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- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) yelling at FBI Director Christopher Wray about the Very Innocent People who participated in January 6!
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A dramatic diplomatic breakthrough in the Israel-Hamas war could be in the works, according to The Washington Post.
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Hamas has tentatively agreed to a proposed deal to release at least 50 women and children of the about 240 hostages held in their captivity, according to an Arab diplomat familiar with negotiations. In exchange for the hostages, Israel would have to agree to a three-to-five day pause in fighting, increased humanitarian aid in Gaza, and the release of an unspecified number of women and children currently held in Israeli prisons. U.S. officials and associated parties reportedly spent most of Wednesday waiting for Israel’s response. Senior White House officials have said this week that the government remains engaged in “hour by hour” negotiations for a potential hostage deal with Israel and the government of Qatar, which serves as an intermediary for Hamas.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there would be no halt in fighting until the hostages are released. Previous proposals have fallen apart, including some along similar lines as the reportedly approved by Hamas, according to diplomats familiar with the ongoing talks. The hope for such an agreement is that it would lead to further negotiations about freeing the remainder of the hostages. Hamas has previously indicated that it might keep Israeli military hostages to exchange later for Palestinian fighters held in Israeli prisons.
- The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution on Wednesday calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip.” The vote was 12-0 with abstentions from the United States, United Kingdom, and Russia. The final draft of the resolution changed the language for a humanitarian pause from a “demand” to a “call.” The resolution does not call for a ceasefire, nor does it mention the original October 7 Hamas terrorist attack, nor does it cite Israel’s retaliatory ground offensive and airstrikes. The resolution does ask that “all parties comply with their obligations under international law, notably with regard to the protection of civilians, especially children.” Of the over 11,000 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza according to the Gaza Health Ministry, an estimated 40 percent are children.
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While lawmakers in Washington have largely remained united in support of the Israeli government, that sentiment diverges significantly from American public opinion.
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According to a new Reuters poll, some 68 percent of respondents said they agreed with the statement that “Israel should call a ceasefire and try to negotiate.” Only 32 percent agreed that the United States should support Israel, a nine-point drop in one month. About 75 percent of Democrats, and half of all Republicans in the poll supported the idea of a ceasefire, which both the Israeli government and the Biden administration have repeatedly rebuffed. Only 31 percent of Americans said they support sending Israel more weapons.
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Members of Congress who have criticized the Israeli government’s tactics and called for a ceasefire now find themselves in political crosshairs. The pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), was already the largest single-issue donor group in Democratic primaries, spending nearly $30 million in the 2022 midterm elections largely to knock progressives out of their primaries. That same election cycle, the group endorsed 109 January 6 insurrectionists running for Congress. In 2024, Slate reports that AIPAC is expected to spend at least $100 million trying to primary progressives, with members of “The Squad” like Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Summer Lee (D-PA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as top targets. AIPAC has already begun running incendiary ads in the districts of those members according to the Associated Press, Jewish Insider, and the Intercept.
The conflict is far from over, but small cracks of hope in diplomatic talks are slowly emerging.
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The Lovett or Leave It Errors Tour has one last swing! It’s not a physical, Cirque du Soleil swing, like Lovett requested, but we’re still gonna close this tour out strong. The final tour shows of the year are in Phoenix and Boulder, on November 30th and December 2nd. Guests include Joey Jay, Jaynie Parrish, David Gborie, CO Governor Jared Polis, and Congresswoman Caraveo. Get your tickets at crooked.com/events now!
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As anti-abortion organizations and candidates continue losing across the country in the year-and-a-half since the Dobbs decision overturned the federal right to abortion, the GOP has watched in panic as its plan to empower states to limit abortion has gone horribly awry. Now some anti-abortion die-hards are strategizing to sidestep the ballot box and push through a national abortion ban by any means necessary. A Republican president may be able to effectively ban most abortions using an obscure 19th century federal law. The Comstock Act of 1873 banned sending “obscene” material like pornography, abortion drugs, and contraception via the mail. The abortion provision remained, but was ignored in the half-century Roe vs. Wade was the law of the land.
The Heritage Foundation has proposed detailed policies for the next would-be GOP administration, one of which is enforcement of “federal law against providers and distributors of [abortion] pills.” Medication abortion is currently the most common method of abortion in the United States. The Biden administration’s Justice Department forcefully disagrees with this interpretation, and in a memo issued last year argued that the law does not prohibit mailing abortion medication when the sender expects it to be used lawfully. Because abortion has been such a lethal political liability for Republicans in the past few election cycles, it is unlikely any GOP candidate would openly embrace the Heritage Foundation’s proposal ahead of the 2024 presidential election, regardless of whether they would try to enact it in the future.
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Defying the plans agreed upon by Democratic National Committee (and co-signed by President Biden) to give South Carolina the first slot of the 2024 primary calendar, New Hampshire announced on Wednesday that it would hold its presidential primary on January 23.
Speaking of New Hampshire, Trump’s former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is surging in the polls (meaning she is up to 18 percent in the Granite State as opposed to Trump’s 49 percent).
The Israel Defense Forces said they found a command center and weapons belonging to Hamas in Gaza’s largest hospital on Wednesday.
Meta platforms will allow political ads on Facebook and Instagram to claim the 2020 election was rigged, overturning several restrictions the company has made on its platforms related to campaign advertising. Many thanks once again to all of the do-gooders in Silicon Valley!
Chicago’s civilian police oversight agency implemented a new policy banning Chicago Police officers from joining and participating in hate and extremist groups. So cool that we needed an official policy for that!
New GOP Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said he thinks that pesky old separation of church and state is just a big misunderstanding! He called it a “misnomer” because in his view, the idea is to protect religion from the government—not the other way around. Cool! Excited to see what horrors he wreaks upon our nation!
GOP Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) accused the FBI of using “ghost buses” to ferry federal informants to the Capitol on Jan. 6. The term sounds spooky and cool, but it just means… unmarked buses. The “ghost bus” imbroglio is the latest version of the sweeping conspiracy theory that somehow Trump’s people weren’t really responsible for the Capitol riot. (Rep. Higgins actually said: “These buses are nefarious in nature!”)
The government of Nepal banned social media app TikTok on Monday, saying it was disrupting domestic “social harmony.”
In an interview with NBC News, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he would “absolutely” consider a presidential run. We would absolutely be excited to not vote for him.
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President Joe Biden met with China’s President Xi Jinping for the first time in a year on Wednesday, at a country estate 30 miles south of San Francisco. Relations between the two countries are widely seen at a four-decade low—and there’s a lot to talk about. Biden is expected to press Xi to crack down on Chinese companies making fentanyl components. Xi reportedly wants a smooth summit to reassure those back home worried about China’s slowing economy. They’re likely to announce a forum for discussing how to keep artificial intelligence programs away from nuclear command and control (which, now that you mention it, does sound like a good idea). Then there’s Ukraine, Gaza and Taiwan—the first two convulsed by violence, and the third a possible future flashpoint. Much of the talks are going down behind closed doors. But there may be ways to read the tea leaves later.
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The best-selling car in the United States, the Toyota Camry, will become all-hybrid-only in 2025.
Muscogee Nation sued the city of Tulsa, OK on Wednesday over its refusal to stop prosecuting tribal citizens for traffic offenses. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in June that Tulsa does not have criminal jurisdiction over Native Americans because the city lies mostly within the Muscogee reservation, where only federal and tribal courts can try cases involving Native defendants.
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