Monday, April 10, 2023

The Talented Mr. Santos

Heisman Trophy winner George Santos

George Santos, creator of RuPaul's Drag Race 

I started this post a while back and quickly abandoned it.  I conceived of it as a brief catalog of Santos' lies, how his ongoing presence in Congress is linked to Trump's normalization of "alternative facts," and how for today's GOP the end justifies any means.  Sadly, the lies started coming in so thick and fast I couldn't keep up....Bear in mind this is a woefully incomplete and undeveloped text.

Let me introduce George Santos, uh, I mean Antony Devolder, um, excuse me, that's George Devolder.  Ahem.  Wait, what?  Ah fuck it.  We don't know what his name is....

A drag queen "hides" in plain sight.  We know it's a man dressed as a woman, but we enjoy the illusion, indeed, we reward it.  Or at least RuPaul does.  But drag is not a lie.  It's not even false.

Santos stands up in front of the public and lies to them.  Unlike drag, there is no consensus.  The public has not agreed to participate in an illusion.  We like to think of Politics as Theater.  If the illusion between an actor and the public is erotic, the lies of a politician are closer to rape by deception:  

a situation in which the perpetrator deceives the victim into participating in a sexual act political exchange that they would otherwise not consent to.

Santos is either a con-man who has reached too far, or a compulsive liar.

Santos means "Saints," as in "Saints alive!" --  but the only holy things here are his stories: "Hole-y" that is, as in full of holes.  Dude's got more holes than a box of doughnuts.... 

Herschel Walker. Bald-faced lies, Alternative facts, Doublespeak, GOP rhetoric

His mom died in 9-11!  His grandparents were killed in the Holocaust!  He's Jewish.  Oh, I meant "Jew-ish."  He was the target of a kidnapping attempt.  He was a producer on that ill-fated Spider Man musical.  He fell off a chair and tipped a table over during a meeting with Stephen A. Schwarzman....

Mix in a few boners to make the lies about the power broker stuff more credible....

Santos has lied about his education and his professional background, but one company he actually did work for was found to be defrauding clients in a Ponzi scheme.  He is accused of sweeping campaign finance law violations.  He robbed a vet's Go Fund Me earnings; the homeless veteran was raising money to save his service dog.  No money, no care.  The dog died.  Santos also robbed an Amish farmer, paying for some puppies with a rubber check.  Bur hey! his (non-existent) charity has saved thousands of (non-existent) dogs. 

He is accused  of organizing a credit card scam in 2017, even blackmailing a guy into participating.  He has been broke one moment and wealthy the next.  He stole clothes from and otherwise defrauded his roommates.  He is accused of sexual harassment.  He claims he was the target of a kidnapping attempt.... 

Here's his official House of Reps biographical blurb:

SANTOS, Georgea Representative from New York; born on July 22, 1988; unsuccessful candidate for election to the One Hundred Seventeenth Congress in 2020; elected as a Republican to the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress (January 3, 2023-present).

Bare bones indeed.

That this dude hasn't been frog-marched to the Capitol entrance and flung down the steps is a testament to due process, and/or Congressional venality.

So that's the beginning of the abandoned project. Wikipedia has a good overview of his deceit.  This here post is problematic and not at all developed, and I've given up on it, but I'm so disgusted with this guy I figured anything that publicizes his shittiness is worth putting online....