I’m sure his PR guy will soon be spinning it that he was doing a good deed, rescuing the puppies from those unshaven, dastardly Amish puppy-mill crimelords.
Allegedly stealing. Even bad people can be innocent of any given unproven accusation.
Most careful dog breeders are members of a breed club whose extensive rules, in addition to animal welfare considerations, require members to insist on cash or similar as final payment. As for the Amish, they don’t have a rule against personal checks, but I thought most groups discourage calling the police (or asking a neighbor with a telephone to call, since, last I heard, they have a rule against telephones). Of course, it doesn’t matter if the dog breeder was good or bad as an Amishman, or otherwise — stealing is stealing.
And if it’s true that he stole puppies and then sought contributions to a supposed rescue charity to place the stolen property, this is, to me, worse then lying about your resume during a political campaign. YMMV.
Regardless of whether Santos is guilty, I wonder if this is, in broad outline, a common scam. The number of dogs registered with national kennel clubs, at least in the U. S. and UK, is in free fall as the idea of getting what is now called a rescue dog has gotten a certain cache. As the demand for rescue dogs increases, is the supply increasing in tandem?
EDITED: I’ve read that Santos might have allegedly stolen from up to nine Amish dog breeders, only one of whom called the police. These breeders deserve to be judged individually, if it is necessary to judge them at all.
Judged on what? That Santos may have passed bad checks (which I’m entirely unclear why the breeders should be judged on their inability to see into the future) is an entirely separate issue from accusations that Santos ‘’‘bought’‘’ puppies from puppy mills with bad checks.
Even puppy mill operators deserve legal protection from scam artists.
I was trying to say that.
Of course, if the allegations are true, Santos was just trying variations on the master’s playbook:
Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills
and:
Donald J. Trump Pays Court-Ordered $2 Million For Illegally Using Trump Foundation Funds
Charity fraud is a lot more important to me than lying about going to college AKA the resume.
“Well, I’ve been a terrible liar on those subjects,” Santos said
“It wasn’t about tricking the people. This was about getting accepted by the party here locally.”
So what, Brazil and the puppies were just for fun? Or fun-d raising?
“It wasn’t about tricking the people. This was about getting accepted by the party here locally.”
…by tricking them. 
A bit more of the exchange:
“What I tried to convey to the American people is I made mistakes of allowing the pressures of what I thought needed to be done in order to — this, this wasn’t about tricking anybody, this wasn’t about, it’s —” Santos said.
.
Morgan cut him off, responding, “Yes, it was.”
.
“No, no, no, let me finish,” Santos said.
.
“The whole thing was about tricking people,” Morgan said.
I’ve said before that this is the part that the rank and file Republicans are missing. They know that the leaders of the Republican party are crooks and conmen. But they think they’re on their side so they’re okay with the shadiness.
But it’s a classic pigeon drop. That’s when you con somebody by convincing them the target is somebody else and they’re in on the con.
Republican voters are willing to give money and votes to crooked Republican leaders because they think those leaders are targeting liberals. But the reality is crooked Republican leaders just say they’re targeting liberals in order to con Republican voters into giving them money and votes.
Bumping this thread, because Santos came back into my mind for a couple of reasons.
- Trump and Fox pushed him out of the front news, and was wondering if A) the Republican’s had considered using the chance to try to rehabilitate him, or if B) he would play smart and lay low.
Answer: Heck no. Since the thread was last active, he’s under formal investigation by the House Ethics Committee, blamed his own local republican group for being made to lie to everyone in order to fit in
to the ever popular Piers Morgan (
), and filed paperwork in order to run for re-election. Which brings us to…
- How have things looking for Santos’ political ambitions at this point?
Answer: Not well, because the second reason I came to the thread was the following article -
I mean, of course the Republican party isn’t going to force him out and risk their thin margin, even if any honest review of his statements should have been an insta-ban, but for a Republican in this political climate to LOSE money is astounding. I’d expect him to substantially underperform, but thankfully, even pure Republicans want nothing to do with him, at least based on how they vote with their dollars.
From the Politico article:
Santos had just $25,000 cash on hand at the end of the quarter. That figure came despite having made not a single reported campaign expense during the quarter — a figure that raises questions as to how and whether he has done the basic bookkeeping and paperwork that campaign’s are legally required to do.
Making matters worse for Santos: his campaign reported having $715,000 in debts and obligations that it owed. All of those were owed to Santos himself.
Seriously, how is he not already in jail?
Eh, Anthony Devolder will cover all of his bills, as usual.
I suppose at some point someone in the ultra-MAGAsphere will show up to support Santos just to troll/pwn the “RINO Nassau county establishment Republicans”. Or at least will claim to do so to grift the nontrivial number of people out there who have not been paying attention into donating.
If the Republicans in the House had a guarantee of R-for-R replacement they would have taken care of this quickly. They don’t, so they won’t risk it.
Years ago I read a book called Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz. In the book, Horwitz examins the relationship people have to a war that took place (then) a little over 130 years later delving into Civil War reenactors, touring companies, he visited Shelby Foote, a dude sporting a Confederate flag on his truck who was murdered by some black teenagers, etc., etc.
Horwitz was speaking with some members of a Southern Civil War organization, I don’t remember if it was a chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and one or more voiced their belief that they couldn’t capitulate or admit to any wrong doing on the part of Henry Wirz. Wirz was the camp commander of the Andersonville POW camp and was tried and executed for war crimes because the conditions he allowed at the camp led to many Union deaths.
These Confederate enthusiast didn’t doubt the conditions in the camp were bad, but they felt they had no choice but to defend Wirz no matter what. Their side, the Confederate sympathizer side, was under attack from various directions, so they felt, which led them to defend anyone associated with it. This is what the modern Republican party is like. They might agree that George Santos is a liar who isn’t fit for office, but they’re going to defend him simply because they feel they’re beset on every side.
It doesn’t occur to them to, oh I dunno, ask themselves whether they might have done something to put themselves in that position?
Once they start those pebbles rolling, though, where do they stop? The smart ones know there’s a whirlwind to reap down the line and want out while the money’s good.
And he’s running for re-election.
In the spirit of George Santos, let me say I wish him the best of luck and hope he wins.
What a maroon.
27 posts were merged into an existing topic: Representative George Santos: Indictment and Prosecution