Thursday, April 11, 2024

BY JULIA CLAIRE & CROOKED MEDIA

- Fox News’s Julie Banderas, struggling to identify that Hillary Clinton was wearing…a kaftan to a recent state dinner.

Israel is bracing for a possible retaliatory strike from Iran as the two countries’ long-simmering conflict appears at increasing risk of boiling over.

Senior American military official Gen. Michael Kurilla arrived in Israel on Thursday amid fears that Iran might launch a strike to avenge an Israeli airstrike in Damascus that killed three senior Iranian commanders. Gen. Kurilla made the trip to coordinate on the expected retaliatory action and to discuss the war in Gaza, according to Defense Department officials who spoke to the New York Times under condition of anonymity.

President Biden has used slightly sharper language regarding Israel in recent weeks, and threatened to withhold American aid unless Israel does more to protect civilians after an Israeli attack on a World Central Kitchen envoy killed seven aid workers, including one American citizen, but that hasn’t resulted in substantive policy changes. On Wednesday, he emphasized that American support for Israel in the face of an Iranian threat is unconditional, saying “our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad.” Senior Pentagon officials including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were reportedly frustrated that Israel did not notify the United States before conducting the strike in Syria, according to the Washington Post.

The Israeli airstrike in Damascus was among the most significant attacks in the “shadow war” between Israel and Iran that has been unfolding for the past year. German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday that she had spoken to her Iranian counterpart, and her office released a statement stressing the importance of “avoiding further regional escalation,” and the need for “all actors in the region to act responsibly and exercise maximum restraint.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed uninterested in the idea of restraint on Thursday while visiting the Tel Nof Air Base, where he said: “We have determined a simple rule: Whoever harms us, we will harm them.” Well okay then!

Meanwhile, conditions in Gaza continue to deteriorate.

In the week since President Biden issued his sternest words yet for Israel, and despite the Netanyahu government touting what they say is a record number of aid trucks being allowed into Gaza, humanitarian workers and United Nations officials say little has changed in the enclave. The volume of aid has not significantly increased, nor is it reaching the people who need it most. The Israeli government also promised to reopen a crossing in northern Gaza, bring bakeries back online, and establish clear coordination channels with aid workers, but those measures seemingly have yet to be implemented.

U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Samantha Power told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that conditions in Gaza are “as dire as I have seen in my career.” Ninety-five percent of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million people is estimated to be experiencing crisis levels of hunger. Famine is already underway in Northern Gaza, according to the global Food and Agriculture Organization, the world’s leading body on food crises.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to directly comment on USAID’s assessment, but referenced the FAO’s report that famine is imminent in Gaza.

If you’ve ever dreamed of following a podcast around like the Grateful Dead, this is your year! Pod Save America has a ton of great shows coming up on their Democracy or Else tour, headed to Brooklyn, Boston, Madison, Phoenix, Philly, and Ann Arbor. They will also be at the LA Times festival of books on April 21st with appearances by Dan Pfeiffer, Tommy Vietor, Jon Favreau, and Hysteria’s own Erin Ryan! To get tickets, head to crooked.com/events now.

Republicans continue to stumble their way through responding to the Arizona Supreme Court decision to reinstate a near-total ban on abortion from 1864. Fox News’s resident mega-chud Sean Hannity on Wednesday called on Arizona Democrats to simply “get rid of” the law, despite the fact that Copper State Democrats did try to do that and were blocked by Republican lawmakers. The Biden campaign is not wasting time, and on Thursday launched a seven-figure advertising buy in Arizona focused on abortion. National Democratic officials have a clear plan of attack to attach all abortion talking points to disgraced former president Donald Trump, and lay responsibility for our current dystopia at his feet.

Trump, as we know, installed three justices that helped form the conservative Supreme Court court majority that overturned Roe vs. Wade in June 2022. Abortion bans are a massive political liability for Republicans, a fact that hasn’t deterred them from continuing to pursue as many such bans as possible at all levels of government. But there isn’t universal consensus within the Biden campaign on focusing so heavily on abortion. Some within the president’s reelection campaign worry that the singular focus could lead to neglecting other issues that are hurting the president’s approval including inflation, immigration, and student loan debt. Among Democratic voters, Biden’s primary issue continues to be his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressed a joint session of Congress on Thursday, and urged lawmakers not to doubt the “indispensable” role of the United States in world affairs, and warned that Ukraine could “collapse” without American support.

Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, the longest-serving member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, announced on Thursday that she will not run for reelection next spring, throwing the hard-won 4-3 liberal majority on the court back into play for conservatives.

Former football star and all-around terrible guy O.J. Simpson has died at the age of 76. Simpson was acquitted of murdering his former wife Nicole Brown in 1995 but later found responsible for her death in a civil lawsuit. He also served nine years in Nevada prison after being convicted in 2008 on twelve counts of armed robbery and kidnapping two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint.

Ippei Mizuhara, the longtime interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, was charged on Thursday with bank fraud for stealing $16 million from the Dodgers to pay off his gambling debts. Misuhara faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Before he died in prison, Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny wrote a memoir chronicling his life, his career, and subsequent assassination attempts. It will be published this fall.

Bird flu has been detected in dairy cow herds in eight states, but the disease is not presenting as a respiratory infection as it usually does in other mammals. High concentration of the virus is being found in the milk supply of infected cows.

The Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would make it illegal to marry your first cousin, but not without a fight from some Republicans. A tough setback for all of our brave soldiers on the front lines of Marrying Your First Cousin.

Guy who constantly complains about how Democrats have killed personal “responsibility” Lt. Gov Mark Robinson (R-NC) failed to file his federal income taxes for five consecutive years between 1998-2003.

Consumer Reports is calling for Lunchables to be removed from school cafeterias across the country after concerning levels of lead (!) and sodium (okay that one we could have guessed) and other potentially-harmful chemicals were found in their products. A petition lobbying the USDA to remove the Kraft Heinz products from the National School Lunch Program has over 14,000 signatures. A spokeswoman for Kraft Heinz told the Washington Post: “All our foods meet strict safety standards that we happily feed to our own families.”

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The White House plans to expand the boundaries of two national monuments in California—the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument—to bolster national conservation efforts.

The Biden administration also announced on Thursday plans to close the “gun show loophole” that has allowed people selling guns online, at gun shows, and other informal venues to circumvent background checks on customers.

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