Hello and welcome to Saturday, June 20, 2026. Today is National American Eagle Day. It's also National Vanilla Milkshake Day, National Kouign Amann Day, National Hike With A Geek Day, and National Ugly Dog Day. It's also World Martini Day.
1782: Congress approves the Great Seal of the United States of America with the bald eagle as its symbol. So today is American Eagle Day.
1837: Queen Victoria, at 18, ascends the British throne following the death of her uncle, King William IV. She rules for 63 years till 1901.
1840: American inventor Samuel Morse receives a patent for his telegraph.
1867: President Andrew Johnson announces the Alaska Purchase.
1911: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) incorporates.
1944: Congress charters the Central Intelligence Agency
1960: The Huckleberry Hound Show by Hanna-Barbera becomes the first animated program to win an Emmy.
1975: Film Jaws, based on Peter Benchley's novel, directed by Steven Spielberg, and starring Roy Scheider, is released.
Birthdays today include: Lillian Hellman, playwright (Toys in the Attic, Little Foxes); Errol Flynn, actor (Captain Blood, Robin Hood); Terence Young, British film director (Dr No, Thunderball); Chet Atkins, jazz finger-picking guitarist ("Me & My Guitar"); Audie Murphy, soldier who was among the most decorated in WW II with 33 medals, and actor (To Hell and Back); Brian Wilson, singer-songwriter, vocal arranger, and producer; Lionel Richie, singer; and John Goodman, actor.
If today is your day, too, Happy Birthday!
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is squirming. Fox Digital is reporting:
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison lashed out when asked about his handling of the Minnesota fraud scandal following Vice President JD Vance's threat to refer him to the Justice Department, while pushing back on a widely cited $8 billion figure as only mentioned by those "aligned with the Trump Administration."
"That is a false number," Ellison said. "The fact is, is that fraud is always wrong."
"Why don't you give me a break, man?" he continued.
Mind you, now, that's the Attorney General of Minnesota talking to a reporter. Not a defendant. Not a political opponent. A reporter is asking him to account for billions in missing taxpayer dollars. Ellison didn't answer the question — he ended the interview. When pressed on the widely cited $8 billion fraud estimate, Ellison didn't produce a counter-figure. He didn't cite a forensic audit. He attacked the people, citing the number: "If you ask the newspapers for a forensic accounting, the number you mentioned is tightly identified with people of a very unique political persuasion aligned with the Trump administration."
Let's flip that around. The number mentioned is desperately avoided by people who share a very unique political persuasion too — and Keith Ellison leads that parade with many democrats following him. Here's what makes his dismissal particularly rich: as Attorney General, Ellison holds every tool needed to definitively settle the question of how much fraud actually occurred. His office controls:
Prosecutorial authority to investigate and charge bad actors
The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) — a unit specifically built to investigate healthcare and social services fraud
Subpoena power to compel testimony and documents
Direct coordination channels with federal law enforcement
He has used none of them for this. Instead of launching investigations, Ellison's office reportedly retaliated against the whistleblowers who tried to sound the alarm. The House Oversight Committee didn't mince words, characterizing the pattern as "incompetence, willful blindness, or worse."
I vote for worse. Every serious investigation of Minnesota's fraud explosion came from outside Ellison's office — from federal prosecutors who did the job Ellison was elected and empowered to do.
So why didn't he?
The answer may sit in an uncomfortable intersection of politics, religion, constituency loyalty, and racial loyalty. Ellison converted to Islam in college, later becoming the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2006. He built his career as a consistent, vocal champion of Muslim Americans and Palestinian causes. His past includes a relationship with the Nation of Islam in the 1990s — which he eventually disavowed — and he has accepted financial support from CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations).
Now consider who committed the fraud.
The centerpiece of Minnesota's scandal — the Feeding Our Future catastrophe — predominantly involved Somali-American individuals and organizations. Federal indictments and prosecutions document this. This isn't a talking point; it's a court record. Prosecutors allege fraudsters fabricated meal sites, claimed to feed children who didn't exist, and laundered over $250 million, with money flowing out of the country to Somalia and Kenya. Oh, and Muslims. Let's not forget the linkage between the fraudsters and Ellison. How much of that fraud money came back to Ellison himself in various forms, including campaign funding, for example, remains an open question.
The congressional investigation keeps returning to one pointed question: the majority of fraud perpetrators came from a community that is both Muslim and a core political constituency for Ellison. He had the authority. He had the information. He had the tools. He did nothing.
As far as I can see, his meltdown in front of a Fox News Digital reporter doesn't weaken that line of inquiry. It strengthens it. But nothing to see here, citizen. Continue paying your taxes and go about your lives.
Thought for the Day: "We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions." —President Ronald Reagan
VIP members: Comment and hit that heart. Your involvement makes a difference.
I'll see you tomorrow, on the other side of sleep deprivation. Take care.
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