Tag: taxes

Another Mexican Politician Facing U.S. Federal Fraud Charges

A Mexican politician is out on bond as he faces federal fraud charges in Texas for allegations that he used COVID-era loans to buy cryptocurrency. The politician, his wife, and various other South Texas business owners are accused of obtaining fraudulent loans during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were intended to support failing businesses, but were instead used for personal gain.

Court records revealed that 46-year-old Bernando Gomez Jr. and his wife, 42-year-old Lesley Chavez, allegedly took out nearly $200,000 in Paycheck Protection Program loans during the COVID-19 pandemic and then used them for personal expenses, including buying cryptocurrency. Gomez, who lives in Edinburg, Texas, is a sitting city councilman in the Mexican City of Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, where he serves as a close advisor to local Mayor Miguel Angel Almaraz.

Court documents indicate that Gomez and Chavez own several entertainment and service businesses, including a wedding planning service, a rental company, and a print shop.

Federal prosecutors allege that in June 2020 and May 2020, they obtained a series of government loans through the Small Business Administration aimed at helping businesses survive the COVID-19 Pandemic. The government then forgave those loans after the business owners allegedly filed documents claiming that the money had been used for legitimate purposes such as paying employees and other similar expenses. After receiving those three loans, totaling $150,000, $40,800, and $20,800, they transferred the funds to different accounts, which they then used for personal expenses and, in the case of Gomez, to purchase cryptocurrency.

After their arrests, both Gomez and Chavez went before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker, who set their bonds at $100,000. Both have been released as they await trial.

Gomez is currently a member of Mexico’s National Action Party (PAN), one of the major opposition parties in Mexico that has been at odds with the current ruling party, MORENA.

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Supreme Court Allows Trump Admin To Revoke DEI-Related NIH Grants

The Supreme Court voted 5–4 on Aug. 21 to allow the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

The new ruling clears the way for the funding reductions while litigation over the grants continues in the lower courts.

The justices filed five separate opinions explaining their votes.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett voted to allow the grants to be cut.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Chief Justice John Roberts voted to deny the government’s request to rescind the funding.

The high court said it acted because the federal government faces the possibility that the grant monies, once paid out, may not be recovered.

Moreover, “the plaintiffs do not state that they will repay grant money if the Government ultimately prevails.”

The case is known as National Institutes of Health v. American Public Health Association.

The Department of Justice filed an emergency application with the nation’s highest court late last month, asking the justices to block a ruling by Boston-based U.S. District Judge William Young, who found the cancellation was unlawful and ordered the government to restore the funding.

NIH began taking steps in February to end the grants that conflict with President Donald Trump’s policy priorities.

The NIH is the world’s largest government funder of biomedical research.

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Taxpayers On Hook For $3.5 Billion To Replenish Munitions US Used Defending Israel

Taxpayers are yet again on the hook for America’s supposed “closest Middle East ally” as the Pentagon is planning to allocate at least $3.5 billion to restock weapons used in defense of Israel.

A Bloomberg report issued this week has reviewed Department of Defense budget documents prepared through mid-May. Emergency expenditures are highlighted which include US combat operations “executed at the request of or in coordination with Israel for the defense of Israeli territory, personnel or assets during attacks by Iran” or its proxies.

The largest single portion of the funding is $1 billion that is earmarked for replenishing Standard Missile interceptors, specifically the SM-3 IB Threat Upgrade models made by Raytheon and deployed by US Navy ships to intercept ballistic missiles.

Each of these big missiles are estimated to be between $9 million and $12 million, and these were used in the initial April 2024 flare-up and brief round of fighting between Israel and Iran.

The US assisted Israel following the Netanyahu government’s airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus – which was the first such deliberate attack by a sovereign government on a foreign embassy in history (the lone precedent being the Chinese embassy strike in Belgrade in 1999, which the US apologized for as an ‘accident’).

The second-largest funding request in the documents is $204 million to restock THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) interceptors, produced by Lockheed Martin at a price tag of about $13 million each.

All of this will be pushed through despite recent polls showing public support for Israel being at a recent all-time low. The American public is also generally war-weary, given the now years-long conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and the fact that Washington has sunk billions into supporting one side of each war.

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US To Fund $500 Million Boeing KC-46 Tanker Aircraft Deal for Israel

The Israeli Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that it will be signing a contract to purchase two Boeing-made KC-46 tanker aircraft in a deal worth about $500 million that will be funded by US military aid.

“This is a follow-on contract with the US Government for procuring two advanced refueling aircraft in addition to four previously purchased KC-46 aircraft. This will expand the IDF’s new refueling fleet to six aircraft,’ the Defense Ministry wrote on Facebook.

“The new aircraft will be equipped with Israeli systems and adapted to the IAF’s operational requirements. The contract’s scope is estimated at approximately half a billion USD and is funded through US aid,” the ministry added.

The US provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid annually, including $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing, a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to purchase US weapons.

Since October 7, 2023, the US has provided Israel with significantly more aid, including an additional $3.5 billion in FMF that was part of a $17 billion military assistance package for Israel tucked into a $95 billion foreign aid bill authorized by Congress and signed by President Biden last year.

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AAP Received Tens of Millions in Federal Funding to Push Vaccines and Combat ‘Misinformation’

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which is suing U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and has called for the end to religious exemptions, received tens of millions of dollars in federal funding in a single year, according to public records.

AAP, which represents 67,000 pediatricians in the U.S., received $34,974,759 in government grants during the 2023 fiscal year, according to the organization’s most recent tax disclosure. The grants are itemized in the AAP’s single audit report for 2023-2024.

Documents show some of the money was used to advance childhood vaccination in the U.S. and abroad, target medical “misinformation” and “disinformation” online, develop a Regional Pediatric Pandemic Network, and highlight telehealth for children.

However, not all of the money could be tracked through public records.

The federal grants are in addition to financial contributions the AAP receives from several major pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly, GSK, Merck, Moderna and Sanofi.

Sayer Ji, founder of GreenMedInfo and co-founder of Stand for Health Freedom, said the joint funding that the AAP receives from taxpayers and Big Pharma “reflects a troubling alignment between its policy positions and the interests of its largest funders — both federal agencies and pharmaceutical corporations.”

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Concerns about solar encroachment on farmland grows as USDA pulls subsidies for new projects

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is pulling the plug on federal support of solar projects being developed on America’s farmland. The agency announced Tuesday that it would no longer provide taxpayer dollars for solar panels on productive farmland. 

“Our prime farmland should not be wasted and replaced with green-new-deal-subsidized solar panels,” Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins said in the announcement. 

On-the-ground solar energy has some of the greatest land-use requirements of any energy source, coming in after hydroelectric and coal, if the latter’s mines are included. The huge swaths of land needed for solar farms make agricultural farmland attractive to developers. According to the USDA, within the last 30 years, Tennessee alone has lost over 1.2 million acres of farmland to solar farms, with another 2 million acres projected to be lost by 2027. 

“Tennesseans know that our farmland is our national security, our economic future, and our children’s heritage,” Tennessee GOP Governor Bill Lee said in a statement. 

While solar has seen explosive growth in the past few years, the Trump administration and Congress are cutting back on the subsidies that have been driving a lot of the development. Growth in the coming years could be slower. 

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Want proof USAID was meddling in right-wing foreign elections? Well, here you go…

For decades, USAID has sold itself as a “humanitarian” agency handing out aid to struggling nations. But that wasn’t the case. As soon as folks started digging, an entirely different story was uncovered. As it turns out, USAID has quietly served as a front for left-wing political experiments, funneling US taxpayer money into projects that prop up globalist and crush populist movements all over the world.

Mike Benz, executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, has been digging into the Brazil story, and what he’s found is damning. The trail of breadcrumbs shows USAID’s fingerprints all over Brazil’s censorship regime, which looks a heck of a lot like the same lawfare and censorship tactics that were unleashed against President Trump and his supporters.

Earlier this month, Mr. Benz testified before the Brazilian Congress on how USAID helped build the censorship state in Brazil. The only recording was in Portuguese, but he’s promised to prepare an English version for Americans to see and hear.

This matters because Brazil has become a literal playground for left-wing censorship. The regime there has been using North Korea-style tactics against their own people. They’ve banned populists from running for office, censored political speech online, and persecuted dissidents.

And it all centers around one corrupt judge: Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

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Joe Biden Paid $89 Million To Boost Electric Motorcycle Production. It’s Failing.

In 2024, President Joe Biden’s Energy Department awarded $1.7 billion in grants to increase domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles (E.V.s), including $89 million to Harley-Davidson to expand its manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania for electric motorcycle production. At the time, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm claimed the funding would “ensure that our automotive industry stays competitive.” Then-Sen. Bob Casey (D–Pa.) championed the grant, with his office declaring that it would “help Harley Davidson make investments necessary to hit its goal of producing more zero-emission motorcycles.”

More than a year later, it appears that this funding plan is failing.

Despite the $89 million in government subsidies provided to LiveWire, which was initially launched as part of Harley-Davidson but has since spun off, the company has sold only 55 electric motorcycles in the second quarter of 2025, a 65 percent decline compared to the same quarter in 2024. In the second quarter of 2025, LiveWire’s electric motorcycle business yielded $800,000 in revenue. Overall, in the second quarter of 2025, the company generated $5.9 million in consolidated revenue from its electric motorcycles and electric bikes.

LiveWire has operated at a loss since its founding in 2021. After peaking at $46.83 million in 2022, annual revenue has declined for two consecutive years, dropping 43 percent from the company’s peak year in 2022. The company has never had a profitable quarter, a trend that is expected to continue through 2025.

While it’s projected sales of up to 3,000 electric motorcycles over the past two years, LiveWire has sold only 2,418 electric motorcycles since its inception in 2021. Last year, the company sold just 612 motorcycles, falling short of its 2023 sales of 660 machines and well below its initial 2024 projection of 1,000 to 1,500 bikes. Despite a history of missing sales targets, LiveWire again projected sales of 1,000 to 1,500 electric motorcycles for 2025.

A significant appeal of gas-powered motorcycles lies in the owner’s ability to customize their bike. By design, electric motorcycles are quiet and difficult to modify.

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On The Road To A Hyperstate: EU Commission Circumvents Financing Rules

The European Union is funded by contributions from its member states. At least, that’s what the founding treaties say. In practice, however, the EU has long been taking other paths.

At the core of Europe’s financial architecture lies a clear separation of responsibility and liability: Article 125 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the so-called “No-Bailout Clause.” It states, unequivocally, that neither the Union nor individual member states may assume the debts of other states. The purpose of this provision is to prevent free-rider effects (moral hazard) at the expense of other member states: each state is responsible for its own obligations.

Still, the clause does not exclude political support, as long as it does not mean assuming the existing debts of other states. A notable example of this practice were the bailout programs for Greece during the sovereign debt crisis one and a half decades ago.

Article 310 TFEU further regulates the EU budget: revenues and expenditures must be balanced every year, and the budget may only be financed through own resources such as member contributions, tariffs, or approved revenues. Independent loans by the EU Commission exceeding the approved framework are prohibited.

Together, these rules form the legal backbone of EU financial policy: no automatic liability, no autonomous EU debt, and only fully covered spending.

This design was deliberately chosen to prevent the emergence of a supra-state in Brussels and to defend the national scope of action of member states against an expanding Brussels bureaucracy.

Theory vs. Practice

That’s the theory. In practice, the EU has steadily increased its presence as a borrower in the bond market. It began in 1976 with the first European Community bond to support Italy and Ireland during the oil crisis. In the 1980s and 1990s, further issues followed for France, Greece, and Portugal—always aimed at demonstrating collective solidarity and easing fiscal tensions.

The 2008/2010 financial crisis marked a decisive turning point: with the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) and, in 2012, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the EU began deliberately supporting over-indebted member states via bond issuance. In 2010, the European Central Bank announced it would purchase euro sovereign bonds on the open market to prevent the collapse of the monetary union—always in close coordination with EU institutions.

The COVID years saw a new dimension in 2020: for the first time, the EU issued Social Bonds under the “SURE” fund. At the same time, the “Next Generation EU” program started, providing around €800 billion in crisis aid. Since 2025, the Union has increasingly relied on so-called “sustainable bonds” (Green Bonds) and plans to issue short-term treasury bills for improved liquidity management.

The EU and ECB now operate in tandem, integrating ever-new financing instruments into the capital markets. The signal to the market is clear: we are ready to meet growing demand for euro bonds. And as collateral, not only the European taxpayer but also the ECB’s virtually unlimited liquidity is on standby. What could possibly go wrong?

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JB Pritzker Under Fire Over His Latest Move Helping Illegal Aliens

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law a measure that opens state-funded student financial aid to all residents, regardless of immigration status, making illegal immigrants in Illinois eligible for educational financial benefits.

The legislation, framed as creating “equitable eligibility for financial aid and benefits,” establishes that any student residing in the state who is not otherwise eligible for federal financial aid can now qualify for assistance.

The law specifically cites students disqualified from federal aid, such as transgender students who fail to register for selective service or noncitizen students who lack lawful permanent residence.

The bill was met with immediate criticism from conservatives, including Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., who described the move as prioritizing illegal immigrants over Illinois families.

“Allowing taxpayer-funded financial aid for illegal aliens is a slap in the face to hardworking Illinois families and students,” Miller told Fox News Digital.

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