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Political Bias
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2025 3:04 am
by liberty
I’ve been waiting to see what would happen, and I am not surprised that no one on this board has mentioned the Minnesota welfare‑fraud case involving the “Feed Our Future” program. If it was such a significant fraud, why hasn’t it come up? Of course, there have been larger cases in the country, but this one involved so many people from a single Community that it’s hard to understand how it grew so quickly. So why didn’t somebody snitch? I think the answer should be obvious.
It reminded me of something a girl on an international forum once said. She’s from East Africa, near Lake Victoria, and she grew up in a very poor environment where corruption is more visible in everyday life. Because of that background, she has a deeper understanding of how fraud can develop and spread. She explained that when people live with limited opportunities and constant economic pressure, it’s common for individuals to justify taking whatever financial advantage they can when it appears. She even said that people in other countries might behave the same way under similar circumstances.
Maybe that’s true, but it still has to be stopped, because widespread fraud can destroy a system. It can undermine welfare programs, weaken institutions, and ultimately damage a nation. So why hasn’t it been mentioned here? Could it be political bias?
Re: Political Bias
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2025 5:09 am
by Joe Guy
liberty wrote: ↑Wed Dec 31, 2025 3:04 am
........Maybe that’s true, but it still has to be stopped, because widespread fraud can destroy a system. It can undermine welfare programs, weaken institutions, and ultimately damage a nation. So why hasn’t it been mentioned here? Could it be political bias?
It is massive fraud, that's for sure. There does seem to be a political bias in that the Trump administration seems to want to blame the fraud on Tim Walz just as much as the people who actually committed the fraud.
Re: Political Bias
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2025 1:44 pm
by MajGenl.Meade
I’ve been waiting to see what would happen, and I am not surprised that no one on this board has mentioned the Minnesota welfare‑fraud case involving the “Feed Our Future” program. . . .So why hasn’t it been mentioned here? Could it be political bias?
Are you accusing yourself of not mentioning it before now due to political bias? Or have you (in fact) just found out about it yourself and put on your MAGA butt-nugget hat in order to insult others?
If you are interested in facts (for a change), I suggest you follow this link
https://reason.com/2025/12/30/the-minne ... reaucracy/
That fraud is back at the top of the news this week after YouTuber Nick Shirley went viral with a 42-minute video in which he claims to be "investigating" the fraud scandal. In the video, Shirley knocks on the doors of several day care centers and demands to know whether the centers are engaged in fraud. It's a flashy piece of media, to be sure, and it caught fire over the Christmas weekend on YouTube and Twitter, where Shirley won praise from conservatives for covering a story that the mainstream media is supposedly refusing to touch.
But that is simply not true. Indeed, media outlets in Minnesota and around the country have been covering this story for months. Locally, the day care fraud story has been in the news for years—here's a Minnesota Public Radio article from 2015 about prosecutors targeting four potentially fraudulent day cares . . . There's no doubt that the scandal has become a bigger story because of Walz, who gained national prominence last year as Kamala Harris' running mate, and because it presents an opportunity to scapegoat the entire Somali immigrant and Somali-American community in Minnesota for crimes committed by a tiny fraction of those individuals.
And I guess the bolded part above explains why you've so suddenly glommed onto this to wave your Attila the Hun Fan-club membership card or whoever it is you think is worth more than most of humanity. (I note that this comment is about as valid and useful as your "anti-liberal" sniggering quoted at the start)
Re: Political Bias
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2025 1:48 pm
by MajGenl.Meade
Indeed, maybe the most noteworthy part of the Minnesota welfare fraud story is that it became such a big story at all. Again, I assume that's because these alleged frauds revolve around a pair of politically convenient topics: the Somali immigrant community in Minnesota and the state's hapless governor.
Anyone who wants to stop Medicaid fraud should focus less on scoring partisan political points or demonizing immigrants and more on the boring work of fixing federal policy.
Re: Political Bias
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2025 3:32 pm
by ex-khobar Andy
And, of course, we took a man who ran a company which was fined $1,700,000,000 for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, and made him a US Senator.
If these people in Minnesota did in fact defraud the government, I expect them to be arrested, tried, and if found guilty, punished. I'm pretty sure they (if guilty) were by no means the only ones who had their fingers in the cookie jar so let's find the others.
Rick Scott is still a Senator. No prizes for guessing which party. OK, I'll give you a hint. Nah, you don't need a hint.
Re: Political Bias
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2025 4:46 pm
by BoSoxGal
ex-khobar Andy wrote: ↑Wed Dec 31, 2025 3:32 pm
And, of course, we took a man who ran a company which was fined $1,700,000,000 for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, and made him a US Senator.
If these people in Minnesota did in fact defraud the government, I expect them to be arrested, tried, and if found guilty, punished. I'm pretty sure they (if guilty) were by no means the only ones who had their fingers in the cookie jar so let's find the others.
Rick Scott is still a Senator. No prizes for guessing which party. OK, I'll give you a hint. Nah, you don't need a hint.
From what I understand there have already been a number of convictions and dozens of indictments/prosecutions in this fraud scheme in MN under the prior administration and the investigations have been ongoing for years.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/78th ... aud-scheme
It’s only being made a big deal of right now by MAGA because it suits Trump’s hate agenda re: Representative Ilhan Omar and the Somalian immigrant (sh*thole country lowlifes according to DJT) community overall.
The MAGA machine is currently going after the Somalian immigrant community in Maine regarding a similar but much smaller scale social welfare payments fraud perpetrated by a small number of Somalians and being attributed to the whole community. Maine being a particularly viciously racist state this is getting plenty of space in the social media realm.
Re: Political Bias
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2025 5:28 pm
by liberty
Joe Guy wrote: ↑Wed Dec 31, 2025 5:09 am
liberty wrote: ↑Wed Dec 31, 2025 3:04 am
........Maybe that’s true, but it still has to be stopped, because widespread fraud can destroy a system. It can undermine welfare programs, weaken institutions, and ultimately damage a nation. So why hasn’t it been mentioned here? Could it be political bias?
It is massive fraud, that's for sure. There does seem to be a political bias in that the Trump administration seems to want to blame the fraud on Tim Walz just as much as the people who actually committed the fraud.
Well, to be fair, it was the governor’s state employees who discovered the fraud; however, if the crooks hadn’t gotten so greedy, they might never have been caught.
I’m not surprised that no one in the Somali community snitched. Based on what my African internet acquaintance said, I would think they have a much greater tolerance for corruption and just consider it free money. I reckon corruption is only bad when other people are doing it; when your own people are doing it, it’s okay.
Of course, I haven’t been to Africa, so all I know is what I’m told on the internet. As far as I can tell, this girl is African, and her knowledge of the local people and environment is excellent.
Re: Political Bias
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2025 5:50 pm
by liberty
BoSoxGal wrote: ↑Wed Dec 31, 2025 4:46 pm
ex-khobar Andy wrote: ↑Wed Dec 31, 2025 3:32 pm
And, of course, we took a man who ran a company which was fined $1,700,000,000 for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, and made him a US Senator.
If these people in Minnesota did in fact defraud the government, I expect them to be arrested, tried, and if found guilty, punished. I'm pretty sure they (if guilty) were by no means the only ones who had their fingers in the cookie jar so let's find the others.
Rick Scott is still a Senator. No prizes for guessing which party. OK, I'll give you a hint. Nah, you don't need a hint.
From what I understand there have already been a number of convictions and dozens of indictments/prosecutions in this fraud scheme in MN under the prior administration and the investigations have been ongoing for years.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/78th ... aud-scheme
It’s only being made a big deal of right now by MAGA because it suits Trump’s hate agenda re: Representative Ilhan Omar and the Somalian immigrant (sh*thole country lowlifes according to DJT) community overall.
The MAGA machine is currently going after the Somalian immigrant community in Maine regarding a similar but much smaller scale social welfare payments fraud perpetrated by a small number of Somalians and being attributed to the whole community. Maine being a particularly viciously racist state this is getting plenty of space in the social media realm.
How do you know that Maine is all that racist just because it’s lily‑white? That region is the Yankees of all Yankee states, and a lily‑white complexion is not abnormal for the Northeast. The most mixed populations in this country live in the South.
I suspect Maine is not that racist. It may simply have a strong dislike for corruption, and I also expect that the Somalis don’t. You could argue that, in the country they come from, corruption is a survival mechanism and part of the culture.
But the problem is that when people come from another culture, they don’t just drop their old culture at the border; they bring it with them. However, corruption cannot be tolerated here. It will destroy this country too if it’s allowed to grow.
Re: Political Bias
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2025 8:03 pm
by BoSoxGal
liberty wrote: ↑Wed Dec 31, 2025 5:50 pm
BoSoxGal wrote: ↑Wed Dec 31, 2025 4:46 pm
ex-khobar Andy wrote: ↑Wed Dec 31, 2025 3:32 pm
And, of course, we took a man who ran a company which was fined $1,700,000,000 for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, and made him a US Senator.
If these people in Minnesota did in fact defraud the government, I expect them to be arrested, tried, and if found guilty, punished. I'm pretty sure they (if guilty) were by no means the only ones who had their fingers in the cookie jar so let's find the others.
Rick Scott is still a Senator. No prizes for guessing which party. OK, I'll give you a hint. Nah, you don't need a hint.
From what I understand there have already been a number of convictions and dozens of indictments/prosecutions in this fraud scheme in MN under the prior administration and the investigations have been ongoing for years.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/78th ... aud-scheme
It’s only being made a big deal of right now by MAGA because it suits Trump’s hate agenda re: Representative Ilhan Omar and the Somalian immigrant (sh*thole country lowlifes according to DJT) community overall.
The MAGA machine is currently going after the Somalian immigrant community in Maine regarding a similar but much smaller scale social welfare payments fraud perpetrated by a small number of Somalians and being attributed to the whole community. Maine being a particularly viciously racist state this is getting plenty of space in the social media realm.
How do you know that Maine is all that racist just because it’s lily‑white? That region is the Yankees of all Yankee states, and a lily‑white complexion is not abnormal for the Northeast. The most mixed populations in this country live in the South.
I suspect Maine is not that racist. It may simply have a strong dislike for corruption, and I also expect that the Somalis don’t. You could argue that, in the country they come from, corruption is a survival mechanism and part of the culture.
But the problem is that when people come from another culture, they don’t just drop their old culture at the border; they bring it with them. However, corruption cannot be tolerated here. It will destroy this country too if it’s allowed to grow.
I lived in Maine for a decade and a half, have lots of family and friends in Maine, stay in close touch with what's going on in Maine on the ground and in politics. Maine elected Trump (Paul LePage) before the nation elected Trump, and Maine is notoriously racist - treating the indigenous population worse that almost any other state in the nation because they are denied sovereign status and thus access to many of the federal benefits and protections under federal indian law that sovereign indigenous nations have access to. The history of Maine's notorious racism is readily available to any open minded person doing the research online - or in old fashioned books.
When I attended graduate school in Maine I was a teaching assistant, teaching first year writing courses to mostly first year, some sophomore students. A component of my curriculum was built around MLK Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail, one of the greatest examples of persuasive writing in the English language - as well as some supplementary texts from the 60s civil rights movement. I heard endless complaints from Maine students that the issues were irrelevant because there is no such thing as racism - a giant red flag for racism, duh. This was during the OJ Simpson trial and despite all the issues raised in that affair which we discussed in class, still a refusal from many of the students born/bred in Maine to acknowledge any ongoing issues with racism - most of the students from out of state and the international students I taught had a very different perspective.
I'm still in touch with some of my graduate school classmates, a few of whom are still at the flagship state university as adjuncts or lecturers teaching first year writing (it's a mandatory course for all students who don't test out) and using that teaching unit, because it's TIMELESS. I've heard from them the evidence of ongoing resistance from many of the students from Maine even in the midst of the George Floyd/BLM movement and beyond.
Maine is one of, if not the, whitest state(s) in the nation, and incarcerates black people at a rate 9x higher than the white population - one of the highest such disparity rates in the nation. Maine has recently (like everywhere in USA) seen a rise in hate crimes, and most are directed at black people. Maine has an active militia movement which exhibits neo-Nazi and KKK ideologies. The Klan was burning crosses in Maine as recently as the late 80s and they may be underground but they aren't gone.
During the 1990s Maine saw an influx of Somali refugees and resettlers from elsewhere in the country, mostly in the Lewiston area, where they have revitalized an urban area that was in serious decline after the closing of paper mills and other industry. There has been significant backlash against this browning of central and southern Maine (there is a large Somali population in Portland now) by the usual disgusting redneck racist Mainers. This backlash has been going on throughout the 90s and up to this day. If you get online to the comments sections of any community pages, newspapers, etc. right now - today - you'll see dozens of racist comments attacking the Somali community as a whole for the pandemic/PPP fraud of one or two Somalis. I never see them talking about Bret Favre or any of the other white fraudsters who have bilked the US treasury for many millions more than the fraud currently under investigation related to an alleged Somali immigrant perpetrator.
I could go on and on but you're a closed minded racist yourself so there is very little point - my post is primarily for the benefit of others who may not be familiar with Maine's racist history and present racism. I love Maine, it's a beautiful state where I once intended to spend my life - but it has a very ugly underbelly and I no longer miss the place since the advent of social media allowed the reality of widespread racist attitudes to be undeniable by anyone other than a ostrich.
Re: Political Bias
Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2026 9:50 pm
by liberty
BoSoxGal wrote: ↑Wed Dec 31, 2025 8:03 pm
liberty wrote: ↑Wed Dec 31, 2025 5:50 pm
BoSoxGal wrote: ↑Wed Dec 31, 2025 4:46 pm
From what I understand there have already been a number of convictions and dozens of indictments/prosecutions in this fraud scheme in MN under the prior administration and the investigations have been ongoing for years.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/78th ... aud-scheme
It’s only being made a big deal of right now by MAGA because it suits Trump’s hate agenda re: Representative Ilhan Omar and the Somalian immigrant (sh*thole country lowlifes according to DJT) community overall.
The MAGA machine is currently going after the Somalian immigrant community in Maine regarding a similar but much smaller scale social welfare payments fraud perpetrated by a small number of Somalians and being attributed to the whole community. Maine being a particularly viciously racist state this is getting plenty of space in the social media realm.
How do you know that Maine is all that racist just because it’s lily‑white? That region is the Yankees of all Yankee states, and a lily‑white complexion is not abnormal for the Northeast. The most mixed populations in this country live in the South.
I suspect Maine is not that racist. It may simply have a strong dislike for corruption, and I also expect that the Somalis don’t. You could argue that, in the country they come from, corruption is a survival mechanism and part of the culture.
But the problem is that when people come from another culture, they don’t just drop their old culture at the border; they bring it with them. However, corruption cannot be tolerated here. It will destroy this country too if it’s allowed to grow.
I lived in Maine for a decade and a half, have lots of family and friends in Maine, stay in close touch with what's going on in Maine on the ground and in politics. Maine elected Trump (Paul LePage) before the nation elected Trump, and Maine is notoriously racist - treating the indigenous population worse that almost any other state in the nation because they are denied sovereign status and thus access to many of the federal benefits and protections under federal indian law that sovereign indigenous nations have access to. The history of Maine's notorious racism is readily available to any open minded person doing the research online - or in old fashioned books.
When I attended graduate school in Maine I was a teaching assistant, teaching first year writing courses to mostly first year, some sophomore students. A component of my curriculum was built around MLK Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail, one of the greatest examples of persuasive writing in the English language - as well as some supplementary texts from the 60s civil rights movement. I heard endless complaints from Maine students that the issues were irrelevant because there is no such thing as racism - a giant red flag for racism, duh. This was during the OJ Simpson trial and despite all the issues raised in that affair which we discussed in class, still a refusal from many of the students born/bred in Maine to acknowledge any ongoing issues with racism - most of the students from out of state and the international students I taught had a very different perspective.
I'm still in touch with some of my graduate school classmates, a few of whom are still at the flagship state university as adjuncts or lecturers teaching first year writing (it's a mandatory course for all students who don't test out) and using that teaching unit, because it's TIMELESS. I've heard from them the evidence of ongoing resistance from many of the students from Maine even in the midst of the George Floyd/BLM movement and beyond.
Maine is one of, if not the, whitest state(s) in the nation, and incarcerates black people at a rate 9x higher than the white population - one of the highest such disparity rates in the nation. Maine has recently (like everywhere in USA) seen a rise in hate crimes, and most are directed at black people. Maine has an active militia movement which exhibits neo-Nazi and KKK ideologies. The Klan was burning crosses in Maine as recently as the late 80s and they may be underground but they aren't gone.
During the 1990s Maine saw an influx of Somali refugees and resettlers from elsewhere in the country, mostly in the Lewiston area, where they have revitalized an urban area that was in serious decline after the closing of paper mills and other industry. There has been significant backlash against this browning of central and southern Maine (there is a large Somali population in Portland now) by the usual disgusting redneck racist Mainers. This backlash has been going on throughout the 90s and up to this day. If you get online to the comments sections of any community pages, newspapers, etc. right now - today - you'll see dozens of racist comments attacking the Somali community as a whole for the pandemic/PPP fraud of one or two Somalis. I never see them talking about Bret Favre or any of the other white fraudsters who have bilked the US treasury for many millions more than the fraud currently under investigation related to an alleged Somali immigrant perpetrator.
I could go on and on but you're a closed minded racist yourself so there is very little point - my post is primarily for the benefit of others who may not be familiar with Maine's racist history and present racism. I love Maine, it's a beautiful state where I once intended to spend my life - but it has a very ugly underbelly and I no longer miss the place since the advent of social media allowed the reality of widespread racist attitudes to be undeniable by anyone other than a ostrich.
Excuse me if I am missing something, but what you described sounds like your personal perception. Remember this people from the general white population can also be victims of hostility or assault, sometimes simply for having white skin, just as minorities can. Experiences like these are not limited to any one group, and they can happen in almost any state or community.
When I was in Job Corps, I personally experienced hostility from some individuals simply because I was white. Whites made up only about three percent of the Job Corps population at that time, and some people seemed to think that was too many. Most of the white students left, but I stayed until I was drafted, although I later failed the physical.
My point is that people of any background can be targeted by others. If someone, whether Black, Somali, or anyone else, is attacked, how can we automatically know it was a racist attack? Sometimes it may simply be a conflict between two undesirable individuals.
As for racism, I do not think it will ever disappear completely unless society tried something extreme and unacceptable, like eliminating with extreme prejudice anyone who is labeled racist. That would inevitably harm innocent people who do not fit someone’s definition of racism. It is better to focus on the things we can actually influence.
You may think this perspective is racist, but it is simply my observation. I suspect that some tight knit communities, such as certain religious or cultural groups like Somalis in the United States, may feel more loyalty to each other than to the broader state or nation. For example, if someone within their group committed a crime, many individuals might ignore it. That is just my general perception, although individuals may vary.
Re: Political Bias
Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2026 2:21 am
by Burning Petard
"Excuse me if I am missing something, but what you described sounds like your personal perception."
Of course it is. That is all any of us have. Many PhD 's have been awarded for discussions of how we know what we know, most of them self-contradictory. All I have is little energy blips moving around in my brain cells. Sending out a thousand job applications and getting no response is only a personal perception that the sender cannot make a useful contribution to some community somewhere. Has nothing to do with their name which comes out of a traditional central African culture which has no good Latin alphabet representation.
Happy New Year. I look forward to 2026.
snailgate