MADDOG10's Blog

By Owen Klinsky, DCNF. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at a bill signing ceremony at the White House, March 3, 2022. (Screen Capture/CSPAN)

President Joe Biden’s 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) earmarked tens of billions of taxpayer dollars for expanding broadband internet, yet, more than three years later, not a single project is underway.

The $1.2 trillion law earmarked over $42 billion to provide internet access in unserved, mostly rural areas, with Biden once describing the initiative as “not unlike what Roosevelt did with electricity.” However, not a single project funded by the initiative has broken ground, with federal subsidies not expected to reach projects until 2025, largely due to a slew of regulatory hurdles, such as requirements for internet providers to participate in green initiatives and employ unionized workforces.

“In 2021, Kamala Harris became the ‘Broadband Czar’,” Republican South Dakota Sen. John Thune wrote in a post on X on Sep. 24. “Three years and $42 billion later, not one person has been connected to the internet under the BEAD [Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment] program.”

Another challenge comes from applicants having to demonstrate how the internet plans they provide using the federally subsidized infrastructure will be affordable for Americans with household incomes at or below 200% of the poverty line. Virginia’s application process, for example, took more than 10 months due to a dispute between the state and federal government over a price cap for low-cost plans.

The White House’s pace of implementation has drawn scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, with the House Energy and Commerce Committee launching an investigation into the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s handling of the initiative. The broadband expansion program has also drawn comparisons to the Biden-Harris administration’s electric vehicle (EV) charger expansion initiative, that, as of April 2024, had built just seven stations despite the $7.5 billion the November 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated it.

The EV charger expansion program was delayed in part due to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) requirements, with the Department of Transportation saying applicants should promise to engage in “intentional outreach to underserved communities” by hosting “neighborhood block parties.”

“The Biden Admin has been layering a partisan political agenda on top of this $42.45B program — a liberal wish list that has nothing to do with connecting Americans,” Brendan Carr, the former head of the Federal Communications Commission wrote in a June X post. “Climate change mandates, tech biases, DEI requirements, favoring government-run networks + more.”

Biden-Harris Admin Opened Door For 1.7 Million Migrants Flagged As ‘Potential’ Security Threats, House Report Finds

Over 1.7 million migrants who have been encountered along the southern border during the Biden-Harris administration have been flagged as “potential national security threats,” according to a House Judiciary Committee report released Thursday.

The migrants, who largely entered the country under Vice President Kamala Harris’ leadership as “border czar,” have been designated as “special interest aliens” (SIAs) due to having come from countries “considered to be a threat” to American national security, according to the report. Since January 2021, nearly eight million migrants have entered the country illegally along the southern border, with at least 382 of them found to be on the U.S. government’s terrorist watchlist.

The report pointed to the case of Mohammad Kharwin, who was initially put on the terrorist watchlist in 2018, later had his name misspelled when the records were updated in 2019. Because of this discrepancy, Border Patrol agents released Kharwin into the U.S., despite his “possible terrorism ties.”

There are currently 26 “special interest” countries, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Syria and Turkey, according to the report. The Department of Homeland Security recently added 12 more countries to the list, including China, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Venezuela.

“Kamala Harris has failed disastrously as the Border Czar,” Republican Rep. Andy Harris of Arizona said in a Thursday post on X. “FBI Director Chris Wray has warned Congress of the dangers of the Biden-Harris regime’s open borders. We have no way of knowing how many terrorists have invaded our country under the Border Czar’s watch.”

The White House press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The surprising reports come from whistleblower disclosures that point to a non-classified Microsoft Teams group chat among DHS employees—under the title “NST NFT Bi-Weekly Sync”—containing sensitive information about Governor Walz and his alleged connections to the CCP. Further intelligence reports, both classified and unclassified, are said to contain additional details on these troubling claims.

In a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the Committee expressed its concerns about the long-term relationship between Governor Walz and the CCP, suggesting the Chinese regime has attempted to infiltrate subnational leadership in the U.S. through strategic relationships with prominent figures, including state governors. The letter indicates that the Committee has been investigating CCP influence on federal and state leadership for some time, but this new information regarding Governor Walz raises the stakes considerably.

BREAKING: Chairman Comer Is Subpoenaing DHS After Whistleblower Reveals Information on Governor Walz’s Ties to the CCP

— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) September 30, 2024

In the letter to Secretary Mayorkas, the Committee stated, “If a state governor and major political party’s nominee for Vice President of the United States has been a witting or unwitting participant in the CCP’s efforts to weaken our nation, this would strongly suggest that there are alarming weaknesses in the federal government’s effort to defend the United States from the CCP’s political warfare.”

The Committee argued that the CCP views the United States as its “main enemy” and has been engaged in a broad campaign to influence American policymakers, particularly at the state and local levels. The whistleblower disclosures, according to Chairman Comer, indicate that Walz may have been part of this effort, either knowingly or unwittingly. Comer issued a subpoena to DHS, demanding the release of all intelligence reports, documents, and communications related to Governor Walz’s alleged connections to the CCP. The Oversight Committee believes these documents will shed light on how successful the CCP has been in infiltrating U.S. political circles and what the federal government is doing to combat these efforts.

“We have learned of the emphasis the CCP has placed on influencing subnational government leaders, including state governors,” said the Committee in its letter. “The information required of DHS by the Committee’s subpoena will inform the Committee’s understanding of how successful the CCP has been in waging political warfare in and against the United States, how effectively federal agencies are addressing the communist regime’s campaign, and what reforms are necessary to counter this threat.”

While it’s still unclear how this investigation will play out, the political implications are enormous. Governor Walz has not yet commented publicly on the matter, but his potential connection to the CCP is likely to become a major talking point in the coming weeks as the 2024 election cycle heats up. If the allegations hold water, it could not only derail his political ambitions but also shake public confidence in the Democratic Party’s ability to fend off foreign influence.

Former Staffers Describe Harris As ‘Soul-Destroying Bully’ Who Left Them In Tears

 Jon DoughertyJuly 27, 2024

Several former staffers of Vice President Kamala Harris have unloaded on their one-time boss, describing her as a “bully” who often left people in tears after berating them in degrading tirades.

The staffers, who spoke to author Charlie Spiering for the UK’s Daily Mail, described her as a “soul-destroying bully,” which led to unprecedented levels of staff turnover.

“Only four of the initial 71 staffers hired by Harris during her first year in office still remain in a job. The rest either quit or were fired, according to analysis by non-partisan watchdog Open The Books,” Spiering reported. “That translates to a 92 percent staff turnover rate – and, say critics, is a likely sign that the issues on Team Harris have more to do with her than anyone else.”

He went on to note that, while researching his recently published Harris biography, “Amateur Hour,” which was released in January, his sources recounted “horror stories” of their treatment by Harris, several of which he said “shocked me.”

Dating back to 2010, when she served as California attorney general, she was known then as running a “toxic” work environment. One professor at the University of California-Sacramento, Barbara O’Connor, told the biographer that several of her students who interned for Harris “frequently came back to her crying and saying that they ‘felt they weren’t valued.'”

When Harris was elected in 2016 as a U.S. senator from the Golden State, apparently she took the same bad behaviors to Washington, D.C. “Analysis showed her office had the ninth-highest staff turnover rate out of the 114 senators who served between 2017 and 2020,” Spiering wrote. He added: “Congressional sources told the Mail that she would berate subordinates in expletive-laden tirades.”

Republican staffers would also, at times, get caught up in the verbal abuse. One source said she berated a room full of Senate staffers in 2018 amid the highly contentious confirmation hearings for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was falsely accused of sexually assaulting several women during his college days.

During one episode, sources said Harris blew up in an angry tirade outside the main Senate Judiciary Committee room, yelling, “Anyone who’s staff, get the f*** out of here!” to all staffers, including those who worked for GOP senators.

Spiering added:

In a sensational resignation letter shared with the New York Times in November 2019, Harris’s then State Operations Director Kelly Mehlenbacher slammed her boss, saying: ‘I have never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly.’

She continued: ‘It is not acceptable to me that we encouraged people to move from Washington, DC to Baltimore only to lay them off with no notice.’

‘Morale has never been lower,’ she added, saying there was no ‘real plan’ for how Harris might win, but that she hoped her departure ‘might result in some serious consideration of […] our internal communications’.

Harris’ behavior toward her staff has apparently changed little since she became Joe Biden’s vice president, according to multiple reports.

The Washington Post interviewed current and former staffers, many on the condition of anonymity for a December 2021 story, and they gave some candid responses to what it is like working for Harris.

“It’s clear that you’re not working with somebody who is willing to do the prep and the work,” one former staffer said. “With Kamala you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. So you’re constantly sort of propping up a bully, and it’s not really clear why.”

Earlier that year, Politico reported that some staffers believed her office was abusive.

“People are thrown under the bus from the very top, there are short fuses, and it’s an abusive environment,” a person that Politico claims knows how her office works said. “It’s not a healthy environment, and people often feel mistreated. It’s not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like s—.”