I’m reading up on Luna right now and yep she’s a grifter
As of just a few years ago she went by Ann Mayerhofer, was raised Catholic, grew up in a large extended family, and was a liberal in the PNW who supported Obama
Now she’s suddenly a Hispanic Jew who grew up in the projects of East LA with a dad who was in jail most of her childhood
🙄
I shouldn't be surprised that even baseline questions like "is this person actually real," would not be asked by our media of people running for office, but here we are again
It’s a symptom of a lack of local media. Santos was only found out because the local rag is the New York Times, which actually still employs investigative journalists. If he’d been running in a little red state he’d probably still be under the radar.
Lol, no the NYT famously did NOT find Santos out despite people literally trying to get them to report on it. The real local media WAS reporting on it, which is actually the excuse that the NYT gave for passing on the story.
In a story first broken by the North Shore Leader over four months ago, the national media has suddenly discovered that US Congressman-elect George Santos (R-Queens / Nassau) - dubbed "George Scam-tos" by many local political observers - is a deepfake liar who has falsified his background, assets, and contacts. He is fact a wanted petty criminal in Brazil.
The New York Times published a lengthy expose on Santos this week detailing that virtually everything Santos has said, filed and published about himself is a lie.
I’m reading up on Luna right now and yep she’s a grifter
As of just a few years ago she went by Ann Mayerhofer, was raised Catholic, grew up in a large extended family, and was a liberal in the PNW who supported Obama
Now she’s suddenly a Hispanic Jew who grew up in the projects of East LA with a dad who was in jail most of her childhood
🙄
I shouldn't be surprised that even baseline questions like "is this person actually real," would not be asked by our media of people running for office, but here we are again
There's so many people running for Congress and like so much of the world, things run on an assumption of some level of good faith and the idea that people have shame. Before now even local reporting wouldn't really be asking the question "Is this person actually who they say they are?" unless something weird popped up during a routine "write a story about every candidate" story.
Seems like the GOP is split on their fuckery. A bunch of the assholes still want to cut Medicare and Social Security, but do it in weasel word ways. Either running with Scott's bullshit of trying to tie sunset language to those programs. Do note, that I do believe there zero mention of giving people back their money when the GOP manages to get the renewal filibustered. There is also bullshit like raising the retirement age, which is already too damn high as is or doing other shit that all boils down to being a cut to those services.
Where I'm worried; more so than usual, since I'm still reliant on the program, is in in regards to Medicaid. That is going to be something the GOP goes after really hard in their pursuit of fucking over everyone that isn't wealthy, while trying to keep taxes low for the rich. With luck that won't go anywhere either, but there are a disturbing number of people, even some on the program, that think there are a ton of underserving people pulling from Medicaid. We really should be moving to universal healthcare because the current model isn't just unethical, it's also very inefficient. Pretty sure we've pissed away billions that could have been saved if people could get proper medical care. Problem is they get something minor, but either get denied coverage to have it treated by the insurer or don't have coverage at all. Eventually, that minor thing gets bad enough to put them in the ER and having a much more expensive medical bill. Often times, you're getting people significantly harmed by the neglect that they end up with much worse long term care needs and not being able easily get back into the workforce. Hell, a good chunk of the opioid crisis comes back to our flawed healthcare system. "Hey, you're in the ER. Have some opioids to treat the pain and contact this doctor," only for many patients to go months without finding a specialist, while on those highly addictive pills because so few people take their insurance and then it's often a significant amount of time to see a specialist, even if you do find one.
We'll see if the GOP manages to shoot themselves long term in the nuts on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. I do believe Greene is doing plenty to alienate Black, Hispanic and Latino voters though (let me know if there is a label I'm missing that covers people from South of the Border). She was making some bullshit racist comment about how men in those groups choose a life of drugs.
In more positive news, we're 9 days out from the 4th Congressional District of Virginia having it's special election. Pretty good chance democrats retain the seat and that will give McCarthy and the GOP a little less room to work with and democrats one more vote towards probably having to do a discharge petition on the debt ceiling.
I’m reading up on Luna right now and yep she’s a grifter
As of just a few years ago she went by Ann Mayerhofer, was raised Catholic, grew up in a large extended family, and was a liberal in the PNW who supported Obama
Now she’s suddenly a Hispanic Jew who grew up in the projects of East LA with a dad who was in jail most of her childhood
🙄
It's the biographical equivalent of those dodgy car mechanics where they cut and shut two busted vehicles together
Toyota Camry in the back, Datsun Cherry in the front, with a driver claiming that it's a Mustang
The trouble the GOP have is that lots of their members really do wanna cut/sunset/end entitlements and have even said so publicly (e.g. Mike Lee), but they recognize it’s a loser electorally so they’re stuck with this debt ceiling nonsense
It’s nice that Biden is finally calling them on it though, I woulda laid cash money they’d fall for the same okey doke the Obama budget team did
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
The trouble the GOP have is that lots of their members really do wanna cut/sunset/end entitlements and have even said so publicly (e.g. Mike Lee), but they recognize it’s a loser electorally so they’re stuck with this debt ceiling nonsense
It’s nice that Biden is finally calling them on it though, I woulda laid cash money they’d fall for the same okey doke the Obama budget team did
re bolded: once. The 2013 repeat just ended in the GOP embarrassing themselves and getting nothing.
The trouble the GOP have is that lots of their members really do wanna cut/sunset/end entitlements and have even said so publicly (e.g. Mike Lee), but they recognize it’s a loser electorally so they’re stuck with this debt ceiling nonsense
It’s nice that Biden is finally calling them on it though, I woulda laid cash money they’d fall for the same okey doke the Obama budget team did
re bolded: once. The 2013 repeat just ended in the GOP embarrassing themselves and getting nothing.
Yeah, Obama and the rest of Dem leadership seemed to have learned from the first fight they had in 2011 and since then have been adopting the "you get nothing" strategy instead.
Asked by reporters about her announcement to resign, @SenFeinstein says “If I haven't made that decision, I haven't released anything.” A staffer then told the senator that a statement had been released. Feinstein responded saying “I didn’t know they put it out.”
The trouble the GOP have is that lots of their members really do wanna cut/sunset/end entitlements and have even said so publicly (e.g. Mike Lee), but they recognize it’s a loser electorally so they’re stuck with this debt ceiling nonsense
It’s nice that Biden is finally calling them on it though, I woulda laid cash money they’d fall for the same okey doke the Obama budget team did
re bolded: once. The 2013 repeat just ended in the GOP embarrassing themselves and getting nothing.
They got the government's credit rating downgraded
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zepherinRussian warship, go fuck yourselfRegistered Userregular
The trouble the GOP have is that lots of their members really do wanna cut/sunset/end entitlements and have even said so publicly (e.g. Mike Lee), but they recognize it’s a loser electorally so they’re stuck with this debt ceiling nonsense
It’s nice that Biden is finally calling them on it though, I woulda laid cash money they’d fall for the same okey doke the Obama budget team did
re bolded: once. The 2013 repeat just ended in the GOP embarrassing themselves and getting nothing.
They got the government's credit rating downgraded
Well I'm glad she's retiring if she's that mentally out of it.
Did she really forgot drafting the statement, or did some hero-staffer just gaslight her into retirement? The world may never know.
She didn’t say she was unaware the statement was being prepared, just unaware that it was released. Which to be clear, is a blunder on par with looking at your email to see that “To: boss Re: fuck this place and you in particular I quit” is in Sent and not Drafts, and definitely a sign that the good Senator is too checked out to serve. But it doesn’t read to me like the staffer is saying “no, yeah, you totally said you wanted to quit” and Feinstein is saying “oh, well then I must want to quit!”
Yeah like I doubt some random staffer just ended her career. She certainly wouldn't just "oh ok". She's had a long senate career, and I 100% believe everyone was aware of this.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Specifically they're concerned that their star witness is a known liar who can be proven to have fabricated this kind of accusation before. Which is...not great for your case.
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
The two witnesses they were "concerned" about was the underage girl that accepted money for sex and the guy that gaetz was doing the crimes with that had already pled guilty to doing the crimes with gaetz....????
???
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
Specifically they're concerned that their star witness is a known liar who can be proven to have fabricated this kind of accusation before. Which is...not great for your case.
I mean, I expect all of Garlands cases will go this way. Joe Greenburg got 11 years for doing the exact same shit.
DC gon DC. Give the low men time in the slammer, let the big guys go.
Specifically they're concerned that their star witness is a known liar who can be proven to have fabricated this kind of accusation before. Which is...not great for your case.
They manage to put people in prison based entirely on shitty witnesses when the person concerned isn't a government official.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
They are afraid of daddy Gaetz's big-time lawyers that their witness didn't have when they flipped him. Typical chickenshit DOJ.
If it's just two witnesses they have and there are issues with both, along with not having much else to go on. I could see why DoJ got cold feet; especially, with how many shitty judges are in the Judiciary that are willing to give elected republicans a free pass.
You either need:
-to have enough witnesses that it doesn't matter they are all shit.
-to have at least one really good witness.
-to have damning evidence, or have it solid enough, that it makes witness quality irrelevant or less of a factor.
-some combination of the above.
If there is a silver lining here. The DoJ not pursuing Gaetz further on this isn't the same as being found innocent, which means if they get something more reliable to work with later and before statute of limitation, they can easily go after his ass again.
I guess could argue this is a drawback of anti-double jeopardy setups. Given that you only get one shot, it does mean that sometimes cases don't get pursued because prosecution doesn't believe they can currently win the case and they don't want to give an offender the satisfaction of being acquitted for something they totally did, but no one can prove. Yes, Gaetz is still going to gloat about this, but the piece of shit is still going to have watch his step, less he create the opening needed to send his ass to jail or at least get him booted from office.
Yeah like I doubt some random staffer just ended her career. She certainly wouldn't just "oh ok". She's had a long senate career, and I 100% believe everyone was aware of this.
The two witnesses they were "concerned" about was the underage girl that accepted money for sex and the guy that gaetz was doing the crimes with that had already pled guilty to doing the crimes with gaetz....????
???
Just for context: He also pled guilty to a lot of unrelated shit going back years.
Presnell indicated the federal guideline sentence may not adequately punish Greenberg for his extensive and unrelated crimes, including stalking a political rival, defrauding the Small Business Administration in a COVID-19 relief scheme, defrauding Seminole County by running a personal cryptocurrency business run out of the tax collector’s office, and manufacturing fake driver’s licenses.
He got 30 serious charges reduced to 6 and the judge was of the opinion that it was, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'bullshit.'
To be clear, I still think the testimony of [underage escort] and [bagman], in addition to a venmo payment To: [bagman], Re: "Hit up [underage escort]" should be, by far, more than enough convince a jury.
(But perhaps not a NW Florida jury?)
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
Yes, Gaetz is still going to gloat about this, but the piece of shit is still going to have watch his step, less he create the opening needed to send his ass to jail or at least get him booted from office.
You know, I don't believe this to be the case anymore.
There doesn't seem to be an opening large enough for the people who enforce federal law to do it on elected officials. If there's one reliable thing here, it's the eventual press release of "we are not going to pursue prosecution."
Yeah like I doubt some random staffer just ended her career. She certainly wouldn't just "oh ok". She's had a long senate career, and I 100% believe everyone was aware of this.
The two witnesses they were "concerned" about was the underage girl that accepted money for sex and the guy that gaetz was doing the crimes with that had already pled guilty to doing the crimes with gaetz....????
???
Just for context: He also pled guilty to a lot of unrelated shit going back years.
Presnell indicated the federal guideline sentence may not adequately punish Greenberg for his extensive and unrelated crimes, including stalking a political rival, defrauding the Small Business Administration in a COVID-19 relief scheme, defrauding Seminole County by running a personal cryptocurrency business run out of the tax collector’s office, and manufacturing fake driver’s licenses.
He got 30 serious charges reduced to 6 and the judge was of the opinion that it was, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'bullshit.'
To be clear, I still think the testimony of [underage escort] and [bagman], in addition to a venmo payment To: [bagman], Re: "Hit up [underage escort]" should be, by far, more than enough convince a jury.
(But perhaps not a NW Florida jury?)
Rich, politically connected white man with an even richer daddy? They would have had issues getting conviction even with reliable witness testimony and a full paper trail. Chalk up another win for rich white guys I guess.
Oh. There may have been a more specific problem with Greenberg's credibility, which was that one of the things he plead guilty to was manufacturing allegations that his stalking victim had engaged in sex with minors:
In the midst of defrauding the Tax Collector’s Office, Greenberg added stalking to his repertoire of criminal activity. See id. at ¶¶ 138-147.
On October 4, 2019, an individual who was a teacher at a school, filed to run for the elected office of Seminole County Tax Collector in 2020, against Greenberg. Id. at ¶ 138.
In retaliation, Greenberg caused nine letters to be sent to the teacher’s school. The letters falsely represented that they were being sent by an anonymous “very concerned student” who had information that the teacher had engaged in sexual misconduct with a particular student. Id. at ¶ 139.
The following month, in November 2019, Greenberg set up a Facebook account that falsely claimed to belong to a “very concerned teacher” at the school. Using that account, Greenberg made similar false allegations to the ones previously made in his letters.
Not a great look. Should still help that he confessed to the exact crime being charged; but, yeah, ok, I see how that might be more concerning. And the girl didn't want to testify herself, which seems like the real problem? I think I remember hearing that a while back and that was when I stopped bothering to follow this.
I want to be frustrated by that, but I get not wanting to testify. If I had been perfectly willing to fuck some gross old man for a pile of cash when I was 17, and was now still in my early 20s, I would absolutely not willingly step into the spotlight for all the MAGA/QAnon psychos to tear my life apart for less than life changing money, and definitely not purely for the sake of civic duty.
[Edit 17 - PDF copy pasta slightly less of an eyesore]
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
I mean they could always get him on the whole *checks notes* trying to overthrow the government thing.
I know we've just let that little whoopsie-doodle pass when it comes to elected officials, tho.
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TraceGNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam WeRegistered Userregular
Posts
It feels like a Monty Python episode.
It’s a symptom of a lack of local media. Santos was only found out because the local rag is the New York Times, which actually still employs investigative journalists. If he’d been running in a little red state he’d probably still be under the radar.
They ate a giant platter of shit over it even
They might have got additional story's and details more recently post-election, but they weren't the ones that broke the news.
https://www.theleaderonline.com/single-post/the-leader-told-you-so-us-rep-elect-george-santos-is-a-fraud-and-wanted-criminal
https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/246916/george-santos-a-gdst
There's so many people running for Congress and like so much of the world, things run on an assumption of some level of good faith and the idea that people have shame. Before now even local reporting wouldn't really be asking the question "Is this person actually who they say they are?" unless something weird popped up during a routine "write a story about every candidate" story.
Seems like the GOP is split on their fuckery. A bunch of the assholes still want to cut Medicare and Social Security, but do it in weasel word ways. Either running with Scott's bullshit of trying to tie sunset language to those programs. Do note, that I do believe there zero mention of giving people back their money when the GOP manages to get the renewal filibustered. There is also bullshit like raising the retirement age, which is already too damn high as is or doing other shit that all boils down to being a cut to those services.
Where I'm worried; more so than usual, since I'm still reliant on the program, is in in regards to Medicaid. That is going to be something the GOP goes after really hard in their pursuit of fucking over everyone that isn't wealthy, while trying to keep taxes low for the rich. With luck that won't go anywhere either, but there are a disturbing number of people, even some on the program, that think there are a ton of underserving people pulling from Medicaid. We really should be moving to universal healthcare because the current model isn't just unethical, it's also very inefficient. Pretty sure we've pissed away billions that could have been saved if people could get proper medical care. Problem is they get something minor, but either get denied coverage to have it treated by the insurer or don't have coverage at all. Eventually, that minor thing gets bad enough to put them in the ER and having a much more expensive medical bill. Often times, you're getting people significantly harmed by the neglect that they end up with much worse long term care needs and not being able easily get back into the workforce. Hell, a good chunk of the opioid crisis comes back to our flawed healthcare system. "Hey, you're in the ER. Have some opioids to treat the pain and contact this doctor," only for many patients to go months without finding a specialist, while on those highly addictive pills because so few people take their insurance and then it's often a significant amount of time to see a specialist, even if you do find one.
We'll see if the GOP manages to shoot themselves long term in the nuts on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. I do believe Greene is doing plenty to alienate Black, Hispanic and Latino voters though (let me know if there is a label I'm missing that covers people from South of the Border). She was making some bullshit racist comment about how men in those groups choose a life of drugs.
In more positive news, we're 9 days out from the 4th Congressional District of Virginia having it's special election. Pretty good chance democrats retain the seat and that will give McCarthy and the GOP a little less room to work with and democrats one more vote towards probably having to do a discharge petition on the debt ceiling.
It's the biographical equivalent of those dodgy car mechanics where they cut and shut two busted vehicles together
Toyota Camry in the back, Datsun Cherry in the front, with a driver claiming that it's a Mustang
Feinstein isnt running for reelection.
I should look into how to volunteer for Katie Porter's campaign.
It’s nice that Biden is finally calling them on it though, I woulda laid cash money they’d fall for the same okey doke the Obama budget team did
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
re bolded: once. The 2013 repeat just ended in the GOP embarrassing themselves and getting nothing.
Yeah, Obama and the rest of Dem leadership seemed to have learned from the first fight they had in 2011 and since then have been adopting the "you get nothing" strategy instead.
So will Feinstein apparently
Bloomberg reporter
pleasepaypreacher.net
They got the government's credit rating downgraded
In hindsight, the ratings agencies weren’t wrong.
Did she really forget drafting the statement, or did some hero-staffer just gaslight her into retirement? The world may never know.
She didn’t say she was unaware the statement was being prepared, just unaware that it was released. Which to be clear, is a blunder on par with looking at your email to see that “To: boss Re: fuck this place and you in particular I quit” is in Sent and not Drafts, and definitely a sign that the good Senator is too checked out to serve. But it doesn’t read to me like the staffer is saying “no, yeah, you totally said you wanted to quit” and Feinstein is saying “oh, well then I must want to quit!”
Your Ad Here! Reasonable Rates!
pleasepaypreacher.net
Well I doubt any of her staffers wanted to end their run as defacto US Senator.
They had "witness concerns."
Big surprise.
Specifically they're concerned that their star witness is a known liar who can be proven to have fabricated this kind of accusation before. Which is...not great for your case.
???
I mean, I expect all of Garlands cases will go this way. Joe Greenburg got 11 years for doing the exact same shit.
DC gon DC. Give the low men time in the slammer, let the big guys go.
They manage to put people in prison based entirely on shitty witnesses when the person concerned isn't a government official.
You either need:
-to have enough witnesses that it doesn't matter they are all shit.
-to have at least one really good witness.
-to have damning evidence, or have it solid enough, that it makes witness quality irrelevant or less of a factor.
-some combination of the above.
If there is a silver lining here. The DoJ not pursuing Gaetz further on this isn't the same as being found innocent, which means if they get something more reliable to work with later and before statute of limitation, they can easily go after his ass again.
I guess could argue this is a drawback of anti-double jeopardy setups. Given that you only get one shot, it does mean that sometimes cases don't get pursued because prosecution doesn't believe they can currently win the case and they don't want to give an offender the satisfaction of being acquitted for something they totally did, but no one can prove. Yes, Gaetz is still going to gloat about this, but the piece of shit is still going to have watch his step, less he create the opening needed to send his ass to jail or at least get him booted from office.
Too late. Head-canon'd.
Just for context: He also pled guilty to a lot of unrelated shit going back years.
He got 30 serious charges reduced to 6 and the judge was of the opinion that it was, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'bullshit.'
To be clear, I still think the testimony of [underage escort] and [bagman], in addition to a venmo payment To: [bagman], Re: "Hit up [underage escort]" should be, by far, more than enough convince a jury.
(But perhaps not a NW Florida jury?)
You know, I don't believe this to be the case anymore.
There doesn't seem to be an opening large enough for the people who enforce federal law to do it on elected officials. If there's one reliable thing here, it's the eventual press release of "we are not going to pursue prosecution."
Rich, politically connected white man with an even richer daddy? They would have had issues getting conviction even with reliable witness testimony and a full paper trail. Chalk up another win for rich white guys I guess.
pleasepaypreacher.net
No. The class based biases built into our justice system dont care what party you're in.
Were he a Democrat he would at the very least have been forced to resign.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flmd.378539/gov.uscourts.flmd.378539.161.0.pdf
Not a great look. Should still help that he confessed to the exact crime being charged; but, yeah, ok, I see how that might be more concerning. And the girl didn't want to testify herself, which seems like the real problem? I think I remember hearing that a while back and that was when I stopped bothering to follow this.
I want to be frustrated by that, but I get not wanting to testify. If I had been perfectly willing to fuck some gross old man for a pile of cash when I was 17, and was now still in my early 20s, I would absolutely not willingly step into the spotlight for all the MAGA/QAnon psychos to tear my life apart for less than life changing money, and definitely not purely for the sake of civic duty.
[Edit 17 - PDF copy pasta slightly less of an eyesore]
I know we've just let that little whoopsie-doodle pass when it comes to elected officials, tho.
*Points at Al Franken and that entire clusterfuck.*