Remember yesterday when The Times published an exposé on incoming Long Island GOP House Rep. George Santos, which alleged that the congressman-elect lied about his education, job and charitable activities? (Gift link here.) Here’s his response via his attorney:
Can’t help but notice that while there’s lots of indignation about the timing of The Times story, there’s no denial of the central allegations it contained, which are that there’s no record of Santos attending the college he claims to have graduated from, the major financial institutions he says he worked for have never heard of him, and the IRS has no record of his charity. Also, the Churchill quote is fake.
As valued commenter Kay has suggested, when an organization scrapes the bottom of the barrel to add to its ranks, that lowers the standard, and people who are added subsequently will be low-quality hires. The Trump administration was a case study for that proposition.
It started off with substandard people who were willing to associate themselves with the Trumps, and when those officials fled the clown show, they were replaced by even worse individuals. I can’t think of a single appointment that was an improvement.
Now the Republican Party is demonstrating the truth of that axiom more broadly. They’ll just keep getting worse.
Open thread.
Dorothy A. Winsor
A prime candidate for McCarthy (or whoever) to appoint to the House Ethics Committee
japa21
Of course, as usual with the FTFNYT, too little too late.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@japa21: Not if their objective is to drop this when it could do the least possible damage to Republican electoral prospects.
Betty Cracker
@japa21: Barn door, horses, etc. Going forward, it might behoove state Dem Party officials to google opponents and shout it from the rooftops when they detect an obvious fraud like this guy. (I should add I have no idea whether NY Dems did that — maybe they did but no one in the media listened.)
lowtechcyclist
Given that practically everything else about him is a lie, I’d want proof that he’s gay, Latino, and a first-generation American before simply assuming that it’s so.
Edmund Dantes
It started off with substandard people who were willing to associate themselves with the Trumps,
^^^ this started and was well entrenched on the gop side long before Trump showed up.
Anyway
“Also, the Churchill quote is fake”.
Chef’s kiss, bwahahaha etc.
Lapassionara
@Betty Cracker: Someone interviewed the Dem who ran against him. He said his team knew most of this, but the press wanted to focus on crime.
Nora
The more indignant they are, the more guilty they are. Look at all that performative language, and nothing of substance, nothing actually talking to the charges in question.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Edmund Dantes: It started when their side maintaining power became more important than facts, logic, kindness, or any other virtuous trait.
Alce_e _ ardillo
@Betty Cracker: The NYS Dems are still suffering from a case of long Cuomo, and the treatment will be long and painful, and require replacing dozens of party officials who have stayed well past their sell-by date.
JPL
@Lapassionara: MSM at its finest.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: From the Guardian’s article on him:
Which to me, blaming the governor’s election for your loss just sounds like “we didn’t take him serious” sour grapes.
Qrop Non Sequitur
Only until the election was over. Then it lost its utility.
OzarkHillbilly
@Lapassionara: Blaming the press for the failures of your campaign is what losers do.
lowtechcyclist
@Qrop Non Sequitur:
Given that sticking it to people they dislike is their core agenda, kindness is right out.
Gin & Tonic
He is also in the pocket of russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg – VV’s cousin/bagman was his major donor.
Kay
The college lie is the most damning, IMO, because that’s really the grounding of his fake American Dream story, and, honestly, just about anyone can attend college. He could not even do that. The financial lies may get him into more troube because there will be a real question where his money came from if it was laundered thru a campaign. These people always founder on campaign finance – which is why Republicans want to eradicate all campaign finance rules and reporting.
LOW quality hire. Rock bottom.
NotMax
In case anyone’s curious, yes, still extreme winds and stormy. Nearly 30 hours of this mishegass now. Only flooding on the property – but no damage – is a lot of wind-driven rain seeping under the garage door. Not deep, but broad.
Lived here not quite 40 years and have never experienced a thunderstorm event on Maui with this much punch.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@OzarkHillbilly: Political campaigns don’t reach nearly as many people as the news. We know the media chooses to focus on Republican-friendly moral panics every second October like clockwork.
I’m at a loss for a solution. You have any ideas?
Scout211
Trump proved that when you run for office, there are no consequences when you lie about yourself and all of your background and qualifications (or lack thereof). If you have the party backing you (and big money supporting you) you can still be elected.
Candidate quality is so 1950s for the Republican Party.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of low-quality hires, Trump acolytes in Florida are attempting a grassroots “America First” takeover of county-level GOP organizations because they think DeSantis and the hard-right leadership of the wingnut-supermajority statehouse are too liberal. You can’t make this stuff up!
Jowriter
@Lapassionara: When my blood pressure is normal, I sometimes listen to the news in the car on my local NY radio station. The bleating about crime was non stop from the summer through the election and it was no joke that the media amplified every turnstile-jumping and mentally-ill perpetrator of mugging, hour after hour. The media was definitely focused on Zeldin’s “anti-crime” platform, ginning up fear among the normies. Our DINO NYC mayor continues to bullhorn blame-shifting to the unhoused and the poors. Our lazy media found a lede and stuck to it. Always Republican-friendly, the NYT led that pack.
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: Jeez — that’s a long time to have a storm parked over you! Stay safe!
MattF
It takes some serious effort to demonstrate that any particular individual is a liar. E.g., Santos, Musk, McCarthy, SBF, TFG, etc., and many others. Even though, in retrospect, it seems obvious.
JML
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t think you realize how much harder it can be to break through on a race that is considered small potatoes when there are other races that have already captured the media attention. I’ve been through some of those, and it drives the campaign crazy. No one cares about your ads, no one will write stories about your race (even when you package them up for them), no one will cover your events, no one pays attention to scandals about your opponent.
Even when you have the backing of the state party. Even when you have push from a national committee. One the ship has turned, it takes an epic amount to move it another direction. Could they have done better? Probably, there’s always something you didn’t think of or an avenue that you didn’t try. Maybe they could have gotten the governor to weigh in and try and turn the spotlight on. But it’s hard to break through.
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
Winners don’t need to. So what? If you think the MSM’s impact is trivial or easy to counter, kindly recall the last week and a half of the 2016 Presidential campaign.
OzarkHillbilly
@Qrop Non Sequitur: Yeah: Don’t depend on the media. It’s a campaign’s job to get their message out, depending on the media to do it for you is a losing strategy. Besides, if they aren’t spending all those campaign $$$ on exactly that, what are they spending it on? We know Santos spent $40,000 on Brooks Brothers shirts.
Alce_e _ ardillo
@Jowriter: No good can ever come from listening to the radio on the way to work. It’s either AM hate talk, 24hr Christmas dreck, or NPR both-sides from hell. Even satellite radio isn’t perfect, but it at least keeps me from crashing my car into a pylon.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: From what I’ve read it sounds like the information was out there and his opponent talked about it a lot, but Santos was a long shot to win so the papers didn’t think it was important to look into it – until he won. Plus, it’s not a “Biden district”, it was a newly-drawn district. I mean, you can talk and talk and talk about things but if the paper wants to focus on crime like the NY Times did they’ll just ignore what you’re saying in favor of their preferred narrative. I don’t know what you can do about that.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Alce_e _ ardillo: I recommend audio books from the library.
Kay
NY losing some seats didn’t surprise me that much- they are in the middle of that shitty political media market where they trumped up the giant crime wave and “cancel culture” panics along with a SINGULAR focus on inflation with zero reporting on record low unemployment.
What suprises me is how far Right they went. They just had a Republican event that was like a Nazi rally. In NY! They’re not even attempting to be moderates. They are as far Right as any House members from the south and probably further Right than midwestern members.
AnonPhenom
@Betty Cracker:
Going forward it might behoove NY Dems not to have someone in charge who’s asleep at the wheel.
You can’t fire all the players, so fire the manager.
Jay Jacobs has to go.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m seeing a principle but no solutions. Too many people in this country can’t name their Representative and the most contact most candidates get with voters is an ad, skippable on YouTube.
When you make those ads, you need to prioritize. If the D had spent all their time denouncing the R as a liar and still lost, we’d be complaining about not getting their own positive message out.
The media is negligent in its presumed mission of keeping the public informed. That’s a stone cold fact. Win or lose, I see no problem with politicians calling them on this as long as it’s done in good faith.
Jowriter
@AnonPhenom: Agreed. Jacobs is the Nassau County Dem. Committee Leader–the same county where this Santos fraud won–as well as the NYS Dem. Committee chair. He needs to find a different line of work. Comatose in the 2022 election at best. I am still furious at my local party. Maloney (Sean P. not Carolyn), who LOST a seat he’d held for five terms, has had the temerity to ask for donations since the election to clear his campaign debt. Grotesque display of unjustifiable ego. I’m still looking for evidence that the guy spent any real money or effort on his own campaign. NYS Dems need to up their game considerably.
OzarkHillbilly
Oh fer fuck’s sake, I didn’t say anything like that. What I am saying is that everybody loves to complain about the media and then they turn around and blame the media when we lose a race. It’s almost like nobody is listening to themselves.
Maybe, just maybe the media isn’t the problem, maybe it’s the way DEMs approach the media. (or not, as I know some DEMs the media just falls all over themselves for. Beto anyone?) I am not a political operative and don’t pretend to be, so I can’t really say what the solution is, but I can see that complaining about the media every campaign isn’t the solution. It’s a waste of time, and yes, when a campaign does it, it’s sour f’n grapes..
And oh yeah, way to oversimplify the 2016 election. A whole lot of shit went into the making of that clusterfuck.
Personally, I’m just sick to death of the whining. It is beyond tiresome.
Rant at the void folks, I’m outa here for the day.
Kay
Did not know the anti-woke Substack monolith actually endorsed GOP candidates now- they sure can pick ’em.
Hard hitting journalist Glenn Greenwald apparently didn’t do any research on his candidate.
Soprano2
OMG, I just checked Facebook and see that a friend of mine got married to a man who I know has beaten her in the past! She had a restraining order against him! I see all these people saying ‘Congratulations’ and I had to just completely skip it, because I cannot post what I’m thinking, which is “Kristen what the hell did you do?!!!” *sigh*…..I know all about the cycle abused people go through, but I thought she had gotten away from him for good.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Soprano2: Whoa. All I can say is I hope they don’t have children
Kay
@Jowriter:
Michigan Republicans are doing a post mortem to figure out what went wrong. NY Dems should do the same. This denial they seem to have settled on and the blaming is just not a recipe for success. It’s not the end of the world but obviously people didn’t do a good job. Those people need to admit that and if they won’t they should be gotten rid of.
BlueGuitarist
Last night, in the Jan 6 update thread:
111.
Bill Arnold
DECEMBER 19, 2022 AT 11:27 PM
@HumboldtBlue:
This 87 page oppo research report was done. It was largely ignored.
DCCC George Santos (NY-03) Research Report (PDF) (Last Updated July 2022, PDF)
boatboy_srq
@Qrop Non Sequitur: … so, with Nixon, then?
boatboy_srq
@Qrop Non Sequitur: … so, with Nixon, then?
tandem
@japa21:
That was my first reaction. My second was that it’s not just the FTFNYT. It was the Democratic candidate’s team, the local party, and all the media that had a chance to inquire: all of them didn’t do the diligence you would do on a prospective employee/employer.
Betty Cracker
@AnonPhenom: & @Jowriter: Sounds like a housecleaning is in order. I’ve never fully understood NY politics.
Alce_e _ ardillo
@AnonPhenom: Jay Jacobs is a stalking horse for Andrew Cuomo, who is still plotting a comeback. Cuomo has cronies up and down the line in the party and they have to be purged as well.
H.E.Wolf
One idea that seems to be effective is GOTV activity to turn out the Democratic vote.
Balloon Juice’s postcard-and-music parties for the GA runoff are a good example. Members of two separate postcard-writing groups collaborated on writing to Democratic voters, and also brought new writers into the fold. Non-writers made great playlists for every post. People could socialize if they wanted to. And like a cookie-baking party, it had a tangible outcome.
Doing a small, concrete, relevant task is often a mood-lifter. There was a notable absence of despairing commentary, because the writers were taking action.
For me at least, GOTV creates a sense of connection and solidarity between the GOTV-er and the person who votes. It reminds me that we’re all in this together. That, too, is part of the solution….
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Hilarious!
artem1s
Sounds like money laundering to me and a great place for sanctioned Oligarchs to hide their business dealings. Releasing this statement was incredibly stupid. The GOP will dump his ass in a hot minute when word comes out the FBI, NYAG or DOJ is looking into his company. They’ll claim he was a groomer, Dem, lib plant designed to make the party look bad.
catclub
@Betty Cracker:
America First, just straight out nazis, eh.
boatboy_srq
@lowtechcyclist: Given that practically everything from his office is a lie, I want proof that he exists first and foremost. After that we can get to SOGI, ethnicity and generations of citizenship.
I’m fully expecting some old, caucasian, straight guy to take his seat when that body convenes. And I’m expecting the FTFNYT to present that moment as some genius move from the GQP.
Soprano2
@Dorothy A. Winsor: OH, they already have a kid together. She had an order that he could only have supervised visitation! I have no idea what the hell happened here, the last time I saw her she was with someone else, but that was a few months ago. She used to be a bartender at our pub, then she quit to start her own restaurant with a partner. We are so proud of her success, but I feel so sad about this. I’m sure he’s said he’s “reformed” and it won’t ever happen again, that’s what they always say.
JMG
“Who Santos Is Not” was a great story. The story to come, and I’ll bet there are dozens of news operations working on it, “Who Santos Really Is” will be even greater.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@boatboy_srq: That seems about right. Honestly, I recently watched the Nixon/Kennedy debate and that was the first time I looked at a Republican Presidential candidate and thought “I could understand someone wanting to vote for this guy.”
I wouldn’t have voted for him, but I’d understand. I’m familiar with the groundwork he laid, though, that led to the long, long Republican descent into madness.
AnonPhenom
@JML:
Link please, specific to Santos. otherwise; assumes facts not in evidence.
Jowriter
@Kay: Yep. Simple solutions are usually the best. Self-examine, clean house, move on. Lot of ego involved in NY though–goes with the political territory here. The Cuomo aroma lingers, and while he was a great cheerleader when NY needed one, his over-inflated self-esteem is endemic in successful politicians here. Humble pie for Christmas, guys!
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: It’s awful to watch a friend make such a dangerous mistake. People delude themselves, and there’s usually not a damn thing we can do about it except be there to support them if/when they regain their senses.
different-church-lady
Now that Trump’s reality distortion field seems to be all smashed up, I doubt a statement like that is going to have much of an effect on anything.
Geminid
Kathy Hochul replaced Andrew Cuomo as the political leader of New York Democrats, and I believe she will be a good one going forward. She and New York Democrats deserve new leadership for their party apparatus. Mr. Jacobs needs to go, and I think that Ms. Hochul should choose his successor.
As to Mr. Santos, I see that this is his second run for Congress in the 3rd CD. Tom Suozzi beat him by 11 points in 2020.
Suozzi retired and Santos won this year by 8 points, in a redrawn district. It was somewhat more Republican but still had a PVI (partisan voting index) of Dem +3 (I think).
Wikipedia tells me that the 3rd is the most affluent of New Yorks Congressional districts, with a median income of $130,000. It’s 69% white, ~14.5% asian, 10.5% Latino, and a little over 3% Black.
BlueGuitarist
@Kay:
George Santos and M Taylor Greene were at that fascist exercise.
GibberJack
The Rebublican party has shown truth doesn’t matter to its base, so running a candidate where everything in his background is a lie is just an extension of that.
It’s the post-truth party. They really do create their own reality.
Qrop Non Sequitur
My least favorite blue state. Right next door and I won’t set foot there. Granted, I probably have a skewed perception from my formative political years being plagued by NYPD extra judicial executions and a recent personal terrible interaction with the NY transit authority.
Mai Naem mobile
@Kay: there’s probably a Putin connection there somewhere. Personally I think Santos looks like he could be a member of the Bolsonaro family – maybe that’s where all the money came from.
Richard Grant
Is this — https://jmurray-law.com/home-1 — the website of the Joseph W. Murray, Esq. who is representing Congressman-elect Santos? Just because it says in one place “Aside from Joe’s legal acumen, he is also a “regular Joe” and a fun guy to be around.” and in another place “Woke politicians, political correctness, and a biased media are spewing hate and fear of the police based upon false narratives, and other misinformation.” doesn’t necessarily prove it is Santos’ Murray.
BlueGuitarist
@H.E.Wolf:
👍👍 for postcards & BJ postcard events
dave319
@Lapassionara: Yeah, because we know how strong Republican governors are on fighting crime in their own red states. (See also stats showing violent crime is highest in Republican governed states.) Funny how no reporter ever thought to press Lee Zeldin, who unsuccessfully ran against Kathy Hochul on a crime message here in New York, about how well Republicans had handled crime in their own bailiwicks and what Zeldin proposed to do differently to buck the red state trend…hafta say, that is a mystery.
Anyway
@Betty Cracker:
So close to Festivus, I can re-air all my grievances about NYC politics. The last mayoral election was a shitshow. Eric Adams was an awful candidate on track to be an awful mayor. D primary voters were so afraid of getting a “lefty” that they ended up with an incompetent who shares few Dem principles.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@H.E.Wolf: I was hoping for a more candidate-oriented solution but agreed 1000 percent. I love the campaign work we do here and I would love to see that model expanded to other activist circles.
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
I agree, but you’re missing the point. This isn’t about depending on the media to help you out, this is about how to counter it when the MSM is actively taking the other side.
Betty Cracker
@Anyway: Remember when Adams proclaimed himself the new face of the Democratic Party? Yeah, no. Why does NYC elect such shitty mayors? I’ve never understood that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alce_e _ ardillo: There are, I believe, radio stations that play music.
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
Look, this is a real problem. If bringing it up is ‘whining,’ then we’re sure as hell not going to figure out what to do about it.
JMG
@Betty Cracker: A highly subdivided, extremely racially polarized and pretty apathetic electorate.
Layer8Problem
@Alce_e _ ardillo: “long Cuomo” I like that term. Short and accurate.
lowtechcyclist
@Soprano2:
I’m so sorry for your friend. I suppose there’s always a chance he’s reformed, but it damned sure isn’t the way to bet.
Betty Cracker
@JMG: Sounds like Florida!
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
rikyrah
@Soprano2:
So sorry for your friend 😞
Stacy
@Alce_e _ ardillo: Cuomo was spotted out to dinner with Kellyanne Conway last night. Funny that.
AnonPhenom
@Alce_e _ ardillo:
Jay Jacobs is a stalking horse for Andrew Cuomo, who is still plotting a comeback. Cuomo has cronies up and down the line in the party and they have to be purged as well.
Qrop Non Sequitur
I don’t know NYC well, personally, so not going to challenge JMG’s assessment. Just wanted to add that the fact that NYC is the global center of capitalism likely plays a role as well.
rikyrah
@Anyway:
You can’t blame Adams for other candidates poor choices. Maya Wiley cozying up to the leftists while not doing the shoe leather work of going to Democratic Primary voters…I was rooting for her, but Democratic Party primary voters are the same in Urban areas…Black and Brown folk…
She didn’t go to them…Adams did.
Geminid
@Qrop Non Sequitur: I was a little surprised to see that Joe Biden carried New York by 10 points, the same margin he carried Virginia by. I’m used to thinking New York was a bluer state than mine.
That may because of trend. Republican presidential candidates were winning in Virgina going into this century, and Biden’s 10 point margin was the biggest since [f*ck] LBJ in 1964. New York has voted for Democratic presidential candidates through.
I guess they hit a ceiling, though, and backslid some last month. Virginia did the same last fall when we elected foungkin’ Youngkin. I think that in both states, Democrat under performance has to be debited to several factors, and one is base motivation. Last year, Virginia Republicans were hungry in a way Democrats were not.
These results could be part of medium- or long-terms trends, but I don’t think they are . In Virginia’s case, next year’s General Assembly elections will be a good test of trend. Both houses will be up, and on a new map.
Jowriter
@Stacy: Underhanded backroom politics is a staple here. It’s no state for cockeyed optimists. And yuck, that sounds like one very unattractive table.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
How’s that taking your salary in bitcoin working out for ya, Mr. Mayor?
//
J R in WV
@Kay:
Sounds like this specimen needs to be in a federal courtroom, being tried for supporting an insurrection. That might teach him something, or not, don’t care once he’s put away for 10-20 years. That appears to be the only thing that will control the Republicans. Long sentences. MANY Looong ones.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@NotMax: That was the first thing I learned about Adams. I thought “So they elected a fool, typical.”
NotMax
@Qrop Non Sequitur
To answer the question, a ditty about NY politics from a show about a non-sh*tty one.
;)
Renie
I live on Long Island (not in Santos district) and during the campaign everything was crime and inflation. No Dem message got through the media megaphone of GOP talking points. Everywhere I went was Santos and Zeldin signs. I know Zeldin was funded heavily by Ronald Lauder cuz Lauder doesn’t want the cables for an offshore wind farm out east off of his and his rich friends’ homes in Suffolk and I guess he felt Zeldin, as governor, could stop it. I don’t know who funded Santos but there must have been some coat-tailing off of Zeldin votes. NYS Dem Chair Jay Jacobs has been a mess in NY and there have been calls for years for him to be replaced but he is involved with too many bigshots. Like with Kathy Hochul, I think they thought Zimmerman would win that seat easily and didn’t put enough resources into it until it was too late. Luckily Hocul won but Zimmerman didn’t.
The Moar You Know
There are plenty of low-quality hires (thanks, Kay, I use that phrase pretty much every day!) to go around. One, of course, is Representative Santos. But they seem to be over-represented in the press that was supposed to cover this guy; I understand these allegations made the local press and were dismissed by the local press, and completely ignored by the national press.
I hate to be a one-note Johnny but here I go again: this is what happens when “journalists” never learn to investigate things and spend their careers just reposting tweets.
Geminid
@Mai Naem mobile: If Santos is mobbed up with Viktor Vekselberg he didn’t need any money from Brazil.
I’m not sure Santos will make it through his term without being indicted. The FBI executed a search warrant on Vekselberg’s Long Island residence a couple months ago, reporters saw them carrying out a number of boxes. Santos seems like a very shaky guy, and he may be on shaky ground.
Matt McIrvin
@boatboy_srq: Joe McCarthy was a Republican. The Democrats were hardly innocent of overblown Red-baiting in those days, but he took it to a particularly scurrilous level of dishonesty. A harbinger of the future.
Kay
My husband does criminal defense and I heard that city council fired a prosecutor he really dislikes in a closed session. So I told him this RUMOR and he texted me back to tell me “confirmed”. I asked how he confirmed and he said he called city council member and asked – guffaw- why didn’t I think of that :)
I really prefer a big batch of rumors culminating in a public announcement. He ruined that for me.
Layer8Problem
@Kay: Hard hitting journalist Glenn Greenwald is bought and paid for.
Steeplejack
A holiday-worthy blast of glitz courtesy of Balloon Juice After Dark: the gold slacks dancers (“Psychotic Reaction” remix). From the 1965 movie Pop Gear. Live-blogged on BJAD way back in 2014.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Josh at TPM was talking about Santos and it seems like this guy’s whole life seems to be faked. If Representatives have to pass any kind of a background check, Santos is going to fail big time.
Layer8Problem
@Kay: “NY Dems should do the same.”
Strong agreement here. I want to believe Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are asking serious uncomfortable questions about the NY party’s work.
JPL
@Qrop Non Sequitur: In fact the republicans made the subways safe in NYC overnight. Amazing!
Betty Cracker
@Qrop Non Sequitur: And before the current mayor, there was de Blasio, Bloomberg, Giuliani — all of whom ran for president.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay: hmm going by Glenn’s whining I am going to bet it’s going to come out that Santos isn’t in the US legally lol
Qrop Non Sequitur
??? Do elaborate,I’m dying to hear more.
@Betty Cracker: The best NY mayor I can remember has been Bloomberg. Speaks volumes.
None of those men were fit to go on a tour of the White House.
Betty Cracker
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Marshall is focused on the disclosure Santos made about lending $700K to his campaign and where that money came from. Sounds like that’s the right thread to pull. What makes it more interesting than a bog-standard Republican corruption story is the thin GOP House majority. They can’t afford to lose anyone.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: A more innocent time.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: Fiorello LaGuardia was OK…
Quiltingfool
As for the NY Dems – yes, they need to analyze their campaign. And they need to separate what a campaign can do from what they can’t do.
Example: When I taught, I determined what I wanted students to know and be able to do. Then I designed activities for knowledge and skills. Then comes assessment. If kids did poorly on assessment, then what?
The easiest analysis is to blame kids (lazy, didn’t pay attention, didn’t study, didn’t do practice work), but that doesn’t fix the problem, because you can’t fix the kids! The hardest analysis (and most ego bruising) centers on the teacher actions – what did I do or not do? Why were the actions not successful? And so on, etc.
Campaigns can’t fix the media, and it is unproductive to blame voters. Did the campaign try to reach voters beyond ads or media articles? Did they have active boots on the ground to personally talk to voters? Did they do postcards?
I agree with Ozark Hillbilly in that you can’t take the easy out and blame the media on your loss. You can, of course, but that is something you can’t easily fix. You have to fix the stuff that is in your power to do.
Paul in KY
@J R in WV: That quote probably sounds better in the original German. With spittle flecking from the mouth and a snappy ‘Heil Hitler’ at end.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@NotMax: That was hysterical.
Vaguely reminds me of the way R politicians routinely shame my generation for not accruing wealth because we insist on eating something better than Ramen (the cheap kind).
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Betty Cracker: Yes, the suddenly wealthy is a big blazing red flag. The whole thing sounds a bit more than just standard GOP corruption, like some Foreign government decided bribing Republicans wasn’t good value for their money so they made their own.
Layer8Problem
@Qrop Non Sequitur: “??? Do elaborate,I’m dying to hear more.”
Well, you’re not hearing anywhere near as much about CRIME CRIME CRIME in New York State in the papers any more right? Problem solved! Oh yeah, and also the election’s over. The Times’ and the NY Post’s work is done.
Alce_e _ ardillo
@Omnes Omnibus: Are you sure? I usually get just commercials.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alce_e _ ardillo: Yes.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Layer8Problem: Oh right, kind of the same way Trump fixed the horrible Obama economy before taking office simply by having been elected.
I thought you were talking about something that really happened, how silly of me.
Soprano2
@Layer8Problem: You’re not hearing nearly as much about how inflation is making everything terrible, either. You still hear about it but not every fucking day! Gas prices here are down to $2.69. I expect them to be below $2.50 within a week.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
True. A lot of stuff under the thing since then.
Geminid
@Soprano2: Gas prices haven’t quite hit $3/gal. in my part of Virginia yet but I think they will soon. One reason this is a good thing is that the extra disposable income may help ward off or cushion a recession.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
Yep. The point I would make to amplify what you said about low quality hires is that low quality hires are their main reason for existence. The essence of today’s Republican party is promoting people based on their identity and ideology over their accomplishments. They love to talk about how the Democrats care more about identity than anything, but it’s more Republican projection.
H.E.Wolf
@Qrop Non Sequitur: ”I was hoping for a more candidate-oriented solution but agreed 1000 percent. I love the campaign work we do here and I would love to see that model expanded to other activist circles.”
@Quiltingfool: ”You have to fix the stuff that is in your power to do.”
I agree with all 3 of you!
As an introvert, the blog postcard parties were in the sweet spot for me, between social and solitary.
As a person who likes a task with easy-to-complete sections, postcards were great.
And as a cockeyed optimist, the Emersonian “reach” of GOTV appeals to me:
“I grasp the hands of those next me, and take my place in the ring to suffer and to work… that so shall the dumb abyss be vocal with speech.”
Mighty high-falutin’ words for a Monday morning, eh?
Omnes Omnibus
@H.E.Wolf: It’s Tuesday.
frosty
@Dorothy A. Winsor: She will have a child, convinced it will save her marriage. This is my sister, absent the restraining order. She has since left him and straightened herself out. Kids are doing OK too.
Soprano2
@Geminid: Unfortunately high gas prices hurt pretty much everyone whether they drive a vehicle or not. I understand the idea that making gas high helps with climate change, but it kills the economy right now.
Soprano2
@frosty: That ship already sailed because they already have a kid together. I wonder if her restaurant is struggling, because he’s a highly-paid computer consultant with Microsoft.
Geminid
@Soprano2: For reasons of politics, I want gas prices to stay fairly low until January, 2025. Then my preference would be for them to rise 10% a year. This might actually happen.
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
Yep. Being mayor of New York City is such a great stepping stone to the presidency that the next one to make the jump will be the [checks notes] first. I don’t think the mayors of any other big cities have gone on to be President, either, or at least they haven’t for a good long time. Checking, it looks like the last time the mayor of any city went on to become President was Calvin Coolidge, who was mayor of the bustling city of Northampton, MA. Other presidents who were mayors at some point in their careers were Grover Cleveland (Buffalo, NY) and Andrew Johnson (Greeneville, TN). That’s it. All those guys obviously had other major stepping stones on their way to the presidency. It looks like big city mayor is just not a good thing to have on your resume if you’re interested in running for President; you’re much better off running for governor instead.
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: Sounds like what’s going on with a faction of the CO GOP. The critical difference being that I get the luxury of pointing and laughing because the GOP is so in the minority in this state right now. “Really, you think the reason you all had your asses handed to you is because you’re not “conservative ENOUGH?!”
Stacy
@Jowriter: Yep. Had the pleasure(lol) of voting for Cuomo not out of optimism but because Paladino was the alternative.
@Jowriter:
Soprano2
@Geminid: Yep, the O’Boys talk about how they could track Obama’s approval rating with the price of gas, which makes no sense, but it’s a fact that when gas is high people feel bad about things, and when gas is low they feel good.
The Moar You Know
@Geminid: Sadly, the Federal Reserve is determined that we will have one, and we’re going to have one. The numbers from this week and last are very bad, no other way to say it.
Particularly disheartening (although it’s one of the Fed’s primary goals) is the Q2 employment numbers got revised from one million new jobs to ten thousand. Not a typo.
frosty
@Steeplejack: I just followed your link to BJAD 2014. Lots of fun comments including this one from you:
And this girl drummer for the Honeycombs is an unexpected pleasure. I don’t remember that from back in the day.
I have to agree! Also lots of slagging on Having A Wild Weekend. Dave Clark Five we’re my favorite Invasion band. I would have called them First Tier, not Second. Unless First only includes the Beatles and the Stones.
Omnes Omnibus
@frosty: I stand by my call. Second tier.
frosty
@Omnes Omnibus: OK we disagree, probably because they were my favorite. I put them with the Animals, not Gerry and the Pacemakers. Hey, they had a saxophone!!
I don’t know why they disappeared but I’ve read that Clark kept all his publishing rights. Smart businessman, maybe the music industry didn’t like that.
mrmoshpotato
Hahahaha!
BWHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
That’s because there wasn’t. :)
Shittier shitbags all the way down!
Paul in KY
@frosty: Musicwise, I would put The Kinks in 1st tier also.
Alce_e _ ardillo
@Stacy:When the alternative is a corrupt paste-eater the choice is not hard.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Geminid: Just yesterday, I saw the first gas below $3 here in my Chicago suburb
Paul in KY
@frosty: I think they just ran out of killer songs.
H.E.Wolf
@Omnes Omnibus:
You’re right! *looks vaguely around for office calendar, which is sitting in front of me*
If only I’d posted my comment 6 days later, all would have been well. :)
brantl
StringOnAStick
Here in central Oregon, the Deschutes County R party has just been taken over by the Ammon Bundy affiliated nutso’s. This county includes very Blue Bend, but even with mail in ballots being the state norm, we had below average D turnout, which shocked me. We’re new here, so I need to dig deeper. Lots of very wealthy people have been moving here, and maybe they are more R?
Burnspbesq
@Kay:
There’s a song that sums it up nicely.
https://youtu.be/7aItpjF5vXc
frosty
@Paul in KY: I agree, the Kinks would be in my first tier.
Good point on your other comment. If you can only write one good song, then your band will be a One Hit Wonder. Popularity is part of it, too. Say your third album is good but it comes out at the same time as killer albums from the Beatles and the Stones. Result, no airplay, no sales, and your label drops you. (Not gonna do the research on DC5).
PaulWartenberg
I’m seeing reports elsewhere that Santos may not even live at the address he gives as his location. He’s supposed to reside in the district he’s representing. I thought giving a false home address on your voter ID, that’s voter fraud innit?
He’s lied about his education, he’s lied about his employ, he’s lied about having employees murdered at the Orlando Pulse shooting (what an asshole!!!), he’s lied and lied and lied. They need a criminal investigation to find out just who the fuck he is.
Kay
@PaulWartenberg:
I mean, come on. Anyone can just wander into Congress?
Alce_e _ ardillo
Here is Josh Marshall’s take on the situation. Telling that he calls Santos ” soon to be former rep”.https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/charting-the-coming-fall-of-george-santos/sharetoken/UuoFEUQSYFaZ
tam1MI
Also the Who. But that would be about it.
catclub
Typically gas prices go down during a recession due to decreased demand. High gas prices are an indicator of a robust economy.
Naturally, politicians cannot mention this.
Steeplejack
@frosty:
I clearly remember that there was a long period when you couldn’t find Dave Clark Five LPs or CDs, not even one of those ubiquitous Rhino “best of” compilations. I think that caused them to drop from memory, to a certain extent. They had a solid group of hits back in the day.
The Animals are my favorite invasion group after the Beatles and Stones.
The Lodger
@Kay: Santos is gay AND Brazilian. How many Greenwald buttons do you have to push?
J R in WV
@Paul in KY:
I would disagree, as I walked out of a Kinks show in Philly after 2 or 3 songs. The Chambers Brothers opened for them, and put them to shame as well. Top tier band!
I saw and heard a lot of great acts in Philly, Kinks were the least good of all of them.
Tazj
NY Dems definitely need to do a post-mortem after this election. Things need to change. Zeldin and company flooded the airwaves with tv and radio ads for months. I finally heard Hochul ads closer to the election.
No doubt crafting a message to combat the “crime is out of control!” one waged by both Republicans and local tv wasn’t easy but I didn’t see a lot done to try and persuade voters. Hochul did up her game at the end and won.
I knew the redrawn state map could cause Democrats problems but I didn’t know it would be that bad and that’s the point. Why weren’t the party leaders doing more to bolster their candidates? I knew more about close races in other states other than the ones in NY and I live in the state.
One thing I know is you can’t take anything for granted. There are too many people that live here that complain incessantly about being oppressed because of taxes and gun laws and wish NY was run by someone like Ron DeSantis.
Paul in KY
@tam1MI: Agree on The Who. Missed them.
Paul in KY
@J R in WV: I did say ‘musicwise’. Guess their live performances sucked. However, they recorded many great songs, IMO.
Ksmiami
@The Moar You Know: I’m So disappointed in Jerome Powell. He’s too stuck on lagging indicators and unfortunately is being stubbornly dogmatic on interest rates. By gum, prions have to be unemployed or accept shitty wages. Biden needs to fight the fed like yesterday even if it’s just a political battle that doesn’t result in any changes to personnel