Daniel DiMartino had a question given whom Markey wants to hire.
“Are straight white men not encouraged to apply?” he wrote.
Over at Twitchy, Markey’s invitation to apply was slammed as “the kind of posting that treats identity categories as the main qualification, which is exactly the approach that has drawn scrutiny from people who still think government offices should hire based on competence rather than checklist demographics.”
@DanielDiMartino @SenMarkey They’re probably the most underrepresented group among Democrat party interns, so they really should be as “underrepresented candidates”. I’m sure that’s what Ed means
One poster countered that while the intent might be to discriminate, the post did not technically break the law.
“’Encouraged to apply’ is the key phrase. Seeking a broader applicant pool isn’t illegal. Likely why he put it this way. It suggests a possible intent to classify applicants by demography and/or to the treat them differently, but it’d be illegal at stage 2, not here,” Dan Morenoff wrote on X.
But that did not stop the criticism.
“Just open, blatant discrimination against straight White people. Incredible,” Libs of TikTok wrote.
In this latest example, Osborn is trashing his own staff, saying his field team ‘f**king sucks.’
He then goes on to claim that this is why it’s so hard for Democrats (not independents, Democrats) to win in Nebraska. Is he basically admitting that he’s really a Democrat? Sure sounds that way.
‘My Field Team F***ing Sucks’: More Leaked Audio Exposes Dan Osborn’s Failing Senate Campaign
Fake independent Senate candidate Dan Osborne’s Nebraska Senate campaign is falling apart at the seams, and today we’ve learned that senior staff are jumping ship at an alarming rate. According to Punchbowl News, numerous staffers have left in recent months including campaign manager James Dolan, who left in May.
Communications director Colleen Craig left in July; a recording of her claiming Osborn recruiting Graham Platner to run in Maine later surfaced. Other longtime staffers have also left the campaign in the months and weeks before the general election, which is unusual. Two prominent consultants also left the campaign recently; Daniel Moraff and Morris Katz were part of Osborn’s failed 2024 campaign and played key roles in Graham Platner’s catastrophic Senate effort…
All this leads to even more leaked audio, which may explain why senior staff are fleeing the Osborn campaign. In this latest audio, Osborn admits that “my field team f***ing sucks.”
“First of all, my field team f***ing sucks,” Osborn said. “Because trying to get field people, that is why, another reason why Democrats don’t win in Nebraska, because there’s no hiring pool for that industry for people that want to work in politics.”
Listen to the audio below:
EXCLUSIVE: DAN OSBORN CAUGHT TRASHING HIS OWN CAMPAIGN STAFF!
“First of all, my field team f***ing sucks.”
Audio obtained by Townhall catches the Nebraska Senate candidate unloading on the people working to elect him.
Conservative commentator Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist made a great point about Trump’s oil deal with Russia during a recent appearance on FOX News.
Hemingway noted that this is a deal that will help the American people, so it’s still America First policy. Trump is still putting the American people first.
She also points out that despite the left’s rhetoric, we are not currently at war with Russia, and that we make deals with adversaries such as China all the time.
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY: Well, the legislation mentioned does include a provision that the president can work within the restrictions of the sanctions. But I think what President Trump is trying to do here is put the American people first and let them have an interest in this ongoing, lengthy war between Russia and Ukraine. People in America are suffering. Farmers in Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa who are dealing with very high diesel prices. Just normal Americans who are struggling to fill up their tanks at the pump. And diesel is something that Russia has a lot of.
Contrary to what some of those people seem to be suggesting, we’re not actually at war with Russia. We’re not at war with China. We do make arrangements with both of these countries, adversarial though they may be.
And Americans are very happy to help Ukraine, but not when it’s hurting American interests as much as this is currently. We’ve given hundreds of billions of dollars. We provide the technology, weapons, intelligence, and we’re happy to do that in their efforts. But again, this war, which has been going on for a long time and seems to not be near resolution unless the parties admit the reality of what’s going on, is hurting Americans in a way and President Trump seems to be caring about it more than those voices in D.C. who tend to support lengthy wars.
Watch the video below:
Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway: The Russian diesel deal signals Trump is focused more on Americans than D.C. war enthusiasts.
“I think what President Trump is trying to do here is put the American people first and let them have an interest in this ongoing, lengthy… pic.twitter.com/BiEOi5gayf
Just when you thought the controversy surrounding far-left Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) couldn’t get any more suspicious, another bombshell has emerged, and this time, it involves her date of birth and the citizenship records that could determine whether she legally obtained American citizenship.
According to an explosive new report from the New York Post, staff working for the Somali-born congresswoman reportedly arranged to have her official birth year changed from 1981 to 1982 in May 2019, months after she won her first congressional election in November 2018.
According to The Post, Omar’s birthdate had long been listed as October 4, 1981 in the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, on Wikipedia, and in major outlets including the BBC. That date remained in place throughout her time in the Minnesota House and into the early months of her congressional term.
Then, in May 2019, shortly after a political opponent’s video went viral questioning her age, Omar’s staff contacted the library and requested the year be changed to 1982.
An email from the library director, reviewed by the Post, states:
“On May 17, 2019, Library staff were informed by Rep. Omar’s congressional staff that her birth year was incorrect and requested that we change it to 1982.”
The director added that Omar’s team was simultaneously working to “correct” the year on Wikipedia and in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
The original 1981 listing, the library noted, had been entered because it was “widely available, in Wikipedia and the Biographical Directory, and so we added that birthdate without documentation.”
Ilhan Omar’s staff helped change her birthdate in the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library after she was elected to Congress in 2018. https://t.co/YjKWZiClL6
Under immigration law governing derivative citizenship at that time, a child’s age could be a decisive factor in determining whether citizenship was automatically obtained through a naturalized parent.
Federal immigration law generally required qualifying conditions for derivative citizenship to be satisfied before the child’s 18th birthday.
If she was born in 1981, she would have been 18 or 19 in 2000, potentially making her ineligible for automatic derivative citizenship as a minor and requiring her to go through the adult naturalization process instead. Critics argue this raises the possibility of misrepresentation on immigration paperwork.
This revelation lands amid an active federal criminal investigation. As The Gateway Pundit reported, Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a judicially authorized search warrant at Omar’s Washington, D.C.-area home early Monday morning, seizing boxes of evidence.
The probe focuses on immigration documents completed by her late father when she was a child, with officials examining whether false statements were made that could support denaturalization proceedings.
Following Monday’s search, she issued a defiant statement:
“I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.
A chemical engineer in California was caught on video poisoning his female co-worker.
David Xu, 41, a scientist at Berkeley Engineering and Research, had secretly been poisoning his colleague, Rong Yuan, with cadmium for nearly two years.
Cadmium is a toxic heavy metal. Yuan had suffered vomiting and hair loss for two years before discovering that her co-worker was poisoning her.
Rong Yuan saw countless doctors as her condition worsened.
One day, Yuan’s mother noticed an unusual odor coming from her daughter’s water bottle.
This prompted Yuan to set up a hidden camera at her desk, and that is when she caught Xu pouring the cadmium into her water bottle.
In 2019, Xu was charged with premeditated murder, but in a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to poisoning, and he was sentenced to two years’ probation.
On Monday, a judge granted Xu’s request to have his record expunged.
Yuan still has no idea why Xu poisoned her, however, she revealed that there were times that he told her to pursue other jobs.
A Berkeley engineer whose co-worker was convicted of poisoning her is speaking publicly about the case for the first time after a court agreed to expunge his felony conviction despite objections from prosecutors.
Rong Yuan said she spent years trying to understand a series of unexplained health problems starting in 2017, including vomiting and hair loss, before discovering what she says was happening at her workplace.
“Shocked. I don’t know why,” Yuan said when asked what she thought after reviewing video she recorded.
For more than two years, she sought answers from countless doctors, but her condition continued to worsen.
The breakthrough came after her mother noticed an unusual smell coming from her water bottle. When cleaning it did not solve the problem, Yuan decided to install a small camera at her desk.
BREAKING: Ukraine has just struck an oil depot in Valuyki, Belgorod Oblast and set it ablaze, despite Trump’s warnings. Over 500 drones were launched into Russia tonight.
It is the first Ukrainian strike on energy infrastructure since Trump’s announced “ceasefire” two days ago.
Ukraine’s response to US threats to cut intelligence and freeze the PURL weapons mechanism if Kyiv were to resume energy strikes was “We will burn Russian refineries.”
As Cristina Laila reported earlier, President Trump on Sunday announced an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.
“Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump said on Sunday.
“I just spoke with Mark Carney, @alexstubb, and @SecGenNATO Mark Rutte. We discussed the energy ceasefire announced by President Trump,” Zelensky said.
“Ukraine supports the ceasefire, and it is important that Russia support it as well. We are awaiting details from the American side. For our part, Ukraine always FULLY supports steps toward de-escalation, the protection of lives, and the decisions needed to end the war and guarantee lasting peace. Thank you!” he said.
I just spoke with @MarkJCarney, @alexstubb, and @SecGenNATO Mark Rutte. We discussed the energy ceasefire announced by President Trump. Ukraine supports the ceasefire, and it is important that Russia support it as well. We are awaiting details from the American side. For our part, Ukraine always FULLY supports steps toward de-escalation, the protection of lives, and the decisions needed to end the war and guarantee lasting peace. Thank you!
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 11, 2026
But two days later Ukraine bombed another oil depot – to screw Russia AND President Trump as the midterms approach.
On Sunday, President Trump called for elections in Ukraine. That is the globalists’ greatest fear.
President Trump told reporters Russia wants to make a peace deal but Zelensky does not.
CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten said Monday that Republicans have a substantial chance of maintaining their Senate majority if polling numbers are off by only a few points.
Enten pointed out that the polling industry has consistently favored Democrats in past elections and said it would not take much for the Republicans to hold on to vital toss-up seats.
“Let’s just say we have the 2026 Senate polls, but if the polls are underestimating the Republicans by 3.5 points, which you know is really possible, because we’ve seen it through the history, right? You go back to 2020, that’s basically what happened,” he declared.
“Even in 2024, in a number of the key states we saw it happen, including places like Texas.”
Enten then rattled off several other high-profile contests, some in ruby-red states, and said voters could easily defy pollsters and flip the blue wave narrative on its head.
“How about Michigan? How about up there in Maine, how about in Alaska, how about in Iowa, how about in Kansas — which has been getting a lot of press lately — all of these go red. All these go red, and the Republicans don’t just hold the United States Senate; they hold it easily with 52 seats to the Democrats’ 48 seats.”
CNN: If early October polls keep the pattern of underestimating Republicans, they will keep the senate
Republicans: 52 Democrats: 48
States:
Michigan: Flip
Maine: Hold
Texas: Hold
Ohio: Hold https://t.co/dVUU90nSHj
Enten’s map didn’t even include potential GOP Senate wins in Ohio, North Carolina, New Hampshire, or Georgia, where Republicans have historically been competitive, if not outright dominant.
If polls are underestimating Republicans in the states that Enten mentioned, and they stay red, the GOP would only need to pick off two swing states to increase their current 53-47 majority.
The CNN analyst also highlighted how the early October generic congressional ballot has underestimated Republicans in 14 of 16 elections since 1994.
“What is going on here?” Enten asked. “And it’s happened by an average of, I believe, what is this — four points. The average is a four-point underestimation of Republicans since 1994.”
CNN: Early October Generic Ballot Polls Have Underestimated Republicans By An Average Of 4 Points
Early Oct Generic Ballot Polls Since 1994
Underestimated GOP: 14
Didn’t Underestimated GOP: 2 https://t.co/OTJmuMZjS7
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York also raised concerns on Tuesday about GOP fundraising advantages, according to a letter obtained by The Hill.
Schumer wrote that control of the upper chamber could come down to an “unprecedented tsunami of Republican money” that has the potential to level the playing field in the home stretch, with only weeks to go until Election Day.
“We have strong candidates, a clear message, and a political climate that offers real opportunities. But Republicans have one enormous advantage of their own. Money,” Schumer stated.
He also said President Donald Trump has the bandwidth to spend between $400 million and $500 million through his super PAC, MAGA Inc., and that big tech mogul Elon Musk has pumped nearly $300 million into the midterm races to help Republican candidates.
Schumer added that other “megadonors” have jumped into the fray and are funding Senate races at rates unlike anything “we’ve ever seen before.”
“That’s the enormous force bearing down on this election,” Schumer concluded. “And it’s a challenge none of us can afford to underestimate.”
A rescuer works to free trapped residents after Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia, October 9, 2026. Photo courtesy of DSNS, Zaporizhzhia region.
Russian forces carried out 1,033 strikes on 56 settlements in Zaporizhzhia Oblast on October 9, killing two people and wounding 41, according to regional reports. The attacks included 33 airstrikes, 789 drone strikes, three rocket launcher attacks and 208 artillery strikes, with 437 reports of damage to homes, vehicles and infrastructure.
In Zaporizhzhia city, a morning guided bomb strike destroyed and damaged residential buildings, according to Ivan Fedorov, co-chair of the regional defense council. By evening, the number of people injured in that strike had risen to 19, including two children, one of them a 14-year-old girl. An FPV drone also hit a minibus downtown, injuring two men and a woman. Acting regional head Semikin said 23 people were injured in the city that day.
In western Ukraine, a Russian drone struck a home in the Rivne region at about 4:30 p.m., wounding seven members of a large family, four of them children. A 32-year-old woman and three children, aged 12, 13 and 13, were hospitalized. A 13-year-old boy was in intensive care in serious condition. A café and a shop were also damaged. Earlier, a woman was injured in Sarny district.
Overnight, a jet-powered Shahed drone killed one man in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, according to Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv. A building, dry grass, and bushes caught fire.
In Kyiv Oblast’s Bucha district, rescuers fighting a fire at warehouses hit by Russian dronesfound the body of a missing woman. Three people were injured there. Oblast head Tymur Tkachenko said Russia “must answer for every life taken.” Across the oblast, six civilians were injured and 28 objects damaged, including 24 private homes, in the Bucha, Brovary, Obukhiv, Vyshhorod and Fastiv districts, according to the North Operational Command.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv city authorities had failed to take resilience measures “in almost all respects,” as Russian strikes caused significant damage to the power grid and transmission infrastructure. He called delays in regional resilience plans “absolutely unacceptable.”
In Chernihiv Oblast, Governor Viacheslav Chaus reported that Geran drones damaged a school and a dormitory in Mryn, Nizhyn district. Banderol munitions destroyed a farm in the Kulykivka community and set straw ablaze, and a drone strike in the Liubech community injured an elderly man. Overnight, a drone set fire to the Epicentr hypermarket outside Chernihiv, which had been largely destroyed in 2022 and subsequently rebuilt. In the morning, a drone hit a house roof in Chernihiv.
Sumy Oblast faced almost 30 attacks on 19 settlements in 12 communities. Mortar fire injured a 54-year-old man in Serednia Buda, and buildings were damaged in Velyka Pysarivka and Berezivka.
In Kharkiv Oblast, nine settlements were hit and six people injured, Governor Oleh Synehubov said. Those injured included three women, aged 41, 54 and 65, in Podvirky, a 50-year-old man in Lozova and a 75-year-old man in Yurchenkove.
Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin reported one civilian killed in Kramatorsk and 11 injured in the oblast, a day after a glide bomb killed 30 people on two Kramatorsk buses.
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast faced almost 40 attacks by drones, artillery and a missile. Governor Oleksandr Hanzha reported one person killed in the Synelnykove district. An agricultural enterprise, homes in Zelenodolsk and an apartment building in the Nikopol district were damaged.
In Kherson Oblast, attacks on Kherson city and 33 other settlements killed two people and injured nine, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said, and damaged six houses. In Odesa, a drone set fire to a food warehouse. Elsewhere in the region, 11 houses at recreation bases were damaged and a café destroyed, with no casualties.
The regional figures listed above put the October 9 civilian toll at eight killed and 82 injured. Ukraine’s General Staff reported Russian personnel losses of 1,420 that day, bringing its estimated cumulative total to about 1,550,910.
Ukraine’s negotiators, Rustem Umerov, Kyrylo Budanov, Serhiy Kyslytsya and David Arakhamia, began two days of talks with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the United States. In Kyiv, Zelensky met Senators Roger Wicker and Kevin Cramer and Representatives Dan Crenshaw and Marc Veasey. “Of course, we are counting on the Lindsey Graham law being implemented,” Zelensky said.
After a call with Putin, President Donald Trump said Russia would supply about 4.8 million metric tons of diesel to U.S. and global markets. Treasury issued General License 135, authorizing Russian diesel transactions through April 7, 2027.
On October 8, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced £54 million ($71 million) in aid on his first Ukraine visit in the role: £20 million for grid repairs, generators and solar power, and £34 million for heating and water before winter. “You cannot wait us out,” Miliband said.
Among immigrant groups, including the second generation, Vietnamese Americans have been among the most successful at meeting native-born standards, while Somalis have been among the least successful. Photo: AMISOM Public Information, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Surveys of the native-born public show what Americans expect of immigrants who settle among them. In a 2016 Pew Research Center survey, 92% of Americans said speaking English is important to being truly American, including 70% who said it is very important.
More than eight in ten said sharing American customs and traditions is important. By 2020, Pew found that the share calling English at least somewhat important had fallen to 77%, a decline driven by liberals and moderates. In Pew’s focus groups, Republican participants stressed learning English, adopting American values, and following the law.
An AP-NORC poll found that Democrats, Republicans, and independents agree that a fair judicial system, the rule of law, constitutional freedoms, and the ability to get a good job and achieve the American Dream are central to American identity. In a later AP-NORC poll, half of Americans said immigrants should adopt an essential American culture.
Public views of immigrants have long turned on work, welfare, and crime. In 1993, majorities believed Latin American immigrants often ended up on welfare and increased crime. By 2006, about eight in ten described Latino and Asian immigrants as hardworking and having strong family values.
Taken together, these surveys show that, to the native-born, a good immigrant learns English, works and supports his family, stays off welfare, obeys the law, and adopts American customs.
The data on welfare and incarceration support the pessimistic view of Latin American immigrants. A Center for Immigration Studies analysis of 2012 Census Bureau survey data found that 73% of households headed by immigrants from Central America and Mexico used at least one welfare program, compared with 30% of native households. The same analysis found that these immigrant households received an average of $8,251 in welfare benefits, 86% more than native households.
Federal data show that Hispanics are arrested and imprisoned at higher rates than non-Hispanic whites. The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that in 2023, Hispanic adults were imprisoned at a rate of 606 per 100,000, 2.6 times the rate of 231 for white adults. Asian adults were imprisoned at 88 per 100,000. Prison counts record ethnicity but not birthplace, so the Hispanic figure includes both immigrants and the U.S.-born.
In 2018, Hispanics made up 18.3% of the population but 21.4% of people arrested for serious violent crimes, while whites made up 60.4% of the population and 38.7% of those arrested. Per capita, Hispanics were arrested for rape, robbery, and aggravated assault at about 1.8 times the white rate. Victim surveys, which capture crimes never reported to police, identified Hispanics as 15.5% of offenders in serious violent crimes, about 1.2 times the white rate per capita. BJS noted that victims could not determine whether an offender was Hispanic in up to 12% of incidents, which may have led to some undercounting of Hispanic offenders.
A National Bureau of Economic Research study by economists Ran Abramitzky, Leah Boustan, Elisa Jácome, Santiago Pérez, and Juan David Torres used Census data on institutionalized men aged 18 to 40 to separate immigrants by country of origin. It found that since 2005, immigrants from Mexico and Central America have been incarcerated at higher rates than U.S.-born white men.
At the end of 2023, non-citizens made up 22,817 of 155,972 federal prisoners, or 14.6%, about twice their share of the U.S. population. Non-citizens number roughly 22.8 million, or about 7% of residents. The federal prison count includes immigration offenses.
English proficiency among Hmong, Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese immigrants ranges from 36% to 45%. Among working-age Somali immigrants in Minnesota, 58.2% speak English less than “very well,” according to a Center for Immigration Studies analysis of 2014–2023 Census data. Even among those who have lived in the United States for more than 10 years, the share is 49%.
Southeast Asian refugee groups began with high welfare dependency. A 1990 General Accounting Office report found that 58% to 73% of recently arrived Southeast Asian refugees participated in public assistance programs. The 1980 Census showed that 65.5% of Hmong families and 67.2% of Laotian families lived in poverty.
By 2017–2021, Hmong poverty in Wisconsin, home to the country’s third-largest Hmong population, had fallen to 13% from 75% in 1989. Six percent of Hmong households received cash public assistance income, compared with 2% of all households in the state.
Minnesota, which has roughly 100,000 Hmong residents, counted 359 Hmong adults on its main family welfare program in early 2016, compared with 3,696 Somali adults. The program combines cash and food assistance. From 2019 to 2023, 9.1% of Hmong Minnesotans lived in poverty, 33.9% had incomes below twice the poverty line, and 78.8% of working-age adults were employed.
Nationally, poverty rates are 14% for Hmong, 13% for Cambodians, 11% for Vietnamese, and 10% for Laotians, close to the national rate of 11.1%. Homeownership rates are 56% for Hmong-headed households, 60% for Cambodian households, 64% for Laotian households, and 68% for Vietnamese households, compared with 62% for Asian households overall.
Burmese households have a median income of $67,600, compared with the national median of $80,610 in 2023. The Burmese poverty rate is 21%.
Among Somali immigrants in Minnesota, 21.6% of working-age men are without a job, compared with 17.6% of native-born men. Among adults, 37.5% live in poverty, compared with 6.9% of native-born adults. The Center for Immigration Studies analysis found that 81% of Somali immigrant households receive some form of welfare, compared with 21% of native households. Among Somali immigrant households, 54% receive food stamps and 73% have at least one member on Medicaid. Nationally, 12.2% of households received SNAP in 2023.
Census data on food stamp receipt by Asian subgroup exist, but no published source reports Medicaid enrollment for Hmong, Cambodian, or Laotian Americans.
A chart President Trump posted in January 2026 listed immigrant household welfare use at 81.4% for Bhutan, 71.9% for Somalia, and 59.2% for Burma. The chart did not identify its data source or which programs it counted.
On obeying the law, no federal dataset tracks crime by national origin or ancestry, and FBI statistics group all Asian Americans into a single category. Deportation data provide one indicator. About 14,788 Southeast Asians living in the United States have final orders of removal. According to ICE data compiled by the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, 76% of those orders stem from contact with the criminal justice system. More than 4,800 Laotian nationals, including Hmong and Mien, have removal orders, as do about 1,700 Cambodians.
In Minnesota, the CIS study found that 1.5% of young Somali men are institutionalized, which usually means prison, compared with 1.3% of young native-born men. In the $250 million Feeding Our Future child-nutrition fraud case, federal prosecutors announced the 68th conviction in July 2026, out of about 80 defendants charged. The vast majority of the defendants are of Somali descent. Roughly a dozen Somalis from Minnesota left to join the Islamic State in Syria, mostly during the 2010s.
On adopting American civic life, naturalization rates are high across the groups. Among immigrants, 85% of Hmong, 79% of Laotians, 78% of Cambodians and Vietnamese, 68% of Bhutanese, and 59% of Burmese are naturalized citizens. In Minnesota, 87% of foreign-born Somalis are naturalized, and 58% of the state’s Somali population was born in the United States.
Education, which drives earnings in the next generation, converges unevenly. Among U.S.-born Vietnamese, 59% have a bachelor’s degree, above the national rate of 37.7% and the 43.4% rate for children of immigrants. The rate is 31% for U.S.-born Hmong and Cambodians and 24% for U.S.-born Laotians.
In today’s culture of anti-ICE protests and pro-illegal-alien activism, it is considered racist to collect data based on race or national origin or to present facts that might hurt someone’s feelings. In that spirit, rather than describing immigrants as good or bad, one can objectively identify those who meet the native-born standard and those who do not.
Measured against the native-born standard, only Vietnamese Americans fit the model on every available measure: second-generation English proficiency, income above the national median, poverty near the national rate, high homeownership and naturalization rates, and second-generation education above the national average.
By contrast, Somalis fail to meet the standard. A Center for Immigration Studies analysis of 2014–2023 Census data found that among Somali immigrants in Minnesota, 37.5% of adults live in poverty, 39% of working-age adults lack a high school diploma, and 58.2% speak English less than “very well,” compared with 6.9%, 5%, and 0.7% of native-born residents, respectively.
Among Somali immigrant households, 81% receive welfare, including 54% receiving food stamps and 73% with at least one member on Medicaid, compared with 21%, 7%, and 18% of native-born-headed households. Even after more than 10 years in the United States, adult poverty remains at 32.9% and limited English proficiency at 49%, although male joblessness overall is comparatively close to the native-born rate, at 21.6% versus 17.6%.
A Republican political group trying to boost Maine Sen. Susan Collins managed to spend nearly $25,000 advertising her campaign in Portland.
Unfortunately, the Portland in question was on the opposite side of the country.
Between $20,000 and $25,000 was reportedly spent serving digital advertisements to voters around Portland, Oregon, rather than Portland, Maine.
The Oregon advertising market even extends across the state line into Washington.
The ads were purchased on behalf of the Republican Main Street Partnership PAC and targeted Collins’s Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson, portraying him as a “tax-hiker.”
Once somebody apparently consulted a map, the ads were pulled.
Sarah Chamberlain, CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership PAC, was less than amused by the costly geographical mishap.
She told NBC News she was “absolutely furious” about the “ridiculous” mistake.
“The buyers made a mistake on one of the placements. It’s down now, and they’re running it in Portland, Maine,” Chamberlain said.
“It has nothing to do with us. I would never run an ad in Portland, Oregon, for Susan Collins, for Christ’s sake.”
The ad buyer for Susan Collins’ Super PAC accidentally spent the money buying ad time in Portland, Oregon, instead of Portland, Maine. Classic guffemup. https://t.co/ZMJEfU82Di
Cross Screen Media, the company responsible for placing the advertisements, accepted responsibility.
A company spokesperson acknowledged that it was “100% our mistake” and said the money had been refunded to the PAC.
The anti-Jackson advertisements are finally running in the right Portland.
The embarrassing error comes as Collins campaigns for another term that could determine the balance of power in the Senate.
Maine Democrats selected Jackson as their Senate nominee in July after Graham Platner’s campaign was derailed by allegations of physical and sexual abuse.
The 73-year-old has represented Maine in the Senate since 1997 and is seeking a sixth term.
After comfortably outperforming the polls to win reelection in 2020, the latest RealClearPolling average has Collins up by just 0.2 points, a statistical tie.
However, she has historically outperformed polls by significant margins, potentially improving her chances of re-election.
CNN: Susan Collins has outperformed the polls by huge margins for 3 straight elections
Republicans: 52
Democrats: 48
