Bullheaded Texan's "Open Thread"

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Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 26, 2018 at 12:34am

In a statement signed by its Director of Communications, Fr. Moses Iorapuu and made available to newsmen read in part, “Reverend Fathers Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha have been confirmed dead in the deadly attack by herdsmen/Jihadists early today,Tuesday on Mbalom village and St. Ignatius Quasi Parish Ukpor-Mbalom.”
Iorapuu, who regretted that the herdsmen in their classic style, burnt down homes, destroyed food items and killed at will maintained that the police seemed to know nothing of the attacks which have been going on in other villages within Benue State since the Anti Open Grazing Law came into effect last year.
“Many people are asking why the International community has remained silent over the massacre of Benue citizens?
“The answer is simple: It has been the goal of the Jihadists to conquer Benue and Tiv people who resisted their advance into the middle belt and the Eastern part of Nigeria since 1804, the people who rejected islam and fought for the unification of Nigeria in the civil war of 1967 – 1970.
“The people of Eastern Nigeria therefore have little sympathy for Benue people who fought on the side of Nigeria .
The muslim North is enjoying a sweet revenge over
shadowed by an insensitive regime.
He lamented that there are over 170,000 internally displaced persons in eight camps in Benue before the Naka invasion stressing that this current invasion of Mbalom would further swell the humanitarian crisis the state is already faced with….

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 26, 2018 at 12:18am

Will US Citizens Be Released From North Korean Jail As Precondition For Peace Talks?
Apr/19/18
President Trump said the U.S. is working to secure the release of three U.S. citizens held by North Korea, but didn’t say if their release would be a precondition of the meeting Trump plans to hold with Kim Jong-un.
At a joint press conference at Mar-a-Lago with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump was asked why CIA Director Mike Pompeo didn’t bring home the hostages when he recently visited Pyongyang or return with any indication of such concessions by the North Koreans.
“Do you intend, or are you willing to sit down with Kim Jong-un if Americans are still being held in North Korea?” a reporter asked Trump.
The president replied, “The fact is that they do have three prisoners. We have been talking about them. We’re negotiating now. We are doing our very best. As you know, they’ve been there a long time. And it’s harsh treatment.”
Kim Dong Chul, a U.S. citizen detained in North Korea.
A North Korean court has sentenced the ethnic Korean U.S. citizen to 10 years in prison for what it called acts of espionage.
President Trump said the U.S. is working to secure the release of three U.S. citizens held by North Korea, but didn't say if their release would be a precondition of the meeting Trump plans to hold with Kim Jong-un.
At a joint press conference at Mar-a-Lago with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump was asked why CIA Director Mike Pompeo didn't bring home the hostages when he recently visited Pyongyang or return with any indication of such concessions by the North Koreans.
"Do you intend, or are you willing to sit down with Kim Jong-un if Americans are still being held in North Korea?" a reporter asked Trump.
The president replied, "The fact is that they do have three prisoners. We have been talking about them. We're negotiating now. We are doing our very best. As you know, they've been there a long time. And it's harsh treatment."
"We fought very hard to get Otto Warmbier back. And when we came back, he was in very, very bad condition. It was a very sad event!" Trump said of the University of Virginia student who died days after his return last summer.
"We are likewise fighting very diligently to get the three American citizens back. I think there's a good chance of doing it. We're having very good dialogue. We will keep you informed. But we are in there, and we are working very hard on that."
"We have come a long way with North Korea," he continued. "We were, as you know -- and when I say 'we,' for many years they have been talking to North Korea and nothing has happened. This should have been taken care of by past administrations when they were not nearly so far along. But we put unbelievably powerful sanctions on, and many other things."
Trump didn't mention the three hostage Americans by name.
They are:
Kim Dong Chul, a businessman and naturalized U.S. citizen who previously lived in Fairfax, Va., was arrested in North Korea's special economic zone in October 2015 and accused of spying for the South Koreans, which Seoul denied. In a forced confession, Kim said he was guilty of espionage and spreading Christianity. Kim, 64, was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor.
Tony Kim, also known as Kim Sang-duk, 59, was a professor at China's Yanbian University of Science and Technology who had been visiting to teach at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, the only private college in the country with a sizable foreign staff, for a period of several weeks. Kim had also been a humanitarian aid worker in North Korea and helped deliver critical foreign aid to regions devastated by 2016 floods. He and his wife were arrested in April as they tried to fly out of the country; she was released while he was detained and accused of committing hostile acts.

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 25, 2018 at 11:38pm

Real American: Waffle House Hero Raises Money For Victims.
Apr/24/18
The hero who disarmed a shooter who killed four people at a Tennessee Waffle House early Sunday has raised nearly $100,000 — and counting — for the victims’ families since the tragedy!
The 29-year-old suspect, Travis Reinking, was arrested Monday after a daylong manhunt. He was originally jailed on $2 million bond; that was revoked today.
Reinking is accused of pulling up to a Waffle House in his pickup truck at 3:19 a.m. and sitting for three to four minutes before climbing out and fatally shooting Taurean C. Sanderlin, 29, of Goodlettsville, an employee of the restaurant, and patron Joe R. Perez, 20, of Nashville; both were standing outside.
Wearing only a jacket, he also shot up the front window of the location. Inside, the gunman fatally shot DeEbony Groves, 21, of Gallatin, and Akilah Dasilva, 23, of Antioch.
Two others were wounded: Shanita Waggoner, 21, of Nashville, and Sharita Henderson, 24, also of Antioch.
Waffle House customer James Shaw, Jr., 29, was in the restroom and seized an opportunity to rush Reinking, fighting the killer for his gun and tossing it over the counter. Reinking fled and shed his jacket nearby; in it, police found two more magazines for his rifle.
Shaw, a Nashville native, attended Tennessee State University and works for AT&T. He has a 4-year-old daughter. He was grazed by a bullet and suffered third-degree burns from grabbing the barrel of the rifle. After being treated and released, he was in church Sunday alongside Nashville Mayor David Briley.
Shaw told CNN on Monday evening that he realized a shooting was happening "when the glass was broke and shattered and there was dust in the air."
"And I looked back and there was a gentleman right there beside the entrance of Waffle House. And he was laying there on the ground. He was no longer alive. And he shot again and that's when I jumped from my seat and kind of slid on the ground to the entrance up the bathroom," Shaw said. "When he started shooting, I actually jumped and lunged towards the bathroom area and I was actually looking at him and then when he -- he actually shot towards the bathroom area and I was actually grazed with a bullet in my upper right elbow. After that I think he had to reload. I saw an opportunity to kind of take advantage of him."
"So I ran through the door as fast as I could and I hit him with the door and that kind of made him a little woozy and he kind of let go of the gun. And then he was tussling for the gun, kind of wrestling for it. And he had it in one hand and that's when I took it from him."

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 25, 2018 at 11:11pm

Another Store Chain Announces It Will Stop Selling Firearms.
8:30 am Mar/21/18 Tom Knighton
There is a strong anti-Second Amendment bias running through the veins of several American stores lately. Some, like Walmart and Dick’s, have decided age discrimination is a viable strategy to virtue signal. Others like Kroger have hoisted their flags in other ways.
So, when store chain Fred Meyer announced they were out of the firearm business as well, the kneejerk reaction by some was to assume it was virtue signaling as well.
Luckily, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Superstore company Fred Meyer will stop selling guns and ammunition. The Portland, Oregon, -based chain in a statement Friday said it made the decision after evaluating customer preferences. The company sells guns at nearly 45 of its 132 stores in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.
“Fred Meyer has made a business decision to exit the firearms category,” the company said. “We are currently working on plans to responsibly phase out sales of firearms and ammunition!”
Of course, those who remain skeptical do have a good reason. After all - The company, a subsidiary of Cincinnati, Ohio,-based Kroger Co., didn’t give a timeline in the statement.
Fred Meyer spokesman Jeffery Temple in an email to The Associated Press on Saturday said the company wasn’t offering interviews. Interesting, no?
However, the company maintains that its decision had nothing to do with Parkland.
Fred Meyers was set to follow Walmart and Dick’s in discriminating against adult Americans but decided to just get out of the gun business entirely.
The company said the firearms category represents about $7 million annually of its revenue and sales have been declining.
“We made the decision early last week after evaluating changing customer preferences and the fact that we’ve been steadily reducing this category in our Fred Meyer stores over the last several years due to softening consumer demand,” the company said. “More recently we have been transitioning away from gun departments as a result of our ongoing work to optimize space in our Fred Meyer stores.”
Frankly, I can accept making a business decision to not sell guns. Most so-called superstores only seem to sell a few guns and, if my local Walmart is any indication, there’s never anyone there to actually sell you the damn gun in the first place.
If that’s the norm at most of these places, then there’s little reason to assume guns would ever generate much revenue for them.
So, are they virtue signaling or not?
I’m inclined to think not. After all, they were virtue signaling when they decided to follow Dick’s lead and raise the age they’d sell guns to, so if this was a decision motivated by pandering to the anti-gun left, I have to believe they’d admit it. They’re saying no such thing, so I believe them.
It’s a shame, though. They only sold guns at 45 of 135 locations and then wonder why firearm sales aren’t a bigger part of their revenue stream. It makes you wonder just where they sold them and how that might have impacted sales as well. After all, you’re going to do a lot better selling guns in a store in rural Montana than you would in New York City.
Either way, they’ve made their decision. I suspect it won’t even amount to a ripple for the most part.

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 25, 2018 at 10:59pm

Bank Threatens Ruger Over NRA Ties.
4:00 pm Apr/24/18 by Tom Knighton
It stands to reason that gun companies would support the National Rifle Association. The NRA wants to keep as large a pool of people being able to buy guns as possible. That means gun manufacturers would have a much larger base of people to sell their products to. In other words, supporting the NRA is rational self-interest, if nothing else.
However, a bank is threatening Sturm, Ruger & Company over its NRA support.
Amalgamated Bank said it will pull investments from Sturm, Ruger & Company and withhold support for an board member if the gun maker fails to adopt new corporate policies and cut ties with the National Rifle Association. The bank’s chief executive Keith Mestrich described Ruger’s relationship with the NRA as “short-termism” in their resistance to new gun laws.
“They fail to proactively adopt corporate social responsibility efforts commensurate with the lethality of their product, and display hypocrisy in touting adherence to the law while working with the NRA to weaken the law as much as possible,” Mestrich said. He made a fiduciary argument that Amalgamated would have to pull funds because Ruger’s effort “creates significant financial and reputational risks” that will hurt the company and shareholders.
Amalgamated sent a letter, dated April 19, to Ruger’s board urging them to adopt corporate policies for gun makers recommended by gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. The policies range from endorsing universal background checks and increasing funding for federal regulators and gun violence research to monitoring inventory distribution and investing in gun safety technology (ie smart guns).
The letter also singled out company board member Sandra Froman, who also serves on the NRA’s board. Because of the NRA’s political mission, the bank argued her presence is “a potentially significant conflict of interest.” As shareholders participating in Ruger’s annual meeting on May 9, the bank threatened to withhold support for Froman if the company failed to adopt Everytown’s policies.
What Amalgamated doesn’t get is that Ruger and the NRA share the same fight, if for different reasons.
The endgame of all gun control policies is to eventually restrict gun ownership to just a select few, making it practically impossible for the average citizen to own a gun.

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 25, 2018 at 10:59pm

That means practically no one would be able to buy Ruger products. They’d be forced to compete for limited government contracts.
Why should Ruger support that?
Let’s say Ruger decided to bow down to Amalgamated’s demands. What then?
Then Ruger would become a pariah in the firearm industry.
Second Amendment advocates, most of whom are already gun owners and gun purchasers, would make it their mission to warn people off from buying Ruger products. “They’ll sell to you, but they won’t support your Second Amendment rights,” we’ll say, and we’ll be right.
This will directly impact their bottom line.
Luckily, Amalgamated probably doesn’t have the juice it’s pretending it does. Amalgamated isn’t listed as one of the top-20 investors in the company, which means any impact it makes is likely fairly minimal. While it’s possible it will pick up more shares to increase its ability to pressure the company, it’s unlikely it’ll do so sufficiently to really have much sway.

In fact, I wonder just how many shares of Ruger it owns, anyway. After all, based on its corporate culture–it’s the largest union-owned bank in the country–and how most of its notable clients are progressive/liberal entities, I’d be surprised to see it having owned many gun stocks prior to Parkland.

Oh, I’ll admit it may well have. Hypocrisy is hardly new in gun grabber circles, after all. But I still have my doubts.

Either way, though, Ruger would be stupid to bow down to these demands. There’s literally no upside for the company to do so, which Amalgamated doesn’t seem to get.

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 25, 2018 at 10:50pm

Beware: Politically Motivated Violence Is Reportedly on the Rise.
2:00 pm Apr/25/18 by Tom Knighton
When we see unrest in other countries, one of the hallmarks seems to be politically motivated violence. These guys kill those guys because those guys have different opinions on how to run the country. Those guys then kill these guys in both retaliation and because these guys have different opinions on how to run the country.
And those opinions on how to run the country have real-world impact. It’s one thing when the communist is some guy spouting nonsense at the coffee shop. It’s another when a large number of them are gaining ground and actually take over the nation.
Either way, it seems politically motivated violence is on the rise in the U.S.
Making the click-through worthwhile: How a small act of vandalism in Alexandria, Va., suggests we’re likely to see more politically motivated violence, not less; America’s gun owners send a message with their wallets; and a horrific act in Toronto that technically wasn’t formal terrorism but is starting to feel indistinguishable from it.
Back in 2003, Chris Hedges wrote a book entitled War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. his 2008 book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. Still, there’s a lot of truth in the title.
We’re in a battle, we’re charging forward, we’re crusading for a cause, we’re chasing a goal, we’re fighting for our beliefs, we’re taking a beating, we’re getting flak, our proposal is shot down, we’ve reached a ceasefire.
A new idea represents a “revolution.”
Perhaps politics is another force that gives many Americans meaning. It gives them an enemy, a target and focus for all of their worst impulses and feelings. Very few of us can completely escape the temptation to feel hate, contempt, disdain, and a desire for someone else. Politics gives us a target and an excuse.
See those people over there? They’re not just mistaken or wrong, they’re trying to destroy the country. They’re “a basket of deplorables,” as killary put it.
Ted Nugent — not merely a rock star, but member of the board of the National Rifle Association — declares “the evidence is irrefutable,” the Parkland survivors who are pushing gun control “have no soul.” No one feels guilt about attacking a vampire or a zombie or a robot; their lack of a soul means there is no moral consequence.
Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy decreed, “The NRA acts like a terrorist organization” and defends the label because the organization “uses fear to coerce.” No word on whether the governor believes labeling another group of people “terrorists” is using fear to coerce as well.
Yes, the rhetoric is bad. I can’t help but believe the anti-gun left is the one ramping up the violence. After all, we had a group of GOP lawmakers targeted and shot at by a Bernie Sanders supporter, leaving Rep. Steve Scalise seriously injured.
Republican Rep. David Kustoff was run off the road due to his vote on a bill.
So far, there’s not really anything close to that from our side. The worst you can say is that there are some racist jackwagons out there causing harm, but those are people that neither conservative or liberals defend.
If this trend continues, more and more of us may well find ourselves having to defend our beliefs, ourselves and our families with more than just words.
If you ever needed a reason to train, this is it. Not only do you run the risk of being targeted by criminals for whatever reason, but it seems there may be a possibility some jackwagon wants to off you because of your failure to support something like universal healthcare.
No, it probably won’t get that bad. The question is, do you want to take that chance?

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 25, 2018 at 8:13pm

Yeti Offers Reason For Canceling Order, But NRA Doubles Down!
4:00 pm Apr/5/8 by Tom Knighton
Yeti isn’t having a good week. First, they canceled a bunch of NRA-related orders, then they tried to tell people that it had nothing to do with the heat the NRA is experiencing these days. A lot of people weren’t buying it.
Among those people were the folks at the NRA.
“Yeti severed ties with the NRA and is now engaging in damage control after a backlash from many of its customers,” Marion Hammer, past NRA president and head of the group’s affiliate organization in Florida, told Guns.com.
“In early March, Yeti refused to place a previously negotiated order from NRA-ILA, citing ‘recent events’ as the reason – a clear reference to the tragedy in Parkland, Florida,” said Hammer, going on to say the company then delivered notice to the NRA Foundation that it was ending a seven-year agreement and demanded that the gun group remove the Yeti name and logo from the NRA’s websites and print material.
“While Yeti is trying to spin the story otherwise, those are the facts,” Hammer said. “While Yeti can choose to run from the NRA, they can’t run from the facts.”
In response to Yeti’s post laying out their side of the story, some 11,000 have commented, with some accepting the company’s assertions that NRA jumped the gun, with many others choosing to take a different path.
“And this folks, is what is called a ‘back pedal’ in marketing terms…” wrote commentor Kory Gausen, in a comment liked over 2,500 times.
Others pointed to an incident where Yeti backtracked when called out on a “gun free zone” established in their flagship retail store in Austin last year.
In other words, this ain’t looking good for Yeti.
I’ll be honest, when I first heard of what was happening,
I wondered if it was just a general kind of thing that the NRA happened to get wrapped up in.
But when I found out that orders had to be canceled,
I knew the truth.
When programs are discontinued, businesses generally handle it by sending out an email to all who are participating.
It’s a formal letter kind of email explaining that they’re canceling this discount program and what, if anything,
will take its place.
I’ve gotten dozens of them through the years.
What doesn’t typically happen, however, is to have existing orders canceled. Nor is it typical for “recent events” to be referenced in any way, other than referring to something that happened at the company where there’s no ambiguity.
Yeti made a decision. Now they’re having to live with that decision, and they don’t like it.
They really don’t like that so many of their competitors have stepped up to fill the void for many of their potential customers!
In addition to RTIC, Pelican Coolers is offering to make a donation to the NRA when customers make certain purchases!
Other companies who make similar coolers are making it clear they support the Second Amendment, as well.
Yeti is making the noises, we know that they’re overpriced anyway!!

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 25, 2018 at 7:45pm

ICYMI: Anti-Gunners Vandalized A Top NRA Official's Home!
Apr/25/18 4:18 PM Matt Vespa
So, in the Left’s war against the National Rifle Association, some tried to take the war home to its top people. Chris Cox, the head of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Affairs, its lobbying arm, found his house plastered with fake blood. His wife’s business has also been targeted. The harassment has been going on for quote some time.
National Rifle Association lobbyist Chris Cox says his house was splashed with fake blood — twice.
Then, someone made a fake website for his wife’s interior design business, altering images of artwork to show photos of child gun-violence victims.
Last week, two gun-control activists protested outside Cox’s Alexandria, Va., home and handed out fliers outside his wife’s nearby business.
“Mr. and Mrs. Cox have been targeted over the past few months by repeated acts of criminal and unlawful conduct, including having their home vandalized on two occasions,” Elizabeth Locke, attorney for the Cox family, said in a statement. “These coordinated tactics have crossed the line of civility and human decency.”
An attorney for Patricia Hill, the alleged vandal, did not immediately provide a comment regarding the fake-blood incidents.
The other protesters say they have been careful not to cross legal lines and knew nothing of the vandalism. They are all part of a growing movement that insists gun-control advocacy should be more aggressive — and more personal.
Amanda Gailey, from Nebraska, and Catherine Koebel, from southwestern Virginia, met through gun-control-activist circles and connected over agreement that the movement has been too timid. Calling themselves “The Great American Gun Melt,” they want to pull gun-control politics to the left with more radical action.
Now, Hill is facing misdemeanor destruction of property charges (via AP):

Protesters are targeting the northern Virginia home of the National Rifle Association’s top lobbyist and say the protests will continue.

In one case, court records show Patricia Hill of Lincoln, Nebraska, has been charged with misdemeanor destruction of property outside the home of NRA lobbyist Chris Cox.

Alexandria Police spokeswoman Crystal Nosal said Friday there were two separate incidents stretching back to last fall.
A court hearing has been scheduled for May 21.
Now, Mr. Cox, the NRA, and the rest of the gun rights movement should have expected this, and I bet they did.
The NRA, which is one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the country, is vilified to no end by the news media. It doesn’t make it okay, however.
Now, as for Amanda Gailey and Catherine Koebel, the two women who just hold signs outside his home, it’s their right to do that.
Their push to yank the gun control movement further to the left is annoying. But it’s not a massive protest, and there’s a silver lining.
If anything, these women are doing their part in filling the NRA’s coffers.
It’s the cumulative effect. Recently, the organization had its best month in fundraising in 15 years!
So, keep vandalizing, keep acting like crazy people. You’re getting the gun rights base more motivated to vote in 2018. The Left peddling full-blown gun confiscation. Let’s see how that works out.
"Threatening people at their homes and businesses, vandalizing their homes and terrorizing their families, including young children, will not persuade anyone to disarm." Dana Loesch

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 25, 2018 at 7:33pm

Victory? GOP Holds Arizona House Seat in Special Election Win, However...
Apr/25/18 1:05 PM by Guy Benson
CNN has a point here. On the surface, Republicans held a House seat in Arizona last night, winning a special election to fill the seat vacated by a former Congressman who resigned under strange circumstances. This was a red district in a red state, and Democrats put up a relatively weak and inexperienced nominee who held far-left views on issues like healthcare and abortion. The GOP and aligned groups dropped roughly a million dollars in insurance money to deny Democrats another momentum-building upset in Trump country, while the opposition spent very few resources. So on paper, this was an easy win. When the votes were tallied, it was a win -- and that's what ultimately counts -- but the nature of that victory isn't likely to reassure anxious Republicans.
The victor, conservative Debbie Lesko, prevailed by less than six percentage points in a district Trump carried by 21 points in 2016. That same year, the now-departed House incumbent won with nearly 69% of the vote, and the Dems
didn't even field a candidate, a member of the Green Party got crushed instead.
That's quite a swing -- and it's one that reflects the double-digit shift toward Democrats we've been tracking in off-year and special elections since last year.
Usually, the losing team's excuses and spin ring hollow the morning after a defeat. But there's more than a little bit of truth to the Left's narrative today:
And with Republicans defending an open Senate seat in Arizona this year and possibly two, these facts from last night aren't terribly reassuring either:
I realize these are uncomfortable things for conservatives to read, but burying our heads in the sand won't make the truth go away.
Remember, these aren't just polls, "the polls were wrong in 2016!" These are results.
And as we highlighted yesterday, when a president's
"deserves re-election" standing is hovering in the high 30's, bad things happen to his party in the subsequent midterm cycle.
The data shows that the GOP has bled support in every single federal special election since Trump became president. Barring an unforeseen change in the political winds, it's looking like triage will be the name of the game for Republicans this fall.
By the way, the too-close-for-comfort outcome in Arizona wasn't the only concerning result from yesterday's special elections:
This is the stuff waves are made of.
To repeat: We're not cherry-picking wavey data points. Virtually all of the relevant data points look wavey, even the "good" ones. We've written up a few surveys lately that have shown the president's approval ticking up and Republicans gaining on Democrats on the generic ballot -- but a handful of new polls out today show a comfortable Democratic lead:
That closely mirrors new findings from Politico/YouGov, which puts the national ballot at D+9.
I'll leave you with another nugget from that survey, pertaining to the post-passage battle over tax reform:
Politico poll (generally ugly for Trump/GOP) shows a plurality in favor of TaxReform (44/39), despite most saying they haven’t noticed their beefed up paychecks. R’s must focus on improving awareness on that latter point.
Guy Benson

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