INTERNACIONAL
Key aide in IRS’ Tea Party targeting controversy put on leave after allegations of new anti-GOP effort
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A former deputy to Lois Lerner — who oversaw the IRS division accused of targeting conservative groups during the Obama years — was placed on leave after lawmakers raised alarms that a new sub-department she was leading was becoming politicized.
In 2013, Lerner was hauled before Congress, where it was revealed her agency had wrongfully scrutinized tax-exempt applications related to the phrases «Tea Party,» «9/12» and «Constitution.» The Treasury’s inspector general later confirmed «inappropriate criteria» was used to target conservative groups and criticized ineffective oversight of systemic bias.
IRS Commissioner of Large Business and International Division Holly Paz – Lerner’s then-deputy – was placed on leave last week as lawmakers drew attention to a subordinate work-unit aimed at auditing pass-through businesses that Biden-era Commissioner Danny Werfel had created and assigned her to lead.
Werfel called the new work-unit a big step in «ensur[ing] the IRS holds the nation’s wealthiest filers accountable,» and Paz called it an «important change» in the IRS structure.
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The exterior of the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo)
However, by 2025, lawmakers, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., warned that the pass-thru-business compliance unit had transformed to be «motivated by ideology rather than principles of sound tax administration.»
«Pass-through entities form the bulk of Main Street businesses across the country. This includes countless family businesses, professional services firms, and real estate ventures that serve as the backbone of our local economies,» Blackburn and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., wrote to the Treasury in May.
Around that time, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa., warned Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Paz’s team «has made tongue-in-cheek political comments,» including their stated wish to «make basis great again» – a phrase regarding taxation loss/gain that hearkens to President Donald Trump’s MAGA slogan.
In that regard, Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., wrote to IRS Commissioner Billy Long in July that a Biden-era «basis-shifting transaction rule» had «extended the scope» of enforcement.
SENATE DOGE LEADER SEEKS CRACKDOWN ON TAX-DODGING GOVERNMENT WORKERS
Lois Lerner testifies. (AP File)
«American taxpayers and businesses deserve clear and consistent tax rules that allow them to confidently comply with the law,» Smucker wrote, adding he and Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., are seeking to have that rule «reconsidered» for the sake of unburdening «Main Street» businesses.
Chuck Flint, a former top aide to Blackburn and president of the Alliance for IRS Accountability, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that Paz’s past targeting of conservative groups makes her «unfit for government service.»
Flint said her statements to Congress and role as LB&I chief «places a cloud over the IRS.»
«Paz’s Biden-era pass-through unit is now bludgeoning conservative businesses with fines and must be disbanded. Commissioner Long is flexing his muscles on the IRS Deep State and sending a signal to rogue bureaucrats by placing Paz on leave.»
Blackburn warned in her letter to Bessent that an IRS news release referencing targeting «complex arrangements» lacked clear definitions and created the impression that legitimate business structures could be unfairly targeted based on legal structure versus actual tax compliance risk.
«Even more concerning, the announcement explicitly states that the bureaucratic changes were designed primarily to ‘achieve its goal of increased audit rates in this complex area’.»
LAWMAKERS TAKE ACTION AFTER REPORT SHOWS BIDEN-ERA SBA FAILED TO PROBE 2 MILLION ALLEGED COVID AID FRAUDSTERS
Former Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo., President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Internal Revenue Service commissioner. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
«This focus on increasing audits rather than improving compliance suggests an agenda-driven approach to enforcement,» Blackburn said.
In her letter, Ernst warned Bessent that Paz’s team members «have also undermined their appearance of impartiality by comparing legally acceptable transactions to obscene material, saying, ‘It’s one of those ‘You know it when you see it’ – a joking reference to [Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s] attempt to define pornography.
«This team is reportedly acting independently and duplicating existing IRS processes, wasting taxpayer money, and not coordinating with the pre-existing offices,» Ernst said.
«Most concerning of all, the new pass-through auditors even use a new template for requesting taxpayer information they’ve deemed ‘The Art of the IDR,’ (versus ‘The Art of the Deal’) which treats taxpayers as guilty until proven innocent.»
«Unfortunately, the Biden administration picked up right where Ms. Lerner and her team left off. On September 20, 2023, then-Commissioner Daniel Werfel announced, with language that resembled Democrat talking points, the creation of a duplicative new work unit [led by Paz] to specifically audit pass-through businesses and partnerships. The new office subjects these businesses to potentially two separate IRS examinations in the same year.
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«One would think Commissioner Werfel would go to great lengths to avoid hearkening back to previous scandals. Instead, he thumbed his nose at taxpayers by placing Lois Lerner’s deputy— Holly Paz—at the helm,» Ernst wrote.
Lerner was front-and-center during the Obama-era scandal, testifying before Congress as head of the tax-exempt organizations division, as a deluge of reports of targeting right-leaning nonprofits abounded.
During the 2013 investigation by the House Oversight Committee, Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Darrell Issa, R-Calif., demanded Paz answer for «inconsistencies» from a transcribed interview with committee staff involving statements about «intervention» against Tea Party groups.
A 2015 report by then-Senate Finance Committee leaders Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Ronald Wyden, D-Ore., found that in other cases, some liberal terminology was also flagged, including «ACORN,» «progressive» and «medical marijuana.»
«While handled poorly, groups on both sides of the political spectrum were treated the same in their efforts to secure tax-exempt status,» Wyden said at the time, while then-Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said Democrats should be equally outraged as Republicans.
Fox News Digital reached out to Treasury, the IRS and an email connected to Paz for comment.
joe biden,politics,senate,republicans,white house
INTERNACIONAL
El soporte del gobierno de México a dictaduras de crimen organizado no puede continuar impune
El gobierno de México ha pasado de la narrativa ideológica a la humanitaria para tratar de justificar el sostenido soporte, encubrimiento y defensa de las organizaciones delictivas que bajo mando de La Habana someten con terrorismo de Estado a los pueblos de Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua y Bolivia. Desde operar su política exterior, el rescate de prófugos con cobertura diplomática, hasta la contratación de personal esclavo y entregas de petróleo, el apoyo y complicidad del gobierno de México a la dictadura de Cuba y sus satélites son violaciones al derecho interno e internacional que no pueden continuar impunes.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, AMLO, convirtió a México en un gobierno “paradictatorial”, esto es un “gobierno elegido en democracia que sirve a las dictaduras de crimen organizado, las sostiene, busca legitimarlas e incumple obligaciones internacionales, traicionando y perjudicando sus intereses nacionales”.
La presidencia de Sheinbaum es solo la continuación de este sometimiento porque los gobiernos paradictatoriales se originan cuando el socialismo del siglo XXI -sigla política de la dictadura cubana y su expansión- promueve, financia y hace llegar al poder a los que una vez al mando ponen el país al servicio de sus comandantes.
El iter criminis de México bajo los gobiernos de AMLO y Sheinbaum para sostener al crimen organizado en las Américas es notorio y notable. Apoyo incondicional y sostenido a la dictadura de Cuba con contratación de médicos esclavos, compra de piedras, envío de petróleo y discursos humanitarios para cubrir el sostenimiento de un grupo criminal que mata de hambre y tortura a su pueblo desde hace más de 66 años. No se trata de apoyo, es servidumbre, vergüenza para un país como México que tuvo una política exterior proclamando respeto a la no intervención y a los derechos humanos.
En 2025, el Centro Mexicanos contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad ha documentado “55 envíos de crudo y derivados entre mayo y agosto a la dictadura de Cuba” y los “cargamentos han sido valorados en tres mil millones de dólares” pese a la escasez de gasolina en el propio México. Este monto ¿cómo se registra en el manejo estatal mexicano? Cuanto menos se trata de malversación de recursos públicos, de desfalco o de una cadena de falsificaciones que disfrazan el sostenimiento del crimen organizado con la denominada “Gasolina Bienestar” y que la democracia de México tiene la necesidad y la obligación de aclarar.
En México, al año 2024, se reportaban 678 médicos cubanos contratados para el sector público y el Director del Instituto Mexicano de Seguridad Social después de reunirse con el dictador cubano Díaz-Canel realizó la contratación de 1.200 médicos esclavos más. La esclavitud consiste en el pago al régimen cubano por el trabajo de personas cuyas familias permanecen como rehenes, como ha reportado el informe de las Naciones Unidas y los precedentes en Brasil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador y decenas de países más.
El apoyo a la dictadura de Cuba es soporte al grupo de crimen organizado más antiguo de las Américas, al primer narcoestado de la región, al punto más importante de violación a los derechos humanos por medio de terrorismo de Estado y al centro de conspiración y desestabilización que agrede sostenidamente a las democracias. Lo demuestra el servilismo mexicano en el sostenimiento del grupo delictivo que somete al pueblo de Venezuela cuando AMLO recibió con honores presidenciales a Nicolás Maduro e ignoró la orden internacional con 25 millones de dólares -que hoy son 50 millones- por su captura. Lo ratifica la decisión de apoyar la usurpación de la soberanía popular falsificando el resultado de las elecciones de 2024 y el actual sostenimiento al cartel de los soles.
El gobierno mexicano se ha convertido en el operador títere de la dictadura de Cuba extrayendo de Bolivia a Evo Morales en 2019 cuando renunció por fraude y crímenes infraganti, librándolo de ser procesado, con igual protección a los miembros de su grupo criminal en su embajada en La Paz. Repitió la maniobra en Ecuador protegiendo al condenado Jorge Glas, promoviendo el incidente diplomático que llevó al gobierno ecuatoriano a retirar al prófugo de la embajada mexicana. Intentó cobijar al golpista Pedro Castillo de Perú y da a su esposa Lilia Paredes “10.000 dólares mensuales, guardaespaldas y choferes particulares” como lo reportó Infobae en 2 Mayo 2024.
La abierta participación en la “migración forzada” contra Estados Unidos y el “narcotráfico de cocaína y fentanilo” no es un dato menor, cuando alegando cuestiones de soberanía se puso el territorio mexicano como plataforma de agresión contra el socio del tratado de libre comercio que le ha dado crecimiento y desarrollo legal. El gobierno de México ha permitido y tolera hasta ahora la existencia de narcoestados en estados de su país a los que ha fortalecido con la elección de jueces.
Este apretado resumen prueba que el gobierno mexicano viola la Convención de las Naciones Unidas contra la delincuencia organizada trasnacional o Convención de Palermo, el tratado de libre Comercio con EEUU y Canadá, la Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos o Pacto de San José, la Carta de la OEA, la Carta Democrática Interamericana, y más.
*El autor de este artículo es abogado, politólogo y Director del Interamerican Institute for Democracy.
Anniversaries,South America / Central America,Government / Politics,CARACAS
INTERNACIONAL
Two IDF soldiers killed amid ‘severe’ ceasefire violation, ‘it’s not the last,’ analyst says
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Two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers were killed by terror operatives in Rafah, southern Gaza, threatening the ceasefire with Hamas, Israeli military sources confirmed to Fox News Digital on Sunday.
The soldiers, Major Yaniv Kula, 26, a company commander in the 932nd Battalion of the Nahal Brigade, and Staff Sergeant Itay Yavetz, 21, a combat soldier in the same battalion, were both based in Modi’in-Maccabim-Reut.
According to the initial IDF investigation, a militant cell had emerged from a tunnel and fired at an excavation vehicle, killing the two soldiers. A reserve soldier was also severely wounded and evacuated to a hospital, per The Times of Israel.
According to Professor Kobi Michael, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and the Misgav Institute, the attack showed the fragility of the ceasefire deal.
ISRAEL SAYS HAMAS VIOLATED CEASEFIRE WITH ‘MULTIPLE ATTACKS’ LEADING TO IDF RESPONSE
Major Yaniv Kula was killed by Palestinian terror operatives in IDF-controlled southern Gaza’s Rafah city on Oct. 19 (IDF)
«Today’s violation of the agreement was severe,» Michael said. «I assume that this is not going to be the last one,» he told Fox News Digital.
«Israel complies [with President Trump’s] plan and wants to continue with the realization of the plan,» he said.
«This agreement was violated since the first day by Hamas,» Michael added. «And it continued with their behavior with regard to the hostages, the dead hostages.»
«All the manipulation that they are doing plays on the nerves of Israeli society,» he continued, saying the terror group is «making themselves as if they are not able… to find the bodies where everybody knows that they can.»
STATE DEPARTMENT WARNS HAMAS MAY VIOLATE CEASEFIRE WITH ATTACK ON PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS
Staff Sergeant Itay Yavetz was killed by Palestinian terror operatives in IDF-controlled southern Gaza’s Rafah city on Oct. 19. (IDF)
Michael detailed how the first violation came immediately after the redeployment of the IDF along the so-called Yellow Line, «when Hamas first sent [civilian] children in order to provoke the IDF, in order to check if the IDF is aware enough and ready enough.»
«And then they sent militants of Hamas, and some of them were even killed along the yellow line,» he said.
«They continue reconstituting themselves and attacking the IDF by using the tunnels, using the shafts going out, because they now feel much freer, because the IDF left the populated area,» he explained.
Michael also cited Hamas’ «butchering» of civilians «because they suspect that they collaborated with Israel, or because they are afraid that these hamulas or clans might oppose them in the future… and weaken them.»
ISRAELI TROOPS ‘OPEN FIRE’ ON SUSPECTS WHO APPROACHED SOLDIERS IN NORTHERN GAZA
Terrorists in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah celebrate the ceasefire on Jan. 19, 2025. (TPS-IL)
In response to Sunday’s attack, the IDF launched air and ground strikes across southern Gaza.
«The IDF also struck and dismantled six kilometers of underground terrorist infrastructure, using over 120 munitions. The underground site was used by the terrorist organization to advance attacks against the State of Israel,» it said in a statement.
«The IDF will continue to respond firmly and will operate to eliminate any threat to the State of Israel,» it said.
Israel simultaneously announced a suspension of all humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Michael warned that Hamas has no intention of dismantling itself and cooperating with the plan when it comes to demilitarizing the Gaza Strip and establishing a mechanism of alternative governance.
«Hamas is still using the tunnels, and intends to reconstruct the tunnels that were destroyed by Israel, because they intend to continue the war against Israel,» he said.
STATE DEPARTMENT WARNS HAMAS MAY VIOLATE CEASEFIRE WITH ATTACK ON PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS
Suspected terrorists in Gaza come out of hiding as ceasefire for hostages deal gets underway in Gaza’s Deir al-Balah area. (Majdi Fathi/TPS-IL)
He said that the militant organization has been rebuilding its ranks and reasserting control in the Strip.
«They immediately recruited [thousands] of people and deployed them and are butchering their own people,» Michael said.
«They do not intend to give up on their position and influence in the Gaza Strip. They do not accept the idea of dismantling themselves. And they do not accept the idea that a foreign force or board will govern the Gaza Strip,» he concluded.
The incident comes just days after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, which took effect Oct. 10, temporarily halted the two-year war between Israel and Hamas.
Under the deal, hostages were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and a ceasefire was declared.
Later on Sunday, the IDF announced the resumption of the ceasefire, following retaliatory strikes.
ISRAEL’S COVERT CAMPAIGN TARGETS HAMAS TERRORISTS BEHIND OCT 7 MASSACRE
IDF soldiers salute during a memorial ceremony marking two years since the Oct. 7 attack on Nahal Oz base. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
«In accordance with the directive of the political echelon and following a series of significant strikes in response to Hamas’ violations, the IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire,» a statement read.
«The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it,» the military added.
In a statement, Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon said: «Earlier today, two IDF soldiers, Maj. Yaniv Kula and Staff Sgt. Itay Yavetz, were killed by Hamas terrorists in Rafah in what was a flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement.»
«We mourn their loss and send our condolences to their families. Israel has abided by the terms of the ceasefire agreement, but we will make it clear to Hamas terrorists that the IDF will do whatever it takes to protect Israel’s security,» Danon added.
Michael, meanwhile, predicted delays in reopening the Rafah Crossing, a critical entry point for aid and movement.
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«I don’t think Rafah Crossing will open tomorrow,» he said. «It will take several days until it is opened,» he said.
israel,middle east,wars,conflicts
Los ataques
Trump dice que Ucrania podría tener que ceder territorio para la paz
Residentes cerca de su edificio de apartamentos, alcanzado por un ataque con drones rusos, en medio del ataque de Rusia contra Ucrania, en la ciudad de Shakhtarske, en la región de Dnipropetrovsk, Ucrania. Foto Reuters
Antimileísmo o antikirchnerismo, una contradicción que puede ser vieja
Javier Milei felicitó a Rodrigo Paz tras ser electo presidente de Bolivia: “Van a ingresar al mundo libre”
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Javier Milei: “Al menos hasta 2027 tenemos el apoyo de Estados Unidos asegurado”
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