The news that the seven defendants in the conspiracy trial in Oregon were acquitted came as a shock even to supporters of the seven. Watching the video of the moments after the verdict was announced was special. John Lamb and others had apparently put their heart and soul into the hope that the Oregon seven would be acquitted, so much that they were sobbing and in tears when the verdict was announced.
As if to put a seal on their displeasure, one of the attorneys for the defendants, Marcus Mumford was attacked by six federal marshals in the courtroom as the presiding judge watched. What caused the thugs to jump the lawyer was the lawyer's contention that if a marshal hold was not in hand then the defendant, Ammon Bundy was free to go.
That little play by the lawyer, advocating zealously for his clients must have irritated the judge, especially in the wake of the verdict. Everyone knew that the Bundys would be facing charges in Nevada: the judge, the lawyer, the protesters outside, everyone.
There is little question from all I have heard that the government was stunned at the outcome, and that goes a long way to explaining the government's outrageous behavior in court. Explains it, but does not justify it.
This was not a case for jury nullification, because the prosecutors and the judge had decided that no mention of the Constitutional justification for the occupation would be allowed in court. The full deck of informants the government used to build their case was not allowed to be revealed in discovery. Even without that defense, the jury saw through the government's case as being built upon spurious allegations by undercover informants. As I have remarked, it is unknown just how many informants at the state, county and local level were at the wildlife refuge. There had to have been some there.
Amusingly, writer Clarice Feldman mentioned that Ammon Bundy offered to plea his case out but the government refused, preferring to go for the full trial. Oops.
The marshal's hold contested following the verdict was for the two Bundys, Ammon and Ryan to stand trial for similar charges in Nevada. It would seem that the government case would be stronger in Nevada, except that a number of the leaders at Bunkerville in 2014 were government informants as well. It will eventually come out that Oathkeepers were completely played by government snitches running the show in Nevada.
Continuing the discussion two weeks ago about rifle failure, Rob Ski of AK Operators Union posted two photos of an AK-47 destroyed by an out of battery detonation. At the time I saw the photos, I commented:
This is a failure similar to the four I had three weeks ago.
... I don't see anything in the rifle chamber that prevents the cartridge from going full battery. A stuck case would do that. Stuck cases were the intermediate cause of the rifle failure in my AK-74. While a stuck case would do the same things as described in my experience, it doesn't explain why the round, in this specific case, detonated.
Three things must be true in order for the round to detonate under the given conditions. The rifle's firing pin must have 1) been forward in the bolt, 2) hit as it hit the round, or 3) the round was positioned in some way some part of the bolt/firing pin assembly hit the round.
In order for a round to be fired, the bolt must move the new round into the chamber, close and position around the new round. Then the shooter fires the round, and the firing cycle begins anew.
When the bolt closes the firing pin cannot strike the round unless it is fully in battery, fully in the chamber. If the firing pin already was forward (and I don't know if this is even mechanically possible), that would explain why the round detonated in cases 1) and 2).
The most likely case, IMMHO, was case 3) The round was perfectly positioned behind the stuck casing as part of the bolt hit the round, detonating it.
The failure would be a one in a million failure.
An improperly headspaced bolt could explain ammunition failure, which is the main cause for the failures I have described. Headspacing is a precision thing, less than .005 inch difference between a properly headspaced rifle and an improperly headspaced one. They tell you when you are headspacing an AK, that the gauge should cause the bolt to close with a slight snap, thus there is a small amount of resistance when the bolt closes over the gauge.
Ammunition which is to the extreme of one tolerance would explain a stuck casing.
What I didn't mention there I will mention here: if you look at photo one, you will see a crack in the receiver. Even stamped receivers are not supposed to crack like that. Bend, yes. Crack, never. The material used in a receiver is supposed to be 4140, the strongest commercial grade alloy steel available. It shows that the receiver, assuming it was bought from an AK manufacturer, possibly was improperly heat treated, in that it had not been properly tempered.
Also if you look closely, you will see the great amount of carbon build up on the bolt and the receiver. The rifle is incredibly dirty, including the bolt and the inside of the receiver, and had not been cleaned after several firings. For all the talk of the abuse you can dish out to an AK, you still gotta clean the thing from time to time, to clean out the carbon and the metal fouling.
One other thing. If you look to the left you will see screws were used to assemble part of the AK, which means that the rifle had been modified. To what extent, I do not know. I am not certain if manufacturers do release screw builds, but I seriously doubt it. For the AK platform that would be the height of irresponsibility.
Loads.
Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:
Prices for pistol ammunition were mostly steady. Prices for rifle ammunition were mixed.
Prices for used pistols were mixed. Prices for used rifles were mixed.
New Lows:
None.
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Edmonson Sporting Goods, Own Brand, Brass Casing, Reloads, .24 per round (From Last week: +.01 Each)
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Own Brand, Brass Casing, Reloads, .21 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each)
9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Surplus Ammo, Maxxtech, FMJ, Brass Casing, .16 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: FedArm, Own Brand, Brass Casing, Reloads, .16 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks))
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Surplus Ammo, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel cased, .23 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2016))
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: +.02 Each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: BigHat Tactical, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round (From Last Week: +.02 Each After Unchanged (7 Weeks))
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Natchez Shooters Supplies, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .39 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Bud's Gun Shop, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .48 per round (From Last Week: +.09 Each (!))
7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: + .02 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammunition Depot, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Ventura Munitions, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .24 per round (From Last Week: +.02 Each After Unchanged (3 Weeks))
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (7 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds (10 Box Limit): Ammo2U, Federal, RNL, .06 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds (10 Box Limit):Sportsman's Outdoor Superstore, Browning, RNL, .07 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (8 Weeks))
Guns for Private Sale
Rifles
.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $542 Last Week Avg: $546(-) ($616 (2Q, 2015), $476 (3Q, 2015))
California (277, 279): Mixed Build: $480 ($650 (1Q, 2015), $400 (2Q, 2016))
Texas (274, 250): Rock River Arms LAR-15: $500 ($700 (1Q, 2015), $350 (2Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (140, 145): American Tactical Imports: $580 ($700 (2Q, 2015), $300 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (178, 164): Palmetto State Armory: $600 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $475 (25 Weeks))
Florida (362, 371): Del-Ton Sport: $550 ($650 (2Q, 2015), $380 (1Q, 2015))
#1
Anna J. Brown, U.S. District Judge, Portland, Oregon: Appointed by Bill Clinton. At the heart of claims by defense attorneys that while hearing cases involving the IRS, was taking non-disclosed bonuses from the Federal Government. One attorney who complained of jury tampering was found murdered the very next day.
United States Marshal Russel E. Burger, District of Oregon: Prior to holding several other law enforcement positions joined the Oregon State Police in 1994. The same agency responsible for the murder of Lavoy Finicum. Nominated for U.S. Marshal by Barack Obama. While Sheriff of Lane County, Burger was the object of a law suite filed by a Deputy Sheriff who claimed the Sheriff's office was retaliating against him and denying him of his First Amendment Rights after he "made several complaints of misconduct and unethical or criminal behavior by Lane County judges, attorneys with the Lane County District Attorney's Office and judges for the United States District Court for the District of Oregon."
#2
What was that about-to-be-replaced POTUS Barack Hussein Obama said sometime back: And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Is it just me or does it seem like there is always a danger to and a war on the citizens of the U.S. when the Dems reign?
Money from lawsuit settlements is now going to leftist activist/agitator political groups thanks to the Department of Justice. This can't be legal but it's happening anyway.
Th DoJ has been busy trumping up charges and lawsuits against the alleged fraudulent money lenders from the 2008 housing bubble and it has been non-stop since Obama came into office. Money lenders, guilty or not, just make the deals to avoid costly lawsuits with the all-powerful government.
Settlements have involved donations to DoJ favored leftist groups.
This is the government that gives Stimulus money, Obamacare money, grants from every agency to radical left-wing groups.
Two recent settlements with Citigroup and Bank of America serve as examples
Citigroup agreed to donate at least $50 million to "community organizing" groups including NeighborWorks and La Raza and for every dollar above that, the bank gets two dollars knocked off its total settlement sum of $2.5 billion. With Bank of America, the settlement calls for a $100 million contribution to housing-related groups and, again, a two-for-one reduction for donations to community organizing groups.
It’s another form of sue & settle from a brilliant and deceitful Alinsky-ite administration. The end goal is collectivism for all.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Robert Goodlatte and Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling have been looking into these settlements. Rep. Goodlatte is quoted as saying "It seems that the alleged victims are not the primary beneficiaries of these multi-billion dollar settlements. Instead, the terms ... look less like consumer relief and more like a scheme to funnel money to politically favored interest groups."
The lawless DoJ does whatever it wants and it’s only now that it’s being talked about. The banks settling is really the result of extortion by the DoJ.
JP Morgan Chase was one of the first.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
10/29/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
9 days until election day
be sure to vote Trump then get your grandparents, and all their friends to the polling booths so they can vote trump, too
It finds expression in the writing of Ramesh Pommeru, Ross Douthat, and Yuval Levin, whose "conservative governing vision" sees a kind of:
... American life in which government does not use society as an instrument to advance progressive aims but rather sustains and strengthens the space in which society can thrive and enables all Americans to take part in what happens in that space.
Such a government would no doubt be much smaller, more restrained, and less expensive than the one we have today. It would be fiscally sustainable, averting the catastrophe we face if our entitlement programs are not and reinforcing the private economy rather than draining it of resources.
Levin calls this a "modernized politics of subsidiarity -- that is, of putting power, authority and significance as close to the level of interpersonal community as reasonably possible," that is, doing a lot of good, small things at the base of civil society.
If we play small ball, we will lose. Specifically, we will lose America’s technological and scientific pre-eminence, our dominant position as a military power, and a significant part of our living standard. In a competitive world, "losing" doesn’t mean giving up a couple of points of GDP growth: It means the sort of decline that the United Kingdom suffered in the 1950s and 1960s, when its auto, shipbuilding and machine-building industries virtually disappeared.
Small-ball conservatism ignores the most important feature of the global economic landscape: our competitors. This isn’t 1981, when the digital revolution overwhelmed the Soviet Union’s formidable advantages in conventional arms. When Ronald Reagan took office, the world’s high-tech entrepreneurs had no place to go except America. American universities had a monopoly on high-end technology, the American defense and space programs dominated cutting-edge research, and American capital markets were the only ready source of capital for high-tech startups.
We still have an edge but it is eroding quickly. America is a second-rate power in high-tech manufacturing, and our monopoly in key fields of knowledge is far from secure. We spend half of what we used to on defense R&D as a fraction of GDP. And we face new and self-confident competitors determined to leapfrog the United States. If we do not meet the hurdle of global competition, whatever good we do in small ways will not help.
It is a slippery slope. If we continue to lose ground, we may never have the chance to come back. Nothing short of a great national effort will give us the chance to come back. And the first thing that is required is for an American president to declare that a great national effort is underway, with the sense of purpose that informed the Eisenhower and Kennedy responses to Russian gains in space during the 1950s, or Reagan’s commitment to win the Cold War and defend America from missile attack. There are many individual things that must be done, but there is one big thing that must be done. That is to identify a national goal and commit the full resources of the United States to achieving it. The first thing that must be done is to end affirmative action in educational system - starting with kindergartens.
#2
Conservatism is NOT a plan for some collective national greatness project. The Constitution was designed to keep government off our backs and to leave us free to not have to spend all our time individually watching our backs. Conservatism is about remaining true to the Constitution as written. Nothing more.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/29/2016 13:23 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Reagan also stated that the government wsas the PROBLEM not the SOLUTION. You Nationalist types seem to have completely lost sight of that. All you want is the same thing the Progressives want - control of a big government to do your bidding. And that's what s wrong with you - you are different only by degree, not by fundamentals. Conservatives want smaller government, even if it means they cant abuse it to impose their view on others.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
