BahRamYou
1d ago
it's amazing how catty and petty she comes across in that passage. I wonder if she realizes that those are both still very prominent Democratic politicians and that she's basically sabotaging them with her book?
BahRamYou
1d ago
Realistically, i don't think that's the direct means of the fraud. It's just another way they form an insular, clannish community that trusts itself to do organized crime against the rest of us. Most of the daycares seem to be making up fake kids, and maybe occasionally bussing in some kids if they need evidence.
BahRamYou
1d ago
Luckily the law doesn't recognize muslim polygamous marriages as "wives" !
BahRamYou
1d ago
Thanks, that's a good resource. I tried searching Ohio but couldn't find anything, mostly because they didn't have clear public-facing info for this sort of thing (and admittedly I didn't look too hard).
I really wonder though, if it's just Daycare, or how many other industries are corrupted by this sort of fraud.
New Nick Shirley video just dropped and it's a banger: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LmIrwjKQQKc
This one is a long-form, extended interview with David, the older man from the previous video. Apparently he's been investigating this stuff for years, rather obsessively, to the point where he's lost friends and family because they just think he's some sort of crazy racist person for investigating.
It's a bit long and meandering, so it's hard to keep track of all the claims made in it. I think we'll need time to process this and investigate further. I'd like to see this written in text with sources, instead of just a long interview. But among the claims made:
- That this is all organized by Somali gangs, with the gang leaders bringing retribution on any family that doesn't go along with it. Investigators like David also get threatened with violence.
- Widespread voter fraud from families living in collective housing. One person collects the ballots, "vouches" for all the people living there with no proof, and then returns a massive ballot stack all voting the same way.
- "This is the worst fraud in human history." He estimates that a total of $80-100 billion was stolen by fraud in Minnesota
- "However bad you imagine it is, it's worse. He alledges that basically every social program in Minnesota is now heavily corrupted by fraud. Some of the biggest are schools that might have 10 students, but pretending to get 100 or more so that they can get massive amounts of state funding. Medical services do the same.
- This is all protected by the government and judicial system of Minnesota. At one point, David did the work to prove that a Somali leader did $7.2 million of fraud. He was convicted unanimously by a jury, but the judge overturned the verdict and left him free to continue collecting more money. The judges are elected, probably with the help of fraudalent Somali votes.
- This isn't just state money, it's also federal money. This increases the scale, but also increases the severity of the crimes.
- That Somalians routinely travel back to Somali, taking large amounts of cash with them (well over the TSA limit of $10,000), and for some reason the TSA grants them an exception to this when any normal American would be arrested or stopped for questioning.
So... will this lead to anything further? Tim Walz already said he won't run for reelection, but at this point I no longer think that's enough. The feds need to come purge the entire state government of Minnesota on charges of racketeering and voter fraud.
BahRamYou
1d ago
I don't have kids, but I always imagined that's what it would be like for me. I feel very awkward around babies and little kids. I like the general idea of having kids, and I think I'd be decent at raising older kids, but with little kids I'm totally lost. I just don't feel that sense of cuteness that other people seem to feel.
I think it's OK to be honest and admit that's how we feel (although you probably shouldn't say it publically or admit it to your family). I feel like that's a very natural state of affairs for men, really. Just let it be. We'll step up for the big emergencies, but we really don't want to be there in "house husband" mode babysitting the kids nonstop. We'd probably have more kids if society in general was OK with us being mostly hands off in child rearing.
My dream is to have kids, then spend most of my time hanging out at some old school mens' social club talking business over cigars and brandy, seeing the kids only briefly for the big events.
BahRamYou
2d ago
I think this is just the pragmatic move for him as a good party member. He's not resigning or admitting guilt, he's just saying he won't run for reelection. The election is still a year away, so there's plenty of time to find a new candidate. If he had stayed in the election it would draw (even more) national attention to the scandal and drag down the entire Democratic party. This way, the heat stays more contained to just Tim Walz personally, and I suspect the party will reward him with some sort of cushy job in the future (director of a nonprofit with a high salary and nebulous job duties is a common choice).
BahRamYou
2d ago
No, that's not how the oil business works. First, while they do have a small amount of easily drilled conventional oil, that's not what gets people excited. When you hear people talk about Venezuela's "world's largest oil reserves," it's almost all unconventional oil (extra-heavy or oil sands). For that, just the basic costs of drilling it are very high. It's not uncommon for oil companies in Alberta, Canada to operate at a loss because it's difficult to restart production after shutting it down. But that doesn't mean they want to expand production or can make money that way. Even if Trump wants to gift them a ton of free equipment and expert petroleum engineers, that doesn't magically make it profitable.
Apparently, crude oil is 90% of Venezuela's exports. My guess is that Trump will take most of that revenue for the US. While parts of that revenue previously ended in slush funds, part of it also stabilized the regime, paying for stuff the population needs or likes.
Are they even making money on oil at all right now? Their cost of production is much higher than what it sells for, since all they have is heavy crude. In theory they could get some financing based on hypothetical future profits if the price of oil rises... but that's kind of hard when they're a tinpot dictatorship that nationalized a bunch of foreign oil property not that long ago. Nobody wants to loan them money.
I'm worried that this will lead to an even further destruction of their economy as their cocaine money goes away and anyone with any sort of means runs away to the US.
BahRamYou
2d ago
Ironically, the president probably has more power to affect change in Venezuela than he does in Minneapolis. He has broad power to use the military without any formal declaration of war, especially to arrest a criminal like Maduro. But in Minneapolis... well, until someone can actuall prove fraud, those Somalis are all legal American citizens. It's going to be a huge ordeal to track down and prove the fraud, and I don't think Trump has the time or attention to detail for that.
BahRamYou
4d ago
At this point, Venezuela is a lot more strategically significant than Cuba. More people, more resources, more cartels, and of course way more oil. Cuba is just a leftover dump from the 60s.
I'm listening to Trump's press briefing right now. He seems... pretty blatant that this is about oil. Saying something like "Over the years, their oil business has been a failure. They're pumping far less than they could have. But it will now be under control of America's oil companies, the greatest oil companies in the world, and they'll get it pumping like never before." That's not an exact quote of course, but it's not far off.
So uh... congrats to the oil company shareholders, I guess.
BahRamYou
6d ago
My question is: If a 23 year old guerilla journalist (who was not particularly rigorous in his methods) was able to blow this up, then why didn't legacy media go after this low hanging fruit? I have my own ideas (mostly ideological capture of the media)
Part of it is that it took time to develop the sort of alternative, right-wing media that would actually cover news like this and popularize it. I'm guessing most of us had never heard of Nick Shirley before this (did any of you?). I only heard about it because other, more established channels picked up on it and pushed his video. This eventually percolated all the way up to the Vice President and national media. But without those other, larger, right wing channels, the whole thing would have been quietly swept under the rug. Maybe there's a time when Fox News might have covered it but they just seem pretty useless in general, now.
it does sound insane that they're allowing something which could potentially compromise national security. The military didn't even tell congress they were doing this, to prevent leaks, but someone apparently put this out there on a public website?
Selfishlly, I wonder if we could take advantage of this. Maybe set up a script that would watch for big, sudden bets on unusual markets from newly created accounts, and then piggy back off of them.
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