Max Headroom @Joel@qoto.org

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my more than 20 years in Congress.”

—George Santos

Dear Democrats — All you have to do is show up and laugh at these assholes.

Don’t let us down.

In 1967, Ginni Thomas's mother protested an election held by the Republican Women's Clubs because she claimed the election had been "rigged" against her preferred candidate, Phyllis Schlafly. Lincoln Star, 27 May 1967. The apple apparently didn't fall too far from the tree.

Obviously the lesson of Kevin McCarthy following the most competent vote-counting Speaker in the House in living memory by having to beg the slime of his party for votes is that women are too emotional to lead.

This lighthouse is SO UNIQUE! It's called Þrídrangar, which means "three rock pillars". It is located 4.5 miles (7.2 kilometres) off the southwest coast of Iceland, in the archipelago of Vestmannaeyjar, often described as the most isolated lighthouse in the world. The lighthouse was built there in 1939.

It's such a INCREDIBLE location for a lighthouse, perched on a rock in Iceland's wild surf. Originally constructed and accessible only by scaling the rock on which it is situated, it is now accessible by helicopter since the construction of a helipad.

#photography #photo #photos #landscape #lighthouse #engineering #amazing #travel #world #wonders

So George Santos—if his name really is George Santos—will be sworn in Tuesday as a Republican member of Congress. What an insult this fraud is to every voter.

#Introduction
Hi all, I'm finally introducing myself in this new year of 2023! I am a postdoctoral researcher doing #neuroscience, often with a theoretical angle. My own work tends to focus on neural network dynamics, network architecture and (pre)motor control, but my interests are broad and I am trying to use Mastodon to broaden them even more! I also have a special interest in sociology, especially the sociology of #academia. I'm looking forward to learning from the other users, and to communicating about my own research!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🎉

May you have clear skies and a low noise floor.

All the best in 2023!

No chance of keeping this resolution

In Defense of George Santos, a Guest Editorial by George Santos - WhoWhatWhy https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/in-defense-of-george-santos-a-guest-editorial-by-george-santos/

In grad school I worked as a bike messenger in NYC. Our dispatcher, a mean little guy, was down in the financial, but I ran packages all over the LES and midtown. I was always nice to the dispatcher. (So I could get the good runs.)

Most messaging companies didn't just have people on bikes. There were also "walking messengers" who'd take the subway and do long runs, like out to Queens. But I loved to bike!

The first week was hell! You see, in messaging you have to "earn your radio" 🧵 #thread

Some jobs are better than others.
#Humor #Funny

Mark Meadows & his wife won’t face any charges, despite registering to vote using a trailer home he NEVER even visited and spreading the Big Lie

Meanwhile, DeSantis arrests Black voters for no reason at all and jails them for “voter fraud”

Welcome to American justice, y’all!

For the record, it appears that after the FTC sued Financial Education Services/United Wealth Services this summer -- calling it a $213 million pyramid scheme -- a month later their preliminary injunction against this entity was denied. It's still not clear why.

https://behindmlm.com/companies/ftc-denied-financial-education-services-preliminary-injunction/

That might explain why the UWE site that comes up when one visits Mr. Dames' vanity domain is still going strong.

Sometimes, it helps to see things visually. I know it does in my case. That's usually the only way I see all the connections.

This part got me, from the NYT story on Dec. 19:

"His financial disclosure forms suggest a life of some wealth. He lent his campaign more than $700,000 during the midterm election, has donated thousands of dollars to other candidates in the last two years and reported a $750,000 salary and over $1 million in dividends from his company, the Devolder Organization.

Yet the firm, which has no public website or LinkedIn page, is something of a mystery. On a campaign website, Mr. Santos once described Devolder as his “family’s firm” that managed $80 million in assets. On his congressional financial disclosure, he described it as a capital introduction consulting company, a type of boutique firm that serves as a liaison between investment funds and deep-pocketed investors. But Mr. Santos’s disclosures did not reveal any clients, an omission three election law experts said could be problematic if such clients exist."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/nyregion/george-santos-ny-republicans.html

Something tells me the SEC and/or the FTC know a lot about his, er..."clients."

So where were we? Ah yes, Mr. Dames, whose name and other info is attached to both of the addresses listed on Mr. Santos's Devolder entity.

Mr. Dames's linkedin page says he also was CFO at Harbor City Capital Management. Surprise! This one's an out-and-out scam as well. Per the SEC:

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced on April 26, 2021, that it filed an emergency action and obtained an asset freeze to stop an alleged ongoing fraudulent Ponzi scheme. The SEC claims that from 2015 to 2021, Harbor City Capital Corp. (“Harbor City”) and its founder and CEO, Jonathan P. Maroney raised more than $17.1 million from over 100 investors through unregistered, fraudulent securities offerings.

The defendants originally sold the securities as promissory notes and agreements, offering investors 2%-6% in interest rates for 12-36 months. The investors were promised a full return on their investment principal. The defendants solicited money through Harbor City’s website and online marketing videos posted to YouTube and social media platforms like Facebook. The investors were told in the marketing videos that their money would be used to fund Harbor City’s lead generation business which the SEC claim describes as the process of capturing online interest in a service or product for the purpose of developing sales leads.

Do you know how many times I've heard over the past few days how much the media is failing to follow the money in this story about the newly elected Rep. George Santos? This story makes it clear that's exactly what happened.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/29/north-shore-leader-santos-scoop/

So let's follow the money, shall we? Starting with Mr. Santos' latest filing for The Devolder Organization, which is apparently responsible for his sudden unexplained wealth.

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2021%5C0601%5C00184778.Tif&documentNumber=L21000206150

The organization lists its address as 336 N. Babcock St. Ste 104, and says another organization at the same address but Ste 101 is there called D&D International Investment Services Inc.

Both are affiliated with an individual named Devaughn Dames, who appears to be both a physician and a CFO somehow. He's also very passionate about spreading his knowledge about how to handle your money wisely. His linkedin page mentions both companies. He also seems to be an IT expert; previous domains include https://web.archive.org/web/20160518071721/http://www.manageditsolutions.net/about.html

One of Mr. Dames' email addresses (dev.dames at gmail) was used to register the vanity domain devaughndames[.]com. Firefox didn't like what that site tried to do when I visited it, but it loaded an empty page that had the heading "Financial Educational Services." But the pop-up takes you to a domain called myuwe.net, which is for an entity called United Wealth Education.

Now, UWE is full of stock photos and videos, and there isn't much there about who runs it. And after spending a few minutes on this site, you'll probably come away with the conclusion that the site is tied to some type of scam.

Well, if you look up the name of what Myuwe.com used to be called -- Financial Educational Services -- you'll see they were shut down JUST THIS YEAR by the US Federal Trade Commission for being a giant pyramid scheme that bilked people out of more than $213 million.

How's that for following the money? :) Wait, I'm not done yet.

I love closing out the year with this. 😊

On December 31, 1995, exactly 27 years ago today, legendary cartoonist Bill Watterson published his final 'Calvin and Hobbes' comic strip.

How beautiful and appropriate it was, and a timeless reminder of what we have before us in 2023. ❤️

Happy New Year, ya'll!