Tag: taxes

Rep. Meeks puts hold on Trump’s reported $2.8B weapons sale to Israel

The ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., announced Wednesday that he was putting a hold on the Trump administration’s plan to sell 40,000 one-ton bombs to Israel for a reported price of $2.8 billion.

Meeks posted a statement to X that while he is firmly committed to Israel’s security and its ability to defend itself, he is concerned about the risk to civilian lives, citing Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and against Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

“I therefore will not clear this sale at this time. The decision does not diminish Congressional support for Israel’s legitimate defense needs; it reflects Congress’s responsibility to ensure that U.S.-funded weapons are used lawfully, responsibly, and with meaningful safeguards for human life,” said Meeks. 

His decision to go public with his opposition, which typically occurs behind the scenes in an attempt to find a compromise, according to The Hill, is based on frustration with both the Trump administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  

The weapons package, first reported by the Washington Post, includes 20,000 MK-84s and 20,000 BLU-117s. It also includes 20,000 I2000 Penetrator warheads, the Post reported. 

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Calif.: Feds raid L.A. nonprofit figures in sweep over multi-million dollar homeless fraud scheme

In a dramatic sweep on Wednesday, federal agents reportedly dismantled a multi-million-dollar corruption network embedded within Los Angeles’ homelessness services sector.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tactical units in Kevlar vests, armed with rifles and bullhorns, descended on multiple South Los Angeles residences to arrest figures accused of skimming taxpayer funds meant to shelter the city’s homeless residents.

The operation targeted figures linked to contracts administered by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), revealing a deep web of kickbacks, “ghost” participants and lavish personal spending — funded by public aid.

Among those taken into custody during the morning raids was 48-year-old Lakiya Malone, an employee at Special Service for Groups (SSG), a nonprofit operating under LAHSA-funded programs.

Federal prosecutors say that Malone accepted over $180,000 in bribes and kickbacks to approve priority referrals and fabricate ghost participants — which are individuals who never actually received or resided in subsidized housing — to funnel millions in public funds into corrupt hands.

Malone was escorted out of her Westmont residence in handcuffs as First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli and other law enforcement officers oversaw the arrest.

Simultaneously, federal agents also swarmed the Baldwin Hills residence of 46-year-old Michael Young, founder of the nonprofit Home At Last. Federal prosecutors charged Young with wire fraud, alleging that he misappropriated more than $7.5 million in public homelessness funds using a network of shell companies and fraudulent billing practices.

Rather than providing shelter, Young purportedly funneled the public cash into commercial real estate, a bingo hall, private vacations and over $1 million to build and operate a restaurant and nightclub called Six Seven Five Lounge in Inglewood.

The sweeps are tied to an expansive, ongoing federal probe into Southern California homeless service providers, which previously ensnared Alexander Soofer, the former executive director of the nonprofit Abundant Blessings.

Soofer, who was charged with orchestrating a $23 million fraud scheme to buy a $7 million Westwood home and finance luxury travel, agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and money laundering while admitting to his role in paying kickbacks to Malone.

Meanwhile, authorities are also searching for a third defendant in the new indictment, Donye Mitchell, 55, who faces federal charges for allegedly fraudulent grant applications exceeding $1.2 million.

Federal officials noted that the exploitation of homeless aid exemplifies a major breach of public trust, promising further action as investigations into L.A.’s homeless aid system continue.


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Ottawa’s $1.4B research fund bankrolls climate comics, dancefloor studies, Trudeau speech analysis and ancient beer research

Ottawa’s $1.4-billion social sciences research program is funding studies into Arctic climate comics, Canadian dancefloors, low-carbon videogames and the “contested meaning” of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s speeches.

A Canadian Taxpayers Federation analysis of federal grant data found the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council awarded $43,693 to an Ottawa professor who plans to analyze 326 Trudeau speeches.

The research will track Trudeau’s use of words including “feminist,” “reconciliation,” “protest” and “freedom.”

“Studies about climate comics and the state of Canadian dancefloors don’t sound like studies that matter most to Canadians like the government claims,” said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano.

Other grants include $78,623 to study the “state of the dancefloor in Canada,” $79,999 for research into “nasal harmony in Amazonian languages” and $88,591 to examine Arctic climate comics.

Concordia University professor Antonia Hernández received $99,850 for a project called A Liquid Frontier: Water Governance through Choral Storytelling. One of the project’s co-applicants is a theatre professor specializing in puppetry.

An Alberta-based professor received $37,275 for a “Low-Carbon Game Jam.” Her previous work included placing a solar-powered server on an apartment balcony to host video games, even though the server can shut down during dark or cloudy weather.

Another $70,529 will fund research into the “sounds of horror cinema.”

The taxpayers’ group identified at least 50 projects concerning other countries that collectively received nearly $3.9 million. They include $93,467 for a digital edition of a 1908 book about Sri Lankan art, $65,833 to study Western-style sweets in Japan and $30,987 for research into “struggling temple brewers in sixth century BCE Mesopotamia.”

“A government that can find $30,987 for temple brewers in ancient Mesopotamia can find savings for Canadian taxpayers,” Terrazzano said.

The council has previously funded studies into the “birth, life and death” of a grocery cart, gender politics in Peruvian rock music and casual sex among young adults living in Jasper.

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Covert Pentagon propagandists are tracking anti-war Americans, skirting the law

In mid-August, a conservative activist using the digital moniker “Datarepublican” quietly admitted she was employed by the Pentagon as a “special government employee.” For months, she’d been pocketing a government paycheck while intensely lobbying for President Trump’s imperialist misadventures online and tracking their most vocal critics in a digital database.

Datarepublican was identified in 2025 as Jennica Pounds, a Utah-based mother with nearly a million followers whose stated raison d’etre is “fighting communists” – a moniker she applies liberally to anyone perceptibly to the left of Barry Goldwater.

And she’s not alone. Pounds has emerged as the face of a new wave of right-wing influencers who are being covertly employed by the US Department of War to spread pro-government propaganda. On August 29th, Washington Post reporters revealed at least three more digital activists are surreptitiously working for the Pentagon, which designates them as either special government employees (SGEs) or as what the US military calls “highly qualified experts” (HQEs).

Named in the Pentagon’s army of influencers were retired Air Force colonel Rob Maness, and retired Army colonels Kurt Schlichter and Thomas Anderson. Like Pounds, Anderson also operated in relative anonymity until recently, posting under the Twitter handle “Cynical Publius.” Schlicter, for his part, is a prolific right-wing troll who has frequently fantasized about the ethnic cleansing and extermination of Palestinians.

The operation appears to be in breach of two federal laws, the Hatch Act and the Smith-Mundt Act, which prohibit government employees from engaging in political activities while on the clock, and forbid them from directing their propaganda efforts at the US population, respectively.

The aforementioned right-wing activists are the only ones known to have been working secretly for the Department of War. But the revelations about paid Pentagon propaganda posters come as the US military pursues a flurry of murky partnerships with prominent conservative influencers like top TPUSA widow Erika Kirk, who was appointed to the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors by Trump in March in an effort to further slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s “legacy.”

Then there’s Laura Loomer, the obsessively anti-Muslim Trump ally, who is producing de facto press releases for self-proclaimed “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth, enjoying Pentagon press credentials, and earning references as an “informal advisor to the Department of War.”

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Pentagon’s Iran war costs hit $38 billion in five months – budget office

The US war with Iran cost the Pentagon approximately $38 billion in its first five months, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill could rise by another $2 billion to $3 billion for every additional month of fighting – and by more if hostilities intensify.

In a report released on Tuesday, the CBO estimated Defense Department expenses from the start of US combat operations on February 28 through August 1. The figure includes the estimated cost of replacing expended munitions and equipment lost in battle, as well as additional flying hours, military operations, and higher fuel costs.

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Mapped: The U.S. States Hit Hardest by Canada’s Tariffs

Trade talks between the U.S. and Canada have broken down, with Canada responding to broad U.S. duties with dollar-for-dollar tariffs on key American products.

This map shows the value of exports in each U.S. state covered by Canadian counter-tariffs, using the latest data from BBC for September 2026 from Scotiabank and Statistics Canada. Figures are in U.S. dollars.

States are shaded according to the value of their exports to Canada that are subject to Canadian duties.

Tariff Blues in the Midwest

The Great Lakes region stands out on the map, reflecting its central role in the roughly $870 billion bilateral trading relationship.

Ohio and Illinois have more exports covered by Canadian tariffs than any other states, at $2.3 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively. They are followed by Pennsylvania at $1.8 billion.

The table below lists each state alongside the value of its exports covered by the new Canadian tariffs.

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Rand Paul: Blue State Democrats Using Welfare System to Bribe People for Their Vote

Tuesday on FNC’s “The Will Cain Show,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) discussed alleged welfare corruption across the country and argued that some states used it to incentivize voting for Democrats.

“How do we exist as a nation, Senator, if we essentially are open to the world and give welfare to everyone that wants to come to the United States?” host Will Cain asked.

Paul replied, “No, we can’t. And, actually, a whole population of these people came. Not only they’re receiving welfare, but became experts at stealing welfare, so many of the folks in Minnesota. Now we found in L.A. I think they had 432 hospice centers in L.A. When they cut off their money, the Trump administration cut the money off, only 12 of them complained. That means the rest of them were just worried about being caught. They’re fleeing somewhere not to be caught. But that means 80, 90 percent of these things are fraud. We found the ‘Learing Center,’ the adult learning centers, all the stuff that Nick Shirley found in Minneapolis. So a big problem of this is that the federal government funds it and the state governments police it. So if you’re policing something you don’t pay for, do you really care if it’s wasted?”

“So it’s mostly blue states — New York, Minnesota, California, where the Democrats bribe people to get their vote. They say, here, you can all have welfare, and we’re not going to check to see whether you need it or not or whether you’re stealing it, because Uncle Sam, the federal taxpayer, is going to pay for it. It’s a terrible system, and I propose that we shift this all back to the states, so the payment and the policing would be at the state and they would bankrupt themselves if they didn’t police the system.”

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12 Foreign-Born Operators From Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan Charged in $10 Million San Diego ‘Ghost Daycare’ Scam — Kids Only Showed Up When the Inspector Did

American taxpayers just got another look at how the childcare subsidy machine actually works in Gavin Newsom’s California.

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that 12 naturalized citizens and lawful permanent residents, originally from Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, have been charged in a more than $10 million home-daycare fraud scheme in San Diego.

Prosecutors say the defendants obtained California licenses to run home childcare, signed up with Child Development Associates and the YMCA to collect federal and county subsidies meant for low-income working families, then knowingly submitted false attendance records claiming they were watching children on days and at times when they were not.

They signed those forms under penalty of perjury. The money still showed up as direct deposits.

More than 250 federal, state, and local officers arrested all 12 defendants in a coordinated Thursday-morning raid and executed search warrants at the San Diego-area homes they claimed were daycare facilities.

U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon put it bluntly: “Today is a bad day for home daycare fraud. These fraudsters may have criminally gamed the system before. But today, the game is over.”

IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jarod Koopman said investigators “uncovered patterns of deceit that revealed twelve ghost daycare operations billing for children who were never present,” and that proceeds went to luxury homes, overseas wire transfers, and large cash withdrawals.

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Tucker Carlson Sounds Alarm Over Trump’s Planned ‘Largest Transfer Of Ordinance In Modern History’

After the US was essentially forced to conduct a major and rapid draw down of forces from the Gulf and Mideast region in the wake of Iran’s ‘unexpectedly’ large retaliation for Operation Epic Fury, it seems all that Washington is left to do is arm regional allies to the teeth and wish them the best.

Early this month the US approved two potential Saudi defense packages valued at a whopping $5.75 billion. The forthcoming deals will reportedly focus on transferring extended-range precision bombs and bolstering Abrams tanks in the kingdom.

Ironically this comes at a moment that Saudi-backed coalition forces in Yemen – with all its military tech – are getting rolled back by Ansar Allah fighters in sandals.

Naturally, next on the list comes Israel.

On Tuesday, over a week since the planned Saudi sale was reported, The Washington Post reveals the following:

President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to sell to Israel a munitions package worth $2.8 billion, which will include tens of thousands of highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs, according to a U.S. official familiar with the sale.

The planned sale, which has been informally communicated to relevant congressional committees who weigh in on large arms sales, includes 20,000 MK 84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.

WaPo calls the package “the largest” planned sale of 2,000 pound bombs to Israel in years.

Just prior to initial reporting of this dropping at around midday Tuesday, Tucker Carlson revealed on X: “According to an informed federal official, in the coming months the Trump administration plans to send a total of 40,000 Mark 84 and Blu-117 bombs to the government of Israel. Each bomb weighs 2,000 pounds. This appears to be the largest transfer of conventional explosive ordnance from the United States in modern history.”

Carlson put it in perspective in the following commentary:

How big is this shipment? It amounts to 40,000 tons of bombs. For perspective, the largest American air raid of World War Two was the Eighth Air Force’s attack on Berlin in March of 1945. Combined, the 2,023 Allied aircraft involved dropped about 3,000 tons of bombs. That’s 7.5 percent of what Trump is sending to Israel. That same month, March of 1945, the US Army Air Forces began the single most destructive bombing raid in human history, Operation Meetinghouse over Tokyo. More than 100,000 Japanese civilians were killed. By the end of that operation, the US had dropped 1,600 tons of bombs. That’s four percent of what Trump is sending to Israel. World War Two ended five months later, when the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The shipment Trump is sending to Israel amounts to more than three times the destructive power of that nuclear explosion. There is no precedent for what the Trump administration is doing. Nor is there a justification. The government of Israel is not fighting World War Two, or even a war. It is engaged in periodic skirmishes with a guerrilla force in Lebanon, and it is working to exterminate an unarmed civilian population in Gaza. Neither front requires modern 2,000-pound bombs.

The former Fox host further warned this portends Israel could soon go even more ‘gloves off’ and unleash further hell on Gaza and Lebanon, or possibly even Iran – at a moment the US seems to be trying to find an exit from the hot phase of the conflict.

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FDA Using Taxpayer Dollars to Buy Young Baboons for Infection Experiments in Maryland

The Food and Drug Administration is buying up young baboons with taxpayer dollars so researchers can infect and kill them for research in Maryland.

White Coat Waste Project has released a new report detailing how the agency issued a $368,626 purchase order on August 31 to buy 20 baboons for pertussis experiments at its Maryland primate laboratory.

An active protocol allows the lab to use up to 48 animals.

Some of the baboons will receive experimental vaccines or antibodies. Others will get no protection at all. Then researchers will pump the bacteria that cause whooping cough into their windpipes and noses.

The primates will be subjected to violent coughing, vomiting, breathing problems, fever, weight loss, nasal discharge, and weeks of illness.

Staff will draw blood and swab noses and throats again and again.

Some of the animals will be killed and dissected so researchers can examine their lungs, windpipes, and lymph nodes.

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