Tea at Trianon: “Ghost” Daycare Centers in Minnesota

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, December 29, 2025

“Ghost” Daycare Centers in Minnesota

From Sharyl's Substack:

A series of social media videos released in recent days by independent journalist Nick Shirley has focused scrutiny on Minnesota’s taxpayer funded child care assistance programs.
The videos allege widespread fraud involving empty child care facilities that have collectively received tens of millions in taxpayer dollars.
But potential fraud surrounding Somali-owned day care centers dates back years.
In the new videos, Shirley is accompanied by a longtime local investigator identified as David – who says he has monitored these sites for years noticing no children (but sometimes adults outside smoking).
Shirley and David visit several Minneapolis daycare centers during business hours, finding locked doors, blacked-out windows, and no signs of children despite licenses for dozens or even hundreds of kids.
The investigation comes as federal prosecutors describe “industrial-scale” fraud across Minnesota’s social services, potentially exceeding $1 billion, much of it linked to the state’s large Somali community. (Read more.)