Category: Business

For those who may not know, I am an Endowment Life member.
Again, when story isn’t about what the NRA does, but about the leadership,
WLP and his cronies must go.

NRA: Meet The New Cover, Up Same As The Old Cover Up

Tombstone, Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- A new move is afoot in the ongoing soap opera that is today’s National Rifle Association.

In the early 2000s, the Board passed a Bylaw amendment to make an exception to the rule and allow Charlton Heston to retain the office for a total of 5 years. That is the only exception to the two-terms rule since it was adopted decades ago. The excuses being offered for allowing Cotton, whose second term ends this April, to serve another term are similar to those offered in Franklin Roosevelt’s unprecedented extra terms as President of the United States:

“Don’t change horses in the middle of a race,” the need for a “steady, experienced hand on the wheel in troubled times,” that there’s no one else prepared to take the helm, etc. But the unspoken reason for maintaining the status quo might be the most important: Culpability.

The primary system of checks and balances within the NRA revolves around the Board’s Audit Committee. The NRA Board of Directors has, in accordance with New York law, adopted a number of policies and procedures to make sure that everything is done on the up-and-up, with no self-dealing, nepotism, conflicts of interest, or sweetheart deals to rob the Association’s coffers or bring shame or embarrassment to the organization.

The people tasked with investigating and enforcing these policies are the members of the Audit Committee. As the Board’s official watchdogs, it’s the Audit Committee’s responsibility to ensure that all Board and statutory policies are adhered to by NRA staff and management. The Audit Committee is supposed to review all contracts, investigate conflicts of interest, hear and act upon all “whistleblower” complaints, hire and oversee outside auditors, and generally make sure that the Association is scandal-free and clean as a whistle.

As everyone should well know by now, the NRA is embroiled in a number of scandals and lawsuits.

The crux of the current mess is that, along with wasting millions of dollars on frivolities and status symbols, Wayne LaPierre and other top executives allegedly took advantage of their positions to enrich themselves and some of their close friends. Accusations include tens of millions being spent on “Fundraising Consultants” who were not tracked for performance and millions more going toward no-bid, sweetheart deals for friends and family members, not to mention private jets and escalating executive compensation.

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Judge Blocks Feds From Enforcing ‘Ghost Gun’ Ban Against Polymer80

The country’s largest unfinished firearm parts maker is no longer subject to President Biden’s ban on homemade gun kits.

On Sunday, Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, a George W. Bush appointee, decided the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive (ATF) can’t enforce its new “ghost gun” rule against Polymer80. He found the ATF exceeded its authority when it attempted to reinterpret what constitutes a firearm in order to restrict sales of unfinished parts and homemade gun kits.

“The Final Rule’s redefinition of “frame or receiver” conflicts with the statute’s plain meaning. The definition of ‘firearm’ in the Gun Control Act does not cover all firearm parts. It covers specifically ‘the frame or receiver of any such weapon’ that Congress defined as a firearm,” Judge O’Connor wrote in Polymer80 v. Garland. “That which may become a receiver is not itself a receiver.”

The ruling comes just a few weeks after Judge O’Connor issued a similar order in a separate case involving several other major makers of unfinished gun parts. It further restricts the ATF’s ability to enforce its “ghost gun” rule, dealing a blow to President Joe Biden’s attempts to unilaterally implement new gun restrictions through ATF rulemaking. Taken together with the full Fifth Circuit’s decision to strike down the bump-stock ban, it also spells more bad news for President Biden’s more recent pistol-brace ban.

Unfinished gun parts and homemade gun kits have been at the center of the gun-control debate for years because they can be sold without serial numbers or background checks since they require significant finishing to be made into functional firearms. The Biden Administration has sought to expand the definition of “firearm” so that those selling the unfinished part would be considered “engaged in the business” of making and dealing firearms. That would require them to obtain federal licenses to make and sell their products. Gun-rights advocates have opposed the expansion of ATF power because they believe it threatens their Second Amendment rights.

However, this case was not decided on Second Amendment grounds. Instead, Judge O’Connor ruled the ATF’s actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), which governs how much latitude federal agencies have when interpreting and enforcing federal laws.

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Federal Judge Blocks California Handgun Restrictions

California can’t ban residents from buying modern handguns.

That’s the ruling handed down by Federal District Judge Cormac J. Carney, a George W. Bush appointee, on Monday. He found California’s requirement that all new pistols sold in the state include a series of uncommon or even theoretical safety devices is unconstitutional. He ruled the regulation, which has resulted in no new handgun models being sold to civilians in nearly a decade, violates the Second Amendment.

“Californians have the constitutional right to acquire and use state-of-the-art handguns to protect themselves,” Judge Carney wrote in his preliminary injunction for Boland v. Bonta. “They should not be forced to settle for decade-old models of handguns to ensure that they remain safe inside or outside the home.”

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Quote O’ The Day
Social Justice is bad enough by itself, but it’s also a marker for those incapable of thinking clearly enough to focus clearly on their main jobs.

More On How SVB Screwed The Pooch.

I wasn’t planning on writing more about the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, but too much info has been coming down the pike to ignore. Plus, I found the video below, and felt I had to share it.

First up: Silicon Valley Bank donated nearly $74 million to #BlackLivesMatter and associated causes.

A newly published database from the Claremont Institute has revealed that the since-collapsed Silicon Valley Bank donated or pledged to donate nearly $74 million to the Black Lives Matter movement and related causes.

In an August 2020 Diversity, Equity & Inclusion report, SVB declared “we are on a journey committed to increasing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in our workplace, with our partners and across the innovation economy.”

The bank revealed that they had donated $1.6 million to “causes supporting gender parity in innovation,” as well as $1.2 million to support “opportunities for diverse, emerging talent in innovation.”

In SVB’s 2021 Proxy Statement, the bank wrote in relation to racial and social equity that “the calls to end systemic racial and social inequities following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 had a profound global impact.”

“We responded by expanding opportunities for dialogue, including hosting over 40 small group ‘Conversation Circles’ in which over two thirds of our employees participated in discussions about racial equity issues.”

The statement continued to say that the bank’s “DEI-focused ‘town hall’ meetings for employees were in response to our recognition of the need for greater transparency and dialogue around the racial representation of our workforce and the innovation ecosystem.”

In addition, the bank, provided “opportunities for action, mobilizing our employees and clients to join in community service through Tech Gives Back, a week of volunteer events focused in part on racial equity, social justice and access to the innovation economy,” and partnered with “Act One Ventures to launch The Diversity Term Sheet Rider for Representation at the Cap Table initiative, which advocates for venture capital firms to include in all of their term sheets a pledge to bring members of underrepresented groups into deals as co-investors.”

A 2020 letter from CEO Greg Becker stated, “In recent months, we’ve expanded our philanthropic giving through corporate donations and employee matching programs. These programs focus on pandemic response, social justice, sustainability and supporting women, Black and Latinx emerging talent and other underrepresented groups. You’ll find examples of these programs in this report, ranging from workforce development to affordable housing.”

In 2020, the bank launched its Missions program, “a software platform designed to engage employees to act in support of the causes they care about most such as voter education and racial justice and equity,” which saw employees donate $400,000 for “justice and equity for Black Americans.”

According to the Claremont Institute, an additional $250,000 was allocated by the SVB Foundation to support grants for social justice organizations including the NAACP, ACLU, and National Urban League.

SVB additionally partnered with 44 organizations focused on furthering DEI in innovation and invested in relationships with historically black colleges and universities, and hosted internships and provided tuition assistance for students from “underserved communities.”

In a Corporate Responsibility Report from 2021, SVB pledged to donate $50M in its diversity and inclusion programs and partnerships, “with a focus on women, Black and Latinx individuals.”

In May of 2021, SVB announced a proposed five-year, $11.2 billion community benefits plan in collaboration with The Greenlining Institute, an M4BL, or Movement For Black Lives, member. The Claremont Institute wrote that “that plan includes $75M in unspecified charitable contributions (also not included in our total).”

Social Justice is bad enough by itself, but it’s also a marker for those incapable of thinking clearly enough to focus clearly on their main jobs.

And now this video, which slams “Stupid Valley Bank” for its egregious stupidity and slams It’s Pat, which is these days is almost like a Hispster move (“It’s a pretty obscure bad movie, you’ve probably never heard of it”).

He also thinks the crisis is just beginning…

None of this makes any sense, but then SloJoe never did make any sense.

Biden to sign executive order to require background checks on more gun sales
The executive order will increase background checks and prevent firearms dealers without licenses from selling guns

President Biden is expected to announce an executive order on Tuesday that would expand background checks to more firearm sales by expanding the statutory definition of a firearms dealer, the White House said.

Biden is set to sign the order during a trip to Monterey Park, California, where he will meet with families and the community impacted by the mass shooting that killed 11 and injured nine others in January. The White House said the executive order will bring the U.S. “as close to universal background checks as possible” without additional legislation.

Under the executive order, Biden is also directing Attorney General Merrick Garland to develop and implement a plan to prevent former federally licensed firearms dealers, whose licenses have been revoked or surrendered, from continuing to engage in the business of dealing in firearms.

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Get woke, go broke.

The SVB collapse marks the end of the Silicon Valley era: The Bay Area is no longer brimming with innovative startups and entrepreneurs.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the second largest in US history, is raising concerns about a “contagion” that could trigger a financial panic. As the 18th largest bank in the US, SVB’s bankruptcy may not prove an event on the scale of Lehman Brothers, but it may reflect something perhaps even more important: the decline of the Valley’s once vibrant entrepreneurial culture.

As a young reporter, I covered bank founder Roger Smith in 1983 when he came up with the idea of providing conventional financing to young, often venture-backed growth companies. In those days the big Wall Street financiers were largely clueless about technology, and the industry needed someone who understood their needs and ambitions. The now-retired Smith became a real player in the tech world, as well as in the Valley’s philanthropic scene.

Today’s Silicon Valley is not brimming as before with aggressive startups and the garage-based entrepreneurs who are the SVB’s bread and butter. Indeed, the magic that led firms and people to come to California is wearing off; Mike Malone, who has chronicled Silicon Valley over the past quarter-century, believes that this is because the Valley has lost its egalitarian ethos. The new masters of tech, he suggests, have shifted from “blue-collar kids to the children of privilege”. An intensely competitive industry, he adds, has become enamoured with the allure of “the sure thing” backed by massive capital. If there is a potential competitor they simply buy it. Innovation is therefore in short supply.

In this new oligarch-dominated Silicon Valley, there is less need for a unique bank like SVB because the entire eco-system that the bank depended on has diminished. It’s likely that the big financial institutions will now step in and pick off the strongest candidates in the start-up litter, generally those who can eventually be hived off to one of the giants.

The Valley is far from dead. It still retains an enormously deep field of technical talent and the professionals who service them. But its era of dominance is clearly ending as more companies expand or even move their headquarters elsewhere — something Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle and Tesla have already done.

This “tech exodus” has, however, been underway for years; according to research by Ken Murphy, 13,000 companies left California between 2009-2016 alone. The pandemic-induced push to move work online only appears to have hastened this shift. With two out of three tech workers willing to leave the Bay Area if they could work remotely, Big Tech could readily spread talent and wealth to other states.

The Valley may remain top dog but, as unique institutions like Silicon Valley Bank disappear, there are more potential alphas lurking elsewhere in the kennel.

Here’s how progressive lawyers are using public nuisance lawsuits to outlaw guns
O.H. Skinner says public nuisance lawsuits are the next ‘Trojan horse’ for the progressive agenda

EXCLUSIVE – A consumer protection group is warning Republican governors against attempts by left-leaning lawyers to use public nuisance lawsuits as a backdoor way to outlaw guns.

The Alliance For Consumers (AFC), a nonprofit organization aimed at “ensuring consumer protection efforts, class action lawsuits, and attorney general enforcement actions benefit consumers,” sent a letter to all GOP governors Friday saying that since the many state legislatures have recently flipped to a Republican majority, they should be on the lookout for progressive activists attacking gun rights through these legal actions.

“With victories through the legislative process becoming harder to achieve, the progressive left is increasingly looking to an alliance of activists, officials, and trial lawyers to weaponize the judicial system against conservatives and impose key policy priorities by way of public nuisance lawsuits,” AFC president O.H. Skinner wrote.

“Under the guise of compensation for injuries to the overall public interest, these lawsuits open the door to courts imposing sweeping policy solutions outside the traditional governmental processes or otherwise reshaping the economy through massive money transfers,” Skinner added.

Public nuisance laws vary from state to state. Historically, they have been used to protect consumers and the public against things like polluted waterways or hazardous public spaces.

However, Skinner said “activists have found a way to use the court system as a weapon to force companies and consumers to comply with a progressive worldview without legislative oversight or public scrutiny.”

“If you hear someone say, ‘We should bring a nuisance case,’ that is a Trojan horse to accomplish something that you probably don’t agree with.” Skinner said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Skinner claims that “the true goal of most nuisance suits over things like plastics, fossil fuels or firearms is seemingly to remove products and services from in the market that do not align with the progressive agenda.”

Skinner said that progressive trial lawyers will try to make the case that just as fossil fuels and plastics are bad for the environment that is shared by the public, guns can also cause public harm, and therefore, courts should curb their use because of this “public nuisance.”

Once example of this already taking place, Skinner noted, is a case from 2022 brought by a leading personal injury law firm – Napoli Shkolnik— that filed public nuisance suits on behalf of New York cities Buffalo and Rochester.

According to Skinner, that suit claimed that major American firearms manufacturers’ work to design, produce, market and sell has “created, contributed to, and maintained the public nuisance of unlawful possession, transportation and disposition of firearms, and the utilization of guns in the commission of an offense.”

“Activists have largely been able to hide the ideological aspects of public nuisance litigation,” Skinner said. “But make no mistake: public nuisance claims are about liberal control, not just about money, and certainly not about helping consumers.”

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told Fox News Digital that while public nuisance laws “have their place” and are a “tool that needs to exist,” governors and state legislators should consider making changes to such laws so they are not abused.

Visa, Mastercard pause decision to track gun shop purchases

NEW YORK (AP) — Visa and Mastercard paused their decision to start categorizing purchases at gun shops, a significant win for conservative groups and Second Amendment advocates who felt that tracking gun shop purchases would inadvertently discriminate against legal firearms purchases.

FILE - Assault weapons and hand guns are seen for sale at Capitol City Arms Supply, Jan. 16, 2013, in Springfield, Ill. Visa is pausing their decision to start categorizing purchases at gun shops, a significant win for conservative groups and 2nd Amendment advocates who felt that tracking gun shop purchases would inadvertently discriminate against legal firearms purchases. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)

FILE – Assault weapons and hand guns are seen for sale at Capitol City Arms Supply, Jan. 16, 2013, in Springfield, Ill. Visa is pausing their decision to start categorizing purchases at gun shops, a significant win for conservative groups and 2nd Amendment advocates who felt that tracking gun shop purchases would inadvertently discriminate against legal firearms purchases. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)© Provided by The Associated Press

The decision is, at the same time, also a defeat for gun control groups. There had been hope that categorizing credit and debit card purchases would allow authorities to potentially see red flags — like significant ammunition purchases — before a mass shooting could happen.

After Visa and Mastercard announced their plans to implement a separate merchant category code for gun shop purchases, the payment networks got significant pushback from the gun lobby as well as conservative politicians. A group of 24 GOP state attorneys general wrote a letter to the payment networks threatening legal action against Visa and Mastercard if they moved forward with their plan.

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If anyone has learned anything, it’s understanding that Cramer is a perfect reverse barometer

CNBC’s Jim Cramer eviscerated for touting Silicon Valley Bank weeks before disastrous collapse.

CNBC’s “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer is being shredded across social media after footage resurfaced of him urging viewers in February to invest in Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which collapsed on Friday.

SVB had been the 16th largest bank in the United States and was connected to a number of Silicon Valley industries and startups. The closure of the bank was announced by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), making it the worst U.S. financial institution failure in nearly 15 years.

Upon the news of SVB’s collapse, a clip went viral of Cramer in February speaking positively about the bank in a list of “The Biggest Winners of 2023… So Far.”

“The ninth-best performer here today is SVB financial. Don’t yawn,” he told his viewers on Feb. 8. “This company is a merchant bank with a deposit base that Wall Street has been mistakenly concerned about!”

CNBC's Jim Cramer of "Mad Money" talking about Silicon Valley Bank.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer of “Mad Money” talking about Silicon Valley Bank.

SILICON VALLEY BANK SHUT DOWN BY REGULATORS

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BAILOUT MOTORS: GM Gutting Half Its U.S. Workforce

GM, the leading U.S. automaker by volume, will gut its U.S. workforce “voluntarily” according to a confidential internal memo from Chairman and CEO Mary Barra that leaked on Thursday.

“Accelerated attrition requires to be proactive regarding workforce planning,” Barra’s memo reads. “Therefore, today, we are announcing a voluntary program that offers the majority of our U.S. team an opportunity to leave GM and transition to what’s next with an attractive compensation and health care package.”

Putting a smiley face on the matter, Barra explained that her “Voluntary Separation Program, known as a VSP, presents an opportunity to explore a new industry, make a career change, further a personal business venture or decide you can retire earlier.”

The move is “designed to accelerate attrition in the U.S.”

What that means is, more than half of General Motors’ American workforce will have two weeks to decide whether to take the retirement package or… “Taking this step now will help avoid the potential for involuntary actions.”

From the sound of it — take the voluntary separation package before we separate you without one — employees would be wise to take the offer.

General Motors’ South Korea division will offer a similar VSP package, but workers in Canada, Mexico, Europe, and China will not, according to the memo. Whether Barra plans similarly drastic job cuts in those countries is unclear.

The company currently employs about 167,000 people in the US, spread across its four surviving divisions — Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC — and corporate HQ.

General Motors used to sell half of all cars in the U.S. market. Now it sells one in six. How many cars it’ll be able to produce with fewer than half of today’s headcount remains unclear, and is not a topic Marra addressed in today’s memo.

How the mighty have fallen.

Here’s Barra’s memo in its entirety.

GM Jobs Cuts

Whistleblower: FBI’s D.C. Office Tried To Sic Local Agents On Innocents After Bank Of America Volunteered Gun Records

An FBI whistleblower told congressional investigators that the D.C. field office pushed local offices to open criminal investigations into Americans based solely on financial transactions Bank of America tracked and voluntarily provided to the bureau, according to testimony reviewed by The Federalist.

“Bank of America, with no directive from the FBI, datamined its customer base,” whistleblower and recently retired FBI supervisory intelligence analyst George Hill told investigators for the House Judiciary Committee, according to Hill’s testimony.

Hill had identified himself last month as one of the whistleblowers cooperating with congressional investigators when speaking with Just the News’ John Solomon about the disclosures he made to the House Judiciary Committee during a transcribed deposition. A review of Hill’s testimony confirms the details the military veteran and former longtime FBI and NSA analyst told Solomon. It also reveals more troubling details.

According to the material reviewed, Hill testified that on either Jan. 7 or 8, 2021, Bank of America provided the FBI’s D.C. field office a “huge list” of individuals who used Bank of America credit or debit cards in D.C., or the surrounding Maryland and Virginia areas, on Jan. 5, 6, or 7, 2021. Bank of America then elevated to the top of the list anyone who had ever (through Jan. 6, 2021) used a Bank of America product to purchase a firearm.

There was no geographic or date-range limit to the search for firearm purchases, Hill stressed, meaning the individual would be flagged at the top of the list had he “purchased a shotgun in 1999” in Iowa, and used a Bank of America credit card to check out of a hotel on Jan. 5, 2021, in the Northern Virginia area, following a trip that could be completely unrelated to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.

The D.C. field office, which oversaw the Jan. 6 investigation, distributed the Bank of America list internally to field offices throughout the country, Hill testified in his deposition. Hill further explained that his supervisor at the Boston field office refused to open an investigation on the individuals flagged on the list because there was “no predication.” “There’s no crime that was committed by using a [Bank of America] product in the District or around the District,” Hill testified, explaining his supervisor’s reasoning for why no “further action” was required.

But the D.C. field office pushed back, according to Hill. The D.C. field office told Boston’s supervisory special agent, or SSA, he needed to open up the cases. When the local office’s SSA refused, the D.C. field office threatened to call the assistant special agent in charge, or ASAC, of the local office, Hill told the congressional committee. The SSA stood firm in his refusal, as did the local ASAC, Hill said, even though the D.C. field office then threatened the ASAC that it would escalate the matter to the office’s special agent in charge, or SAC.

The D.C. field office then pushed the office’s SAC to open investigations into the targeted Americans. But to the SAC’s credit, he refused, Hill noted, saying the Boston SAC countered, “No, we’re not going to open up cases based on credit card or debit card activity that took place.”

While Boston’s FBI office refused to open the requested cases, Hill stressed that “what I don’t know and could not give accurate testimony to,” was whether the D.C. field office “took it upon themselves to open cases.”

Hill’s deposition testimony raises another troubling possibility: that one or more of the other 54 local FBI field offices either complied with the D.C. field office’s initial request to open investigations into innocent Americans, or later capitulated when the D.C. office escalated the request up the chain of command to the ASAC and then the SAC.

The only reason the Boston FBI office did not launch investigations into the Bank of America customers flagged by the D.C. field office is that the Boston office’s leadership stood firm against the pressure. And the only reason we know about the D.C. field office’s attempt to target innocent Americans based on Bank of America’s data mining gun owners who happened to be in the greater D.C. area on Jan. 5, 6, or 7, 2021, is that a whistleblower came forward.

What the FBI’s other 54 field offices did in response to the D.C. field office’s pressure is unknown. According to a person familiar with Hill’s testimony, Hill had no information on that question either. Also unknown is whether any other private businesses mined the financial information of their customers, as Bank of America had, and then handed that private information over to the feds.

Congressional investigations and more whistleblowers will be needed to uncover the extent of the FBI’s political targeting of innocent Americans.

Bank of America did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.

CRICKET POWDER SHOWING UP IN YOUR FOOD

Crickets. Learn how to read ingredient labels.

Acheta domesticus may be on the label – it is Cricket. Some are hiding it by calling it “Acheta Protein” and promoting it as a great alternative to animal protein.

“Made with Cricket Protein Powder”
ALERT! If you have a shellfish allergy it is likely to cross react with cricket acheta protein causing a severe reaction. If you have an extreme allergy to shellfish and unknowingly eat cricket or aches, this could cause an adverse response—up to and including death—without immediate medical attention.

Hoppy Planet Foods’ “Chocolate Chirp Cookies”

Cheddar Cheese Puffs product from Actually Foods

Exo Protein bars.

Slowly, we are being led to believe that eating sustainably raised meat is bad.
There’s a big push to mass produce bugs for food. There’s a big push to get you to stop eating meat.

The world’s largest cricket farm is in Chiang Mai, Thailand. If the trend continues, expect that cricket providers will find cheaper ways to feed the crickets and mass produce them — while slick marketing teams try to make you feel guilty for enjoying Grassfed meat and free range chicken.

The FDA allows crickets to be used for and in food, under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

Consumer Lab tested two popular cricket powders: Entomo Farms and Exo. They found one heavily contaminated with arsenic, a carcinogen — 5x the inorganic arsenic found in the most contaminated rice.

Crickets concentrate the toxins from their food. If arsenic is in their food, it is in them.

Cricket flour, or cricket powder, is a made out of milled crickets, and whatever they were fed has concentrated in their little cricket bodies.

•••The lie: “higher in protein than animal protein” … You’d need to eat a bag of cricket powder, maybe 10 Tbs, to equal the protein you get from a 3 oz serving of free range meat.

Read labels!

Get woke, go broke.

Christian school that embraced the LGBTQ community is forced to close its doors

A conflict over what it means to be Christian is forcing a school in Kansas City, Missouri, to close.

Urban Christian Academy is a private, K-8 school with an enrollment of 100 that describes itself as providing “a tuition-free, high-quality, Christ-centered education for low-income students.”

The school’s mission statement has always stressed inclusivity in general terms, noting that following Jesus “opens up doors and makes room at the table.” But last year it added a paragraph to its website, which read in part, “We are an affirming school. We stand with the LGBTQIA+ community and believe in their holiness. We celebrate the diversity of God’s creation in all its varied and beautiful forms.”

According to the school, that update prompted donors to stop contributing, many of them citing their interpretation of Christianity as the reason. Now, UCA has announced it will close at the end of the school year due to the loss of financial support.

Kalie Callaway-George, UCA’s executive director and co-founder, said this new language “is kind of what started the backlash from our donor base, which we anticipated. It was just that we anticipated a 50% loss in funding and made adjustments for that. We had an 80% loss in funding and that was too much to overcome.”

The dramatic drop-off in donations came quickly. Soon after the new language appeared on the school’s website, eight churches withdrew their support. Although those institutions were responsible for just 2% of the school’s funding, church members were a donor base that gave much more.

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Pro-Discrimination, End-Game Gun Control Introduced in California

California is a laboratory for oppressive and ineffective gun control. And, for the most part, the proponents of these measures have kept up the charade that they are aimed at reducing crime, accidents, or suicides. But now some activists are becoming emboldened to drop the pretense and to admit they simply want to do away with guns entirely. California Senate Bill 637 is a case in point. It is the sort of end-stage gun control that doesn’t even attempt to distinguish between the bad actors and the law-abiding and simply seeks to suppress firearm-related activity as such. The point of the bill, introduced by Sen. Dave Min (D-37), is nothing less than to end firearm-related commerce in the Golden State.

As described by its sponsor, SB 637 would require “every aspect” of California’s sprawling portfolio of public spending – including municipal bonds, capital projects, investments, pension systems, and more – to “cut off business with any banks or lenders with business customers that manufacture firearms.”

Indeed, the bill is expressly aimed at manufacturers with above-board banking relationships, exactly the type that could survive the “risk management” scrutiny of the banks themselves, which itself is no easy task after Operation Choke Point and similar efforts sought to make firearm-related commerce toxic. Any such bank, no matter what level of due diligence it applied to those relationships or how scrupulously managed and law-abiding the firearm manufacturer itself happened to be, would be punished by the state for participating in this sector of lawful, constitutionally-protected commerce.

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