Bullheaded Texan's "Open Thread"

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Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 24, 2018 at 2:06am

Pg 8)
36. Time To Verify;
According to the US Marshals, the FBI lab took the letter and carefully examined it for any possibly traces of DNA left on the paper, checked for fingerprints, and also analyzed the handwriting, comparing it from writing samples from all three men when they were behind bars. What were the results?
Local CBS television station in San Francisco, KPIX, which published the letter, reported that “the FBI’s results were inconclusive.” One of the station’s security experts deemed that the FBI’s response “means yes, and it means no, so this leaves everything in limbo.” in terms of the authenticity of the letter.
37. No Rest ‘Til 99'
The U.S. Marshals Service has said in the past “it is possible” that the three men survived after they escaped. Following the publication of the letter in January 2018, a representative from the Service told The Washington Post that they did not believe the letter was legitimate.
According to the same article “the Marshals Service has continued to investigate leads and said it will do so until the men are proven deceased, or until they turn 99.” However, when the FBI closed their investigation in 1979, they said that “For the 17 years we worked on the case, no credible evidence emerged to suggest the men were still alive, either in the U.S. or overseas.”
38. Thoughts From The Last Man On Alcatraz'
The last guard to leave Alcatraz, Jim Albright, gave a revealing interview with San Francisco’s local ABC affiliate ABC 7 in March 2018 in honor of the 55 years since Alcatraz closed down. Since he was there at the time of the escape, he was asked whether he thinks they drowned in the waters or survived, as the letter claims.
“It depends on whether you’re talking to me or you’re talking to their mother. I believe they drowned, I really do,” Albright said in the interview. In his opinion, the letter writer claiming to be John Anglin is simply someone trying to get treatment for his cancer and not the authentic escapee.
39.The Escapees Today;
Still, to this day it is uncertain whether Frank Lee Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin survived the escape from Alcatraz. It is also unclear whether or not law enforcement ever contacted the 2013 letter writer. If the three alleged escapees were to be alive, John Anglin would be 86, Clarence Anglin would be 87 and Frank Morris would be 90 years old. Even if they are elderly, it turns out that they will still be responsible for their crimes for at least another decade.
40. U.S. Marshals Respond;
The letter was only revealed publicly after a local CBS station in San Francisco, KPIX, revealed a copy of the letter from a source that could not be named. The U.S. Marshals provided a statement in response to the letter’s publication. “There is absolutely no reason to believe that any of them would have changed their lifestyle and became completely law abiding citizens after this escape,” the statement read. Remember, the U.S. Marshals were the only ones who left the case open and continued to investigate the case, so their opinion definitely carries weight. Will we ever know what really happened?

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 24, 2018 at 12:07am

White House Breaks With Tradition, Won't Invite Any Democrats To This Week's State Dinner!
French President Emmanuel Macron will dine with a very handpicked crowd.
President Donald Trump will host French President Emmanuel Macron for a state dinner at the White House this week, but unlike in years past, 'members of the opposing political party — and White House reporters' — WON'Tt be invited to take part in the event.
The dinner marks the first official state dinner in the White House to feature "full ceremonial honors," according to ABC News, and is being held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the First World War, and as a way of solidifying an alliance inked last week when France and the United States joined forces as part of a coalition targeting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons manufacturing facilities.
But The Hill reports that only a handful of lawmakers have been asked to attend the dinner — Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Mitch McConnell have received official invites.
Neither Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer, nor members of the White House press, have been offered a seat at the table.
Media was quick to note that this was likely a deliberate break with tradition. When former resident obuma feted Macron's predecessor, that state dinner featured everyone from CNN's Jeff Zucker to recording artist Mary J. Blige.
But unlike obuma, Trump has preferred quieter affairs when it comes to entertaining foreign dignitaries.
The White House seems is a strange locale for a presidential party; Trump hosts most foreign leaders
at his Florida estate.

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 23, 2018 at 11:58pm

Pg. 1)
CDC Allegedly Hid Data Supporting Pro-Gun Claims!
6:00 pm Apr/23/18 by Tom Knighton
When anti-gun activists talk about gun research, they argue that the law prevents the CDC from doing anything of the sort. The truth is, the law only prevents the CDC from doing research designed to promote gun control. They can do research, it just has to be unbiased research.
Well, it turns out that about the time that law was passed in 1996, for those playing at home–the CDC asked a question that’s been the topic of discussion for some time. Namely, how often is a gun used in self-defense?
It seems they got the answer, then sat on it. What it reveals, however, is interesting (emphasis mine).
Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck conducted the most thorough previously known survey data on the question in the 1990s. His study, which has been harshly disputed in pro-gun-control quarters, indicated that there were more than 2.2 million such defensive uses of guns (DGUs) in America a year.
Now Kleck has unearthed some lost CDC survey data on the question. The CDC essentially confirmed Kleck’s results. But Kleck didn’t know about that until now, because the CDC never reported what it found.

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 23, 2018 at 11:57pm

Pg. 2)
Kleck’s new paper—”What Do CDC’s Surveys Say About the Frequency of Defensive Gun Uses?“—finds that the agency had asked about DGUs in its Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System in 1996, 1997, and 1998.
Those polls, Kleck writes, are high-quality telephone surveys of enormous probability samples of U.S. adults, asking about a wide range of health-related topics. Those that addressed DGU asked more people about this topic than any other surveys conducted before or since. For example, the 1996 survey asked the DGU question of 5,484 people. The next-largest number questioned about DGU was 4,977 by Kleck and Gertz (1995), and sample sizes were much smaller in all the rest of surveys on the topic (Kleck 2001).
Kleck was impressed with how well the survey worded its question: “During the last 12 months, have you confronted another person with a firearm, even if you did not fire it, to protect yourself, your property, or someone else?” Respondents were told to leave out incidents from occupations, like policing, where using firearms is part of the job. Kleck is impressed with how the question excludes animals but includes DGUs outside the home as well as within it.
Kleck further details how much these CDC surveys confirmed his own controversial work:
The final adjusted prevalence of 1.24% therefore implies that in an average year during 1996–1998, 2.46 million U.S. adults used a gun for self-defense. This estimate, based on an enormous sample of 12,870 cases unweighted in a nationally representative sample, strongly confirms the 2.5 million past-12-months estimate obtained Kleck and Gertz (1995).
CDC’s results, then, imply that guns were used defensively by victims about 3.6 times as often as they were used offensively by criminals.
For those who wonder exactly how purely scientific CDC researchers are likely to be about issues of gun violence that implicate policy, Kleck notes that “CDC never reported the results of those surveys, does not report on their website any estimates of DGU frequency, and does not even acknowledge that they ever asked about the topic in any of their surveys.”
NPR revisited the DGU controversy last week, with a thin piece that backs the National Crime Victimization Survey’s lowball estimate of around 100,000 such uses a year. NPR seemed unaware of those CDC surveys.
Isn’t that interesting?
Years ago, I cited Kleck’s finding in a column I wrote for the local newspaper. A reader accused me of pulling the number out of my rear in a letter to the editor, which I was given the opportunity to rebut. I did, again citing Kleck’s study.
Maybe in the future, I can cite the CDC’s findings. I suspect those will be more palatable for many people.
It’s also worth pointing out what Kleck himself noted, namely how close the CDC’s finding meshed with his own from roughly the same period of time. Kleck argued 2.5 million DGUs per year, while the CDC found 2.46 million. I’m sorry, but that’s close enough for validation in my book.
Of course, something else that’s worth noting is how even the lowball estimate of 100,000 is still several times greater than the total number of gun-related fatalities each year, and that’s while including both homicides and suicides. Take out the suicides and you get an even more stark difference.
Using the CDC’s findings–or Kleck’s, since they’re just about the same–and now, suddenly, the numbers don’t even come close to justifying gun control.

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 23, 2018 at 11:33pm

Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia, died on this day in 2007.

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 23, 2018 at 11:25pm

Page 1)
Report Reveals Ohio Courts Aren’t Uploading Criminal Histories To NICS!
3:00 pm Apr/23/18 by Micah Rate
The Cincinnati Enquirer has published a shocking article detailing how convicted felons and domestic abusers in the state of Ohio can still purchase firearms despite their criminal histories. The details in the report are so outrageous that Ohio Governor John Kasich tweeted that he would be taking immediate action to “keep weapons out of the wrong hands in our state.”
How are these convicted felons still able to pass a background check and buy a firearm? Simply put, Ohio courts have failed to log the information into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
COLUMBUS – In Ohio, a convicted felon barred from owning a gun could still purchase one after passing a background check – all because dozens of courts have failed to upload some paperwork.
Sound familiar? A similar glitch allowed [redacted], a dishonorably discharged U.S. Air Force veteran, to purchase the gun he used to kill 26 and injure 20 more at a South Texas church last year. In that instance, the military failed to flag Kelley as a person banned from owning a gun.
State law requires courts to update the list of individuals barred from buying firearms at least once a week. But some courts went months or years without an update – without facing any repercussions, according to state audits. See which courts in your area were delinquent, here.

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 23, 2018 at 11:25pm

Page 2)
Without an up-to-date background check system, a gun shop owner would have no way of knowing a buyer is legally prohibited from purchasing a gun. Each court delay in submitting a name increases the risk that someone purchases a gun illegally, someone who may already have a history of violence. It’s hard to say how many names were held off the system over the years.

This situation is beyond problematic, and the excuses for failing to do what’s right are equally absurd.

One woman said she was “too busy to report people banned from owning a gun or even to allow the state to pick up the paperwork to enter names into the database manually.” The Cincinnati Enquirer also states that a court put paperwork in a drawer and no one touched it for months. Another court claimed it couldn’t enter the proper information into the background check system because “its password expired.”

The report describes one of the worst cases in Marion County, stating:

The state’s worst offender was Marion County’s Common Pleas Clerk of Court. Five times in two years, officials from the attorney general’s office called the court, wondering why they had gone months without submitting any names to the background checks system. Marion County staff complained of technology problems and insufficient personnel to complete the task. Staff repeatedly refused help from the state.

The court’s clerk, Julie Kagel, is in charge of the filing. She acknowledged the court had periods of several months in which it did not send in names. Mailing paper submission is “cumbersome”…

At a time when the anti-gun left is calling for more gun laws and bans on AR-15s and “high-capacity magazines,” reporting like this shows that officials aren’t even implementing laws on the books now. Examples like this show why it’s necessary for law-abiding gun owners to have the ability to defend themselves. The government cannot be relied on to do the right thing all of the time.

Unfortunately, there are no penalties for those who fail to do their job, even though the lives of innocent people are at risk.

Heads should be rolling.

Governor John Kasich has now signed an executive order to strengthen reporting to the background check system.

Government officials have dropped the ball too many times. The Waffle House shooter had a prior run-in with law enforcement, had his firearms confiscated and concealed carry license revoked, but still got his firearms back in his possession and proceeded to kill four people. The Broward Sheriff’s Office and the FBI dropped the ball regarding the Parkland shooting. And Air Force officials failed to report information to the background check system to stop the Sutherland Springs killer.

People who have the responsibility to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals need to do their jobs. That’s the first step in reducing gun violence. If the country can do that, it’d be a lot better off.

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 23, 2018 at 11:18pm

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 23, 2018 at 11:18pm

Done Deal: Pompeo Clears Senate Committee Vote Thanks To Last Minute Intervention By Trump!
Matt Vespa Apr/23/18 5:42 PM
President Trump persuaded Rand Paul to back Pompeo, while Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) voted present to allow the nomination to head to the Senate for a full vote.
Pompeo’s nomination passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 11-9, with one vote present:
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) agreed to vote present, procedurally making it possible to send Pompeo’s nomination to the floor.
The vote was 11 in favor, 9 opposed and 1 voting present. Only 10 of the 11 senators who backed Pompeo were present in the committee room, making Coons’s switch, from opposed to simply present, necessary to clear the nomination.
President Trump personally intervened Monday to convince a committed Republican naysayer to back Mike Pompeo for secretary of state, possibly securing the backing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a favored adviser whose committee vote, if not his ultimate confirmation, seemed in grave jeopardy.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who pledged to 'oppose' Pompeo the day after he was nominated, tweeted about Trump’s outreach and his 'newfound support' for Pompeo on Monday just moments before the committee vote started, seemingly saving face for the nominee, who was expected to fail the panel vote but secure the support of the full Senate later this week.
It’s over. The emerging Democratic opposition to CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s nomination to be our next secretary of state is no longer a threat. He won’t be derailed. He won’t be blocked. He will be confirmed!
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) looked to make things interesting on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. With Sen. John McCain’s absence due to cancer, the slim Republican majority could no longer afford any more defections.
Pompeo would need Democratic support. And he got that with Sens. Heidi Heitkamp(D-SD), Joe Manchin(D-WV), and Joe Donnelly(D-IN)—all red state Democrats who hail from states where Trump won by 10+ points or more and all are up for re-election this year.
Clarifying: Rand Paul voted favorably in committee to recommend john kerry as obuma's Sec State and later voted to confirm him. Paul was set oppose Mike Pompeo in both settings.— Stephen Hayes Apr/23/18
Sen. Rand Paul said he will vote for Mike Pompeo’s nomination to be secretary of state, paving the way for the CIA director to win approval from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and ultimately be confirmed on the Senate floor!
The Kentucky Republican had previously criticized Pompeo’s hawkish past. But he tweeted Monday that he had received assurances that Pompeo agrees with President Donald Trump that “Iraq was a mistake, that regime change has destabilized the region, and that we must end our involvement with Afghanistan.
Even before this, Heitkamp’s support would have put Pompeo over the top, as his nomination was going to go to the full Senate regardless of how the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted.
So, Pompeo can now rest easy!

Comment by Bullheaded Texan on April 23, 2018 at 11:06pm

George H.W. Bush Admitted To Hospital With An Infection Hours After Laying Barbara Bush To Rest.
Matt Vespa Apr/23/18 7:40 PM
Bush 41 “appears to be recovering"
Jim McGrath said on Twitter that the 93-year-old Bush is “responding to treatments and appears to be recovering.” He was admitted Sunday morning to Houston Methodist Hospital after an infection spread to his blood, McGrath said.
Barbara Bush was laid to rest Saturday in a ceremony attended by her husband and former president George W. Bush and his wife, along with current first lady Melania Trump.
She was 92, and she and her husband had been married 73 years — the longest presidential marriage in U.S. history.
The elder Bush uses a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility after developing a form of Parkinson’s disease, and he has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for respiratory problems.
Hours after the Bush family said their final farewells to former First Lady Barbara Bush, former President George H.W. Bush was admitted to the hospital with an infection. He contracted it on Sunday, which is said to have spread to his blood. Barbara Bush was 92 when she passed away On April 17. Former President Bush is 93 years old. He’s been checked into intensive care (via Fox News):
Former President George H.W. Bush was hospitalized on Sunday after an infection he contracted spread to his blood, his spokesman said Monday. The announcement of the hospitalization comes just days after Bush's wife, Barbara, died at age 92.
"President Bush was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital yesterday morning after contracting an infection that spread to his blood," Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement. "He is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. We will issue additional updates as events warrant."
Bush, 93, was hospitalized last April for two weeks due to a "mild case of pneumonia." Earlier in 2017 he was hospitalized for 16 days, also to be treated for pneumonia. He was temporarily placed on a ventilator and was treated in the intensive care unit. His wife was also hospitalized around the same time to treat a case of bronchitis.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DbgP9yVU8AATtuN?

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