Odd News: Florida Man Admits to Damaging Walmart Delivery Drone by Shooting It

As retailers seek to offer faster than ever deliveries, drone delivery, where a small or medium sized package can be lifted from a local distribution center and dropped on your front porch, is emerging as a possible delivery method that's potentially more environmentally friendly and possibly faster than traditional courier delivery. However, it seems that some US citizens choose to shoot at any drones that fly by, believing that their privacy is somehow being violated. Recently a man in Florida found out what are the consequences after he shot a Walmart delivery drone that flew by his house. 

DJI Inspire Drone with HD Cam, delivery drone would be even larger
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Dennis W was arrested in Florida after he admitted to shooting at a drone that flew by his house. He claimed he saw it approaching, went to the gun safe, retrieved a 9mm pistol, then at the height of about 75 ft (for the drone), gave it one shot, which apparently hit. As the drone landed back at Walmart a bullet hole was observed in the central area, and law enforcement was summoned, and through the drone flight log the deputies narrowed down the shot origin to Dennis W's residence. Deputies went there to interview Dennis W, where he admitted to the shooting. He claimed he had been harassed by drones before, which were surveilling him. Deputies then told him he shot a Walmart delivery drone. His reaction was "Really?"

Dennis W is facing 3 charges... the most serious of which is a FEDERAL charge... shooting at an aircraft. 

That's right... It is a FEDERAL crime to shoot at an aircraft, including drones. Federal laws and regulations makes NO distinction between a drone vs an airliner. It is a Federal FELONY to shoot at an aircraft, punishable by fine and up to 20 years in prison. It was not a new ruling... It had been around 2016. 

Yet you'll see gun and archery owners joke about "it's open season" if drone delivery is being scaled up in their area. 

And let's just say more than a few police drones were shot by people. 

But the speed and efficiency of drone delivery seems to outweigh the risks... Amazon and Walmart both wanted to expand use of drone delivery, and many fast food places are considering it as well. Some even started up pilot programs, including Wendy's (in collab with DoorDash) and Chick-fil-a's. 

Except no one can evaluate how many... weapon practitioners may choose to risk Federal prosecution just for a chance to claim they bagged a drone, because they "believe" they're being harassed. 

Judging by the hostility toward self-driving cars which are far less ubiquitous and obviously, limited to public roads and streets, I'd be more pessimistic than optimistic. 

More Flori-DUH: DeSantis Threatens to fine Special Olympics $27.5M If Vaccine Requirements Kept

Apparently, the rights of some unnamed (and uncounted) "antivax Special Olympians" are more important than keeping everyone safe, according to DeSantis. 

SCOOP: The State of Florida threatened the Special Olympics with $27.5 MILLION in fines because the organization had a vaccine requirement at its games in Orlando this weekend.

Late yesterday, the Special Olympics pulled the requirement. 1/3

— Jay O'Brien (@jayobtv) June 3, 2022

DeSantis is a COVID denier in all but name and has persistently tried to downplay death rates. Even his state surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, has no experience managing epidemics or in public health, and is a signer of GBD, calling COVID preparations "COVID mania".  

Combined with his "don't say gay" bill, a kick in the Tampa Bay Ray's shins on their quest for a new stadium just because Ray's expressed support for a bit more gun safety, and other political theater to appeal to conservatives, it's pretty clear he, like Abbott in Texas, is just setting himself up as a Trump successor in two years by abusing the power of his office. 

Flori-DUH Governor DeSantis Proves Again He's More About Politics Than Floridians

According to Ron Filipkowski, quoting OutKick, it seems that DeSantis will veto $35 million for Tampa Bay Rays training facility, because the team spoke out against gun violence in the wake of the two recent mass shootings. 

Desantis will veto the bill to fund the Tampa Rays new Spring Training facility because of their recent statements about gun violence following the Buffalo and Uvalde mass shootings. pic.twitter.com/TcpvMJHN7Y

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) June 2, 2022

You may ask, why do Tampa Bay Rays need a spring training facility? 

Seems the Rays are only LEASING their current spring training facility in Port Charlotte, Florida and their lease runs out in 2028. The idea is to build a complex of multiple practice fields, a stadium, clubhouse, training facilities, catering and cafeteria for both players and visitors, player housing, and parking, so while the primary tenant is away or off-season, the fields can be used by other local teams, both amateur and professional. 

The idea is to retain the Rays in Florida because the Rays need a better home stadium. While they have played at Tropicana Stadium at St. Petersburg, FL, they want a better stadium than the 32-year-old stadium which only has a capacity of 25K fans, and their lease runs out in 2027.  And the construction of both a spring training facility AND a new stadium would keep the Rays in Pasco County, near Tampa. 

DeSantis vetoing this would almost guarantee Rays leaving unless a different deal can be struck between now and then. 

Talk about cutting off one's nose to spite one's face, but that's DeSantis for you. He's rather use every opportunity to help his political views than to do the right things for all Floridians.     

Florida COVIDiocy: FL Surgeon General Ladapo Wants to Unwind COVID Testing while Speaking at Podium with Sign "Early Treatment Saves Lives"

I originally thought that DeSantis' Republican anti-health lunacy is limited to himself. Seems he has found a partner in his Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo. 

Dr. Ladapo, while standing in at a lectern with a sign "Early Treatment Saves Lives", talked about how he will "unwind the testing psychology" of the Federal government. 

❓Just how exactly will you do early treatment without early testing? ❓

Keep in mind, Florida is begging / demanding the Federal government for more monoclonal antibodies for treatment because Florida has seen DOUBLE the people hospitalized for COVID (5700 vs 2406), from the previous week, as well as more than double the number of new COVID cases (from 128K to 298K). 

What's really disturbing, however, is Ladapo's emphasis that the guidance "doesn’t restrict access to testing, but reduces the use of low-value testing and prioritizes high-value testing."

❓So who determines what's high-value and what's low-value? ❓

Then DeSantis chimed in about how younger folks should not come in and hog up all the monoclonal antibodies treatment and save them for the seniors. He said literally: 

“It’s basically cold-like symptoms for a lot of those folks. That is not something you need to be coming in and getting monoclonals for. So, let’s look at our elderly population. Let’s look at folks that are immunocompromised or maybe things like diabetes that have shown to be a real serious risk factor,”

Wait, so the young folks who probably don't need them, are hogging all the monoclonal antibodies treatments? ❓

❓Is that why DeSantis are demanding more doses from the Feds? Because he wasted them due to him ignoring Federal testing policies, vaccine mandates, and mask mandates?❓ 

But consider this: by limiting the number of tests, DeSantis can claim he has fewer positive cases. 

Wouldn't stop the hospitalization from increasing, of course. 

But "high quality testing" is a playbook out of the Great Barrington Declaration. And indeed, Ladapo is a signatory of the GBD. Keep in mind that Ladapo is a cardiovascular physician. He has no training or expertise in epidemiology, virology, or even infectious diseases. He was even at one time among the voices of HQL and IVM pimps. 

What's REALLY out of touch? Florida's Department of Health tweeted on Christmas Day that "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!"

Please keep in mind that singing requires you to breathe WITHOUT any mask on. And if you are carrying the virus (with or without symptoms) you will be spreading it far and wide, potentially infecting lots of people. 

It's been documented that even two doors that briefly opened together are enough to pass COVID, according to a New Zealand quarantine facility contact tracing. The two groups were separated across a hallway at a quarantine hotel. The two groups never came into contact with one another, except for a brief period where one side opened their door, then the other side also did. There were only a few seconds of overlap, but it was enough. 

It was clear that Florida Department of Health has turned into the Department of ANTI-Health, with "leadership" from not just one, but two death-dealers. 

Not only do they openly fight Federal attempts to fight the disease, but they also want Federal help to save the victims of their own efforts.  

And it's only going to get worse. 

COVIDiocy Conspiracy: Are the Antivaxxers Bankrolled by Koch Network?

The Daily Post just dropped a new article: "How the Koch Network Hijacked the War on COVID". It is quite long, but it can be summed up as... Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held fossil fuel company in the world, saw the lockdown as draining its profits (due to sharp drop in fuel use due to lockdown and supply chain problems), so it is using its reserves to push for re-opening at all fronts, from businesses lobbying, to medical professionals declaring, to social media blitzing, and more, directly contravening public health policies, and this is leading to millions of American casualties. 

One of the fronts was the so-called Great Barrington Declaration, where it calls for re-opening and targeted vaccination of the essential. The WHO outright called it "unethical", and other scientists called it cold-hearted, as it essentially sacrifices part of the population. The conference where GBD was signed was at American Institute for Economic Research, at Great Barrington, Massachusetts. What people may not have noticed is AIER derived a bit portion of its budget from Koch or foundations linked with Koch. 

It can be said that both Florida and Texas, with Republican governors, simply followed Trump as Trump liked the GBD, and even welcomed some of the signatories to the White House. At this point, it's worth noting that Trump's COVID advisor, Scott Atlas, is an MD, but has no background in epidemiology or public health. He had publicly stated that masks do not help curb infection, and called the idea of vaccinating children "denial of science". Both have been proven wrong. Trump's response to COVID was basically "let it run", which jives with GBD's approach to COVID... let it run and hope it achieves herd immunity. In fact, Trump said so in an interview, except he actually said "herd mentality". And Trump lost (and tried to cover that up by alleging voter fraud, but that's not relevant here). 

The Biden administration had already publicly stated that lockdown are off the table, even as omicron swept the country and is already deep into the US now. And Florida and Texas are opposed to various public health measures, with several other states following suit as well, mainly based on COVID misinformation spread by so-called think-tanks directly or indirectly funded by Koch or alumni from such think-tanks. 

My thoughts on this... 

This is about as close as the Illuminati being the Black Hand behind everything. And it fits a little TOO well. I doubt there is an active thought to mess with public health, but even unconscious bias has huge consequences when it involves billions of dollars. It's more like "where do I find some experts who agree with what I need?"

But at a deeper level, it is very... cold and calculating. And as a result, very disturbing. 

And it also explains the linkup between antivaxxers and conservatives. They sought each other. 

And the result is more American casualties as collateral damage for ideological gains. 

That's fascist, not American. 

Ironic COVIDiocy: Seven Antivax Doctors Contracted COVID after Attending Antivax Event in Florida

Seven antivax doctors attended an Ocala, Florida "summit" about alternative treatments for COVID, and caught COVID there, yet the organizer denied that the event was a superspreader event, according to The Guardian. 

One of those was Dr. Bruce Boros, 71. He claimed to be taking and prescribing Ivermectin for 16 months, and condemned his own 97-year-old father for getting vaccinated, as well as calling Dr. Fauci a fraud. When interviewed, he claimed he just wanted to help people. 

Remember, folks. Ivermectin is a weak nerve toxin to kill parasites. It has an extremely weak effect on COVID virus. If you take enough to affect the COVID virus, you'd die of IMV overdose first. 

No idea where did these doctors get the idea that Ivermectin is "working all around the world". The only study that showed definite results was withdrawn after people spotted falsified data. 

Don't be a COVIDiot. Just get vaccinated. 

Sad COVIDiocy: Unvaxxed Man Survived 169 Hospitals Rejections, Travelled 1200 Miles for Treatment, Now Pro-Vax

It's the unvaxxed's stubborn selfishness that's keeping COVID around because they refuse to be vaccinated. 

One Florida family found out the hard way: they believed everything had returned to normal, so they did NOT get vaxxed and gathered for July 4th... and they got infected HARD. Lots of family members tested positive for COVID. Some got really sick. 

COVID hit the man so hard, he had to be put on life support, aka an ECMO machine, that does the heart pumping and lung breathing for you. Except there isn't one anywhere near him. This is very dire. Most COVID patients who got intubated this way did not survive. She called 169 hospitals in 3 states. but NONE had an ECMO machine available (being used by prior COVID patients). Lung transplant is even less likely as there's a HUGE waiting list (again, due to COVID). The doctors basically told her that there's nothing to be done. 

Until a doctor in Connecticut, 1200 miles away, with the concurrence of the hospital board, offered up a bed with ECMO support available. 

So her husband made the journey on a special medical transport plane. Then he got on the ECMO machine for 22 days before doctors declared his heart and lungs are healthy enough to support him. During the ordeal, he lost 50 pounds, and the former burly construction worker that went to the gym daily now struggles to stand up. He will need extensive physical therapy to recover. 

But he has made a declaration: ALL visitors, family or not, have to be vaccinated. 

He's not taking ANY chances. 

And can you imagine how much this all costs? 22 days on full life support (figure 5K to 10K a day, probably more since this guy was at death's door), special medical transport plane, physical therapy for weeks if not months, and probably a couple days in ICU. 

And to think all this could have been prevented with two jabs, that are FREE. 

And his extended family and friends certainly got the message, esp. when they realized their "vaccine skeptic" beliefs are irrational. If you are unvaxxed, you can pick up COVID, and even if you only suffer a little, you can pass it on to others... and they may not be so lucky like the guy above, yanked back from death's door. 

So don't be a COVIDiot. Get vaccinated. 

It's not about you, but people around you. 

More COVIDiocy: How had we sunk this far?

Today is 9/11, the day when the largest terrorist attack on US soil took 3000+ lives in moments. 

Today also marks a time that it has been more than 20 months since COVID first appeared in the US, and it has claimed 659K lives since then in the US alone (check on Google for latest CDC data). 

In fact, on September 10th alone, CDC recorded 2418 deaths, in the US. And the trend is still upwards. We may see deaths surpassing 3000 daily in a few days. 

US COVID Daily Deaths for 9/10/21 = 2418... and rising

Yet it seems some people are so desperate to go back to normal, they are ignoring the deaths and prefer to tout "right to choose". 

Texas Governor Abbot infamously tweeted that he will defend the Texans' "right to choose" when the Biden administration announced some sweeping vaccine mandates in a few months. How he can tweet that, having signed the anti-abortion law which limits Texas women's "right to choose" not too long ago, signifies the broken Republican moral system, and clearly, his own broken hypocrisy detector. But let's not get into that at the moment. 

It seems a lot of Federal Worker Unions are not going to be onboard the vaccine mandate train, so to speak. Many have carefully worded their response as "workers should have a choice in their own working conditions" or similar verbiage. 

Translation: "You can't tell me what to do!" (Even though it's the right thing to do, like masking up, or getting vaccinated.)

Who says that? Entitled people, i.e. the "Karens" of the world. 

One Florida parent was arrested when he got physical with a student who started filming him without a mask on inside the school. The guy was already warned several times for not wearing a mask despite school policy. So he was basically provoking a reaction. 

In California, a man got into fisticuffs with a teacher who was trying to protect the principal as the man yelled profanities over the school's mask policy. He was arrested for assault and battery. 

In Austin, Texas, several parents started yelling at the teachers who chose to stay masked during a meet-the-teachers meeting. One parent even yanked the mask off a teacher's face. The two cases had shaken the community. (FWIW, Governor Abbot of Texas, whom we mentioned earlier, also signed an order PROHIBITING mask mandates)

Please keep in mind that Florida, Texas, and California are the most populous states in the US, and therefore, COVID hotbeds, with the most cases... and deaths. 

Given that we can't vaccinate the kids yet, at least those under 12 years of age, the only way to protect them was to mask them, and the teachers, and all the school employees, and EVERYONE around them (including the parents, relatives, and so on).  It'd be better they all get vaccinated too, but it takes weeks for the vaccination to reach full potency (the antibodies get made).  Masking is immediate. 

So people opposing the masks are basically saying "my right to NOT cover my face is more important than protecting the kids". 

COVID is not merciful. Given half of US population is fully vaccinated, the new COVID cases are almost exclusively of the unvaccinated, and sadly, that includes children. Infants. Babies. EVEN THE UNBORN. Yes, COVID also causes fetal deaths. And we've earlier covered a case where a 4-year old went from fever to death in mere HOURS. Children are now over 20% of new COVID cases in several different states. 

In 2020, we thought we had survived COVID because we didn't get the huge wave of casualties like China when the entire medical system was overwhelmed in Wuhan. 

It is now 2021, and ICUs across the country are filling up with COVID patients with a good number of them children. Several states have started or are preparing for "rationing care" because they only have so much resources available to fight COVID. First state to do so was Idaho. Care to guess which party is Idaho's governor? You guess it: Republican. It is just so ironic to see how Sarah Palin (Republican) tried to push the narrative of a "death panel" in the 2009 political debate, and it is now forced into practice... 

The Republican party has governors in two out of three most populous (and thus, most COVID) states. DeSantis in Florida, and Abbott in Texas. BOTH have signed mask anti-mandate orders for their state in the name of "freedom for the parents". 

It is no coincidence that many reports of overwhelmed hospitals have surfaced from both Texas and Florida. Texas had run out of ICU space near Houston, and Florida is believed to have less than 10% space left in ICU as of mid-August.

Is freedom really worth THAT much death, esp. of children? 

Or perhaps..

"The needs of the many, outweighs the needs of the few"?

More COVIDiots: Fake vaccine carder, and antimasker decided to show his wee-wee...

 An Illinois COVIDiot decided her Hawaii vacation is reason enough to violate Hawaii's 10-day COVID quarantine should you arrive without proof of vaccination. So she decided to fake her vaccine card. Except she can't spell Moderna. She wrote "Maderna" on her fake card instead. In fact, she claimed to be vaccinated by the national guard in Delaware. But even then, Hawaiian officials checked with her home state of Illinois (vaccinated in Delaware? Really?)... Which replied she has no vaccination records there for COVID. So they arrested her... Yes, it really went down like that. 

A Canadian COVIDiot was told to please wear a mask at Dairy Queen in Port Alberni. Instead of complying, he decided to argue about it. When he can't prove he warrants a medical exemption, he chose to demonstrate his exemption with his weewee and urinated on the counter. Now he has the Mounties (Canadian police) out looking for him. You seriously can't make this **** up. 

In Florida, already with some of the highest COVID rates in the US, some parents are screaming "people are hospitalized wearing masks" and "stifling (children) their education" regarding a school board discussion on mask mandate for school kids. One guy even claimed that you should NOT mask the children because it makes them easier to abduct by child predators. The CNN correspondent Don Lemon was TOTALLY shocked. This is his tweet with the footage from the school meeting. 

Take This: Tempers flare and fists fly over a school mask mandate in Florida’s Lee County. @donlemon has the shocking video from inside and outside the school board meeting. Watch: pic.twitter.com/n38kxLhXbZ

— Don Lemon Tonight (@DonLemonTonight) September 1, 2021