Tag: taxes

Donald Trump Just Proved the Federal Government Spent $3 Trillion to Make Your Kids Dumber

America spent $3 trillion on a federal education bureaucracy.

But only three in ten kids can read or do math.

That’s why Linda McMahon is doing what Ronald Reagan couldn’t do with education – but Democrats are trying to stop her.

The Numbers Washington, DC Doesn’t Want You to See

The Department of Education was born in 1980 under Jimmy Carter.

Ronald Reagan called it a “bureaucratic boondoggle” from day one.

He pledged to kill it.

He couldn’t.

Then George H.W. Bush came along and declared he wanted to be “the Education President.”

Spending went up.

Achievement stayed flat.

Bill Clinton expanded it.

George W. Bush gave us No Child Left Behind and threw more billions at the problem.

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Muslim Convert Minnesota AG Keith Ellison Forced to Return $12,500 From Somali Fraudsters After Secret Tape Caught Him Promising to “Fight These People” and Unfreeze Their Welfare Cash

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to statewide office in Minnesota and a convert from Catholicism, has quietly returned at least $12,500 in campaign cash from Somali figures tied to the massive Feeding Our Future welfare fraud after a secret recording surfaced of him huddling with the same crowd to fend off state investigators.

According to the Center of the American Experiment, the five refunded contributions included donations from Gandi Yusuf Mohamed and Liban Alishire, both of whom became defendants in the Feeding Our Future case.

As The Gateway Pundit reported in December, the 54-minute recording, obtained by the Center of the American Experiment and later entered as a trial exhibit, captured Ellison schmoozing with Somali-American operators who would later be charged or convicted in the Feeding Our Future scheme that looted more than $250 million in federal child-nutrition money meant for hungry kids.

The meeting participants complained that state regulators were acting in a “racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic manner” by asking questions about phantom meal sites.

“The only way we can protect what we have is by inserting ourselves into the political arena, putting our votes where it needs to be, but most importantly, putting our dollars in the right place,” Feeding Our Future consultant Abshir Omar said.

“But if you are secure in your donor base, and if you are secure in your power base, you can act the way you want to act,” Omar continued.

“Money is freedom,” Ellison replied with a laugh.

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Mamdani’s 200-strong ‘influencer’ army revealed — with some PR peddlers pocketing taxpayer cash

They’re under Zo’s influence.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani assembled an army of nearly 200 “influencers,” giving the social media stars VIP access to push the lefty administration’s talking points, a new bombshell report revealed.

The web of online personalities are being fed talking points by City Hall through an encrypted Signal group text, potentially running afoul of local record-keeping laws, according to the study by the Columbia Journalism Review.

Some influencers are even pocketing taxpayer funds “for work on particular messaging campaigns,” though not for their coverage, the report states.

The secret Signal chat – named “NYC Creators Announcements” – combined with murky money left many watchdogs aghast.

“City leaders must be deliberate about how they communicate,” said Citizens Union Executive Director Grace Rauh “Any discussion of official government business must occur in a manner that ensures records are preserved and accessible under the Freedom of Information Law. The rules exist to protect the public.”

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UN Calls for Global Slavery Reparations  

A UN organ is making demands so incredible it would be unbelievable had we not heard similar loud cries from race hucksters a few years ago.

The UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) published a document calling for immediate “financial compensation, educational initiatives and institutional reforms” to remedy supposed harms that persist today as a result of the transatlantic slave trade, which ended more than 200 years ago (in fact, it was the West that led the charge in eliminating chattel slavery altogether, which had been happening everywhere since time immemorial).

The committee speaks with authority. It claims that the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) treaty “imposes broad and immediate obligations.”

The recommendation is directed at the 182 countries that ratified the ICERD treaty. That includes the United States, the U.K., France, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and many others. You can see the full list here.

Bold Claims, Bold Demands

The ICERD, though more than half a century old, is the basis for the bold demands in the CERD document. The committee also cites additional treaties for support, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Those treaties were adopted, respectively, in 1966 and 1984. The United States has ratified all of them, and they are considered binding.

According to this UN committee, the slave trade might have ended, but it still looms over contemporary laws, policies, and institutions. As a result, everything about Western society is inherently racist. According to the document, modern manifestations of this racist system “include racial profiling and the disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officials; racial disparities in criminal justice systems; and discriminatory laws, policies and institutional practices affecting access to housing, education, employment and health care.”

The documents’ authors claim:

Despite formal legal reforms, racialized violence, stereotyping and structural barriers continue to constrain, inter alia, educational attainment, economic mobility, health outcomes and environmental safety, producing enduring intergenerational disparities.

Structural Implementation

So, action must be taken. The UN Committee “recommends that structural measures be implemented as a matter of policy, thereby recognizing collective harms, even when harms to a specific individual have not been established.” This should include “compensation, restitution and other forms of satisfaction.” It repeats this point several times. And every time it does, it adds another layer of nonsense. The document also says that people may “seek reparations through restitution, compensation, cessation, guarantees of non-repetition, and satisfaction, including acknowledgement of responsibility and apologies.”

The committee also calls for “equality” in politics and the criminalization of speech that offends its version of history. Governments should “condemn and criminalize racist hate speech and the dissemination of theories of racial superiority,” say the authors.

Guilt by Association

What about the countries that weren’t involved in that slave trade? (Conveniently, there is no mention of the African accomplices who participated in the European slave trade.) It doesn’t matter. Everybody needs to pay up. The authors explain why:

While some States bear direct responsibility for trafficking in enslaved Africans and racialized transatlantic chattel slavery others may have benefited from, facilitated, or contributed to sustaining the global economic and racial structures that emerged from these systems. At the same time, there are some States that neither engaged in nor benefited from these practices. Notwithstanding this distinction, all States have a responsibility to support reparatory justice for the legacies of these historical injustices given their enduring global impacts.

There is no excuse for what happened. That includes the norms of the era. “By recognizing the persistence of systemic racism and its roots in historical slavery,” the document says, “the Committee considers that the States Parties should take action today … regardless of the legal framework applicable at the time of the historical acts.”

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RFK Jr.’s “Gold-standard Science” Runs Into Another AI Citation Scandal

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent years denouncing the federal health establishment. And as Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, he promised to replace its failures with “gold-standard science.”

Now his department appears to have replaced some of the science with AI hallucinations.

Earlier in August, a federal judge rebuked the Department of Health and Human Services for using scientific citations that either do not exist or do not support the claims attached to them. The citations appeared in official funding notices used to reshape the federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPP).

The episode is especially damaging because it is not the first. In 2025, the Kennedy-chaired Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission released a major report on children’s health that contained invented studies, garbled references, and visible fingerprints of artificial intelligence.

Phantom Studies Behind a Real Policy

The latest controversy comes from Hennepin County, Minnesota v. HHS, a lawsuit challenging Kennedy’s overhaul of the TPP.

Congress created the program to fund local initiatives shown to reduce teen pregnancy, along with “promising” approaches that could be tested. HHS took a much narrower approach in 2026.

The department issued new grant notices that pushed recipients toward abstinence, “body literacy,” reproductive-goals counseling and sexual-risk-avoidance education. A separate HHS policy notice barred programs from “encouraging, normalizing, or promoting sexual activity for minors” and required compliance with administration policies against “gender ideology” and DEI.

HHS also terminated virtually all existing TPP awards, according to the court.

That prompted Hennepin County, King County in Washington, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States to sue.

On August 19, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper granted a preliminary injunction against implementation of the new policy and funding notices. He found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claim that HHS acted arbitrarily and capriciously.

Then came the largely overlooked part that made national news this week.

A “Hallmark of AI-generated Citations”

HHS tried to support its new emphasis on “body literacy,” which it defines as understanding how a healthy body functions, including reproductive anatomy, physiology and hormonal patterns, and interpreting biological signals to make informed health decisions.

The problem was that much of the cited “science” could not be found.

 Cooper wrote:

On the topic of body literacy, the notices (remarkably) reference public health studies that appear either not to exist or not to support the propositions for which they are cited — a hallmark of AI-generated citations.

He continued:

Two out of the seven appear to be completely made up. Three of the seven did not publish in the cited journals but appear to have similar titles to articles published in completely different journals.… And according to the early-stage factual record, there seem to be no pregnancy prevention curricula and programs that “center [on] body literacy” and other newly-imposed TPP requirements.

HHS did not bury the questionable references in a stray litigation brief. They appeared in government notices telling applicants what “science” federal money would follow.

The court found a deeper problem. HHS itself acknowledged a “near absence of body literacy education standards nationwide.” Yet the agency made “body literacy” a central requirement for grantees.

Cooper said HHS offered no adequate explanation for imposing that approach across the program.

HHS funding materials nevertheless tell applicants that eligible programs must reflect “high-quality evidence of effectiveness” and align with its “commitment to gold-standard science.”

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Grand jury indicts former community school superintendent, business partner in $8 million fraud scheme

A federal grand jury has indicted the former superintendent and operator of a local community school and a business partner with wire fraud and other crimes related to an $8 million fraud and kickback scheme.

Leondo Ramone Davenport, 50, of Cincinnati, and Jonathan Larry Ballew, 62, of Phoenix, Arizona, were arrested this morning by federal agents. 

“We’re putting an end to fraudsters exploiting public trust and profiting off of the American taxpayer,” said U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II. “Offenders should know that my Office will work hard to ensure that those responsible for fraud end up paying the price and come to understand that the juice is not worth the squeeze.”

“This indictment alleges a brazen scheme that stole from both taxpayers and students,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “Education dollars exist to support the learning and development of American children—not to fund the lifestyles of unscrupulous school officials. The Fraud Division commends the work of our federal and state partners whose efforts were essential in bringing these charges and ensuring that those who abuse positions of trust are held accountable.”

“Fraud against the government is fraud against every taxpayer and we are all victims of these schemes,” stated FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge Jason Cromartie. “The FBI and Department of Justice are committed to rooting out fraud and holding accountable those who conduct illegal activities.” 

“This was an egregious kickback scheme by individuals using taxpayer resources to enrich themselves,” Auditor Faber said. “Thanks to the good work of the U.S. Attorney, the FBI and our other partners in law enforcement for pursuing justice in this case. Our investigation also continues, and we look forward to working alongside the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office to ensure everyone involved in these crimes is held accountable for their actions.”

Davenport served as the superintendent of Dohn Community High School from 2015 to 2019. Through an  LLC he incorporated, Dohn served as the operator of the school from 2019 until 2024.

Dohn was incorporated in Ohio as a not-for-profit organization around 1999 to serve as an addiction recovery program for high school students. It operated as a community school under Ohio law from approximately 2001 until 2025. In Ohio, a community school created under state law is a public school, independent of any school district.

Ballew incorporated at least four entities allegedly purporting to provide educational services, training, technology, staffing, and school construction and remodeling services to Dohn. 

The eight-count indictment alleges that, from 2021 to 2024, Davenport and Ballew participated in a kickback scheme to defraud the school. Ballew allegedly submitted false and fraudulent invoices to Dohn on behalf of the entities he controlled. Davenport allegedly authorized Dohn to pay the invoices and received a kickback in return. In total, during this time, Davenport allegedly authorized Dohn to pay over $8 million to Ballew and Ballew correspondingly paid over $4 million back to Davenport.

The charging document details that the defendants allegedly spent the money on luxury automobiles and rental properties. For example, in October 2023, Davenport and Ballew both signed a two-year rental agreement for a luxury vacation property near Miami, Florida, for $30,000 per month.

Davenport and Ballew are each charged with wire fraud, a federal crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison and engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity, which carries a potential penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Dominick S. Gerace II, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Jason Cromartie, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; and Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber announced the charges. Assistant United States Attorney Matthew C. Singer is representing the United States in this case.

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division (“Fraud Division”). The Fraud Division is investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department’s work to combat fraud supports President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.

An indictment merely contains allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

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Missouri Using Taxpayer Dollars on Anti-Abortion Ads

This is wild: the Missouri Attorney General’s office not only used taxpayer dollars for an anti-abortion ad—they also wrote said advertisement with an extremist organization that doesn’t believe in life-saving abortions. Buckle up.

KSDK News reports that an ad released by AG Catherine Hanaway’s office tells viewers that “abortion clinics in Missouri are not required to meet the same basic medical standards as other healthcare facilities.”

It’s not a coincidence that Hanaway released the ad now: in November, voters will decide on a ballot measure that would codify an abortion ban into the state constitution. As you probably remember, Missouri voters already passed a pro-choice ballot measure in 2024, but Republicans have been trying to repeal it ever since. This new ballot measure is their latest attempt. They even named the proposed ban Amendment 3, because that’s what the pro-choice measure was called. (They’re hoping to trick voters into supporting an abortion ban.)

Here’s the thing: Missouri law prevents state officials from using public funds to support or oppose a ballot measure. In other words, the ad is illegal. But Hanaway claims the ad doesn’t run afoul of Missouri law because it doesn’t mention the ballot measure by name.

“It says absolutely nothing about a ballot measure,” she told KSDK. This is exactly what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in 2024, when he illegally used state funds to launch a disinformation website against the pro-choice ballot measure Amendment 4. He insisted that everything on the site was “factual” and that it wasn’t “weighing in on any particular measure, whether you should vote for or against something.” (As you’ll see later in the newsletter, a grand jury just found that the DeSantis administration misappropriated funds for this campaign.)

If the Missouri GOP doesn’t care about the law, maybe they’ll care about bad PR: to write the ad, Hanaway’s office enlisted the help of the American Association of Pro-Life OB-GYNs (AAPLOG). This is a group that believes that emergency contraception and IUDs are really abortions, that raped children should be forced to give birth, and that women with life-threatening pregnancies should be given c-sections instead of standard abortions—even when it’s too early for a fetus to survive.

Why? Because they don’t believe in life-saving abortions. In fact, they claim abortion is never necessary to save a woman’s life.

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Trump DOJ Puts Sanctuary States on Notice: ALL State Agencies Receiving Federal Food Stamp and Social Security Assistance Funds Must Report Known Illegal Aliens to DHS Under Welfare Reform Law Passed by Congress in 1996

The Department of Justice just ripped up a 28-year Clinton-era legal dodge that let sanctuary states hide illegal aliens from federal immigration authorities while collecting billions in welfare money meant for American families.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued a formal opinion holding that when a state takes Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) funds, the entire state government, not just the welfare office, must report to the Department of Homeland Security any person the state knows is not lawfully present in the United States.

That is not a new law. That is the 1996 welfare-reform statute Congress actually wrote. The Clinton Justice Department simply pretended it said something else.

“Congress wrote this requirement plainly,” said Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser, who leads OLC. “When a state chooses to participate in TANF, it accepts the obligation to report illegal aliens in the United States. Tax dollars intended to help vulnerable Americans should not perversely encourage illegal entry into the United States, but rather should reinforce our laws and our borders.”

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Craddock, the author of the opinion, was even blunter: the new guidance “does not impose new obligations on states.” It “simply restores the original meaning of the statute Congress enacted.” States that take the money “must abide by federal law, and failure to comply may lead to serious consequences, including loss of program funding.”

All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several U.S. territories take TANF and SSI. Federal TANF block grants alone exceed $16.4 billion a year.

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NDP-turned-Liberal MP Lori Idlout broke ethics rules by billing taxpayers for purchases from family businesses

Nunavut Liberal MP Lori Idlout violated parliamentary conflict-of-interest rules after claiming taxpayer-funded reimbursements for purchases made from businesses owned by herself and her spouse, Canada’s ethics commissioner has found.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein released his findings Wednesday following an investigation under the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons.

According to the commissioner, Idlout used her parliamentary office budget to seek reimbursement for purchases made at a business she owns and another owned by her spouse.

The transactions increased or preserved the value of the couple’s assets, thereby furthering their private interests while Idlout was performing her parliamentary duties.

Section 8 of the ethics code prohibits MPs from using their public positions to advance their own private interests, those of family members or the interests of another person or organization.

Despite finding that Idlout broke the rules, von Finckenstein recommended no sanction.

The commissioner accepted Idlout’s explanation that the purchases were “errors of judgement made in good faith” and noted that she repaid the House of Commons after the violations were brought to her attention.

“She did not realize that making purchases from two businesses would further her or her spouse’s private interests,” von Finckenstein said. “She also repaid the House of Commons as soon as the errors were brought to her attention.”

Idlout was elected as a New Democrat before crossing the floor to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s governing Liberals in March 2026. Her defection helped move the Liberal government closer to a parliamentary majority.

The commissioner’s report was submitted to the Speaker of the House of Commons and will be tabled when Parliament next sits.

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Huge Red Flags Emerge as ‘Respiratory Therapist’ Gets Caught Billing California Medicaid for OVER $40 MILLION and Goes on INSANE Spending Spree with His Husband

Alarm bells are going off as a California man who supposedly works as a “respiratory therapist” has gotten obscenely rich in what appears to be one of the worst cases of Medicaid fraud yet.

As City Journal’s Chris Rufo reported on Wednesday, Curtis Kurkova has a company called HeroCare that has at least $40.5 million in California Medicaid payments since 2020. Roughly $34.4 million of that was paid out between 2023 and 2024.

Per Rufo, HeroCare earned the majority of its Medicaid revenue between 2020 and 2024 from a handful of basic plastic commodities.

Flush with these tens of millions of dollars, Kurkova has spent lavishly. His largest purchase was a $28 million Hidden Hills mansion near where the Kardashians live.

Kurkova and his husband also spent millions on sports cars, private jets, luxury resorts, and three additional homes. They have even partied in some of the most exclusive areas on the planet.

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