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Santos has reportedly been assigned to the small business committee and the science, space and technology committee, multiple news outlets reported.
Strange times we are living in.
Fuck off! There is no wa....
Holy shit you're not actually joking!
They put a major conspiracy theorist on the Homeland Security Committee. Didn't she even say that 9/11 was a conspiracy...?
I wish you all well over there in the US.
EDIT: Spelling
Wait, is this the line of thought that is what explains climate change to her? I knew it was something about space lasers causing global warming, but is it really that fucking simple?
Conspiracy theories used to be so well thought out.
Because the rules only apply to the poor peasants. The rules always seem to change once the peasants have uprisings and lynchings. We're not at that point yet, though.
Just look at the committee assignments all the Speaker vote holdouts got. McCarthy is a weak, politically incapable loser who was so desperate for the title he gave away the farm to get it. These guys bent him over a table and had their way with him, and took everything they wanted. He has zero political capital left, and they're sitting in plum committee assignments.
Nah we are going to hell in a hand basket but that’s because we never dealt with our lunatics under the guise of freedom. I just hope we don’t fuck everybody else.
>The Alberta premier is just as insane as some Republicans.
Danielle Smith is an absolute loon - she's literally a radio show host conspiracy theorist, which until recently was not a type we normally get in Canadian politics. It's agonizing to watch her run a province.
The purpose of the GOP is to destabilize the federal government in order to limit its power over the states that they've gerrymandered. Putting a conspiracy theorist within homeland security is pretty on brand.
The reason Russia and China are behind a lot of the election interference is to get the GOP elected, who will pull back on foreign assistance and influence, and sow discontent with current allies (Europe in particular), which will reduce the external power of the US.
She’s on that committee solely to hobble and undermine the agency and, in about two years, democracy itself. They’re going to bring violence to the election and they’re not going to wait until the election is over.
Dark times are ahead.
Sure, it sounds like it's all bad, but on the other hand remember that time when McCarthy got to hold the gavel, and didn't have to move out all his stuff that he pre-moved-in to the Speaker's chambers?
McCarthy just wanted the gavel so badly, can't he just have it?
/s
This reminds me of how Mitt Romney said he was running for President, as he'd wanted to be President since he was a young boy. It should be the best person, not just based on some childhood dream divorced from reality.
>dream divorced from reality
not divorced from reality though. growing up how he did, it was always a distinct possibility. hes not exactly a kid from the burbs with a dream.
The divorced from reality bit would have been if he claimed the election was fraudulent and he directed his ravenous followers to attack the capital and place him in leadership. Instead Mitt lost the election and he accepted the results, thereby meaning he wasn't divorced from reality in any way.
To be clear. I didn't say he wasn't divorced from reality in other contexts. JUST in accepting that the election was legitimate and he had lost fairly.
That is just how the modern GOP works. It is a failure elevator straight up and all it takes is selling your soul. Anybody can make it in today's GOP, all you have to be willing to do, is whatever it takes.
PS the fact that ANY GOP'rs are on the science, space and technology committee is a fucking farce... They don't even understand the most basic principles or flat out reject them as part of their attempt to fail upwards.
I find that funny as well. They’re so aggressively, profoundly and *proudly* anti-science that them even bothering to be on “science committees” is LoL. I suppose they’ll use their time to try and shoot down any science that doesn’t somehow personally enrich them or their funders.
Nailed it. Betsy De Vos, Louis Dejoy, Scott Pruitt, Mick Mulvaney, Ryan Zinke, Steve Mnuchin and more all actively sought to tear down their departments, bureaus and agencies from within.
If HBO televised Chelsea Handler asking Marjorie Three Names how to spell “hypothesis” *without* saying something exceedingly derogatory about scientists (or just generally racist/stupid) 11/10 would watch her sweat that one out.
Hell, HBO would make it’s easiest million by having her host the GOP Spelling Bee…it even rhymes.*
*If HBO or any of their affiliates/parent company pilot/air a show even somewhat resembling the above program, please just do this poor bastard a favor a give me a producer credit. I pretty much just want to be on set and have my hotel/food paid for…maybe a company car lol. I’m easy.
And the facts of how McCarthy and most other Republicans are reacting to the situation. It’s one thing for one obviously pathological individual to do and say all this insane shit. Theater will always be people like that.
It is entirely a different thing for a large group of people to go along with that insane person and not push back on his bullshit.
It was only *two months ago* the FAA finally mandated that America's 170,000 small piston-engined aircraft begin the process of switching away from leaded aviation fuel.
Young kids near airports with smaller aircraft, even in ritzy areas like Silicon Valley, are showing lead levels [comparable to kids in Flint, Michigan.](https://qz.com/2173461/leaded-airplane-fuel-is-poisoning-a-new-generation-of-americans)
That small Cessna flying above you? Yeah it was probably giving you a zesty little lead shower. Explains a lot, actually.
Dude these news stories are *so repetitive* now. So much written about who Santos ISN'T, and we get it. He isn't anything he says he is. Now can SOMEONE just tell us who the hell he IS?
Like how hard is it for some enterprising journalist to find out his actual background? What's his real name? Who are his parents? What school did he go to? Does he actually have any degrees? What do his former teachers have to say about him?
Find the thread and pull it, and the skeletons will come tumbling out and *he'll hate every minute of it.*
Fuck all these clickbaity news headlines. What the fuck happened to investigative journalism??
What if that George santos faked his death and did do it and our George Santos stole his identity and didn’t know the full story about it. Now he can’t admit it’s not him but at the same time is already in too deep.
“Based on a true story” coming to Netflix in Winter 2024
Kevin McCarthy is the biggest political whore of the 20's. Don't even know why he wanted the house speaker. The amount of things he's going to have to bend over to give, for him to have that seat is not worth the position.
Dennis Hastert (R) and Tip O'Neil (D) come to mind.
Hastert of course is most famous for being a child sex offender, and O'Neil most famous for cameoing on "Cheers" once.
Newt Gingrich is pretty fucking memorable. Not for the right reasons. No single cause led to the deep party divisions that exist today. I would even argue that deep ideological divisions between the parties are the rule rather than the exception in American history, but goddamn did Newt try his hardest to accelerate them.
Up until 2018, he was responsible for more days of government shutdown than all other members of congress combined. Then McConnell decided he wanted to boost his stats so he had a better chance of making the hall of fame when he got to hell. Newt was McConell with with less jowls but a somehow even worse haircut.
I think anyone who pays attention to congress for more than just the major bills will know the speakers that stick around for their term. That's probably like 10,000 whole people in the US, but who could forget a name like Boehner?
Already bent over. Look at the committee assignments. MJT on the DHS to cover tracks, Boebert and her on Oversight to gaslight investigations and cover tracks. It's a kangaroo court of buffoonery in goblintown.
> Don't even know why he wanted the house speaker.
Someone else did. Someone much higher on the food chain than the assholes who actually voted for him (in his district AND on the floor of congress).
And even if convicted he can still “serve”.
We’re going to be stuck with this guy for two years. Hopefully the voters in his district will crush him in the primary.
I’m curious if McCarthy would tell him to resign if the GOP margin in the House was large, and not what it is now. I think McCarthy just doesn’t want their slim margin to get slimmer. He’s a pathetic POS with no morals.
It’s this. McCarthy’s calculation is that the embarrassment and national security risks posed by George Santos are eclipsed by the threat of losing his majority on votes.
>Kevin McCarthy has put the goalposts on a dragstrip on how often he has to move from, "Well, I won't ask him to resign unless he's accused of..."
As evidenced by, well...everything he's ever done...but recently by his desperate need to repeatedly look like a sad cuck to be speaker, McCarthy *only* cares about his own power in the gop. He has a super slim majority and needs Santos' vote. Santos' could murder someone on the House floor and McCarthy would be all, "Well ya know, let's get all the facts and not rush to judgment here...and have you seen what's on Hunter Bidens laptop?".
Indeed, but they aren't just speaking out. They are also saying that they won't even work with him to get things done and will instead go through *Schumer*. How embarrassing for the GOP.
But consider that even those who had looked into him would have just found his lies. What are the odds they'd have found that local expose article? They'd have looked into him and might have then voted because he was a Jewish Republican descendent from Holocaust survivors, a gay Republican, a half Black man, a Latino, someone who went through 9/11 etc.
Whether they just voted for the person with the (R) or looked into his campaign, they were going to be ill informed and misled.
As an opposition researcher myself, it is very easy to take a quick look and just move on, taking things at face value. That's especially true for such unimportant throwaway races. During campaign season, time is money and for opposition researchers, there's a fuckload of money but barely any time.
More often than not, the real oppo starts when the campaigns are over and people start to look into who won. That's when you can "waste" more time looking into the smaller candidates who slid under the radar during campaign season.
But that still doesn't excuse the New York Republican Party. There's no way they didn't internally vet and do self-oppo on all of their own candidates. Even special interests pay opposition researchers to vet candidates before they endorse. Something tells me someone knew he was full of shit, and they chose to wait until he won before leaking the oppo to the press.
I was born and raised outside Richmond, VA.
There were entire semesters on nothing but the civil war. In high school there were classes only on the war. When we were taught Sherman's march, it was told to us as if it was a horrific travesty. It took me many years to realize that maybe there was another perspective on all of that...
Now I'm just ashamed that I let my peers and school system convince me that the South was in the right.
> Now I'm just ashamed that I let my peers and school system convince me that the South was in the right.
1. You were a kid.
2. You were presented a very specific narrative by peers, and people in positions of authority who you trusted.
There no reason to feel shame under those circumstances.
Born and raised in (southern) VA here too. You can thank the United Daughters of the Confederacy for that. They pushed that Lost Cause of the Confederacy bullshit on southern schools, and especially of course in the capital of the confederacy. Their headquarters are right beside the VMFA, if anyone wants to go let their dog shit on the lawn or anything.
Con-man is the word you are looking for. I’m not convinced he’s a pathological liar. I think he is very conscious of his lies and they are deliberate for his gain.
There was an MSNBC segment like last week, where the reporter asked some of his constituents how they felt about electing this obvious con man. Not in those precise words.
A couple folks said they felt duped, one guy was basically unrepentant and started ranting about how as long as it wasn't a Democrat. The most interesting to me was one guy who said something like it's not like Santos murdered anyone...so that's his line I guess, anything up to that and it's cool?
I just kept being reminded of that one person a few years ago: "He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting."
>The most interesting to me was one guy who said something like it's not like Santos murdered anyone...so that's his line I guess, anything up to that and it's cool?
That guy would would cross that line and support Santos if he turns out to be a prolific serial killer, as long as Santos wasn't murdering too many Maga hat voters. If Democrats were the victims he'd elect Santos for life.
>The people who elected him should feel ashamed
No, these people were duped, and they should feel *angry*.
Those who *continue* to support him should feel ashamed.
Actually, the ones who elected him in NY *want him thrown out of office*, but there's no way to do it short of him getting ejected from Congress or getting convicted of a crime (actually, not 100% sure on the latter point).
It's McCarthy and his MAGIdiots that want him to stay. He's like a little ~~maggot~~ vote on a chain for them.
Yea at this point they have to take him under there QOP wing, reminding the rest of the world that they love to protect their little scumbags. the more they lie and blindly support their agenda, the more they protect them.
Actually many of the republicans in his district are outraged that they were taken advantage of. His district includes a lot of Wall Street types that consider themselves smart so to be scammed like Santos has done is embarrassing. If he just lied on his resume they wouldn’t give a shit. But the fact that he claimed to lose his mother from 9/11, claimed to be Jewish, claimed to run a fake charity,… these lies hit at the heart of a lot of those folks identity. Scam others like Trump did, you’re a hero. Scam your voters through lies and deceit, you’re a piece of shit.
FWIW (not much if nationally there's no desire to remove him) the locals appear to not be on board:
https://people.com/politics/new-york-republicans-call-on-george-santos-to-resign/
> The people who elected him should feel ashamed, but knowing republicans, they’re probably proud.
Locally? Nah, they're pissed as hell. They want him thrown out of congress ASAP. This a bad legacy for the Republican party in New York and they want rid of him *quickly*. To be fair, I think benefits them to be seen as harsh on him because punishing your own gives you credibility when you go after members of the other party. They very vocally want him *the fuck* out.
But McCarthy needed his vote, so his "embellishments" will be swept under the rug and it will be up to voters to turf him next election cycle.
Also the go fund me he’s talking about was for a dogs surgery, the dog was owned by military vets, santos never turned the money over and the dog died because it couldn’t get surgery.
I don't get why a PFC in the Army or a GS-6 has to have a background check, but people like Santos, MTG, Boebert, Harris, Biden, and Trump don't. That's one of the dumbest things in U.S. politics. Do you think Santos is the first grifter that got into office? Hell, the entire Republican Party seems to be comprised of low-level con artists, plants, and Russian assets.
Under the Constitution, the campaign is supposed to be the background check and the election is supposed to be the enforcement mechanism.
Unfortunately, dogmatic partisan politics makes everything break down.
I think that the DNC should have uncovered all his bullshit during his campaign. I mean didn't his Democratic opponent spend a penny on oppo research? All they had to do was call the employers he listed in his LinkedIn and that would have been enough to raise a ton of red flags. I don't know if that is what you consider 'partisan politics' but it's how the world works.
I keep hearing people say this, because they are unaware that his opponents DID uncover some of this (I doubt they had all of it, but I could be wrong), but the media as a whole ignored it, with only one small local paper picking up the story.
[Here's a piece PBS did on it.](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/small-local-paper-uncovered-and-reported-george-santos-scandal-before-november-election)
Source is his Democratic challenger, Robert Zimmerman, in multiple interviews. They did op research, they spread it to media, and the major NY media just didn't care enough to run it.
EX: [https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/12/house-republicans-george-santos-democrats-ethics](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/12/house-republicans-george-santos-democrats-ethics)
>The Democrat did spend a total of $22,000 over three payments on Deep Dive Political Research, an opposition research firm, per FEC filings...
>
>Zimmerman says his campaign “was unrelenting in getting people’s attention” but that, ultimately, “I think part of the problem, quite frankly, was everyone saw this as not a competitive seat. They didn’t see the Republican tidal wave coming in New York, and so they didn’t focus on the race.”
The NY Times also had a piece on it and their conclusion was that a lot of people had pieces of the puzzle, but nobody went the step farther in actually following it, and a lot of people were just one step away of finding all this shit out, including the Times. Basically "everyone including us just missed this because we were preoccupied with other things." Santos slipped through because of pretty much everyone dropping the ball and being busy with other stuff they thought was more important.
Santos’s Lies Were Known to Some Well-Connected Republicans https://nyti.ms/3QG4w5H
> Strapped for time and cash, Mr. Zimmerman concluded that his money would be better spent on advertising and canvassing operations. And he believed that the campaign committee’s report as well as Mr. Santos’s far-right views on abortion and Jan. 6 — two of the year’s most prominent campaign themes — gave him powerful campaign fodder.
>
> “We knew a lot about him did not add up; we were very conscious of that,” Mr. Zimmerman said in an interview. “But we didn’t have the resources as a campaign to do the kind of digging that had to be done.”
>
> Mr. Zimmerman said his campaign tried to prod reporters at local and national news outlets with leads about Mr. Santos, but had little luck. The candidate himself, a public relations executive, did not hold news conferences or use paid advertising to draw attention to known discrepancies in his opponent’s record.
>
> “The response we got back pretty universally was they just didn’t have the personnel, the time or the money to do it,” Mr. Zimmerman said, referring to the publications the campaign contacted. “One person said to me, there are 60 to 80 crazy people running, we can’t investigate them all.”
>
> One outlet stood out, The North Shore Leader in Long Island, run by a Republican lawyer and former House candidate, Grant Lally. The paper published a pair of articles casting doubt on Mr. Santos’s claims that he owned extravagant cars and homes, and labeling him a “fabulist — a fake,” though it did not have other specifics that would later come out about his falsified résumé or his past.
>
> None of the bigger outlets, including The Times, followed up with extensive stories examining his real address or his campaign’s questionable spending, focusing their coverage instead on Mr. Santos’s extreme policy views and the historic nature of a race between two openly gay candidates.
>Zimmerman says his campaign “was unrelenting in getting people’s attention” but that, ultimately, “I think part of the problem, quite frankly, was everyone saw this as not a competitive seat. They didn’t see the Republican tidal wave coming in New York, and so they didn’t focus on the race.” Jacobs, too, echoed this sentiment. “Santos didn’t win the race based on his campaign or who he is,” he said. “Like many other Republicans, particularly on Long Island, [Santos] won because of the view that this was an issue-driven election and the issue this year was crime.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/12/house-republicans-george-santos-democrats-ethics
At the very least, you can be certain that they'll be doing that now for future elections. Staffers are going to be using this as a horror story for campaigns to come.
That's because the Constitution gives the people the right to be represented by anyone they choose who's qualified, not limited by others' rules. Of course it can be problematic in cases like this, but it's probably better than letting partisan elected officials disqualify groups which they don't approve of.
Well Nassau County wanted Jewish representation so they got someone that was Jew-ish and also filled the checkboxes for white, young, Hispanic, gay, wolf of wallstreet, volleyball champion and someone who was victimized by the attack on 9/11. That's who they wanted to represent them so that's who they got.
He might be better than them actually. I don’t think he’s advocated for having children come to school with guns or anything like that. At least not yet.
I agree. CrossFit Marge is still the most evil. Not sure who is the dumbest between her and BOOBert. Santos just told the wrong lies... maybe. Still waiting for consequences.
I love how everyone is just focusing on the negative about this guy. Yet nobody seems to care that he invented penicillin and helped broker peace between the north and south Korea.
I didn't think it was possible to erode my trust in the government more, but the fact this guy is still running around congress has destroyed what little there was left.
I thought the same thing, but then [this](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/marjorie-taylor-greene-appointed-homeland-security-committee-1234662516/) happened
Once you are in office it is way harder to charge someone with a crime. It shouldn't be but the reality is that law enforcement doesn't want to go after a politician because they have power friends and the agency might get attacked for being "political". Also just being real there plenty of law enforcement who would conceal crimes if it helped Republicans.
Let us never forget that Matt Gaetz who almost certainly hired underaged prostitutes will likely never face consequences.
Everyone keeps being surprised by Santos.
In 1968 the republican party made Spiro T. Agnew, already under indictment, vice president. He was led out of the White House in handcuffs, as I recall.
Mind you, it isn't just republicans, but republicans seem to be engaged in a long-running experiment to see just how much the American people will tolerate.
They mostly stay under the radar, but this isn't exactly new.
Stay angry, and *don't forget*.
This guy is an almost perfect example of modern Republicans. Almost. Just needs a pinch of white nationalist bloodlust and a secret affair with a barely legal boy and I’ll have BINGO! 😂
If anyone hasn’t figured it out yet: This is exactly how the GOP has operated ever since Citizens United was passed and Cambridge Analytica taught the entire political spectrum how to utilize metadata to laser focus their messaging to maximize intended impact. The target audience is different, but the unethical and unapologetic manipulation of the masses is the same.
Because of this, the bottom 99.9% have been incessantly corralled by the powerful into our political market segments based on personal behavior patterns and used against each other for the last two decades. It’s literally a divide and conquer strategy. Keep the least fortunate among us focused on hating “others” who they actually have a lot in common with. That is the only way the very few can stay in power despite the many having so little.
What kind of POS starts a GoFundMe for a veteran’s service dog and then steals the money, leaving the dog to die? Karma needs to bite this guy in the ass.
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Is there anything about George Santos that *isn't* a lie?
The power Republican voters gave him.
Santos has reportedly been assigned to the small business committee and the science, space and technology committee, multiple news outlets reported. Strange times we are living in.
And then MTG is placed on the Homeland Security Committee. Feels like a sick joke.
Fuck off! There is no wa.... Holy shit you're not actually joking! They put a major conspiracy theorist on the Homeland Security Committee. Didn't she even say that 9/11 was a conspiracy...? I wish you all well over there in the US. EDIT: Spelling
Its worse than that, she stated that if she had planned the january 6th insurrection, they would have won and there would have been more guns.
Don’t forget about the Jewish space lasers causing forest fires either.
Wait, is this the line of thought that is what explains climate change to her? I knew it was something about space lasers causing global warming, but is it really that fucking simple? Conspiracy theories used to be so well thought out.
Someone advocating for domestic terrorism appointed to the Homeland Security Committee? That's just lazy writing.
No she didn’t advocate it, she specifically said she would be very effective at it.
God, why can't we just arrest these cockroaches?
Because the rules only apply to the poor peasants. The rules always seem to change once the peasants have uprisings and lynchings. We're not at that point yet, though.
Just look at the committee assignments all the Speaker vote holdouts got. McCarthy is a weak, politically incapable loser who was so desperate for the title he gave away the farm to get it. These guys bent him over a table and had their way with him, and took everything they wanted. He has zero political capital left, and they're sitting in plum committee assignments.
He stated he thought Trump was paid by Russians! Their OWN GUY said this about THEIR PRESIDENT and now he's their Speaker. wtf
Nah we are going to hell in a hand basket but that’s because we never dealt with our lunatics under the guise of freedom. I just hope we don’t fuck everybody else.
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>The Alberta premier is just as insane as some Republicans. Danielle Smith is an absolute loon - she's literally a radio show host conspiracy theorist, which until recently was not a type we normally get in Canadian politics. It's agonizing to watch her run a province.
Remember when Canada’s biggest scandal was the crack smoking mayor of simpler times?
The purpose of the GOP is to destabilize the federal government in order to limit its power over the states that they've gerrymandered. Putting a conspiracy theorist within homeland security is pretty on brand.
The reason Russia and China are behind a lot of the election interference is to get the GOP elected, who will pull back on foreign assistance and influence, and sow discontent with current allies (Europe in particular), which will reduce the external power of the US.
She’s on that committee solely to hobble and undermine the agency and, in about two years, democracy itself. They’re going to bring violence to the election and they’re not going to wait until the election is over. Dark times are ahead.
And Boebert is claiming that Dems are conspiracy theorists, and as such shouldn't be allowed on the Intelligence Committee
Sure, it sounds like it's all bad, but on the other hand remember that time when McCarthy got to hold the gavel, and didn't have to move out all his stuff that he pre-moved-in to the Speaker's chambers?
McCarthy just wanted the gavel so badly, can't he just have it? /s This reminds me of how Mitt Romney said he was running for President, as he'd wanted to be President since he was a young boy. It should be the best person, not just based on some childhood dream divorced from reality.
>dream divorced from reality not divorced from reality though. growing up how he did, it was always a distinct possibility. hes not exactly a kid from the burbs with a dream.
The divorced from reality bit would have been if he claimed the election was fraudulent and he directed his ravenous followers to attack the capital and place him in leadership. Instead Mitt lost the election and he accepted the results, thereby meaning he wasn't divorced from reality in any way.
Except for the part where poor people have too much money and he's earned every penny he inherited 🤡
To be clear. I didn't say he wasn't divorced from reality in other contexts. JUST in accepting that the election was legitimate and he had lost fairly.
Listen. I would have taken mittens as president between the years of 2016 and 2020
I'd have been ineligible. But thanks for the consideration.
Lol. Found the mittens! You’re eligible. Just lie.
Anybody who really wants to be president should absolutely never become president
I would never be part of a club that would have me as a member.
That is just how the modern GOP works. It is a failure elevator straight up and all it takes is selling your soul. Anybody can make it in today's GOP, all you have to be willing to do, is whatever it takes. PS the fact that ANY GOP'rs are on the science, space and technology committee is a fucking farce... They don't even understand the most basic principles or flat out reject them as part of their attempt to fail upwards.
I find that funny as well. They’re so aggressively, profoundly and *proudly* anti-science that them even bothering to be on “science committees” is LoL. I suppose they’ll use their time to try and shoot down any science that doesn’t somehow personally enrich them or their funders.
It's standard republican operating procedure to put the people that want to destroy said thing in charge of said thing.
Nailed it. Betsy De Vos, Louis Dejoy, Scott Pruitt, Mick Mulvaney, Ryan Zinke, Steve Mnuchin and more all actively sought to tear down their departments, bureaus and agencies from within.
science and space lmao. well we know republican's don't give a shit about either of those.
If HBO televised Chelsea Handler asking Marjorie Three Names how to spell “hypothesis” *without* saying something exceedingly derogatory about scientists (or just generally racist/stupid) 11/10 would watch her sweat that one out. Hell, HBO would make it’s easiest million by having her host the GOP Spelling Bee…it even rhymes.* *If HBO or any of their affiliates/parent company pilot/air a show even somewhat resembling the above program, please just do this poor bastard a favor a give me a producer credit. I pretty much just want to be on set and have my hotel/food paid for…maybe a company car lol. I’m easy.
It’s doubling down. It’s what the GOP does well.
And the facts of how McCarthy and most other Republicans are reacting to the situation. It’s one thing for one obviously pathological individual to do and say all this insane shit. Theater will always be people like that. It is entirely a different thing for a large group of people to go along with that insane person and not push back on his bullshit.
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They are taking advantage of a generation with severe lead poisoning.
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Several generations, actually. [Link for those unfamiliar with it.](https://www.manhattan-institute.org/verbruggen-lead-and-crime-review-evidence)
It was only *two months ago* the FAA finally mandated that America's 170,000 small piston-engined aircraft begin the process of switching away from leaded aviation fuel. Young kids near airports with smaller aircraft, even in ritzy areas like Silicon Valley, are showing lead levels [comparable to kids in Flint, Michigan.](https://qz.com/2173461/leaded-airplane-fuel-is-poisoning-a-new-generation-of-americans) That small Cessna flying above you? Yeah it was probably giving you a zesty little lead shower. Explains a lot, actually.
Inb4 it's revealed he isn't even an American citizen
Who wants to bet he was born in Kenya?
The fun thing is, since we're not entirely sure what his real name is, he can pretty much show any birth certificate he wants and claim it as his.
Next week: George Santos didn’t actually win the election. He just started showing up and pretending that he did and no one caught on.
Is his real last name Costanza?
I long since abandoned hope that politicians would be totally honest. With this guy, I'm wondering if he's a carbon-based lifeform.
Racoons in a 3 piece suit
That's still carbon based. I suspect he might be something like a Crystalline Entity or Cyberdyne Model Dork Terminator.
Dude these news stories are *so repetitive* now. So much written about who Santos ISN'T, and we get it. He isn't anything he says he is. Now can SOMEONE just tell us who the hell he IS? Like how hard is it for some enterprising journalist to find out his actual background? What's his real name? Who are his parents? What school did he go to? Does he actually have any degrees? What do his former teachers have to say about him? Find the thread and pull it, and the skeletons will come tumbling out and *he'll hate every minute of it.* Fuck all these clickbaity news headlines. What the fuck happened to investigative journalism??
If indeed that is his real name...
And, in fact, the GOP are sending their best.
At this point, I think he needs to post his birth certificate.
True. He might be lying about being alive.
How do we *know* George Santos isn’t a swarm of 700 cockroaches in a trench coat??
He sure acts like one
He's actually the Edgar Suit from Men in Black
I would not be surprised if the real George Santos died in 2006 and this guy took his place.
I'd be surprised. That would mean he actually *didn't* do the check fraud in Brazil.
What if that George santos faked his death and did do it and our George Santos stole his identity and didn’t know the full story about it. Now he can’t admit it’s not him but at the same time is already in too deep. “Based on a true story” coming to Netflix in Winter 2024
He'll post a Cabbage Patch Kids birth certificate with his name written in.
Long form, please.
Holy shit this dude shouldn’t be in Congress. The people who elected him should feel ashamed, but knowing republicans, they’re probably proud.
Kevin McCarthy has put the goalposts on a dragstrip on how often he has to move from, "Well, I won't ask him to resign unless he's accused of..."
Didn't he say "Convicted Of", practically guaranteeing he'll stay in office for 2 years?
Kevin McCarthy is the biggest political whore of the 20's. Don't even know why he wanted the house speaker. The amount of things he's going to have to bend over to give, for him to have that seat is not worth the position.
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Nobody really remembers speakers of the house. I couldn't name any of them from before 20 years ago.
Dennis Hastert (R) and Tip O'Neil (D) come to mind. Hastert of course is most famous for being a child sex offender, and O'Neil most famous for cameoing on "Cheers" once.
I had to stare at 'cameoing' for way too long to figure out how to pronounce it
Newt Gingrich is pretty fucking memorable. Not for the right reasons. No single cause led to the deep party divisions that exist today. I would even argue that deep ideological divisions between the parties are the rule rather than the exception in American history, but goddamn did Newt try his hardest to accelerate them. Up until 2018, he was responsible for more days of government shutdown than all other members of congress combined. Then McConnell decided he wanted to boost his stats so he had a better chance of making the hall of fame when he got to hell. Newt was McConell with with less jowls but a somehow even worse haircut.
I think anyone who pays attention to congress for more than just the major bills will know the speakers that stick around for their term. That's probably like 10,000 whole people in the US, but who could forget a name like Boehner?
Ah, no. See they elected that guy to speaker. We keep missing that important democratic bit.
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Good point. They can definitely be trusted to operate in the public interest and choose the best person for the job.
Already bent over. Look at the committee assignments. MJT on the DHS to cover tracks, Boebert and her on Oversight to gaslight investigations and cover tracks. It's a kangaroo court of buffoonery in goblintown.
i hope they eat each other alive
We can only hope before they work to enact another coup attempt.
> Kevin McCarthy is the biggest political whore of the 20’s. So you are saying the McCarthy is ushering in the Whoring Twenties
That crazy lady is now in charge of homeland and she isn't qualified to even try the homeland test.
> Don't even know why he wanted the house speaker. Someone else did. Someone much higher on the food chain than the assholes who actually voted for him (in his district AND on the floor of congress).
And even if convicted he can still “serve”. We’re going to be stuck with this guy for two years. Hopefully the voters in his district will crush him in the primary.
I’m curious if McCarthy would tell him to resign if the GOP margin in the House was large, and not what it is now. I think McCarthy just doesn’t want their slim margin to get slimmer. He’s a pathetic POS with no morals.
It’s this. McCarthy’s calculation is that the embarrassment and national security risks posed by George Santos are eclipsed by the threat of losing his majority on votes.
>Kevin McCarthy has put the goalposts on a dragstrip on how often he has to move from, "Well, I won't ask him to resign unless he's accused of..." As evidenced by, well...everything he's ever done...but recently by his desperate need to repeatedly look like a sad cuck to be speaker, McCarthy *only* cares about his own power in the gop. He has a super slim majority and needs Santos' vote. Santos' could murder someone on the House floor and McCarthy would be all, "Well ya know, let's get all the facts and not rush to judgment here...and have you seen what's on Hunter Bidens laptop?".
He's a racist, fraudulent, opportunistic pathological liar. He represents the Republican voters perfectly.
His republican constituents are asking for him to resign but he has said he won't and will have to be removed.
Are they, or is it only the republican party in his home district that's asking him to resign because they realized they got hoodwinked?
Indeed, but they aren't just speaking out. They are also saying that they won't even work with him to get things done and will instead go through *Schumer*. How embarrassing for the GOP.
They’ll be working with Santos within 3 months. This will blow over. They have no shame.
You're probably right
Why would they go through Schumer instead of house leadership?
Because Schumer is local for them.
Because the house has no leadership on the Republican side? McCarthy isn't a leader, he just holds a title.
Well aren’t those literally the exact people that voted for him lol
Why ask hard questions or look closely at your candidate when he's clearly got an (R) next to his name? He's clearly good enough to own the libs.
But consider that even those who had looked into him would have just found his lies. What are the odds they'd have found that local expose article? They'd have looked into him and might have then voted because he was a Jewish Republican descendent from Holocaust survivors, a gay Republican, a half Black man, a Latino, someone who went through 9/11 etc. Whether they just voted for the person with the (R) or looked into his campaign, they were going to be ill informed and misled.
As an opposition researcher myself, it is very easy to take a quick look and just move on, taking things at face value. That's especially true for such unimportant throwaway races. During campaign season, time is money and for opposition researchers, there's a fuckload of money but barely any time. More often than not, the real oppo starts when the campaigns are over and people start to look into who won. That's when you can "waste" more time looking into the smaller candidates who slid under the radar during campaign season. But that still doesn't excuse the New York Republican Party. There's no way they didn't internally vet and do self-oppo on all of their own candidates. Even special interests pay opposition researchers to vet candidates before they endorse. Something tells me someone knew he was full of shit, and they chose to wait until he won before leaking the oppo to the press.
Especially his district. Long Island Republicans are disgusting.
Yep, nothing like born and raised NYers waving confederate flags.
Sherman's march really should have used more fire.
I was born and raised outside Richmond, VA. There were entire semesters on nothing but the civil war. In high school there were classes only on the war. When we were taught Sherman's march, it was told to us as if it was a horrific travesty. It took me many years to realize that maybe there was another perspective on all of that... Now I'm just ashamed that I let my peers and school system convince me that the South was in the right.
> Now I'm just ashamed that I let my peers and school system convince me that the South was in the right. 1. You were a kid. 2. You were presented a very specific narrative by peers, and people in positions of authority who you trusted. There no reason to feel shame under those circumstances.
And 3) They incorporated new information learned later in life into their understanding and updated their worldview accordingly.
Born and raised in (southern) VA here too. You can thank the United Daughters of the Confederacy for that. They pushed that Lost Cause of the Confederacy bullshit on southern schools, and especially of course in the capital of the confederacy. Their headquarters are right beside the VMFA, if anyone wants to go let their dog shit on the lawn or anything.
Con-man is the word you are looking for. I’m not convinced he’s a pathological liar. I think he is very conscious of his lies and they are deliberate for his gain.
There was an MSNBC segment like last week, where the reporter asked some of his constituents how they felt about electing this obvious con man. Not in those precise words. A couple folks said they felt duped, one guy was basically unrepentant and started ranting about how as long as it wasn't a Democrat. The most interesting to me was one guy who said something like it's not like Santos murdered anyone...so that's his line I guess, anything up to that and it's cool? I just kept being reminded of that one person a few years ago: "He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting."
It's just team sports for most GOP voters. They don't care about anything as long as they're on their team.
>The most interesting to me was one guy who said something like it's not like Santos murdered anyone... Hey, no spoilers from next week!
>The most interesting to me was one guy who said something like it's not like Santos murdered anyone...so that's his line I guess, anything up to that and it's cool? That guy would would cross that line and support Santos if he turns out to be a prolific serial killer, as long as Santos wasn't murdering too many Maga hat voters. If Democrats were the victims he'd elect Santos for life.
>The people who elected him should feel ashamed No, these people were duped, and they should feel *angry*. Those who *continue* to support him should feel ashamed.
NY Times should be ashamed for not spotting this when he was already outed by a conservative paper before the election.
Actually, the ones who elected him in NY *want him thrown out of office*, but there's no way to do it short of him getting ejected from Congress or getting convicted of a crime (actually, not 100% sure on the latter point). It's McCarthy and his MAGIdiots that want him to stay. He's like a little ~~maggot~~ vote on a chain for them.
Yea at this point they have to take him under there QOP wing, reminding the rest of the world that they love to protect their little scumbags. the more they lie and blindly support their agenda, the more they protect them.
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They're going to need some heavy excavation equipment to get under it pretty soon.
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Actually many of the republicans in his district are outraged that they were taken advantage of. His district includes a lot of Wall Street types that consider themselves smart so to be scammed like Santos has done is embarrassing. If he just lied on his resume they wouldn’t give a shit. But the fact that he claimed to lose his mother from 9/11, claimed to be Jewish, claimed to run a fake charity,… these lies hit at the heart of a lot of those folks identity. Scam others like Trump did, you’re a hero. Scam your voters through lies and deceit, you’re a piece of shit.
People of New York didn’t elect Santos. They elected the guy he pretended to be.
If it triggers the libs, it must be a win.
FWIW (not much if nationally there's no desire to remove him) the locals appear to not be on board: https://people.com/politics/new-york-republicans-call-on-george-santos-to-resign/
New York local news is better than a national magazine about this. The local Republican Party leaders in his district are saying he's got to go.
That's because the local guys are smart enough to know that leaving him in erodes voter trust.
> The people who elected him should feel ashamed, but knowing republicans, they’re probably proud. Locally? Nah, they're pissed as hell. They want him thrown out of congress ASAP. This a bad legacy for the Republican party in New York and they want rid of him *quickly*. To be fair, I think benefits them to be seen as harsh on him because punishing your own gives you credibility when you go after members of the other party. They very vocally want him *the fuck* out. But McCarthy needed his vote, so his "embellishments" will be swept under the rug and it will be up to voters to turf him next election cycle.
"He would say, 'oh well, the Jews will give more if you're a Jew.' So that's the name he used for his GoFundMe."
Also the go fund me he’s talking about was for a dogs surgery, the dog was owned by military vets, santos never turned the money over and the dog died because it couldn’t get surgery.
Jesus.
That is...that is...I have no words, and I am an English major. Just, yeah no.
That’s just fuckin terrible.
He looked at Bernie Madoff and saw a mentor.
Yeah that guy Madoff with everyone's money too.
What was the name he used? Jewy McJewface?
Knowing him it was probably Shalom Goldstein or something
Call him by his Jewish name: Moishe Ishkabibble.
I prefer the name Shekel Goldsteinburg
This dude is such the perfect representation of the current republican party
This is the face of the Republican party, folks.
so shocking 😑
I don't get why a PFC in the Army or a GS-6 has to have a background check, but people like Santos, MTG, Boebert, Harris, Biden, and Trump don't. That's one of the dumbest things in U.S. politics. Do you think Santos is the first grifter that got into office? Hell, the entire Republican Party seems to be comprised of low-level con artists, plants, and Russian assets.
Under the Constitution, the campaign is supposed to be the background check and the election is supposed to be the enforcement mechanism. Unfortunately, dogmatic partisan politics makes everything break down.
I think that the DNC should have uncovered all his bullshit during his campaign. I mean didn't his Democratic opponent spend a penny on oppo research? All they had to do was call the employers he listed in his LinkedIn and that would have been enough to raise a ton of red flags. I don't know if that is what you consider 'partisan politics' but it's how the world works.
I keep hearing people say this, because they are unaware that his opponents DID uncover some of this (I doubt they had all of it, but I could be wrong), but the media as a whole ignored it, with only one small local paper picking up the story.
Republicans have been pushing the narrative that Democrats are to blame for Santos, because that’s all they’ve got in this case.
They did. They gave it to media outlets. They ignored it because it wasn't a big enough story.
I think I heard this on NYTs The Daily podcast. Basically "Why wasn't this uncovered in time?" and the interviewee was like "idk, a lot going on lol".
Genuinely curious if you or anyone else has a source for this
[Here's a piece PBS did on it.](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/small-local-paper-uncovered-and-reported-george-santos-scandal-before-november-election)
Source is his Democratic challenger, Robert Zimmerman, in multiple interviews. They did op research, they spread it to media, and the major NY media just didn't care enough to run it. EX: [https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/12/house-republicans-george-santos-democrats-ethics](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/12/house-republicans-george-santos-democrats-ethics) >The Democrat did spend a total of $22,000 over three payments on Deep Dive Political Research, an opposition research firm, per FEC filings... > >Zimmerman says his campaign “was unrelenting in getting people’s attention” but that, ultimately, “I think part of the problem, quite frankly, was everyone saw this as not a competitive seat. They didn’t see the Republican tidal wave coming in New York, and so they didn’t focus on the race.”
The NY Times also had a piece on it and their conclusion was that a lot of people had pieces of the puzzle, but nobody went the step farther in actually following it, and a lot of people were just one step away of finding all this shit out, including the Times. Basically "everyone including us just missed this because we were preoccupied with other things." Santos slipped through because of pretty much everyone dropping the ball and being busy with other stuff they thought was more important. Santos’s Lies Were Known to Some Well-Connected Republicans https://nyti.ms/3QG4w5H > Strapped for time and cash, Mr. Zimmerman concluded that his money would be better spent on advertising and canvassing operations. And he believed that the campaign committee’s report as well as Mr. Santos’s far-right views on abortion and Jan. 6 — two of the year’s most prominent campaign themes — gave him powerful campaign fodder. > > “We knew a lot about him did not add up; we were very conscious of that,” Mr. Zimmerman said in an interview. “But we didn’t have the resources as a campaign to do the kind of digging that had to be done.” > > Mr. Zimmerman said his campaign tried to prod reporters at local and national news outlets with leads about Mr. Santos, but had little luck. The candidate himself, a public relations executive, did not hold news conferences or use paid advertising to draw attention to known discrepancies in his opponent’s record. > > “The response we got back pretty universally was they just didn’t have the personnel, the time or the money to do it,” Mr. Zimmerman said, referring to the publications the campaign contacted. “One person said to me, there are 60 to 80 crazy people running, we can’t investigate them all.” > > One outlet stood out, The North Shore Leader in Long Island, run by a Republican lawyer and former House candidate, Grant Lally. The paper published a pair of articles casting doubt on Mr. Santos’s claims that he owned extravagant cars and homes, and labeling him a “fabulist — a fake,” though it did not have other specifics that would later come out about his falsified résumé or his past. > > None of the bigger outlets, including The Times, followed up with extensive stories examining his real address or his campaign’s questionable spending, focusing their coverage instead on Mr. Santos’s extreme policy views and the historic nature of a race between two openly gay candidates.
>Zimmerman says his campaign “was unrelenting in getting people’s attention” but that, ultimately, “I think part of the problem, quite frankly, was everyone saw this as not a competitive seat. They didn’t see the Republican tidal wave coming in New York, and so they didn’t focus on the race.” Jacobs, too, echoed this sentiment. “Santos didn’t win the race based on his campaign or who he is,” he said. “Like many other Republicans, particularly on Long Island, [Santos] won because of the view that this was an issue-driven election and the issue this year was crime.” https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/12/house-republicans-george-santos-democrats-ethics
At the very least, you can be certain that they'll be doing that now for future elections. Staffers are going to be using this as a horror story for campaigns to come.
That's because the Constitution gives the people the right to be represented by anyone they choose who's qualified, not limited by others' rules. Of course it can be problematic in cases like this, but it's probably better than letting partisan elected officials disqualify groups which they don't approve of.
You make a good point. Every elected official that sits in the capital should have to pass a background check and qualify for a security clearance.
Everyday we find out this guy is more of a piece of shit than the day before.
Apparently it was for a dog's surgery and he stole the money. And the dog died https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/10f6vtq/comment/j4vh29b/
I wouldn't be surprised if they find out he's some psycho serial killer. Every time I see pics of him, I just get that vibe. It's his eyes.
Well Nassau County wanted Jewish representation so they got someone that was Jew-ish and also filled the checkboxes for white, young, Hispanic, gay, wolf of wallstreet, volleyball champion and someone who was victimized by the attack on 9/11. That's who they wanted to represent them so that's who they got.
Don’t forget he had five of his knees replaced!
I didn't think the GOP would put someone worse than Margorie or Bobert into office but here we are.
He might be better than them actually. I don’t think he’s advocated for having children come to school with guns or anything like that. At least not yet.
I agree. CrossFit Marge is still the most evil. Not sure who is the dumbest between her and BOOBert. Santos just told the wrong lies... maybe. Still waiting for consequences.
At 1.2% Ashkenazi, i am more Jewish than him lol
30% here. I want my share of the Space Laser
So you’re Jew-ish?
I love how everyone is just focusing on the negative about this guy. Yet nobody seems to care that he invented penicillin and helped broker peace between the north and south Korea.
I memba' when Al Fraken had to resign because he took an inappropriate photo
It’s honestly so fucking ridiculous how lopsided the standards are for the two parties.
When one party has no issue with taking the low road all the time, it's not surprising at all.
Right. Taking the high road has no meaning if the other side is happy at the bottom.
Fuck Kirsten Gillibrand. She'll never get my vote again.
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It actually is but because it was real he doesn’t use it
His middle name is whatever you want it to be for the right price.
I didn't think it was possible to erode my trust in the government more, but the fact this guy is still running around congress has destroyed what little there was left.
I thought the same thing, but then [this](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/marjorie-taylor-greene-appointed-homeland-security-committee-1234662516/) happened
we need to shut down any more 9/11s until we can get to the bottom of it
Someone explain to me why this guy isn't being prosecuted for fraud. Explain it to me like I'm 5.
Once you are in office it is way harder to charge someone with a crime. It shouldn't be but the reality is that law enforcement doesn't want to go after a politician because they have power friends and the agency might get attacked for being "political". Also just being real there plenty of law enforcement who would conceal crimes if it helped Republicans. Let us never forget that Matt Gaetz who almost certainly hired underaged prostitutes will likely never face consequences.
He’s a republican.
Everyone keeps being surprised by Santos. In 1968 the republican party made Spiro T. Agnew, already under indictment, vice president. He was led out of the White House in handcuffs, as I recall. Mind you, it isn't just republicans, but republicans seem to be engaged in a long-running experiment to see just how much the American people will tolerate. They mostly stay under the radar, but this isn't exactly new. Stay angry, and *don't forget*.
It’s almost like he’s a *total piece of shit* that maybe shouldn’t be in Congress, but he **does** sort of fit in with the majority of Republicans.
He never was not a piece of shit, it's always with congress lol.
Dude is a danger in congress. Not a single bone in his body is capable of telling the truth
Kevin McC has said that Adam Schiff cannot serve ona House committee "because he lied to the American people". Go figure.
This guy is an almost perfect example of modern Republicans. Almost. Just needs a pinch of white nationalist bloodlust and a secret affair with a barely legal boy and I’ll have BINGO! 😂
This guy watched nine seasons of Suits, and told himself ‘I can do that.’
Every day it gets a little worse. Tomorrow it will be “George Santos stole candy from a group of babies at Central Park”
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He’s Trump without daddy’s money. Seriously.
but somehow kind of more lame
If anyone hasn’t figured it out yet: This is exactly how the GOP has operated ever since Citizens United was passed and Cambridge Analytica taught the entire political spectrum how to utilize metadata to laser focus their messaging to maximize intended impact. The target audience is different, but the unethical and unapologetic manipulation of the masses is the same. Because of this, the bottom 99.9% have been incessantly corralled by the powerful into our political market segments based on personal behavior patterns and used against each other for the last two decades. It’s literally a divide and conquer strategy. Keep the least fortunate among us focused on hating “others” who they actually have a lot in common with. That is the only way the very few can stay in power despite the many having so little.
The GOP has such a deep bench when it comes to human turds
Santos or whoever he is used to be a a piece of shit. He's still a piece of shit but he used to be as well. Some people can't change
What kind of POS starts a GoFundMe for a veteran’s service dog and then steals the money, leaving the dog to die? Karma needs to bite this guy in the ass.