What does it take to make a city of 307,000 sign a “Sister City” agreement with you?

Dress up in fancy clothes, and be willing to do a cosplay performance. Look really “diverse,” too. That helps.

City of Newark, New Jersey admits it got scammed into becoming “sister cities” with a fake nation. @CBSNewYork https://t.co/QD0nmin7V5 pic.twitter.com/7NiizmUP5M

— Ali Bauman (@AliBaumanTV) March 9, 2023

We are governed by clowns.

We like to joke about Newark, but it is actually a pretty significant city. Across the river from New York City, it is the corporate home of Prudential, PSEG, Panasonic Corporation of North America, Audible.com, IDT Corporation, Manischewitz, and AeroFarms. Those are some pretty big names, and its proximity to New York City makes it one of the largest cities in the metropolitan region. It is also one of the cities with the most employment in New Jersey.

So the city fathers shouldn’t be complete dunces. But they are. Complete and utter dunces.

The city of Newark is admitting it got scammed.

It was about to become a Sister City with a Hindu nation, but there was one problem — the nation doesn’t exist.

As CBS2’s Ali Bauman reports, the city only found out about the fraud after it held an official ceremony for it.

What started off as a seemingly well-intentioned partnership has turned into a giant embarrassment for the city of Newark.

Earlier this year, Mayor Ras Baraka invited what he thought was the Hindu nation of Kailasa to Newark’s City Hall for a cultural trade agreement, but it turns out Kailasa is no nation at all; it’s a fake.

…

Though it has a detailed website, “Kailasa” has no real government. It’s the brainchild of Swami Nithyananda, a notorious scam artist and fugitive from India who has been on the run from rape charges since 2019.

Imagine the mayor, who on one day may be meeting with the president of Panasonic, Prudential, or IDT, sitting down with Swami Nithyananda to work out cultural exchange agreements.

And then hold a ceremony for the cameras to celebrate the agreement for all the citizens to applaud. How very culturally aware, how chic, how modern they are. A sister city with a whole Hindu nation! Likely the first in the nation to partner with Kailasa!

Oops. That was embarrassing. I wonder what the President of Prudential Insurance thinks.

As several citizens noted, there is this thing called “Google.” It is a newfangled tool that some people use to look things up. Things like whether Swami Nithyananda is related to some Nigerian king who has left you all his fortune. A rapist scam artist doesn’t make a very nice partner.

The Mayor and city council have jurisdiction over 307,000 citizens. And they can’t even look up whether a country exists.

We are governed by clowns.