Today's GOP Husckster

It's not always a Republican. It just seems that way because it's always a fucking Republican.

Who Is Rep.-Elect George Santos? His Résumé May Be Largely Fiction.

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.

George Santos, whose election to Congress on Long Island last month helped Republicans clinch a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, built his candidacy on the notion that he was the “full embodiment of the American dream” and was running to safeguard it for others.

His campaign biography amplified his storybook journey: He is the son of Brazilian immigrants, and the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent. By his account, he catapulted himself from a New York City public college to become a “seasoned Wall Street financier and investor” with a family-owned real estate portfolio of 13 properties and an animal rescue charity that saved more than 2,500 dogs and cats.

But a New York Times review of public documents and court filings from the United States and Brazil, as well as various attempts to verify claims that Mr. Santos, 34, made on the campaign trail, calls into question key parts of the résumé that he sold to voters.

Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, the marquee Wall Street firms on Mr. Santos’s campaign biography, told The Times they had no record of his ever working there. Officials at Baruch College, which Mr. Santos has said he graduated from in 2010, could find no record of anyone matching his name and date of birth graduating that year.

There was also little evidence that his animal rescue group, Friends of Pets United, was, as Mr. Santos claimed, a tax-exempt organization: The Internal Revenue Service could locate no record of a registered charity with that name.

His financial disclosure forms suggest a life of some wealth. He lent his campaign more than $700,000 during the midterm election, has donated thousands of dollars to other candidates in the last two years and reported a $750,000 salary and over $1 million in dividends from his company, the Devolder Organization.

Yet the firm, which has no public website or LinkedIn page, is something of a mystery. On a campaign website, Mr. Santos once described Devolder as his “family’s firm” that managed $80 million in assets. On his congressional financial disclosure, he described it as a capital introduction consulting company, a type of boutique firm that serves as a liaison between investment funds and deep-pocketed investors. But Mr. Santos’s disclosures did not reveal any clients, an omission three election law experts said could be problematic if such clients exist.

And while Mr. Santos has described a family fortune in real estate, he has not disclosed, nor could The Times find, records of his properties.

Mr. Santos’s eight-point victory, in a district in northern Long Island and northeast Queens that previously favored Democrats, was considered a mild upset. He had lost decisively in the same district in 2020 to Tom Suozzi, then the Democratic incumbent, and had seemed to be too wedded to former President Donald J. Trump and his stances to flip his fortunes.

His appearance earlier this month at a gala in Manhattan attended by white nationalists and right-wing conspiracy theorists underscored his ties to Mr. Trump’s right-wing base.

At the same time, new revelations uncovered by The Times — including the omission of key information on Mr. Santos’s personal financial disclosures, and criminal charges for check fraud in Brazil — have the potential to create ethical and possibly legal challenges once he takes office.

Mr. Santos did not respond to repeated requests from The Times that he furnish either documents or a résumé with dates that would help to substantiate the claims he made on the campaign trail. He also declined to be interviewed, and neither his lawyer nor Big Dog Strategies, a Republican-oriented political consulting group that handles crisis management, responded to a detailed list of questions.

The lawyer, Joe Murray, said in a short statement that it was “no surprise that Congressman-elect Santos has enemies at The New York Times who are attempting to smear his good name with these defamatory allegations.”

Spotted Friendly Foot - Shot Same.

Right now, the only thing the Repubs think they have going for them (they're flacking the shit out of it anyway) is an economy that they portray as being the best ever and the reason you should all run out and vote for rich white people to get richer and even more purebred-white-bread.

So what does 45* do?

BBC News:

US President Donald Trump has accused French President Emmanuel Macron of "foolishness" over a digital services tax, and hinted that he would tax French wine in retaliation.

Mr Trump voiced his anger in a Tweet on Friday, in response to French plans to tax multinational firms like Google.

French authorities argue that the firms pay little or no corporate tax in countries where they are not based.

The Trump administration has said the tax unfairly targets US tech giants.

"France just put a digital tax on our great American technology companies. If anybody taxes them, it should be their home Country, the US," Mr Trump wrote on Twitter. 

"We will announce a substantial reciprocal action on Macron's foolishness shortly. I've always said American wine is better than French wine!"

Asked about the issue in the Oval Office later, Mr Trump, who is teetotal, said: "I've always liked American wines better than French wines. Even though I don't drink wine. I just like the way they look."

45*'s tariffs so far have cost us in the 100s of billions of dollars in trade, plus the nearly $30 billion he's throwing at American farmers to buy their continued support, plus the fact that the slowdown in international trade has created an additional drag on GDP growth, which was already slowing, and is set to come in at a rather anemic 2.1% for 2019 - on top of the fears that we tip into full blown recession by this time 2020.

All of which makes 45*'s "promise" of 3 or even 4% growth pretty much another great example of a guy trying to convince me the 1985 Yugo is a great car at a great price.

Because Trump always makes things worse for Trump (thanks, Bob Cesca).

Mr Oliver, If You Please

I'll keep asking the question - when do we start to get this level of quality reportage back in "the news"?

And also too - yes, there's an opinion embedded in this stuff.

• My opinion is that facts matter.  
• My opinion is that those facts show Trump University to be a scam.
• My opinion is that those two things add up to: Donald Trump is a lyin' sack of shit.

3500 lawsuits in about 30 years time?  Makes me wonder what his real bidness might be.

This Just In

Ol' Doc Maddow is reporting on some new polling numbers from Public Policy Polling.

To wit: Donald Trump is less popular than Lice, Traffic Jams, Used Car Salesmen, Hipsters, DMV, Jury Duty, Nickelback and Root Canals.

The good news is that Trump beats Cockroaches and Hemorrhoids...

...unless you're talking just to women:

 

Seriously?  He loses to Nickelback!?!  That guy's fucked.

John Oliver

" ... written in gold Sharpie, which is so quintessentially Trump: something that gives the passing appearance of wealth, but is actually just a cheap tool."

Today In GlennBeck-istan

Christian holocaust.  The delusions of persecution just get deeper and deeper, right along with the phat stacks of spending green in Glenn Beck's bank accounts.

hat tip = Little Green Footballs

Bye, Felicia

Huckabee loves to whine about how Repubs are losing their "moral edge", and so he throws the usual fits and tantrums, but he's not about to give up his power.  He intends to do what losers always do - he's going to go sulk.  I'm pretty sure he has a decent enough organization in place by now - mailing lists and phone bank volunteers and operatives and ad makers et al - that he'll never want for money, and that he'll be a thorn in everybody's side for as long as he cares to draw breath.  That's how it works.  Money & Power - once you've got one, you can get the other.

And always remember that these guys want lotsa things, but the only reason "democracy" is  on the list is because it sounds good to the rubes who're constantly being duped into voting against it.

hat tip = Crooks and Liars

Small Wonder

I really don't get a lot of what Rush Limbaugh has to say.  And I'd like to think it's mostly because I'm just not that dumb.  But sometimes, it's even harder than usual for me to understand, unless I stop and remind myself that it's a show.  Like most of the wingnut junk out there, it's just a show.  The fact that millions of rubes gobble it up and then make voting decisions based on this bullshit is a disaster worthy of George Carlin's fondest imaginings, but that's a different puddle of puke waiting for us at a different subway station.

Today's wonderment is:  Limbaugh is always on some kind of rant about Political Correctness, but if he's so dead set against it, then why does he so often use the terminologies of Political Correctness?  In this clip, he even goes so far as to manufacture a phrase like "British African-Americans".

The guy is an obvious phony, but when I remember that he's been at it for 25 years - and that he's amassed a personal fortune of $400M doing it - I have to stand in awe of that level of hucksterism.

hat tip = Mock Paper Scissors

The Invisible Hand

..is invisible because it's another mystical fabrication of "capitalists" who aren't interested in doing any more work than it takes to sell us the illusion of a useful product instead of creating something of real value.

There's no such thing as Alternative Medicine.  Anything that's been studied and tested and peer-reviewed and proven beyond the 95% Certainty Threshold is called Medicine - because that's what it is.  Everything else comes under the general heading of Quackery. However, there are new things that come along all the time, and some of them could lead to (or actually be) the next great discovery.  So the point is - as always - to be skeptical and to demand evidence.

By the 1920s, a huge fad had grown up around Radium (eg), which was being touted as a miracle substance - "liquid sunshine" is how some companies described it.  They sold people on drinking water that had been infused with radon gas, and never mind that a good buncha these suckers died of various cancers and leukemia - Marie Curie died in 1934 of aplastic anemia believed to have been contracted from her long-term exposure to radiation - and her original lab notes are still too radioactive to be handled safely.

Science finds something interesting, and almost immediately, the sharpsters gather to figure out how to use this new stuff to separate the marks from their paychecks.

Commerce must be regulated.  We have to be careful not to let regulation be used as a political weapon to gain an unfair advantage just to beat down competition, but every time we've allowed "the free market" to run wild, we've paid a heavy price.  A little of that good ol' American Common Sense is in order here.

It's Not Harmless

Check this one out:

Below are the topics in which we have found stories of harm. We encourage you to explore the stories within, especially any topic that is part of your own life or the lives of your loved ones.

Medical Acupuncture Alphabiotics Alternative dentistry Alternative medicine Applied kinesiology Autism denial Ayurvedic medicine Chelation therapy Chiropractic Colloidal silver Colon cleansing Cranio-sacral therapy Cupping Detoxification Ear candling Energy medicine Escharotics Folk remedies Herbal remedies HIV/AIDS denial Holistic medicine Home childbirth Homeopathy Iridology Naturopathy Osteopathy Ozone therapy Psychic surgery Vaccine denial Vitamin megadoses

Supernatural & Paranormal Astral projection Curses Exorcisms Faith healing Ghosts Magick Psychics Vampires Voodoo Witchcraft Religion Breatharianism Christian Science Cults Jehovah's Witnesses Religious fundamentalism Scientology Transcendental Meditation Fears Apocalypse fear Metal toxicity fear Satanic ritual abuse Terrorism fear

Pseudo-Science Astrology Attachment therapy Dowsing Dream interpretation Evolution denial Expert witnesses Facilitated communication Feng shui Hypnosis Numerology Reparative therapy Repressed memory therapy Misinformation GPS navigation systems Internet misinformation Miscellaneous Child vegetarianism Conspiracy theories Holocaust denial IRS denial Moon landing denial Multi-level marketing Nigerian emails Rituals UFOs

The Opposites Game

Using the same tactics you criticize your opposition for using.

Let's call this one The Alinsky Gambit.  The following is a list of Power Tactics that Saul Alinsky put together in his 1971 book, Rules For Radicals - A Pragmatic Guide For Realistic Radicals.  See if you can spot the ones being employed by your favorite "conservative" organization.

Always remember the first rule of power tactics: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

The second rule is: Never go outside the experience of your people. When an action is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear, and retreat.

The third rule is: Wherever possible go outside the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.

The fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.

The fourth rule carries within it the fifth rule: Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.

The sixth rule is: A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. If your people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.

The seventh rule: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. Man can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time, after which it becomes a ritualistic commitment, like going to church on Sunday mornings.

The eighth rule: Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.

The ninth rule: The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

The tenth rule: The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.

The eleventh rule is: If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative.

The twelfth rule: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. You cannot risk being trapped by the enemy in his sudden agreement with your demand and saying "You're right — we don't know what to do about this issue. Now you tell us."

The thirteenth rule: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

hat tip = Snopes

And yes, the Dems use the same tactics - but then the Dems aren't saying it's a bad thing for the other side to be doing it.  There's only one side doing that.

Along the same lines - "conservatives" bluster and harrumph about something like Rules For Radicals, but then turn around and mimic the thing they spend so much time and energy slagging.  Here're a coupla books on Amazon that I guess are intended to countervail Alinsky:

Today's Seer

I really do try not to be too dismissive of most people's heart-felt beliefs (yeah, I know - that one prob'ly seems pretty hard to swallow).  The problem is that when guys like Pat Robertson get to where they're guys like Pat Robertson, it just always seems like they goes right 'round the fuckin' bend.

Notice here - in 2011 - the guy makes predictions with some fairly hard dates attached - even tho' he issues the usual bullshit caveat about how it's risky to do exactly what he ends up doing.



Did you get it?  Right now, we're supposed to be completely broke; creditors banging on the doors of the treasury; unemployment way higher than it is; with strife and turmoil; and and and.

These people are phonies.  Stop giving them money you don't have for something that doesn't exist, and which you don't need in the first fuckin' place.

Hucksters And Pimps

Hucksters come in many guises.  Some are wearing diapers and onesies, and they're just trying to hustle you for one more cookie before bedtime.  Or they have a ring on their left hand, and they swear eternal love while plotting to throw you over.  But those aren't all that bad really.  Shit happens and ya deal.

The worst of the worst are dressed in the vestments of the clergy, or they have lapel pins in the shape of the American flag, or they're wearing Business Casual.  And all of 'em pimp the baloney of collapse and disaster and the end of the world as we know it; and "ONLY my special brand of salvation can help you, so give me lots of the money that I just told you is worthless so I can save you from the horrors I am constantly inventing in order to keep you fearful and therefore dependent on my guidance" blah blah blah.



The best part for me was when he finally launched into his pitch for Galt's Gulch.  Fucking classic.

Today In Faithiness

If Jesus was a live today, he'd probably have a lawyer and an agent and a publicist who'd all be working hard to keep hucksters like Sarah Palin from moochin' off his fame and his public image.

My hero, Charlie Pierce:

Will o'god, it's the week of St. Patrick's Day, is there no respite, no brief truce, no fragile ceasefire, in the War On Christmas?

Apparently not.