Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jan 13, 2023 17 tweets 6 min read Read on X
In today's #vatnik soup I'll be introducing a US representative and a pathological liar, George Santos. It is almost impossible to do a proper profile on this guy, since it's hard to know what aspects of his life are true and what are false.

But let's try!

1/16
Santos is a member of the GOP, & he was elected to the open seat in 2022. He is the first openly gay Republic elected to congress.Interestingly, he was married to a woman during 2012-2019 - they divorced just 12 days before officially filed his first congressional campaign.
2/16
He's said that his maternal grandparents are Jewish and that they fled Soviet Ukraine and Belgium from the Holocaust - they were actually both born in Brazil. He later gave an interview to WABC radio, where he stated that "I never claimed to be Jewish, I am Catholic...

3/16
... Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.'"

Santos has used a fake Jewish name Anthony Zabrovsky to raise funds for a pet charity. He never gave any of its proceedings to the charity organization.

4/16
He has also claimed that his father is African American with Angolan roots. There is no evidence of this.

George speaks highly of her mother, writing that she was "the first female executive at a major financial institution" and survived 9/11.

5/16
In Jul, 2021, he tweeted that "9/11 claimed my mothers life"; then in Oct, 2021 he said that she was "caught up in the ash cloud" but was never treated for it. Then, in Dec, 2022 he claimed that both of his parents survived 9/11.

6/16
In real life, George's mother was apparently a home care nurse in Brazil and, accordingly to George's friends, she didn't speak much English.
Based on George, his education is top notch: he's claimed to hold a bachelor's degree in finance and economics from Baruch College...7/16
... graduating at top 1% of his class. During his claimed attendance he was actually in Brazil. He has also said that he was a "star player" on the Baruch volleyball team. He also has a fake Master's degree in business from NYU.

8/16
In Dec, 2022, he told The New York Post that "I didn't graduate from any institution of higher learning. I'm embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my résumé".

Besides being a volleyball star, George has also worked as a "seasoned Wall Street financier and investor"...9/16
... at both CitiGroup and Goldman Sachs. Neither company has any record of him working there. His latest real job was in a alternative investment firm accused of being a Ponzi scheme.

10/16
In an 2020 interview, he said that he had a brain tumor and that he received radiation treatment for it. Perhaps he's been cured: as of Dec, 2022, there hasn't been any more mentions of his illness.

11/16
Santos has called the Ukrainian government a "totalitarian regime". Regarding the puppet states of Donetsk and Luhansk, he has said that Ukraine "welcomed the Russians into their provinces" and that Ukrainians in the east "feel more Russian than Ukrainian".

12/16
In Feb, 2022, George tweeted that Joe Biden is "willing to start a war in Eastern Europe". At the time of these statements, he had received a 32 800 USD donation from Columbus Nova, owned by Andrew Intrater, a cousin of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.

13/16
George is a strong supporter of Donald Trump, and he also attended "Stop the Steal" rally on Jan 6, 2021. He was caught on camera stating that he had written a "nice check to a law firm" to bail the US Capitol arrestees out of jail.

14/16
As almost always with vatniks, George has trouble with money - he has unresolved charges for check fraud in Brazil. Somehow he's managed to make some money for his campaigning - in 2020 he listed his net worth at 5000 USD, ...

15/16
... but by 2022 his fortune had increased to somewhere between 2,5 and 11 million USD. He's campaing spendings are just absurd and too long to list here, you can find more info here: politico.com/news/2022/12/3…

16/16
*His campaign spendings

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Pekka Kallioniemi

Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @P_Kallioniemi

Sep 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the agenda-setting and flood of disinformation that spread on X and other platforms right after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. It’s far from the first or last time a tragedy has been weaponized for political purposes.

1/18 Image
Every major political event, especially those involving violence, attracts massive attention. In the immediate aftermath, reliable information is scarce, making it highly vulnerable to both coordinated and improvised disinformation campaigns.

2/18 Image
As I’ve mentioned in my previous soups and lectures, in disinformation campaigns, being first with a narrative is crucial, as people often remember the first version best — psychology studies show it sets the mental schema, and later updates rarely overwrite it.

3/18 Image
Read 19 tweets
Sep 8
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce American social media personality David Freeman, AKA Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman). He’s best known for spreading political disinformation on X and shamelessly sucking up to Trump, Putin, and other authoritarian leaders.

1/22 Image
David is a textbook example of someone profiting from MAGA grievance politics. He uses extreme, provocative language to farm engagement on X and never hesitates to flatter anyone who might give him more exposure — or money.

2/22 Image
Image
But David wasn’t always like this. At some point, in his mid-40s, he even tried a real job: he trained to become a cop. He spent three years with the Metro Transit PD, but after that he either got fired or quit, and never looked back.

3/22 Image
Read 24 tweets
Sep 5
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian-Estonian businessman, Oleg Ossinovski. He is best-known for his deep ties to Russian rail and energy networks, shady cross-border dealings, and for channeling his wealth into Estonian politics.

1/14 Image
Oleg made his fortune via Spacecom Trans & Skinest Rail, both deeply tied to Russia’s rail system. Most of this is through Globaltrans Investments PLC, a Cyprus-based firm with 62% held via Spacecom and tens of millions in yearly profits.

2/14 Image
Image
Ossinovski’s Russian-linked ventures made him Estonia’s richest man in 2014, with an estimated fortune of ~€300M. His business empire stretched across railways, oil via Alexela shares, and Russian bitumen imports from Help-Oil, a supplier to the Defense Ministry.

3/14 Image
Read 15 tweets
Sep 2
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Swiss/French writer, Alain Bonnet, aka Alain Soral (@officielsoral). He’s best known for his rabid antisemitism and for his pathetic support for all the worst authoritarian regimes from Russia to North Korea.

1/22 Image
Alain’s childhood was problematic, as his father has been characterized as a “narcissistic pervert” who beat his children and did jail time for fraud. Alain himself has said he was “programmed to be a monster.” Born Alain Bonnet, he took the stage name of his sister,…

2/22 Image
Image
… actress Agnès Soral. She wasn’t too happy about this, commenting “How would you like to be called Agnès Hitler?”. Like many grifters, he became a pick-up/seduction artist writer, à la late Gonzalo Lira, writing books and even making a B-movie, “Confessions d’un dragueur”.
3/22 Image
Image
Image
Read 23 tweets
Aug 18
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explain the Alaska Fiasco and how it marks the peak of Trump’s two-year betrayal of Ukraine. What was sold as “peace talks” turned into a spectacle of weakness, humiliation, empty promises, and photo-ops that handed Putin exactly what he wanted.

1/24 Image
Let’s start with the obvious: Trump desperately wants the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, mainly because Obama got one. That’s why he’s now LARPing as a “peace maker” in every conflict: Israel-Gaza, Azerbaijan-Armenia, India-Pakistan, and of course Ukraine-Russia.

2/24 Image
Image
Image
Image
Another theory is that Putin holds kompromat — compromising material such as videos or documents — that would put Trump in an extremely bad light. Some have suggested it could be tied to the Epstein files or Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

3/24 Image
Image
Read 25 tweets
Aug 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about engagement farming: a cynical social media tactic to rack up likes, shares, and comments. From rage farming to AI-powered outrage factories, engagement farming is reshaping online discourse and turning division into profit.

1/23 Photo by JULIE OLIVER /Postmedia
Engagement farming is a social media tactic aimed at getting maximum likes, shares, and comments, with truth being optional. It thrives on provocative texts, images, or videos designed to spark strong reactions, boost reach, and turn online outrage into clicks and cash.

2/23 Image
One subset of engagement farming is rage farming: a tactic built to provoke strong negative emotions through outrageous or inflammatory claims. By triggering anger or moral outrage, these posts often generate 100s or even 1,000s of heated comments, amplifying their reach.

3/23 Image
Read 24 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(