This is environmental madness.

One of the funny moments during a SpaceX rocket launch was when Elon Musk and the SpaceX team were launching at Vandenberg in California.

An organization concerned about Seal procreation forced SpaceX to "kidnap" a Seal, strap it to a board, and put headphones on and play sonic… pic.twitter.com/wA5RcqNwLq

— SMX 🇺🇸 (@iam_smx) September 29, 2024

Taxpayers Fund Five-Star Foreign Stays For Feds … With Plenty Of Money Left Over For Their Wallets

Ever wonder where all the money goes as the government goes deeper into debt each day?

Traveling around the world on the U.S. taxpayers’ dime can be quite a profitable experience for federal employees, thanks to extremely generous per diem reimbursement rates set by the Department of State.

Generous maximum per diems mean travelers to most countries can afford to lodge in five-star hotels and spend more than $100 a day on meals and incidentals. They can also spend up to 300 percent of their max per diem rates with advanced approval, usually for special events like the G8 Summit, which can mean more than $1,700 per day for lodging and meals.

State Department officials calculate per diem rates after surveying U.S. government employees abroad on the cost of moderately priced hotels and restaurants. A department spokesperson declined to provide information on how the rates are calculated.

An analysis by the Daily Caller News Foundation found the per diem rates usually cover considerably more than required for moderately priced hotels and meals.

Federal employees staying in Mumbai, India, for instance, can spend up to $389 a night on lodging, plus $126 for meals and incidentals. That compares to the $130 average cost of a five-star hotel in Mumbai, according to the travel booking site Travelocity. TheDCNF couldn’t find a single five-star hotel in Mumbai that cost more than $275 on a Saturday night in February, one of Mumbai’s cooler months.

An average five-star hotel runs $130 a night in Istanbul, Turkey, according to Travelocity, but federal civil servants get $299 a night for hotels and another $131 for food and other incidentals, for a grant daily total of $430.

Federal workers going to Petersburg, Russia, where a five-star averages $155 on a weekend night in its warmest month of July, can spend up to $352 a night, plus $134 for meals and other expenses.

The average per diem rate for the more than 1,100 locations calculated by the State Department is $265, including lodging, meals and incidentals.

I once applied for a government job.  At the time the government paid a little less than the private sector but job security was much greater and the benefits were better.  It was considered a trade-off. Today, the pay and benefits of the typical government employee significantly exceed that of the typical private sector employee.  

From the Cato Institute:

The study found that federal government workers earned an average of $84,153 in 2014, compared to the private sector’s average of $56,350. Cato based its findings on figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

But when adding in benefits pay for federal workers, the difference becomes more dramatic. Federal employees made $119,934 in total compensation last year, while private sector workers earned $67,246, a difference of over $52,000, or 78 percent.

From the Congressional Budget Office:

 

Nice work if you can get it.

For the Royal Obamas, cost is no object.

Obama, first lady flew on separate planes to L.A. on same day

Separate explanation: they really hate each other.

What's a "Micropurchase" and why are we buying government employees coffee at Starbucks?

The government defines any purchase of less than $3000 a "micropurchase."   For this purpose, government employees are issued credit cards.  Given the number of federal employees, their contempt for the taxpayer, and their propensity to commit fraud, it's no surprise that those "micro" items add up to macro dollars.

The federal government has spent at least $20 billion in taxpayer money this year on items and services that it is permitted to keep secret from the public, according to an investigation by the News4 I-Team.
The purchases, known among federal employees as “micropurchases,” are made by some of the thousands of agency employees who are issued taxpayer-funded purchase cards. The purchases, in most cases, remain confidential and are not publicly disclosed by the agencies. A sampling of those purchases, obtained by the I-Team via the Freedom of Information Act, reveals at least one agency used those cards to buy $30,000 in Starbucks Coffee drinks and products in one year without having to disclose or detail the purchases to the public.
A series of other recent purchases, reviewed by internal government auditors, include wasteful and inappropriate purchases by government employees -- including a gym membership and JC Penney clothing -- that were not detected or stopped until after the purchase was completed.

The agencies and their leaders refuse to explain how and where they spent your money.

Eric Holder, Living Like A Billionaire On Your Dime

Eric Holder wanted to see the third leg of the Triple Crown of horse racing recently, the Belmont Stakes. Taking along his bodyguards, two daughters and their boyfriends.


Holder, family and friends boarded a government owned Gulfstream V and flew to Elmont, NY.

Gulfstream V is an all-weather, long-range, high speed aircraft powered by two Rolls-Royce BR 710-A2 turbofan engines with thrust reversers. The aircraft has an executive compartment with accommodations for six passengers and a staff compartment with accommodations for eight passengers.

The trip cost you, the taxpayer, $14,400. It cost Holder $955. That $955 was the coach airfare for his family and friends.  Here is what the government rule (A-126)  says about the use of government aircraft and, specifically, reimbursement.

Full coach fare means a coach fare available to the general public between the day that the travel was planned and the day the travel occurred.

That looked like a pretty good deal on airfare, so I decided to check what it would cost me to fly from Washington, DC to JFK Airport (near Elmont, NY) round trip the same day.   The lowest discounted airfare I found via Kayak  was $401 per person which meant that Holder should have paid $1604 for his daughters and their dates.

Or he could have watched the race on TV and save you, the taxpayer, $13,445.  But when you're $17 trillion dollars in debt, what difference, at this point, does it make?

H/T The Daily Caller

400-Pound Democrat: Republicans ‘Just Want People to Starve’

Glenn Reynolds comments: HE LOOKS LIKE A RICH GUY FROM A THOMAS NAST CARTOON, WHICH PRETTY MUCH DESCRIBES TODAY’S PARTY LEADERSHIP, ACTUALLY

Oregon signs up just 44 people for Obamacare despite spending $300 million

So, that's about $7 million per sign-up.

Oregon, once touted as a model for President Obama's health care law, signed up just 44 people for insurance through November, despite spending more than $300 million on its state-based exchange.

Couldn't they have given them a million each and forget about ObamaCare?

Here's the gripe: the political leaders of Oregon don't really care.  It's not their money, they just took if from the poor schlubs who pay taxes in Oregon.  They treat it as play money, as chips in a poker game, as numbers on a page.  And you can be sure that the people who got the money from the Oregon politicos are well connected.  They are spreading the wealth to their friends.

TO SPEAK TO A NIGERIAN PRINCE ABOUT YOUR HEALTH CARE, PRESS '1' NOW

In addition to convicted felons, navigators are drawn from labor unions, community organizers, former ACORN staffers and front-groups for the Democratic National Committee.

Call right up and give all your private financial and medical information to those guys! What could go wrong? (Before Obamacare was even online, Minnesota's health exchange emailed the Social Security numbers and other identifying information for about 2,400 Americans to a man applying to be a "navigator.")

If you call today, you can sign up for Obamacare plus learn about a Nigerian prince in exile who's willing to share his vast inheritance with you in exchange for your bank account numbers.

Ann Coulter on ObamaCare and Medicare fraud.

The US Treasury as the Birthright of All Mankind

The Diplomad tells us about the ways that American "public assistance" is sent overseas.  This is just part of the story.

US public assistance money going to foreign recipients is, however, not a new development. As a young consular officer in Guyana in the late 1970s, I had my own encounter with this phenomenon. One hot, muggy day (are there any other kind in Guyana?) while on the visa counter, I received an application for a tourist visa from a very nice elderly lady. She had prior visas, and normally we would not have interviewed somebody like her, and just issued the visa, but I was struck by the reason she gave for her trip to New York. According to her application and to her accompanying adult daughter, she needed to go there for post surgery care.

Seeing that the applicant had no significant resources, I asked how this medical care was to be funded. The daughter smiled and pulled out a thick wad of papers, mostly letters and receipts. She said, "The City of New York wants her to come for the appointment." She did not lie. She handed me a letter from the NYC Department of Social Services addressed to her mother at her mother's Guyana address, reminding the elderly lady that she needed to return to NY for an appointment so that the doctors' could evaluate whether the surgery they had performed on her--at public expense--had worked. I asked the daughter, "Where does your mother live?" The answer, "In Guyana." Young and naive, I could not understand, "Why is the City of New York paying for her surgery and post-op care?" The daughter seemed taken aback by the stupidity of my question, "They send her money every month." She gave me receipts showing that for several years the mother had been receiving public assistance checks sent to her Guyana address; she would send the checks back to NY for deposit in a bank there. Mom, apparently, on a trip years ago had applied for and gotten public assistance from the City, eventually returned to Guyana, and continued to receive the funds. Livid, I turned down the visa application, made copies of all the documents, and wrote an angry letter to the relevant NYC agencies.

The next day, before I had posted my indignant letter to NY alerting them to this fraud--this was before internet--I got calls from the staff of a well-known NYC Congressman and another from some drone in the NYC welfare bureaucracy. Both callers were very upset with my refusal to issue the visa, accusing me of racism, being anti-poor, etc., and let me know that my superiors at State would be notified about my attitude. I kept blurting out, "But . . . she's living in Guyana and getting American taxpayer assistance . . ." as though that would trigger some logical thought sequence in my favor. All to no avail. I was the reincarnation of Eichmann. This went on for weeks, letters, calls, new visits from the mother and daughter, pleas from her doctor in NY, etc. The State visa wonks contacted me, took my story, and truth be told, never tried to change my decision, supporting my refusal to issue on the grounds of what then was called 212 (A) (15), likely to become a public charge.

Read the whole thing and the comments.  It opens up w whole new world of corruption.

ObamaCare website: the billion dollar fiasco

Do you realize that this incredible failure, this enormous flop, this Obama Team pratfall cost a billion dollars?

Government shut down.

Beach Bum Happily Spends Your Money, Because: 'It's Awesome'

He's fine with it. Are your?

DOG DAYS: BO AIRLIFTED TO OBAMA HOLIDAY HOME...

It's only taxpayer money.

The Government, Episode 1

Obama pining for the peace, quiet, and friendly press of Washington, D.C.

A great way of ending Bud Norman's review of rhe Obama family's $100 million African vacation.
Hooray for Barack Obama the African explorer.
Excerpt:

By one of those hilarious twists of fate that seem to bedevil the president at every turn, Obama happened to be in Senegal on the day that the Supreme Court delivered a ruling striking down key portions of the Defense of Marriage Act and handing what was considered a huge victory to homosexual rights advocates. When asked about the ruling during an obligatory press conference with his Senegalese counterpart, the recently pro-same-sex-marriage Obama couldn’t help exulting. President Macky Sall was then asked for his views on the matter, and replied that he didn’t believe Senegal should go so far as make homosexuality legal. Although Obama takes a back seat to no one in his heightened sensitivity to third world cultures and their venerable traditions, homosexuality trumps multi-culturalism in the contemporary hierarchy of liberal values and he was thus compelled to have a rather public spat with the president of Senegal. The debate was widely reported in the African press, with the African public seeming to come down squarely on the side of Sall, and it seems incident has not strengthened American ties with the region. The Chinese government’s assiduous courtship of the region, so far as we know, have not included any talk of homosexuality.

Read the whole thing.

IRS Sent $46 Million in Tax Refunds to 23,994 ‘Unauthorized’ Aliens — All at the SAME Address in Atlanta

The IRS sent more than $46 million in tax refunds to 23,994 “unauthorized” alien workers who all listed the same address in Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to an audit report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

However, the Atlanta address that received millions of dollars in refunds was not the only address apparently housing thousands of “unauthorized” aliens. In fact, it wasn’t even the only address in Atlanta that was claiming such a situation.

Read the whole thing.   The country's in the very best of hands.

NPR's Has Chefs on Staff ... a wellness center, a fitness center, and a cafe.

NPR recently moved from Chinatown into its new 400,000 square-foot home on North Capitol, and they’re excited about it. Eager to show off the new facility, the organization offered a tour to members of the media Tuesday morning, starting with breakfast from their in-house chefs, along with some talking points from CEO Gary Knell, who outlined some impressive features of the space.

Ever wonder why the Washington DC area is never felt the "great recession?"

Oh, and it has other great facilities that you unemployed "Country Class" don't have.

The tour continued through the wellness center, which is capable of simple medical procedures, the fitness center, which is staffed by a trainer, and the cafe, which utilizes the same catering company as Google. The cafe was named by a contest in which employees submitted more than 200 ideas. The winning name, Sound Bites, was entered by Stamberg, further marking her legacy at NPR and the new facility.

From the comments:

Given that these folks are all sucking on the public teat, they should have named that cafe "Free Lunch".

or

Gobbells Gormet eatery.

Keep in mind that the government subsidizes this propaganda organ to the tune of $400 million a year.

Selling ObamaPhones for heroin and handbags

Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire and part owner of the New York Times has received over a billion dollars via the ObamaPhone program. Just as an aside, this article was printed in a British newspaper, not an American one. It seems that the Daily Mail provides more information on the Obama scandals that the American press, referred to by Rush Limbaugh as the "state run media." And he's right.

In an outdoor tent erected by Stand Up Wireless in the City of Brotherly Love, an O'Keefe plant probed a sales rep on May 21.

'Once it's my phone, I don't need to, like, bring it back or anything?' he asked, while the female worker shook her head in the negative. 'It's my phone, right?'

'Mm-hm,' she responded.

'If you're interested in learning -- wanting to know how much the phone's worth,' the woman offered later in the conversation, '[I] recommend you go to any pawn shop. They'll be more than happy to tell you, OK?'

'OK,' the actor replied. 'So I could get the phone and then sell it?'

'Yeah,' she said, 'I don't care what you do with it.'

A TerraCom Wireless salesman performed with similar disregard for federal law.

One young woman, posing as a low-income citizen on May 8 during a Terracom promotional giveaway in Minneapolis, asked plainly if she would be permitted to sell her new phone.

'It's kind of like, the first thing that I do is this here,' the TerraCom rep responded, referring to the required paperwork. 'And unfortunately there are people on drugs. They get this phone, and they go get $40. ... You basically do whatever you want to do with it. That's what I'm trying to tell you.'

'Well, I'm not on drugs,' she replies, 'but there is a really awesome pair of shoes at the store that I want.'

In mere seconds the TerraCom worker is seen breaking into uproarious laughter.

In Stand Up Wireless's tent, a young woman waited her turn in line. 'I already have a phone,' she says in the video footage, 'but I just need money. So, like, am I allowed to do what I want with the phone when I get it? Could I sell it?'

A female employee busily handing out phones replies, 'If you want. Sure!'

Asked if the customer should acknowledge on an application form that she intends to sell her new phone, the worker advises that she should 'probably, like, plead the Fifth on it.

'Obama is being really nice, anybody that's $16,000 [salary] or less' can qualify, he says.

'Anybody. If you might be American, anybody that makes $16,000 or less.'

News reports have documented fraud in the Lifeline program for years.

'Time and time again, I saw people sign up while texting and talking on their own cell phone,' reported Chris Nagus of KMOV-TV in St. Louis.

'I signed up for two already,' one recipient told him. Another admitted to having four.

Jeff Barnd of WBFF-TV in Baltimore talked with one woman in 2012 who had an even larger collection of 'Obama phones.'

'I have six in my purse now,' Monique Crawford told him. 'Each and every one of these phones works. At home I know I have about 30 and all of them are on.'

56% Of Carmakers Who Asked For Government 'Green' Loans Are Dead

 

 

 

Of the 18 existing or would-be carmakers we identified as having applied for loans under the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program, 10 have since faded into bankruptcy or ceased operations.

Atherton Revolts Over Cost Of Obama Visit, Targets Donors

A community on the Peninsula may take the unprecedented action of slapping a lien against two homeowners who hosted an April fundraiser for President Barack Obama that cost the town $8,000 in security and cleanup costs.

The Town of Atherton has been unable to recoup the money from the Democratic National Committee or Secret Service.

“If the town incurs a cost that rightly should belong to somebody else, we’re going to pursue that,” Atherton Town Manager George Rodericks told KPIX 5.

The town sent invoices to the White House, Democratic National Committee, the Secret Service and two people who own the homes where Mr. Obama raised more than $3 million for Democrats. So far, the town has not received a cent.

Caring about the destuction you leave in your wake is for the little people.