Problem fixed, it didn't take long to see it when I removed the stock again and took a closer look. Someone inserted the trigger group into the receiver wrong. I apologize in advance for my oily and dusty fingerprints. I removed the secondary safety arm for the "anti-fire when cocked" or whatever it is called before taking the pic:
Before/as-purchased/wrong:
As you can somewhat see above, this rifle actually has a legit trigger in it with a nice sear setup. The trigger group can be removed in whole from the rifle by removing the mounting pin for the stock, and then sliding the trigger group rear-wards in the tube before lifting it out of the tube. As you see here in the above photo, the trigger group was installed with the front of the sear/disconnector protruding INSIDE of the receiver tube.
Here is what it looks like properly installed:
So basically when I first tried cocking the rifle, the machined piece that the cocking lever floats in was traveling backwards and dead-heading into the front of the sear. After removing the trigger group and re-installing it correctly, that part of the action now floats correctly over the sear/disconnector and the action is operating nicely and cocking as it should. Last night when I first attempted cocking I didn't get too agrressive with it, and I did not see any damage done to any of it.
What's interesting it that I have never seen ANY gun, whether it be a firearm or air rifle assembled with that much of a screw-up in the trigger area. Ironically, one of the many reasons why I was excited to buy this rifle is because it was assembled in the U.S.A.
Anyway, thanks all of your responses. Now it's time to put a decent scope on this sucker and put it to use
PT