Articles by Herschel Smith

Newsweek:

The Justice Department has reportedly started questioning FBI agents about evidence they discovered in a previous investigation into the controversial Uranium One deal, as the country’s top law enforcement agency deals with allegations of bias from Republicans and President Donald Trump.

The internal questioning comes after an assistant attorney general told the head of the House Judiciary Committee, in a letter sent last month, that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had “directed” federal prosecutors to determine if another special counsel was needed to investigate Uranium One, NBC News reported Thursday.

A little late to the game, yes?  Hey, I’ll bet you thought that the whole Uranium One deal prevented the Clintons from shipping Uranium out of the country, right?  Sucker.

Calling beltway critter Jonah Goldberg.  Jonah?  Are you there?

The Kansas City Star:

A Leawood couple who were mistakenly targeted in a 2012 police drug raid have lost their lawsuit against Johnson County.

A federal court jury late Tuesday afternoon found that Adlynn and Robert Harte were not entitled to any monetary damages as a result of the raid by deputies with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.

They maintained in the lawsuit that some deputies lied to a judge to obtain a warrant for the search of the Hartes’ home.

In a written statement released by their attorneys after the verdict, the Hartes said they and their children were grateful that they had the opportunity to tell their story to a jury, and that they intend to appeal.

“Although they are understandably disappointed in the outcome, they know that standing up for their rights as citizens was important — not only for themselves and their family, but also to preserve the vitality of the Fourth Amendment for all citizens,” their attorneys said in their statement. “They will never forget the day of the raid, and they believe their speaking out has helped to bring about positive change in Kansas’ open records law and in police practices.”

An attorney for the sheriff’s office also released a written statement.

“On behalf of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and the deputies we thank the jury for their service,” said Lawrence Ferree. “The Hartes had their day in court. The system worked. Hopefully the Hartes and the deputies can put this behind them and move forward.”

The Hartes were targeted for the search after a trip to a hydroponics gardening store drew the attention of law enforcement officers.

Deputies then took trash bags from outside the couple’s home that contained brewed loose tea. Deputies said that field testing of the tea registered positive for marijuana.

The information was used to establish probable cause for a judge to issue a search warrant.

But it was never submitted to a laboratory for more conclusive testing before the raid.

Officers armed with assault rifles conducted the raid on the couple’s home while their children, a seventh-grader and a kindergartner, were present.

The raid was timed to coincide with a planned press conference about the effort to fight marijuana trafficking.

But after a 2 1/2-hour search by deputies and a trained dog, all they found were the tomato plants the family was growing with the hydroponic equipment.

They filed suit in in 2013, but a federal judge dismissed the case in 2015.

The Hartes appealed and last July, a federal appeals court panel reinstated the suit on the issue of whether deputies lied about the test results in order to get the search warrant.

The Hartes contended that the deputies lied, making the warrant invalid and the search of their home unconstitutional.

Take careful note of the law enforcement response.  I couldn’t care less about tea leaves or Cannabis.  This was a man’s home, his castle.  Someone invaded it.  That someone, i.e., law enforcement, takes the position that the family had their day in court, and the right outcome was reached.  They are left unfettered to invade homes as they please, tearing up things, endangering lives, and violating the constitution.

They hate you.  Realize that.  Law enforcement hates you.  You are the peasants, they are the king’s men.  Also realize that this award of nothing was given by a jury.  The American people apparently want a police state.  The “sheeple” have decided they want “security” more than liberty.

They will end up having neither.

In Do You Need To Break In A New Rifle Barrel, I said that I have followed this procedure for breaking in new rifles barrels.

This involves (1) a round, (2) brush/solvent/patch full stroke down the barrel, (3) dry patch or mop, next round, and so on. This process continues for several dozen rounds, then you skip to three rounds before the same procedure, and so on until the process is completed at 50 or more rounds.  You’ll wear out at least two bore brushes this way.  I’ve done it.  A bore guide is handy, and a day at the range is necessary.  You can’t complete the process in under a day.

At GoHunt.com, the author outlines a similar procedure, and states that:

I’ve read a lot of things on this subject (mostly during the random years when I decide to pick up a new gun) and it seems that most people will agree that a rifle break-in period is a good thing … Basically, the process of breaking in a new barrel is essentially just conditioning the barrel to smooth everything out (remove small burrs). Some barrel materials may take more rounds, others might not need much at all. Keep in mind that you don’t want to burn your barrel up in this process. Rifle barrels don’t last forever, so like I mention at the end of this article, if your rifle shoots great using half the steps, then call it good.

Running 50 rounds through the barrel along with copper wiring for cleaning purposes is hardly going to burn the barrel.  But also remember that I embedded some video by barrel manufacturers who have all weighed in telling us that the process just isn’t necessary for the barrel, but more necessary for the throat.  It’s also not apparent to me how the process isn’t duplicated by sending rounds through the barrel anyway, regardless of the cleaning stroke in between shots.

If you have strong opinions on this, please weigh in.  I’m beginning to lean against this procedure the more I think about it.

Dave Hardy links this letter from a very brave BLM agent who outlines a number of terrible, illegal, and ridiculously clownish things that have happened at the BLM.  This is a sad read, and I did read all of it.  It’s a head shaker and eye roller, but if you want to be informed on the latest goings on at BLM, you need to spend the time in this letter.

The letter is from Larry C. Wooten, Special Agent, to Andrew D. Goldsmith, Associate Deputy Attorney General, National Criminal Discovery Coordinator.  There is no date on it, and the contact information has been blacked out.  But the contents speaks for itself.  He begins by outlining his own involvement in the various cases with which we are familiar regarding Bundy, and then his involvement in the investigative process when he brought various illegalities and conflicts of interest to the attention of his superiors.  He states his unease at the situation.

As the Case Agent.and Lead Investigator for the DOI/BLM (for approximately 2 years and 4·0 months), I found myself in an unusual situation. I was specifically asked to lead a comprehensive, professional, thorough unbiased and independent investigation into the largest and most expansive and important investigation ever within the Department of Interior. Instead of having a normal investigative team and chain of command, a BLM Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge (ASAC) decided to act as a subordinate co-case agent, but also as my supervisor.

Right off the bat, the BLM has put the agent into a position where there is conflict of interest.  Many times with professional work, direct review authority is removed from supervisory or management control to ensure the fidelity of results.  This investigation was ensured to be tainted from the outset.  Or, it was ensured that agent Wooten would end up with nothing because of command influence.

Later, he states that “In February of 2017, it became clear to me that keeping quite became an unofficial condition of my future employment with the BLM, future awards, promotions, and a good future job reference.”  Wooten then proceeds to outline what he sees as the most ridiculous behavior he had ever seen, thinking back to middle school.  Name calling, insults, ignoring lost evidence, hiding evidence from the defense, illegal monitoring of jail calls from defendants and their wives without prosecutor or FBI consent, failure to disclose substantive and exculpatory case and witness bias, violation of the BLM code of conduct, workplace harassment, discrimination, lewd comments, and claims of roughing up various defendants like Dave Bundy.  He states this.

Many times, these open llD.professional and disrespectful comments and name calling (often by law enforcement superyisors who are potential witnesses and investigative team supervisors) reminded me of middle school. At any given time, you could hear subjects of this investigation openly referred to as “ret*rds,” “r*d-necks,” “Overweight woman with the big jowls,” “d*uche bags, “‘tractor-face,” “idiots,” “in-br*d,” etc.

He calls it a carnival of childish behavior.  Of the SWAT raid, he says this.

See openly available video/audio footage titled “The Bundy Trial 2017 Leaked Fed Body Cam Evidence,” or a video posted on You Tube titled “Leaked Body·Cams from the Bundy Ranch!” published-by Gavin Seim). Some of these statements included the following: “Jack-up Hage” (Wayne Hage Jr.), “Are you fucXXXX people stupid or what,” ”Fat dude, right behind the tree has a long gun,” ”MothetFuXXXX, you come find me and you’re·gonna have hell to pay,” ”FatAsX slid down,” “Pretty much shoot first, ask questions-later,” “No gun there. He’s just holding his back standing like a sissy,” “She must not be married,” “Shoot his fucXXXX dog first, “We gotta have fucXXXX fire discipline,” and “I’m recording by the way guys, so … ” Additional Note: In this.timeframe, a key witness deactivated his body camera.)

The person of Dan Love plays huge in all of this.  I had previously never heard of him, but a Google search on his name turns up copious material to show what kind of person he is.  He is behind some of this, but doubtless much of the BLM management and other agents are the same as Love.

We do learn one other useful thing about the standoff at the ranch.  We had wondered who was there and where they came from.  This apparently answers the question.

Note: The investigation indicated that there was at least one school trained Federal Sniper equipped with a scoped/magnified optic bolt action precision rifle, another Federal Officer equipped with a scoped/magnified optic large frame (308 caliber) AR style rifle, and many officers that utilized magnified optics with long range graduated reticles (out to 1,000 meters-approximately 500 meters on issued rifles depending on environmental conditions) on standard law enforcement issued AR (223 caliber/5.56mm) and that often officers were in “over watch” positions. Additionally, the investigation also indicated the possibility that the FBI and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department had law enforcement snipers/designated marksmen on hand/or possible deployment.

There is no way on earth any of this should ever go to court, or else the prosecution risks total catastrophe with this information going public (you reading this information here isn’t public – this site doesn’t get enough traffic).  Agent Wooten continues with his thoughts on the illegalities committed by the Bundy family, and that may or may not be.  I won’t weigh in on any of that, except to say that I’m still convinced that the whole thing was an attempt to rid that land of the Bundys for the purpose of Harry Reid’s son and a deal he made with the Chinese to develop it.

In any case, this is what the founders feared, and if you listen closely, you can hear their complaints against King George in the Declaration of Independence.  Agents of the state lord it over the peasants, steal largesse, and step on whatever liberty happens to be the infringement du jour.  It would be easy to lampoon Wooten’s description of the BLM if it weren’t so sad.  They are apparently filled with entitled, overpaid, pampered brats who have been given way, way too much power.

News from Atlanta:

Officials at Georgia’s leading power provider faced tough questions Monday, a day after a massive power outage grounded travel at the world’s busiest airport for nearly 11 hours at the start of one of the biggest travel weeks of the year.

Georgia Power officials said the investigation continues into the cause of the fire-related outage at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. However, they said a piece of the utility’s switchgear in an underground electrical facility may have failed and started the blaze. A switchgear helps to manage the flow of power.

The utility had backup equipment, officials said, but it was in an adjacent room and was also damaged in the fire.

“We are doing what we can to make sure this never happens again,” Georgia Power spokesman Craig Bell said. “We truly apologize for the inconvenience.”

Well, it will happen again, somewhere.  He shouldn’t have promised that.

The outage hit about 1 p.m. Sunday, plunging the airport into darkness, grounding nearly 1,000 flights and leaving 30,000 people stranded. International flights were diverted to other airports. Planes sat on the tarmac for more than six hours.

[ … ]

Videos posted on Twitter showed passengers using the lights on their cellphones to make their way through darkened concourses. Other photos shared on Twitter showed TSA officers carrying wheelchairs up stalled escalators.

[ … ]

“The straight answer to that question is: We absolutely do” have a redundant power supply, Reed said. “But because of the intensity of the fire, the switch that accesses the redundant system was damaged, which caused damage to two systems rather than one.”

Bowers said the utility will work with the airport to prevent a repeat of such an event. Among the strategies the company may consider: encasing the cables in concrete [Ed: dumb idea] or putting the cables in separate areas.

“Our focus is on reliability and making sure this never happens again,” he said.

“Train” separation is a good idea, because it’s not redundancy if the trains aren’t separated.  But here’s the point.  Power outages will happen, darkness comes every day.  If you don’t have light, you’re disabled.

Do you carry a tactical light when you travel?  I do.  Always and everywhere.  I carry a tactical light when I travel through the neighborhood with the dog.

When we discussed what I called the unbiblical idea that exculpatory evidence is excluded from the court because it’s “hearsay” evidence, it occurred to me that we could add more discussion to this.  From R. J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law, pages 566 -567.

The Biblical law of testimony does not permit torture or coerced confessions.  Voluntary confession is possible, but two or more witnesses are required for conviction.  More strictly, confession is never cited in the law; its place in court was apparently only in connection with corroborating evidence.  Thus Achan’s confession required confirming evidence before he was sentence and executed (Joshua 7:19-26).  The voluntary aspect of Achan’s confession must be noted.  Biblical law preserves the integrity of the individual against forced confession; the right of citizens to be protected from the power of the state to compel their self-incrimination does not appear outside the Biblical legal tradition.

[ … ]

The objection to self-incrimination means that a Christian must oppose the use of lie detectors as a matter do principle.  The lie detector reverses a basic principle of justice …

Another point of interest with respect to lie detector tests has been cited by a Christian police officer.  An innocent man may submit to the test in the hopes of clearing himself, but, once under the test, his total privacy is subject to invasion.  He can be asked about religious beliefs, political opinions, does he own any guns, and almost anything the examiners choose to ask him.  The result is a forced confession.

Like lie detectors, wire-tapping is a form of illegal invasion of privacy; it involves a form of coerced confession, a destruction of the integrity of communication, which makes it clearly immoral and wrong.

But America has long since defenestrated a Biblical notion of righteousness and justice, in its place having substituted the notion of the state as god, and thus you see today that Robert Mueller’s team has absconded with emails to which they have absolutely no right.  In a more righteous society, Mueller and his team would be held accountable for this immoral action.

Watch in the coming weeks.  You may see another picture of a CMMG .45 gun, with a slightly different barrel length.

The Herald-Tribune:

In 1949, the Soviet armed forces put a new, deadly assault rifle into general use, the AK-47. The Mikhail Kalashnikov design was soon disseminated around the world as a cheap, effective, durable military and police weapon.

America’s answer came fewer than 10 years later in a modification of the AR-10, a selective fire rifle first developed by Gosport, Indiana, native Eugene Stoner and two of his assistants at ArmaLite. A re-designed AR-10 was soon marketed to the military by Colt as the M-16, and was sold to the public as the AR-15.

Stoner died in 1997, during the 10-year period starting in 1994 when new AR-15s with certain features were outlawed for civilian use under the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. So, he wasn’t around to see the ban’s lifting in 2004. Since then, AR-15-style rifles have been a common denominator in several high-profile mass shootings.

Thursday was the fifth anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-eight people, including 20 5- and 6-year-old first-grade students, were shot to death.

There is no reasonable civilian purpose for this type of weapon. Unlike handguns, they offer no reliable accuracy at close range for home protection purposes. And, unlike bolt-action rifles and shotguns, they require little to no skill in the hunting realm.

This is a gun designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Period.

The sad truth is that re-banning the AR-15 and the like won’t even begin to address the most prevalent weapon used in mass shootings: legally obtained handguns. That’s a much thornier issue. But, if we can’t even call the AR-15-style rifle a step too far, how do we imagine we’ll ever be able to address the larger gun problem in this country?

You learn something every day from the more educated gun owners, yes?  AR-15s are great at (presumably) moderate to long ranges for “killing as many people as possible as quickly as possible.”  But they “offer no reliable accuracy at close range for home protection purposes.”

Better work fast, men.  Your trusted battle carbine is no good for CQB.  By the way, Stephen Bayezes says hello.  As do hundreds of thousands of Soldiers and Marines who have relied on said weaponry for room clearing operations.

The State:

Four months isn’t enough time to get all the state’s business done.

When South Carolina lawmakers wrapped the 2017 legislative session in May, they had approved a plan to fix the state’s dilapidated roads, including a higher gas tax, and shored up the state’s pension system.

But some bills didn’t reach the finish line for one reason or another, so even before moving on to new business, the Legislature will have a lot to pick back up when they convene for the second half of the session in January.

Multiple bills affect South Carolinians’ ability to buy and carry firearms publicly. Last year, the S.C. House of Representatives approved two bills loosening the requirements for carrying a gun in the Palmetto State, only to see them get stuck in the state Senate.

One would allow anyone with an out-of-state gun permit to carry a concealed weapon in South Carolina as long as their state also recognizes S.C. carrying permits. The bill removes any requirement on the traveler to have passed a criminal background check or taken a firearm safety course. However, the traveler still must observe S.C. laws for carrying firearms while in the state.

The other bill would eliminate the need to have any permit to carry a weapon, either concealed or openly – a position proponents call “constitutional carry.”

Meanwhile, a Senate bill would do away with the so-called “Charleston loophole” by requiring a 28-day waiting period for a gun seller to complete a background check.

That loophole – a federal rule that allows a gun purchase to be completed if a background check takes longer than three days – allowed convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof to purchase a handgun because a prior drug conviction was not reported to the seller within the three-day wait period. Another bill would require courts to speed up the reporting of criminal convictions for background checks.

Both of those bills remained in committee when the 2017 session came to an end.

The debate around all these bills started before this autumn’s mass shootings in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas, and it’s unclear what effect those might have on S.C. lawmakers’ appetite for more gun legislation.

It remains sitting there, S.C. gun owners.  If the S.C. legislature doesn’t prioritize some form of open carry – with or without constitutional carry – it’s because they feel no pressure to prioritize it.

Events of recent months have given the progs a good excuse to delay this legislation.  Of course.  Not good in the sense that it has anything to do with open carry, but good in the sense that the optics are altered.

David Codrea:

“Cook Commissioner Richard Boykin … flew to New York on Thursday to discuss what he described as a ‘quiet genocide’ in Chicago’s black community with the U.N.’s assistant secretary-general for peacebuilding support, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco,” The Chicago Tribune reports.

His bright idea?

Foreign UN blue helmets patrolling American streets.

Specifically, he said this.  “Boykin said Chicago must “utilize every avenue” available to protect its people from gun violence, possibly including U.N. peacekeepers.”

Right.  So let me suggest this, smart guy.  How about returning the family unit to Chicago, including rejection of welfare and all other subsidies and handouts which have destroyed the inner city black population, and encouraging your young black men to find jobs and attend church services rather than walking the streets for their gangs?

Oh, you’re not willing to go that far.  I see.  The genocide you’re talking about doesn’t exist.  Genocide is when one people perpetrate death on another.  This is more correctly categorized as suicide.  That requires a whole different way of thinking, one with which you are unfamiliar.

By the way, I could only manage a belly laugh when I thought about the blue hats in Chicago.