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Calling Liz Warren “Pocahontas” Is a Good Thing
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and President Donald Trump.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is known for lying about being Native American to get a job at Harvard, but she’s not the first “Fauxcahontas” I’ve come across. As some on Ricochet know, I was once in the cheese business. About 20 to 25 percent of my business was with the DOD. They bought what was commonly referred to as commodity cheese. Think gasoline. For the most part gasoline is gasoline is gasoline as long as it meets certain standards. If an intersection has four gas stations, everything being equal, you buy from the one with the lowest price. The cheese that the DOD bought was like that.
The contracts were given to the lowest bidder, period. Bids were priced to the tenth of one cent. If two bidders were tied, the contract was rebid. Ties were fairly common. My gross markup was often about 10 percent. This gives you an idea how competitive it could be. I usually had a dedicated crew of about 30 souls including truck drivers assigned to this segment of the business. As competitive as it could be, I still thought it was worth it. They bought large volumes which helped my buying power and they paid well (most of the time).
All was well until sometime in the late ’80s. That is when affirmative action was introduced to the bidding process. In all their wisdom, Congress gave “minority ” bidders a 10 percent advantage. Even after its introduction, I got my share of business. It wasn’t something that could easily be replicated.
Then in about ’92/’93, I began losing every bid and so did all my competitors except for a new one. It was a minority bidder in Wisconsin identified as a female Native American. This went on for months. I had no choice but to institute the first-ever layoff at my business. This company came out of nowhere. Rumors started up, claiming that things were not as they appeared. Deliveries were not being made in a timely manner, if at all. The owner did not appear to be Native American. I hired a private detective.
I turned out that the owner wasn’t Native American — in fact, she wasn’t American at all. She and her husband were Russians. They were allowed in the US because they claimed religious persecution. They were Jewish, perhaps, at least that was their claim. What they really were was crooks. They had rented a small, bankrupt cheese plant and got favorable terms from the local government and bank. They defrauded their bank, were borrowing against their DOD contract, and not delivering the entire amount so they could pocket the difference.
You ask how this could happen. It took a long time to sort out. The minority status was self-reported and the DOD was not allowed to challenge the claim. Even with my PI report, they were forbidden to intervene, even as their logistics system was in chaos. After a certain time, if a bidder didn’t deliver, they could rebid the contract but, as crazy as it sounds, the minority bidder also could rebid — and did. I finally bit the bullet and got my congressman, Rick Santorum, involved.
I never found out how he did it, but Santorum got it straight quick. Within two weeks, I was getting contracts again. After a couple of years, the Native American Russians went to jail. Meanwhile, I had 30 displaced people whose lives were totally disrupted. They all had family. Two divorces were blamed on the layoff. I lost half of my team and had to hire and train new employees. All because of a Fauxcahontas or a Lieawatha.
Sen. Liz Warren probably didn’t affect as many lives, but she took someone’s position who was more worthy than her. She undoubtedly filled young skulls full of leftist mush at Harvard. Her very Senate seat is fake owing to deception. She is a thief and a liar. I have more respect for someone who shoplifts at a convenience store. If I had the same opportunity as President Trump, I would call her a lot worse than Pocahontas.
Published in Politics
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Well done, PH.
My husband has teased about starting a business with me as head for this reason – female, blind, and Native American.
The only one of those that is 100% true is the “female”, however, I’ve been blind in one eye since birth and I’m 1/32nd (?) Native American with no record.
I humor it because it isn’t likely to happen… ever. And if it did, well, I’d want documentation to feel less like a fraud. This stuff I find severely distasteful. You lay out an excellent example of why we all should find it distasteful.
Great article. Agree 100% on the minority scam. Government choosing winners and losers leads to this.
Rick Santorum is an honorable man.
This is part of a long line of affirmative action costing a lot of money and failing to help people.
Thanks for this. So often we hear these stories and they’re remote – it’s valuable to hear someone who was directly harmed by a toxic policy.
Towards the end of every year I get calls and orders from Cal State geology departments trying to spend their budgets. Not once in 10 years has any of them asked me the price, let alone negotiated.
My brother (who is a coach at a Cal State) refuses to believe me as the policy is to get three bids. The one time we discussed it I managed to quirk one eyebrow and say: Do you know anyone who works harder than they have to to save someone else money?
My worse experience ever was selling about $5,000 worth of tools to a tech school. They had gotten a federal grant and were setting up shop in a pretty under served area of LA County. I gave them a great deal on the equipment. A few years later they called me asking if I was interested in buying all the equipment – still in boxes and unused – for cash.
My response was non COC compliant.
If I was a betting man, I’d wager that he tipped off a law firm to go after them using the False Claims Act.
Best piece of legislation the USA ever passed. I really wish we were able to pass similar legislation up here in the Great White North, but no attempt has ever made it past the idea stage. Sad!
This reminds me of an article I just read a few hours ago. A brand new company, using the “Veteran Owned” favor in procurement laws, won a bid to provide tarps to Puerto Rico.
Problem was the company had been formed a month earlier, was based out of a house, and had absolutely no inventory or supply of tarps.
All the interest group favors built into our government purchasing regulations is facilitating the increase in graft and corruption. Some get caught, but regardless honest companies like yours still suffer.
Many suppliers in my industry advertise being minority or veteran or otherwise “victim” owned. After a few missteps, I now NEVER do business with any such firm.
Companies set up for government contracts and who advertise their “special” status are never compatible with my company culture.
It’s an interesting story, Big Cheese. And the Russians certainly knew they were lying through their teeth. I certainly agree that minority set-asides and extra points in evaluating contracts are detrimental.
But I don’t know that Elizabeth Warren is fully in the same class. I’ve mentioned before that I grew up being told that I was descended from a famous Native American chief. I took that at face value until I got into college and tried to connect the genealogy. My father had just accepted it. My elder brothers had just accepted it. My grandfather had probably just accepted it. I have no idea where this tale got started, but when I went looking, I found definitive proof…that as told, it had been false. I have also disproven some other vague family rumors that others had been passing down for generations. As was true of my family, Elizabeth Warren sure as shootin’ did nothing to prove or disprove her family rumors. She also took advantage of the rumors by using those set-asides and point systems. (Which I’m against, but not to the point of stupidity.) But that doesn’t mean she was doing it all in bad faith. She could have believed the family legend as I did until I started looking into it more.
Mind, she’s still a durned Commie, but I am forgiving on this point.
Thanks for sharing your story. People have no idea of the scams that exist solely to leverage minority business favoritism in corporate America and within government.
Affirmative action is deeply and incontrovertibly evil.
I think she knew that she was lying. There are many details at http://www.legalinsurrection.com
I mentioned it in another post today but the fun play on Indian names as it relates to Elizabeth Warren’s high cheekbone absurd claim to Native American ancestry was …. Fauxcahontas …… not Pochahontas.
Oddly enough Trump managed to bungle that up too … who’d of thunk it.
He made his point. I’ve heard her called many things including his term and yours. He didn’t bungle anything here.
I agree that Affirmative Action is an evil. However, that does not excuse Trump from using a slur. I live in Coconino County, Arizona which is 30% Native. In this community, the words “Pocahontas,” “Chief,” and “Geronimo” are slurs. They are not quite as bad as the “N” word, but they are akin to “Spic,” “Kike,” and “Polack.” They are words that would cause a mother to wash a child’s mouth out with soap.
It wasn’t a slur to anyone except Elizabeth Warren, and my grandma was a Choctaw Indian and it’s fine with me. I love it when he does this. “Rocket Man” is my favorite.
I wouldn’t call it a general slur, but it certainly insulted Pocahontas. Her granddaughter was one of my some-number of great-grandfather’s first wife, so I have cousins descended from her.
More and more I think we’re related.
Are you descended from the Bollings?
I’m just going to throw this out there:
I’d have to look in the book, but it doesn’t ring a bell. Even if we aren’t related, I bet our relatives crossed paths.
Why would yelling the Spanish version of the name “Jerome” be offensive? It’s not like it’s a Native American name.
I’m Micmac, and I’m not offended by “Pocahantas” or “Fauxcahantas” or “Anything-ahantas”.
I’m offended that a liberal whitey threw a race card on the table to help her career, knowing she’d never really be called on it, and benefitted fantastically from it in a place that worships minorities so much it feels like it needs to help them, because they just can’t cut it on their own.
The two-faced garbage that passes for leadership – political and institutional – in our country is horrifying.
You are!? Cool.
Sounds delicious!
Next stop: Harvard!
Not for the life of me can I figure how Pocahontas, a heroine be a racist slur.
I see some chowderheads online claim that if you use a historical minority’s name in a derogatory statement about another, it’s a racial slur. This is logically wrong in 2 places, but it’s just maddeningly stupid on its face. It’s not a negative statement about the historical minority. It’s a negative statement about the clown claiming heritage that does not exist – publicly, vociferously, legally, in order to get ahead professionally.
That’s nauseating. It’s nauseating that it works; it’s nauseating that people do it.
It was and it got great mileage too.
Off-topic, but I bet my family/relatives (Cape Breton) and yours crossed paths.