;)
Sunday
Jan152023
January 15, 2023
Afternoon Update:
"A Perfect Fit." Isaac Stanley-Becker, et al., of the Washington Post: "In July 2020, a small Florida-based investment firm announced that a man named George Devolder had been hired as its New York regional director. 'When we had the opportunity to welcome him to our team, I was delighted,' the company's founder and chief executive said in a news release. 'He's a perfect fit.' Devolder is now better known as George Santos, the 34-year-old freshman Republican congressman from New York's 3rd Congressional District who brazenly lied to voters about key details of his biography. And the company for which he was 'a perfect fit,' Harbor City Capital, is no longer in operation. Its assets were frozen in 2021, when the Securities and Exchange Commission accused it of running a 'classic Ponzi scheme' that had defrauded investors of millions of dollars. The SEC complaint did not name Santos, who has denied knowledge of the alleged wrongdoing.... Records ... obtained by the Washington Post, as well as interviews..., reveal how the firm ... acquainted [Santos] with business associates who have gone on to play notable roles in his scandal-plagued political career." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Worth bookmarking if you want to remind yourself about how sleazy people operate. Oh, and a cameo appearance by Don Junior & the lovely Kimberly. And it's good to learn What's-His-Name had yet another alias: George Devolder. He said he used the name to keep his political ambitions & professional career separate; in fact, it appears to me he used his political contacts to try to secure investors in the Ponzi scheme and his wealthy contacts to enhance his political schemes. ~~~
~~~ The Fantastical Volleyball Career of George Santos. BTW, George did not attend Baruch College, did not have any first-hand knowledge of Baruch professors' in-class methods, was not graduated from Baruch College, was not on the Baruch College volleyball team and did not get knee injuries as a result of playing for that team. Otherwise, quite a bit of what he says in this audio tape is true:
George Santos on tape here lying about being a volleyball star at Baruch College, and claims he got two knee replacements as a result. pic.twitter.com/6FU9itVjLa
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) January 15, 2023
Missouri. Marie: The New York Times just got around to publishing an article (by Eduardo Medina) on the Missouri House's revision of the dress code for women members, and that has irritated me all over again. "'I think we're being quite pedantic here by making rules so petty,' State Representative Raychel Proudie, a Democrat, said on Wednesday in the chamber. 'And what it will ultimately lead to is the disenfranchisement of folks. For example, they don't make jackets or blazers for women who are pregnant. That can be very uncomfortable.'" Well, gosh, can't those pregnant ladies just knit themselves a super-sized cardigan wardrobe? They should learn to knit, you know. I think all the House Democrats -- men and women -- should get together one day and show up in bathing suits or hula outfits or pjs or whatever they feel like. Then let's see what happens.
You can tell the English, you can tell the Dutch. You can tell the Trumpies, but you can't tell 'em much. As contributor Jeanne & others repeatedly remind us, it's the GQP party. And if you live in Lycoming County, Pa., the local stars of that party just wasted your tax dollars: ~~~
~~~ Pennsylvania. Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "On the 797th day after the defeat of former President Donald J. Trump, a rural Pennsylvania county on Monday began a recount of ballots from Election Day 2020. Under pressure from conspiracy theorists and election deniers, 28 employees of Lycoming County counted -- by hand -- nearly 60,000 ballots. It took three days and an estimated 560 work hours.... The results of Lycoming County's hand recount -- like earlier recounts of the 2020 election in Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona -- revealed no evidence of fraud. The numbers reported more than two years ago were nearly identical to the numbers reported on Thursday. Mr. Trump ended up with seven fewer votes than were recorded on voting machines in 2020. Joseph R. Biden Jr. had 15 fewer votes. Overall, Mr. Trump gained eight votes against his rival.... [That did not] quell the doubts of election deniers, who had circulated a petition claiming there was a likelihood of 'rampant fraud' in Lycoming in 2020[.]... The county director of elections ... attributed the slight discrepancies between the hand recount and voting machine results to human error in reading ambiguous marks on the paper ballots."
~~~ Marie: One of the "proofs" of fraud cited by petitioners who implored the county to conduct a recount: "registered Republicans grew their numbers in Lycoming County compared with Democrats from 2016 to 2020," so if was unpossible for Biden to get more votes than Hillary Clinton. They didn't seem to notice that Trump got 16 percent more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. These people are not very bright.
Keeping It Classy. Russia. Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and a senior security official in President Vladimir Putin's administration, said Saturday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida should perform a ritualistic suicide by disembowelment to repent for what Medvedev called servitude to the United States.... Medvedev's remarks were in response to a joint statement Friday by President Biden and Kishida, in which the leaders said that 'any use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in Ukraine would be an act of hostility against humanity and unjustifiable in any way."
~~~~~~~~~~~
Drippity-Doo-Dah. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President Biden's aides found additional pages of classified information at his Delaware home this week, the White House said on Saturday, bringing the tally to six pages uncovered this week. The additional pages, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said, were discovered hours after a White House statement on Thursday that cited only one that had turned up in a storage area adjacent to the garage of his Wilmington home. Justice Department employees had gone to retrieve that page, which Mr. Biden's aides had discovered the night before. The revelation came as Mr. Biden's lawyers provided new details about their unfolding discovery over the past two months of classified materials from his time as vice president at his house and an office he used before beginning his 2020 campaign for the White House." Savage goes into those details, including adding to the timeline & providing a rationale/explanation for the initial delay. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Zeke Miller of the AP: "Lawyers for President Joe Biden found more classified documents at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, than previously known, the White House acknowledged Saturday. White House lawyer Richard Sauber said in a statement that a total of six pages of classified documents were found during a search of Bide's private library. The White House had said previously that only a single page was found there. The latest disclosure is in addition to the discovery of documents found in December in Biden's garage and in November at his former offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, from his time as vice president." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Adriana Diaz, et al., of CBS News: "The approximately 10 documents marked classified and discovered at the Penn Biden Center included top-secret material, according to a federal law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.... Fewer than 10 documents marked classified were found at the Biden residence in Wilmington, Del., and none were marked top secret. In all, the source said, the total number of known documents marked classified is roughly 20, between the two locations."
Jon Levine of the New York Post: "Embattled GOP Rep. George Santos wore stolen clothing to an election rally which accused President Biden of stealing the 2020 presidential election, according to a former roommate. Gregory Morey-Parker, who once lived with Santos in a Queens apartment, told Patch he was '100 percent' sure Santos was wearing his own Burberry scarf when the future Congressman attended a 'Stop the Steal' rally at the Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021.... Patch also published screenshots of a 2020 text between Morey-Parker and Yasser Rabello, another one-time roommate, discussing the stolen scarf and other clothes they say Santos swiped. Both men had previously come forward to the local news website to allege Santos had pilfered phones, dress shirts, and checks from a checkbook."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The death toll from a weekend attack on a residential apartment block in Dnipro rose to at least 18 people, the regional governor said early Sunday. Dozens were injured Saturday in the attack, which shattered the relative calm in a central Ukrainian city that had previously served as a safe haven for people displaced from other regions. Ukrainian officials claimed Saturday's strike, which tore through a high-rise building, was caused by a long-range Russian missile that Ukraine's military was not 'capable of shooting down.'... Kyiv has long lobbied for more advanced Western air defense systems, and Ukraine's armed forces said defensive weapons such as the Patriot missile system that the Pentagon is preparing to send could have been capable of intercepting such an attack....
"Missile attacks on Dnipro and several other cities, including the capital, Kyiv, come as Western allies prepare to send more advanced military equipment to Ukraine. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call on Saturday that the United Kingdom would provide Challenger 2 tanks, along with additional artillery systems, following a pledge by the United States, Germany and France to send advanced infantry fighting vehicles. Ukrainian forces have been using Soviet-era tanks.... The Ukrainian air force said on Telegram that it had shot down 25 of 38 rockets launched by Russian forces on Saturday as part of a massive attack on infrastructure."
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.
China. David Pierson & Olivia Wang of the New York Times: "China said on Saturday that it had recorded nearly 60,000 fatalities linked to the coronavirus in the month since the country lifted its strict 'zero Covid' policy, accelerating an outbreak that is believed to have infected millions of people. The disclosure was the first time China has provided an official measure of the Covid wave now sweeping the country, and represents a huge spike in the official death toll. Until Saturday, China had reported a total of just 5,241 Covid deaths since the pandemic began in the city of Wuhan in late 2019. That measure was narrowly defined as deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure caused by Covid. The new figure released Saturday included those who had Covid, but also died from other underlying illnesses." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'd have to check with meterologist Herschel Walker, but I'm afraid China's "bad air got to move ... over to our good air space," meaning we're bound to catch the covid floating around in China's bad air.
News Lede
New York Times: "A fresh wave of storms inundated California again on Saturday, swelling rivers, downing power lines and imperiling travelers during yet another holiday weekend as a procession of atmospheric rivers continued to wallop the state.... The state's northern and central regions have sustained the most damage: Levees have broken, thousands of trees have toppled, towering waves have shattered piers and mudslides have blocked highways. Flash flooding has shut down critical roads in the valleys and coastal areas, and heavy snow has blocked passages east over mountain ranges. As of Saturday evening, millions of residents from Eureka, in the far north of the state, to San Diego were under flood advisories. Across the state, emergency officials said, more than 75,000 people were under evacuation orders and warnings. More than 23,000 customers were without power statewide, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks power interruptions. A federal emergency declaration covered much of the state, with the cost of damage expected to reach hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars by the time skies clear." ~~~
~~~ CNN's report is here.
My new (used) reading chair:
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Reader Comments (15)
His life is like a box of chocolates. You never know which chocolate he’ll lie about next.
Wait…now he was wearing stolen clothes while railing about Biden stealing the election?
Jesus.
So…lied about high school, lied about college, was never a Wall St. savant, never owned apartment buildings, kited checks in Brazil to buy shoes, mother didn’t die in 9/11 attack, grandmother wasn’t a Holocaust survivor, doesn’t have cancer, isn’t Jew-ish, or Black, was married to a woman, credit card shenanigans with some donor, lived in a rat house late with the rent, but loaned his campaign $700 G’s…
George Santos is the Forrest Gump of liars. An idiot who has floated every weird lie imaginable.
When you think about it, the GQP should give him an award. He’s everything they strive to be: a cheap, chiseling crook and constant liar, a con man berating the president about a lie while wearing stolen clothes.
He’s their idol.
@Akhilleus: Was about to check my coat rack to see if my knock-off Burberry scarf was still there when I saw that George Anthony had stolen a different-weave Burberry scarf. He says he's not a criminal, but (allegedly!) he stole clothing, phones & checks from his roommates, he kited checks in Brazil (and now that the authorities there have found him, they say they will prosecute), & he committed what appears to be multiple instances of criminal fraud in his campaign. (Besides the suspect $700,000 he claims to have lent/given to his campaign, I saw there was a [firewalled] Slate story that said he charged seven meals at a particular restaurant, and each time the tab came to exactly $199.99 -- perhaps not coincidentally the tippy-top amount you can charge to a campaign before you must provide a receipt.)
George Anthony is not a criminal; he's a serial criminal.
Probably George Anthony is his nom de plume.
I'll look for his autobiography next time I'm at the library (in the
fiction section, of course).
I'm betting George Anthony will be next speaker of the House.
He's the most honest one there.
AK: Here's what Anthony Lane had so say about "Forest Gump":
“This movie is so insistently heartwarming that it chilled me to the marrow."
But back to the man with many names and stolen Burberry scarfs. Marie is absolutely correct in labeling him a "serial criminal"–--this is one sick puppy. I'm reminded here of the film, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" who faked his way through life until he got caught in the web of his own making. It's a disgrace that this guy is in Congress but then these are not normal times and yet––––maybe they have become so.
@P.D. Pepe: Funny you should mention "Ripley." I've seen the film many times, including when it first came out in the theater. Although I've read a couple of Patricia's Highsmith's novels, I've never read "Ripley" (I think there are follow-up novels), and I got an urge to read it this morning, so I bought a hardback copy (sadly, it was not available anywhere but Amazon).
I recently bought a wonderful new (well, okay, used) reading chair for the new house I've been building forevah. It's an updated version of a French deco leather-upholstered library chair. It's just purr-fect. (Pictured above, in the shop from which I bought the chair.) Unfortunately, the chair is at the new house and the new house is "decorated" with moving boxes, so I'm going to have to either (a) be extremely patient and wait till I have the proper set-up in the new house, or (b) straighten up one of the multipurpose rooms in my stone cottage & read the story here. I'm going for (b). We're having perfect reading weather for a Highsmith book, even a story that's set mostly in sunny Italy: gloomy and cold.
BTW, someone (maybe Frank Rich) suggested years ago that in the film the roles Jude Law & Matt Damon played should have been reversed; i.e., Matt should have played Dickie & Jude should have played Tom. I tend to agree with that, except Damon is (and was) a much better actor than Law, IMO, so I suspect that's why the casting ended up as it did. Still, Jude Law as Ripley might have been very convincing.
Maureen Dowd does it again–--her column today on the royal mishegoss is worth reading–--topped with a lovely picture of young Harry with his mom. Not being especially "into" royal maneuvers I found myself being very interested in the Harry/Meagan saga. I will not read Harry's book but Maureen has and she changes her stance somewhat––-a greater understanding of what Harry endured growing up in the cold comfort of the monarchy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/14/opinion/prince-harry-spare-royal-family.html
Marie,
A good reading chair is one of life’s great pleasures. Combined, necessarily of course, with a dependable reading light and a small table on which to place one’s teacup and set the book down, properly marked, when called away, regrettably, to life’s more insistent demands.
And yes, there are several Ripley books. I’ve only read the first two, along with the novel that put Highsmith on the high road, “Strangers on a Train”.
Highsmith has the rather unsettling ability to make one root for a thoroughly evil character. Ripley’s paranoia ickily (is that a word?) transfers itself to the reader as he gets in and out of increasingly dangerous situations.
By the way, interesting idea that Jude Law should have played Ripley. It could be that Frank Rich was familiar with an earlier filmed version of the book, “Plein Soleil” starring the ridiculously good looking Alain Delon as the title character. That younger Law even looks a bit like Delon, who inhabits Ripley fully as a creepily charismatic manipulator.
Weirdly (as often happens) this version was renamed “Purple Noon” for English audiences, even though the original title “Full Sun” is much more appropriate for a dark character who operates in broad daylight.
Speaking of great acting, easily the best actor in that 1999 Ripley is (or would shortly become) Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose work as the annoying Freddie is so insistently maddening that you think you would very likely have killed him too, the fucker.
One more thing about “Plein Soleil”. They change the ending. Those who haven’t read the book or seen the movie, stop reading!
In the book (and the American film) Tom Ripley gets away with everything. In the 1960 French version, it’s strongly implied that Ripley is walking into a trap set by the police. Highsmith was unhappy with this outcome (for one, no more Ripley, no more Ripley novels!) even though she thought Delon was great in the role.
Anyhoo, go get your chair and dive in. I’ve just started an early John le Carré novel, “The Looking Glass War” his next after “Spy”. 20 pages in and you’d need a diamond tipped chainsaw to cut the tension. Sheesh. He doesn’t waste any time.
Reading, she’s a great-a thing, no?
By the by, love the chair, leather club chair. Very nice. Very comfy looking. A warm throw, a table and reading lamp and you’re cooking with gas, as my mother used to say. (But don’t say that to anyone! They’ll make you turn it off!)
Marie: Yes, love the chair! May I say I admire your moxy and ability to get all your houses in order––-that's one tall order and you apparently do all this by yourself.
As for Highsmith –-leave it to Akilleus to give us the background of the aforementioned film. Like you I have seen it many times and have read a great deal about Highsmith , especially after seeing "Srangers on a Train"–––Bruno was such an intriguing character–––we do find these bad boys fascinating.
As for the joy of reading––-it has filled my life with such pleasure ever since childhood and aren't we lucky. Edna O'Brien said that" books are the Grail for what is deepest, more mysterious and least expressive within ourselves. They are the soul's skeleton. If we were to forget that, it would prefigure how false and feelingless we could become."
@P.D. Pepe & @Akhilleus: I've never read Edna O'Brien, though I think I've made a stab at at least one. She was a friend of Edgar Doctorow's who had a rowhouse down the row from us in the Mews behind Washington Square North in Manhattan, so she stayed in our apartment one summer when we were in Europe. She left me a signed copy of one of her books, and of course I still have it. Somewhere.
And, yes, I agree with you about reading-space accessories. I always have a table, a reading lamp & an ottoman nearby and a throw on the chair. In Florida, I also had a cup-warmer (if you get one, make sure it's at least 25W) to keep the tea hot. I'll probably set up the same arrangement here. (I have cup warmers next to my computer & my bed here. The one next to my computer is on about 24/7.) I also like to have a view, so there's something nice to look at when I look up from the book to think about it. I'll be setting up my new old chair so I have a lake view, and if I read "Ripley" in my cottage living room, I'll sit where I can see a fire in the fireplace.)
I’ve often thought that Ripley is really a Hitchcock film - or should have been, anyway. And knowing that Patricia Highsmith wrote the story, as well as Strangers on a Train, one of my favorite Hitchcock movies, makes it even more so.
Reading and Sunday Serendipity:
Picked up an essay collection that my son must have given me back in the 1990's, around the time when he was in medical school. "The Doctor with Two Heads" by Gerald Weissmann. After detouring from his intended career as an artist, as a younger physician/researcher Weissmann worked with Lewis Thomas (the unparalleled medical science essayist). Tho' he doesn't say it directly. Thomas' presence in early in his medical life must have inspired him to write. His essays emphasize the human element he believes must inspire medical education and medical practice. He draws on his pre-medical education as the source for the large dollops of art and literature that lade his writing, all in service of cementing the connections he sees between science and the humanities. He doesn't quite manage it, but the essays present an intriguing effort toward a Unified Field Theory of Art and Science.
Art ignorant as I am, I can see why I put the book aside for thirty years, but now more content with all I don't know, I'm enjoying the book for itself, in the company of a smart, thoughtful writer and of memories of my much younger son.
The serendipity? The name Weissmann struck a cord. Made me think of another smart Weissmann (how apt a name!) and I remembered where I'd encountered it: Andrew Weissman of the Mueller investigation, now dispensing astute legal opinions on MSNBC--and per Wikipedia, Gerald Weissman's son.
@Ken Winkes: Thanks for that. I read Gerald's Wikipage. Andrew had big shoes to fill, and he's done it.
Every time I read about someone who escaped the Nazis & went on to be a great credit to society, or whole child became a great person, I get madder and madder not just at Hitler but at all cruel authoritarians, whether it's Trump or Putin or Xi or some ayatollah or tinpot dictator. I doubt their is any greater waste of humanity than the question for power.
PD and Rockygirl,
“Strangers on a Train” foregrounds a particularly vicious, narcissistic, self-absorbed, amoral villain, Bruno, who can’t understand why his tennis playing other doesn’t get why murdering someone is perfectly okay, especially if it benefits you and you’ve divined a plan to get away with it. Bruno, in that regard, is very much like Trump.
“So what if a half million people die? I’m all that matters! Don’t they get that?”the Republican Way. I had a plan to to steal the election. So what if a few insignificant ants get stepped on and die? What about me? And if I get called on my murderous scheme, those people also need to die.