When did you arrive in Heraklion? Are you doing a story here? Btw, the balcony on your left side, the right side of the video is the apartment that I was living as a student! :)
Fun fact, his father was also an elected official who was caught committing fraud on work hours for the state of Arizona over a decade before Paul was and charged.
Petersen was sentenced to five years in an Arizona prison. As part of his plea deal in federal court, some federal charges will be dropped after he is sentenced. His federal sentences may be served concurrently with his state sentences. He may have one more year in prison.
I work in social services in California- we are mandated reporters BUUUUUT we aren't trained regularly. There is so much shady shit going on and if you report it internally to the wrong person you can wind up being bullied, harassed, and driven out. Good on that social worker for doing the right thing. I guarantee you other people noticed that shit and didn't care. 100%. People don't miss shit like that. They just don't care.
Similar to the _desaparecidos_ of the dictatorships in Argentina and Spain. Ireland also had its less-political share. with nuns taking children away from unwed mothers; _Philomena_ (starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan) is based on a true story of a woman who went searching for her boy, who wound up working under Reagan.
@@jo_magpie It was also done to indigenous North Americans, Australian aborigines, black tribal African people, The Gypsies in Switzerland, and yes, the Irish. Children were taken from their parents and trained to ct like the white middle class people of their nations, with the intention of either having them adopted by white families as children, or being trained to become domestic servants or low wage laborers when they became a young adults.. This was done supposedly for their own good, to civilize them. As they said in the USA, "Kill the Indian, save the man."
we had americans taking balkan babies too, always some crack pot protestants. these pro-severance parents should definitely be shamed. it's not love it's possession.
@@AFMR0420 It is a pun, given that he is a member of a different church than the "Latter Day Saints", also known as Jehovah's witnesses. And "latter day's" can also be described as "moden times", which is a phrase used at the very en of the video ("modern day saint"). That double meaning is the very definition of a pun. I hope you learned something today.
I've known for my entire adult life that if I got pregnant, I'd die of it, and so would whatever I was carrying. I've thought about adoption a lot, but never had the money. Back when I thought someday I might make enough, I looked into international adoption ... and immediately backed right off. The whole system was so clearly set up to exploit poor women abroad and deprive their children of as many rights as possible. Maybe I'd be a better parent than the system was designed for, but maybe I wouldn't. There would be little in the way of guardrails. And I'd definitely be handing large sums of money to people who were exploiting others, even before I got to the problems of removing a child from their home culture. I'm with Kata. I'll stick to being an aunt.
plus with how the cost of living has gone up 200% in the last 4 years and is only getting higher, it just isn't possible to raise a kid without destroying your finances. That's why I'm voting Biden 2024. if anyone can turn it around, it's him!
Being there for the children in your life is as vitally important as being a parent. The euphemism "it takes a village" is true whether you think it is sappy or not. It used to be people had extended family and the tribe to help with childcare and rearing. With the popularization of the nuclear family we have lost that over the last 100 years, not only here in the west but we've imported it into other countries. It makes individuals more dependent upon rulers and leaders who do not have your best interest at heart. It also makes you more reliant upon the whims of who's ever in power at any given time rather than the support network you have around you. I too cannot have, or could not have, any more children for medical reasons. I barely made it through my first pregnancy and delivery. Because of that I have made sure for the last 44 years since my daughter was born to be there for as many children I ever came in contact with. One of my doctors pointed out that he was noticing how many Young people call me mom #2, and how many people I have helped since their childhood. He said it was great awe, I'm not a special person or somehow miraculous or a saint in fact I'm quite flawed. But like you I made sure that I was there for them when they needed me. As one of my closest "adopted?" daughters told me, it's my unconditional love that keeps her going and realizing how much she matters, and why she loves me so much. Why I love her, there's not enough room here to say. I learned unconditional love not from my mother, or any other biological family member, I learned it from my stepfather. Being a good parent or a good adult for any child doesn't mean you have to have possession of them legally. Remember that.
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 lots of good resources to research this, and I'm not saying don't vote biden, but the federal government, biden or anyone else has very little to do with what's happened to childcare costs. this is very much a state and local issue tied to 1.) lack of extended maternity/paternity care in most states by most employers (this is perhaps the only lever on which the federal government could push if any) which could dramatically reduce very early childhood care costs 2.) business operation restrictions (like child:provider ratios) put in place by states 3.) general lack of affordable housing and it's upwards pressure on labor costs for childcare and occupancy (where childcare is operated from a home), which you can impact at state and local level by encouraging an end to parking minimums for housing development along with reducing minimum setbacks to street and between buildings, and allowing increased building heights.
My wife was a postpartum nurse at Mountain Vista while this was happening and they were all confused as to why all of these Mormons kept getting these foreign babies. They saw his “business partner” that was also arrested all the time.
When my parents adopted my sister it was through a family friend who happened to know a pregnant teen that was looking for a couple to give her baby to. She had a rough home life and knew she neither wanted a child nor could care for one. The mutual friend knew my parents desperately wanted a kid so she put them in contact. A few months later they had a baby. There was no money given to an agency or broker that was using babies as cash cows. Altogether they said the paperwork fees and other things cost about the same as giving birth to me. She met her birth parents when she turned 18 and her bio mom was extremely happy with her choice. But it was all her idea in the first place. Even though she was a teen she knew exactly what she wanted and went about trying to achieve that. I can't imagine if she had been in the position of wanting her baby or still unsure and being practically forced to give her up like the victims of this predator. Adoption is such a shady business and it's so hard to tell if an agency is legit, let alone the exorbitant fees paid. And there are so many children languishing in the foster system that no one wants to adopt because they only want babies.
I can relate was adopted privately intercountry too. And there’s a lot of shady practices abroad and little way to audit if it’s an ethical agency or story. And it’s EXPENSIVE either way.
As someone who adopted our child, I avoided international adoptions entirely and did an open adoption with someone local to our area, because I was aware that people like Paul exist and I don't know how I would be able to tell, I don't know what research I could do that would be effective, especially with a language and geographic barrier and multiple agencies on either side that can hide the condition of the pregnant person on the other end. Any time you are working across a too-high income/class barrier as the wealthier party you risk taking advantage of the poorer one even without meaning any harm, you offer to "buy" babies and poor people will offer to "sell" them, even when that is harmful to their own mental health. In our case we still talk to the birth-mother, she comes to birthday parties and we visit for Christmas, but I don't think she has any legal rights over the child, the "open" adoption mostly means that her identity is not kept a guarded secret like it used to be in "closed" adoptions. Given the number of people who spend time and money to find their birth parents when they get older, hiding the identity of the birth mother seem to be just a waste of effort, a history of shame over adopting that we can overcome by not being ashamed of it.
you know usually when i see clickbait political titles like this, whatever it might be, i immediately click "dont recommend channel". but when its you i have trust that its actually good and has a deeper thought embedded in it
@@alarcon99yes, the clickbait term has evolved throughout the years to encompass flashy and pretentious titles, even if they are not lying. But it's not a sign of a bad youtuber by itself, it's just about staying relevant for that damn yt algorithm they talk so much about. Btw, Veritasium made a video quite a while ago about video titles.
Yeah that really goes against the idea that “adoptive parents are real parents”… except that you have also two other strangers who might at any time pop into your life. From the perspective of the child, that’s pretty fd up
On the flipside, the 1967 Romanian anti-abortion decree created an extreme amount of orphans or kids given up for adoption that had no place in the country and were adopted by people in the US and Canada. Somehow adoption has the most horrible stories from both sides, yet it is still one of the most important things to help civilisation.
It's more insidious. They want to make money off it, and turn it into a member of their cult. Given most of this dudes victims were adopted by other mormons. ...
I'm from PA where there was the "cash for kids" scandal with a judge getting bribes to sell children to private prisons. He's in jail now but sad nobody took care of him on the inside to save taxpayers some money
@@sueprator9314Yup. Gave harsher sentences and sent them to a specific private prison for kickbacks. You can google the whole sordid affair. It was the event that destroyed the last bit of trust I had in our legal system.
Amazing as usual. I find it so heartbreaking powerful people can commit the most horrible crimes and get so little time behind bars, if they get any at all.
It's disheartening that the ruling class will rarely get a slap on the wrist, yet a blue-collar worker can have the whole system thrown at them because they wanted to dispute a bogus traffic ticket... thankfully, the Institute for Justice rights some of those wrongs.
It seems like every decade or so they find another country where this sort of thing works. The US embassy in that country (or the local government) belatedly realizes what’s going on after it’s long too late for thousands and puts a stop to it. Then they move on to some other place where they can get away with it. This is an American problem, not a foreign one. We need stronger laws in this country to prevent this sort of abuse.
@@caffetiel no, those are church run charities and Im not quite cynical enough yet with my religion to quite see them as means of profits, just charities with if nothing else an oddly high asset values
@@caffetiel there isnt a point to having it be a separate non profit charity to 'hide' land from the tax man, churches are already (wrongly I personally feel) property tax free
Also know that adopting from fostercare in US is just as bad. Most kids in fostercare have parents who are gutting themselves trying to bring kids home but states get money for adopting out kids and "caseworkers", attorneys, psychologists , fosterparents all count on that money so they create HOOPS to make parents jump through which rise to definition of torture. Don't be thinking these are abused, neglected kids unless your family has never had a bad week... parent ill, washing machine exploded water everywhere, ran out of gas or had a flat coming home from work... a call to CPS from a teacher, daycare if you are late, neighbor or stranger, at the right time with mythical allegations can cost your kids. Then there is if you die and even if have a will, they won't honor it.Kid can be abused or murdered in state care as several are every year in tx. or simply lost in FL.Kids are moved across state lines so parents can't see them, kids aren't allowed to call parents or anyone they know. This is happening in US right this minute , in every state but worst in red ones. Parents need help, crisis nurseries are that help, this is not fostercare, is not govt program, find one, support it, replicate them. Adoption is no picnic. Adopting a baby means it may have been exposed to drugs, alcohol, malnutrition , DV, homelessness before birth under less than great circumstances, not getting bonding care for days or weeks and that trauma can't be loved away esp when there are brain changes with drugs and alcohol but those problems don't show until executive function should kick in... about 8, when stealing, running off, lying, fireplay, food hoarding , destruction ,night wandering start and you feel like you are losing your mind and family but can't find help ...because of course it is the parents fault, if not adoptive then dirty birth parent but certainly could be disciplined away if they were good parents. Read this adoption.com/before-adopting-kids, read RISE magazine on line, Find Rick Caseys old Houston Chronicle columns on CPS, read Deb Fronteira's book "Fighting CPS". This is a big hairy, hurtful deal.
The USA is the only country that never signed the UN Children's Rights Convention, I think about it every time I hear about something horribly abusive like the troubled teen industry that still seems to be legal for some reason in the USA.
The kidnapping and human trafficking of babies for international adoption is a bit of national trauma. Here and there you get some cases, but back in the 1980s there were some huge high profile cases. It even changes how we deal with childbirth, too, specially in my region - there's a higher demand "in the market" (usually NA, EU and Israel) for European-looking babies, so my region (Southern Brazil) with a population that is mostly of European descent were specially targeted by such predatory groups, like one headed by a Arlete Hilu, and we've been paranoid ever since. The idea of adoption of a local children by foreigners can be considered unsettling or even repulsive even if done ethically nowadays.
The catholic church made a fortune selling Irish babies to the US after Ireland became an independent country, effectively swapping government of the country from the UK to the Vatican, but given the last catholic run concentration camp for unmarried mothers (The church, government and society - all very strongly church controlled - that supported these institutions didn't call them that) was closed in the 1990s, it probably ran to recent times. It's still better than letting newborns die through lack of any form of care for mother or baby, which was the other option these institutions chose 😞.
Getting adopted out of this hell hole is a gift. If you live on this island you complete diet comes out of cans. While you can fish I would not recommend eating them due to contamination.
Gotta be honest, the original title was better imo, and totally justified given the wider context. P.s. Great video Evan, I’m loving your Marshalls series so far.
4 hours and still no red dot telling me a new video in my sub list, and no blue dot on RE's emblem. I would have clicked as soon as it was published. I have come to trust your channel to provide human content. Thank you. A BIG Maritime Thank You!
As an adoptive parent (international) myself, this gets me so infuriated. There's a reason other countries strictly only allow adoption adhering to the Hague convention. How can those parents not have noticed something was fishy? How can they just have bought a baby like that? How on earth was there no oversight? No social workers talking repeatedly face to face with the women giving up their babies? No explaining what adoption means? No alternative offer of financial or parental aid? How come no judge ever noticed something was strange? Why weren't there any unannounced inspections twice per month? I'm sickened by this. A system that is nearly built for human trafficking. 🤮
When I was visiting Thailand, I saw an American family buying a Thai baby in a restaurant. There, in front of everyone. Loud enough for us on the next table to listen to the transaction.
I never fail to get unfathomably angry when I watch your videos. You are the only channel that has that effect on me and I think you are severely underrated
This is EXACTLY what they mean. They do it all the fucking time, and people just refuse to believe their guys will repeat the pattern. The Nazis gave kids to pedophiles because they thought they would take better care of them. The Catholic Church in Ireland enslaved thousands of women for the sin of getting pregnant, then stole their babies and sold them to the highest bidder. The Chilean and Argentinian fascist regimes sold thousands of babies overseas, also stolen from mothers they had mostly murdered. Right-wing autocrats do this monstrous shit EVERY TIME.
It's not what republicans *say* they mean, but it's what their actions and policies show that they mean. Turns out the people who believe QAnon bought it hook line and sinker because they saw that shit in their own churches and thought "if it's this bad in my church, how bad is the govt?" not realizing that nowhere outside the church (not even in schools!) do so many men have such a perfect combination of unquestioned authority, community trust, and access to children.
Human trafficking is such a horrible thing. Its the most evil thing imaginable and shows how many people really lack a soul and heart with how they just trade flesh for cash.
just watched on Nebula. Now watching here to help with the algorithm. This needs to be more well known in the West! I'm 100% sure similar stories are happening here in Australia too :(
Well done. I'm proud of you and thankful for your efforts. And you're right, Paul wasn't alone. They're everywhere. And we'll keep sweeping the water back int the sea.
Does anyone know the name of the sorta odd looking tropical pine tree in the background over Ryan's shoulder? Long story, but I've had no luck identifying it. Also seen in Curacao. Thanks internet.
As someone who keeps up with a lot of news, I never heard of this one. I’m sure if the child trafficker happened to be trans, the media would go insane over this story. But because they’re “good Christians” they get a pass on coverage.
Wierdly, trans people tend not to commit this kind of crime. It's almost like being constantly scrutunized by insane fascists makes it nigh-impossible to get away with this shit. Meanwhile, being one of the scrutinizing fascists makes it easy.
Growing up with plenty of family money and no attachment to your family or land is going to end is so much more mental illness than growing up dirt poor around those you know, love, and see your self in.
This isn’t just a child being affected. It’s a foreign woman (maybe even a full family) are unknowingly losing a family member. This is an American family being torn apart because they don’t like the idea of their child being stolen from someone else. Most importantly, this is a child who most likely will never know their true mother, even though their mother greaves over the loss of them every day. I don’t know a solution. Closest I can find is the American family being in full contact with their foreign family, and a mutual agreement between the families is met. But then you have the children… who might be getting pried away from their “parents” in order to talk to a family that looks like them, but doesn’t see them as family. This is a mess, and there is no easy solution. There are plenty of hearts to be crushed. That’s what this man did. Sick isn’t strong enough to describe him. I truly think society would be better off without him. But death would be too easy for him.
Wow, a different video from Evan & Kata, I am not going to say it was my favourite, but I think it is important that the story is told and Evan tells it well.
and democrat now that theyre in power theyre the ones actively trafficking beaners like me. its almost like people that want you to put them in power cant be trusted
@ThePurpleOne1 So true! The missionaries certainly aren't motivated by money. It's two years of hard work, far from home, friends, and family. They serve without pay. Their expenses are usually paid by themselves and their families. They do this a time when they could instead be going to college, starting a career, or getting married. They do it because they love God and they want to serve their fellow beings, not because of some supposed financial scheme.
GoodMan🙏🤙 Actual Journalism, & Of Course, NOT the only one! How many years & Still Counting!? Amazing how this story didn’t make the: “HeadLines”, accordingly; I’m sure it’s just a coincidence🙄🤷🏻♂️ We are after all More Roman Than Rome & only Some, of the names, have changed…., Great Production’s, as Usual & Keep It Up, Please🙌😉🇦🇺👋
If anyone would like a deeper dive on the topic of Marshallese adoptions, I strongly recommend Honolulu Civil Beat's Offshore podcast, season 3: "The Blood Calls".
Evan and Kata, Thank you, thank you, thank you! Much needed light shined on this horrendous form of trafficking that benefits very few of those involved except for the brokers, and those who help the brokers. I have seen open adoption work beautifully and horribly with great disaster, I've seen many closed adoptions turn out the same. It really does depend on the people involved, and nobody, especially Republicans, are ever going to develop a system of support for all of those involved including the children, especially the children, to help navigate and maintain adoption relationships for the betterment of all. I'm not gonna rant about bodily autonomy, right to life, yada yada yada, we all know what's been said and what people feel on all sides. But in the end it's about the kids and the adults they become and the impact that has not only on their lives but on the world itself. Selling children so callously and with such a determined eye on profit, is what capitalism is all about. It's true for any economic system that focuses on wealth over humanity. ❤
"Why do you like these videos?" Asks a friend. "Because they are like Bart's people" I replied (there was a back and forth about how a 40 year old American should get that reference 100% of the time). "Well this Petersen guy doesn't sound like one of Bart's people" .... "no he doesn't"
I think it was smart to take away the “Republican” part of the title, things are already too divided between parties that people don’t want to hear “their side” be wrong
I'm curious why you wrote this, as of this moment the title of the video is "The Republican Official Caught Selling Babies". I was wondering why you said "Republican" was taken away. I do find it a curious choice because he could have referred to him as a Mormon, which seems to have more bearing on his motivations, or just an American. Especially since our content creator is Canadian.
A really interesting read if you’re academically interested in one aspect of beliefs surrounding separation of birth mothers from the identity of children is the paper “The Racializing Womb: Surrogacy and Epigenetic Kinship” by Jaya Keaney
Gotta be honest that clickbait absolutely worked on me. I entirely agree with the comment you hearted that with any other channel I'd click don't recommend channel but I trust you enough to watch it, but also after seeing that title I can't *not* click on the video now, I need to know what this is.
Adoptee in my family, sometimes I dont even think about any of this cause it's hard to even view them as anything other than my family, but it's important work.
Thanks so much for doing this piece. I cant believe this is the first I've heard about it, but maybe it broke amidst pandemic chaos so I missed it, or I just blocked it out because it is so horrible. Regardless, Its one that we really need to revisit at the new dawn of the loss of women's rights. This story has serious elements of Handmaids Tale and I bet DT is going to pardon this megacreep.
Can someone explain to me why adopting in an open system would push people towards adopting children from abroad? I do not understand how taking in a child completely disconnected from its birth parents is a good thing.
Many times, true or not, adopted children come from parents or are perceived as coming from parents who have major drug addiction issues, violence in the home, or extreme poverty. People who are adopting usually wish to help the child, but speaking in generics tend not to wish to be straddled to the problems of the adult.
There are 3 layers to the US Adoption problem: #1 -- Closed adoption was meant to eradicate undesirable races, such as native americans, to erase their identity, and dilute their bloodlines to the point they aren't entitled to government compensation. This extends to black folk too but by the time it went into play, the laws and situation had changed. This was in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and the laws from that legacy frequently remain. They cover it up in "helping the needy" but the gentle face of racism is still screaming the quiet part out loud under the surface. Australia said the quiet part out loud in their history, part of the same international scheme as the US and Germany & the Dutch in South Africa. Scary history that only looks dead on paper, but still lives unseen. #2 -- Closed adoptions from organizations like, say Catholic Adoption Services, domestically sell babies. They recruit from at risk women, showering them with anti abortion rhetoric while also making them feel like subhuman trash, praising them for choosing adoption as the best thing they have ever done. In that sea of shame, they throw a lifeline. But as soon as that baby is out of her, they tell her she isn't a mother. She was never a mother. To forget about it, and never think of it again. And the state, which gets to funnel funds to these brokers, gets to up their numbers. Thus their legion of lobbyists continues the grift generation after generation. Until recently, no one dared question it. Now we dare. #3 -- It costs you, as an adopted person in most states, specifically Arizona, 1300$ to unseal your sealed adoption records. Money that is paid to a small number of certified Private Investigators, who are given the sole authority to look at your sealed records. Not a lawyer, not a state official, a private investigator. You sign a contract with them, pay them, and if your parents are found and accept the PI's contact and allow you to visit, they keep your 1300$. Now in the age of Ancestry.com, this is a grift that is falling apart, and we can find our own parents. But for decades, this was the only way. And who benefits from those laws? Same people as control your Vital Records, which are also, funny enough, privatized. If you're looking for billions of dollars, that's not the scale of the corruption. Millions, yes. And to a very few people. Those are the 3 main reasons why Sealed Adoptions exist on the record books. How they stay there, is that we are a small enough population of foster/adopt that no way we'd ever swing a vote, and they know it. But, as the criminal oopses of the IVF industry -- where cohorts of 100+ children are born with the exact same genetic father -- in a generation or two our numbers of descendants will be in the millions. And the IVF + Sealed Adoption group will be HUGE. Then we can swing votes. Some do seal because the parents were involved in crime and psychosis, make no doubt. But that purpose is a shinny, obvious, reasonable hand held high, distracting us from the underhanded behavior that we don't see. The kind that traffics babies, both foreign and domestic.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
Adopt a RUclipsr:
www.patreon.com/rareearth
ko-fi.com/rareearth
you have some of the best patreon callouts. I salute you, sir.
Bro don't say that! They will make deleting a new account illegal. "Someone could have adopted that account", they'll say.
haha quirky.. this is tone-deaf as shit on a an already pretty xenophobic vid
When did you arrive in Heraklion? Are you doing a story here? Btw, the balcony on your left side, the right side of the video is the apartment that I was living as a student! :)
Fun fact, his father was also an elected official who was caught committing fraud on work hours for the state of Arizona over a decade before Paul was and charged.
its always these people
Ah, it runs in the family.
@@CapitalSocialz Some people use Jesus's forgiveness as an excuse to do whatever they want.
@@lainiwakura1776 Your imaginary friends aren't real.
Petersen was sentenced to five years in an Arizona prison. As part of his plea deal in federal court, some federal charges will be dropped after he is sentenced. His federal sentences may be served concurrently with his state sentences. He may have one more year in prison.
I work in social services in California- we are mandated reporters BUUUUUT we aren't trained regularly.
There is so much shady shit going on and if you report it internally to the wrong person you can wind up being bullied, harassed, and driven out. Good on that social worker for doing the right thing.
I guarantee you other people noticed that shit and didn't care. 100%. People don't miss shit like that. They just don't care.
Some stories need to be told, and you did a great job fitting it to your format.
Thanks dude
reminds me of all the illegal adoptions during the chilean dictatorship, business stays the same no matter how much time passes
Similar to the _desaparecidos_ of the dictatorships in Argentina and Spain. Ireland also had its less-political share. with nuns taking children away from unwed mothers; _Philomena_ (starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan) is based on a true story of a woman who went searching for her boy, who wound up working under Reagan.
or Spanish. hundreds of thousands.
No surprise. Republicants are the biggest admirers of dictators. It’s a shame what the cult 45 has done to rot the brains of half the country
@@jo_magpie It was also done to indigenous North Americans, Australian aborigines, black tribal African people, The Gypsies in Switzerland, and yes, the Irish. Children were taken from their parents and trained to ct like the white middle class people of their nations, with the intention of either having them adopted by white families as children, or being trained to become domestic servants or low wage laborers when they became a young adults.. This was done supposedly for their own good, to civilize them. As they said in the USA, "Kill the Indian, save the man."
we had americans taking balkan babies too, always some crack pot protestants.
these pro-severance parents should definitely be shamed. it's not love it's possession.
"It wasn't like Paul was some Latter Day Saint" Very clever pun there. *Applaudes*
Do you understand what a pun is? This isn’t a pun. It’s not irony either. It’s a facsimile, the old definition.
Slow your roll there Rosco. @@AFMR0420
@@AFMR0420 alright poindexter.
@@AFMR0420 It is a pun, given that he is a member of a different church than the "Latter Day Saints", also known as Jehovah's witnesses. And "latter day's" can also be described as "moden times", which is a phrase used at the very en of the video ("modern day saint").
That double meaning is the very definition of a pun. I hope you learned something today.
@@57thornsgotem
I've known for my entire adult life that if I got pregnant, I'd die of it, and so would whatever I was carrying. I've thought about adoption a lot, but never had the money.
Back when I thought someday I might make enough, I looked into international adoption ... and immediately backed right off. The whole system was so clearly set up to exploit poor women abroad and deprive their children of as many rights as possible. Maybe I'd be a better parent than the system was designed for, but maybe I wouldn't. There would be little in the way of guardrails. And I'd definitely be handing large sums of money to people who were exploiting others, even before I got to the problems of removing a child from their home culture.
I'm with Kata. I'll stick to being an aunt.
plus with how the cost of living has gone up 200% in the last 4 years and is only getting higher, it just isn't possible to raise a kid without destroying your finances. That's why I'm voting Biden 2024. if anyone can turn it around, it's him!
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 lol
There's always a way to matter to kids. Plenty of kids need solid adults they can trust and learn from. :)
Being there for the children in your life is as vitally important as being a parent. The euphemism "it takes a village" is true whether you think it is sappy or not. It used to be people had extended family and the tribe to help with childcare and rearing. With the popularization of the nuclear family we have lost that over the last 100 years, not only here in the west but we've imported it into other countries. It makes individuals more dependent upon rulers and leaders who do not have your best interest at heart. It also makes you more reliant upon the whims of who's ever in power at any given time rather than the support network you have around you. I too cannot have, or could not have, any more children for medical reasons. I barely made it through my first pregnancy and delivery. Because of that I have made sure for the last 44 years since my daughter was born to be there for as many children I ever came in contact with. One of my doctors pointed out that he was noticing how many Young people call me mom #2, and how many people I have helped since their childhood. He said it was great awe, I'm not a special person or somehow miraculous or a saint in fact I'm quite flawed. But like you I made sure that I was there for them when they needed me. As one of my closest "adopted?" daughters told me, it's my unconditional love that keeps her going and realizing how much she matters, and why she loves me so much. Why I love her, there's not enough room here to say. I learned unconditional love not from my mother, or any other biological family member, I learned it from my stepfather. Being a good parent or a good adult for any child doesn't mean you have to have possession of them legally. Remember that.
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 lots of good resources to research this, and I'm not saying don't vote biden, but the federal government, biden or anyone else has very little to do with what's happened to childcare costs. this is very much a state and local issue tied to 1.) lack of extended maternity/paternity care in most states by most employers (this is perhaps the only lever on which the federal government could push if any) which could dramatically reduce very early childhood care costs 2.) business operation restrictions (like child:provider ratios) put in place by states 3.) general lack of affordable housing and it's upwards pressure on labor costs for childcare and occupancy (where childcare is operated from a home), which you can impact at state and local level by encouraging an end to parking minimums for housing development along with reducing minimum setbacks to street and between buildings, and allowing increased building heights.
My wife was a postpartum nurse at Mountain Vista while this was happening and they were all confused as to why all of these Mormons kept getting these foreign babies. They saw his “business partner” that was also arrested all the time.
When my parents adopted my sister it was through a family friend who happened to know a pregnant teen that was looking for a couple to give her baby to. She had a rough home life and knew she neither wanted a child nor could care for one. The mutual friend knew my parents desperately wanted a kid so she put them in contact. A few months later they had a baby. There was no money given to an agency or broker that was using babies as cash cows. Altogether they said the paperwork fees and other things cost about the same as giving birth to me. She met her birth parents when she turned 18 and her bio mom was extremely happy with her choice. But it was all her idea in the first place. Even though she was a teen she knew exactly what she wanted and went about trying to achieve that. I can't imagine if she had been in the position of wanting her baby or still unsure and being practically forced to give her up like the victims of this predator. Adoption is such a shady business and it's so hard to tell if an agency is legit, let alone the exorbitant fees paid. And there are so many children languishing in the foster system that no one wants to adopt because they only want babies.
I can relate was adopted privately intercountry too. And there’s a lot of shady practices abroad and little way to audit if it’s an ethical agency or story. And it’s EXPENSIVE either way.
As someone who adopted our child, I avoided international adoptions entirely and did an open adoption with someone local to our area, because I was aware that people like Paul exist and I don't know how I would be able to tell, I don't know what research I could do that would be effective, especially with a language and geographic barrier and multiple agencies on either side that can hide the condition of the pregnant person on the other end. Any time you are working across a too-high income/class barrier as the wealthier party you risk taking advantage of the poorer one even without meaning any harm, you offer to "buy" babies and poor people will offer to "sell" them, even when that is harmful to their own mental health. In our case we still talk to the birth-mother, she comes to birthday parties and we visit for Christmas, but I don't think she has any legal rights over the child, the "open" adoption mostly means that her identity is not kept a guarded secret like it used to be in "closed" adoptions. Given the number of people who spend time and money to find their birth parents when they get older, hiding the identity of the birth mother seem to be just a waste of effort, a history of shame over adopting that we can overcome by not being ashamed of it.
you know usually when i see clickbait political titles like this, whatever it might be, i immediately click "dont recommend channel". but when its you i have trust that its actually good and has a deeper thought embedded in it
100% agreed
Appreciate it. Sometimes a story asks to be baited.
Is it still clickbait if it’s 100% accurate and the video specifically presents the story in the title, though?
The sad thing is, it wasn't even click bait, it was true.
@@alarcon99yes, the clickbait term has evolved throughout the years to encompass flashy and pretentious titles, even if they are not lying.
But it's not a sign of a bad youtuber by itself, it's just about staying relevant for that damn yt algorithm they talk so much about. Btw, Veritasium made a video quite a while ago about video titles.
I didn’t realize parents who gave up their kids could just take them back, that sounds really stressful for the people who are taking this kid in.
Yeah that really goes against the idea that “adoptive parents are real parents”… except that you have also two other strangers who might at any time pop into your life.
From the perspective of the child, that’s pretty fd up
On the flipside, the 1967 Romanian anti-abortion decree created an extreme amount of orphans or kids given up for adoption that had no place in the country and were adopted by people in the US and Canada.
Somehow adoption has the most horrible stories from both sides, yet it is still one of the most important things to help civilisation.
As an adoptee, with several adoptee friends, I really appreciate you bringing this to people's attentions.
As a fellow adoptee, this is just gut wrenching to watch and it also fuels my open dislike of the Mormon church AND Republicans.
"don't abort your baby, we need to make money off of it"
😂
How do you think Planned Parenthood makes their money? Selling body parts from aborted babies.
I thought the narrative was they make money off of the abortions
It's more insidious. They want to make money off it, and turn it into a member of their cult. Given most of this dudes victims were adopted by other mormons. ...
yes, making money is worst then killing a baby! big brains... that's commie logic
I'm from PA where there was the "cash for kids" scandal with a judge getting bribes to sell children to private prisons. He's in jail now but sad nobody took care of him on the inside to save taxpayers some money
What?? Do you mean young teen boys to be incarcerated?
@@sueprator9314Yup. Gave harsher sentences and sent them to a specific private prison for kickbacks. You can google the whole sordid affair. It was the event that destroyed the last bit of trust I had in our legal system.
That’s what Republican policies do
@@f-86zoomer37 Then of course they're the ones that turn around and try to paint everyone else as "groomers."
@@AirLancer and the pro lifers who were caught abusing toddlers 😡🤬
Amazing as usual. I find it so heartbreaking powerful people can commit the most horrible crimes and get so little time behind bars, if they get any at all.
It's disheartening that the ruling class will rarely get a slap on the wrist, yet a blue-collar worker can have the whole system thrown at them because they wanted to dispute a bogus traffic ticket... thankfully, the Institute for Justice rights some of those wrongs.
That’s what the Republican double standards and projection are. Blame democrats for the crimes and depravity of Republicans
These folks have names, addresses, and bleed just as red as you and me. That's all I'll say.
Bourgeois levels of wealth CORRUPTS
It seems like every decade or so they find another country where this sort of thing works. The US embassy in that country (or the local government) belatedly realizes what’s going on after it’s long too late for thousands and puts a stop to it. Then they move on to some other place where they can get away with it.
This is an American problem, not a foreign one. We need stronger laws in this country to prevent this sort of abuse.
Great video, this needs to be talked about more. Human trafficing is absolutely abhorent.
Funny how the only party that votes against anti human trafficking laws are republicans
Mormon Church has a $100b fund...
its more like 47 billion. still an unfathomable amount but not quite as insane
@@coreytaylor5386 Are you including subsidiaries?
@@caffetiel no, those are church run charities and Im not quite cynical enough yet with my religion to quite see them as means of profits, just charities with if nothing else an oddly high asset values
@@coreytaylor5386 The property holding company isn't a charity. The investment portfolio isn't a charity.
@@caffetiel there isnt a point to having it be a separate non profit charity to 'hide' land from the tax man, churches are already (wrongly I personally feel) property tax free
We can be so disgusting to each other.
I remember when this happened. I live in Arizona. I was so angry. Now I am even angrier. The articles I read left out the victims.... mostly.
I've heard so many horror stories of adopting from overseas. All of it due to greed. So I love how you ended the segment about doing your research.
Also know that adopting from fostercare in US is just as bad. Most kids in fostercare have parents who are gutting themselves trying to bring kids home but states get money for adopting out kids and "caseworkers", attorneys, psychologists , fosterparents all count on that money so they create HOOPS to make parents jump through which rise to definition of torture. Don't be thinking these are abused, neglected kids unless your family has never had a bad week... parent ill, washing machine exploded water everywhere, ran out of gas or had a flat coming home from work... a call to CPS from a teacher, daycare if you are late, neighbor or stranger, at the right time with mythical allegations can cost your kids. Then there is if you die and even if have a will, they won't honor it.Kid can be abused or murdered in state care as several are every year in tx. or simply lost in FL.Kids are moved across state lines so parents can't see them, kids aren't allowed to call parents or anyone they know. This is happening in US right this minute , in every state but worst in red ones.
Parents need help, crisis nurseries are that help, this is not fostercare, is not govt program, find one, support it, replicate them.
Adoption is no picnic. Adopting a baby means it may have been exposed to drugs, alcohol, malnutrition , DV, homelessness before birth under less than great circumstances, not getting bonding care for days or weeks and that trauma can't be loved away esp when there are brain changes with drugs and alcohol but those problems don't show until executive function should kick in... about 8, when stealing, running off, lying, fireplay, food hoarding , destruction ,night wandering start and you feel like you are losing your mind and family but can't find help ...because of course it is the parents fault, if not adoptive then dirty birth parent but certainly could be disciplined away if they were good parents. Read this adoption.com/before-adopting-kids, read RISE magazine on line, Find Rick Caseys old Houston Chronicle columns on CPS, read Deb Fronteira's book "Fighting CPS". This is a big hairy, hurtful deal.
Republicans are truly insane.
The USA is the only country that never signed the UN Children's Rights Convention, I think about it every time I hear about something horribly abusive like the troubled teen industry that still seems to be legal for some reason in the USA.
Top quality as always. Thanks Evan and Kata.
The kidnapping and human trafficking of babies for international adoption is a bit of national trauma. Here and there you get some cases, but back in the 1980s there were some huge high profile cases. It even changes how we deal with childbirth, too, specially in my region - there's a higher demand "in the market" (usually NA, EU and Israel) for European-looking babies, so my region (Southern Brazil) with a population that is mostly of European descent were specially targeted by such predatory groups, like one headed by a Arlete Hilu, and we've been paranoid ever since. The idea of adoption of a local children by foreigners can be considered unsettling or even repulsive even if done ethically nowadays.
The catholic church made a fortune selling Irish babies to the US after Ireland became an independent country, effectively swapping government of the country from the UK to the Vatican, but given the last catholic run concentration camp for unmarried mothers (The church, government and society - all very strongly church controlled - that supported these institutions didn't call them that) was closed in the 1990s, it probably ran to recent times. It's still better than letting newborns die through lack of any form of care for mother or baby, which was the other option these institutions chose 😞.
Getting adopted out of this hell hole is a gift. If you live on this island you complete diet comes out of cans. While you can fish I would not recommend eating them due to contamination.
As you said in the end card, not really your style of video. But it just goes to show your voice lends itself very well to this kind of narration too.
Gotta be honest, the original title was better imo, and totally justified given the wider context.
P.s. Great video Evan, I’m loving your Marshalls series so far.
Amazing as always 💙
As usual a very thoughtful beautiful piece / report ....thank you so much ...again .
4 hours and still no red dot telling me a new video in my sub list, and no blue dot on RE's emblem.
I would have clicked as soon as it was published. I have come to trust your channel to provide human content. Thank you. A BIG Maritime Thank You!
click the bell icon
This was depressing. Ever since my partner miscarried our first child, children are close to my heart.
I need to go lay down for a while.
As an adoptive parent (international) myself, this gets me so infuriated. There's a reason other countries strictly only allow adoption adhering to the Hague convention. How can those parents not have noticed something was fishy? How can they just have bought a baby like that? How on earth was there no oversight? No social workers talking repeatedly face to face with the women giving up their babies? No explaining what adoption means? No alternative offer of financial or parental aid? How come no judge ever noticed something was strange? Why weren't there any unannounced inspections twice per month?
I'm sickened by this. A system that is nearly built for human trafficking. 🤮
When I was visiting Thailand, I saw an American family buying a Thai baby in a restaurant. There, in front of everyone. Loud enough for us on the next table to listen to the transaction.
"no honey i want an exotic baby"
I don't think there's any story about human trafficking that doesn't utterly break my heart :(
No sensationalism. Just straight, honest facts. More people need to see this. Thanks for all the work you do. Your videos are a bright spot on RUclips
As I listen to this story I can see how one day (closed) adoption may not be legal because it is buying another human being.
powerful last shot there, like an echo of the words spoken before it, creates the illusion that you were shouting the entire time
Proving onxe again that religion does not replace inner moral character.
What an evil scumbag. He should have been sued of all his assets and given back to all those women.
Thanks for this one.
I never fail to get unfathomably angry when I watch your videos. You are the only channel that has that effect on me and I think you are severely underrated
I don't think this is the value they mean when they talk about family values.
This is EXACTLY what they mean. They do it all the fucking time, and people just refuse to believe their guys will repeat the pattern.
The Nazis gave kids to pedophiles because they thought they would take better care of them. The Catholic Church in Ireland enslaved thousands of women for the sin of getting pregnant, then stole their babies and sold them to the highest bidder. The Chilean and Argentinian fascist regimes sold thousands of babies overseas, also stolen from mothers they had mostly murdered. Right-wing autocrats do this monstrous shit EVERY TIME.
It's not what republicans *say* they mean, but it's what their actions and policies show that they mean. Turns out the people who believe QAnon bought it hook line and sinker because they saw that shit in their own churches and thought "if it's this bad in my church, how bad is the govt?" not realizing that nowhere outside the church (not even in schools!) do so many men have such a perfect combination of unquestioned authority, community trust, and access to children.
When I first clicked on this I did not expect my own state to be involved. This is shameful and grotesque
Its vile, but on the bright side, at least this monster was caught and is behind bars.
Human trafficking is such a horrible thing. Its the most evil thing imaginable and shows how many people really lack a soul and heart with how they just trade flesh for cash.
I thought that was Chris Pratt from Guardians of the Galaxy 😂😆
NO, YOURE RARE EARTH wait...dammit
just watched on Nebula. Now watching here to help with the algorithm. This needs to be more well known in the West! I'm 100% sure similar stories are happening here in Australia too :(
Likewise!
Well done. I'm proud of you and thankful for your efforts. And you're right, Paul wasn't alone. They're everywhere. And we'll keep sweeping the water back int the sea.
Please keep documenting this! I hope we pay attention!
i just KNEW there was something about Chris Pratt that didn't sit right with me.
no, i did not watch the video. i only read the thumbnail and title. why do you ask?
watching the title of this video change has been funny. really horrific though and deeply unsettling
Does anyone know the name of the sorta odd looking tropical pine tree in the background over Ryan's shoulder? Long story, but I've had no luck identifying it. Also seen in Curacao. Thanks internet.
As someone who keeps up with a lot of news, I never heard of this one. I’m sure if the child trafficker happened to be trans, the media would go insane over this story. But because they’re “good Christians” they get a pass on coverage.
Wierdly, trans people tend not to commit this kind of crime. It's almost like being constantly scrutunized by insane fascists makes it nigh-impossible to get away with this shit. Meanwhile, being one of the scrutinizing fascists makes it easy.
Not surprising that it was Maricopa county
You mean to tell me the "family values" party is anything but family values? Stop! Who would have expected that?
Hasn't "family values" just been a euphemism for "hateful bigotry" for decades now?
im sure theres a joke in there somewhere but i just have to say that that picture of the man really makes him look like chris pratt
Unfortunately everyone involved assumed that taking children away from their impoverished mothers was doing them a favor.
I hate to say it, but yes, those children probably are doing 10x better in USA than in their country.
I think they were just interested in making money tbh
Ok I have to ask, you on the balcony... is that Greece?
Yes, our next season is in Crete.
@@RareEarthSeriesin 1911 Saki observed, “The people of Crete unfortunately make more history than they can consume locally.”
@@RareEarthSeriesI’d ask if you were gonna do a video on the palaces in Knossos, but I’m sure you’re way ahead of me on that one
I love your program.
Always enlightening. Sad, but enlightening.
I like your channel so much that I have decided to adopt you
Great video man 👏👏
Why do the video clips of Petersen look like dramatic reenactments in some low budget infomercial. He certainly has some creepy mojo.
Growing up with plenty of family money and no attachment to your family or land is going to end is so much more mental illness than growing up dirt poor around those you know, love, and see your self in.
Hardwarecanucks really got caught slacking
That is not something I expected you talking about but by now this is your MO so I shouldn't be surprised 😂
This isn’t just a child being affected. It’s a foreign woman (maybe even a full family) are unknowingly losing a family member. This is an American family being torn apart because they don’t like the idea of their child being stolen from someone else. Most importantly, this is a child who most likely will never know their true mother, even though their mother greaves over the loss of them every day.
I don’t know a solution. Closest I can find is the American family being in full contact with their foreign family, and a mutual agreement between the families is met. But then you have the children… who might be getting pried away from their “parents” in order to talk to a family that looks like them, but doesn’t see them as family.
This is a mess, and there is no easy solution. There are plenty of hearts to be crushed. That’s what this man did. Sick isn’t strong enough to describe him. I truly think society would be better off without him. But death would be too easy for him.
Wow, a different video from Evan & Kata, I am not going to say it was my favourite, but I think it is important that the story is told and Evan tells it well.
"Defender of children"
Every Republican accusation is a confession.
they are children.. or at least as smart as. Murican gene pool needs more bleach
I wish we'd stop calling them that and call them what they really are. They're not Republicans, they're Fascists.
and democrat now that theyre in power theyre the ones actively trafficking beaners like me. its almost like people that want you to put them in power cant be trusted
This is true for both sides
@@darksu6947 Except it really isn't.
Thx Evan
This is and always will be the very best account on youtube. If you ever need a cinematographer/drone pilot lmk, this is my dream job 🤙
That was the craziest twist of an LDS mission description I've ever heard....
@ThePurpleOne1 So true! The missionaries certainly aren't motivated by money. It's two years of hard work, far from home, friends, and family. They serve without pay. Their expenses are usually paid by themselves and their families. They do this a time when they could instead be going to college, starting a career, or getting married. They do it because they love God and they want to serve their fellow beings, not because of some supposed financial scheme.
Why would anyone want to adopt a child from the marshall islands of all places is beyond me
I was adopted, I couldn't watch because tears sting but I heard every word.
👏 well said. Definitely do your research on the agency you adopt from.
GoodMan🙏🤙 Actual Journalism, & Of Course, NOT the only one! How many years & Still Counting!? Amazing how this story didn’t make the: “HeadLines”, accordingly; I’m sure it’s just a coincidence🙄🤷🏻♂️ We are after all More Roman Than Rome & only Some, of the names, have changed…., Great Production’s, as Usual & Keep It Up, Please🙌😉🇦🇺👋
If anyone would like a deeper dive on the topic of Marshallese adoptions, I strongly recommend Honolulu Civil Beat's Offshore podcast, season 3: "The Blood Calls".
Love Rare Earth knowledge.
Wow. That's nuts, Evan.
Evan and Kata, Thank you, thank you, thank you! Much needed light shined on this horrendous form of trafficking that benefits very few of those involved except for the brokers, and those who help the brokers. I have seen open adoption work beautifully and horribly with great disaster, I've seen many closed adoptions turn out the same. It really does depend on the people involved, and nobody, especially Republicans, are ever going to develop a system of support for all of those involved including the children, especially the children, to help navigate and maintain adoption relationships for the betterment of all. I'm not gonna rant about bodily autonomy, right to life, yada yada yada, we all know what's been said and what people feel on all sides. But in the end it's about the kids and the adults they become and the impact that has not only on their lives but on the world itself. Selling children so callously and with such a determined eye on profit, is what capitalism is all about. It's true for any economic system that focuses on wealth over humanity. ❤
This is rare earth.
"Why do you like these videos?" Asks a friend. "Because they are like Bart's people" I replied (there was a back and forth about how a 40 year old American should get that reference 100% of the time). "Well this Petersen guy doesn't sound like one of Bart's people" .... "no he doesn't"
*in parts for culinary purposes..
"The worst business on earth is the sale of human beings" [...in parts for culinary purposes.]
🎵"Im the baby merchant tot are us"🎵
I think it was smart to take away the “Republican” part of the title, things are already too divided between parties that people don’t want to hear “their side” be wrong
I'm curious why you wrote this, as of this moment the title of the video is "The Republican Official Caught Selling Babies". I was wondering why you said "Republican" was taken away. I do find it a curious choice because he could have referred to him as a Mormon, which seems to have more bearing on his motivations, or just an American. Especially since our content creator is Canadian.
Not to worry, the Mormon church can provide redemption for the sin the indigenous peoples were tricked into. A religious society is born.
A really interesting read if you’re academically interested in one aspect of beliefs surrounding separation of birth mothers from the identity of children is the paper “The Racializing Womb: Surrogacy and Epigenetic Kinship” by Jaya Keaney
As a dark comedy joke, Sure! ACTUALLY doing it...TF?!?
Gotta be honest that clickbait absolutely worked on me. I entirely agree with the comment you hearted that with any other channel I'd click don't recommend channel but I trust you enough to watch it, but also after seeing that title I can't *not* click on the video now, I need to know what this is.
I wonder if his prison mates know why he's there. I believe he is back in court on appeal.
God that's dire. Good work though. Thanks for telling the story, Evan
Adoptee in my family, sometimes I dont even think about any of this cause it's hard to even view them as anything other than my family, but it's important work.
Thanks so much for doing this piece. I cant believe this is the first I've heard about it, but maybe it broke amidst pandemic chaos so I missed it, or I just blocked it out because it is so horrible. Regardless, Its one that we really need to revisit at the new dawn of the loss of women's rights. This story has serious elements of Handmaids Tale and I bet DT is going to pardon this megacreep.
Can someone explain to me why adopting in an open system would push people towards adopting children from abroad? I do not understand how taking in a child completely disconnected from its birth parents is a good thing.
Many times, true or not, adopted children come from parents or are perceived as coming from parents who have major drug addiction issues, violence in the home, or extreme poverty. People who are adopting usually wish to help the child, but speaking in generics tend not to wish to be straddled to the problems of the adult.
There are 3 layers to the US Adoption problem:
#1 -- Closed adoption was meant to eradicate undesirable races, such as native americans, to erase their identity, and dilute their bloodlines to the point they aren't entitled to government compensation. This extends to black folk too but by the time it went into play, the laws and situation had changed. This was in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and the laws from that legacy frequently remain. They cover it up in "helping the needy" but the gentle face of racism is still screaming the quiet part out loud under the surface. Australia said the quiet part out loud in their history, part of the same international scheme as the US and Germany & the Dutch in South Africa. Scary history that only looks dead on paper, but still lives unseen.
#2 -- Closed adoptions from organizations like, say Catholic Adoption Services, domestically sell babies. They recruit from at risk women, showering them with anti abortion rhetoric while also making them feel like subhuman trash, praising them for choosing adoption as the best thing they have ever done. In that sea of shame, they throw a lifeline. But as soon as that baby is out of her, they tell her she isn't a mother. She was never a mother. To forget about it, and never think of it again. And the state, which gets to funnel funds to these brokers, gets to up their numbers. Thus their legion of lobbyists continues the grift generation after generation. Until recently, no one dared question it. Now we dare.
#3 -- It costs you, as an adopted person in most states, specifically Arizona, 1300$ to unseal your sealed adoption records. Money that is paid to a small number of certified Private Investigators, who are given the sole authority to look at your sealed records. Not a lawyer, not a state official, a private investigator. You sign a contract with them, pay them, and if your parents are found and accept the PI's contact and allow you to visit, they keep your 1300$. Now in the age of Ancestry.com, this is a grift that is falling apart, and we can find our own parents. But for decades, this was the only way. And who benefits from those laws? Same people as control your Vital Records, which are also, funny enough, privatized. If you're looking for billions of dollars, that's not the scale of the corruption. Millions, yes. And to a very few people.
Those are the 3 main reasons why Sealed Adoptions exist on the record books. How they stay there, is that we are a small enough population of foster/adopt that no way we'd ever swing a vote, and they know it.
But, as the criminal oopses of the IVF industry -- where cohorts of 100+ children are born with the exact same genetic father -- in a generation or two our numbers of descendants will be in the millions. And the IVF + Sealed Adoption group will be HUGE. Then we can swing votes.
Some do seal because the parents were involved in crime and psychosis, make no doubt. But that purpose is a shinny, obvious, reasonable hand held high, distracting us from the underhanded behavior that we don't see.
The kind that traffics babies, both foreign and domestic.
And people wonder why I say I'm a misanthropic.
Humans were the victims as well as the abusers...
Yey it's been restored! 🎉🥳