: $100,000 of insurance. I applied and got several offers from different companies. One of them came up with a quote for $1300 per year and received a letter that I would be covered for $25,000 until my physical exam, after which it would be increased to $100,000 unless issues were discovered. I paid the first year in advance, lump sum. This morning I found a letter in my mailbox, dated two months ago on the face of the letter, but postmarked three days ago. It said that due to my diabetes, they can insure me, but at a higher rate, and they would bill me for the increased rate. I disclosed the diabetes in my application, and I still haven’t had the physical exam.

Maybe the fine print gives the company the legal right to do this. That isn’t my point. My point is that the company knew about my diabetes when it quoted the price, accepted my payment, and told me the rate could change if the physical uncovered a problem. No physical ever took place, and no new problem was discovered. Changing the price under those circumstances feels less like underwriting and more like bait-and-switch. The problem is insurance policies are long, complex legal documents backed by a large insurance company with tons of lawyers on staff. You take what they give you, and don’t fight. Any fight will be long, expensive, and will involve some sort of legal exemption buried in the 40 page legalese of the policy. They are free to screw you as they see fit.

The second involves my employer. First, an explanation of how nursing scheduling works. This is how it works at every hospital I have ever worked at: The schedule comes out for 6 weeks at a time. When the new schedule opens for bidding, nurses can begin bidding for days on the schedule, full time first, then part time, then PRN. You can place bids for available to work, want off, PTO.

That is, for two weeks, full time employees get to ask for schedule changes. Let’s say you are a full time and normally work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, but your kid has a dentist appointment on Thursday, so you request M-T-W this week. You would put in a bid for available to work Wednesday, request off for Thursday. As long as there is a spot, you get it. Alternatively, you could request PTO for that day, but that’s burning vacation for nothing.

Then for a week, the part time nurses bid for days that are left. Finally, the PRN nurses do the same for a week. After the four weeks of bidding are done, the schedule closes. The scheduler spends a week balancing and filling slots, then the schedule is posted. Once the schedule closes, no more requests are allowed. If you are assigned to work a day and can’t work, you either have to call in sick or find someone to swap shifts, which almost never happens.

Alright, so that’s the background.

You also know that recently, we haven’t had enough staff. It’s a regional problem- three different ED’s in the area that are part of the same hospital chain are critically short of nurses. They started offering bonuses for working extra shifts. I piled them on, and wound up working eleven bonus shifts in a single schedule. I collected nearly $5,000 in bonus money for picking up extra shifts.

When bidding began on the new schedule, I signed up for a total of eighteen extra shifts in a six week schedule- that’s 24 days of work in six weeks. One week, I am working five 12 hour shifts. Hey, I figured the bonuses wouldn’t last forever, and my wife is back to school as a teacher by then, might as well make some extra money. That would wind up being more than $23,000 in a six week period.

The day after the schedule was closed, my employer made an announcement: No more bonuses until you’ve worked 36 hours in a week. In other words, any full time employees get bonuses for every extra shifts, but part time and PRN dont get any unless picking up multiple extra shifts.

Whatever, I knew bonuses wouldn’t last forever. The prolem is the schedule is closed, so you still have to work the days you signed up for, but aren’t eligible for the bonuses that made you take them in the first place. Here is the closing of the email we got:

If you are interested in increasing your hours or exploring full-time opportunities, please reach out to management to discuss available options. Thank you for your continued dedication to our patients, your teammates, and our community. We are grateful for your commitment and the important role you play in delivering exceptional care every day.

I don’t care that the bonuses went away. We all knew they would eventually. What makes it shady was removing the bonuses AFTER people had volunteered to pick up the slack and telling them they can’t cancel the extra shifts. I value time off enough that I’m not interested in full time. I’m mercenary like that.

It’s enough of a “screw you” to anger everyone, but not enough of one to make you quit. What it does mean is that I won’t take one hour of extra shift unless I already have the details in writing, lest the deal get changed.

The part time and PRN nurses are all of the opinion that management deliberately waited until the schedule’s bidding process was closed. That locks the nurses into extra shifts for the last two weeks of the current schedule and the entirety of the next six week schedule, but without the employer having to pay the promised (and now retracted) bonus money. Eight weeks of nurses picking up extra shifts for a fraction of what it would cost to pay the promised bonuses.

Dishonest. Unethical.

OK, you got me. I am not going to quit over this, it’s not that big of a deal, as I still get my regular and overtime pay for it. However, it also means that I am highly unlikely to do you any favors in the future.

And don’t call us a team, because teamwork is a two-way street. Your employer isn’t your friend, they aren’t your buddy. This is a business arrangement, and I don’t come here because we are friends. I’m here for the money.

Both organizations made representations designed to influence my decision. After I relied on those representations, in one case by paying the premium, and committing to extra shifts in the other, they changed the terms while treating my commitment as irrevocable. Maybe their paperwork allows it. Our legal system means the fight is harder than the reward justifies. That does not make it honest. Nor does it make you ethical.

This is just how business is done nowadays. Get money however you can, and screw the other guy if he doesn’t like it. That’s his fault for being a gullible rube and trusting you at your word.

People who have read this post: 162
By Divemedic, ago

What Americans Won’t Do

I’m sure most of you have heard about the contaminated vegetables. The culprit is likely lettuce from Taylor farms thats contaminated with a parasite. The parasite is present in feces and spreads via the fecal-oral route.

in other words, some lettuce picker who had ot took a shit in the field, and now 10,000 people share in their misery.

Illegals: doing the things Americans won’t do.

People who have read this post: 107
By Divemedic, ago

Won, but Useless

I have to say that I agree with what I recently heard a politician say. I wish I could remember who said it or find the video. What he said was essentially “the Republicans need to stop worrying about election fraud. No matter the fraud or absence of fraud, the Republicans won the last election. They now run the House, the Senate, the Presidency, AND the Supreme Court. What have they done with all of that power? Not much. Not nearly enough.”

To an extent, he is correct. I mean, Trump started a war in Iran with no clear objective and no end in sight. The Iranians are looking to keep the war going until at least November, so they can be the spoiler in that election. The Republicans managed to get rid of Roe, and are making serious inroads into getting rid of many gun control laws, but that is a function of SCOTUS and is fallout from the 2016 election. The result of the most recent 2024 election is somewhere between Jack and Shit, which is what the Republicans have managed to do so far.

If there aren’t some serious changes in the next couple of years, I think I am going to sit out most of the next election. I will vote in local and some state races, but I don’t think I can hold my nose and vote for the stupid do-nothing party. I can’t vote for a communist, Democrat, but that doesn’t mean I have to vote for a Republican who isn’t going to do anything but line his own pockets, either.

Why is it that the left can make so much progress on their agenda when they are in power, but the Republicans can’t seem to do anything? It’s almost like their stated agenda is just something they say so they can gain power, but we all know that would never be true. /sarc

People who have read this post: 376
By Divemedic, ago

So Which Is It?

There are people who comment on this site that Flock cameras are simply filming you in a public place, and they don’t have a problem with it. OK, so then why do cops have a problem with you filming them in a public place, to the point where they will approach you with a threat of arrest while off duty?

If cameras aren’t a threat, then why are these cops taking action?

Again, cameras aren’t the issue. A person filming me isn’t a threat to me, as long as he is doing it in public. What’s the issue is what is being done with that footage. Are government officials building a database? That’s an issue.

Is the guy filming the cops just posting the videos online? Not an issue.

Is the guy filming using that footage to threaten or harm cops or anyone else? Then it is an issue, but you have to have more evidence to arrest or even detain than “guy is filming.” That’s why the standard is “reasonable articulable suspicion.”

Discuss

People who have read this post: 316
By Divemedic, ago

SkyNet

As to why schools are so desperate to keep weapons out of the hands of teachers that they are willing to place armed drones in schools that are remote controlled by a company with a control center in Austin. Right now, the drones appear to be armed with pepper balls and some sort of flash bang cannon, it’s hard to tell from the video.

A school in Colorado is the first one that I know of that has these things in place. Wait until some Kindergarten student is blinded when she catches a stray flash bang in the eye from a drone strafing run. Then watch as these systems gain prominence in other venues. Gonna be difficult to shoot a drone moving at 100 mph.

Isn’t this how the Terminator got started?

People who have read this post: 229
By Divemedic, ago

Empathy and Voting

There is a famous study conducted about 20 years ago at the University College of London (It’s hard for me to type that 2006 was 20 years ago. Damn.) In the study 16 men and 16 women participated in a game against paid actors (the participants didn’t know they were actors) where some of the opponents were playing fairly and others were blatantly cheating. Afterwards, the participants received brain scans while they watched videos of their opponents receive painful electrical shocks.

If the sufferer was someone who had played fair, areas of the brain linked to empathy and pain were activated in both male and female volunteers. But if the actor being shocked had cheated, the response from men and women differed.

Women’s brains “lit up” in a way suggesting they still felt empathy for the person, though the response was weaker than for fair players. When men saw cheats being shocked they showed little or no activity in the empathy parts of the brain but a surge of activity in the reward areas of the brain.

This indicates the women felt empathy and an emotional connection to the person who had wronged them. Their feelings of empathy were unconnected to the evils perpetrated against them. This is why you see women dating “bad boys.” This is why you see women try to fix men who are obviously not good choices as a mate. This is also why you see juries with women on them free the guy for robbing his 23rd victim.

The obvious conclusion here is women are not good at being judges, members of a jury, or voting. They are going to feel empathetic and sorry for the guy who just isn’t a good choice. They are the ones who voted for Bill Clinton because he was cute and could play the saxophone, and asked him questions like, “Boxers or briefs?” When women’s suffrage became a thing, we as a nation screwed up.

People who have read this post: 260
By Divemedic, ago

Load Shedding

Prepping is more than just staying alive, it’s about thriving and preserving your life to the greatest extent possible. Many of the other things that we rely on for survival rely upon energy. We use it for a lot of things- heating, cooling, light, communications, all sorts of the things that we use rely upon energy. In some parts of the country, heat is important. Here in Florida, not so much. What we need is energy for cooking, light, air conditioning (summer heat will kill you more than our mild winters), communications, and other things. It’s on the prepping pyramid.

If you have read this blog for long, you know that two years ago, I added a backup power supply for the house. That supply consists of solar panels and a pair of Powerwall3’s to run the house when we aren’t making enough solar energy. One of the biggest limitations is battery capacity. Now that the tax refunds are no longer available for solar and battery installations, we need to make the ones we have last as long as possible. Adding more battery power in the form of another Powerwall would be great, but it’s a fairly expensive option. So we need to stretch what we have. That is, we need to match the loads being drawn to the energy provided, and do what we can to stretch battery charge to last as long as possible.

That’s where load shedding comes in. My early attempts at load shedding involved turning off breakers, and I even tried an Aquanta water heater switch, but it was nonfunctional garbage and I returned it.

I have a Synology server that’s already running Home Assistant, and this seemed like the way to go. I tasked Home Assistant with shedding loads. A home battery can keep the lights on during an outage, but its useful runtime depends heavily on what the house asks it to power. Instead of treating every circuit equally, this project gives Home Assistant a clear set of priorities: preserve essential comfort, shed discretionary loads in stages, and put daytime solar energy to work whenever it is available.

The system uses live Tesla Powerwall data and watches whether the house is connected to the grid or operating as an island. It also monitors battery charge, solar production, household demand, and real-time battery flow. The guiding principle is reliability: each Home Assistant automation has a focused job: important decisions require stable sensor readings, and loads are restored gradually rather than all at once.

At 80% battery, the upstairs air conditioner turns off. At 70%, the electric water heater is shed. At 50%, the main-floor air conditioner moves to a 80°F setpoint, and at 35% it shuts down. This preserves the 10 kWh of power for network and security services, lighting, and refrigeration. A critical warning is sent out as a push notification at 15%.

The most interesting part happens when the sun is shining during an outage. Loads are not restored merely because the battery percentage rises. The system first confirms sustained battery charging, then adds one load at a time with a stabilization period between each step. The main-floor HVAC returns first, initially at a conservative setting. Normal main-floor comfort follows when more energy is available, then the water heater, and finally the upstairs HVAC.

The 4,500-watt water heater stores hot water when a storm likely to cause a power outage is approaching. When the Tesla Powerwalls activate Storm Watch and the home is occupied, grid energy preheats the water in the tank even if the normal schedule would have it off. During an outage, strong solar surplus can also heat water instead of allowing energy to go unused. This function is controlled by a Aeotec smart switch that allows both switching and monitoring of the energy delivered to the water heater.

Near a full battery, Tesla may curtail rooftop solar because the Powerwalls cannot accept additional charge. That makes ordinary surplus measurements misleading—the panels may be capable of producing more, but they have been told not to. To capture that energy, the automation can briefly test the water heater at 95% charge. It keeps the heater running only if measured battery flow shows that solar can support it; otherwise, it shuts the heater down and waits before trying again.

Grid restoration receives the same cautious treatment. Utility power and normal Powerwall status must remain stable for 10 minutes. The main-floor HVAC returns first, the water heater is reconciled with its schedule, and the upstairs HVAC follows later. Staggering the sequence avoids a sudden surge and reduces the chance that unstable utility service will cause equipment to cycle repeatedly.

I also have a “vacation mode” that is initiated by a simple virtual switch on the HA dashboard. Activating that turns off the water heater and sets both HVAC units to 79 degF. That level allows the HVAC units to maintain a relative humidity of less than 55%, which is a good way to minimize mold growth.

We recently spent 5 days in Maine shutting down the BOL, and the house only averaged 31 kwh per day while we were gone. Normal power usage in the summer is about 70kwh per day. Since we generate about 47 kwh per day from solar, I think this is a doable system, but I will have to add some panels in the future so we can have a little more breathing room for cloudy days.

When we are in routine operation, the system turns the water heater off from 11pm to 5am, then Monday through Friday, again from 9am to 2pm.

The result of all of this is not simply a collection of “if battery is low, turn something off” rules. It is a small energy-management system built around priorities, measured power flow, and graceful recovery. In this way, I maximize the power and battery capacity I have available.

People who have read this post: 293
By Divemedic, ago

Scary, Indeed

Going back to the DSA manifesto I posted about the other day: I want to talk about the changes to our Constitution that the Democrat party wants to enact. I don’t want to talk about the socialist “give me free shit” they always use to entice the useful idiots, because that’s the same old stuff they have been pushing for a decade. No, its their desired changes to our government that scare me. All quotes taken directly from the new DSA website.

  • Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.

This is the scariest of the proposals. Making the supreme court and the executive subordinate to Congress would require that we either rewrite or completely ignore the Constitution. We would go from three co-equal branches of government to a politburo that can literally do whatever it wants. There are absolutely no checks or balances to this system.

  • Replace the two-party system with a multi-party democracy.
  • Expand the House of Representatives, implement proportional representation and ranked choice voting in all elections, and abolish the Senate.

Expanding the House and eliminating the Senate was already partially done when we switched to the direct election of Senators, but doing it the way that the DSA wants to do it would take us from a bicameral legislature.

The framers of the Constitution designed a bicameral system during the 1787 Constitutional Convention to achieve three primary goals:

  • Checks and Balances: Dividing legislative power to ensure that no single house can dominate the government. All bills must be passed by both chambers in identical form before becoming law.
  • Fair Representation: The system, born out of the Connecticut Compromise, balances the interests of highly populated states (represented proportionally in the House) with smaller states (given equal representation in the Senate). This is also why they want to get rid of the electoral college.
  • Deliberation: The requirement of a “concurrent majority” promotes thorough debate and prevents hasty, emotionally driven legislation.

The next thing they want is: Establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people. What they mean is that their new expanded House will have control.

Of course, they can’t simply hand that much power over to a potential Trump, so they need to make sure this absolute power lies only in their hands. To that end, they are going to:

  • Legalize migration,
  • grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status,
  • provide a path to citizenship for all permanent residents,
  • end visa caps and quotas.
  • Extend full voting rights to all permanent U.S. residents
  • restore the right to vote for incarcerated people and people with criminal convictions. 

This is full on communism. There is no other way to put it. It’s coming, and I have been warning of this since 2020. I have already heard people telling me “that will never happen. They will never get the votes.”

The fact is, most people vote party, or likeability, race, or some other factor. Most voters don’t understand or keep up with the issues. They want sound bites, and the Democrat party is promising them free shit. That’s why the socialists are slowing taking over the Democratic party, which is moving more and more to the left with every passing day. Hundreds of socialists are in political office all over the nation. They are making far more inroads to power than are the Libertarians. Even St Petersburg, Florida has a socialist in office, and more coming, as they run as Democrats.

In all, 28 socialist candidates have won Democratic primaries this cycle. NYC has an openly communist mayor, and is about to get two communist congressional representatives. Wisconsin is likely to get a communist governor this election cycle. The entire country is shifting to communism.

There are two outcomes, well, three:

  • Civil War
  • Communist dictatorship
  • Both

Make fun of me, refuse to believe me, whatever. It’s coming.

People who have read this post: 476
By Divemedic, ago

Legal Blood

Years ago, when I was still a paramedic with the fire department, we would occasionally draw blood from patients and turn it over to the police. More than once, I drew a resisting patient’s blood while a police officer held a taser to their neck.

Why would I do that, you ask?

Florida has long had a specific statute, § 316.1933, covering crashes involving death or serious bodily injury. It provides that when an officer has probable cause to believe an impaired driver caused a death or serious bodily injury, the officer shall require a blood test. The statute also expressly authorizes the officer to use reasonable force if necessary, and it authorizes physicians, nurses, paramedics, and other qualified personnel to draw the blood at the officer’s request. It also grants immunity to those assisting with the draw when acting under the statute at the direction of a law enforcement officer.

For many years, the prevailing view, based largely on the earlier U.S. Supreme Court decision in Schmerber v. California (1966), was that alcohol dissipating from the bloodstream created an exigency justifying a warrantless blood draw in many DUI cases. The person’s liver was literally destroying the evidence every minute, and the delay in obtaining a warrant was the difference between a DUI homicide and a drunk walking away.

I understood why the law was there, and I also disagreed with it. My favorite quote is “better 1,000 guilty go free than 1 innocent person be convicted.” The truth is that the DUI law changes have had no discernible effect on the rate of traffic fatalities. Of course, the fact that the government uses traffic offenses as a cash cow, with Florida making $100 million a year from traffic tickets has nothing to do with it. In California, it was discovered that 1,600 DUI checkpoints yielded only 3,200 DUI arrests (two per checkpoint), but resulted in $40 million in traffic tickets and 24,000 vehicle confiscations. Cops also won, being paid $30 million in overtime to staff the checkpoints.

That was the law when I retired from the fire department in 2011. Then in 2013, the Supreme Court decided Missouri v. McNeely. The Court held that the natural metabolization of alcohol by itself does not automatically create an exigency. Instead, officers generally need a warrant unless the facts of the particular case make obtaining one impractical.

After McNeely, Florida appellate courts repeatedly held that, despite § 316.1933, the State still had to show either:

  • a warrant,
  • valid consent,
  • or a recognized exception to the warrant requirement (such as genuine exigent circumstances).

People who have read this post: 260
By Divemedic, ago

Obvious

If a lot of companies decide that full 10mm power is too much for their recoil sensitive customers and underpower their 10mm offerings to 40S&W specs, the obvious answer is to buy a 40 instead of finding quality ammo loaded to spec.

People who have read this post: 458
By Divemedic, ago