December 5, 2025 • 10 mins
LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
This episode dives into Barton Swaim’s provocative column on the massive Minnesota welfare-fraud case and what it exposes about America’s long-running struggles with assimilation, cultural integration, and political reluctance to confront sensitive issues. From years-long fraud that went unreported, to government officials paralyzed by fears of appearing prejudiced, to deeper questions about whether certain communities are adapting—or choosing not to—host-country norms, Chris examines the policy failures, media blind spots, and civic challenges underlying the scandal. A frank, unfiltered conversation on immigration, governance, and the consequences of looking away.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
This episode dives into Barton Swaim’s provocative column on the massive Minnesota welfare-fraud case and what it exposes about America’s long-running struggles with assimilation, cultural integration, and political reluctance to confront sensitive issues. From years-long fraud that went unreported, to government officials paralyzed by fears of appearing prejudiced, to deeper questions about whether certain communities are adapting—or choosing not to—host-country norms, Chris examines the policy failures, media blind spots, and civic challenges underlying the scandal. A frank, unfiltered conversation on immigration, governance, and the consequences of looking away.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader, Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'd like to discuss a really interesting column. Again. It
goes along with a topic that we've been talking about
for years here when it comes to immigration, I call
it assimilation and the need to have immigrants that are
willing to assimilate. Martin Swain today had a really interesting
piece entitled Our Digestible Immigrants. If you wanted to invent
(00:40):
a parable of modern liberalism's failure, you'd have to work
hard to top the story of Somali immigrants and US
citizens alike builking Minnesota social welfare system. So enormous and
brazen was the theft that The New York Times treated
with a competent and mostly unflinching article, which is the
only reason anybody outside the small world of conservative punditry
(01:02):
knows about it. The time it took for the Minnesota
story to make its way into the national headlines. It's
part of the problem federal prosecutors had already convicted fifty
nine of the fraudsters. Who tells you how long this
thing has been happening. A few local media outlets in
Minnesota KRI have covered the story since the first indictments.
(01:24):
A couple others as well. And again, this is going
back years. The Somali fraud story is in some respect
akin to the so called grooming scandal in Britain. You
remember this, in which gangs of Pakistani men sexually abused
young girls. The government and the news media, no, no, no,
(01:47):
we are yeah, we can't do anything about this. Oh,
people will think we're racist, and how messed up that is. Well,
we're gonna be accused of Islamophobia. Well we made fun
of that. And here we got Minneapolis, Saint Paul, the
Twin Cities. They couldn't. State authorities can do a damn things.
(02:08):
They can't stop this theft. You're talking again, A billion dollars,
billion dollars is Medicaid, housing, other welfare programs. Pretty darn bad,
both scandals, he writes, question about most of us would
(02:29):
rather it's it's a question. Most again, people are afraid
to ask this question. I'm not. I'm not. As you
can tell, I have no filter. I have no filter,
and you people can call me whatever you want to,
call me a racist islama. I'm just dealing with reality
and I don't care how much how much you would
(02:51):
like oil in water to mix. It's just not going
to all right. Follow along here, large scale immigration from
predominantly Muslim countries. Show me, show me a place, Show
me a place in the world where it's worked out.
(03:18):
Barton Swain in this article, and I got a little
upset with him about this. He points out Italian immigration
in the early twentieth century and saying that, well, you
know that had some imported some form of criminality. Barton,
you don't. You haven't done your homework on this by
any stretch of the imagination. There's several books. Black Hand
is an excellent one as well, where you actually learn
(03:41):
a little bit more about what actually took place. But
neither here nor there. Minnesota's roughly eighty thousand strong Somole
acuity contains many industrious people and good citizens. Okay, but
an unbiased observer could be forgiven for thinkingnesota Somali population
(04:01):
isn't capable of assimilation. Again, I don't know if you've
watched some recent man on the street interviews in their neighborhoods,
every single one says, not only do they not want
to be here in the United States, they don't want
to live under our loss again post why are you
(04:27):
here then? Anyway, there was an essay that was recently
put out talking about this bad actors within the community
would approach potential conspirats. Is how the scam would work
co conspirators without any fear of betrayal. Even the people
who said no to phenomenal offers of tens of thousands
(04:49):
of dollars in free taxpayer money didn't inform the authorities
that a major community wide fraud against the public was
in progress. Potentially criminal oddities went on, most totally important
to anyone in government. The FBI learned about Feeding Our Future,
a nonprofit that was one of the main vehicles of
the fraud, from a whistleblower in the Department of Education,
(05:10):
not from any of the scams ground level witnesses or participants. Anyway.
There was a book, It's called Dominion, came out in
twenty nineteen's by a British historian, Tom Holland, and he
contends that Christianity has left an imprint on the West
so deep as to be in redactable and in perceptible.
(05:38):
Even atheists in nations once Christianized think in Christian terms
without knowing it only a Christian nation, and I suspect
mister Holland would say would invent a social welfare system
as lavish and easily exploitable as the one in Minnesota,
(05:58):
pretty much all over the country. Essentially, what Christianity has
that Islam does not is a concept of the secular.
He said this in a recent interview. This Tom Holland.
From its beginning, Christianity has acknowledged that some parts of
(06:18):
human society will function outside the demands of revelation. Think
of Jesus's imperative to render to Caesar. What is Caesar's
into God? What is God's? Islam classically acknowledges no such fear.
I think Islam is uniquely indigestible for a secular mindset,
(06:40):
and Minnesota Somali population plainly doesn't think of itself as digestible.
Now I've said this before, and I've got blowback from
some of the listeners in regards to immigration here in
this country. And we all know, okay, the door is
thrown open sent America, Mexico, South America, all these places.
(07:03):
We have to know who's here, and we have to
assimilate these people as well. The one thing I've thrown
out over there is said, people, you know, we can
deal with this. It could be much worse. It could
be Europe. Europe, they're mass, large scale mass immigration. Muslim
(07:23):
immigration is a far greater problem than what we are
dealing with. And again, you take a look at some
of these cities and scanned in even Come, they're a disaster.
Some of the highest crime rates in the world. Stockholm, Yeah, yeah,
(07:43):
massive no go zones in Paris. President Trump was asked
about the Minnesota fraud prosecutions, and he said, these aren't
people that work. These aren't people that say, let's go,
come on, let's make this place great. These are people
that do nothing but complain. They come from hell and
they complain and do nothing but bitch. And actually obviously
(08:09):
went after ilan Omar because she does that all the time. Anyway, again,
someone's well, you know, that's terrible, that's mean, that's not everybody.
You know, He's not exactly wrong. Okay, he isn't wrong
(08:32):
to sense that something is off. Okay, we all know it.
We all see it. We all know it doesn't work.
We all know it's not Okay, okay, we got up there,
entire communities completely contemptuous of the country that took them in.
(08:54):
And yeah, yeah, I don't know the legalities. I don't
know how you're gonna start pulling people's paperwork and saying, whoops,
we screwed up here. You gotta go home. But I
think that's something that people could get behind again. This
is this, this is bad again. People people see online,
(09:20):
they're seeing people getting, you know, pulled over by Isma's
story here recently in Florida, lady was a citizen got
pulled over and cart it was completely legal sitting. I mean,
let's let me focus a little bit. Let's put a
little bit more focus on those illegal aliens from these
(09:43):
really really dysfunctional just different than us. And I'm sorry,
I'm gonna say it, Muscle nations, and listen, it is
what it is. Okay, I have done one of those
proved me wrong things. Look at these communities. They want
(10:07):
serial off, they don't want they don't want any part
of the thing. They want to cut themselves off. And
we brought them here. We allowed this to happen. Yeah,
we might want to rethink that. Let's figure out a
do over on this watchdog on Wallstreet dot com.
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader, Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'd like to discuss a really interesting column. Again. It
goes along with a topic that we've been talking about
for years here when it comes to immigration, I call
it assimilation and the need to have immigrants that are
willing to assimilate. Martin Swain today had a really interesting
piece entitled Our Digestible Immigrants. If you wanted to invent
(00:40):
a parable of modern liberalism's failure, you'd have to work
hard to top the story of Somali immigrants and US
citizens alike builking Minnesota social welfare system. So enormous and
brazen was the theft that The New York Times treated
with a competent and mostly unflinching article, which is the
only reason anybody outside the small world of conservative punditry
(01:02):
knows about it. The time it took for the Minnesota
story to make its way into the national headlines. It's
part of the problem federal prosecutors had already convicted fifty
nine of the fraudsters. Who tells you how long this
thing has been happening. A few local media outlets in
Minnesota KRI have covered the story since the first indictments.
(01:24):
A couple others as well. And again, this is going
back years. The Somali fraud story is in some respect
akin to the so called grooming scandal in Britain. You
remember this, in which gangs of Pakistani men sexually abused
young girls. The government and the news media, no, no, no,
(01:47):
we are yeah, we can't do anything about this. Oh,
people will think we're racist, and how messed up that is. Well,
we're gonna be accused of Islamophobia. Well we made fun
of that. And here we got Minneapolis, Saint Paul, the
Twin Cities. They couldn't. State authorities can do a damn things.
(02:08):
They can't stop this theft. You're talking again, A billion dollars,
billion dollars is Medicaid, housing, other welfare programs. Pretty darn bad,
both scandals, he writes, question about most of us would
(02:29):
rather it's it's a question. Most again, people are afraid
to ask this question. I'm not. I'm not. As you
can tell, I have no filter. I have no filter,
and you people can call me whatever you want to,
call me a racist islama. I'm just dealing with reality
and I don't care how much how much you would
(02:51):
like oil in water to mix. It's just not going
to all right. Follow along here, large scale immigration from
predominantly Muslim countries. Show me, show me a place, Show
me a place in the world where it's worked out.
(03:18):
Barton Swain in this article, and I got a little
upset with him about this. He points out Italian immigration
in the early twentieth century and saying that, well, you
know that had some imported some form of criminality. Barton,
you don't. You haven't done your homework on this by
any stretch of the imagination. There's several books. Black Hand
is an excellent one as well, where you actually learn
(03:41):
a little bit more about what actually took place. But
neither here nor there. Minnesota's roughly eighty thousand strong Somole
acuity contains many industrious people and good citizens. Okay, but
an unbiased observer could be forgiven for thinkingnesota Somali population
(04:01):
isn't capable of assimilation. Again, I don't know if you've
watched some recent man on the street interviews in their neighborhoods,
every single one says, not only do they not want
to be here in the United States, they don't want
to live under our loss again post why are you
(04:27):
here then? Anyway, there was an essay that was recently
put out talking about this bad actors within the community
would approach potential conspirats. Is how the scam would work
co conspirators without any fear of betrayal. Even the people
who said no to phenomenal offers of tens of thousands
(04:49):
of dollars in free taxpayer money didn't inform the authorities
that a major community wide fraud against the public was
in progress. Potentially criminal oddities went on, most totally important
to anyone in government. The FBI learned about Feeding Our Future,
a nonprofit that was one of the main vehicles of
the fraud, from a whistleblower in the Department of Education,
(05:10):
not from any of the scams ground level witnesses or participants. Anyway.
There was a book, It's called Dominion, came out in
twenty nineteen's by a British historian, Tom Holland, and he
contends that Christianity has left an imprint on the West
so deep as to be in redactable and in perceptible.
(05:38):
Even atheists in nations once Christianized think in Christian terms
without knowing it only a Christian nation, and I suspect
mister Holland would say would invent a social welfare system
as lavish and easily exploitable as the one in Minnesota,
(05:58):
pretty much all over the country. Essentially, what Christianity has
that Islam does not is a concept of the secular.
He said this in a recent interview. This Tom Holland.
From its beginning, Christianity has acknowledged that some parts of
(06:18):
human society will function outside the demands of revelation. Think
of Jesus's imperative to render to Caesar. What is Caesar's
into God? What is God's? Islam classically acknowledges no such fear.
I think Islam is uniquely indigestible for a secular mindset,
(06:40):
and Minnesota Somali population plainly doesn't think of itself as digestible.
Now I've said this before, and I've got blowback from
some of the listeners in regards to immigration here in
this country. And we all know, okay, the door is
thrown open sent America, Mexico, South America, all these places.
(07:03):
We have to know who's here, and we have to
assimilate these people as well. The one thing I've thrown
out over there is said, people, you know, we can
deal with this. It could be much worse. It could
be Europe. Europe, they're mass, large scale mass immigration. Muslim
(07:23):
immigration is a far greater problem than what we are
dealing with. And again, you take a look at some
of these cities and scanned in even Come, they're a disaster.
Some of the highest crime rates in the world. Stockholm, Yeah, yeah,
(07:43):
massive no go zones in Paris. President Trump was asked
about the Minnesota fraud prosecutions, and he said, these aren't
people that work. These aren't people that say, let's go,
come on, let's make this place great. These are people
that do nothing but complain. They come from hell and
they complain and do nothing but bitch. And actually obviously
(08:09):
went after ilan Omar because she does that all the time. Anyway, again,
someone's well, you know, that's terrible, that's mean, that's not everybody.
You know, He's not exactly wrong. Okay, he isn't wrong
(08:32):
to sense that something is off. Okay, we all know it.
We all see it. We all know it doesn't work.
We all know it's not Okay, okay, we got up there,
entire communities completely contemptuous of the country that took them in.
(08:54):
And yeah, yeah, I don't know the legalities. I don't
know how you're gonna start pulling people's paperwork and saying, whoops,
we screwed up here. You gotta go home. But I
think that's something that people could get behind again. This
is this, this is bad again. People people see online,
(09:20):
they're seeing people getting, you know, pulled over by Isma's
story here recently in Florida, lady was a citizen got
pulled over and cart it was completely legal sitting. I mean,
let's let me focus a little bit. Let's put a
little bit more focus on those illegal aliens from these
(09:43):
really really dysfunctional just different than us. And I'm sorry,
I'm gonna say it, Muscle nations, and listen, it is
what it is. Okay, I have done one of those
proved me wrong things. Look at these communities. They want
(10:07):
serial off, they don't want they don't want any part
of the thing. They want to cut themselves off. And
we brought them here. We allowed this to happen. Yeah,
we might want to rethink that. Let's figure out a
do over on this watchdog on Wallstreet dot com.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.