The annual straw poll conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Sunday, February 27, 2020 indicated former President Donald J. Trump by far the top pick in the 2024 presidential primary. 59 percent of respondents said they would vote for Trump.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Was a distant second, at 28 percent, in the same survey.
The poll is conducted every year at CPAC by secret ballot. No other candidates came remotely close to Trump and DeSantis; no other candidate made it to five percent.
The three most important issues for CPAC attendees were:
1. Election integrity (49 percent),
2. Immigration/border wall (48 percent)
3. Constitutional rights (43 percent).
Those polled also show an extreme concern for President Joe Biden.
A solid 99 percent disapprove of Joe Biden’s White House performance, indicating his “competence” is the greatest threat to America’s safety and national security.
Pence 1%
The most concerning greatest threats to America, according to the survey are:
🔹Biden’s “competence” (61%)
🔹China (35%)
🔹Russia (3 percent)
Former Secretary of state Mike Pompeo was the third choice for the primary with just 2 percent.
In a poll without Trump as a 2024 option, support for DeSantis rose to 61 percent. Pompeo’s percentage increased to 6 percent, which is the same percentage Donald Trump Jr. received.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and former South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem each received 3 percent of the vote. Former Vice President Mike Pence received 1 percent of the vote.
Partial immunosuppression or reduced immune response,
Increased predisposition for viral, fungal, and bacterial illness,
Increased rhinovirus infections,
Increased risk of disease transmission,
Immune-mediated inflammatory disorders, more commonly known as auto-immune diseases, which include rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, Sjogren’s syndrome, along with many others.
Cancer
Promotes the growth, invasion, and spread of cancer,
Poorer survival rates in patients with cancer,
Poorer clinical outcomes.
In his book Face Masks Hurt Kids, Lou Rockwell indicates some issues of wearing mask can be minor. Some issues are major.
“The broad takeaway from this list for me is that there is no longer any way to say that a face mask is safe for any man, woman, or child to wear,” Rockwell wrote. “Masks are least safe for anyone frail such as the sick, the elderly, and children to wear.”
“There is no excuse to let a person force a mask on your child, not just to get through the door, not because I’m in a hurry, not to avoid an uncomfortable conversation, not just to visit grandma, and certainly not just to get through the day at school. Allowing such behavior is negligent and needs to be stopped. We need to have the hard conversations that stop it. We cannot keep avoiding the issue: people in authority demand the right to place this unquestionably harmful medical device on our children and on others.”
“If we cannot summon the will and the wherewithal to stand up for the children in our lives, we have little hope of standing up for the rest of society.“
Parents and citizens in multiple states around the country have taken to filing complaints against their local school boards through Surety bonds and other insurance policies in order to see changes in masking, Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other school materials policies.
Despite mainstream media attempts to label the strategy with propaganda buzz such as “paper terrorism,” “sham legal claims” and “baseless,” parents are winning.
🔹In October, 2021, Steve Socha in Ohio told the Indian Creek school board he intended to file a claim against their bonds unless they lifted their mask mandate for students.
“Either stand down or I personally assure you I’m going to (take action),” Socha said according to the Herald Star. “The wheels of justice will be brought before you. Many of you could be in violation under the laws and statutes. This ends tonight.”
At its next meeting in November, the Indian Creek board dropped the mask policy.
🔹On Jan. 27, 2022 all 10 members of the school board in Scottsdale, Arizona, were served with 10 Notices of Intent each for practicing medicine without a license, child abuse, and inappropriate sexual material in school libraries. Each claim has a liability value of up to $100,000.
🔹In Alaska, the Anchorage School Board is facing similar actions.
🔹Recently, parents in North Carolina have taken notice of the bond complaint strategy. School boards in some districts have been served with complaints, including Catawba, Dare, Iredell, Johnston and Wake counties.
Of those districts, only Wake County has resisted changing to a mask-optional policy.
Notices of Intent were filed against Wake County School Board members in January with a main demand that the district remove “all enforcement of policies that require universal masking/masking without parental consent.”
More parents across the country are planning to file similar measures against their school boards, especially those facing elections.
Iredell’s school board was served at the conclusion of its meeting on Feb. 7 demanding an end to masking, quarantining exclusion rules, and pornographic materials in the district’s schools. On Feb. 14, the board voted to make masks optional on the recommendation of their superintendent.
In Dare County, the school board was served at its Feb. 8 meeting with 28 Notices of Intent against the district’s Linebacker Errors & Omissions liability policy by the Dare County Citizens for Constitutional Rights (DCCR). At that same meeting, the Dare Board voted six to one to make masks optional effective immediately.
Facing complaints to be filed by citizens, the Johnston County School board voted 6-1 on Feb. 8 to make masks optional. That happened on Feb. 14.
What are Surety bonds?
Surety Bonds are financial guarantees that bondholders will uphold terms of contracts specified in the bond agreement. All elected officials are required to be bonded and the idea behind these bonds is to protect the public from malpractice or fraud by the officials covered by the bond.
Some states have statutory requirements that local boards of education members must have a Surety bond.
Other states allows local boards of education to hold liability insurance, and therefore waive its governmental immunity, to cover damages caused by certain actions of agents or employees of the local board.
A website called “Bonds for the Win” outlines the Surety process, including state codes and violations that can be used in complaints.
There are three parties involved in a Surety Bond:
1. the principal–the organization or person purchasing the bond and accepting the obligation to adhere to the terms. If the principal fails to adhere to the terms, the Surety can be held contractually liable.
2. the company offering the bond, and
3. the obligee–the person or entity covered by the bond. In most cases, the obligee is a local, state or public official, but it can also be companies or their officials, unions and even contractors.
To file a Surety bond complaint, a Notice of Intent to file a complaint which includes specific violation claims is sent to the bondholder. Typically, the notice gives a short timeframe for a response.
If the entity served with the notice doesn’t correct the violations within the specified response time, the next step can be filing a “Color of Law” violation notice. The federal Color of Law statute Title 42, U.S.C., Section 14141 is designed to defend the civil rights of citizens and to keep any authority from using its power to willfully deprive a person of their constitutionally protected rights and privileges.
Once the claim against the Surety bond is filed, the company that issued the bond investigates. If the claim is found valid, the official the claim is filed against can submit a defense or they can provide a solution to the issues raised that includes financial compensation to the claim filer.
Filing 10 or more separate complaints against the bondholders can result in bond cancellation and make getting a new bond harder. For some elected officials, being unable to obtain a new bond can mean removal from office.
_________________
“If we cannot summon the will and the wherewithal to stand up for the children in our lives, we have little hope of standing up for the rest of society.“
Season pork chops on all sides with steak seasoning.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook chops in melted butter until browned and slightly pink in the center, about 7 to 10 minutes per side. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 145 degrees F (63 degrees C). Add remaining butter to the pan as needed so that about 3 tablespoons pan drippings remain in the pan when the chops are finished cooking. Transfer pork chops to a plate and return skillet to medium-high heat.
Mix flour, basil, and beef bouillon together in a bowl. Stir black pepper into skillet with the pan drippings and cook for 1 minute. Add flour mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until browned, about 2 minutes. Pour milk into flour mixture; cook and stir constantly until mixture is thick and bubbly, 4 to 6 minutes. Pour sauce over pork chops and serve.
Reduced glomerular filtration rate, which is the amount of blood that passes through the filters of the kidneyseach minute a reduced rate is an indication of reduced kidney function,
Renal overload,
Generalized nephritis, which is inflammation of the kidneys,
Flares of toxins in the body,
In his book Face Masks Hurt Kids, Lou Rockwell indicates some issues of wearing mask can be minor. Some issues are major.
“The broad takeaway from this list for me is that there is no longer any way to say that a face mask is safe for any man, woman, or child to wear,” Rockwell wrote. “Masks are least safe for anyone frail such as the sick, the elderly, and children to wear.”
“There is no excuse to let a person force a mask on your child, not just to get through the door, not because I’m in a hurry, not to avoid an uncomfortable conversation, not just to visit grandma, and certainly not just to get through the day at school. Allowing such behavior is negligent and needs to be stopped. We need to have the hard conversations that stop it. We cannot keep avoiding the issue: people in authority demand the right to place this unquestionably harmful medical device on our children and on others.”
“If we cannot summon the will and the wherewithal to stand up for the children in our lives, we have little hope of standing up for the rest of society.“
Being a cowgirl goes beyond riding a horse and working with cattle.
Growing up in Texas, we know that a cowgirl is a woman who is strong, confident, and not afraid of a hard day’s work. She is polite, sharing kindness with all the folks around her, and she doesn’t shy away from getting dirt under her fingernails. Each cowgirl is an inspiration to us all.
Over the years, many cowgirls and cowboys have passed down their wisdom and have provided encouragement to others. Dodie and I graduated from McCollum High School where the mascot is the Cowboys.
Today, we live near Bandera, the Cowboy Capitol of the World, and see the true Texas Hill Country spirit of the hearts and souls here. These photos and quotes are here to support and empower all of us and help build confidence and strength in these times of reassurance.
Sometimes we just need to think about our attitude and try approaching a situation differently rather than let something or someone ruin a whole day.
A gentle reminder that though it may be really hard, being kind to everyone is the right thing to do, even if they are not kind to you.
There are always going to be difficult times and being able to weather the storms are only going to make you a stronger person.
Sometimes you must take life by the reins if you want to chase your dreams and ambitions. A reminder: we have to get outside of our comfort zone to get what we truly want.
The values associated with cowgirls are ones of kindness, respect, and love. People can often lose sight of those values when it comes to personal gain and it is important to never lose sight of those beliefs.
Take each day with a good attitude and appreciate what you have, but don’t let that stop you from working towards your goals.
John Capen Adams [1812-1860] became so famous for his love of grizzly bears, he would go down in history simply as “Grizzly Adams.”
“Grizzly Adams,” in the 1970s, was the title of both a popular motion picture and NBC TV series “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.”
On the television, Dan Haggerty played the role of Grizzly Adams” and established new Thursday night record-ratings for the network. Even so, today few people realize there was a real “Grizzly Adams” who migrated to the Sierra Nevada mountains to escape the confines of civilization after participating in the great California Gold Rush.
Book
Toy Doll
Board Game
1970sDan Haggerty as Grizzly Adams
In 2018, Adventure Outdoors Magazine recognized Grizzly Adams as one of the three greatest American outdoorsmen of all time alongside Buffalo Bill Cody and Ernest Hemingway.
Adams challenged both conventional norms and untamed nature, first by turning his back on a greed-driven society born from the California Gold Rush, and then by blazing a trail into the wildest parts of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.
There, he built a cabin home in the wilderness, made friends with nearby Native American tribes. Of special note, he found companions among some of nature’s untamed beasts, that especially featured his prized grizzly bears.
Although a California Mountain Man, he was actually born in Boston in 1812. As a young man he fled into the wilderness in search of adventure. To earn money he would trap all kinds of animals and sell them to zoos. It was here he learned to survive in the wilderness and get close to animals.
When he attempted to train a Bengal tiger in a local zoo, he was mauled almost to death. This did not deter him. When the California gold rush kicked off, Adams headed for California himself. Finding no luck as a gold miner, he took to the wilderness, living the life of a reclusive mountain man.
“And it was in the mountains that I successfully worked out for myself the great problem which other men have to work out, each in his own way, before they say that they live.”
– Grizzly Adams (1812-1860)
Grizzly Adams cared for the California grizzly bear, and studied their behavior. He learned to approach and even tame them. He even had a pet Grizzly bear who he stole from a bear den when it was just a pup. Called “Benjamin Franklin,” the bear saved Adams life on numerous occasions.
Another bear Adams named “Samson” was confirmed by the California State Historical Society to be the bear image on the state’s flag.
It was rendered from an 1855 painting done by famous Gold Rush artist, Charles Nahl, who came to know Grizzly Adams well in the 1850s.
With his familiarity, Grizzly Adams captured numerous bears over the years, selling them to zoos, circuses and private collectors. On occasion he would perform in the circus with them.
Before the Trump administration began construction on the Border Wall, almost two-thirds of criminal activity in Texas was gang related and Mexican cartels were escalating their recruitment of U.S. school-age children.
“Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment,” an independent study by former military generals Barry McCaffrey and Major-General Robert Scales noted, “They want these kids to do the dirty work.”
“They are sacrificial,” Carlos, a 28-year old man who had escaped cartel torture and death and was working at a downtown San Antonio restaurant, explained. “They pay them $500 or $1000 to cross the border into Texas because they know the patrol doesn’t think American kids are going to smuggle that much drugs in, but with that kind of money, and excitement, they can find students willing to do it.”
“When the other kids see someone driving a car and spending money and buying their girlfriends jewelry and clothes, it’s not hard to recruit others,” Carlos said.
Laredo TX Police Blotter
In just 18 months, six of seven cartels established headquarters in Texas cities during Obama’s last year’s in office, according to testimony form the Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McGraw.
At least 22 murders, 24 assaults, 15 shootings and five kidnappings were traced to cartel activities on the Texas side of the border during that period.
Carlos says “these cartels are very sophisticated and are run like a military or a business.”
“They provide ‘insurance’ to the farmers,” Carlos outlined. “If the farmers continue to harvest and provide marijuana for a very cheap price, then their wives and children will continue to live. That is Mexican cartel ‘insurance.’”
“They pay a few dollars for a pound of marijuana,” said Carlos. “They have up to six levels of people on their payroll who make sure it gets into the U.S. cities because they can sell it in San Antonio or Houston for like $250 or $300 a pound, but in New York or Chicago, it might be $1500 or $1600, and that’s a big profit that no one is going to stop as long as the U.S. allows them to keep on going.”
The generals’ report stated the cartels objectives “are relying increasingly on organized gangs to provide expendable and unaccountable manpower to do their dirty work.”
Smuggling people.
“These gangs are recruited on the streets of Texas cities and inside Texas prisons by top-tier gangs who work in conjunction with the cartels,” the report continued.
During the Obama presidency, Department of Public Safety reports showed that in 2010, the Texas prison gangs associated with the Mexican cartels increased from four to 12.
When Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples released the report, it revealed these cartels were building a “sanitary zone” about one county deep within the U.S. along the Texas border. The plan was use this zone to escape Mexican law enforcement and provide an area of safe movement for drug smugglers and human traffickers.
Texas was the “tactical close combat zone and frontline in this conflict. Texans have been assaulted by cross-border gangs and narco-terrorist activities.”
“Washington keeps telling us our border is more secure than ever, but this detailed military assessment, by two of America’s top generals, offers proof to the contrary,” Commissioner Staples said about the Obama administration. “It’s time to shed the cloak of denial and protect our citizens and national security.”
“It’s time for Washington to uphold its constitutional duty to protect Americans on their home soil,” Staples added.
The report offered a military perspective on how to best use “strategic, operational and tactical measures to secure the increasingly hostile border regions” on the border.
Big Improvements With Trump
Before the Trump presidency, Texas landowners and officials had been witnessing and pleading with the Obama Administration for increased federal support to defend the U.S. border. They are doing the same with the Biden White House.
Under Trump, the border was far better protected.
“The southwestern United States had become increasingly threatened by the spread of Latin American and Mexican cartel organized crime,” said Gen. Barry McCaffrey (Ret.)
“The violence and ongoing threat to our security reflected a change in the strategic intent of the cartels to move their operations into the United States,” said Maj. Gen. Robert Scales (Ret.) observed back then. “American cities and rural areas now have Latin American drug, gun and human smuggling cartels operating inside our borders.”
Under Obama-Biden it is a War Zone
Their findings indicate citizens living and working in a Texas border county is equivalent to living in a warzone. Law enforcement agencies, civil authorities, journalists and citizens are in continuous and growing danger of attack.
There is disparity between reported and actual cartel activity because the 17,000 local and state law enforcement agencies that provide data to the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), under the both the Obama and Biden Administrations, are not required to categorize these crimes as “drug related.”
Here is a quick list of how wearing a mask can affect your heart.
Heart
Increased heart rate,
Reduced cardiopulmonary capacity,
Lower maximum blood lactation response, which is an indicator of reduced cardiopulmonary capacity,
Mask-induced latent increase in blood gascarbon dioxide levels (toward hypercapnia),
Increase in carbon dioxideretention,
Increased carbon dioxide blood content,
Increased transcutaneous carbon dioxide, which is carbon dioxide levels measured through the skin,
Rapid onset of toxic effects due to the easy uptake of carbon dioxide in the blood and the rapid diffusion into bodily tissue,
Mask-induced latent drop in blood gas oxygen levels (toward hypoxia),
Decreased oxygen availability,
Decreased oxygen saturation of the blood,
Decreased blood oxygen partial pressure,
Hypercapnia, which is abnormally high carbon dioxide in the blood
Including acute (sudden) hypercapnia,
Hypoxia, which is abnormally low oxygen in the blood,
Hypercapnic hypoxemia, which is abnormally low oxygen in the blood at the same time as abnormally high carbon dioxide in the blood,
Increased blood acidity,
Increased lactate concentration,
Increased acidic environment,
Acidosis,
Cardiac overload,
Endothelial dysfunction, which is impaired function of the lining of the blood vessels, an early stage of arteriosclerosis in which the endothelium, the lining of the blood vessels, stops working properly and may cause significant symptoms,
Increased blood pressure,
Increase in systolic blood pressure,
Hypertension, which is abnormally high blood pressure,
Hypotension, which is abnormally low blood pressure,
Vascular damage, which is damage to the arteries and/or veins,
Cardiovascular disease, which is disease of the heart and circulatory system,
Increased heart attack risk,
Increased stroke risk,
Serious arrhythmia, which is an irregular or abnormal rhythm of the heart,
Cardiac dysfunction,
Right or left ventricular dysfunction, which is improper functioning of the portion of the heart that is largely responsible for pumping blood,
Pericarditis, which is swelling or irritation of the saclike tissue around the heart, the pericardium,
Myocardial ischemia, which is reduced blood flow to the heart, preventing the heart muscle from receiving enough oxygen,
Arteriosclerosis, which is the hardening of the arteries,
Coronary heart disease, which is a disease affecting the major blood vessels that supply the heart,
Life threatening staph infections,
Bacteremia, which is bloodstream infection,
Sepsis, which is a condition in which the body’s response to an infection damages the body,
Septic arthritis, which is joint trouble caused by the spread of an infection to a joint,
Irreversible fibrosis in heart tissue, which is a change in the heart tissue, leading to impaired performance of the heart,
Subacute bacterial endocarditis, which is an infection of the heart lining and valves that develops over a longer period of time than acute (sudden) bacterial endocarditis.
In his book Face Masks Hurt Kids, Lou Rockwell indicates some issues of wearing mask can be minor. Some issues are major.
“The broad takeaway from this list for me is that there is no longer any way to say that a face mask is safe for any man, woman, or child to wear,” Rockwell wrote. “Masks are least safe for anyone frail such as the sick, the elderly, and children to wear.”
“There is no excuse to let a person force a mask on your child, not just to get through the door, not because I’m in a hurry, not to avoid an uncomfortable conversation, not just to visit grandma, and certainly not just to get through the day at school. Allowing such behavior is negligent and needs to be stopped. We need to have the hard conversations that stop it. We cannot keep avoiding the issue: people in authority demand the right to place this unquestionably harmful medical device on our children and on others.”
“If we cannot summon the will and the wherewithal to stand up for the children in our lives, we have little hope of standing up for the rest of society.“
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told the enthusiastic Orlando crowd on the opening day of the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) America must put on a “full armor of God” as he focused on making 2022 “the year that America fought back” against the “woke” Left.
Here are highlighted parts of his 20 minute speech at the largest and oldest gathering of American conservatives.
“Florida led when it counted. We led early on when the weight of the world was bearing down on our shoulders. We understand what it means to be a leader. Not just be a politician that twists in the wind but be willing to make tough decisions.”
Faucian Dystopia
“Florida has defeated Faucism. Freedom has prevailed in the Sunshine State.”
People are coming to live or visit Florida “not just because we have lower taxes, because we’ve always had lower taxes. These are people who are fleeing leftist governments in this country.”
“And why do even these biggest critics and lockdowners come to Florida? Well, I think it’s simple. From the very beginning, we refused to let this state descend into some kind of Faucian dystopia where people’s freedoms are curtailed and their livelihoods are destroyed.”
“They criticized Florida, and the first chance they get, what do they do? They escape to freedom in the state of Florida.”
These are “politicians who lock down their own people.”
Let’s Go Brandon
“There is no substitute for the courage to stand in the way of the Brandon administration. The inflation is because of his policies, and we’re not going to let him forget that.”
“Yes we’re against CRT but what are we for? I’m for the Constitution, I’m for the Bill of Rights, we need to have our young people understand what that means.”
If the Woke Left “had just elected a couple more U.S. Senators…They were going to pack the U.S. Supreme Court. They were going to make D.C. a state so they would have two radical, left-wing Democrat senators for life.”
“They were going to abolish the electoral college so California could … elect the president, and they wanted to federalize fraudulent ballot practices.”
DeSantis argued that Democrats’ congressional ambitions attempt to “marginalize the conservative half of the country” so they would become “powerless” to fight back against their “ideological aims.”
The Left’s Woke Religion
“The woke is the new religion of the Left, and this is what they have in mind. That’s why they want CRT [critical race theory] because they want to divide the country. That’s why they remove statues of Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt, take George Washington’s name off schools. Because they want to erase that history.”
“They want to delegitimize our founding institutions and they want to replace that with their left-wing ideology as the foundational principles of our modern-day society.”
“No, in Florida you’re not getting a slap on the wrist you’re getting the inside of a jail cell. We are a law and order state in the state of Florida. We reject weak-on-crime policies. We reject Soros prosecutors.”
“We’re not going to let our young girls, women athletes have opportunities denied to them because of ideology and political correctness.”
“We are in the process of getting money from the legislature so that if Biden is dumping illegal aliens in Florida from the southern border, I’m rerouting them to Delaware. We’ll do some in DC and Hollywood as well.”
Protect Freedoms
“The job of the statesman is not to subcontract out your policy to help bureaucrats. … The job of the statesman is to lead, to take all the interest in society, and make sure you’re doing what’s in the public good. So many governors over the last two years would simply defer to help bureaucrats because it was a safe thing to do politically.”
“My job is to stand up and protect the freedoms and the jobs of the people I represent and if that puts me in political jeopardy then so be it,”
“Had Florida not led the way, this country could look like Canada or Australia. We sometimes take freedom for granted, you should not do that after the last two years.”
Popular Gavin vs. DeSantis meme
Biden is “…always criticizing us, always trying to take pot shots at Florida…He doesn’t like Florida, and he doesn’t like me because we stand up to him.”
“Woke is the new religion of the left… a form of Marxism…Legacy media is not in the business of telling the truth… Big Tech is now the No. 1 institution of censorship.”
Woke Biden His Time
“We stand up against the weak-on-crime policies that are ravaging cities across the country…this is not going to be like Portland. … In Florida, you are not getting a slap on the wrist, you are getting the inside of a jail cell.”
“Because we will not spend taxpayer money to teach our kids to hate America or to hate each other, we have banned CRT in K through 12 education.”
“But I can tell you there’s one fella that just hates Florida. His name is Joe Biden…He’s always criticizing us. Always trying to take potshots at Florida. He does things like take our medication. He stiffs storm victims of relief because he doesn’t like the governor. He doesn’t like Florida. And he doesn’t like me because we stand up to him…He’s had the worst first year of any president since the 1800s.”
“We protected people’s rights, we protected people’s jobs, and made sure every kid in the state of Florida had an opportunity to go to school in person five days a week. Freedom has prevailed in the Sunshine State.”
“The left does not want to honor our freedoms. We have the responsibility to fight back on all fronts.”
Repercussions from Facebook’s continued censorship cost them with a loss of almost a million users in the last half of 2021. The first quarter of 2022 is looking far worse. Last week they experienced the largest single-day decline for a company in history.
Even before the 2020 Presidential Election, Facebook began censoring any negative posts regarding Hunter Biden’s troubling connections with China and Ukraine or his father’s self-imposed lockdown in the basement.
Well after cancelling President Donald J. Trump’s Facebook page, from October through December 2021, the king of Big Pharma’s daily active users fell by about half a million, from 1.930 billion during July-September to less than 1.929 billion.
It Sucked to Be Zuckerberg
Last week Facebook (now known as Meta) saw its market value decline by more than most public companies are worth.
It was particularly tough for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—who is not only marred by his substantial monetary contributions to the corruption of the November 2020 elections—but being the company’s largest individual shareholder, he lost over $30 billion in just one day.
Today, Facebook’s losses in users persist:
Daily Active Users (DAUs): To 1.93 billion from 1.95 billion.
Monthly Active Users (MAUs): 2.91 billion from 2.95 billion.
Average Revenue per User (ARPU): $11.57 vs $11.38.
Facebook was heavily fined for using cookies illegally towards the end of 2021 by the French data protection authority, Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Liberté (CNIL).
🔹On the French version of Facebook, users were being asked to consent to cookies in such a way that it was much easier for them to accept than reject the request.
🔹They could accept cookies with just one click but there was a more laborious process for refusing.
Facebook/Meta was fined $10,467,073 because its breaches affected so many people and it had been in trouble for past violations.
More Zuckerberg Lip Service
Facebook/Meta was provided three months to change their systems to make it as easy for users to reject cookie requests, but most progress has been in sending out lip service type press releases:
Facebook, renamed “Meta,” said it’s reviewing the court’s decision and is committed to working with authorities.
Knowing the laws in the rest of the EU are the same as in France, more countries are taking such actions against Facebook/Meta.
Meta announced that their hardware division, Facebook Reality Labs, is being broken into a separate division. Its core business will be Facebook’s Family of Apps (FoA), including Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.
Their Reality Labs segment made $877 million in revenue in the last 2021 quarter with an operating loss of $3.3 billion.
Zuckerberg Faces US Woes
In the United States, a year ago in February 2021, a federal judge approved a $650 million Facebook class action privacy settlement affecting over 1.6 million members.
🔹The lawsuit accused Facebook of violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act over the platform’s use of facial recognition in photo-tagging.
Analysts suggest that Meta’s losses in North America and Europe are detrimental because they are running out of users to add in the remainder of the world.
🔹On February 15, 2022 Meta agreed to pay $90 million to settle a 2012 lawsuit for tracking users even after they logged out of their accounts.
If approved by the US District Court for the Northern District of California, plaintiffs affected by Facebook’s improper data tracking will receive portions of the $90 million. Meta will also be required to delete all of the data it wrongfully collected from those users.
Zuckerberg Feed
Meta also announced last week that they are changing the name of Facebook’s News Feed, the primary part of the service that users scroll through to see what their friends and family have shared. Going forward, it be called the “Feed.”
🔹The “News Feed” name had been in place since the feature was first introduced more than 15 years ago.
In a 2020 opinion, a federal appeals court ruled that Facebook’s data collection created “economic harm” and that this alleged data collection required explicit user consent specified under the Wiretap Act. Facebook appealed these decisions to the Supreme Court which declined to take up the case last year, leaving the Ninth Circuit ruling in place.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has also filed a complaint against Meta. Under the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, it is unlawful to use a person’s biometric data for commercial purposes without their consent.
🔹The law also requires anyone who collected the data to destroy it “within a reasonable time,” but no later than one year after the data was collected.
🔹Anyone found guilty of unlawfully collecting biometric data faces a $25,000 fine for each violation — a violation the complaint alleges Facebook committed billions of times.
🔹The complaint also alleges Meta Platforms violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act by not being clear with users about what the facial identification data was being used for. Companies found to have violated this law can be fined up to $10,000 for each penalty.
🔹In November 2021, Meta stated it was ending its facial recognition system on Facebook and would be deleting over a billion individuals’ facial recognition templates.
🔹The company said the decision to end the system came as a result of people opting out of being recognized in images. It also came several months after it settled a similar class action lawsuit in Illinois for $650 million.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a major recall of various products sold at Family Dollar Stores in six states: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee.
The recall includes, but is not limited to:
FDA-approved dietary supplements
Cosmetics, including skincare products, baby oils, lipsticks, shampoos and baby wipes
Animal foods, including kibble, pet treats and wild bird seed
Medical devices, including feminine hygiene products, surgical masks, contact lens cleaning solutions, bandages and nasal care products
Over-the-counter medications, including pain medications, eye drops, dental products, antacids and other medications for both adults and children
The FDA said they began an investigation into their West Memphis, Arkansas, distribution facility after receiving a consumer complaint in January.
Inspectors found live rodents, dead rodents, “rodent feces and urine, evidence of gnawing, nesting and rodent odors throughout the facility, dead birds and bird droppings, and products stored in conditions that did not protect against contamination,” the FDA announced this week. After fumigating the facility, more than 1,100 dead rodents were discovered.
Between March and September of last year, the company’s internal records showed it found more than 2,300 rodents in the facility, the FDA said.
Any and all pet food — whether it’s a can of Alpo or a bag of the “good stuff” — has been recalled from 404 Family Dollar stores in the South because a distribution center in Arkansas had an apparent rodent infestation.
“There are numerous hazards associated with rodents, including the potential presence of salmonella,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) noted in its recall announcement.
Clever Journeys 