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Feel Good Story of the Day – Newark Gets Scammed
This is a wonderful thing… Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark invited representatives of the nation of Kailasa to City Hall to sign a cultural trade agreement. Turns out though, there is no such nation as Kailasa.
It was all a scam dreamed up by Swami Nithyananda, a con artist who fled India in 2019 when brought up on rape charges (the one sour note in this otherwise delightful tale.)
The city officials didn’t bother with Google or an atlas. But they did go to the country’s website, finding it is the largest Hindu country in the world, with no borders. Newark officials just moved forward when the invitation was made because nothing should come in the way of diversity in relationships.
Anyhoo, after the ceremony in City Hall the truth came out and all the right people were embarrassed. “This is an oversight, cannot happen any longer,” City Councilman Luis Quintana said. In a statement, City Hall said, “Although this was a regrettable incident, the city of Newark remains committed to partnering with people from diverse cultures in order to enrich each other with connectivity, support, and mutual respect.”
As some have noted, the first clue that something was wrong came when someone said their country wanted to establish a relationship with Newark. Kind of like when Groucho Marx said, “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” Say, there’s an idea. Maybe we could convince Joe Biden to make a diplomatic excursion to Freedonia.
Published in General
This could be a Marx Brothers movie.
They thought that there was another borderless country?
If Lori Lightfoot had landed that Kailasa deal, the election would have had a different result.
Extra points for Duck Soup reference.
And they didn’t wonder what happened to India.
We’re doomed. People are running the world who don’t know what India is.
https://kailaasa.org/
Um.
In all seriousness, I say, “Um.”
Um. What else is there to say?
If there are two borderless countries, how do we know which one we’re in?
For whatever reason, reminded me of “The Mouse That Roared”.
Yeah, pretty sure this wouldn’t have happened if they were claiming to be from a city in Europe. So while plain old stupidity played its part, the want to be viewed as diverse was also a factor.
Hey…be nice. Who hasn’t had an imaginary friend before?
That’s the craziest part. Sure, there are some itty-bitty countries that most people have never even heard of. How many people know that Leichtenstein and Grenada are countries? Some do, some don’t. So I could see some people hearing the name of a country they’ve never heard of and thinking it’s some dinky little principality or Caribbean island. But someone is claiming this is the largest Hindu nation in the world and you’ve never heard of it? That’s one hell of a prank.
I wonder if Newark’s favorite son, T-Bone, was invited to the ceremony?
Or his cousin Cornpop?
From one of the links, this note of brightness:
“In a statement, City Hall said, ‘Although this was a regrettable incident, the city of Newark remains committed to partnering with people from diverse cultures in order to enrich each other with connectivity, support, and mutual respect.'”
But I’m sure the partnership would have been a great fundraising tool for the imaginary country with the very real conman behind.
And Biden was preparing to appoint Michelle Obama as US ambassador to Kailasa.
Nobody tried to find it on a map?
I admire the grifter who pulled this off but what was the endgame? Other than the laughs, what was to be gained?
I suspect Hunter and Joe were looking to move a large percentage of the Biden family finances to the Kailasa Imperial Bank.
Or not. I can’t tell anymore. Maybe they believed that this guy’s little island was a real country and thought the rest was just a policy of caring about the global Hindu diaspora.
It’s a little known fact that Kailasa was once a colony of Grand Fenwick.
It is supposed to be an island off the coast of Ecuador! A Hindu country off the coast of Ecuador!
Didn’t Rep. Hank Johnson hold hearings about how the original island tipped over so the survivors had to move to the Ecuador island location?
Yup. They had a sunrise service one morning. Everybody stood on the east beach, and over she went.