Crooked Media - What A Day: Put on your Blinken cap

- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) [rubs temples] once again popping off about something that just absolutely never happened. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued his latest round of high-stakes negotiations in the Middle East on Tuesday, as conditions in the region remain on a razor's edge. 
 

• Hamas gave a “positive” response to a ceasefire framework brokered by Qatar, Egypt, the U.S. and Israel, the prime minister of Qatar said Thursday in a news conference with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The three-part plan involves both a pause in hostilities and a hostage swap. The Qatari prime minister gave few details thereafter, but it’s the first movement on the issue since the deal was presented to Hamas. Blinken also said little, acknowledging that the deal is achievable but there was still “a lot of work to be done.” Back in Washington, President Biden called Hamas’s demands “a little over the top,” but similarly did not elaborate further. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani was the most optimistic of the three.  
   

• Hamas confirmed that it had responded to the proposal, but did not lay out any specifics. The group reaffirmed earlier demands for a permanent ceasefire, reconstruction of Gaza, lifting of the 17-year blockade of the enclave, and the release of Palestinian prisoners. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already thrown cold water on a few of those demands. An unnamed Israeli official told the New York Times that the country’s leadership are dissatisfied with Hamas’s response, as both control of Gaza and ending the war are conditions rejected by Israel. As Blinken continues on his fifth trip to the Middle East since October 7, he will discuss what diplomats are referring to as the “day-after” plans for governing Gaza when the war ends, including the possible role for the Palestinian Authority, the group that administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 
   

• News emerged on Tuesday that at least 30 of the 136 hostages remaining in Hamas captivity from the October 7 terrorist attack have died since the start of the war, according to a confidential Israeli intelligence assessment reviewed by the Times. The bodies of two other slain Israelis, which have been held since the 2014 Gaza War between Israel and Hamas, have also been held in the territory ever since. Some of the 30-plus dead were killed in Israel on October 7, and then their bodies moved by Hamas to Gaza, while others died of injuries. Others still, officials said, were killed by Hamas once in captivity in Gaza. At least three hostages were killed by the Israeli military during its ground operations in the enclave.

Meanwhile, global humanitarian aid organizations continue to raise flags about human rights abuses in the conflict. 
 

• Amnesty International released a new report on Monday claiming that Israeli forces were killing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank with “near total impunity” as the world focused on Gaza. Accusing Israeli security forces of “unlawful killings, including by using lethal force without necessity or disproportionately during protests,” the organization demanded in the report that the International Criminal Court sharpen the focus of its investigation into Israel’s conduct in the occupied territory. The report also states that Israeli forces “obstructed medical assistance to people with life-threatening wounds and attacked those attempting to assist injured Palestinians, including paramedics.” 
   

• The uptick in violence in the occupied territory, AI says, adds to Israel’s “well-documented track record of using excessive and often lethal force to stifle dissent and enforce its system of apartheid against Palestinians.” The Israeli military has described its operations in the West Bank as counterterrorism efforts, and the country has strenuously denied prior accusations of committing apartheid. Amnesty International said it sent a request for information about the cases documented in its report to the Israeli military’s spokesperson unit in late November and did not receive a response. 
   

After months of Israeli officials directing Gaza residents to move south to escape its escalating bombardment, more than half of Gaza’s population now resides in the greater Rafah area in the southern part of the enclave. Even before the war, Gaza had one of the world’s highest population densities. Israel continued its new campaign to hit the south with relentless pressure on Khan Younis—the main city in southern Gaza—and Rafah, just to its south, which was also hit by airstrikes and tank fire. Back in Washington, the House of Representatives rejected a standalone $17.6 billion aid package to Israel on Tuesday, reflecting growing unease with issuing the country unconditional aid.

Last week on Keep It, Ira & Louis dug through all of the sub-tweets and sneak disses to get to the bottom of Nicki Minaj & Megan Thee Stallion's beef. Plus, Sasha Velour stopped by for a discussion on all things Real Housewives and the upcoming season of her HBO series ‘We’re Here’. Don’t miss this episode of Keep It out now, with new episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts!

In another stunning defeat for Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, the House rejected the sham impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, after just four GOP defectors came to the solemn conclusion that their colleagues had not produced any evidence of impeachable crimes. Don’t you just hate it when you try to impeach a federal official but then everyone suddenly wants crazy stuff like “proof”? Somewhere Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is screaming into a bag of Funions in a Scooby Doo villain voice: “And I would’ve gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you meddling, uh, Constitutional adherents!” DHS spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg excoriated House Republicans for “wast[ing] months with this baseless, unconstitutional impeachment,” following the vote.

Meanwhile, President Biden used the bully pulpit to spell out in no uncertain terms that if the bipartisan border security legislation fails, it will be Donald Trump’s fault. Biden said the agreement has “the most fair, humane reforms in our immigration system,” in many years, as well as the “toughest set of reforms,” related to the border “ever.” Not sure how both things can be true, my guy, but okay! Biden noted that Donald Trump has effectively halted the bill from moving forward to the Senate floor because he “thinks it’s bad for him politically,” and his band of loyal cretins in Congress have fallen in line. The advocacy group attached to the ultraconservative Heritage Foundation is now similarly urging lawmakers to oppose the border agreement.

In a unanimous ruling, a federal appellate court on Tuesday rejected disgraced former president Donald Trump’s claim of absolute immunity. Listen to our resident constitutional scholars dive into this on today’s emergency episode of Strict Scrutiny. 

Speaking of Trump, after asserting that there “would be changes” at the Republican National Committee (according to his bidding), RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel reportedly bent the knee and told Trump that she will step down shortly after the South Carolina primary on February 24. Trump is then likely to install (technically an election will take place, but it will be a formality) North Carolina GOP state party chair Michael Whatley, a big-time election denier. 

Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Whitaker testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Tuesday about the FAA’s failure to prevent a series of disasters on Boeing aircrafts resulting from “noncompliance issues.” 

The drone that killed three American servicemembers in Jordan last week likely went undetected by air defense systems, according to a new analysis by the military. 

In an unprecedented case and ruling, a jury convicted a Michigan woman, Jennifer Crumbley, of involuntary manslaughter for her then-15-year-old son’s school shooting in 2021. 

Argentina’s newly-elected right-wing president Javier Milei arrived in Israel on Tuesday and vowed to move his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as Donald Trump did in 2017.

Nearly two dozen Republican state senators in Georgia have signed onto legislation that seeks to ban government funding for libraries affiliated with the American Library Association, which they claim is influenced by Marxist ideology. Obviously, the bill is backed by hatemongers du jour, Moms For Liberty. Studies have demonstrated that students with certified school librarians have increased reading and writing scores, and I feel very confident that none of them are administering literacy programs using The Communist Manifesto. Donate to Vote Save America’s Fuck Bans campaign to fight back against garbage like this.

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In a recent Congressional hearing House Republicans tried to prove that remote work bred inefficiency. Instead, the evidence showed that it made employees 22 percent more productive. 

For the first time, Black women sit at the head of state Democratic parties in three crucial early primary states: Nevada, Michigan, and South Carolina. 

Gov. Ned Lamont (D-CT) unveiled a plan to cancel $1 billion in medical debt for the state’s residents, which he will be able to purchase for just $6.5 million under the American Rescue Plan. Not sure how that works, but we can all agree that medical debt shouldn’t exist and apparently money is fake!