Treasury, House Oversight Committee Looking Into Minnesota Welfare Money Going To Al Shaabab

By William Teach December 4, 2025 – 10:30 am

I wonder if the Credentialed Media considers this a Bad Thing?

Treasury investigating whether Minnesota welfare money went to al Shabaab

The Trump administration is looking into whether Minnesota tax money found its way to al Shabaab, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization and al Qaeda affiliate based in Somalia, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday. And on Wednesday, House Oversight committee chairman Rep. James Comer announced he is launching an investigation into the widespread fraud allegations.

Bessent wrote on X that the Treasury is “investigating allegations that under the feckless mismanagement of the Biden Administration and Governor Tim Walz, hardworking Minnesotans’ tax dollars may have been diverted to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab.”

The Treasury secretary shared a Nov. 19 report in the conservative publication City Journal that alleged millions of dollars from Minnesota state welfare programs had “ultimately landed in the hands of the terror group Al-Shabaab,” citing law enforcement sources. Several Minnesota Republicans, including Rep. Tom Emmer, pushed federal prosecutors to look into the allegations.

Obviously, this must be a snipe hunt because the report was in a conservative publication.

Walz’s office pointed CBS News to remarks last week in which the governor said he welcomes an investigation into where defrauded welfare money went and would work with investigators.

Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, released an excerpt from a letter he sent Walz, saying the Oversight Committee “has serious concerns about how you as the Governor, and the Democrat-controlled administration, allowed millions of dollars to be stolen,” and requesting “documents and communications showing what your administration knew about this fraud and whether you took action to limit or halt the investigation.”

Let’s be honest, this a massive problem with all levels of government, where taxpayer money ends up where it’s not supposed to go. This case just happens to be worse than usual. Where were the governor’s people when the fraud was happening?

Minnesota has been racked by allegations of large-scale fraud in the state’s public assistance programs. Dozens of people have been charged in a $250 million scheme involving the nonprofit group Feeding Our Future and its partners, which federal prosecutors say stole federal nutrition aid by falsely claiming to help distribute meals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials have also brought fraud charges involving housing aid and autism programs in the state.

Many of the defendants in these alleged fraud schemes are members of Minnesota’s large Somali community, a Somali American former investigator in the Minnesota attorney general’s office wrote in an opinion piece last year. The former investigator, Kayseh Magan, added that community members are also frequently victims of the schemes.

President Trump has repeatedly lashed out against Somali immigrants in Minnesota, claiming in a post last month that the state has become a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity,” and announcing an end to temporary deportation protections for Somali people in the midwestern state. Last week, the president alleged, without evidence, that “hundreds of thousands of Somalians are ripping off our country and ripping apart that once great state.”

And, there you go, Blame Trump. Regardless, Walz may want to lawyer up, along with a ton of other people in Minnesota government.

Read: Treasury, House Oversight Committee Looking Into Minnesota Welfare Money Going To Al Shaabab »

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Heartache: Trump To Roll Back CAFE Standards

By William Teach December 4, 2025 – 7:00 am

We already know that the ever increasing federal and state MPG mandates have made vehicles more expensive, and, at one time, made them more dangerous due to the use of lighter materials and smaller cars. Of course, over the years those vehicles got way more expensive to make them safer. And then there were the Biden standards, which were meant to force American citizens into EVs, even though Biden and the people who voted for them rarely travel in anything less than big SUVs

Trump announces plans to weaken fuel efficiency rules for cars and trucks

electric vehiclePresident Donald Trump announced the rollback of fuel efficiency and tailpipe emission rules for cars and trucks at a White House event attended by executives from the country’s biggest automakers Wednesday.

Under rules set by President Joe Biden, new cars sold in the United States would need to get more than 50 miles per gallon on average in 2031, effectively requiring automakers to sell more electric vehicles to meet the standard. The proposed rule change would lower that figure to 34.5 miles per gallon. Last year, new vehicles got about 28 miles per gallon on average, according to federal estimates.

34.5 is still a big jump, but, this would cause manufacturers to push more hybrids, rather than EVs. And, like I tell so many customers, if I stick you in a hybrid and don’t tell you it’s one, you won’t know, it’ll just be quieter. Today’s hybrids aren’t the same as ones from 20 years ago. I get 45mpg in my Accord, and I do not miss the ICE engine from my previous Civic or Accord (same 1.5 liter 4 cylindrical turbocharged engine) at all. I have way more than enough power.

50 would be absurd. Trump should put out an EO that any government vehicle Biden uses must be an EV. Too bad he can’t do that for Congress.

Trump also said his administration will “cancel” Environmental Protection Agency rules that limited greenhouse gas pollution from vehicles’ tailpipes. Turning to Ford CEO Jim Farley, Trump added, “Your people at Ford were coming to me all the time” to lobby for weaker rules.

“These rules are going to allow the automakers to make vehicles that Americans want to purchase, not vehicles that Joe Biden and [former transportation secretary Pete] Buttigieg want them to build,” Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said.

If people want EVs they’ll get them. They shouldn’t be forced into them. And, just to be clear, I think the $7,500 rebate should be reinstated. No big deal.

Lawmakers and executives from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis were at the White House to mark the announcement. Trump called on them one by one to praise his decision.

“Today is a victory for common sense and affordability,” Farley said while standing over Trump’s shoulder, adding, “We believe that people should be able to make a choice, as you said, Mr. President, and we will invest more in affordable vehicles.”

Make what consumers want.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, lamented the latest blow to U.S. fuel economy rules.

“They’re going to raise costs for consumers at the gas pump and they’re going to signal to the Chinese that the world market is open to you and we’re just going to abandon it,” Dan Becker (director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the environmental nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity) said.

Do we care about Chinese selling EVs (stuffed with government spyware)? We want the cars we want. If Dan and the others want EVs, get one. Otherwise, mind your own f’ing business.

Read: Heartache: Trump To Roll Back CAFE Standards »

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Wacko Federal Judge Says ICE Cannot Arrest Illegal Aliens Near Or In Courthouse In D.C.

By William Teach December 4, 2025 – 6:45 am

Now, let’s start with this, which is going around

Similar misleading information is being published in many Credentialed Media outlets, but,

Judge orders Trump administration to halt warrantless immigration arrests in District of Columbia

A federal judge Tuesday night ordered the Trump administration to cease its campaign of arresting immigrants in Washington, D.C. without a warrant or probable cause of a flight risk, warning that the White House’s mistreatment of immigrants could put Americans overseas at risk.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that, while federal agents may have the authority to make warrantless immigration arrests, the way that authority has been used on the immigrant community in Washington was likely unlawful.

“Defendants are preliminarily enjoined from enforcing their policy of conducting warrantless civil immigration arrests without probable cause to believe that the arrestee is likely to escape before an administrative warrant can be obtained,” Howell wrote in the 88-page opinion.

Is this ruling based on actual federal law? Because there doesn’t seem to be any law that requires ICE to get warrants or not detain illegal aliens at or near courthouses. Beryl, who looks to be the very definition of an AWFL, looks to be making it up as she goes, and will surely be overruled on appeal. As usual.

“First, ‘as a general rule, it is not a crime for a removable alien to remain present in the United States,’” Howell wrote, citing the Supreme Court’s decision in Arizona v. United States. “As a legal matter, an immigration status violation is a civil violation. Consequently, viewing all immigrants potentially subject to removal as criminals is, as a legal matter, plain wrong.”

Except, 8 U.S. Code § 1325 says anyone illegally present in the U.S. can get a small fine, potential incarceration, and then deportation. Anyhow, this ruling only applies to D.C., not nationally, but, as one Twitter reply notes

So let me get this straight:

An illegal alien with a deportation order can now walk into any courthouse in America, beat a domestic violence case, get custody of his kids, or literally anything else… and ICE is legally barred from touching him.

But if you or I miss a single court date for a traffic ticket, there’s a warrant out in 24 hours.

Yup.

Read: Wacko Federal Judge Says ICE Cannot Arrest Illegal Aliens Near Or In Courthouse In D.C. »

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Surprise: USPS EV Fleet Way Behind Schedule

By William Teach December 3, 2025 – 5:21 pm

Color me shocked

Huh. Weird. From the link

The US Postal Service has spent more than $3 billion in tax dollars on a brand-new all-electric fleet of mail trucks — and gotten just 612 vehicles for its money, according to a letter sent to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and obtained by The Post.

Former President Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act set aside billions for what Ernst has since ripped as a green “boondoggle” that saw almost all of that amount paid to Wisconsin-based defense contractor Oshkosh to design and build 35,000 new environmentally friendly mail trucks.

But as of Nov. 10, only 612 of the battery-electric powered vehicles are on the road.

A separate group of electric delivery vehicles — Ford E-Transit vans — are more widely in operation, with 2,010 delivering mail and packages. However, more than 6,700 have been delivered and are just sitting idle — in part because they can’t drive all the routes that the specially designed Oshkosh vehicles can

“Instead of spending another billion dollars on an EV fleet that’s lost in the mail, it’s time to pull the plug on this boondoggle and return the money to sender — the taxpayers,” Ernst said.

How much of the money went up in flames for graft and waste? Ernst should require an audit on what has been spent so far.

Ernst, who chairs the Senate’s DOGE caucus, pronounced the taxpayer spending “a tremendous waste” in a statement after learning about the electric fleet’s poor progress from Peter Pastre, vice president of government relations and public policy at USPS, in the Nov. 17 letter.

Pastre and another USPS rep stressed that thousands more electric vehicles are being produced with IRA funds — though the 9,000 or so rolling off the lots in the three years since Biden’s signature climate law passed hasn’t inspired confidence in congressional Republicans like Ernst who want to rescind the funds.

In the four months since Ernst first inquired in July about the pace of mail trucks being produced, OshKosh has produced 362 trucks in a little more than 100 days, working out to a rate of between three and four trucks per day.

I wonder if the mailmen actually want them, especially ones that are more rural. Because I know many in Raleigh who do not want them. With the miles  put on them, how long till they are having to be put in the dump?

Read: Surprise: USPS EV Fleet Way Behind Schedule »

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If All You See…

By William Teach December 3, 2025 – 1:00 pm

…is a wonderful low carbon bike, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Doug Ross @ Journal, with a post on the Color Revolution Playbook.

Read: If All You See… »

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Crazy Judge Blocks Part Of Legally Passed Bill From Defunding Planned Parenthood

By William Teach December 3, 2025 – 10:30 am

This is insane

Talwani has a history of saying that a legally passed bill by the duly elected Congress and signed by the duly elected President is not allowed to defund abortion providers (she also says that other crazy things, because she thinks she’s in charge). She even cited the 1st Amendment in one of her previously temporary rulings. Now

(Politico) A federal judge has again blocked a provision Congress passed in July that stripped federal Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood affiliates, ruling that the language likely places an unconstitutional burden on states to apply vague criteria about the scope of the ban.

Acting on a lawsuit filed in July by 22 Democratic-led states, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday prohibiting the Trump administration from requiring states to figure out which of their health care providers are covered by the ban and stop funding the non-abortion services the clinics provide to Medicaid patients.

Talwani said the Constitution requires Congress to be clear when imposing requirements related to federal funding, so state officials can decide whether to accept what amounts to a restriction on their usual authority.

The ban contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act “does not furnish states with clear notice as to the meaning and application of [the provision’s] criteria” for denying funding, the judge wrote in her 45-page opinion.

Talwani also said the ban appeared to be unconstitutional because it applies retroactively by requiring states to redo agreements they’ve already reached with federal Medicaid officials or managed care providers. The judge concluded that some states are so dependent on Planned Parenthood affiliates to serve Medicaid patients that trying to comply with the limits in the law could cause irreparable harm.

The last time she tried this the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals put her ruling on hold. This will most likely see the same. Like so many of her crazy rulings

The judge said she saw no “monetary harm” to the federal government because the federal money states would pay to Planned Parenthood affiliates under her injunction would need to be paid to other providers for the same services if the order wasn’t in place.

Planned Parenthood is not a federal government agency enacted by an act of Congress, and are not entitled to a cent of taxpayer money flowing from the federal government. Especially when they make around $1.5 billion on their own. She has way overstepped her boundaries, and once yet another appeals court has smacked her down, she needs to be impeached for her inability to understand her job. Which is not in the Legislative nor Executive Branches.

As a reply to Lee notes

Certainly, forcing a stall, trying to run out the clock. Also, she’s moonbat. When will Republicans impeach her under Article III, Section I, “shall hold their offices during good behavior”?

Read: Crazy Judge Blocks Part Of Legally Passed Bill From Defunding Planned Parenthood »

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Your Fault: Syracuse’s Massive Snow Projection Is A Sign Of Climate Doom

By William Teach December 3, 2025 – 7:15 am

I mean, seriously, you could have moved into a tiny home, given up meat, and walked to work, but, nope

Opinion: 140 inches of projected Syracuse snow shows climate change severity

On Nov. 11, the first snow of the semester greeted the city of Syracuse, to which residents and students responded with thicker jackets and winter boots. But this year, the familiar blanket of white covering campus points to something bigger: Meteorologists are concerned of what may be one of the coldest winters in years.

As temperatures drop this winter, climate change may not seem like a pressing issue. And with Syracuse’s reputation for cold weather, it’s easy to overlook the bigger problem. Instead of dismissing it as “just Syracuse being Syracuse,” we need to recognize this example of how climate change disrupts our seasons.

Climate change is often misunderstood as a trend toward higher temperatures. In reality, it doesn’t mean warm winters and warmer summers – it means instability. Climate change is more accurately defined by climate extremes, which include harsh transitions between seasons, unpredictable temperature changes from year to year and heavier snowfall.

This is what indoctrination looks like from a cult. The writer is a freshman at Syracuse U. I will give her this, if true

First, I try to save energy at home. The majority of our electricity and heat are generated by coal, oil and gas, so reducing the use of heating and cooling appliances can make a big difference. Even a simple swap like hanging laundry to dry instead of using a dryer lowers energy consumption. In fact, consider switching from fossil fuel-based electricity to renewable sources, including solar or wind.

I also walk or bike when I can, and take public transportation when I can’t. Roads are often congested with vehicles, most of them running on gasoline or diesel, so choosing to walk or bike reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

If true.

Read: Your Fault: Syracuse’s Massive Snow Projection Is A Sign Of Climate Doom »

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ICE Headed To Twin Cities

By William Teach December 3, 2025 – 7:00 am

They seem to be planning to target Somalis, who pretty much refuse to assimilate and often have a background in Islamic extremism

Report: ICE headed to Twin Cities targeting Somali immigrants

The New York Times reported Tuesday morning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is launching an “intensive immigration enforcement operation primarily targeting hundreds of undocumented Somali immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region.”

The report cites an anonymous Trump administration official and documents obtained by the Times.

The plan calls for the deployment of “strike teams” comprising ICE officers and other federal officials. The anonymous official told the Times that roughly 100 officers and agents from around the country have been brought into the operation.

Local elected officials tried to project resolve and support.

“I know many families are fearful tonight, but I want you to know that the city and I stand behind you,” said Minneapolis Council Member Jamal Osman, who represents the largest East African community in the city, during a press conference Tuesday.

If they’re here illegally or breaking the terms of their parole they need to be rounded up and sent back to Somalia

True. If it’s so great why are they leaving? Why are there so many pirates operating in the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden?

Both Minneapolis and St. Paul are sanctuary cities, meaning their local police do not question residents’ immigration status or enforce immigration law, which is a federal responsibility. But both police departments have helped immigration authorities control the large crowds of protesters that have convened outside of raids.

This should be fun, especially since Trump is ending Temporary Protected Status. Remember, it’s temporary. If Somalia is so great they shouldn’t mind going back.

Read: ICE Headed To Twin Cities »

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Good News: Hundreds Gather In Paris To Draft Climate Report

By William Teach December 2, 2025 – 3:00 pm

Um, didn’t something like 50,000 just take long, fossil fueled trips to Brazil for a climate conference? Couldn’t they have done this while there?

Experts work on UN climate report amid US pushback
Some 600 experts began to work Monday on the next major UN climate report, as the international consensus on global warming is challenged by US President Donald Trump, who deems the science a “hoax”.

French Ecological Transition Minister Monique Barbut, whose country is hosting the five-day meeting in a Paris suburb, told the scientists their “extremely precious” work is crucial as multilateralism has weakened.

“There is also something that should concern us all: The rise of climate-related disinformation on our social media, in our newspapers and even at the heart of our policy political institutions,” Barbut said.

“Too many people deny the results of your work,” she told the experts from more than 100 countries gathered in a skyscraper in Saint-Denis for the opening of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting.

Their work faces hurdles in the face of a US administration whose president called climate change the “greatest con job ever” and a “hoax” during a speech at the United Nations in September.

I love how they make it all about Donald Trump, rather than “some 600 experts” taking fossil fueled taxpayer funder trips to the wonderful vacation spot of Paris.

The IPCC operates by consensus.

So, not science, eh?

Nope, not science.

Not science.

Read: Good News: Hundreds Gather In Paris To Draft Climate Report »

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If All You See…

By William Teach December 2, 2025 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible, Evil, no good fossil fueled vehicle, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Last Refuge, with a post on pretending not to know things.

Read: If All You See… »

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