Thursday, September 26, 2024 BY MATT BERG & CROOKED MEDIA

- Mayor Eric Adams, in one of his long-running bits comparing the city to world capitals

American troops are being sent to the Middle East and watching a war break out before their eyes, a new factor that could play into the November election.

Tensions between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah have been rising since October, when the militant group began routinely lobbing rockets across the border to pressure Israel to stop the war in Gaza. Fast forward almost a year, and Israel reportedly hacked Hezbollah’s hand-held devices and remotely detonated them. Hundreds of people — including scores of civilians — died from those attacks last week. On Wednesday, Hezbollah launched a missile directly at Tel Aviv, and Israel has called up reserve fighters, threatening to invade Lebanon.

The Biden administration is trying — and so far, failing — to stop the conflict. On Wednesday night, the United States and allies called for a ceasefire to negotiate an end to the fighting. This morning, Israel rejected that call and continued bombing Lebanon. Hezbollah probably wouldn’t want to stop the fighting either, because it has pledged to keep striking Israel until the war in Gaza is over. And the U.S. might not be able to stop this from getting out of control: Israel’s military doesn’t have a strong track record of listening to the Biden administration’s wishes lately.

Dozens of American troops were recently deployed to Cyprus — a small island nation in the Mediterranean Sea — to prepare for a possible evacuation of U.S. citizens from Lebanon if the fighting gets worse. Throughout the war in Gaza, American troops have been deployed and redeployed to the nation, a Cypriot official explained to What A Day: “This is the case again … strictly for the evacuation of non-combatants and for no other purpose whatsoever.” A U.S. official also told me that the troops are there partially for “deterrence,” but emphasized that they won’t be involved in a war.

Some foreign policy experts believe the Biden administration created a worse problem for itself in the Middle East by not conditioning arms sales to Israel to end its war in Gaza: “You now have the political problem, five weeks before an election, of headlines about U.S. forces potentially getting into a war in the Middle East,” Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, said on Pod Save The World. “God forbid we actually end up in that conflict.” One GOP congressional aide put it bluntly in a text to What A Day: “Voters may be more likely to pick a candidate based on their own pocketbooks, but no one likes a president that makes America look weak.”

Israel seems intent on escalation — and voters will be watching how the Biden administration handles it before November.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on Thursday on charges that he accepted bribes and swanky flights on Turkish Airlines from the Turkish government — accusations that Adams said he was not surprised to hear. He made the inexplicable decision to hold a press conference outdoors, where obviously he was viciously heckled by New Yorkers, some of the world’s finest hecklers. Finally, politics are FUN again!!!

Speaking to reporters, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams outlined Adams’ “long-running” corruption and pledged to hold others accountable, as a federal investigation probe into the mayor’s inner circle continues. The indictment comes days after the FBI raided the homes of several top NYC officials appointed by Adams.

Adams isn’t stepping down—at least not yet. But that’s not stopping other slimy politicians from planning a coup. Disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) is reportedly considering a run for the city’s top job… a year after being pushed out of office during a sexual harassment scandal (and let’s not forget the COVID-19 nursing homes travesty). The Empire State, baby!

My X *cough Twitter cough* feed has been filled with absurd tweets about Eric Adams, so here’s a few of my favorites, including one saying his indictment is like “being the first sitting mayor of Mouse City to eat cheese.” You can’t say he didn’t bring swagger back.

In partnership with Crooked Ideas’s Anti-Doom Initiative: a conversation about the climate crisis that centers on progress, not panic.

According to fictional cable news anchor Will McAvoy, “The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one.” In 2024, that means gathering data about climate impacts, to do something about them.

Through grants, the Inflation Reduction Act is monitoring air quality — for human health. The Environmental Protection Agency placed low-cost air monitors with the Appalachian Citizen Air Monitoring Project in communities where fossil fuel activities have raised concerns (think coal dust, and chemical plants). In California’s Eastern Coachella Valley, similar monitors will measure airborne toxic dust revealed by heat and winds at the Salton Sea.

And on tribal lands belonging to the Cheyenne-Arapaho tribe in Oklahoma, $7 million is helping tribes and scientists track the effects of bison on grasslands — to foster a climate-healthier herd and landscape. The tribes got a grant through the Department of Agriculture’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities to work with two nonprofits, Collaborative Earth and regenerative farming specialists Mad Agriculture.

“It’s been just catalytic for us,” says scientist and Collaborative Earth org lead Aaron Hirsch. “It allows us to try things that we never would try.”

The project measures greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration over a 650-head herd of bison using eddy covariance flux towers — tools that track methane, and carbon dioxide rising from and sinking into the ground, revealing how grasslands and their residents breathe.

The measurements are already changing how the Cheyenne and Arapaho are stewarding the herd and the land. “Their grassland is recovering. Their bison are visibly healthier. They’re even a different color,” Hirsch says.

It’s just one herd, across one corner of tribal land. But Hirsch says the project’s lessons can help adapt to climate change across the planet.

“It’s a very forward thinking piece of legislation,” he says, about the IRA. “They’re doing progressive visionary work.”

November 5th is closing in fast. If you still have a bottomless pit in your stomach about the upcoming presidential election, this is your reminder to grab a copy of Democracy or Else to get you through the home stretch. Lovett, Tommy, and Favreau gathered all of their political insights from Pod Save America and their smartest friends in politics to give you 10 funny, useful and easy steps that will guide you through the rest of 2024. We’re sure by now that most of you have signed up to take action in the lead up to election day. But every book is also making a difference because Crooked Media is donating its profits from Democracy or Else to support Vote Save America and 2024 campaigns. So head to crooked.com/books or your local bookstore to get your copy of Democracy or Else now!

Alabama is scheduled to carry out the state’s second execution using nitrogen gas on Thursday, despite witnesses who have described concerns with the method.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) shepherded through a temporary spending measure to avoid a government shutdown until December.

Donald Trump gave one of his strongest signals yet that he won’t back Ukraine if elected, saying that “we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal, Zelenskyy.” Trump also said that Ukrainian cities are “gone” and cannot be replaced. His remarks came after the U.S. announced billions more in assistance to Ukraine on Thursday.

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The U.S. economy grew by a healthy 3 percent from April through June, another stat to shoot down Donald Trump’s claims that the economy is doing poorly.

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