From “married my brother” to “Professor Vajastan” to “Ryder Cup Rambo”—today’s tour of weird

Shock can be a shortcut, but it’s also a compass—pointing us toward the places where institutions, media, and public trust collide. Today we pull on three threads that lit up our feeds: sweeping claims of immigration fraud in Minneapolis tied to Somali migration, the long-circulating allegations around Ilhan Omar’s marriage history, and a jarring pivot to Harvard’s visiting professor whose drag persona doubles as pedagogy. Then we land on a story that’s equal parts farce and failure: a NYPD detective allegedly strolling into the Ryder Cup in tactical gear, flashing claims of federal and Trump ties while out on sick leave. Different headlines, same dilemma—how do we separate shock value from verified fact, and what should accountability look like when the dust settles?

We start by interrogating the “astounding” fraud statistic and the appetite for decisive enforcement that follows. What do we really know about the methods, the time frame, and the consequences? With Omar, we step through the allegations, the sources that keep them alive, and the gap between what’s public, what’s proven, and what’s politically useful. And with Harvard, we look past the name that begs for a punchline to ask harder questions about what counts as expertise, how performance intersects with scholarship, and why academic language can feel like a wall instead of a bridge.

Finally, the Ryder Cup episode spotlights a different kind of credibility crisis—how uniforms, jargon, and confidence can bypass scrutiny until something literally drops. It’s a case study in security culture, internal discipline, and the media habit of repeating the most gripping detail without answering the most important questions. If you’re craving clarity more than catharsis, you’ll find room here to think before you decide—and to decide with more than a headline.

Listen, share with a friend who loves to argue kindly, and tell us: which story changed your mind, and what would you fact-check first? If this made you think, follow the show, leave a review, and send us your take—we read every note.

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Thanks for listening! 

Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Chapters

• 0:29 Opening And Main Story Setup
• 0:44 Claims Of Somali Immigration Fraud
• 4:24 Ilhan Omar Allegations And Sources
• 8:34 Pivot To Harvard Drag Professor
• 11:09 Host Reaction And Article Critique
• 11:13 Question Of The Day

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:15

Hello, good morning. Alright. We have some stories for you today. One in particular that I found really interesting. Uh let's get right to it. Vast fraud of Somali migrants starting with Elon Omar finally being exposed. Well, how about that? Huh. This week federal officials made an astounding announcement. Was it really astounding? We all knew this already. Nearly half of all immigrants in greater Minneapolis were found to have committed some form of immigrant immigration fraud. So what do you think is going to happen? I'll tell you what's going to happen. Absolutely nothing. I don't know why ICE is not going out there rounding all these people up and shipping them back. The fraud uncovered in a September sweep came in all kinds of came in all kinds. Sham marriages, fake death certificates, and other bizarre schemes as U.S. citizenship and immigrant immigration services director Joseph Edley put it put at put it. I wonder what kind of bizarre schemes it was. It's highlighted as a link, so I'm going to click it and see where it takes me. Oh dear. So let's see, what does it say? Trump calls for investigation into Reper Omar ballot harvesting can. Okay, well, that was nothing. All right, but the revelation was no great surprise to those of us who have followed the settlement of some 100,000 Somali immigrants to in Minnesota over the past three decades. Yes, see, I told you. As far back as 2008, guess who was president in 2008? The State Department temporarily suspended one of the family reunification programs used by Somali immigrants when DNA testing of applicants found that 80% of all its claimed family relationships were fake. Immigration fraud is in is in this community has been the norm. Y'all, and when it comes to bizarre schemes, Representative Elon Omar serves as exhibit A. So we all know this, right? We already knew that she married her brother. Is this correct? Let's see what it says. Omar is accused and has never credibly denied that she married her brother to get him legal papers. In 2016, following up on a tip posted on local Somali discussion board, I found that Omar, then a first-time candidate for the Minnesota State Legislature, had religiously married, had religiously married, but not legally married, Ahmad Hersey, the father of her children. Okay. However, records show that in 2009 she had legally married Ahmad Nur Said Elmy, a man identified as her brother by Somalis on the discussion board. Omar was still married to Elmy as she campaigned for state office in 2016, although her website made no mention of him and touted Hersey as her husband. It appeared that Omar had married her brother for some fraudulent purposes. Hmm. So we already knew all this, so why am I rehashing this? I don't know. I thought it was gonna be something as obviously I didn't read the whole story. Uh, but yeah, basically it's about her. I want to know about the other immigrants that are here and what they did. Let's go round them up. How about that? I'm trying to see if there's anything more about the other ones, but it's all about her, so whatever. Alright, let's move on to the next story. You um let's see. Oh, y'all, this is terrible. This is terrible right here. My goodness. Alright, sorry, I had to pause it for a minute here. Let's see. Let's go back over here to my notes. Alright. You ready for this one? Harvard hires drag queen named ready for this, children. Cover your ears. Lahore Vagistan. I'm not kidding. That's what it says. Lahore Vagistan. Would you like me to spell it for you? As visiting professor. Oh, y'all. This is this is ridiculous. Harvard University hired a drag performer as a new professor who is expected to teach a class on TV show, RuPaul's Drag Race. This is what Harvard has become. This is insane. The institution welcomed Kareem, oh Lord, this last name, Cub Chandani in a July message to the college community and revealed the visiting professor from Tufts University will teach in the studies of gender and sexuality program thanks to the Harvard Gender of Sexual Sexually Sexuality Caucus. What? Harvard Gender and Sexuality Caucus. What in the world are we doing? Now at least it's college and not high school. Still, it's stupid. Is perhaps better known by his stage name, Lahore Vajastan. A persona that he acad that the academic has made an integral part of their pedagog I can't pronounce that word. Pedagogy ped pedagogy? I can't. P-E-D-A-G-O-G-Y? I don't know. I don't know. And of course there is T H E I R, I guess, you know, the pronouns. The professor will often lecture in the guise of Lahore, which has been a person personal project for over a decade, even spawning a music video entitled Sorry, oh my gosh. S A R I Y'all, you should see this person. Uh in an interview with his own drag persona published by Johns Hopkins University Press 2015, Kubja Kubjandani spilled the tea on the origin of the off putting stage name. Oh, you think we can't figure that out? Hello. My name is Lahore Vajastan. My preferred pronouns are she or Auntie. I choose Lahore because my family traces its origins back to Pakistan. Lahore is an important city in Pakistan. And well, I'm a bit of a whore, the drag queen said. So Lahore, the actual city in Pakistan, is spelled L-A-H-O-R-E. And of course, he spells his drag name L-A-W-H-O-R-E. And Vajastan, because I see the subcontinent as one big, beautiful Oh no. I can't. I'm not even I can't. I can't with these people. I'm not gonna finish reading that. It's on the New York Post if you'd like to go see it for yourself, which I'm sure you don't. But here's me bringing you all kinds of interesting stories, right? Okay. Moving on to my last topic. So, oh, this guy. I don't know. This guy. Okay. NYPD cop on sick leave, snuck into the Ryder Cup in full tactical gear, claimed he wasn't a Trump security sources. Say, y'all. And you should see this guy. I mean, there's no way you would believe that he was uh, first of all, a cop, and second of all, on the Trump security team. And if you see the pictures of him, you're gonna know why. He's a little overweight. Uh let's see, an NYPD detective allegedly showed up at the allegedly, you either he did or he didn't. Showed up at the Ryder Cup golf tournament in full gear and claimed he was working security for President Trump while out on sick leave, the post. So wonder why he wonder why he was on sick leave. Nobody they don't tell us why, I don't think. Detective Melvin Ng, ENG, who is now facing administration administrative charges for theft of services, may have been may have even gotten away with the golf course ruse had he not dropped his gun magazine in the grass in front of real security personnel, according to law enforcement sources. So what was he really on sick leave or was he told to go on sick leave because apparently he's a shitty cop and he's overweight. So I mean, come on, who's he gonna chase down? You're out sick, what are you doing at the Ryder Cup? One ticked off veteran cop said about Ng's alleged stunt. You can't do that, and it's theft of service because you went in for free and then you lied and said you worked for Donald Trump. Oh, I hope Trump needs to do something about this. Uh Ng 46, who is president of the NYPD Asian Jade Society, allegedly showed up at the Farmingdale tournament Friday in full tactical gear, claimed he We already said that. Do you need to repeat this again? We already know this. Tell us more, these people who write these articles, I swear. According to the sources, Ng even claimed he was working for the feds. That was enough to get him into the popular tournament until he dropped you already told us this, he dropped his gun magazine. How many different ways do you need to say this? Oh What if he was looking to hurt someone? Another police source said. He got in there with his gun, passed the Secret Service, passed the state police, reached by phone Wednesday Ing said, I'm sorry, I gotta go, and hung up on the reporter. The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment. And that's where the story ends. I mean, come on. We need more information. All right, let's see. I guess I need to move on to the question of the day. All right, here's the question of the day. Who is your favorite person from the Bible? And no, you can't say Jesus. You have to use somebody else. Who is your favorite person from the Bible other than Jesus? Okay, that's the question of the day. I gotta go. Thanks for listening. Have a good one.