US Politics, May 2023: May 1 never happened

The Santos charges are out: seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. He's in custody. From the Times:

Broadly, George Santos has been charged in three schemes outlined in the indictment:

First, a fraudulent political contribution solicitation scheme, in which prosecutors say Santos and an unnamed Queens-based political consultant induced donors to give money to an LLC he controlled. He then used the money for personal expenses, including to buy designer goods and to pay off personal debts.

Second, an unemployment insurance fraud scheme: Prosecutors say that in June 2020, in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Santos applied for government assistance in New York, even though he was at the time employed by a Florida-based investment firm and drew an annual salary of $120,000.

And, finally, the indictment says Santos misled the House of Representatives about his financial condition. In May 2020 – during his first, unsuccessful campaign – he is accused of overstating one source of income while failing to disclose his investment firm salary. And in September 2022, when he ran a second time, Santos is accused of including a number of falsehoods in his financial disclosure form.

Perp walked too.

You know he loved it. No such thing as bad publicity etc

Seriously, though, how come these things sometimes go fast from investigation to charges or arrest, and sometimes they drag on for years?

They flipped someone fast.

Santos also doesn't have the wealth, status, and lawyers of certain ex-presidents, all of which helps to grind these things down to an excruciatingly slow pace

It’s a hell of a thing. The organization was independent or it wasn’t. The money was in your personal account or not. You were unemployed or not. You disclosed or you didn’t. It’s not rocket science. They have an accomplice, text messages, bank records … https://t.co/CsQMZKUDPI

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) May 10, 2023

always a good idea to run for office on the national level when committing federal crimes

-Donald Trump

I feel like the Santos story I haven't read enough about (but may have missed) is what his whole election says about the weaknesses of the system. Sure looks easy to just buy a congressional seat with a completely made-up candidate.

santos technically had an opponent, too, a DNC stooge who managed to pale in comparison to the charisma of george santos

It seems like yet another one of those honor system norms that always worked, but only when there was at least some sense of an honor system, and norms.

PBKR can correct me here, but I don't think they even bought many ads or did much campaigning.

It's probably easier to sneak one of these dudes in when the number of reps per media market is very high, especially with fewer local publications and limited tv markets. You have to be a real glad-handing grifter who's hitting the road and going to events in a state with four or fewer reps. In a state with twenty-six? Just find the right one and ride it out.

God only knows what would turn up if you did a fact check on 20 years of congress people.

that also reminds me of something i was reading recently about congressional apportionment, arguing that we need way more than 435 house reps. 435 reps was set in 1913, when the US had a much smaller population, so the number of constituents per house representative has gone way up. in 1793, each rep had 34,436 constituents, on average. in 1913, when the overall number of reps was set at 435, it was 210,000. now it's 761,000 constituents per rep.

it seems like a difficult problem to address, because doubling the number of reps means doubling the number of house rep races every 2 years and doubling the number of horrible assholes in congress

oops, xp mh - was typing that at the same time, but also thinking about number of reps

would head a PAC for z-tbc for Congress

as soon as I get his name right

thank u alfred. we should flood the zone with different spellings of candidate names, causing confusion and low voter morale from the very beginning

Didn't someone in one of the Illinois elections a year or two ago change their name to more or less that of their opponent?

You know what kind of feels nice about this Santos thing? Maybe it's just me, but for once it does not feel like a distraction from Trump. It feels like an accumulation, momentum.

actual consequences

^ that, it's refreshing to see tangible consequences, even if it is for the most blatant, obvious, low hanging shit.

Santos will go down for the sin of not being particularly useful to anyone with real power.

But what a walk-on cameo huh? Months of entertainment.

yeah it was fun to have him around. had this real Carter Page-like weirdo energy.

also lets not get ahead of ourselves here this guy may very well be arrested and still get to serve in Congress, obviously Republican leadership ain't gonna do shit about this

George was one of the holdouts in the gang led by Marge Greene who mugged Kevin McCarthy over the speakership. She'll be sorry to see him go.

it's too bad santos was born in the 20th century instead of the 19th. he would've been a legendary flim-flammer going from town to town selling miracle tonics and magic boxes

He still could be but they travel from podcast to podcast now.

Doc Santos’s Intramuscular Elk Semen Injections put the fire back in your loins.

hard to call him a 'disgraced former congressman' when he feels absolutely no shame for his chicanery

He's felt like a disgraced former congressman from the very start.

yikes

“Hi everybody,” Feinstein says as she makes her return to the Senate pic.twitter.com/kH61KlzjVn

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) May 10, 2023

Just a reminder that Feinstein's ailment that kept her home away from the Capitol for 3 months was shingles.

Hospitalizations and Deaths

Approximately 1 to 4% of people who get shingles are hospitalized for complications. Older adults and people with weakened or suppressed immune system are more likely to be hospitalized. About 30% of people hospitalized for shingles have a weakened or suppressed immune system. Shingles causes fewer than 100 deaths annually. Almost all shingles deaths are in elderly or people with compromised immune system.

https://www.cdc.gov/shingles/surveillance.html

Even better (worse) one that looks like an Onion photo and caption:

Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) returns to the Capitol for the first time since February 16th as she was recovering from a case of shingles —> pic.twitter.com/lDtPiUhDh4

— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) May 10, 2023

Remember when McCain flew back with a brain tumor to save ObamaCare? This is nothing

She looks like the grandpa from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

(Is it ageist to make fun of an ancient senator whose physical and mental decline and refusal to step down has hampered the success of her barely majority party?)

Don't worry, his people put out a clarification

Asked if he believed white nationalists should be allowed to serve in the military, US Senator for Alabama Tommy Tuberville said, referring to the Biden administration: “They call them that. I call them Americans.” https://t.co/AkdbonrPyE

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) May 10, 2023

xp I obv don't want to make comments about an older woman's appearance, but those photos make it pretty clear why she was out for so long... in fact, shingles may be been the condition they decided to share, but perhaps not the only cause of her absence

shingles is brutal she's only 38

I hope someone fixes Tuberville, if a fix is possible. What a villain.

I'd shit more on Feinstein but the revelation of shingles is worth sympathy to me. I've had friends and relations totally, utterly immiserated and humbled by it. It is usually incredibly painful and horrible and enduring. One of them was just-- 'get shingrix IMMED NOW."

(i did)

yeah, I'm thinking I should look into a shingles vaccination, I've heard it's pretty awful

it looks like it affected one side of her face. it must have been incredibly painful

I got the 2-shot shingles vax and it was nothing, the needle jab was the only bad part.

my mum's husband is 70. he had shingles about 5 years ago. his eye still looks like that and he's extremely shaky five years later. it's awful stuff. can't imagine what it's like at her age.

CDC recommends vaccination for everyone over 50 and all adults with weakened immune systems (whether or not you know you had chickenpox).

I had shingles a couple of years ago all over my right hand and arm up to the elbow, and another patch on my right side and my back. Based on the descriptions I've read, it was a mild case, and it still fucking sucked.

So DeSantis's latest legislative fuckery is having the expected effect:

Florida fucked up. pic.twitter.com/tnEoAgVBeS

— The Infamous El Guapo (@InfamusElGuapo) May 9, 2023

I have a good friend that got shingles while she was I believe pregnant, she said it was the worst. This past Christmas my brother in law apparently was recovering from it, but we wouldn't have known had someone else not brought it up. There's a really good Conan O'Brien story about him getting shingles in his '20s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b015KoeUGvc