Liz Cheney's Ongoing Jihad Against Trump, Surveillance of MAGA Bible Purchases, and How Does The Defense Department Lose Stinger Missiles? | Ep 50

In this, the 50th episode of the Straight Talk Podcast, former Sheriff of Milwaukee County, David Clarke, discusses the recent developments in the American political scene, including the results of the Iowa caucuses and the potential outcomes of the New Hampshire primary. Additionally, Liz Cheney's controversial speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where she criticizes Trump and raises concerns about the possible threat he poses to democracy. Plus insights on the federal agencies' alleged tracking of Americans' financial transactions connected with 'Trump' and 'MAGA'.

Sheriff Clarke then criticizes the lack of accountability in the Defense Department and the vast amount of funds wasted within the department, which have been uncovered by its unsuccessful audits. He emphasizes the need for accountability, arguing for a repeal of the 16th Amendment to better control government spending. He further discusses the implication of accumulating government debt and its detrimental effects on the American economy. 

Thanks for listening and please don't forget to subscribe and share this with your friends! 

 SUPPORT PODCAST:
  Straight Talk With America's Sheriff David Clarke | podcast | Patreon

SPONSORS:

Blue Line Roasting Co. - We Are the Thin Blue Line

CLARKE (mypillow.com)
------------------------------------------
Purchase COP Under Fire Book by Sheriff David Clarke
Amazon:   https://a.co/d/2jPJXV0

JOIN OUR STRAIGHT SHOOTER'S VIP CLUB:
 Receive special gift and invitations to Private Podcast Events
  Straight Talk With America's Sheriff David Clarke | podcast | Patreon

-------------------------------------------------------

For Podcast Sponsorship, Partnership, And Endorsement Opportunities, Please Submit Form: 

https://form.123formbuilder.com/6370448/podcast-sponsor-form
-----------------------------------------------------

Website: https://americassheriff.com

Host: Sheriff David Clarke, America's Sheriff

Executive Producer: Judy L. Wilkinson, JL Wilkinson Consulting, LLC 

Producer: Josh Wentz | wentzjosh93@gmail.com

Copyright 2024  Straight Talk Podcast With America's Sheriff David Clarke     

All Rights Reserved

Transcript

Liz Cheney's Ongoing Jihad Against Trump, Surveillance of MAGA Bible Purchases, and How Does The Defense Department Lose Stinger Missiles? | Ep 50

[00:00:00] Friends, I'm happy to announce that Straight Talk has partnered with Blue Line Roasting Company to bring you delicious coffee to enjoy while you listen to this podcast. Blue Line Roasting Company also serves our first responders by giving a portion of all net proceeds to numerous organizations who support them.

Order today at bluelineroasting. com. BlueLineRoasting. com and don't forget when you join the Straight Shooter VIP club, you'll receive a free coffee sample and a mug plus invitations to private podcast events. 26 officers lost their lives while on duty in 2022. Blue Lives Matter in 

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, you are listening to the Straight Talk Podcast, and I am your host, formerly referred to as America's Sheriff, former Sheriff of Milwaukee County, David Clark. Uh, let's get [00:01:00] right at it here. A couple of side notes. Iowa caucuses have concluded, as expected, Donald Trump.

Easily won. Darn near lapped the field in Iowa. He was expected to do well, but I think the thing to take away is he won by a bigger margin or got more votes, if you will, than anybody in the history of the Iowa caucuses. Think about that. Just ponder that for a minute. And now today is the New Hampshire primary, who knows what's going to happen there.

I don't know, I don't think anybody does. I know what the polls are saying. I know what the prognosticators are saying, that Donald Trump should win. I just don't like counting my chickens before they hatch, that's all. So I'll wait and see. [00:02:00] People like Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis are hoping for a good showing. There are some who think that Nikki Haley may surprise even Donald Trump. 

She's got great organization in New Hampshire. And then you have the chicanery going on within the Democrat Party since there's no primary there. They're spending millions of dollars to try to get independent voters out to vote for Haley.

She's the tool being used by the left to dampen the enthusiasm on Donald Trump winning this nomination early. In the primary contests. You know, she can make a good showing, maybe even pull off an upset. Or get within a couple of points. You know, they would call it a victory for Nikki Haley and a defeat for Donald Trump.

You know, they would [00:03:00] insinuate that, uh, the enthusiasm for Donald Trump is dampening. And it's not. So anyway, we'll see what happens there. There's been a Liz Cheney sighting. Liz Cheney. You talk about somebody that just won't go away. She spoke at a church, not just a church, Ebenezer Baptist Church. That's the church that Dr.

Martin Luther King preached at, that he was the pastor of during his life, his adult life. And she claimed she was invited by one of the daughters, and she might have been, I don't know.

But she went. I want to read from this story here, it's newsbreak. com. Liz Cheney receives a standing ovation at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church as she warns of [00:04:00] dire threat from Donald Trump. Here's a quote from her, from the story. I've never been more honored by any invitation than I was when Dr.

Bernice King called and invited me here to Ebenezer Baptist Church, perhaps the most significant pulpit in this great nation of ours, with all of you this morning to honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

So she said about 10 words about the life and legacy of dr. Martin Luther King jr And then she went political and turned right to the GOP primary. Wait, wait a minute Liz We're supposed to be here to honor the life and legacy of dr. Martin Luther King jr Do you have any more words to add to that? No, but she's gonna talk about Trump in the 2024 presidential election from the pulpit of a church

First of all, I've spoken in many churches in the [00:05:00] Milwaukee area. I stayed in churches, stayed connected, and I never once, and I was always when, when I went whether I was invited or not, they always said, Sheriff, why don't you come up and say a few words to our parishioners? I went up and stood in the pulpit and I never talked politics.

I never talked vote for me. I need your support. I never did that. I went up and I talked about the Bible, certain bible pa passages and how we're supposed to live life. Those people that didn't want to hear a political speech from me during a church service, it's, it's a slap in the face. They're there to honor God.

They're there to, they're there to give praise to Almighty God, to [00:06:00] worship God. And I know it's. It's a, it's a popular thing to do for politicians, whether it be presidents, governors, senators, congresspeople, whatever, to appear in these churches and start talking politics. But it's wrong, and these people, instead of giving her a standing ovation, they should have been insulted.

But see, since she was there to slam Donald Trump, well, you know, that makes it a little different. So going back to the story, she says, As we meet this morning, a great lie is doing its work poisoning the bloodstream of our democracy. A former president refuses to acknowledge he lost, and has convinced millions that our election and our democracy no longer work.

Cheney declared, Cheney, adding, he threatens the foundations of our nation and everything Dr. King preserved to save. [00:07:00] If given the chance, the former president's allies in Congress will once again ignore the rulings of our courts, the plain language of our Constitution, as they claim for themselves the right to throw out the votes of millions of Americans and install their former leader as our president, we must not let them prevail after a lengthy standing ovation, including from the church's senior pastor and US Senator Rafael Warnock, Charney went on, Cheney went on to say.

Quote, faith communities have a peculiar, particular obligation this year. There are churches across this nation where ministers preach from the pulpits in adoration of this former president. There are pastors who seem to have forgotten the first commandment and are openly embracing an immoral, unstable, and depraved man who threatens violence and death, who attacks the rule of law, who says he can terminate our constitution.

I cannot believe the words [00:08:00] coming out of this witch's mouth. Innate. Church.

At a political event, fine. At a political rally, fine. At a private event, fine. King didn't preach anything about what she's talking about.

This woman is embarrassing. She's a pariah on the Republican side of the aisle for her behavior on January 6th. That sham of a hearing on Capitol Hill.

But it's like, she knows no shame. This woman's bitter. She's angry. And what happened to her? She lost her seat. Trump didn't take her seat away. The voters of her district in Wyoming took it away. They were [00:09:00] done with her. They had it with her. She's bitter about that.

So not too long ago, there was an article in NPR December 2023, not that long ago. It's titled, Liz Cheney Focus on Stopping Trump Hasn't Ruled Out a Third Party Presidential Run. Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney voted for Donald Trump twice in 2016 and 2020, but she vowed she won't do it again. In fact, she says, I'm going to do everything I can to stop Donald Trump.

She's one of two Republicans, Kinzinger's the other one, who served on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack. She later lost her congressional seat and she got killed by the way. She was defeated soundly. It wasn't even close. That's how fed up the people of Wyoming and her district were.

They just had it with her. So it [00:10:00] goes back to the story here, but she's not done with politics. She's got this memoir out, oath and honor, and all this nonsense.

And here's what she says, she estimates, this is in her memoir, that the number of Republicans in Congress who believe Trump's lie about the 2020 election is very small. Probably you can count them almost on one hand. Instead, she said the majority of her former colleagues made a political calculation to go along with the former president despite the fact that they know better.

She said some colleagues even privately thanked her for speaking out against Trump. Well, she can't prove that, you know, people say that all the time.

Quote from her and from the book. Senator Mitch McConnell urged me directly that we need to just ignore Trump and he'll go away, Cheney says. And I think now we're seeing the real consequences of that. He's not going away. In fact, Cheney theorizes that the former president, who was impeached twice, is working behind the scenes to encourage the current effort to impeach Joe Biden.

I think there's no question Trump [00:11:00] is likely urging the House Republicans to move forward to impeach Biden as a way to sort of level the impeachment playing field, if you will. While she hasn't ruled out a third party run for the president in 2024, maybe she hasn't ruled it out. We have. We'll do it for her.

She says any move she makes will be designed to extinguish the existential threat that Trump poses to our democracy. These are talking points right out of the Democrat playbook. Threat to our democracy.

This lady is on, she's gotta be on drugs to be talking like this. And she needs to be ashamed of herself. But she, like I said, she has no shame. She knows no shame. Working hand in hand with the Democrats.

Who before January 6th couldn't stand her or her daddy.

I wonder how [00:12:00] he feels about her today. Embarrassing.

The sooner we put Liz Cheney in our rear view mirror, the better off we'll all be. The better off America will be. The better off democracy will be.

What she should do is just switch parties. She should just join the Democrat party. And become a cheerleader for them. She doesn't speak for Republicans or conservatives. Those are two different things about, as I always say, I'm a conservative, not a Republican,

but anyway, I'm not surprised by this, but it's, it's, it's nauseating people like her

and he's never Trumpers. They're nauseating. Just get away from us. Nobody [00:13:00] appointed you a surrogate to clear the field of Donald Trump. Nobody.

All right, on to the next story here I found interesting. Federal agencies flagged Americans financial transactions using terms like Trump and MAGA. Here we go again. The federal bureaucracy, the federal government, spying on American citizens. Tracking American citizens and using corporate, uh, corporations, private corporations to do it.

They're using private corporations as a proxy. Because, you know, technically they can't get directly involved in spying so they'll have financial institutions, for instance, do it for them. Show them how. Help them set up the, the algorithms. With which to spy on Americans, their purchases, their banking [00:14:00] habits.

Most of us use credit cards so our purchases can be tracked. Those will funnel through a bank. This government is out of control. This government needs to be quashed, smashed,

abolished. Like the Declaration of Independence says. I'll put some things on social media. Follow me on social media at Sheriff Clark on X.

And it's Clark with an E. I post some pretty good stuff, and I usually link it to an article. I don't just, you know, out of nowhere come up with something to say. And usually what I have to say on it is I comment on the article.

But you know, it says here, in the Declaration of Independence,

and I'm going to quote right from it. Because when I talk [00:15:00] about abolishing The federal government. That's what the Declaration of Independence was about, but it had to do with the crown, which was the government that lorded over them. Tyrannical. Oppressive. Intrusive. King George. It says here in the Declaration of Independence, in part, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Here's the key part, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government laying its foundations on such principles and organizing, organizing its powers in such a form as to them shall seem most likely to affect Their safety and their happiness.

Right out of [00:16:00] the Declaration of Independence. And it says whenever this happens. Well, today is whenever. It wasn't just for that time. Just for back in the 1700s. It says whenever these trains of abuses occur. It is the right, the duty of the people to abolish that government and recreate a new one. And then

it goes on to say, here's where we're at today. The state of Americans. It says, prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. And accordingly, this is the important part, all experience have shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

That's where we're at in America today. Timid.

We're just, we're disposed [00:17:00] to suffer. rather than to right ourselves by abolishing the forms to which we are accustomed. Well, you know, this is where we're at today. Well, you know, they, we come up with all these excuses. So when I saw this article, I said, yeah, this is it. We're willing to suffer this stuff and just keep on keeping on.

Then to right the ship here.

So the story goes on to say here, Washington Times, the federal government flags terms like MAGA and Trump for financial institutions if America uses those. Phrases when completing transactions according to new documents obtained by the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

GOP lawmakers on the panel said that individuals who shopped at retailers such as Cabela's or Dick's Sporting Goods, or purchased religious texts such as the Bible, may [00:18:00] also have had their transactions flagged. Are you kidding me? Somebody purchasing a Bible?

So of course you get all the The usual gobbledygook that follows this. You know, Jim Jordan, he's saber rattling. He sent a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray requesting a transcribed interview from Peter Sullivan, senior private sector partner for outreach in a strategic partners engagement section of the FBI.

You know, they're not going to get a response. Here's what it'll be. I could write it for them. We're doing everything we can to Protect the civil liberties and the rights of people and their private You're gonna get all that B. S. from Ray. So

you see this stuff. Here's some more from the article here. There's this, this, this thing called FINCEN. And it's an [00:19:00] acronym. Uh, for the division that tracks this stuff. It says the FINCEN instruct financial institutions To look for transactions using certain codes such as 3484, small arms, 5091, sporting and recreational goods and supplies, and the keywords Cabela and Dick's Sporting Good, among several others.

Here's a quote here. Despite these transactions having no apparent criminal nexus, and in fact relate to Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights, FinCEN Seems to have adopted a characterization of these Americans as potential threat actors, Jim Jordan said. This kind of pervasive financial surveillance, carried out in [00:20:00] coordination with and at the request of federal law enforcement into Americans private transactions is alarming and raises serious doubts about FinCEN's respect for fundamental civil liberties, Jordan added.

This is aggravating. And again, like the Declaration says, Ah, we're just willing to suffer. Well, yeah, they're drunk. Okay. Well, maybe it's best for us. Well, maybe they'll catch a mass shooter. Well, you know, the Declaration of Independence, the writers and the signatories, the people who signed it, they knew.

They knew human nature. It's no different than it was back then. People just kind of, after a while, they get worn down. And they just kind of go along with stuff and, well, we want to be good citizens and we're not looking for any trouble and, oh yeah, January 6th, you know, was a threat to our democracy. No, it wasn't.

It was [00:21:00] not organized. They didn't have the capability of overthrowing the government. And there was a lot of chicanery and hijinks that was going on and there may have been federal government involvement in that.

And we just kind of. You know, like, that's kind of why I use that. Well, let's turn the page. We just turn the page, and of course Congress, you know, I'm so sick of Congress. All we're going to get are hearings. You know, the members of the committee, even the good ones, like Jim Joy, sends a letter to Christopher Wray.

What's that going to do? See, these people mistake activity for accomplishment. That's an activity. Calling for a hearing, that's an activity. That is not an accomplishment.

And they mistake those two words. They mistake [00:22:00] activity for accomplishment. I don't want any hearings. I want people held accountable. What does that mean? If they violated the Constitution, I want them charged federally under civil rights violations. I want them fired.

You know, but like everything else, these things are uncovered and it just comes and goes. This too shall pass, I'm fond of saying. That's the attitude of these people in the federal government. This too shall pass. Just give it time. Nothing

changes. Here's another issue. This is the meat of this, today's podcast. Government spending.

There isn't a person on Capitol Hill. Either party that believes in limited government.

There isn't one [00:23:00] person. Because any of these people that have signed on to some debt ceiling raising or continuing resolution that increases spending, they are not limited government conservatives. You couldn't be.

The type of money that flies around Washington, D. C. spent. Waste, fraud, abuse. We're not talking about, you know, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. We're talking billions and trillions of dollars. Our dollars. And again, all we get are hearings, people, you know, saber rattling, even the Republican, conservative, saber edged, oh, this is a shame, oh, this is, you know, and no one's held accountable,

and no one is. And when I talk about, say, [00:24:00] accountability, I'm also talking about being fired. The waste, the fraud, the abuse. First of all, how do you lose track of a billion dollars?

Have you ever lost anything? You know, like, your keys. We probably all lost, you know, keys, maybe lost track of a twenty dollar bill we thought we had. Oh, where's that twenty dollar bill I, oh man, I can't, I can't find it. I mean you could probably put your own list together of, of things that would be understandable to lose.

Lose track of. A trillion dollars?

Most people can't even get their heads around what a trillion dollars, can hardly get their heads around what a billion dollars is. One of these stories I have here, some guy laid it [00:25:00] out, and it's. It's profound, yet it's simple. You know, he was talking about, as I go through this here, I'll point it out.

Consider this. Here, I found it. One million seconds is about 11. 5 days. A billion seconds is about 32 years. And a trillion seconds is 32, 000 years. When put in that perspective, you can get your head around what a trillion is. In seconds, it's 32, 000 years. So we're talking about dollars? People can't get their head around a trillion dollars.

Unless you see it in the terms I just laid out. In seconds, that's 32, 000 years. That must mean a [00:26:00] trillion dollars is a lot.

This money's approved. There's no accountability. Where's the oversight? Where's the congressional oversight?

Where is it? It's supposed to have this thing called the General Accounting Office. It's supposed to keep up with this stuff and do spot checks and oversight over government spending. Sometimes they catch it, but you know what? They just write a report to Capitol Hill, and there'll be some, you know, people on the Hill that'll grandstand over it, and we got to stop this, and this isn't right, and this is taxpayers money.

That's being all that nonsense. I get sick of that crap,

and nothing changes. The spending just continues. The spending increases. The government gets bigger. The government gets more oppressive,

and just on and on.[00:27:00] 

So here's a story from CNBC. I'm going to start out this, uh, to get, and I'm going to work toward the story that I found last week that I said, oh, I'm not surprised here, but I said, let me go take a look back. I like to do that. Let's go back in time. See, we don't do that. When this stuff comes up,

you know, we don't go back in time. We say, well, here we are again. Whenever there's a debt ceiling date, or a date for, you know, the continuing resolution so the government doesn't, you know, not really, but shut down, very seldom do you hear these people, you know, we were here six months ago. Caucus.

You know, it's just a, here we go again, [00:28:00] and nothing changes. Matter of fact, I shouldn't say that. I take that back. I misspoke. It does change. It gets worse.

So here's a piece, like I said, CNBC from April of 2023. April. There's been a couple of CRs that have passed since April, right? And now the most recent one, they just moved to March of, you know, 60 days from now. And it's just this over and over and over again, kicking the can down the road. Well, let's keep the government going for another 60 days and we'll revisit that.

And you know what's going to happen in March? Like two days before it has to be voted on, you'll see it in the news and everybody will be talking about it and all the politicians, oh we have to do something, well we gotta, you [00:29:00] know, uh, fund the government and, you know, and, uh, seniors have to get their social security and, you know, it's just, I mean these people really gotta think we're stupid when we watch and hear this stuff.

So it says here, the federal government wastes at least 247 billion in taxpayer money Each year, here's how the government wastes billions of tax dollars every year. Improper payments, which refer to payments that are made incorrectly by the government, cost the US 247 billion in 2022. According to the government accountability officer, US government has lost almost 2.4 trillion in simple payment errors over the last two decades.

Quote here. from a guy, an expert at the Heritage Foundation. The government has just lost, as if you dropped it on the sidewalk, [00:30:00] trillions and trillions of dollars over the last few decades, says Richard Stern, a budget and spending expert from the Heritage Foundation. That is money that was stolen from hard working Americans to just simply get wasted.

But that's not all. Oversight reports from non profits and lawmakers, like Senator Rand Paul, claim billions are being wasted every year. From spending 1. 7 billions, a billion, maintaining empty government buildings, you've heard me talk about that in previous podcasts, to accidentally investing 28 million on forest camouflage uniforms, that would be green, to be used in the deserts of Afghanistan.

Accidentally? 28 million dollars worth? That's no accident. Didn't anybody involved in this process stop me? Wait, [00:31:00] why are we investing 28 million on green camouflaged uniforms to be worn by people in the deserts of Afghanistan? It makes no sense and not one person involved in this process didn't stop halfway Or in early stages go wait a minute.

Wait a minute, you know This makes no sense. And alert somebody? Nope. We'll just investigate 28, or I'm sorry, invest 28 million accidentally. It's no accident. And again, who's held accountable?

So it says here, back to the story here, duplicated programs are another cause for concern. Oh, this is, this part here is, yeah, this is a big part of the problem. And this is the stuff that doesn't get attention, and this is the stuff that doesn't get talked about, and this is the stuff that doesn't end.

And then, oh, you know, oh, we gotta pass this [00:32:00] continuing resolution. Because, you know, the government has to go on, and, and, and we can't stop the government, and we need to stop the government!

Stop the madness. Shut it down. Leave it closed. Except for essential programs. Well, everything's essential though, you know. So it says here

The Government Accountability Office every year issues a report on duplicative and overlapping programs and every year they find more and more of these programs according to Tom Schatz, President of Citizens Against Government Waste. Every year. More and more of this. Duplication. Overlapping programs.

Every year.

You know, this is the stuff that goes on in Washington that, that They'll never get this budget under control. They'll never get spending [00:33:00] under control. They just won't. Ever. They'll never reduce the national debt. They'll never reduce the national deficit. Two different things. Deficits are yearly, where they don't take in as much, or, you know, that they spend.

It's never gonna stop.

So quote, another quote here from this guy named Stern. As the government spends, it runs up a deficit. What happens is it's sucking all the oxygen out of the room, it's destroying investment, it's mortgaging our futures, and it's slowing our growth. Today, the inflation you're seeing is a large result of that.

Nevertheless, wasteful spending by the government can have painful consequences to the health of the economy, according to the watchdog groups. See, the watchdog groups know. How come nobody else in Washington knows? Are all [00:34:00] 435 members of Congress and 100 senators not aware of this? If they say they are, they're not doing their damn job.

They're supposed to be the watchdog. They're supposed to be the oversight mechanism. Over all of this crap. And like this guy says, this Stern guy, you know, just happens every year. And more and more.

These people on the Hill are all lying to us. They're not trying to get government spending under control. This money's going in somebody's pocket.

How about this COVID relief program? What was that? Four point some trillion dollars in COVID relief? And they don't, they don't hardly know where most of it went. That's fraud. It was stolen. And every once in a while they'll pluck one person off. You'll see some [00:35:00] businessman that, you know, got 60, 000 in COVID relief money and he wasn't supposed to.

Sixty million dollars? Who cares?

I'm worried about the 247 million that's wasted every year.

So that leads me to this. This is what I found last week that I looked into. Let me go back and do some work on this. But this is a story that triggered me to look a little further into this. Waste. Fraud. an abuse of government money. And you know who one of the big, biggest culprits is? The Defense Department.

And you know why that is. Because everybody, you know, there's this, you know, military industrial complex. Eisenhower was right. Saw it coming. Warned [00:36:00] against it. And of course, you know, National Defense, they're a sacred cow, right? You can't say anything bad about Defense Department. You don't want to be called anti military.

I want these people to watch what the Defense Department is doing. It's the largest, I think it's the largest federal agency. They're getting the most money.

But of course you can't say anything bad. You don't want to ruffle any feathers. You don't want to call these generals and all these other Pentagon people on the hill and start browbeating them because you'll be called anti military. And someone will run against you, especially if you're a damn Republican.

But even if you're a Democrat, you don't want that label. Our guy's anti military. I'm gonna run on that. Our military needs to be, and our, our military has a, has plenty of money. [00:37:00] And you're gonna find no more pro military person than I am. But I'm not pro waste. We'll get you what you need, but keep up with it.

I used to always tell the people in my agency when I was a sheriff, everything we have, all the money we're given in our yearly budget, these are publicly owned assets. The squad cars. Stop crashing them around. We had a big problem with that. Squad crash, and I don't mean like high speed pursuit type thing.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about backing into sh Oop, caught myself. I don't have the dump button. Crashing into stuff. Bumping into stuff. Losing equipment. They're handy talkies. That they use. Those things cost three thousand dollars a piece. And there were people losing. How do you, you know, that's why I said you can lose your keys, you know.

How do you lose it? [00:38:00] You know what I started doing? I started making that punishable. Through the disciplinary process. Yep. Started disciplinary investigation. Carelessness with this equipment.

Backing in the stuff, you know, denting, you know, the squad car. Those squad cars, once they're outfitted with all the stuff that goes into them, that's like a 100, 000 piece of equipment. And we're backing into stuff?

And guess what happened? We started tracking. And sometimes I gave people an option. You're either getting the equivalent of 3, 000 dock pay for it. You know, you can't really just dock their pay. You suspend them. Or you can pay for it. Out of your own pocket. Take your pick. [00:39:00] Suspension or reimbursement.

These are publicly owned assets.

And they cost a lot of money. So when I look at this defensive power, I say we'll get you all you need. We'll get you all the equipment you need. All of it. Don't wreck it. Don't lose it. And keep up with it. And guess what happened in my office. All of a sudden, the lost equipment, damaged equipment, the squad accidents, Went down to almost zero.

Why? Accountability. That's why I use that word a lot. And that's what I mean when I say that, when I say no one's held accountable. Meaning, what's going to happen to the person involved in that? Well, you know, retraining. No, no retraining on losing a damn radio. That costs 3, 000. I mean, we'll get to some of that too, [00:40:00] after you pay for it.

If you really think that's what it is, you need more driving lessons, we'll get you some more driving lessons. After you complete a suspension for carelessly backing up into something.

So it says here the Defense Department can't account, there's that word again, for more than one billion dollars worth of missiles, drones, and other sensitive military weapons and hardware that the U. S. sent to Ukraine to fight Russian invaders according to a new audit by the Pentagon's Office of Inspector General.

Here we go again.

A billion. How do you lose a missile? How do you lose sensitive military weapons? How do you lose it? I mean you got to help me out here folks. Maybe there's something here I don't understand. [00:41:00] You get all this money and that's why I'm getting it in part. And I've explained it on this podcast. I'm against any more money for Ukraine.

No, you're done. Get out of here. Zelensky shouldn't be allowed back into this country. And should be allowed nowhere near Washington DC. No more speeches on the hill, no more speeches before, before a joint session of Congress. No more audiences with the President of the United States. No. Stay out of here.

Get out of here. Get lost. Go find our billion dollars worth of equipment.

So it says here, the Defense Department watchdog said serial number inventories for more than one billion dollars worth of firepower and equipment including Shoulder fired missiles, night vision goggles, and one way kamikaze drones, among others. How do you lose a shoulder fired missile? How? So[00:42:00] 

it says the Pentagon designates these weapons and equipment as requiring enhanced end use monitoring, which is currently delinquent. See, end use monitoring. So there is some things in place. There's something in place, right? I'd like to It's not effective.

Some of the most notable weapons on that list of those that require enhanced end use monitoring are the Stinger anti aircraft weapon and the FGM 148 Javelin anti tank weapon. How do you lose a Stinger missile? How? I mean, lose? That's why I used that analogy of, you know, you can lose your keys. You can lose your purse.

You can leave your credit card at the restaurant, forget it, and then lose it. You know, I mean, you can lose, you know, pocket chains in the couch [00:43:00] cushions. How do you lose a stinger missile?

So it says here, more than half of the 1.699 billion of the equipment sent to Ukraine requiring end use monitoring was eventually released without proper accountability. Oh my, I'm shocked. Who was supposed to account for it? Is that person still employed?

So it says investigators said multiple factors contributed to the gaps in reporting. Wait a minute, you have this enhanced end use monitoring. What do you mean gaps in reporting? These are excuses. Including the limited number of U. S. personnel at logistics hubs outside of Ukraine. And the complete absence, here's why.

The complete absence of procedures for conducting the checks in a hostile environment. Complete absence.[00:44:00] 

The audit was part of an ongoing series of reviews by the Defense Department's IG office to assess how Pentagon officials have been tracking sensitive items that are particularly susceptible to theft or misuse. There you go. Theft. Misuse. The IG report comes at a sensitive time for the Biden administration, which is struggling to convince a reluctant Congress to authorize a supplemental package for Ukraine worth more than 60 billion.

So here this general, he spoke,

General Ryder,

and he said there have been improvements in ensuring the accountability of sensitive weapons that have been provided to Ukraine, including the use of handheld equipment scanners and having Partner nations check items that they will later transfer to Ukraine. See, that's what you get from these people.

Oh, we're doing the best we can and [00:45:00] we're improving and you know, all this word salad crap.

So this general says Ukrainians have offered unprecedented access to information as it relates to the equipment and what we're providing, general writer said. They're fully understanding and supportive of our need to ensure that we can account for these items. See, this is the crap you get.

When these people either write reports or testify, well, we're doing the best we can, we want to safeguard this. One billion dollars. Stinger missiles. Shoulder fired missiles. Lost. How do you lose a stinger missile? You can't. That went somewhere. And who knows, maybe it's even in the hands of an enemy. Maybe it's in the hands of the Russians.[00:46:00] 

Who knows? Because they, and I could say anything. Maybe somebody took one home. Well, I'll share if that's a little. You can't prove that. Because you don't, you don't know where it went. So let me get into audits. You know, I talked before, let me quickly do this. You know, when I talk about the, the money lost and the money wasted.

I found this thing, this article. From the Hill. The government allocated 4. 6 trillion just in COVID relief spending, tens of billions of which have been siphoned off by fraud. And when it comes to losing taxpayers hard earned dollars, we've calculated that losses tallied at the Federal Reserve and Department of Education together will top 2 trillion.

2

trillion, two agencies. Less spending? Limited government? It's never going to happen. Forget about it. You know, we should just focus on [00:47:00] some other things, you know, here in this country that are important to us. And forget about all these other, you know, things. Limited government and government accountability.

You hear that government accountability board and this and that. It's all BS, ladies and gentlemen. So anyway, back to the Pentagon. This is from March of 2021.

2021. The pentagon has never passed an audit. Some senators want to change that. Here we go, how many senators they get this idea and we got to do something about this and we got to put some more safeguards in place and you know we have to protect the American people's taxpayer. Again, it's all BS. The senators are the oversight.

They're supposed to know why do we need a government waste outside group that finds this stuff?[00:48:00] 

Why isn't the senate finding this stuff? So they have things in place. You know, like I said, I read some of the stuff in the Pentagon. Oh, we got this and we got that. Well, it doesn't work. And no one knows, in the middle of it, it's not working. Like, before it got to a billion, before they lost a couple stinger missiles, did someone say, hey, wait a minute, we have these checks in place, we're supposed to have this end use, meaning once it's used, we know where it went, and blah, blah, blah.

No, they just keep doing it. Just keep on keeping on.

And this is from NPR. When the Pentagon launched its first ever independent financial audit back in 2017, backers of accountability and government welcomed it as a major step for a department with a track record of financial boondoggles. This was back in 2017. It's 2024. Even if you want to say it's only January, okay, 2023, six years later, [00:49:00] they've been conducting first ever Independent financial audits.

Of all government agencies, including the Defense Department. Government, the Defense Department has never passed one. Never!

It says, but the Defense Department failed that audit. And the next two as well. Now lawmakers are introducing a bipartisan bill that would impose a penalty for any part of the department, including the military, that fails to undergo a clean audit. Oh yeah, okay, you know, just. Again, that's an activity.

Passing another bill. We already got all these other things in place. Safeguards and accountability boards and processes. That's it. So now they think we need another bill. Because this time we're really gonna get our arms around this thing. And you know it's 2024, and the Defense Department just lost a billion dollars of equipment.

That's how well this, this, uh, you know, this, this new bill is working. From 2017. It [00:50:00] says here, the Pentagon and the military industrial complex have been plagued by a massive amount of waste, fraud, and financial mismanagement for decades! Not for a couple years. For decades! So for the last 20 years, what have any, all these people who have been out on the hill that long, what have they been doing?

Nothing. Oh, I need a new bill. Oh, and it has bipartisan support. Yeah, so does everything else in Washington, DC. It's both Democrats and Republicans that are screwing the American people. Bipartisan.

So, it says here, despite having trillions of dollars in assets, and receiving hundreds of billions in federal dollars annually, the department has never detailed its assets and liabilities in a [00:51:00] given year. Where was Congress? I'm not going to let these people get away with this crap. Chuck Grassley, Bernie Sanders are quoted in this.

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat Oregon, and Mike Lee of Utah, you know, bipartisan. I'm not going to let them get away with this. For decades this has been going on in the defense department. And every time the defense budget comes up, they got to get an increase. Because nobody's going to vote and say that we need to decrease the defense department.

It would be re election, suicide. Because your opponent would seize on it.

So it says, for the past three financial years, the Defense Department's audit has resulted in a disclaimer of opinion, meaning the auditor didn't get enough accounting records to form an assessment. Not enough accounting records, yet we have all these processes in place. You know, let's say, you know, we're going to find out where all this stuff went, we're going to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We've seen example [00:52:00] after example of excessive and inefficient spending by the Pentagon, and every dollar squandered is a dollar not being used to support our men and women in uniform, Grassley said. So this is an interesting article of it. I don't know. How do you lose it? A billion, not ten thousand. Not a hundred thousand, not one million, a billion.

And I still want to know how you lose a stinger missile. So after reading this article, I took to social media and put out a tweet and I'll read it. Again, it's at Sheriff Clark, C L A R K E, on X. We will never get Washington, D. C. spending under control until the states repeal the 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Congress won't do it. They love spending, so we'll need a convention of states to do it. Keep more money in the pockets of the people in the states. The 16th Amendment gives the government, federal government, authority to tax incomes. [00:53:00] Forever change the relationship between American people and their government passing the 16th Amendment.

It should be repealed. You never hear anybody running on that. You elect me to Congress, I'm going to work to get support. And it'll be uphill. I know it's going to be all uphill. I'm repealing the Sixteenth Amendment. Don't give the federal government any more authority to tax your income. That's the only way, ladies and gentlemen, the only way that this spending and graft and theft and fraud is going to stop.

Leave that money in the states, thanks for joining me. Enjoy your week. 

When you talk about race, crime, and politics, some folks lose sleep over this, but not me, because I sleep just fine on my Giza DreamSheets and pillow from MyPillow, especially this new 2. 0. If you haven't gotten yours yet, you are missing out. Just go to [00:54:00] MyPillow. com and use promo code Clarke , that's C L A R K E, and save up to 66 percent off.

The direct link is also available on my website, AmericaSheriff. com. Get a great night's sleep so we can continue the fight.

Friends, I want to thank you for listening to today's episode of Straight Talk with yours truly, America's Sheriff, David Clarke . And a special thank you also goes out to our sponsors. My goal, as always, is to break down these complex and many times controversial issues and bring it to you straight, with a little dose of common sense, no media bias, no talking points.

Just Truth. And this podcast would not be possible without your support. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did, please leave a review at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite place to listen. And please share this message of common sense on social media. For more content, be sure to follow me on Truth Social, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

And just a reminder, We'd love for you to join our Straight Shooters VIP podcast club for only 5 per month. And with that membership, you'll receive [00:55:00] invitations to attend private podcast events throughout the year as a VIP guest when we come to your town. Plus, if you join today, you'll also receive a free coffee mug and a sample of our private label coffee, as long as supplies last.

Subscribe and join at americasheriff. com. This podcast is brought to you by americasheriff. com with executive producer Judy Wilkinson of J. L. Wilkinson Consulting and producer Josh Wentz in partnership with our friends at Bulldog Media. If you are interested in partnering with Straight Talk Podcasts or having me speak in your area, please contact Judy at JLWilkinsonConsulting at gmail.

com. 706 333 7000. 518 2116. That's J. L. Wilkinson Consulting at gmail. com. Phone number 706 518 2116.