‘Scholar’ . I didn’t know there was an alternate spelling for tyrant

University scholar wants licensing of journalists, gov. agency to monitor ‘misinformation.

What could go wrong?

A visiting McGill University scholar wants an “Interpol-like agency” to monitor the internet and the licensing of journalists by the government — all in the name of combating “misinformation.”

According to True North, during a recent lecture Raphaël Melançon said Canada’s Bill C-18, aka the “Online News Act,” can only have a “limited impact” on mis/disinformation.

“There is what we can do in Canada in our jurisdiction but there’s also the fact that you have lies coming from abroad and our laws do not apply to what happens outside of our borders,” Melançon (pictured) said. “Liberal democracies [need] to ensure the same regulations are applied elsewhere.”

Melançon, a consultant and journalist who’s worked for the Quebec and Canadian federal government, said countries can create an intergovernmental agency whose job would be to make sure information on the “internet and social media is correct.”

Melançon also recommended the “professionalization” of journalism by requiring licenses for those in the profession.

“At the moment in Canada anyone can pretend to be a journalist,” he said. “To this day members of the press have no obligation whatsoever regarding what they write or say in media.”

MORE: ‘Disinformation’ expert professor: U.S. needs ‘common sense’ speech restrictions

From the article:

[Melançon ] went on to say that specific outlets should be barred from newsgathering at government events.

“That to me is a problem. Should so-called journalists from partisan media such as the far-right Rebel News or the Falon Gong-controlled Epoch Times be allowed to cover government PR press conferences or should they rather be considered as activist organizations and treated like so?” he said.

Melançon said that a proposed system of journalist licensing should take into account academic background and also “past actions.”

“If you propagate fake news, you’re out,” said Melançon.

According to the event description, the talk zeroed in on “how the advent of the Internet and social media has, in the past two decades, contributed to amplifying social tensions, polarizing public opinion, and radicalizing political discourse in Canada,” and how events like COVID, BLM, and Freedom Convoy protests “played an active role in the growing popularity of far-right (‘alt-right’) and far-left (‘woke’) movements.

The US Fed may kill the Biden presidency

It is no secret that one of President Biden’s key weaknesses in the upcoming presidential election is the economy. A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll in March put Trump at 40pc, just ahead of Biden on 38pc. The same poll showed many Americans remain undecided; among those surveyed inflation and the economy were listed as the most important issues determining their vote.

As such, a core problem for Biden is the recent price rises and resultant cost of living crisis. In the past few months, political strategists have marvelled at the fact that the economy under Biden was growing (at 3.2pc in the fourth quarter of 2024) but polling on Biden’s performance on the economy was dismal.

A recent paper led by former treasury of the secretary Larry Summers has helped clear up the discrepancy. Summers and his co-authors show that if we adjust American inflation data to consider changes in methodology that have taken place over the past few decades, we see inflation not peaking at 9pc, as the official data indicates, but rather at 18pc. The paper also suggests that inflation measured in line with historical norms would have been 8pc at the end of 2023, not the 3pc shown in the official statistics.

This explains why the average American voter is angry at Biden about the economy: prices are still rising at a rapid clip and living standards have been substantially eroded under his administration. This puts the Federal Reserve in a very unusual position this electoral cycle, because what the central bank does in the coming months could have a huge impact on the outcome of the election.

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DEI strikes again?

Emergency Landing: Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Forced to Land After Engine Cowling Detaches

Emergency crews and authorities are currently at the scene following an incident involving Southwest Airlines Flight WN3695/SWA3695 departing from Denver International Airport en route to Houston, Texas.

During takeoff, the pilots declared an emergency landing to air traffic control after noticing that a section of the engine cowling had detached and was hanging off.

 

‘Suspect’ and ‘victims’ staged robbery when armed bystander stepped in

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The northwest Houston robbery that preceded a fatal gas station shooting in January was staged, according to police.

The Houston Police Department initially said a bystander witnessed Rasshauud Scott appearing to rob a couple at gunpoint at the gas station on Ella Boulevard near the Beltway on Jan. 27. He shot Scott as he attempted to flee.

However, HPD has now said the couple and Scott were working together to stage a robbery so that the man and woman could file a report with the police and use their crime victim status to apply for a U nonimmigrant status, or “U visa.”

“The person qualifies for a work permit while they’re waiting for a resolution of the case,” immigration attorney Silvia Mintz said.

Police said they obtained text messages from Scott’s phone between him and a man named William Winfrey the night of the shooting.

In one message, Winfrey writes to Scott, “It’s the usual gas station (expletive).”

In another he writes, “When you done run make all the (expletive) to look real.”

Investigators said they also found a selfie from one of the purported victims on Scott’s phone.

Police said Winfrey and Scott staged numerous other similar robberies dating back to 2023 in a bid to help the alleged victims obtain visas.

One took place at a northeast Houston gas station on Jan. 26 in which Scott pretended to rob a cashier at the store.

Mintz said U visas come up a lot during discussions with potential clients.

“They say, ‘OK, what would happen if somebody beat me up? Or if I was a victim of domestic violence?’ And of course, the answer is, ‘I cannot help you,'” Mintz said.

Mintz added the schemes could backfire. If immigration officials learn someone has lied to obtain a U visa, they could be banned from the country permanently.

“People don’t realize the big mess they’re getting into by lying and making things up,” Mintz said.

ABC13 was unable to locate any criminal charges against the people who claimed to be victims in the Jan. 26 and Jan. 27 robberies.

Naked man breaks through apartment wall in St. Louis, threatens family, is shot

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – The shooting of a man who allegedly broke through an apartment wall while naked and threatened to kill a man and his family will be investigated as an act of self-defense, police said.

According to St. Louis Police incident reports, officers were dispatched around 2 p.m. Friday to a report of a shooting in the 900 block of Park Avenue. There, officers found a man with a gunshot wound to his left hand. He was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Police said an initial investigation showed the suspect, described as a 32-year-old man, broke through the wall of the victim’s apartment. The suspect was naked and threatening to kill the victim and his family, according to the report.

Fearing for his family’s safety, the victim shot at the suspect, striking the suspect’s left hand, police said. The investigation is ongoing.

First Alert 4 will update this story as additional details are provided.

2 shot during attempted carjacking in Murray gym parking lot

MURRAY — Police believe an attempted carjacking in the parking lot of Murray fitness center led to the shootings of both the victim and the man accused of trying to take her car.

About 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, Murray police were called to the EOS Fitness parking lot, 5550 S. 900 East, on a report of shots fired.

“When officers arrived they learned that it was an attempted carjacking where the victim and suspect both received gunshot wounds,” police said in a prepared statement.

A woman in her 20s was shot in the abdomen and taken to a local hospital in critical condition. A man, also in his 20s, got into another car after being shot and before police arrived, and was later “dropped off at a local hospital with a critical but stable gunshot wound to the chest,” police said.

Investigators believe the woman was the victim of a random carjacking attempt. Few details about what transpired in the parking lot have been released, but police say two weapons have been recovered. Why the man picked the victim or her vehicle to take remained under investigation on Thursday.

Although police said the man who was shot was “dropped off” at a hospital, Murray police spokeswoman Kristin Reardon says detectives believe they have identified everyone involved.

One woman said she had talked to the woman after she had finished a swimming workout and as she was leaving the locker room. The woman heard a loud sound and then saw the victim on the ground.

“When I came out, she was laying on the ground and she had obviously been super wounded,” the witness said. “The only thing we were hearing was that we didn’t know where the shooter was. Some people had thought they ran in, some thought they ran out.”

Another witness told KSL-TV he was working out when he heard three gunshots.

Tennessee bill allowing teachers to carry concealed handguns heads to final votes

Only floor votes remain before a measure to allow Tennessee public school teachers and staff with certain training to carry concealed firearms inside their classrooms could head to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk.

Senate Bill 1325 would allow school teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on school grounds if they obtain an enhanced handgun carry permit and complete annual training with law enforcement.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bill Tuesday afternoon in a 7-1 party-line vote

“I do not think that it is the responsibility of teachers in our state, who have taken the oath to educate our children, to now become law enforcement officers,” said Sen. London Lamar, D-Memphis, who voted against the bill. “No doubt about it, we want our schools to be safe – and I will be the first to join you in any effort to keep our students safe. But this is not the way, putting that burden of responsibility on teachers.”

The bill, introduced in January 2023, was delayed after Committee Chair Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, punted all gun-related bills to 2024 after a shooter killed six people, including three 9-year-old children, at The Covenant School in Nashville in March 2023.

Companion legislation has passed all House committees, and is held on the House Clerk’s desk – ready to be taken up for a floor vote at any time.

Sponsors of the bill have cited the effort as a way to close the gap of 566 public schools in Tennessee that do not yet have school resource officers.

“This is just another tool that can be used by those K-12 schools in the event that they’re not capable of hiring an SRO,” Sen. Paul Bailey, R-Sparta. Bailey is also sponsoring legislation to allow retired law enforcement officers to return for a two-year period to serve as SROs.

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Attack on Firearm Ownership Continues

Yesterday, the Colorado House Business Affairs & Labor Committee passed the bill requiring gun owners to purchase firearm liability insurance. The bill will now be sent to the House Committee of the Whole.

House Bill 24-1270 requires firearm owners to maintain a liability insurance policy that covers losses or damages to a person, other than the policyholder, who is injured on the insured property as a result of any accidental or unintentional discharge of the firearm.

Also yesterday, Senate Bill 24-066 was passed by for the day.  SB24-066 allows credit companies and payment processors to use merchant category codes (MCC) to track credit card purchases of firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition.

We will continue to monitor these bills and alert you when action is needed.

In the meantime, if you have not already, share this important alert with your family, friends, fellow sportsmen and gun owners, please do.  The Centennial State needs all its sportsmen and gun owners actively working together to ensure the survival of our hunting, fishing, and trapping heritage.

About the Sportsmen’s Alliance: The Sportsmen’s Alliance protects and defends America’s wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits – hunting, fishing and trapping – that generate the money to pay for them. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is responsible for public education, legal defense and research. Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs coordinated to provide the most complete defense capability possible. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s

Controversial Bill Targeting “Unauthorized Paramilitary Training” Passes Through Maine’s House

Maine’s House passed a controversial bill targeting “unauthorized paramilitary training” which has raised concerns with Second Amendment rights advocates, who believe that it could be used to target law-abiding gun owners and firearms instructors.

The bill passed by a single vote.

“The United States of America was founded on what this bill would define as a civil disorder. I find it very likely that King George III would have been very, very supportive of this legislation,” said Rep. Donald Ardell (R-Monticello).

During the House proceedings on Wednesday, numerous Republican representatives spoke against the bill, calling it a violation of constitutional rights.

“I have the right to determine how I want to practice, rehearse train, or drill. This bill is a violation of my constitutional rights,” said Rep. Mike Soboleski (R-Philips).

The bill was originally proposed by Rep. Laurie Osher (D-Orno) in response to a brief attempt by Neo-Nazi Chris Pohlhaus and former Democrat activist Fred Ramey to build a neo-Nazi compound for their “Blood Tribe” in Springfield, Maine.

The Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson visited the site of the neo-Nazi camp earlier this year, and discovered nothing but an abandoned camper, and a single tent.

LD 2130 makes it a crime for anyone to instruct a person in the use of a firearm or explosive if the instructor knows or “reasonably should know” that the trainee intends to further “civil disorder”.

Multiple firearms instructors told The Maine Wire that they are very concerned with the burden placed on instructors to determine the motives of everyone who comes to them for training.

Following a contentious debate in the house, the bill passed in a 72-71 vote.

No House Republicans voted in favor of the bill, and two Independents and three Democrats voted in opposition.

Eight representatives were absent from the vote.

March Gun Sales Top Previous Month

un sales are an important aspect of gun rights. The more people who buy guns, the more people who will, at least in time, become advocates for the right to keep and bear arms. They start to realize that having a gun doesn’t make you stupid, mean, adversarial, or anything else, but it does make you safer from criminals.

And gun sales are good. They’ve been good for a while, but they always seem to pick up when we have a Gun-Grabber-in-Chief occupying the Oval Office.

While President Joe Biden may not know where he is half the time (at best), we know he wants our guns.

Yet March gun sales topped an already strong February.

Americans continue to reach for their wallet when it comes to practicing the right to keep and bear arms, with data suggesting over-the-counter gun sales passing the 1 million mark for the 56th month in a row.

Last month was the 7th-highest March on record in terms of federal background checks for likely over-the-counter gun transfers since the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System was established over 20 years ago.

The unadjusted figures of 2,497,577 checks conducted through NICS last month– while a 15.5 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,954,230 in March 2023– is 6.6 percent higher than the 2,336,390 logged in February 2023.

When the numbers for last month were adjusted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation to remove gun permit checks and rechecks, the adjusted figure stands at 1,442,061, which is a shallower drop of about 7.4 percent compared to the March 2023 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,556,492. However, last month’s figures were 14.7 percent ahead of February 2024’s, which came in at 1,343,478.

Industry analysts argue that this massive number of gun sales suggest that Americans are as pro-gun as they ever were, if not more, and I can’t find it in my heart to disagree.

Keep in mind that March’s gun sales outstrip the total number of firearms in private, civilian hands in numerous other countries. That was just a month for us, and not a massively strong month for gun sales, either. I mean, it’s the seventh highest total for March, which means there were six better.

Yet 1.4 million gun sales in March is still important because a significant number of those are likely to be first-time gun buyers. These are people who had no skin in the gun debate before, but now they do. Now they have to think about red flag laws in the context of someone arguing their guns should be taken. They have to think about universal background checks in the context of them buying or selling a gun to a family member or a friend they’ve known since middle school.

That’s why gun owners become gun voters, and now there are more of us.

After April, there will be even more.

Yes, many others of these sales were people buying an additional firearm, and that’s good news as well. We need as many gun sales as possible to keep the industry thriving. Without gun makers and gun dealers, our ability to access firearms diminishes. The right to keep and bear arms only matters if we can actually obtain arms, so those additonal sales are also big.

Buying a product shouldn’t be a political statement, but when it comes to guns, they are. It’s not this side of the debate that made it necessary to make it into a statement, either, but it is and frankly, March was still a hell of a statement.

Second Amendment Roundup: A Double Shot of Oral Arguments.

“Large-capacity” magazines and semiautomatic rifles are “bearable arms” in common use, no different from the handguns in Heller, but will two en banc courts agree?

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Once it decided N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen (2022), the Supreme Court acted on several Second Amendment cases it had been holding, granting petitions for writs of certiorari, vacating the judgments, and remanding the cases for reconsideration in light of Bruen. One was a challenge to California’s ban on magazines holding over ten rounds, and another was Maryland’s “assault weapon” ban.  With sparks aplenty flying, these cases were argued en banc on March 19 and 20 before the Ninth and Fourth Circuits respectively.

These cases should be decided in favor of a straightforward application of the constitutional test for addressing challenges to “arms ban” laws set forth in District of Columbia v. Heller.

Bruen simply made more explicit the “plain text first, and then historical analogue laws second” methodology adopted by Heller when it declared that the District of Columbia’s handgun ban violated the Second Amendment. Applying that methodology, Heller held that arms that are in common use by Americans for lawful purposes cannot be banned.

First, as a matter of plain text, Heller held that the Second Amendment extends, “prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms.” And Heller made clear that “arms” includes all “weapons.” If the instruments in question are bearable arms, the burden shifts to the government to provide a sufficient number of representative historical analogue laws (not the musings of anti-gun historians) from our early history to demonstrate that the challenged arms ban falls within the country’s tradition of firearms regulation.  In fact, the American tradition of firearms regulation is really a history of no or very limited prohibition of arms.

Second, Heller looked at two historical traditions that spoke to the arms ban question. At the outset, the Heller Court acknowledged the history of Americans bringing their own privately-owned firearms and ammunition with them to militia musters. These protected weapons were “in common use at the time” for lawful purposes such as self-defense. The Court further found that the “in common use” test was “fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons.'”

Putting these two historical practices together, the Court held that arms that are “in common use,” and therefore not “dangerous and unusual,” cannot be banned. In other words, Heller already conducted the historical analysis for arms ban cases, and it concluded that once an arm is found to be “in common use” – and therefore by definition not “dangerous and unusual” – there is no more work to be done. That arm cannot be banned, period.

Because millions and millions of law-abiding Americans possess both the magazines banned by California and the rifles banned by Maryland, those bans are unconstitutional under a straightforward reading of Heller.

Unfortunately, the en banc Fourth and Ninth Circuits appear to be poised to defy Heller and hold that the California and Maryland laws are constitutional.

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Marines Ditch 100-Year-Old Marksmanship Standards.

The United States Marine Corps announced earlier this month it is changing the shooting standards to which it has adhered for more than a century. The new system will reflect accuracy as well as the speed at which a Marine delivers hits on target.

Re-evaluation of the century-old marksmanship qualification standards began in 2018, when a combat lethality study found an unexpected loss in proficiency in engagements at unknown distances, or when the Marine or target were on the move. The Marine Corps is investing $34 million to better train its troops with the new system, phasing out an approach that required delivering 30 rounds at established distance in two minutes. The old scoring system didn’t differentiate between lethal shots and those that may not stop an aggressor or readily identify distances problematic for a particular shooter.

“This is about increasing lethality,” Col. Gregory Jones, commander of the Weapons Training Battalion—part of Training Command at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia—told Stars and Stripes. “This is not your granddad’s rifle range.”

Marines are required to annually prequalify and qualify with their rifles. If a prequalification score met standards, it could be accepted for both in the past. Now it must be at the expert level, not just at marksman or sharpshooter performance, to do so.

In addition, the Marine Corps has begun allowing entry-level shooters to support rifles with their magazines. The change reflects improvements in magazine design and strength as well as widespread success using the approach in civilian competitions.

“The rifle range in 1907, it’s not bad or good. It’s what we had when we had … a 1903 Springfield [rifle], which was an 1890s technology,” Jones explained to Stars and Stripes. “Now we have an M-16A4. The test is not as true a measure of lethality as it was when we had older, outdated technology.”