Under the Radar  by Tom Reynolds

Assemblyman Phil Palmesano is one of the more active legislators and can often be found addressing a SCOPE meeting.  Last Monday, he spoke to the Steuben County SCOPE Chapter about some legislation that probably slipped below your radar.  All of the legislation is intended to further cement the anti-2A left’s power through election law changes.

A05874 and S350 provide that any legal challenge to the constitutionality of the election law shall be brought in the following designated courts:

first judicial department: New York county;

second judicial department: Westchester county;

third judicial department: Albany county;

fourth judicial department: Erie county.

Previously, one could make an election law challenge in your local NY Supreme Court before a locally elected judge.  Now you have to travel and none of these courts are located in central New York.

Micromanaging these court venues means cases will be heard in a select few venues that just so happen to have extremely high concentrations of Democrat representation.  (Purely a coincidence?)

A07632A and S07394A expand absentee voting. Near-universal absentee ballots will greatly increase the risk of election fraud. 

So, the opportunity for election fraud is increased and it will be more difficult to take a case to court.

A4282b and S3505b provides that certain local elections (outside of New York City) shall now be in an even-numbered year.  Changing the election cycle will undoubtedly drown local issues out at the expense of national ones.

Note that it will not change School Board elections which typically have the lowest turn out and are held in schools instead of the regular election places.

One change that may not have gone below your radar is that the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court in Albany ordered, on July 13th, that New York State’s congressional map be redrawn.

Pursuant to a referendum in 2014, in NY State, redistricting occurs through the Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC), which is bipartisan and evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. However, if the commission fails to reach a decision, the state legislature — which has a sizable Democratic majority — can and did impose a map of their own. That happened in 2022, prompting lawsuits claiming that the legislature’s maps were partisan gerrymandering. 

The maps drawn by the legislature were so partisan that even the leftist Court of Appeals struck them down.  The 2022 district lines were ultimately drawn by a neutral, court-appointed expert and were thought to be competitive.

Too competitive for Democrat tastes.  Republican areas ended up with Republican congresspersons.

Appeals of the latest decision are imminent.

Speaking of the Steuben County Chapter:

Steuben SCOPE is a very active chapter which meets twice a month and it has speakers and contributes to local 2A causes such as the Steuben Chapter of Armed Woman of America and high school trap shooting teams.  It supports state SCOPE, advertises 2A issues in the media and supports 2A defense lawsuits.

A few years ago, the only conservative radio talk show in the Central NY Southern Tier (Steuben / Chemung area) was bought up and conservative talk radio disappeared in that area.

Then, WLNL (The Bell) AM 1000 started airing conservative talk radio.  The station recently had a fund raiser.  Steuben SCOPE offered a $1,000 challenge grant to the fund raiser, which was matched.

The fundraiser offered a prize, chosen by lottery, of a Keuka Lake boat tour for 11 people.  The Steuben Chapter won that prize!

Happy sailing!

NDAA  by Tom Reynolds

The annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) funds our nation’s military. It’s a “must-pass” bill, so it attracts lots of amendments that would not pass on their own. Most of those amendments fail and we wish a similar fate to Senator Chris Murphy’s attempt to use the NDAA to further the left’s war on guns.  He is making several attempts to deny our military their 2nd Amendment rights.

Senator Murphy (D-CT) is introducing an amendment to NDAA to require that any firearm on a military installation must be stored and locked in the home and all ammunition stored separately.

The requirement that firearms in the home be kept inoperable is unconstitutional because the Court concluded in Heller v D.C. that requirement “makes it impossible for citizens to use them for the core lawful purpose of self-defense.” 

That pesky Constitution messes up another great liberal idea!

The amendment would also require all privately-owned firearms to be registered with military base authorities, which would include firearms legally purchased and kept off-base; the firearm may never be brought on the base. 

Senator Murphy’s goal here may be a national firearm registry, starting with all gun owners in the military. That registry, by the way, is against the law.

Murphy’s amendment would also allow the Defense Secretary to collect all gun owner information for both military and civilian employees; “… if such information is necessary for the purposes of injury and mortality prevention.”

Injury prevention is so broad that liberals would drive a fire truck through it.

And again, that’s the start of that illegal national firearm registry.

Murphy also submitted another amendment that would force a federal seven-day waiting period for the purchase of any firearm and a four-day waiting period for ammunition purchases on military installations.

Another of Murphy’s laws was an amendment that “prohibits the possession of privately owned firearms that are not related to the performance of official duties on property of the (Defense) Department by anyone who does not live on property of the Department.”

Like many Senators who try to use the military for political purposes, Murphy has never actually served in the miliary, so he does not seem to be aware that many military members don’t live on base.  Retirees also patronize on-base recreational shooting ranges.  It would also deny those same individuals the opportunity to hunt on military installations.

And Murphy was not alone.

In 1988, Congress passed a bill banning “undetectable” firearms. It was reauthorized in 2013 and now the Undetectable Firearms Act might be up for permanent reauthorization, hidden in the NDAA. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) is working with Republicans in the Senate to get the bill’s reauthorization attached to the NDAA.

The problem with undetectable firearms is that they are not undetectable.  The slide, barrel, firing pin, and many other parts are produced using metal. The brass, lead, or copper in ammunition would set off metal detectors.

Perhaps we could put this issue to bed by letting Senators Murphy and Reed attempt to fire an undetectable, all plastic / polymer firearm so they can experience what happens!

It’s useless to think that New York’s Senators could be persuaded to use common sense where 2A is concerned. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand recently announced the 3D Printed Gun Safety Act; federal legislation that would ban online distribution of blueprints for the 3D printing of firearms and help prevent the proliferation of “ghost guns.” 

“Ghost guns” has many definitions, one of which is the scary way of saying undetectable.

While Senators Schumer and Gillibrand are unresponsive (as in brain dead on 2A issues), we should let the people who vote for them know how misguided the Democrat leadership’s anti 2nd Amendment efforts are.

Wit and Wisdom of Joe Stalin  by Tom Reynolds

Joseph Stalin said, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”  He should know.

The Soviet famine of 1930–1933 impacted major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union(USSR).  A major contributing factor to the famine was the soviet government’s First Five Year Plan.  This plan was created by Joseph Stalin to improve the Soviet Union's industrial and agricultural policies. (It reversed a previous policy that had included free market and capitalism.) 

As a part of the Soviet famine of 1930–1933.  The Holodomor (to kill by starvation) was a Stalin-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians.  Some historians conclude that the famine was planned by Joseph Stalin in order to eliminate a Ukrainian independence movement.  (Why does that sound familiar?) 

Estimates are that 5.7 to 8.7 million people died of famine across the Soviet Union.

Have you eaten?  Feeling hungry? Think what it would be like to die of starvation.  The famine’s victims might only have been a statistic to Stalin, but try to put the experience of starving to death on a personal level and it is no longer a statistic.  Then try to imagine people starving to death because of a misguided government program that considers 8.7 million dead as collateral damage.

The lesson from history is that a government plan that was well intended (industrialize Russia) caused unbelievable hardship and death.  Imagine that…a government plan failed.  Can we see any modern equivalent like…say…the government’s plan to make electricity the prime if not the only energy source, under the guise of climate change necessity.  What could go wrong? 

And speaking of starvation, the antidote to starvation is food.  Food grows on farms (a fact of which not everyone seems to be aware.)  The European Union has decided that farms are bad for the environment!

The Nature Restoration Law was first introduced by the European Commission in June 2022. The bill allows for 30% of all former peatlands currently ‘exploited’ for agriculture to be restored and partially shifted to other use by the end of the decade, a figure rising to 70% by 2050.

Who knew farmers were ‘exploiting’ the ground?

Land currently used to grow food will no longer be used for that purpose. 

What could go wrong?

Farmers in Ireland and the Netherlands are protesting. 

But in the Netherlands’ defense, they are also trying to get their woke credentials stamped in other ways.  The new Miss Universe Netherlands is a transgender man.  Obviously, the judges were not interested in his nether regions.

Speaking of Stalin…

By 1936, Stalin's fear of losing his position drove him into authorizing the ‘Great Purge’ which was largely conducted by the NKVD (the secret police of the USSR). The NKVD removed* (see definition of removed in next paragraph) central party leadership, Old Bolsheviks, government officials, and regional party bosses.  Eventually, the purges removed* the Red Army and military high command.  Later the NKVD began targeting certain ethnic minorities for removal.*

In 1938, Stalin reversed his stance on the purges.  He criticized the NKVD for carrying out *mass executions and subsequently executed Genrikh Yagoda and Nikolai Yezhov, who headed the NKVD during the purge years.

Scholars estimate the death toll for the Great Purge (1936–1938) to be roughly 700,000.  The leadership of the USSR had been obliterated.

“Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it.” 

Apparently, the true history of socialism is not a required course for journalism, political science or PhD courses.  Do journalists, political scientists and teachers expect that they will be the chosen few who lead the world into the new world order?  Do they have any idea how journalists, teachers, and any others who competed for political leadership roles in socialist countries ended up under Stalin, Mao, Castro, where there was no Bill of Rights to protect them.

By the way, in a socialist country, all leadership roles are political.  Except for the leaders of the revolutions.  You know, people like Stalin, Mao and Castro.

Fortunately, reading about this history is a 1st Amendment right and nobody in the U S government would attempt to take our Free Speech right away from Americans.    

Just like they would never take away the right to protect ourselves under the 2nd Amendment.

As Lenin so aptly put it, these supporters of socialism are just ‘useful idiots’ who will eventually be disposed of by the government when they are no longer useful or if they should mutter any ‘misinformation’ about the regime in charge.

SUBJECT: 2023 Yearly Banquet Cancellation and Formation of 2024 Planning Committee

S.C.O.P.E. apologizes for any inconvenience caused by this announcement. 

It is unfortunate to inform you that, due to unforeseen circumstances, the 2023 yearly banquet has been cancelled. We understand the anticipation and excitement surrounding this event, and we share in the disappointment of its cancellation.

As we look ahead, we are committed to ensuring a successful State S.C.O.P.E. 2024 banquet, which will be held in late September or early October. We are excited to announce the formation of a dedicated banquet committee that will play a crucial role in organizing and ensuring the success of this important event.

The 2024 banquet presents us with a unique opportunity to generate tremendous energy, educate the masses, and engage supporters, particularly during the heart of the 2024 election season. Our rights are at stake, and by coming together, we can make a significant impact. The banquet committee will be responsible for various tasks, including determining the territory and selecting a suitable venue, securing compelling guest speakers, planning an informative program, and collaborating on the menu.

We invite SCOPE members who are passionate about defending our rights and are willing to contribute their time and expertise to join the banquet committee. By volunteering, you will have the opportunity to shape an event that amplifies our message, energizes attendees, and empowers us to protect our 2nd Amendment rights during this critical time.

If you are interested in volunteering for the banquet committee or have any questions, please reach out to Rich Chapman at richiechap@me.com. Rich will coordinate the committee's efforts and provide further details regarding the planning process.

While we understand the disappointment of the cancelled 2023 banquet, we remain dedicated to our shared mission and look forward to creating an unforgettable experience at the State S.C.O.P.E. 2024 banquet. Your dedication and support are essential in making a difference.

Once again, we apologize for any inconvenience caused, and we appreciate your understanding as we focus on planning for the future.

Best regards,

Rich Chapman

Capital District / Saratoga County Chapter

Journalism?  by Tom Reynolds

In Monday’s email, SCOPE spoke about the Philadelphia shooter and emphasized that the media would omit pieces of the story that did not fit their Leftist agenda. 

While you were reading that email, the Gannett newspaper chain was distributing a story about that killer.  The story took up half of a page and headlined that the killer was agitated and erratic and gave examples such as he paced the floor wearing a bulletproof vest.

Oh yeah, it did get to add in that he had a “fervor for guns.” He was “armed and not in his right mind.”  (Gun control box checked.)

The story spent a lot of ink on his mental health issues and talked about the usual call for more attention to people with mental health issues.

But Gannett couldn’t find room to mention that he put online pictures of himself in a dress.  In the past, that would be a clear indication of a mental health problem but since Joe Biden invites Drag Queens to the White House, the mental health issues seem to have been remarkably cured.

The story also omitted any reference to the killer being black and his victims probably being black, (since the neighborhood was described as black.)  While Gannett could have corrected the misconception that blacks are mostly killed by whites; actually, the majority of black homicides are committed by blacks.  But doing that would have gone against the Leftist agenda, so there was no chance of that making the article.

And somehow the story missed that the killer was a Black Lives Matter supporter.  Imagine that!

____________________________

There can be no doubt that the Democrat leadership is rabidly anti-2nd Amendment while the Republican leadership, for the most part, is pro 2nd Amendment.  So, SCOPE is sensitive to the efforts to destroy any Republican candidates by the leftist media, like Gannett.

If you are paying attention to the early presidential candidates, you know that Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor and a 2nd Amendment supporter, is running for president but trails Donald Trump by a huge margin.  Leaving nothing to chance, Gannett tried to drive a few nails into DeSantis’ presidential coffin.  They ran a full page story about how bad things are in Florida under DeSantis.

The first half-page article started out that DeSantis was “ramping up the state’s speed on capital punishment ahead of the 2024 election” in an attempt “to compete with his rival Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who used the death penalty to execute 13 federal inmates during his last six months in office.”  DeSantis is supposedly doing this “in large part because of his bid for president and to appear tough on crime.”

Per Gannett, DeSantis is killing people to compete with Donald Trump in killing people in order to get elected president.  Before this article, who knew that there was a race on?  

The other half of the page was headlined, Asian Americans Feel Targeted by (Voting) Laws.

And guess what governor signed a law that was causing this distress?  Hint: the state is directly south of Georgia and Alabama.

Oh yeah, that other big Red state, Texas, also came under fire for raising the penalty for illegal voting to a felony.

And Sunday’s Gannett op-ed had and editorial by a USA Today (Gannett) columnist titled: As GOP primary race heats up, it’s fearmongering season.  The piece isn’t worth commenting on but you can easily imagine what it said.

__________________________

Why are we spending time on non 2nd Amendment issues?

First, these are the anti-2A people in the media that are doing this.  If they win, 2A loses.

Generations of Americans have been propagandized by the government run school systems, the media and the entertainment industry.  As we head into next year’s presidential election, we can expect to see subtle stories, as above, that paint conservative candidates in the worst possible light, either by inclusion or omission.  We have to fight back and get the truth out.  If we do nothing, those that have been propagandized will never hear the truth and fall in line, just as the left wants them.

S.C.O.P.E. Legal Update July, 2023

Schuyler County’s SCOPE Chapter publishes a Legal Update each month.  Here is a look at the laws that were proposed and those that passed during this year’s NY State legislative session. 

Present and past monthly updates are available on SCOPE’s website under Schuyler Chapter page.

S.C.O.P.E. Shooters Committee On Political Education - Schuyler County (scopeny2a.org)

New York: 2023 Legislative Session Ends in Albany

While New Yorkers were snoozing last [month], multiple gun bills passed. Fortunately, most of those bills only cleared one chamber, but not the other. In order to become law, the legislation has to be approved by both chambers and signed by the Governor.

So what happened this year? The Assembly passed A.2084A which bans lead ammunition during the taking of game on state lands. The Senate companion bill remained in committee. The Senate passed several of its own bills without the Assembly companion bill being adopted. The Senate approved a 10-day waiting period on all firearm transfers by a vote of 42-19, but that legislation stalled in committee on the Assembly side. Several other bills had the same outcome:

• S.1892, which added ammunition to the list of items prohibited from being purchased or destroyed by those convicted of certain crimes, passed the Senate but did not advance beyond committee in the Assembly.

• S.2102 allows law enforcement to take temporary custody of firearms when called to domestic disputes. Again, the Senate adopted the bill without Assembly floor action.

• S.6980A is a child access prevention bill that mandates the dissemination of materials. New York already has a storage law, but this bill mandates the posting of loaded propaganda. It shared the same outcome as the previous two bills.

• Finally, S.138 was a terrible bill, which would have moved the certification of firearm instructors away from the NRA, to a state agency. The bill sponsor, Sen. Sean Ryan provided a telling justification for the bill. According to this anti-gun Senator, “The NRA has a monopoly on firearm training in New York. This bill will revoke that privilege from the chief opponent of our state’s gun laws.” That shocking admission translates into the real purpose behind the bill – political payback.

New York continues to push gun control. Incredibly, what we did not see this session was any sort of an attempt to fix New York’s soft-on-crime criminal justice system or bail reform. Again, that is because this is about politics and not public safety.

https://www.nraila.org/articles/20230613/new-york-2023-legislative-session-ends-in-albany

Here is the list of relevant gun control bills which passed this session:

• A-2209/S-816, Makes clarifying changes to the definition of imitation weapon.

• A-5092/S-4879, Provides that the legislative body of the county of Westchester shall fix the fee to be charged for a license to carry or possess a pistol or revolver and provide for the disposition of such fees. • A-5791A/S-6238A, Defines the term mass shooting for purposes of emergency response measures and access to emergency funding.

• A-5835/S-3436, Exempts applications for an Extreme Risk Protection Order from requiring an index number fee.

http://www.gunpoliticsny.com/?p=27151

New (proposed) legislation strives to combat ghost guns in NYC

Rep. Ritchie Torres says the bill is an effort to get ghost guns off of the street while expanding gun-free school zones. The legislation would also go further than current regulations, ultimately requiring manufacturers of ghost gun kits to be licensed under the Gun Control Act.

https://brooklyn.news12.com/new-legislation-strives-to-combat-ghost-guns-in-nyc

New York to propose legislation criminalizing printing ghost guns at home

New York will try to make it a crime to print a gun at home.

Lawmakers are responding to a surge in gun crimes committed with untraceable firearms, known as ghost guns, increasingly being created using a 3D printer.

Under current New York law, someone who possesses or distributes a 3D printed gun can be charged with a misdemeanor.  A proposed new law would make it a felony to manufacture a gun using a 3D printer.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/new-york-propose-legislation-criminalizing-printing-ghostguns/story?id=99798986

For educational and discussion purposes only. Not intended as legal advice.

Kennedy on Kamala  by Tom Reynolds

Fox News’ Trace Gallager had Senator John Kennedy as his guest this past Friday.  The subject of Vice President Kamala Harris’ garbling of words came up.  Kennedy pointed to her horrid poll numbers and suggested that her history of word salad responses may be partly to blame.  (Not to mention being associated with the multiple leftist failures of the Biden administration.)

Kennedy said, “She’s struggling for a couple of reasons. Number one, she doesn’t appear to be prepared. Number two, no matter how well-prepared you are, you have to be able to express yourself. And with respect, I would say the vice president needs to work on being a little more articulate. Some…might say that based on her performances, that English is not her first, second, third, or even fourth language.”

Kennedy went on to say that Harris appears to stumble when she tries to “sound smart.”  (Kennedy knows how to use a knife in the sweetest southern accent!)

“But number three, you know, I think sound advice for anyone, politician or not, is always be yourself unless you suck. If you suck, have enough self-awareness to know you suck…”  (Or as Winston Churchill said more eloquently, “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”  Of course, you have to be aware that you are in a hole.)    

Kennedy continued: “And I just don’t get the impression that the vice president is–she’s not being herself. She’s trying to sound smart instead of just saying what she believes and saying it in a clear articulate manner that the average American who’s busy can understand.”  (Even the average American who is NOT busy has trouble translating her words into understandable English.)

 

Some examples of “Kamal Speak:”

"We invested an additional $12 billion into community banks, because we know community banks are in the community…" 

"When we talk about the children of the community, they are the children of the community.”

"Culture is — it is a reflection of our moment and our time. Right? And present culture is the way we express how we're feeling about the moment and we should always find times to express how we feel about the moment. That is a reflection of joy. Because, you know…it comes in the morning."

"We have to find ways to also express the way we feel about the moment in terms of just having language and a connection to how people are experiencing life. And I think about it in that way, too."

"So I think it's very important, as you have heard from so many incredible leaders for us at every moment in time and certainly this one, to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present, and to be able to contextualize it, to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment as it relates not only to the past but the future."

"We also recognize just as it has been in the United States, for Jamaica, one of the issues that has been presented as an issue that is economic in the way of its impact has been the pandemic." 

"I think that, to be very honest with you, I do believe that we should have rightly believed, but we certainly believe that certain issues are just settled."

We've got to take this stuff seriously, as seriously as you are because you have been forced to take this seriously." 

YouTuber “Ranting Monkey” summarized Harris’ oratorical ability: "Kamala will go down in history as the most quotable woman to even be a woman who makes quotes about quotes a woman might quote."

Whenever I hear someone talk about impeaching Joe Biden I remind them of who is the Vice President.

Philadelphia Shooting  by Tom Reynolds

About 8:30 p.m. on Monday, a killer opened fire on a street in a southwest Philadelphia neighborhood, killing five people and injuring two others.  It’s estimated 50 shots were fired.

The killer allegedly used an AR-15-style weapon and a 9mm handgun, wore body armor and a ski mask.  He may have randomly targeted victims. Police chased and cornered the suspect in an alley and took the suspect into custody.

He faces more than 30 criminal charges, including five counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, 10 counts of assault, 10 counts of recklessly endangering another person, and four counts of weapons charges.

Various sources reported that the suspect has a criminal history that includes a 2003 arrest for possession of a weapon without a license, carrying a firearm in public, and drug possession. The suspect later pled guilty to possessing a firearm without a license and received three years' probation.  The other charges were dropped.

All that’s probably not news as those facts would be a part of almost every news article.

Some things that are not to be mentioned:

He’s obviously not an ex-marine since that was not mentioned.

He’s obviously not a member of the NRA since that membership was not mentioned.

So, who is he?  Don’t count on the main stream media to tell you that.  In fact, count on this story disappearing.

Why?

The suspect was originally identified as a 40-year-old male named Kimbrady Carriker.  According to the New York Post, just three months ago, the suspect posted pictures of ‘himself’ on social media wearing women's clothing. 

On his Facebook page, Carriker posted pictures of armed protesters dressed as Black Panthers taken at a 2020 Atlanta protest. He posted: “Me at BLM protest.”

There was also a meme featuring photos of actor Wesley Snipes in movies dressed as the drag queen “Noxeema” Above Snipes as Noxeema, he posted, “Me at pride.”

Philadelphia officials previously used he/him pronouns for the suspect during a Tuesday news conference.  Now, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia district attorney’s office told CNN that the office is using they/them pronouns to refer to the suspect based on “information we have at this time.” 

And if sexual orientation issues are not enough to kill the story, a killer posting in support of Black Lives Matter will bury it deeper than six feet.

Aol.’s website reported that DA Larry Krasner said Carriker was carrying a “ghost gun” (but doesn’t explain what the “ghost gun” was.) It’s also reported that the DA says there is reason to believe that both that firearm and the AR-15 “may have been obtained illegally”.

But the DA also want’s stricter gun laws so illegal gun users have more opportunity to be illegal gun users.

The DA also said that getting to the bottom of the source of the weapon will take time, “because the NRA has done a hell of a job trying to make it difficult for people to investigate the source of a weapon.”

In the best traditions of the leftist media, Aol. managed to include ”ghost gun” and take a shot (figuratively speaking) at the NRA, even though they have nothing to do with the crime.  At the same time, they completely missed the sexual orientation and the Black Lives Matter story.

Oh yeah, there was a second shooter who police believe also opened fire on the scene.  On Tuesday, police announced that this second individual was firing back at Carriker in self-defense.  No coverage of this and if this shooter may have saved lives by shooting back. 

Free Speech  by Tom Reynolds

Legal Insurrection’s web site posted this article.  Although it is about free speech, it should be obvious to anyone not living in a cave that the Biden administration (and Blue states in general like New York) have weaponized the power of the government against those that dare oppose it (such as conservatives.)  This weaponization flies directly in the face of the Bill of Rights which are not an add-on to the Constitution but ARE the Constitution.

In Blue states, the only remedy is the power of the judiciary to enforce the Constitution on those that would ignore it.  This case shows that there is hope.

Without Free Speech, how will we be able to spread the truth about guns and the 2^nd Amendment.

Per Legal Insurrection: We previously have covered the lawsuit brought by Missouri and Louisiana against the Biden administration regarding collusion with big tech platforms to silence mostly conservative voices.

After extensive pre-trial proceedings, the federal District Court has issued a Preliminary Injunction prohibiting further collusion. The Memorandum Decision is 155 pages. Most of it consists of extensive findings of fact and evidence of the collusion. Here are the key summary parts from the introduction and conclusion (emphasis added):

This case is about the Free Speech Clause in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The explosion of social-media platforms has resulted in unique free speech issues— this is especially true in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history. In their attempts to suppress alleged disinformation, the Federal Government, and particularly the Defendants named here, are alleged to have blatantly ignored the First Amendment’s right to free speech.

Although the censorship alleged in this case almost exclusively targeted conservative speech, the issues raised herein go beyond party lines….

The Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the Government has used its power to silence the opposition. Opposition to COVID-19 vaccines; opposition to COVID-19 masking and lockdowns; opposition to the lab-leak theory of COVID-19; opposition to the validity of the 2020 election; opposition to President Biden’s policies; statements that the Hunter Biden laptop story was true; and opposition to policies of the government officials in power. All were suppressed. It is quite telling that each example or category of suppressed speech was conservative in nature. This targeted suppression of conservative ideas is a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech. American citizens have the right to engage in free debate about the significant issues affecting the country.

Although this case is still relatively young, and at this stage the Court is only examining it in terms of Plaintiffs’ likelihood of success on the merits, the evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth.”721

721 An “Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’” refers to the concept presented in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, ‘1984.’ In the novel, the Ministry of Truth is a governmental institution responsible for altering historical records and disseminating propaganda to manipulate and control public perception.

The Plaintiffs have presented substantial evidence in support of their claims that they were the victims of a far-reaching and widespread censorship campaign. This court finds that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their First Amendment free speech claim against the Defendants. Therefore, a preliminary injunction should issue immediately against the Defendants as set out herein.

The Plaintiffs Motion for Preliminary Injunction [Doc. No. 10] is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.

The Plaintiffs’ request to certify this matter as a class action pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. Article 23(b)(2) is DENIED.

On Monday, SCOPE wrote about Hunter Biden’s sweetheart deal on gun felonies.  If you thought that Joe Biden’s approach to crime was hypocritical - as well as odd – on August 1, 2022, the White House web site highlighted another aspect of Biden’s “Safer America Plan.”

Stores are leaving major cities where DA’s and mayors are more concerned about criminals than victims and stopping crime is not a priority.  Nordstrom, Walmart, Whole Foods, Starbucks, CVS are a few examples of major chains deserting crime ridden cities.  And not just retailers.  Chicago lost corporate headquarters for Caterpillar, Tyson Foods, Boeing and Citadel (a $51 billion hedge fund.) 

So, what does Biden want to do about it?  Actually, nothing.  He wants online marketplaces such as Amazon to solve the crime problem and do a better job of policing goods being ‘fenced’ on their web sites.

Here is what the White House says: “To tackle organized retail theft, the plan calls on Congress to pass legislation to require online marketplaces, such as Amazon, to verify third-party sellers’ information, and to impose liability on online marketplaces for the sale of stolen goods on their platforms.”

CNN disagrees with Biden (as well as every credible news agency in the world.)  CNN believes the reason stores are leaving these cities is not crime but – there are too many stores; “a glut.”

Well, CNN’s problem will solve itself.  

__________________________

On June 16^th, Biden made a speech at the University of Hartford where he continued to show his confusion about crime and gun control and almost everything else.

In praising the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, (BSCA) Biden claimed his “son was the first to enforce ‘Red Flag’ laws when he was Attorney General of Delaware.”  Delaware enacted its “red flag” law in 2018.  His son, Beau Biden, died in 2015.

Biden also claimed that the BSCA made “straw purchases” illegal.  Purchasing a firearm for someone else who is prohibited from purchasing a firearm has been illegal for decades, as has misrepresenting who is the real buyer.

Whoever writes his speeches needs to get in touch with reality.  Biden further defended the BSCA by saying: “And in most cities — down in Philadelphia and New York, areas I know well — like up here — you’d see a truck pull up, pull to the curb, and selling weapons — selling guns, selling AR-15.  Selling weapons.” 

Crime may be out of control in those cities but pulling to the curb and selling AR-15’s out of a truck would be a bridge-too far, even in those cities, since unlicensed firearms dealing was illegal before the BSCA.

It’s surprising that Biden didn’t accuse “Corn pop” of doing the weapons selling.

And Biden was only getting warmed up!

The BSCA, “Put a pistol on a brace, and it…turns into a gun.”

I thought a pistol was a gun even before a stabilizing brace was attached to it?

Then he added that stabilizing braces, “Makes them where you can have a higher-caliber weapon — a higher-caliber bullet coming out of that gun.”

A stabilizing brace changes the caliber of the weapon?  Does Biden have even a clue about what he is saying? 

Bided closed by saying, “God save the Queen, man.”  He could not have been referring to Queen Elizabeth, who died nine months earlier.  Was he referring to drag queens as this is their “pride month” and would explain adding ‘man’ at the end?”

It’s scary that politicians pass laws about things they know nothing about.

Remember when he said: “there can be no more than eight bullets in a round?” Or when he said “…nobody says you can have a magazine with 100 clips in it.”

Actually, all known technology says you can’t have eight bullets in a round or 100 clips in a magazine.

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And when it comes to self-deception about guns (or just about anything else), NY’s Governor Kathy Hochul ranks with Biden. 

In a video her office posted on Twitter, she said, “A year ago today, the Supreme Court ruled to strip away the rights of a governor to protect her people from concealed carry weapons.”

“We refused to go backwards.”

Actually, the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled that governors must act within the confines of the law, otherwise known as the United States Constitution.  That’s what really ticked off Hochul.

SCOTUS did NOT take away the governor’s power to protect stores from being robbed, people from being assaulted on subways or the power to prosecute criminals and keep them in jail.  Hochul would rather take away the constitutional right to protect oneself with a gun than protect ‘her people’ from those crimes. 

“Her people’.  Doesn’t that sound like something a queen would say? Perhaps Biden was referring to Hochul?

Luckily for criminals, SCOTUS’ ruling did not affect the criminals’ ability to illegally carry guns and use them against the citizens that Hochul would disarm. 

Can you imagine if aliens landed and said “take me to your leaders.”  Enter Biden with Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg by his side.  Perhaps Hochul and Gavin Newsome standing behind them.  Mankind would be toast!  The problem is, even without aliens entering the picture, we’re in trouble.