The German Federal Audit Office (Bundesrechnungshof) has dismantled the government’s hydrogen strategy. Neither on the supply side nor on the demand side do the results even remotely align with the ambitious political targets. Germany faces yet another subsidy ruin.
Berlin is in a state of hangover. The ongoing economic crisis is mercilessly exposing the delusions of the so-called green transformation. After the collapse of battery production – think of subsidy ruins like Northvolt – the retreat of industry from “green steel,” and the failure of the energy transition under the weight of wind and solar, which have become bottomless subsidy pits, the next major project is now under heavy attack: the hydrogen strategy.
Audit Office Steps Out of the Shadows
In a recent report, the Federal Audit Office examined the German hydrogen economy – political art at its finest. Since 2020, the sector has been flooded with subsidies. For 2024 and 2025 alone, more than €7 billion in funding has been allocated. Plenty of lubricant for an engine that has been sputtering from day one and still refuses to start.
Private investors, enticed by guarantees and state-backed prices, add more than €3 billion annually. And what’s the result after five years of constant funding? Devastating. Current production of green hydrogen stands at a mere 0.16 gigawatts. Another 0.2 gigawatts are under construction.
In other words: a market that practically doesn’t exist is already consuming around €8 billion every year—public and private – like a black hole.
When tragedy struck Kerrville, Texas, swift water rescue teams could have made the difference between life and death. But thanks to Austin’s DEI-obsessed Fire Chief, they never got the chance.
Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker, celebrated by city leaders as the capital’s first Black fire chief and praised for pushing “diversity, equity, and inclusion” in hiring, is now facing a vote of no confidence from his own firefighters. And the reason is both infuriating and heartbreaking.
According to the Austin Firefighters Association, Chief Baker refused to pre-deploy rescue teams to Kerrville in the days leading up to the historic flooding—despite official state deployment orders arriving as early as July 2. The excuse? He wanted to “save money.”
But here’s the kicker: Texas fully reimburses departments for these emergency deployments. There would’ve been no cost to Austin taxpayers.
“I explained the reimbursement process to Chief Baker last week,” the union said, “and he failed to understand this very simple concept.”
The pilot of the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with the American Airlines passenger airplane did not comply with directions to change course seconds before the fatal incident, a bombshell new report has revealed.
On the night of January 29, Army Black Hawk pilot Capt. Rebecca Lobach was conducting an annual flight evaluation with her co-pilot Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, who was serving as her flight instructor.
Three months on, new details published by The New York Times revealed that the pilot made more than one mistake leading to one of the worst catastrophes in aviation history.
Not only was Lobach flying her Black Hawk too high, but in the final moments before the impact, she failed to take advice and instruction from her co-pilot to switch course.
Lobach’s piloting skills were being tested during the evaluation on the fateful night, before the crew were informed that an aircraft was nearby, according to the report.
Just 15 seconds before colliding with the commercial airplane, air traffic control told Lobach and Eaves to turn left, but she did not do so.
Seconds before impact, co-pilot Eaves then turned to Lobach in the cockpit and told her that air traffic control wanted her to turn left. She still did not do so.
Pam Bondi’s ability to manage the Department of Justice has come under increased scrutiny from the right. File releases are delayed or mismanaged. No apparent action is taken against subversive government officials. And J6ers and other victims of a weaponized DoJ remain unsatisfied.
Many have raised the question of whether Pam Bondi was the right choice for MAGA attorney general. Many more, including President Trump, would be questioning her bona fides if they knew about Bondi’s role in the creation of Black Lives Matter.
How Trump handles the DoJ will be crucial to the success of his second term. His failure to take control of the Justice Department marred his first term. Uncertain of his powers, Trump bowed to the media and Democrats, who screamed for the DoJ to remain “independent.” He and his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, watched impotently as the Deep State subverted his presidency with the Russiagate witch hunt and prosecuted key advisers such as Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Mike Flynn.
Pam Bondi is no Jeff Sessions, but her history raises questions about her willingness to fight an entrenched opposition. The case against her revolves around her mishandling of the prosecution of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
This is a good thing. We do not want truck drivers who cannot read road signs, or who have illegally obtained their drivers licenses, piloting huge trucks on our roads and highways. How well and safely our society functions depends entirely on the competency of the people working in it. ABN
In more than a few ways this decision is even more crazy than District Judge Beryl Howell’s prior rulings.
Judge Howell (pictured below) issued a temporary restraining order, blocking President Trump from barring the law firm of Perkins Coie from representing federal contractors.
There are a few outlines of the hearing HERE and HERE that essentially tell the story. Consider this quote:
“When you say that if the president, in his view, takes the position that an individual or an organization or a company is operating a way that is not in the nation’s interests, he can issue an executive order like this and take steps to bar that individual, that entity, that company from doing any business with the government, terminate whatever contracts they’ve got, bar them from federal buildings,” Howell said. “I mean, that’s a pretty extraordinary power for the president to exercise.”
Yes, and that’s called the power of the presidency. Apparently Judge Howell has never heard of ‘executive power’ that allows the elected President of the United States to determine what is in our nation’s best interests. Approving his ability to make these decisions, is what that whole voting thing is all about.
The latest newly hired probationary federal workers hit with a wave of layoffs is the Central Intelligence Agency.
CIA officers hired within the last two years are being summoned to off-site locations, fired and forced to surrender their badges to security personnel, three people briefing on the layoffs told The New York Times.
CIA under Director John Ratcliffe wasted no time getting to work on trimming down their workforce under Trump’s orders.
The reduction in CIA workforce came after a judge cleared the way for Ratcliffe to fire employees at will.
Judge Anthony J. Trenga of the Eastern District of Virginia ruled on a lawsuit brought by CIA officers who were assigned to the diversity and recruiting efforts under the previous administration.
They were removed under Trump’s order to get rid of any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs or department within the federal government.
But Judge Trenga’a ruling was sweeping and gave Director Ratcliffe the power to remove any CIA officer for any reason – without giving them a right of appeal.
She ‘reasons’ like a child, a stupid child. It is her fault for being like this but it is Europe’s fault for allowing her to have any say in the war. ABN
The helicopter, flown by 28-year-old Captain Rebecca M. Lobach on a routine training exercise, was flying at 300 feet, but the maximum altitude permitted for choppers in the area is 200 feet.
Reagan National Airport is notoriously crowded, and the crossover in the air space between jets and helicopters is routine.
The black box data recovered from the wreckage in the Potomac River had indicated that this situation likely occurred, but the National Transport Safety Board was waiting on the air traffic control data to confirm the high altitude.
Radar data is rounded to the nearest 100 feet, which means the helicopter was flying anywhere between 251 feet and 349 feet of elevation, the NTSB said.
Meanwhile, the passenger plane was at 325 feet at the time of the crash and had been cleared to land.
The following is entirely speculative based on some pattern recognition. I am willing to change my views if shown to be wrong. One assumption is Lobach does appear to have been promoted above her experience and skill level. Call it DEI or whatever. In many of her photos she projects a cockiness that is not appropriate for someone operation dangerous machinery, including helicopters. One of her friends described her as ‘fearless’, also not good for a helicopter pilot. She had worked in the Biden admin for two years in a non-flyer capacity, so her flight skills must have been rusty. All of that could have led to the tragic crash. Overconfident, rusty, 28 years old, high on life, fearless, promoted above her actual skill level and experience, entrusted with what should have been a routine run… ABN
In Maine, of all places, large tracts of beautiful forest are being cleared to make ‘solar farms’ (bullshit term). Maine is the worst state in the union for this. When the free tax money is consumed and the companies fail, Mainers will pay for cleanup of the toxic solar panels destroyed by harsh winter weather. The multiple layers of bullshit on this are surreal — Anthropogenic Global Warming (rebranded as climate change), CO2 (the invisible impossible cause), government can save us hype leading to government boondoggle money and sketchy companies while misleading voters, no guarantees except probable failure and zero restitution. ABN
American Buddhist Net 