American Politics

[SubCmdr]

Rep. George Santos used his congressional campaign money for extensive self-care, according to a damning new report from the House ethics committee.

According to the report, Santos solicited donors for money that he ultimately spent on personal expenses, including subscriptions to the porn influencer platform OnlyFans, Sephora, Botox, and a $4,127.80 purchase at Hermes. The money, according to bank records obtained by House Ethics investigators, came from a corporate entity called Redstone Strategies, which Santos controlled. The New York Republican claimed Redstone which was not registered with the Federal Elections Commission was used to help his 2022 congressional campaign.

But House investigators found he sent money to his personal checking account and spent it on himself. "The funds were used to, among other things: pay down personal credit card bills and other debt; make a $4,127.80 purchase at Hermes; and for smaller purchases at OnlyFans; Sephora; and for meals and for parking," the report says. Based on the bank records made public by the House Ethics Committee, Business Insider could not identify which OnlyFans creators Santos subscribed to. Santos did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the subject.

Before Santos was spending tens of thousands of dollars on personal expenses and luxury goods, he had appeared to be in financial trouble, the report suggests. In April 2022, Santos's personal checking account had a balance of only $136.93, according to bank records included in the ethics report. He texted a donor asking for $6,000 "ASAP," which he said would be spent on campaign advertising, and claimed he meant to ask about it earlier. "Sorry I've been so frazzled I sat on this like a dum dum," Santos texted the donor.

Shortly after Santos received the $6,000, he transferred $5,000 to his personal account to pay his bills, according to the report. Investigators said they found no evidence any of the money was spent on advertising. Santos also used his campaign's credit card for travel on his honeymoon, spa services, and cosmetic procedures, according to the report. "For example, during the 2020 campaign, a $1,500 purchase on the campaign debit card was made at Mirza Aesthetics; this expense was not reported to the FEC and was noted as 'Botox' in expense spreadsheets," the report says.

Santos said that, following the report's release, he would no longer seek reelection in 2024.

Some of the personal expenses are alluded to in a federal fraud and campaign finance indictment against Santos, which is scheduled to go to trial in September 2024. The indictment alleges he embezzled campaign funds for luxury goods and other personal uses. Santos has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

https://www.businessinsider.in/polit.../105270930.cms

All politicians regardless of party love pussy and ass!

[MarquisdeSade1]

"Yes, the Repub Pink Getting Smaller and Smaller All The Time Tinkle House should stop stalling and finally fund the border control agent increases Biden has been asking for and the comprehensive Immigration Reform that Repubs have been avoiding since forever. Then the Lower Than Under Trump violent crime and murder rates will decline that much lower. However, those Repub Pink Tinklers are apparently too busy trying to Impeach President Hunter Biden and Outlaw Sex For Pleasure to get around to it. Oh well:

Reported violent crime rate in the United States from 1990 to 2022.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...sa-since-1990/

(See Chart Below).

Killings in the USA Are dropping at a historic rate. Will anyone notice?

Oct. 20,2023.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/new...ntial-politics

Of course, the much, much bigger challenge then will be for Bill Maher and other pro Repub "Bothsiders" (LOL) in Mainstream Media to notice and mention it a bit more often. Which is always a huge challenge for Dems in election years.

The peak violent crime rate in the last 35 years or so was at the end of a 12 year run of Repubs in the White House. Well, only because Mass Murdering Americans by leaving us and the rest of the world bare ass naked against preventing and responding to the predictable potential spread of deadly viruses and lying for a critical year to exacerbate the Pandemic one USA so-called potus created is not technically considered a "violent" crime, that is.

But those rates are at or near historically low levels under Dem Biden, the record low during that time frame being under Dem Obama. Then again, Joe Biden was a major contributor to the historic success of that Dem Administration, too.

Thanks, Joe. Many times over. ".

Statistics don't Bullshit.

But Bullshitters use Statistics.

Thanks Bangkok Bob Many times over ROTFLMMFAO.

[EihTooms]

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023...see-isnt-real/

Yes, the Repub Pink Getting Smaller and Smaller All The Time Tinkle House should stop stalling and finally fund the border control agent increases Biden has been asking for and the comprehensive Immigration Reform that Repubs have been avoiding since forever. Then the Lower Than Under Trump violent crime and murder rates will decline that much lower. However, those Repub Pink Tinklers are apparently too busy trying to Impeach President Hunter Biden and Outlaw Sex For Pleasure to get around to it. Oh well:

Reported violent crime rate in the United States from 1990 to 2022.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...sa-since-1990/

(See Chart Below).

Killings in the U.S. are dropping at a historic rate. Will anyone notice?
Oct. 20, 2023

https://www.latimes.com/politics/new...ntial-politics

Of course, the much, much bigger challenge then will be for Bill Maher and other pro Repub "Bothsiders" (LOL) in Mainstream Media to notice and mention it a bit more often. Which is always a huge challenge for Dems in election years.

The peak violent crime rate in the last 35 years or so was at the end of a 12 year run of Repubs in the White House. Well, only because Mass Murdering Americans by leaving us and the rest of the world bare ass naked against preventing and responding to the predictable potential spread of deadly viruses and lying for a critical year to exacerbate the Pandemic one USA so-called potus created is not technically considered a "violent" crime, that is.

But those rates are at or near historically low levels under Dem Biden, the record low during that time frame being under Dem Obama. Then again, Joe Biden was a major contributor to the historic success of that Dem Administration, too.

Thanks, Joe. Many times over.

[MarquisdeSade1]

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023...see-isnt-real/

[Spidy]

Hell yeah! MILF's for Liberty! I'll take one of those over a hairy Commie any day! Maybe Lauren Boebert's a member? That MILF has some fine tata's!

Why am I not surprised you'd think Lauren Opal Boebert's "tatas" are fine. IMHO, those so called "tatas"/tits of hers, are about as FAKE, as Trump's claims of election fraud, or his state's FAKE electors.

Fake electors in Wisconsin first to admit Biden won election and face and face penalty
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-2020-election

But then again, having FAKE tits w/r to MILFs for Liberty, would naturally make sense and align with their FAKE organization, mandate and charter.

Well if Rep.Lauren Opal Boebert (R-CO), is a member of the newly branded MILF's for Liberty, it wouldn't surprise me either, as the hypocrisy for "good family values" and non-groomers would be complete.

Maybe Repub Christian Ziegler, could get that "quality" raping time...I mean groping time, in with Opal Boebert, at the next showing/performance of Beetlejuice. That is of course, if Ziegler, doesn't go too far and Boebert, shoots his dick off....kkkk!

Well, stay tuned, as things are getting interesting:
"Video may contradict details of rape allegation against Christian Ziegler
https://floridapolitics.com/archives...stian-ziegler/

[EihTooms]

Retail Group Retracts Startling Claim About Organized Shoplifting.
The National Retail Federation had said that nearly half of the industrys $94.5 billion in missing merchandise in 2021 was the result of organized theft.
It was likely closer to 5 percent, experts say.
Dec. 8, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/b...etraction.html#text=In%20 fact%2 see%20 retail%20 theft%20 has, fallen%207%20 percent%20 since%202019.

But in most major cities, shoplifting incidents have fallen 7 percent since 2019.

That's right. Lower than pre Trump's Pandemic. Lower than under Trump.

Oh, if only there was somebody who has someone paying for his subscription to the NYT for those wonderful reports and articles and can post the entire report here.

Shhh. Don't anybody tell Bill Maher about this. He will have to re-write half of his 2024 Repub Election Campaign Biden / Dem-slamming jokes.

And, as usual, utterly lucid, cognitively competent and superior to any Repub's lunacy Joe Biden got it right on the reason Trump's Pandemic Recovery's inevitable transitory Inflation got to where it went and lingered as long as it did:

Biden turns up pressure on corporate price gouging as 2024 nears.
Dec. 1, 2023

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...ing-inflation/

'Excess profits at big energy and consumer companies pushed up inflation, report claims.
Dec. 8, 2023

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/08/exce...ndroidappshare

Shhh. Don't anybody tell Larry Summers about this. He will have to cancel all of his typically pro Repub Mainstream Media 2024 Repub Election Campaign appearances.

[Tiny 12]

How awful for him to consider all choruses of "I'm proud to be an American" and "God bless the USA" that he sang all through Reagan's Great Recession and Skyrocketing Unemployment Rate, Bush1's pathetically low jobs creation and prolonged recession, GW Bush's horrific double Recessions including still another Great Repub Recession and Massive Jobs Destruction and Donald Trump's creation and exacerbation of Trump's Pandemic, Wiping Out Millions Upon Millions of Jobs as well as Mass Murdering more than a Million Americans so far before it damn well should have dawned on Greenwood that he should have slanted his lyrics a wee bit more toward a pro Democratic Party Partisan direction if he really gave a shit at all about America, Americans and the workingman.

What a sad lost opportunity and waste of his talent for so many critical years.

I finally figured it out! In the real world, you're James Carville! Well, all I can say is you've done a superlative job of maintaining your cover, as one of the most knowledgeable posters in the Bangkok forum. It must have required an immense amount of on-line research. That's unless you were able to slip away from Mary Matalin for frequent visits to the Land of Smiles, which I seriously doubt.

[Paulie97]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KoXt9pZLGM

Please note he's singing "I'm proud to be an American," and "God bless the USA". Not "I'm proud to be a Democrat." Or "God bless the Democratic Party."

Here's another excellent song from him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwSa1Ok6KN0

[EihTooms]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KoXt9pZLGM

Please note he's singing "I'm proud to be an American," and "God bless the USA". Not "I'm proud to be a Democrat." Or "God bless the Democratic Party."

How awful for him to consider all choruses of "I'm proud to be an American" and "God bless the USA" that he sang all through Reagan's Great Recession and Skyrocketing Unemployment Rate, Bush1's pathetically low jobs creation and prolonged recession, GW Bush's horrific double Recessions including still another Great Repub Recession and Massive Jobs Destruction and Donald Trump's creation and exacerbation of Trump's Pandemic, Wiping Out Millions Upon Millions of Jobs as well as Mass Murdering more than a Million Americans so far before it damn well should have dawned on Greenwood that he should have slanted his lyrics a wee bit more toward a pro Democratic Party Partisan direction if he really gave a shit at all about America, Americans and the workingman.

What a sad lost opportunity and waste of his talent for so many critical years.

[Tiny 12]

May I suggest, MILFs for Liberty" (...kkkk!).

Hell yeah! MILF's for Liberty! I'll take one of those over a hairy Commie any day! Maybe Lauren Boebert's a member? That MILF has some fine tata's!

[Tiny 12]

Isn't it wonderful for Repubs that they take over from Dems with the USA economy doing so well, so stable and with trajectories heading upward on virtually all positive metrics that they can just kick back, put big bucks into their donor base pockets and wait ten years or more to see if any of it trickles down to anyone else and possibly produces anything at all noticeable even after the likely addition to the deficit is that lovely $1. 5 Trillion that apparently never bothers economy academics?

I mean, verses the conditions Dems encounter when they take over from those same Repubs where the USA economy is Crashing Down around our ears, jobs are being wiped out by the millions upon millions, brave free-market Capitalists are diving under their beds and wouldn't be coaxed out from under it to tip-toe back into the light if day even in 20 years unless they are assured that somebody else, invariably the Federal Government, will do whatever is necessary and this very minute to reactivate the Sun and make the road ahead smooth as far as the eye can see. Oh, and why didn't those economic slacker Dems accomplish all of that and save the World "yesterday", what is this shit about "wait ten years and we'll see"? Dammit, there are NO JOBS, NO FOOD, NO WATER now! LOL.

And the thing is it doesn't matter if America gives Repub economic policy and stewardship 4 years, 8 years or an uninterrupted 12 years to work its "magic" on the economy. Repubs are apparently contractually obligated to search out and facilitate whatever "Once in a Hundred Years" or "Unprecedented" Disaster is available or handy to exploit and embrace in order to make absolutely certain that no "win-win" ever occurs in the Real World and instead that the Incoming Dem is met with either millions upon millions of jobs being wiped out or, at best, utterly lackluster job numbers were created while the deficit has hit historic highs to buy those lackluster results. Either way, we get the usual Crap Results ftom Repubs, no matter how pie-in-the-sky 10,000 Nobel Prize-Winning economists said it would be if we all just hold tight and wait ten years with none of those wild coincidental-only-to-Repubs Disasters happening between now and then. And when, not if, it does happen, nobody is going to remember what those silly predictions were ten years earlier anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KoXt9pZLGM

Please note he's singing "I'm proud to be an American," and "God bless the USA". Not "I'm proud to be a Democrat." Or "God bless the Democratic Party."

[Spidy]

In my college years, there were more of them in the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade (RCYB) than the Young Republicans, even though there were a lot more Young Republicans. You had to be willing to put up with women with hairy underarms though if you were going to date RCYB chicks.

Sounds like your dates could have undertaken a Brazilian waxing or two, or three?

Bat shit crazy women are better in bed.

I wouldn't know, but if that's your thing...hey, no judgement here! Perhaps that would explain why more Repubs, are willing to put up with "bat-shit crazy" from Trump, because they're used to it, from their Repub wives/women...kkkk!

Personally have a very low tolerance for "bat-shit crazy" anything in my life, let alone in my bed.

Listen: 911 tape released in criminal investigation of Florida GOP chairman Christian Ziegler. She told me she was raped yesterday and shes scared to leave her house. ...

She wont answer anyone else at work except for me but she told me she was raped yesterday and that shes scared to leave her house, said the caller. Shes saying shes scared, that the person that raped her came to her house, that shes scared to leave. ...

https://flcga.org/listen-911-tape-re...ave-her-house/

But judging by the 911 call, it would appear, Christian Ziegler, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, is perhaps the person that went "bat-shit crazy" and then "ape-shit crazy". The accused/alleged perpetrator, Christian Ziegler, looks to have really done a number on this woman, who he apparently has known for 3-yrs. With Republican friends like Ziegler, who needs enemies???

Well, no doubt, if Repubs/Wingers are true to form, Moms for Liberty, will simply look to this latest right-wing sex scandal shocker in Florida, as a branding problem and rebrand...

May I suggest, MILFs for Liberty" (...kkkk!).

[EihTooms]

I'll repost the link to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) paper here. Thirty-nine Nobel Prize winners in economics, 14 members of the Presidents' Council of Eonomic Advisors, and three of the four authors of the paper in question were members of the nonpartisan NBER.

https://conference.nber.org/conf_papers/f191672.pdf

Actually the link does "support the notion that Trump and his Repubs' TCJA measurably increased hiring or wages." It just doesn't attempt to quantify the increase.

Please see Figure 9 on page 45. The blue line shows the estimated increase in labor taxes as a % of the pre-TCJA corporate tax revenue, which results from implementation of the TCJA. By the third year (2020), labor taxes are up by 10% of corporate revenue, and by year 10, they're 15% of corporate revenue. The increase in labor taxes results from an increase in (a) wages and (b) employment, as a result of the TCJA. Again, I'm not saying the corporate tax changes in the TCJA are / were entirely responsible for lower unemployment and higher real wages, but I believe they were partly responsible.

The effect on tax revenues is interesting. You sum the solid red and blue lines on the graph to come up with the net change in corporate tax revenues. In the initial years, the drop in corporate tax revenues is greater than the increase in labor taxes, so the net effect is lower total tax revenues. After year 4 though, total tax revenues are actually higher than they would have been without the TCJA. Go out to year 20, and the Treasury is collecting 18% more tax revenue, expressed as a % of pre-TCJA corporate tax revenue, than it would have otherwise! That's why I say there were no losers here, only winners. The companies, the workers and the Treasury all benefit.

This is a good example of how a Republican led change in policy resulted in benefits to the economy years after it was first implemented. The measures passed during the Biden administration, in particular the American Rescue Plan, were more like sugar highs. They boost the economy while the money's being spent, but then the longer term repercussions, like the increase in the national debt, don't justify the short term high. Admittedly there are long term gains to be had from, for example, the bipartisan infrastructure bill. But given all the pork and inefficiency associated with the Federal bill, I believe local and state fixes for most infrastructure shortcomings are a better way of dealing with inadequate and outdated infrastructure.

Like I said, intuitively I don't believe this made much of a difference, but I'd like to see more info. Here are a list of recent state and local changes in the minimum wage at mid-year 2023.

https://ogletree.com/insights-resour...age-increases/

Are these increases, since the last increase in the minimum wage, in excess of the high inflation that has occurred, coincidentally or not, during the Biden administration? Certainly some of them are not. Take a look at Illiniois..

Isn't it wonderful for Repubs that they take over from Dems with the USA economy doing so well, so stable and with trajectories heading upward on virtually all positive metrics that they can just kick back, put big bucks into their donor base pockets and wait ten years or more to see if any of it trickles down to anyone else and possibly produces anything at all noticeable even after the likely addition to the deficit is that lovely $1. 5 Trillion that apparently never bothers economy academics?

I mean, verses the conditions Dems encounter when they take over from those same Repubs where the USA economy is Crashing Down around our ears, jobs are being wiped out by the millions upon millions, brave free-market Capitalists are diving under their beds and wouldn't be coaxed out from under it to tip-toe back into the light if day even in 20 years unless they are assured that somebody else, invariably the Federal Government, will do whatever is necessary and this very minute to reactivate the Sun and make the road ahead smooth as far as the eye can see. Oh, and why didn't those economic slacker Dems accomplish all of that and save the World "yesterday", what is this shit about "wait ten years and we'll see"? Dammit, there are NO JOBS, NO FOOD, NO WATER now! LOL.

And the thing is it doesn't matter if America gives Repub economic policy and stewardship 4 years, 8 years or an uninterrupted 12 years to work its "magic" on the economy. Repubs are apparently contractually obligated to search out and facilitate whatever "Once in a Hundred Years" or "Unprecedented" Disaster is available or handy to exploit and embrace in order to make absolutely certain that no "win-win" ever occurs in the Real World and instead that the Incoming Dem is met with either millions upon millions of jobs being wiped out or, at best, utterly lackluster job numbers were created while the deficit has hit historic highs to buy those lackluster results. Either way, we get the usual Crap Results ftom Repubs, no matter how pie-in-the-sky 10,000 Nobel Prize-Winning economists said it would be if we all just hold tight and wait ten years with none of those wild coincidental-only-to-Repubs Disasters happening between now and then. And when, not if, it does happen, nobody is going to remember what those silly predictions were ten years earlier anyway.

[Tiny 12]

And whatever will the moms at Moms for Liberty say? Can you imagine the "bat-shit crazy" talk and the things they'll be saying about their so called righteous leader, I've dubbed "the Ziegler Bi-sexual MILF, Blonde Bimbo, Betrayer of Moms for Liberty"?

Bat shit crazy women are better in bed. In my college years, there were more of them in the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade (RCYB) than the Young Republicans, even though there were a lot more Young Republicans. You had to be willing to put up with women with hairy underarms though if you were going to date RCYB chicks.

[Tiny 12]

I think maybe, Mike Lee could be a great VP for King Trump 2024.

While I disagree with Mike Lee about some social issues and Trump, I believe he'd make a great president. It's interesting you like him, considering he's about as close as you'll come to a Libertarian, on economic policy at least, in the Senate or House.

...the Republicans held leads on the remaining subjects, including being for working people (a 7-point advantage), standing up to elites (8 points), being able to get things done for the American people (12 points), feeling safe (12 points) and keeping wages and salaries up with the cost of living (17 points).

The American people are wiser than some believe.