Biggest News of the Week 12/7/2023
Santos gone. McCarthy out. Bob's Gold Bars and Tony's One True Power.
Welcome to the first ever written version of my weekly Tik Tok segment, “The Biggest News of the Week,” a quick recap of key stories with a bit of commentary. Get subscribed because I’ll be doing these weekly.
Bob and Fred’s Gold Bars
Bribery among aides to Supreme Court Justices on Venmo is boring but gold bars changing hands in New Jersey? That’s sexy. Senator Bob Menendez allegedly took bribes in exchange for disclosing sensitive and non-public information to Egyptian officials. Bob earned himself an FBI investigation.
The serial number on four of the gold bars given to Bob Menedez matches those reported stolen from, and returned to, Fred Daibes in 2013. Daibes, a real estate tycoon that came to New Jersey from Lebanon, spent his first 10 years of life in a Palestinian refugee camp.
Kudos to Fred for playing the long game. He witnessed the US funding Israeli expansion into Palestine firsthand, came to the US, and commodified housing in suburban neighborhoods. Perhaps he learned a more important lesson in his early life in the middle east, the extent of what US politicians will do for money.
The mob-ishness of Jersey politics is back in the limelight, baby.
Santos’ Cameo
Following his expulsion 6 days ago, Santos is earning income as a content creator. Cameo, the app where people pay their favorite public figures to make a custom video, apparently allows use by the purchaser. Santos videos are all over Tik Tok, garnering millions of views.
Cameo users often ask for a custom message/sentiment, occasionally creators on the app will turn down ridiculous requests. I wonder what videos he turned down? Santos, posted by the official Cameo account, is on Tik Tok saying, “hey token straight friends!” and amazingly, “let’s talk about botox for a second.” He really slayed with, “from rise to congressman to fallen diva.” Santos even offered a sampling of his Taylor Swift karaoke. God bless.
Still, George Santos’ most notable cameo was his cameo in Congress.
Kevin Quit
Kevin McCarthy is leaving, this week he announced he plans to retire at the end of the year. This is an objectively hilarious thing to do in December, he basically put in his two weeks. During his nine-month-long speakership, McCarthy was second in line to the Presidency. Now he’s out. No one wants to work anymore.
Florida Elections
Florida is a great state for elections. They’re like, really good at democracy down there. This week it became big news that the Florida Democratic party will not hold an election. That’s right. They decided that instead of holding an election (what a hassle), a few party officials will decide the nominee instead. Joe Biden again. No need to collect ballots and count votes. The same guy will just stay in office without an election. You would think a country like Florida has more awareness of who belongs in a retirement home and who belongs in the oval office.
14 Billion Dollars
The US Senate blocked a bill sending $14 billion to Israel so they can restock their missile systems.
According to HUD it would cost around $20 billion to end homelessness.
That’s fucked up.
Go Tony
Not Blinken. Anthony Gutierrez invoked Article 99–the eloquently named power allows the UN Secretary General to bring an issue before the Security Council if they feel it threatens international peace and security. Gutierrez is calling for an immediate Israel-Palestine ceasefire. The last time the Security Council voted on a humanitarian pause, on October 18th, the US vetoed it.
The Atrocities
This past week, a lot of media time has been given to debates about alleged atrocities committed by Hamas. When the Palestinian Ministry of Health provides a firsthand account of the death toll, it is often dismissed by mainstream media. “Hamas runs the ministry of health.” Even Joe Biden questioned the data, despite it being relied on within the State Department. Testimony of Israeli forces is accepted as truth without question, and well-documented atrocities committed by Israeli troops are ignored. If you want to fact check all war reporting, good. Do it. The blatant hypocrisy and intentional pro-Israel narrative-pushing of mainstream media is exhausting.