laylalex

More on the Santos beat: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11651079/George-Santos-Brazilian-drag-queen-used-Kitara-Report.html I don't have a problem with drag performance, but some people do.

I don't think anyone wants to see Al's pasta bake.

Yes, assuming the story is true (which it might not be), scamming a veteran out of money to help his dying dog is a bridge too far for many people. The GOP picked up House seats in NY State this year, so not sure that the party is ready to give up yet. I think it's 15 D to 11 R at the moment.

We're putting in a new kitchen at the moment -- the new house has the original early 80s appliances, gas cooktop, separate gas ovens on the wall. Los Angeles (the new place is in LA city limits) grandfathers in gas where it was already in place. Since we already had gas installed, we have the option to replace with a gas range or go with electric or induction. We spent a lot of time going over pros and cons of sticking with gas. Pro: familiarity, control, and ability to operate if we lose power. Cons: gas right now through our supplier, SoCalGas, is through the roof. The gas bill for the apartment we're still in, but leaving once renovations are done, is pretty much double the last one due to "market fluctuations." Induction is more efficient, and frankly I know from experience that power outages are rarely longer than a few hours. (We had an 8 hour one last year which wasn't fun, but we just went out to eat.) Also gas cooktops are a pain in the rear to keep clean. So induction it is. We found a model we like that our contractor said was a solid choice, not the very top of the line but has plenty of bells and whistles. I somehow don't think I need it to have Wifi, but it does.. It will be a bit of a learning curve, but glad to hear that you like yours, since I know you're pretty serious about cooking/baking. We're sticking with the gas dryer though -- it's also 1980s vintage, and I know from experience that the old washer/dryers are a lot easier to maintain. We have a pretty new washer/dryer in Santa Monica and it's forever breaking down.

https://gothamist.com/news/beloved-dog-died-after-george-santos-allegedly-scammed-veteran-out-of-funds-for-operation-report NY Republicans at the state and local level want Santos gone because he is damaging their prospects. It is too easy for Democrats or other people to point at the NYGOP and say, well, look what their party thinks is acceptable. Why risk harming the brand when it has made actual headway in a blue state? Santos is a weak incumbent who will lose his seat in 2 years, but he also has 2 years to embarrass the party further and inflict collateral damage on others.

They're all over the place -- West Hollywood, Glendale, Eagle Rock are the ones I remember. There is speculation on Reddit it could be a cop, but it's kind of hard to believe that given how clear a pic of the guy they have now. Nearest military base is the air force base in El Segundo, which is nowhere near any of those. The rest are pretty far out in the Antelope Valley.

It's a good question! The law was recently changed in California where the ticket for not having plates increased substantially. Before, it was very common for new cars to be driven around with just paper dealer tags (literally it would just say something like "Sunrise Ford" etc) or no tags because you could do so for up to six months after purchase. This was known as the "Steve Jobs Rule" since he very famously did just that -- drove a new Mercedes for six months without proper tags then trade it in for a new one, just because he could. Anyway, no longer the law, and you can get pulled over and cited for it. But since there are usually bigger fish for the CHP and LAPD to fry, you're not going to get cited unless you've caught their attention for something else. You can bet that cops are now going to pull over every dark grey Tesla without tags.

This is really scary. It's not really highlighted in the report, but the majority of the victims have been women. There's been a lot of coverage here over the past few days, and everyone is on high alert. This guy is a maniac, and now that there are good images of his face, he's almost certainly going to be caught soon. I've seen discussion that there are maybe as many as 10 victims now. In the meantime, I'm giving dark grey Teslas a wide berth. https://abc7.com/road-rage-man-with-pipe-tesla-assault/12695539/ On the other hand, I discovered on Saturday that we'd failed to lock the front door on our new home an entire week before, when we'd last visited, so it's not totally dangerous out there.

We went up to our new, about to be under construction house to meet with the contractor/architect to discuss renovations. We got there a few minutes before he did, and we were checking out the rooms -- especially the ceilings and seals on the windows/doors -- to see if the monsoon weather that has been lashing SoCal had seeped in. (It had not.) But what Alex discovered was that we had...forgotten to lock the front door when we left last Saturday afternoon. Well, I guess that tells us something about safety in our little cul de sac.

Long Island GOP leaders are calling for Santos to resign. https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nassau-county-gop-set-to-speak-out-against-congressman-george-santos/

It's just us and the projected cat(s), and occasionally his daughter and the flotsam and jetsam threatening to take the other bedroom over for ESTA-approved visits. He has his own study, since he works from home, bedroom 2 will be my study most of the time (hopefully), and once we convert what we call the basement (unfinished room behind the garage) we will have a hobby room/additional sleeping space. We really lucked out on this place given the location. Encino is not a bargain area.

Nope, not in that range at all. We almost bought one that cost that much and then we pulled back -- what the hell were we doing buying a million dollar (almost) condo with only 2 bedrooms in a not particularly la-di-da part of West Los Angeles? So we are moving to the Valley instead, much better neighborhood, much lower price. We got the architect/contractor's estimate today for the renovations and oh boy.

We closed on our new home this morning, just before noon. So, so happy with our decision. We got it for an excellent price, and it has everything we wanted and more. Not sure how long all the remodelling will take, but we hope to be moved in by early March.

Trailer for 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way dropped and... it looks amazing. https://www.etonline.com/90-day-fiance-the-other-way-season-4-first-look-this-couple-has-a-43-year-age-difference-196811

I didn't actually say he shouldn't be seated, because under House rules he can be seated. The rules are the rules and that is that. I am actually trying to keep this focused on Santos rather than looking at what other people have done, so I'm not going to address Lindsay Graham or Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden. But I think the big thing here is that he was indicted for check fraud in Brazil and skipped out on it before the case could go forward. That says a lot about character and fitness to serve. Are there other members of Congress who have been indicted and then evaded prosecution for fraud? I honestly don't know. But to me, that IS a big deal. Others may disagree. We can say Biden lied about this or Graham lied about that, but I disagree that there is no difference between big and small lies. Lying about finishing college is kind of meaningless if you can do the job, and there's no requirement to have a degree. Lying about your expertise when you're leading people to believe that your expertise will help you be a more effective representative, yeah, I think that's more meaningful. Lying about your mom dying in 9/11 or your employees being gunned down in a mass shooting are just dumb lies, which point to someone who's, well, kind of dumb. Evading prosecution after you have confessed to a crime and then not telling your electorate about it, that's a big lie because it goes to character. Hold everyone to account, absolutely. But we don't need to be nihilists about it.

Completely agree with you. Accountability is for everyone. Politicians should not be lining their pockets through their work for us, their employers. This isn't to say they should all take an oath of poverty, but that how they make their money should be more transparent. I think most people could agree with that. The next step is to figure out what accountability would look like, and how we could build structures to support transparency. Is it just tax returns? Are there other kinds of disclosures we would want to see, and why? George Santos is an outlier in terms of breadth of deception, I think, but there is almost certainly greater depth of deception by politicians of both major parties that is more meaningful. Let's find out. I think what I personally am concerned about is that this number of lies -- some big, some small, some consequential, some not -- by Santos is somehow treated as "politics as usual" and therefore okay. Or that because other people have told bigger whoppers his should be ignored. It doesn't make it any worse that it's a Republican or a Democrat or a Libertarian or a whatever. Honesty should be rewarded, and deception should be uncovered and have consequences. Uncover as many untruths as possible, wherever they are. Just my two pennies.

This is a thread about Santos so... we're talking about Santos? 🤷‍♀️ And yes, Santos was charged and indicted before he left Brazil. And now he's going to be recharged again. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/01/george-santos-fraud-charges-brazil I don't know why it would be okay for someone to be shady or evade the law (if he did) even if other people do shady things. It doesn't make it anything better that he told such big lies about his life. Everyone should be accountable if elected.

Thanks, I will keep it open. Well, as far as I know Biden hasn't been charged yet with a crime.

Brazil is reactivating the check fraud case he never responded to as well. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/03/george-santos-brazil-reactivates-fraud-case

My husband says he should be allowed to try this because he is pretty sure he will not be left "physically and psychologically damaged" by the attempt. Luckily we do not have any kebab shops nearby. https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink/man-who-ate-124-kebabs-7987027

Re Tulsi: I don't want to take this off topic. Huh, had not seen that pic of the husband. Are we certain that's the husband, or just some guy in a dinner jacket?

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23520848/george-santos-fake-resume Also, Santos lied about having lost his mother to the 9/11 attacks AND staff at the Pulse nightclub shooting, and that he's been out and proud for a decade, when he was married to a woman until only a few years ago. No trace of his husband can be found. He claimed to be a real estate investor with multiple properties, but in fact owned none. On top of that -- and most importantly -- no one can figure out how this guy can go from being so broke that he was unable to make rent to having enough money to being able to loan his own campaign $700k. These are really serious questions, and Santos is acting like everyone lies on their resumes, so who cares? I really feel for the people of Long Island who voted for him. They cast their votes in good faith and it turns out their representative-elect is an admitted, serial, maybe even compulsive liar. I am no big fan of Tulsi Gabbard but she eviscerated him the other night on Fox.

OMG my ancient topic has legs! I started watching Harry & Meghan today on Netflix, half out of curiosity, half out of a close friend demanding I watch it so we can talk about it. I am 1.5 eps in, and while it's fairly cringe, it's not completely awful. I 100% get that they have a narrative to sell, but at the same time I do appreciate getting the other side of various stories about them. I take it all with a grain of salt. But it's very, very clear that the press intrusion in Harry's life before, during and after his mother's funeral has made him see any criticism of his wife and his marriage as a hounding to the gates of hell. It's a trauma response, in my opinion, and he probably hasn't had enough therapy to cope with it. He's clearly a sensitive guy brought up in a dysfunctional family where emotions were meant to be suppressed at all costs. He meets a woman who hasn't been brought up that way, and he's attracted to the idea of living "free" -- but he can never be free by dint of who he was born. They're also pretty clearly nuts about each other, and it's kind of gross. I say this as someone who also is totally nuts about my husband, and vice versa, and our friends make fake gagging noises around us when we get all moony and soppy over each other. I get it, and as they say, game recognize game. I don't see the "she's controlling him" thing at all -- he is clear, forthright and angry, whether the anger is well-placed or not, and if anything she seems to give way to him a little so far in their joint interviews. I reserve the right to change this as I work my way through though! I'm not a fan of either one of them. They're overprivileged people who have lost sight of how lucky they truly have it. I try never, ever to forget that I am insulated from a lot of the bad stuff of the world through money and a safety net of family and a fantastic spouse -- and I am nowhere near as well off as these two. If they really want to be shot of the Royal Family, they should stop making these "woe is we" shows and live a quiet life of luxury, completely out of the public eye. But they're gluttons for attention, both of them -- and if they stop, how will they be able to afford their super-luxurious lives? 🙄

Merry Christmas from a too-warm SoCal. Sending our excess heat to all of you in the arctic blast. Alex has the flu, so we are at home today instead of doing the planned-upon Xmas celebrations. So yesterday I had to hustle and come up with an Xmas Day menu since I was planning on someone else cooking... So I made a ham and cheese quiche: And right now the roast beef is in the oven: Family Zoom was fun and not too-too long (only 2 hours 🙄). Napped a lot, drank a bunch of champagne before I napped a lot (lol), watched three eps of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered, now putting dinner together. I still need to make creamed spinach. Oh, and Al has an entire box of After Eights in bed with us right now. It's that kind of day. So grateful for all we have. We have had so many blessings this year, and even though we're ending it with both of us not feeling super (I have suspected Eustachian tube dysfunction after a bad cold or possible case of RSV last month) I couldn't ask for more. I have been thinking a lot this week about the very ending of the Gene Wilder version of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" -- Willy Wonka asks Charlie, what happened to the little boy who got everything he wanted? He lived happily ever after. That's how I feel. I have everything I ever wanted -- the love of my family and friends, a relationship built on mutual love and respect, a job I enjoy, creative outlets in writing (halfway through my first novel!), and we're about to move into the first place we've bought together. Sadly, we are leaving the People's Republic of Santa Monica and moving to one of the very respectable parts of the Valley. What I mean to say is Merry Christmas to you all, and best wishes for you all to feel the kind of happiness I have somehow lucked into.

Thanks for clarifying -- there are plenty of other things out there that can trigger a closer look. Putting this bit out there helps all of us eliminate a potentially insurmountable problem.