6 ms·

The bigger thing here, I think, is that what NYT could verify was: (1) He was a low-level finance guy, making ~55k/year, with a criminal background in Brazil (

The bigger thing here, I think, is that what NYT could verify was: (1) He was a low-level finance guy, making ~55k/year, with a criminal background in Brazil (2) He got a jr exec job at a company that turned out to be a ponzi scheme (3) When the ponzi went bust, a bunch of the former execs started a new company. That company paid him between $750k-$5 million, depending which (contradictory) disclosure of his you believe. (4) Shortly afterwards, he began running for Congress Raises more Qs than answers, but seems like the type of thing where there'll be a follow-up

thereddaikon 4y ago
Sounds par for the course when it comes to new york politicians.
- mbg721 4y ago
  Sounds par for the course when congressmen are voted in to tip national party balance rather than on personal, local issues. People talk about how our republic is sick because there's somehow too little democracy, but really it's sick because every local school board vote could push 350M people over a razor's edge.
  - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
    This state of affairs is predicated on the power the federal government has to influence people's lives and livelihoods. When the feds can take away your abortion or your guns and create and destroy entire industries with the stroke of a pen it should come as no surprise that people elect based on party platform rather than choosing politicians who they think will actually represent their interests.
    - Retric 4y ago
      Except you better protect both your parties interests and your own when you maintain some minimal standards. The number of Republicans who where willing to vote for Trump in the first election but not the second cost them the second election. That’s a common pattern where electing people you don’t like ends up weakening the party long term. I am not saying you need to love everyone you vote for, but for people who are “holding their nose” you have to consider both short term and long term effects. To use a Democratic example, Biden is likely to be dead weight going in the 2024 election.
      - mbg721 4y ago
        What about people who didn't vote for Trump either of the first two times, but would do so if it came to that again? It's a lot easier to hold your nose for one smell while another smell is fresh.
        Retric 4y ago
        Do you think Republicans will pick up more seats in congress in 2026 and 2028 if Biden is elected in 2024 or Trump is? IMO, Biden v Trump 2024 is a poison pill for the whichever party wins the presidency. Political power is about more than who’s sitting in the white house.
        mbg721 4y ago
        I don't think it will matter much. Everyone's mind is made up already; the relative lack of movement in 2022 proved that. The parties will dig their heels in and back whoever boosts their power, which doesn't necessarily mean beating the other side.
      - kodah 4y ago
        > Except you better protect both your parties interests and your own when you maintain some minimal standards. This isn't always possible. I would call myself left in most senses, but I value 2a, and am a campaign badge holder. I am almost always voting against my biggest interests no matter what way I may vote. The real answer here is more parties that reflect Americans interests better than two parties ever can, imo.
pizzapuppet 4y ago
Sounds like he's an icarus-style fraudster who is flying too close to the sun. Can't believe people think they can get away with this sort of thing in 2022. What will the consequences be? Is any of his conduct a crime?
- pjc50 4y ago
  > Can't believe people think they can get away with this sort of thing in 2022 The 2020s - well, really any time post 2010 - is a new era of fraud. The last elements of self-restraint honor culture have vanished, and the cultishness of culture wars makes people eager to throw their money at people who will tell them the right lies.
  - WaxProlix 4y ago
    Culture wars, and an increasingly naked race-to-the-bottom hopeless desperation. When you're desperate, or hopeless, grifts and crazy promises start to seem appealing. Why not throw what little I have on this crypto scheme/fraudster politician bandwagon? What else am I going to do, retire happy and healthy in the Algarve? Absolutely not.
hammock 4y ago
Sounds like he may have backers that are playing him like a puppet and the story does not end with him alone
- vkou 4y ago
  Or he could just be a political liar and/or grifter. Quite a few of them run each election cycle, sometimes they win.
  - curiousllama 4y ago
    Yea, this seems likeliest. If I were an evil mastermind, I’d be choosing bozo #7 as the fall guy, not the front man
akomtu 4y ago
Bruh. Expect soon sketchy delegates from mexican cartels who run for office and backed by serious money. Most voters dont bother to look up candidates, they just vote for their tribe.
tomohawk 4y ago
The even bigger picture: the press is not doing their job. Either they sit back and report what they see on social media, or act as a narrative filter to keep people from being confused by the facts. The precipitous drop in readership at the WaPo and related layoffs are a hopeful sign that perhaps a correction is in the works. Meanwhile, Biden makes false claims about his past all the time, such as how he used to drive an 18 wheeler. Or this fun one about his use of Amtrak: “When I became vice president, one of the Capitol Hill newspapers estimated that I had taken more than 7,000 round trips on Amtrak over my career,” Biden said. “I think that’s an exaggeration. I’m going to rely on those two conductors. … One of them was a guy named Angelo Negri.” Biden continued, telling the audience Negri estimated Biden had traveled 1.5 million miles on Amtrak trains around his fourth or fifth year as vice president, which would have been in 2013 or 2014. “My mom was sick, and I used to try to come home almost every weekend as vice president to see her,” Biden said. “I got on the train and Angelo Negri came up and he goes, ‘Joey, baby,’ and he grabbed my cheek like he always did. … He said, ‘Joey, what’s the big deal? One-point-three million miles on Air Force Two? Do you know how many miles you traveled on Amtrak?’ I said, ‘No, Angie, I don’t know.’ He gave me the calculation and he said ‘You traveled 1.5 million miles on Amtrak.;” However, an obituary for Negri says the conductor retired in 1993, decades before Biden’s supposed story took place, while he was still a senator from Delaware. Biden’s mother died in 2010.
- gabriel_fishman 4y ago
  It's about 110 miles between DC and Wilmington DE. Biden was a Senator for 36 years. the Senate is in session an average of 164 days a year (this is 2001-2021, which only overlaps with Biden's tenure for 5 years).[1] 110 * 2 * 164 * 36 ~ 1.3 million miles. My hypothesis is that an Amtrak conductor gave Biden this calculation, but his brain associated the story with a different, more colorful conductor. [https://ballotpedia.org/117th_Congress_legislative_calendar https://ballotpedia.org/117th_Congress_legislative_calendar]
- drewcoo 4y ago
  > the press is not doing their job. What's their job? Who's their boss? To whom are they accountable? They appear to be doing the job they're paid to do. Despite claims that they should behave counter to their employers' interests. > Biden makes false claims about his past all the time My favorite was about how he was in prison with Nelson Mandela. I can only assume that due to a transitive property of the Mandela effect, Biden died in prison.
JustSomeNobody 4y ago
> That company paid him between $750k-$5 million... The Republican party recruited him. Same way they recruited a bunch of actors from ExploreTalent.

thereddaikon 4y ago

Sounds par for the course when it comes to new york politicians.

mbg721 4y ago
Sounds par for the course when congressmen are voted in to tip national party balance rather than on personal, local issues. People talk about how our republic is sick because there's somehow too little democracy, but really it's sick because every local school board vote could push 350M people over a razor's edge.
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  This state of affairs is predicated on the power the federal government has to influence people's lives and livelihoods. When the feds can take away your abortion or your guns and create and destroy entire industries with the stroke of a pen it should come as no surprise that people elect based on party platform rather than choosing politicians who they think will actually represent their interests.
  - Retric 4y ago
    Except you better protect both your parties interests and your own when you maintain some minimal standards. The number of Republicans who where willing to vote for Trump in the first election but not the second cost them the second election. That’s a common pattern where electing people you don’t like ends up weakening the party long term. I am not saying you need to love everyone you vote for, but for people who are “holding their nose” you have to consider both short term and long term effects. To use a Democratic example, Biden is likely to be dead weight going in the 2024 election.
    - mbg721 4y ago
      What about people who didn't vote for Trump either of the first two times, but would do so if it came to that again? It's a lot easier to hold your nose for one smell while another smell is fresh.
      - Retric 4y ago
        Do you think Republicans will pick up more seats in congress in 2026 and 2028 if Biden is elected in 2024 or Trump is? IMO, Biden v Trump 2024 is a poison pill for the whichever party wins the presidency. Political power is about more than who’s sitting in the white house.
        mbg721 4y ago
        I don't think it will matter much. Everyone's mind is made up already; the relative lack of movement in 2022 proved that. The parties will dig their heels in and back whoever boosts their power, which doesn't necessarily mean beating the other side.
    - kodah 4y ago
      > Except you better protect both your parties interests and your own when you maintain some minimal standards. This isn't always possible. I would call myself left in most senses, but I value 2a, and am a campaign badge holder. I am almost always voting against my biggest interests no matter what way I may vote. The real answer here is more parties that reflect Americans interests better than two parties ever can, imo.

pizzapuppet 4y ago

Sounds like he's an icarus-style fraudster who is flying too close to the sun. Can't believe people think they can get away with this sort of thing in 2022. What will the consequences be? Is any of his conduct a crime?

pjc50 4y ago
> Can't believe people think they can get away with this sort of thing in 2022 The 2020s - well, really any time post 2010 - is a new era of fraud. The last elements of self-restraint honor culture have vanished, and the cultishness of culture wars makes people eager to throw their money at people who will tell them the right lies.
- WaxProlix 4y ago
  Culture wars, and an increasingly naked race-to-the-bottom hopeless desperation. When you're desperate, or hopeless, grifts and crazy promises start to seem appealing. Why not throw what little I have on this crypto scheme/fraudster politician bandwagon? What else am I going to do, retire happy and healthy in the Algarve? Absolutely not.

hammock 4y ago

Sounds like he may have backers that are playing him like a puppet and the story does not end with him alone

vkou 4y ago
Or he could just be a political liar and/or grifter. Quite a few of them run each election cycle, sometimes they win.
- curiousllama 4y ago
  Yea, this seems likeliest. If I were an evil mastermind, I’d be choosing bozo #7 as the fall guy, not the front man

akomtu 4y ago

Bruh. Expect soon sketchy delegates from mexican cartels who run for office and backed by serious money. Most voters dont bother to look up candidates, they just vote for their tribe.

tomohawk 4y ago

The even bigger picture: the press is not doing their job. Either they sit back and report what they see on social media, or act as a narrative filter to keep people from being confused by the facts. The precipitous drop in readership at the WaPo and related layoffs are a hopeful sign that perhaps a correction is in the works. Meanwhile, Biden makes false claims about his past all the time, such as how he used to drive an 18 wheeler. Or this fun one about his use of Amtrak: “When I became vice president, one of the Capitol Hill newspapers estimated that I had taken more than 7,000 round trips on Amtrak over my career,” Biden said. “I think that’s an exaggeration. I’m going to rely on those two conductors. … One of them was a guy named Angelo Negri.” Biden continued, telling the audience Negri estimated Biden had traveled 1.5 million miles on Amtrak trains around his fourth or fifth year as vice president, which would have been in 2013 or 2014. “My mom was sick, and I used to try to come home almost every weekend as vice president to see her,” Biden said. “I got on the train and Angelo Negri came up and he goes, ‘Joey, baby,’ and he grabbed my cheek like he always did. … He said, ‘Joey, what’s the big deal? One-point-three million miles on Air Force Two? Do you know how many miles you traveled on Amtrak?’ I said, ‘No, Angie, I don’t know.’ He gave me the calculation and he said ‘You traveled 1.5 million miles on Amtrak.;” However, an obituary for Negri says the conductor retired in 1993, decades before Biden’s supposed story took place, while he was still a senator from Delaware. Biden’s mother died in 2010.

gabriel_fishman 4y ago
It's about 110 miles between DC and Wilmington DE. Biden was a Senator for 36 years. the Senate is in session an average of 164 days a year (this is 2001-2021, which only overlaps with Biden's tenure for 5 years).[1] 110 * 2 * 164 * 36 ~ 1.3 million miles. My hypothesis is that an Amtrak conductor gave Biden this calculation, but his brain associated the story with a different, more colorful conductor. [https://ballotpedia.org/117th_Congress_legislative_calendar https://ballotpedia.org/117th_Congress_legislative_calendar]
drewcoo 4y ago
> the press is not doing their job. What's their job? Who's their boss? To whom are they accountable? They appear to be doing the job they're paid to do. Despite claims that they should behave counter to their employers' interests. > Biden makes false claims about his past all the time My favorite was about how he was in prison with Nelson Mandela. I can only assume that due to a transitive property of the Mandela effect, Biden died in prison.

JustSomeNobody 4y ago

> That company paid him between $750k-$5 million... The Republican party recruited him. Same way they recruited a bunch of actors from ExploreTalent.