Michael Ames

AMERICAN CIPHER @penguinpress. Stories for @thefp @rollingstone @newyorker @harpers and other zines. Esto perpetua.

[Michael Ames @mirkel]

Throughout the summer, social media was filled with stories like this one below, posted by Gazans describing Hamas shooting, or, in this case, shelling civilians seeking GHF aid.

Rather than investigate these reports, most of the media took the word of Hamas, which blamed the IDF for its own murder spree, inflated the numbers to an absurd degree, and counted on western media to broadcast whatever claims it made.

It was a triumph in the information war, which led Hamas to defy calls from Arab leaders to surrender and earned the terror group huge diplomatic rewards from the UK, France, Canada, et al.

A historic propaganda victory.

[Ph.Gritti @Philipp27960841]

A Palestinian writes: Hamas criminals committed a massacre on civilians who went to seek humanitarian aid.

[Trisha Posner @trishaposner]

It took a non-Jewish political commentator @HughHewitt to drop a truth bomb this morning about the Democratic Party and antisemitism.

“The Democratic Party is deeply infected with anti-Semitism — not anti-Israel sentiment, not anti-Zionism — antisemitism. And it’s like a sepsis….It’s either going to kill the Democratic Party or it’s going to kill the United States.”

25 years after 9/11, the Muslim Brotherhood influence and radical jihadist sympathizers are being mainstreamed in the Democratic Party.

This is no longer a warning. It’s a diagnosis.

#Antisemitism #JewHatred

[Armin Navabi @ArminNavabi]

🚨 DIRECT FROM TEHRAN: "Arm us." The momentum is building.

This man just risked everything to show the world that the Iranian people want to be armed. They are desperate to get this message out, and after the massive response to the video of the woman I posted earlier, more people need to amplify their calls.

I asked for proof from the ground, and he answered by filming this right in the heart of Tehran. Look closely at what he is doing: he is driving down an active highway in broad daylight, holding an illegal sign punishable by death against his steering wheel, right in front of the Milad Tower. He is operating directly under the regime's nose to prove this resistance is real.

For the millions he represents, demanding weapons is no longer a political debate. It is a tactical necessity for survival. Peaceful protest against live ammunition has proven impossible. They aren't asking for foreign boots on the ground. They are asking for the basic means to defend themselves against a systemic slaughter.

He risked his life to bypass the blackouts and deliver this geographical proof. Do not let the regime bury his bravery.

[Michael Trujillo @mikehtrujillo]

I worked on taking down Eric Swalwell for 4/5 months during his rise here in CA. The cheating, the pics, the lawyers, the gaslighting all feels familiar. At no time was any victim telling me stories of sharpening axes or playing with guns. Voters of Maine, take it from this California Democrat - Platner is a dangerous dude who clearly needs therapy not the keys to the US Senate.

[Jan Crawford @JanCBS]

There is no corroborating evidence Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford ever met. All four people who Ford said were at a party where the alleged assault occurred, including her close female friend, said there was no such party. The close friend also said she didn’t believe Ford’s story, and that she told the FBI Ford’s allies threatened her with a smear campaign if she refused to lie and confirm it.

[Eyal Ofer אייל עופר @Eyalo365]

🚨 Cleared for publication:

At the first week of March, after Hizbullah got instructions from IRGC to restart attacking Israel - it made preparations to invade Israel northern villages along the border. IDF identified hundreds of Radwan force (Hizbulla elite commando unit) sneaking south of the Litani River in plain cloths, to pre planned weapns caches in private homes in south Lebanon. Many were eliminated from the air, but ground troops had to rush into Lebanon to engage them on the ground.

It turns out Northern Israel residents were in great jepordy - and this is why the goverment withheld this info until the signing of ceasefire.

[Hiba Nasr @HibaNasr]

‼️ Lebanon President with @amanpour :

• To Iran : You are not trying to help us … the people of Lebanon are paying the price … for the sake of your own interest… our interests … do not coincide with your interests
• To IRGC: It’s not your country, it’s our country.

• The IRGC are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with US.. It’s unacceptable.

• It was a tough negotiation (with the Israelis) until we had a major breakthrough

• The agreement could be a path forward to a “just and lasting peace.”

[Michael Ames @mirkel]

@TVietor08 Your show and your allies pushed Mills out in favor of a messy drunk rich kid fuckup, and now you complain that she's still on the ballot? Get a grip, man.

[CNN @CNN]

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun tells CNN's Christiane Amanpour his message to the IRGC and Iran. https://t.co/V3msdvKCG1

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

I bucked all advice from my friends (and resisted my conservative bias) and decided to fully trust the Times journalists.

As they left my home they asked that I not talk to any other outlets and I insisted then and repeatedly over the following weeks that I would keep my word and only share this story with them.

But then the weeks dragged on. They kept coming back to us saying the editors needed more. I needed to go on the record (okay). We need more screenshots (okay). I met every bench mark they set, eager to provide more sources or evidence as needed.

After the story went up I began to ask them … wait, where are the stories from the other women? Where are their accusations of sexual assault? Why am I the focus? Why are there 11 paragraphs dedicated to detailing my work history (more than has been published about Graham’s by far)?

Why does it say “nobody could corroborate” when I offered them sources that COULD corroborate?

Why did they include an out of context quote from a friend joking “do not call Graham” after I called off my wedding? (Because she knew I would never).

Where were the screenshots they’d said they would use? Or the mention that I’d supported local democrats and that most of my family (and husband) are liberal?

The editors said it was too much, they explained.

The Times also failed to include any mention that I DID confide in multiple friends through the years that Graham had been abusive — long before he was running for office. Those friends confirm they told the Times so.

It dawned on me that this really was a set up all along. The journalists I trusted who convinced me to share a story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a gift to the Platner campaign. Violating the trust of his victims. Shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life.

And at the end of my call with them I reluctantly accepted their insistence that this was still a powerful story and that I had done a brave thing. And I thanked them for all the hard work they had put into it.

Still fawning after all these years.

[Caroline Wren @CarolineWren]

Can’t wait for Matt Damon to play Graham Platner in a future coming-of-age Netflix film about a spoiled rich kid who acts out as a teenager and is shipped off to an $80K a year boarding school only to get expelled after one semester for sexually assaulting a student then he joins the Marines as a fuck you to his parents and while enlisted he frequently posts on Reddit about how soldiers should bang hookers in Thailand then gets wasted in Croatia and gets a Nazi tattoo before deciding to move back to DC and bartend at Tune Inn where he meets a Blackwater executive who hires him to “work security” in Afghanistan which he does for a year before moving home to Maine to sell oysters to his mom and run for the U.S. Senate.

Give it the Oscar already.

[National Post @nationalpost]

The Post's #frontpage for Friday, June 5, 2026.

[Bitcoin Teddy @Bitcoin_Teddy]

MARC ANDREESSEN: "We had meetings with the Biden admin where they told us to not even start AI companies because there's no way they'll let them succeed."

JOE ROGAN: "What do you do after a meeting like that?"

MARC ANDREESSEN: "You go endorse Donald Trump."

LMAO

[Nate Silver @NateSilver538]

Keep in mind that if you're defending Platner at this point you're signing up for 5 more months of defending an obvious pathological liar.

[Joe Pompliano @JoePompliano]

The cheapest ticket at MSG for game 3 of the NBA Finals is going for $7,500 in section 420. This is the view from that seat.

[Rep Josh Gottheimer @RepJoshG]

No foreign government should be influencing what our kids are taught in American classrooms.

We need transparency, accountability, and strong safeguards against foreign interference in our education system. American students should be learning facts, not Qatari-funded narratives.

https://t.co/5puHhPcrnp

[Michael Ames @mirkel]

@PatrickSvitek Ro Khanna is spreading a falsehood. Neither the ICC or ICJ found that genocide occurred in Gaza. Fact-checkers should call him on it.

[Josh Kraushaar @JoshKraushaar]

Democratic strategist, to NY Mag: "Are we going to see pictures of Graham Platner’s penis before this is all over? I think we almost certainly will."
https://t.co/4WJA1T412q

[Holden @Holden114]

If Platner had an R next to his name each of his accusers would be booked on an evening news show.

[Megan McArdle @asymmetricinfo]

The allegations against Platner are better corroborated than the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh were and it will be interesting to see who manages to be consistent in their beliefs about such things.

[Mary Katharine Ham @mkhammer]

I’ve heard of this guy as a dark and imbalanced character for years. Women know that special kind of friend’s ex whose full-ass name you know long after they dated bc of the badness, and then he runs for Senate, and you’re like “wait, THAT GUY?!” And it’s hard to speak up about a guy like that, who has quite a bit of power and seeks more, but my friend Lyndsey’s accusations are specific and detailed about what happened and didn’t, backed by physical diaries and texts from long before he ran. They confirm that a man with a Nazi tattoo does indeed have a bunch of bad decisionmaking and impulse control problems and his behavior can be more than unsettling. If he’s healing, which last week’s story doesn’t indicate, he should do it somewhere other than the Senate.