“Toxic Femininity” Will “Not End Civilization” – Megan McArdle – Maybe not, but it caused wokeness and has set us back way more than the much hyped Toxic Masculinity. One built the world that we enjoy, and the other is trying to tear it down (hint, that one is not the men). They are just mean girls who didn’t get their way, or ones who are so overcome by emotion, they can’t function properly.
Pentagon Officials Caught Using Taxpayer-Funded Credit Cards at Casinos, Bars, and Nightclubs Totaling $1.3 BILLION
Washington, D.C. – A scathing new audit from the Department of Defense Inspector General (DODIG) has blown the lid off a jaw-dropping scandal: Pentagon officials have been using taxpayer-funded credit cards to bankroll gambling sprees, bar tabs, and late-night parties at nightclubs. While Americans scrape by amid soaring costs, the brass at the DoD have been living large—on your dime.
Taxpayer Money Down the Drain
The audit zeroes in on the Government Travel Charge Card (GTCC) program, designed to cover official travel expenses for DoD personnel. Instead, it’s become a slush fund for reckless spending:
$387,642.66 blown at casinos and mobile app stores—think slot machines and Candy Crush, courtesy of taxpayers.
$112,484.69 racked up at bars, lounges, and nightclubs, with spikes during holidays and big games like the Super Bowl.
A staggering 3.9 million transactions worth $1.2 BILLION left unchecked because no one bothered to look.
This isn’t pocket change—it’s a full-on heist of public funds.
Oversight? What Oversight?
The Pentagon had a fancy tool, the Visa IntelliLink Compliance Management (VICM) system, meant to catch shady charges. But here’s the kicker:
The Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO) ignored red flags, letting high-risk spending slide without a peep.
Hundreds of Program Coordinators—supposed to keep this in check—couldn’t even be bothered to log in.
Rules to spot fraud? Outdated and ignored, leaving the door wide open for abusers to keep swiping.
It’s like handing out free credit cards at a Vegas buffet and telling no one to watch the tab.
Déjà Vu All Over Again
This isn’t even new. Back in 2015, a similar audit caught DoD cardholders dropping cash at casinos and strip clubs. Promises were made, heads nodded—but nothing changed. A decade later, the party’s still going, and taxpayers are still footing the bill.
Your Money, Their Playground
Picture this: You’re juggling bills while some Pentagon hotshot pulls cash from a casino ATM or buys rounds at a nightclub—all charged to Uncle Sam. Meanwhile, the DoD begs Congress for more funding, claiming it’s strapped for cash to defend the nation. The audit says $1.2 billion in transactions went unscrutinized. That’s not a glitch—that’s a grift.
Where’s DOGE When You Need It?
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), hyped as the cure for government waste, is our best shot to slam the brakes on this nonsense. We need Elon Musk’s DOGE to put an end to this once and for all—starting with this $1.2 billion mess. Taxpayers can’t wait any longer for the cleanup to begin.
No One’s Paying the Price
Here’s the part that’ll make your blood boil: despite this damning evidence, not one official has been fired, fined, or even scolded. Zero accountability for millions squandered. The Pentagon’s silence is deafening, and taxpayers are left holding an empty wallet.
Today DOGE published the incredible waste on which our taxpayer money was going to be spent. Absolutely unreal:
US taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all which have been cancelled: – $10M for “Mozambique voluntary medical male circumcision” – $9.7M for UC Berkeley to develop “a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills” – $2.3M for “strengthening independent voices in Cambodia” – $32M to the Prague Civil Society Centre – $40M for “gender equality and women empowerment hub” – $14M for “improving public procurement” in Serbia – $486M to the “Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening,” including $22M for “inclusive and participatory political process” in Moldova and $21M for voter turnout in India – $29M to “strenghening political landscape in Bangladesh” – $20M for “fiscal federalism” in Nepal – $19M for “biodiversity conversation” in Nepal – $1.5M for “voter confidence” in Liberia – $14M for “social cohesion” in Mali – $2.5M for “inclusive democracies in Southern Africa” – $47M for “improving learning outcomes in Asia” – $2M to develop “sustainable recycling models” to “increase socio-economic cohesion among marginalized communities of Kosovo Roma, Ashkali, and Egypt”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says that the $2.7 trillion in Medicare and Medicaid fraud that already has been uncovered by President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency is just part of “a very long list of fraud, waste and abuse that DOGE is identifying on a daily basis.”
The question was raised during a recent White House briefing, when she was asked specifically about the $2.7 trillion revealed by a House subcommittee run by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
“Elon Musk also talked about yesterday about Social Security payments that are going out the door for people who are no longer with us,” she continued, “I would say that is certainly fraud. There’s also a lot of contracts they’ve identified that, just as a hypothetical example, are a million bucks, but only $500,000 went out the door. So where’s the rest of that cash?”
That’s what DOGE works on “every single day,” she said, noting, “This is what Trump campaigned on doing.”
It was a hearing Wednesday by the Department of Government Efficiency subcommittee in the House that confirmed since 2003, a “staggering” $2.7 trillion had been paid by taxpayers for “improper Medicare and Medicaid payments, including to individuals overseas who are not eligible to receive them.”
This is somewhat of a predictably tragic outcome all things considered. I remember a previous conversation on these pages when GM moved massive investment into China to build their mid-size SUV brand, Encore.
Continuing the U.S. decline of the brand, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that approximately half of all Buick dealership in the U.S. have opted to take a buyout from GM, as opposed to spending millions in retooling, restructuring and retraining their staff to accommodate the EV influx.
Most of the EV’s shoved onto the dealer lots sit idle without customers to purchase them.
When the temperature drops below 40 degrees, which occurs over 200 days per year in Eau Claire, electric vehicles experience a reduction in range and efficiency, with losses of up to 40% when the heating system is in use.
While the truck was up on the lift, Liz Fox, a service adviser at the shop, told me that while not many electric vehicles come in for repairs, when they do, repairs typically take longer and are more expensive than repairing internal-combustion engine vehicles.
“Switching to EVs is really costly, and it’s going to be really time-consuming.” Fox told me. She cited a recent case where nearly two months were spent troubleshooting and sourcing components on a broken EV, despite having a certified electric vehicle technician.
EAU CLAIRE, Wis.—Here in Wisconsin, where fewer than one-tenth of 1% of vehicles are fully electric, it’s rare to see an EV outside the city.
That’s why the latest international climate conference, Conference of the Parties (COP28), which advocated widespread adoption of electric vehicles, should have Wisconsinites concerned.
When the temperature drops below 40 degrees, which occurs over 200 days per year in Eau Claire, electric vehicles experience a reduction in range and efficiency, with losses of up to 40% when the heating system is in use.
My visit to my local automotive shop to have the tires rotated on the family Ram truck was unaffected by the 13-degree Fahrenheit weather.
While the truck was up on the lift, Liz Fox, a service adviser at the shop, told me that while not many electric vehicles come in for repairs, when they do, repairs typically take longer and are more expensive than repairing internal-combustion engine vehicles.
“Switching to EVs is really costly, and it’s going to be really time-consuming.” Fox told me. She cited a recent case where nearly two months were spent troubleshooting and sourcing components on a broken EV, despite having a certified electric vehicle technician.
She’s not alone. A recent report shows that repair costs for EVs are 56% more expensive than traditional vehicles—and purchase costs are often 50% higher.
A new special report by The Heritage Foundation, “Powering Human Advancement,” shows how access to affordable, abundant energy is essential to living. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
“Depriving people in any society of reliable and affordable energy denies them access to clean water, adequate medical care, affordable transportation, and economic opportunities, which will limit any human advancement, especially in the most vulnerable of countries,” the report states.
Governments and international organizations cannot force renewable energy and electric vehicles before people are ready. That’s a recipe for crisis.
Construction sites in Eau Claire feature battered pickup trucks and SUVs driven by construction workers, who can’t afford EVs. There is no subway in Eau Claire, bus service is limited, and people can’t rely on bicycles due to snowy weather and long distances.
Affordable transportation provides a means to a job, a ride to school, and to take weekend trips and vacations with the family.
In contrast, EVs are popular as second cars with upper-income individuals who have short commutes. Americans value the freedom to choose gasoline-only, hybrid, or electric vehicles, and for that freedom, it’s crucial to have alternative choices. But the organizers of COP28, supported by President Joe Biden, don’t want Americans or residents of other countries to choose which vehicles to buy.
This erosion of choice is not only detrimental to consumer freedom, but also to the livelihood of auto producers and car dealers. Look no further than last month’s letter to Biden signed by about 4,000 auto dealers, who were disturbed at the surging supply of unsold electric vehicles on their lots.
Even with subsidies to car manufacturers and tax credits for buyers, only 7% of new-vehicle sales are electric, well below Biden’s 2030 goal of 60%.
Codifying the recommendations of COP28 would require that America generate an additional costly 1.4 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, or 30% of current output, to support the charging needs of a full fleet of electric vehicles.
Over the past two decades, nearly $7 trillion has been spent globally on subsidies for wind and solar energy. Despite this substantial investment, these sources contribute only 2.3% to the global supply of energy. Pairing fully electric vehicles with costly and unreliable electricity is a recipe for disaster.
Wisconsinites appreciate the benefits of affordable energy and the mobility of gasoline-powered cars. As a cold Christmas approaches, they know that COP28 recommendations won’t fly here in the Badger State.
(Natural News)—Electric vehicles are failing to live up to their promise, with a new report from Consumer Reports showing that they have an incredible 79 percent more problems than their conventional counterparts, in addition to being less reliable.
Plug-in hybrids fared even worse, registering 146 percent more problems than vehicles with traditional internal combustion engines.
According to Consumer Reports, the least reliable type of vehicle overall was electric pickup trucks.
They reached this conclusion based on a survey they conducted among members about issues they have had with their vehicles during the past year. Data from more than 330,000 vehicles with model years from 2000 onward was included in the assessment.
Their study involved 20 types of issues that range from minor nuisances like squeaky brakes to significant issues such as battery and charging problems and transmission issues, which were given a greater weight than minor issues. Consumer Reports noted that the charging problems they considered were those related to the vehicles themselves rather than public or home chargers.
“As more EVs hit the marketplace and automakers build each model in greater numbers, we are seeing that some of them have problems with the EV drive system motors, EV charging systems, and EV batteries (which are different from the low-power 12-volt batteries that power accessories),” Consumer Reports noted.
Burying the blades of wind turbines because they can not be recycled. Very Earth friendly move by the climate crowd. They don’t tell you this part of the lie.
The Media
“Every human has four endowments—self awareness, conscience, independent will, and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom … The power to choose, to respond, to change.”
Delusions of Adequacy 