US Politics, December 2022: "They're now the working class party, man."

ok let me tell you something that's been bothering me about these people for a while. not necessarily Trump but the people like MTG and Boebert whose rhetoric is basically straight up fascism and genocide, but then they drop a phrase like "Grouchy Fauci" in there. it feels so weird but not really because you know these aren't serious people to begin with, had they not been elected they'd be selling diet pills and auditioning for Survivor. its why all these scholars' warnings of "we are diving head first into fascism" aren't really resonating with me. I mean maybe they're right but it's not the kind of fascism we've seen in the past. it's way too stupid for that.

Fascism with a human face

The irony in "that makes me smart" is that the only decisive part Trump played in filing his taxes was to instruct his CFO to use bogus numbers so he could defraud the government. Creating that tangled maze of companies and trusts was entirely done by his underlings.

Months before the New York Times published a December article suggesting Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.) had fabricated much of his résumé and biography, a tiny publication on Long Island was ringing alarm bells about its local candidate.

The North Shore Leader wrote in September, when few others were covering Santos, about his “inexplicable rise” in reported net worth, from essentially nothing in 2020 to as much as $11 million two years later.

The story noted other oddities about the self-described gay Trump supporter with Jewish heritage, who would go on to flip New York’s 3rd District from blue to red, and is now under investigation by authorities for misrepresenting his background to voters.

“Interestingly, Santos shows no U.S. real property in his financial disclosure, although he has repeatedly claimed to own ‘a mansion in Oyster Bay Cove’ on Tiffany Road and ‘a mansion in the Hamptons’ on Dune Road,” managing editor Maureen Daly wrote in the Leader. “For a man of such alleged wealth, campaign records show that Santos and his husband live in a rented apartment, in an attached rowhouse in Queens.”

The Leader reluctantly endorsed Santos’s Democratic opponent the next month. “This newspaper would like to endorse a Republican,” it wrote, but Santos “is so bizarre, unprincipled and sketchy that we cannot,” adding, “He boasts like an insecure child — but he’s most likely just a fabulist — a fake.”

It was the stuff national headlines are supposed to be built on: A hyperlocal outlet like the Leader does the leg work, regional papers verify and amplify the story, and before long an emerging political scandal is being broadcast coast to coast.

But that system, which has atrophied for decades amid the destruction of news economies, appears to have failed completely this time

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/29/north-shore-leader-santos-scoop/

along the same lines, josh marshall wrote about the North Shore Leader's work not getting picked up last week:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/hey-the-local-paper-was-all-over-notorious-liar-and-weirdo-george-santos/sharetoken/T56e6Lrn7D8E

worth reading (imo) because it also talks a bit about whose responsibility it is to do oppo research (which i totally just typed "op-ed research", lol) and some of those dynamics, if one is interested in that side of things. in this case, though, it appears that the local newspaper did all the op-ed research for them, and no one bothered to read it or forward it to anyone.

i wonder how much of it had to do with his opponent in the primary? i made a bob dylan joke (hilarious!!) the other day because this is wikipedia's account of the election results:

https://i.imgur.com/gODX6p0.png

robert zimmerman does exist, though. he seems like a game show host

https://i.imgur.com/v20eICo.png

Seems like it was an open secret among republicans

Top House Republicans were well aware of Santos's dishonesty before the election/NYT article, w/ several expressing late concern/incredulity that he might win. Here's what I wrote in @CookPolitical on September 1st: pic.twitter.com/1e5u7RFjOI

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) December 30, 2022

x[ Wrong Dude

it appears that the local newspaper did all the op-ed research for them

*facepalm*

A hyperlocal outlet like the Leader does the leg work, regional papers verify and amplify the story, and before long an emerging political scandal is being broadcast coast to coast. But that system, which has atrophied for decades amid the destruction of news economies, appears to have failed completely this time.

WaPo forthrightly reports that newspapers like the WaPo can no longer be trusted to even notice important stories being investigated and printed by smaller newspapers.

robert zimmerman notices that there is a trace of a wrinkle visible on the tail of his pristine dress shirt, near the bottom hem
robert zimmerman punches the wall in an explosive rage and immediately dips his face into cold water and screams as bubbles form in the sink

dishonesty is the best policy. watch the police and the taxman miss me!

the year has changed again

U.S. Politics January 2023: Kevin McCarthy's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Life