Cardinal Zen Denounces “Bergoglian Synodality” as “Ironclad Manipulation” at Extraordinary Consistory (College of Cardinals Report)
January 10, 2026EDITORIAL: Looking to the East for Liturgical Peace
January 10, 2026
By Pete Connolly, The American Spectator, January 9, 2026
The Minnesota fraud scandal is just a symptom of the government’s bad habit.
“You know, I’ve seen a lot of people walkin’ ’round
With tombstones in their eyes …
But the pusher don’t care if you live or if you die.”
When Steppenwolf released “The Pusher” in 1968, it wasn’t a riff about casual hippie vice, but a cautionary tale about the business incentives of hard drugs. The pusher doesn’t moralize. His job is simple: keep the junkie hooked and the money flowing.
But what happens when the pusher gets hooked — when he gets high on his own supply? Things spiral out of control, and this is exactly the dilemma our out-of-control government spending has locked the American people into.
First, look at the demand side of this Janus-faced addiction. Minnesota’s smoldering welfare-fraud scandal is another shivering symptom of the government’s spending habit. The staggering scale of the welfare scam allegedly committed by members of Minnesota’s Somali community is, according to one federal prosecutor, estimated to be $9 billion in Medicaid fraud alone since 2018. The City Journal reported that taxpayer-funded programs were particularly prevalent within the state’s Somali community. These programs were funded with little verification, permitting the fraudsters to collect vast sums with little oversight. ….
