"This doesn’t mean that Somalis don’t commit fraud; but for the most part left-leaning elite institutions like the NYT and the Biden administration have given the issue about the level of attention it deserves"
I didn't see a word about it in the NYT until the City Journal reporting. Multibillion dollar fraud that the state of Minnesota refused to notice for race reasons is a pretty big deal
Furthermore, the idea that respectable outlets never start with a narrative and then go looking for evidence is laughable. That is Nikole Hannah Jones' whole Pulitzer Prize winning career
>>The meta-story—how a news item weaves its way through public discourse—is also worth considering. When we published the story, it quickly dominated the conversation on conservative social media. It filtered upward to primetime Fox News, where, on Laura Ingraham’s program, I summarized the piece and called on President Trump to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for all Somalis in Minnesota.
>>Within hours, the president, who had been following the story, announced that he would revoke TPS for all Somali recipients. Then, over the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump raised the stakes with a blistering social media tirade that ripped into Somali fraudsters, accused Minnesota governor Tim Walz of mental deficiencies, and promised to stop all asylum cases and immigration from the Third World. This sequence of events turned the Minnesota fraud into the debate of the moment.
>>The next step in the process is for the liberal media to respond. Right on cue, CBS News published a story misrepresenting our report and “debunking” that misrepresentation—a claim that it eventually retracted under pressure. The New York Times did somewhat better, publishing a long feature on the Somali fraud, confirming key details, and opening the floodgates for discourse on the center-left. The spotlight thus turned to Governor Walz, who was at the helm when Somali thieves robbed Minnesota of billions.
>>On the surface, the Times story was an acknowledgment that this was a real scandal that the liberal press had missed. But the paper did not address the underlying narrative about why the fraud happened. Yes, the story is about a criminal enterprise, but it runs deeper than that. The story has touched a nerve because it busts liberal myths about immigration, anti-racism, and the welfare state.
My point was that the NYT reluctantly took up the story only after they couldn't ignore it any further. City Journal, which is a respected right-of-center publication, is what kicked off the news cycle. It was not national news before that.
Sure, but LOTs of things aren't national news until someone decides to make an issue of it. As I pointed out, the people most affected are in Minnesota. A local nonprofit news organization covered it in 2024, and the Biden DOJ got 47 indictments and several convictions *years* before it was covered by City Journal.
And none of this means Nick Shirley is a legitimate journalist.
Again, you seem angry that the NYT -- who I suspect you don't even read -- didn't cover it on your schedule.
In June, Trump's DOJ indicted a bunch of Russian medicare scammers. The NYT covered it, probably because the scammers were based in New York. Did they pass your criteria for acceptable reporting?
I fully agree that lots of things aren't national news until someone decides to make an issue of it. That was part of my point.
I have read the NYT every day for thirty years or more. They were forced to concede implicitly that this was a big story worthy of national coverage that they missed, as Rufo noted. They would not have covered it on any schedule if they hadn't been forced to.
>Multibillion dollar fraud that the state of Minnesota refused to notice for race reasons is a pretty big deal
Until we crowdfund $500 worth of MAGA signs and get some right wing influencers to claim it was Haitians committing the fraud all along because black people look the same anyways. Then Trump will give a full and unconditional pardon to every single Somalian in Minnesota, like he's done to Blagojevich, Cuellar, Santos, Galanis, and every other person convicted of fraud and corruption crimes that's willing to suck up to him.
And of course Minnesota didn't "refuse to notice" the fraud. There was billions of dollar in fraud for PPP loans. The federal government didn't "refuse to notice" the fraud. There are still new indictments each week charging people for abusing the PPP program from 5 years ago. Just like with the Minnesota fraud.
The right wing narrative is 95% lies if you just compare this to any other long running fraud prosecutions. But right wingers are retarded so they don't engage in any sort of fact finding.
Here's the quality of Rufo's private investigators and "confidential sources" https://christopherrufo.com/p/the-cat-eaters-of-ohio which consist of a black guy's social media post claiming that chickens over a grill are actually skinned cats lmao. WHY IS THE WHITE HATING LEFTIST MEDIA SUPPRESSING RUFO'S STORIES??? Can we get Trump who never lies and only posts Truths™ to uncover the welfare fraud Haitians in Ohio are committing to purchase and eat cats and dogs from their neighbors?
Nobody sane on Team Blue has a problem locking up criminals. Nobody sane on Team Red supports race science. Can we find countless examples of loonies/extremists such as Nikole Hannah Jones? Absolutely. You know that, I know that and you know that I know that. Everyone can see right through the strawman nonsense on both sides but nobody important can set aside their team affiliation to have an honest conversation across the aisle. Any politician or big influencer who does on Team Red is labeled a RINO and canceled. Any politician or big influencer who does on Team Blue is labeled Corporate and canceled. That’s how I feel about the modern shitshow anyway. End rant.
I haven’t watched his video and don’t have a horse in this race, but I’m not sure your critique makes sense. If there’s a significant percentage of the Somali community in Minnesota committing fraud (which Rufo and others have proven to be the case, with the many thousands of fraudulent autism cases), then it’s very easy for them to coordinate and volunteer their children to show up in fake daycares to disprove Nick Shirley and the increased scrutiny.
If I’m staffing a daycare and a guy comes over to me and asks to enroll his child, I would have forms ready. (I might also tell him I’m happy to show him the daycare if he shuts his camera off.) So you haven’t proven that Shirley got it wrong.
“I haven’t watched his video and don’t have a horse in this race” then proceed to talk about the horse you have in this race. Also what is the “significant percentage of the Somali community” you think you are implicating, 10%? Nick Shirleys journalism was dishonest, creepy and above all else just unintelligent. It quite literally proved nothing, and you’re a goober for defending it without having any of the necessary context.
“This doesn’t mean that Somalis don’t commit fraud; but for the most part left-leaning elite institutions like the NYT and the Biden administration have given the issue about the level of attention it deserves, up to and including criminal indictments.”
Never go full libtard.
Shame that Walz, such a great specimen of human capital, decided to resign merely over rightwing agitprop. Definitely Minnesota progressives were going to enforce the law against “the people that built Minnesota.” Clearly, progressives nationwide can be trusted to root out welfare fraud. They have all that human capital.
This is why I don't subscribe. What a petty, jealous little man you are.
This isn't about Nick Shirley. It should be a story about YouTube, and Joe Rogan style podcasts [and X as the vehicle of transmission]. How these outlets....as far away from old fashion journalism as they are...is where very large numbers of commoners get their information and news. They then go elsewhere when left and right legacy style media picks it up. But it is always [these days] the internet that hits most people. Don't know if you heard.....but people don't rust the lying old fashion legacy media......that includes Fox, etc...
You didn't notice, Richard Hanania, because your nose is stuck up your ass....but Congressman Jason Lewis CD-2 Minnesota on the floor of Congress in 2019 warned us about these kinds of frauds in Minnesota. Nobody gave a shit. Local Minneapolis Channel 9, a Fox affiliate had stories on these kinds of frauds back in 2009. Nobody gave a shit. Minnesota outlets alphanewsmn.com, americanexperiment.org, and www.powerlineblog.com have been writing about this since 2020. Nobody gave a shit. Why??? Because nobody reads that stuff or listens to that stuff [because they are small and rely on donations to survive [I read them all the fucking time....and never read the NY Times, listen to Fox, etc....except after the little guys do the work].....just like nobody is going to read the dribble you write.
Nick Shirley did the country a massive service......by opening this story up...to the masses. And you are to petty and jealous and arrogant to understand what the real story is.
Shirley didn’t do any substantive investigative work—his account simply got boosted. Much was already known before Shirley. He was also factually incorrect. You seem to have completely missed Hanania’s point, viz. that “citizen journalists” who are dumb/sloppy/unethical rarely advance understanding.
Yes, Nick Shirley is an immature clown. But the fact that the media has become not journalists but gatekeepers - deciding which stories to boost and which to ignore - is what allows guys like him to have an impact. The story is real, and you, Richard, are becoming a clown yourself for denying it, and for acting like the media is still doing a good job.
I'm glad I stopped subscribing. While many of your articles are quite good, posts like these show a discomfort with your beliefs. So there are few - or no - conservative intellectuals? What does that have to do with you? Be the only one then. There are plenty of centrist intellectuals like your buddy Rob Henderson, or Niall Ferguson, or dozens of others whom you seem to have more in common with than actual conservatives. So why keep harping on it? It seems your identity is all wrapped up in "being an intellectual," and that's just childish. As is, increasingly, much of your writing.
Kudos to Nick Shirley for exposing massive fraud in Minnesota. Anybody who actually takes the time to watch it will see how obvious the fraud is. Funny the day AFTER this story broke all of a sudden children show up at these daycare centers. Amazing! Even though the locals were saying they've never seen children there before. I wish the "real" investigative journalists could do as well as this kid in exposing fraud. Anytime real fraud is exposed, like DOGE did, they do all they can to discredit it and debunk it, but they can't legitimately deny it.
He didn’t expose anything. The fraud was already exposed, and prosecuted, by the Biden administration. There is no ‘fraud’ in the video. There’s a creepy kid and a washed up boomer demanding to film children at establishments where that is not allowed, by state law. It was filmed during Christmas break, when most are home and not dropping their kids at daycare.
Nick is pointing out the bloody obvious facts about the total exploitation of America and Europe by the Muslim immigrants fleecing the tax payer for billions while harming society and making it an unsafe place. America gives them everything….they only give hell back!!!!!
Fraud is bad and should be investigated and prosecuted -- which happened to both the Russian fraud and Somali fraud --but I don't see the point of dragging religion into it.
Unfortunately your comment section is full of these people too 🤣
Hit the nail on the head when you said that idiots focus on the small picture. Reminiscent of Trump BRINGING ORDER to US Cities by blowing millions of dollars on bringing in the national guard. The moment those troops leave it will be back to the way it was before, no long-term solutions, just emotions.
Idk, this seems to be a case of nitpicking little things he got wrong instead of focusing on the real issue; the very real fraud. I think you're letting your understandable disgust for the right-wing ecosystem get the better of you and you're refusing to look at the evidence of fraud.
The average black American costs their government 900k over their lifetime, Hispanics 700k. Somalis were given licence to take that quite a bit further.
A true intellectual should be able to consider the whole of welfare and the seriousness of Somali fraud being laughably easy to expose.
It's so blatant Richard. The Somali's are barely hiding their fraudulent schemes. This whole story actually ties into a greater narrative of the threat of the woke concept of Economic Justice.
They had help stealing our money. The state refused to investigate. The nativists are completely correct to be outraged about this, and running cover for the Somali's is not what any intelligent author should be doing.
Mind you Nick was also followed around by his security of unmarked masked fat white guys. At no point does he disclose this, but the moron forgot to cut them out of his video fully. You can see them at the 28-29 minute mark in the background of his video while he was walking around the plaza. The lady screaming ice outside now makes perfect sense, and it also makes sense that none of the Somalis wanted to talk to him. This moron with a camera and a sloppy loose hoodie, the old guy stammering with his pages of “evidence” (that were never published btw), and masked goons standing 6 feet away out of camera shot come to your business outside of service hours and demand to see the children or the insurance rates. What a joke.
Even if these daycares were shown to be running like any normal person would expect (and not out of something resembling a boarded up adult film store), the amount of money they were receiving alone is evidence of outright fraud. We're talking about up to $44k per child THEY WERE LICENSED FOR. Believing Tim Walz and Democrats were already trying to root out fraud is like believing Lucky Luciano would try to root out extortion and racketeering.
Another article that blames the right for "low human capital". But how convincing is this? Thiel, Vance, Musk, Miller ... I like to think that they are a step ahead of everybody else. What would happen to your analysis, if you assumed that the stupidity you describe is part of the strategy of the right?
"This doesn’t mean that Somalis don’t commit fraud; but for the most part left-leaning elite institutions like the NYT and the Biden administration have given the issue about the level of attention it deserves"
I didn't see a word about it in the NYT until the City Journal reporting. Multibillion dollar fraud that the state of Minnesota refused to notice for race reasons is a pretty big deal
Furthermore, the idea that respectable outlets never start with a narrative and then go looking for evidence is laughable. That is Nikole Hannah Jones' whole Pulitzer Prize winning career
The NYT reported on in it November.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/us/fraud-minnesota-somali.html
Correct, ten days after the City Journal article which initiated the news cycle:
https://www.city-journal.org/article/minnesota-welfare-fraud-somalia-al-shabaab
Rufo describes it below. Richard seems strangely unaware of all this, or, even worse, chose to omit all of this relevant context:
https://www.city-journal.org/article/minnesota-somali-fraud-al-shabaab-terrorists-immigration-welfare
>>The meta-story—how a news item weaves its way through public discourse—is also worth considering. When we published the story, it quickly dominated the conversation on conservative social media. It filtered upward to primetime Fox News, where, on Laura Ingraham’s program, I summarized the piece and called on President Trump to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for all Somalis in Minnesota.
>>Within hours, the president, who had been following the story, announced that he would revoke TPS for all Somali recipients. Then, over the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump raised the stakes with a blistering social media tirade that ripped into Somali fraudsters, accused Minnesota governor Tim Walz of mental deficiencies, and promised to stop all asylum cases and immigration from the Third World. This sequence of events turned the Minnesota fraud into the debate of the moment.
>>The next step in the process is for the liberal media to respond. Right on cue, CBS News published a story misrepresenting our report and “debunking” that misrepresentation—a claim that it eventually retracted under pressure. The New York Times did somewhat better, publishing a long feature on the Somali fraud, confirming key details, and opening the floodgates for discourse on the center-left. The spotlight thus turned to Governor Walz, who was at the helm when Somali thieves robbed Minnesota of billions.
>>On the surface, the Times story was an acknowledgment that this was a real scandal that the liberal press had missed. But the paper did not address the underlying narrative about why the fraud happened. Yes, the story is about a criminal enterprise, but it runs deeper than that. The story has touched a nerve because it busts liberal myths about immigration, anti-racism, and the welfare state.
So an independent investigator uncovered something and the NYT followed up on it. Is your argument that therefore Nick Shirley is right?
Also, do you live in Minnesota? The Minnesota press started covering this in 2024, and the Biden DOJ prosecuted it.
https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/07/17/a-somali-american-investigator-heres-why-youre-hearing-so-much-about-fraud-in-my-community/
Ir seems like your core complaint is that the NYT didn't make a big deal about it on the schedule you prefer.
My point was that the NYT reluctantly took up the story only after they couldn't ignore it any further. City Journal, which is a respected right-of-center publication, is what kicked off the news cycle. It was not national news before that.
Sure, but LOTs of things aren't national news until someone decides to make an issue of it. As I pointed out, the people most affected are in Minnesota. A local nonprofit news organization covered it in 2024, and the Biden DOJ got 47 indictments and several convictions *years* before it was covered by City Journal.
And none of this means Nick Shirley is a legitimate journalist.
Again, you seem angry that the NYT -- who I suspect you don't even read -- didn't cover it on your schedule.
In June, Trump's DOJ indicted a bunch of Russian medicare scammers. The NYT covered it, probably because the scammers were based in New York. Did they pass your criteria for acceptable reporting?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/nyregion/us-medicare-fraud-charges.html
I fully agree that lots of things aren't national news until someone decides to make an issue of it. That was part of my point.
I have read the NYT every day for thirty years or more. They were forced to concede implicitly that this was a big story worthy of national coverage that they missed, as Rufo noted. They would not have covered it on any schedule if they hadn't been forced to.
>Multibillion dollar fraud that the state of Minnesota refused to notice for race reasons is a pretty big deal
Until we crowdfund $500 worth of MAGA signs and get some right wing influencers to claim it was Haitians committing the fraud all along because black people look the same anyways. Then Trump will give a full and unconditional pardon to every single Somalian in Minnesota, like he's done to Blagojevich, Cuellar, Santos, Galanis, and every other person convicted of fraud and corruption crimes that's willing to suck up to him.
And of course Minnesota didn't "refuse to notice" the fraud. There was billions of dollar in fraud for PPP loans. The federal government didn't "refuse to notice" the fraud. There are still new indictments each week charging people for abusing the PPP program from 5 years ago. Just like with the Minnesota fraud.
The right wing narrative is 95% lies if you just compare this to any other long running fraud prosecutions. But right wingers are retarded so they don't engage in any sort of fact finding.
Here's the quality of Rufo's private investigators and "confidential sources" https://christopherrufo.com/p/the-cat-eaters-of-ohio which consist of a black guy's social media post claiming that chickens over a grill are actually skinned cats lmao. WHY IS THE WHITE HATING LEFTIST MEDIA SUPPRESSING RUFO'S STORIES??? Can we get Trump who never lies and only posts Truths™ to uncover the welfare fraud Haitians in Ohio are committing to purchase and eat cats and dogs from their neighbors?
Nobody sane on Team Blue has a problem locking up criminals. Nobody sane on Team Red supports race science. Can we find countless examples of loonies/extremists such as Nikole Hannah Jones? Absolutely. You know that, I know that and you know that I know that. Everyone can see right through the strawman nonsense on both sides but nobody important can set aside their team affiliation to have an honest conversation across the aisle. Any politician or big influencer who does on Team Red is labeled a RINO and canceled. Any politician or big influencer who does on Team Blue is labeled Corporate and canceled. That’s how I feel about the modern shitshow anyway. End rant.
Richard Hanania believes in race science.
I haven’t watched his video and don’t have a horse in this race, but I’m not sure your critique makes sense. If there’s a significant percentage of the Somali community in Minnesota committing fraud (which Rufo and others have proven to be the case, with the many thousands of fraudulent autism cases), then it’s very easy for them to coordinate and volunteer their children to show up in fake daycares to disprove Nick Shirley and the increased scrutiny.
If I’m staffing a daycare and a guy comes over to me and asks to enroll his child, I would have forms ready. (I might also tell him I’m happy to show him the daycare if he shuts his camera off.) So you haven’t proven that Shirley got it wrong.
“I haven’t watched his video and don’t have a horse in this race” then proceed to talk about the horse you have in this race. Also what is the “significant percentage of the Somali community” you think you are implicating, 10%? Nick Shirleys journalism was dishonest, creepy and above all else just unintelligent. It quite literally proved nothing, and you’re a goober for defending it without having any of the necessary context.
Read Rufo’s piece.
“This doesn’t mean that Somalis don’t commit fraud; but for the most part left-leaning elite institutions like the NYT and the Biden administration have given the issue about the level of attention it deserves, up to and including criminal indictments.”
Never go full libtard.
Shame that Walz, such a great specimen of human capital, decided to resign merely over rightwing agitprop. Definitely Minnesota progressives were going to enforce the law against “the people that built Minnesota.” Clearly, progressives nationwide can be trusted to root out welfare fraud. They have all that human capital.
This is why I don't subscribe. What a petty, jealous little man you are.
This isn't about Nick Shirley. It should be a story about YouTube, and Joe Rogan style podcasts [and X as the vehicle of transmission]. How these outlets....as far away from old fashion journalism as they are...is where very large numbers of commoners get their information and news. They then go elsewhere when left and right legacy style media picks it up. But it is always [these days] the internet that hits most people. Don't know if you heard.....but people don't rust the lying old fashion legacy media......that includes Fox, etc...
You didn't notice, Richard Hanania, because your nose is stuck up your ass....but Congressman Jason Lewis CD-2 Minnesota on the floor of Congress in 2019 warned us about these kinds of frauds in Minnesota. Nobody gave a shit. Local Minneapolis Channel 9, a Fox affiliate had stories on these kinds of frauds back in 2009. Nobody gave a shit. Minnesota outlets alphanewsmn.com, americanexperiment.org, and www.powerlineblog.com have been writing about this since 2020. Nobody gave a shit. Why??? Because nobody reads that stuff or listens to that stuff [because they are small and rely on donations to survive [I read them all the fucking time....and never read the NY Times, listen to Fox, etc....except after the little guys do the work].....just like nobody is going to read the dribble you write.
Nick Shirley did the country a massive service......by opening this story up...to the masses. And you are to petty and jealous and arrogant to understand what the real story is.
Go back to academia...where you belong.
Shirley didn’t do any substantive investigative work—his account simply got boosted. Much was already known before Shirley. He was also factually incorrect. You seem to have completely missed Hanania’s point, viz. that “citizen journalists” who are dumb/sloppy/unethical rarely advance understanding.
Low human capital defending low human capital lol
You......Type..............Like....................An..............................Idiot
Fuck…….you……..
Well said! This lefty idiot needs to wind his heck in!
Yes, Nick Shirley is an immature clown. But the fact that the media has become not journalists but gatekeepers - deciding which stories to boost and which to ignore - is what allows guys like him to have an impact. The story is real, and you, Richard, are becoming a clown yourself for denying it, and for acting like the media is still doing a good job.
I'm glad I stopped subscribing. While many of your articles are quite good, posts like these show a discomfort with your beliefs. So there are few - or no - conservative intellectuals? What does that have to do with you? Be the only one then. There are plenty of centrist intellectuals like your buddy Rob Henderson, or Niall Ferguson, or dozens of others whom you seem to have more in common with than actual conservatives. So why keep harping on it? It seems your identity is all wrapped up in "being an intellectual," and that's just childish. As is, increasingly, much of your writing.
Kudos to Nick Shirley for exposing massive fraud in Minnesota. Anybody who actually takes the time to watch it will see how obvious the fraud is. Funny the day AFTER this story broke all of a sudden children show up at these daycare centers. Amazing! Even though the locals were saying they've never seen children there before. I wish the "real" investigative journalists could do as well as this kid in exposing fraud. Anytime real fraud is exposed, like DOGE did, they do all they can to discredit it and debunk it, but they can't legitimately deny it.
How much “fraud” did DOGE uncover?
Im sure the number is still increasing but at least in hundreds of billions just through USAID.
I don’t think DOGE achieved anything close to those numbers. USAID by itself did not have a budget remotely that high.
USAID's annual budget is about 35-45 billion. Its been around for decades. Even its founding was shady. A large portion of it was abused.
He didn’t expose anything. The fraud was already exposed, and prosecuted, by the Biden administration. There is no ‘fraud’ in the video. There’s a creepy kid and a washed up boomer demanding to film children at establishments where that is not allowed, by state law. It was filmed during Christmas break, when most are home and not dropping their kids at daycare.
Nick is pointing out the bloody obvious facts about the total exploitation of America and Europe by the Muslim immigrants fleecing the tax payer for billions while harming society and making it an unsafe place. America gives them everything….they only give hell back!!!!!
Any thoughts on the Russians who got caught in June? Were those Muslims too?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/nyregion/us-medicare-fraud-charges.html
Fraud is bad and should be investigated and prosecuted -- which happened to both the Russian fraud and Somali fraud --but I don't see the point of dragging religion into it.
Unfortunately your comment section is full of these people too 🤣
Hit the nail on the head when you said that idiots focus on the small picture. Reminiscent of Trump BRINGING ORDER to US Cities by blowing millions of dollars on bringing in the national guard. The moment those troops leave it will be back to the way it was before, no long-term solutions, just emotions.
If Hanania's commenters are idiots, it should be very easy to reply and refute the points they are making. Mysteriously, this is not being done.
Idk, this seems to be a case of nitpicking little things he got wrong instead of focusing on the real issue; the very real fraud. I think you're letting your understandable disgust for the right-wing ecosystem get the better of you and you're refusing to look at the evidence of fraud.
The average black American costs their government 900k over their lifetime, Hispanics 700k. Somalis were given licence to take that quite a bit further.
There is a good, genuinely investigative article by the right-leaning journalist Armin Rosen about fraud in Minnesota in the magazine County Highway.
A true intellectual should be able to consider the whole of welfare and the seriousness of Somali fraud being laughably easy to expose.
It's so blatant Richard. The Somali's are barely hiding their fraudulent schemes. This whole story actually ties into a greater narrative of the threat of the woke concept of Economic Justice.
They had help stealing our money. The state refused to investigate. The nativists are completely correct to be outraged about this, and running cover for the Somali's is not what any intelligent author should be doing.
Apropos of nothing, has anyone else noticed that the right-wing bot farms seem to have redirected their attention to Substack comments lately?
Mind you Nick was also followed around by his security of unmarked masked fat white guys. At no point does he disclose this, but the moron forgot to cut them out of his video fully. You can see them at the 28-29 minute mark in the background of his video while he was walking around the plaza. The lady screaming ice outside now makes perfect sense, and it also makes sense that none of the Somalis wanted to talk to him. This moron with a camera and a sloppy loose hoodie, the old guy stammering with his pages of “evidence” (that were never published btw), and masked goons standing 6 feet away out of camera shot come to your business outside of service hours and demand to see the children or the insurance rates. What a joke.
Even if these daycares were shown to be running like any normal person would expect (and not out of something resembling a boarded up adult film store), the amount of money they were receiving alone is evidence of outright fraud. We're talking about up to $44k per child THEY WERE LICENSED FOR. Believing Tim Walz and Democrats were already trying to root out fraud is like believing Lucky Luciano would try to root out extortion and racketeering.
Another article that blames the right for "low human capital". But how convincing is this? Thiel, Vance, Musk, Miller ... I like to think that they are a step ahead of everybody else. What would happen to your analysis, if you assumed that the stupidity you describe is part of the strategy of the right?