Little Mogadishu the Chicago Way

By John Kass

Sunday December 14, 2025

The massive $1 billion (and growing) Minnesota welfare fraud by Somali refugees and the accompanying tired accusations of racism used to silence whistleblowers led me to think of my Greek immigrant family in Chicago.

We’re not welfare cheaters hiding behind accusations of racism. Family ties were critically important and our clans, but not at the expense of the love we bore America.

The City Journal broke the Minnesota fraud story wide open about the ties to terrorist groups, after Minnesota leftists like the fool Gov. Tim Walz suppressed reasonable inquiry.

Minnesota conservatives screamed for years begging the media pay some attention to the rampant fraud in Little Mogadishu, formerly known as Minneapolis. The City Journal piece is here for you to read.

My family wasn’t from the hellholes of East Africa, but of Greece.

Yet beautiful, civilized Greece had been a savage hellhole too, at least as savage as Somalia for a time, with communist death squads and child murder and raping. It was the mouth of hell.

I was born here, just 10 years after that bloody Greek civil war. You can hear about it here in the Palikari Project.

My family fought the communists.

We hardly ever talked about the civil war there. We weren’t the only ones avoiding family nightmares. Refugee families like the Vietnamese avoid the past as well. They are here, in the future, going to college, full of optimism in America, reaching for the American dream. We Greek immigrant kids loved America, too, all of us, those who would become liberal Democrats and those who would become conservative Republicans and those who would be apolitical.

We eagerly joined patriotic pageants at school. We revered education and educators, and several cousins became teachers. We played American sports, desperately to prove ourselves as Americans. My aunts—there were six matriarchal sisters here in America—competed against each other to make Jell-O molds they learned about in the Chicago Tribune.

We laughed at this, even at the famously delicious “Strawberry Chiffon” Jell-O molds and the horrid ones with the floating fruit chunks. Those Jell-O molds were the epitome of Americana to us, and would be served for desert for Sunday dinner, along with platters of fresh fruit and honeyed galaktoboureko and coffee.

The men would smoke and talk politics and everything was up for discussion. Kids were also expected to participate, and the women. We were so eager to become Americans that we eagerly told stories of assimilating to the ways of the Americani.

We’d fight you if you dared suggest we didn’t love this country.

Our parents kissed the ground of America and saw no shame in loving the country that saved the world and saved us. In the old country my father and grandfather received a hardworking mule to help them plow the fields and survive the famine of the wars. They loved America. They dreamed of it. All Greeks can see themselves in Elia Kazan’s “America, America.” My father dreamed of America since boyhood. We loved this country and counted ourselves fortunate. We would never hurt her or steal from her. In other words, we weren’t Somalis.

Quick story: Years ago, in the spring, I was driving my Thea Tula and Theo Taiki along I-57. They had stayed in Greece when the rest of us came to America.

“Stop I have to get out! Please!” said Theo.

I pulled over on the shoulder of the highway at the edge of a cornfield.

He walked up to the fence and when he turned his face, I could see he was sobbing.

“How flat, how rich, so beautiful,” Theo said sticking his hands into the soil. “One small field could feed a whole village for a year! What a country, my boy, what a country! America, America.”

But I never hear wonder or gratitude from the lips of U.S. Rep Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee who was given everything from America. Protection, money, staus, an education. Everything.

All I hear from her is how she despises our country. Complaints and demands. Few Americans know that she is of the oppressors among the Somali. I watch her seething and hating America, always demanding, sneering at the discovery of billion-dollar fraud. and I can envision her someday ordering our executions.

According to Somaliland Chronicle, her father was of the brutal Somali regime that led to the brutal Isaaq Genocide. And when the bloodthirsty regime fell, her family fled as refugees from the others they had ruined.

” Ilhan Omar’s family were part of the ruling elite under the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP) led by dictator Siad Barre, which was a Marxist-Leninist regime that attempted to merge communist ideology with the Koran.

When the Barre regime was overthrown in 1991, Omar’s family fled Somalia, first to a refugee camp in Kenya, and later to the United States.”

Did they flee oppression? Or were they oppressors fleeing accountability? I believe it was the latter.

According to reports, “by both legal and historical standards, despite Ilhan Omar’s team’s spin in numerous recent articles which have been placed in left-leaning online publications, the logical conclusion that Ilhan Omar’s father was almost certainly intimately involved in the Isaaq Genocide is unmistakable. It is supported on the balance of probabilities and the totality of circumstantial and inferential evidence available indicates, more critically, that it meets the threshold that this was the case ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.

Why do American taxpayers keep giving the Somali people billions of dollars? Because we’ve been manipulated by the global left to hate ourselves. Because we’re suicidal.

“With the “Feeding Our Future” fraud scandal finally breaking into the national consciousness, some are beginning to report on the nexus to Ilhan Omar, the representative — in every respect — of the Minnesota district that has served as the scandal’s main crime scene.

She is at the center of it.

So how is the Little Mogadishu Way like the Chicago Way? Both are Democrat towns and both have corrupted the people. They play race to bludgeon white liberals into coughing up the cash. And the local news media, dominated by the left, allows it.

In Minnesota, fearful of being branded as racists, state watchdogs were intimidated into silence to allow the Somali fraud to continue.

The same dynamic is at play in Chicago, as Cook County Democratic boss Toni Preckwinkle uses race politics to intimidates judges into keeping repeat violent offenders in jail and Gov. J B Pritzker gives himself social credit for killing the cash bail program.  The judges allowed violent offenders out and they wreak havoc and pain.  Preckwinkle and  Pritzker An innocent young woman was burned alive on the CTA. They fully expect to be re-elected, because they know the power of accusing others of racism if they don’t get what they want.

In the  end Democrats keep electing Pritzker and Preckwinkle. And Johnson plays the race card, his only card. And who pays?

The people, or should I say, the sheeple. In Illinois, the sheeple expose their throats to the knife again and again and again. They vote Democrat again and again and again.

I just received Benjamin Weingarten’s book “American Ingrate: Ilhan Omar and the Progressive-Islamist Takeover of the Democratic Party.”  I purchased it for myself, a gift to me. When I finish, I’ll review it here.

But in another story about the Minnesota fraud, Weingarten writes, “An initial review of the evidence indicates that reporting likely understates Omar’s ties to the scandal, including how much campaign cash she took in and from whom during her political career, among those implicated.

“What’s more, court documents show the U.S. government obtained at least some records connecting Rep. Omar to the fraud. Given the figures in her orbit and Minnesota politics more broadly implicated in the scandal, investigators would have likely come across further ties between Omar and the fraudsters through incidental collection if nothing else.”

The uncomfortable truth for American liberals is that all cultures are not equal. Therefore, not all cultures are compatible with all political systems. In this case, the Somali criminal enterprise is incompatible with a generous welfare state, particularly in the context of a racial politics that intimidates whistleblowers and other honest brokers.

Though this story was particular to Minnesota, disruptive mass immigration is a national phenomenon. During the four years of the Biden administration, America imported millions of foreigners, many illegally.

Some of these have brought, or are trying to bring, negative aspects of their home culture to the United States.”

The City Journal story was amplified by the New York Times, so the left can no longer pretend this scandal can be confined. CBS is now on it, reporting that “luxury cars, private villas and overseas wire transfers: CBS News obtained dozens of files and photos that reveal how Minnesota fraudsters blew through hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars as part of one of the biggest COVID-era fraud schemes.

“The files document a spending spree in which defendants, many of Somali descent, took taxpayer money meant to feed hungry children and used it to buy cars, property and jewelry. Videos show them popping champagne at an opulent Maldives resort. In a text message, one defendant boasts: “You are gonna be the richest 25 year old InshaAllah [God willing].”

Can’t wait until the terrorists come to claim their money.

The CBS story documents feature exhibits from a recent federal trial, many of which are being made public for the first time. The exhibits include:

  • A confirmation email for a stay in an overwater villa with a private pool at Radisson Blu Resort Maldives
  • Lakefront property in Minnesota
  • Receipts showing wire transfers to China and East Africa
  • First class tickets to Istanbul and Amsterdam
  • A 2021 Porsche Macan
  • Stacks of cash, texted between defendants

I suppose you could say that events and culture make them incompatible with American citizenship, but the truth is that no matter what, they must be sent back, And not just the Somalis. But also those from Afghanistan.

The Vietnamese went through hell. But everything they do suggests they want to be part of the American experiment. Not so for Somalis or those from Afghanistan, where tribal and clan ties supersede obligations to America. The solution?

Send them back.

It’s our fault for going to their countries in the first place. America was not meant to be their experiment.  They have little or no interest in assimilation, so let’s close the door now. Look at the arrogance and anger shown to Americans near Dearborn, Mich. I don’t want to see Sharia Law in the U.S. They are past the point of no return, at least with me, an immigrant’s son who loves our country.

Put it this way: It just didn’t work out.

I’m not angry at the people of Afghanistan or Somalia. We should never have gone to Afghanistan or Somalia. And gathering tribal people from the stone-age and shoehorning them into America expecting they’ll develop an affinity with The Federalist Papers is not a solution. Not for them or for us. Yes, the Democrats ship them in by the tens of millions, Biden called them to storm the border and the other Democrats and legacy corporate media wanted the migrant poor to become their dependents requiring federal aid. The Democrats upheave our society to get votes. They do not demand assimilation as all political parties demanded when my family came to America, The poor and the desperate are compelled to kiss the hand holding food.

But on a large scale, it is a prescription of failure. We just can’t live this way. Look to Europe and see what caving to the left means. The Europeans are allowing themselves to be devoured. It is so bad now in the United Kingdom that authorities have arrested thousands of Englishmen for daring to speak their minds. That’s not “1984.” That’s not a dystopian novel. It’s reality in 2025.

In a few years, they won’t have a country. Do the Democrats hate America so much they would visit such pain and anarchy upon us? Yes, they hate us that much. The Democrats have broken the immigration system. And any attempts to fix it are met with screeching and accusations that we’re subhuman Nazis.

America must be rid of those who don’t want to assimilate soon or we’ll die. And our children and our country will die. We’re not sheeple to  expose our throats to  slaughter. We’re Americans.

Remember?

 

 

-30-

(Copyright 2025 John Kass)

Comments 79

  1. Well said John I for one will never surrender my autonomy and soul to these invaders who want to inflict their barbarism on a free people. Meanwhile, gutless RINOS in neighboring Indiana (your home state) are opening the door to allow Democrats back into power, my woke Pope opens up a prayer room in the Vatican for the Infidels while lecturing the faithful that these Infidels are really not that bad as they slaughter innocent Jews in Australia.
    Before I forget, in BJ and Toni’s paradise on the lake, even wheelchair bound women are not safe on their CTA from being raped and assaulted……that is the Chicago Way!

  3. Just look at England, Canada, Australia, etc. the democrats are itching to turn America into the same dystopian hellholes. They’ll do it in an instant if we let our guard down.

  4. Too, too true for far too many. I never taught a Somali [though I have had a few others from East Africa] but I’ve taught dozens of Afghans over the years. Most are very grateful though often feel very lost due to the culture shock – going from a tiny village in rural Afghanistan to a crowded inner city where nobody outside the family speaks your language and with signs in a different language and alphabet is rough. Most are very homesick and paring them up with an American in class only helps to an extent.
    Some openly talk about returning – though I must admit I’ve never heard any expressions of hostility to the US. More often I’ve heard expression that the US is not what they feared, perhaps because the two mosques in that city are very mainstream [as are most local muslims], not radical [one was here years before 9/11].
    The true radicals and the criminals need to be purged and removed.

  5. Consequences real consequences!
    Until those who orchestrated and participated in the greatest robbery of all time are prosecuted and convicted this just becomes one more frustrating story without consequences

    1. Well said sir. The only way to successfully prosecute her and her ilk, is to charge them in federal court and prosecute them outside of the Twin Cities area, in a red county.

      1. Just save us all time and prosecute Omar in the Supreme Court. That is where it will end up anyway. The lower courts have proven to be controlled by the progressive Democrats. Justice is no longer blind.

  6. John,
    Another column on point historically, culturally and politically with a personal story.

    I too am a legal immigrant who came to Chicago in 1990 on a work visa and evolved through a green card to become a proud US citizen in 2002.

    Whilst your families history and roots extend back further than mine as immigrants to the US I feel deeply the same gratitude and appreciation for this great country and the opportunities it has given me.

    This is amplified by what I see in my city and country or origin (London, England) which is being invaded to the detriment of those who grew up there and live there.

    It is beyond distressing to see the sea of Palestinian flags aka Hamas and their supporters flooding the streets of London with a Police force that has been turned into a largely political branch focused on “hate speech” aka freedom of speech whilst ignoring real issues worthy of their attention.

    Given my distrust of the MSM and total failure of the BBC (which I grew up with as a paragon of virtue and truthfulness) I talk regularly with some friends who remain there and who I trust.

    It is hard to imagine but they see things which are even worse than what is reported.

    There is no true leader in waiting and I cannot see how they reverse this spiral.

    As has been said Trump is, like all of us a flawed individual, but he was elected to get results not be nice, although he is often exceedingly kinds to those from all walks of life.

    I can only pray the RINO’s do not derail the progress and cause the Republicans to lose the House because we know what will follow……

    Thank you for continuing to write and share a unique perspective.

    Merry Christmas

    PV

    3. Excellent point about Republicans losing the House next year. But here’s the thing – Day after
      Day of one-sided news coverage of Chicago’s Midway Blitz has actually helped turned public sentiment strongly against Trump. As hard as it may seem to comprehend, the idea of actually trying to reverse the mass immigration of the Biden administration could actually lead to a Democratic landslide in 2026.

      1. To quote my mother…”PEOPLE ARE…STUPID!”
        The media lies just keep bombarding our brains. Why would anyone vote for a party that sows and promotes corruption? Wake up America, look around and see what has become of our once great nation! I don’t like what I see happening. John is correct; these immigrants need to go back to where they came from. The sooner the better.

  8. Out-Out-Out. These people have no right to be here, let alone to collect millions of dollars of our tax money.
    If the National Guard is mobilized anywhere in this country, it should be in Dearborn,Michigan.
    That community actually hates its host country and America’s citizens.
    I hope the administration has the guts to go after the communities that disparage America, steal our money, prey on our citizens and use our stolen resources to support terrorists.
    Mr. President, Minnesota and Michigan await your response. DROP THE HAMMER!!!

  9. Thanks John. Well done here. More people throughout the land need to get smacked in the face with this news. I wonder if any other states have similar issues with Somali refugees?

    Yes, deport them. Deport any that just want to hurt, steal or cheat from America.

    And prepare for what is coming.

  10. I remember reading pre-covid about Sweden’s immigration system. It had a limited immigration rate combined with a very deliberate system to integrate adults and especially children into their culture, while also mixing in the good aspects of those immigrants into their “melting pot”. With mass immigration that lacks cultural integration, American culture is simply replaced and not improved. To state the obvious, this is really bad.

    While American culture isn’t perfect, we’re still a beacon to the world for opportunity. We need to do what it takes to stay a beacon for opportunity, and not become a beacon for swindlers or something-for-nothing types.

  11. Yes, send them all back. After they serve their prison time and have their assets seized as restitution. Do the same with all those who wave their national flag at their protests and claim dual citizenship. You can be proud of your ancestry whatever it may be, but you are American first. If you are in this country, you either are an American or want to become an American legally and follow the rules. If not, get out, or get thrown out – and the sooner, the better.

  13. We lived in a suburb of the People’s Republic of Minneapolis back in the late eighties. As an escapee from there, and Chicago, I’m not in the least surprised at any of this. Most of the state is chock full of guilty white people, who seem to think bowing to this scum is worthwhile.
    The Star Tribune, who, like most media was still defending this up to, and including last week. All of them are complicit, and maybe it’s time to begin prosecuting the media as well for hiding and defending this.
    Omar is in this up to her towel. After she serves twenty years, deport her. In the mean time, deport them all, and any lawyer that defends them.

  16. It’s challenging to review America’s path from national freedom, pride and opportunity toward collectivist authority, promoted shame and opportunity for thieves — and do so with guts and humanity. Such reviews are still made by Victor Hanson and Thomas Sowell. And those of us with Chicago connections feel lucky to read ones here in JKN, with inspiring stories of immigrant courage and values.

    My own story lacks drama: a native Glen Ellyn guy with a lifelong best friend from Wheaton — very smart and idealistic — who eventually took his Boomer liberalism to Minnesota and is actually an Omar supporter. My impression is that the malignant growth of politics undermining America has roots not just in Mogadishu but also in fine universities and “Minnesota Nice.”

    1. David! This sounds like a “mean” comment! If only more Americans would listen to VDH and read Kass. Another to listen to is Sasha Stone, a leftist who saw the truth and writes on Substack. Check her out.

  17. Excellent John.
    As a Vietnam Veteran, I could not believe how the MSM and the Libs allowed the mass invasion of our country. The Libs will try to occupy us with Epstein crap, so we move on from the T-Tim Scandal, but I hope that we stay the course.
    As for the UK, it is almost sunk. Maybe that is another reason President Trump wants Greenland. Can’t fight in Europe again if you don’t have a base, and the UK is sinking under the weight of blood-sucking slugs.
    Deport them all.

  18. Good article except for the fantasy of shipping them back.
    My maternal grandparents family in Poland fought the Nazis. They hid their Jewish neighbors in their homes and farms. When found out, the Stukas were sent in to strafe and bomb the farms. Many of my relatives ran into forests only to be machine gunned down.
    What was left fought the Commies (real ones, not the ones you think are here in this country). When the Commies allowed my relatives to come here to work on visas in ’50s my grandparents would sponsor them. One word out of their mouths about how great it was in Commieland she’d ship theirs asses out immediately.
    My parents refused to send me to learn our native languages, ie Polish and Russki. Didn’t want us to develop an accent for fear of being discriminated against. My mother was a nurse and did private duty for the wealthy of Chicago and North Shore. Took care of John T. Pirie of Carson, Pirie and Scott fame. Mrs. Pirie thanked my mother for her excellent care of her husband, stating: ‘for a Pollack your pretty smart.”
    The point is, we were educated to ASSIMILATE. Schools had civics classes. We don’t teach about this country. I’m sick of seeing these so called ethnic festivals and parades with their foreign flags etc. Poles had one day, May 1st, were we celebrated Polish Constitution day and maybe Pulaski day. That was it. Now every Taco saint and holiday is celebrated in this town like it 4th of July. Gimme a break.
    Finally, even if these folks in MN are convicted maybe the great POTUS Orange Man will pardon them like he did convicted crook (D) Rep Cuellar of TX in hopes he’d join the GOP. He didnt. And like the pardon DJT gave of cocaine runner former President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez. John don’t you think Donald deserves the moutza for talking out of both sides of his big mouth. Folks, nothing will happen to those crooks in MN. At least not the big shot ones. One thing I found out in politics is both sides steal: ‘ITS THE USA WAY”

  19. The Somali clan crime bosses, Leftist Democrats and our freedom’s enemies have waged asymetrical warfare. When the borders were invaded they said we must not enforce our laws against the guilty. Now when the guilty are rounded up for deportation they say our laws must be used to shield them from consequences.
    I agree with the what expressed here, and the how must come next. “Think anew. Act anew.” Self deportation must be made central to it, with disincentives honed against continued residency.
    Monetary wire transfers need to be reined in. Keeping those here illegally from remitting out of this country. Period. Prohibiting transfers completely to suspect hellholes like Somalia, which have been central to known fraud. All incentives have to be eliminated. The sparrows never come around my bird feeder when it is empty.

  20. Great Column!
    When the US allowed Nazi’s in (I.E. Dr Werner von Braun), they were selected for what they brought into the country for an over arching national interest. This is not the case for all the Somalis, Afghans and the like. As you pointed out Ilhan Omar’s family were part of a Somali terror regime. I doubt the Elder Omar was some nuclear physicist or tech weenie of the Somali regime seeking to be released from bondage to the regime; he was escaping reprisals.

    Which also bolsters the point: no one cared what these refugees were previously; just another future Democrat voter….

    It is a sad state of affairs when the elected officials are more corrupt and anti-American than the criminals scamming the taxpayers.

    Arrest them all, send them to prison and then deport them all.

    1. Yeah, what’s a few thousand Jews murdered by starvation and being over worked as they built V 2 rockets in the mountains of Germany. Every building named after this murderer Nazi rocket scientist should be removed from govt buildings. Everyone!

      1. Well Thomas some choices are difficult. The fact is without Werner Von Braun the US very likely does not get to the moon first. There would likely be NO Saturn V booster or many other critical innovations. He is, inconvenient though is, the “Father of Apollo”. And I say that as a Jew.

        Here a little tidbit when it comes to national politics and national interest. If you only want to associate with the purest of the pure, those who absolutely are pure as freshly fallen snow, you may find yourself all alone. Good luck, buddy.

        1. With Werner von Braun the idea that, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” is true.
          Had he gone to Russia who knows what would have happened. It would undoubtedly been bad.

          1. Exactly. Dr. Rudd should consider – before his head explodes with self righteous moral indignation – what would have been if the world’s foremost rocket scientist wound up in the Soviet Union.

            And besides the Soviets did not have Walt Disney to help out. It was a win/win.

        2. Forget the moon, think ICBMs instead. The Soviets had a genius rocket scientist already, his name was Korolev and he was the reason they not only beat the crap out of us in the early space race, but how they came up with working ICBMs that could have nuclear warheads. If we didn’t grab von Braun and his gang of merry Germans, the Soviets would’ve had almost exclusive use of ICBMs in the early stages of the Cold War, leaving us to depend on easily intercepted bombers.

          The moon landings were icing on the cake, von Braun’s REAL accomplishment was developing missiles so we could have a MAD doctrine instead of having the Soviets think a nuclear war was winnable. As an aside, you can tell that Korolev was basically the Soviets’ only real rocket genius as their space program started degrading radically after he died of cancer and he was replaced by a commie apparatchik who wasn’t nearly as capable.

          1. Thank you for your excellent insights. You just further confirm how vitally important Von Braun and as you say – his gang of merry Germans – were to American success and survival during the cold war. Yes, he was the master of the big boosters, unsurpassed by none.

  21. “The uncomfortable truth for American liberals is that all cultures are not equal.” Yes, speak truth to power.

    The more I learn about Islam, the more it seems to be incompatible with Western Civilization. Actually, its essence seems to be the destruction of Western Civilization. Most Americans don’t understand that if Israel were a Christian nation, the Islam would be just as hostile. They simply cannot stand having the Infidel in their backyard.

    Thank you for book recommendation. I’m hearing good things about Gad Saad’s books “Suicidal Empathy” and the “The Parasitic Mind”. To clarify, Gad Saad is not Muslim, he is a Syrian Jew.

  22. Thank you for this column, John. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib should have been shown the door a long time ago. I heard on Hannity last week that Ilhan Omar had a net worth of $65,000 when first elected to Congress and now she is worth

  24. The progeny of all this skittishness to look the other way for fear of being labeled a rscist was born in the era of Obama when obvious questions about gaps in his historical record were ignored. God forbid he should be asked about anything that could trip up his ascendant rise to the presidency. 1) Alice Palmer being thrown off the ballot in his first race to the IL state senate. 2) Gaps in his college record. 3) Tony Rezko purchasing his lot in Hyde Psrk. 4) 53 “present” votes in the state senate. I could go on. We either call out the fraud and enveloping in MN and who is responsible for it or we become a drowning Europe. Thank God for leaders like Georgia Meloni and President Trump!

  25. “Send them back” . . . “they have little or no interest in assimilation.”

    “Do the Democrats hate America so much they would visit such pain and anarchy upon us? Yes, they hate us that much.”

    Come on John Kass your analysis goes about as deep as our President Bone Spurs who forms most of his opinions from watching television and looking at pictures. Seems that his worldview has rubbed off on you bigly.

    Don’t you think you might be over- generalizing just a bit?!

    You mislead when you portray these issues as so simple and one-sided, all wrapped up in “patriotism” as defined by JK.

    Sometimes I think you JK, with your megaphone, with your professional intolerance and mission to polarize, are doing more damage to America than most of those immigrants and “Democrats” you so despise.

    Come to think of it, my ancestors have been here a lot longer than yours. Maybe we should send YOU back?

      1. Yes. Control the borders, relentlessly prosecute those that commit crimes and fraud irrespective of where they were born, and quit with the false blaming of all our problems on immigrants, most of whom are desperate people seeking a better life for their families, just like you or I would likely do in similar circumstances.

        1. But they are breaking the law Bob. It is a civil offense to be in the US when your visa expires or without documentation. It is a civil offense whereby the remedy is deportation. Do you think you can just walk into France as an example and willy nilly say I’m going to stay because I’m hard working and screw the law? Have you even considered those folks who followed all the rules? Do you just say tough noogies, you’re fools for following the rules of the US? What sort of nonsense are you pedaling? Do you realize what you are saying? Just ignore the law? Really?

          By the way those hard working illegal aliens have a profound effect on our foundational principle of “one man one vote” . The electoral college and House proportionment is based upon the census and the census merely counts people – not citizens – so their mere presence is a slap in the face to all law abiding immigrants and citizens. Your cavilier attitude to people knowingly violating the laws of the US is exactly what is wrong with the Democratic Party and the lunatic left. Try this on any other country and see what happens.

          1. Bruce- I agree with most of what you said there including that just the act being here illegally is a crime.
            My objection is that the clampdown on illegal immigrants, under Trump and his henchman Steven Miller, is spilling over into a hatred of even those that are here LEGALLY, only because many come from what some call “shithole countries” or cultures that are deemed inferior. And that is just wrong, ethically, morally, and according to the supposed Judeo- Christian principles that many here so righteously claim to believe in.
            John in his article does not distinguish between those Afghans and Somalians that are here legally from those that are here illegally when he says, “Send them back”. The term “Chrino” comes to mind. He is very lucky his own father was treated with more tolerance when he came here to create a better life for his family.

            Regarding those that have come here illegally, I think by far the main focus should be on those that have committed additional crimes BEYOND crossing the border but I agree that crossing the border illegally is in itself a crime. I agree the Biden administration deserves much of the blame for letting that happen so blatantly.

  26. Decades of aborting millions of their future voters have led to this. They’re not humans to the Dems, they are token votes. “Check that box there and we’ll send you your check.”

  27. When the Somalis were being settled in Minnesota I scratched my head. WHY there? These refugees were being placed in an area of the United States with a mean temperature difference between Mogadishu and Minneapolis of 40°. It made no sense. Now it does. Put them all in one sleepy legislative district allow them to elect a thief to Congress. She was politically well connected in Somalia. She is now a rancid voice in the halls of Congress. Years ago Pogo
    ( a comic strip character for younger readers) said it best. “We have seen the enemy and he is us “. While penned by Walt Kelly for Earth Day” in 1970 it certainly has applicability today. Obama and Biden threw open the doors. Sadly there was incentive to assimilate but to continue to live as before and stake out their own space first then spread the cancer of militant Islamisim throughout the US. Like Brandon in Chicago , oppose and racism is screamed from the rooftops. Huge raises for city hall favorites when citizens are being squeezed, services decreased and the CTU gets a massive tax increase so Brandon can claim HE did not raise taxes. Favored peoples are getting very rich. The rest of the CHUMBALONES just take it in the shorts.

  28. Doc, don’t forget, my team is better than your team! My oligarch is better than your oligarch. The Combine runs DC too! That’s what is so infuriating, we overlook fraud, grift, criminality of those we cheer for, but condemn the other team.

    Regarding immigration, Trump let Paul Ryan and McConnell roll him. They had a decent bill, it needed some compromise, but it would have addressed much of the problems.; open border, streamline citizenship attainment, require EVerify. The problem is that Republicans hire illegals just like Dems do. In fact many contractors. Who vote Republican rely on illegals to do the work their companies do.

    I’m with JK when it comes to shitting on Dem elite, the Wokesters, the Karens, the race hustlers, but you overlook the disgusting hypocrisy of Republicans. It’s a uniparty!

    The Left/Right con is funded by oligarchs for the express purpose to divide us. I firmly believe this.

    But Ilan Omar should never have been in the US, and should never have been elected to Congress. She’s there due to gerrymandering.

    Election Day should be a holiday.
    There should be independent drawing of districts.
    Voter ID needs to be required. Only citizens can vote!

    My team is better than your team. I’ll take your Soros and raise you a Koch brother!

    Please Ken Griffin, fund a crooked mayor from Aurora who will give you a sweetheart tech deal so you can better manipulate the market to run against Pritzker. But don’t ask questions, he’s black!

  29. Another great column John. And I thought the Somalia Congressman was horrific when it was reported she married her brother to get citizenship for him. But, this stealing of billions of dollars for lavish trips, real estate, an expensive car,etc. while they were supposed to be feeding children takes the cake. Send them all back. You’re probably right that they came here to avoid punishment in their Country for wrong doing. Now, let them face their punishment there. I bet it’s worse than what we would do to them.

  30. Good read John…lots of interesting opinions on this matter. The fact remains that millions of illegal, yes illegal immigrants, including a high percentage of undesirables were allowed and welcomed into this country by the entire democratic party brain trust led by POTUS “Asthma Lungs” Joe Biden. The fact remains that the same party that caused this situation want them all to stay…even the undesirables. For better or worse, Our POTUS is the only one doing anything about it. America should be grateful.

  31. John.

    Like you, I am a first generation American and proud of my Polish heritage. Today’s column has a special meaning for me because of two reasons.

    First, your Theo Taiki’s comments reminds me of my Ciocia (aunt) Lila who came to visit Chicago from Poland back in the 1980s. This was her first visit to the West. I took her to Jewel and her reactions were very revealing. Coming across a couple pushing two carts filled with groceries, she asked me in a whisper whether they were allowed to buy so much. After spending a few more moments walking through the aisles, she turned to me asking to leave as she was overcome by the sight number of goods available and developed a debilitating headache.

    After a few weeks she provided me with the single best description of the differences between communism and capitalism when she said, “you know in Poland, the line forms to enter stores; in the United States, the line forms to leave (check out from) the stores!”

    Second, my parents were both naturalized citizens and although they both loved their native land and maintained their cultural traditions, they were honored, proud, and grateful to become naturalized Americans. A few weeks before my wife and I were to be married, we purchased a VW Jetta. When my father came to visit me at my apartment, I proudly showed him the car and, to say the least, I did not expect his reaction.

    He shook his head and said in Polish “what kind of American are you to buy a foreign made car?” adding “you should be supporting American workers!” He was so upset that he left without saying a word. And he wouldn’t speak to me for weeks, to the point that I feared he wouldn’t attend the wedding. I had to ask a friend of his from the same village in Poland who worked as a VW mechanic to intervene.

    Americans are a generous people and welcome immigrants because, other than Native Americans, we are all descendants of immigrants. It is not unreasonable to ask those who wish to become citizens to not only follow the law, as millions have before them, but also to support what has made the United States the magnet for freedom loving people the world over.

    Thank you for today’s column.

  32. Great column John and on target. This situation in American has been carefully and patiently orchestrated over the last fifty years and in that time we have gone along with the dumbing down of learning, the disintegration of the family, the murder of the unborn, the villainization of Israel, and the elevation of Communism to any consideration whatsoever.

    It is absurd that in this environment, citizens can opinionate without any shame and journalist of forty-plus years experience as a respected reporter and columnist should tolerate jejune commentaries like, “Come on John Kass your analysis goes about as deep as our President Bone Spurs who forms most of his opinions from watching television and looking at pictures.”

    The clowns may build statues to the source of such notional reflections.

    1. I’d feel better with Kass as POTUS than President bone spurs even though I disagree with him on the prevalence of a far left or right. I think these fringe groups are aided and funded by elites, even our own deep state. We let ourselves be conned by elites into fighting with each other. There are so many issues that 70% agree with, but our government will not do.

      As for the Nazis being welcomed into murica to build the bomb. I’m not sure history is on the side of that. Einstein said himself that he regretted what his findings gave bruise to.

      Our nation has been hijacked by those whose God is money, greed, and power. We’ve been turned against each other by said elites so that we waste time arguing instead of proposing solutions.

      Who among us wants the debt to keep mounting, yet it keeps rising no matter who is in office. It looks like a bust out to me, like Tiny Soprano did with the sporting good store.

      1. Robert. First you got your historical time line is incorrect. The Nazis were not welcomed into America to build the bomb. The Manhattan project was started well before the fall of Germany in 1942. If you think that absent the Manhattan project a nuclear weapons would never have been built, you are gravely mistaken as Leo Szilard pointed out to Einstein – who wrote to FDR – in 1939 that Germany was very capable of building one. After all it was the German Otto Hahn that discovered nuclear fission. On the other hand, the “Nazis” were welcomed after the war to build the rocket boosters necessary for ICBMs and the mission to the moon. Secondly if you think America is the first society “hijacked” by “money greed and power” I would suggest you are delusional. In fact the father of the US Constitution, James Madison, knew that “men were not angels” … ever …. and designed the US Constitution taking that into account (balance of powers; separation of powers). How you can look at world history and then imply that the United States is somehow uniquely the first and only country corrupted by “greed and power” is beyond comprehension.

    2. Pat Hickey- It’s not so absurd.
      John Kass has 40 years of experience, but he is no longer a journalist. He is an opinion writer and I disagree with many of his opinions. It’s as simple as that.

  33. I think Amartya Sen’s analysis of multiculturalism v multiple cultures is relevant here. He distinguished “multiculturalism” from “multiple independent cultures.” In “multiculturalism” – as many here attest – we celebrate certain cherished aspects of our cultures of origin but all meet at a commonality: namely the ideals expressed in the Declaration and those ideals put forth into effect by the US Constitution. That IS the classic “melting pot.” In “multiple independent cultures” there is no ultimate commonality. There is no melting pot. That is what I fear is happening now in the US, and no doubt in much of the Western world. Clearly that world view seems to be encouraged mostly by those on the Left (“all cultures are equal”). Ultimately, I agree, it is suicidal.

    1. Bruce- I don’t agree that those on the “Left” are necessarily insisting that all cultures are created equal. Clearly they are not. Most would agree that the USA is the greatest nation the world has ever known. I think the point is to remember that “All men are created equal” and by default deserve the respect inferred by that clause. That IS what has made America great.
      We should reserve our hatred for those that would actually do us harm, regardless of where they were born.

      1. Well I disagree. If you follow the intellectual thread starting with Marcuse and SDS in the 1960s to the present world view as expressed in our major universities and even with in the vast federal bureaucracy (of which I actually know something about), your might be surprised as to how wrong your are.

        1. Bruce- I think whether I’m wrong depends on how you define the “Left” which I put in quotes to make a point.
          Kass and others write as though anyone who opposes Trumpism is on the Left, or to borrow his favorite label, is a Marxist. That could not be more wrong.`

  34. Maybe there’s something to be said about totalitarian government systems. Has anyone noticed that neither China or Russia has any problems with refugees? No one trying to escape to either one of these countries? The importing of illegals into this and other Western countries was enacted by design. The dilution of our civilization is being conducted with assist from the governments in the US, The UK, and Europe. A recent report just pointed out an amazing fact. That the Biden administration knew and didn’t care about the twenty million or so illegals let into the country. Nothing says deliberate like ignoring the obvious. At least 20 million of them. This is obvious to the Irish to the point that a group claiming to be the IRA says they’re putting the band back together to hold the politicians responsible for this. Maybe that’s what you have to do the get their attention. Maybe…

  35. John Kass!

    Hi praise from a conservative news source,” American columnist and former Chicago Tribune editorial board member John Kass used to skewer Chicago politics by pointing out that the loudest whispers usually came from people hiding their own fingerprints. Washington operates the same way, only with better lighting and worse honesty.”

    https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2025/12/14/kristi-noem-fired-by-17-insiders-and-counting-n4947074

  36. I am a son of irish immigrants. My mother came here when she 19 years old, my father was 31. They lived with relatives for years before they married and moved into their own home. They would have parties where everyone in attendance was from Irelnad. They were very clanish. But they embraced the US way. Each one assimalated to the US. They became carpenters, masons, contractors, laborers. They did what they could to make a living and support their family both here and back home. They were in a better place and were thankful for this country offered; a place were you could advance and succeed using the talents their God given talents.

    We need these immigrants!

  37. I can see now much better how families that are new to the US (1st, 2nd, 3rd generation) learn to hate, or if not hate, develop a bitter distaste for those who hate America. I dated an excellent lady from Peru who was no fan of Liberals because how they hated America. I dated another excellent lady who was a first generation Mediterranean Jew who forced her kids to watch Fox News.

    So it is understandable why so many people have been made to hate the South – given what we are taught. And if you here anything different from anyone, any story that fights this narrative, it can become an identity crisis.

    Why I hate indoctrination – all of it. But I love JK News -never stop learning here

  38. In the 50’s they did not teach any of the history of the US that made it look bad. The USA was being seized by the Military Industrial Complex as explained by outgoing President Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell speech. Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia wrote that before Kennedy was assassinated, he was pushing for total nuclear disarmament. He was murdered, Johnson because POTUS, and so it goes.

    America is a land of opportunity and freedom. We succeed now despite of leaders, not because of them. This has been true for the last 60 years, at least.
    The Constitution is a model for a free nation.
    The role of the legislative branch has been usurped by donors and politics and shifted to a behemoth Executive branch and carried out by un elected bureaucrats.
    The budget, the budget process, and debt, are not transparent, are purposefully opaque and complex.
    Our foreign policy is largely to pit other nations against each other, and them come in and ravage the loser.

    It is all done under the guise of this indoctrination. This happens on bth ends, left and right. On one side the right can do no wrong, on the left, the opposite. In the middle is about 2/3 of us, who might be conservative or liberal, but not rabid.

    Under our noses, elites pit us against each other and cause trouble around the world so they can profit. We demonize foreigners, destroy their nation, then take them in. Some even fought against out troops,

    AL QUEDA now runs Syria. The guy was in the White House. When Trumpdoes something stupid or heinous, OBAMA did it too! This left/right game allows us to overlook war crimes when or team does it, but decry human tragedy when the other team does.

    Then, we hide behind scripture to mollify our consciences.

    If Obama did it and it’s wrong, it’s wrong when Trump does it too.

    The only thing is they answer to oligarchs, not us

  39. Robert. Please, stop your Kennedy Camelot nonsense. I don’t agree with much of what Prof Chomsky has said in years past, but I certainly agree with him regarding naive folks like you who have mythicized and deified JFK into something he was not. And maybe actually read Ike’s 1960 farewell address where he points out the dangers to our Republic of rule by technocrats. That in fact has actually transpired, particularly during Covid. The role of the legislative branch has been usurped because of the legislative branch itself. They have over the past 100 years willingly delegated much of their core constitutional powers (for instance taxing powers like tariffs and war powers as well) to the executive branch. And have done so voluntarily by creating a huge federal behemoth via their own legislation.

  41. As the year and month draws to a close, I nominate the Ilhan Omar Tim Walz team for this months Golden Moutza.
    There can be no one more deserving for this award than these two clever devils.
    They have been and continue to be successful at fleecing citizens for self aggrandizement for an extended period of time and are poised to continue to do so.
    As we wonder of the great Somali contributions to America look no further to these statistics.
    Just think that with their reproduction rates their population will continue to grow and contribute ever more to the state and country.
    Here’s to you Omar and Walz for successfully gaslighting Americans.
    Go blow on this Moutza. Nah……

    https://cis.org/Report/Somali-Immigrants-Minnesota

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