Tag: taxes

Newsom Blocks Firefighter Pay Raise After Record Wildfire

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday vetoed a bipartisan bill, designed to give raises to California state firefighters, only nine months after the state’s most expensive wildfire raged through Los Angeles.

The raise would have bumped their salaries by between 11 and 29 percent. 

Current base pay for state firefighters is $54,122 per year, while Los Angeles city firefighters make $85,315.

Governor Newsom argued that the bill would create “significant cost pressures for the state” and undermine collective bargaining power for salary increases. “Establishing a statutory floor for employees of a single department undermines this process, to the detriment of both the state and other bargaining units,” Newsom wrote.  

Union members condemned the governor’s decision.

“Cal Fire is an all-risk fire department, just like a San Francisco Fire Department or Santa Rosa or San Jose Fire Department,” Tim Edwards, the president of the Local 2881 union representing CAL FIRE workers, said. “We don’t have the staffing like they do. We don’t have the workweek like they do, and we definitely don’t have to pay like they do, but we do the exact same job at the exact same training, and we’re expected to do the exact same, the exact same services.”

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Israel To Spend Up To $4.1 Million on Propaganda Campaign Targeting American Christians

The Israeli Foreign Ministry is planning to spend up to $4.1 million for a propaganda campaign that will target American evangelical Christians, a project that’s being sold as the “largest Christian Church Geofencing Campaign in US history.”

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on a federal filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act that shows the Israeli ministry has hired a newly formed US-based firm, Show Faith by Works LLC, which will target churchgoers with digital ads that are explicitly “pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian.”

The campaign will also involve creating a mobile “October 7 experience” that will visit Christian colleges, churches, and events. The document says the experience will involve a custom-built trailer designed by “Hollywood experts,” virtual reality headsets, set pieces, and full-length TVs for an “interactive experience.”

The filing lists hundreds of churches in California, Texas, Colorado, and Arizona that will be targeted by the information campaign. According to an invoice, Show Faith by Works expects to receive $3.25 million from the Israeli Foreign Ministry over a five-month period and includes a potential additional $835,000 for equipment and expansion of the campaign.

The document, which was filed on September 27, says one of the activities of the campaign will be to “combat low American Evangelical Christian approval of the Nation of Israel.”

One of the goals of the campaign is to use “a combination of personal and professional outreach to the Christian Community, combined with digital targeting and social media outreach to increase positive associations with the Nation of Israel while linking the Palestinian population with extremist factions.”

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The US Spent Over $31 Billion Aiding Israel in the Past Two Years

The Cost of War Project at Brown University calculated that total US military support to Israel over the past two years has cost US taxpayers over $30 billion. Israel has received over $21 billion in military aid from the US and Washington has bombed Iran and Yemen for Tel Aviv. 

According to the study, the US has provided Israel with tens of thousands of bombs and other weaponry following the Hamas attack in southern Israel two years ago. The American arms have fueled Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 

The mass killing in Gaza with US weapons has pushed a growing number of Americans to oppose military aid and weapon sales to Israel. However, the growing opposition to the special relationship Washington has with Tel Aviv did not lead President Joe Biden or Donald Trump to curtail the flow of arms to Israel. 

Additionally, Israel’s aggression in the Middle East has drawn the US into other wars. Both Biden and Trump engaged in large-scale bombing operations in Yemen in an effort to force Ansar Allah to end its blockade of the Red Sea and stop attacking Israel. 

Ansar Allah enacted the policy in support of Gaza, and says the blockade and attack will end once Israel halts its genocidal onslaught in the Strip. While the bombing cost the US billions of dollars, it failed to force Ansar Allah to end the blockade. 

President Trump also joined Tel Aviv’s aggressive war against Iran and intercepted missiles targeting Israel. Overall, the US has spent between $10 and $13 billion helping Israel wage wars across the Middle East over the past two years. 

The author of the Cost of War study, William Hartung, notes that it only calculates the weapons that have been delivered to Israel and does not include weapons that the US has promised to deliver to Israel in the future. 

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Bibi Has Been Giving Money to Hamas. An Insidious Intelligence Operation

Confirmed by Israeli media. “Not Fake News”. Bibi has been giving money to Hamas

“Hamas was treated as a partner to the detriment of the Palestinian Authority to prevent Abbas from moving towards creating a Palestinian State. Hamas was promoted from a terrorist group to an organization with which Israel conducted negotiations through Egypt, and which was allowed to receive suitcases containing millions of dollars from Qatar through the Gaza crossings.” (Times of Israel October 8, 2023, emphasis added)

According to Netanyahu:

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” he [Netanyahu] told a meeting of his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. “This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.” (Haaretz, October 9, 2023, emphasis added)

Let us be clear. These deceitful money payments are NOT in support of Hamas as a Palestinian political entity involved in the Resistance Movement.  Quite the opposite.

What is at stake is an insidious intelligence op, in support of so-called “intelligence assets” within Hamas.

What is at stake is a carefully planned False Flag Agenda which from the outset on October 7, 2023, upholds Hamas as the alleged “Aggressor” against the people of Israel.

What is the truth, what is the lie?.  The Netanyahu government and its Ministry of Intelligence from the very outset have “blood on their hands”. They are responsible for Israeli deaths resulting from the False Flag agenda.

What is the relationship between Mossad and Hamas?  There is a long history.

Hamas (Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya) (Islamic Resistance Movement), was founded in 1987 by Sheik Ahmed Yassin. It was supported at the outset by Israeli intelligence as a means to weaken the Palestinian Authority:

“Thanks to Mossad, (Israel’s “Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks”), Hamas was allowed to reinforce its presence in the occupied territories. Meanwhile, Arafat’s Fatah Movement for National Liberation as well as the Palestinian Left were subjected to the most brutal form of repression and intimidation.

Let us not forget that it was Israel, which in fact created Hamas. According to Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)”. (L’Humanité, translated from French)

“How Israel helped to Spawn Hamas”. WSJ

“Instead of trying to curb Gaza’s Islamists from the outset, says Mr. Cohen, Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah. WSJ January 24, 2009, emphasis added)

The Historic Statement of  Rep. Ron Paul 

“You know Hamas, if you look at the history, you’ll find out that Hamas was encouraged and really started by Israel because they wanted Hamas to counteract Yasser Arafat… (Rep. Ron Paul, 2011)

What this statement entails is that Hamas is and remains “an intelligence asset”, namely “an “asset” to Israel as well as US intelligence.

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Sen. Kennedy Just Exposed More Absurd Things Democrats Shut Down The Government For

The Schumer Shutdown dragged through the weekend, with neither side budging. Republicans pushed for a straightforward continuing resolution to keep the government funded through November, but Democrats chose to hold the line for their wish list of radical spending priorities—billions and billions of dollars’ worth—and in doing so, shut the government down. The media has focused on their demand for free health care for illegal immigrants, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more buried in this standoff that isn’t getting the attention it deserves.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) took to the Senate floor this week and laid out, in his trademark blunt and hilarious fashion, exactly what Democrats are trying to shut the government down over—and it’s every bit as ridiculous as you’d expect.

“Basically, President Trump just said, ‘We want you to take some stuff out of the budget that we think is wasteful,’” Kennedy began. “And we did — and that upset the congresswoman.”

That “congresswoman,” of course, is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who, according to Kennedy, went ballistic when Trump and congressional Republicans started cutting some of the more absurd Biden-era spending priorities.

Kennedy didn’t hold back as he read aloud what Democrats are fighting to restore.

“We found that under President Biden, they were spending $3 million for circumcisions and vasectomies in Zambia,” he said. “We took that out. The congresswoman says, ‘We’re gonna shut down government until you put that back in.’”

And that was just the beginning.

“We found $500,000 of American taxpayer money for electric buses in Rwanda,” Kennedy continued.

“We found $3.6 million for pastry cooking classes and dance focus groups for male prostitutes in Haiti. I kid you not. I’m not making this up. It was in the budget under President Biden.”

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US Provides Lebanese Government With $230 Million in Military Aid as It Pushes Hezbollah Disarmament

The Trump administration has approved $230 million worth of military and security aid for Lebanon as it’s pushing the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, Reuters reported on Friday.

The Hill reported that the US sent $230 million on September 30 as a last-minute action before the government shutdown so the funds wouldn’t expire. “It’s not a huge amount, but for a small country like Lebanon, that’s really significant,” a congressional aide told reporters on October 1.

A Lebanese source told Reuters that $190 million will go toward the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and $40 million is for the Internal Security Forces. On September 10, the US Department of War announced a $14 million weapons package for the LAF that it said would help “dismantle weapons caches and military infrastructure of non-state groups, including Hezbollah.”

In an interview released on September 22, Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey, who has also been involved in talks with Lebanon, said that the US was arming the LAF so it could fight its own people.

“We’re going to arm them so they can fight Israel? I don’t think so,” Barrack told The National. “So you’re arming them so they can fight their own people, Hezbollah. Hezbollah is our enemy. Iran is our enemy.”

Barrack’s comments came as critics of the US policy in Lebanon have been warning that the push to disarm Hezbollah could lead to a civil war. The US has also continued to strongly back Israel’s action in Lebanon, even though it has flagrantly violated the ceasefire deal signed in November 2024 and continues to conduct near-daily strikes. Since the truce deal was signed, Israel has killed hundreds of people in southern Lebanon, including at least 103 civilians.

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Trump Administration Offers Illegal Alien Children 14 and over $2,500 to Voluntarily Self Deport

In an ongoing effort to send illegals back to their own country, the Trump administration is offering $2,500 to children 14 and over to voluntarily self-deport. A letter was cited that was sent out by the HHS Office of Refugee Settlement.

The HHS will provide a one-time stipend of $2,500 to children 14 and older who were considered unaccompanied minors.

ICE did not confirm an exact amount, but said that unaccompanied alien children would have an opportunity to access some kind of financial support if they choose to voluntarily leave.

Fox News Reported:

The Trump administration is now offering teen migrants a $2,500 stipend to leave the United States voluntarily, according to several reports citing a letter sent Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement to shelters housing migrant children.

According to the letter seen by Reuters and other outlets, the department will provide a “one-time resettlement support stipend of $2,500” to unaccompanied children 14 or older.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not confirm the monetary amount to Fox News Digital but said Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) could access financial support when returning home, should they choose that option.

A lot of the unaccompanied children were trafficked into the United States during the four years under the Biden regime. The DHS and HHS under the Trump administration has been working very hard to protect these kids and keep them safe.

As of September, approximately 2 million illegals (various ages) have left the US either by removal from ICE, or from voluntary self-deportation.

According to DHS, about 1.6 million was self-deportation and 400,000 were removals by ICE and other Federal law enforcement.

Department of Homeland security said that self-deportation was a lot cheaper with a small stipend as compared to arresting, processing and deporting an illegal alien.

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Watch Senator John Kennedy List the Crazy Things AOC and Other Leftist Dems Are Demanding Over Shutdown

Throughout the government shutdown fight, the issue everyone has been talking about is funding for healthcare for illegal aliens, but there are other things that are holding up the process.

Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana recently listed a bunch of items that AOC and other far left Democrats are pushing for and they’re all completely crazy.

Somehow, the media has completely missed all of this.

The Tampa Free Press reported:

Louisiana Sen. Kennedy Shreds Dems’ Shutdown Demands: ‘Cooking And Dance Workshops’ In Haiti

The federal government shutdown has taken a dramatic turn, with Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy seizing the Senate floor Friday to lay bare a list of what he calls “wasteful” and “ridiculous” foreign aid projects he claims Democrats are demanding be reinstated before they agree to reopen the government.

Kennedy accused Senate Democrats of holding the country “hostage” after they blocked a bipartisan stopgap funding bill, prolonging the shutdown into next week.

He argued that the provisions, which Republicans had previously stripped from the budget, are now being weaponized by the party’s left flank to keep the government closed.

“We just eliminated money for all forms of media in the Affordable Care Act. Now those are the demands. I’ll mention one more. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez got very, very upset, as did the socialist wing of the party, when the president sent over what’s called a rescission package. Basically, President Trump just said we want you to take some stuff out of the budget that we think is wasteful, and we did,” Kennedy said. “And that upset the congresswoman. She’s entitled to be upset if she wants to, but that really upset the socialist wing of the party. And so we took out, and here’s what they want us to put back in.”

These are the items that Kennedy lists specifically:

– $3.6 million for cooking and dance workshops for male prostitutes in Haiti.
– Over $4.2 million for LGBTQ projects in the Western Balkans and Uganda.
– $6 million to subsidize Palestinian media outlets.
– $3 million for circumcision and vasectomies in Zambia.
– More than $833,000 for transgender people in Nepal.
– $500,000 to purchase electric buses in Rwanda.
– $300,000 to sponsor a pride parade in Lesotho.

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A Government Shutdown Isn’t Really a Shutdown. Most Federal Employees Are Still Working and Will Get Paid.

Congressional Republicans and Democrats failed to pass a continuing resolution to maintain government funding at current levels on Tuesday. As a result, the federal government “shut down” on Wednesday morning. Some federal services and agencies might be put on hold, but the vast majority of the federal government, including all of its mandatory wealth transfers and obligatory payments, will remain unaffected.

During the shutdown, agencies that don’t fund themselves or haven’t received additional funding via a standalone bill must furlough non-excepted employees and stop their non-essential operations. Employees who render “essential services related to national security and public safety, like inpatient and emergency medical care, air traffic control, law enforcement, border security, disaster aid, and power grid maintenance” are excepted employees who will continue working (though these services may face disruptions), according to Rep. Ami Bera (D–Calif.). Also excepted are the 2.07 million “active-duty military personnel, as well as reserve component personnel on federal active duty, [who] must continue to report and carry out assigned duties,” explains the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). However, nearly 407,000 of the roughly 741,000 civilians employed by the Defense Department are expected not to be furloughed, as they are either excepted or not funded through annual appropriations.*

In addition to nearly 3 million Americans, uniformed and civilian, working for the Pentagon, there were 2.91 million non-military federal employees in August, per the latest data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (which, like the Bureau of Economic Analysis, is not one of the agencies spared the shutdown’s effects). Of these, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that 750,000 could be furloughed each day of the shutdown, at a daily cost of $400 million.

During a government shutdown, the largest expenditures are nondiscretionary and, as such, remain untouched: These include entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, as well as interest payments on the debt. Altogether, mandatory spending and net interest payments made up 74 percent of the federal budget in FY 2024. Meanwhile, thanks to the funding provided by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Aviation Administration are also unaffected, according to The Washington Post.

If a government shutdown were what it sounds like, libertarians and supporters of small government would have reason to celebrate. But it’s not: The biggest contributors to the deficit are largely unaffected. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of federal employees are on vacation, not rendering services to the taxpayer. While this vacation is technically unpaid, it’s only so for the time being: After the 2018 government shutdown, Congress passed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which requires all federal employees who are furloughed or required to work without pay during a shutdown to receive back pay once federal funding resumes.

The lion’s share of government spending is utterly unaffected by the legislature failing to pass a spending bill, and that’s the real problem: The federal government is on autopilot, and its profligacy has the country slouching toward a fiscal crisis that Congress appears entirely unwilling to steer us away from.

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Minnesota DHS employee who went on Tesla vandalism spree still on state payroll

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) has confirmed that Dylan Adams, the fiscal policy analyst caught on video vandalizing Teslas in Minneapolis, is still employed by the state — meaning Minnesota taxpayers are footing the bill for his salary.

In response to Alpha News inquiries, a DHS spokesperson said: “Dylan Adams is a current employee.”

As for whether Adams has faced consequences for racking up more than $21,000 in damage during work hours, the agency offered little transparency. “No public data exists with respect to disciplinary action,” the spokesperson said.

Caught on tape

In April, the Minneapolis Police Department held a press conference and shared four video clips that had been obtained from the victims’ onboard surveillance cameras.

The videos showed a white male who in most of the cases had a dog with him while appearing to key or vandalize Teslas in downtown Minneapolis, and one at Target in Northeast Minneapolis. Chief Brian O’Hara said all the videos shown were believed to be the same suspect — Adams.

O’Hara said the incidents began on March 18 — the same day Gov. Tim Walz made headlines for quipping that watching Tesla stock drop gave him “a little boost during the day,” despite the state holding investments in the company. Walz even posted the clip to his personal X account, where it remains today.

Moriarty’s free pass

As Alpha News previously reported, Adams became the focus of public outrage in April when Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty placed him in a diversion program instead of filing charges.

Moriarty defended her decision, saying it would allow Adams to keep his job and pay restitution.

Chief O’Hara vented frustration over Moriarty’s decision. “Our investigators are always frustrated when the cases they poured their hearts into are declined,” he said at the time, adding that victims often feel the same way.

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