Sad dawgs all around town today. The University of Washington Huskies lost to the University of Michigan Wolverines in the College Football Playoff National Championships last night. Gov. Jay Inslee also lost a bet over the game to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and now he has to send her some wine. The two announced the bet in this painful video exchange that sounds like what happens when two AIs have a conversation:
It’s on @GovWhitmer – the “W” is for win and Washington. Go Dawgs! #PurpleReign https://t.co/0QtNymuWIv
— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) January 5, 2024
The decline of Council Member Andrew Lewis: Hannah wrote an exceptional story about the defeat of Lewis this week, full of incredible lines such as “a spineless ladder-climber missed a rung while trying to play both teams.” Lewis blames his 400-vote loss on his first ‘No’ vote against the new drug law, but Hannah points out that he also disappointed an important union during his time in office, and ultimately his centrist strategies lost him support on both the left and the right.
Speaking of our city council: Council President Sara Nelson flexed some of her newfound power by firing the head of the Council’s central staff, Esther Handy, according to KUOW. Central staff help to research and compile objective reports about proposed legislation or issues the Council wants to address, similar to the Congressional Budget Office. But former Council President Lorena González hired Handy, and Handy previously worked for a couple progressive nonprofits, so Nelson’s more conservative politics probably cost Handy her job. One Seattle! Nelson replaced Handy with Ben Noble, who held Handy’s job for more than a decade before becoming budget director. He loves him some austerity.
Winds, flooding, and cold temperatures today: Multiple weather hazard warnings in effect today, with the potential for wind speeds up to 41 miles per hour and some coastal flooding in some areas. High of 45 degrees and a good chance of rain.
I am once again begging the city to open indoor playgrounds at public libraries. My child needs somewhere to burn off energy without getting frostbite, and all the private indoor trampoline parks and such are SO expensive.
— Molly Fleck (@mollyfleck) January 8, 2024
Washington State’s legislative session began Monday: State lawmakers returned to Olympia for the 2024 Legislative Session. The length of the session alternates every year, and this year the people of Washington have just 60 days to bully lawmakers into passing some stuff.
Such as, Viv wrote about a bill proposed by Rep. Liz Berry (D-Seattle) that would make it illegal to secretly remove a condom or other sexual barrier during sex, an act sometimes referred to as “stealthing.” The bill makes the act a criminal violation, but it also creates a simplified civil process for victims who want to sue.
Plus, ICYMI, I wrote about a bill to ban police unions from bargaining over police accountability issues, and Hannah wrote about some of the signature campaigns to send some conservative initiatives to the Legislature. Those initiatives will likely appear on ballots this year.
Charles Mudede goes to New York: All our East Coast readers have the chance for one night only to see Charles give a lecture entitled, “Will AI Also Remember the Days of Slavery?” at 7 pm tonight in Brooklyn. Should be pretty fascinating. People who are unable to attend the lecture but who are dying to hear Charles talk about AI can check out his conversation in December with Blaise Agüera y Arcas.
Seattle Police Department misinforms the public: During a pro-Palestine protest over the weekend on I-5, SPD posted on social media that demonstrators had ignored two dispersal orders and that they continued to “refuse to clear the highway.” However, SPD never issued dispersal orders to the protestors, according to Washington State Patrol. Nevertheless, SPD still has the false information up on its X account.
Misinformation! Even your boys at Washington State Patrol said it. Delete your account https://t.co/CVT8oFszkp pic.twitter.com/oZH4IYTxGL
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) January 9, 2024
Also, the two days of discourse on this protest have broken my brain.
“I used to hate genocide, but then someone blocked my car for a little while.”
— Brittney Bush Bollay (@BrittneyBush) January 9, 2024
Co-owner of Howdy Bagel killed in New Orleans: Jake Carter, who opened Howdy Bagel in Tacoma last year, was killed in a mugging on January 5 in New Orleans. Meg has more about Carter, who opened the bagel shop and all-ages queer space with his husband, Daniel Blagovich, in May of last year.
More flight delays: A mass grounding order for Alaska and United Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes means flight cancellations continued Tuesday for people flying out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to the Seattle Times. The grounding order came after an Alaska flight out of Portland had its fuselage blow out at 16,000 feet. Additional inspections Monday revealed some of the MAX 9s had loose hardware.
“I never wanna get in a plane again” they say before ordering an Uber which is like 50x more likely to kill you
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) January 6, 2024
Trump argues for immunity: Today, attorneys for former President Donald Trump and Special Counsel Jack Smith argue before a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals over whether Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. The outcome of the appeal decides whether the criminal case against Trump continues.
2023 continues trend of a “feverish” planet: To avoid the most severe effects of global climate change over the next two to three decades, the average temperatures across the country cannot exceed a 1.5 degrees Celsius average temperature increase above pre-industrial times, according to the Associated Press. But last year, global temperatures averaged 1.48 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. Basically, we have not curbed increasing temperatures and things look very bad.
French President Emmanuel Macron appoints new Prime Minister: Gabriel Attal, 34, became the country’s youngest-ever prime minister and the first openly gay man to serve in the office. As French education minister, Attal oversaw the banning of abaya in French schools, but he’s one of the more popular members of Macron’s government, and Macron needed a little boost because the far-right has gained some steam in the polls.
Two of my good friends leave for London this week: Normally I wouldn’t consider this relevant for Slog, but their chance to move abroad might apply to some of you all. In 2022, the UK started doing this thing where people who graduated in the last five years from a high-ranked college, such as the University of Washington, can apply for a work visa without already having a job offer. Seems like a cool opportunity. Safe flight to them, and hopefully you all like their music suggestion for this Tuesday. Here is Tiny Habits.
It’s so representative of how far the Republicans have fallen from their “Law and Order” roots that Trump’s attorney claimed in the hearing today that Joe Biden could have Trump assassinated, resign immediately, and face no criminal charges.
But, by all means, let’s talk about Joe Biden’s age and not how Trump sees the president as above the law, including murder. Also, her emails. /s
“I used to think Israel had a right to exist, but then some protesters trapped me in my car for five hours and now I don’t.”
— The Reaction They Imagine
Huh. Leaving for London without the promise of a job sounds pretty problematic, especially since London is very expensive. But, then I wouldn’t move anywhere without the promise of a job, so I’m probably not the best person to opine on this.
Hey Molly Fleck on Twitter – the Seattle Parks Department does playgrounds, not the Library. They’ve got indoor play space at community centers, check them out. Next time do a little research before publicly demanding your local government agency duplicate something that already exists! Kthanksbye
spd has a ‘Public Outrage
& Enforcement Team’?
they have a fucking POET?
does it Beat heads
poetically or just
Literally?
speaking of
here’s a Good One
from* Brittney Bush Bollay:
“I used to
hate genocide,
but then someone
blocked my car for a little while.”
Bravo Brittney!
& BOO spd
*& thnx
Ashley!
@4 – Nice response … You obviously got farther than me because I lost my marbles at the mention of “frostbite” in Seattle. Jeeeez, pathetic.
But where is the equity in only allowing students from high-ranking universities in? Isn’t that mostly going to just lovely white well-off kids? And why would THe Strager be celebrating, rather than noting that fact?!
(Looks at pictures of The Strangers’ mostly lily white staff from well off backgrounds and who their friends likely are…smiles knowingly, smirks, signs off)
The absurdity of the tactic is the primary objection. The protestors who blocked the bridges in NYC were quoted saying they want people to know what it’s like to be trapped in a city with no way out. So hard to picture otherwise.
Unfortunately, now that they understand that vital point, no one stopped on the highway and having to pee in an empty coffee cup can influence the IDFs tactics in Gaza.
You can call Patty Murray’s office to tell them about how sitting on 1-5 for hours changed your mind, but she can’t influence the IDF tactics. Biden barely can, although he keeps plugging.
Because of steady contact and pressure, Israel is winding down the “genocide” currently. Switching tactics to “targeted” operations. I’m sure it’s not good enough.
Who the hell is Molly Fleck? Regardless, her tweet gave me the willies. Phew – thank god I survived my childhood in upstate NY, smack in the middle of the lake effect snow region. If only I had known the danger I was in as I made snowpeople, snowballs, played with icicles and sledded down hills. All before microfleece was invented! Imagine!
FFS not only are human getting dumber, also getting more delicate and weaker
2: I was thinking more of a quote from “Animal House”: “I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!”
I used to think Hamas were terrorists but then I saw the unexpurgated videos of what they did and I know they are.
Release all the hostages and have Hamas surrender.
meanwhile
the Genocide
continued Unabated.
“… so Nelson’s more conservative politics probably cost Handy her job. One Seattle! Nelson replaced Handy with Ben Noble, who held Handy’s job for more than a decade before becoming budget director.”
I like how the actual, obvious, and understandable reason — Council President Nelson wanted someone with more experience in the role — can’t make even the slightest dent in the Stranger’s hate-Nelson ideology. In successive elections, Seattle’s voters overwhelmingly rejected the Stranger’s multiple endorsements for more of the radical-leftie status quo, and now the Stranger whines about the resultant changes. (If the Stranger keeps doing this, then I’ll just have to buy more popcorn.)
@2, @10: Speaking of whining, in several days the Stranger has gone from sneering triumphalism (“Seattle won’t see the last of these protesters…”) to yelling at the victims of these protests, for taking the ‘wrong’ lesson from having spoiled, insolent children trap an ambulance on I-5. Can’t wait until the Stranger loudly declares complaining about such abusive ‘protests’ is itself a form of “genocide.”
Meanwhile, backlash against flagrant abuse of the word “genocide” continues:
“Assertions that Israel is committing genocide are thus not only demonstrably contrary to genocide’s definition, but they also trivialize the magnitude of brutality that the term should convey.”
Plenty more, at https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4345105-genocide-is-a-word-whose-meaning-should-matter/amp/
“Council President Sara Nelson flexed some of her newfound power by firing the head of the Council’s central staff, Esther Handy, according to KUOW.”
Elections have consequences. If you want your opinions to matter, you should rabble rouse for moving council elections to even years. And maybe push to end the district council system.
@22: “…cut off Hamas from rearming, reorganizing, resupplying, and repenetrating…”
Demands from this weekend’s traffic-blocking protestors for coordinated international action to shut down Hamas seem to have been under-reported. Have you a quote & url?
@23, @26, @29: Yep, I knew it would come to this. I’m actually surprised it took you this long.
‘NO Country
should be Allowed
to commit acts of Terror
on another Country. EVER.’
–Wormtongue
parphrased in a
Rarest of moments
of actual Lucidity. not
to Worry — it soon Passed.
well-Put
Garbby.
‘funny’
how tS’s
become such a
wretched hive of scum and villainy.
We must be cautious.
and, oddly, coming
from me, careful
to avoid over-
posting.
@21:
“Meanwhile,
backlash against
flagrant abuse of the
word “genocide” continues”
Article II (c) of the Genocide Convention in 1949, born of the Holocaust, defines genocide as, “Deliberately inflicting on [a national, ethnical, racial, or religious] group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
why does the
Pro-Genocide contingent
Insist on Linguistic Exactitude
whenever it comes to Nutnyahoo’s
Ethnic Cleansing Massacre & War Crimes?
commenters
like tentsey
just wanna
shut that
Shit right
Down.
strangely
enough he’s
also Quite Par-
Ticular when it comes
to the term ‘Fascist.’ why
he Hates that damn Lable
when he Personifies it — oh!
nevermind.
@31: I’m sorry, the word in question was “genocide,” specifically the flagrant abuse of it by Israel’s critics. Do try harder to keep those great big long scary words straight in your head, ‘k?
@32: After all of that, it took exactly one request for facts to drive you away. Little wonder you and kristof’ get along so well!
Re Molly Fleck tweet: I grew up in Minnesota where we played outside when it was 20 below and never got frostbite. What a whiny, entitled demand that SPL provide an indoor playground for your kid! Just bundle them up and send them outside to play.
nyt:
Oct. 7 Assaults,
Including Sexual Violence,
Could Be Crimes Against Humanity, 2 U.N. Experts Say
The experts’ statement came after the United Nations had been the focus of months of frustrated accusations that it was ignoring the rape and mutilation of women during the Oct. 7 attacks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/08/world/middleeast/hamas-sexual-violence-un-israel.html
gee,
U.N. Ya
THINK?
nyt hasn’t passed
up many opportunities
to remind its readership
of Hamas’ horrific Invasion
on Oct 7th and in this Instance
they’re Spot ON:
these ARE Crimes
Against Humanity
War Crimes & for
That they Gotta
be held Accoun-
table as Should
ALL War Crim-
Inals: EQUAL
JUSTICE
UNDER
LAW
just like it says
over the Doorway
into OUR *Supreme Court
if it’s Good Enough for Us it’s
plenty good enough for them too.
END the
Madness.
*formerly- but
who’s Counting?
@41: “I don’t see how bombing the civilian population en masse does anything but get Hamas more support!”
And what is your evidence for the proposition that the IDF is “bombing the civilian population en masse”? Hamas has effectively turned much of the Gaza Strip into dual-use civilian/military infrastructure. Why does Hamas’ well-documented use of civilians in Gaza for human shields mean nothing to you?
Again, where are the protesters’ demands to throttle Hamas?
@39/40 Chamberlain would be proud of you both.
@40: It took the UN three months to understand that rape is always intentional, never excusable. UN Women didn’t even start looking at this until women’s groups protested outside UN HQ in New York. And pro-ceasefire protesters blocking traffic still don’t demand the world take action against Hamas. How long will it be until they do?
The UK’s offer for visas for recent graduates connotes a need for skilled – or at least educated – workers which I didn’t know was a problem. Several years ago, Ireland, you may remember, issued the offer to anyone of Irish descent to come home and work in high tech. But that was Ireland. The UK is more populous and richer.
I adore London – the Land of My Peoples. It takes some getting used to (like looking right before you cross a street), and there is a bit of questionable modern architecture, but they do and have done a lot of things right there, too. When the UK was in Thatcher mode, homelessness started being a big problem in London, but the city government and the public-at-large did not relent from its standards. The rules are you can sleep in a doorway at night if you have to, you can catch a quick nap on a bench, but you cannot establish residency on the street. That principle, I think, urges those in need to seek help from agencies designed to do so. None of this “you have a right to pitch a tent” nonsense. It’s why London remains an exciting, world-class city.
But as stated, London is super pricey. I’ve spent chunks of time there and have wondered how working class folk make it in a city where a small breakfast for two at a regular café can be $60(US). A friend told me, “You just have to continually adjust and learn to live on less.” That doesn’t sound like much of an answer. I would find it supremely depressing – especially if I weren’t in my 20s – to have to share my small flat with four other people only to find that I’d have to share it with five or six next year. Also, salaries are not compensatory with the cost of living there. In fact, they largely pale in comparison to equivalent American jobs. Good luck to those willing to risk it. It’s a grand place, but with those circumstances it would be helpful to be young.
New Orleans can be a very DANGEROUS city. In fact, you may be safer there at carnival time than any other. That said, shocked and deeply saddened by the murder of Mr. Carter. Have you noticed that the assholes who murder seemly always victimize people who are widely loved and admired? Don’t get me wrong. Killing a creep is morally reprehensible as well, but it is truly what they used to call a jest of God when, say, someone good, someone kind, someone who works for abandoned and abused at-risk kids finding them food and shelter and safety gets his life taken from him while the abuser gets to skate. All condolences to friends and family.
Interesting opinion a few days ago by David French in the NYT. Talked about using the 14th Amendment to bar the former president from appearing on ballots is not such a far-fetched concept. He opines that insurrection does not require conviction. Many Confederate solders never faced a courtroom, but they, too, were barred from government service by the 14th. Sedition is sedition even if you are the smallest cog in the machinery.
Sorry about the Huskies, you guys. I didn’t attend UW, but they’re such a part of the Seattle experience that you wind up loving it when they do well. Their game against Texas reminded of the good ol’ days of the 60s when strong SEC/SWC teams would come out to play with some of our West Coast boys and get their asses handed to them. I did everything I could. I don’t want to say I’m a jinx, but whenever I watch a team I’m rooting for, they frequently lose. So I just checked the score a time or two. Still, congratulations on a truly remarkable year.
@ 11 – Yeah, it’s beyond crime, Will. So thoroughly disgusting to acknowledge a human being can do what was done on that day. If people only knew the half of it.
I am following @thestranger@mastodon.social on Mastodon. Is that y’all? Can you start using that instead of the Xitter links? KTHXBYE.
@30 Huh. Don’t like it when people assume you support (a) because you said you support (b)? Golly. Where did anyone get that idea? Maybe it’s your repeated statement that anyone who thinks that maybe Israel should kill fewer civilians must therefore support the rape of Israeli citizens by Hamas. Pot, meet kettle. If you don’t like it, stop doing it yourself.
@8 Does more targeted operations mean that the IDF snipers will stop shooting civilians in the convent of the Sisters of Mother Teresa? Of course, that’s after bombarding it with rocket fire. Naturally, we can’t trust the news on this particular instance since it was reported by that well-known Hamas mouthpiece Independent Catholic News.
https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/48720
@30 Why do you support killing nuns? Or were those sisters cleverly disguised Hamas terrorists?
@33: “Insist on Linguistic Exactitude…”
It’s not just linguistics, it’s facts. From the same link I provided, above:
“In 1950, the total Palestinian population was 945,000, infant mortality was 142.3 per thousand live births and life expectancy was just under 46 years. By 2021, the total Palestinian population had grown 400 percent, to 5 million. Infant mortality was down 90 percent, to 13.8 per thousand. Palestinian life expectancy had increased to 62 percent, to 73.5 years. To point out the obvious, these marked improvements have occurred in spite of the many wars between Israel and the Palestinians. There is no genocide taking place by Israel.”
I didn’t go
to your stupid
link I’ve already
had my Fill but thnx
this is fun:
“There is no genocide
taking place by Israel.”
if you say it LOUD
Enough HARD Enough
& OFTEN Enough does
that Make it come True?
oh
Wormtongue
you Pedanticuity’s
beyond Legendary
it’s also a Cheap
Distraction Mass
Murder from The
Sky is TERRORIZING
Gazans and you utterly
Refuse to Acknowledge
they’re being
Terrorized by
Israel — which
You said was NEVER
Justified — of Course
You’d Never CAPITALIZE
but those Are in Essence
YOUR Words. do you Deny
them Now? Also: WHY do You
support killing Nuns?
anti-Catholic
or just PRO
ARMAfuck-
ing GED-
DON?
Jesus ahab.
did you Study
when you was
Inside that Whale?
did they have Free wifi?
the Planetlooks on in Horror
whilst you and your Puppeteer
pave the way for a Genocidal WAR
to Ethnically Cleanse an Open-air Concentration
Camp. and oh
My GOD Are
they EVER
Concen-
trated
NO Water
NO Food
showers
fucking
MECIDAL CARE
No Idea when
or If the Ter-
ror’s EVER
Gonna
STOP.
their
Children
Dying Starving
fucking TERRIFIED
as a Perpetual State
the PTSD UnFathomable
there is
no Justification
for Terrorism. Ever.
[Edited for
spelling &
clarity ap-
oligies]!
NO Water
NO Food
showers
fucking
MEDICAL CARE
No Idea when
or If the Ter-
ror’s EVER
Gonna
STOP.
their
Children
Dying Starving
fucking TERRIFIED
as a Perpetual State
the PTSD UnFathomable
there is
no Justification
for Terrorism. Ever.
“Your reasoning is
as myopic as it
is savage.”
this is what
as a species
holds us back
the reptilian
brainstem is
our biggest
Albatross.
@bopsie
well
Somebody’s
gotta counter
the far reich wing
on Seattle’s sole rag
if not
the Quietariat’s
gonna think Fascism
is the Leftist point-of-view.
besides that I
getta Exercise
my funny bone*
and
post-pone
a few things
*it’s Not
procrastination
@Garbby
your passion
compassion
clarity of
thought
& Fer-
ocity*
are
Welcomed
& APPRECIATED
Thank You
for helping
Bend the Moral
Arc of the Universe
one Million times
*et Al
@57: “i have never learned a single thing from any of you that you are trying to teach each other?”
Well, mostly that’s just you generally, but your assumption about teaching here is the specific reason you don’t understand this.
It’s not about convincing any of the commenters I’m addressing directly; it’s about moving them along to their unintentional reveals, for everyone to see. As I suggested @30, I want everyone to see their raging hatreds, their angry, embittered wishes to torture and mutilate anyone who dares disagree with them. Watching their mask slip, getting to see the malice barely hidden under their posturing about peace, exposing the ugly source of their rank dishonesty in abusing words like “genocide,” showing their true agenda, which all their talk of “ceasefire” and “peace” exists to obfuscate.
The traffic-blocking protesters showed us how much they actually cared about innocent human life when they trapped an ambulance on I-5. There’s reasons why their demands are only about a ceasefire (which Hamas would simply violate with impunity), never about choking flow of men, money, and arms to Hamas, or extraditing Hamas’ raping “fighters” to face justice for mutilating women. Theirs is an ugly truth, and I’m happy to help them show it here. By that metric, I consider this comment thread to have been a huge success.
@62 And yet despite those high minded ideals, you are four square behind the regime that shot up a convent. How are those ideals holding up?
‘Your reasoning is
as myopic as it
is savage.’
this is what
as a species
holds us back
success in
moral bankrupty
is what I think you meant
cling to your Definitions
& Massacre to your
heart’s content
Hiding behind
HAMAS! &
handing
BiBi a
FREE
Ride
so
you’re
Waiting
for Jesus.
Oh NOES!
The Grammar
Terrorists have Struck
Again!
from ‘Notes
From The Edge
of the Narrative Matrix’:
How is anyone still talking about October 7? What Israel has done since October 7 is many times worse than what happened on that day by any conceivable metric; the only way to feel otherwise is to believe Israeli lives are worth many times more than Palestinian lives.
How is Israeli suffering still being centered over vastly less significant acts of violence three months ago while exponentially worse violence and suffering is being inflicted by Israelis right this very moment?
If your nation is attacked, and you respond to that attack by immediately murdering thousands of children with incredible savagery, then you forfeit any right to expect anyone to give a shit that your nation was attacked.
Israel responded to the Hamas attack by doing something much, much worse than anything Hamas has ever done, and in so doing completely delegitimizing itself as a state and completely validating everything the Palestinian resistance has been saying about the state of Israel since day one.
This genocide is being live-streamed. We can’t say we didn’t know. For as long as we live we’ll never be able to say we didn’t know.
Nothing about Israel’s US-backed assault on Gaza is comparable to the Allied offensive against Nazi Germany. They’re raining military explosives onto a trapped and besieged population in a giant concentration camp
with the stated goal of eliminating a small militant group who poses exactly zero existential threat to the state of Israel . . .
–by Caitlin Johnstone; 1/9/24
more:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/this-genocide-is-being-live-streamed?
the Complicit’ll know
will their Justifications
survive the Decades?
one Wonders
@63: If you don’t want to understand how well Hamas has turned much of Gaza into an active military base with civilian shields atop it, then you simply won’t. And there’s nothing I, or anyone else, could write here to convince you otherwise.
Your smug, “either you agree with me, or you support murder of nuns,” attitude nicely demonstrates my point @62. You don’t want any nuance or difficult choices or tough moral questions. You don’t want to admit the messy, unpleasant truth, or the meager range of unsatisfying solutions immediately available, so therefore anyone who disagrees with your simplistic and wrong pronouncements just wants to kill civilians, full stop.
Enjoy your self-proclaimed moral superiority; like the immobile ambulance on I-5, I’m sure it’s saving lots of lives.
So instead of writing a positive post about a young gay man ascending to the office of prime minister of France, Ashley tries to defame Attal simply because he believes in supporting the secular foundations of the French Republic.
And FYI, 80% of the French agree with the abaya ban (from polling conducted after the ban). Strict secularism is a core French value, along with liberte, egalite and fraternite.
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/08/1198520450/a-ban-on-wearing-the-abaya-in-french-schools-is-causing-an-uproar
Remember when the stranger had the audacity to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community? Now it’s simply a propaganda arm of DSA (clearly one focused on generating Twitter revenue for their reporters based on the amount of linking we see to that cesspool).
I wish the Orange Turd and its enablers would either all get fired one way into outer space or just drop dead, al-fucking-ready.
@68: Or better yet, both.
@65: Your girlfriend certainly tore you a new one for your daring (@40) to mention the Oct. 7 attacks! How could you, of all persons, forget that only a complete and comprehensive censorship of all relevant facts can save your arguments? Let’s revel in her schooling of you:
“How is anyone still talking about October 7? What Israel has done since October 7 is many times worse than what happened on that day by any conceivable metric…”
Organized rape and mutilation of women simply can’t be a metric, because Israel has done nothing of the kind, thus invalidating whatever argument Johnstone’s hallucinating this time. (Probably the same one as last time…)
A couple of additional thoughts:
First, even though she’s flat-out ignoring Hamas’ organized rape and mutilation of women, Johnstone probably considers herself a better feminist than anyone who dares to criticize her for her flat-out ignoring organized rape and mutilation or women (sadly, by the standards of the modern international hard left, e.g. UN Women, she’s probably correct);
Second, was her use of the adjective, “conceivable,” to ignore rape and mutilation an intentional play upon words? Or perhaps a subconscious admission of what she’s really doing here?
@66 It’s a lovely piece of irony that you claim that I can’t see the messy unpleasant nature of war while you stand by the “Everything bad in Gaza is Hamas’ fault” line. The bit about supporting the murder of nuns is simply a rephrasing of your standard “If you think Israel should maybe kill fewer civilians then you are a supporter of Hamas full stop.” If you don’t like it, stop doing it yourself. I mean, unless you actually like killing nuns.
Is your claim that Hamas had a military base in the convent? Or just that Israel didn’t know where the convent was? Or maybe that snipers (who by definition are looking through scopes and choosing individual people as targets) were pretty sure the nuns were Hamas? I dunno, none of those look good.
To reiterate, Hamas are a bunch of shitheads, and I won’t be sad to see them gone from Gaza. The IDF also acts repeatedly kills civilians with a level of impunity that would make SPOG leadership cream their collective shorts. It would have been nice if the Israeli right wing hadn’t propped up Hamas in the years leading up to 10/7. Since we knew that Hamas was a bunch of shitheads long before 10/7. Is that accepting enough of a messy situation for you?
@71: Civilians are dying in Gaza primarily because Hamas uses them for human shields. IDF attacks Gaza because Hamas hides there, after Hamas intentionally targeted civilians for rape and murder in Israel. And civilian death and suffering happens in all wars, especially in urban warfare, which is of the type Hamas invited into Gaza. So yes, I have concluded Hamas bears most of the responsibility for the current civilian deaths in Gaza. Please feel free to argue with my logic any time you like.
If the Israeli right wing did indeed prop up Hamas, then they are complicit in all of these civilian deaths (Palestinians and Israelis) as well, and I hope both voters and prosecutors in Israel punish those politicians appropriately.
When I hear all of the protesters’ calls for ceasefire, but nothing, zero, zip, zilch, nada, about throttling Hamas, I conclude they’re not actually interested in stopping the current conflict and bloodletting. So I don’t take them seriously. Again, feel free to address that logic any time you like.
why on Earth need Anyone
call for Extermination of
Hamas wormmy? you’re
doing enough of the
Heavy Lifting single-
handedly. Hamas:
Bad. Hamas: Ter-
rorists. Hamas:
not STILL Ex-
terminating
Scores of
Israelis
Daily.
you’re just
looking for an
Excuse to allow
Nutnyahoo to con-
tinue Exterminating
Gazans in his ONGOING
Genocidal Ethcnic Cleansing
of Gaza. END THE MADNESS:
and STOP THE WAR CRIMES.
and bring
BiBi to
TRIAL.
24 THOUSAND
DEAD GAZANS.
TWENTY DEAD GAZANS
FOR EVERY DEAD
ISRAELI KILLED
ON OCT 7TH.
when the Body Count reaches
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND
that’ll STILL not be Enough
for BiBi — he’s gonna
get ’em ALL.
I know:
but Hamas!
your Justifications
make you Complicit.
“Civilians
are dying in
Gaza primarily
because Hamas uses
them for human shields.”
no.
they’re
DYING ’cause
BiBi Nutnyahoo’s
using them to justify
Ethnic Cleansing: a War Crime.
Hiding behind Hamas
whislst MURDERING
Gazans is the most
CURRENT War
Crime. END
the Mad-
ness.
and so it
Begins
nyt:
At World Court,
Israel to Confront
Accusations of Genocide
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/10/world/middleeast/israel-genocide-case-south-africa-icj.html
what Took
you so
Long
ICJ?
END THE
MADNESS.