Tag: taxes

Federal Complaint Filed After NIH Bureaucrat Attacks Anti-Animal Testing Watchdog Group White Coat Waste, Goes After Board Members

In a brazen display of deep state arrogance straight out of the Fauci era, a high-ranking National Institutes of Health (NIH) official has been exposed abusing his position to defame the White Coat Waste Project (WCW), America’s leading watchdog against wasteful and cruel government-funded animal experiments.

Warren Casey, Director of Strategic Partnerships at the NIH’s Division of Translational Toxicology and Executive Director of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), sent emails from his personal Gmail account to members of WCW’s advisory board, abusing his federal credentials to trash the organization and urge supporters to cut ties.

Casey’s email, which appears to be a clear retaliation against WCW’s relentless exposure of NIH’s shady animal testing practices, opens by touting his 15-year tenure at NIH and his ICCVAM role to lend an air of official authority. He accuses WCW of launching a “reckless smear campaign” against fellow NIH scientist Dr. Nicole Kleinstreuer, claiming it incited death threats and harassment that required FBI involvement and police protection.

“I write with serious concern about your association with the White Coat Waste Project (WCW). While WCW claims to support ending animal testing, its recent actions undermine that mission and endanger public servants,” Casey wrote in the email to board members.

Casey claimed the organization’s “demonizing Dr. Kleinstreuer in public forums, distorting her statements, and falsely portraying her as an enemy of reform. WCW’s attacks have incited hundreds of death threats, nonstop harassment (phone calls, emails, social media posts), FBI involvement, and round-the-clock police protection for Dr. Kleinstreuer and her family.”

The email concluded, “Your name and reputation lend legitimacy to WCW’s platform and your continued affiliation with WCW legitimizes their harmful tactics and implies your de facto support as a member of their advisory board. In today’s climate, where violence against public servants is on the rise and political assassination is no longer unthinkable, this is not just immoral—it’s dangerous—and endangers the lives of the civil servants WCW chooses to demonize. I urge you to stand with the scientists and public servants working every day toward ethical, evidence-based reform—without threats, misinformation, or violence.”

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An Ailing, Flailing, Failing Empire Lashes Out

As a retired U.S. Air Force officer, I firmly believe in civilian control of our military. This country should be a nation of laws — not of special interests, oligarchs, or kings. Before committing our forces to battle, Congress should always declare war in the name of the people. Our military should indeed be a citizen-soldier force, not an isolated caste driven by a warrior ethos. And above all, the United States should be a republic ruled by law and shaped by sound moral values, not a greed-driven empire fueled by militarism.

Yet when I express such views, I feel like I’m clinging to a belief in the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus. It feels idealistic, naïve, even painful to think that way. Yes, I served this country in uniform for 20 years, and now, in the age of Donald Trump, it has, as far as I can tell, thoroughly lost its way. The unraveling began so long ago — most obviously with the disastrous Vietnam War of the 1960s and 1970s, though in truth this country’s imperial desires predated even the Spanish-American War of 1898, stretching back to the wanton suppression of indigenous peoples as part of its founding and expansion.

A glance at U.S. history reveals major atrocities: the displacement and murder of Native Americans, slavery, and all too many imperial misadventures abroad. I knew of such realities when I joined the military in 1985, near the end of the Cold War. Despite its flaws, I believed then that this country was more committed to freedom than the Soviet Union. We could still claim some moral authority as the leader of what we then referred to as “the free world,” however compromised or imperfect our actions were.

That moral authority, however, is now gone. U.S. leaders fully support and unapologetically serve an ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. They sell weapons to nearly every regime imaginable, irrespective of human rights violations. They wage war without Congressional approval — the recent 12-day assault on Iran being just the latest example. (The second Trump administration has, in fact, launched almost as many air strikes, especially in Yemen and Somalia, in its first five months as the Biden administration did in four years.) Those same leaders have been doing a bang-up job dismantling the America I thought I was serving when I took that oath and put on second lieutenant’s bars four decades ago. That America — assuming it ever existed — may now be gone forever.

FUBAR: A Republic in Ruins

My fellow citizens, America is FUBAR (a term that dates from World War II). We are not faintly who we claim to be. Rather than a functioning republic, we are an ailing, flailing, perhaps even failing empire. We embrace war, glorify warriors, and profit mightily from the global arms trade, no matter the civilian toll, including tens of thousands of dead and wounded children in Gaza, among the latest victims of U.S.-made bombs, bullets, and missiles.

Signs of moral rot are everywhere. Our president, who would like to be known for his budget cuts, nonetheless giddily celebrates a record trillion-dollar war budget. Our secretary of defense gleefully promotes a warrior ethos. Congress almost unanimously supports or acquiesces in the destruction of Gaza. Images from the region resemble bombed-out Stalingrad in 1942 or Berlin in 1945. Meanwhile, for more than two decades now, America’s leaders have claimed to be waging a successful global “war on terror” even as they fuel terror across the globe. What do they think all those U.S. weapons are for — spreading peace?

My wife and I cope through dark humor. We see news on cuts to Medicaid, the mentally ill in the streets, and crumbling infrastructure, and quip: “But Bibi [Netanyahu] needs bombs. Or Ukraine does. Or the Pentagon needs more nukes.” That’s why Americans can’t have nice things like health care. That’s why all too many of us are unhoused, in debt, out of work, and desperate. In 1967 — yes, that’s almost 60 years ago! — Martin Luther King warned of exactly this: America’s approaching spiritual death through militarism (aggravated by extreme materialism and racism). That death is visibly here, now.

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Entitled Virginia Superintendent Wants Security Guard To Protect Her From Criticism

T.S. Eliot claimed that “April is the cruelest month,” but in this homeschooling dad’s opinion, that dubious honor belongs to August. In one of the great ironies of modern American life, we choose to send our kids back to school amid the dog days of summer, a sweltering time that would be better spent at the community pool.

Back-to-school time is also an expensive proposition. The National Retail Federation claims that between new clothes and shoes, school supplies, and electronics, the average family will fork out over $850 this year to outfit their K-12 children. Teachers have it even worse; according to Adopt-A-Classroom, the average teacher spent almost $900 out of his own pocket to buy classroom supplies in the 2024-2025 school year.

But there’s at least one group that won’t need to make hard financial decisions this month: high-level educational bureaucrats. Take Dr. Michelle Reid, the superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). Not only does her new contract give her a salary higher than that of the president of the United States, but she also gets a car allowance and is currently seeking a taxpayer-funded “executive protection agent” to shield her from the peasants she supposedly serves. “Queen Reid” embodies the entitled mindset of an educational establishment that refuses to learn from its mistakes.

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Lawsuit: The Regulation Of Untaxed Firearms Under Federal Law Is Unconstitutional

Several Second Amendment advocacy groups, including the National Rifle Association (NRA), have filed a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA).

President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill erased the NFA’s $200 stamp tax on short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, any firearm classified by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) as “other,” and suppressors starting Jan. 1, 2026. However, “the firearms are still required to be registered and are subject to” regulations designed to enforce the “now-extinct” tax, the lawsuit says. This “regulatory regime” no longer comports with Congress’ constitutional authority, plaintiffs claim. The lawsuit also argues that “the NFA’s regulation of suppressors and short-barreled rifles violates the Second Amendment.”

“The National Firearms Act’s registration scheme only exists to ensure that the tax on NFA firearms was paid,” Adam Kraut, the Second Amendment Foundation’s (SAF) executive director, said in a press release. “With Congress removing the tax on silencers, short-barreled firearms, and ‘any other weapons,’ the continued inclusion of these items in the NFA serves no purpose, except continuing to retain an impermissible hurdle to the exercise of one’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”

The lawsuit, Brown v. ATF, was filed on August 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The plaintiffs are the NRA, the American Suppressor Association (ASA), SAF, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), Prime Protection STL Tactical Boutique, and two individual members of these organizations. They are suing both the ATF and the DOJ. The lawsuit asks the court to declare NFA regulations “relating to making, transferring, receiving, possessing, or otherwise using” the untaxed firearms and suppressors unlawful and to block anyone from enforcing the challenged portions of the law.

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Four NATO States Agree To Buy $1 Billion In US Weapons For Ukraine

Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands announced they would buy $1 billion in weapons for Ukraine from the US. 

Copenhagen is pledging to buy $500 million in arms that will be matched by the three Scandinavian countries. “Ukraine is not only fighting for its own security, but also for our security,” Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson. 

The Wall Street Journal reports this is the first of several weapon sales to Ukraine paid for by NATO members this summer. 

NATO and President Donald Trump recently unveiled a scheme to send Ukraine $10 billion in US weapons funded by Europe and Canada. However, several European countries have announced they will not participate in the program. 

The WSJ report makes mention of Kyiv’s shopping list:

NATO and Ukraine have established a shopping list of Kyiv’s requirements for lethal and nonlethal equipment, dubbed the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List. NATO, Ukraine and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, will ensure the packages meet Kyiv’s needs. NATO is dividing the list into packages valued at roughly $500 million apiece

Governments are making financial commitments toward the packages and NATO, which has pledged “rapid delivery from U.S. stockpiles” will coordinate delivery of the arms to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Zelensky celebrated the announcement. “We already have commitments from the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark – over one billion dollars for American weapons that Ukraine will receive,” he wrote on X. “Thank you! This cooperation with NATO countries will continue.”

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ICE Hastily Scraps Plan for Deportation Bonuses

Immigration and Customs Enforcement abruptly canceled a plan to offer cash bonuses for rapid deportations just hours after announcing the incentive on Tuesday. ICE agents were told in an internal email that they could earn $200 for each immigrant deported within a week of arrest, and $100 for those deported within two weeks, the New York Times reports. The pilot program, meant to last 30 days, was canceled just four hours later after the Times reached out for comment. “PLEASE DISREGARD,” read a follow-up message to staff.

Documents seen by the Times showed the now-scrapped program would have encouraged agents to use expedited removal, a fast-track process with no court hearings, or urge voluntary departures. The memo said it was intended to reduce a backlog, “reducing overall removal costs and decreasing strain” on detention resources. Critics say cash bonuses for deportations risk undermining due process. “You can’t incentivize government agents to short circuit people’s procedural rights,” said former DHS official Scott Shuchart.

Homeland Security downplayed the plan, insisting it was never enacted. But the episode highlights the mounting pressure on ICE to hit President Trump’s aggressive deportation targets. The agency’s annual budget is set to soar from $8 billion to $28 billion, more than double that of the FBI. Last week, the agency launched a recruiting push, offering up to $50,000 in signing bonuses for “brave and heroic Americans.”

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RFK Jr. pulls $500 million in funding for vaccine development

The Department of Health and Human Services will cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines that are being developed to fight respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary and a longtime vaccine critic, announced in a statement Tuesday that $500 million worth of vaccine development projects, all using mRNA technology, will be halted.

The projects — 22 of them — are being led by some of the nation’s leading pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Moderna to prevent flu, COVID-19 and H5N1 infections.

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Senators Blackburn, Warnock team up on bill to give entertainment industry some tax relief

U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Raphael Warnock are usually on opposite sides of the aisle, but they are teaming up on a bill that would give the entertainment industry some tax relief.

The Creative Relief and Expensing for Audio and Television Enterprises Act, dubbed CREATE, would extend a $150,000 tax credit for production expenses incurred by entertainers, singers and songwriters through 2030. The credit is set to expire at the end of the year with an extension from Congress.

“Thousands of singers and songwriters call Tennessee home, and they should be able to write off recording production expenses that are critical to their work,” said Blackburn a Tennessee Republican. “The CREATE Act would support creators and keep America’s music industry strong by ensuring they can still count on this tax relief.”

Georgia has become a hub for filming television series and movies. More than 550 productions were made in Georgia in the past three years, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development. During fiscal year 2025, which ended June 30, film and television productions spent $2.3 billion.

“From productions like The Color Purple, to The Hunger Games, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Georgia has become a national leader in the arts and entertainment industry,” said Warnock, a Georgia Democrat. “Our continued investments in incentivizing domestic production for film, television, and music benefit our culture and our economy.”

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Company advised by Trump sons said it hoped to benefit from fed money, then took it back

A public document filed by a company that just hired President Donald Trump’s two oldest sons as advisers included a sentence early Monday that said it hoped to benefit from grants and other incentives from the federal government, which their father happens to lead.

But when The Associated Press asked the Trump family business about the apparent conflict of interest, the document was revised and the line taken out.

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are getting “founder shares” worth millions of dollars in New America Acquisition 1 Corp., a company with no operating business that hopes to fill that hole by purchasing an American company that can play “a meaningful role in revitalizing domestic manufacturing,” according to to the filing. The president has geared his trade policy toward boosting manufacturing in the U.S.

The original version of the securities filing said the target company should be “well positioned” to tap federal or state government incentives. That reference was taken out of the revised version of the filing.

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Boston Democrats Opened Housing to Illegals Who Can’t Pay the Rent

The state of Massachusetts resettled thousands of migrant families into apartments at the expense of $30,000 per family to the taxpayers, but now many of the migrants cannot afford to pay their rent.

Starting in 2023, the state began pushing migrants into apartment complexes as an adjunct to the state’s emergency assistance shelter program and at least 5,000 families have been the recipients of the program, according to the Boston Globe. But little thought seems to have been given to the sustainability of the housing.

The paper noted that many of the migrants have used up their $30,000 allotment before even being able to begin paying rent regularly on their own. The money went for moving, furniture, security deposits, and other living start-up costs. And for many migrants, that left them without enough time to gain legal employment that could allow them to afford rent payments.

The cash shortage sent many of the migrants to move right back out of their new apartments before they were able to stabilize their income. According to the program, the migrants are not required to pay the entirety of the rent on their own. The state’s HomeBASE program only requires them to fork over 30 percent of their income for rent with the rest being pulled from the program’s initial $30,000 stipend.

The problem is, many of these families have been unable to gain jobs that can bring in enough cash to make paying rent sustainable. That means their $30,000 allotment runs out quickly as the fund pays most if not all of the monthly rent fees. And soon enough, that $30,000 allotment is eaten up and the families have to move right back out of their apartments in a matter of only a few months.

State officials have hailed the HomeBASE program because they can use it to show that migrants have been moving out of the controversial free shelter system. Officials try to use that to show they are successfully putting migrants into jobs and homes. But the reality seems to be that the “homes” are short term, leaving many migrants out in the street when their $30,000 funding dries up.

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