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Witnesses Refute IDF's Nonsense Denial of Food Convoy Massacre - The Friday AM Quickie 3/1/24

By Corey Pein —

Congrats to the journalists at the Marshall Project on their new union under the the NewsGuild of New York, CWA Local 31003! A union card is worth more in terms of job security these days than a Pulitzer Prize. Have a nice weekend, readers. Jacob's got you covered on Monday. - Corey

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THE BIG NEWS

IDF: Yes, We Did Fire Into That Starving Crowd, But No, We Weren't Involved in the Resulting Deaths

While many news organizations are framing the story of yesterday's massacre in Gaza City in "he said, she said" or "both sides" terms -- as has President Joe Biden himself -- the Associated Press cites witnesses who saw Israeli troops fire "on a crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off an aid convoy." At least 112 people were killed, with many more wounded by gunfire, by the stampeding crowd, and by vehicles in the chaos.

"Kamel Abu Nahel, who was being treated for a gunshot wound at Shifa Hospital, said he and others went to the distribution point in the middle of the night because they heard there would be a delivery of food. 'We've been eating animal feed for two months,' he said.
"He said Israeli troops opened fire on the crowd as people pulled boxes of flour and canned goods off the trucks, causing the Palestinians to scatter, with some hiding under cars. After the shooting stopped, people went back to the trucks, and the soldiers opened fire again. He was shot in the leg and fell over, and then a truck ran over his leg as it sped off, he said." ...
"Medics arriving at the scene of the bloodshed Thursday found 'dozens or hundreds' lying on the ground, according to Fares Afana, the head of the ambulance service at Kamal Adwan Hospital. He said there were not enough ambulances to collect all the dead and wounded and that some were being brought to hospitals in donkey carts.

The Israeli military claims they were merely firing "warning shots" at the crowd because they felt "threatened" during the "unfortunate incident." Hundreds of warning shots? Into people's bodies? "A queue for lifesaving food became a lineup for death," Jason Lee, country director for Save the Children in occupied Palestine tells the Washington Post. "While children are dying from lack of food, their parents are dying trying to get it. There must be an immediate, impartial investigation into what has happened." The United Nations Security Council held a closed session yesterday to discuss the bloody tragedy, per the Guardian.

Meanwhile, the Intercept looks into the story behind another horrifying story – a front-page New York Times report last year alleging organized sexual violence by Hamas against Israelis in the group's Oct. 7 attack. The Times is reviewing racist social media "likes" by the inexperienced reporter (and former Israeli military intelligence official) who led the flawed investigation. Even so, the paper's management is still standing by the story they ordered up, while rank-and-file Times journalists anonymously complain that no parallel effort has been made to tell the stories of documented human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls. It seems only fair that if a news organization must fall back on "both sides" reporting, they make an actual effort at providing balance.

Trumpdates: MAGA Economist Calls Social Security a 'Ponzi Scheme'

  • At Mexico Border, Biden Suggests Working 'Together' with Trump on Immigration as the Sick F*ck Sows Racist Hate Meanwhile, in slightly less depressing news, a federal judge blocked the Texas law giving local cops the authority to stop and question anyone who looks like an immigrant, which has inspired copycat legislation in Georgia and Arizona. via NBC News and the Washington Post.
  • Jack Smith Seeks July Trial Date in Stolen Documents Case Meanwhile in Georgia, text messages show that Terrence Bradley, former law partner to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, began supplying information to Trump lawyers seeking to disqualify Willis from the racketeering case months ago. via the New York Times and the Associated Press.
  • Trump Backs Montana Sen. Steve Daines to Succeed Mitch McConnell as Republican Leader Daines, a carpetbagger from Los Angeles, made his money working for a tech company founded by Gov. Greg 'Body Slam' Gianforte, and was an eager Trump bootlicker throughout his White House tenure. via Politico.
  • Truth Social Co-Founders Sue, Saying Trump Cheated Them Out of $300 Million "The co-founders' lawsuit is led by Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, who met Trump as contestants on his reality show 'The Apprentice.'" via the Washington Post.

Did Gavin Newsom Sell Out Fast Food Workers to Make a Rich Donor Even Richer?

A Bloomberg News story this week implicates the integrity of not only California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom but also the leadership of the state's Service Employees International Union, and Republicans are making hay about the scandal. As Politico sums it up, Newsom engineered a carve-out to the state's groundbreaking $20 fast food minimum wage law, which takes effect in April, for a campaign donor and high-school classmate, Greg Flynn, who is a major franchise owner in the Panera restaurant chain. The 2023 bill was amended to exclude restaurants (like Panera) that bake bread for sale onsite, a curious omission that Newsom previously called part of the legislative "sausage making." Newsom's office calls the favoritism allegation "absurd," while SEIU executive director Tia Orr, who backed the bill, claims "there was never an intent to exclude one company." The Los Angeles Times reports that the state labor commissioner will ultimately decide which chains are exempt from the law, and Newsom is already backing away slowly from this sweetheart deal for his old buddy. Rich guys, man! They never stop.

QUICKEST QUICKIES

  • Putin Threatens Nuclear War (Again) After Macron Suggests Sending NATO Troops to Ukraine "Whatever triggered him, [Aspiring Tsar Vladimir] Putin's message was clear: He regards victory in Ukraine as an existential struggle, central to his grander plan to restore the glory of the days when Peter the Great ruled at the height of the Russian Empire." via the New York Times and the Associated Press.
  • FBI Raids Another Longtime Aide to NYC Mayor-Cop Eric Adams Winnie Greco, Adams' director of Asian affairs, reportedly sought kickbacks in exchange for granting access to an event at Gracie Mansion, and asked an "Adams campaign volunteer to help renovate the kitchen in her Bronx home for no pay in return for helping to secure him a government job." via Politico and the City.
  • State Department Double Agent Who Posed as a Trumpista, Manuel Rocha, Will Plead Guilty to Spying for Cuba Meanwhile in Massachusetts, former Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who leaked classified documents in a Discord chatroom to impress his gamer buddies, also intends to take a plea deal. via the Associated Press and the New York Times.
  • 300 LGBTQ Groups Demand Removal of Oklahoma School Official for 'Fostering a Culture of Violence and Hate' Meanwhile in Texas, LGBTQ and civil rights groups are suing the nefarious Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton over his demand that a nonprofit turn over its records on families with trans kids to the state so they can be investigated for child abuse. via HuffPost and the Washington Post.

SOME NUMBER

$11.2 million

That's how much California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and his allies are spending to promote a Republican rival candidate for U.S. Senate, former baseball star Steve Garvey. "The seeming intent is to boost Garvey past Rep. Katie Porter, whom Schiff and his backers would prefer to avoid facing come November," the Washington Post reports. Porter calls Schiff's strategy a "cynical" gift to the GOP, noting that Garvey is not going to win in the blue state; indeed, even two of Garvey's former Dodgers teammates this week endorsed left-leaning Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee.

ON THE SHOW TODAY

3/1: It's Casual Friday! It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma speak with Heather Digby Parton, contributing writer at Salon.com and proprietor of the blog Hullabaloo, to round up the week in news. 

DON'T MISS MR CLIPS

Republican F—ks Up BIG TIME

The push to impeach Biden keeps delivering on comedy.

Black Studies Isn't Academic...It's a Movement

Emma interviews Abdul Alkalimat, professor of African American studies and library and information science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, about his book, "The History of Black Studies."

PARTING WORDS

"The Missouri GOP knew exactly who I am. [State party chair Nick] Myers told me when I signed up for Senate, paying my $500 fee, saying he had vetted me and knew I was a Christian identist [sic]; and that I should just not say anything bad about the Jews. When I met Prince lazy J[ay] Ashcroft [the Secretary of State] at Vernon County Lincoln days, we discussed the 2020 riots and his exact words were, 'The Blacks are a problem.' ... Again, I will state the GOP knew exactly who I am. What a bunch of Anti-White hypocrites."

-- Missouri Republican gubernatorial candidate Darrell Leon McClanahan III, in a post on X, the hate speech platform, sharing some background on state party leaders who are now trying to remove him from the ballot "after a photo resurfaced showing him giving a Nazi salute next to a man in white robes in front of a burning cross." Per the Riverfront Times, McClanahan previously acknowledged he is an "honorary" member of the Ku Klux Klan.

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