Topline: The third time’s the charm — unless the first two times were already perfect.

Atlanta residents already had two options for traveling between Centennial Olympic Park and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center. They could walk or take the subway.

Yet in 2010, the government spent $72 million to add streetcar service to the exact same 2.6-mile path. The money would be worth $104 million today.

That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses.

Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname “Dr. No” by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn’t stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.

Coburn’s Wastebook 2010 included 100 examples of outrageous spending worth more than $11.5 billion, including Atlanta’s unneeded transport system.

Key facts: The project was paid for with $47.6 million of federal stimulus funds and $24.4 million from the City of Atlanta.

It’s unclear what encouraged federal officials to pick Atlanta’s grant application out of hundreds of others. City planners reviewed 40 proposed mass transit projects and ranked the streetcars dead last in half of the categories that measure impact. Not to mention that a trolley line and bus service in the same area had already been closed due to low demand.

The $72 million would have been nearly enough to clear the backlog of needed sidewalk repairs for the entire city of Atlanta, according to budget documents from the time. It also could have fixed the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s $69 million budget deficit, which forced it to increase train wait times by five minutes.

The city claimed the streetcars would pay for themselves by raising property values in the area. Opponents interviewed by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called the project a “government trainwreck” and an “expensive downtown pipe dream.”

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Summary: Today, Atlanta’s tourism website notes that most destinations near the streetcar are walkable, but it’s still fun to “hop on and off when something strikes your fancy.” That’s not enough to justify millions of dollars in spending.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

Topline: Many Congressmembers opposed the General Services Administration’s renovation of the Poff Federal Building in Roanoke, Virginia when it began in 2010. A $51 million price estimate seemed excessive for an office building that cost only $14 million to build in the first place.

When the project was completed in 2014 at a final cost of $80 million, it had run through “a mix of mind-bogglingly bad (and allegedly illegal) bid management, cost overruns and all-around poor planning,” according to The Roanoker magazine.

Federal workers told Congress the construction had not improved their working conditions and had actually made the building less safe, even after spending what’s the equivalent of $106.4 million in 2024 dollars.

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Key facts: The 14-story Poff Federal Building, built in 1972, houses office space for the General Services Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs, law enforcement space for the U.S. Marshals and courtrooms for a federal district court.

Both Democrats and Republicans criticized the GSA’s plan to renovate the space.

Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb were unhappy that 400 VA employees would need to be temporarily relocated while the department was already backlogged with work.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte claimed the GSA was “whitewashing” the numbers: the project was found to be profitable only after he declared it a “boondoggle.”

“It’s a slap in the face of the taxpayers,” Goodlatte told The Roanoker.

It didn’t take long for fiscal problems to arise, resulting in a Congressional hearing in 2011.

Jennifer Smith, representing the U.S. district court, told Congress the GSA only visited the building once per month for oversight of the hired construction companies. She said that led to unsafe working conditions and employees spying on government staff to steal security codes.

Collapsing bricks and flooding during construction meant another $15 million was needed. Smith said the GSA knew the water infrastructure was faulty but prioritized repainting bathrooms instead.

When construction ended in 2014, Judge Glen Conrad told The Roanoker his courtroom was less safe than it was before.

The bulletproof door to his chamber had been replaced by glass. Security cameras were blocked by new walls. The jury’s chamber was next to a lobby filled with witnesses and others who might wish them harm.

Critical quote: “For me, the most bothersome and disturbing reality is that five years from the announcement of the Poff Stimulus Project, and after expenditure of millions of dollars, the user functionality in the court portion of the building has not been enhanced whatsoever, in any way, shape, or form,” Judge Conrad said.

Summary: With billions of dollars in needed repairs in other buildings, the federal government has no resources to waste on unnecessary construction.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

California has lost over 6,000 fast food restaurant jobs since September 2023 due to the state’s recent law increasing fast food minimum wages, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Employment Policies Institute (EPI).

Since the law’s passage in September 2023, the state’s privately-owned fast food restaurants have lost 6,166 jobs through June, according to the report. Prior research shows some California restaurants began bracing for the minimum wage increase before the law took effect by taking measures such as downsizing staff, reducing scheduled hours or raising menu prices, according to the EPI.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1228 into law in September 2023. The law increased the minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees so that they must be paid at least $20 per hour beginning in April, and also established a Fast Food Council.

Several California fast food chains announced business changes ahead of the bill being implemented, including laying off delivery drivers and signaling that menu price hikes may occur, according to California-based outlet KTLA. As of July, the state had a total of 750,500 fast food jobs, the most in state history, according to an August press release from Newsom’s office.

Newsom claimed that there have been several positive impacts from the policy, including job growth and improved working conditions, in a September op-ed published by Fox News. Despite Newsom touting his state’s fast food jobs growth in the op-ed, seasonally adjusted federal employment data contradicted his claims and showed that overall employment in the state’s fast food industry is down since the start of the year, according to The Center Square.

“The OpEd in Fox News today by the governor is disappointing because it paints a very misleading picture about what’s going on on the ground,” Rebekah Paxton, director of research and state coalitions at the EPI, told The Center Square in a September interview. “Instead of touting these numbers that most economists would say don’t accurately measure the situation, it would behoove Governor Newsom to talk to the workers and talk to the operators who are losing their jobs and losing their livelihoods as a result of this policy.”

“This is a bogus industry group that’s funded by corporate restaurant chains to protect their profits,” a spokesperson for Newsom said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This summer, fast food jobs peaked at numbers never seen before, and now multiple independent research studies are backing up the data. What’s good for workers is good for business.”

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Dear Dave,

I have $100,000 in student loan debt. Since the amount is so large, is there a special place in your Baby Steps plan for it?

Jules

Dear Jules,

I hope you have a nice, large income with which to fight that big pile of student loan debt. I’ve seen even worse situations, though. I’ve talked to people who went $200,000 into debt for a four-year degree in a field where they’ll make $45,000. Yes, that kind of thinking and behavior is out there, and it’s ridiculous.

The fact that it’s a large amount of student loan debt doesn’t change anything. Baby Step 2 is where you pay off all debt except for your home. So, don’t let this student loan debt hang around for years and years. You’ve got to get focused and intense about getting control of your money. That means living on a strict, basics-only monthly budget. After that, start throwing every nickel and dime you can scrape together, and save toward paying off those student loans as fast as possible.

Your income is your largest wealth-building tool, Jules. You can’t save, and plan for the future, when all your money is flying out the door to pay off debt.

Dave

Park it in a good money market account

Dear Dave,

My wife and I are completely debt-free, and we’re saving up for our first house. We currently have about $140,000 in savings, and we’d like to buy a home with cash when the time is right. Where should we put our money, so it will work for us while we save more?

Andy

Dear Andy,

If I were in your shoes, and maybe looking at a window of three or four years, I’d just park the cash in a good money market account. You won’t make a lot off it, but your money will be safe. I mean, all you’re looking for is a smart place to stash it for a little while.

When it comes to long-term investing, I’m a big fan of growth stock mutual funds. The problem with that in your situation would be the volatility of the market. By the time you’ve saved up more money, and spent time deciding on a house, the market may be down.

You two are in a great place financially right now. With the path you’re on, just imagine how incredible it will be in a few years to have a new home and be debt-free!

Dave

Several cryptocurrency stocks gained, while bitcoin surged ahead, following President-elect Donald Trump’s Wednesday announcement nominating Paul Atkins as chair to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to multiple reports.

The premarket trading session on Thursday revealed “substantial gains” for multiple companies with exposure to cryptocurrency, according to Investing.com. Riot Platforms saw a 6% uptick in its shares, Bit Digital’s shares increased by 5%, MARA Holdings’ stock climbed by 5% and MicroStrategy saw a 8% increase in shares, according to data collected by Investing.com.

Bitcoin, the first and most widely traded cryptocurrency, topped $100,000 for the first time ever late Wednesday following Atkins’ SEC chair nomination. The cryptocurrency was at $102,885.41 as of Thursday morning, according to Yahoo Finance. Bitcoin has soared since Trump won reelection, climbing from $69,335 at market close on Election Day to $75,621 at market close on Nov. 6, according to data from CoinGecko. The crypto market overall has jumped by roughly $1.3 trillion since Nov. 5, according to the Financial Post.

Atkins is the CEO of Patomak Global Partners and previously served as an SEC commissioner. He has been a vocal supporter of the crypto industry and has co-chaired the Token Alliance, which represents the interests of the crypto sector, since 2017. He also favors lighter regulation in the banking industry, according to Politico.

The current SEC chairperson, Gary Gensler, said in November that he plans to step down once Trump returns to office in January 2025. Under Gensler, the SEC brought actions against individuals involved in the crypto industry for fraud, among other violations, according to the Associated Press (AP). Gensler has faced criticism for his crypto enforcement agenda, including from a federal judge who in March accused the SEC of acting in “bad faith” regarding a lawsuit brought against a Utah-based crypto company.

“CONGRATULATIONS BITCOINERS!!! $100,000!!! YOU’RE WELCOME!!! Together, we will Make America Great Again,” Trump said Thursday in a post to Truth Social after announcing his pick for SEC chair.

While on the campaign trail, Trump vowed to make America the “crypto capital of the planet,” according to the AP; his campaign also accepted Bitcoin donations. The U.S. stock market also surged following Trump’s election victory.

“If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA,” Trump said while speaking at the Libertarian convention in May, CNN reported.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Employees at the United Auto Workers, the sixth-largest union in America, have gone on strike against the union this week in Manhattan, but you wouldn’t know it from the legacy media’s silence.

UAW Staff United, which represents hundreds of employees across 34 locals, announced its strike Monday, and Thursday marks the fourth day of picketing in New York City.

According to UAW Staff United (USU), the strike comes “in response to the bad-faith bargaining committed by the UAW throughout our negotiation process and the retaliatory termination of a union leader.”

UAW hires temporary organizers, who work on three-month contracts renewable for up to three years. USU is demanding “job security through stable staffing and just cause protections for these workers—which together would constitute an end to an exploitive, tiered system of employment for USU staff.” Specific demands include severance payments, two months’ notice of layoffs, and sick days.

“We want to make sure that this job is not only sustainable, but also sets up staff to better support our campaigns,” Rita Akincillar, a spokeswoman for the USU, said in a statement Monday. “Management’s insistence on being able to lay us off on a whim shows gross disregard for our needs and the needs of the UAW rank and file.”

The USU also claims that UAW leadership “has decided to cut off all striking workers’ pay.”

The USU posted photos of the striking workers.

UAW staffer (and USU member) Molly Ragan wrote on X that “UAW pulled a classic corporate boss move and cut all striking workers’ pay yesterday.”

“It’s strike day 2, and we are angry and determined to make this place better for staff organizers and the members we organize alongside,” she added. “Cut our pay, cut our health care, we are not going away.”

The USU targeted the offices of labor lawyers who represent the UAW.

The legacy media appear not to have covered the strike in downtown Manhattan. The pro-union outlet Payday Report covered the strike and condemned “so many labor journalists” for ignoring the story.

As The Washington Times reported in September, UAW Staff United accused the UAW of stalling contract negotiations and illegally terminating the contract of a labor organizer.

UAW Staff United launched in March after the election of UAW President Shawn Fain, who ran as a reform candidate following a series of corruption scandals.

An independent UAW monitor is investigating Fain on accusations that he participated in retaliation against other labor leaders this year. Fain welcomed the investigation and claimed that he is “committed to serving the membership and running a democratic union.”

The “retaliatory termination of a union leader” refers to temporary organizer Alex Chan, who was terminated at the end of September. According to the USU, the firing marks the first time a temporary organizer has been terminated before the end of a three-year term.

USU claims the UAW terminated Chan in retaliation for her part in forming the union last year.

“Terminating me doesn’t just hurt me as an individual; it hurts the union drives and thousands of union members that I’m supporting & organizing with,” Chan wrote on X. “UAW needs to afford its staff the same basic rights, just cause, and job security as the UAW workers that we fight for.”

As the Left has consciously embraced unions, many left-leaning nonprofits have unionized, notably including groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Staff at the SPLC unionized after a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal at the nonprofit in 2019. When the SPLC reorganized earlier this year, the union accused the organization of union-busting.

Neither the USU nor the UAW responded to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

Some union leaders are self-destructive idiots.

America’s ports have fallen behind. Not a single one ranks in the top 50 worldwide.

A big reason is that dock unions stop innovation.

This fall, the International Longshoremen’s Association shut down East and Gulf coast ports, striking for a raise and a ban on automation. They got the raise.

Now union President Harold Daggett says longshoremen will strike again in January if they don’t get that ban on automation.

His statement in my new video makes it clear that he knows how badly his strike would damage other Americans.

“Guys who sell cars can’t sell cars, because the cars ain’t coming in off the ships. They get laid off,” says Daggett. “Construction workers get laid off because materials aren’t coming in. The steel’s not coming in. The lumber’s not coming in. They lose their job.”

Obviously, labor leaders aren’t necessarily “pro-worker,” says Mercatus Center economist Liya Palagashvili.

“They’re saying, ‘We don’t care if these other jobs are destroyed as long as we get what we want.'”

Daggett is unusually clueless. He doesn’t understand that a ban on automation will also hurt his members.

As Palagashvili puts it, “They’ll save some jobs today, but they’ll destroy a lot more jobs in the future.”

That’s because today’s shippers have options. Daggett’s union only controls East and Gulf coast ports. Shippers can deliver their products to ports that accept automation.

“We’re going to see less activity in ‘Stone Age’ ports,” says Palagashvili.

“Stone Age?”

“They want to ban automated opening and closing of port doors,” she points out, requiring workers to pull heavy doors themselves.

Weirdly, the union boss makes his demands while also pointing out that dockworker jobs are dangerous.

“Very dangerous … We’ve had 17 people killed in the last three years!”

That’s terrible, but it’s an argument for automation! Using machines instead of vulnerable humans protects human workers. Daggett’s arguing against himself!

I see why he wouldn’t agree to an interview.

“It’s backwards,” notes Palagashvili. “(If) you care about the safety of these workers, you should enhance their jobs and make them safer and better. And the only way you can do that is with technological advancements in automation.”

Other countries have used automated cranes for years. They’re 80% faster than the human-operated cranes in many American ports.

“The best ports,” says Palagashvili, “are Asian and Middle Eastern ports. They allow for innovation and technological advancements. If you look at Chinese ports, they’re actually sitting behind a computer and directing port activity through the screen. That’s a better job.”

“I bet there are fewer of them,” I push back.

“Some port jobs will definitely be lost,” she says, “but that’s not a bad thing. Look at it historically; we had hundreds of thousands of blacksmiths and candle makers and watchmakers.”

Obviously, those and other jobs were destroyed by new technology. But unemployment didn’t surge. New jobs emerged – jobs people at the time didn’t imagine: programmers, mechanics, electricians, medical technicians …

That’s capitalism’s “creative destruction.” It constantly creates new jobs. That makes most everyone richer.

The media rarely cover that, because it’s a slow, non-exciting, good-news story, and the new jobs appear in many different places. By contrast, when a factory closes, the union assembles the media, and we report the tragic story about workers losing their jobs.

“That reporter doesn’t follow up with the worker two years later,” says Palagashvili, “but research does, and research shows that that worker gets a new job.”

“On average, (a) better job,” I note.

“Better jobs,” agrees Palagashvili, “and higher wages.”

Higher wages because innovation allows workers to accomplish more.

“Bulldozers and crane trucks made construction industry workers better off,” says Palagashvili, “and the real wages of those construction workers increase.”

Daggett and his union just don’t get it.

They fight to keep American ports dangerous and inefficient.

That will hurt their own workers and, eventually, themselves.

Since the early days of his campaign, President Donald Trump has pledged to impose wide-ranging tariffs on many imported goods, including a 10 percent or higher tax on imports from other countries. This decision has made waves, drawn criticism, and largely dominated the trade policy debate in recent months – understandable, given the far-reaching implications of such a drastic change in policy. Nevertheless, President Trump’s tariffs are far from the only trade policy issue deserving of attention by the new administration. As we look ahead to January, any trade reform effort considered by President Trump and his advisors should also include overdue changes to a little-known agency responsible for implementing our country’s trade agenda: the International Trade Commission (ITC).

Congress has given the executive branch wide authority to set trade policy. The ITC’s role is less widely understood. Due to Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, the ITC maintains the ability to institute “unfair import investigations,” a tool ostensibly designed to protect American companies from intellectual property infringement violations stemming from foreign competitors.

If an infringed product is imported into the United States, the ITC has one remedy – an Exclusion Order – that completely ban the product in question from the U.S. market.

Unfortunately, in recent years, the ITC has become the forum of choice for opportunistic patent assertion entities (PAEs). Also known as patent trolls, PAEs are companies that purchase portfolios of patents with the sole purpose of using them as the basis for infringement litigation. While the threshold for injunctions in federal courts are much higher, patent trolls flock to the ITC thanks to its unique ability to issue relief via ITC Exclusion Orders.

When an Exclusion Order is issued, the ITC is supposed to investigate and determine whether banning the imported product in question will negatively affect the public. In the past, a wide range of stakeholders, from Hispanic interest groups to rural community advocates, have called on the ITC to issue public interest exemptions and ensure consumers’ access to critical products is not impeded. Unfortunately, the ITC rarely conducts a thorough public interest review before taking action. In fact, it’s been nearly forty years since it last used a public interest exemption to decline issuing an Exclusion Order.

Fortunately, there are bipartisan efforts in Congress to address these deficiencies in how the ITC considers such cases. Last year, Representatives David Schweikert (AZ-01) and Don Beyer (VA-08) introduced the Advancing America’s Interests Act (AAIA) to stop patent abuse at the ITC and reaffirm its public interest standard.

The AAIA would also strengthen an important feature of the the Tariff Act – the “domestic industry” standard – that would prohibit a U.S. company from being used as a plaintiff unless they voluntarily join a complaint requesting the ITC’s relief. As part of the Tariff Act of 1930, a complainant at the ITC needs to demonstrate that it contributes to the industry in the U.S. related to whatever patent rights it is alleging have been infringed. Yet in an oft-used loophole, the patent holder can satisfy this requirement by stating it licenses its patents to other companies even if those companies did not join the complaint.

This creates a “domestic industry by subpoena” problem where a patent troll claims it has met the domestic industry requirement by involving an otherwise unwilling and uninterested licensee in the investigation. The AAIA would prohibit this practice unless the licensed entity in question ‘joins’ the complaint.

Tariffs policy and protectionism figured prominently in the presidential campaign, and there is no doubt these issues will remain salient during the second Trump administration. But trade policy is more than simply a function of tariffs. Congress should act and pass legislation to return the ITC to its original mission. The constant threat of patent troll litigation is a drag on many U.S. companies and pulls resources away from developing the new technologies necessary to grow our economy and out-innovate the world.

As policymakers look forward to what should be included in a new administration’s trade agenda, fixing the ITC should be at the top of the list.

A family jewelry business that lost $42,000 when police in Indianapolis simply took it and kept it is getting it back.

The Institute for Justice has confirmed the money is being returned to the small jewelry operations of Henry and Minh Cheng.

A customer earlier this year sent them $42,000 cash as payment, but it never arrived because “Indianapolis police seized their parcel and tried to take the money without alleging any specific crime,” the IJ reported.

“Now, after the Chengs defended their property from civil forfeiture with the Institute for Justice (IJ), Marion County prosecutors have agreed to return their money. The Chengs’ class-action countersuit, aimed at ending the unconstitutional seizures, will continue to move forward,” the legal team explained.

““Indiana had no basis to forfeit the Chengs’ money, and so it’s only right that the government has agreed to return it,” said IJ lawyer Marie Miller. “But many other people are affected by the state’s practices of taking money simply because it goes through Indiana and failing to identify a crime that would justify the forfeiture. The counterclaims aim to end this abuse of civil forfeiture not just for Henry and Minh, but for everyone.”

Henry Cheng said he was pleased.

“What happened to my company shouldn’t happen to anyone. Indiana should stop trying to steal from law-abiding citizens by seizing property and figuring out later whether there’s any basis for keeping it,” he said.

The IJ documented now, “For years, police have seized cash at the busy processing center, and the Marion County prosecutor has filed civil forfeiture actions on behalf of the State of Indiana to keep the seized money. This places people like Henry and Minh in the position of having to prove their innocence in a court hundreds or thousands of miles from their home in California.”

The legal team noted that Indiana launched proceedings against more than $2.5 million since 2022.

“To get their money back and to end these predatory practices, Henry and Minh teamed up earlier this year with the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that defends people from abusive civil forfeiture nationwide,” the IJ said.

The Chengs started their wholesale jewelry supply decades ago, and travel across the country to serve retail shops.

“Early this year, they made a bulk sale to a retailer in Virginia, who was slow to submit payment. A few months after the sale, in April, the retailer informed the couple that she could pay promptly with cash. Henry and Minh agreed to accept that form of payment,” IJ said.

The retailer shipped the cash using FedEx, but the parcel was sent through the hub the company has in Indianapolis, and there a police officer grabbed the package and shoved it in front of a K-9.

“The dog alerted, allowing the police to get a warrant to open the parcel. After an officer found the cash in the parcel (and without finding any contraband), the Marion County prosecutor filed a civil-forfeiture action to keep the money,” the IJ said.

The prosecutors claimed the money was the result of “a violation of a criminal statute.”

Topline: The City of Baltimore was forced to reimburse a woman $51,141 after the police accidentally auctioned off her truck to the highest bidder.

Key facts: Baltimore resident Mary Pat Staron’s Toyota Tacoma was seized by the city police in 2022 as part of a homicide investigation.

It wasn’t until August 2023 that the police finally told her she could pick up her truck. When she arrived, the Tacoma was nowhere to be found.

There had been a paperwork mistake, and the truck did not have a police hold when it arrived at the Department of Transportation’s depot, officials explained to the city spending board on Sept. 4. When the truck went unclaimed for 11 days — no one had told Staron yet that she could retrieve it — it was put up for auction, as per city policy.

The truck sold for $22,000, meaning the city will suffer a net loss of $29,141 from the fiasco.

The payment to Staron includes the truck’s value, as well as the loan and insurance payments she had to make while her truck was being held.

Background: Two months after the incident, the Baltimore Comptroller released an audit of the Baltimore Police Department’s towing services.

Auditors found that for 53% of towed cars, the Department of Transportation did not notify owners by mail within two working days that they needed to retrieve their car, as is required. For the remaining 47%, officials had no records proving that the notices were mailed on time.

Auditors wrote that, “Vehicle owners may miss the opportunity to retrieve their cars before they are auctioned off, which could raise constitutional concerns.”

The audit also claims that police are not properly tracking invoices for towing services and not enforcing a rule that towing companies must arrive on the scene 20 minutes after the police call them.

Summary: Selling off government property to downsize local agencies and return some money to taxpayers is a nice idea. The government just has to make sure it’s actually their property.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

(WASHINGTON EXAMINER) – President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to enact “100% tariffs” on BRICS countries that are trying to move away from using the U.S. dollar as their currency.

“The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER. We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social.

BRICS, an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is an economic and geopolitical bloc whose power has grown in recent years, rivaling that of the Group of Seven countries, a coalition of leading industrial nations led by the U.S. The BRICS coalition has recently grown to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

I love writing about American-based companies with which I’ve had a positive, personal experience. Blade + Blue is one such company.

Almost everything Blade + Blue makes is made in the USA (very few items are not). This U.S.-owned company offers American-made apparel of all types, including super high-quality shorts, casual t-shirts, button-down casual dress short-and long-sleeved shirts, tanks, vests, henleys, jackets, boxers, trunks, briefs, sweatshirts, and joggers. If you see an item that does not say “Made in the USA” in the description, like the baseball caps, you can assume they are not made in America.

Full disclosure: You will likely find that Blade + Blue’s apparel will cost more than most imported apparel. But guess what? The quality of Blade + Blue apparel will easily beat less-expensive imports in quality and longevity. For example, I have an acquaintance (let’s call him Jim) with whom I am still discussing the advantages of American-made products. My friend Jim gets it – he really does (mostly) – but still, he would rather buy imported shorts at places like Banana Republic, where everything in the store is imported, because it costs less.

Still, Jim is back at Banana Republic once again buying more imported shorts to replace the ones he bought around the same time I purchased my Blade + Blue shorts. And it’s not because Jim’s shorts are wearing out to the point they have holes in them – they just look old and tired. Meanwhile, my Blade + Blue shorts still display vibrant colors in like-new condition. As the saying goes, “You get what you pay for.”

Another famous saying is, “Don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish.” It would be foolish to order four or five pairs of imported Banana Republic shorts (or shirts or other apparel) over a few years and have to make several trips back to the store and spend the same money you could have spent on higher-quality Blade + Blue shorts.

Blade + Blue apparel looks much better from the beginning than lesser-quality imports, especially in the long term.

“Made in USA” is much more than a slogan. It’s literally about millions of jobs for our fellow Americans that pay well enough for those workers to reinvest back into the U.S. economy through their consumer purchases.

It’s also about maintaining our high standard of living in this country. Workers in China don’t pay taxes to America. Only American workers pay taxes to America to support the things “We, The People” have demanded from the use of their tax dollars. These “things” include funding our national defense, Social Security, our military and national defense (against known adversaries like China), Medicare, fire & police protection, and infrastructure like roads, parks & bridges, etc.

I have ordered several Blade + Blue products, including shorts, shirts, briefs, boxers, and sweatpants. And I already know that I will order more in the future. Not only am I thrilled with the quality of the products, but I’m also happy that I know I’m keeping jobs, profits, and tax revenue within the borders of my beloved country.

Blade + Blue is frequently adding new and different products to its website. I signed up for the Blade + Blue newsletter for the latest deals and offers. I also signed up for Blade + Blue’s Birthday Club to receive a special discount code to use to celebrate my special day.

Blade + Blue frequently has sales of 15%-25% off, and they are sure to have more of those sales as Christmas approaches, so be on the lookout for discounts off the usual prices.

For me, knowing that I’m wearing apparel made by my fellow Americans and supporting jobs here at home adds to that special feeling I get during the holidays. And those American workers who make products for
Blade + Blue also get a good feeling during the holidays, knowing that their U.S. jobs are secure, and they can use those wages to buy gifts for their families and loved ones as well.

About Roger Simmermaker

Roger Simmermaker has written multiple books on buying American and trade policy since 1996, and has been a frequent guest on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and MSNBC. Roger has also been quoted or featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, BusinessWeek, and The New York Times, among many other publications.

The Biden-Harris administration announced a multi-billion dollar loan for electric vehicle (EV) maker Rivian Monday as the company continues to hemorrhage cash.

Rivian lost $1.1 billion and saw its revenue fall nearly $500 million in the third quarter of 2024 as a slackening of consumer demand for EVs hampered the industry’s growth. Now, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has agreed to a conditional commitment to loan the automaker roughly $6.6 billion to help finance the construction of its manufacturing facility in Georgia, according to a press release from the DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO).

“This loan will help create thousands of new American jobs and further strengthen U.S. leadership in EV manufacturing and technology,” RJ Scaringe, Rivian founder and CEO, wrote in a press release Monday. “A robust ecosystem of U.S. companies developing and manufacturing EVs is critical for the U.S. to maintain its long-term leadership in transportation.”

Big news for Rivian: a conditional $6.6 billion DOE loan could supercharge production of the R2 and R3 at a new Georgia plant, creating thousands of jobs. Learn more about what this means for Rivian: https://t.co/KJ8NGlZL0f pic.twitter.com/EVjvRHIYAw

— RivianTrackr (@RivianTrackr) November 26, 2024

The Georgia factory will augment Rivian’s factory in Normal, Illinois, and will produce sport utility vehicles that sell for roughly $45,000, significantly less than the company’s current fleet of consumer vehicles which start at around $70,000.

“This loan would enable Rivian to more aggressively scale our U.S. manufacturing footprint for our competitively priced R2 and R3 vehicles that emphasize both capability and affordability,” Scaringe said in the release.

The financing agreement is part of outgoing President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which has deployed nearly $700 billion in taxpayer dollars to infrastructure, semiconductor and green energy projects. Many of the White House subsidies have gone to the EV industry specifically, including a $7,500 federal tax credit for certain EV purchases and $12 billion in taxpayer funds for car manufacturers to retrofit their plants for EV production.

Despite the subsidies, the EV industry has seen a slackening of consumer demand, with sales growing just 31% in the first half of 2024 — far less than the 71% increase in the first half of 2022. Meanwhile, a June poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute found 46% of respondents were unlikely or very unlikely to purchase an EV compared with just 21% of respondents who said they were “very” or “extremely” likely to make the change.

“Even after throwing money at EVs hand over fist, basically paying people tax dollars to drive these cars off the lots, you have a dire spiral of (1) not enough demand to support the number of cars being produced, and (2) the people you paid to buy them now wanting to go back to what they had before,” O.H. Skinner, executive director of the Alliance for Consumers and the former solicitor general of Arizona, previously told the DCNF.

Rivian and the DOE did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Dear Dave,

One of my credit card bills was turned over to a collection agency, because I was late making payments several times. The agency has offered me two or three different payment options I can afford. If I agree to one of these, does the original creditor get paid, as well?

Bethany

Dear Bethany,

You’re facing one of two possibilities. The collection agency is either directly representing the credit card company, or it owns the debt outright. Neither way of handling it is unusual when someone has defaulted on a loan.

Here’s the deal. You’ve already got a mark against you on your credit report for the bill being turned over to collections. So, at this point settling on a credit card you’ve defaulted on is really no big deal. Unless you have the cash on hand right now to make good on the debt outright, I’d accept whichever deal makes the most sense for you financially at the moment.

But if you want my very best piece of advice for you, and anyone else finding themselves in this kind of situation, Bethany, it goes something like this. Stop using credit cards!

Dave

The unexpected is always lurking

Dear Dave,

When I leave my job in two or three years, I’ll still have a good income of around $80,000 thanks to my pension. I talked with my wife recently about us not needing an emergency fund with a continuing steady income like this, but she thinks we should still have money set aside strictly for emergencies. I think we would be fine with my pension and our other investments, but she says a fund set aside strictly for the unexpected would make her feel safer. What are your thoughts?

Barrett

Dear Barrett,

I always recommend folks have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. Put it in a good money market account with check writing privileges and a decent interest rate. That way, your money will work for you a little bit until it’s needed.

I know a good pension can feel really solid. But there’s always the possibility of lost income or very large, unexpected expenses. Life can take a big financial chunk out of you at any time. What if one, or both of you, have a major medical event? Even with the other investments you mentioned, you should have an emergency fund. Period.

In your case, you could probably lean toward three months of expenses in your emergency fund. If it were me, I’d go ahead and make it a full six months of expenses. Trust me, a fully funded emergency fund will make both of you feel better. It can turn a disaster into nothing more than an inconvenience.

Dave

Millions of Americans, maybe tens of millions, including many with first-hand encounters with the federal government’s powerful and feared Internal Revenue Service, were expressing glee this week with confirmation that the IRS, itself the issuer of tens of millions of “audit” notices, will soon be put under audit.

“I cannot be more ecstatic!” said one social media commenter.

Another added, “I sure hope they saved their receipts for the last 3,000 years.”

Gonna happen https://t.co/QvYyGKvr2n

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2024

The word came from Elon Musk, one of the chiefs of the new plan by President-elect Donald Trump to clean up the government, tackle the “Deep State” agendas and expenses, cut costs, reduce waste and more.

“Gonna happen,” Musk responded to a comment that, “The IRS getting audited by the @DOGE.”

Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the bureau actually got a funding increase of some $80 billion in order to hire thousands more agents who could dispatch “audit” notices on Americans.

Another commenter noted, “Imagine being the one who contacts the IRS to let them know they need to bring all their receipts because they’re being audited. I’d pay big money to have that job.”

Another said the audits should extend to individual IRS workers, after reports in just recent days that hundreds of revenue agents owe millions in past-due taxes.

It was the Gateway Pundit that explained the IRS already has “audits” from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, but those likely look only at whether the agency follows its own protocols.

“In fact, the Biden administration has overseen an aggressive expansion of the agency and its harassment of working Americans,” the report said. “Back in May, the agency demanded a further $20 billion from Congress in order to hire another 14,000 more employees as part of an effort to better ‘serve taxpayers.’

“Their pleas came under two years Congress passed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which included a staggering $80 billion windfall for the agency to expand its operations and hire tens of thousands of agents.”

DOGE already has been given lists suggesting some $2 trillion in savings that could be made for American taxpayers.

(ZEROHEDGE) – At the APEC annual summit in Lima, Comrade Xi Jinping was practically coronated as the King of Peru, as a lively moveable feast celebrated the brand new $1.3 billion Chancay-Shanghai Maritime Silk Road across the Pacific.

There could hardly be a more auspicious counterpart to the action in South America than to gather in BRICS member South Africa to discuss African Unity in a Multipolar World, as well as the perennial plagues of racism, fascism, Russophobia and other forms of discrimination. The meetings were coordinated by the Mouvement Russophile International (MIR), who is not only Russophile but most of all, multi-nodal-phile. It’s as if this was an extension of the memorable BRICS 2024 summit in Kazan.

In Kazan, BRICS de facto expanded out of 9 members, adding 13 member-partners and reaching 22 nations (Saudi Arabia, an immensely complex case, remains on the fence). BRICS+ now largely surpasses the – waning – influence of the G20, whose annual summit is ongoing in Rio, at least focused on social issues and the fight against poverty and hunger, and not war. Still, the crisis-riddled G7/NATOstan did try to hijack the agenda.

Some of the most successful people in business who head some of the most powerful financial institutions in the world are being called out over their continued business with one of the biggest adversaries facing the U.S.

During an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Hudson Institute senior fellow and Atlas Organization founder Jonathan D.T. Ward called out U.S. executives for their disregard of China’s human rights violations while they attended a business summit in Hong Kong this week.

“The city of Hong Kong, which is fully under PRC [People’s Republic of China] control, is cracking down,” Ward said. “To see Wall Street executives sort of proceeding with business as usual, I mean, they have to ultimately get on the right side of history, of human rights, and of U.S. national security.”

The summit is currently taking place with U.S. executives while pro-democracy activist and Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai is on trial. Lai was accused by the Chinese government of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and publish “seditious” material.

The Chinese government is blaming Lai, who is a British citizen, for the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests that broke out in 2019, and since 2020, Lai has been held in solitary confinement.

“Dad had a very clear choice. He could either leave—he’s a British citizen, so he could go to the UK to retire, or campaign from abroad—or stay and defend his people. We honor the decision he made, and I’m incredibly proud he made that decision.”

—Sebastien Lai, son of Jimmy… pic.twitter.com/RSlYMuAR3F

— #FreeJimmyLai (@SupportJimmyLai) November 21, 2024

The U.S. executives attending the Hong Kong summit include Marc Rowan, Apollo Global Management CEO; Jonathan Gray, president of Blackstone; David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs Banking; and Jane Fraser, president of Citigroup.

Ward stated China is funding U.S. adversaries and is using Hong Kong to further push its agenda.

“There was a really important report this week published by the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission that had this to say about Hong Kong – it has a growing role as the central sanctions evasion hub, and transshipment center for illicit finance and technology to Russia, Iran, and North Korea.”

Ward pointed out China backs this entire axis as it pursues its own campaign to undermine and displace the United States, but there is still a good chance the U.S. can fight back.

“There’s a giant opportunity for the new Trump administration to start winning against Beijing again, to get back to where they left off at the end of Trump one, where you had this really rapid… succession of policy action against Chinese companies, against the PRC and the CCP,” Ward said.

According to Bartiromo, the Hong Kong Democracy Council also called out U.S. executives and said their continued participation in doing business in China, despite warnings against it, “should be a cause for concern for the U.S. government.”

Ward said Trump would have to go ahead with several policies to keep China at bay, including imposing tariffs on Chinese goods.

“You can’t have Beijing earning capital in the U.S. markets and using that to finance grand strategy to build the Belt and Road Initiative, to deepen their presence in strategic industries and emerging technologies.”

Ward noted China’s entire rise to prominence has to do with the fact China has had access to the U.S. market. Cutting China off from those markets will cut down their surpluses, and then eventually China’s growth.

“Then you have to go after the Chinese companies. I mean, there’s a very long list of strategic corporations that can be hit with U.S. sanctions across the board in technology and banking… in manufacturing, and pretty much the whole state-owned sector, which spans pretty much everything. I think that’s a really juicy target set for an incoming administration,” Ward said.

Ward stated the U.S. can still turn the tide by being victorious through economic dominance and making sure China is unable to maintain the position it has built itself through being a trading partner for dozens of developing nations.

“That’s how you begin to change the game, because the path to victory is all about American economic dominance, and making sure that China does not succeed in maintaining the position it has built as the centerpiece of global goods trade, as the dominant trading partner for… dozens and dozens of nations around the world and entire regions now, Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, they’ve succeeded at doing that,” Ward noted.

“If we start to cut off access to our own market, and also to North America because we can’t let their companies go through Mexico, you have to shut those down as well. Make sure the tariffs follow Chinese companies,” Ward said, adding if this happens, Chinese diplomatic power will begin to roll back as they lose their influence.

Good to join @MariaBartiromo on @FoxBusiness this morning on China, tariffs, and trade.

We can’t have Beijing earning capital in the US market, says China expert https://t.co/8pKaRqLbNV #FoxBusiness

— Dr. Jonathan D. T. Ward (@jonathandtward) November 22, 2024

(COWBOY STATE DAILY) – Skiers have been complaining about the cost of season passes for years, and this year’s no different. An Epic Pass, which gives you unlimited access to more than 40 ski resorts across North America, Europe and Australia jumped from $909 last season to $1,107 this season. A season pass at Grand Targhee Resort in Alta, Wyoming, will run you $1,774. Aspen-Snowmass in Colorado, one of the nation’s most expensive resorts, offers a season “premier” pass for $3,599.

And then there’s Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, which this week offered an exclusive luxury season pass for $10,000, according to the online ski magazine SnowBrains.

“The first time I saw it I said, ‘You’re kidding. Someone made this up. It’s almost like an Onion article,” said Scott Williams, a former Jackson firefighter. “But it isn’t.”