Posted in: Comics, Comixology | Tagged: george santos, John D. Roberts

When The Founder Of Comixology Met George Santos

John D. Roberts, co-founder of Comixology, found himself in the offices of US Representative George Santos this week, with questions.

John D. Roberts is the co-founder of Comixology, who exited the company after 12 years, after its purchase and more recent forest destruction by Amazon. After a stint at Amazon Advertsing, he has been footloose and fancy free for a couple of years. Which is how he found himself in the offices of US Representative George Santos this week.

Famously the U.S. representative for New York's 3rd congressional district, Santos has been recorded to have made numerous dubious claims about his life. That he attended and had degrees from NYU and Baruch College on a basketball scholarship, that he attended Horace Mann preparatory school, worked at Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, founded a charity group called Friends of Pets United, that he was Jewish and his grandparents fled the Holocaust, that he lost four employees in the Pulse nightclub murders, that he owns dozens of properties in New York, that his mother died in the Twin Towers attack, that he was mugged when trying to pay rent, He did deny performing as a drag queen, before changing his mind (a bit) when evidence was uncovered, and is known by going by the name Anthony Devolder.

He has also chosen to plead guilty of cheque fraud in Brazil in 2008 and was accused of failing to pay thousands of dollars in judgments from the 2010s, to which he admitted to and a federal grand jury indicted him on 13 criminal charges, including wire fraud and theft of public funds, though he has pled not guilty to all and has rejected calls for his resignation.

So lots to talk about. John D Roberts posted to Twitter about his meeting with George Santos, and we noticed a copy of America's best-selling comic book, Dog Man, on Santos' bookshelf. As of today, Santos has yet to claim that he wrote it. There's also a Diary Of A Wimpy Kid and what appear to be other graphic novels as well.

John D. Roberts meets George Santos

"As promised I went to @RepSantosNY03 's office hours. Given the reaction I got "just want to meet him" isn't a common reason. To his credit he was friendly and interactive given I did ask him to resign #NY03. He maintained eye contact despite me giving him the Steve Jobs treatment and always had an answer prepared. I called him on his bullshit but he was very respectful, I did my best to be respectful and didn't call him any of the alternative names I use on twitter,"

"I asked him if he felt he could provide adequate representation given all of the lies he said to get into office and to be fair, I am not well versed on his legislative achievements (I assumed there were none) so I will look into that. His assistant (for lack of a better word) informed me that Santos voted in favor of removing Trump's retaliatory NY tax increases SALT and another one, so if that's true, good job @RepSantosNY03"

Lies, damn lies and gun control arguments

"The only problem, and I point this out, is that given his lengthy documented instances of lying, it's hard to believe him when he gives me answers. I challenged him on his wearing the Assault Rifle pin to which he said it was a gift and he regrets wearing it, again, hard to believe whether he's telling the truth or not, but where we got the most heated, and I think he was having fun, was over gun control.  He pulled out that party line about guns, kept twisting the "gun is a gun" argument and that out of the number of people who own assault rifles only a small percentage commit mass murder, to which I said that that small percentage has a large body count. He pulled out the "guns magically appear" argument to which I pointed out that most of the illegal guns on the iron pipeline come from straw purchases. He also points out that I live in Queens and that his constituents in Long Island thank him for not supporting gun control bills I challenged him on that assertion and he said they have data, well I happen to be a data scientist, so I asked him for the data, they said they'd get it to me, so we'll see."

George Santos and resignation matters

"Another assertion he made was about the petition for him to resign by Casey Sebela. @RepSantosNY03 kept saying that "Donald Trump had signed the petition" which I find hard to believe as a quick skim of the petition would have ferreted that out. To his credit @RepSantosNY03 was a good sport, it's hard to be asked to resign to your face. During the gun debate discussion he looked like he was having fun and kept telling his staff to wait when they said the next constituent was ready."

"And I had fun, calling him out, challenging his assertions. One assertion he made as about @IlhanMN and the city of Minneapolis banning guns for police, google finds nothing about this, I told him that doesn't sound right. They said the cop gun ban didn't go through, which yeah, it wouldn't, so not sure why they brought it up. And he does not love the press, at all, could go all day about how the press covers the bad stuff he does but not the good, again, there is A LOT of bad, so…you know. The weirdest moment was when he said that the media loves to cover the bad things that guns do, but not the good things, which, I cut him off pointing out that most likely someone was still dead. That is a really good argument, guns don't get enough press, think of the guns. I also called him out for blocking me on Twitter to which it passed the blame to his campaign staff and that they were probably warranted. Which is funny given he says the trolls don't bother him."

"My family didn't want me to go, they were afraid I might get arrested and there is still the chance there will be retaliation, I mean, I did give them my address and phone number. But I did it to show my children that you have to stand up to the people who represent you. That these congresspeople work for us, not themselves, I actually challenged him on that, he said I respect your views you should respect mine to which I said, but you represent me, you should put my concerns over yours. So yes, I tried to inspire my children to stand up when they see an injustice, to let our politicians know that there are opposing viewpoints and when you see a wrong, to call it out. The adrenaline is still pumping, I had fun meeting @RepSantosNY03, I think he did too, So we'll see if I'm blacklisted for the next event. The End… For now."

We look forward to the graphic novel adaptation of this historic meeting  – whether by Roberts or by Santos.

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