Monthly Archives: December 2022

Where Did My Tax Dollar Go?

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Rand Paul’s Annual ‘Festivus’ Report: $482,276,543,907 in Government Waste

US Republican Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul speaks as US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearings to examine school reopening during Covid-19, focusing on supporting students, educators, and families, on Capitol Hill in Washington, …
SHAWN THEW/AFP via Getty Images
HANNAH BLEAU

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Friday continued the annual tradition of celebrating “Festivus,” airing out his many grievances as it relates to government waste.

Paul’s 2022 Festivus report highlights $482,276,543,907 in government waste and includes $2.3 million used by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for an experiment involving injecting puppies with cocaine, $202,000 used by the Department of Defense (DOD) on Starbucks espresso machines, and $3 million for the construction of a Gandhi museum.

“This will be the 10th year in a row that I’ve celebrated #Festivus with you. By celebrated I mean have a little fun at the expense of Washington. If we don’t laugh we might cry,” Paul wrote before sharing some of the highlights of the report to his social media page and invoking the infamous Seinfeld quote from Frank Costanza, “I’ve got a lot of problems with you people!”

“I would air my grievance at Fauci again but I am trying to be festive — and also I’m trying to get home for Christmas. If I listed all of the things Fauci was wrong on…wow that guy is wrong a LOT,” Paul began:

According to Paul, the DOD wasted millions this year, including $28 million on “camouflage” uniforms that did not work.

Per the Festivus report:

A Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report revealed that the Department of Defense (DOD) spent roughly $28 million on forest-patterned, “camouflage” uniforms to use in the deserts of Afghanistan. It was later found that the camouflage uniforms were “not based on an evaluation of its appropriateness for the Afghan environment.”

The DOD also spent $192,952 on what the report describes as “top-of-the-line” Starbucks espresso machines:

The NIH also wasted a significant amount of money. That includes $2.1 million on encouraging Ethiopians to wear shoes, $2.3 million injecting beagle puppies with cocaine, $1.1 million on “training mice to binge drink alcohol,” over $519,000 using mice to study racial aggression, and $187,500 on “verifying that kids love their pets.”

According to the report, the pet grant went to Kent State University, which used the funds to apparently “verify that the relationship between pets and children is beneficial to mental health.”

Other highlights directly from the report include:

  • Maintaining 77,000 empty Federal buildings (GSA)………………..………….$1,700,000,000
  • Helping illegal immigrants avoid deportation (DHS)……………………….…. $168,000,000
  • Overpaying government contractors for a terminated contract (GSA)…………..$69,000,000
  • Using COVID relief funds to construct an 11,000 square foot spa……….……. $140,000,000
  • Watching hamsters fight on steroids (NIH)………………………..………….…..$3,000,000
  • Studying the romance between parrots (NSF)……………..………………………….…$689,222
  • A radio campaign telling drivers to stop at railroad crossings (DOT)………………..$200,000

Read the full Festivus report here.

from:    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/12/26/rand-pauls-annual-festivus-report-482276543907-government-waste/

It Seems Clean Trucks = No Trucks

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The EPA’s Latest Regulation Could Devastate The Trucking Industry

Strengthening Economy And Increase In Ground Shipping In U.S. Has Led To Truck ShortagePhoto by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
JACK MCEVOYENERGY & ENVIRONMENT REPORTER

  • The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Tuesday that will impose stricter emissions standards on new heavy-duty vehicles, a regulation that will significantly raise operating costs for truckers, experts and industry representatives told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
  •  “The costs associated with this are also a concern because these are costs that not only the industry will bear … prices will go up for everybody,” Texas Trucking Association President John Esparza told the DCNF.
  • “It’s an overreach that is indicative of this administration’s tendency to set aside balance to achieve the goals of activists that they are politically aligned with,” Mandy Gunasekara, a senior policy analyst for the Independent Women’s Forum and former EPA Chief of Staff during the Trump administration, told the DCNF.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule Tuesday that will impose stricter nitrogen dioxide emissions standards on new heavy-duty trucks, a move that will substantially hike operating costs for truckers, experts and industry representatives told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The EPA’s rule, which is more than 80% stricter than the previous regulation, will require large trucks, delivery vans and buses manufactured after 2027 to cut nitrogen dioxide emissions by nearly 50% by 2045, according to an agency press release. The agency’s rule is intended to push truckers to phase out diesel-powered vehicles and use electric vehicles (EV) instead; however, the compliance costs associated with such rules could suffocate an industry that is not ready to transition to EVs, experts told the DCNF

“It’s an overreach that is indicative of this administration’s tendency to set aside balance to achieve the goals of activists that they are politically aligned with,” Mandy Gunasekara, a senior policy analyst for the Independent Women’s Forum and former EPA Chief of Staff during the Trump administration, told the DCNF. “It’s going to squeeze out the mid-sized and smaller trucking companies because they’re not going to be able to afford to purchase the new, extremely expensive equipment required to continue to do what they do.”

The new rules are intended to phase out older trucks that emit more nitrogen dioxide and will push drivers to purchase electric trucks or newer models of diesel trucks that do not produce as much nitrogen dioxide when they burn fuel, according to the EPA.

“If small business truckers can’t afford the new, compliant trucks, they’re going to stay with older, less efficient trucks or leave the industry entirely,” Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association President Todd Spencer told trade publication Freight Waves. “Once again, EPA has largely ignored the warnings and concerns raised by truckers in this latest rule.”

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said that the rule would protect “historically overburdened communities,” that are disproportionately affected by trucking emissions as truck freight routes are often located near “vulnerable populations,” according to the press release. Nitrogen dioxide gas can exacerbate respiratory diseases like asthma and form acid rain in the atmosphere which can damage lakes and forests, according to the EPA.

“The EPA is happy to go easy on big trucking since they support regulations that will harm their smaller competitors far more,” Steve Milloy, Energy and Environmental Legal Institute senior legal fellow and former Trump administration EPA transition team member, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Regan announced the new rule in front of an electric garbage truck produced by Mack Trucks and following his remarks, Mack spokesman John Mies stated that his company supports the administration’s zero emissions targets for trucks and is working to cut “dangerous” emissions produced by diesel trucks, according to CNN.

“Companies have taken the initiative to electrify a certain percentage of their fleet by a certain year and have made plans to build the necessary infrastructure, but they are then told that there isn’t enough power to achieve what they’re seeking,” Texas Trucking Association President John Esparza told the DCNF. “The costs associated with this are also a concern because these are costs that not only the industry will bear … prices will go up for everybody.”

The EPA’s final rule is the first step in its “Clean Trucks Plan” which seeks to heavily regulate trucks’ emissions to push drivers to adopt electric trucks.

Gunesakara echoed Esparza’s comments and said that such targets were a “technological fantasy” that could cost truckers their jobs due to the high price of electric trucks. Gunesakara added that the EPA’s rules would force truck drivers to drive older, more polluting and less efficient vehicles for longer as diesel trucks will be rapidly phased out long before EVs can become a more viable alternative.

The EPA touted its new rule and said that it will result in up to 2,900 fewer premature deaths, 18,000 fewer cases of childhood asthma and 6,700 fewer hospital admissions as well as an overall annual net economic benefit of $29 billion due to fewer missed work days. The agency’s trucking rules are less strict than California’s regulations as heavy vehicles in the state must cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 75% starting in 2024, and 90% starting in 2027, according to a California Air Resource Board rule.

The EPA did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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from:    https://dailycaller.com/2022/12/25/epas-regulation-imperil-trucking-industry/

 

“It’s 2030, and We Own Your Money”

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How Klaus Schwab’s WEF Is Weaponizing Banking

Frank Bergman9 Comments

Over the past two years or so, the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) influence over governments and institutions of sovereign nations has become increasingly apparent.

Founded in 1971 by German economist Klaus Schwab, the WEF has remained fairly under the radar for decades.

However, the organization has been quietly expanding its icy grip around the throats of the world’s population by installing operatives in the upper echelons of governments and corporations.

This influence has expanded so far that Schwab and his allies appear to have given up trying to conceal their agenda and even openly gloat about controlling nations’ leaders.

When the Covid pandemic emerged, it opened the floodgates for the WEF agenda as the public begged their leaders to take away their basic freedoms.bank accounts

Vaccine passports, digital ID, lockdowns, a cashless society, and other such restrictions, all align with the WEF’s “Great Reset” agenda.

It’s not just happenstance that the world’s banks and financial institutions are freezing the accounts of those who do not share the same political ideologies that they choose to live by.

The freezing of bank accounts comes directly from the BIG STEAL promoted by the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset” – “You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy.”

In February, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau froze the bank accounts of thousands of truckers in the Freedom Convoy—and their supporters.

As Slay News reported in November, we saw the same tactics used in Brazil when people who questioned the presidential election results had their bank accounts frozen.

In early 2022, Trudeau’s sidekick supporter, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, swooped in to confiscate the millions of dollars the public sent to GoFundMe and GiveSendGo for the protesting truckers.

Three months later, when the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting took place May 22nd through 26th, in Davos, Switzerland, 50 heads of government and thousands of corporate, philanthropic, and scientific leaders were in attendance. (National Pulse, May 20, 2022)

Twenty-five American officials, including two White House representatives, and an additional 12 Democrat and 10 Republican politicians, accompanied them.

The panel discussions included:

  • Economic Weaponry: Uses and Effectiveness of Sanctions
  • Safeguarding Global Scientific Collaboration
  • Blue Foods for a Sustainable Future
  • The Journey towards Racial Equity

“Economic Weaponry” is the WEF’s latest weapon in the take-down-the-enemy arsenal.

“Candace Owens reported on Wednesday that entertainer Kanye West has been removed as a client from Chase Bank. (Post Millennial, Oct. 12, 2022)

“Owens shared the letter from the multinational banking company, which was headed “Closing of Our Banking Relationship.”

“Addressed to Ye, it read “We are sending this letter to confirm our recent discussion with [redacted] that JPMorgan Chase Bank… has decided to end its banking relationship with Yeezy, LLC and its affiliated entities.”

“The bank gave West until November 21 to move his accounts to another financial institution.

“No reason appears to have been given in the bank’s decision to stop servicing the accounts of the multi-millionaire entertainer and fashion designer.

“This comes after a spate of criticism was heaped on West for an apparent antisemitic post on Twitter which led to West being locked out of the platform. West wrote: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I am going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”

“In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, West said “When I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race black really are. This is who our people are. The blood of Christ. This, as a Christian, is my belief.”

“Owens recently joined West during Paris fashion week, where both of them wore controversial shirts emblazoned with the words “white lives matter.”

“West told Carlson that the reason he had the shirts made is because it was “obvious.” He went on to say that the Black Lives Matter movement is a “sham.”

“West has publicly discussed his mental health struggles and revealed several years ago that he has been diagnosed bipolar disorder.”

PayPal can still steal your $2,500

Then there’s PayPal, which Ken LaCorte points out backtracked on fining people for “misinformation”, but it can still fine users for promoting “intolerance”.(Ken Lacorte, Oct. 12, 2022

“PayPal users rebelled after learning the company’s policy allowed it to fine them $2,500 for spreading “misinformation,” deducting that money directly from user accounts. The company swiftly reversed itself amid the fallout, saying the policy was posted in error.

“While it backtracked from “misinformation” it still maintains that if you promote “intolerance” or “hate” they can steal $2,500 of your money. Per infraction.

“All you need to do is read through the company’s 23,478-word User Agreement, and then click on its Acceptable Use Policy, section 2(f), which makes things clear:

“Prohibited Activities … the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory.”

So who gets to decide what’s hateful or intolerant?

“Violation of this Acceptable Use Policy … may subject you to damages, including liquidated damages of $2,500.00 U.S. dollars per violation, which may be debited directly from your PayPal account(s).”

“When the original story broke, the company’s former president called the policy “insanity,” and co-founder Elon Musk agreed.

“The company explained it was all a big mistake: “PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy.” (Notice that they don’t say anything about promoting “hate” or “intolerance.” That can still cost you a lot of dough.)

“Of course, hate is bad, assuming we’re not talking about hating Nazis or Russians or Trump or fundamentalists or Republican candidates or … you get the idea.

“So who gets to decide what’s hateful or intolerant? According to PayPal:

If we believe that you’ve engaged in any of these activities, we may take a number of actions to protect PayPal, its customers and others at any time in our sole discretion.

Why do we call the Great Reset The BIG STEAL?

Meanwhile, the WEF BIG STEAL carries on with their next Davos gathering scheduled for the end of January.

Why do we call the Great Reset The BIG STEAL?

It’s because they will greedily confiscate everything the masses own and tell you that, when you are left with nothing, “you’ll be happy!”

READ MORE: WEF Advisor: ‘We Don’t Need Vast Majority of Population’

from:    https://slaynews.com/opinion/how-klaus-schwabs-wef-weaponizing-banking/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-newsletter

To Travel on The Moon

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NASA Awards $57M Contract to Build Roads on the Moon

NASA awarded a $57.2 million contract to develop construction technologies to build infrastructure on the moon.

NASA awarded a $57.2 million contract to develop construction technologies to build infrastructure on the moon. PHOTO BY CARLOS FERNANDEZ

By Kirsten Errick,

Staff Reporter, Nextgov

The award will go toward developing technologies to build infrastructure like landing pads and roads on the surface of the moon.

As NASA continues its exploration under Artemis, it needs new technology to improve infrastructure on the moon.

In an effort to meet this need, NASA awarded ICON—an advanced construction technology company best known for 3-D printed homes—a $57.2 million contract to develop construction technologies to build infrastructure on the moon—including landing pads, habitats and roads. The contract goes through 2028.

Tuesday’s contract is under Phase III of NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program. It is a continuation of a prior SBIR dual-use contract with the Air Force, which NASA partially funded. The award will fund ICON’s Project Olympus to engage in research and development for space-based construction systems to support further space exploration.

“In order to explore other worlds, we need innovative new technologies adapted to those environments and our exploration needs,” Niki Werkheiser, director of technology maturation in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said. “Pushing this development forward with our commercial partners will create the capabilities we need for future missions.”

The new award will help ICON’s Olympus construction system, “which is designed to use local resources on the moon and Mars as building materials,” according to the announcement.

ICON will use a lunar gravity simulation flight to bring its technology into space. The company will also utilize samples of lunar regolith—a layer of debris covering the moon’s surface—to examine their behavior in simulated lunar gravity; this will help inform construction approaches. ICON noted that the technology “will help establish the critical infrastructure necessary for a sustainable lunar economy including, eventually, longer term lunar habitation.”

“To change the space exploration paradigm from ‘there and back again’ to ‘there to stay,’ we’re going to need robust, resilient and broadly capable systems that can use the local resources of the moon and other planetary bodies,” Jason Ballard, ICON co-founder and CEO, said. “The final deliverable of this contract will be humanity’s first construction on another world, and that is going to be a pretty special achievement.”

ICON will work with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center under NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Moon to Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technologies project.

The award will expand ICON’s commercial activities and its work with NASA. For example, ICON 3-D printed a 1,700-square-foot Martian habitat simulation—the Mars Dune Alpha—that will be used for NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Analog mission in 2023.

As NASA looks to have astronauts return to the moon and eventually travel to Mars, the agency is also looking at creating a sustainable presence in outer space and establishing a long-term presence on the moon. As a result, building infrastructure on the moon is a necessary component towards that goal.

from:  https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2022/11/nasa-awards-57m-contract-build-roads-moon/380291/