DL Open Thread Sunday, Sept. 28, 2024

Politicians will lie about anything, but a Republican running for Congress in Virginia’s 7th District has taken it to a new level. Derrick Anderson, an ex-Green Beret, is single, but he wanted to project a family-man vibe – so he borrowed a friend’s family for campaign photos and posed as if they were his own. My favorite part: His spokesperson’s claim that it was just Anderson and some of his many supporters. Who are you going to believe, a Republican or your lying eyes? If you’re a Republican, don’t bother answering.

No good deed goes unpunished. The reporter who broke the story about a Mississippi welfare fraud that involved former NFL quarterback Brett Favre is being sued for defamation by former Gov. Phil Bryant, and could be jailed for contempt for refusing to turn over her notes. As Republican judges so often demonstrate, the law is an ass.

An interesting part off the Friday news dump: Bernie Sanders and other corporate-skeptical Democrats called out dozens of CEOs who were paid more than their companies paid in taxes, and named names (note all the energy companies on that list). It’s interesting that they purposely buried this, considering that Harris is playing footsie with the crypto people, who are shrewdly buying both sides with their money substitute.

A single guy in Philadelphia had a novel approach to the difficulties of dating now that there are no alternate weeklies with personal ads. Dave Cline put a picture of himself and his cat on a billboard with the headline “Dave is Single,” and it went viral thanks to social media. A Philadelphia Inquirer reporter checked in with him to see how it’s going. He admitted he’s not enjoying being internet famous, but it’s been interesting.

For Cline, the best part of this experience has been the overwhelmingly positive feedback. He feared “real life was going to reflect the worst parts of the comment section,” but instead, he’s been met with praise and encouragement from strangers.

“I was afraid people weren’t going to get it,” he said. “[But] the fact that a lot of people have identified with that and just are so on board and think that it’s funny and relatable, I don’t know if I could come up with a better measure of success for what this was.”

The floor’s yours.