Tag: taxes

‘Democrats aren’t wasting any time’: Muslim Texas rep files bills promoting Islam, ordering religion-compliant school food

Just a week after a blue wave hit the Lone Star State, a Muslim state representative has filed multiple bills ahead of the 90th legislative session that would implement Islamic practices and holidays.

Democrat state Rep. Suleman Lalani, an immigrant from Pakistan who represents Texas House District 76, which encompasses Fort Bend and Harris counties, filed several bills ranging from establishing a “Muslim Heritage Day” to ensuring halal food is provided in schools.

Bill filing opened for Texas legislators on Monday.

Lalani filed House Bill 236, which amends Chapter 662 of the Texas Government Code to recognize Feb. 4 as Muslim Heritage Day in the state. The bill states that the day would recognize the historical, cultural, and social contributions of Muslim Americans to Texas.

In addition to filing HB 236, he also filed House Resolution 16, which would formally recognize the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in 2027.

The ceremonial resolution would honor Muslims who observe Ramadan in the state and would “extend to Muslims across the Lone Star State sincere, best wishes for a joyous and meaningful observance.”

Lalani also filed two bills that relate to ensuring public schools provide halal food for students.

He filed HB 401, which would require Texas public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to provide halal meal options when a parent or student requests one. The proposal would apply to both the school breakfast and lunch programs.

Lalani subsequently filed HB 426, which creates a similar halal-meal requirement in schools but would apply to a smaller number of school districts and charter schools. Under this legislation, school districts in counties with a population of at least 2.1 million and counties adjacent to those counties would have to provide halal food in schools.

In response to the Muslim Heritage Day bill, Republican state Rep. Mike Olcott wrote on X that he already knows how he will vote.

“The Democrats aren’t wasting any time. On the first day of filing, they have already introduced a bill establishing ‘Muslim Heritage Day’ in Texas!” Olcott wrote. “Pretty sure I know how I’m voting on this bill—what say you?!”

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Taxpayers Footing the Bill for USDA Lab That Captures Wild Coyotes, Separates Bonded Pairs, and Kills Mates Just to Study Their Grief

White Coat Waste has released a new investigation documenting more than $1.1 million in National Science Foundation funding for experiments on captive coyotes at a U.S. Department of Agriculture facility in Utah.

The experiments, conducted in collaboration with Utah State University neuroscientist Sara Freeman, focus on the behavioral, hormonal, and neural basis of coyote monogamy and the effects of losing a lifelong mate.

Records obtained by the group show the USDA’s Predator Research Facility in Millville captures wild coyotes, including pups taken from dens, breeds them, and holds them permanently in captivity for research that includes deliberately creating widows by killing one member of a bonded pair.

The NSF awarded Utah State University an initial $583,214 grant on December 23, 2024, with the project period beginning April 1, 2025. An additional $548,775 was added on September 18, 2025, bringing the total identified for the coyote monogamy and grief testing to at least $1,131,989.

The USDA approved the related grief protocol in December 2025, which remains active through March 2030 and authorizes the use of up to 78 captive coyotes.

Procedures listed in the protocol include vasectomies, forced restraint, blood draws, brain-targeting drug injections, behavioral testing, GPS and video monitoring, the deliberate killing of mates, monitoring of the surviving animals, and collection of brains after death.

White Coat Waste obtained the protocol and related photographs through a Freedom of Information Act request.

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The Non-Obvious Anatomy of a Slow Collapse: How Economic Decline Reshapes Nations, Concentrates Wealth, and Paves the Way for a New Order

Debt is a promise dressed as a number, and the rich world has spent four decades making promises its productive capacity cannot sustain. Global borrowing has passed three hundred trillion dollars, while American federal debt alone exceeds thirty-seven trillion, with interest payments now outstripping the entire defense budget. Yet the real concern lies not in the size of these figures but in what they reveal about the direction of the economy. In 2022 and 2023, the American money supply contracted for the first time since the Great Depression, an unusual reversal that suggests the economic engine is beginning to run backward. Nothing detonated. There was no sudden banking crisis or dramatic collapse to signal that something fundamental had changed. The system simply began to falter, and the significance of that shift is easy to miss precisely because it happened without a defining moment.

Most discussions of economic breakdown revolve around the familiar symptoms: jobs disappear, prices climb, markets tumble, and savings dwindle. These are the immediate consequences, the first act of a crisis that has already received more than enough attention. The deeper changes take longer to emerge and are far less obvious. They surface in places economists rarely examine closely, from the trust between neighbours and the stability of family life to the human body’s capacity to endure chronic stress. They also shape the explanations people reach for when their lives no longer work as they once did. A partial collapse — a prolonged, grinding downturn rather than a sudden economic shock — does not destroy a society in a single blow. Its effects accumulate gradually, changing how people live and relate to one another until the country that emerges on the other side may look familiar in name but is fundamentally different in character.

The implications become darker when we consider who stands to benefit from such a transformation. A society under sustained pressure is not merely vulnerable; it can also be steered, and those who already hold the greatest wealth and influence have reasons to favour a controlled demolition over an unpredictable breakdown. The phrase order out of chaos captures this dynamic. Once associated with secret societies, it has found its way into discussions of central banking and World Economic Forum panels, carrying the idea that periods of disorder can create opportunities to reshape the system that follows. Sometimes chaos is deliberately engineered; in other cases, those with power simply recognise an opportunity and exploit it. Distinguishing between the two is not always straightforward, but the difference matters: one involves a plan, the other a willingness to take advantage of events. The following analysis examines the less visible consequences of a partial collapse, the changes that rarely make headlines, and the question that runs beneath them all: who is already positioned to profit when the smoke finally clears?

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Ottawa asked Parliament for another $24.4 billion the day after the budget

One day after Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s budget projected a $62.3 billion deficit, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals asked Parliament for another $24.4 billion in spending authority for the current year, through Supplementary Estimates (B), its second request this year for money beyond the main spending plan.

Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali tabled the estimates on November 6. They seek $22.1 billion in voted spending, the part MPs must approve, for 71 organizations, plus $2.3 billion in statutory spending, which existing laws already authorize.

The voted request alone is 9.2 per cent more than Parliament approved in the Main Estimates and the spring supplementary round combined. With this round, planned federal spending for the year reaches $538.3 billion: $263.7 billion voted and $274.6 billion statutory.

The Hill Times reported the $22 billion request the day it was tabled and highlighted the defence items.

The largest single line is $2.4 billion for Employment and Social Development Canada, described in the estimates as funding “to address short term funding gaps” in the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system. The document does not say what the gaps are or why the $10-a-day program needs the extra money.

National Defence follows with $1.9 billion for the Program Icebreaker Project and $1.6 billion for the Enhanced Satellite Communications Project, Polar. Crown-Indigenous Relations seeks $1.2 billion for “the Federal Indian Boarding Homes (Percival) litigation” and $760.3 million for the Specific Claims Settlement Fund.

Seven regional development agencies share $841.2 million for the Regional Tariff Response Initiative. Health wants $821.6 million more for the Canadian Dental Care Plan, whose benefits the Auditor General found $1.1 billion over budget in its first two years, in a report tabled October 29. VIA Rail gets $615 million for operating and capital needs, and Canadian Heritage and Telefilm Canada get $600 million for “Canada’s audio and audiovisual sectors.”

Ukraine draws $403.4 million for Operation UNIFIER across National Defence, Global Affairs and CSIS, plus $300 million in “military aid to Ukraine” at National Defence.

Canadian Heritage asks for $4.4 million “to establish the Digital Safety Commission of Canada,” the regulator that Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, would create. Parliament has not passed that bill. It cleared second reading in the House of Commons on October 29 and is now before the Commons Canadian Heritage committee.

The Interim Federal Health Program, which pays for health care for refugees and asylum claimants, would get $349.8 million more. That single item raises Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s operating budget from $2.05 billion to $2.40 billion, a 17 per cent jump. The department is also moving $2.5 million to the Courts Administration Service “in recognition of immigration litigation pressures.” Separately, Employment and Social Development Canada asks for $69.9 million for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

The Vaccine Impact Assistance Program would get $15.7 million in new funding, plus another $5.5 million moved over from the Public Health Agency of Canada’s grants budget. The agency took over the program, formerly the Vaccine Injury Support Program, on April 1.

Public Safety Canada asks for $75.8 million more for the Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program, the gun buyback, and the RCMP asks for $39.3 million for the Canadian Firearms Program, paid as contributions to provinces, territories and communities.

Canadian Heritage’s grants and contributions budget rises 41 per cent, from $1.75 billion to $2.47 billion. The Treasury Board’s transfer payment listing shows $441 million going to the Canada Media Fund, $67 million to the Canada Music Fund and $51 million to the Indigenous Screen Office. Heritage also asks for $30.1 million for Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy. Crown-Indigenous Relations asks for $1 million in “Funding to address Indian Residential Schools denialism.”

Veterans Affairs gets $34 million “to stabilize and modernize service delivery for Veterans and Royal Canadian Mounted Police current and former members.” Its $6.36 billion grants budget, which pays veterans’ benefits, is unchanged. Natural Resources Canada asks for $75 million for the Woodfibre LNG Limited Partnership contribution agreement, and Transport Canada for $91.9 million for the Electric Vehicle Affordability Program.

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Le Pen Schools Woke CBS, France ‘Can No Longer Import Unemployed’ Migrants Who ‘Hate’ the Country

In an interview with the American broadcaster CBS, French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen rejected the attempted multicultural framing of the issue of immigration in France and defended the need for mass deportations.

Speaking with Blairite bureaucrat turned journalist Trevor Phillips for the once prestigious 60 Minutes news programme, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said that migrants who fail to adopt French culture or contribute economically should not be permitted to stay and drain the nation of its resources and create divisions.

“When you take in too many immigrants, you create the conditions for destabilising your society. And that is what has happened in France,” she told the UK Guyanese-heritage interviewer. “There is another problem: a problem of numbers. The unemployment rate among foreigners in France is twice the unemployment rate among French citizens. We can no longer import unemployed people.”

Pressed by Phillips whether this was a result of “discrimination” against immigrant communities, Le Pen forcefully rejected the woke framing: “No, that doesn’t exist. You’re not going to import those ideas here.”

“There is no discrimination in France, sir. It’s not true. And I’ll go even further: it’s the least racist,” she declared.

The National Rally leader stressed the importance of migrants assimilating into French culture, rather than allowing multiculturalism to divide society.

“We believe someone who comes to immigrate to our country must blend into the national community. You have something more like a layered cake: each community can live alongside the others while keeping its own customs. That is not how we see things,” Le Pen explained.

Asked whether she would therefore enact a policy of remigration, she said: ” If someone comes and says, ‘I hate you, I despise your culture, I don’t want to respect your laws,’ well, we say to him, ‘Listen, sir, the door is wide open. And we might even, for that matter, force you to leave.”

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Ottawa’s year-end books show a $39.3 billion deficit, but the release never says so

The Liberal government’s audited books for the year that ended March 31 show a $39.3 billion deficit, yet the Treasury Board release announcing the Public Accounts of Canada never uses the word. Revenues came to $526.4 billion and spending to $565.7 billion.

The detailed tables behind the release show what else it left out: $12.7 billion in debts written off or forgiven, a refugee health bill past $1 billion, and a $105.1 million pandemic-era loss at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) that is still on the books.

Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali tabled the Public Accounts in the House of Commons on November 6, one day after Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s budget. The release lists revenue sources and spending categories in detail, with growth rates for each, and leaves readers to do the math. Annex 1 of Champagne’s budget shows the same deficit, listed as a budgetary balance of minus $39.3 billion for 2025-26.

The final number is far smaller than Finance Canada’s preliminary count. The March Fiscal Monitor, published before the books were closed, reported “a budgetary deficit of $55.3 billion for the April 2025 to March 2026 period” on revenues of $500.0 billion.

Audited revenue is $26.4 billion higher than that tally, and the release does not explain the gap beyond noting higher customs import duties and personal income tax of $247.7 billion, or 47.1 per cent of all revenue, up from 45.9 per cent the year before.

Interest on the debt cost $53.5 billion, or 9.5 per cent of all spending. That is more than the $51.8 billion Ottawa collected in GST (goods and services tax) in the same year.

Canadian Taxpayers Federation president Franco Terrazzano called debt interest the budget’s biggest waste in an interview with Ezra Levant, saying it costs Canadians more than $1 billion every week.

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Hakeem Jeffries’ Plan for Affordability Includes Returning DACA Recipients to the US and Paying Them

Someone should ask Hakeem Jeffries to explain how his latest statement will help address Americans’ affordability concerns, because we’re at a loss. While Jeffries was quick to say after the midterms that Democrats were focused on “affordability” and ” accountability” instead of impeachment, his fellow Democrats — with an assist from Thomas Massie — jumped right to impeachment talk, threats of investigations for President Trump and his family, and even threatened businesses who “cooperated” with the administration.

Now Jeffries is telling the country his party plans to bring back deported DACA recipients and compensate them for being removed from the country.

“Well, certainly on the immigration front, we have a broken immigration system,” Jeffries said. “It needs to be fixed. It should be fixed in a comprehensive way. Immigration enforcement should be fair, just, and humane.”

That means they’ll only deport the South Africans Trump granted asylum to, and not the criminals, drug dealers, and others.

“We’re not going to provide a dime for this administration’s violent mass deportation machine,” Jeffries continued, “let’s work together, perhaps beginning with moving the Dream and Promise Act this Congress as a foundation for the type of work that can be done in the next Congress.”

“That Dream and Promise Act, of course, impacting the DACA recipients. I should point out, it’s been reported some, dozens of DACA recipients are among those already deported under this administration’s immigration crackdown,” said host Amna Nawaz. “Would you support efforts to bring them back into the U.S.?”

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Egypt Seeks Death Penalty for Christian Convert Who Refused to ‘Renounce Jesus’ as U.S. Sends $1.3 Billion in Military Aid

Egyptian prosecutors have asked a terrorism court to impose the maximum penalty on Said Mansour Rezk Abdelrazek (also spelled Saeid Mansour Abdulraziq and known as Said Abu Mustafa), a Christian convert from Islam on trial before Egypt’s First Criminal Terrorism Circuit in Badr, in eastern Cairo.

In a November 3, 2026 statement, the Office of Said Fayez – Lawyers and Legal Consultants said the Public Prosecution presented its closing arguments and requested “the maximum penalty prescribed by law.” Abdelrazek’s fiancée, who provided the statement to The Gateway Pundit, said prosecutors are seeking 25 years in prison or death.

The court adjourned the case to December 8, when the defense will present its final arguments. According to the statement, the defense team will respond to the prosecution’s submissions, examine the evidence, and outline “the legal and substantive grounds of the defence.”

Under Article 12 of Egypt’s Anti-Terrorism Law (Law No. 94 of 2015), anyone who founds or leads a terrorist group faces death or life imprisonment. Article 13 sets the death penalty for financing a terrorist group. A life sentence in Egypt is 25 years in prison.

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Report: US, Israel in Talks To Extend Military Aid Through 2033 Despite Trump Saying It Would End

The US and Israel are negotiating a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that would extend US military aid to Israel through 2033 and increase US funding for Israeli missile development, despite President Trump claiming he would end the aid by 2027, according to a report from the Israeli news site Ynet.

The US currently provides Israel with a minimum of $3.8 billion in military aid each year under an MoU negotiated under the Obama administration that expires in 2028. It includes $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing, a State Department program that provides foreign governments with funds to purchase US arms, and $500 million through the Pentagon for missile defense funding.

The Ynet report said that the plan would be to halve the 10-year MoU term to five years and keep the FMF funding at $3.3 billion per year while increasing the $500 million missile fund to an unspecified amount. The idea would be to phase out the aid after the five years, which aligns with a plan backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shift the US-Israel relationship “from aid to partnership.”

The purpose of the Netanyahu plan is to further intergrate the US and Israeli military industries, and it is being advanced through Section 219, an amendment tucked into the House’s version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. The Senate’s version of the NDAA includes a similar amendment, though so far the two chambers haven’t negotiated the final bill.

Ben Freeman of the Quincy Institute recently warned that if the integration moves forward, Israel could “end up getting WAY more” than the $3.8 billion it receives annually from the US and that the funds would “just be buried in the DoD budget.” Freeman made the comments after Trump declared on Election Day that he and Netanyahu agreed the US would end military aid by the end of the year.

The Ynet report said that the US and Israel are hoping to finalize the new MoU before the new Congress is sworn in this January and that the negotiations have involved representatives working on behalf of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and officials from Israel’s Defense Ministry and its embassy in Washington.

Since October 7, 2023, the US has provided significantly more military aid than the annual $3.8 billion package to support its genocidal campaign in Gaza and its other various wars in the region. On top of the direct financial aid, the US has also fired $11 billion worth of interceptors defending Israel from missile attacks during the wars with Iran, and has reportedly deployed an additional Patriot missile defense system to Israel to prepare for the next potential escalation.

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AIPAC Spent $84 Million Influencing American Midterm Elections

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its affiliated political organizations spent $84.1 million attempting to influence the 2026 midterm elections. According to an analysis by Responsible Statecraft, approximately $55.3 million, nearly two-thirds of that spending, went into races where AIPAC’s preferred candidates lost.

AIPAC does not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires certain organizations acting under foreign direction or control to disclose those relationships. AIPAC maintains that it is an American organization funded by Americans, and its activities are conducted under domestic lobbying and campaign-finance laws.

The 2026 midterms revealed just how much AIPAC was prepared to spend. Its super PAC, United Democracy Project (UDP), poured approximately $31.5 million into efforts to prevent Abdul El-Sayed from winning Michigan’s Senate seat. The spending began during the Democratic primary and continued into the general election, when groups associated with AIPAC supported Republican Mike Rogers. El-Sayed defeated both opponents. In his victory speech, he directly addressed AIPAC, declaring, “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to beat you twice.”

The organization spent another $6.3 million attempting to defeat Daniel Biss in Illinois’s 9th Congressional District. Biss won his primary and ultimately secured approximately 75% of the general election vote. In California, pro-Israel political groups directed more than $6 million toward Melissa Hernandez, who lost to Aisha Wahab. In Maine, AIPAC-linked organizations spent more than $4.8 million supporting Susan Collins, who was defeated by Democrat Troy Jackson. These were not insignificant expenditures. Millions of dollars were concentrated in individual congressional races because the organization considered the candidates’ positions on Israel important enough to justify substantial financial intervention.

AIPAC also supported numerous winning candidates. The organization reported more than 234 successful candidates it supported during the election cycle. In 26 Senate races where affiliated groups spent more than $100,000, 21 of their preferred candidates won. Its influence therefore remains substantial, even after the expensive defeats. The more important development is that candidates increasingly appear willing to reject its support publicly. James Talarico, who won the Texas Senate election, openly refused AIPAC funding. He explained that his opposition was connected to Israel’s military operations in Gaza. His victory demonstrated that refusing the organization’s support need not prevent a candidate from winning a major statewide election.

The financial results also represent a substantial deterioration from AIPAC’s previous electoral performance. Responsible Statecraft calculated that approximately 34% of the organization’s 2026 spending went into races producing its preferred outcome. Comparable figures were 69% in 2022 and 87% in 2024. These percentages measure the allocation of spending across successful and unsuccessful races, not the percentage of candidates who won. Nevertheless, they indicate that the organization’s largest expenditures were increasingly concentrated in unsuccessful campaigns. AIPAC spent heavily attempting to defeat candidates critical of Israel, yet voters in several prominent races rejected those efforts.

AIPAC announced in October that it would discontinue direct candidate endorsements and contributions after the election cycle, while its affiliated political organizations would continue operating. The organization has long maintained that its members are American citizens exercising their constitutional rights to participate in politics. Its super PAC operates under federal campaign-finance rules permitting unlimited independent expenditures, provided those expenditures are not coordinated with candidates. Such arrangements are legal under the current system, but legality does not eliminate legitimate questions about transparency, accountability, and the concentration of political influence.

The political establishment still cannot grasp that the people are fed up with career politicians who answer to everyone except the voters who put them in office. They do not want another Washington insider, and they certainly do not want one whose campaign is being bankrolled by a powerful lobbying organization devoted to the interests of a foreign nation. AIPAC poured millions into these races, apparently believing that enough money could buy the outcome. What they failed to understand is that the money itself became part of the problem. Americans are watching their standard of living decline, their national debt spiral out of control, and their government borrow endlessly to finance wars overseas. Then along comes another establishment candidate with millions in outside funding, telling the public why the interests of another country must remain a priority. How much more obvious can it get? This is precisely the sort of resentment that helped defeat several AIPAC-backed candidates. The people are losing confidence in the political establishment, and throwing more money at candidates who represent that establishment is not going to restore it. Washington has become so accustomed to buying political influence that it has forgotten the voters still have the final say.

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