The E-Files: A bill to release the Epstein files heads to President Donald Trump’s desk today. He’s said he’ll sign it (hell, he campaigned on that). Expect the files. Unless Trump is chicken. The House vote was 427-1. The Senate vote was unanimous, with no debate.

holy shit mike johnson is SHOOK on Epstein vote in Senate

[image or embed]

— Adam Parkhomenko (@adamparkhomenko.bsky.social) November 18, 2025 at 9:21 PM

The Loneliest Boy in the House: Far-right Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) is the “1” special guy who did not vote to release the Epstein files. Higgins said the bill would toss thousands of innocent people—“witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc”—into the maw of the “rabid” media. He indicated that he’d vote for an amended bill that protected the privacy of those “named but not criminally implicated.” But hours later, the Senate unanimously passed the measure.

Creep Creeps Out: After showing up all over the E-files as Epstein’s wingman, Larry Summers is stepping down from most of his public roles. Most recently, he announced he’s stepping down from OpenAI’s board. For now, though, he’s still a teacher at Harvard University, the one role where he’s most likely to interact with young women he has power over. Cool. 

Sore Loser? After losing her council seat to Dionne Foster, City Council President Sara Nelson will introduce a bill to restrict City Hall access for political consultants and require them to register with the city, similar to lobbyists. For his entire term, Mayor Bruce Harrell created an unusual role for his political consultant, Christian Sinderman, in the city government—a situation that no one could say was illegal, but everyone called highly “unusual.” Nelson’s opponent, Dionne Foster, also worked with Sinderman, and Nelson said she wasn’t able to have open conversations with Harrell because she worried whatever she said could be used against her in Foster’s campaign. Sinderman said the bill is just an attempt at revenge.

As anyone who rides Link in South Seattle well knows, the gap between Columbia City Station and Othello Station, and between Rainier Station and Tukwila International Boulevard, are very long. The plan has been, for years, to fill the first gap with a station at Graham Street, and the second gap with a station at Boeing Access Road. That plan, which saw the completion of both projects in the distant year of 2031, is now on the chopping block due to, as Ryan Packer of the Urbanist reports, “escalating costs.” This is truly bad news because these areas, and particularly the one at Graham Street, are dense. It was bad enough that the stations were far in the future, now they may have no future at all.

Sure enough, the right-leaning MyNorthwest is outraged that the social cost of plastic bags will be partially paid for by a 4-cent increase on January 1, 2026 (the present charge is 8 cents). True, this cost should be paid by those who make the most money from this environmental menace, but they will not. All they want is just the profits and none of the real costs. As a consequence, we the people have to pay for a socialism that only the top earners enjoy.  

Cleaning House: King County Exec-Elect Girmay Zahilay is reportedly cleaning house. His transition team said that they plan to completely restructure the county’s executive branch, which means about 100 people who are currently serving in appointed positions are losing their jobs. Some of them will be invited to reapply for their jobs—a time-honored tradition for staff morale. 

Fascists Did Fascism: The Washington Secretary of State joined 10 others in a letter to tell the Trump administration about their “immense concern” that the voter rolls they provided to the federal government weren’t just used to check for voter fraud. They were used to try to scrub “illegal aliens” from the rolls. Let this be a lesson to all local governments to not give the feds any information that we don’t have to. Looking at you, City Council. 

A Quick Distraction: Have you ever wanted to know if you’re smarter than an eighth grader from 1889? Well, now you can. 

Budget Blues in Olympia: Woooooof. Washington’s projected revenue through 2029 is a bit lower than expected. It’s $66 million short of the last revenue estimate. While that’s only a modest hit in the grand scheme of state budgets, it compounds with previous shortfalls to make an even tighter budget ahead of lawmakers’ upcoming 2026 session. With $66 million less to play with, lawmakers may need to reconsider funding priorities and they really should explore new funding sources. Someone tell Gov. Bob Ferguson that we’re all jonesing for an income tax.  

Like the Deadliest Catch, Except Happy: At around 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, a fishing boat called the Abby C. radioed the coast guard for help. Their ship was sinking in frigid Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of Westport, Washington. This is not a good thing for ships to do. Nearby crabbing vessel, Lady Nancy, heard the call and made a beeline to Abby C. After searching the area for 20 minutes, the Lady Nancy crew spotted four men in the water. Two were in an orange life raft, two others clung to a survival suit for dear life. They all had hypothermia. One man sunk below the water and a Lady Nancy crew member dove in to save him. Everyone lived! 

You Can Go to SAM for Free: If you bring two non-perishable food items to the Seattle Art Museum on any Wednesday through December 17, you can get free admission into the museum. Go see the Tariqa Waters exhibit!

Today and every Wednesday through Dec. 17, get free admission to the Seattle Art Museum with a donation of at least two non-perishable canned food items, supporting the Pike Market Senior Center and Food Bank. Details below:

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— Joe Veyera (@joeveyera.bsky.social) November 19, 2025 at 8:49 AM

Don’t Forget—the World Is Burning: Amidst all the horrors living under authoritarian hell, we’ve forgotten a different threat to humanity. Climate change is not joking around, and don’t get it twisted, Trump’s “America First” agenda is making it worse. Those policies double down on fossil fuels and do away with efforts to cut emissions. People will die from this. According to ProPublica and The Guardian, “extra greenhouse gases released in the next decade as a result of the president’s policies are expected to lead to as many as 1.3 million more temperature-related deaths worldwide as the earth heats in the 80 years after 2035.” This analysis comes as most countries gather at a conference in Brazil to discuss the threat of climate change. The US is not there. 

On the Weather: Patchy fog before 11 am. The chance of rain tonight is a 50/50 coin flip. Can you bet on this?

Blue Moon Rising: A new poll from NPR, PBS News, and Marist found that Democrats are looking good ahead of next year’s midterm elections. The survey of 1,443 adults found that most would vote blue if the elections were held today. Trump’s approval rating sat at 39 percent, his lowest since the aftermath of January 6.

Government Lapses in Comey Indictment: Look, we are no law experts over here, but this seems like a pretty flagrant bad practice in the James Comey case. The Trump-appointed US Attorney who brought charges against former FBI Director Comey told a judge that the full grand jury had never seen the final indictment, so the charges against Comey on the docket currently were not reviewed. 

MORE: Under questioning by the judge, prosecutor Tyler Lemons said that he’s under orders from the Deputy Attorney Generals’s office not to disclose whether there is a declination memo recommending against the prosecution of Comey

— Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social) November 19, 2025 at 8:40 AM

Operation Creep: Minnesota police arrested 16 men in a minor sex trafficking investigation known as “Operation Creep.” One of the arrested men was an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officer. “When he was arrested, he said, ‘I’m ICE, boys,'” Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said, according to Newsweek. “Well, unfortunately for him, we locked him up.” Okay, no more child porn stuff, I promise. Unless there’s another blurb about the Epstein Files…? 

How Could This Have Happened? Detainees at ICE’s Broadview Detention Center in suburban Chicago filed a class action lawsuit, alleging terrible treatment. The suit outlines inhumane conditions, such as detainees being forced to sleep on plastic chairs or concrete floors, not receiving adequate food or water, living in squalid conditions, and being abused by  ICE officers. In the discovery phase, the plaintiffs’ lawyer requested security footage from the facility starting in mid-September. Conveniently, the Department of Homeland Security said two weeks of footage from October 19 through October 31 has been irretrievably destroyed. 

An Unfortunate Reality for Them: Vancouver indie-rock band the New Pornographers debated changing their name after their drummer, Joe Seiders, was arrested and charged with possessing child pornography earlier this year. After “time passed,” the band decided they would keep the name. Granted, they have been around since 1997, and that drummer only joined in 2014. Optics, shmoptics. 

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

Hannah is The Stranger's Editor-in-Chief. 

Nathalie Graham covers anything she finds fun, weird, or interesting. You can find a lot of that in her column, Play Date. Her work has also appeared around town in The Seattle Times, GeekWire, and the...

Vivian McCall is The Stranger's News Editor. In her private life, she is a musician and Wii U apologist. If you’re reading this, you either love her or hate her.

110 replies on “Slog AM: The Epstein Files Are Coming (Probably), ICE Detention Footage Was Destroyed, and Girmay Is Cleaning House in the Exec’s Office”

  1. I just want to highlight my favorite comment from yesterday. It’s from jexpat @38:

    Wow, this place certainly has turned into a haven for bigots, xenophobes and Israeli influnce peddlers.

    Maybe it’s time for the comment section to go the way of the Portland Mercury before it turns into the cesspit at Willamette Week.

    https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2025/11/18/80332163/slog-am-bear-gulch-fire-contained-un-approves-us-plan-for-gaza-most-detainees-in-chicago-ice-blitz-had-no-criminal-record/comments/38

  2. “Congrats! You’d be smart at any point in American history!”

    Thanks for the affirmation, New York Magazine! 😂 But before anyone lets their smarter-than-an-eighth-grader-from-1899 score go to their head, try my favorite of these 19th century scholastics tests, the Harvard entrance exam of 1869! 😄

    Section 1: Translate into Latin.

    Section 2: Latin Grammar.

    Section 3 (and this where thumpus goes off the rails): Greek Grammar. 🤣🤣🤣

  3. @6 came to say this. Budget the money you have vs. going looking for a way to take more from your citizens. I’d LOVE to sit down with a copy of the state budget and have each department head explain where all of their money is going and what the actual benefit is to us.

  4. “True,

    this cost should

    be paid by those who

    make the most money from this

    environmental menace, but they will not.

    All

    they

    want is

    just the profits

    and none of the real costs.

    As a consequence, we

    the people have to pay for a

    socialism that only the top earners enjoy.”*

    –@thee Fucking STRANGER

    “Fucking BRAVISSIMO!” I say.

    now, give me

    a Moment to ALL

    CAPS THIS For the

    Gleefully Willfully and

    JOYFULLY fucking Uniformed

    oh, and the Anti-“SOCIALISM!”

    Lying, Cunning Propagan-

    dists and Profiteers.

    brb!

    (save me a Spot!)

  5. @10 the budget adds $100 million intended for local departments to hire more cops. Cutting that would more than make up for the revenue shortfall. Boom problem solved

  6. re

    ditching

    tS’s commentariat

    there are

    not infrequently

    Gems that appear on

    these very Pages by some

    of tS’s commentariat. To eliminate

    them, because of a reich-wing Infestation

    would be a Sorry Loss for

    Readers of tS and for,

    Arguably, the

    Citizenry at

    Large.

    take for instance

    this recent Gem addres-

    sing a serious Problem tS’s

    been Inflicted with for YEARS:

    “I’m just stating

    what I think is an

    overwhelming moral

    and practical case against

    the particular choices [thedjt]’s made.

    If you support those choices

    and want to defend them convincingly,

    then you have to make a case for them on their merits.

    By demanding instead

    that Trump’s critics pledge allegiance

    to a patently unrealistic ideal and declaring victory when

    they refuse, you’re essentially just creating and destroying a straw man.”

    –@CKathes on November 18, 2025 at 7:59 PM

    elegant

    succinct

    Factual as fuck,

    & gracefully delivered.

    an admittedly

    minuscule sampling;

    go to her comment history*

    for Oodles more; and, speaking of

    Gems: https://www.thestranger.com/users/1500457/catalinavelduray/comments

    but Again, to shut it down

    because of a few Bad Faith

    actors’d be a Major mistake

    *https://www.thestranger.com/users/1500457/catalinavelduray

    perhaps a minimal pay wall

    like over @ substack may

    be in order – Especially

    if there were an Edit

    Delete button.

    sign me up.

  7. @1 Some people will always be thrilled at the idea of censorship in order to combat the ever-present threat and scourge of opinions that differ from theirs.

  8. @13: No edit or delete buttons as people should reap the consequences of the nasty, cringing, and embarrassing things they publish. People should calm down and think it over before clicking ‘Post Comment’. My God.

  9. Most people also understand that bigot/racist/xenophobe are just labels Democrats use now to signal that they believe the target is acceptable to be murdered or assassinated

  10. I just can’t get excited about the presumably-anti-Sinderman policy change re: political consultants’ access to City Hall. Either people are political consultants or they’re paid by the city, and the twain shouldn’t meet. It’s a natural result of Sinderman and Harrell blurring the line between those roles.

    Fascinating that Nelson didn’t trust Harrell not to blab whatever she had to say to Sinderman, knowing that Sinderman was working for Foster. That seems like the real trust issue there.

  11. @15 & 17

    Excellent points!

    had we an Edit button I could Fix my

    “reich-wing Infestation”

    to “Bad Faith Commentators

    trolling solely for

    Trolling’s

    Sake.”

  12. @17 I didn’t think thumpus using multiple crying-laughing emojis to express his feelings about Arab children being bombed would ever be topped, but there it is: the most unhinged comment ever on SLOG. “bigot/racist/xenophobe are just labels Democrats use now to signal that they believe the target is acceptable to be murdered.” Wow.

  13. @20: What about when you described Hamas’s videotaped beheading of a wounded hostage as an act of Palestinian self-defense? 😂 I still laugh about that one, it was such a great example of progressive thought! 😝

  14. @22 I still can’t tell whether you realize I was mocking you claiming bombing hospitals was Israeli self defense but glad you got a laugh out of it either way

  15. @20. I will let Thumpus speak for himself, but I doubt he was rejoicing over the explicit bombing of civilians. Perhaps you were misinterpreting his rejoice in Israel’s victory over Hamas and it’s patrons, which I would hope you share as well.

    But I can’t shake the conviction that there a great multitude of people OUTSIDE the conflict zone which Hamas tailored this entire tragedy around – people who would immediately jump to the Palestinian cause once the IDF began throwing lead, people whose initial emotional reaction would trump any understanding of either the conflict as a whole, or at least understanding the cynical strategy Hamas pursued. In short, if we can imagine a population NOT so naive than we can also imagine Hamas never even contemplating inviting their fellow Gazans to bleed for international sympathy. I’ll have no part in that. But if you carry on in that manner then YOU will surely invite a repeat performance. Hamas is the the macabre thespian, you are the gullible audience.

    500 miles of tunnels, zero civilian bomb shelters. If not jejune foreign observers, at least everyday Gazans ought to know now how criminally exploited they were and rise up against them.

  16. @13 Thanks for the compliment although I thought that comment (like my others yesterday) was a bit verbose even for me. It’s not one of my favorites. By the way, my preferred pronouns are he/they, though I don’t object to she/her. (Hell, I’m even fine with “jones,” seeing as how I’m jonesing for an income tax.)

  17. And if any changes are to be made to the comment section, perhaps one could be fixing the busted avatar upload system? How long has it been now? One of the shoddiest remnants of the Rich Smith era…

  18. nekrasova @15 @17 @26, excellent comments. I think you’ve just made a compelling case for why The Stranger’s comment threads should be shut down for good. My message to The Stranger’s new publisher on comments: “Shut it down, baby, shut it down.”

    BTW, to be honest, my real disappointment about yesterday’s comment thread wasn’t so much about the usual suspects who were engaging in their usual virtual tagging. It was that you hadn’t joined in. I so look forward to your comments as a way to get the latest MAGA spin on the Epstein files saga.

    Speaking of which, any idea why Trump didn’t bother to release the files by edict without needing veto-proof legislation from Congress? My best guess is that he wasn’t sure he was allowed to, what with his very timid view of executive power.

  19. @23: No it was a really great comment, I actually cite your example IRL when I have to explain the differences between a liberal and a progressive. 😁

    The distinctive point was that you couldn’t perceive a moral difference between Israel attacking a hospital that Hamas was unlawfully using for military purposes, versus Hamas filming themselves sawing off the head of a wounded civilian whom they had captured for use as a hostage. Like, you really thought the beheading thing was a snappy rebuttal to the hospital thing, it was just such a perfect illustration of progressive delusion! 🤣🤣🤣

  20. Where would you cut state spending, Swiftress dear? If you were to ask me, the only people who should be opposed to a state income tax are the parasitical wealthy, for that would mean they’d have to pay their share.

    A properly implemented income tax might even lower housing costs, if we got enough wealthy people to leave the state and dissuaded new ones from coming here.

  21. @24 you should contact the UN and ICJ, amongst numerous other NGOs and governments, to offer your services as a Conflict Understander to replace the “people whose initial emotional reaction would trump any understanding” they all apparently employ currently.

  22. Since you brought up ICE (ignored by Slog since it doesn’t fit the “progressive narrative”):

    9 indicted in connection with July ambush of North Texas ICE facility, officials say:

    November 15, 2025

    https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/9-indicted-july-ambush-alvarado-north-texas-ice-facility/287-158412ea-7efb-44c0-87bd-a838835365f9

    5 plead guilty to charges in connection with July ambush of North Texas ICE facility:

    November 19, 2025

    https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/5-plead-guilty-july-ambush-alvarado-north-texas-ice-facility/287-17249a54-8437-41fc-98e6-d5e85a180da5

    Remember kids, “progressive” means “stupid and naive”.

  23. @31: No, your joke perfectly illustrated your ignorance, that’s what made it so great. The punchline wasn’t quite what you thought it was, though! 🤣

  24. @33: “contact the UN and ICJ, amongst numerous other NGOs and governments, to offer your services as a Conflict Understander”

    Sigh, once again with the international law mixups. 😅 The UN and the ICJ are not NGOs and they are also not governments. They are intergovernmental organizations.

    You continue to excel in your role as Conflict Misunderstander, but unfortunately there is no call for services of that nature! 😂

  25. @32: “A properly implemented income tax might even lower housing costs,”

    better as:

    A properly implemented income tax might even lower property taxes.

    Right?

  26. @32 That’s what we pay our legislators to figure out. Make do with the money you collect now. No income tax. No excise tax. No compromise.

  27. Coolidge dear, a properly implemented income tax WOULD lower property taxes. And that, in turn, would lower housing costs.

    Please make a note of it.

  28. @CKathes — apologies for misgendering you,

    glad you straightened me out! I find your

    comments refreshingly accurate and

    your ability to stick to the subject’

    regardless of personal attacks

    emulatable — I’ve Miles to

    go but who Knows?

    thanks for your comment

    and, for all of them.

    Keep on Jonesin’!

  29. @39: Ha ha, don’t worry I won’t mention it! Your @33 is merely an example of a progressive failing to understand what a “government” is. 😁 It’s lol-worthy but not noteworthy. 😆 (Especially on a day when Slog feeds us a test to see if you are smarter than an eighth grader from 1899, ha ha ha)

    Your earlier mistake between lawful war and unlawful terrorism was much more emblematic of the progressive movement as a whole, which is why I use it irl as an example of problems in contemporary progressive thought. 😘

  30. @29 I suspect the game plan is for Trump to keep up his risible claim that he has nothing to hide and wants full transparency, while A.G. Bondi keeps the files (or at least the most embarrassing ones) under wraps by launching new “investigations” into one or more of the various Democrats whose names appear within. She’ll of course claim those “investigations” would be compromised by releasing the files. While this would contradict Bondi’s infamous memo stating no further inquiry into Epstein was warranted, she’s now hinting about “new information” that presumably could allow her to claim the circumstances have changed. Something like that.

  31. @23: “…I was mocking you claiming bombing hospitals was Israeli self defense…”

    Of course you were. You know of absolutely no evidence of any kind whatsoever to show Hamas hid in hospitals as it fought Isra–

    “Heavily armed Hamas fighters seized the Jordanian Field Hospital complex in Gaza City last weekend after a gunbattle with a rival Palestinian group, re-establishing their control over what residents and Israel’s military said had long been a redoubt for the Islamist militants.”

    “Heavily armed Hamas fighters” were literally walking around, openly and publicly killing Palestinians, and the locals still told the Wall Street Journal’s reporters that Hamas had long used the Jordanian Field Hospital complex in Gaza City as a “redoubt” (‘fortified place of refuge for soldiers,’ for those of you unfamiliar with military stuff) during their war with the IDF.

    (https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hamas-gaza-israel-withdrawal-33d69b55?mod=hp_lead_pos7)

    Please, do continue mocking the idea that hospitals were a legitimate target for the IDF in Gaza. You really should take every chance you can possibly get to show readers here just how much you ever really did know about the recently-ended conflict there.

  32. Hamas is

    no Longer an

    Existential Threat

    to Israel. that does

    Not bother Israel who

    will bomb Gaza (and Continue

    Stealing Homes from Palestine’s West Bank)

    until the Last Hamas has been Extinguished

    and if there are No Longer any Gazans

    or West Bankers Israel will Continue

    to Claim ‘their hands were tied.’

    and the World sinks

    ever further and

    Farther into

    the fucking

    Abyss, led

    in Large

    part by

    Israel

    and all so One man

    can keep outta

    Prison?

  33. @45: Oh he’s always known. I sent him ISR footage of Hamas firing from the windows of a hospital in Gaza. 😛

    Everyone’s always known. That’s why the UN Security Council has ordered Hamas to lay down its weapons but has not ordered Israel to lay down its weapons. 😁

    Even the State of Palestine is onboard. But western progressives gotta be more Palestinian than the Palestinians! 🤣 After all, they’re not the ones dying for Hamas qital fi sabilillah. 😛

  34. Israeli forces raid Palestinian towns in occupied West Bank

    Israeli troops have carried out two raids in the occupied West Bank, targeting the village of al-Lubban Asharqiya south of Nablus and the town of Hizma northeast of Jerusalem, the Wafa news agency reports.

    In al-Lubban Asharqiya, residents said soldiers opened fire

    at a Palestinian vehicle and threw stun grenades in front

    of several shops in the village.

    In Hizma, the Jerusalem governorate said

    Israeli forces stormed the town and fired live ammunition, s

    tun grenades and tear gas canisters extensively. No injuries were reported.

    Such raids

    have become an

    almost daily occurrence

    across the West Bank, where

    Israeli forces routinely carry out arrest

    campaigns and incursions into Palestinian towns and villages.

    [b]:

    a recap of today’s main events:

    Israeli air strikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis

    have killed at least 28 Palestinians, including

    women and children, and injured 77.

    Hamas says it marks a

    “serious escalation”.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/11/19/live-13-killed-in-israeli-air-attack-on-refugee-camp-in-lebanon

    Hamas is no longer

    an Existential

    Threat to

    Israel

    but

    One

    would

    Never know it

  35. @50: That’s a really great point, maybe the Hamas hospital shooters in the video footage could have been medical doctors testing out new treatment protocols or something! 😄 Like, maybe their rifle fire was exposure therapy for anxiety cases. 😂 Maybe their rocket launchers were a hearing exam! 🤣 It’s so outrageous that the Israelis interrupted these healthcare providers, what a complete genocide! 😆

  36. @50

    “bizarrely emotionally invested”?

    those

    Two’re*

    FULL TIME

    Spreaders of

    Israeli Propaganda

    and ALWAYS Quick to Claim

    that being Anti-Genocide

    makes one a Jew HATER!

    and paid

    by AIPAC

    likely too.

    we

    Always

    get the Pro-

    Israel ANTI-Palestine

    POV from those two who

    then turn around and DEMAND

    Everyone Else defend Israel

    and CONDEMN Hamas

    whilst ALWAYS Quick to Claim

    that being Anti-Genocide

    makes one a Jew HATER!

    *I contend one’s

    the ventriloquist and

    the other’s the dummy

    who swap places

    on Oeccasion just

    for shitsngiggles

    who’re ALWAYS Quick to Claim

    that being Anti-Genocide

    makes one a Jew HATER!

    after

    awhile

    it just gets

    Olde.

  37. @52: Ha ha ha so mad! 😂 But listen, don’t the IDF’s word for it, in fact don’t even trust Mister Thumpus if you dont want to! You can watch Hamas on video torturing and executing hostages, firing weapons from hospitals, launching rockets at civilian targets with no military purpose, confessing to rape, fighting from inside residential structures, deploying child soldiers, switching identity between journalist and soldier, using ambulances to transport non-injured personnel, stealing humanitarian aid, and on and on and on. It is unlawful Palestinian misconduct that justifies the Israeli military operations in Gaza, deal with it. 😄

  38. @53: yikes, look at you complaining three times in a single post about being called a “Jew HATER” 😁 have you considered maybe you could solve your problem by not trafficking in jew hatred?? 😝

  39. @50: So, you’re now so desperate to stay in denial, you claim the Wall Street Journal publishes “Israeli propaganda”? Seriously?

    (Then again, you once quoted two “From the River to the Sea,” web sites and FOX News, so maybe you’re the one having some trouble here with the distinction between “news,” and “propaganda”?)

  40. @50 because the WSJ has journalistic standards, they also wrote in the same article:

    “Hamas has vehemently denied using hospitals in the fight. … A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Gaza government said its security forces acted over the weekend to clear the hospital of criminal gangs that had taken it over and looted it after its staff was evacuated. Any security forces that remain at the hospital are there to prevent theft but will eventually hand control to a Palestinian association that used to own the property, the spokesman said. Previously, the hospital had purely been a medical facility, with no Hamas presence, the spokesman said.”

    And:

    “An in-depth investigation is needed to determine the extent to which Hamas has militarized health facilities in Gaza and whether Israel acted proportionally in its attacks, said Sam Zarifi, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights.”

    But you only included the allegations from the IDF, because if the IDF says it you believe it without question.

  41. @60 — lets’ Clear this Up:

    thumpfnsorna T. Wormtongue

    Works for AIPAC, so OBVIOUSLY they’re

    Gonna Side With Israel’s IOF: Every. Single. Time.

    either That, or the

    Cheques’ll just

    quit cummin’

  42. Kristofarian: “I don’t traffic in antisemitic conspiracy theories, how dare you!”

    Kristofarian, two minutes later: “Everyone against me is financed by AIPAC!”

    😂😂😂

  43. @63

    is

    Being Anti-Genocide

    makes one ‘a

    Jew HATER’!

    a ‘conspiracy theory’

    if it’s PRECISELY yours

    (the Two of you)

    AIPACS and

    Israel’s

    M fucking O?

  44. @60: “But you only included the allegations from the IDF, because if the IDF says it you believe it without question.”

    Go back and read harder. The IDF wasn’t the only source of the claim:

    “…re-establishing their control over what residents and Israel’s military said had long been a redoubt for the Islamist militants.”

    The IDF wasn’t even the first source the article cited; local residents were. (You know, persons whom Hamas could have murdered with impunity, simply for talking to the WSJ.)

    “An in-depth investigation is needed to determine the extent to which Hamas has militarized health facilities in Gaza and whether Israel acted proportionally in its attacks, said Sam Zarifi, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights.”

    Thank you for quoting that part. Glad to see you might not always remain in complete denial on Hamas’ use of human shields.

  45. @68: Impossible, there’s no Hamas in the hospitals, it must all be lies! The local residents lied! The Hamas detainees lied! The released hostages lied! The foreign doctors lied! The videos of gunfire and rocket launches lied! The captured weapons lied! The Hamas documents lied! The security cameras lied! The tunnels lied! 😂

  46. @68 “The IDF wasn’t even the first source the article cited; local residents were”

    But the only “resident” named and quoted was a member of the clan who took over the hospital, one of whom shot and killed a member of Hamas outside the hospital, and who other “residents” say were collaborating with Israel. And anyway you only care what Gaza residents have to say when it supports the IDF’s assertions which, again, you accept without question.

  47. @70: wait what, you want the Wall Street Journal to identify each of its Hamas-criticizing informants in Gaza by name, ha ha ha did you think through that idea for even half a second before you posted 😂😂😂

  48. @71: Better yet, he’s quoting from the same story wherein the WSJ describes an open-air mass execution by Hamas. Yeah, the refusal of the WSJ to identify Hamas-critical sources in Gaza simply means the WSJ must simply be making the entire thing up. No other explanation has occurred to him.

    He must really, really miss his pet war.

  49. @72: in every society, in every political movement, in every ideology, and even in every individual, there’s nothing like Jewish affairs to lay bare any iniquities that had previously lain hidden. An infallible method to assess the moral health of a person or a group is to ask them, “Hey, where are you at with the Jews?” If there’s any rot buried beneath the surface, it will immediately rise. 😄 October 7 and the war in Gaza have exposed the progressives like nothing else has since the Berlin Wal! 😁

    I always spare some gratitude toward the Jews for their service as society’s diagnosticians, although I’m sure the Jews themselves would just as soon be left out of it! 🤣

  50. @74: Alright, what evidence would you accept that Hamas had used a hospital as a military base? Bear in mind your previous evidentiary standards included multiple “From the River to the Sea,” web sites — and FOX News.

    (OK, I admit it: I’m asking just to skim through a long word-salad, one which even an AI can tell me has no coherent meaning.)

  51. @74: ah ah ah, not so fast! 😃 I think you meant to write, “posted an interrogation video as one line of evidence among a dozen other, supporting lines of evidence!” 😉 There, that reads better, huh! 😎

    I was hoping you might enjoy hearing from the Islamic resistance in their own words…in addition to the combat footage, Hamas documents, photographs, and witness and survivor testimonies, all of which point to the same conclusion regarding Hamas’s military use of hospitals. 😄 There are even a bunch more hospital interrogation videos if you didn’t like that one! 🤣🤣🤣 Anyways, you were saying? 😘

  52. @16

    No edit or delete

    buttons as people should

    reap the consequences of the nasty,

    cringing, and embarrassing things they publish.

    Coolidge dollar on November 19, 2025 at 1:12 PM

    [like this?]

    The point of the comment, you insanely dumb dildo

    is that it is at the very last part of the

    sentence.

    –@Coolidge dollar on November 16, 2025 at 12:57 PM

    People should calm down and think it over before clicking ‘Post Comment’. 

    Coolidge dollar on November 19, 2025 at 1:12 PM

    [Excellent Advice, KkKoolie! 

    have you an Example of ‘thinking it

    over before clicking ‘Post Comment'”?]

    [oh! — here’s a thoroughly-thought-out comment]:

    The point of a comment is

    its most important thought

    which is usually made in the the

    second or the last clause of the sen-

    tence to leave the reader with a with the 

    most important concept as the last or near 

    the last of what you are trying to say to folks.

    –@Coolidge dollar on November 16, 2025 at 12:57 PM

    [I’m Sorry?

    Come again!?]

    My God.

    Coolidge dollar on November 19, 2025 at 1:12 PM

    [My thoughts Exactly.

    Excellent Post(s)!

    oh

    and with

    our new Edit

    Button there MUST

    BE a ‘comment History’ but-

    ton to SHOW the Original comment.

    AND a ‘Delete Comment’ Button!

    I bet even KkKoolie’d

    Agree.

  53. Gaza’s Hunger Games

    Israel is weaponizing starvation. The objective is to dismantle all remnants of civil society and reduce Palestinians to herds of desperate scavengers who can be driven from historic Palestine.

    Israel’s weaponization of starvation is how genocides always end. I covered the insidious effects of orchestrated starvation in the Guatemalan Highlands during the genocidal campaign of Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, the famine in southern Sudan that left a quarter of a million dead — I walked past the frail and skeletal corpses of families lining roadsides — and later during the war in Bosnia when Serbs cut off food supplies to enclaves such as Srebrencia and Goražde.

    Starvation was weaponized by the Ottoman Empire to decimate the Armenians. It was used to kill millions of Ukrainians in the Holodomor in 1932 and 1933. It was employed by the Nazis against the Jews in the ghettos in World War II.

    German soldiers used food, as Israel does, like bait.

    They offered three kilograms of bread and one kilogram of marmalade to lure desperate families in the Warsaw Ghetto onto transports to the death camps. “There were times when hundreds of people had to wait in line for several days to be ‘deported,’” Marek Edelman writes in “The Ghetto Fights.”

    “The number of people anxious to obtain the three kilograms of bread was such that the transports, now leaving twice daily with 12,000 people, could not accommodate them all.” And when crowds became unruly, as in Gaza, the German troops fired deadly volleys that ripped through emaciated husks of women, children and the elderly.

    This tactic is as old as warfare itself.

    The report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, that Israeli soldiers are ordered to shoot into crowds of Palestinians at aid hubs, with 580 killed and 4,216 wounded, is not a surprise. It is the predictable denouement of the genocide, the inevitable conclusion to a campaign of mass extermination.

    Israel, with its targeted assassinations of at least 1,400 health care workers, hundreds of United Nations (U.N.) workers, journalists, police and even poets and academics, its obliteration of multi-story apartment blocks wiping out dozens of families,

    its shelling of designated “humanitarian zones” where Palestinians huddle under tents, tarps or in the open air, its systematic targeting of U.N. food distribution centers, bakeries and aid convoys or

    its sadistic sniper fire that guns down children, long ago illustrated that Palestinians are regarded as vermin worthy only of annihilation.

    The blockade of food and humanitarian aid, imposed on Gaza since March 2, is reducing Palestinians to abject dependence. To eat, they must crawl towards their killers and beg. Humiliated, terrified, desperate for a few scraps of food, they are stripped of dignity, autonomy and agency. This is by intent.

    Chris Hedges; 6/29/25

    oodkes

    https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/gazas-hunger-games

    but but but

    wormthumpfer

    shrieks, “This is from JUNE!”

    good eyes! has Israel allowed those

    600 or is it 900 food trucks a day EVERY

    day thru to Feed Starving Gazans? cuz THAT’S

    WHAT IT FUCKING TAKES.

    well

    thumpfworm

    shrieks, but Hamas!

    But HAMAS! BUT HAMAS!

    justifying

    NOTHING

    except those

    aipac checks?

  54. @75

    OK, I admit it:

    I’m asking just to skim

    through a long word-salad,

    one which even an AI can tell

    me has no coherent meaning.)

    –@Wormtongue thumpfnsorna on November 20, 2025 at 7:23 PM Report this

    @76

    ah ah ah, not so fast! 😃

    –thumpfus T Wormtongue on November 20, 2025 at 8:21 PM

    Jesus,

    wormmy

    give a bott

    a Break! it’s got

    Circuits, and shit

  55. @16

    now

    for Instance

    Had we an Edit/Delete

    Button, I could delete @78,

    and have @79 follow my comment

    on Your comment (wormmy’s comment

    to his ai sokbott), which seems to make Sense,

    wormmy’s comment’s contents having to do with

    “(a long word-salad,

    one which even an AI can tell

    me has no coherent meaning.)”.

    Plus,

    I could

    reinsert

    wormmy’s

    parenthesis

    typically, a pair of round brackets

    “(” & ” “) used to mark off a

    parenthetical word

    or phrase

    which I did

    ‘cuz I Could

    immediately

    above, making

    the World a Much*

    Better Place. Don’t you agree?

    *Remembering

    of Course, to Replace

    @78 (re Isreal’s Non-stop

    War Crimes, one which even

    Reich-wing Gov’ts’re Tiring of).

    so

    Do

    we Have

    Your Vote, too?

  56. @16, 80

    speaking

    of Editing,

    and Fixing:

    “(. . . a long word-salad,

    one which even an AI can tell

    me has no coherent meaning.)”.

    Plus,

    I could

    reinsert

    wormmy’s

    parenthesis

    typically, a pair of round brackets

    “(” & “)” used to mark off a

    parenthetical word

    or phrase

    see

    what

    I’m saying

    (this is Nearly

    as Painful for me

    as it must be for You!)?

  57. @76 “I was hoping you might enjoy hearing from the Islamic resistance in their own words”

    Do you believe Abu Safiya is “Islamic resistance” too or is Israel just holding him for funzies?

  58. @83: it depends, is Abu Safiya also a Hamas brigadier general who uses his own hospital as a fighting position, command post, and armory? Cause that was Ahmad Kahalot’s big mistake as director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital! 🤣🤣🤣

  59. @84 that’s all assuming you believe an interrogation video, when numerous Palestinian doctors held by Israel have alleged they were tortured, which no thinking person should but I’m sure you do. But do you personally believe Abu Safiya is Hamas and if not why won’t Israel release him?

  60. @85: I don’t personally have an opinion as to Abu Safiya’s Hamas affiliation.

    As for “believing” the Ahmad Kahalot interrogation video, his lengthy and detailed admissions constitute nothing more than a single line of evidence among dozens of other lines of evidence that lead me to conclude, sadly, that Hamas uses the hospitals in Gaza (including Kamal Adwan) for military purposes in violation of the law of armed conflict. 😁 Are you so very confident that they never do? 😉

  61. @87: lol, I’m afraid the real answer is not as exciting as that! 😛 I follow the Gaza war more closely than most Americans do, in both English and Arabic media, but even I cannot track the war down to the level of the individual combatant. 😄 That’s a job for a full-fledged intelligence agency, not some guy in Seattle with an iphone! 🤣 I don’t know your Abu Safiya’s military biography, if I did I would tell you! 😃

    But to me, it’s a less interesting question whether this Palestinian or that Palestinian is a member of the Islamic resistance. It’s a more interesting question whether the Islamic resistance as a whole is using hospitals and other protected structures in a manner inconsistent with the laws of armed conflict, thereby depriving those structures of their protected status. Sadly, the answer to my more interesting question is: yes they are 😉

  62. @76: ‘I think you meant to write, “posted an interrogation video as one line of evidence among a dozen other, supporting lines of evidence!”’

    And the original basis for believing Hamas would use both civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza came from a report written by NATO, which described it as a practice of Hamas during the period 2008 – 2014: https://stratcomcoe.org/cuploads/pfiles/hamas_human_shields.pdf (Despite 1312’s claim of our getting information from the IDF, Israel is not a member of NATO — but Türkiye, a longstanding supporter of Hamas, is. Türkiye has been a member of NATO for almost all of NATO’s existence.)

    1312 became so upset by my repeated citations from this report, he finally started claiming it was written not by NATO, but by a “PR firm,” and that it lacked factual basis (dozens of footnotes not doing the trick for 1312, apparently).

    Watching our dead-ender friends cling to their fictional beliefs about their favorite war provides great amusement, but mostly in the most sad and pathetic way possible. Now that their favorite war has died, perhaps they can mourn it, and move on. Their continued bitter denials can only postpone their healing.

  63. @89: ha ha ha oh god I had forgotten that whole multiday lecture series about the differences between an international military organization and a PR firm! 😂 That was classic slog! 😆

    Nothing much has changed, unfortunately. you can see him above in this very thread getting confused about the differences between a government, an intergovernmental organization, and a non-governmental organization! 🤣

  64. Yep.

    when the

    Wormtongue

    Declares the Peace

    Plan is Working, who

    are We to question wormmy,

    Israel OR the Israeli Offensive Force?

    “Watching our dead-ender friends cling to their fictional beliefs about their favorite war provides great amusement, but mostly in the most sad and pathetic way possible. Now that their favorite war has died, perhaps they can mourn it, and move on. Their continued bitter denials can only postpone their healing.” –@the Wormtongue, above

    2 million

    Gazans struggle to

    survive in a 3.5 sq. mi.

    cage – Not a Ceasefire Day 43

    (While a “ceasefire” is ostensibly in place, Israel has continued its assault on Gaza without interruption. If Americans Knew considers the war to be ongoing, and in its 774th day.)

    Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11,

    Israel has killed at least 318 Palestinians.

    Among them are at least 67 children.

    Death toll figures are tentative.

    Israel has

    so far violated

    the 11 October ceasefire

    deal in Gaza at least 393 times.

    https://israelpalestinenews.org/2-million-gazans-struggle-to-survive-in-a-3-5-sq-mi-cage-not-a-ceasefire-day-43/

    it’s

    OVER

    take it From

    The Wormtongue!

  65. @92: Well, yeah, but when 1312 looks at a long comment thread and sees only kristo’ agreeing with him, shouldn’t that tell him something important about the hill he’s chosen to die on? 😉

  66. @95

    not to

    Mention

    AIPAC/IOF Reps

    filling Their Coffer$

    And,

    BONUS!

    shitting on/shutting

    Down one of the Last

    Vestiges of Progressive

    Conversation in trumpftopia!

    They, Rule

    😉😉😉😉😉

    you, Drool!

    😄 😄 😄 😄 😄

    and Besides!

    it Ain’t Even ACTUAL

    GENOCIDE! so fucking

    😄 😄 😄 CHILLAX and 😉😉😉

    😉😉😉 Chust fucking ENJOY IT! 😄

    but Hamas!

    but Hamas! but Hamas!

    but Hamas! but Hamas! but Hamas!

    but Hamas! but Hamas!

    but Hamas!

    poor, Poor POOR

    Israel! its Bloody

    HANDS’re TIED!

    (plus bibi’s

    Gotta Keep

    tF outta Jail)

  67. @95: “…a long comment thread…”

    Please, let us all note the irony of a long comment thread where the very first comment states a desire to eliminate all comments! 😉 As always here in the comments, the Stranger and supportive commenters get beaten at their own game!

    Maybe the Stranger will indeed invoke the almighty Take My Ball And Go Home Rule?

  68. @96: “not to Mention AIPAC/IOF Reps filling Their Coffer$”

    An international conspiracy to fill their coffers! ha ha ha! “Antizionism” has never been anything but antisemitism 😂😂😂

  69. @98

    yeah,

    Right,

    thumpnsnorna

    T. Wormtongue!

    And,

    being

    Anti-Genocide

    EQUALS Anti-Semitism!

    just

    Like

    Israel/AIPAC’s

    Been SAYING, ever

    Since 10/7/2023. your

    Propaganda is Still Working!

    just Not on those 18-35!

    tho it’s STILL

    hurting Jews

    Planet-fucking

    Wide! Keep it Up!

    (so

    WHO is

    the Jew-Hater?)

  70. @99: “so WHO is the Jew-Hater”

    ha ha that would be you, the guy posting every day about international jewish financial conspiracies 🤣😂🤣😂

  71. @ Wormtongue

    the Words Twister:

    gosh

    yet Another

    Reich Wing Trope

    cum Schmear, wormmy?

    You’re making Life

    exceedingly Dangerous

    for Jews EVERYWHERE. WHY

    do you (two) HATE THE JEWS?

  72. Jewish actor Mandy Patinkin’s wife,

    actress Kathryn Grody, said, “I hate the

    way some people are using antisemitism as

    a claim for anybody that is critical about a certain policy.”

    Grody was talking about you / here / wormthumpfs

    “As far as I am concerned,

    compassion for every person in Gaza

    is very Jewish, and the fact that I abhor the policies

    of the leader of that country does not mean I’m

    a self-hating Jew or I’m antisemitic,”

    Grody continued, adding that

    Netanyahu’s politics are the

    “the worst thing for

    Jewish people.”

    yet you Deny it

    because supporting

    bibi/Israel’s/AIPAC’S Genocide

    DEMANDS you Support Labeling

    anyone Anti-Genocide as Anti-Semitic

    you & your

    ai sockbott are

    a baldface LIAR

    but that you’ll

    shrug Off, quite easily,

    being the Worm that you Are

    Bugger off.

    Properly.

    Netanyahu’s politics are the

    “the worst thing for

    Jewish people.”

    that’d be a

    Fucking

    Bingo.

    justify

    wormmy

    Justify now

  73. @100: I no longer pay kristo’s scrollpasta any mind, but if he’s still pushing his outright fabrication about my taking AIPAC money, like he did during the Hamas-IDF war, then I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s about “international jewish financial conspiracies,” as AIPAC is (as the name itself immediately says) American.

    His fabrication reminds me more of a Horseshoe Theory version of the right-wing fabrication from twenty years ago, when W’s keyboard warriors claimed anyone critical of Mission Accomplished secretly took money from George Soros. (And in both cases, well, I could only wish for such patronage!)

  74. @103: Oh he also says you take money from Israel, too, not just AIPAC. 😂 And he’s referred to AIPAC as the “Jewish lobby.” 🤣 In his mind, it’s all one big international conspiracy of Jewish money that secretly controls the world. It’s the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, lefty edition! 😄

  75. your doing yoman’s work

    for AIPAC May or may

    not be pro-bono but

    your contribution

    to bibi’s little

    “War” on

    Palestine

    has been a Remarkable*

    Achievement.

    *maybe cadet bonespurs’ll

    name a Hole after you

    atop the graves of

    Gazans:

    The Wormthumpfer:

    700 Yarns long

    Par 1:

    Always

    improve

    Your Lie.

  76. @104: Ok, so he’s actually accusing me of being on the take from some nefarious conspiracy of international Jewish money, a straight-up Protocols-flavored lie. Thanks for relating that; his incoherency sometimes becomes so pervasive, it eclipses even his unrelenting malice. 😉

    (Oh, and I should apologize for my rhetorical shorthand, ‘his fabrication,’ for it could imply he’s actually capable of fabrication, when he’s never demonstrated so much as the slightest hint of such capability. He’s likely picked up that particular fabrication from the anti-Israel hate speech he wouldn’t stop consuming, from those horrid web sites he kept on quoting.)

  77. “your doing yoman’s work

    for AIPAC May or may

    not be pro-bono but

    your contribution

    to bibi’s little

    “War” on

    Palestine

    has been a Remarkable*

    Achievement.”

    –kristofarian on November 23, 2025 at 10:57 PM

    “Ok,

    so he’s actually

    accusing me of being

    on the take from some nefarious

    conspiracy of international Jewish money… “

    –@tensorna on November 24, 2025 at 4:55 AM

    “your doing yoman’s work

    for AIPAC May or may

    not be pro-bono… ”

    –kristofarian on November 23, 2025 at 10:57 PM

    “… so

    he’s actually

    accusing me of

    being on the take… ”

    tensorna on November 24, 2025 at 4:55 AM

    “your doing yoman’s work

    for AIPAC May or may

    not be pro-bono… ”

    –kristofarian on November 23, 2025 at 10:57 PM

    and

    That’s

    How he

    Earned the

    Nickname “the Wormtongue.”

    gotta

    Admit,

    wormmy

    Did come

    by it “Honestly.”

Comments are closed.