The Somali Fraud As A Red Pill

 One of the more thoughtful YouTube channels is the Feral Historian who often takes fiction--almost always science fiction--to illustrate historical themes and political philosophy. His most recent video examines the question: "Is The Matrix A Right-Wing Story?" You obviously can't discuss The Matrix as it applies to politics without commenting on the popular theme of taking the "red pill" or taking the "blue pill." As the producer makes clear, "When I talk about red pill here, I mean it in the sense of Neo wanting to know the truth and then having to come to terms with it before he can prepare himself to fight it. And by blue pill, I mean like Cipher, who would rather embrace a comforting lie, absolved of any responsibility, just playing a part like an actor." 

    If I were to identify a "comforting lie" that we have been exposed to over and over through our lives, it would be the idea of the West having a duty to accept immigrants from everywhere and anywhere. This is, itself, based on other pillars, two of which are "white guilt" and "everyone is the same". Think the old time propaganda of "It's A Small World After All" and "This Land Is Your Land." In this comfortable world, not only should we want to allow dark skinned people from alien cultures come to the U.S. (or other Western nations) but we have a duty or obligation to admit them, no matter how many want to come; to think otherwise is to be racist. 

    But as the Feral Historian points out in his video, this "comforting lie" seems to be breaking down. One of the points he makes in passing is that given the growing acceptance that in the West that we might see a civil war, "this idea of trying to save people who are trying to destroy you is increasingly relevant in contemporary politics." Which brings me to the Somali fraud.

    Glenn Reynolds, who I would describe as a traditional Rockefeller-type Republican, noted in his recent article, "UBI For Me, But Not For Thee," 

The explosive unveiling of the wildly extensive Somali-run daycare scams in Minnesota has drawn attention to a huge shadow economy, and not just in Minnesota. America, it turns out, is full of people, companies, and organizations that basically live off of fraud. We’re not talking old-fashioned waste, like $600 hammers or $1200 toilet seats. We’re talking about entities whose sole reason for existence consists of being a conduit for taxpayer money to flow directly to the people controlling them, with some of the proceeds being diverted to politicians and political organizations.

There is the saying that "import the third world, become the third world." Reynolds gentrifies this as "high-trust societies become lower trust when they import large numbers of people from low trust societies, as America has done for several decades now," explaining that:

Import individual Somalis and they acculturate to the larger culture, usually. Import whole clans and they perpetuate their own culture, which emphasizes clan loyalty (no snitching!) and sees exploiting outsiders as okay, and even laudable.

Being a Rockefeller-type Republican, he offers no solutions, merely noting the impact on the public fisc. But at least he acknowledges that certain peoples cannot be allowed into the country in any sizable quantity or concentration.

    Roger Kimball, writing at The Spectator, takes the additional step in his piece, "The Somali fraud scandal is a turning point."  Although not the first to expose fraud involving Somalis, Nick Shirley's citizen journalism exposing the daycare fraud has caught the attention of the public notwithstanding the heroic efforts of the main stream media to either undermine Shirley or obfuscate the size and extent of the fraud. As Kimball relates, "As I write, the 42-minute video that Shirley posted on X has been viewed more than 116 million times. That makes it one of the most-viewed clips in history." 

    But why has it caught the public's attention? Kimball mulls this over and offers this suggestion:

    Confronted with the fact that Somalis have systematically pilfered billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money in order to enrich themselves, bribe politicians and fund terrorist activities in Somalia, the public are outraged – and rightly. They see now how Democrats coddle illegal immigrants, lavish them with taxpayers’ money and then cultivate them as Democratic voters. ...

But part of the reason, I suspect, is that it is the first time that many in the public have been exposed to the uncomfortable truth--the red pill--that not everyone is the same, not everyone can become an American. Kimball continues:

The canny chap who writes under the name Cynical Publius may well be correct that “in large swathes of humanity, there is no actual concept of ‘fraud,’ particularly fraud against the government.” Instead, there is a categorical imperative to get away with whatever you can “to help yourself and your tribe.” The problem is, notes Publius, that “introducing a fraud-based culture based on tribalism into America is like introducing some sort of lethal virus into a population that has no natural immunity. The virus will spread and grow, unchecked, because it is so alien to the host.”  

And, he adds: "The virus must be neutralized or it will destroy the host." He then goes where more main-stream pundits like him have not previously dared to go: he suggests that the way to neutralize the virus is not just addressing the fiscal issue--such as cutting off the flow of money--but also that "as much of the 'Somali community' as possible should be repatriated to where it belongs: Somalia. That is why God made Tom Homan."

    But I will give Reynolds credit for pointing out that this is part of a larger issue that our government is no longer one of "government of the people, by the people, for the people." He observes:

And even if people do get angry, the entire structure of the government and its hangers on is designed (yes, designed, this is no accident) to limit accountability to voters and taxpayers. Unelected bureaucrats administer programs passed without scrutiny in massive omnibus bills, and often act through “nonprofits” and NGOs that further blur accountability. Judges, generally unelected too, often run interference for the machine. This is of a piece with the entire post-WWII institutional restructuring — here and in Europe — which was quite consciously designed to ensure that voters have as little impact on what happens as possible. It’s mostly worked. In a sense, our managerial/political class has colonized the nation for its own benefit, from the inside out. 

I think that Shirley's revelations did not seize the public interest merely because it was yet another example of "a long train of abuses and usurpations" by a corrupted government but because it made the people seeing feel like suckers: for paying taxes, for believing that alien peoples were just like us, for being the marks in a flagrant abuse of our charity. 

    But taking this "red pill" will get people wondering about other programs, other frauds, other groups, and how this could go on for so long. Elon Musk recently tweeted that he believed that fraudulent payments could run as high as 20% of the federal budget, or $1.5 trillion. "Probably much higher." It seems that the U.S. government is less of a government and more of a giant con. And nobody likes be taken in by a con. 

More:

• "Shocking unearthed footage shows parents pretending to drop kids off at a Minnesota day care center"--New York Post. From the article: "Shocking unearthed video from a 2018 state fraud case shows Minnesota parents dropping their children off at a day care center and then leaving with the kids moments later — as authorities probe a rampant billion-dollar fraud scheme in Minneapolis."
• "Database Searches Show Somali Fraudsters Funding Democrat Politicians"--Breitbart. Of course, because the welfare fraud is the domestic equivalent of USAID.
• "Somali daycare scandal sparks fears Minnesota's elections have been rigged as 'loophole made for fraud' is exposed"--Daily Mail. Explaining:

    Of particular concern is an election law that allows a registered voter to 'vouch' for up to eight people seeking same-day registration without an ID.

    Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon's website explains the process — which is entirely unique among the United States. 

    'A registered voter from your precinct can go with you to the polling place to sign an oath confirming your address. This is known as "vouching." A registered voter can vouch for up to eight voters,' it says.

    Not only this, but voting forms add that 'employees of a residential facility may vouch for an unlimited number of facility residents.' 

• "DOJ Made A Search Warrant Affidavit Public That Explains What It Has Uncovered In Minnesota Over the Past Eight Months"--Shipwreckedcrew. All sorts of welfare and public assistance fraud involving providers of services under Medicare programs, early education providers, etc., following the same formula as the daycare fraud: lots of small providers with only a few clients each with the government being billed for services never provided or non-existent clients, while Democrats looked the other way because it benefited them.

     As I’ve said on X and elsewhere for years, social welfare and health care programs in the United States — funded with tax dollars by the federal government — operate on a “pay now, verify later” basis. The “good work” supposedly being done by these programs is used to justify a tolerance for a certain amount of criminal exploitation. Random audits are relied upon to detect fraudulent claims, with corrective action coming long after the fraud has extracted billions in taxpayer dollars for the benefit of the fraudsters.

    Somalis involved in the various fraud schemes have purchased new homes, commercial properties, expensive luxury vehicles, traveled extensively abroad while enjoying first class luxury accommodations, purchased foreign investment property, and sent billions of dollars back to Somalia and neighboring Kenya — better investment opportunities are found in Kenya.

    This must end.