Tag: taxes

Inside Strum: How a Subscription Platform Funds Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Azov Brigade

One of the most persistent myths in Western political thought is the idea that the United States and its European allies are principled opponents of fascism and totalitarianism. This doctrine, which many Washington elites believe at an almost religious level, has served as the basis for the ongoing proxy war in Ukraine. Numerous politicians from both sides of the proverbial aisle have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being a Nazi or a fascist. However, when the United States allows Neo-Nazi-linked Ukrainian organizations like the Azov Brigade to receive support, this undermines their narrative.

Now, after American and European taxpayers have already paid billions for Ukraine’s war, the Azov Brigade is attempting to extract more money from Westerners via a subscription service called “Strum.” But before discussing Strum, it is important to examine what the Azov Brigade is and why it requires additional funding in the first place.

The Azov Brigade (formerly known as the Azov Battalion and Azov Regiment) has been mired in controversy since its founding. The organization was founded in 2014 by Andrey Biletskyi, a political activist with ties to Neo-Nazi movements. The Azov Brigade began as an amalgamation of radical movements including the Patriot of Ukraine gang which “espoused xenophobic and neo-Nazi ideas, and was engaged in violent attacks against migrants, foreign students in Kharkiv and those opposing its views.” Following the Maidan Revolution, oligarchs and elements of the Ukrainian government backed the organization which was then incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine. In 2016, the UN alleged that the Azov regiment violated international law due to its documented mass looting of civilian homes, its targeting of civilian areas, and its treatment of prisoners. During the Siege of Mariupol, the group was heavily involved in the fighting on the Ukrainian side though it eventually surrendered to Russia. In 2023, the Azov Regiment was reorganized into the Azov Brigade.

With resources dwindling and rampant foreign military aid corruption, Azov has increasingly relied on donations from individuals and companies. According to reporting from Svidomi, which included interviews with founders and project managers, a new project, Strum, has become the “driving force” behind the Brigade. The platform operates as a subscription service like Netflix or Spotify, but with some substantial differences and additional features.

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Fraud as Policy: The Incentives of the Modern Welfare State

The scale of fraud uncovered in recent years has exposed how government transfer programs function, even as meaningful public or legislative reckoning remains largely absent. What began as a series of pandemic-related scandals has revealed something broader and more troubling: large-scale fraud is not an anomaly within the modern welfare state. The federal government, taxpayers, lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud, based on data from 2018 to 2022.

It is a predictable outcome of systems that distribute vast sums of money without market discipline, rely on third-party payment structures, and diffuse responsibility across layers of bureaucracy. As Murray Rothbard argued, welfare gains can only be demonstrated through voluntary exchange, while state transfer programs necessarily rely on coercion and therefore cannot be said, in economic terms, to increase social welfare, only to redistribute resources while masking loss.

Minnesota provides one of the clearest illustrations of this dynamic, especially since a private reporter revealed massive fraud in the state at the end of last year. In the Feeding Our Future scandal, federal prosecutors alleged that more than $250 million intended for child nutrition was siphoned through non-profit organizations that billed the government for meals that were never served. A federal judge has since ordered the forfeiture of more than $52 million connected to the scheme, underscoring both the scale of the losses and the failure of oversight mechanisms designed to prevent them. The case involved federal funds administered by state agencies and distributed through private entities, with little meaningful verification before reimbursement.

This was not an isolated incident. Prosecutors in Minnesota have charged defendants in a wide range of fraud schemes involving pandemic unemployment benefits, economic injury disaster loans, autism-related health services, transportation programs, and other federally funded initiatives. These cases mirror prosecutions across the country. In Texas, defendants have been sentenced for multi-million-dollar disaster relief fraud. In Massachusetts, companies have paid millions to resolve allegations of PPP loan fraud and emergency rental assistance schemes. Similar cases appear regularly in Department of Justice press releases, spanning Medicare covid testing fraud, SNAP abuse, PPP and EIDL loan abuse, unemployment insurance fraud, and false claims against federal health care benefit programs.

Nationally, the numbers are staggering. Government watchdogs have estimated that fraud in pandemic unemployment programs alone may exceed $100 billion. Well over 200 billion was lost to fraudulent PPP and EIDL claims. Medicare billing schemes tied to covid testing generated billions in false claims. These figures do not represent marginal losses. They reflect a system operating at a scale where fraud becomes organized, repeatable, and profitable.

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High-level officials in Biden administration went to work for grant recipients, watchdog finds

The Department of Energy recently announced it’s eliminating more than $83 billion in what it called “Green New Scam” loans and conditional commitments made through the Loans Programs Office during the Biden administration.

The Trump administration has tried to roll back funding the Biden administration rushed out the door in its final months. 

Democracy Restored, a nonprofit government watchdog, calculated that following former President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate with now-President Donald Trump on June 27, 2024, the Biden administration began rushing billions out the door to more than a dozen environmental and climate-focused NGOs, including the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, Climate United Fund, the Ocean Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy, and Rocky Mountain Institute. 

Using data from USASpending.gov, Democracy Resorted found that federal agencies had obligated more than $600 million in taxpayer money to these organizations since July 1, 2024. The obligations began to drop the day after the election. Obligations to these same organizations since Nov. 5, 2024 fell to $246 million. 

While various agencies were providing millions in support to these organizations, high-level officials within the agencies either went to work for them after Trump took office, or they had previously worked for them prior to assuming key roles at the agencies under Biden.

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Eyes on California: 18% of Total US Home Health Care Billing Is Coming Out of LA County – One Doctor Billed Govt. for $120 Million IN ONE YEAR!

The Trump Administration and Dr. Mehmut Oz, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, have turned their attention to Los Angeles County and the massive amount of alleged medical fraud that is being reported from California.

According to FOX News, one LA doctor billed the government $120 million, claiming to oversee 1900 patients… in one year!

18% of THE ENTIRE COUNTRY’S home health care billing is coming out of Los Angeles County! Almost 20%!

And, Los Angeles has almost 2,000 registered hospice agencies! That is more than 36 states combined and thirty-times more than the whole state of Florida and New York.

Dr. Oz explained how easy it would be to open a hospice in LA, you don’t even have to live there!

Dr. Oz: “How is that possible? And take a look at this map, a cluster of 287 hospice providers, in a two-mile radius, some in strip malls, unmarked buildings, even a wrecking yard and vacant lot. All of it is just paperwork. I could fill that out in Kazakhstan if I want and get a hospice license waiting for me.”

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Senate Republicans push for House GOP rebellion against funding package, voter ID legislation

A pair of Senate Republicans are pushing their House counterparts to reject the Trump-backed shutdown deal unless it includes Homeland Security funding and election integrity legislation. 

Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, are calling on House Republicans to push back against the Senate-passed funding package, which includes bills to fund five agencies, including the Pentagon, as a partial government shutdown continues. 

They contended that the package needs to be retooled, and must include a modified version of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act, dubbed the SAVE America Act, and the Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, which was stripped out after Senate Democrats threatened to blow up the government funding process. 

Doing so could extend what was expected to be a short-term shutdown.

Scott said congressional Democrats would “NEVER fund DHS” and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He voted against the package twice, arguing that the spending levels would further bloat the nation’s eye-popping $38 trillion national debt, and that the billions in earmarks betrayed Republicans’ previous vows of fiscal restraint.

“If House Republicans don’t put the DHS bill back in, add the SAVE America Act and remove the wasteful earmarks, Democrats win,” Scott said. “We must protect our homeland, secure our elections and end the reckless spending NOW!”

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Third Georgia Democrat State Lawmaker Charged with Defrauding Federal Government

Another day, another corrupt Democrat.

Georgia Democrat State Rep. Dexter Sharper was charged with defrauding the federal government by falsely claiming unemployment while he earned income.

According to federal prosecutors, Rep. Sharper collected nearly $14,000 in emergency Covid benefits while earning money from income.

“While many of his constituents and fellow citizens were losing jobs and desperately needed unemployment assistance during the pandemic, Representative Sharper allegedly pretended to be out of work to collect a share of unemployment benefits for himself,” said US Attorney Theodore Hertzberg.

“When government officials lie to take money, and do it while holding an elected office, it violates the trust of citizens and weakens faith in our elected government,” he added.

CBS News reported:

A third member of the Georgia House of Representatives has been accused of lying to collect thousands of dollars in unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rep. Dexter L. Sharper, who represents District 177, is the latest Democratic lawmaker facing federal charges of making false statements to obtain funds administered by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Investigators say Sharper applied for unemployment benefits from April 2020 to May 2021, claiming to have had only one employer, Dexter Sharper Party Rental. In the application, Sharper allegedly stated that he had not worked since March 13, 2020, claiming in 38 separate weekly certifications that he had not worked and was actively seeking employment.

However, prosecutors say the Valdosta man was working in the Georgia General Assembly in addition to running his party rental business and performing as a musician.

Authorities say Sharper collected more than $13,000 of unemployment assistance benefits during that time.

Dexter Sharper is the third Democrat state lawmaker to be charged with defrauding the federal government in the last few months.

Earlier this month, Georgia state Rep. Karen Bennett was indicted by a federal grand jury for Covid fraud.

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Ex–Nonprofit Leader Who Championed Social Justice Sentenced for COVID Fraud

A former Bostonian of the Year was sentenced in federal court in Boston for using thousands of dollars in donations to Violence in Boston to pay personal expenses and defrauding taxpayers. 

Monica Cannon-Grant, 44, of Taunton, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley to four years’ probation, with six months of home detention and 100 hours of community service. She was also ordered to pay restitution of $106,003 as well as forfeiture in an amount to be decided at a later date. The government recommended a sentence of 18 months in prison.

Cannon-Grant allegedly defrauded the City of Boston out of COVID-19 relief funds and rental assistance money, defrauded the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office out of Community Reinvestment Grant funds, filed false tax returns and failed to file tax returns for two years.

The founder and former Chief Executive Officer of a Boston-based nonprofit was sentenced today in federal court in Boston.

In September 2025, Cannon-Grant pleaded guilty to 18 counts: three counts of wire fraud conspiracy; 10 counts of wire fraud; one count of mail fraud; two counts of filing false tax returns; and two counts of failing to file tax returns. In March 2023, Cannon-Grant was charged along with her co-conspirator and late husband, Clark Grant, in a 27-count superseding indictment. 

Clark Grant’s charges were dismissed in May 2023 due to his death. Cannon-Grant and Clark Grant had previously been charged in an 18-count indictment in March 2022.

In 2020, Cannon-Grant was lauded as a Bostonian of the Year and social justice advocate, recognized for being a “voice for the community” and social justice advocate.

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Why Mamdani’s ‘Free Childcare’ Won’t Work

“While families with young children comprise about 14 percent of the city’s population, they comprise about 30 percent of the set of New Yorkers who are leaving the city,” said Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani at a visit to a day care center in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he hyped his plans for those families.

Mamdani ran on the most ambitious universal child care proposal in the country: free day care for all kids ages 6 weeks and above. Apparently, this pitch was compelling to the city’s beleaguered parents: The self-styled socialist won by a hefty margin.

New York City already has universal child care guaranteed to 3- and 4-year-olds. When Bill de Blasio ran for mayor in 2013, he aimed to distinguish himself from then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had created 4,000 new free pre-K seats but allocated them only to poor kids. De Blasio universalized the system in 2014.

Mamdani wants to expand to an even younger age group, which would cost an extra $6 billion a year. Those funds aren’t available in city coffers, so Mamdani would need cooperation from the state government to raise the money, likely by taking another leaf from the de Blasio playbook and trying to hike taxes on the very rich.

Mamdani’s political intuition is sound: The affordability issue is salient. The number of New York City families with three kids or more has dropped by nearly 17 percent over the last decade. Families with young children have been self-exiling in droves since the pandemic. The under-20 population has dropped by almost 200,000 over the last few years. The city’s public school system has 915,000 students enrolled, down from 1.1 million a decade ago. New York’s comptroller reports that the average cost of private child care for babies and toddlers now sits at $18,200 annually for family-based care and $26,000 annually for center-based care, shooting up in recent years. It’s no wonder so many parents are clamoring to turn over their kids to the warm embrace of the state. They feel left out in the cold.

But universal 3-K (for 3-year-olds) hasn’t served families as well as its supporters promised it would. It distorted the private market, driving day cares out of business. Rich families have used nifty hacks to get their kids into the best centers, while the poor are left with the rest. The universal nature of it might be politically valuable when you’re currying favor with the tony Park Slope crowd, but it means that child care for rich people is subsidized by the slightly richer, and that day cares serving the poorest neighborhoods don’t get what they need. Parents who choose to stay home with their kids or employ nannies get shafted, and costs for all forms of child care are driven up the more the government intervenes in the market. More government involvement won’t make that better.

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Dems Have Gone Radio Silent On One of Their Main Talking Points, Trump Highlights It

President Donald Trump said Democrats have stopped focusing on affordability because, he argued, they have been “getting beaten badly” on the issue after years of high prices and inflation.

In remarks addressing the economy, Trump said affordability was once a central Democratic talking point but has since disappeared as prices have come down under his administration.

“You don’t hear the word affordability issued by the Democrats anymore,” Trump said.

“Now they’re going into other things because they’re getting beaten badly on affordability.”

Trump said when he returned to office, he inherited severe economic problems, including sharply higher consumer prices.

“Remember that when I was elected, I came into office, I inherited a total mess, starting with eggs, which were four times higher than they were just a year before,” Trump said.

Trump credited his administration with quickly reducing prices, pointing to egg costs as an example.

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Gavin Newsom Gets Dragged for Pledging to Send Winter Storm Resources to Tennessee While Fire Victims in California Remain Homeless

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently bragged on Twitter/X that he is sending aid to the state of Tennessee following the harsh winter storm.

Meanwhile, thousands of victims of the California wildfires that happened over a year ago remain homeless.

This is Newsom playing pretend. In his mind, he is already the President of the United States and he wants everyone to get used to the idea.

FOX 5 in California reports:

Gov. Newsom deploys California-based emergency team to Tennessee for winter storm aid

Governor Gavin Newsom has deployed specialized emergency management resources from California to assist Tennessee as the state responds to impacts from a deadly winter storm.

According to the Governor’s Office, a 30-member California-based federal Complex Incident Management Team has been sent to support “response and life safety efforts” following an icy snowstorm that created hazardous travel conditions, widespread power outages and emergencies across the state. Multiple deaths have been reported in connection with the storm.

“I’m thankful to the local firefighters, who are stepping up to help fellow Americans during their time of need,” said Newsom. “When disaster strikes, California answers the call to support our partners across the country. Deploying this Incident Management Team to Tennessee reflects a commitment to protecting lives and helping our neighbors respond and recover to extreme weather events.”

The deployment comes as large portions of the eastern United States recently faced heavy snowfall, ice accumulations and subfreezing temperatures, disrupting critical infrastructure.

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