Whistleblower Incentive. Will Minnesota’s Welfare Fraud Elect a Republican? ‘Sarita Surge’ Leaves Tish James Looking Like Hostage Video. Columnist: French Riots Are October Surprise. Meghan Gurdon Babysits. More
The Trump administration’s war on fraud received a big boost yesterday when a whistleblower incentive was announced at a gathering in the Oval Office.
“Snitches Get Riches” in the New York Post’s headline lingo. Congrats to the program’s first reward recipient: journalist Nick Shirley, who exposed welfare among members of Minnesota’s politically powerful Somali community. Here’s what Shirley said:
It’s such an honor to be here. I want people to think about what’s happening right now. Very cool. Me, as a 24-year-old, I exposed the fraud. I was concerned about the well-being of our tax dollars, but right now I’m standing next to the president of the United States. And now people who expose fraud—there’s never been an incentive for anyone to ever expose fraud.
In fact, when I exposed fraud, instead of the mainstream media investigating the fraud, they investigated me. People actually wanted to kill me after I exposed the fraud.
The MSM studiedly looked away from Minnesota’s widespread welfare fraud, but there are signs that the state’s voters aren’t as willfully blind. Minnesota’s massive fraud scandal could deliver a stunning Senate upset, writes Hugh Hewitt. Republican nominee for the Senate Michele Tafoya is giving Governor Tim Walz’s Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan a real race. Hewitt writes:
“This historic fraud happened under her watch, and suddenly, she’s looking out for Medicaid and SNAP? Sell it to someone else, Peggy.”
A longtime NFL broadcast professional, Tafoya demonstrated decades of quick on-camera thinking in her debate last week with Flanagan and combined it with a deft slash at Flanagan’s greatest vulnerability. …
A federal prosecutor estimated the amount of fraud in Minnesota’s spending at as much as $9 billion — that’s a “b” as in “billion.” That is a remarkable sum given the Gopher State’s population of fewer than 6 million souls and an annual budget of about $67 billion. To squander an amount equal to close to 15% of a state’s budget on thieves and con artists is staggering.
The Free Press, however, has news that will be discouraging to the GOP. “How the GOP Could Lose Texas,” by Audrey Fahlberg, notes that Democrat Senate hopeful James Talarico is leading Republican Ken Paxton in nearly every recent poll. Former first daughter Barbara Bush has “openly” donated to the Tallarico campaign.
New York Times political analyst Nate Cohn posits that the map favors Republicans, but cracks in their base are leaving them vulnerable in defending House and Senate control. Democrats are way ahead, but polling accurately is difficult:
In today’s polarized era of closely fought elections, it can be hard to believe that a party could win by that much. The skepticism is not unfounded. The polls have raised the possibility of this kind of overwhelming Republican defeat before in the Trump era, only for the polls to ultimately overestimate Democratic support in 2016, 2020 and, at least in crucial red states, in the 2018 election.
The Washington Free Beacon suggests a possible upset where you’d least expect it. “Saritha Surge Could Be Surprise in New York,” the Beacon announces. Saritha is nonpartisan law enforcement professional Saritha Komatireddy, 42, who turned in a “stunningly good” debate performance against New York AG Tish James:
Not since Sleepy Joe Biden’s national debate meltdown against President Trump has a Democratic incumbent been so devastatingly trounced. James looked like she was in a hostage video.
Meanwhile, Roger Simon asks a tantalizing question: “Are the French riots the Republicans’ October Surprise?” Simon concludes the Substack piece:
The French red-green rioters may have given us a gift by providing absolutely every Republican a great talking point in the waning days of this campaign, a talking point most normal people will respond to. As I type this, Trump is using it in Kansas. Every candidate should too. And so should we with everyone we talk to.
Frank Fured of Spiked Online regards the French riots as a frenzied assault on French civilization:
Unlike the well-known revolts of modern times, these riots seem driven by a profound sense of hatred towards France….
In the past, popular protests in Paris and elsewhere often marched under the French tricolore. But the national flag has been conspicuous by its absence during the course of these riots. On the contrary, the students, casseurs and others were much more likely to be waving the Palestinian flag. One video even shows young students vandalising a school, while draped in Moroccan flags. The preference of the protesters for flags foreign to France has highlighted their cultural detachment from French society, and their emotional distance from France’s republican values.
… In its place, cultural divisions and antagonisms have flourished. That is why the recent wave of violence has appeared as a civil-war-like attack on those citizens and institutions that have chosen to remain loyal to France. It is clear that a significant section of society – principally from immigrant communities – feels alienated from France and regards its institutions and way of life with hatred and contempt.
The Wall Street Journal’s Holman Jenkens writes in a column optimistically headlined “France Must Save Europe“:
France is too big to fail and also too big to bail out. That leaves only one realistic choice: France pulls itself together or takes Europe down with it.
“Flying the Socialist Skies at United.” United CEO Scott Kirby is the latest billionaire to jump on the millionaire tax bandwagon. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal has a different idea:
There’s also nothing to stop Mr. Kirby from bequeathing his fortune, or donating his $32.3 million in compensation last year, to the feds. Even better, how about offering more leg room in all rows and eliminating middle seats as a gesture to the hoi polloi? We suspect he’d say that none of these suggestions would reduce inequality or the national debt. But the same goes for a wealth tax, which punishes successful entrepreneurs.
“WNBA tells Congress that Enes Kanter Freedom, Royce White are ‘both men’ in eligibility dispute.” Republican Rep. Marlin Stutzman “welcomed WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s statement as an acknowledgment of a distinction based on biological sex.” Still, the WNBA still hasn’t defined what a woman is. It appears likely that the WNBA might decide differently in the case involving men more convincingly identifying as transgender women. But there’s yet another controversy: Two WNBA teams pointedly left the court before the national anthem. Riley Gaines, inaccurately identified as “anti-trans,” says that if you want to represent the U.S., you should stand for the anthem.
“The Smithsonian’s Dwindling Attendance” is documented by Jeffrey Anderson for City Journal. The decline in attendance took place under outgoing Undersecretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie Burch, whom Washington Post culture critic Philip Kennicott called “an enormously consequential leader.” Anderson notes:
In his 2019 book A Fool’s Errand, Bunch criticized a museum profession “awash in whiteness” and expressed his desire “to help Americans grapple with their own culpability in creating a society based on slavery.”…
We’re learning more about the Starlink slowdown that hampered military operations in Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal reports that Elon Musk gave the order after discussing Ukraine with President Trump. President Trump says he did not order the restrictions. An editorial in the Wall Street is critical of what it suggests is “Trump’s New Global Triumvirate“:
It’s hard to know what President Trump is up to at any one moment because he operates so much on tactical impulse. But he has long coveted grand bargains with Russia and China, and that may be his motivation now as he hardens his hostility to Ukraine and Europe and courts a Yalta 2 summit with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
A story at The Free Press yesterday asked if President Trump might be preparing to trade Ukraine for Iran. Russia has just released American teacher Stephen Hubbard from a Russian prison. No swap necessary, said Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Unfortunately, Putin was fresh from arresting a Japanese journalist.
And here’s something nice for you, Dear Reader. Free Expression columnist Meghan Gurdon’s column this morning is a charming excerpt from her new memoir, “Free Range Girl.” It’s about Meghan’s girlhood in Maine. The chapter is about Meghan’s first babysitting experience. A sheer delight.
