Tag: taxes

UK Could Weaken Online Censorship Law To Avoid US Trade Battle

As European leaders scramble to shield their economies from impending US tariffs, the UK’s Labour government appears ready to make significant concessions. Facing the risk of economic fallout, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration has reportedly signaled to Washington that it is open to revising the controversial and dangerous Online Safety Act — legislation critics have described as an aggressive censorship regime.

The Act, which gives UK regulators the power to fine tech companies for failing to remove vaguely defined “harmful content,” has been a major point of contention between the two allies and has become a major threat to free speech online. The Trump administration has been especially vocal in its opposition, viewing the law as an affront to free speech and a potential financial burden on US tech giants.

According to The Telegraph:

“Downing Street is willing to renegotiate elements of the Act in order to strike a trade deal, should it be raised by the US, The Telegraph understands. The law has been heavily criticized by free speech advocates and economists, who argue its broad provisions to tackle harmful online content could lead to excessive censorship and deter investment from American tech giants.”

The Online Safety Act arms UK media regulator Ofcom with sweeping new authority over social media platforms, enabling the imposition of multimillion-pound fines for failing to police content according to government directives. While supporters claim the law is necessary to protect users, critics argue that its vague wording and punitive approach encourage preemptive censorship — where platforms remove lawful content simply to avoid regulatory punishment.

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Elizabeth Warren’s Hubris Allowed Trump To Defund the CFPB

Since at least the days of the ancient Greeks, humans have known that one way to write a compelling story is by including a bit of hamartia—a tragic flaw.

Sometimes that is a physical shortcoming—Achilles had that famously vulnerable heel—but it is often more interesting if the flaw is a more innate thing tied to a character’s understanding of themselves. Hubris, or excessive pride, is the famous one. After all, it wasn’t really Achilles’ unprotected heel that took him down, but his false belief that his mother had made him invulnerable.

You might say the exact same thing about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). It could be headed into a sort of coma later this year because of a fatal flaw embedded by its own parents: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and former President Barack Obama.

Unlike every other department and agency within the federal government, the CFPB is not funded via congressional appropriations. Instead, its funding flows directly from the Federal Reserve. Each year, the White House submits a budget to the Federal Reserve, and the central bank hands over the necessary amount—$729.4 million last year, in case you were wondering.

For a long time after the CFPB was created in 2010, there were serious questions about the constitutionality of that structure. That finally got resolved last year, when the Supreme Court ruled that Congress was within its powers to hand off the purse strings. So, funding the CFPB via the Federal Reserve is not unconstitutional—it’s just unorthodox and foolish.

Here’s where the hubris enters the story. When Warren and Obama created the CFPB, they designed that unorthodox funding structure specifically to prevent a future Republican-led Congress from trying to defund the bureau. Remember, this was in the age when Republicans were running around the country telling voters they intended to repeal Obamacare too. By isolating the CFPB from Congress’ budgetary powers, Warren was trying to make it invulnerable to attack.

Instead, she simply gave it a fatal flaw.

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Thomson Reuters, a Far-Left Propaganda Arm, Receives Funding from the U.S. Department of Defense for ‘Active Social Engineering Defense Large-Scale Social Deception’ — Elon Musk Responds

Thomson Reuters Corporation, the parent company that both owns Thomson Reuters Special Services LLC (TRSS) and the far-left propaganda arm Reuters News, has been funded by none other than the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

Recent investigations have revealed that Thomson Reuters Special Services LLC was awarded a contract by the Department of Defense titled “Active Social Engineering Defense (ASED) Large Scale Social Deception (LSD).”

Thomson Reuters Special Services LLC (TRSS) is a U.S.-based subsidiary of Thomson Reuters that provides software and information services to U.S. government agencies.

TRSS reports to an independent Board of Directors and operates under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Defense to offer classified and sensitive services to the U.S. Government.

The contract, identified as FA865018C7886, was awarded in 2018 with a value of approximately $9.1 million. You can view the contract details at USASpending.gov.

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DOGE Exposes Insane Federal Use Of Old Limestone Mine And 700 Mine Workers To Store Files

Elon Musk’s DOGE has revealed that the federal government is using an old limestone mine in Pennsylvania to store tens of thousands, if not millions of physical paper files in cardboard boxes.

The files are just retirement documents for federal workers, so could easily be digitised, yet the government has continued to physically store them.

The mine is 230 feet underground and requires over 700 workers with the Office of Personnel Management to operate and upkeep it.

What the hell?

At least if there is a nuclear apocalypse whoever survives in here will have access to…information on retired government workers.

Musk shared the insane finding, noting “Maybe it’s just me, but I think there is room for improvement here.”

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From Oversight to Overlooked: The Government’s Failure to Control Trillions in Misspent Funds

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), created more than a century ago to assist Congress in its constitutionally mandated oversight responsibilities, issued a report just last year which estimated that in a span of 20 years, including 2023, that the US Government made $2.7 TRILLION dollars in improper expenditures resulting from overpayments, inaccurate record keeping, and fraud. In fiscal year 2023 alone, GAO determined the federal government improperly dispensed $269 Billion.

Let this sink in for those who are getting the vapors about administrative overreach into sensitive Treasury payment systems: TRILLIONS of our tax dollars have been lost through faulty payment systems. Rising taxes, mounting deficits and loss of faith in government are the effects.

The problem isn’t that President Trump and Elon Musk are diving into this, but that sweeping action to attack corruption has not been attempted by Congress, or by the Executive branch, in many a year.

This critical condition is above and beyond political parties and personalities. The failure to root out financial and other corruption in the US government has placed our nation in grave jeopardy through rising, seemingly uncontrollable deficits.

Government elites, kleptocrats, conniving with contractors, have long enabled this perilous condition, not the work-a-day federal employees.

The revolving door, individuals moving from high office in government to highly paid positions in the private sector, and back to the revolving door, has represented a takeover of the government by private interests.

This awareness inspires caution about the motives, intent and direction of the present bureaucratic realignment.

As a member of the Government Oversight Committee for 16 years, I yelled “stop thief,” many times into a din of indifference, inertia and blind acceptance of corruption as the implicate order. It was extraordinary to witness elected officials who helplessly shrugged at a system riddled with thievery while they, and they alone, were empowered to set it right.

Years before I was elected to Congress, I was Mayor of Cleveland. In my first year in office, I was able to cut city government spending by 10% without reducing service –through the elimination of waste, fraud and abuse – and ran the government on a cash basis.

I look at present federal spending, approaching $7 Trillion annually, $5.2 Trillion coming from revenues and $1.9 Trillion borrowed (adding to the deficit), with the interest on the national debt now exceeding $1 Trillion dollars annually.

I can easily envision that the elimination of waste, fraud and abuse at a federal level could save the American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars annually, helping to protect revenues for basic government services and lowering the national debt’s dangerous trajectory.

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The Demise of USAID: Few Regrets in Latin America

“Take your money with you,” said Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, when told about Trump’s plans to cut aid to Latin America, “it’s poison.”

USAID (US Agency for International Development) spends around $2 billion annually in Latin America, which is only 5% of its global budget. The temporarily closed-down agency’s future looks bleak, while reactions to its money being cut have been wide-ranging. Only a few were as strong as Petro’s and many condemned the move. For example, WOLA (the Washington Office on Latin America), a leading “liberal” think tank which routinely runs cover for Washington’s regime-change efforts, called it Trump’s “America Last” policy.

While USAID does some good – such as removing landmines in Vietnam (themselves a product of US wrongdoing) – as an agency of the world’s hegemon, its fundamental role is aligned with projecting US world dominance.

Not unexpectedly, the corporate media have largely come to the rescue of USAID. They try to give the impression that they are mainly concerned that some countries would be badly effected by its loss. In fact, the follow-the-flag media understand that USAID is part of the imperial toolkit.

Both the Los Angles Times and Bloomberg suggested that USAID’s shutdown would “open the door” to China. The Associated Press described the withdrawal of aid as a “huge setback” for the region; the BBC echoed these sentiments. The NYT and other mainstream media point to the irony that many of its programs help stem outward migration from Latin America, an issue which is otherwise at the top of Trump’s agenda.

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Forget America, Foreign Leaders Want To Know Exactly How Far US Meddling Went In Their Own Backyards

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico wrote to U.S. President Donald Trump’s close advisor, Elon Musk, who tasked his DOGE with rooting out corruption and waste in the U.S. government. Fico has asked for clarity on exactly what funds the USAID sent to Slovakia, requesting a face-to-face with the X CEO as the past operation of USAID is “extremely serious for the internal affairs of the Slovak Republic.”

The Slovak prime minister also wants to discuss ways in which the two countries, Slovakia and the United States, can cooperate. As of now, Musk has given no public reply. 

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Lee Zeldin Just Discovered $20 Billion Laundered by the Biden Admin

In a video announcement shared to social media Wednesday evening, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin revealed that approximately $20 billion in taxpayer funds have been discovered laundered into external financial institutions during the Biden administration.

Zeldin underscored the urgency of accountability, declaring, “One of my very top priorities at EPA is to be an excellent steward of your hard-earned tax dollars. There will be zero tolerance of any waste and abuse.”

The controversy goes back two months when a video of a Biden EPA appointee referring to taxpayer funds as “gold bars” being “tossed off the Titanic” went viral.

“The gold bars were tax dollars, and tossing them off the Titanic meant the Biden administration knew they were wasting it,” he explained.

“Fortunately, my awesome team at EPA has found the gold bars,” he stated. “This scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history and it was purposefully designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight even further. This pot of $20 billion was awarded to just eight entities that were then responsible for doling out your money to NGOs and others at their discretion, with far less transparency.”

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PR Firm Shuts Down Site That Profiled Pesticide Critics After Investigation Reveals USAID Funding

A pesticide industry public relations consultant that secretly profiled hundreds of food and environmental health journalists, scientists and advocates has shut down its profiling operation in response to public outcry, The Guardian reported Monday.

v-Fluence created profiles on more than 3,000 organizations and 500 people. The company coordinated with government officials to counter global resistance to pesticides and genetically modified (GM) crops, according to Lighthouse Reports, which conducted a year-long investigation into the firm.

Many profiles include personal details including the names of family members, phone numbers, home addresses and even house values.

v-Fluence published the profiles on a private social network called “Bonus Eventus,” named after a Roman god of agriculture. Bonus Eventus is a private stakeholder “wiki” accessible by about 1,000 members described as the “who’s-who of the agrochemical industry” and its allies, including the world’s largest pesticide companies, academics and government officials from several countries.

More than 30 current U.S. government officials are on the membership list, primarily from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regulates pesticides and organics.

The profiling was part of a broader effort to minimize pesticide dangers, discredit critics and undermine global policymaking on pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), according to documents obtained by Lighthouse Reports.

v-fluence is run by Monsanto’s former communications director, Jay Byrne, according to GMWatch, which also investigated the firm’s activities.

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Governor Lamont Proposes Universal Preschool, “Seeded By $300M From The Fiscal Year 2025 Surplus”

Governor Ned Lamont today announced that he is urging the Connecticut General Assembly to approve legislation he is proposing this session that would implement universal preschool.

“I want Connecticut to lead on early childhood education, and that means making preschool affordable and accessible for all of our kids,” Governor Lamont said. “Access to early childhood services is massively important to the state’s success, not only because these programs provide valuable tools for children that will lead them to professional achievements in the future, but also because being able to enroll your child in care right now means that parents can join the workforce and earn an income that supports their family. Connecticut has an opportunity to make an investment in our future by expanding access to affordable preschool.”

The governor’s proposal includes depositing a portion of the state’s anticipated surpluses over the next several years into a brand-new fund known as the Universal Preschool Endowment. The endowment would be seeded by $300 million from the fiscal year 2025 surplus, and in the following years any unappropriated surpluses from the General Fund will continue to be transferred into it. The endowment will be managed by the Office of the Treasurer, and the commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood may expend up to 10% of the balance of the endowment in any fiscal year.

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