>

Hmmm, any of the rest of the MAGAts ever committed fraud in Brazil?
"Just a month before his 20th birthday, Mr. Santos entered a small clothing store in the Brazilian city of Niterói outside Rio de Janeiro. He spent nearly $700 using a stolen checkbook and a false name, court records show.
Mr. Santos admitted the fraud to the shop owner in August 2009, writing on Orkut, a popular social media website in Brazil, “I know I screwed up, but I want to pay.” In 2010, he and his mother told the police that he had stolen the checkbook of a man his mother used to work for, and used it to make fraudulent purchases."
So here we are, 13 years later. Wanting to pay is not the same as actually paying it seems. >

Orkut… fuck that’s a blast from the past. It was supposed to be the Friendster killer from Google. I remember logging in a few years after the hype died down and like 90% of the posts were in Portuguese. >

It's funny how many of Google's "killer apps" died inglorious deaths. >

And now people won't sign up to any of their new services, because they will shut it down anyway, turning it into a self fulfilling prophecy >

What services? Everything they have is integrated with their google account. Most people use a Google account, they don't have to sign up for anything. >

Not OP but Google has tons of apps and services.  Google has a history of killing services, some that people loved.  Most people stick to Gmail, meet, calendar, chrome, photos.  Even photos was morphed from pixel. Google Plus wasn't even terrible, but they made it invite only for way too long and just made it a cleaner looking FB with a few extra features. >

I get that, but what I mean is that there is no conscious act of signing up. People use their stuff they already have and they catch up stuff around it by extension.
Google docs for example has a big user base because it is an extension for their services that was integrated in Gmail and Drive. People didn't sign up for it, they just started using on opportunity.
Same way there is no conscious act of signing up, there is no conscious act of refraining from it. People will use their services or not based on their utility to them and opportunity. And Google will support them or kill them based on their popularity.
In the particular case of Orkut or Plus, is as same as Chat or original Hangouts, it requires an active user base for people to get using it, so they lack that igniting spark. Same reason why other social media sites have difficulty getting from the ground and die fast. >

People make decisions like buying Google Stadia, or build a Chrome App, or having a legacy free G Suite Account (I got bitten by this one, but at least I already had moved anything important out of Google) or invest on Google Streams (which confusingly was a device and service for doctors), or... and unless it's something they don't care about they always get screwed in the end. >


He spent nearly $700 using a stolen checkbook and a false name

Setting the pattern for later successes. Who's the money behind this fellow anyway? >


"Andrew Intrater, money manager to Russian Viktor Vekselberg, gave $56,100 to committees tied to Rep.-elect George Devolder-Santos, who called Ukraine “totalitarian.”

-Daily Beast >

Ironic that he then claims to be descendant of Ukrainian jews >

...as a mark, not a mastermind. He's a shameless weasel but the whole plan doesn't seem well thought out. He seems to compulsively lie, rather than scheme and create a proper backstory. >

To be fair, this play worked with Trump. >

I think we're at the point now where a Republican politician can literally kill children on live TV and supporters would still scratch their chins and wonder if it was a Democratic ploy of some sort. >

AnTiFaAAa!!!!! >

Are we sure this guy even exists? It really feels like Sacha Baron Cohen is going to announce that Santos is one of his characters and that he didn't think a completely fabricated person would actually win the election. >

I mean the picture they keep using looks like someone spray tanned a wax sculpture of Buddy Holly someone made just a tad too chubby in the face… >

Not vetting this guy while pushing dozens of redundant crime and inflation fluff pieces is an indictment on US media during this midterms. >

And it still didn’t work, for the most part! No red wave >

There's the potential for a member of Congress to be tried in absentia and convicted in Brazil while being indicted in the US.  
So there's that.  
 Sigh.

Goddamn Nat-Cs. >

Is there no legal recourse that the public has besides voting him out?
Feels weird that you can just lie about your entire life and resume and if you get elected nothing can be done. >

The house can vote to expel a member. It requires 2/3 majority, and it's only happened 5 times in the nation's history.
He really never should have made it this far. It's really upsetting to me that his opponents didn't uncover any of these obvious lies early in his run. These are the kinds of lies that can be identified with a $50 background check. Whoever he beat sucks at politics. >

As though republican voters care about ethics. >

I'm fairly sure quite a lot of Republican voters do care about ethics. Neither the Republican nor the Democrat-voting populace are a monolithic block. Right now, unfortunately, a vote for an independent candidate (and it is the same over here in the U.K.) is a wasted vote given the two party system, so many voters who hold extremely moderate views on both "sides" of the increasingly right centre-point hold their nose and vote along traditional lines. 
The sooner we stop categorizing people by the party they vote for and start seeing  them as individuals, the better.
Having said that, a) Right now the actions of the Republican party - and our equivalent here - do seem to be devoid of any of the qualities I find attractive in a political party, and b) this Santos guy certainly seems like a wrong'un. >

If the party you vote for is pro-puppy murder, it doesn't matter what your stance on puppy murder is. If you vote for them, they get elected in part because of your vote, and then push an agenda that includes puppy murder, that puppy blood is on your hands.
As the old German saying goes:

You don't get to vote for Hitler because he made the trains run on time. >

I don't disagree with you but if, in your eyes, the other party is pro puppy torture and murder, then maybe you view "mere" murder as the lesser of the two evils, hence the "hold their nose" caveat.
And there's the rub, the sheer amount of misinformation being peddled around politics makes discerning the truth almost a full time job.
Don't get me wrong, my politics - at least by American standards - are far left (or bottom left if you want to use the political compass), but I refuse to condemn outright half of a country purely based on which party they vote for.
Edit, removed tautology. >

Ignorance is no excuse. Not in this day and age especially.
And it's not like these politicians are hiding who they are (for the most part...obviously this specific guy WAS hiding who he was). They are proudly anti-women, racial minority, and LGBTQ+. They will tel you right to your face that those groups don't deserve the same rights as cis het Christian white men.
So I have zero issue condemning people for voting for mini-Hitlers. Zero. These people made their hateful, bigoted bed. They must lie in it. >

IDK He highkey reminds me of Jared Fogle from Subway. >

To be fair, he's bad but he's not that bad.
We hope. >

Yeah we can’t compare fraud to child porn and raping kids. Some people deserve to get kicked out of office. Some people deserve to get kicked in the nuts repeatedly.
And of course, some deserve both. >

Santos is a pathological liar, perfect pro-Kremlin MAGA member, after all we all know truth is their sworn enemy. >

I’ve known several pathological liars like Santos throughout the years. All have eventually crashed and burned after brief  successes. I even called one of them out on it and he acted shocked, it was really fascinating, these people don’t perceive lies the same as everyone else. >


these people don’t perceive lies the same as everyone else.

"how life works is that literally everybody says whatever they want in order to grift each other" -- what I imagine their worldview is like >

Another nail in his political coffin. >

The GOP margin is razor-thin. Part of me thinks this dude could be literally the reincarnation of Pol Pot and McCarthy would still keep him around for his vote. >

He doesn't have the votes last I checked today. He'll sell his children's souls for power, I'd guess. Plus, once seated, it's 2/3rds majority to remove. Even if we(dems) had the House, we couldn't reach those numbers without extreme gerrymandering >

I would think the Democrats would be happy to prop up McCarthy (it only takes a few of their votes) for the comedy value of watching the GOP reps who want him gone fuming.  can you imagine MTG or Bobert if they find they can't get rid of him on a whim, that he can tell them to go somewhere and do something?
plus like those MAGAnuts, the Dems could hold that support like Lucy with a football to make him limit the stupidity of the worst of GOP. >

MTG is pro-McCarthy. Probably a reason why Democrats won’t touch him with a ten-foot pole, even for schadenfreude >

Seeing as they both had affairs with fellow members I’m convinced that they have been…intimate with one another. They’re each other’s type at least >

#LockHimUp >

This guy is a sociopath >

But he wants to pay! >

Even Fox News was throwing this guy under the bus. His goose is cooked >

Where was everybody during the campaign? >

Focused on a fictitious crime wave cooked up by the GOP to scare their base. Or talking non-stop about Cuomo to make the Dems apathetic to voting.
And it worked, since the angry fucking morons came out to vote (mad about nonsense or still just pissed Cuomo made them follow Covid guidelines before his resignation) while most others stayed home. Assured it was a Dem state with sure victory. But everywhere past NYC, it cost them several easy House wins, and thus gave Republicans a slim majority. >

Which is why Chuck Schumer campaigns round the clock, so that he always wins with comfortable margins. >

They pretty much gave up on campaigning in all the redneck districts. >

If you're in the district a couple of groups are organizing actions, there's been a press conference and there's going to be a rally this week, here's a petition to get you started.