Posted on 09/24/2022 8:24:21 AM PDT by Reno89519
My latest FreeRepublic donation is listed by my credit card company as "FreeRepublicFirearms". Yes, payment to our dear FreeRepublic is flagged as a firearm purchase.
A little bit of research...
On the direct Best Egg website all of the transactions since June show up as expected, Free Republic LLC. This includes the most recent transaction on September 20. Even accessing the 'more details' view, it only says Free Republic LLC.
On the iPhone app, which I recently installed, it shows only the current month or billing period transactions and the same September 20 transaction is listed as FreeRepublicFirearms in the ledger view. Accessing the detailed view it lists the label FreeRepublicFirearms and then "as seen on statement" Free Republic LLC.
What is the difference?
Best Egg lists themselves as Marlette Funding LLC. Both the app and the bank website have the same company identification. Elsewhere it appears they are a subsidiary or service provider of First Bank & Trust in Brookings, South Dakota. I did not research further to determine if Marlette Funding is part of First Bank & Trust or an independent service provider, vendor, reseller, or vendor or whatever label might be appropriate.
The app claims to be 4+ years old, has a 4.7 rating, and identifies the developer as Marlette Funding. This is the only app associated with Marlette Funding.
On the browser version, each transactions shows a simple icon image, FreeRepublic and others have the same generic merchant icon.
On the app, while the FreeRepublic transaction has a generic icon, I see other transactions have recognizable company logos (i.e., Simplisafe, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Walmart, McDonald's) And my evidenced eating habits are a topic for another day!
What is going on?
I would surmise that Marlette Funding, AKA Best Egg are using a third party service to match transactions up with known companies to provide them with logos, vanity names, and a merchant category. What I see is that vanity name FreeRepublicFirearms is being applied by the app to the FreeRepublic transaction. For the moment the merchant category is simply Other.
The third party service is not identified, which is no surprise since these apps and even browser websites will not typically identify the source of code and services they use to deliver their end-product.
What does this all mean?
What it means is that some anti-American company, and maybe not even an American company, is injecting their political bias into our financial transactions. In this case labeling Free Republic LLC as FreeRepublicFirearms. It like means that when, and I don't even say if, they implement firearms categories, FreeRepublic will be ensnared. For obvious political views as FreeRepublic, to the best of my knowledge, is not an FFL.
What can we do? Next steps?
First, it would be good to know if Best Egg, Marlett Funding, and First Bank & Trust are doing this knowingly and intentionally? What other banking products, like credit cards, does First Bank & Trust have and do they also label FreeRepublic as FreeRepublicFirearms?
Second, who is the underlying third-party service provider, do they have a stated political bias and agenda or is this surreptitious? And who is funding them?
Third, what can we, the customers of these banks and credit cards, and what can FreeRepublic do? If and once the source of the labeling is identified, do they have a mechanism to correct their bias and potential libel, will they correct it?
Lastly, and most immediately, I urge everyone to check the browser and app and printed statements for your FreeRepublic donations to see if they all match. With more data from multiple banks and credit cards we might see if this is a one-off, which I seriously doubt, or a pattern that might help deduce the source.
Once we know the source, maybe we will also know how infected our financial system is, and can then figure out how best to fix.
The Middle Eastern nutcases have not made a joint successful attack in the USA since 9/11.
The federal government has “Total Information Awareness”.
This could be a 1 Bh (one Buckhead) post.
The French Way to fix things.
What do you mean?
They are just flagging everything related to opposition of the Democratic Party “firearms” probably goes to a CIA or FBI database for further scrutiny.
Wow! I don’t buy firearms or related items. At least not with a credit card. Seems like I need to make an extra donation to FreeRepublic so I can get on the big government list. :-)
FWIW, DuckDuckGo, aka Google, says there are Free Republic Firearms gun stores in Ohio and Texas.
Buckhead is the Freeper who exposed the “George W. Bush” Air National Giard fraud/hoax for what it was, pointing out that when the alleged “CYA” memo was written, superscript type in a date, which appeared in the alleged “memo to file”, was not possible with the typewriters used at the time (1970-ish). As a result, Dan Rather and CBS were exposed as the journalist hacks and frauds that they were, and still are.
they are preparing for the coming social credit score
i hope you paid cash for your MAGA hat
Must be your particular issuer. Mine lists it as Free Republic LLC. That was on September 21.
mark
So your suggesting my report here is false, a hack, or fraud?
Cash is King.
Mine shows up as Free Republic LLC
That is some real crap they're pulling.
Let's see if anyone else reports it.
I’d look a little more carefully into the source of even that “joint successful attack” back then if I were you.
I think Sicon was crediting you with an important FR observation similar to the one Buckhead made years ago that brought down Dan Rather.
Free Republic Firearms
By Appointment
Massillon, Ohio
44647 USA
https://maps.roadtrippers.com/us/massillon-oh/shopping/free-republic-firearms
Might want to ping Chris...
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