The 2022 Midterms

[lizkat]

Maybe I should run. I wear as much Carhartt as Fetterman did.

You'd be an improvement over some of the other candidates AZ has put on offer (from either side of the aisle).

I know that's a low bar though, so no insult intended.

 

[Herdfan]

You'd be an improvement over some of the other candidates AZ has put on offer (from either side of the aisle).

I know that's a low bar though, so no insult intended.

I don't know. Out there I would probably have to switch to Ariat.

 

[lizkat]

Turning back to the midterms: they are over at last, but still pending the swearing-in ceremonies of the new Congress... and that may be a good thing, too, all things considered.

Who Is Rep.-Elect George Santos? His Résumé May Be Largely Fiction. (Published 2022)

Mr. Santos, a Republican from New York, says he’s the “embodiment of the American dream.” But he seems to have misrepresented a number of his career highlights.

www.nytimes.com

Wow. A Republican made up of whole cloth and even at that full of holes. Hardly anything checks out in reality versus the background, CV and claims of this Long Island GOP representative-elect.

That bombshell of a report dropped on Monday and should possibly have carried a subhead like "So don't fuck with NYT investigative journos" since it uncovered more holes than facts in his CV.

Maybe we need criteria stronger than being a citizen for at least 7 years, being at least 25 years old and living in the state from which elected. The rather loose additional requirement that the House "confirm" elected members before they are sworn in suddenly seems not only vague but careless.

It's possible Mr. Santos may face at least charges of wire fraud by time authorities look into possible lawbreaking. "What can he have been thinking?" is the least of the questions really. We live in an era where audacious disregard for norms, protocol, rules, law itself seems to be gaining steam, and that arrogance needs a smackdown for sure. Some Long Island voters in that district are already saying they wouldn't have voted for him if they'd known he lied about his education and employment, never mind now having questions about his wealth and claims regarding nonprofits and investments.

New York lawmaker calls on DOJ to open a 'conspiracy' investigation into 'complete fraud' George Santos

During an appearance on "CNN This Morning," incoming Democratic lawmaker and former Donald Trump House impeachment lawyer Dan Goldman claimed there is plenty of evidence to compel the Justice Department to open an investigation into the embattled Rep-elect. George Santos (R-NY).Following a...

www.rawstory.com

A clip from an embedded video:

As if that were not enough, Mr. Santos was one of three incoming freshmen Republican representatives who went to a NYC Young Republicans gala event earlier this month, a gathering that featured GOP fringe extremists and drew media attention because MTG was in attendance and ran her mouth about how if she and Steve Bannon had organized the 1/6 insurrection, "we would have won, not to mention it would have been armed."

A New York Gala Draws Incoming G.O.P. Lawmakers, and Extremists (Published 2022)

Organizations that track extremism have expressed concern about some of the attendees at a New York Young Republican Club event in Manhattan on Saturday.

www.nytimes.com

The leader of the Young Republican Club, Gavin Mario Wax, opened Saturday night’s event on Park Avenue in Manhattan by calling for “total war” on Republican enemies.

Attendees included Peter Brimelow, the founder of the anti-immigration website VDare, which publishes writings by white nationalists and which the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as a hate group. Also in attendance was Jack Posobiec, a far-right commentator known for promoting the PizzaGate conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton and Democratic elites were running a child sex-trafficking ring out of a Washington pizzeria.

And beyond Ms. Greene, guests of honor included three Republicans who took districts from Democrats in last month’s midterm elections: George Santos of Long Island; Cory Mills of Central Florida; and Mike Collins of the northern exurbs of Atlanta.

Interesting for part of Long Island to end up with a GOP Congressman whose resumé is full of holes and whose claimed attributes include being gay, a nonobservant Jew and a Roman Catholic, while now also apparently an aficionado of white nationalist gatherings. He has not commented on refutations of his additional claim that his grandparents fled the Holocaust when it appears that both were born in Brazil rather than emigrating there from Europe. A prior generation had Belgian roots. About 20% of the district he campaigned in is Jewish, so the murkiness of his claims regarding ancestry is not going over too well in that community. There's just enough plausibility in Santos' general assertions about the religiously oriented circumstances of his Brazilian ancestry to pass muster unless someone looks into the specifics.... which, of course, journalists for a number of media outlets have done.

Congressman-elect George Santos lied about grandparents fleeing anti-Jewish persecution during WWII

Genealogy records, Facebook posts and other online clues show that Congressman-elect George Santos' claims of Jewish heritage are false.

forward.com

 

[Herdfan]

Ok, now can we do Joe Biden?

You know, the tales about law school that forced him out of the 1987 Presidential race.

Or the tale about traveling to Afghanistan to pin a Silver Star on the Navy Captain for rescuing his comrade. Turns out it was an Army Specialist, a CMOH, the ceremony was at the WH and Obama was the one who awarded it.

I can keep going if you like....... Nah, I'll just let the NYT do it:

Biden, Storyteller in Chief, Spins Yarns That Often Unravel (Published 2022)

President Biden has been unable to break himself of the habit of embellishing narratives to weave a political identity.

www.nytimes.com

While this does not make what Santos did OK, it simply points out that people don't care when it is "their guy" is doing it.

 

[lizkat]

Ok, now can we do Joe Biden?

You know, the tales about law school that forced him out of the 1987 Presidential race.

Or the tale about traveling to Afghanistan to pin a Silver Star on the Navy Captain for rescuing his comrade. Turns out it was an Army Specialist, a CMOH, the ceremony was at the WH and Obama was the one who awarded it.

I can keep going if you like....... Nah, I'll just let the NYT do it:

Biden, Storyteller in Chief, Spins Yarns That Often Unravel (Published 2022)

President Biden has been unable to break himself of the habit of embellishing narratives to weave a political identity.

www.nytimes.com

While this does not make what Santos did OK, it simply points out that people don't care when it is "their guy" is doing it.

I'm not going to defend any pol's embellishment or omission and I don't care which party's pols do it, including Prez of the USA. It's not right and I don't even understand why they do it. Insecurity?

Santos appears to have got himself way out there past embellishment and into likely legal jeopardy, I can't fathom how or why he figured he could skate on so much pure fabrication, but way more to the point, how the hell did the Republican Party not turn up at least the "we have no record" gigs on his employment and education?

None of this makes any sense to me at all, nor would it if the guy were a Democrat either.

Santos is like someone who has stepped into a fake ID --the kind created in advance for intel agents-- only the agency forgot to connect any of the dots for at least a casual inspection?!

It's just bizarre. Or it's an example of how everyone assumes everything can be checked these days, so no one would be brazen enough to assume that no one will bother checking.

Ya gotta wonder how many lazy people in the party hierarchy aren't doing their jobs, right?

Heads should be rolling in New York's state GOP. Interesting that Nick Langworthy, the guy who has been the state chair, was running for a House seat this year himself, and won it. He had stepped in to run against a more extreme candidate during the primary, fearing that the other guy was extreme enough to flip the seat blue even in a "safe" red district.​

So maybe some stuff fell through the cracks of regular party work, with Santos being a prime example.

Surely Santos wasn't meant to be just a warm body they plugged into that ballot, the way a party might decide to put up a candidate for town supervisor who runs unopposed for long enough to become complacent. This is a competitive district in Long Island, and the GOP meant to win it (and did win it).

But how not vet their candidate at all? If Santos ends up stepping down then there will be a special election in that piece of Long Island, and it's perhaps less certain next time out the box that the R candidate could win it, thanks to Santos' shenanigans.

 

[SuperMatt]

Ok, now can we do Joe Biden?

You know, the tales about law school that forced him out of the 1987 Presidential race.

Or the tale about traveling to Afghanistan to pin a Silver Star on the Navy Captain for rescuing his comrade. Turns out it was an Army Specialist, a CMOH, the ceremony was at the WH and Obama was the one who awarded it.

I can keep going if you like....... Nah, I'll just let the NYT do it:

Biden, Storyteller in Chief, Spins Yarns That Often Unravel (Published 2022)

President Biden has been unable to break himself of the habit of embellishing narratives to weave a political identity.

www.nytimes.com

While this does not make what Santos did OK, it simply points out that people don't care when it is "their guy" is doing it.

Now do Trump.

 

[lizkat]

Now do Trump.

Don't even bother. Jack Smith and Merrick Garland gonna fix Trump's wagon.

I wouldn't even count out the District Attorney of Fulton County, Georgia. Trump was soliciting vote fraud by Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State. It's hard to get more illegal than that in an election case.

Remember that Kathy Bates line in Primary Colors? "The c***'s got tape." ​

In reality, in the Georgia case, the taped conversation was real and Brad Raffensperger can confirm it.

 

[lizkat]

More on Santos... (of course there is more).

Rep.-elect George Santos vows to respond next week to questions about holes in his bio

Santos has said he is an openly gay, self-made Republican whose Jewish grandparents fled the Holocaust. So far, no one has questioned the Republican part.

www.nydailynews.com

In the latest gap in his biography, Santos allegedly never mentioned that he was married to a woman and got divorced in 2019 just before he launched his political career, the Daily Beast reported Thursday.

Santos says he is now married to a man, but the Daily Beast could not find evidence of the union.

“[Santos] may have even lied about his sexuality,” tweeted Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), who is gay.

Santos has been particularly outspoken about his gay identity and has promoted himself as being uniquely qualified to defend Republican policies on LGBTQ issues, including Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law.

He once said that he hasn’t experienced anti-gay bigotry in the GOP in the past decade, a period during which he would have been mostly married to a woman, according to the Daily Beast.

“It’s sick and divisive that he would hold himself up as a gay leader while siding with the worst homophobes and using vile homophobic rhetoric,” Zimmerman said.

(Zimmerman was Santos' Democratic opponent in the midterm race for LI's third district.)

 

[ronntaylor]

More on Santos... (of course there is more).

When the Times first reported his avalanche of lies, my husband and I joked that maybe he's not even gay. It wouldn't surprise me if the marriage to the woman was one of convenience (AKA a financial transaction and/or for political imagery).

 

[lizkat]

When the Times first reported his avalanche of lies, my husband and I joked that maybe he's not even gay. It wouldn't surprise me if the marriage to the woman was one of convenience (AKA a financial transaction and/or for political imagery).

Such arrangements still do get made for whatever reasons. There are jokes running around now though about how times have changed, and that now some people seeking celebrity (or political office?) may falsely out themselves as gay in order to avoid fading into the wallpaper as prosaically heterosexual. But I don't think the people making such jokes have a clue about what it's like to come out as gay, "even" now.

Still, this aspect of wonderment about Santos is hardly the biggest issue for the NY03 voters. They voted for a guy who now comes off as sort of hatched out on the half shell without an actual past, and about whose recent finances very little is also known. I mean who and what is he really that he has all these fabricated bits of his life out there. And how the hell did he not get vetted? Turns out people don't really know squat about the guy behind the lies. He appears to have some money. Good thing. He's gonna need lawyers. He's saying he'll tell his story next week. Meanwhile the sand is shifting under his feet.

Congressman-elect George Santos responds after allegations he is a fraud

Embattled Congressman-elect George Santos has responded for the first time since allegations were made that his resume may be largely fiction.

www.fox5ny.com

He has claimed that he runs a family investment firm. On Tuesday, the firm changed its official mailing address with the Florida Secretary of State to a condo in Merritt Island.

 

[Alli]

Still, this aspect of wonderment about Santos is hardly the biggest issue for the NY03 voters. They voted for a guy who now comes off as sort of hatched out on the half shell without an actual past, and about whose recent finances very little is also known. I mean who and what is he really that he has all these fabricated bits of his life out there. And how the hell did he not get vetted? Turns out people don't really know squat about the guy behind the lies. He appears to have some money. Good thing. He's gonna need lawyers. He's saying he'll tell his story next week. Meanwhile the sand is shifting under his feet.

Maybe he’s…Jason Bourne?

 

[Herdfan]

Now do Trump.

Absolutely.

 

[Roller]

Ok, now can we do Joe Biden?

You know, the tales about law school that forced him out of the 1987 Presidential race.

Or the tale about traveling to Afghanistan to pin a Silver Star on the Navy Captain for rescuing his comrade. Turns out it was an Army Specialist, a CMOH, the ceremony was at the WH and Obama was the one who awarded it.

I can keep going if you like....... Nah, I'll just let the NYT do it:

Biden, Storyteller in Chief, Spins Yarns That Often Unravel (Published 2022)

President Biden has been unable to break himself of the habit of embellishing narratives to weave a political identity.

www.nytimes.com

While this does not make what Santos did OK, it simply points out that people don't care when it is "their guy" is doing it.

All politicians stretch the truth or fabricate outright at times. For that matter, I think everyone does it at some point, perhaps on the premise that a lie is preferable for various reasons. But degree and intent matter.

 

[Yoused]

When the Times first reported his avalanche of lies, my husband and I joked that maybe he's not even gay. It wouldn't surprise me if the marriage to the woman was one of convenience (AKA a financial transaction and/or for political imagery).

Sexuality is a complex thing. I personally believe that true monosexuals are an equal minority (there are no more genuine straights than genuine gays) and the bulk of people, probably at least two-thirds of us, have some degree of cross-inclination. The high prevalence of "straight" people is largely a cultural construct. I also believe that for that majority, there can be some fluidity to a person's inclinations.

If the guy is of the majority, his sexual preference may be governed by whom he finds himself attracted to, bonding to. If he is in a steady homosexual relationship, he will, by the social binarism that is imposed on us, call himself "gay" because that is how he is getting off. But it is very likely that he is not a true monosexual.

 

[Renzatic]

Maybe I should run. I wear as much Carhartt as Fetterman did.

I dunno if I'd vote for you, but you have my moral support.

 

[ronntaylor]

Turns out people don't really know squat about the guy behind the lies. He appears to have some money. Good thing. He's gonna need lawyers. He's saying he'll tell his story next week. Meanwhile the sand is shifting under his feet.

How did he come into money though? He's been evicted at least twice in the past 5/6 years. He still has an active GoFundMe campaign to help pay for his mother's funeral expenses from 2016. Someone is bankrolling him. Probably the folk behind the Ponzi scheme he recently worked for. Many of the workers moved to a new firm with questionable financing.

Again, it would have been nice had the Dems and the media (and even the GOP) had vetted this fool before the election. That race was compelling with him losing the previous contest after initially being declared the winner election night. And then for this year's contest, the winner would be an openly* gay man. I couldn't believe how little press and noise this contest generated.

I seriously doubt the GOP will make any noise about his lies and fraud. The best hope is that if he's committed some fraud that can lead to a conviction, it will give the Dems a chance to take back the seat. And it'll be interesting to see about the outstanding warrant/charge in Brazil.

* it remains to be seen if he's actually "gay" in some circles.

 

[lizkat]

How did he come into money though?

Who the heck knows. He had ( or somehow got) enough money to lend $700K to his campaign. So it goes back to whether he borrowed it from the company that he supposedly runs from Florida. The one that just filed a change of address with the Florida corporate registration agency. The one that doesn't have a website or a LinkedIn page or anything...

 

[Alli]

How did he come into money though? He's been evicted at least twice in the past 5/6 years. He still has an active GoFundMe campaign to help pay for his mother's funeral expenses from 2016. Someone is bankrolling him. Probably the folk behind the Ponzi scheme he recently worked for. Many of the workers moved to a new firm with questionable financing.

Same source as paid off all Kavanaugh’s debts.

 

[shadow puppet]

YASSSS!!!

 

[SuperMatt]

Absolutely.

Still waiting…