The Trump administration’s pattern of granting sympathetic, right-wing influencers with large digital followings
special access to its mass deportation operation
is broad and involves dozens of people.

TPM chose to focus in depth on four influencers, each with different audiences, approaches, and backgrounds.

They are Ben #Bergquam,

his sometimes associate Josh #Fulfer,

Nick #Shirley, and
conservative influencer Nick #Sortor.

Together, they offer a cross-section of how DHS has created a feedback loop between explosive videos and federal policy.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/inside-the-bizarre-feedback-loop-between-dhs-and-maga-influencers

am now about 90% finished reading #Shirley, & am enjoying it, although i really wish she'd have toned down or omitted the overt religiosity, aka, bullshit. a coupla chapters ago, earlier today, i encountered

Dismembered human remains found in Shirley identified

https://misryoum.com/us/today/dismembered-human-remains-found-in-shirley-identified/

Crime “They were able to recover additional body parts from the water. Those parts appear to have been clean cut." Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan holds a press conference in 2024. Kayla Bartkowski For The Boston Globe Dismembered human...

#Dismembered #human #remains #found #Shirley #identified #US_News_Hub #misryoum_com

The internet is currently awash in right-wing propaganda about alleged fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs.

Unsurprisingly, you can thank a mendacious right-wing influencer for kicking off this hysteria.

Also unsurprisingly, the Trump administration is making the most of this opportunity to kick a blue state in the teeth.

#Nick #Shirley, a 23-year-old conservative YouTuber who specializes in anti-immigrant videos,
went to multiple daycare facilities in Minnesota
— but only ones run by Somali folks, of course
— and filmed himself “investigating.”

He alleged that several were essentially non-operational and were instead fronts for fraud and siphoning Child Care Assistance Program funds.

This video then became the basis for the Trump administration to
💥freeze Small Business Administration funding,
taking $5.5 million away from Minnesota’s small business development centers, women’s business centers, a microloan program, and more.

You might be confused about how this relates to daycare facilities, but don’t worry
— the administration is directly attacking those too.

On Tuesday, the government froze all childcare funds to Minnesota,
a move that leaves 30,000 lower-income families without childcare assistance,
which functionally means that many of those families will not be able to access childcare at all.

The administration is taking these actions even though it took less than a week for the wheels to come off
and for Shirley’s video to be largely debunked.

Even CBS News, which these days is known more for protecting the administration rather than ever criticizing it,
found that of the 12 centers, 10 had active licenses

Two facilities Shirley targeted for his big fraud reveal had already shut down earlier this year,
which would make doing a bunch of fraud sort of hard.

KSTP — the ABC affiliate in Minnesota that is so right-wing that it once pushed the story that the then-Minneapolis mayor, Betsy Hodges, was flashing a gang sign when she was merely pointing at someone
— also did some actual investigating. They found the same thing CBS did
— all but two of the facilities have active licenses and all were visited this year.

KSTP’s review of state records found that the centers had been cited for safety violations, but no allegations of fraud.

None of these facts matter, of course,
because the point of Shirley’s video is to give cover to the administration’s attack on Minnesota for being a blue state
and Somali immigrants for, well, being Somali immigrants.

The state was already under siege by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This was an inevitable next step.

https://www.publicnotice.co/p/shirley-video-somali-daycares-fraud

Bring U.S. together. Vote Chisholm 1972, unbought and unbossed. [1972]
1 print (poster) : offset lithograph ; sheet 30 x 38 cm (poster format) | Poster shows portrait of presidential candidate and U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm.

#Chisholm #ShirleyChisholm #American #CHISHOLM #UNBOSSED #ShirleyChisholms #politicalposters #american #politicalactivity #offsetlithographs #politicalcampaigns #chisholm #shirley #photopgraphy #LibraryOfCongress

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2014646807/