Thanksgiving Day 2024: Food for thought
As we digest our Thanksgiving dinner this year, we can also digest a few pieces of food for thought
Happy Thanksgiving to all of the More To The Story readers and paid subscribers! I hope your holiday has been filled with tasty treats and time with your families.
Please keep families in western NC impacted by Hurricane Helene in your holiday prayers, but also consider donations to Samaritan’s Purse or the NC Disaster Relief Fund.
While you digest your dinners and slip in and out of a food coma, here is some food for thought to peruse.
GoFundMe & FEMA eligibility
There have been claims on social media stating that if Helene survivors have a GoFundMe page, they may not be able to get FEMA assistance.
What's the deal?
Well, according to FEMA's own website, it's true, but it's also a myth.
Media outlets have parroted FEMA's vague talking point that GoFundMe "may" disqualify some people for certain services or funding. Here's an example from USA Today, which rates the claim "FALSE."
Both of these explanations read like a PolitiFact “it's true, but false - because reasons...” fact check.
It's interesting to note that FEMA advertises GoFundMe's hub on its website as a source for recovery aid and support.
So where does FEMA detail what help would disqualify someone who has a GoFundMe page? Good luck finding it. I searched for almost half an hour using every iteration I could think of, but only came up with a few entries, two of which I have already covered here.
This was the best information FEMA’s website provided.
Question: How does FEMA check for GoFundMe disqualifying information when it is not part of the Application checklist?
Answer: "FEMA Reviews Your Application. If FEMA can't qualify you based on your application alone, we may request more info or to inspect your home."
Paging Elon Musk and DOGE…
Taxpayer Funded Spin & Lying
Recently, Elon Musk commented on a video posted to X of National Public Radio's CEO Katherine Maher describing how those who edit WikiPedia are not there to make sure the information is true but rather, "Truth is a distraction from getting things done."
“Your tax dollars should not fund lies,” Musk wrote. He has also referred to the organization as “government-funded media.”
National Public Radio (NPR) is a 501(c)3 and receives millions each year in station dues, donations, and federal dollars. Under that tax status, NPR is supposed to be nonpartisan, yet it’s leftward/progressive spin has become more noticeable year after year.
“While federal money is important to the overall public media system, NPR gets less than 1% of its annual budget, on average, from federal sources,” NPR claims.
Ok, 1% “on average” of its annual budget. But what is that budget? Are they basing that on annual revenue? NPR doesn’t really say. Based on the 2023 IRS filings, NPR’s total revenue was $302M — do the math.
NPR misleads with that 1%, it’s more like 26% or more. How? The organization says it gets around 5% from state/local/fed dollars, between 8 and 10% in federal appropriations, and around a 10% annual average from public universities (which get federal dollars).
More about lying — the San Francisco Gate ran this headline last week:
“Stanford expert on 'lying and technology' accused of lying about technology”
The article is short, but in a nutshell, Stanford researcher Jeff Hancock filed an “expert declaration” in a Minnesota court case defending a political deep fake ban, but he included two non-existent research papers in his 15 citations. Hancock was paid $600 per hour for his expert testimony. Was he lying or did the AI he likely used to create his “expert declaration” do the lying?
Failed Audits & Dept. of Ed Swan Song?
The Pentagon has failed its seventh audit in a row and can't explain where its $824 billion budget of taxpayer money went. The agency's spokesperson called this "progress" and "turning a corner," and that they think the Pentagon will pass an audit... by 2028.
The Pentagon was not alone. The U.S. Department of Education failed a third consecutive audit under the leadership of Biden Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
“Just in case we needed more proof that Secretary Cardona has failed students, now we have the numbers," said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) in a Nov. 15 statement. "After two consecutive failed audits, it could only go up for Cardona, and yet he’s found a way to dig the hole even deeper, failing to live up to his promise to ‘revamp’ and address the audit failures."
Instead of focusing energy and time on improving operations and student outcomes at every level, the Education Department in the Biden-Harris era has poured its resources into student loan schemes and fulfilling every whim of the teachers unions," said Foxx. "Thankfully, the Trump administration will arrive soon and be able to clean up the messes created by the Biden-Harris administration. January 20th can’t come soon enough.”
Foxx's comment about cleaning up messes is a likely reference to DOGE - Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency, lead by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Under DOGE, it is anticipated that the federal government is going to get a severe buzzcut.
The most recent USED report details how Cardona arguably has prioritized mental health and social issues over academic achievement. It has also vastly inflated the amount of taxpayer cash flowing into those topics as well as federal loan programs and massive COVID-19 spending. Under Cardona, lawfare against the states over Title IX and other topics has escalated, something which is left out of the report.
A House Congressional rule for hearings and audits was triggered earlier this year after it was reported the U.S. Department of Education (USED) failed its second audit.
Fiscal issues and mismanagement by the USED are not new. If one goes browsing through past Governmental Accounting Agency (GAO) reports, one will find that the USED has had problems managing its budget going back to the George W. Bush days.
For over 200 years, the country had no such stand-alone department. Why?
Because education is solely delegated to state and local authorities under Article 10 of the U.S. Constitution. Nowhere in the Constitution is the word "education" even found.
An iteration of the USED existed under the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare - that is until a former president decided carve it out as a new federal bureaucracy and an arguably unconstitutional new bureaucracy at that.
USED was created by former Democratic President Jimmy Carter in October 1979.
When he campaigned for president, the largest teachers union in the country, the National Education Association (NEA), threw their support behind him after he pledges to establish the USED.
In other words, he bought a union's support, but not just for him, but for all Democrats to follow. And former NEA Executive Director Terry Herndon admitted it on the record, stating after Carter's election, "There'd be no department without the NEA."
Carter's remarks when he signed the order establishing the USED are both ironic and prophesizing given what the USED is today — a massive bureaucracy that has abandoned actual academics and strangles any state's funding that doesn't fall in line with its often ideological edicts.
Primary responsibility for education should rest with those States, localities, and private institutions that have made our Nation's educational system the best in the world, but the Federal Government has for too long failed to play its own supporting role in education as effectively as it could.
Instead of assisting school officials at the local level, it has too often added to their burden. Instead of setting a strong administrative model, the Federal structure has contributed to bureaucratic buck passing. Instead of simulating needed debate of educational issues, the Federal Government has confused its role of junior partner in American education with that of silent partner. - Former President Jimmy Carter, Oct. 17, 1979.
Once Carter signed off on it, the USED began operating at the beginning of May 1980.
President-elect Donald Trump has made a bit of hay over abolishing USED and Carter’s campaign endorsement buy-off is one step closer to going bye-bye this week.
On Nov. 25, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduced a bill to abolish the U.S. Department of Education and return educational control back to the states.
“The Department was created in 1979 with the goal of collecting data and advising schools across the U.S. on best practices. In the 45 years since then, it has grown into an oversized bureaucracy with a budget that’s 449% larger than it was at its founding,” Rounds’ press release states. “Despite the Department spending $16,000 per student per year, standardized test scores have been dropping over the past ten years, further displaying the Department’s ineffectiveness on the quality of education for American students.”
The press release also calls out the fact grants and funding from the USED “are only given to states and educational institutions in exchange for adopting the one-size-fits-all standards put forth by the Department.”
Those of us who remember the Obama administration’s Common Core/Race To The Top cash used to buy states into compliance know exactly what he’s talking about.
The bill is titled, "Returning Education to Our States Act,” and it effectively decentralizes federal education administration, shifting most responsibilities to state governments while redistributing specific programs across different federal departments.
Here are some of the key things this 7-page bill does:
1. Abolishes the USED 180 days after enactment of the bill.
2. Transfers existing federal education programs to other departments. For example, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Impact Aid programs would go under the Dept. of Health and Human Services.
3. Establishes at least two block grant programs administered by the Treasury Department; Elementary/secondary education grants based on student enrollment and Postsecondary education grants based on student enrollment.
4. Requires states receiving grants to submit student data annually, complete annual financial audits, and comply with federal civil rights laws.
5. Assigns the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to enforce civil rights protections for transferred education programs.
Climate Change Cabal Dukes It Out
World leaders and the super rich came to an agreement on how to spend billions of their people's money at the COP29:
With a central focus on climate finance, COP29 brought together nearly 200 countries in Baku, Azerbaijan, and reached a breakthrough agreement that will:
Triple finance to developing countries, from the previous goal of USD 100 billion annually, to USD 300 billion annually by 2035.
Secure efforts of all actors to work together to scale up finance to developing countries, from public and private sources, to the amount of USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035.
Known formally as the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), it was agreed after two weeks of intensive negotiations and several years of preparatory work, in a process that requires all nations to unanimously agree on every word of the agreement.
In addition to spending billions of other people's money, other big topics agreed on included "Gender and climate change," and "Civil society participation, children and youth."
The main objective under "gender and climate change" is "To ensure the respect, promotion and consideration of gender equality and the empowerment of women in the implementation of the Convention and the Paris Agreement."
As for "Civil society participation, children and youth," the next generation of Greta Thunberg’s were at COP29 that included kids as young as 10.
COP29 marked a significant milestone as dedicated spaces were created to ensure the meaningful participation of children within the Youth-led Climate Forum for the first time. Four children, including the youngest at just 10 years old, took on roles as moderators and speakers, engaging directly with Parties and observer organizations. Their participation highlighted the importance of inclusivity and intergenerational collaboration in driving climate action.
John Podesta, Biden's climate czar and former Clinton adviser/campaign manager, was at COP29. He gave at least two sets of official remarks.
Remarks as Delivered by John Podesta Press Conference at the 29th UN Climate Change Conference (COP 29) in Baku, Azerbaijan - Nov. 11, 2024
Remarks as Delivered by Senior Advisor John Podesta at COP29 - Nov. 13, 2024
In the Nov. 11 remarks, Podesta says the U.S. is rejoining the Paris Accord and talks about the $11 billion in taxpayer funds the U.S. will fork over:
So, I want to address tonight a topic that is on everyone’s mind –the U.S. election.
For those of us dedicated to climate action, last week’s outcome in the United States is obviously bitterly disappointing, particularly because of the unprecedented resources and ambition President Biden and Vice President Harris brought to the climate fight.
Starting with our bold 2030 NDC to cut emissions by 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels.
By rejoining Paris.
By making the largest investment in climate and clean energy in history through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The President’s commitment to quadruple international climate funds from the United States to $11 billion per year.
It’s clear that the next Administration will try to take a U turn and reverse much of this progress.
In the second set of remarks, Podesta gave a short but tone deaf statement:
The consequences of a rapidly warming planet are all around us: from the hundreds of people killed by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the United States, to the millions of children at risk of starvation in southern Africa from the worst drought in decades… to the torrential rain stranded students in schools, and displaced nearly 100,000 in Colombia.
The federal government has failed victims of those storms, but Biden is "on track" with his "international public finance commitment of $11 billion per year by the end of 2024."
That's $11 billion of U.S. tax dollars going somewhere other than its own citizens like those in the southern states hit by those hurricanes while FEMA says it's about out of money.
Podesta seemed like a weird choice for this spot at first, but then then again, it isn’t so odd given that governmental and international climate change activities are mostly about jockeying for global influence positions, control over poor countries (most of which have something the so-called rich countries want), and the shuffling around billions of dollars.
For those who want to go down a serious rabbit hole on the Biden Administration’s climate change agenda and COP29, here you go:
This very long "fact sheet" claims climate change poses a national security threat, includes a focus on getting more women and children involved in the climate change fight, and includes a long list of actions. Of all the items on the fact sheet list, this one should be read carefully:
Here's a breakdown of the spending in it; again, these are your tax dollars.
DOMESTIC:
- Finalized new EPA rule to reduce methane emissions (estimated $2 billion in climate benefits by 2035)
- Set goal to build 200 GW of new nuclear power generation capacity by 2050
- Established target of 35 GW of new domestic nuclear energy capacity by 2035
- DOE invested $60 million for next-generation geothermal technologies
INTERNATIONAL:
Nuclear & Energy:
- $30 million for Ukraine nuclear cooperation
- $10.6 million for Power Sector Program
- $5 million for Energy and Mineral Governance Program
- $1 million for U.S-India Low Carbon Comfort Cooling Collective
Climate Finance:
- $1 billion guarantee for Asian Development Bank's climate finance platform (enabling $4.5 billion in new lending)
- DFC reached $3.71 billion in climate investments (FY24)
- EXIM increased clean energy investments to $1.6 billion (FY24)
- $41.1 million from USAID for private investment initiatives
- $10 million commitment for African clean energy and minerals
Adaptation & Resilience:
- $458 million Zambia Farm-to-Market Compact
- $4.7 million for Pacific Islands early warning capabilities
- $11.8 million for Climate Smart and Disaster Ready initiative
- $9.3 million for climate finance in African agriculture
- $500,000 for Local2030 Islands Network
- $144 million for Mozambique partnership agreements
Women's Leadership Initiatives:
- $10.8 million from USAID for women's leadership in clean energy
- $10.7 million for women's climate leadership programs
- $2.1 million for Women In Agriculture Gain Economic Security program
- $1.7 million for EMPOWER program
- $1.2 million for WE-Defend program
- $1.25 million for women in clean energy and minerals program
So what’s the total spending?
Biden’s press release indicates that U.S. climate finance scaled up from $1.5 billion in FY21 to over $9.5 billion in FY23, with a goal to reach over $11 billion per year by 2024. Including all the specific commitments mentioned above and the base climate finance, the total amounts to approximately $16.2 billion in current U.S. climate-related spending and commitments.
Much of the Biden-Harris climate change actions stem from the so-called "Inflation Reduction Act” and boasts $4B drawn from it.
Additionally, the press release notes that these actions under the IRA have "stimulated" over $450 billion in announced private investment in clean energy manufacturing and deployment since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration.
Chew on that.