[What A Day]([link removed])

Thursday, April 4, 2024
BY JULIA CLAIRE & CROOKED MEDIA

- Seemingly-drunk, disgraced former comedian [Roseanne Barr]([link removed]) telling kids to drop out of imaginary QAnon college at a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser

Disgraced former president [Donald Trump is currently leading in the polls in six out of seven swing states]([link removed]). It’s time to face facts about what could happen in November, and why.

-

The gravest mistake Democrats could make this year is underestimating Donald Trump. Like a villainous creature emerging from the primordial ooze, Trump is stronger than ever, and [his campaign is a frighteningly well-oiled machine]([link removed]). Gone (or, at least, exiled to the periphery) are the unpredictable egomaniacs like Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and Kellyanne Conway, who had a habit of gumming up the works and leaking things to the press that were supposed to stay concealed. Trump is playing 2024 less like a game than he did 2016, because now, with a slew of state and federal cases aimed his way, Trump’s money and his freedom are very much at stake. (I mean, it’s still definitely a game to him, but this time his own money and carceral future are on the table.)

 

-

Barely two years ago, Trump was something of political poison, and it seemed that every candidate he endorsed in the 2022 midterm elections went on to lose. That same fall, he hosted noted antisemites Ye (Kanye West) and Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago. But in late 2022/early 2023, the Trump campaign got some new blood and began changing the news cycle. Led by senior adviser Chris LaCivita, the Trump campaign spent all last summer lobbying state Republican primaries to change their processes to favor Trump. Then the former president benefited from a crowded GOP primary full of candidates even more inept than him. But his [myriad criminal indictments are what really gave him a boost]([link removed]), providing him with new material, new enemies to attack, [a potent new fundraising pitch]([link removed]), as well as a distraction from some of the more politically-destructive bullshit he frequently pulls on the campaign trail. 

 

-

But Trump’s steady re-ascent has crucially been boosted by President Joe Biden’s fall from grace with American voters. [Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war has cost him mightily with Democrats]([link removed]), with protest vote campaigns against the president in recent Dem primaries netting at times more total votes than Biden’s 2020 margin of victory in a given state, [as happened in Wisconsin on Tuesday]([link removed]). Trump has and will, if reelected, give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu everything he wants. But [with the death toll in Gaza having surpassed 32,000]([link removed]), according to the Gaza Health Ministry, many Democratic voters are finding Biden—who has consistently approved aid and arms transfers to Israel despite the mounting civilian casualties—difficult to stomach. On Thursday, the president spoke with Netanyahu over the phone for the first time since an Israeli attack killed seven workers with the disaster relief organization World Central Kitchen, one of whom was an American citizen. In a White House summary of the call, Biden reportedly “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers.” 

 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the president’s message [in Brussels on Thursday]([link removed]). So did White House spokesperson John Kirby. Biden and his top aides have repeatedly issued verbal warnings to Israel, but have so far been unwilling to turn those rebukes into policy changes. We hope this time is different. 

 

[What A Day]([link removed])

 

Women in New York City are getting punched in the face, figure skaters are doing backflips, and TikTok is horny for George W. Bush. Is it all connected? Only if you're listening to the latest episode of Terminally Online. Don't miss out when Jon Lovett, Ira Madison III, and producers Caroline Reston & Kendra James try to get to the bottom of the internet's bottomless horrors. To listen, make sure you subscribe to Friends of the Pod at [crooked.com/friends]([link removed])

[link removed]

Public school curricula in the United States have increasingly come to reflect the broader national partisan divide. [Three out of four school-aged American students are now educated under state-level measures that either expand or sharply limit teaching on issues of race, racism, history, sex, and gender]([link removed]), according to a new analysis from the Washington Post. The state laws restricting such teaching affect almost half of all school-aged American students. Two-thirds of all state-level policies related to teaching these topics are restrictive in nature. States like Florida and Texas are leading the charge to limit or prohibit certain topics entirely. University of Pennsylvania Professor Jonathan Zimmerman, who studies education policy, told the Post that the deluge of laws regulating school curriculum is unprecedented in American history in terms of volume and scope. States, he said, have allowed local school districts to shape lessons, and have not historically intervened so aggressively to set rules on what can and cannot be taught. “What the laws show,” he said, “is that we have extremely significant differences over how we imagine America.” 

[The White House approved the transfer of thousands of additional bombs to Israel on the same day that Israeli airstrikes killed seven aid workers for World Central Kitchen]([link removed]), the Washington Post reported citing three unnamed U.S. officials. 

[A Georgia judge on Thursday rejected disgraced former president Donald Trump’s effort to dismiss the charges in the state’s case against him for election interference]([link removed]). Trump had tried to argue that the case violates his right to free speech. We know Trump still has full use of his free speech by the general lack of peace undergirding our daily lives. 

A new report from nonprofit think tank InfluenceMap shows that since 2016, [more than 80 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions can be traced to 57 fossil fuel and cement producers]([link removed]). 

[Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), a moderate Democrat and one of President Biden’s closest allies in Congress, told CNN he believes it is time to begin conditioning aid to Israel]([link removed]) following the attack on World Central Kitchen workers. 

[Weather forecasters at Colorado State University predicted an “extremely active” Atlantic hurricane season this year]([link removed]) because of warm sea surface temperatures and less wind shear to break up the storms. 

[A federal district court judge in California ruled on Wednesday night that the federal government is required to “expeditiously” house migrant children]([link removed]) rather than allow them to remain in unsafe open-air sites along the border. 

[link removed]

Love to keep things simple?

Welcome to the club. We’ve put a lot of thought into our designs (and literally everything else), so you don’t have to.

[GET $50 OFF AT ARTICLE]([link removed])

Vice President Kamala Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced on Thursday a [dedication from the Biden Administration of $20 billion in grants to fund tens of thousands of clean energy projects in disadvantaged communities across the United States]([link removed]). 

[The grifters over at No Labels have abandoned their 2024 campaign effort]([link removed]) now that every potential candidate they’ve approached has turned them down. Here’s to another pillar in the late Sen. Joe Lieberman’s towering legacy of futile centrism! Congratulations to all involved.

[What A Day]([link removed])

[You Survived Today. See You Thursday.]([link removed])

[link removed]

© Crooked Media 2024. All Rights Reserved. 
If you want to manage which emails you receive from Crooked Media, [update your preferences here]([link removed]). If you prefer to opt out of all Crooked Media communications, you may [unsubscribe]([link removed]).
[Share this newsletter]([link removed])
7162 Beverly Blvd #212, Los Angeles, CA, 90036

[Twitter]([link removed])
[Facebook]([link removed])
[Instagram]([link removed])