Cognitive Failures

 

Welcome back to the Scuttlebutt, pour a drink, and pull up a chair.

 

Cambridge Dictionary online defines Cognitive as: Related to or involving the processes of thinking and reasoning.  The same source defines Failure as a lack of success, something not done, or something not working.  Today we’re going to take a deep dive into a series of Cognitive Failures.

 

First up let’s take up the whole Kyle Rittenhouse thing.  That’s Kyle, up above.  Kyle had a minor cognitive failure.  He decided for reasons that are still not completely clear to go up to where he works in WI and help provide security during the riots of 2020 in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing.

 

I say minor CF because it wasn’t really his job.  I’m sure that he felt he was doing what was right, (and on the whole, he’s right about that) but for a 17 YO to take on that tasking was not exactly bright.  Kyle had been a Police Explorer, (a Boy Scouts program for wannabe future LEOs, I’ve worked with them as a cop, they are of various quality, but then so are cops.) and seems, all in all, to have a strong sense of duty and right and wrong.  A big deal is being made of the fact that he was armed (obviously, that’s how he shot three people) but not much gets mentioned of the fact that he was also carrying a complete first aid kit, and was providing medical first responder services as well.

 

Now, the only way that Kyle differs from the folks made famous during the Rodney King Riots as “Roof Koreans” referring to a number of shop owners of Korean descent who put themselves upon the roofs of their stores with ARs, M1 Carbines, and other such hardware, is that they were the primary owners of the stuff being threatened with looting, burning, and general destruction.  

 

That difference is present, but not terribly significant in a court of law.  So, in short, should Kyle have been there? Probably not, but while it was a stupid move, it was not actively criminal. (other than the possession of a Semi-Automatic Rifle off of private property by a minor, which didn’t happen until he was chased off of the private property he was on by the rioters, and the charge for that was dismissed by the judge before the trial started, so we can leave that alone.)

(note, the data on the criminal records I’m about to quote come from https://www.wisconsinrightnow.com/2021/03/12/kenosha-shooting/ )

 

Other CFs that night include the first rioter that got shot: Mr. Joseph Rosenbaum.  There’re videos (that seem to have been buried until the trial, at which point they came out) that show Rosenbaum approaching various armed men, screaming repeatedly: “shoot me nigha!” 

 

It also came out that Rosenbaum was under a doctor’s care for various mental illnesses, was a registered sex offender (11 counts of child molestation on boys ranging from 9-11), was a bail jumper on two counts of domestic abuse, had attempted suicide multiple times (in fact had just been released from the hospital for the second attempt in as many months) and was refusing to take his medications.  

 

Based on all the testimony, it appears that he threw a bag (which turned out to be full of the stuff the hospital had given him on release) at Kyle and then charged him, and had grabbed or was in the process of grabbing Kyle’s rifle when Kyle shot him four times killing him, although not immediately. 

 

There’s a phrase in the LEO community: Suicide by Cop.  I’ve personally been involved in two of these incidents, though both ended without anyone dying thank the Gods.  When the first one happened, I had been a cop for about five years, was about 39 years old, and had been carrying a firearm for fun and profit for over twenty years.  The second one was after I had hung up my duty belt for the last time, it was at a rifle range while trying to help my son and a friend sight in rifles before hunting season.  The only reason this one didn’t end badly was the range master was a former Air Force PJ, he and I managed to disarm the man, and hold him until the KCSD and KCFD showed up on scene.  Either of these could have ended very easily with a mentally ill individual dead, and neither would have been my fault.  I was both lucky and had a LOT of training.  Training that Kyle lacked.  So, mark the first one down to someone who should have been locked up in the funny farm, (Cognitive Failure) and self-defense.  

 

It’s also worth noting that Kyle was not the first one shooting that night, someone had touched off a round just before Rosenbaum charged him… This was also no doubt a contributing factor to the mental states of all concerned. After shooting Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse apparently tried to call the police, realizing he was in over his head, but was interrupted by a group of rioters that wanted to “get his ass” as one of them screamed.

 

The third CF of the night was by one of the rioters who decided to chase Rittenhouse down the road after Rosenbaum got shot. Mr. Anthony M Huber, was apparently a friend of Mr. Jacob Blake, “who he used to smoke weed with.”  Blake had been shot and paralyzed by Law Enforcement a couple of days earlier, which was another reason for the riots.

 

Huber has a significant rap sheet of convictions for crimes of violence (assault, false imprisonment, strangulation and suffocation, reckless endangerment with a dangerous weapon, domestic abuse, disorderly conduct with a DV modifier, battery with a DV modifier, and a drug charge)  He was also mentally ill (Bipolar Disorder) and had once brandished a butcher knife at his brother while threatening to “gut him like a pig.”  (His family who had sent him to prison twice, claimed he was a hero after he was killed.)

 

Now by itself, that doesn’t mean Huber deserved to die, by any means, but it does show that the dude was a violent, abusive, individual with poor mental control and a history of Cognitive Failure. This was his second night at the riots…

 

Huber had been with a group that was peripheral to the first shooting, and apparently, someone screamed “Stop him!” and someone else screamed, “Get his ass!”  That was all it took for Huber to spring into action. 

 

As Rittenhouse was running for the cops, with Huber in pursuit toting a skateboard, they passed the individual that had the fourth CF of the night, Gaige Paul Grosskreutz.  The only one of the three to survive.  He doesn’t have a significant rap sheet, though he does have a conviction is for being armed with a pistol while drunk,  and he’s a member of “The People’s Revolution” and had a second offense charge of DWI dropped by the Prosecutor’s Office just before using him as a witness for the Prosecution in the Rittenhouse trial.

 

Well, Huber caught up with Rittenhouse, and swung his skateboard at his head, knocking him down. It’s worth noting here that Antifa and other Anarchist groups train using a Skateboard, for the same reason that the old Spetznaz trained using an entrenching tool… It looks innocuous and is quite deadly.  With steel or carbon fiber edges, and a steel truck, getting hit with one of these is about like getting hit with a dull ax. (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdr-O81MEOk also, https://www.canyon-news.com/skateboard-used-as-deadly-weapon/10481, https://politicalfireball.com/2020/07/27/how-urban-terrorist-blm-antifa-self-declared-new-police-weaponize-skateboards/,  https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2021/11/03/rittenhouse-prosecutor-pretends-antifa-doesnt-use-skateboards-as-weapons-portland-begs-to-differ-n1529503)

 

He then proceeded to start beating the shit out of Kyle and trying to take Kyle’s rifle away from him, until Kyle shot him…  So, CF again, if you’re going to beat the shit out of someone, make sure they aren’t liable to shoot your ass. 

 

Finally, we have a guy, Paul Grosskreutz, who has had his CWP revoked, (due to the cases listed above) and who seems to be a professional rioter at this point, who charges at Kyle, and draws that pistol he’s not supposed to have.  Kyle waits until Paul levels his gun at him, then shoots him.  CF here? Pointing a pistol at someone who has a rifle pointed at you is a BAD idea, unless you have cover or concealment.  

 

Now, this could have been the sum total of the CFs in this case, except the Prosecutor’s office decided to chip into the pot.  

 

First, they dropped the charges against Grosskreutz and directed the Sheriff’s office not to charge him with assault, carrying a concealed pistol without a license, and the DUI that he was under inditement for, so that they could use him as “the face of the victims” in an effort to railroad Rittenhouse. All of this has gone south on them, as during cross-examination, their star witness admitted that Kyle hadn’t pointed his gun at him until he pointed his pistol at Kyle.  The PD also wasn’t any help to the Prosecutor, admitting that they had been ordered not to arrest Grosskreutz or charge him for the crimes they had video evidence of. 

 

But wait, THERE’S MORE! In steps Cortez Rice, yesterday, records and broadcasts a demand that the jurors convict Rittenhouse, saying “I ain’t even gonna name the people that I know that’s up in the Kenosha trial. But it’s cameras in there. It’s definitely cameras up in there. There’s definitely people taking pictures of the juries and everything like that, we know what’s going on, so we need the same results, man. We need the same results,” going on to list several people who have died in the course of this crap.

 

Rice claims to be Floyd’s nephew, which is a lie, and also has been trying to intimidate the Judge in the Kim Potter trial, which would be a felony if the state has the Cajones to prosecute. Rice is the self-proclaimed leader of a group called “United We Walk” and considers himself a civil rights activist and “advocate for the people.”

 

All of this makes a mess of the trial because, in the incredibly unlikely event that Rittenhouse is found guilty, he’s got a slam dunk on appeal because the Judge decided not to sequester the jury, which means that it’s very believable that one or more jurors heard about the threats.  In an area where several city blocks are still burnt rubble from the last set of riots, Rice’s threats would have to weigh heavy.  The best (and only legitimate) shot, based on the complete and total fuckup of the Prosecutors, to include providing last-minute film not in discovery, from an FBI drone that actually supports Kyle’s case of self-defense, would be for the Judge to provide a “directed verdict” of Not Guilty.  This provides the jury coverage, and frankly, the judge has 24/7 protection from the Marshal’s office anyway.

 

OK, so that’s that clusterfuck, now let’s talk about another one!

 

NYC and the NYT are wringing their hands over the likely verdict that the New York Gun Control “may issue” rules that separate CWPs into a limited CWP that allows you to carry only out in the boonies, and an unregulated CWP that actually lets you carry in places where a threat might exist.  (one of the SCOTUS judges asked “how often is the need for self-defense evidenced out in the forest?”)  

 

It seems that NYC is in a panic that they might have to start from scratch and see all of their gun laws thrown out… (other states are watching this nervously too because it’s liable to be an overarching decision that would throw out a lot of gun laws.)   

 

OK, CF time again: Don’t violate the fucking constitution, you don’t have anything to worry about!  If you know that your laws are sketchy, maybe you should fix them BEFORE the nine old men and women slap your pee-pee.

 

Two more, both of these military.

 

First, we have the case of the firefight in Tongo Tongo Niger, back in 2017.  Four Rangers got jumped and killed in a firefight that the high brass painted as a “rouge unit that violated orders, failed to conduct themselves with “basic soldier-level skills.”  That was the official story after General Thomas Waldhauser who was USAFRICOM had his Chief of Staff lead an investigation that lasted several months, according to the POLITICO National Security Daily for Tuesday the 9th of Nov.  

That is now looking like a flat-out lie and a straight-up coverup of some really high-level CF.  An investigative journalist named Jason Gordon Meek has created a Documentary film “3212 Un-Redacted” which will be released on Veteran’s Day of this year on Hulu.

 

Apparently, the Ground commander objected to the mission before the team left the wire, a data point that was concealed from the families, and omitted from the official report.  The mission was approved by AFRICOM, (so not rouge) it was a recon mission, while the investigation claimed it was a capture/kill… Basically, there’s a lot of lying and obfuscation going on.  The lead member of the mission was written up for a CMH which was downgraded to a Silver Star by the guys that ordered the mission.  DOD is still standing by their original story… This shit stinks to high heaven.

 

And finally, we have a report from American Military News that on Thursday last, the Undersecretary of Defiance for Policy, Mr. Colin Kahl routed a memo stating that the DOD will continue to facilitate departures from Afghanistan for US Citizens, Lawful Permanent Residence (LPR) and eligible Afghan partners… During an interview with NBC officials from the five-sided puzzle-palace said that there were still several Dozen immediate family members and more than 100 extended family members of US troops still in Afghanistan right now. 

 

Last month, veterans’ groups and Congressmen evacuated 509 relatives of American Soldiers, yet apparently, there are still well over a hundred still there.  The interview states that heretofore this effort was being taken care of by individual service branches, and now they’re trying to get it all under one roof, then work with the idiots at State to try and “facilitate safe departures” but that the military itself will not have any role in getting the people out.

 

Now first off, when we tucked tail and ran, we were told by our pants shitter in chief that there were about a hundred Americans left behind.  After 509 people were exfiltrated, we have somewhere north of a hundred left, and still trying to figure out how many…

 

Secondly, WHY is the military not being allowed to have a role in getting the people out?  Can someone point out a more capable organization?  The list of CF candidates here would fill a couple of pages, in comma order.  We as a nation failed here badly.  Mark my words, we’ll be back there again.

 

Well, this is going long, so I’m going to shut this down here.  

 

Stay safe,

Until next time I remain,

Yours in service.

William Lehman.