Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Monday Night Open Thread: Proud to Be A Democrat, And Also Snarky

Monday Night Open Thread: Proud to Be A Democrat, And Also Snarky

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It’s gloriously real, per Business Insider:

Former Rep. George Santos finally made history last week when he was expelled from Congress. Now he’s made history again, as the first former congressperson to be used by Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania to troll Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey via Cameo.

“I thought my ethically-challenged colleague @BobMenendezNJ could use some encouragement given his substantial legal problems,” Fetterman wrote on X. “So, I approached a seasoned expert on the matter to give ‘Bobby from Jersey’ some advice.”

An attached video shows Santos giving advice to “Bobby from Jersey” about how to stay strong…

A Fetterman spokesman told Business Insider that Santos posted the Cameo just 16 minutes after it was requested. The spokesman said that with taxes, fees, and an extra charge to deliver it within 24 hours, the Cameo cost Fetterman $343.20.

“We did not expect to get it back so fast,” the spokesman said.

Menendez has been accused by federal prosecutors of taking bribes, including over $480,000 in cash, in exchange for secretly aiding the Egyption government.

Menendez has denied the allegations…

I was aware that Philly and Jersey pols did not always play nice with each other, but this is top-tier snark.

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Credit where it’s due. That’s amazing.

    Also, maybe the first honest buck George Santos has ever made.

  3. 3.

    Suzanne

    I was aware that Philly and Jersey pols did not always play nice with each other, but this is top-tier snark.

    Fetterman lives in western PA, just outside Pittsburgh. Not Philly.

  12. 12.

    smith

    @WaterGirl: If it were a fake, the fake guy would look more like Santos — he would have the trademark glasses at least

    ETA: I’m wondering if Santos is trying to look different because he’s embarrassed to be doing this kind of job after being a Congressman? On the other hand, it’s not very  plausible that Santos could be embarrassed.

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    Does anyone else occasionally sneeze so hard that it makes you utterly exhausted? Shit. Now I need to lie down.

  17. 17.

    CliosFanBoy

    The press is STILL missing the big picture. WHO did Santos subscribe to on OnlyFans????????

  18. 18.

    wjca

    @Baud: Credit where it’s due. That’s amazing.

    Also, maybe the first honest buck George Santos has ever made.

    Are you sure it wasn’t made by an AI?  With Santos just pocketing the dough while never doing the work.

  19. 19.

    FelonyGovt

    Kind of annoying, though not at all surprising, that Santos has a way to immediately capitalize on his notoriety. We live in interesting times.

  21. 21.

    Nukular Biskits

    Completely OT but gotta recommend this place for anyone in San Diego:

    Pizza Bella Italian Bistro

    A little pricey but the tortellini is to die for … and I almost did by eating waaaaaaaaaay too much.  Still left nearly half on the plate because I simply had no room for the rest.

    Stick a fork in me … I’m done for the evening.

  23. 23.

    Alison Rose

    @Suzanne: Starting from birth and through my teens, I had absolutely horrendous, constant allergies. 24/7, 365, indoor/outdoor. The medications available back then mostly sucked, and I spent most days sneezing literally all damn day, and yes, it is completely exhausting, to a degree that people without allergies don’t understand. Most days, it was like the absolute worst day with a bad cold x100, but I didn’t get to stay home because I wasn’t technically “sick”. Immunotherapy saved my sanity eventually.

  30. 30.

    Alison Rose

    I was trying to do something that was a bit of a hassle and I was getting a little grumbly about it, and I muttered out loud about my frustration. But what I said was “Why is this such a bitch in the ass” because I guess my brain got a little confused about whether it wanted to say “a bitch” or “a pain in the ass”. And then I laughed which was nicer than being annoyed.

  31. 31.

    Nukular Biskits

    @WaterGirl:

    It’s only the second time I’ve eaten there and I’ve been coming to San Diego for work for probably +30 years now.

    First time I ate there was about a month ago.  I was tired of Mexican (which I absolutely love but a man does have his limits).

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    I don’t know what Georgey’s shit**** mug actually looks like, but he can go fuck himself into the Sun, and good on Senator Fetterman.

  35. 35.

    WaterGirl

    @Delk: I went to his site just now but I didn’t see anything like that and didn’t know where exactly to look.

    What was the other video?  I can’t quite tell what you are suggesting with your comment?

  37. 37.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Rachel Maddow introducing Liz Cheney be replaying the videos of her quest to interview Liz Cheney 13 and 10 years ago. I’ve been wondering if she’d replay the clip where she ended her public request for an interview with, “I promise, I do not bite”. I think that was specifically about Liz throwing her sister Mary under the bus during her failed Senate (primary) campaign

  41. 41.

    Suzanne

    @Alison Rose: I have a whole array of allergies, but I don’t react strongly to any one allergen. So I went and got allergy tested when I lived in AZ, and they tested the 50 most common allergens on my arm. I reacted to 40. And it was all the common ones….. summer and winter grass, dogs and cats, like, half of the plants in my yard. And I had enough reaction to carry a high histamine load all year. Awesome. I had some success with immunotherapy. But living in PA has been even better than immunotherapy. It gets cold enough that I just don’t seem to have any problems in the winter.

    But the kids both have low-grade crud and they have shared.

  43. 43.

    wjca

    @Martin: AI isn’t that good yet. Give it a few more years.

    But when simulating Santos, as opposed to most people, “artificial” is probably sufficient.  “Intelligent”, in his case, is only aspirational anyway.

  44. 44.

    hilts

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Rachel Maddow introducing Liz Cheney

    Rachel’s introduction took up nearly 30 minutes of her 1 hour show.  She could have trimmed it by 20 minutes and left more time for the actual interview.

  45. 45.

    Hoppie

    @Suzanne: I had a friend went to medical school many decades ago.  After a lecture on the anatomy of sinuses, a student asked “yes, but what are sinuses for?”

    The prof said: “Sinuses are God’s punishment of mankind.”

  47. 47.

    wjca

    @Suzanne: they tested the 50 most common allergens on my arm. I reacted to 40. And it was all the common ones….. summer and winter grass, dogs and cats, like, half of the plants in my yard.

    My usual explanation to people is “I’m allergic to pertty much anything in the air except oxygen and nitrogen.” Seems to cover the situation pretty well.  Except for the detail that walking barefoot across a lawn will get a huge red histamine skin reaction.  (Somehow “a roll in the hay” never sounded attractive as a concept.  I’ll stick with beds, thank you very much!)

  48. 48.

    JaySinWA

    @WaterGirl: His face looks a lot thinner than what I recall even recently. Either the House cameras add a lot of pounds, he lost a lot of weight recently or he is using a slimming filter for Cameo

    ETA it isn’t just House cameras. The interviews I have seen seemed to have a rounder face. He looked quite heavy, although in one interview it looked like he had a bullet proof vest on under his sweater.

  51. 51.

    Suzanne

    @Hoppie: I had a brain MRI once, because I had had a couple of seizures and they needed to look for a cause. I hadn’t been feeling well when I went it….yet another sinus infection. I went in to get the results of the MRI, and the first thing the neurologist said was, “You had a terrible sinus infection! Are you okay now?”…. and I was like, “Whaaaa?” On the images from the MRI, one sinus was completely blocked and showed up on the MRI as solid white, completely filled with snot.

    No brain tumor, though, so that part was good.

  52. 52.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Liz Cheney AGAIN with the poor misled patriots who support Trump. Assumes facts not in evidence, Liz.

    She thought Mike Johnson an honorable man right up until he got seduced by Trump to help him thwart the peaceful transfer of power.

    Seems like Republican men have no fucking agency at all AND Liz is a very shitty judge of character, same as it ever was.

  53. 53.

    Steeplejack

    Incident in the hood: “Virginia police investigate explosion at house where officers were trying to serve a search warrant.”

    ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Police in a Virginia suburb of the nation’s capital are investigating a massive explosion at a house where officers were trying to serve a search warrant Monday.

    The Arlington County Police Department said in a statement that the suspect fired several shots inside the home and that an explosion happened. Firefighters were working to extinguish the fire.

    The police had earlier said that they were investigating after someone fired a flare gun from the house.

    Don’t know the exact location, but this is about a mile or so from Threadkill Lane.

  55. 55.

    JaySinWA

    Appearances aside, I don’t really get the snark here. The statement itself isn’t particularly snarky, although the source is. I suppose Fetterman is trying to paint Menedez as modeling Santos behavior, but Menendez has his own history of escaping legal and political trouble.

    It did get Fetterman some cheap airtime, so maybe well spent?

  56. 56.

    NotMax

    Completed a relatively simple improvement which involved crawling on all fours underneath the desk with an electric lantern and a power drill..

    If knees could talk mine would be loudly cursing a blue streak. Confident the cornucopia of lingering ouchies should pass in a couple of hours.

  59. 59.

    Steeplejack

    @Hoppie:

    C’mon, man. Islamic terrorism, no doubt!

    In a Twitter video that someone sent me I saw a sign for Burlington Street, which is a couple of miles north of what I consider Bluemont. But Arlington has a number of streets with two unconnected parts.

    I might do a McDonald’s run early tomorrow morning and see if I can see what’s what.

  61. 61.

    Steeplejack

    @Hoppie:

    I live in the Seven Corners area of Falls Church, and my hunter-gatherer rounds take me down Wilson Boulevard through Bluemont to Ballston and Clarendon. Right past Bluemont Park, which is the starting point for my (too infrequent!) walking expeditions.

  63. 63.

    Martin

    @hilts: The interview time is negotiated. Odds are she had a contractual 30 minute interview and needed to space fill, and wanted to keep the whole show on her.

  67. 67.

    HumboldtBlue

    @NotMax: ​ 

    Completed a relatively simple improvement which involved crawling on all fours underneath the desk with an electric lantern and a power drill.

    May I now introduce you to the proper Balloon-Juice-dot-com after dark after party!

    Max brought the juice and you lot, well, you, brought yourselves, so party like tomorrow isn’t Tuesday!!

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    @HumboldtBlue

    Party like it’s $19.99!
    :)

    Absent any aspirin or other analgesics, discomfiture now about 60% and dropping. Managed to hobble (read: old man shuffle) down the sloping driveway — and back up again — to the mailbox on the street an hour ago (no mail).

  70. 70.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    Nothing that couldn’t have been accomplished in one tenth the time were I 30 years younger.

    Securely screwing flat U-hooks into the desk structure in order to move the large power strip off the floor where it previously collected gobs of dust and cobwebs, using the hooks to suspend it horizontally out of direct sight. Less prone to surface dirt and muck and easier to clean with a soft brush when it does get dusty.

  73. 73.

    TBone

    @JaySinWA: Senator Fetterman defeated Mehmet Oz who was pretending to be from Jersey.  Also, he confronted Menendez in an elevator in the Capitol a while back and has been attached to his ankle like a snarling terrier to GTFO voluntarily (resign).  Gawd I adore Fetterman’s style, he is an example of a Dem on offense that we sorely need.

  76. 76.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @WaterGirl:

    That doesn’t look like Santos to me. Isn’t his hair darker and his face fatter?

    I don’t think it’s necessarily a filter, or at least not a particularly sophisticated filter. Check it out again, paying special attention to his cheeks – it looks just slightly distorted. I think he recorded it at a vertical 16×10 ratio, transcoded to 16×9, and mailed it out.

    Or maybe that’s all that a slimming filter does.

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