DL Open Thread Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022
David Cay Johnston, who has chronicled Donald Trump’s financial chicanery for decades, has sifted through the Jan. 6 Committee reports and found evidence of at least 26 instances of tax fraud over the six years he was running for and served as president.
If I were a Russian oligarch, I’d be looking for ways to kill Vladimir Putin before I fell out of a window like so many of my compadres.
I have never flown Southwest — I have a thing about knowing what seat I’m going to be in — and after the clusterfuck they’ve made of travel this holiday it looks like I never will. The bomb cyclone is long gone, but the budget airline is still cancelling thousands of flights a day, and Congress is starting to ask questions.
Democrats are calling for New York con man/congressman-elect George Santos, who has taken being a lying Republican sack of shit to new levels, to resign. He intends to do no such thing, but Josh Marshall, in a subscribers-only piece, explains that if he’s broken any laws he might be unseated. Most likely areas of lawbreaking: Entering a sham marriage to obtain citizenship (he’s gay); fleeing criminal prosecution in Brazil, where he’s still a wanted man; and campaign finance violations concerning the six-figure “loan” he made to himself, drawing on funds with no visible source.
The floor’s yours.
Sadly Santos is not going anywhere, suspect neither is Trump as the usual political cowardice will rule yet again. As for Russia it’s another oligarch down, wish we could say the same here.
In all the coverage, schadenfreude, gnashing of teeth, and opportunities for humor regarding what to do about Santos, the voters seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle. Other than the hard right lever-pullers, they have been utterly defrauded. No matter what aspect of his life and resume they liked, it was almost certainly a lie.
Really liked that David Cay Johnston report–especially how he lays out the charges that even financially unsophisticated jurors can understand.