[What A Day]([link removed])

Wednesday, April 17, 2024
BY JULIA CLAIRE & CROOKED MEDIA

- [Donald Trump]([link removed]) railing against one of his many nemeses in front of a room of his oil executive buddies.

Tensions in the Middle East: still outrageously high!

 

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Lebanese militant group [Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a drone and missile attack in northern Israel on Wednesday]([link removed]). The Israeli military said the attack injured 14 soldiers, six of them severely, and was one of the most damaging acts committed by Hezbollah in recent months. Hezbollah said the attack was in response to Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday, which the Israel Defense Forces said killed two Hezbollah commanders. Beginning on October 7, the cross-border conflict between Hezbollah and Israel has been escalating, and the fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people in both Israel and Lebanon. 

 

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Israel’s Western allies continue to call for the country to exercise restraint as it weighs how to respond to Iran’s Saturday counterattack, but [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will make its own decisions]([link removed]). The United States, European Union and the Group of 7 nations all announced plans to consider expanding sanctions on Iran in an attempt to cool tempers among Israel’s war cabinet. 

 

- The United Nations agency that aids Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, [released a report on Tuesday describing severe physical abuse experienced by Palestinians while in Israeli detention]([link removed]). Detainees detailed being forced to sit on their knees for hours while blindfolded and with their hands bound. Some were deprived of food and water and recounted being urinated on, among other humiliations. Others described being beaten with metal bars or the butt end of guns and boots, or forced into cages and attacked by dogs. The New York Times could not independently verify each account, but some of the testimonies in the report matched reports provided to the Times by freed detainees and their relatives in January. The Israeli military and PM’s office didn’t respond to questions from the Times about the report. In the past, the country has maintained that detainees are held in accordance with the law.

[What A Day]([link removed])

Handling of the Israel-Hamas war continues to be hotly debated within the Biden Administration. 
 

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[Several current and former State Department officials told ProPublica]([link removed]) that a special department panel made up of Middle East and human rights experts recommended to Secretary of State Antony Blinken months ago that he should disqualify multiple Israeli military and police units from receiving American aid after reviewing allegations that they committed serious human rights abuses. But according to those officials—who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to disclose internal deliberations—Blinken has failed to act on the proposal due to growing international criticism of IDF conduct in Gaza. 

 

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The incidents in question mostly took place in the West Bank before the October 7 Hamas attack, and include reports of extrajudicial killings, an incident in which an elderly Palestinian American man was gagged, handcuffed, and left for dead, as well as alleged torture and rape of a teenager who had been accused of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails. The panel’s recommendations were reportedly sent to Blinken in December. The Israeli government did not respond to a request for comment. 

A State Department spokesperson told ProPublica that the agency takes its commitment to uphold human rights laws seriously and added: “This process is one that demands a careful and full review.” The department, said the spokesperson, “undergoes a fact-specific investigation applying the same standards and procedures regardless of the country in question.”

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The flailing House Republican effort to find a reason—any reason!—to impeach President Joe Biden burst into [absurdist verbal fireworks in a hearing Wednesday]([link removed]). House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), another member of the committee, sparred as Comer seemed to fray at the seams after spending months on this doomed fishing expedition. During the committee’s hearing on China, Raskin took issue with Republicans continuing to accuse President Biden of accepting bribes (allegations that have been repeatedly proven unfounded). [Comer interrupted Raskin during his allotted time]([link removed]) when Raskin began quoting disgraced former president Donald Trump’s repeated praise for Chinese President Xi Jinping. Raskin then unleashed a number of verbal bangers, like: “I agree you have been talking about bank statements for more than a year, but they don’t show anything other than there was no crime.” He continued: “Somebody needs therapy here, but it’s nobody on our side of the aisle.” Lol. [Comer says impeachment is “still on the table”]([link removed]) and criminal referrals coming from his sham investigation could come “within weeks.” Oh Jim, you sweet summer child. 

[GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson told his caucus on Wednesday that he is moving ahead with a foreign aid package for Israel and Ukraine, and set a Saturday vote]([link removed]), teeing up what could be his own ouster by Freedom Caucus nutjobs who oppose giving more aid to Ukraine. 

Arizona MAGA psycho and Senate candidate Kari Lake downplayed the severity of the recent state supreme court decision to reinstate an 1864 near-total ban on abortion, [saying Arizonans can simply travel “three hours” for the procedure to a neighboring state]([link removed]). Thanks for the super helpful tip!

Transportation Secretary [Pete Buttigieg confirmed on Wednesday that his department’s watchdog group is looking into the FAA’s oversight of Boeing’s manufacturing of 737 and 787 airplanes]([link removed]), which have been at the center of numerous high-profile (and extremely scary!) malfunctioning incidents. 

A new study from Dublin City University’s Anti-Bullying Centre found that [social media algorithms are rapidly amplifying and spreading misogynistic “men’s rights” content]([link removed]) to young men and boys. 

Trump’s former Attorney General Bill Barr made his post-cabinet career all about criticizing his former boss, but like all Republican ghouls, [said he will support the GOP ticket (aka Trump) this November]([link removed]). What a shock.

[President Biden on Wednesday called for notably higher tariffs on Chinese steel]([link removed]) and other metals while speaking to steelworkers in Pittsburgh, PA. 

[More than 8 million people have been displaced in Sudan in the year since a powerful paramilitary group began fighting the Sudanese army]([link removed]), according to the United Nations. 

[Tesla asked its shareholders on Wednesday to reaffirm the company’s approval of CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion annual salary]([link removed]), a figure that was set in 2018 but later rejected by a Delaware judge who called the compensation “an unfathomable sum” and unfair to shareholders. $56 billion for being a dumbass: anything is possible in America!

Former professional football player and anti-vaxx goon [Aaron Rogers (who was rumored to be high on RFK Jr.’s VP short-list) suggested on a podcast last month that HIV/AIDS was engineered by Anthony Fauci with help from the U.S. government]([link removed]). He said: “I’m not an immunologist, whatever the fuck, I can read, though.” We’re not so sure!

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Desperate for cash, [Donald Trump is asking for a cut of fundraising from any GOP candidates who use his name and likeness in their campaign ads]([link removed]), according to a campaign letter revealed by Politico. The art of the deal!!!

[An Australian ophthalmologist believes bioengineered corneas could cure blindness for millions of people around the world]([link removed]). 

[The Democratically-controlled Senate effectively killed the House’s sham impeachment trial of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas]([link removed]) on Wednesday. 

The Writers Guild of America saw one of their biggest achievements since the strike on Wednesday. After flipping a non-union, “unscripted” show last year—MTV’s “Ridiculousness”—[the show’s unionized writers negotiated their first contract]([link removed]). 

[What A Day]([link removed])

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

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