This corruption didn't begin with the Somalis

Before tracking down "root causes" and supply chain history of the Somali day care fraud, I hope Congress stops and looks at two basics: Head start (turned 60 in 2025 in the failed War on Poverty which we lost ) and the corruption in the nonprofit arena (got really bad during Bush I who wanted to reduce federal employment with "faith-based" solutions).

By any definition and all the studies, Head Start has failed miserably--40 million children, their parents and the tax payers. Not every daycare is a head start model, but it's been ingrained in generations that children will be better off if mom leaves home to work and someone not family takes care of the kids. That's the old south slavery model, isn't it? By 2nd grade all academic gains are lost.

 
The whole nonprofit grants from the federal government model so the money is controlled locally is riddled with corruption, nepotism and graft, The Somali thing is the tip of the iceberg, and it's not just day care. It's good intentions gone bad.

https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/government/fbci/qr3.html?

Some think the Head start failure is a result of this year's fraud investigation (60 years), but it was declared a failure at 50 years and 40 years,  It's never passed the smell test. Head Start is in turmoil - The Hechinger Report

Government bureaucracy drowning in failed programs and thousands of reports--Head Start

While I've been watching the Soros' funded fascist professionals create chaos on our campuses, I've been digging deep into the reports about Head Start, which so far has hit us up for over $1 trillion since its beginning as small test group in the LBJ era to improve the academic and life trajectory of poor children. All evaluations at 40, 50 and now almost 60 years have shown it to be a huge failure to help children succeed, but an outstanding success in providing a good living for millions of academics and government workers.

Here's one example. The culture of the TANF office. I'm pretty jaded about government waste--after all, I was a university librarian buried in task force reports and minutiae of information, data and knowledge. But this one really stunned me. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/understanding-poverty-childhood-and-family-experiences-and-tanf-office-culture-2016 

It's a long, long way from helping a 3 year old get ready for kindergarten in the hope he'll do better in math in high school. (Yes, that's what they believed in 1965). We already know what gives kids the best chance to avoid poverty--married parents who have finished high school and have jobs. It's not the culture of the office that hands out the checks.

ACF stands for Administration for Children & Families, and I think it was created to push Head Start back into infancy since it had failed so miserably to help pre-school aged children. But the genealogy of government agencies and bureaus is fuzzy and fat so I could be wrong. It happens.

What societal changes have created the "Nones"

Not all societal change moves at the speed of the lockdown’s spiritual and moral disruptions. Some take decades. So when Charlie Ollermann summarized in Sunday School on October 30 a few details about how Christianity and organized religion are losing both the numbers and the influence game, I took note. It went something like this (a quote from Pew site), “Pew's National Public Opinion Reference Survey found that the majority of Americans -- 63% -- consider themselves Christian, down from 78% in 2007. Meanwhile, 29% of adults list their religion as "none," meaning they consider themselves atheist, agnostic or "nothing in particular." That figure has increased since 2007, when 16% said they have no religion.” As he moved on to our lesson in 2 Thessalonians, I jotted down four societal changes which I thought were the root causes building over the last almost 60 years. I expanded my thoughts here at my blog.

1 ) The War on Poverty (launched January 1964). Trillions (est. 16 in 2014, 27 in 2019) have been spent, the power of the federal government has grown enormously, and both liberals and conservatives strongly disagree on results, or even how to describe poverty. In my opinion religious groups whose Biblical charge was charity, benevolence, feeding and clothing the poor, in short, following the commands of Jesus as outlined in Matthew 25, were severely compromised by taking grants to do their “good works.” (This worsened after GHW Bush’s “thousand points of light.” Yet, over 50% of Americans do not pay federal income tax, and 25 million workers are given money when they file for taxes (EITC, $60 billion). The median income of a single mother household is $49,214, and for a married couple household it is $101,517 (i.e., 2 incomes) according to U.S. Census, 2020. Uncle Sam is not a good step-father, but poverty pays well. Children of married parents rarely grow up in poverty. All four of my points directly or indirectly involve marriage. If poverty were to be ended tomorrow at noon, millions of people would be out of work. . . very well paid jobs with amazing benefits, most in government, but many in non-profits and NGOs. That would require new government programs to aid those recently unemployed.

2 ) Vatican II (1962-1965). Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. don’t usually think that Vatican II affected us much, but in my opinion the Roman Catholic Church is our mother, or at least a grandmother in our major doctrines—Diety of Christ, the Trinity, a canon of scripture we call the Bible, sacraments as an expression of faith, the Christian life, evangelization, missions, what is heresy, etc. People catechized in the 70s or 80s speak about how poorly they were taught the basics of the faith. When we joined UALC in 1976 our “catechism” book cover was pink and orange with balloons. And that’s also a description of what was between the covers. I’d never seen a Luther’s Small Catechism until Dave and Pam Mann taught a night class at Mill Run about 20 years ago. I think growth of the “nones” reflects on the sloppy, silly and social justice Pablum people educated in the 70s and 80s received. They were not prepared to educate their own children when they were so poorly catechized—both Protestants and Catholics.

3) The Population Bomb and Earth Day (1970s) moving on to earth worship, Green New Deal and pantheism. Paul Ehrlich’s book “The population bomb” scared me to death. He said hundreds of millions of people would starve to death in spite of all the agriculture and aid programs we (many by churches) were supporting. Well, we’d already caved to contraception, so why not abortion? Now in the 21st century we can’t sustain a population replacement rate and killing the next generation is considered righteous even by many Christians. Now we’re forced to accept immigration, even illegal immigration, just to support our economy. But we’ve made a Faustian bargain (deal with the devil) and are taking in drugs, sex trafficking and criminals in the deal to maintain the population. Plus, Christian non-profits are taking huge grants from the government to manage all this. People from 200 countries now come through our southern border adding great stress to those states, which then make us all border states. Communing with nature now replaces “organized” religion designed for the family (which often seems very disorganized to some) with various efforts (and riots) to save the planet, our so-called Mother. This pantheism combined with demonizing men and marriage is reducing society’s need for churches.

4) Second Wave Feminism (early 70s for the general public). Although scholars would date this from the “pill” developed in the 1960s and various books, I didn’t pay much attention until “The women’s liberation movement” became a kitchen table topic among women. I was quite caught up in it myself. I had young children, had a master’s degree, and could really identify with the conversations so many were having. We were already active in a fair housing group, a prison reform group, and a race relations group (all loosely church based). Falling for the seductive message that the male/female differences were just cultural and should be changed was easy for my generation. Between the availability of the pill and free sex (which has never been free for women, only men) and the siren call of fabulous careers, prestige, and a bigger bank account, women were literally fleeing the home for the office. So who passes on the faith to the kids if both parents are working, exhausted in the evening, and using week-ends for family time, especially Sunday morning?

I do not point to the Baby Boomers (born after WWII and before 1965) for initiating these changes. The leaders of the various movements and authors of the transformational books were mostly born in the 1930s, or even the 1920s. But the Boomers as adolescents certainly bore the brunt of the changes and misinformation. They are the parents and grandparents of the “nones” who are not just skipping church-- many live in fear of a collapsing planet and won’t commit to anything, not even a job let alone marriage and a family, made worse lately by Covid, and no faith in Jesus.

Judging polices on intentions rather than results

We have so many "feel good" policies that drain us dry, and should be a warning, but our leaders never learn, and perhaps the citizen-voters don't either. Virtually every transfer of wealth program in the War on Poverty failed a the macro level, and struggled at the micro. Like Head Start. The government's own studies at year 50 showed almost no advantaged for the thousands invested in each child. But it feels good, hope never dies, and the program will continue to be a bloated, over-sold, under achieving with good intentions so you can get back to your nice life. These programs make politicians wealthy, they get them reelected. These programs provide millions of jobs for the middle class bureaucrats and their staff who run them, from the grant writers, to suppliers and operators, to social workers to the low income who are hired in to staff them.

This article is 22 years old--but not much has changed. https://fee.org/articles/why-the-war-on-poverty-failed/

I remember the Harrington book that launched LBJ's war. I was so excited we could end poverty in my life time. However, the standard for poverty simply went up to accommodate a perpetual lower class. Then we went to "gap" instead of material wealth. Or looked at ZIP codes. Then we judged all by race, color and ethnicity, not actual need. And in all the administrations since LBJ, only the Trump years made an actual, real dent and improved the lives of millions without robbing Peter to pay Paul. And that was just too scary for leaders of both parties--loss of power, sound the alarms!

The War on Poverty: 50 years of failure | The Heritage Foundation

The War on Poverty After 50 Years | The Heritage Foundation

Homelessness in America: An Overview | The Heritage Foundation

"The welfare state is self-perpetuating. By undermining the social norms necessary for self-reliance, welfare creates a need for even greater assistance in the future. President Obama plans (2014) to spend $13 trillion over the next decade on welfare programs that will discourage work, penalize marriage and undermine self-sufficiency."

And scholars will always disagree. The Accomplishments and Lessons of the War on Poverty | Scholars Strategy Network

Liberal protestants and Catholic bishops--where are you?

Churches have always been involved in helping the poor, sick, hungry and imprisoned. It's part of Jesus' command and promise.  See Matthew 25.   It's why the Granthams of British television fame lived in an Abbey (former monastery taken by Henry VIII from the Catholics--payback to the Lords who supported him). Before the huge government intrusion into social welfare programs in the 20th century, churches were the social safety net. The Roman Catholic church is still the largest humanitarian and educational institution in the world. However, in order to decrease the size of the official bureaucracy, a lot of that responsibility that the government had assumed with the War on Poverty, was shifted to non-profits, mainly churches, under GHW Bush, thousand points of light. Now many churches are financially dependent on government grants for housing renewal, job training programs, prison reforms, food pantries, etc. It's very useful in keeping the churches silent.

Systemic racism

Clever term. Very common today.

All encompassing if it's a system. That means we're all a part, even liberals and leftists . . . whether black, Hispanic, Asian and white.

Even if your 19th Irish and German ancestors or your post WWII immigrant Baltic or Jewish grandparents had no part in slavery or Jim Crow;

even if your parents came here from Nigeria or Kenya or Somalia along with a few million other African immigrants in the last two decades;

even if you live below the poverty line.

That means any one of the 130 income transfer programs--TANF, Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, housing, utilities, CSFP, school breakfast, lunch and snacks--of the last 55 years of the so-called "War on Poverty" are racist in intent, design and outcome. Both parties. They were totally bi-partisan.

If racism is systemic, that's you. Right? You haven't been living off the grid in a cabin in the Rockies with no internet, running water or electricity, not if you're reading Facebook or Twitter or the Washington Post.

So if you've been marching smugly expressing your first amendment rights while denying me mine, or posting blather banners and yard signs about racism and how much you care, pointing fingers with 4 pointing back at you--

Ask what has

• your union,
• your academic department
• your "woke" corporation,
• your bank,
• the real estate firm you hired,
• the church you belong to,
• your profession,
• your pension plan,
• your state and local government,
• your candidates and PAC,
• your apartment management firm,
• your senator or representative,
• your gardener or house cleaner,
• your favorite restaurant,
• your investments manager,
• your whole/organic market,
• your elitist club that only the best people belong to. . .

done to contribute to the system.

Of course, to do that, you'd have to be self reflective. You'd have to toss out some of the Kool-Aid you've been swallowing from the very people who have used these programs to lie to you. There is no growing income inequality; there is no rampant racism from the police; black people are not being slaughtered by white people; and under Trump, minorities were making huge strides. You'd have to acknowledge that something or someone, call it the swamp dwellers if you wish or blame George Soros or the Communist underbelly of this country, it really doesn't matter. You've been poisoned, and it is like sepsis, and that poison is systemic, and you're doing it to yourselves if you're allowing these groups to make you grovel, wear African stoles, kneel, toss bricks and riot.

Yes, let's have that "conversation." Tell us what you have done that was racist and how you personally plan to change. I'll wait.

Intentions don't bring results

"Conservatives have been saying for years that our inner cities are laboratories where the far-left experiments with policies based on feelings rather than facts. These big-government experiments have ended in failure, harming the very people the far left says it wants to help." Kay Coles James

And I might add, the leftists have been so successful at getting government funding and donations for their "think tanks" and 501-c3 and c4s, they are working their same magic in our upper income suburbs, vacation spots, and churches. Except they don't use the ploy of wanting to help us--but we must help others (as they pass the hat). They fund the marches, the protests and the blocking by Big Tech. Conservatives are doing what they've always done--they go to work, mind their own business, sing in the choir--and then shazam--their town, church and clubs have been taken over by the virtue signalers who say black lives matter and we believe in science (code for climate change).

Poverty, then and now

"The problem of the poor is not the availability of jobs, for the economy has generated so many new jobs during the past decade that anyone who can't find a job just doesn't want to work. And the problem isn't taxes because most poor folks don't pay taxes, and many actually receive checks from the government in the form of the earned income-tax credit. No, to close the income distribution gap, the next president will have to have the courage to say that the path to upward mobility for the nation's least-well-off begins at the marriage altar." Joseph Perkins, Jan 26, 2000, black columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune (now retired)

And 19 years after this column and 55 years after the trillions spent on the War on Poverty, politicians don't want to believe it because they need the issue for votes, money and power.

There are 92 major government programs providing cash, food, housing, medical care and social services to poor and low-income people at a cost of $1.1 trillion per year [2017 figures]. But only 4 of those programs have work requirements, and even those have gaping holes. Yet to listen to Democrats running for the highest office in the land and Socialists in government, honest work has no dignity (i.e. doesn't buy votes). Only give a-ways matter. Let me give you free stuff and keep you poor. Vote for me.

https://www.heritage.org/welfare/commentary/encouraging-work-lifts-people-out-poverty-the-green-new-deal-wont-do

Why does the left lie about poverty? Because they can. It's like lies that police shoot blacks and women earn less than men. We don't have a responsible media to call them out, to research it or correct the lies.

This report on the results of welfare reform is from 2016--before Trump was elected. But they were screaming lies then too, just like now. They were probably preparing for a Big Clinton Win and raising taxes for another battle in the 50+ year War on Poverty, our most expensive war in history. Politicians, non-profits, churches, authors and academics all "need" the appearance of poverty so they can make more. The wealthier got richer due to increased regulations and over sight by their friends in government, the poor got more transfers and paid no taxes, and the middle class got screwed.

https://www.heritage.org/welfare/report/did-welfare-reform-increase-extreme-poverty-the-united-states

Since 50% of Americans don't pay federal taxes (they are too "poor" unless you add supplemental sources transferred from others, then they are too well-off to be poor), you can see why Democrats have to shout out "free stuff" and "raise taxes" to the middle class in order to get votes. Thus, they plan to impoverish about 3/4 of the nation so politicians can be the only ones with wealth.

Liberals have made things worse for blacks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9wWF1_YFBA

 


In "Please Stop Helping Us," Jason Riley examines how well-intentioned welfare programs are in fact holding black Americans back. Minimum-wage laws may lift earnings for people who are already employed, but they price a disproportionate number of blacks out of the labor force. Affirmative action in higher education is intended to address past discrimination, but the result is fewer black college graduates than would otherwise exist. And so it goes with everything from soft-on-crime laws, which make black neighborhoods more dangerous, to policies that limit school choice out of a mistaken belief that charter schools and voucher programs harm the traditional public schools that most low-income students attend.

Between 1940 and 1960 before the Great Society programs and the voting act, and at a time when black political power was nearly nonexistent -- the black poverty rate fell from 87% to 47%. Yet between 1972 and 2011 the implementation of Great Society programs -- it barely declined, from 32% to 28%, and remained three times the white rate, which is about what it was in 1972. Drug offenses are not driving the incarceration rate--violent crime is. It's a red herring to claim it's drugs. When everyone from the president (Obama) on down buy into the Black Lives Matter myth of cops killing young black men, we'll never be able make headway, and the solutions won't come from Washington, but from black people. (paraphrase) Affirmative action and quotas helped primarily the black middle class, not the underclass--it actually lost ground. (paraphrase).

The civil rights movement has become an industry. Liberalism has succeeded in convincing blacks to see themselves as victims.