DC Politics vs Reality

This was a lesson that real life organized to reinforce in my mind this week.  The enormous difference between actual courts, actual laws and allegations vs. the DC circus we've been watching for weeks. 

I had jury duty this week in the circuit court.system, Florida's 18th judicial circuit which includes my county and the next one over.

The short version of the story is that much like the other four or five times in my life I've responded to a jury duty summons, I didn't serve on a jury.  The longer version is that the process has gotten more efficient in the county over the 36 years I've lived here and I reported Tuesday (not Monday for the whole week).  A first group of 50 potential jurors was called out and sent to a court to start their selection process.  After that, 30 of us were called to a case we had already been assigned to.  We spent the day yesterday going through jury selection and still didn't complete that.  We were instructed to report back at 10 this morning for the down selection.  10AM turned to 10:30 and then 11:00.  Finally, at almost noon, the bailiff who had been assigned to corral us came to bring us back to the courtroom.  We were then told that the state and the defendant had come to a settlement, told us not to underestimate how important our being there and being willing to go through the process was, thanked for our service and allowed to leave. 

The important part of the story has little to do with the actual case and jury duty selection process.  The important part is that every time we were addressed, be it by the clerks in the office coordinating the candidate jurors, the judge who was responsible for the case, or the state's attorneys, the story of our judicial system was emphasized.  The foundations of our system of trial by jury being established at the formation of our nation, how it's woven into our constitution, and how it's one of the major developments of the enlightenment, flowing down from King Henry the 2nd.  The state's attorney started by telling us how our job is to protect our fellow citizens from the immense power of the state - as wielded by him.  The state's attorney and the judge said over and over that we must presume the defendant is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, we were asked to swear to being able to presume the defendant innocent, swear to treat the facts the same regardless if presented by the state or the defense attorney, and more. 

Every step of the way was couched in the terms of the presumption of innocence and that no one is convicted unless that state proves it beyond a reasonable doubt. 

And given the three ring circus of Spartacus and the Seven Dwarves we've been forced to watch for weeks, now, all of that sounded mighty nice to my ears.

Is There More to the Philando Castile Case Than Meets the Eye?

I think that of the recent rash of news stories involving police-shootings, the one that has captured the most attention from gunnies is the horrible case of Philando Castile, the Minnesota man who was a concealed carry license holder shot to death during a "routine traffic stop", as the story goes.  I'd hazard a guess that since so many of us are concealed carriers, this scenario is our worst nightmare, or close to it. 

Some things about that never seemed quite right to me; the first was the chatty girlfriend who live streams the event instead of calling 911 and seems almost emotionally uninvolved in the whole event.  She doesn't seem emotionally attached to Mr. Castile at all, more concerned with putting a video online.  Her "don't tell me he's dead" pleas sound as emotionless as checking off a box on a form.  The second thing that I noticed was that the traffic stop was about a bad tail light, yet the video appeared to be in broad daylight.  I suppose that can happen, but I've never heard of it, or had it happen to me. There are photos online, though, that show the car after dark and both taillights appear to be working. 

The Conservative Treehouse has been following this story closer than most and poking it with sticks.  They've turned up some things that, as least to me, demand attention.  The most trivial is that the county where is this occurred, Ramsey County, MN, has no record of issuing Mr. Castile a CCW.

This could be nothing.  He could be from the next county over or the opposite corner of the state.  It isn't a critical point, but at this point it can't be verified he had a CCW permit, or who issued it to him.  Far more important is a trail they weave showing that Mr. Castile was pulled over because he physically matched one of two suspects who robbed a store at gunpoint.  A store very close to where Castile's stop and shooting occurred.

The people at GotNews chased down the social media profiles of Diamond and Philando, and unfortunately a familiar set of social behaviors surfaces.

Yes, Philando Castile was a gang member (crips), frequently picturing himself with firearms, cash, drugs and gang signs; and Ms. Diamond also has a colorfully broadcasted social presence.

This is a confusing situation.  Depending on his exact ties to a gang, it could make it unlikely he really was a CCW holder.  The pictures on Conservative Treehouse include this:

Arrested, of course, doesn't mean convicted and it's all still possible that Castile had a valid concealed carry permit and everything is just as reported.  It just seems to be getting harder to think that.

Doesn't it change the whole scenario if, instead of a routine stop for a broken tail light, the officer was pulling over a vehicle containing a B.O.L.O driver who fit the exact profile of an armed robbery suspect from a few days earlier?  Even if he just happens to have the incredible misfortune to look a lot like the photos of the armed robbery suspects?  As Conservative Treehouse puts it:

Wouldn’t it be entirely plausible for a rather concerned police officer to be additionally, well, twitchy perhaps, about a possible armed robbery suspect -pulled over- who identifies he is armed inside the vehicle, and then makes an unanticipated movement toward….

Well, I think you get the overall thesis.

I'll be honest: I'm not 100% sure what to make of this.  In broad overview, the story fits with what has been reported but adds a lot of detail and nuance.  Their sources seem solid.  They link to local news outlets (self-starting audio warning) throughout their investigation.  I'm only sure it bears keeping up with the story.  Miguel reports the Second Amendment Foundation is following this case and pushing for a full investigation, which is good.  The officers are suspended (as always after a shooting, it seems) and there's apparently a real investigation going on. 

What's that line about, "may you live in interesting times"?

Headline of the Day

From Reuters:  Honduras detains 5 Syrians heading for U.S. with stolen Greek passports-police 

The report in its entirety says:

Honduran authorities have detained five Syrian nationals who were trying to reach the United States using stolen Greek passports, but there are no signs of any links to last week's attacks in Paris, police said.

The group of Syrian men was held late on Tuesday in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa on arrival from Costa Rica and they were planning to head to the border with neighboring Guatemala. The passports had been doctored to replace the photographs with those of the Syrians, police said.

The men later told the police they had planned to cross Guatemala after exiting Honduras, then Mexico before crossing the southern border in the US.  Unlike the US, the countries of Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras all have genuine border security and caught the five Syrians.  Plus, they consider crossing with invalid passports to be a crime.  Their journey will be interrupted at least a little while.

Don't worry; I'm sure they were coming to audition for a church choir somewhere.  Maybe the Mormon Tabernacle?  One of the big Texas mega-churches? No?

In other news, president Obama is right: ISIS has been contained.  There has not been one single ISIS attack on the moon or another planet.  They have been contained to Earth, where they're pretty much like cockroaches and are found everywhere.   

 (US Border Patrol agent)

On That Mail Server Problem

Another story I haven't paid that much attention to is the Hildebeest's mail server story, because I can't believe that there's any chance any member of the highly inbred ruling class could possibly go to jail for a crime they committed.  But H/T to Karl Denninger for pointing out something:

There are reports that out of the few (something like 40!) emails examined so far two were not only classified, they were TS/SCI at the time they were sent -- that is, (literally) "above Top Secret."

Or to quote from the Fox News story he linked to:

The flurry of activity came after Charles McCullough, the inspector general, notified senior members of Congress that two of four retroactively classified emails found on Clinton's server were deemed "Top Secret, Sensitive Compartmented Information" — a rating that is the government's highest classifications. [Note: the word is usually given as "Compartmentalized" - SiG]

Like most engineers in this country, I've spent some time in the world of classified information, and have held clearances like this.  This is a Big Deal.  Is it bigger than having getting the US Ambassador to Libya killed, probably over running guns to Al Qaeda?  The first US Ambassador killed in over 30 years?   In my book, it could be, because TS/SCI information can potentially cover "sources and methods" - the kind of information that can compromise many people and shut down intelligence operations completely.  On the other hand, if Hillary is willing to off an Ambassador, what respect do you think a mere field agent would get?  (here, I'm assuming it was her)

As always with the ruling class, if one of us "country class" people did this, we'd be handcuffed and perp walked faster than you can say, "Top Secret, Sensitive Compartmentalized Information".  But as I said up top, I just can't imagine that any member of the ruling class, let alone a Clinton, would ever have to pay penance for any crime they committed that would get the rest of us imprisoned for life. 

A Quick Hat Tip to Ex-CNN Anchor Lynne Russell

By now, you've probably heard of the robbery with shooting that involved former CNN anchor Lynne Russell and her husband Chuck de Caro.  Both of them are concealed carry permit holders and have spent time in training; de Caro is former Army Special Forces and Russell is credited with being a private investigator and Sheriff's deputy.  They were spending the night in a Motel 6 in an Albuquerque New Mexico last Tuesday, when Lynne went to go get something from their car.  Instead, she was attacked and pushed back into the room by an assailant.  A fight ensued between de Caro and the attacker, and exchange of gunfire.  de Caro was shot three times, but killed the assailant on the spot.

The robber pushed his way into the hotel room and pointed a gun at Russell and de Caro just as de Caro stepped out of the shower.

While the robber was distracted by de Caro, Russell slipped the couple’s concealed weapons into her purse, and then handed it to de Caro, asking if he could find something of value to give to the robber.

“‘Is there anything in here we can give him?'” Russell said she asked. “Chuck said, ‘Oh, yes, there is.'”

Russell said the man took de Caro’s briefcase over to the bed of the motel room and began firing at her husband.

“Chuck fired back, and it was a shootout,” she said. “He expended the rounds from one small handgun and grabbed for the other even as he had taken fire” and was losing blood quickly.

I'm sure we can all agree this is a horrible enough thing to go through, but it appears that during some interviews after the fact, some of the interviewers have been less than supportive of her carrying a gun that saved her life.  She had a very proper response for them.

“The discussion over the debate to own a gun is just ridiculous. As Americans we have the right to bear arms and as humans the right to protect ourselves. I’m sure that the man who shot my husband did not have a gun permit. Criminals will always have guns. The rest of us legally obtain our gun permits.”
...
“If you don’t want to carry please don’t. Then, shut the f–k up about it.”  [emphasis added - SiG]

Fox News reports that de Caro is still hospitalized, and recovering from his three gunshot wounds.  They said his breathing tube is out and he's doing well.  It's great that he was a more accurate shot than the bad guy, but it's still a heavy burden to bear.  Hats off to Chuck de Caro for his composure under pressure and to Lynne Russell for her support.

The Recent Treasury Department Theft of $3 Billion

This story is just not getting enough coverage.  Lord knows the lame stream media hasn't covered it, and I've never heard a word of it on Fox, the Blaze or any of the stuff I come across.

Except alternative media like Hot Air and us blogs.  Bayou Renaissance Man, who links to Taxicab Depressions as did American Mercenary.  You should really read Taxicab Depressions; he makes some excellent points and brings up stuff that would just be too redundant for me to cover.  It concerns the Treasury Department giving some insurance companies Three Billion Dollars to keep the fetid mess of Obamacare solvent.

Just a few days ago, it was learned that the Treasury Department gave three billion dollars to several large insurance companies to keep them afloat, because no thinking person wants to sign up for this horseshit called ObamaCare, and the insurance companies will go bankrupt giving away “free” healthcare without total taxpayer compliance. There’s just one problem; THEY CAN’T DO THAT. Only Congress can authorize the spending of taxpayer money, and when Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, kind of a stickler when it comes to money, asked the Treasury about it, they basically told him to fuck off.

Sweet Jesus… can you imagine the uproar if George Bush illegally ordered the Treasury to give three billion taxpayer dollars to Exxon and Haliburton, and told the Congress to piss off? The Internet would be melting down and the Democrat Congress would be drafting impeachment documents before the sun went down. Dan Rather might have suffered a stroke on-camera.

With a President who happily claims to have a "pen and a phone" to declare any law he wants, and an amoeboid congress, having neither spines nor balls to challenge him or slap him down, this apparently doesn't even raise an eyebrow.  The entire administration, top to bottom (apparently) does whatever they feel like and doesn't respect laws at all.

“The U.S. Treasury Department has rebuffed a request by House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis., to explain $3 billion in payments that were made to health insurers even though Congress never authorized the spending through annual appropriations,” The Washington Examiner’s Philp Klein reported on Thursday.

That’s right. The payments insurers receive, dubbed “cost –sharing subsidies,” are designed to offset the costs incurred when they pick up the out-of-pocket expenses for low-income individuals covered by Affordable Care Act plans. If insurers had to cover these costs themselves, Obamacare would be infeasible. So, the federal government picks up the tab for the newly insured as they go about receiving “free” health care.

There’s just one tiny, unconstitutional problem: Congress never authorized the distribution of those funds.

You can't put it any more bluntly than to say that some unelected bureaucrats in the Department of the Treasury stole $3 Billion of taxpayer money and gave it to someone not authorized to receive it.  If anyone in my company used a company account to take so much as $3000 and give it to someone, they'd be frog marched out the door to waiting police.  If anyone received stolen money they'd be frog marched out the door as well.  Yet in DC, they drop $3 Billion like turds falling out of a waddling toddler's diapers. 

“A second grader knows that only Congress can appropriate funds. And even though CMS apparently agrees with that, the managers at HHS don’t,” The American Thinker’s Rick Moran opined. “Unfortunately, unless both the House and Senate order the insurance companies to return the funds – and President Obama signs the bill – HHS is going to get away with this.”

The spineless senate couldn't get enough votes to override Obama's veto of the Keystone Pipeline, so I have no hope they could get enough votes to override the veto this would likely get.

House Ways and Means Committee, Paul Ryan (R-Wis) center right.  

Something That You Might Consider

I'm sure I've never done this before, but I'd like to point out a group that I donate to so that others might consider it.  Read about them and do what you think is right.

The group is Operation Underground Railroad, and like the underground railroad in the mid 1800s functioned to get slaves to freedom, OUR works to rescue children from sex slavery and human trafficking.  They, no, we... consider ourselves modern abolitionists.  OUR was started by Tim Ballard, ex-CIA, a former human trafficking investigator for our Fed.gov.  Tim wanted the freedom to do more on his own to fix this problem and started OUR.  Since then, Tim has partnered with veteran special operators and others who can do these specialized and dangerous sting operations.

In early October, a few weeks, ago, they rescued 123 sex slaves in Columbia; 55 of them children.  As Glenn Beck has supported them with a lot of donations from his charity company, Mercury One, an embedded reporter wrote about the operation here.   Tim and one of his leaders appeared on The Blaze TV; a summary and 10 minute video are here.

Tim Ballard with two of the children from an earlier rescue.  The small child, face blurred, was being sold as a sex slave.   

I've supported them for two years now, as long as I've known they existed.  They're better men than I; if I were in a place where men were trying to buy children to rape, I'd kill them.

We Don't Have a Mass Shooting Problem - 2

Last August, in the wake of the Aurora Colorado theater shooting, I posted part 1 of this. It relied on a news reporter from Boston.com.

Tonight's update relies on Megan McArdle at The Daily Beast.  Ms. McArdle interviews Northwestern University criminologist James Alan Fox, who has been studying mass shootings since about 1980.  Go RTWT, - as usual, I'll whet your appetite with a couple of quotes:

James Alan Fox: Mass murderers are extraordinarily ordinary.

Most mass killers kill people they know, with a clear-cut motive. They typically plan their crimes in advance, often weeks or months in advance. They are calm, deliberate and determined to get justice for what they perceive to be unfair treatment.

The idea that they suddenly snap actually makes little sense. They snap and just so happen to have 2 AK-47's and 2000 rounds of ammunition around for just such an occasion? Hardly.

Not lunatics who suddenly snap? They plan in advance for month?  Calm, deliberate, looking for justice?

Most of the time, the motive is to get even with those they hold responsible for their misfortunes. Usually people at work or at home, or sometimes a class of people (women, Jews, immigrants, whites, blacks, etc) . . . so the victims are chosen randomly, but not the type of victim, or the place to find them.

A crime like the Sandy Hook massacre is exceptionally rare.  But they're getting more common? 

If one examines the full range of cases--all shootings with at least four victims killed, the numbers have been trendless. Over the past 35 years, there has been an average of just under 20 incidents per year.

Think of it this way: the number of incidents and victims is relatively constant, but the population has been growing - so the number per capita is decreasing. 

Megan: So you have been saying that many of the most popular remedies for mass shootings won't work. They aren't all identifiably crazy before the shooting, so mental health screenings for gun buyers won't stop them. Neither will waiting periods, because they're long-term planners. And restricting certain scary guns (an "assault weapons ban") won't have much effect, because they'll just pick another gun.

Very perceptive, Megan!