Thursday, December 18, 2025

Thursday’s Final Word – HotAir

December 18, 2025
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Tab fever, tab fever, we don’t have to close ’em … 





“The fraud is not small. It isn’t isolated. The magnitude cannot be overstated. It’s a staggering, industrial scale fraud. It’s swamping Minnesota and calling into question everything we know about our state.”

Ed: Any fraud on that scale can only have succeeded for as long as it did with the protection of public officials. That also calls into question how those public officials got elected and stayed in office. US Attorney Thompson likely has a long career if he’s allowed to dig into this all the way to expose everything connected to the racketeering taking place in Minnesota. 

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Bill Glahn at Power Line: A roundup of federal investigations of fraud in Minnesota,

  • Health & Human Services (HHS):HHS probes Minnesota’s use of billions in federal social service funds amid fraud concerns: report.
  • Labor: Labor Department sending unemployment insurance ‘strike team’ to investigate Minnesota fraud.
  • Homeland Security (DHS): Ilhan Omar lashes out at ‘sick’ Republicans for investigating her alleged marriage to brother.
  • Housing and Urban Development (HUD):Trump HUD sending staff into Minnesota to investigate amid state welfare fraud scandal
  • Treasury: Bessent turns up heat on sprawling Minnesota fraud schemes as Treasury personnel deploy on the ground
  • U.S. House of Representatives: House committee opens investigation into Minnesota welfare fraud
  • Agriculture: New SNAP Benefits Warning for Minnesota: ‘High Risk’

Ed: Follow the links to assess the scope and scale of fraud in Minnemalia these days. This may be the worst-run state in terms of systemic fraud since Huey Long. Maybe Sean Penn can play Tim Walz in the cinematic version, although I’d pay money to see Paul Walter Hauser do it. 





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Ed: If Minnesota Republicans win one statewide office next year, it should be this one. That would be the first statewide win in 20 years. That is in large part is what is enabling the systemic fraud in the Land of 10,000 Loons. Start with the auditor’s position and Secretary of State, eliminate the corruption that is armoring the DFL, and then start holding fair and credible elections. 

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CBS News: Federal prosecutors announced new indictments Thursday in the widening Minnesota fraud scandal, this time involving two Philadelphia-based men accused of traveling to Minneapolis after a friend told them the taxpayer-funded programs there presented “a good opportunity to make money.”

Anthony Waddel Jefferson and Lester Brown are accused of siphoning millions from federally funded programs administered by Minnesota officials that were meant to help people with disabilities and those suffering from addiction. …

In a separate indictment filed Thursday, a man allegedly registered a company to help channel state resources to the families of children with autism. But the man, Abdinajib Hassan Yussef, allegedly spent some of the $6 million he took from the program on the purchase of a Freightliner semi-truck.

Ed: The new Bari Weiss regime at the Tiffany Network seems to have finally taken the “news” part of CBS News seriously. This report includes the fact that neither Jefferson nor Brown has Minnesota connections, but somehow knew it was the best place to run government program fraud. The second case is connected to the Somali community in the state, of course. 





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Ed: She doesn’t think fraud is happening there? They’ve had ten hearings, and she hasn’t heard about it? This is an insane amount of spin coming this state rep. By the way, states administer Medicaid, not the Trump administration. I’m gonna nominate Nick Shirley for the Nick Sandmann Stoic Award, though. Memes shall be born from his equanimity in the face of nuttiness. 

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WSJ: The second phase of the plan requires Hamas to give up governance, disarm and transfer control of the territory to an international force of troops and a technocratic committee of Palestinians who would run it. A Board of Peace, chaired by Trump, would oversee the process. Israel would retreat from most of Gaza and the massive undertaking of rebuilding the shattered land would commence.

But Hamas still controls half of Gaza and refuses to disarm, creating a domino effect that stalls the plan and risks leaving it in limbo between war and peace.

Most countries won’t send troops into Hamas territory as long as the U.S.-designated terrorist group remains there. Some countries are considering sending troops into the territory controlled by Israel, but many, especially Arab countries, don’t want to appear to be supporting an Israeli occupation.

It is a problem that many observers predicted.

Ed: Indeed. Shall I count all the times I predicted this? Here are a few links …





This is just from the last 60 days, mind you.

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Ed: I think so too … but I’m less confident about that than I was at the beginning of the year. 

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The Hollywood Reporter: In a post on X Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the center’s board of trustees “have just voted unanimously” to change the name of the historic arts and cultural institution to the Trump-Kennedy Center. The board members were appointed by President Trump in February, after he named himself chairman and fired some board members, with others resigning. 

Leavitt said the name change happened due to the “because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building.”

Ed: Don’t rush the new letterhead. As people pointed out on Xwitter, Congress passed a statute to name the building after John F. Kennedy. It will take a statute to change the name, at least officially. The Kennedy Center can call itself whatever it wants, informally speaking, but unless Congress amends the statute, it’s really just the Kennedy Center. And perhaps we should get Congress to pass a law that prohibits naming any federal building after someone who is still alive. That would apply mainly to Congress, where porkers used to routinely have buildings named after themselves in appreciation for the pork-barrel funds applied to those facilities. 





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Ed: I’m not going to judge people who choose not to have children. I tend to think that people who don’t want children probably are better off without them. But that’s not a “life hack” unless your life is all about momentary pleasure rather than true happiness and optimism. I also find it a bit condescending to call this a “life hack” when it argues against creating life. Glad to see Chrissie Mayr making this point. 

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John Nolte at Breitbart: According to various reports, the Disney Grooming Syndicate, which owns ABC, is happy to be rid of a ratings albatross that wasn’t worth the annual license fee, which was around $100 million per telecast.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, has that kind of money to burn. Additionally, more people watch the YouTube platform than any other, and the streaming outlet has promised to treat the Oscar telecast like a major event.

Nevertheless, this is another humiliation for the Academy — like being demoted from Broadway to vaudeville. Sure, more people attended vaudeville, but network TV is still network TV, and YouTube is still YouTube.

Ed: It’s a slow slide into irrelevance, only accelerating now. Like John, I wonder if Disney isn’t secretly happy to be rid of this albatross. It might have been better if Disney had tried to use its influence to fix the cultural rot in Hollywood that is causing its irrelevance, but at least so far, they seem more comfortable championing it. 

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Ed: There are far too many stories like this one. It’s far past time to hold these officeholders accountable for their obstruction of federal law enforcement. 

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Newsmax: Federal agents raided the offices of a business in Bloomington, Minnesota, Thursday, just days after state regulators suspended a business license at the same address, citing allegations of fraud.

According to witnesses and law enforcement officials, FBI agents arrived at Ultimate Home Health Services early Thursday morning and remained on site for several hours. … 

Ultimate Home Health Services sought more than $1.1 million in reimbursements between June 2024 and August 2025 for services billed to 13 clients, including multiple individuals who did not receive the services, according to the search warrant.

The raid comes on the heels of action taken by the state of Minnesota, which suspended a business license connected to the address earlier this week.

Ed: This looks like a case that’s unconnected to the other massive frauds which mainly involve the Somali community in Minneapolis. Minnesota used to be known for its innovation in medical devices; now it looks like an innovation center for government fraud. 

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Ed: This is a good baseline for measuring the impact of the upcoming Trump midterm campaign on economics. In the next clip, I talk about it with my pal Tony Katz, in which I claim the final Final Word today. RHIP!





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Editor’s note: If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. If you’re digging these Final Word posts and want to join the conversation in the comments — and support independent platforms — why not join our VIP Membership program? Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!





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