00:01:31.660A paltry 6% of the federal workforce report in person on a full-time basis.
00:01:38.060Well, almost one-third of federal workers are remote on a full-time basis in a sharp turnaround from the pre-pandemic era in which only 3% teleworked daily.
00:01:50.280A report from Senator Joni Ernest's office found.
00:01:56.140Ernest, who has long crusaded against the rise in remote federal work, is planning to reveal the fruits of her office's year-and-a-half inquiry into the Department of Government Efficiency.
00:02:07.400Co-heads Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswaki during their visit to Capitol Thursday.
00:02:16.080The nation's capital is a ghost town with government buildings averaging an occupancy rate of 12%, Ernest wrote in a blistering report.
00:02:24.720If federal employees can't be found at their desks, where exactly are they?
00:02:31.700Musk took note of Ernest's report ahead of his meeting with lawmakers to brainstorm ways to rein in the federal bureaucracy.
00:02:39.720If you exclude security guards and maintenance personnel, the number of government workers who show up to do in-person work and 40 hours a week is closer to 1%, he wrote on his X platform.
00:02:55.000House Speaker Mike Johnson also highlighted the report's findings in between meetings with Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
00:03:03.380This is absurd and it's not something that the American people will stand for.
00:03:08.260And so one of the things I think you'll see and demand from the new administration, from all of us in Congress, is that federal workers return to their desks.
00:03:20.260I mean, I know you guys out there that are building the buildings, paving the road, serving in our military, doing the hard jobs that keep this country going.
00:03:31.020I want you to sleep well at night knowing that your tax dollars, they're just not being used wisely.
00:03:42.120And I really hope it changes, but I'm not going to hold my breath, okay?
00:03:49.020The Iowa Republican in particular blasted President Biden's penchant for ditching the White House for his home in Delaware or vacations with rich donors.
00:04:01.760The senator's investigation found that not a single government agency was occupying half of its office space.
00:04:09.000President Biden is setting the example.
00:04:11.300He was out of the office 532 days over the last three and a half years.
00:04:15.720About 40% of the time, he was expected to be in the Oval Office.
00:04:20.340Her office collaborated with The Open, The Books, a nonprofit group that advocates for government transparency for taxpayers and claims that the Biden administration redacted the work locations of over 281,000 rank-and-file federal employees,
00:04:36.700leasing the maintenance costs for federal office buildings as well as the tab to keep them running at about $15.7 billion annually.
00:04:46.800Meanwhile, the government has ownership of about 7,697 vacant buildings and 2,265 that are somewhat empty, costing about $15 million for leasing and maintenance of underutilized space, according to her report.
00:05:07.320I love it when the government just takes our tax dollars and wastes money.
00:05:13.760The Hawkeye state senator concluded that taxpayers are getting ripped off and claimed that her constituents were troubled by the lack of responsiveness from various government entities such as the Social Security Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, and more.
00:05:31.120The report rattled through a handful of anecdotes and described the lack of competence from a federal government.
00:05:37.240She cited an example of a whistleblower report at the FDA that was unread for months, warning them about bacteria spreading in baby formula, which ultimately accumulated in national shortage back in 2022.
00:05:54.480Another example cited the report in which the Department of Veterans Affairs manager in Atlanta, who snapped a photo of himself while working, while taking a bubble bath, stirring outrage at the time.
00:06:09.780If you think that it's not a big deal, then what is a big deal?
00:06:15.560Otherwise, one of his colleagues later fumed.
00:06:19.060One federal employee moaned that he is one of the few who reports to Washington, D.C., and contractors have commented to him about the whereabouts of the agency employees, per the report.
00:06:32.340To further her point about taxpayers getting ripped off, Ernst cited findings that some federal employees are cashing out on higher pay from localities where they're not actually working.
00:06:43.060My audits are finding that as many as 23% to 68% of teleworking employees for some agencies are boosting their salaries by receiving incorrect locality pay, her report found.
00:06:56.700Some employees live more than 2,000 miles away from the office, and one temporary teleworker collected higher locality pay for nearly a decade.
00:07:06.620Over 25% of federal teleworkers on a daily basis live over 50 miles from their workplace, a U.S. Office of Personnel Management found.
00:07:17.440Government salaries are determined in part by the offices of the employee's official workspace.
00:07:23.440There are 58 locality pay areas with base pay of federal employees adjusted to account for the cost of living in each, the report noted.
00:07:32.160She faulted federal employees' unions for hampering efforts to compel workers to report on-site for their jobs.
00:07:41.180Last year, the Biden administration demanded agencies substantially increase meaningful in-person work at federal offices.
00:07:49.900But the report recounted that some union bosses shrugged that off.
00:07:55.000The administration's new guidance on agency work environments does not override the collective bargaining agreements in effect at the agencies which we represent frontline employees.
00:08:07.320This means for the vast majority of members, their access to telework, which varies amongst agencies and types of jobs, will remain unchanged.
00:08:17.920To rectify the solution, she proposed spreading the federal workforce across the country, enacting a use-it-or-lose-it approach to federal properties, tying permissions for remote work to performance and monitoring their locations based on virtual private networks and other steps.
00:08:40.760Okay, so, you know, this is what happens when you subsidize industries.
00:08:46.120So, when industries are not meant to be competitive, you see this in education, when the unions get too strong and the government gives out money no matter how bad of a job they do, it's no wonder that you see them doing a terrible job and not showing up to work.
00:09:01.740Okay, so, by the way, guys, if you guys have a question, comment, or concern, you go to theaudacitynetwork.com and sign up to our memberships, and you go in the live chat, $10 a month, $80 a year, and I read your comment.
00:09:15.760Like, right now, we have one from Xavier.
00:09:28.920I usually look two or three times in the show.
00:09:32.180Now, as you guys know, I have been on the front lines the past four years of the simp epidemic, and I need to tell you guys about a quiet weapon being ratcheted up against men that is rarely being talked about.
00:09:48.540It's not just the relentless anti-masculinity propaganda and only fans hoes causing the societal issues that we discuss on the show.
00:09:57.080Did you know that the average city's tap water contains trace pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors?
00:10:03.540This often includes estrogen from birth control.
00:10:06.800The average adult consumes a credit card worth of plastic every week.
00:10:10.080That's five grams of plastic a week on average.
00:10:12.660So it's no wonder that the average male's testosterone is half of the average 50 years ago.
00:10:17.980Estrogen levels decline 1% a year, and without a course correction, we are headed towards extinction.
00:10:24.120No matter how based you are, you need to be naturally boosting your testosterone.
00:10:29.480My friends at Chalk, C-H-O-Q.com, are on a mission to save mankind from extinction by boosting your vitality.
00:10:36.620Chalk's male vitality stack contains premium and potent herbs clinically studied to naturally boost your testosterone levels.
00:10:45.340Sperm count and overall vitality, just one of the many ingredients in the male vitality stack was studied in a double-blind human clinical trial to boost total testosterone 20% in 90 days.
00:10:57.340When you boost your testosterone, you'll have more mental clarity, you're more capable of making decisions, and will find you more attractive subconsciously.
00:11:05.080Get the Chalk male vitality stack right now on Chalk.com.
00:11:43.820So the next story that we're going to cover is, you know, many times I say that in terms of output of the jobs of men and women, you know, men produce 80% of society's stuff.
00:12:02.000All of the stuff we see around us, men produce 80% of it.
00:12:07.560On top of that, men have a tendency to take jobs that run the infrastructure.
00:12:11.920Like, for example, if a woman is in construction, generally speaking, she's not going to be doing the toughest part.
00:12:17.720She's going to be waving the sign on the side of the road.
00:14:21.500We don't want to hear you guys complain, so fine.
00:14:23.600And then we go into a man's world, we get treated like a man, and oftentimes we don't like it, as you see in this case right here.
00:14:31.680Every month he gives me a salary from his money that he made, but if I need more, I'll ask him.
00:14:37.260Or if I need less, I just save the rest, she explains.
00:14:41.180She shares on her lifestyle on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok where she's amassed 11,000 followers.
00:14:46.560Some of her posts have almost 400,000 likes, although she says she's not making an income from her content.
00:14:52.820She uses the hashtag hemflickvan and hemifru, Swedish for stay-at-home girlfriend and housewife,
00:15:00.440and describes herself as a soft girl, an identity that embraces a softer, more feminine way of living rather than focusing on a career.
00:15:09.360The soft girl lifestyle has been micro-trend on social media in different parts of the world since late 2010,
00:15:16.100but in Sweden, with five decades of policies designed to promote dual-income households behind it,
00:15:22.820the concept's recent popularity has sparked both surprise and division.
00:15:28.360Now, one thing I noticed as I'm reading this is all of the things she says that she's doing with her free time do not benefit the man, right?
00:15:52.420It's not to avoid working for the husband, right, or to work hard so his life is better.
00:15:59.040It's I just don't want to do the hard things anymore.
00:16:02.280Okay, Sweden's largest annual survey of young people first put the national spotlight on Sweden's embracing the soft girl trend a year ago.
00:16:11.100After the popular choice, when 15 to 24-year-olds were asked to predict trends for 2024,
00:16:17.660another study this August suggested it was even becoming an aspiration among younger schoolgirls,
00:16:23.520with 14% of 7 to 14-year-old girls identifying as soft girls.
00:18:47.780Okay, at the other end of this political spectrum, the Swedish Democrat Party has always been positive towards the soft girl trend.
00:18:55.100I think that people should get to decide their own life.
00:18:58.460And if you have the economic possibility of living off your partner, then good for you.
00:19:02.380We still live in a country with all the opportunities to have a career.
00:19:06.920We have all the rights, but we have the right to live more traditionally.
00:19:15.200Aside from ideological debates, discussions have focused on the social and cultural aspects that could be influencing young women to quit work,
00:19:23.060or at least aspire to softer lifestyles.
00:19:25.380Sweden has a reputation for work-life balance.
00:19:28.880Most employees get six weeks holiday, with less than 1% working more than 50 hours a week.
00:19:34.620Still, research suggests that rising stress levels amongst young people and believe soft girl trends might be an extension of the recent global work trends,
00:19:45.480such as quiet quitting, which encourages employees not to overextend themselves.
00:19:51.480Meanwhile, the Gen Z age group are making and being influenced by social media content that celebrates leisure time rather than career goals.
00:20:01.260Work doesn't really feature that much if you look at lifestyle content on social media today.
00:20:08.140It's more about exercise and wellness.
00:20:10.980And if that's the picture young people have of what a normal life looks like,
00:20:14.520then of course you're not going to be excited about spending eight hours a day in a office.
00:20:20.400But perhaps the biggest talking point is whether the trend is a response to the limitations of Sweden's pioneering gender equality policies.
00:20:31.980Sweden has the highest proportion of working mothers in Europe,
00:20:34.920yet government stats suggest that women and heterosexual couples still do a larger share of the housework than men.
00:24:29.280Sweden's state-funded gender equality agency, Peter Winstrom, head of Department for Policy Analysis and Monitoring, believes the soft girl trend can be viewed as a rational reaction to the perceived demands experienced by young women.
00:25:23.160But, you know, and they worked really hard at those plumbing schools.
00:25:28.440And I would see one woman in the whole class.
00:25:33.860So I'm sure she worked really hard, you know.
00:25:36.840But I just, I can't say that assistant, like when one of our, one of the most female-dominated industries is assistants, which no hate, I'm not saying it's like, I'm just saying comparatively, right?
00:25:50.720If I had to pick, you know, going into the sewers, unclogging poop, putting together a house, I think scheduling meetings would be a little easier.
00:26:09.640I don't know, is that, and I do think that we can go home and make a meal for three people and maybe do 60% of the meal.
00:26:20.720The dishes, I think, I think we'll make it.
00:26:28.340An economist of one of Sweden's largest pension funds says she does not believe enough Swedish girlfriends or wives will quit work for it to have an impact on the country's economy.
00:29:45.040If we're really going to have this wave of ladies that at a young age, before they're fat, debt-ridden with tattoos, are going to say, yes, I want to be a wife and a mother.
00:29:56.780And I'm ready to have more than a kid.
00:31:47.040So while we're complaining more and saying we need a soft life, if anything, the guy working in the coal mine for 20 years deserves a soft life.
00:31:56.460I just don't know if I have this sympathy for the human resources job.
00:32:28.040It became a viral sensation because it really captured a very genuine moment.
00:32:33.960You know, an inappropriate moment, but, you know, she really had a girl next door feel and she was enthusiastic about that.
00:32:43.280I just think it was kind of, it was kind of a funny clip and it goes viral.
00:32:49.440Now she ends up getting her own podcast and becoming, I don't know if she's a millionaire overnight, but she, if she's not now, she will be soon.
00:32:58.000And recently she launched a crypto coin.
00:33:01.220Now, please guys, don't ask me any crypto questions.
00:33:58.140Um, Haley Welch has been doing all right for herself since shooting to stardom without actually wanting to find fame.
00:34:04.780After she gave an NSFW comment to the question, what makes a guy go crazy in bed?
00:34:11.200Her reply earned the influencer, her nickname.
00:34:15.080She pretended to spit by saying Hawk to a spit on that thing.
00:34:19.480You know, it went viral and she's a huge name now having garnered almost 3 million Instagram followers and releasing her own podcast.
00:34:28.280She's brought out her own clotheslines with the word Hawk to a branded on caps and other items of clothing.
00:34:37.060She's now tested the cryptocurrency industry and debut, debuted her own meme coin called Hawk.
00:34:44.260The coin's value tanked completely within 20 minutes of its launch, plummeting from 490 million to just 41 million, leaving fans out of pocket.
00:35:07.520The crypto, but it has left investors claiming she carried out a rug pull,
00:35:13.460which creates, which creators of a cryptocurrency sell off their stock, leading to prices crashing and those who put money into it with coins worth next to nothing.
00:35:24.100However, Welch has denied these accusation and defended her and her team's actions during a live stream to Twitter.
00:35:30.860Hawkonomics team hasn't sold one token, nor one KOL was given one free token.
00:35:36.360She tweeted in a copy and paste message.
00:35:40.940The best we could do through high fees and the start of a launch at Metro AG fees have now been dropped, but readers added their own context to the tweet claiming her team sold.
00:35:51.120It read the team and insiders have actually been selling their tokens since launch.
00:35:56.000A majority have never purchased anything and only sold the tokens they were given.
00:36:00.100Haley is lying and we will likely have to Hawk to a, to a judge about this.
00:36:04.860During the live stream, YouTube investigator, Stephen Coffezilla joined and gave a viral sensation and the viral sensation, a bit of a grilling.
00:36:12.940He said, this is one of the most miserable, horrible launches I've ever seen.
00:36:16.300I've been tracing, tracing it on the chain for a while.
00:36:19.840You guys generated over a million dollars in fees while your fans got rug pulled.
00:36:23.540They pulled snipers, but there was also insider trading linked directly to y'all's creator accounts.
00:36:31.080One person took to Twitter claiming they'd bought $35,000 worth of coins, but it turned out to be $2,000 10 minutes later.
00:36:40.440I am a huge, oh my gosh, why would you, what is, I am a huge fan of Hawk Tua, but you took my life savings.
00:36:49.160I am really trying to be empathetic here.