Hours ago, we saw the biggest bank failure in the US since 2008.
Soon, the people who told you everything was fine because they were in control, will shift to saying that everything is going poorly because they don't have enough control.
— Spike Cohen (@RealSpikeCohen) March 10, 2023
Category: Business
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.
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!
BREAKING: VanDerStok v. Garland (N.D. TX): Judge expands preliminary injunction against the ATF's "frame or receiver" rule to include Defense Distributed and its customers. https://t.co/C5a2Om2bOC pic.twitter.com/Gw9DL3lldM
— Rob Romano (@2Aupdates) March 3, 2023
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.
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.”
Note that the bill is not aimed at banks that launder money for illegal firearm traffickers. Nor does it limit itself to circumstances involving manufacturers that, while otherwise legal, produce any of the ever-increasing types of firearms that are prohibited from sale or possession in California.
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.
Electric vehicle drivers get candid about charging: ‘Logistical nightmare.’
YouTube personality Steve Hammes leased a Hyundai Kona Electric sport utility vehicle for his 17-year-old daughter Maddie for three reasons: it was affordable, practical and allowed Maddie to put her cash toward college, not fuel. Now, the upstate New York resident has a dilemma many EV owners can relate to: finding available charging stations far away from home.
“We’re going through the planning process of how easily Maddie can get from Albany to Gettysburg [College] and where she can charge the car,” Hammes told ABC News. “It makes me a little nervous. We want fast chargers that take 30 to 40 minutes — it would not make sense to sit at a Level 2 charger for hours. There isn’t a good software tool that helps EV owners plan their trips.”
Last week the Biden administration said Tesla would open its Supercharger network to non-Tesla owners by the end of 2024. The plan includes 3,500 Tesla fast chargers and 4,000 of its slower, Level 2 chargers — a small number in Tesla’s sprawling network. Setting up an account on Tesla’s app is also required for access.
Tesla cars recharge at a Tesla charger station on Feb. 15, 2023 in Corte Madera, Calif. Tesla is partnering with the U.S. federal government to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the U.S.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
John Voelcker, an industry expert on EVs and the former editor of Green Car Reports, said this arrangement will allow Tesla to learn a lot about U.S. drivers — “how you charge, where you drive and what car you have.” He does not expect Tesla to commit to additional charging stations.
“Tesla does not want its highly reliable and tightly integrated charging network to be clogged with people whose cars can’t charge as fast as Teslas,” he told ABC News.
President Joe Biden prioritized emissions-free vehicles in the 2021 infrastructure law, vowing to increase the number of green vehicles on America’s highways and local roads. The president’s goals include installing 500,000 new chargers across the U.S. and dramatically boosting EV sales by 2030.
More business owners are buying guns to protect against violence, theft
Tom Matos, owner of Securité Gun Club, says he’s seen a notable amount of store owners arm themselves in recent years.
WOODINVILLE, Wash. — There’s one thing convenience stores, gas stations, smoke & vape shops along with dispensaries have in common: robberies.
While data from the Seattle Police Department shows robberies went from 1,755 in 2021 to 1,760 in 2022, perception is the reality for many of the store owners. They’re taking measures to protect themselves and their employees.
In Ballard, King Smoke Shop’s co-owner was involved in a shootout with a man trying to rob his business Monday afternoon. That would-be robber was shot and killed. The co-owner is still recovering in the hospital.
KING 5 spoke to some King Smoke Shop employees. They’re still processing what happened and are very appreciative of their customers who’ve been checking on them.
The shootout does not surprise Tom Matos, owner of Securité Gun Club in Woodinville.
“There are store owners and store clerks who want that additional protection,” Matos said.
Matos says he saw a notable increase of store owners coming to his gun shop and shooting range during the racial reckoning protests of 2020.
“Once the pandemic started and once the riots started in Seattle, we did notice an increase in store owners coming in and purchasing firearms at that time,” Matos said.
Although that has slowed down, he believes those store owners still have their guns and would-be robbers would be smart to think twice before trying to a rob a business.
“It’s a tragedy what happened but that criminal element has to know that if you’re going to use a firearm, that is one of the consequences you’re facing,” he said.
KING 5 reached out to other gun shops in the area. We did receive a few phone calls back and they echoed the same sentiments at Matos: the typical gun owner is changing.
One business, that asked not to be identified, said they’ve had an increase of Asian Americans and LGBTQ+ customers. The reason? Both groups feel particularly targeted.
Latest numbers from the Washington State Department of Licensing shows there are 688,440 Active Concealed Pistol Licenses as of September 2022. The 2021 high was 643,317.
Abolish Gun Free Zones and Arm Willing Citizens, Gun Expert Says
DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – As the Michigan Legislature considers legislation pertaining to gun ownership, it is important to also evaluate their effectiveness in crime prevention according to firearms trainer and expert Rick Ector.
The owner of Rick’s Firearm Academy of Detroit, firearms instructor, and rangemaster, explained how his career began on the other end of the barrel roughly 20 years ago.
“I was robbed at gunpoint in my driveway, previously I wasn’t a big fan of firearms in general but I did have a 12 gauge shotgun at home for home defense,” Ector said, “It took two young men robbing me at gunpoint to give me an epiphany and I decided that instead of doing what a few of my neighbors did, walk away from their properties and just started all over taking a financial hit, I decided to investigate how I could learn how to protect myself.”
That investigation began with a gun safety class followed by a concealed carry pistol license in conjunction with learning all he could about guns, firearms safety, and personal protection, according to Ector.
“I went from an armed robbery victim outside of my home, to being on the ballot for the board of directors for the National Rifle Association,” he said.
Now in addition to teaching others to be firearms training instructors, Ector holds numerous certifications ranging from Personal Protection 1 & 2 to Chief Range Safety Officer and metallic cartridge and shotshell reloading, to basic certifications in rifle and shotgun.
After the recent shooting at Michigan State University, he shared his predictions on Facebook that some, including lawmakers, would blame guns and push related legislation.
“Waiting for the state and the university to rush to blame everyone and everything but themselves for the loss of life in East Lansing. I hope they all look in the mirror. Their plan to protect students in a gun-free zone failed. End gun-free zones because vicious killers do not obey them. True story,” Ector shared via Facebook.
He also commented on MSU’s classification as a Gun Free Zone, like many other Michigan Universities, and the ramifications.
“So the students that go there and the parents that send them there are with the tacit unspoken agreement that the university will be responsible for their safety. The university will keep them from being raped, keep them being physically harmed or killed – that’s the agreement.”
For Ector, the schools with similar gun free zone designations are incapable of protecting students while at school, and he suggested a possible remedy.
“I believe a solution is to enable willing instructors, teachers, janitors, whoever is on that campus and who goes through whatever hoops that the university specifies, be allowed to get a concealed pistol license and carry on that campus,” Ector said, “The status quo is unacceptable, we see that it does not work. Parents are sending their children off to be slaughtered and they don’t know whether they are going to live or not because they blindly trust that the staff is going to keep them safe, and we’ve proven that is false.”
Since 1983, Fiocchi of America has been based in Ozark, Missouri.
AK and I used to buy ammo direct off their loading dock.
Fiocchi USA Announces New CEO David Blenker
USA – Fiocchi, a global leader in defensive, target, and hunting ammunition, announces the appointment of shooting industry veteran David Blenker to the position of President and CEO of its North American operations. Blenker will replace Anthony Acitelli, who is retiring after a three-and-a-half-year tenure in this role.
An experienced corporate leader and a decades-long veteran of the shooting industry, Blenker guided two greenfield projects over the past five years — the new Taurus USA and the new A-1 Industries manufacturing facilities in Bainbridge, Georgia.
Blenker’s involvement in the shooting industry goes beyond corporate management. He is a past Board of Governor of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, along with being a past board member of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute, past board member of the South Florida Council of Boy Scouts of America, and currently holds a board seat on the Youth Shooting Sports Alliance. Here, Blenker exercises his passionate advocacy for the grassroots growth of shooting sports — an endeavor that perfectly aligns with Fiocchi’s ongoing support of the Scholastic Clay Target Program. Blenker is also an avid hunter and competitive shooter.
In his new role as President and CEO of Fiocchi USA, Blenker will guide several major initiatives for the company — most notably the expansion of Fiocchi of America, such as the new primer manufacturing facility in Arkansas — and furthering Fiocchi’s commitment to sustainable technology implementation throughout the product lines.
“I am truly excited to work with such a legendary brand as Fiocchi and to work alongside the dedicated employees who have helped the company make such large strides over the last few years,” said Blenker.
“With its increasing manufacturing capabilities and a growing footprint in North America, I look forward to this new chapter in Fiocchi’s nearly 150-year history. I must also thank outgoing CEO Anthony Acitelli for his outstanding stewardship of the brand and for bringing Fiocchi’s North American operations to this point.”
Former President and CEO Anthony Acitelli joined Fiocchi in 2019. During his tenure, Acitelli spearheaded the company’s successful ISO certification effort and oversaw the execution and ground-breaking of the new primer facility in Port of Little Rock, Arkansas. A successive rollout of new product lines and several marketing initiatives guided by Acitelli helped propel Fiocchi to the forefront of the consumer ammunition segment.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my time leading the Fiocchi North American team,” said Acitelli. “There is no greater reward than to see the hard work of so many people come to fruition and to set the stage for a company’s next step toward a promising tomorrow. I am looking forward to retirement and am pleased to leave the company in good hands as David brings to bear the kind of experience, integrity, and long view that will serve Fiocchi well into the future.”
David Stepan, Investment Director, Board Member of CSG Group (Czechoslovak Group) commented, “Smooth leadership transition is always the goal for any company, and with veteran executives like Anthony and David, this task is made easy.
“All of us at Fiocchi and CSG Group would first like to thank Anthony for his notable accomplishment in elevating the Fiocchi brand to its hard-earned and respected position in the US market over the last four years. His guidance has paved the way for David as he begins to move the company forward with major projects underway, like building up our new primer plant, boosting factory output, focusing our vertical integration efforts, and growing our market footprint. We are confident his professionalism and extensive knowledge of the shooting and firearms industries will bring us to our ambitious goals.”
For more information about Fiocchi ammunition, visit FiocchiUSA.com.
Gun industry marketing may end up before SCOTUS
The Protection of Lawful Commerce of Arms act is a bit unusual. It’s rare that Congress would enact protection for an entire industry to prevent unwarranted lawsuits from bankrupting it. However, the gun industry actually needed those protections.
Firearm manufacturers were facing a bevy of lawsuits from pretty much anyone looking for someone to blame. They were blamed for the actions of third parties, people who quite often never purchased the gun legally in the first place, and faced stiff penalties in court.
So, Congress acted.
Now, though, many anti-gun activists want to overturn gun industry protections while others are trying to find ways around them, as we’ve seen in several states.
It seems some are speculating about those latest efforts at bypassing the PLCAA ending up before the Supreme Court.
Buffalo’s lawsuit, filed in December, is one of the first cases of its kind under New York’s 2021 public nuisance gun law, which allows the state and people affected by gun violence to sue gun manufacturers, sellers and distributors for endangering the public’s health and safety — or creating a “public nuisance.”
The new statute and similar laws recently enacted in other states mark the latest round in a long-running battle between gun-control advocates and firearm manufacturers over a 2005 federal law that protects the industry from liability.
And this time, the issue could land before the Supreme Court, according to legal experts, as several Democratic-led states take a more aggressive approach to restricting firearms even after the court acted to expand gun rights last year by striking down a decades-old New York law that limited the ability to carry a handgun outside the home.
“For more than a decade, the court turned away basically every Second Amendment petition that it received,” said Joseph Blocher, a Second Amendment law professor at Duke University. But after last year’s ruling, “it could be that we’re going to be looking at multiple gun cases at the Supreme Court.” …
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun industry’s trade association, is leading the challenge, arguing the new laws are unconstitutional because they are too vague, regulate transactions that take place outside of the states and are preempted by the 2005 law.
The laws are a “transparent and obvious attempt to circumvent the will of Congress,” said NSSF senior vice president Lawrence Keane.
A New Jersey federal judge sided with the group last month when he blocked the state’s law from being enforced, noting that it “is in direct conflict” with federal law. New Jersey has appealed the ruling.
And, at least in my mind, that’s only part of the issue here.
See, these “public nuisance” laws try to target the gun industry and its marketing. However, on top of the law being vague as to what constitutes “improper” marketing, there’s no requirement to show evidence that those who misuse the guns are even remotely familiar with the marketing in question.
In other words, gun companies simply wouldn’t be able to market at all if these states get their way about it.
I’m sorry, but nothing about that seems remotely right.
As a nation, we don’t punish people or companies for the actions of third parties without good cause. In the wake of the George Floyd riots, we didn’t seek to punish the news agencies that reported on Floyd’s death. Why would we? They did nothing wrong in reporting the news.
Yet similarly, the gun industry has to market new products. Otherwise, they cannot continue to exist.
You cannot blame them for what some maniac does with that firearm when nothing in their marketing remotely condones such an action.
So yes, this may well end up before the Supreme Court, and I suspect the gun industry hopes it does.
We’ve seen what the current makeup of the Court is and what it can do in support of the Second Amendment. I suspect these new laws seeking to undermine the PLCAA are going to be gutted if not completely overturned.
And that is very good news.
U.S. FIREARM COMPANIES MADE OVER 13 MILLION GUNS IN 2021
The latest statistics from federal regulators point to a big jump in production for the most recent year available.
The current Annual Firearms Manufacturers and Export Report, released by the ATF late last month, covers the 2021 calendar year. The finalized AFMER is purposely a year behind to protect industry secrets and to allow for all of the data to be compiled. The total figures for 2021 amounted to 13,129,493 firearms of all types– pistols, revolvers, shotguns, rifles, and miscellaneous.
When compared to the finalized 2020 year-end figures of 11,064,078, the latest figures represent a significant 18.7 percent increase.
NSSF Recognizes Senator Ted Cruz’s Support for Project ChildSafe
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- NSSF, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, presented an award to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for his longstanding support of Project ChildSafe, the firearm safety program that has partnered with 15,000 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states and five U.S. territories to distribute over 40 million firearm safety kits, which include free gun locking devices.
Senator Cruz spoke during a Senate subcommittee hearing last year of his involvement at the inception of Project ChildSafe nearly a quarter century ago. He praised NSSF for administering the program that has been subsequently recognized for its efficacy by the National Safety Council’s Green Cross Awards and by the Government Accountability Office.
“NSSF is truly grateful to Senator Cruz for his commitment to safeguarding and protecting Second Amendment rights for all Americans and at the same time championing true firearm safety and responsible firearm storage,” said NSSF President and CEO Joe Bartozzi. “Senator Cruz proves each and every day that true gun safety doesn’t come at a cost of sacrificing Second Amendment rights. In fact, the strongest advocates of protecting Second Amendment rights are those like Senator Cruz who advocate for voluntary safe and responsible firearm storage methods that save countless lives.”
Senator Cruz spoke of his involvement in creating Project ChildSafe while serving as a staffer on then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s campaign in 1999. Gov. Bush brought Project ChildSafe to Texas with a state grant. That program has since grown to include partnerships with law enforcement to provide firearm safety materials and free locking devices nationwide.
“Critical to that is that it is voluntary,” Sen. Cruz said in a hearing last year. “That it is providing child locks so you have the equipment free of charge so that cost is not a barrier to being able to lock a firearm, but it is not mandatory. And I believe people can and should make a judgment about what the needs of their home, of their neighborhood, of protecting their family are. All of us want to prevent firearm accidents.”
To date, over 40 million free firearm safety kits have been distributed through NSSF’s Project ChildSafe campaign. This is in addition to over 100 million free locking devices voluntarily included with each new firearm shipped from a manufacturer. NSSF strongly encourages firearm owners to use any of the variety of safe firearm storage options available to secure firearms when not in use. Project ChildSafe is fully funded by members of the firearm industry and a component of the industry’s Real Solutions, Safer Communities. initiative.
National Rifle Association’s Cost of Corruption by Former NRA Director Rocky Marshall
The path of the NRA’s Board of Directors is destroying the core of the NRA.
The National Rifle Association held a Board of Directors (BOD) meeting on January 6, 2023 and presented financial reports which included a projection of $205M in revenue for 2022 and a proposed budget of $230M for 2023. The forecast of $230M in revenue for 2023 was presented without a business plan or justification and is wholly unrealistic with the downward trends in membership and other revenue streams. The NRA’s projections are unbelievable and would not be accepted in the real world as a viable plan.
The NRA BOD may be shocked to learn that other organizations employ industry related metrics to correlate and validate financial forecasts. In other words, instead of guessing, most companies rely upon trends in the industry directly related to the organization’s core business.
Company using drones to deliver food makes Texas debut in Granbury.
A crazy futuristic new delivery option for food and retail is making its debut in Texas — in little old Granbury.
Flytrex, which specializes in on-demand, ultrafast delivery for food and retail, is bringing food and grocery orders via drone to front and backyards.
According to a release, the service will be based in Granbury, in a partnership with restaurant chain Brinker International, home of Chili’s Grill & Bar, Maggiano’s Little Italy, and two virtual brands: It’s Just Wings and Maggiano’s Italian Classics.
The service is operating in cooperation with longtime partner Causey Aviation Unmanned under a newly granted Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waiver allowing a delivery radius of one nautical mile – reaching thousands of potential homes. Eligible households can order food via the Flytrex app.
Their focus is on the suburbs, where on-demand delivery has previously been viewed as commercially unviable, since traditional couriers can make only two deliveries per hour in such areas. They have a video showing a drone at work on YouTube.
Flytrex CEO and co-founder Yariv Bash says in a statement that the company is thrilled to be soaring into the Lone Star State.
“After establishing drone delivery as a preferred option in North Carolina, we are excited to bring our unrivaled speed and convenience to Texas, where big things happen,” Bash says. “We look forward to bringing drone delivery to backyards across the U.S. as we expand our service nationwide.”
Flytrex has been operating since September 2020, beginning in Fayetteville, then the town of Raeford, then in October 2021, a third drone delivery station in North Carolina at the Holly Springs Towne Center, delivering food orders from It’s Just Wings. Flytrex has already completed thousands of drone deliveries – more deliveries via drone than any other company in the U.S., they say.
They launched the world’s first fully autonomous urban drone delivery system in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2017, and have played an integral role in getting drone delivery off the ground.
January Gun Sales Total of Over 1.2 Million Firearms is the 4th Highest On Record
The January 2023 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,268,236 is an increase of 6.5 percent compared to the January 2022 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,190,856. For comparison, the unadjusted January 2022 FBI NICS figure 2,612,736 reflects a 3.1 percent increase from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,533,096 in January 2022.
January 2023 marks the 42nd month in a row that has exceeded 1 million adjusted background checks in a single month.
Please note: Twenty-five states currently have at least one qualified alternative permit, which under the Brady Act allows the permit-holder, who has undergone a background check to obtain the permit, to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer without a separate additional background check for that transfer. The number of NICS checks in these states does not include these legal transfers based on qualifying permits and NSSF does not adjust for these transfers.
Consumers could be in a ‘world of hurt’ if Biden doesn’t act soon, former Walmart CEO warns.
Former Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon joined “Fox & Friends Weekend” to discuss the nationwide spike in layoffs that have now extended beyond the Big Tech industry.
Mass layoffs are plaguing more than just the Big Tech industry.
On Sunday, former Walmart CEO Bill Simon joined “Fox & Friends Weekend” to warn Americans of the detrimental impact that corporate layoffs could have on the U.S.’s feeble economy.
“It’s crazy right now. We’re stuck in this loop of wage inflation, product inflation and cost inflation. And it’s just that cycle keeps going. And I think, unfortunately, an inevitable byproduct of some of the Fed’s moves and as the necessary medicine we have to take to kind of cool things down and get the inflation back under control on some of these layoffs that are coming,” Simon told co-host Will Cain.
Although the labor market remains healthy and one of the few bright spots in the economy, there are signs that it is beginning to soften. In addition to a number of high-profile tech layoffs over the past month, the economy added 223,000 jobs in December, the smallest gain in two years.
Exclusive: Fox News Executives Censor Tucker Carlson in Order to Protect Pfizer
The first line of Tucker Carlson’s monologue last night was, “How powerful exactly are the big pharmaceutical companies in this country?”
It turns out the answer is: powerful enough to censor Tucker Carlson, the #1 most watched show on cable news.
BREAKING: @pfizer Exploring “Mutating” COVID-19 Virus For New Vaccines “Don’t tell anyone this…There is a risk…have to be very controlled to make sure this virus you mutate doesn’t create something…the way that the virus started in Wuhan, to be honest.” #DirectedEvolution
This story was promptly censored by Google.
.@Project_Veritas exposed what’s probably the most important story on Pfizer and Covid. But if you Google it, you get this:
None of the cable news anchors at any network reported on it, not even at Fox.
Except for one, Tucker Carlson.
Here is the 16-minute long monologue, broken up into 2 parts:
We reached out to Pfizer today and asked if Pfizer is conducting experiments to mutate new coronaviruses for profit, or whether they're contemplating it. But despite their famously well-funded PR department, they refused used to answer.https://t.co/LNd8ftLDQO pic.twitter.com/NHf4BBvj9X
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 27, 2023
When the episode was uploaded to Fox Nation this morning, however, the monologue was less than 4 minutes long. Fox Nation is Fox’s subscription video service that uploads every episode after it airs.
Fox Nation is paywalled, so you can’t check yourself, but here is a screenshot showing the first guest appearing at the 4:02 mark. In contrast, in the full monologue, this guest appears at the 16:00 minute mark.
Where did those missing 12 minutes go?
Existing Home Sales Tumbled in December for 11th Straight Month, Falling to Lowest Level Since 2010
U.S. existing home sales slowed for the 11th consecutive month in December as higher mortgage rates, surging inflation and steep home prices sapped consumer demand from the housing market.
Sales of previously owned homes tumbled 1.5% in December from the prior month to an annual rate of 4.02 million units, according to new data released Friday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). On an annual basis, existing home sales are down 34% when compared with December 2021.
It is the slowest pace since November 2010, when the U.S. was still in the throes of the housing crisis triggered by subprime mortgage defaults.
“December was another difficult month for buyers, who continue to face limited inventory and high mortgage rates,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “However, expect sales to pick up again soon since mortgage rates have markedly declined after peaking late last year.”
There were about 970,000 homes for sale at the end of December, according to the report, a decline of 13.4% from November but up about 10.2% from one year ago. Homes sold on average in just 26 days, up from 24 days in November and 19 days one year ago. Before the pandemic, homes typically sat on the market for about a month before being sold.
At the current pace of sales, it would take roughly 2.9 months to exhaust the inventory of existing homes. Experts view a pace of six to seven months as a healthy level.
The interest rate-sensitive housing market has borne the brunt of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive campaign to tighten policy and slow the economy.
Housing market
At the current pace of sales, it would take roughly 2.9 months to exhaust the inventory of existing homes. Experts view a pace of six to seven months as a healthy level.
Policymakers already lifted the benchmark federal funds rate seven consecutive times in 2022 and have indicated they plan to continue raising rates higher this year as they try to crush inflation that is still running abnormally high.
Still, mortgage rates are continuing to fall from a peak of 7.08% notched in November. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 6.15% this week, according to data from mortgage lender Freddie Mac. However, that remains significantly higher than just one year ago, when rates hovered around 3.56%.
However, even with higher interest rates putting homeownership out of reach for millions of Americans, prices are still steeper than just one year ago. The median price of an existing home sold in December was $372,700, a 2% increase from the same time a year ago. This marks the 130th consecutive month of year-over-year home price increases, the longest-running streak on record.
Prices, however, have moderated slightly after peaking at a high of $413,800 in June.
“The housing market is reeling from years of under-building, economic uncertainty and high interest rates,” said Jeffrey Roach, the chief economist at LPL Financial, adding: “Given the confluence of these factors, housing affordability is the lowest since the mid-1980s.”