Fraud and Ice and Antisemitism 

     Minnesota Governor Tim Walz - can you picture him in the White House? - announced January 5 that he will not seek reelection for a third term. 

     Prosecutors allege that fraudsters stole up to $9 billion by setting up companies that billed state agencies for social services they never provided. They have charged 98 defendants, 85 of whom are of Somali descent. (Ilhan Omar, Congresswoman, is suddenly a multimillionaire) Pressure on Walz grew in December after a YouTuber exposed the fraud. There were arguments that regulators ignored warnings, allowing payments to continue.

     The scandal prompted the Dept. of Homeland Security to send 2,000 agents to Minnesota. Local opposition to federal presence boiled over on January 7 when an ICE agent shot and killed an uncooperative woman who started her car toward the agent. Later, an uncooperative man with a pistol and ammunition was killed.  

     President Trump made a call to Walz, apparently resulting in a shift by the governor, who had compared ICE to the Nazis, and said a girl in Minnesota might be the next Anne Frank.  

     Meanwhile, a Republican judge, Patrick Schults, is having fits over activity by ICE. He took the ICE director to court. Numerous orders have not been followed, apparently. 

     Another meanwhile, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Minneapolis is the target of antisemitism, and there was a backlash from Jewish organizations. Political rhetoric endangers more lives. 

     Vacation in Minneapolis anyone? January temperatures are below zero, but political temps are boiling.  

                  Jimmy