I have good news if you value free speech and don’t want the government jamming its nose into the issue. Joe Biden’s new “Ministry of Truth,” officially known as the Disinformation Governance Board, has been put on hold.
That comes after its chosen leader, Nina Jankowicz, was thoroughly exposed as not only a far-left quack but also a disturbing promoter of government censorship. RedState has reported extensively on her past, from Jankowicz’s rants about “gender disinformation” to her desire to be able to edit other people’s social media posts.
Now, per The Washington Post, the Disinformation Governance Board has been paused, and guess who is responsible? You got it, those dastardly Republicans who don’t wish to live in a George Orwell novel.
WaPo has the scoop that the Disinformation Board is getting shut down and, surprise, this is the framing pic.twitter.com/6qny6Ng7xT
Now, just three weeks after its announcement, the Disinformation Governance Board is being “paused,” according to multiple employees at DHS, capping a back-and-forth week of decisions that changed during the course of reporting of this story. On Monday, DHS decided to shut down the board, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation. By Tuesday morning, Jankowicz had drafted a resignation letter in response to the board’s dissolution.
Researchers in California have published the results of a study evaluating the effectiveness of so-called “gun violence restraining orders” (a.k.a. “extreme risk protection orders” or “red flag” orders). Assembly Bill 1014, was enacted in California in 2014, and since then, 19 states and the District of Columbia have adopted similar laws.
Very briefly, these laws create a mechanism that allows a family member, police officer, or some other third party (in California, this includes coworkers, school employees, and teachers) to file a petition in court, supported by allegations that the person named in the petition, at some point in the future, poses a danger to themselves or others by possessing or having access to a firearm. If the court is satisfied that there is some potential of future harm, it issues an order authorizing police to take away all firearms the person owns or controls, and prohibiting the person from possessing or acquiring firearms while the order is in effect. The initial court process may be “ex parte” (without any notice to, or an opportunity to respond by, the affected person) or a full hearing on notice. In California, the ex parte order has a minimum duration of 21 days. Once confirmed in a full hearing, the “temporary” order is in effect for up to five years, although orders may be renewed indefinitely.
The researchers examined whether implementation of the California gun violence restraining order (GVRO) law was associated with decreased rates of “firearm assault” or firearm self-harm between 2016 (when AB 1014 took effect) and 2019. They compared the post-GVRO rate of firearm violence in San Diego County (chosen because it had a “high GVRO uptake” or incidence of GVROs) with the estimated outcome in a synthetic control unit (a combination of California control counties weighted to match the firearm violence trend in San Diego, 2005-2015, as closely as possible). The researchers “hypothesized that the GVRO law would be associated with a reduction in firearm violence.”
The results, though, showed that the GVRO law had no impact – “we found no evidence that GVRO implementation was associated with decreased firearm assault or firearm self-harm at the population level in San Diego.” The researchers sought to qualify this result by noting that the findings could be “partially explained by access to firearms through the underground market,” or “could reflect a true absence of association or limitations of our study; further research is needed to determine which of these is the case.”
Time and again we’ve seen crazy murderers target unarmed citizens in New York City and New York State. A few weeks ago, a black man deliberately attacked white people on the New York City subway. We saw a white teenager deliberately go hunting for blacks and Jews in Buffalo last week. Sadly, the response of New York politicians is the same each time. Despite the extraordinary gun-control laws already in place, New York Democrats think the solution is to disarm more law-abiding citizens. It is hard to look at violence but it is more dangerous to think that more ink-on-paper will keep us safe next time.
What he also wants is for the reinstitution of the Obammy era program of listing Veterans and Social Security recipients who get their monthly payments sent to a fiduciary who manages the person’s finances to be entered as a prohibited people in NICS.
Joe Biden brought his confusing anti-gun rhetoric to Buffalo, Tuesday – a city still grieving the loss of 10 good souls who were cut down Saturday by a hell-bound madman.
Even though most of the victims have yet to be buried, Biden didn’t hesitate to use the solemn occasion as an opportunity to advocate for more gun control, in this case another federal “assault weapon” ban.
“There are certain things we can do,” Biden told the grieving crowd. “We can keep assault weapons off of our streets. We did it before and violence went down.”
Even the FBI has acknowledged that the Federal Assault Weapons Ban that Biden referenced, which was a part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, did little to deter or prevent crime.
Besides, New York already has a stringent “assault weapon” ban, as well as every other anti-gun law Biden has ever called for. They’re codified into state law, yet none of them worked.
The mass murderer was not stopped by New York’s SAFE Act, which bans AR-15s and similar weapons. The state’s ban on standard-capacity magazines didn’t stop him, nor did the New York’s mandatory background check requirement or its Red Flag gun-confiscation law.
New York State Police were called to the gunman’s high school last June because he threatened to commit a mass shooting during the school’s graduation ceremonies. He was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital for an evaluation, and was released after a day and a half. However, this did not trigger New York’s red-flag law, which should have stopped him from purchasing a firearm.
Rather than infringing upon the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens, Biden should focus on why yet another mass murderer was “known to law enforcement,” yet no action was taken before he began killing people.
The suspect in the mass shooting that killed 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store on Saturday used a rifle that was widely described as an “assault weapon.” With certain exceptions that don’t apply here, that category of firearms is illegal in New York. Yet The New York Times reports that the shooter legally bought the rifle from a gun dealer in Endicott, New York. How is that possible?
It turns out that the rifle, a Bushmaster XM-15 ES, was not an “assault weapon” at the time of the purchase, but it became an “assault weapon” after the shooter tinkered with it. The details of that transformation illustrate how arbitrary and ineffectual bans like New York’s are.
Rebecca covered this over the weekend. Tragedy has struck Buffalo. A mass shooter gunned down and killed 10 people at the Tops Friendly Market. The shooter, Payton Gendron, was taken into custody. There is a 180-page manifesto that the FBI is currently authenticating. Gendron appears to be a racist and targeted this area due to its high concentration of black Americans.
Unlike other mass shootings, like Boulder in 2021 and the most recent New York City subway shooting, this one will remain in the news. Gendron is white. He’s racist. He’s everything the liberal media wants when an incident like this occurs. Boulder’s mass shooting was committed by a Syrian. The New York Subway shooter was black. Both stories vanished into the ether rapidly because they didn’t fit the liberal narrative. Yet, there’s another common element with this story: the shooter exhibited red flags that authorities knew about but did nothing.
Gendron threatened to shoot up his high school and was brought in for a mental health evaluation (via Associated Press):
The shooter, identified as Payton Gendron, had previously threatened a shooting at his high school, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia confirmed at a press conference that the then-17-year-old was brought in for a mental health evaluation afterward.
Federal law bars people from owning a gun if a judge has determined they have a “mental defect” or they have been forced into a mental institution — but an evaluation alone would not trigger the prohibition….
Gendron had appeared on the radar of police last year after he threatened to carry out a shooting at Susquehanna Valley High School around the time of graduation, the law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said. The official was not authorized to speak publicly on the investigation.
New York State Police said troopers were called to the Conklin school last June for a report that a 17-year-old student had made threatening statements. He spent a day and a half at the hospital before being released, authorities said, and then had no further contact with law enforcement.
So, what gives? Why was there no follow-up? I’m sure we’ll know in due time, but the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in 2018, which sparked another wave of anti-gun activism, was also preventable. In fact, that might be an understatement. Students interviewed after the shooting were not shocked that Nikolas Cruz committed his heinous crime. Also, all three levels of government, state, federal, and local, knew about Cruz’s mental health issues and never did anything.
A group of security researchers has found a way to circumvent digital locks and other security systems that rely on the proximity of a Bluetooth fob or smartphone for authentication.
Using what’s known as a “link layer relay attack,” security consulting firm NCC Group was able to unlock, start, and drive vehicles and unlock and open certain residential smart locks without the Bluetooth-based key anywhere in the vicinity.
Sultan Qasim Khan, the principal security consultant and researcher with NCC Group, demonstrated the attack on a Tesla Model 3, although he notes that the problem isn’t specific to Tesla. Any vehicle that uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for its keyless entry system would be vulnerable to this attack.
Many smart locks are also vulnerable, Khan adds. His firm specifically called out the Kwikset/Weiser Kevo models since these use a touch-to-open feature that relies on passive detection of a Bluetooth fob or smartphone nearby. Since the lock’s owner doesn’t need to interact with the Bluetooth device to confirm they want to unlock the door, a hacker can relay the key’s Bluetooth credentials from a remote location and open someone’s door even if the homeowner is thousands of miles away.
How it works
This exploit still requires that the attacker have access to the owner’s actual Bluetooth device or key fob. However, what makes it potentially dangerous is that the real Bluetooth key doesn’t need to be anywhere near the vehicle, lock, or other secured devices.
Instead, Bluetooth signals are relayed between the lock and key through a pair of intermediate Bluetooth devices connected using another method — typically over a regular internet link. The result is that the lock treats the hacker’s nearby Bluetooth device as if it’s the valid key.
As Khan explains, “we can convince a Bluetooth device that we are near it — even from hundreds of miles away […] even when the vendor has taken defensive mitigations like encryption and latency bounding to theoretically protect these communications from attackers at a distance.”
The exploit bypasses the usual relay attack protections as it works at a very low level of the Bluetooth stack, so it doesn’t matter whether the data is encrypted, and it adds almost no latency to the connection. The target lock has no way of knowing that it’s not communicating with the legitimate Bluetooth device.
Since many Bluetooth security keys operate passively, a thief would only need to place one device within a few feet of the owner and the other near the target lock. For example, a pair of thieves could work in tandem to follow a Tesla owner away from their vehicle, relaying the Bluetooth signals back to the car so that it could be stolen once the owner was far enough away.
These attacks could be carried out even across vast distances with enough coordination. A person on vacation in London could have their Bluetooth keys relayed to their door locks at home in Los Angeles, allowing a thief to quickly gain access simply by touching the lock.
This also goes beyond cars and smart locks. Researchers note that it could be used to unlock laptops that rely on Bluetooth proximity detection, prevent mobile phones from locking, circumvent building access control systems, and even spoof the location of an asset or a medical patient.
NCC Group also adds this isn’t a traditional bug that can be fixed with a simple software patch. It’s not even a flaw in the Bluetooth specification. Instead, it’s a matter of using the wrong tool for the job. Bluetooth was never designed for proximity authentication — at least not “for use in critical systems such as locking mechanisms,” the firm notes.
How to protect yourself
First, it’s essential to keep in mind that this vulnerability is specific to systems that rely exclusively on passive detection of a Bluetooth device.
For example, this exploit can’t realistically be used to bypass security systems that require you to unlock your smartphone, open a specific app, or take some other action, such as pushing a button on a key fob. In this case, there’s no Bluetooth signal to relay until you take that action — and you’re generally not going to try and unlock your car, door, or laptop when you’re not anywhere near it.
This also won’t typically be a problem for apps that take steps to confirm your location. For instance, the auto-unlock feature in the popular August smart lock relies on Bluetooth proximity detection, but the app also checks your GPS location to make sure you’re actually returning home. It can’t be used to unlock your door when you’re already home, nor can it open your door when you’re miles away from home.
If your security system allows for it, you should enable an extra authentication step that requires that you take some action before the Bluetooth credentials are sent to your lock. For example, Kwikset has said that customers who use an iPhone can enable two-factor authentication in their lock app, and it plans to add this to its Android app soon. Kwikset’s Kevo application also disables proximity unlocking functionality when the user’s phone has been stationary for an extended period.
justices stalked at home,a security fence at the Supreme Court,churches stormed and Pro-Life offices firebombed is the latest reminder of how the left has no problem with violence & lawlessness by people they agree with
Well, if a mandid the same in the same situation, I’d say there would be an excellent case for claiming self defense too. Yeah, do call 911, but always remember – and as seen in this situation – when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) – Atlanta police are investigating after a man was shot several times by a woman claiming she was being followed.
It happened on Sunday around 11:35 p.m. along Peachtree Road NE. According to investigators, the woman, who was driving for a ride-share company had dropped off a passenger near Cheshire Bridge Road when a man, later identified as 21-year-old Tyriq Qwadere Wiggins-Younger, attempted to use his vehicle to block her from leaving the area.
The woman fled and Wiggins-Younger pursued her in his own vehicle forcing her to crash near Peachtree Road. Police say Wiggins-Younger then approached the woman who shot him claiming that she feared for her safety.
Atlanta police tell CBS46 Wiggins-Younger claimed to be an off-duty officer attempting to make a traffic stop. He now faces charges of Aggravated Assault, Impersonating a Police Officer, Possession of Cocaine, Possession of Marijuana and Possession of Drug Related Objects.
At this time the rideshare driver is not facing any charges, police say.
“We’re still trying to determine if this was self defense, or what actually took place. In this case we do believe that the person in the dark-colored vehicle (the woman) was scared and just trying to get away from this person,” Atlanta Police Public Information Officer, Karlo Peek said.
Police said if you ever find yourself in a situation, where you believe you are being followed, call 911 right away.
An intruder who climbed through the window of a home in Lauderhill was shot and killed during an exchange of gunfire with a man inside the home, Lauderhill Police said.
The incident happened just after 11:00 p.m. Sunday in the 5900 block of Northwest 23rd Street.
A preliminary investigation showed that a man and woman were inside the home when an intruder climbed through a window and brandished a firearm, Lauderhill Police officials said.
The intruder and the man inside the home exchanged gunfire and the intruder was shot, police said.
The intruder was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officials said their investigation began with a strange 911 call.
“It appears that somebody from inside the residence dialed 911 and hung up the phone, that automatically goes to the dispatch centers and an officer was dispatched to that location just to make sure everything was okay,” Lauderhill Police spokesman Michael Santiago said.
The identities of the intruder and the man and woman inside the home have not been released, but police said the intruder and the other man knew each other.
Police said all parties involved are cooperating with the investigation.
New York state has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation and it didn’t make one itty bit of difference, so crap-for-brains Goobernor believes crims will somehow obey more laws.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul used the weekend mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket to demand “stronger” gun control laws in a state that already has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, and President Joe Biden will fly the city on Tuesday, likely to make the same plea.
According to WIVB News, Hochul told reporters during a Sunday press conference, “I continue to call on Washington to do just some basic things that we’ve done here in New York. I also call on the Supreme Court, which is actually considering rolling back some of the protections that were put in place here to protect New York citizens from gun violence.”
The high court is expected to hand down a ruling on New York’s restrictive “good cause” concealed carry permit requirement by the end of June.
The Associated Press is reporting that Biden and his wife will go to Buffalo to “grieve with the community.” Biden, a perennial gun control advocate during his nearly half-century inside the Beltway, is expected to call for new gun control measures.
Ten people were killed in what authorities are saying was a “racially motivated” attack. The suspect, an 18-year-old, was armed with an AR-15 rifle, according to published reports. There were other guns in his car, WIVB said.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday to declare, “So I think people all across this country have to rise up. They have to speak more loudly and more clearly that there must be gun control in this country. This is a uniquely American phenomenon. These mass shootings don’t happen in other countries across the world. We have to ask ourselves — and more than ask ourselves, we have to take action to stop it, to stop it after this Buffalo, New York incident, to make sure that other communities, that other families don’t go through this again.”
WIVB quoted Gov. Hochul acknowledging, “What was used was not purchased legally in the state of New York. The basic gun was, but the high-capacity magazine associated with it had to come from another state because it is illegal in the state of New York. We need a smart national policy. And let’s start with something that’s — what I would say — is in the no-brainer category after Sandy Hook. Shame on this county, shame on Congress at that time, for not passing something as basic as a background check.”
However, Congress years ago passed a background check requirement. The National Instant Check System (NICS) has been in operation since November 1998. New York adopted the SAFE (Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement) Act under Hochul’s predecessor, anti-gun Democrat Andrew Cuomo, in 2013.
Soon after the racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y. on Saturday, which left 10 people dead and several others injured, the White House announced that Joe Biden would be visiting Buffalo on Tuesday to meet with the families of the victims.
“A racially motivated hate crime is abhorrent to the very fabric of this nation. Any act of domestic terrorism, including an act perpetrated in the name of a repugnant white nationalist ideology, is antithetical to everything we stand for in America. Hate must have no safe harbor,” Biden said Saturday. “We must do everything in our power to end hate-fueled domestic terrorism.”
But Biden’s planned trip to Buffalo stands in stark contrast to his refusal to visit Waukesha, Wisc. after a black nationalist supporter of Black Lives Matter drove an SUV through a Christmas parade in a racially motivated attack that killed six people, including an 8-year-old boy. The driver, Darrell Brooks, had previously called for violence against white people and suggested “Hitler was right” for killing Jews in posts on social media.
“Well, I would say first: As you saw the president convey last week, our hearts go out to this community, to the people in Waukesha, that we’ve been in touch, obviously, with officials there, and we’re all watching as people are recovering,” Psaki claimed. “And this is such a difficult time of year for this to happen. It’s a difficult anytime. Obviously, any president going to visit a community requires a lot of assets, requires taking their resources, and it’s not something that I have a trip previewed at this plan— point in time, but we remain in touch with local officials. And certainly, our hearts are with the community as they’ve gone through such a difficult time.”
What assets were required to visit Waukesha that aren’t required to visit Buffalo?
Obviously, the issue of visiting Waukesha had nothing to do with assets and resources and everything to do with the fact that the massacre didn’t fit the preferred narrative of the media or the Biden administration.
In fact, the mainstream media has been desperately trying to get the Buffalo shooting to fit the preferred narrative of the left by insisting that the shooter is a radical right-winger when all evidence says that is not the case. For example, Rolling Stone magazine claimed the Buffalo shooter was a “mainstream Republican,” even though he allegedly referred to himself as “authoritarian left-wing” in his manifesto. Others have tried to claim he was radicalized by Fox News, but he attacked Fox News in his hate-filled manifesto as one of several networks he faults for hiring Jewish people.
AUBURN, Ind. (WANE) — An Auburn homeowner shot two suspected armed intruders dead and held two more at gunpoint early Sunday.
It was just before 6 a.m. when four people reportedly broke into a home at 1650 S.R. 8, near the Walmart Distribution Center on Auburn’s far west side.
Indiana State Police said investigators believe the four burglars entered the home and were confronted the homeowner, who produced his own firearm and fired at the suspects.
Two were shot dead by the homeowner and the other two were held at gunpoint until the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department and the Auburn Police Department arrived, according to Indiana State Police.
Tabitha L. Johnson, 42, and Shaun T. Kruse, 42, both from Fort Wayne, were taken into custody. ISP said they will face charges of felony murder and burglary, a level two felony.
The two people killed were identified as Rameica Lasharon Moore, 36, of Fort Wayne, and Dylan Scott Morefield, 22, of Churubusco. Autopsies for both are pending with the Northeast Indiana Forensic Center.
Information about homicides is released daily by the city of Chicago. The release of homicide victims’ names is delayed by two weeks to allow time for the victims’ families to be notified of a death by Chicago police.
The homicide figures do not include killings that occurred in self-defense or in other circumstances not measured in Chicago police statistics. Homicide data from Illinois State Police, which patrols the city’s expressways, also is not included here.
Lawmakers from Illinois last week introduced bicameral legislation on Capitol Hill that would make unlicensed gun possession illegal.
The move, billed as a way to stomp out gun crime, doesn’t target gun criminals. Instead, the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act would outlaw unlicensed firearm ownership and the transfer of firearms without such a government-issued permit, then direct the U.S. Attorney General to create a federal registry for sales tied to fingerprint-based nationwide criminal background checks.
The measure was introduced in the U.S. Senate as S.4184 by Sen. Tammy Duckworth and in the U.S. House as H.R. 7730 by Rep. Bobby Rush. Both lawmakers are Illinois Democrats with offices in Chicago. Both have been endorsed in the past by a variety of national anti-gun groups, which have given them platforms for support.
According to a hyperbolic joint release by their respective offices, the proposal is modeled in part after the controversial Illinois Firearm Owners Identification Card statute. FOID cards are seen by some in the Land of Lincoln as obsolete and, while they haven’t proven to prevent criminals from getting guns, they have sometimes delayed law-abiding citizens from getting them by months. Notably, courts have also found the FOID process flawed and potentially unconstitutional.
Of note, on the trail to the White House in 2020, Joe Biden endorsed such mandatory gun owner licensing as a part of his platform, to the accolade of assorted gun control groups.
KAMALA’S LATEST DEEP THOUGHTS
Vice President Kamala Harris has offered up fresh profundities, this time on the manner in which we will all “work together,” though there is no reference to the time frame, as in, whether the time to work together is now, or every day, as we have been doing while working together, all the time.
You think I’m making this up? See for yourself (only 35 seconds, but it seems much longer, like time has stretched into tomorrow, or whatever):
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — A 71-year-old man shot a suspect that was breaking into his garage early Saturday, police say.
At 3:14 a.m. the Columbus Division of Police was called to the 1100 Block of Carolyn Ave after a shooting.
The victim said he woke up to someone breaking into his garage and went to confront the suspect with a gun.
According to police, there was a struggle and the victim’s gun “accidentally went off,” striking the suspect in the upper chest.
The suspect was transported to Riverside Hospital in critical condition, but according to police, the suspect is expected to recover from the injuries.
Inconsistent nonsense and garbage? Not surprising as most of these morons are mentally defective, and no, that’s not saying this one is insane, just a room temperature IQ mental midget
BLUF:
But let’s not pretend that, assuming the manifesto is legitimate, the rhetoric espoused in its pages means the shooter cannot be legitimately aligned with either major political party or political movement. While I would argue that the views expressed in the manifesto echo rhetoric of radical leftism, the manifesto is full of nonsense and garbage that is at times inconsistent. The people who were quick to exploit the situation to attack Fox News and conservatives were wrong and should be ashamed of themselves.
On Saturday afternoon, an 18-year-old from Upstate New York traveled to Buffalo and live-streamed himself shooting several people, ten of whom he killed, at a Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly black neighborhood. The suspect was captured by law enforcement and has been arraigned on 10 first-degree murder charges.
With their usual swiftness, leftists on Twitter quickly launched a seemingly coordinated effort to blame Fox News and Tucker Carlson for allegedly radicalizing the suspect.
As word of the shooting quickly spread on social media, so did reports that the shooter had posted a 180-page manifesto online, explaining his racist and anti-Semitic motives and detailing how he planned to carry out the attack. PJ Media obtained a copy of the manifesto, and while we cannot independently verify its authenticity, it is widely believed to be genuine, and some left-wing operatives are intent on claiming that the manifesto proves the shooter was radicalized by Fox News and right-wing politics. I’ll show you want the manifesto actually says (though I will not link to it).
First, despite the coordinated effort to blame Fox News, the manifesto attacks a number of news networks, including Fox, for hiring Jews.
