DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Sen. Joni Ernst sent Department of Government Efficiency cochairmen Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy a letter Monday with ideas for budget cuts that could save the federal government more than $2 trillion. Trump named Musk and Ramaswamy as cochairmen of DOGE on Nov. 12. In the seven-page letter, Ernst’s suggestions ranged from addressing unused space in buildings to uncommitted spending for COVID-19 relief, with the proposed cuts totaling more than $2 trillion. Ernst has focused on government waste since her election to the Senate in 2014, with a recent focus on the effects of telework and remote work on federal agencies. “When faced with proposals to trim the fat from Washington’s budget, members of Congress from both parties act like Goldilocks,” Ernst wrote. “It’s too little or too big, always too hard, and never just right. But the real ‘make-believe’ of this fairy tale is that it’s impossible to reduce Washington’s budget without causing pain. Most Americans aren’t even benefiting in any meaningful way from hundreds of billions of dollars being wasted.” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is seen here Dec. 8, 2020. (Kevin Dietsch/AFP via Getty Images) “While you’re seeking ‘super high-iQ small-government revolutionaries’ for ‘unglamorous cost-cutting,’ all that’s really needed is a little common sense. If you can’t find waste in Washington, there can only be one reason: You didn’t look,” Ernst continued. Billion dollar boondoggles, tele-“working” bureaucrats, and vacant buildings.Let’s stop this waste! @doge @elonmusk @vivekgramaswamy pic.twitter.com/GDXmOBGGkL— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 24, 2024 Three rail projects in California with a combined price tag of more than $135 billion; $213 million in unemployment payments to millionaires; $31 million in pay to government employees with no assigned duties; and $10 billion in inaccurate Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program payments are among the programs Ernst listed as potential cuts. The Iowa lawmaker also said there was more than $1.6 trillion in uncommitted COVID-19 relief spending. Ernst announced Friday she would lead a Senate DOGE caucus to work alongside Musk and Ramaswamy, while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Fla., was named as chair of a House Oversight Committee subpanel called the Delivering on Government Efficiency panel. “I have a simple message to the bureaucrats who haven’t shown up for work in years and the government contractors and grantees collecting millions to study how fast a shrimp runs on a treadmill—buckle up, because accountability is coming,” Ernst said in a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “My decade-long mission to make Washington squeal has created an exhaustive list of more than $2 trillion worth of waste, fraud, and abuse that I will work with DOGE to cut. We are going to break down the nonsense that has taken over Washington and put in its place a government that actually works for the people.” Ernst previously questioned USAID over an employee who improperly received “locality pay” for the Washington, D.C., area despite living in Florida, and requested a staff briefing after a second instance of improper locality pay involving another USAID employee living in North Carolina was reported. In an August 2023 letter requesting a review of the issues involved with telecommuting sent to 24 government agencies, Ernst cited a media account of a VA employee who attended a staff meeting while taking a bubble bath. Ernst wrote the Environmental Protection Agency, urging the agency to take emergency action in an Aug. 28 letter sent to EPA Administrator Michael Regan about contaminants that built up in the drinking water of federal buildings left unoccupied by a shift to remote work. She also introduced the Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems (SHOW UP) Act, in September 2023 as part of a package of legislation to rein in the “administrative state.” “This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I will be providing many more recommendations soon,” Ernst wrote. “My team and I are ready to help you make some prime cuts.” The Trump-Vance transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The post ‘Accountability Is Coming’: Iowa’s Ernst Sends Musk’s DOGE $2T Worth of Ways to Gut Government Spending  appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. UK’s “censorship law” – Online Safety Act – has gained in notoriety, as it has now become the subject of interest of the US House Judiciary Committee, which has for years tried to shed light on the censorship on the internet, and its actors and factors. So much so that the committee’s members have coined the expression, the Censorship Industrial Complex. While most of the body’s activities are centered around US social media and allegations of the Biden-Harris administration’s involvement in pressuring them to censor speech, no “complex” is considered to be on an industrial scale for no reason. A flurry of third parties – such as “fact-checkers” and “raters” – have been involved and investigated, including those based abroad – notably, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). A member of the Republican-majority committee, Congressman Darrell Issa, now strongly criticized the trends concerning censorship-enabling legislation in the EU and in the UK, singling out the Online Safety Act, and warning that “a tsunami of censorship is heading towards America” from abroad. And that’s just to add to what is already there – Issa called that situation, “malign actors here at home.” As for the UK law, the congressman is unimpressed by its authors and supporters promoting it as a way to protect against hate speech and other online ills. According to Issa, what it does is give regulators a tool to censor free speech, and as such is viewed by Republicans as part of “a broader global push by the Censorship Industrial Complex.” Issa in full, from The Spectator: “The growing attacks on free speech in the US – as well as the UK and EU – pose a direct threat to free people on both sides of the Atlantic. We know that legislation like the Online Safety Act that is said to combat ‘hate speech’ empowers regulators to censor free speech. “Congressional Republicans understand that these threats to free speech are part of a broader global push by the Censorship Industrial Complex, which includes not only the EU, UK, and other nations but also malign actors here at home. We are committed to confronting this growing threat alongside the incoming Trump Administration to fight against these assaults on free speech within our borders and around the world.” The congressman had no problem counting the UK and the EU (with its Digital Services Act) among the places this push emanates from, while also vowing that the second Trump administration, alongside Congress Republicans, intends to “fight against these assaults on free speech within our borders and around the world.” In the UK itself, there are those like Reform Party leader Nigel Farage who couldn’t agree more. Farage, who has close ties with Trump, has made comments about a free speech crackdown in his country. The UK branch of the Alliance Defending Freedom advocacy group also agrees. Executive Director Paul Coleman said that the Judiciary Committee’s criticism and stance on a number of issues “shows that the UK is fast becoming notorious around the world for its censorious practices.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post US Republicans Condemn UK’s Online Censorship Law as a “Tsunami…Heading Towards America” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A lot has been said about how the outgoing US administration’s focus on censorship (“combating misinformation“); it negatively affected online speech and now a number of federal spending documents examined by a non-profit show the price of that effort – or at least a part of it. A new report prepared by OpenTheBooks details the grants the Biden-Harris administration started giving out as it took over in early 2021, and this doesn’t include the taxpayer money spent internally, by various departments and agencies. The grants figure comes to $267 million – a massive increase (44 times more) compared to the $6.7 million that Trump’s first administration set aside for the same purpose. The grants went toward researching what the outgoing White House chose to consider misinformation, which in many cases resulted in third parties – organization, academia, etc., – promoting and/or censoring speech, opponents of the practice say, effectively (and unconstitutionally) – as government proxies. Covid was one of the major topics covered by this type of “research” and here, the report notes, the approach was both to offer monetary incentives, and to pressure companies operating social networks in order to promote government narratives, but also shut down not only criticism, but even skepticism. To make matters worse – many of these issues whose official explanation was treated as gospel, resulting in people getting deplatformed and demonetized if they questioned these interpretations, shortly after turned out to be anything but “misinformation” – such as the origin of the virus, the efficacy of mask-wearing, social distancing, the safety of vaccines, etc. But, $127 million of US taxpayers’ money in total was used to enforce those narratives, through pro-vaccine advocacy, studies meant to stop “misinformation” on the internet, and the like. One of the studies that received a government grant worth $200,000 ended up being used to go after then-former President Trump as one of the populist leaders around the world who were supposedly preventing “people coming together in solidarity.” The report notes that this paper also promoted “experts” at the expense of allowing people to voice their opinions freely – regarding their own lives (in this case, affected by the pandemic measures). If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post The $267 Million Price Tag on Censorship Efforts Under Biden appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Biology™ Update: Scottish Supreme Court to Determine What a 'Woman' Is

Unless human lifespans are dramatically increased, you will not live to see Pluto's birthday.

Sort of makes sense when they’re chasing you.

It might look odd, but bones are an important source of minerals.

Incoming border czar Tom Homan said if Denver Mayor Mike Johnston (D) is willing to go to jail for interfering with and obstructing President-elect Donald Trump's administration's mass deportation plans, then he is willing to put Johnston in jail.Johnston made those comments last week after declaring he would use the Denver Police Department to stop federal and military assets from entering the county to carry out the deportations. Johnston did not fully walk back that threat, saying he does not want an armed conflict with the U.S. government but that the city will find ways to resist Trump's plan."I'm not afraid of that, and I'm also not seeking that. I think the goal is we want to be able to negotiate with reasonable people on how to solve hard problems," Johnston said.'States and localities should be required, not just to refrain from sabotaging federal immigration enforcement, but to assist with it.'When asked about the mayor's remarks by Fox News host Sean Hannity, Homan said Johnston's terms are acceptable."You are absolutely breaking the law. All he has to do is look at Arizona v. U.S., and he would see he's breaking the law. But, look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing: He’s willing to go to jail; I’m willing to put him in jail," Homan promised."President Trump has been clear. We want to concentrate on public safety threats and national security threats. I find it hard to believe that any governor would say they don’t want public safety threats removed from their neighborhoods," he added.Homan has previously warned that Democratic leaders who plan on using their office to conceal illegal immigrants and interfere with Trump's deportation plan will be in violation of Title 8 U.S.C. § 1324."They need to educate themselves. They need to review this: Title 8 U.S.C. § 1324. Read about that and don't cross that line, because it’s a felony to harbor and conceal an illegal alien from ICE. Don’t cross that line," Homan said last week.Johnston is just one of the many state- and local-level Democrats who say they will not cooperate with the federal government's operation.Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) on Tuesday said that is still not good enough."States and localities should be required, not just to refrain from sabotaging federal immigration enforcement, but to assist with it as a condition of receiving federal funding. While the federal government cannot simply 'commandeer' state and local officials to enforce federal law, making federal dollars contingent on cooperation with immigration enforcement would be both appropriate and constitutional," he explained.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A male athlete will be allowed to compete in the Mountain West Conference tournament after a United States district judge denied a motion to disqualify the player.That athlete is San Jose State University's transgender player, Blaire Fleming. Born Brayden, Fleming is a 6'1'' male whose participation in NCAA women's volleyball games has sparked five separate forfeits from opposing teams.About a week prior to the judge's decision, 11 female NCAA athletes and one coach filed a lawsuit against the MWC and SJSU alleging the female athletes were subject to a new "Transgender Participation Policy" that sought to "suppress the free speech rights of women athletes."Judge S. Kato Crews, appointed by President Joe Biden, denied a series of motions that sought to disqualify Fleming from playing in the conference as well as negate losses that other teams received by forfeiting against SJSU during the season.'The movants have failed to meet their burden to show irreparable harm.'According to OutKick, the judge spent the first 30 minutes of the emergency hearing deliberating which pronouns to use when talking about Fleming.Judge Crews ultimately decided that "the movants have failed to meet their burden to show irreparable harm, a likelihood of success on the merits, or that the balance of harms or equities is in their favor.""The threatened injury to the movants if an injunction issues is outweighed by the MWC’s interest in holding the upcoming MWC Tournament without an eleventh-hour shake-up to its currently planned structure," the judge wrote. "The relief requested with the Emergency Motion would risk confusion and upend months of planning and would prejudice, at a minimum, Defendants and other teams participating in the tournament depending on the results of any reseeding.""The movants have failed to meet their burden to show irreparable harm, thus justifying denial of the Emergency Motion and USU's motion partially joining in it," Judge Crews also wrote.After the ruling, the plaintiffs announced they would be filing an emergency appeal to the Tenth Circuit court asking for an emergency injunction.The Transgender Participation Policy at the center of the lawsuit states that the NCAA will "not entertain inquiries or challenges regarding the eligibility of transgender student-athletes." Schools are also not required to provide information to their opponents about whether or not there is a transgender athlete on their team.SJSU has remained mostly silent throughout the controversy but has suspended one female coach who spoke out about the issue. Associate head volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose has since joined the lawsuit against the MWC and SJSU.As well, SJSU was previously revealed to have asked other schools to pay for alleged losses SJSU incurred due to the forfeits.If the MWC tournament is to go on as planned, SJSU will play a March 4 match against either Utah State or Boise State; both teams forfeited against them during the season.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Free speech might be going strong in the United States, but the U.K. is only becoming more Orwellian by the day. U.K. police have not only investigated a writer for a deleted post and a journalist for a tweet she posted in the wake of the pro-Palestinian protests, but also jailed a woman for nine months for livestreaming allegedly racist comments. “Allison Pearson is the journalist; she’s actually just been let off by the Essex police. That story specifically was that a year ago in November, just after the October 7 massacre, she was in London and at a pro-Israel event and mistook a flag, which she though was a Hamas flag, which was actually a Pakistani, Imran Khan, his political party flag, and she said, ‘Oh, they’re Jew-haters,’” Winston Marshall tells Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report.” Pearson deleted the tweet once her mistake was pointed out to her, but that didn’t stop the police from spending a year investigating her. “She’s investigated, and we have this thing called a ‘non-crime hate incident,’” Marshall continues, while Rubin interjects, “Orwell would be proud.” “Orwell was moderate compared to what’s going on,” Marshall argues. “A ‘non-crime hate incident,’ this isn’t a real crime. It’s if someone perceives you to be spreading hatred, and how they define hatred is different in every bloody country.” “If someone perceives you to be offensive to someone, even if you’re not the person being offended, you can log a non-crime hate incident,” he continues, adding, “This week, a 9-year-old was booked by the police for calling another classmate a ‘r*tard’.” Want more from Dave Rubin?To enjoy more honest conversations, free speech, and big ideas with Dave Rubin, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.