🇺🇸 Curious George

Plus, a third of scientific papers may be fraudulent.

May 12, 2023

The Flag

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Good morning, and happy Friday! A golden retriever called Lady has melted hearts all over the internet after a video of her refusing to go anywhere unless her pregnant mom follows went viral on social media.

Plus, a third of scientific papers may be fraudulent...

Also, today's partner is perfect for curious people who love to learn, busy people who don’t have time to read, and even people who aren’t into reading.

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📉 Thursday, May 11: President Biden Job Approval: Approve 44, Disapprove 54 (Rasmussen Reports)

🐎 Wednesday, May 10: General Election: Trump vs. Biden: Trump 43, Biden 45 (Yahoo News)

🐎 Wednesday, May 10: General Election: Biden vs. DeSantis: Biden 45, DeSantis 42 (Yahoo News)

🐎 Wednesday, May 10: Pennsylvania: Biden vs. DeSantis: Biden 48, DeSantis 39 (Susquehanna)

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Left: Trump Is Mainstream, Whether We Like It or Not Michelle Cottle, New York Times

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QUICK CLICKS

Border on the Brink, Chokehold Death Charge, New Chief Twit

Border: US homeland security chief says border facilities strained by new arrivals (Reuters) + What is Title 42, and what’s next for migrants to the US? (The Guardian)

US: CNN must fire CEO Chris Licht to take 'accountability' for Trump town hall, women's advocacy group demands (Fox News) + Trump notifies court of plans to appeal $5 million Carroll verdict (NBC News)

US: Daniel Penny, man who choked subway rider Jordan Neely, to face manslaughter charge: DA (ABC News)

US: 18 years after Natalee Holloway's disappearance, Peru to extradite key suspect to US (AP News)

World: Ukraine says counterattacks effective near Bakhmut, after Wagner chief accuses Russian brigade of fleeing (CNN)

Business: Elon Musk says he's stepping down as Twitter CEO, will oversee product (CNBC)

POLITICS

Curious George

On Wednesday, Republican Congressman George Santos of New York was arrested and charged by federal prosecutors after being accused of fraud, bribery, and money laundering. Santos then pled not guilty and was released on a $500,000 bond before telling reporters outside the courtroom he "will not resign," calling the case a "witch hunt."

From The Flag: Santos has been under scrutiny for months after it was revealed he lied about parts of his life story and background while running for office. In this most recent case, he's accused of filing for pandemic-related unemployment benefits, even though he was making over $100,000 at the time.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Santos Is No Saint, But This Is a Big Old Biden Distraction

  • The Democrats and their allies in the media have impeccable timing: as House Republicans announced evidence of the Biden family's crimes, Santos is arrested.

  • Santos is a grifter who intended to raise funds and his profile while running for office, but he never thought he'd win — when he did, people started asking questions.

  • Are we really supposed to believe it was a coincidence Santos was arrested the same day Republicans announced they intend to move forward with investigating Biden?

Obvious much? While Comer's presser on, DoJ and media pull a Santos out of their hat Beege Welborn, Hot Air: "As the old saying goes, 'timing is everything' and boy, oh, boy, if the Department of Justice and mainstream media didn’t have their watches set and synchronized ... Rep. James Comer had set the stage earlier this week, when he asked the DOJ to hold off on any possible Hunter Biden indictment until (Wednesday). That was when he and his committee planned to release the evidence they’d gathered so far in their Biden crime family investigation. ... What I thought at the time was that there was no frickin’ way the DOJ was going to let Comer get a leg up on them... To my utter astonishment, I was wrong. Not a peep of scuzzy Hunter anything escaped DOJ window seals. ... They literally went after the pudgy, unlikeable scamp from New York and scooped his pathetic larper butt up in a big, old show."

George Santos Surrenders to Authorities, and the Inevitable Jeffrey Blehar, National Review: "The charges look bleak indeed. I’d long held out hopes that after being caught faking his work, educational, and ethnic history George Santos was on the verge of that big Catch Me If You Can Hollywood turnaround, but I fear it is not to be. Now he’s been caught buying designer clothing with campaign funds and engaging in Covid-19 unemployment insurance fraud, surely the seediest of all non-telemarketing frauds to be caught engaging in. One reason for Santos’s meteoric rise from shady grifter to congressman is that none of this was supposed to happen to him in the first place ... He never intended to win. ... Santos’s game was a calibrated one ... where a candidate runs not to win, but rather to raise ... 'raise funds.' ... This play relies upon running as a no-hoper in a district so impossibly out-of-reach as to not draw serious media scrutiny into the no-hoper’s background."

One more opinion piece from the Right: The Timing of George Santos' Arrest Is Simply Shameless Bonchie, Red State

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Game Over: Shady Santos Must Now Face the Music

  • Even though a more complicated scheme may have gone unnoticed, it's still gratifying to see Santos held accountable for alleged campaign finance violations.

  • Despite being in Congress for just several months, Santos has routinely embarrassed himself and become a political punch line.

  • Santos' alleged crimes boggle the mind, including funds raised from firms accused of Ponzi schemes and other dubious sources of campaign contributions.

George Santos Pushed Campaign Finance Abuse Past the Usual Line David Firestone, New York Times Opinion: "There’s one immediate gratification in the details of the indictment against Representative George Santos ... seeing the Department of Justice actually bring charges against a demonstrably untruthful public official for campaign finance violations. It doesn’t happen often enough in an era of widespread abuses, because so many abuses are either technically legal or occur in a gray area ... The scheme Mr. Santos is charged with is so flagrant, so spectacularly dumb in both conception and execution, that Justice clearly decided it had a no-brainer of a case. If Mr. Santos had structured an improper political money stream the way the grown-ups do every day, he might have gotten away with it. ... his Republican colleagues should kick him back to Long Island, though they won’t because Speaker Kevin McCarthy needs every vote he can get these days."

George Santos isn't comic relief anymore Nicholas Goldberg, Los Angeles Times Opinion: "Santos has been a recurring joke in the midst of our otherwise terrifying and riveting political drama — a somewhat doughy, somewhat hapless Mr. Magoo-turned-con man in a blazer, sweater and chinos. He is a fraudster who told lie after ridiculous lie, ad absurdum, about his family background, education and job experience and, though caught in the act, steadfastly refused to be held accountable. ... He said he would not resign and that he’s been subjected to a — you guessed it! — 'witch hunt.' ... Santos has been a national punchline in one of the weirdest scandals in US congressional history (and we’re talking about a governmental body that was once home to Anthony Wiener!). But now he may be written out of the story altogether. ... he could face up to 20 years in prison on the top counts."

One more opinion piece from the Left: The Wild Backstory to George Santos' Arrest Ben Mathis-Lilley, Slate

FLAG THIS

Even Pre-Indictment, Santos Faced Sinking Numbers

Polling from late February, before charges against Santos were announced, showed New York voters had soured on the rookie Congressman, with 66% saying he should resign.

A majority of Democrats (72%), Independents (63%), and Republicans (58%) agreed Santos should step down (POLITICO).

An earlier poll showed 78% of voters in Santos' district felt he should resign (Siena College/Newsday). The Washington Post says that was only topped once before — when Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was impeached.

Do you expect George Santos to resign?

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WATERCOOLER

Lindbergh Baby Found, Why Dogs Tilt Their Heads, World's Smallest National Park

The body of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh’s baby is found on May 12, 1932, more than two months after he was kidnapped from his family’s Hopewell, New Jersey, mansion.

Today I Learned that in 1962 an Englishman named Brendon Grimshaw bought a lone island in the Seychelles and settled there for the rest of his life. He planted over 16,000 trees attracting countless species and made it a national park.

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