How about that: George Santos, or Anthony Devolder, or George Santos-Devolder, or whatever he’s called himself lately, has been expelled from the House of Representatives after a months-long bi-partisan ethics investigation found that he told every lie and did every single thing he said he never did. The vote was 301 members, including 105 Republicans, in favor of getting rid of the bothersome little nit.
I’m going to miss his entertainment value. Ironic, isn’t it, that a two-bit GOP liar and thief gets booted out of Congress but a multi-million dollar liar and thief is the leader and likely presidential candidate of the GOP. Moral: steal big; lie big. No one likes a two-bit player.
How right you are. Santos did lie big, but his mistake was not using his dubious notoriety to amass power and instill fear, something he should have learned from his pal MTG. She's horrible, wholly unlikable, and dumb as a box of hair, but she managed to figure out that in her spineless party, it's not about being liked, it's about being feared. Santos was despised not for his lying and thieving, but because no one was afraid of him.
The GOP Reps who voted to expel Santos calculated that he'd become a liability to the party; I doubt it had anything to do with them considering him immoral, unethical, unfit to serve, or just plain crazy.
I'm insanely curious about how various GOP congresscritters worked out the checks and balances in what passes for their brains: Will Trump trash me on Anti-Truth Social? How will this play with the voters in my swing district? etc. I'll bet good money that not a one of them wondered What would Jesus do?
Agree. Rs/cons long ago entered into a Faustian Bargain.
Rs/cons always in all ways seek a pretext in order to avoid doing what's right. In the Santos matter, the pretext for 114 Rs was he wasn't convicted by a court. There is no such wording in the 2nd Constitution or in House Rules regarding expulsion. Not a single member of the media/press pointed that fact out. And for the most part cable pointed to the vote total rather than the actual breakdown which revealed a majority of R House members voted against expelling Santos including all of R leadership. Like to see how those 114 lined up with the R vote to decertify the 2020 Presidential election results.
I hope someone does the comparison on this! And of the 105 who voted to expel, how many are from swing districts where at least the appearance of integrity might be an asset?
Did any of them consider, even for a moment, the reputation of the House? Muwahahaha -- about as likely as Thomas, Alito, et al. considering the reputation of the Supreme Court.
I will admit I share two things with George Santos: I had Botox for a study about its effects on migraines years ago. (For me, nil.) And we're both fans of Hermès.
Re Mr. T. writing of Santos saying,
“Why would I want to stay here?” Santos told reporters after fighting for the last 11 months to keep his seat." I think a brief answer would be the funds to buy Botox treatments and Hermès treats. Also a paid for staff, perks afforded Congresspersons, and, well, a job.
My prediction is he will find a gig at a Drag Queen Story Hour.
If he decides to spill the beans on his GOP former colleagues, there may be interest elsewhere on the political spectrum. And/or in mainstream publishing -- though whether they'd categorize the result as current events, politics, or fantasy fiction is open to question.
Hey, there's a use to the Guardian opinion piece from the last week urging us to "abolish literary genres" after all!
It could be categorized as all of those and more, a kind of new literary movement knowing as "Kikisantosism," maybe, but someone probably can invent a better label.
"It's the thought that counts," George expended a helluva lot of effort becoming infamous.
I'll be thinking about labels . . . Meanwhile, I wonder how much effort George expended. What if he was just "doin' what comes naturally" (I'm old enough to have that song in my mental jukebox) and got to where he got because so many people were (and still are) willing to play along?
I'd bet he doesn't have a lot of beans to spill; this is NOT a guy who inspires confidence he can keep a secret. give him a year or two and he'll be getting those calls from Newsmax and OAN.
From your keyboard to the media gods' inbox! I don't think Santos inspires confidence, but he does inspire fascination. He interests me -- but stops well short of fascination -- because he takes the fairly well established trope of self-promotion to self-invention to self-reinvention and then some, and managed to con so many people. What he did wasn't exactly normal, but it was pushing the outer boundaries of normal. In recent years I've seen the outer boundaries of normal in some areas become almost mainstream in certain circles, so I'm interested.
Having had some experience with publishing and book people, I can tell you that a book by a known liar would be a poor bet. Vis, when lies *have* been discovered in books, an announcement is made, and any remaining books are pulped.
Santos might have a hard time finding a reasonably reputable publisher -- or he might not. Much depends on whether his notoriety endures now that he's out of Congress and (maybe) less in the public eye. Notoriety does sell. Since most of Santos's lies are about himself, and his reputation precedes him ("reader, beware"), I'm not sure the discovery of lies in any book he wrote would lead to pulping -- as long as he avoided libeling or causing harm to other people. A few years ago I copyedited a memoir in which the author, a well-known writer, not only made up incidents but invented a significant (and memorable) character. I was horrified by this, but learned that this wasn't too unusual in memoir. I'm still mildly horrified, and I keep that in mind when reading memoirs.
Fascinating that well known people would fudge a memoir! I mean, what is the point? As someone who unwittingly wrote three memoirs (two about family, one about my marriages) the idea of not being truthful is simply bizarre. Now I am curious as to how you knew the incidents were untrue, and one character was made up!
This particular memoir author acknowledged it in small print -- in an afterword or an acknowledgment, I can't remember. It was right there in print, and his publisher (a well-known mainstream U.S. publisher) was fine with it. I won't say it rocked my world but it came close. To me a memoir is an attempt to come to terms with one's past and integrate it with one's present. If one wants to make stuff up, it's fiction -- and autobiographical fiction is most definitely a thing.
I've been ready to move on from this unhealthy proliferation of memoirs for a few decades by now. as a genre, it tends to encourage too many varieties of literary laziness and prose with all the flavor of a communion wafer (which in turn has all the flavor of unsalted matzoh, which is to say, none).
I do like the conflation of communion wafers with unsalted matzoh with too many memoirs. ;-) I don't read all that many memoirs, and the ones I do read are almost always by people I was interested in before the book came out.
they don't need "reputable publishers." they now have this "publishing house" (run by that bigtime literary entrepreneur, Don Jr) that's been popping out those important memoirs by folks like MTG and (I'm pretty sure) Josh Hawley on those rare occasions he can tear himself away from that testicle tanning apparatus
I know. Regnery (which published Hawley's book) has been a right-wing shill for a long time. And there are others. IIRC, Simon & Schuster turned Hawley down in 2021.
One of their lower quality operatives, or maybe not. Just fill the halls with delusional boneheads and sit back and watch the fun as democracy devours itself without even noticing.
But it really seems people are starting to notice. Not the maga morons who couldn't spot a zit on their nose, but those in the avoidance middle who say "I'm not into politics".
Yeah, well you better get into politics if you don't want to wind up needing to show your papers to get in the grocery store. WTFU! (wake the fuck up) That's my new bumper sticker.
I know those neighborhoods pretty well, and I wouldn't bet on it. a lot of those Bayside scumbags are much too invested in thinking of themselves as North Shore Important People who, by some strange and terribly unfair fluke, have discovered they're living Queens.
...and they're out to get EVEN.
the actual North Shore people are, of course, ALREADY scumbags.
Wouldn’t bet on what? It was widely reported last January that George Santos received funding from Andrew Intrater, cousin to Victor Vekselberg, a sanctioned Russian who has ties to tRump.
"Santos"'s predecessor hopes to be reelected to the seat. Not likely the guv will appoint him to keep the seat warm till the election. (Disgraced ex-NY Governor Cuomo is so desperate for political power he's ssid to be willing to run for NYC mayor—typically, since I don't think that creature of Albany and the Hamptons has ever lived here.)
Thanks—I stand corrected, David. I thought Andrew was younger when Mario was elected than he actually was. Born Queens '57, grad Fordham (Bronx) '79. Didn't move to Albany till law school—graduated at 25ish in '82, the same year he managed Mario's first successful gubernatorial campaign, and he stuck around Albany after Mario took office in '83. Although his work since has been all over—D.C. and NYC as well as Albany—from '90 when he and Kerry married, I think he was based in Westchester County and northward till he moved from the governor's mansion to the Hamptons.
The facts for which Congress just ousted Santos have been largely in the public domain for many months. Since his expulsion was not a criminal matter, Congress could have expeditiously ousted Santos months ago. But they did not. Instead they dragged this piece dirty laundry back and forth before the public for many months and dirtied their own public image with him.. Congress scored an Own Goal.
I didn't get the whole story bv Republican ethics committee member David Joyce, thar he even ripped off colleagues who had donated to his campaign by recharging the credit card from initially $5000 to $20,000. Also, I believe he said he ripped off his mother to a lesser extent. Maybe Lucian can confirm if I have this accurately. But regardless, what is worrying is the members of Congress who voted not to expel him (114?). including the speaker who normally doesn't vote at all. He claimed not a good precedent with no actual conviction.
As one CNN correspondent, S.E. Cupp said, businesses fire people all the time for violating ethics standards, Being convicted first is not a factor, so why should the House of Representatives - the people's house, have lower standards.?
Yes that is true and has been reported. So once he was caught scamming an actual republican and his mommy, that was a bridge too far - for some, that is.
Creatures from the Black Lagoon, right there in congress for all to see and be disgusted by. Boebert and Majorie? Representatives? Really? Of what? Our most sewerish sludge? Talk about the bottom of the barrel. The system obviously needs some tweaking if it can't cull these misfits from the leadership herd before they start farting in public to all our disgust and detriment. Wake the fuck up people, please.
This is tragic news - before you join the snickering surrender to schadenfreude, let me explain!
A friend who would only speak off the record, has hacked documents she discovered on Santos staffer Vish Burra's laptop, and it casts a different light altogether on the truly heroic George Santos.
It turns out, the source insists, George Devolder "Kiki" Santos has been planning a huge Saturnalia celebration for all his new friends in Congress, complete with exotic dancing gigilos from his beloved district in Queens / Long Island, circus acrobats George personally trained to perform death-defying high wire stunts while reciting the Bill of Rights, talking alligators from his and Matt Gaetz's top secret Area 51 programs - savage beasts rendered docile by the Space Brothers and Sisters who crashed at Roswell, mind you, not cheap fake alligators confabulated via some hokey holographic laser show - and that's just the start.
But you and I will have to wait patiently now, until my friend is sure the threats on her life have been expeditiously dealt with by the FBI, who are in full possession of all the info, and she has promised I can post a safely redacted version on my forthcoming Substack newsletter.
So hang on, enjoy poor George's condign humiliation if you must, but remain open to new revelations that will clear his name - and put him solidly on the road to the United States Senate, maybe even the presidency.
Stranger things have happened, after all.
Here's one of my friend's favorite bands in a live concert from one of their South American tours, while you mull all of this over:
I did get a surprise when I looked and found that my insurrectionist oil-owned U.S. Rep Jack Bergman DID vote to oust the loon! I'd like to think that having TWO excellent, vocal Democratic opponents this year is putting real pressure on him. But I suppose Enbridge is just tired of idiots that get in the way of their work of big scale defrauding of The People.
Good riddance to this POS. He was an embarrassment to the institution and even more so to those who refused to give him the boot (or maybe their calculations make it seem worth getting bed with the devil). He should have been kicked out a year ago but we’ll take what we can get.
He's going to work at X as director of truthiness.
I’m going to miss his entertainment value. Ironic, isn’t it, that a two-bit GOP liar and thief gets booted out of Congress but a multi-million dollar liar and thief is the leader and likely presidential candidate of the GOP. Moral: steal big; lie big. No one likes a two-bit player.
How right you are. Santos did lie big, but his mistake was not using his dubious notoriety to amass power and instill fear, something he should have learned from his pal MTG. She's horrible, wholly unlikable, and dumb as a box of hair, but she managed to figure out that in her spineless party, it's not about being liked, it's about being feared. Santos was despised not for his lying and thieving, but because no one was afraid of him.
The GOP Reps who voted to expel Santos calculated that he'd become a liability to the party; I doubt it had anything to do with them considering him immoral, unethical, unfit to serve, or just plain crazy.
I'm insanely curious about how various GOP congresscritters worked out the checks and balances in what passes for their brains: Will Trump trash me on Anti-Truth Social? How will this play with the voters in my swing district? etc. I'll bet good money that not a one of them wondered What would Jesus do?
Crazy like a fox....
No. He's the real deal. Just plain crazy.
surely you don't mean Santos, Liz. he's crazy more like an armadillo.
"More Republicans, 114 of them, voted to keep him in office than were in favor of expelling him."
"More Republicans, 114 of them, voted to keep him in office than were in favor of expelling him."
"More Republicans, 114 of them, voted to keep him in office than were in favor of expelling him."
"More Republicans, 114 of them, voted to keep him in office than were in favor of expelling him."
They say the devil looks after his own....
Agree. Rs/cons long ago entered into a Faustian Bargain.
Rs/cons always in all ways seek a pretext in order to avoid doing what's right. In the Santos matter, the pretext for 114 Rs was he wasn't convicted by a court. There is no such wording in the 2nd Constitution or in House Rules regarding expulsion. Not a single member of the media/press pointed that fact out. And for the most part cable pointed to the vote total rather than the actual breakdown which revealed a majority of R House members voted against expelling Santos including all of R leadership. Like to see how those 114 lined up with the R vote to decertify the 2020 Presidential election results.
I hope someone does the comparison on this! And of the 105 who voted to expel, how many are from swing districts where at least the appearance of integrity might be an asset?
Did any of them consider, even for a moment, the reputation of the House? Muwahahaha -- about as likely as Thomas, Alito, et al. considering the reputation of the Supreme Court.
It was mentioned on MSNBC earlier tonight.
Now they can expel the 114.
touche
Just think about how scared they all were to feel they had no choice but to made that call. Rats running for cover.
I will admit I share two things with George Santos: I had Botox for a study about its effects on migraines years ago. (For me, nil.) And we're both fans of Hermès.
Re Mr. T. writing of Santos saying,
“Why would I want to stay here?” Santos told reporters after fighting for the last 11 months to keep his seat." I think a brief answer would be the funds to buy Botox treatments and Hermès treats. Also a paid for staff, perks afforded Congresspersons, and, well, a job.
My prediction is he will find a gig at a Drag Queen Story Hour.
I think he'll be snapped up by one of the extreme right-wing "news" sites.
If he decides to spill the beans on his GOP former colleagues, there may be interest elsewhere on the political spectrum. And/or in mainstream publishing -- though whether they'd categorize the result as current events, politics, or fantasy fiction is open to question.
Heheheheh! Yes, Georgie Porgie DID suggest that there's a lot of bad stuff going on that involves some of his good Christian colleagues.....
And the funny thing is that while I don't believe 99% of what he says, I do believe that!
Hey, there's a use to the Guardian opinion piece from the last week urging us to "abolish literary genres" after all!
It could be categorized as all of those and more, a kind of new literary movement knowing as "Kikisantosism," maybe, but someone probably can invent a better label.
"It's the thought that counts," George expended a helluva lot of effort becoming infamous.
I'll be thinking about labels . . . Meanwhile, I wonder how much effort George expended. What if he was just "doin' what comes naturally" (I'm old enough to have that song in my mental jukebox) and got to where he got because so many people were (and still are) willing to play along?
I'd bet he doesn't have a lot of beans to spill; this is NOT a guy who inspires confidence he can keep a secret. give him a year or two and he'll be getting those calls from Newsmax and OAN.
From your keyboard to the media gods' inbox! I don't think Santos inspires confidence, but he does inspire fascination. He interests me -- but stops well short of fascination -- because he takes the fairly well established trope of self-promotion to self-invention to self-reinvention and then some, and managed to con so many people. What he did wasn't exactly normal, but it was pushing the outer boundaries of normal. In recent years I've seen the outer boundaries of normal in some areas become almost mainstream in certain circles, so I'm interested.
Having had some experience with publishing and book people, I can tell you that a book by a known liar would be a poor bet. Vis, when lies *have* been discovered in books, an announcement is made, and any remaining books are pulped.
Santos might have a hard time finding a reasonably reputable publisher -- or he might not. Much depends on whether his notoriety endures now that he's out of Congress and (maybe) less in the public eye. Notoriety does sell. Since most of Santos's lies are about himself, and his reputation precedes him ("reader, beware"), I'm not sure the discovery of lies in any book he wrote would lead to pulping -- as long as he avoided libeling or causing harm to other people. A few years ago I copyedited a memoir in which the author, a well-known writer, not only made up incidents but invented a significant (and memorable) character. I was horrified by this, but learned that this wasn't too unusual in memoir. I'm still mildly horrified, and I keep that in mind when reading memoirs.
Fascinating that well known people would fudge a memoir! I mean, what is the point? As someone who unwittingly wrote three memoirs (two about family, one about my marriages) the idea of not being truthful is simply bizarre. Now I am curious as to how you knew the incidents were untrue, and one character was made up!
This particular memoir author acknowledged it in small print -- in an afterword or an acknowledgment, I can't remember. It was right there in print, and his publisher (a well-known mainstream U.S. publisher) was fine with it. I won't say it rocked my world but it came close. To me a memoir is an attempt to come to terms with one's past and integrate it with one's present. If one wants to make stuff up, it's fiction -- and autobiographical fiction is most definitely a thing.
I've been ready to move on from this unhealthy proliferation of memoirs for a few decades by now. as a genre, it tends to encourage too many varieties of literary laziness and prose with all the flavor of a communion wafer (which in turn has all the flavor of unsalted matzoh, which is to say, none).
I do like the conflation of communion wafers with unsalted matzoh with too many memoirs. ;-) I don't read all that many memoirs, and the ones I do read are almost always by people I was interested in before the book came out.
they don't need "reputable publishers." they now have this "publishing house" (run by that bigtime literary entrepreneur, Don Jr) that's been popping out those important memoirs by folks like MTG and (I'm pretty sure) Josh Hawley on those rare occasions he can tear himself away from that testicle tanning apparatus
I know. Regnery (which published Hawley's book) has been a right-wing shill for a long time. And there are others. IIRC, Simon & Schuster turned Hawley down in 2021.
Where he can sing the news while tap dancing ...
PeeWee's Playhouse?
At least this clown won’t receive a pension. Five years of service is the minimum required to be eligible.
I hope they strip Georgy Girl's vile role model of ANY benefits when SC Jack "the ripper" Smith gets done with that pos....
I was wondering about that! Good to hear.
Two in one week! Good riddance to both: Santos and Kissinger.
He was just another Republican Russian plant...I hope voters in that district were sufficiently embarrassed to learn a lesson.
One of their lower quality operatives, or maybe not. Just fill the halls with delusional boneheads and sit back and watch the fun as democracy devours itself without even noticing.
But it really seems people are starting to notice. Not the maga morons who couldn't spot a zit on their nose, but those in the avoidance middle who say "I'm not into politics".
Yeah, well you better get into politics if you don't want to wind up needing to show your papers to get in the grocery store. WTFU! (wake the fuck up) That's my new bumper sticker.
I know those neighborhoods pretty well, and I wouldn't bet on it. a lot of those Bayside scumbags are much too invested in thinking of themselves as North Shore Important People who, by some strange and terribly unfair fluke, have discovered they're living Queens.
...and they're out to get EVEN.
the actual North Shore people are, of course, ALREADY scumbags.
Wouldn’t bet on what? It was widely reported last January that George Santos received funding from Andrew Intrater, cousin to Victor Vekselberg, a sanctioned Russian who has ties to tRump.
Huzzah! And shame on that district for ever electing him in the first place.
He put one over on them. The shame belongs to the media and both parties that failed to vet him—an unknown. All voters knew was what "Santos" told them. Only one tiny paper smelled a rat, but the North Shore Leader's reward was indifference till it was too late. https://www.thedailybeast.com/my-local-newspaper-exposed-george-santos-while-national-media-napped?ref=home Voters were furious at "Santos" as the more influential media began exposing his deceit. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/small-local-paper-uncovered-and-reported-george-santos-scandal-before-november-election The district swings; "Santos"'s predecessor was a Dem. If voters replace "Santos" with another Republican *then* they'll deserve shaming.
The previous representative was an ambitious Democrat who hoped to garner the governor’s seat when Andrew Cuomo was booted out.
"Santos"'s predecessor hopes to be reelected to the seat. Not likely the guv will appoint him to keep the seat warm till the election. (Disgraced ex-NY Governor Cuomo is so desperate for political power he's ssid to be willing to run for NYC mayor—typically, since I don't think that creature of Albany and the Hamptons has ever lived here.)
didn't he grow up in Queens?
Thanks—I stand corrected, David. I thought Andrew was younger when Mario was elected than he actually was. Born Queens '57, grad Fordham (Bronx) '79. Didn't move to Albany till law school—graduated at 25ish in '82, the same year he managed Mario's first successful gubernatorial campaign, and he stuck around Albany after Mario took office in '83. Although his work since has been all over—D.C. and NYC as well as Albany—from '90 when he and Kerry married, I think he was based in Westchester County and northward till he moved from the governor's mansion to the Hamptons.
The facts for which Congress just ousted Santos have been largely in the public domain for many months. Since his expulsion was not a criminal matter, Congress could have expeditiously ousted Santos months ago. But they did not. Instead they dragged this piece dirty laundry back and forth before the public for many months and dirtied their own public image with him.. Congress scored an Own Goal.
But . .. but. . . He was funded by A RUSSIAN OLIGARCH. How is this not criminal?
I didn't get the whole story bv Republican ethics committee member David Joyce, thar he even ripped off colleagues who had donated to his campaign by recharging the credit card from initially $5000 to $20,000. Also, I believe he said he ripped off his mother to a lesser extent. Maybe Lucian can confirm if I have this accurately. But regardless, what is worrying is the members of Congress who voted not to expel him (114?). including the speaker who normally doesn't vote at all. He claimed not a good precedent with no actual conviction.
As one CNN correspondent, S.E. Cupp said, businesses fire people all the time for violating ethics standards, Being convicted first is not a factor, so why should the House of Representatives - the people's house, have lower standards.?
Yes that is true and has been reported. So once he was caught scamming an actual republican and his mommy, that was a bridge too far - for some, that is.
Just now read it Janice, I guess it was Rep. Max Miller and his mother who
were ripped off. https://news.yahoo.com/george-santos-accused-stealing-house-173131948.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall also about 20 others in congress/
Santos vote has ‘opened Pandora’s coffin’, according to Politico.
Omg...pandoras coffin. The best comment tonight....
Trump has truly brought the swamp into the willing Republican Party.
Creatures from the Black Lagoon, right there in congress for all to see and be disgusted by. Boebert and Majorie? Representatives? Really? Of what? Our most sewerish sludge? Talk about the bottom of the barrel. The system obviously needs some tweaking if it can't cull these misfits from the leadership herd before they start farting in public to all our disgust and detriment. Wake the fuck up people, please.
This is tragic news - before you join the snickering surrender to schadenfreude, let me explain!
A friend who would only speak off the record, has hacked documents she discovered on Santos staffer Vish Burra's laptop, and it casts a different light altogether on the truly heroic George Santos.
It turns out, the source insists, George Devolder "Kiki" Santos has been planning a huge Saturnalia celebration for all his new friends in Congress, complete with exotic dancing gigilos from his beloved district in Queens / Long Island, circus acrobats George personally trained to perform death-defying high wire stunts while reciting the Bill of Rights, talking alligators from his and Matt Gaetz's top secret Area 51 programs - savage beasts rendered docile by the Space Brothers and Sisters who crashed at Roswell, mind you, not cheap fake alligators confabulated via some hokey holographic laser show - and that's just the start.
But you and I will have to wait patiently now, until my friend is sure the threats on her life have been expeditiously dealt with by the FBI, who are in full possession of all the info, and she has promised I can post a safely redacted version on my forthcoming Substack newsletter.
So hang on, enjoy poor George's condign humiliation if you must, but remain open to new revelations that will clear his name - and put him solidly on the road to the United States Senate, maybe even the presidency.
Stranger things have happened, after all.
Here's one of my friend's favorite bands in a live concert from one of their South American tours, while you mull all of this over:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnZp43uEkKU
0:07 / 2:20:40
The Rolling Stones - Bridges To Buenos Aires ( Full Show )
Slash Jun 21, 2021
44,018 views Jun 21, 2021
Music
Finally. I’m going to look at who didn’t vote to oust this loon. Not that in expect to be surprised.
I did get a surprise when I looked and found that my insurrectionist oil-owned U.S. Rep Jack Bergman DID vote to oust the loon! I'd like to think that having TWO excellent, vocal Democratic opponents this year is putting real pressure on him. But I suppose Enbridge is just tired of idiots that get in the way of their work of big scale defrauding of The People.
I like thinking even he had a bottom.
Good riddance to this POS. He was an embarrassment to the institution and even more so to those who refused to give him the boot (or maybe their calculations make it seem worth getting bed with the devil). He should have been kicked out a year ago but we’ll take what we can get.