Another Weekend in America

Well it’s Monday and it was just another weekend in America.

Two mass shootings; one killing ten in California and another eleven shot at a club in Louisiana. I used to write about these events but they have become so common one cannot keep up.

After Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Newtown, Isla Vista, Parkland Uvalde, Buffalo, Pulse and now Monterey Park, it gets to be hard to remember details. I would have to read the posts again.

The mass shooting that left at least 10 people dead in Monterey Park, Calif., on Saturday night is the deadliest in the United States since the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, last May, when 19 children and two teachers were killed.

Saturday’s shooting is also the second major attack in less than a week in California. Last Monday, gunmen killed six people in Tulare County, Calif., including a 16-year-old and her 10-month-old child, in a shooting that the police said was probably gang-related.

There is no consensus on what constitutes a mass shooting, complicating the efforts of government, nonprofits and news organizations to document the scope of the problem. The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group, defines a mass shooting as involving at least four people killed or injured.

By that measure, there have been 33 mass shootings so far in 2023, according to the group. That’s 33.  And January isn’t over.

Gun Violence Archive counted 648 mass shootings last year, 21 of which involved five or more fatalities.  No point writing about it. No one in Congress proposes anything to try to do anything to stop the violence and the availability of firearms to just about anyone.  No one even talks about it.  I haven’t even heard “thoughts and prayers” lately.

There are more concealed guns walking around Walmart on a Saturday afternoon than in half of London.  We no longer give the finger to some driver who cuts us off on the parkway. We open fire.

Oh well.  Says a lot about American society.  “Today’s America is extremely anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-rational, unreflective, impulsive, narcissistic and juvenile. Such a dynamic breeds fascism, authoritarianism, fake populism, white supremacy, misogyny, violence, and a larger culture of cruelty and debasement that does not value or elevate human dignity and human respect.”

We no longer have a shared reality or sense of knowledge, truth or facts.  These are the prerequisites for the rise of neo-fascism and authoritarianism; antidemocratic forces mainstreamed by Trump and continue to grow in power and influence.

“More than half of all Americans cannot read at a sixth-grade level. High quality primary and secondary public education, as well as the college and university system — which should create citizens who are capable of critical thinking and acting as responsible members of a democratic community — have been systematically targeted for destruction by the Republican Party and “conservative” movement.”

Neo-fascists now control the House of Representatives.  We can’t afford to believe otherwise.  Of course, you will never see such a statement in the main-stream media.  Half the House still peddles the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” and that the January 6 insurrectionists were “patriots.”

Meanwhile George Santos continues to sit in the House and now has two Committee assignments.  What has he lied about?

His mother’s death: Santos said on his campaign website that his mother, Fatima Devolder, was “in the South Tower” on 9/11 and later succumbed to cancer, but she said on a green card application filed in 2003 she had not been in the U.S. since 1999,

A hefty salary: Santos claimed he made a $750,000 salary and up to $10 million in dividends between 2021 and 2022 through a company he founded in 2021 called the Devolder Organization, according to his most recent financial disclosure–but reported making only $55,000 during his 2020 campaign for Congress.

A career selling yachts: Santos has stated that he made money by brokering luxury purchases, like a “$20 million yacht,” for wealthy clients, but refused to provide the media with a client list or details about the alleged contracts.

A real estate empire: Santos claimed he owned a $1 million apartment in Brazil and said on the campaign trail his family owned 13 real estate properties, but he later told the New York Post he does not own any real estate properties and is living with his sister at her apartment in Queens, where she’s allegedly facing eviction for $40,000 in unpaid rent.

His inflated resume: Santos claimed he attended the prestigious Horace Mann prep school before graduating summa cum laude from Baruch College with a 3.89 GPA, scoring a 710 on his GMAT exam and earning a master’s degree in international business from New York University–but later admitted to the New York Post he never graduated from college, while a Horace Mann spokesperson told The Times there were no records of him attending.

An early Wall Street career: Santos confessed to The New York Post that he embellished claims of working directly for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, blaming the lies on “a poor choice of words.”

An animal rescue charity: Santos said he founded and owned an animal rescue charity called Friends of Pets United, but after The Times found no IRS documents to back up Santos’ claim, he changed his story to say he only campaigned for the charity and helped find foster homes for the animals.  He is accused by a veteran of defrauding him of $3,000 which was raised on a GoFundMe page so that his dog could have life-saving surgery.

Ties to the Pulse nightclub shooting: Santos admitted that he fabricated his claim that he “lost” four employees in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, explaining in a recent WABC radio interview with disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY), that he was in the process of hiring the four victims.

His “Jewish” heritage: Santos claimed on his campaign website that his maternal grandparents fled Ukraine to escape anti-Jewish persecution during World War II but confessed to the New York Post that he is not Jewish and identifies as “Jew-ish,” while genealogy records reviewed by The Forward show his maternal grandparents were both born in Brazil.

His marriage: Santos, who claims to be the first openly gay non-incumbent GOP representative elected to Congress, never disclosed his marriage to a woman, The Daily Beast reported, citing records that show the pair were divorced less than two weeks before he launched his 2020 campaign for Congress.

His criminal background: After the Times uncovered Brazilian court records showing Santos was charged with check fraud in 2008 for allegedly stealing a man’s checkbook and using it to make fraudulent purchases, Brazilian prosecutors announced they would reopen the case.

A stint as a drag queen: Santos initially denied claims made by two acquaintances that he performed as a drag queen in Brazil, despite his support for socially conservative policies, but after one of them produced a photo that appears to show Santos dressed in drag, he told reporters on Saturday, “I was young and I had fun at a festival,” while continuing to dispute that he was ever a “drag queen.”

It is fair to say I could walk into the food court of any shopping mall in America and find a candidate more suited to the office in 15 minutes.

Will the GOP expel him from Congress?

Hell no.  McCarthy has a majority of only 4 seats and can’t afford to lose anyone of them.  The Governor of New York says she will call a new election if he is expelled.  So the Majority Leader he will keep this no character liar in the House simply for his vote.

Where was the media expose about this guy BEFORE the election?

The saddest part of all this is that I simply don’t recognize my country anymore.

Info on George Santos from an article in Forbes magazine by Sara Dorn

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