An editorial yesterday in the St. Cloud Times makes me laugh!
It was only last week that they called on a professional communicator, Professor Aric Putnam from a Catholic college, to call me out for promoting conspiracy theories, here.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the St. Cloud State Muslim Student Association organized a public meeting in St. Cloud in April. That tells you who is running the show in St. Cloud. And, by the way, has the St. Cloud Times checked CAIR’s “facts?” Could someone point me to that story. Photo: Jason Wachter, jwachter@stcloudtimes.com
Now, that very same paper says that citizens in America are no longer allowed to exercise their Constitutional right to peaceably assemble in a group of like-minded people!
Our meeting was by invitation only!
We were receiving threats that “progressive activists” were planning to disrupt a meeting we (ACT for America chapter leader and myself) were holding in St. Cloud.
We wanted our guests to not be subjected to hateful vitriol by a bunch of Leftwing community agitators.
And, frankly, remember readers, you are not obligated to invite hostile media to any meeting in America!
Is the St. Cloud Times saying here that it is not permitted, in the people’s republic of Minnesota, to hold private meetings? Could they be spinning conspiracy theories themselves?
Talk about scare tactics! It is a joke—“secret conversations!” No wonder small city newspapers are dying.
Let’s keep talking, but let’s have those talks in public.
[….]
Unfortunately, there also have been some bad — or worse — secret conversations. [EEEK!!!—ed] Topping that list was the April 23 visit from Ann Corcoran, editor and founder of Refugee Resettlement Watch.She traveled all the way from Maryland to host an invitation-only meeting to promote her organization’s mission to “educate citizens about Refugee Resettlement Policy of the U.S. Government.”
Corcoran’s presentation was not open to the public. So while it’s impossible to know what she covered, a sampling of her opinions posted online indicate her message was likely rooted in disparaging all Muslims and especially those from Somalia.
To be clear, there are valid questions to ask federal elected officials about U.S. immigration policies they refuse to change.
However, Corcoran’s tactics — from secret meetings to extremist stereotyping — don’t have Washington, D.C. as their target. Instead, she’s much more focused on exploiting and expanding local fear of the unknown. Then, of course, it’s time for her to pack her bags and move to the next struggling community.
Struggling communities, here I come!
By the way,go here (scroll down to April 23, Part 1 and Part 2) to listen to my radio interview immediately following our “secret meeting,” so you can hear the gist of what we discussed in private—that every town in America receiving third world refugees (chosen by the UN) has the right to the FACTS on what is happening to their community.
Hey, I will bet you a million bucks that CAIR has held private meetings in St. Cloud and that the St. Cloud Times never threw a hissy-fit about their private (secret) conversations! Why? Fear!
The debate we helped start here a little over a week ago continues in St. Cloud, Minnesota as a letter writer says Somalis must choose between Somalia’s constitution based entirely on sharia-law and the US Constitution.
Somalis in Minnesota: Time to choose, sharia law or US Constitution? Photo at MN Historical Society
Here is Willmar resident Bob Enos this past Thursday. As of this minute (on Sunday morning) there are 153 comments! You should get in on the action, submit a comment and continue to educate the readers of the St. Cloud Times!
Thank you for your coverage of Ann Corcoran’s recent visit to St. Cloud concerning Somali immigration. With regard to Islamic Sharia law, if your fact-checkers read the Provisional Constitution of Somalia, here is what they would know.
Article 2 – “Islam is the religion of the State. … No other religion than Islam can be propagated in the country. … No law can be enacted that is not compliant with the general principles and objectives of Shari’ah.”
Article 8(3) states: “A person who is a Somali citizen cannot be deprived of Somali citizenship, even if they become a citizen of another country.”
A country’s constitution represents the hopes, dreams, aspirations and expectations of its citizens.
The question to our Somali-American citizens: You’ve sworn allegiance to an Islamic theocratic state and a U.S. secular, democratic state, each founded on diametrically opposed ideals. You can’t believe that both are correct.
You need to make a choice.
Go here and see what all the buzz is about, add some of your own!
For new readers, we have an extensive archive on St. Cloud, here. Our earliest post (I believe) was this one (in 2008!) written by blog partner, Judy, about Somalis threatening a service dog and his owner at a St. Cloud area school. The dog-owner subsequently dropped out of the teaching program.
If you have just dropped in here at RRW today for the first time, you should readour reportfrom my visit to St. Cloud, MN, a small city a little over an hour from Minneapolis where Lutheran Social Service is dropping off Somali refugees who are now causing tension in the school system.
Although the Left-leaning St. Cloud Times couldn’t control itself completely and put up one story as newsthat was really an opinion piece, we are pretty satisfied that for the first time ever the readers of that paper received a tutorial of sorts on how the refugee resettlement program works.
The contractors, such as Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, are often happy to promote the idea that refugees simply “find their way” to your towns, rather than to tell you that the UN is picking them and the US State Department is assigning them to 9 contractors and 350 subcontractors (some masquerading as ‘religious’ charities), and paying them with your tax dollars to distribute them!
The original article generated lots of discussion, see the comments, and here is a letter to the editor published yesterday from Tennessean Don Barnett who has had over two decades of experience following the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program.
I would like to draw your attention to the airfare loan issue. Shortly after refugees arrive in the US the contractor begins nagging the refugee to repay the airfare loan money (that you ‘loaned’ them through the federal treasury). The State Department to my knowledge has not reported how much is actually ever collected, but we know that the contractors keep a chunk of what they manage to wring out of the refugees for themselves!
Remember readers this is big business for the contractors and for the industries in Minnesota looking for cheap labor!
Stating that Lutheran Social Services “receives $850 per arrival” is misleading. Refugee resettlement is very profitable, and money is earned in many ways. If a volunteer spends time with an LSS refugee or donates, say, a used couch, LSS submits a bill to the feds for the volunteer’s time or the used couch and receives cash from the misnamed federal Match Grant program.
If LSS’s parent organization collects the airfare from the refugee — which was provided by the taxpayer to the refugee as a loan — the organization pockets a full 25 percent of the amount as a collection fee.This relatively small program alone means millions for the larger refugee contractors. [In its 2012 annual report, for example, the contractor US Conference of Catholic Bishops reported over $3 million in cash for the collection of airfare loans.—ed]
There are many grant programs providing an opaque stream of money from almost all departments of the U.S. government. As a state refugee coordinator notes in a 2012 GAO report, “local affiliate funding is based on the number of refugees they serve, so affiliates have an incentive to maintain or increase the number of refugees they resettle each year rather than allowing the number to decrease.”
It is hardly the case that “refugees receive a one-time federal grant of $1,125” and “after that, refugees are on their own.” Most refugees are placed into one or another federal assistance program by the refugee resettlement contractors.
Just in the past few weeks Congressional Research Services provided data about welfare usage among refugees. Among refugees who had arrived in a recent 5-year period, 56 percent were receiving Medicaid or Refugee Medical Assistance, 74.2 percent were on food stamps, 22.8 percent were in public housing, and 47.1 percent were on some form of cash assistance.
Unfortunately, it is the refugee resettlement contractor, such as LSS, which leaves the refugees “on their own” — abandoning them to the care of the taxpayer.
See our complete archive on St. Cloud going back many years byclicking here.
If you are interested in listening to my interview with Dan ‘OX’ Ochsner on KNSI radio in St. Cloud, click here and scroll down to podcasts part 1 and 2 on April 23, 2015.
Update April 30th: Don Barnett adds to the discussion with more facts in Letter to the Editor, here.
I’m back in Maryland after spending the last three days touring the state of Minnesota where I experienced an abundance of ‘Minnesota Nice.‘
Everywhere I traveled with ACT for Americachapter leader Deb Anderson I was greeted warmly by citizen activists eager to learn more about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program that has been run secretively for over three decades and is having an especially serious impact on the state of Minnesota.
I had prepared my first-ever power point presentation laying out the facts specifically on Minnesota, and left it with several activists who planned to show it again elsewhere.
St. Cloud dust-up!
Regular readers know that St. Cloud, Minnesota has been in the national spotlight in recent weeks and months as the Somali population there grows and becomes more demanding. See our extensive St. Cloud archive,here.
So, it is no wonder that the St. Cloud Times, a Left-leaning newspaper, took a special interest in my visit. (Update: Just so you know I did not submit the photo they used!)
By the way, one of the major action points I emphasized in my 4 presentations around the state was that concerned citizens must begin to create some serious alternative media sources to get around the ‘captured’ small city newspapers. (This probably applies to just about every small city newspaper in America!).
The Left (and their greedy friends at the Chamber of Commerce and in big business ie. meatpackers) cannot stand to have the facts about what they are doing reported. The Left (looking for new Democrat voters), the Chamber and big business don’t give a damn about what they do to your towns. It is all about power and money!
Free speech is still the greatest weapon at our disposal, please use it!
Reporter Stephanie Dickrell
So, I was pleasantly surprised that reporter Stephanie Dickrell at the St. Cloud Times (sdickrell@stcloudtimes.com) went to so much effort to find the facts and report that my “facts” are essentially true.
But, the most important thing her story did (probably for the first time ever) was to explain to their readers many of the details of how the UN/US State Department refugee program works.
Here is just a bit of what she said:
Ann Corcoran visited St. Cloud on Thursday, speaking at a private event, where media was not permitted, and appearing on KNSI’s Ox In the Afternoon show. She is the editor and founder of Refugee Resettlement Watch and has been involved with the refugee issue since 2007. [Will link the radio interview as soon as I get it.—ed]
She is also the author of “Refugee Resettlement and the Hijra to America,” available on Amazon and at securefreedom.org.
Her worry is that refugees are being settled around the country using tax dollars and that is part of a larger movement to infiltrate America and promote Islam.
Yup!
Corcoran said people are hesitant to speak up on the issue for fear of being called racist. But she believes residents have a “right to ask” who’s coming, how many are coming, where are they coming from and how much government money is being spent.
Yup!
I couldn’t have been more delighted than to have been personally attacked in a verbal temper tantrum by this man—‘Professor’ Aric Putnam. I wonder does he understand that he is shilling for the Chamber of Commerce and BIG MEAT as they hunger for cheap immigrant labor?
Corcoran’s main argument is that refugees are being brought to U.S. cities using taxpayer money in a secretive manner and without the say of residents. She argues that refugee resettlement should still be performed by private charities.
Once here, she argues, refugees immediately enroll in welfare and other social services.
Yup!
Corcoran also argues that most of these refugees are selected by the United Nations to come to the U.S. and come from “countries that hate us.”
Yup!
LSS of Minnesota’s head honcho actually makes more than what I reported! Again, what on earth could this CEO do (while being largely paid out of your wallets) that justifies a salary higher than a US Congressman, a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice?
Corcoran claimed 89 percent of LSS is funded by federal and state taxpayers. She said the Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota CEO makes more than $300,000 a year.
The organization’s funding comes from a variety of sources, including congregations, fees people pay for LSS services, local United Ways, private grants, individual contributions, bequests and government contracts for service. From that, 82 percent of its funding comes from government sources, according to Maureen Warren, chief family services officer. [Ms. Warren and I were likely looking at two different years … but 82% is still outrageous for a so-called Christian charity.—ed]
President/CEO Jodi Harpstead had base compensation of about $267,000 in 2013. With retirement and other compensation added, her total comes to $323,000.
Stephanie Dickrell did a pretty good job on the news report. But, she (more likely her editors) blew it by also publishing a companion “news” story that should have been published as an Op-Ed by a “professor of rhetoric,”a supposed believer in free speech, that is nothing more than an ad hominem personal attack.
Is that what we teach college students to do these days as they pursue careers in “communication?”
The Professor reviewed a video clip put out by the Center for Security Policy in conjunction with the release of my little book: ‘Refugee Resettlement and the Hijra to America,’ but the paper fails to link it, so readers can analyze for themselves whether I am promoting a “conspiracy theory” as Mr. Putnam says more than once.
The Professor uses a typical Leftwing tactic of attacking me personally. This is what they ALWAYS do to silence opposing views.
Watch this clip of ‘Professor’ Putnam of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s UniversityCommunications Studies Department talk about preparing “better thinkers.” Really?
A home run!
Other than the St. Cloud Times editors choosing to publish the personal attack from ‘Professor’ Aric Putnam as news, I’m tickled with it because as one very astute observer noted—-“when you receive flak, you know you are over the target!”
Reporting like this is meant to shut people up, but it doesn’t work that way on me and it shouldn’t on you! It should serve as motivation to keep doing what one is doing if it annoys them so much that they go over the top and throw a verbal temper tantrum as ‘Professor’ Putnam does here.
Reporter Leo Hohmann, who has done great work over the last year or so exposing the refugee resettlement industry in the US has posted another good piece in the wake of my post earlier in the weekabout how the nine major resettlement contractorsare picking the towns to colonize.
I’m off to Washington this morning and have no time to say more now, so please check it out yourselves! He cites Spartanburg, SC and St. Cloud, MN.
Reporter Leo Hohmann, who has done great work over the last year or so exposing the refugee resettlement industry in the US has posted another good piece in the wake of