The good:
The Republican Party’s finances are increasingly worrisome to party
members, advisers to former president Donald Trump, and other operatives
involved in the 2024 election effort, according to 10 people familiar
with the matter.
The
Republican National Committee disclosed that it had $9.1 million in
cash on hand as of Oct. 30, the lowest amount for the RNC in any Federal
Election Commission report since February 2015. That compares with
about $20 million at the same point in the 2016 election cycle and about
$61 million four years ago, when Trump was in the White House.
The
Democratic National Committee reported having $17.7 million as of Oct.
30, almost twice as much as the Republican Party, with one year before
the election. [snip]
Donors
have not cut as many large checks to the RNC in recent years, and the
party’s small-dollar program has also suffered, according to people
familiar with the party’s finances, who, like others, spoke on the
condition of anonymity to discuss internal party details. Some donors
aren’t giving to the RNC because they think that will help Trump, which
they don’t want to do, these people said, while others have said they
prefer to wait until 2024 to give. Some have grown frustrated with the
party’s leadership, people close to major donors said.
The
party cut certain expenditures this year after projected money did not
come in, according to people familiar with the decisions. [snip]
Republican
frustrations burst into the open this month after GOP losses in races
for the Virginia legislature, the Kentucky governorship, the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and on an Ohio ballot initiative on abortion
rights.
In
October, the RNC rejected a request for additional funding for the
Virginia GOP this fall, said the state party chairman, Rich Anderson.
RNC officials said they had budgeted based on a meeting earlier in the
summer with Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s team in which they didn’t
ask for money.
Other
state party officials have grown frustrated when they’ve asked the RNC
for money to pay legal bills and been turned down, according to people
familiar with the discussions...(our emphasis)
The Malignant Loser has his independent source of sucker dough but, as the article notes, the cash crunch has impacted, and may continue to impact, crucial downballot elections. Maybe the thought that one's donations were paying for some election denying/ voter suppressing thug's legal bills is starting to get old. Or maybe it's just all the losing.
The bad:
Since at least 2019, Meta has knowingly refused to shut down the
majority of accounts belonging to children under the age of 13 while
collecting their personal information without their parents’ consent, a
newly unsealed court document from an ongoing federal lawsuit against
the social media giant alleges.
Attorneys general from 33 states have accused Meta of receiving
more than a million reports of under-13 users on Instagram from parents,
friends and online community members between early 2019 and mid-2023. However, “Meta disabled only a fraction of those accounts,” the complaint states.
The federal complaint calls for court orders prohibiting Meta from
the practices the attorneys general allege violate the law. Civil
penalties could add up to hundreds of millions of dollars, as Meta
allegedly hosts millions of users who are teens and children. Most
states are seeking anywhere between $1,000 to $50,000 in fines per
violation.
According to the 54-count lawsuit, Meta violated a range of
state-based consumer protection statutes as well as the Children’s
Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), which prohibits companies from
collecting the personal information of children under 13 without a
parent’s consent. Meta allegedly did not comply with COPPA with respect
to both Facebook and Instagram, even though “Meta’s own records reveal
that Instagram’s audience composition includes millions of children
under the age of 13,” and that “hundreds of thousands of teen users
spend more than five hours a day on Instagram,” the court document
states.
One Meta product designer wrote in an internal email that the
“young ones are the best ones,” adding that “you want to bring people to
your service young and early,” according to the lawsuit... (our emphasis)
Zuck and his band of meta- miscreants are grooming "young ones" just like the tobacco companies who tried to hook young people on smoking. They're techno- pimps.
The ugly:
A 48-year-old man was arrested on Sunday in connection with the shootings of three college students of Palestinian descent in Burlington, Vermont, on Saturday night, police said.
Jason
J. Eaton was detained midday Sunday near the site of the shooting, the
Burlington Police Department said in a press release. Police then
searched his home and arrested him Sunday evening, officials said.
Eaton is expected to be arraigned Monday morning, police said.
The college students had been wounded Saturday night in a shooting in
Burlington, the state's most populous city, by a gunman who opened fire
at them "without speaking,” police had said in a statement on Sunday.
A preliminary investigation by the Burlington Police Department
determined the three students, all in their 20s, were shot outside the
home of one of the victim's relatives, which they were visiting for the
Thanksgiving holiday, police said in a statement Sunday.
Police detectives, county
personnel and federal agents spent Sunday canvassing the neighborhood
near the shooting and conducting interviews with neighbors, authorities
said. The FBI helped with “victim services and computer and cellphone
analysis,” officials said.
Agents
with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were
canvassing near the location of the shooting at about 3:38 p.m. when
they “encountered and detained” Eaton, Burlington officials said.
The
shooting occurred in front of the apartment building where Eaton lived,
police said. After he was detained, officials were granted a search
warrant, which was executed at his residence at about 9:53 p.m., police
said.
“Evidence collected
during that search warrant, and additional evidence developed during the
course of this investigation, gave investigators and prosecutors
probable cause to believe that Mr. Eaton perpetrated the shooting,”
police said.
One victim is in serious condition, reportedly with a bullet lodged in or near his spine; the other two are in stable condition. The coward who did this needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. As should the cowards responsible for this.
