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Treasury Eyes Tax Status of Soros Network, SPLC & CAIR
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the IRS are preparing audits that could revoke the 501(c)(3) status of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, three sources familiar with internal deliberations told reporters. Officials are drafting a plan that could result in back taxes and civil penalties under a 2025 executive order aimed at nonprofits operating for a “substantial illegal purpose.” A review of IRS filings estimated the three organizations would have owed about $165 million in 2024 federal corporate tax if taxed at the 21 percent rate, with $163.6 million of that tied to the Soros network. An Open Society spokesman said threatening tax status for political reasons would be an illegal attempt to stifle work the administration disagrees with. The Treasury Department declined to comment.
🏛️ News & Politics
MAGA Inc Starts Unloading $400 Million War Chest With Vance Rally as Trump Orders Record Ads
President Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC is finally putting its more than $400 million cash pile to work in the midterms, starting with a Monday rally in Sterling Heights, Michigan, headlined by Vice President JD Vance and featuring Senate nominee Mike Rogers (R-MI), gubernatorial nominee Rep. John James and 10th District nominee Mike Bouchard Jr. The group had sat on the reserve for most of the cycle, with its largest recent outlay an $827,711 phone-and-text buy for a South Carolina runoff. Trump separately directed aides to set aside funds for television ads drawn from his own clips touting stock-market highs, a secured border, and tariff-driven manufacturing after internal polling showed many voters were unaware of the tax provisions in last year’s legislation. Most of the money is still slated for targeted House and Senate races rather than national spots. Republican committees and allied groups held a sizable cash advantage over Democrats as of the latest filings.
Federal Judge Again Pauses Trump Mail Ballot Restrictions Days Before Midterm Mailouts
Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a 14-day temporary restraining order Thursday blocking the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing a new rule that implements President Donald Trump’s executive order on mail-in voting. Talwani halted requirements that states submit voter lists through a federal portal, use approved barcode envelopes, and face ballot rejection for noncompliance. The order followed a Supreme Court ruling earlier in the week that lifted her prior injunction as premature after the Postal Service published its final rule. Talwani wrote that the plaintiff states a lack of time and money to redesign ballots, update systems, and train officials before November. She scheduled a Sept. 3 hearing as an appeal appears likely.
Trump Signs Order for U.S. Space Academy Modeled on West Point
President Trump signed an executive order Friday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to begin creating a U.S. Space Academy for Space Force personnel, NASA and the civilian space industry. He likened the planned school to West Point, Annapolis, the Air Force Academy, and the Coast Guard Academy. A permanent site has not been chosen. A presidential commission chaired by the NASA administrator has 120 days to recommend a location, curriculum, admissions rules, and other details. Trump also presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the four Artemis II astronauts who flew around the moon in April.
Trump Moves to Let Ranchers Process Their Own Meat After Beck Interview
President Trump said Friday he is authorizing legal documents that will allow farmers and ranchers to process their own food, aiming to loosen the grip of four dominant meatpackers that control most of the U.S. slaughter capacity. The announcement followed a Wednesday radio interview in which rancher and host Glenn Beck urged Trump to ease USDA inspection rules, which he called a cartel that keeps independent producers from butchering their own cattle. Trump wrote that the processors, some of which are foreign-owned, make life miserable for producers and that the change should move quickly. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the department would roll out related steps starting Monday, including less red tape and more interstate sales for smaller plants. The shift comes as ranchers have criticized a temporary pause on beef-import tariffs meant to lower grocery prices.
Judge Finds Pentagon Blacklist of Anthropic AI Firm Unlawful
Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled Thursday that the Trump administration illegally designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk. Lin found the Pentagon’s February action by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was unlawful retaliation for the company’s First Amendment-protected stance against unrestricted use of its Claude models for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. The 59-page order vacated the designation, barred agencies from enforcing a presidential directive to drop Anthropic products, and called the measures arbitrary, capricious, and baseless. Anthropic welcomed the decision and said it remains focused on working with the government on national security uses of AI. The government is expected to appeal.
Editor’s Note: As the POTUS is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and the Pentagon IS the Armed Forces, how does a federal judge have any purview over a presidential decision regarding how the Pentagon engages on any given issue?
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📢 The American Fifth Column
Progressive Groups Run Midterm Scenario Exercises With Elias, Eisen
Protect Democracy executive director Ian Bassin described tabletop “wargames” ahead of the midterms on the podcast “The Court of History.” Participants were assigned roles as congressional leaders, administration officials, governors, secretaries of state, litigators, online influencers, and foreign actors. Bassin said Marc Elias, Norm Eisen, Vanita Gupta, and Sky Perryman took part. He said the exercises walk through election scenarios so groups can practice legal and political responses. The clip circulated this week after attorney Jeff Clark shared it. Protect Democracy says it works on election protection. The sessions are scenario planning, not an official party operation.
Editor’s Note: The Lawfare Brigade is now wargaming out in the open. One day, responsible legislators will put an end to this manipulation of constitutional principles.
Chicago Mayor Orders Contractors to Disclose ICE, Israel Work
Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Wednesday requiring city contractors to disclose government and law enforcement contracts over $500,000 in the past five years, including work with ICE. Officials cited Palantir’s ICE and Israel-related work and AECOM’s O’Hare contract as examples. The order also covers civil rights allegations, workplace violations, and so-called public integrity findings that need not come from a court. Johnson framed the rule as anti-corruption. It stops short of an automatic ban. The city has already signaled some exemptions, including for a firm seeking Chicago’s parking-meter concession.
Editor’s Note: Maybe Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Rita Lin should step in here and order Johnson to stop discriminating? I mean, she did it for Anthropic at the Pentagon…
Harlem Immigrant Shops Face Sanitation Fines After Challenging Mamdani Grocery Plan
Members of the Multicultural Business Coalition, which sued Mayor Zohran Mamdani this week over city-owned grocery stores, say their East Harlem shops have been hit with a string of sanitation citations. Coalition chairman Frank Garcia said the tickets, some priced at $1,000, began after members went door-to-door two weeks ago seeking support for the lawsuit. Flower and gift shop owner Diana Larrazabal said her store received three fines this year, including $350 in May, for garbage that was not hers. A Department of Sanitation spokesman said the agency issued 223 commercial summonses in Harlem since March 1 and that its only goal is clean streets. A Mamdani spokesman referred to the mayor’s earlier remarks that he is confident in the grocery plan’s legality.
Editor’s Note: But I thought it was Trump, not the Democrats or DSAers, who weaponized government? 🙄
HHS Study Links Gender Ideology Views to Justification of Political Violence
The Department of Health and Human Services released a commissioned survey Wednesday of 1,208 U.S. adults examining gender-affirming clinical positions and attitudes toward political violence. Researchers from Rutgers University, the Manhattan Institute, and the Network Contagion Research Institute developed a five-item scale based on guidance from major medical groups. Stronger agreement with those positions was associated with higher left-wing authoritarianism scores and greater willingness to say violence could be justified in six scenarios, including attacks on Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump, and ICE facilities. The associations held after controlling for political identity. The study measured justification, not actual violence, and did not prove causation. A follow-up experiment is planned.
Pennsylvania Proposal Replaces Mother and Woman in Health Code
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has proposed a 502-page rewrite of disease-control rules that replaces “pregnant woman” and “mother” with “pregnant individual” and “postpartum individual.” The draft, published Aug. 8 in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, covers syphilis testing, stillbirth cases, and perinatal HIV language. State Sen. Michele Brooks criticized the wording change inside a broader update of outbreak powers. Public comments remain open through Sept. 21. The regulation is not final.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"The most effective way to restrict human freedom is to make people think that they are free when they are not."
— Hannah Arendt
🌐 International
US Forces Clear Iranian Sea Mines From Hormuz Shipping Lanes
Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, said U.S. forces have cleared Iranian sea mines from internationally recognized shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. Navy divers, Navy SEALs, and aircraft from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps carried out the months-long operation along the strait’s traffic separation scheme. Cooper said U.S. forces have protected nearly 1,500 commercial vessels carrying about 750 million barrels of crude oil. He said Iran has exported no oil since the U.S. naval blockade resumed in mid-July. U.S. forces turned back about 75 vessels attempting to breach the blockade and disabled three that did not comply.
Colombia Arrests US-Wanted Tren de Aragua Figure in Bogota
Colombian authorities arrested Luis Saul Perez Nieto, also known as Paez or Nairobi, on Thursday in Fontibon, a western district of Bogota. President Abelardo de la Espriella identified him as Tren de Aragua’s alleged top leader in Peru and a close associate of Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as Nino Guerrero. Officials said Perez Nieto coordinated extortion, international arms trafficking, targeted killings and drug trafficking along routes in South and Central America, and that U.S. authorities wanted him in connection with those crimes. The operation involved Colombia’s National Police, the Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Police sources said he had been tracked in the capital over alleged trafficking of ketamine, cocaine, and weapons. The Venezuelan-origin group, designated a foreign terrorist organization by Washington in February 2025, expanded from Tocorón prison across the hemisphere. De la Espriella said Colombia would not serve as a refuge for such networks.
Dutch Court Hands Life Sentence to Citizen Over 1994 Rwanda Stadium Killings
A Hague court on Friday sentenced a Rwandan-born Dutch citizen identified as Eugene N. to life in prison for war crimes and genocide during the 1994 slaughter in Rwanda. Judges found the 66-year-old local official took part in raids that looted and burned Tutsi homes in Mbazi and threw a grenade into a stadium where about 3,000 Tutsis had sought shelter. The court said he instructed attackers to let no Tutsi escape and that survivors were later killed with clubs and machetes. He fled to the Netherlands in 1998, later obtained Dutch nationality, and could not be extradited after Rwanda sought him in 2014. Dutch prosecutors opened their own investigation in 2020 and arrested him in 2024 after interviewing more than 30 witnesses. His lawyers denied he had a role in the massacres.
Military Laser Downs Cartel Drones Along Southern Border
The U.S. military used the Army Multipurpose High Energy Laser to engage and defeat three cartel-linked drones late Tuesday into Wednesday along the southern border. Joint Task Force-Southern Border officials said the aircraft were hostile because they supported activities that posed a physical threat to U.S. troops and Customs and Border Protection personnel. Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor said cartel networks increasingly employ drones for illicit human smuggling and to spy on American forces. The operation marked the first successful use of the vehicle-mounted 20-kilowatt system against cartel drones at the border. Officials did not identify the exact location or the cartel involved.
Ceuta Locals Clash With Police After Month of Beach Migrant Camps
Residents of Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta marched Wednesday and Thursday demanding deportations a month after more than 70,000 migrants crossed from Morocco. Crowds waving Spanish flags tore down tents at El Trampolín beach, threw belongings into the sea, and set some camps afire. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters while forming a line between locals and remaining camps. Earlier Thursday, about 70 migrants stoned a military vehicle, injuring a soldier; police detained 12 Moroccan men. Demonstrators also blocked Red Cross food deliveries. Thousands of migrants remain in the city of about 84,000 as officials call for calm.
France24, BBC News
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