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
1d 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
3d 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.
BahRamYou
8d ago
Electoral Math. Sure, they might be only 2% of the state's population. But they can act as a solid block to deliver their votes en masse to whichever candidate curries their favor. And the politicians know that they can do that, especially Ilhan Omar and other Somali politicians. If you work really, really hard to win the white vote in Minnesota, you might win them 51-49, with roughly 1/3 of that wasted on republican candidates who can never win. Your opponent can make up the difference by winning 100% of that 2% Somali vote. That gives them incredible levels of political influence.
BahRamYou
8d ago
I think the real story is that many dozens of less flashy whistleblowers, like the older man in the video, have been investigating this stuff for years. Many of the people involved have already been charged with crimes since months ago, and the fraud centers shut down. Nick Shirley didn't really uncover anything, he just made a fun video demonstrating it to the general public. I agree that some of his presentation is a bit deceptive, but it's directionally correct in that it shows how blatant and widespread the fraud was, in a short punchy format that regular people can watch.
BahRamYou
9d ago
The theme song from Neon Genesis Evangelion, "Cruel Angel's Thesis" always sounded like that to me. Enough so that I get low-key annoyed when people play it in a casual setting.
BahRamYou
9d ago
In Korea, it's pretty simple, they wanted to prevent the collapse of DPRK and maintain a defensive buffer at a minimum, eliminate South Korea as a stretch goal, and they succeeded in their minimal goals.
A more cynical answer is that, in 1950, Mao and the PRC was saddled with an alarmingly large number of veteran soldiers left over from Nationalist China. They were of highly questionable loyalty (having fought the last 10 years against the PRC) and the PRC government couldn't afford to pay them, being desparately poor at that time. So by launching them into a spectacularly bloody war against a foreign country, he managed to both eliminate them in a cost-effective way and boost his own popularity by riding a wave of nationalism.
BahRamYou
15d ago
BahRamYou
15d ago
In my opinion, self_made is a textbook narcissist who only writes to puff up his own ego. I also skim all his posts and I think it's regrettable that he's a mod here.
BahRamYou
15d ago
I think that this sort of person- "I spent the maximum money for the latest and greatest GPU, and therefore I will buy the latest AAA games, regardless of how stupid they are-" is going to becoming a vanishingly rare part of the market. See also: "Guy who buys a new car every year" and "Guy who goes to Vegas every year."
BahRamYou
15d ago
I think the issue is that making games- especially big, prizewinning, AAA games- is inherently an artistic endeavor. And that attracts artist-types who are the most likely to be woke. Sure, the coders, testers, QA folks, etc might be chuds, but the ones making the creative decisions are highly susceptible to wokeness. It's not even about making money, they're just doing what they think is right. It's the same reason that Hollywood movies are so woke.
On the other hand, it kind of doesn't matter. There's so many games already made that no human can play them all in a lifetime. The technology has plateued so that new ones aren't any better than old ones- in fact with the RAM and GPU shortage, newer computers might actually be worse than old ones. We can easily immerse ourselves in old chud-made entertainment forever.
BahRamYou
17d ago
Re: Patrick O'Brian and what to read after you finish Aubrey-Maturin, I recently read Beat to Quarters, the first-published Hornblower novel. It's okay, definitely not as fun as O'Brian. There's a sort of dynamic where Hornblower is internally tortured by self-doubt but externally distant, steely, and always right that annoys me a bit and vaguely reminds me of certain animes.
I read those books when I was about 12. I loved them at the time, perfect for a tween boy. But yes, in retrospect Hornblower is very much a Mary Sue and they're not nearly as sophisticated as the Aubrey-Maturin novels. It's more interesting to me that he was also literally working for the British Ministry of Information at the time, writing propaganda, so I wonder how much of the series was influenced by that.
I think The African Queen is his best book for adults. It has an interesting setting that you don't see much (African riverine warfare, circa 1914) and more realistically flawed characters.
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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