This month, there is a new case on the docket after the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Smith & Wesson Brands v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. The First Circuit reversed a trial court that dismissed the case, alleging that the American firearms industry is legally responsible for violence in Mexico. I believe the First Circuit is dead wrong and will be reversed. However, as a torts professor, there is a question of whether the tort element of proximate cause could be materially changed in the case. Torts professors are already lining up to argue that there is a proximate cause under existing doctrines to hold the firearms industry liable. I respectfully disagree.
In the petition, Smith and Wesson and other gun manufacturers challenge the claim, including the argument that their sale of lawful firearms in the United States is the proximate or legal cause for the carnage in Mexico. They note that Mexico has long been riddled with violence and corruption connected to the extensive drug industry in that country.
In my view, the trial court dismissed the case correctly under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). That was passed to bar suits against firearms companies based on criminals using these products for criminal or intentionally tortious acts.
However, the First Circuit reversed on the ground that Mexico has made a legally cognizable case that gun manufacturers aided and abetted firearms trafficking that has harmed the Mexican government. The First Circuit is an outlier in this case and ignores both the purpose of the law and basic tort principles of proximate causation.
The Court has accepted the review on two questions:
1. Whether the production and sale of firearms in the United States is the “proximate cause” of alleged injuries to the Mexican government stemming from violence committed by drug cartels in Mexico.
2. Whether the production and sale of firearms in the United States amounts to “aiding and abetting” illegal firearms trafficking because firearms companies allegedly know that some of their products are unlawfully trafficked.
PLCAA was enacted to require dismissal at the inception of lawsuits like this, and other courts have recognized that. The First Circuit’s decision creates a circuit split.
Mexico’s complaint is wildly off base both factually and legally. It suggests that these companies are effectively funneling guns to criminal gangs in Mexico by producing products that they have used in criminal conduct.
The First Circuit adopted an analogy that destroyed the credibility of its decision:
Imagine that a U.S. company sent a mercenary unit of combat troops to attack people in Mexico City. Such an attack would directly cause Mexico itself the expense of paying soldiers to defend the city. Proximate cause would be quite clear. So, too, here, where the defendants are alleged to have armed the attackers for their continuing assaults.
Is that the best these federal judges could come up with? There is a vast difference between the United States sending a combat unit across the border and manufacturers who supply distributors who serve dealers who sell lawful products to consumers. That sounds more like The Merchandisers than The Expendables.
PLCAA specifically bars any “qualified civil liability action” against gun manufacturers and licensees. Any action filed against a federal firearms licensee for damages or other relief resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse of a firearm is expressly addressed in the statute under § 7902 of PLCAA: “A qualified civil liability action … shall be immediately dismissed by the court in which the action was brought or is currently pending.”
Mexico and gun control advocates are focusing on an exception for any manufacturer or seller of a firearm that “knowingly violated a State or Federal statute applicable to the sale or marketing of the product [firearm], and the violation was a proximate cause of the harm for which relief is sought….”
The First Circuit found that, if proven, a case can be made that Smith & Wesson engaged in “affirmative and deliberate efforts to create and maintain an illegal market for [its] weapons in Mexico” and that, as such, it was “aiding and abetting downstream dealers in violating state and federal laws governing the transfer of firearms.” The level of speculation and conjecture in such a claim is manifestly obvious. Mexico failed to offer anything beyond conclusory claims as to “downstream” users to allege this nexus.
The exception is clearly directed at violations of gun statutes, such as falsifying records or conspiracy to sell to a specific prohibited person. Even then, it must be shown to be the proximate cause of the injury. Mexico does not maintain such a specific showing but treats sales generally as aiding and abetting the violence in that country.
Under standard tort doctrine, criminal or intentionally tortious acts by third parties generally cut off legal causation. However, there is an exception where such conduct is foreseeable. Here is the language from Second Restatement of Torts 448:
“The act of a third person in committing an intentional tort or crime is a superseding cause of harm to another resulting therefrom, although the actor’s negligent conduct created a situation which afforded an opportunity to the third person to commit such a tort or crime, unless the actor at the time of his negligent conduct realized or should have realized the likelihood that such a situation might be created, and that a third person might avail himself of the opportunity to commit such a tort or crime.”
The Third Restatement contains the same approach while, again, recognizing that “If the third party’s misconduct is among the risks making the defendant’s conduct negligent, then ordinarily plaintiff’s harm will be within the defendant’s scope of liability.” Restatement (Third) of Torts: Physical & Emotional Harm (2010)§ 19 cmt. c (“If the third party’s misconduct is among the risks making the defendant’s conduct negligent, then ordinarily plaintiff’s harm will be within the defendant’s scope of liability.”).
However, these exceptions have not been extended to the extent envisioned by Mexico or the First Circuit. For example, in the famous case of Brower v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, 91 N.J.L. 190 (1918), a train negligently struck a wagon carrying cider and knocked the driver senseless. The railroad personnel left his goods unprotected and they were stolen. The court ruled:
“The negligence which caused the collision resulted immediately in such a condition of the driver of the wagon that he was no longer able to protect his employer’s property; the natural and probable result of his enforced abandonment of it in the street of a large city was its disappearance; and the wrongdoer cannot escape making reparation for the loss caused by depriving the plaintiff of the protection which the presence of the driver in his right senses would have afforded.”
Simply selling a lawful product falls significantly short of this type of nexus. It would be akin to holding train manufacturers liable for the negligent operation of the train engineer in Brower in aiding and abetting such conduct by third persons.
It is hard to see how the Court could find that these companies were “the” proximate cause of the harm without creating a federal standard for proximate cause that would extend foreseeability beyond any recognition. There are powerful superseding intervening forces in play in Mexico. To embrace this theory that the manufacturers knowingly and foreseeably increased the risk of violence in Mexico would allow torts to effectively gut the industry and existing federal law.
Previously, gun control advocates tried to use product liability and nuisance laws to curtail gun sales. Those cases failed as over-extending tort doctrine to achieve indirectly the courts what could not be achieved directly in the legislatures. Conversely, Congress passed PLCAA to prevent such circumvention of the legislative process.
There are good-faith arguments to be made that the exception for criminal conduct can be maintained where there is sufficient foreseeability and that the First Circuit was merely allowing Mexico to prove its case. However, the complaint is manifestly insufficient for such a claim.
There is no specific evidence that would establish the required showing of knowledge or foreseeability by manufacturers in working with Mexican drug gangs. Mexico has been rife with drug cartels and corruption for decades. Much of this violence has occurred with the cooperation and collusion of Mexican officials, including law enforcement officials.
In my view, the First Circuit should and will be reversed.
I wonder how a lawsuit like this would fly. If a person in the USA dies of a fentanyl overdose the family of the deceased sues the Mexican government for failing to police its borders for precursor chemicals used to manufacture the fentanyl and allowing it to be transported across the border into the USA?
* Agree with Professor Turley
* Everyone go out today and buy a S&W.
* the proximate cause is Mexicos border should have better patrol.
The proximate cause is Mexico doesn’t manufacture quality forcing cartels to buy usa made?
Ridiculous. The group with the suit is attempting get evidence admitted and viable by using drug cartels.
I don’t know ANYTHING about international trade or commerce. Ask the ATF.
More Lawfare by the Biden/Harris Administration. More Biden/Harris “Mexico First-America Last” pandering.
Guess the same principle must also apply that the auto industry is liable for every car accident & drunk driver, scissors makers for every cut.
* WHERE were they manufactured and then imported? The best cars may not be able to import. You’ve missed the point. MANUFACTURING?
“Torts professors are already lining up to argue that there is a proximate cause . . .” (JT)
“Proximate cause?” A gun is not even a tertiary cause. A gun doesn’t cause anything. If you don’t believe that, leave one sitting on a table and see what it does or causes.
Read below as Dennis McInliar spews a trove of made up statistics in a lame attempt to blame gun manufacturers for deaths by criminal cartels.
Of course, this is the same idiot who claimed
“AR-15’s ruin the meat”
* Could go back to catapulting pots of boiling oil.
* arrows–> fire arrows. You recall mixed arrows?
All the stunts of the ladies in congress. Don’t vote for any females. It’s not the right stuff. Sexism? Absolutely.
* Harris= destruction of the USA
Trump= the possibility of preserving the USA.
They’ll turn on you. Lgbtq, women they’ll turn on you.
Pelosi tearing upnthe speech
Hillary the deplorables
Shrieking squad
Boboert, green shreiking
Color coded dress
Waters get in their faces
Hystrionics and destruction
Reclaiming my time– how many are dead and can’t reclaim their time.
Men are goal oriented and efficient. How many men had same color tie day? Why do they wear uniforms everyday. Suit tie, suit tie? Efficient.
Come back girls when you grow up. Call people racist? You got it. Call people homophobes? You got it. Call people sexist? You got it.
Vote Trump the big bad white man. You got it.
Jonathan: Is there no one or no organization you will not shill for? If it’s not Rupert Murdock, it’s Elon Musk. If not them it’s DJT. And now you are shilling for the NRA and the gun industry!
I think it’s fair to say the 6-3 right-wing majority on the SC will reject the claim of the Mexican government against Smith & Wesson. When it comes to the rights of US gun makers Alito and Thomas are all in! If S & W shipped 200 belt-fed M249 SAW weapons directly to the Sinaloa cartel and they were used to kill Mexican nationals, neither Thomas nor Alito would find any “proximate cause” to hold US gun manufacturers and dealers responsible.
The Q you don’t want to address is how the US gun industry managed to get such broad protection from liability that is unavailable to other giants like car manufacturers, the pharmaceutical industry or tobacco makers? In 2005, the NRA’s number one legislative priority was getting the PLCAA passed. The day the law was passed and signed into law by President George W. Bush, the NRA’s Wayne La Pierre thanked Bush personally for the “most significant piece of pro-gun legislation in twenty years”. There is no data to show how much the NRA and the gun manufacturers spent to get the PLCAA passed. But it was significant–including substantial campaign contributions to lawmakers would would sign on to the bill. One thing you can say about Washington politicians–they are the best that money can buy!
And what has happened since the passage of the PLCAA? Between 2912 and 2019, nearly 140,000 firearms were reported “lost” or stolen from gun dealers across the country. Many of these weapons end up in the hands of Mexican cartels. Between 2006 and 2020 between 350,000 and 400,000 Mexican citizens lost their lives die to cartel violence. Every year 44,000 American citizens lose their lives due to gun violence. But under the PLCAA neither the gun industry nor negligent gun dealers can be held responsible for these preventable deaths.
Many have called for the repeal of the PLCAA. Kamala Harris has pledged to sign such legislation. In 2016 the NRA spent $30 million to get DJT elected. Do you think he would go against the gun lobby if he were to get back into office? So as we go into the last week of the 2024 campaign the choices are clear. Only on candidate will try to protect you and your loved ones and your friends from gun violence–and it won’t be DJT!
“140,000 firearms were reported “lost” or stolen from gun dealers across the country. Many of these weapons end up in the hands of Mexican cartels.”
You’re a pathetic, lying POS.
They were reported as stolen and then Eric Holder sold them to cartels in a sting operation gone awry…
How will Kamala do that, Denny?
She is a gun toting 2A supporter.
You havent heard??
* shill in the 21st century has evolved into the word shield.
Dennis, it is clear that you do not know what you are talking about.
You do not know the law generally or the PLCAA specifically,
You have virtually no understanding of the issues you are discussing.
First Wow, the NRA gave Trump 30M in 2016.
The Harris campaign received $1B in donations since the Switcheroo.
If donations determined the outcome of the election – Democrats would win in a landslide – in race after race accross the country Democrats are receiving 2-5 times as much as republicans – even in races with democrat incumbents that are being won by republicans.
The NRA political war chest is miniscule, It is about what ActBlue rakes in for Democrats in a Day.
I would note that Democrats rant and rave over political donations and influence and dark money,
Yet Democrats are the Kings, Queens and emporers of this.
ActBlue by the way is under investigation by something like 19 state AG’s for money laundering.
There are LOTS of people coming forward because FEC records show they have been donating to
ActBlue, yet they have not. There is a strong case that ActBlue is engaging in Identity theft to launder donations in excess of limits OR donations from foreign sources.
What is it that you think the NRA’s “warChest” will do compared to Sorros, or myraids of Democrat billionaires or SuperPACs ?
While a few on the right are using the massive Democrat donations as part of political talking points, the goal is NOT to shutdown
Sorros’s constituional right to donate to whoever he pleases,
But to point out that the Democratic party has unquestionably become the party of the rich elites.
The PLCAA does not change the incredible difficulty in winning a 3rd party tort liability claim.
It has been near impossible to win a 3rd party tort liability claim for as long as tort law has existed.
To win a 3rd party tort liability claim you must prove that the 3rd party was complicit in the specific bad act.
You can not win with claims that the 3rd party knew their product might be misused to cause harm to others.
Otherwise automobile manufacturers would lose 3rd party liability claims for victims of drunk drivers.
All the PLCAA does is prevent left wing nut advocacy groups and left wing nut judges from bankrupting US gun manufacturers in lawsuits that will all be thrown out eventually regardless.
The PLCAA changes the order in which the plantiff must make a 3rd party liability case against a gun manufacturer,
A change that I would have no problem applying to ALL tort law.
It requires the case to be dismissed shortly after being filed, unless the plantif can make a prima fasci case that the Gun Manufacturer is complicit.
The example you used would be a perfect example of Complicity – If S&W sold a Belt Fed Machine Gun directly to the Sinola Cartel and Mexican Civilians uninvolved in the drug trade were murdered using that Machine Gun – S&W would be successfully sued and held liable.
The PLCAA would not protect them.
* So it’s a case of gun running. What is being shown is evidence guns are making their way into cartel hands. The effort is more restrictions. 2A prevents any infringement. That would include registration, wait periods, felons, and has nothing to do with international purchases except there shouldn’t be any except Hillary and Joe ran guns internationally with the military ploy.
I’m not sorting this out.
Dennis, The M249 SAW is manufactured by FN Herstal a french arms manufacturer.
FN Herstall sells these to governments not individuals.
In the US private ownership of a Machine gun is illegal without a special permit which is near impossible to get.
The PLCAA was a significant peice of legislation. It ended the efforts of left wing nuts to bankrupt US gun manufacturers with frivolous lawsuits that with absolute certainty would be dissmissed – but which when filed in corrupt and lawless courts such as those of Merchan, Enmoran and Kaplan would prove incredibly expensive and take years to dismiss.
Dennis – in the US a bit over 20M guns are legally sold each year.
In 2020 – there were over 40M sold during the left wing violence that coincided with the pandemic.
Presuming your figure for gun dealer lost or stolen guns is accurate – and you are not a credible reporter.
That would be 0.1% of all guns sold per year.
I am sure Walmart would be absolutely ecstatic to have a lost or stolen product rate of only 0.1%/year.
Rather than proving that lost and stolen guns from gun dealers are a huge problem – you are actually proving the are not.
In the US in 2023 there were over 1M abortions – of those about 1% or over 10,000 were performed in the 9th month.
The good news is that more than 2/3 were performed before 9weeks – something those of you on the left keep saying is impossible.
So why is the left fighting red state abortion laws that ban abortions after 21 weeks except in the event of rape, incest, human trafficking, a fatal fetal abnormality diagnosis, or when the pregnant woman’s life is in danger ?
Regardless the point is that it is trivial to play games with statistics to create false perceptions of huge problems in a nation of 350M people.
* Reason for the exception when it’s rape or incest? Is the fetus less a human being or has a lesser claim to life than fetuses aborted with male female consent when conceived? How is a right to life affected by consent of the couple?
What is the reason the pregnant female has a greater right to life than a fetus when her life is in danger? Would hospitalization mitigate the danger to her life?
Can she carry the fetus to 5 months and a cesarean extraction provide a greater right to life for the fetus when the pregnant female is in danger?
* In the case of rape the rapist’s child may be executed? Why?
In the US there were 10,000 suicides per year in 2001.
In 2022 that number was 50,000 During most of this time period the rates of overall violence were DECLINING.
There are more suicides per year than gun deaths.
In 1996 Austrailia passed the strictest gun law in the world requiring people to turn in their firearms.
From 1996 to 2019 When New Zealand passed a similarly strict gun law,
it was possible to measure the effect of the AU law by comparing to NZ as the countries have nearly identical populations, and crime rates,
During that period Gun Violence in AU declined – compared to NZ – but overall rates of violent crime, even mass killings remained the same.
People found different ways to do violence to one another.
In the US in 2020 the inability to issue gun permits resulted in 19 new states enacting “constitutional carry” laws.
I beleive it is now 28 states that have “constitutional carry” – in these states you may OPENLY carry a gun without a permit.
Rates of violent crime and gun grime are LOWER in states with Constitutional carry.
They are also lower in states where carry permits are easily obtainable and low cost, and higher in states where gun permits are hard to get and expensive.
As constitutional carry became more commonplace – it is Working class people – minorities in particular living in high crime areas that have been purchasing guns, and the crime rate in those areas has been declining.
While the FBI have been playing games with the FBI crime statistics that for a while FALSELY showed violence declining in the US during the Biden Administration – this is mostly an artifact of Biden imposing far more difficult FBI reporting requirements on police forces which are not required to provide the FBI with data – and many opted out. Regardless the FBI corrected their data last month showing an increase in crime, not a decrease. The Federal Government keeps a SEPARATE set of Crime data – the NCVS – the National Crime Victims Survey.
After dropping for decades since the mid 80’s the NCVS has consistently showed rising Crime in the US since Fergesson.
But as noted above – Crime rates throughout the US are FAR from Uniform, and the data shows that despite overall rising crime,
Crime has actually been declining in those places where legal gun ownership is highest and easiest and where carry permits are easy to get or not required.
Dennis as of 2018 there were approximately 400M guns in the US.
Do you REALLY beleive that any law that you pass is going to accomplish ANYTHING ?
Trump has 10,000 times better a chance of deporting all the illegal aliens in the US than the left has at reducing the number of guns in the US by 1%.
If your arguing that the NRA has unparalleled liability protection because of them spending lobbying money and then noting that car manufacturers and other business don’t have the same blanket of liability then you are contradicting yourself. If I’m not wrong the car industry and other industries have the same amount of money/power if not more than the gun industry. BTW I’m not wrong!
Maybe I suppose if I were a nitwit like you I’d say……. you shill for the Democratic Party. Think before you speak but more importantly don’t insult people just because you disagree with them. I highly doubt you take this advice constructively though.
The Dems have controlled White House for 12 out of last 16 years. And owned Congress for many of those years. Why didn’t they pass gun restrictions. Raised taxes on rich. Pass imingration reform? I have never heard Biden, Harris, Waltz or Sec. Of State ever mention U.S. guns going to Mexico. Dems never made it issue. Harris is bragging she was gun owner.
Look who’s shilling non-stop with lie filled post after post Dennis? Here’s a hint, go to a mirror and if there’s any reflection, it would be you!
Dennis, we don’t need want anyone to protect us from gun violence.
I can do that quite easily by exercising my 2A right.
Tell me when the last time was that any Democrat encouraged lawful citizens to exercise their 2A right, particularly as it pertains to self defense/self preservation?
I’ll save you the trouble. Zero is the answer.
OT but too good to pass up.
Gwen Waltz says tampons in boy’s rooms is about learning to read and closing gaps.
https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1850572215810499022
That helps explain the illiteracy crisis but I want to learn more about those ‘gaps’.
Didn’t have tampons in boy’s rooms when I was in school but I wish we did. A little PVC pipe and tampons would make good blowgun darts. I wasn’t anyone’s idea of a model student
Can they even still call them ‘boy’s rooms” in her state? Sounds triggering to someone. Probably not as triggering as having a tampon blowgun dart bounce off your head, though.
Agreed Young, she has the same crazy eyes as E Jean Carroll. They should both close their gaps and then close their yaps.
GOP in full blown panic.
Speaker at Trump rally today:
“I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico”
Rick Scott response:
“ It’s not funny and it’s not true. Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans! I’ve been to the island many times. It’s a beautiful place. Everyone should visit! I will always do whatever I can to help any Puerto Rican in Florida or on the island.”
Well over 1 million Puerto Ricans live in Florida.
I wonder who they will vote for???
Pennsylvania has 500,000 Puerto Ricans.
Interesting way to count their vote
Like i said earlier, there were swastikas everywhere.
Hey, fake commenters, wanna come over and eat some boogers with me?
Sorry lawn boy, its only Dems who think islands float.
Remember Hank Johnson? He was the one that was afraid Guam would tip over.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hank-johnson-worries-guam-could-capsize-after-marine-buildup/
Imposter
It was a stand up comedy act numb nuts. He roasted all equally. Try again. Why are you still ripping off others identities?
Puerto Rico is beautiful? Not at the garbage dumps that are threatening to take the island over! That is what he was talking about, you know. PR’s garbage crisis that the news industry has been reporting on for decades but they suddenly want to pretend doesn’t exist.
“Proximate cause” tort liability & “aiding and abetting” — a trial lawyers wet dream of possibilities.
Consider the opportunities:
– Of course, we all know about the pharmaceutical industry and opioid “crises” where legally manufactured and sold opioids have lead to overdose deaths — and often gang related violent deaths.
– Automobile industry: car bombs, violent crime & robbery getaway cars, drive by shootings – not to mention & deaths caused by drunk drivers and other preventative crashes.
– Hydrocarbon-based fuel industry: A “proximate cause” in “aiding and abetting” arsonists – gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, turpentine, butane, and various other flammable solvents are almost exclusively, the arsonist’s go-to accelerant.
– And couldn’t, by following this Mexican president, countries like Lebanon assign “proximate cause” liability to the US aerospace and arms (bomb) manufacturing industry or “aiding and abetting” the devastating invasion now going on there.
These are just the obvious potentialities of the “proximate cause” liability doctrine for “aiding and abetting” some imagined tort.
The list is only limited by your imagination. Think baseball bats, golf clubs (both use in a surprising number of bludgeoning murders and attacks). Blade manufacturers – that’s a palpable one, especially if you live in the UK. Oh, and lets not forget domestic and industrial herbicides and pesticides – a shocking number of poor and forsaken souls use them to “Shuffle off this mortal coil” or “promote” the same in some other unsuspecting person they want rid of.
To repeat and modify Turley:
“It is hard to see how the Court could find that these [industries] were “the” proximate cause of the harm without creating a federal standard for proximate cause that would extend foreseeability beyond any recognition. There are powerful superseding intervening forces in play in [name the place]. To embrace this theory that the manufacturers knowingly and foreseeably increased the risk of violence in [name the place] would allow torts to effectively gut the industry and existing federal law.”
* Smith and Wesson is not selling guns to drug cartels.
If there weren’t banks there’d be no bank robbers.
If the sun didn’t rise there’d by no sunburns.
Learn not to kill people. The proximate causes are criminals and immoral people. Mexico, teach your people morality.
I knew it!! Trump has MSG completely decked out in swastikas and just admitted he is related to Hitler.
Marxist idiots.
Someone else wrote this, bit I thought it was worth sharing…
“Bezos understood that if he antagonized Kamala Harris and Harris became president, he would face no consequences. A Harris administration would not target his businesses because the Harris administration would—like all presidential administrations not headed by Trump—adhere to the rule of law.
Bezos likewise understood that the inverse was not true. If he continued to antagonize Trump and Trump became president, his businesses very much would be targeted.
So bending the knee to Trump was the smart play. All upside, no downside.
What Trump understood was that Bezos’s submission would be of limited use if it was kept quiet. Because the point of dominating Bezos wasn’t just to dominate Bezos. It was to send a message to every other businessman, entrepreneur, and corporation in America: that these are the rules of the game. If you are nice to Trump, the government will be nice to you. If you criticize Trump, the government will be used against you.
Which is why Trump met with Blue Origin on the same day that Bezos yielded. It was a demonstration—a very public demonstration.”
Bezos is an idiot.
Next?
* His money increased his IQ to off the charts.
Did you save enough tin foil for your T-giving turkey?
“I thought it was worth sharing…”
It’s not.
ATS – and yet it is the Biden/Harris administration that has REPEATEDLY been caught violating “the rule of law”.
it is also the Biden administration that is actively persuing Anti-trust cases against Amazon and Google, as well as SEC investigations based on ludicrous interpretations of the law.
Silicon Valley is donating in rough parity to Trump and Harris – despite favoring democrats heavily for decades,
specifically because they want this unproductive and stupid actions by the Biden/Harris administration shutdown – without having to go to the Supreme Court.
SpaceX was responsible last year for 1/2 of all cargo into space, and nearly all humans into space.
China is in 2nd place.
NASA and DoD missions that were not handled by SpaceX were 3rd.
Blue Origen had What 2 launches all year ?
Bezos requires a miracle to get back into the space game.
I would note that no one is even close to SpaceX in low cost/lb of cargo into space – and as soon as starship moves from testing to deployment that drops by another order of magnitude.
I fully support NASA paying Bezos the same cost/lb of cargo as they pay SpaceX.
Frankly I want to see Bezos and Allen, and Boeing, and … succeed in space – without subsidies competing in a free market.
I would further note that at this time 48% of all satelites in space are owned by Musk.
Of the rest today about half are PRIVATELY OWNED – not by governments.
“Bezos understood that if he antagonized Kamala Harris and Harris became president, he would face no consequences. A Harris administration would not target his businesses because the Harris administration would—like all presidential administrations not headed by Trump—adhere to the rule of law.
This is a joke, right?
OT:
What Is the FBI Hiding About Iran?
“The bureau has ignored my questions about its probe into Tehran’s malign effort at election interference”
By Elise Stefanik
Today, on the eve of the presidential election, the FBI is doubling down on its politicization and corruption. As one of the few senior Intelligence Committee members who served through the sham impeachment that grew out of the collusion hoax, it is my duty to share with the American people what the FBI has failed to answer—and, I believe, is willfully covering up—about Iranian influence in the 2024 presidential election….
We don’t know for sure whether the FBI’s refusal to answer questions on the 2024 Iranian threat is another example of the bureau’s political bias at work, but given recent history, you’ll forgive my suspicion. I know a corrupt coverup when I see one.
Wall Street Journal
Representative Stefanik is not wrong re: the FBI’s recent history of political bias
Nicole Shanahan exposes Dem corruption:
https://x.com/BigFish3000/status/1850181824800039204
This lawsuit is patently 100% political, brought on behalf of the Soviet Democrats and their identity politics totalitarian donors and beggars.
The unmentioned part of this story: it is an American gun confiscation/prohibition anti civil rights group filing and running this lawsuit for Mexico in their ongoing attempt to make the Second Amendment a dead letter: Global Action on Gun Violence, right here in America.
To stop gun violence in the United States and around the world, GAGV is proud to represent the Government of Mexico GAGV founder and president Jonathan Lowy helped Mexico develop its legal strategy for this case and is co-counsel.
https://actiononguns.org/gagvs-work-with-mexico/
Also unmentioned is that 13 states plus the District of Columbia – all run by Democrat police state fascist governments – are supporting Mexico and GAGV attempting to sue American gun manufacturers into financial ruin while killing those American jobs.
13 states and the District Of Columbia have backed the Mexican government’s lawsuit against a group of US gun manufacturers
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/06/us/mexico-lawsuit-us-gun-manufacturers/index.html
Neither the American gun confiscation group nor their supporting Democrat ran states are suggesting naming the Border Czar Harris Administration as co-defendants. Nor Taurus from Brazil (one of the largest gun sellers in America). Nor Communist China and Russia where the cartels get their AK-47s from. (And where Biden White House Crime LLC also gets most of it’s money, BTW)
While unlikely, if the lawsuit is thrown out, what are the chances that this American fascist gun confiscation group and its president Jonathan Lowy are ordered to pay the manufacturers’ costs?
WWTD???????
What Would Trump Do???? End all arms exports to Mexico because so many of those military weapons Mexico legally purchases and imports end up in drug cartel hands?
* How about American and Mexican militaries launch a ground war on cartels and push them back into central America. Mexican southern border jointly station military troops. Drop napalm on all crops throughout the America’s. Ground troops in usa arrest and hang all drug offenders. A real war on drugs.
I’m voting again for Trump. Let’s make it crystal clear. Democracy has failed and we need a strong leader. We need to terminate portions of the Constitution just like Trump said and make him POTUS for life.
^^ Paid DNC troll. Ignore. ^^
Give the phone back to your mom and go clean your room.
Now calling Letitia James,
Letitia James where are you?
Letitia?
NY Fed says banks obscuring commercial real estate risks by extending loan terms
Summary:
NY Fed warns stressed banks obscuring commercial real estate issues
NY Fed: Troubled banks extending commercial real estate terms
NY Fed: Extended troubled CRE loans could quickly become broader problem
NEW YORK, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Banks have been tweaking the terms of commercial real estate mortgages to obscure losses, and in delaying the day of reckoning, are increasing risks to the broader financial system, a paper released Wednesday [https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr1130.html] by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said.
The commercial real estate sector, or CRE, has been under heavy pressure from the pandemic and its aftershocks. Lockdowns and the widespread rise of remote working has reduced the need for office buildings and similar structures, and thus far, the sector has shown few signs of recovery. On top of that aggressive Fed rate rises between the spring of 2022 and July 2023 further pressured banks.
“Banks ‘extended-and-pretended’ their impaired CRE mortgages in the post-pandemic period to avoid writing off their capital, leading to credit misallocation and a buildup of financial fragility,” the study’s authors wrote, adding problems associated with this lending could arise quickly. …
By: Michael S. Derby ~ October 23, 2024
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/ny-fed-says-banks-obscuring-commercial-real-estate-risks-by-extending-loan-terms-2024-10-23/
Leticia?? I heard she’s out looking for Oblow holes wingman Eric Holder. He has a date with the upcoming DOJ for his 2012 contempt of congress charge, same as Bannon and Navarro had. He should be headed to Mexico to face gun trafficking charges and then back to the good old USA for accessory to murder of a border agent….
Never forget what they have done!
Get started Letitia
66th Street and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)
200 Liberty Street (Manhattan)
Black Rock and 51W52 – 524 W. 57th Street (Midtown Manhattan)
1211 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue @ Midtown Manhattan)
30 Rockefeller Plaza (Midtown Manhattan )
620 Eighth Avenue at40th and 41st Streets (Midtown Manhattan)
1211 Avenue of the Americas (Midtown Manhattan)
At $450 Million a pop, Just these properties alone will land you a whopping $3,150 Million !
Look at all that Cheddar Baby – You Go Girl !!!
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2024/attorney-general-james-wins-landmark-victory-case-against-donald-trump
It’s easy money Baby, Your the one that set the precedence. – Go For It!
Letitia,
The Federal Reserve has all but a signed a Confession with this Statement*. The Banksters, Property Asset Mangers, Owners, and the BOMA** Syndicate
have all committed a massive Commercial Real Estate Liar Loan scheme.
I know I’m not tellin you how to do your job. I’m tell’en you, You ain’t doing your job.
Ya’ll (Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron) gotta get movin, if You gonna be the next United States Attorney General.
Your legal precedent is now the mandate – Get on it Sista Girl!
* Federal Reserves Confession
https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr1130.html
** Building Owners and Managers Association International
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_Owners_and_Managers_Association
Sotomayor should have sold custom art paintings, like Hunter.
Candace Owens refused entry into Australia.
Visa application is denied.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke states:
“Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else.”
I love it.
The world is becoming a very small place for the MAGA cult.
I sit at home and laugh about magats every day, while enjoying a nice glass of cooking sherry and eating boobers.
Get a fat one up ya !!!!
Ooooh, I like the sound of that
Candace is a prostitute. I don’t think prostitution is legal there.
I think you’ve confused Candace with Kamala. I’m sure they all look the same to you.
Prostitution is illegal here too, dum dum. So is pimping your mom.
Or maybe the left is increasingly desparate and has to weaponize every last bit of power they have to cling to the last vestiges of what power they have.
The world is moving right, it is doing so under the left wing nuts currently in power in many places.
^ Fascist police state Soviet Democrat. Ignore. ^
* People babysit criminals. This is what happens. There’s no logic to any of it.
It could be caused by drug induced brain damage or simply brain defects itself.
They’re doing work on trans people and brain malformation. Birth defect is the way it’s going. It’s time to create bathrooms and gyms for trans people. Sports events for trans and move passed this. Tragic there are so many parents that shouldn’t be parents at all.
Drug cartels and drug addicts are being babysat. It’s called CO dependency because people think they’re responsible for another’s bad behavior and choices.. holding drug manufacturers responsible for people taking prescription medications and not following dosing instructions is illogical.
Ground war on drug cartels USA and Mexico. Seriously. It’s a violent , immoral, illegal enemy.
There’s no logic left in your world. The government is a true clown show. Withdraw into States. And slash the corrupt feds. The days of glory are done. If the stats are true and Harris is a few points away from trump, there’s nothing left except profound illness induced by false media. Mass psychosis deliberate. A little boy cut off his private with a knife and gave it to his mother.
Time to say Auf vedersehen to the NET. It’s become the fisher of men. Cast your net to the right side of the boat. Go through the front door after knocking and don’t break and enter. Huh? Don’t kill people is always good.
Thank you, Professor Turley