Bummer: DOGE Going After Medicaid And Medicare

By William Teach February 6, 2025 – 7:00 am

Obviously, this will make Democrats very upset, but, what if DOGE finds lots and lots of, let’s just call it mismanagement? And they find lots of extra money which can go into helping Americans rather than graft fraud theft shady mismanagement?

DOGE officials home in on Medicare, Medicaid offices

Representatives of billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have turned their focus to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency confirmed Wednesday.

It was unclear which systems DOGE had access to and whether any sensitive medical information was part of the efforts.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Wednesday that DOGE aides had been granted access to key payment and contract systems.

“CMS has two senior Agency veterans – one focused on policy and one focused on operations – who are leading the collaboration with DOGE, including ensuring appropriate access to CMS systems and technology,” the agency said in a statement. “We are taking a thoughtful approach to see where there may be opportunities for more effective and efficient use of resources in line with meeting the goals of President Trump.”

The CMS is essentially the federal government’s insurance provider. The agency sets payment rates for doctors, hospitals and insurers, while also overseeing Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act — programs that provide coverage for more than 150 million people.

As The Hill points out, CMS spent $1.5 trillion in 2024, which is 22% of the federal budget. Was it all on the up and up? Was there waste? Overspending? Paying employees way to much? Moving money to where it doesn’t help? Expenditures that do not help Americans with medicine but enrich some pockets? Even if it is just $100 million, that can go far, right?

“Obviously, everybody’s private health information needs to become private, but I think they need access and to see where we can be more efficient, effective. There’s a lot of money been spent by CMS,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) told reporters Wednesday.

This is just one step in auditing the entire federal government.

Read: Bummer: DOGE Going After Medicaid And Medicare »

Posted in Donald Trump, GOP, Government | 14 Comments | Trackback URL

Your Fault: Diabetes Is Skyrocketing Due To Global Boiling

By William Teach February 5, 2025 – 3:10 pm

It couldn’t possibly be due to poor eating habits and such, right? It has to be because you drive a fossil fueled vehicle, eat meat, and have an ice maker in your fridge

Climate change is worsening diabetes worldwide

…

As heat-trapping gases cause the climate to warm, one often overlooked consequence of extreme heat is its impact on people with diabetes mellitus: 830 million people globally, 101 million of them in India.

The most common forms of diabetes are type 1 and type 2. In type 1, the immune system attacks the pancreas, producing little to no insulin. Type 2 diabetes, which is more prevalent, occurs when the body’s cells become resistant to insulin, and the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to meet the body’s needs.

World Health Organization data shows diabetes has skyrocketed by 315% since 1990, with cases surging in low- and middle-income countries. A 2017 study indicated that rising heat may explain some of that rise, perhaps by reducing the activity of a certain kind of fat. The researchers found that a one-degree Celsius rise in temperature could cause over 100,000 new diabetes cases annually in the U.S. alone.

In 2021, more than 2 million people worldwide died from diabetes and related kidney diseases, and more than half those affected by diabetes did not take medications in 2022. Still more could suffer as global warming exacerbates the disease. One study found that in a high-emission scenario, China’s heat-related diabetes mortality could multiply eightfold by the 2090s.

Could. May. In other words, they do not know. They’re just scaremongering. Because that’s what they do.

Climate change target of 2C is ‘dead’, says renowned climate scientist

The pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, according to renowned climate scientist Prof James Hansen, who said the international 2C target is “dead”.

A new analysis by Hansen and colleagues concludes that both the impact of recent cuts in sun-blocking shipping pollution, which has raised temperatures, and the sensitivity of the climate to increasing fossil fuels emissions are greater than thought.

The group’s results are at the high end of estimates from mainstream climate science but cannot be ruled out, independent experts said. If correct, they mean even worse extreme weather will come sooner and there is a greater risk of passing global tipping points, such as the collapse of the critical Atlantic ocean currents.

Just leave us alone.

Read: Your Fault: Diabetes Is Skyrocketing Due To Global Boiling »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See….

By William Teach February 5, 2025 – 1:00 pm

…is tundra melting in the 51st state from big fossil fueled vehicles, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Flopping Aces, with a post on how not to say I love America.

Read: If All You See…. »

Posted in If All You See | 19 Comments | Trackback URL

5,000 Of 13,000 FBI Agents Were Involved In J6 Investigations

By William Teach February 5, 2025 – 10:30 am

All for this

Instead of dealing with serious crimes, they went after grandmas who casually walked through the People’s House

FBI turns over details of 5,000 employees who worked on January 6 cases to Trump Justice Department, as agents sue

FBI officials have complied with demands to provide the Justice Department with details of thousands of employees who worked on investigations related to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot, according to people familiar with the situation.

The demand has caused consternation among FBI employees who fear it is meant to amass a list of personnel for possible termination by the Trump administration.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, in a Friday memo with the subject line “Terminations,” had given FBI officials a noon deadline Tuesday to submit the details of thousands of agents and analysts. Bove previously ordered the firing of eight senior FBI officials, including those who oversaw cyber, national security and criminal investigations.

More than 5,000 employee details were submitted, including employee ID numbers, job titles and their role in the January 6 investigations, sources said, but not their names. There are more than 13,000 agents and 38,000 total FBI employees.

How many failed to go after violent gang members, like all those Ten De Aragua illegals let in by the Biden-Harris admin? Or illegals who are murderers? Or those people who firebombed the Portland Justice Center during the 2020 mostly peaceful protests? And, not one J6er was actually charged with insurrection. Maybe they would have been able to stop the New Orleans jihadi had they focused on actual bad people.

I wonder what they will say? That they were “just following orders?” This is why the FBI needs to be restructured: it’s a wholly leftist political agency.

Read: 5,000 Of 13,000 FBI Agents Were Involved In J6 Investigations »

Posted in Current Affairs | 13 Comments | Trackback URL

Bummer: Killing USAID Is Bad For ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach February 5, 2025 – 7:00 am

BTW, Trump has all the authority needed to kill the program, since it was created by Jimmy Carter with an Executive Order. Which means Trump creating DOGE is just fine

Ending USAID climate programs could increase security risks

The axing of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which Elon Musk has vowed to “kill” with President Trump’s support, could destabilize regions where human-caused climate change is hitting particularly hard.

Why it matters: By ending humanitarian assistance and proactive climate resilience and adaptation programs, the U.S. military could get pulled into responding to more future crises.

Experts tell Axios that axing the agency completely, or even significantly downsizing it, would have security implications when it comes to climate change.

I don’t. Especially since we all know that most of the money will never end up where it is supposed to go. It’ll go in lots of people’s pockets. It’s a slush fund.

Zoom in: According to archived versions of USAID’s websites, the agency helps countries cut their emissions, conserve carbon-rich tropical rainforests and rely more on renewable energy sources.

“Climate change affects nearly everything we do at USAID,” its climate page stated as of Jan. 17, according to the Internet Wayback Machine.

“As such, the Agency mainstreams climate change considerations across much of our development and humanitarian assistance work.”

Don’t care. Time for USAID to die, and move on to all sorts of other agencies to cut.

What they’re saying: Curtailing USAID is “going to add substantially to the instability in these volatile regions, because vulnerable populations will be doing without,” Sherri Goodman, a senior fellow at the Wilson Center and board chair at the Council on Strategic Risks, told Axios.

Let them get their own money.

Also the cult

Read: Bummer: Killing USAID Is Bad For ‘Climate Change’ »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

Hmm: Trump Says Will Level, Rebuild, And Own Gaza Strip

By William Teach February 5, 2025 – 6:45 am

I’m really not sure how I feel about this idea. Good one? Bad one? Mixed? Do we really want to get that involved? Would be allowed to? Who pays for it? We should certainly rebuild Western NC, the fire area of California, and Maui (believe it or not, only 3 homes have been rebuilt of over 3,000, thanks to Democrat policies) before Gaza.

‘Level it’: Trump says US will ‘take over’ Gaza strip and rebuild it to stabilize Middle East

The U.S. will “take over the Gaza strip,” level it and rebuild the area, President Donald Trump said during a press conference Tuesday evening after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said Tuesday evening in a joint press conference with Netanyahu. “We’ll own it, and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site.”

“Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” he said. “Do a real job. Do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.” (snip)

“I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East,” Trump said. “And everybody I’ve spoken to — this was not a decision made lightly — everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land. Developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent in a really magnificent area that nobody would know. Nobody can look because all they see is death and destruction and rubble.”

If Trump could make it happen (and where’s the money coming from?), would it work? It sounds like there would have to be a large military presence, effectively a military outpost, to make sure Iran wasn’t sending in material to make military weapons and bombs, and to keep the Palestinians from going terrorist.

Netanyahu lauded Trump’s tenacity and ability “to think outside the box” during his comments to the press.

“Your willingness to puncture conventional thinking, thinking that has failed time and time and time again, your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas, will help us achieve all these goals,” he said. “And I’ve seen you do this many times. You cut to the chase. You see things others refuse to see. You say things others refuse to say, you know. And after the jaws drop, people scratch their heads and they say, you know, he’s right.”

Would the Palestinians be living there? We keep being told how nice Gaza was prior to Israel bombing it back to the stone age after October 7th: what would keep them from doing the same old same old? But, you know, maybe it’s time to try something different. The naysayers will say “you can’t do that!”, to which the response should be “what’s your plan?”

Read: Hmm: Trump Says Will Level, Rebuild, And Own Gaza Strip »

Posted in Donald Trump, RoP | 14 Comments | Trackback URL

What’s Going On In Maya Country?

By William Teach February 4, 2025 – 8:59 pm

This is probably your fault with your big carbon footprint

I love the way whomever is doing this is now adding shadows.

Read: What’s Going On In Maya Country? »

Posted in Like, Gnarly, Dude | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

Climate Cult Scientists Brace For The Worst As Trump Kills Government Run Cult Website

By William Teach February 4, 2025 – 3:54 pm

If I’m to understand correctly, they could go get a job in the private sector. Or, start their own business, get their own funding

Scientists brace ‘for the worst’ as Trump purges climate mentions from websites

Donald Trump’s administration has started to remove or downgrade mentions of the climate crisis across the US government, with the websites of several major departments pulling down references to anything related to the climate crisis. Climate scientists said they were braced “for the worst”.

A major climate portal on the Department of Defense’s website has been scrapped, as has the main climate change section on the site of the Department of State. A climate change page on the White House’s website no longer exists, nor does climate content provided by the US agriculture department, including information that provides vulnerability assessments for wildfires.

An entire section on “climate and sustainability” hosted by the Department of Transportation has now vanished, with the department’s new leadership also ordering the elimination of any policy positions, directives or funding “which reference or relate in any way to climate change, ‘greenhouse gas’ [sic] emissions, racial equity, gender identity, ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ goals, environmental justice or the Justice40 initiative”.

Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, said the administration is focused on “eliminating excessive regulations that have hindered economic growth, increased costs for American families, and prioritized far-left agendas over practical solutions”.

I’ve left all the links in so you can seem them down. The grift will not continue under President Trump. The DOD should concern itself with defending the U.S., with training their members, with not crashing into civilian airplanes. The State Department should concern itself with it’s core mission, same with the rest of the federal agencies. Do their job, not get involved with an unscientific cult.

Some researchers have found that their own studies, from ocean carbon cycles to the connectivity of cleaner electrical grids, have now vanished from federal government websites. Critics say the actions will stifle the public’s understanding of the climate crisis amid record-breaking temperatures and a wave of storms and wildfires that are being worsened by the burning of fossil fuels.

Their studies paid for by the citizens of the U.S., meant to make sure these same cult researchers continue to get paid way too much to do more research.

“We should plan for the worst,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. “The keys to the car have been given to the polluters and fossil fuel plutocrats and they intend to drive it off the climate cliff.”

The government should not be your feeding trough nor a way to force citizens to comply with your cult. Go buy your own car.

“A plan for a modern-day book-burning is not a plan for American families,” Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, said of the website deletions. “By stripping taxpayers from having the ability to access life-saving websites and information, websites and information paid for by taxpayers, Donald Trump will be putting families across the country in peril.”

If the scam Sierra Club, which was once a good guardian of true environmentalism, wants to have websites and info, have at it. Let them pay. Government agencies need to perform their core mission, not deviate into doomsday cult activism, scamlighting, and authoritarianism.

Read: Climate Cult Scientists Brace For The Worst As Trump Kills Government Run Cult Website »

Posted in Climate Cult, Global Warming | 12 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach February 4, 2025 – 1:31 pm

…are wonderful railroad tracks for moving low carbon passenger trains, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is This ain’t Hell…, with a post on Chuck Schumer being under investigation.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

Good News: Texas National Guard Can Now Arrest Border Jumpers

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

This has made the pro-illegals crowd very upset – as long as those illegals are Somewhere Else

Texas National Guard can now arrest and detain people who illegally enter the US

Texas National Guard soldiers can arrest and detain people for entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico under an agreement with the Trump administration that expands the military’s role in immigration enforcement.

The new authority is a shift for the Guard and the military broadly, which has been limited to a supporting role for the Border Patrol. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott gave Texas Guard members the power to arrest migrants on trespassing charges in 2021, but that order was limited to encounters on border landowners’ private property.

Texas’ pact with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, signed Friday, gives the Guard full authority to investigate, arrest and detain migrants for purposes of deporting them. Guard members must work “only under the supervision of a CBP official” and must be able to speak with a CBP official “by cellular phone, radio, or other similar technology,” the agreement says.

“This boosts manpower for border security,” Abbott said late Sunday on the social media platform X.

No one in the Trump administration is going to stop this. They will help. Texas has a green light to do this.

The military has been limited to tasks like surveillance and building barriers, adhering to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 to keep the armed forces away from civilian law enforcement. But advisers close to President Donald Trump argue there are legal grounds to summon the military to combat narcotics and mass migration.

And there we go. The left loves to trot out Posse Comitatus when a Republican is in office. Except, if they actually read the Act they’d know that the President or Congress can use the military for certain operations, such as protecting federal property (like the border), enforce federal laws (like illegal immigration), and domestic emergencies (like keeping illegals out).

Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu said Texas’ agreement makes law enforcement’s job more difficult and dangerous and that Abbott “continues to generate more hate against an already terrified and vulnerable population.”

How does it make the job more difficult? He failed to enlighten us on that. And that population? They aren’t an American population. They shouldn’t be here. Why do Democrats want so many illegals?

Read: Good News: Texas National Guard Can Now Arrest Border Jumpers »

Posted in Illegal Immigration | 6 Comments | Trackback URL
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