Tag: taxes

NYC Mayoral Candidate Mamdani: Tax Whites and the Rich

Socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is not shy about playing race and class cards in his campaign platform proposal to hike property taxes for “richer and whiter neighborhoods.”

Calling it a “soak-the-rich” proposal, the New York Post described the platform as an effort to fix the city’s “notoriously skewed property tax system,” where high-end brownstones are assessed at lower rates than homes and rentals in lower-income neighborhoods.

The race-based language is contained in Mamdani’s extensive “Stop the Squeeze on NYC Homeowners” campaign material.

It promises that a Mamdani administration will:

Shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods: The property tax system is unbalanced because assessment levels are artificially capped, so homeowners in expensive neighborhoods pay less than their fair share. The Mayor can fix this by pushing class assessment percentages down for everyone and adjusting rates up, effectively lowering tax payments for homeowners in neighborhoods like Jamaica and Brownsville while raising the amount paid in the most expensive Brooklyn brownstones.

The Post account acknowledged that “Democrats and many Republicans have long pushed to fix the out-of-whack system that ends up hitting poorer, often largely black and brown neighborhoods, with higher property taxes than their neighbors in swanky areas that tend to be majority Caucasian.”

But the candidate’s language drew fire from conservative critics.

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon threatened to investigate Zohran Mamdani over his proposal to tax ‘whiter neighborhoods’  if he becomes the mayor, calling race-based policies “illegal.”

One former northeast resident, now a Florida-based commentator, called the candidate a “racist” on X.

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Former NY DEI Director and Hochul Aide Linda Sun CHARGED in Multimillion-Dollar PPE Fraud and Kickback Scheme

While New Yorkers were gasping for N-95 masks and latex gloves in the dark spring of 2020, the woman once tasked with “diversity, equity & inclusion” inside the Hochul-Cuomo political machine was allegedly busy funneling state contracts to her own relatives—and pocketing the profits.

The Gateway Pundit reported last year that the FBI conducted a pre-dawn raid on the $3.5 million Long Island home.

The lavish five-bedroom home, located in a gated community called Stone Hill in Long Island, was searched thoroughly by agents, though it remains undisclosed whether any items were seized during the operation.

A federal grand jury has returned a second superseding indictment against Linda Sun, former Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for New York and later Deputy Chief of Staff to Gov. Kathy Hochul, along with her husband Christopher “Chris” Hu.

Prosecutors say the pair raked in more than $8 million in kickbacks, bribes and laundered cash by steering COVID-19 personal-protective-equipment (PPE) contracts to companies run by Sun’s cousin and Hu’s business partner.

The new counts include honest-services wire fraud, conspiracy, bribery, money-laundering, and—just for good measure—tax evasion for Hu. Arraignment is set for Monday, June 30 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

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Big Data Centers Are Booming, But Secret Deals Draw Local Opposition

From Georgia to Oregon, New England to New Mexico, data center projects are drawing opposition in local government hearings by residents concerned about the voracious demand for electricity, water consumption, and noise. Critics also argue that data centers don’t produce the jobs other land uses generate.

In Texas, people in small towns question data center development in the broader context of rapid rural industrialization.

In Pennsylvania, ad hoc groups say data centers are tapping into nearby natural gas fields, increasing the frequency of fracking, and straining water supplies.

In Indiana, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, and across the country, residents say the scale and proximity of these high-tech campuses degrade their neighborhoods and devalue properties.

Objections vary, depending on proposal and site, but a common complaint is state and local governments offering data center projects tax incentives that are often shielded from public scrutiny through nondisclosure agreements.

Companies say these pacts shield proprietary corporate intelligence, but the perceived lack of transparency fosters suspicion and anger when residents realize local planners are set to approve a proposal they knew little to nothing about until it appeared to be a done deal.

“Just from our experience, it seems like one of the big concerns is that, yeah, there is no community outreach,” Kamil Cook, Public Citizen’s Texas climate and clean energy associate, told the Epoch Times. “There’s no method by which the community can be informed in a way that actually makes it seem like their voice is valued and that they have a choice in these matters.”

Much of this local opposition appears rooted in the complaint that people “weren’t informed to begin with, were ignored at some point,” said Joe Warnimont, who co-authored a February HostingAdvice.com survey. The survey of 800 people in 16 states found that 93 percent agreed that “cutting-edge AI data centers are vital to the United States,” but only 35 percent want one in their town.

“The main insights are there is clearly a disconnect between what the local residents experience and what is being sold to these communities from developers,” Warnimont told The Epoch Times.

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Zohran Mamdani Wants to Spend $65 Million on ‘Gender Affirming Care’ – Including for Minors

Zohran Mamdani, the Muslim communist that just won the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City, wants to spend $65 million on ‘gender affirming care’ including for minors. In case you’re not aware, gender affirming care is a term that means butchering the otherwise healthy body parts of a person in order to ‘transition.’

This was one of the issues that came up repeatedly in the 2024 election and the American people made their opinion quite clear. Most people are against this. It’s one of the 80/20 issues that have come up repeatedly in recent months.

Mamdani is choosing the 20 percent side of this issue, which should surprise absolutely no one.

The New York Post reported:

Zohran Mamdani wants to spend $65M on trans medical treatment — including for minors — if elected NYC mayor

Mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani wants to spend $65 million in taxpayer funds on transgender treatment — including for minors — if he’s elected to lead New York City…

About $57 million would be allotted for public hospitals, community clinics, federally qualified health centers and nonprofits with another $8 million for more expanded services, the website states.

The surging Democratic socialist contender first unveiled his plan to “deliver care, opportunity, and protection for LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers” last month following a Trans Community Town Hall with advocates…

Mamdani defended the spending plan as necessary, citing how private Big Apple hospitals had stopped providing gender-affirming care for minors under threats from the Trump administration earlier this year.

“LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers are under attack by the Trump administration and Zohran is going to stand up for them as Mayor,” a campaign spokesperson said in a statement to The Post on Monday.

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RFK Jr. Axes ALL Funding for Bill Gates’ Global ‘Vaccine Alliance’

Whereas the general modus operandi in legacy media is to smear RFK Jr. as an “anti-vaxxer” within the first sentence, the Washington Post courteously waited until the second paragraph to label RFK Jr. a “vaccine misinformation” spreader on its way to condemning him for cutting federal funding to Bill Gates’ global “vaccine alliance,” GAVI.

Via Washington Post (emphasis added):

The United States will halt its contributions to Gavi, the global alliance that works to expand access to vaccines for children in some of the world’s poorest countries, said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wednesday — a move that public health experts said would have deadly consequences.

Kennedy, who has a history of spreading vaccine misinformation, announced the decision in video remarks made to a Gavi summit in Brussels, during which he accused the group of neglecting “the key issue of vaccine safety.”…

In his remarks, Kennedy cited a study linking the DTP vaccine — for diphtheria, a highly contagious bacterial infection that kills 5 to 10 percent of those affected, as well as tetanus and pertussis — to increased child mortality. Kennedy also said Gavi should “consider the best science available,” and “re-earn the public trust.”

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Supreme Court Greenlights States to Cut Off Medicaid Funding for Planned Parenthood in Major Win for Pro-Life Advocates

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday paved the way for states to block Medicaid funding from going to abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

The high court’s decision, which comes after years of legal wrangling, affirms the authority of individual states to determine how taxpayer dollars are allocated — and who gets excluded.

In a landmark 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic that individual Medicaid recipients do not have the right to sue states under federal law for excluding abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs.

The Court’s decision, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, reversed a ruling from the Fourth Circuit and solidified the state of South Carolina’s authority to remove Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid network—without fear of federal lawsuits from individual patients or abortion activists cloaking themselves in civil rights statutes.

This case arose after South Carolina decided in 2018 to terminate Planned Parenthood’s participation in its Medicaid program, citing a state law that bans the use of public funds for abortion.

Abortion advocates predictably sued under 42 U.S.C. §1983, claiming the state violated a supposed “right” under the Medicaid Act’s “any-qualified-provider” provision.

Justice Gorsuch clarified that this provision does not confer individually enforceable federal rights. It is a directive to states, not a free pass for left-wing groups to weaponize the courts every time a state takes a stand for life.

“The decision whether to let private plaintiffs enforce a new statutory right poses delicate questions of public policy. New rights for some mean new duties for others. And private enforcement actions, meritorious or not, can force governments to direct money away from public services and spend it instead on litigation,” Gorsuch wrote.

He continued, “The job of resolving how best to weigh those competing costs and benefits belongs to the people’s elected representatives, not unelected judges charged with applying the law as they find it.” 

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US Space Force Requests $277M for MILNET, Halts Tranche 3 of Transport Layer

The U.S. Space Force’s fiscal 2026 budget request provides $277 million for the MILNET proliferated Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation and halts funding for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 3, Transport Layer effort for advanced LEO communications satellites.

The Space Force $277 million request combines two program elements and derives from a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) classified MILNET effort, based on SpaceX‘s Starshield. The Department of the Air Force, which is conducting an Analysis of Alternatives on future satellite communications, intends MILNET to be a “plug and play” architecture that is not SpaceX-reliant.

“In the FY 26 budget we learned DoD is halting the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 3, Transport Layer and that work which has been going on for several years and had robust competition and open standards has been replaced by something called MILNET, which is being sole sourced to SpaceX,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, said at a Thursday hearing on the Department of the Air Force’s fiscal 2026 funding request.

“No competition, no open architecture, no leveraging of dynamic space ecosystem,” Coons said of MILNET.

Coons then asked Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, “Doesn’t handing this to SpaceX make us dependent on their proprietary technology and avoid the very positive benefits of competition and open architecture?

“Tranche 2 is still funded in the budget submission, including the Transport Layer, so we’re looking forward to delivery of that system over the next handful of years,” Meink responded. “As we go forward, MILNET, the term, should not be taken as just a system. How we field that going forward is something that’s still under consideration, and we will look at the acquisition of that.”

Coons then said that he would “deeply appreciate a classified briefing” from Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman “on exactly where this [MILNET] is going and why this particular decision was made.”

SDA has extensively publicized the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), including the communications and missile warning satellite constellations.

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There Is No Such Thing As A Free Grocery Store

Zohran Mamdani, winner of the Democratic Party’s New York City mayoral primary, is overflowing with Marxist ideas of how to govern that are so lousy that it’s hard to believe he got more than his own vote in Tuesday’s election. Each of them is horrendous, from free bus services to rent control to punitive taxes on those who create prosperity, but none are quite so laughable as his proposal to establish a chain of city-run grocery stores.

Mamdani’s campaign literature – overflowing with empty leftist jargon – says if elected he “will create a network of city-owned grocery stores focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit.” The mission “is lower prices, not price gouging.” 

In an interview, the socialist Mamdani said he wants “a pilot program of one store in each borough that builds on the feasibility study that was done in Chicago,” which, incidentally, was never released and has been put on a dusty shelf where it will grow moldy.

Apparently not even that city’s Marxist mayor believed he could make the idea work.

It’s nearly impossible to imagine any adult would propose opening government-owned grocery stores. The concept might make for spirited debate in a junior high social studies class. In the real world, though, there are consequences.

“If the city of New York is going socialist, I will definitely close, or sell, or move or franchise the Gristedes locations,” says John Catsimatidis, the CEO of the Gristedes chain, which “has been feeding New Yorkers for over 100 years.”

This should alarm Mamdani. It won’t. He’ll be glad to get rid of a dirty profit-monger who doesn’t belong in his socialist utopia.

Far from New York is Erie, Kansas, which became known as the “small town that saved its only grocery store — by buying it.” The city took over Stub’s Market in early 2021 after learning that it was to close.

But it didn’t go well. The Wall Street Journal reported in October 2023 that it was “losing money almost every month.” City Clerk Jamie Janssen told the Journal that the goal was “to narrow losses to under $100,000 this year.” Losses had reached $132,000 the year before, even though volunteers stock the goods, some of which are donated by local businesses.

Last year, after learning that “owning the store is difficult and costly for the city,” Erie sold the market. If a city of not even 1,000 residents can’t keep a small government-owned store from losing $100,000 a year, what will the losses add up to in New York City?

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How much have US wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan cost?

The decades-long military involvement of the United States in the Middle East expanded once again this week after its warplanes bombed at least three of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

According to a briefing by US General Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, seven B-2 stealth bombers, each valued at approximately $2.1bn, dropped at least 14 bunker-buster bombs worth millions on Fordow and Natanz.

In total, more than 125 US aircraft participated in the mission, including bombers, fighters, tankers, surveillance aircraft, and support crews, all costing hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy and operate.

The US spends more on its military than any other country in the world, more than the next nine countries combined, spending about three times more than China and nearly seven times more than Russia.

In 2024, the US spent $997bn on its military, accounting for 37 percent of all global military spending, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

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‘Time to Leave NATO’: Sen. Mike Lee Unveils Trio of Bills to Withdraw U.S., Expose Allied ‘Freeloaders,’ Demand Defense Transparency

As NATO leaders gather for another summit, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has introduced sweeping legislation to withdraw the United States from the alliance and force America’s allies to pay their share, accusing European nations of relying on U.S. taxpayers to fund their defense.

“America’s withdrawal from NATO is long overdue,” Lee said in a statement Wednesday. “NATO has run its course — the threats that existed at its inception are no longer relevant 76 years later. If they were, Europe would be paying their fair share instead of making American taxpayers pick up the check for decades. My legislation will put America first by withdrawing us from the raw deal NATO has become.”

Lee’s latest bill, the Not A Trusted Organization (NATO) Act, would direct the president to formally notify NATO of U.S. withdrawal under Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty, fulfill the requirement for congressional authorization, and prohibit U.S. taxpayer dollars from funding NATO’s common budgets — including its civil and military programs.

“It’s time to leave NATO,” Lee posted Wednesday on X.

The Utah senator also introduced two companion bills on Tuesday— the Allied Burden Sharing Report Act and the NATO Burden Sharing Report Act — aimed at exposing which allied nations are failing to contribute their promised share to collective defense. The legislation would require the Department of Defense to produce annual reports detailing each ally’s defense spending, troop readiness, and limitations placed on military contributions. The NATO-specific report would go further by assessing each member state’s defense industrial base, contributions to Ukraine, and dependency on U.S. military assets.

“Year after year, our so-called allies shirk their commitments while we pay for the conflicts raging in their backyards,” Lee said. “By imposing annual reporting requirements, my legislation will identify delinquent allies — promoting accountability and putting them on notice to pay their fair share.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who supports the bills, delivered a scathing assessment of America’s role in the alliance.

“Our NATO allies expect the U.S. to be the sugar daddy and the world’s policeman while they sit back and let us do the heavy lifting. President Trump was right, it’s time for them to pull their own weight. Congress must stop giving blank checks to our allies and start demanding accountability. That’s why I’m pushing for the NATO Burden Sharing Report Act and the Allied Burden Sharing Report Act, to show the American people exactly who’s paying the bills and who’s shirking their share,” 

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