"The money didn’t come from China, Ukraine, or Burisma"
huh weird what does that leave out https://t.co/ZbKebQgcjM
— lulag tankie (@revhowardarson) January 13, 2023
No doubt intended as a dig against Hunter Biden. Then again, per the Washington Post, May 2017:
A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy…
Some of the lawmakers laughed at McCarthy’s comment. Then McCarthy quickly added: “Swear to God.”
Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: “No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here.”…
Or maybe it was just old-fashioned Repubs-for-Republicans chicanery:
The reason NY Repubs want Santos to resign is almost certainly bc they’re afraid Santos’ financial schemes involve some of their important donors
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 12, 2023
The Producers:
Maybe Zeldin’s campaign was using Santos to launder money to help Zeldin. They could have put money in Santos’ campaign & has his campaign fund field/GOTV operations in that Congressional district, assuming nobody would notice bc they assumed Santos would lose
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 12, 2023
I went to the Queens Italian restaurant where George Santos has somehow spent almost $50k in campaign funds since 2020, often in installments of exactly $199.99, one cent below what you have send the FEC receipts for. I tried to recreate his favorite meal. https://t.co/WgAH8ZpARt
— Alex Sammon (@alex_sammon) January 13, 2023
… According to documents filed to the Federal Election Committee, Santos has spent $25,640.26 in campaign money at Il Bacco since he first ran for the Long Island/Queens congressional seat in 2020, a number made even more astonishing by the fact that the coronavirus hobbled indoor dining for most of 2020 in New York City, and the restaurant was shut down for part of 2021. Santos’ campaign also reported owing Il Bacco $18,773.54 for its election night party in November this year. A political action committee called Rise NY, run by Santos’ sister, Tiffany, spent another $4,722 there, according to the New York Times.
All in all, the Santos siblings have dropped nearly $50,000 at the luxury Italian joint over the past two congressional campaigns, which seems like a lot of money for a guy who, according to campaign disclosure forms, declared earnings of only $55,000 total in 2020. “I don’t know why we were at Il Bacco all the time,” an anonymous Santos staffer told Talking Points Memo…
[Okay, lotsa good Trump-loving Repubs enjoy the homey comfort of a nice Italian place… ]
Santos is not alone in his love of Il Bacco. Plenty of New York Republicans, winners and losers alike, have visited the restaurant in recent years. The restaurant’s Instagram page features photos of Rudy Giuliani alongside the restaurant’s owner, Oppedisano, and his daughter Tina. Andrew Giuliani, Rudy’s son, who lost the most recent Republican primary for governor, is featured as well. The Republican city councilwoman Vicki Paladino has visited. I scrolled and scrolled on the restaurant’s Instagram but found no picture of Santos…
Joe Oppedisano, the restaurant’s owner, is an aviation enthusiast, something chronicled somewhat horrifically in the New York Post. In October of 2020, Oppedisano crashed his private Cessna into the East River near the Throgs Neck bridge, an accident that left him with 16 broken ribs and required 10 separate surgeries during a 30-day hospital stay. The crash also killed one of Oppedisano’s passengers, Maggie O’Neil. In a truly strange editorial decision, the Post piece ends on a chipper note: Oppedisano was discharged from the hospital on Election Day that fall and said he was heading straight to the polls. “I really love this country and I really wanted to vote for Donald Trump,” he told the paper.
Oppedisano is a Santos campaign supporter; he donated $6,500 to Santos’ campaign and related PACs. So, too, is Oppedisano’s brother Rocco, who kicked in $500 to Santos, a donation the Daily Beast called “almost certainly illegal.”
According to Daily Beast reporting, in 2009, Rocco “was stripped of his permanent resident status following a firearms and drug bust at homes belonging to Joseph Oppedisano.” A decade later, the Coast Guard intercepted a yacht that Rocco was sailing from the Bahamas to Florida. Customs and Border Patrol found 14 undocumented Chinese immigrants aboard the boat, a Bahamian national, and $200,000 in cash socked away in the vessel’s walls. Rocco pleaded guilty to smuggling and was expelled from the U.S., which still wasn’t enough to deter him from doing his part for the 3rd District’s newest congressman…
People smuggling is a well-known problem in the restaurant trade — there’s always a market for kitchen workers desperate enough to put in 18-hour days at the beck of petty culinary tyrants for low wages, and if they don’t speak English, all the better (for the owners). The Oppedisanos probably don’t have more than the usual quotient of sketchily documented scut workers in the back room, these days. But it could be that they know people who know people who aren’t unsympathetic to the human pipeline, which is after all very free-market!
But Santos has become a MAGAt icon now — the QAnon Quacus are going to defend him to the death:
A rare pro-Caligula take https://t.co/7lwwuAq5cE
— Tim Miller (@Timodc) January 12, 2023
(Obvious joke about frugal Repubs using only half a horse for their performative protest… )
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I recall the horse joke being made in the Vorkosigan Saga books by Lois McMaster Bujold: a Count had a falling out with his son and heir, so he decided to disinherit the son in favor of his favorite horse: “just as smart and twice as loyal”. For centuries after, the joke was made: “if a horse’s ass can be a Count, then why not the whole horse?”
But support for Santos seems to me like they’re trying to incorporate Cleek’s Law into the United States Code. Democrats don’t like a corrupt, fraudulent liar in Congress? Then the corrupt, fraudulent liar must be defended to the death!
HumboldtBlue
Oppedisano
I’ve never seen that collection of letters before in that particular order, and I bet there are a few vocal pronunciations that will lead me to more than one scoring Scrabble word or an answer to an obscure crossword puzzle.
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
Let him twist in the wind. Use him as a piñata.
JAFD
Worth reading. Brad DeLong excoriates David Brooks
https://braddelong.substack.com/p/it-is-harmful-to-my-psychological?utm_source=substack&publication_id=47874&post_id=96292403&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true
Have a great weekend, everyone !
piratedan
let the GOP rally around him… he’s like the cherry on top of the buffet of GOP bullshit… rules apply when We say they do and they don’t apply when they involve Us, if we find it bothersome.
Amir Khalid
Every day, we learn something about George Santos that is hinkier than what we learned yesterday. Every day, the stink of disgrace about George gets stronger, as his constituents clamor for him to resign. And every day — in contrast to Nancy Pelosi, who wasted no time ordering Anthony Weiner to resign from the House when his scandal broke — Kevin McCarthy fails to do the right thing and cut Santos loose.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: Polosi also forced Katie Hill to resign, that cost us a seat here in CA.
Feathers
I’ve been thinking about how there were a lot of political thrillers about Reagan era corruption. There haven’t been as many in our current fucked up era. Lots of inequality comedy, horror, and mysteries, less purely political.
To me the remake of House of Cards was a turning point. The original was specifically about Tories savagely fighting over who would be in charge in a post Thatcher world, filmed during the Thatcher years. The remake created this fantasy Democrat from South Carolina, instead of some Ted Cruz sleaze ball Republican clawing his way up to run for President after Bush. I only made it to a short way into the second season when the mushy bothsiderism and the pure fantasy of it all was too much for me.
We have George Santos because we can’t tell the truth about who the Republicans are, not even in popular art. There’s either a fatal cynicism or pulling of punches.
Betty Cracker
Without clicking through, guess which party this person is affiliated with?
That’s some solid branding there!
In other news, my sister and I are going to an outdoor event this evening, and temperatures will be in the 40s. I’m going to have to smuggle a flask in to endure the chill.
Amir Khalid
@Amir Khalid:
Edited to say what I really meant.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
Y.E. Gawds.
Geoduck
@Betty Cracker: You know it was really bad if an Idaho GOPer is publicly apologizing for it.
NotMax
@Geoduck
Florets on the icing on the cake would have been if he was from Moscow, Idaho rather than from Jerome.
//
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I clicked through. Definitely a Republican, but if that article is to be believed, he’s a pro-choice republican in Idaho!
Chris Johnson
…has BECOME a MAGAt icon? I think you’ll find it’s coordinated. My guess is, since Trump is burned, this is Putin’s attempt to replace Trump outright with a different, newer right wing figurehead. The brazenness is the point, keep an eye out for President Santos talk on the right wing.
Nobody said it was a GOOD plan, I’m just saying I think that’s going to be the plan. They found a guy to get behind whose baggage is more adeptly hidden, and Santos is that guy. He’s the new Trump, and his current job is to stay there and refuse to answer questions until we’re used to him being there, while the MAGAt base are groomed to accept him. I guess DeSantis doesn’t get along with Trump well enough?
Baud
Guess which party
eclare
@Betty Cracker: And again with what Republicans say, it’s just so *weird*. How does a person’s mind go from cows to women’s healthcare? Does he assume other people think that way? It’s bizarre.
Stay warm tonight!
rikyrah
Bought and paid for😠
Follow the $$$
Betty Cracker
@eclare: I’m hoping the venue has those outdoor heater thingies!
Betty Cracker
[Redacted and reposted below to fix code]
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Very cool.
Betty Cracker
Another ill-timed outdoor event this weekend: Manatee Fest! At least we know for sure the guests of honor will be present in abundance with temps this low.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: The photo gives a sense of how large the critters are. Most people underestimate the size until they see one in person.
WereBear
A male who has grown up not seeing women as people. Why certain states have such bizarre bestiality statutes.
Also why I moved 1000 miles away to date in a different pool.
Betty Cracker
I’m impatiently waiting for the mister to wake up so we can watch Everything Everywhere All at Once. I almost rented it several times but balked at the price, and now it’s finally on one of our streaming channels. We love Michelle Yeoh.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Can’t the dogs help?
Danielx
Third day after periodontal hell and I look like a gorilla.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
Going for the low hanging fruit this early I see.
kalakal
@Danielx: My sympathies. Had a lot of periodontal surgery about 20 years ago. Not my favourite memories.
mrmoshpotato
@Danielx: Sorry to hear that.
Geminid
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: I think Katie Hill chose to resign bcause the libel laws regarding revenge porn gave the Daily Mail protection from covil liability do long as she was a public official. Hill could not stop the publication of the compromising photos her husband leaked except by resigning her seat.
Gvg
@eclare: In farm country they might. Dairy farmers know a lot about reproductive science that you don’t. In the old days, dairy bulls killed a lot of people but you had to have them because the cows have to be bred every two years to produce the calves which cause the milk which is the profit of the farm. In modern times in dairy states, the State owns the best bulls and the farmers order semen and implant it with cryogenics, mail order, modern veterinary medicine and genetic science. They know their genetics too and can tell you all about which bulls produce heifers that are the most productive in gallons and milk fat percentages. I think that gets skimmed for butter and is more profit. Anyway their wives are working right along side of them and know just as much, sometimes more. Big families are a tradition and it helps the odds at least one will want to continue the farm. I didn’t read the comment but farm people are not really delicate about reproduction. They tend to be religious but there are some differences from city folk.
I have Wisconsin dairy relatives. We aren’t close, but I do know them a little.
mrmoshpotato
@Geminid: I think you’re right about that. Otherwise the Clintons could’ve sued trash like Gingrich, Limbaugh, and the rest of the Rethuglicans out of existence decades ago.
Geminid
@Amir Khalid: There are so many bread crump trails to follow investigating Santos’s finanances it’s hard to figure out where to start. It’s like a cruise missile hit a crouton factory.
One obvious trail is that leading to Andrew Intrater, Santos’s biggest campaign backer.
When I look up Mr. Intrater and his investment company Columbus Nova, I find a ton of stories. Just one set os about Intrater and hids cousin, Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg and large donations to Trump’s Inaugural funds. Another is a $500,000 payment to Trump attorney Michael Cohen.
Vekselberg was a large investor in Columbus Nova and he and the company have been involved in Russian sanctions disputes fot some years now. Last September 7, FBI agents with a search warrant spent several hours at Viktor Vekselberg’s Long Island hope and were with a number of evidence boxes.
So the Santos story is a bonanza for investigative journalists, and federal investigators are likely mining the lode too.
Geminid
@mrmoshpotato: There was local reporting at the time that explained California revenge porn law, the exemption given news sites regarding public figures, and the bind this put Katie Hill in
Betty
@Geminid: I doubt that it is a coincidence that Santos and Zeldin had the same campaign treasurer. Someone saw him as the perfect passthrough for funneling money. This could get hot for more than Santos.
Geminid
@Chris Johnson: Have you looked up Andrew Intrater, Columbus Nova and Victor Vekselberg? There is a lot of material there about Russian infiltration of the American economy, and also the Israeli political leadership.
Geminid
@Betty: This scandal may also implicate Representative Stefanik. I haven’t seen any evidence yet, but I have my fingers crossed.
That idiot Santos is tweeting about Democrats now. His Twitter heading has a picture of him and Ms. Stefanik! This seems like a veiled threat, as in, “If I go down she’s going with me.”
evodevo
@Gvg: QFT…AI has saved a LOT of lives on dairy farms…back in the Fifties/Sixties there were a lot of rural ER admissions for being crushed against a gate/wall by the resident dairy bull if you weren’t fast enough to get out of the way. Nasty-tempered AND big…
Ken
Combine “it’s always projection” with this report of a New York Italian restaurant frequented by Republican politicians, and the “Pizzagate” nonsense starts to seem more ominous.
eclare
@Ken: Things that make you go hmmm…
Geminid
@Ken: That restaurant made the news early in the pandemic, when it was closed temporarily and fined because of a private party local Republicans held there in violation public health restrictions. Officials said it could have been superspreader event even without the Conga Line!
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Was surprised, because of all the buzz about it, to see it among the no extra charge offerings on the plane during the NY trip last summer.
Through sheer stubborn, dogged grit managed to make it through maybe 25 minutes before giving up in abject antipathy and switching it off.
Not my bag is a severe understatement. May your experience with it be a more congenial one.
Xavier
Wow Cernovich just laid it out there — government must be deligitimized.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: I am afraid I fell asleep during it as well. Actually, Pal D fell asleep during the first half, then woke up as I fell asleep during the second half. No offense to Michelle Yeoh, whose work I generally admire greatly.
Hoodie
@Miss Bianca: my son has several friends who are 2nd generation, he says it really resonates with them. I had difficulty getting into it when I first saw it, but will try to watch again
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
Gee, I don’t know what passing $50K in chunks a penny under the reporting threshold to a family involved in human trafficking and what sounds jussalittle like money-laundering – and Republican crime family politics – coulda been about.
Unrelated, I’m certain – what is up with the Republican obsession with claiming that Someone Not Them is always committing voting fraud?
Unrelated times ten, how did this compulsively ridiculous liar manage to get through a NY campaign without the NYT paying the slightest attention to what would have been a juicy story, and win?
Unrelated times a hoondred, I just re-read a pretty good mystery novel called 30 for a Harry. A Harry, it turns out, is newsie-talk for a corrupt reporter who takes whassitcalled, money?, to print things in his stories, or suppress ’em.
Totally fiction – with certain notably-rare exceptions (link is to some birdcage liner tabloid at nytimes.com) – but entertaining light reading.
Renie
Two viewpoints from local Long Island paper – there are 2 opinion pieces there
Newsday
More on the major player in the Santos campaign funding fraud, Nancy Marks.
Mother Jones Article
JoyceH
I saw a thing on Twitter and now the NY Post has it – there’s a woman in Brazil claiming that she traveled with Santos to the US in 2011, and he drained her bank account and pawned her jewelry. This story just keeps going.
Burnspbesq
@Baud:
No need to guess. The vast majority of actual cases of vote fraud involve Republican defendants.
J R in WV
@JoyceH:
Ok, I can nearly tolerate the guy dong minor fraud at a crummy Italian restaurant in NYC. But stealing everything from a traveling companion? Small time crook stealing from friends and acquaintances~!!~ Yuck!
He should have all the bones in his hands broken to smithereens. Makes it harder to pick pockets and light-finger gems.
El Cruzado
Unaccounted expenses at Italian restaurants is a longstanding NY tradition, the only thing that has changed is the last name of the related Famiglia.
BruceJ
@Betty Cracker: It is an awesome movie. Slow to start, but stick with it.
BruceJ
@Renie: That MoJo article is the thing that has all the R’s in NY running scared. Nancy Marks raised a ton of money for them as well, and the scale of the differet pacs she was running just screams “huinky illegal campaign funding”