Carte Blanche: The Stop Nick Shirley Act, government corruption at its finest
Fox news
"When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed.
-Ayn Rand
On May 26th, the California State Assembly passed AB 2624: Privacy for immigration support services providers, popularly known as the Stop Nick Shirley Act, by a vote of 57-19 on party lines. The bill now makes its way to the State Senate and possibly to the Governor's desk to become law. If enacted, it will levy a fine of $4,000 on those who use video recording to investigate protected businesses and communities for fraud. It also carries fines of up to $10,000 and a year in county jail. It would also allow those business owners to sue whoever posts the images or information. To put it bluntly, the state of California is trying its utmost to stop investigative and independent journalists from exposing blatant fraud that the government either willingly ignores or is taking part in.
Regardless of which answer proves true, California politicians have seen what happened in Minnesota and refuse to allow the same to happen in their state. Not because they plan to root out those who defraud taxpayers or openly steal from the American people to finance their lifestyles, but because they refuse to let the gravy train come to a halt. So the logical conclusion that has been reached is to target those who would follow the example of Nick Shirley and question what the government does with the money that it extorts and threatens in order to obtain. A word that has become a black mark on the soul of those who question the standards and status quo of the present is racist, and that word has been hurled and flung towards anyone who gets a little too close to the patronage and money laundering system that has become the golden standard of politics in 21st-century America. If Nick Shirley is going to be framed as an enemy of the state and his actions as those of racist and treasonous intent, then where does that leave the average American who just wants to know where their money is going? Not far from the growing list of enemies and terrorists growing from coast to coast.
Nick Shirley is a 26-year-old who has become famous for grabbing a camera, heading to Minneapolis with a list of government-funded businesses, and visiting them one by one to see what those tax dollars are buying. In an incredibly short period of time, he has been denounced by politicians and professional journalists alike as a dangerous villain engaged in rampant racism and bent on stirring division in a country that is already deeply divided. However, during his time in Minnesota, he had highlighted empty businesses, learning centers that were all but vacant or had misspelled signs, and hundreds of millions of dollars reaching the local Somali community, primarily intended to help both that community and the Minneapolis community as a whole. As the layers of the onion were peeled back, money laundering and hundreds of millions of dollars in cash were removed from the country through the local airport and returned to Somalia. His experience discovering and exposing these fraud schemes and the local government's role in ignoring the corruption did not deter Shirley from looking into similar schemes in California.
While the Midwest is known for having friendlier people, California is not, its politicians especially. He soon showed evidence of dozens of Hospice and medical service businesses sharing the same address and, much like in Minnesota, vacant or with customers nowhere to be seen. His racism and treasonous actions know no bounds as far as local politicians and thought leaders are concerned. In a very short period of time, legislation was drafted and quickly passed, at least in the Assembly, to put a stop to his harmful actions. It was obvious his actions were motivated by malice, as no fraud was found in California, nor did the state see any need to follow up on his allegations or the evidence he presented.
Mia Bonta, the author of the bill and the wife of the Attorney General of California, has her own non-profit and sits on the committee that approves the budget for the Attorney General's Office. A husband and wife professional relationship that the US would mock other countries for simply because of the perception, not necessarily because of the actions of those in that position. However, this does not mean the optics present an image or a perception that should be ignored. During the course of his investigations or videos and content that he has created, Nick Shirley hasn’t chased down and harassed anyone. Nor has he called for violence, trespassed on private property, or threatened anyone with harm. In just over a year, he has asked the question as a taxpayer and as a private citizen: Where are Americans' tax dollars going?
They are by no means vanishing, and he has proven that quite thoroughly. On the contrary, the transactions are blatantly obvious. Billions upon billions are being misappropriated at a time when the nation is on the brink of fiscal collapse and social upheaval. But because he asks uncomfortable questions and points out either the complacency or complicity of politicians and NGOs, he has been marked as an enemy of the people who must be debased, devalued, and destroyed at all costs. The reaction that he has garnered should drive just as many, if not more, questions about the state of affairs of government spending and welfare programs. After all, do they exist to help those in need and make the country a better place, or do they exist to redistribute money from the many to the few as political patronage? The answer will not be one that will either dismantle a corrupt system or return the countless billions stolen, but it can and should put the nation on the path to understanding the truth and demanding that changes be made.
There is no beating around the bush; the legislation was drafted to punish a young man who asked questions and to protect not the vulnerable, but to hide the truth of what the country has become. In no uncertain terms, the nation has become a money laundering scheme that robs the American people of their hard-earned money and of a future that would afford them easier lives or at least some fiscal cushion. When will that change? When the people have had enough and demand change. The temptation will be what it has always been: to join the scheme by promising change. If all of the social welfare programs were meant to make lives better or to create more equality and fairness, why is it built on robbing with one hand and threatening with the other? People are no better off since the programs began, and division has festered rather than lessened. Nick Shirley has the First Amendment right to say what he likes; moreover, as a taxpayer, he has every right to ask where his money is being spent, voice his disapproval, and demand an answer. Politicians have no right to criminalize either, and those who seek to do just that are not the public servants they claim to be.