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North Carolina Woman’s Lawsuit Gives SCOTUS a Chance to Establish National Reciprocity

In January 2021, Eva Marie Gardner was driving in Montgomery County, Maryland when her car was allegedly hit by an assailant who ran her off the road before exiting his vehicle and rushing towards her. Gardner says she first screamed at him to get away, but when he continued advancing she drew her pistol in self-defense, though she never fired a shot. 

When police arrived on scene, they ended up releasing the man who allegedly ran her off the road, but arrested Gardner for illegal possession of a firearm. Gardner, who now lives in North Carolina, had a valid concealed carry permit from Virginia, but Maryland doesn’t recognize carry permits from any other state and she was ultimately convicted despite raising a Second Amendment claim. 

Gardner appealed all the way to the Maryland Supreme Court without success, and in mid-October she took her case to the Supreme Court, filing a cert petition on her own behalf that asks the Court to decide several questions, including whether “Maryland’s prohibition on carrying a handgun without a state permit, as applied to an interstate traveler with a valid Virginia concealed carry permit who displayed a loaded firearm in self-defense against an assailant’s vehicular assault and physical advance, violate the Second Amendment under New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, by lacking a historical tradition of disarming law-abiding citizens in such circumstances.”

Gardner also brings a claim under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, arguing that Maryland’s refusal to recognize out-of-state permits violates the Constitution and conflicts with the Firearms Owners Protection Act.

Ordinarily, a pro se petition has little chance of being granted cert by the Supreme Court, with one study finding just 84 cases since 1945. The good news for Gardner is that at least one justice has taken an interest in the case. After Maryland waived its right to respond to her cert petition, the Court requested the state provide one, and Maryland’s reply brief is now due on January 26, 2026. 

Second Amendment Foundation Director of Legal Research and Education Kostas Moros has discovered another new detail that could up the odds of SCOTUS hearing Gardner’s case next year. 

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Gavin Newsom Doubles Down on Woke: ‘I Want to See Trans Kids’ 

During a recent appearance on the Ezra Klein podcast, California Governor Gavin Newsom doubled down on the woke agenda. While speaking about trans women in sports, which he apparently still supports, Newsom noted that he has a trans godchild and said that he ‘wants to see trans kids.’

The 2024 election made it pretty clear that the public is done with this but Newsom is not going to give it up. He is staking out a positive position on the issue.

Someone should let the governor know that there is no such thing as trans kids. Just activist parents.

Breitbart News reports:

Gavin Newsom Reveals He Wants ‘To See Trans Kids’

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) highlighted how he wanted “to see” transgender children, and that there is “no governor that’s done more pro-trans legislation” than he has.

During an interview on an episode of The Ezra Klein Show, with New York Times columnist Ezra Klein, Newsom described President Donald Trump as being “One of the most destructive presidents and human beings” in Newsom’s lifetime.

Newsom also described himself as the “future ex-governor” who has to look his children “in the god**** eye.”

“We didn’t get into trans sports. That’s an issue no one wants to hear about because 80 percent of the people listening disagree with my position on this,” Newsom shared. “But it comes from my heart, not just my head. It wasn’t a political evolution.”

When asked by Klein about his position, Newsom added that he wants “To see trans kids.”

“I have a trans godson,” Newsom added. “There’s no governor that’s done more pro-trans legislation than I have. No one has been a stronger advocate for the LGBTQ community.”

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Why Is Europe Feverishly Preparing For World War III?

If there is going to be peace, why are we witnessing the largest military buildup in Europe since the end of the Cold War?  When it comes to the major players on the geopolitical stage, it is far more important to watch what they do than it is to listen to what they say.  And right now the actions that the major European powers are taking are telling us that they are preparing for a huge war with Russia.

Ukraine was supposed to be the final piece of the puzzle for the European Union.

It is an enormous chunk of territory, and it is absolutely teeming with natural resources.

For most European leaders, it is unthinkable that Ukraine could be allowed to fall back into Russian hands, but at the moment more Ukrainian territory is being taken by the Russians with each passing day.

In fact, it is being reported that the city of Seversk has just fallen…

Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said that the “Southern” group of troops had taken control of the city of Seversk in the DPR.

“The city of Seversk has been liberated,” Gerasimov said during a report to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Every time the Russians move forward, European leaders feel even more pressure to send troops into Ukraine.

Apparently the British already have at least some soldiers in Ukraine, because one of them just died…

The British soldier who died in Ukraine on Tuesday has been named as L/Cpl George Hooley, 28, of the Parachute regiment.

Keir Starmer told the Commons on Wednesday that Hooley had died in a “tragic accident” away from the frontlines while watching a test of “a new defensive capability” with members of the Ukrainian military.

“His life was full of courage and determination,” Starmer said. “He served our country with honour and distinction around the world in the cause of freedom and democracy, including as part of the small number of British personnel in Ukraine.”

Did you notice that Starmer was purposely vague about how many British troops are in Ukraine?

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Survey: 91 Percent of College Students Think ‘Words Can Be Violence.’ That Could Feed Real Violence.

Of all the stupid ideas that have emerged in recent years, there may be none worse than the insistence that unwelcome words are the same as violence. This false perception equates physical acts that can injure or kill people with disagreements and insults that might cause hurt feelings and potentially justifies responding to the latter with the former. After all, if words are violence, why not rebut a verbal sparring partner with an actual punch? Unfortunately, the idea is embedded on college campuses where a majority of undergraduate students agree that words and violence can be the same thing.

“Ninety one percent of undergraduate students believe that words can be violence, according to a new poll by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression [FIRE] and College Pulse,” FIRE announced last week. “The survey’s findings are especially startling coming in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination—an extreme and tragic example of the sharp difference between words and violence.”

The survey posed questions about speech and political violence to undergraduate students at Utah Valley University, where Kirk was murdered, and at colleges elsewhere—2,028 students overall. FIRE and College Pulse compared the student responses to those of members of the general public who were separately polled.

Specifically, one question asked how much “words can be violence” described respondents’ thoughts. Twenty-two percent of college undergraduates answered that the sentiment “describes my thoughts completely,” 25 percent said it “mostly” described their thoughts, 28 percent put it at “somewhat,” and 15 percent answered “slightly.” Only 9 percent answered that the “words can be violence” sentiment “does not describe my thoughts at all.”

It’s difficult to get too worked up about those who “slightly” believe words can be violence, but that still leaves us at 75 percent of the student population. And almost half of students “completely” or “mostly” see words and violence as essentially the same thing. That’s a lot of young people who struggle to distinguish between an unwelcome expression and a punch to the nose.

Depressingly, 34 percent of the general public “completely” or “mostly” agree. Fifty-nine percent at least “somewhat” believe words can be violence.

In 2017, when the conflation of words and violence was relatively new, Jonathan Haidt, a New York University psychology professor, worried that the false equivalence fed into the simmering mental health crisis among young people. He and FIRE President Greg Lukianoff wrote in The Atlantic that “growing numbers of college students have become less able to cope with the challenges of campus life, including offensive ideas, insensitive professors, and rude or even racist and sexist peers” and that the rise in mental health issues “is better understood as a crisis of resilience.”

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Tim Walz Vows to Bring More Somalis to Minnesota, Despite Growing Fraud Scandal Reaching Into the Billions

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is vowing to bring more Somali immigrants to his state, despite the massive fraud scandal that has unfolded in the Minnesota Somali community on his watch.

In a just world, Walz would have already resigned from his role as governor over this. Instead, he is defiantly showing the country that he just doesn’t care. And why should he? It’s not like the media is going to hold him accountable. He’s a Democrat.

Even so, it takes some serious nerve for him to act like this.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

Tim Walz Pledges To ‘Welcome More’ Somalis Into Minnesota as Evidence of Staggering Fraud Scheme Makes National Headlines

Minnesota governor Tim Walz (D.) is pledging to bring more Somalis to his state as he grapples with the fallout from a massive Somali welfare fraud scheme that occurred under his watch.

“We are going to defend our neighbors,” Walz said at a Tuesday fundraiser, according to the Center Square. “Instead of demonizing our Somali community, we’re going to do more to welcome more in.”

The remarks come as Walz faces criticism for his administration’s failure to prevent a sprawling welfare fraud scheme orchestrated by Somalis living in Minnesota. Much of the fraud, which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars, occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic but has gained national attention only in recent weeks.

Walz refused to take responsibility for failing to stop the fraud scheme, telling NBC News’s Kristen Welker, “I take responsibility for putting people in jail.”

It’s important to note that the money that was stolen, was earmarked for children.

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The Far Right Is Powered by Left-Wing Illiberalism and Hypocrisy

The introduction of the “Groypers” into our national consciousness over the last six weeks has ignited curiosity about what is causing the evident moral and intellectual disintegration of American conservatism. As someone who has been covering this space for years, I do not believe it’s possible to grasp what’s happening on the right without accepting that the left has, for decades now, been on its own illiberal journey—because to a far greater extent than most observers would like to admit, the former phenomenon is a response to the latter. 

If there’s one thing that voters of President Donald Trump and reactionary online personalities alike have made clear, it’s that they’re frustrated by the eagerness of mainstream institutions to excuse left-wing overreach while treating every right-wing infraction as an existential menace to democracy. This has created a boy-who-cried-wolf problem where attempts to sound the alarm about serious threats to the rule of law during Trump’s second term often provoke eyerolls or yawns. 

We need to recognize that there’s a natural tendency to overlook violations of norms and legal procedures by our own side while hyperfixating on our rivals’ transgressions. Human beings are excellent at rationalizing breaches of etiquette and convincing ourselves that extraordinary measures are necessary when they benefit us. Departures from the rules of the game by allies are downplayed or dismissed, and in any individual case that may be defensible—but the cumulative effect is that those on the receiving end sooner or later conclude that playing by the rules is for suckers.

Republican claims of Democratic hypocrisy may sometimes be overblown, but they are decidedly not imagined. The activist left in particular is guilty of helping to create the conditions for our toxic political moment. Consider the following ways in which left-of-center politics have, over the last generation or two, effectively repudiated liberal values.

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Hungover Russians delayed Ukraine’s ‘Pearl Harbor’-style attack on Moscow: report

An abundance of hungover Russian drivers forced Ukraine to pause its “Pearl Harbor”-style attack on Moscow’s bomber fleet, just one of the hiccups that nearly thwarted the secret operation, according to a new report.

After Kyiv successfully sneaked dozens of drones into Russia for the unprecedented attack this past spring, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) hoped to launch the assault around Russian Victory Day on May 9 to humiliate the Kremlin.

Instead, the festivities around the holiday, as well as Russian Labor Day, and Orthodox Easter, created an unexpected issue — a lack of active drivers to carry out the mission, the Wall Street Journal reported.

For Operation Spider’s Web to be a success, Ukraine was relying on a group of unwitting Russian drivers to transport their drones to the desired locations, with the truckers believing they were only hauling mobile wooden cabins.

Unfortunately, there was a small pool of drivers to choose from during the holiday as hungover drivers took the day off, making it far too risky to carry out the mission, SBU officials told the WSJ.

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The Bipartisan War on Prices Is Coming for Your Credit Card

In a scene that perfectly captures the strangeness of American politics today, President Donald Trump, a billionaire and self-styled champion of American business (at least the ones he likes) was all smiles during an Oval Office visit from Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist and mayor-elect of New York City.

For months, the two men traded the harshest of insults. Mamdani was a “communist” and “radical left lunatic”; Trump a “fascist” and “despot.” Yet with New York’s mayoral election over and cameras clicking, the insults were on hold. The men praised each other as “rational” and “productive.” Trump even joked that Mamdani might “surprise some conservative people.”

Give them points for collegiality, just don’t be surprised. Trump and Mamdani are only the latest example of the right and the left converging on economic issues. One likes price floors, the other likes rent control. They’re both waging the same “war on prices,” as the Cato Institute’s Ryan Bourne calls it. And this war enjoys rising bipartisan support.

Take legislation introduced earlier this year by what would have once been an unlikely duo: Sens. Josh Hawley (R–Mo.) and Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.). Their “10 Percent Credit Card Interest Rate Cap Act“—also reflecting a Trump idea from the 2024 campaign—sounds compassionate. Who enjoys paying 25 percent interest?

In practice, price controls of all sorts are disastrous. Credit card interest rates are high because unsecured consumer lending is very risky. They’re the price for the lender taking a chance on a person. If the government artificially caps rates far below the market rate, banks will stop lending to riskier borrowers. That doesn’t just mean broke shopaholics. It includes the working single parent using a financial last resort before payday.

Just as rent controls can create a housing shortage by reducing the attractiveness of supplying those homes, interest-rate caps can create a credit shortage. They put millions of working-class Americans—the people proposals like these are supposed to protect—at risk of being “debanked.” Stripped of their credit cards, some will turn to payday lenders, loan sharks, and pawn shops, whose charges are far higher.

It gets worse. A cap this low wouldn’t merely shrink credit availability; it would invert it. At 10 percent, banks would only lend to the safest, highest-income borrowers. Credit cards would become a luxury product for the affluent—a financial advantage while everyone else is pushed into the financial shadows.

Then there’s the fact that millions of small businesses rely on credit cards. According to a Federal Reserve survey of small businesses, half of employer firms use them to fund operations. Cards function as unsecured working-capital lines for firms that lack collateral or a long credit history. A 10 percent cap would push them toward far costlier and riskier alternatives.

And forget about travel miles or cash back. Those programs are funded by interest charges, which a 10 percent cap would wipe out. When lenders cannot price risk through market rates, they shift the cost to higher fees, shorter grace periods, and more hidden charges. Consumers don’t necessarily pay less; they just pay differently and more opaquely.

Finally, because credit cards are the primary way tens of millions of Americans build credit histories, a cap would destroy a crucial ladder into the financial mainstream.

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House passes $900B defense bill with pay hike for troops, Golden Dome tech and more

The US House of Representatives passed the annual defense bill Wednesday, outlining a $900 billion budget that would give troops a 4% pay bump, help counter China and Russia, support new technologies like the Golden Dome missile defense system and promote military readiness, among other provisions.

The House voted 312-112 to adopt the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026.

The Senate will have to approve the bill before sending it to President Trump’s desk for a signature, though an earlier version cleared the upper chamber in October.

It’s expected to take it up next week.

Before the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had touted that the more than 3,000-page bill was aimed at “codifying 15 of President Trump’s executive orders, ending woke ideology at the Pentagon, securing the border, revitalizing the defense industrial base, and restoring the warrior ethos.”

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NYT Editorial Board Urges US To Prepare For Future War With China

The New York Times editorial board released a video this week calling for the US to “prepare for the future of war” and urged the Pentagon to take drastic steps to be better prepared for a potential fight with China, a conflict that could quickly turn nuclear.

“US politicians often boast that America has the ‘Strongest and most powerful military in the history of the world’ but behind closed doors, they’re being told a different story,” the editorial board said. “New York Times Opinion has learned that the Pentagon has been delivering a classified, comprehensive overview of US military power called the Overmatch brief. The report shows what could happen if a war were to break out between China and the United States. The results are alarming.”

The video said that a war with China might seem “purely hypothetical,” but claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered the Chinese military to be ready to seize the island of Taiwan by 2027. However, that timeline is based on claims from the CIA and has never been confirmed by Chinese officials. Xi reportedly told President Biden last year that there were “no such plans” to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.

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