I have no interest in watching his video but I also have no interest in further reading the article when it talks about Nixon and his “graceful exit”.
Yes, I seem to remember his graceful exit taking years.
And no one today would be referring to it as “graceful” if he had actually been prosecuted.
Nixon was granted “grace” by Ford, nothing he did himself was graceful in the slightest.
I mean, just the timeline shows that whoever was putting this together (Politico and NYT) had the main concern of getting Platner to drop out
They didn’t care about the story, they didn’t investigate anything to find the truth, they didn’t even chase ratings.
They just kept dropping bombs a week before he could be forced out.
Doesn’t mean he’s innocent, if anything it means there needs to be an investigation into all of it. But the only way that would have happened was if Planter stayed in, won, and then had an investigation done himself.
Now that he’s dropped no one is going to look into any of it, in a month he won’t be in any headlines or mentioned again.
Depending on who replaces him is what may make it a big deal long term.
But the NYT just smacked down a progressive who was vocally against Israel, if it worked once the oligarchs will keep doing it. A senate seat is too important for them to just not try.
You think no investigation happened at all?
Look, there’s room to talk about the best way forward and it sucks, this really, really sucks that Platner couldn’t live up to what we all had hoped. But we can have those discussions without victim blaming and indulging in conspiracy theories too much.
You think no investigation happened at all?
I, for on, don’t have a bottomless well of trust for pro-Israel establishment media.
I, for one, don’t have a bottomless well of trust for men with admitted alcohol problems and violent tendencies and a history of victim blaming.
Oh God forbid people become better.
The guy with the Nazi tattoo, who worked for blackwater, that has been credibly accused of sexual assault appears to be showing that he hasn’t become better.
They can, but they don’t get the benefit of the doubt. Increased scrutiny is one of the consequences for their actions. If they can’t understand that and deal with it then they’re still a shitty person.
I’d like y’all to direct some of that scrutiny at Janet Mills too.
Where did he get better? When? What has he done in the last 5 years that show he got better?
Because all I see is a lot of denial and blaming everyone else but himself.
Mods removing every comment mentioning the Nazi tattoo. Lemmy never disappoints.
Uh… run for election on a platform of anti-imperialism and anti-Zionism?
Yes, I think no investigation happened at all. Not one iota.
I wanted Platner to be the guy because I do think in this moment, he would have won.
But I know first hand how traditional newspaper legal sourcing and corroboration works (yes, for all they are hateable for other reasons, that includes the NYT). Once you know how careful they are with sources, because the potential exists for even a single defamation lawsuit to utterly bankrupt the company, then you know the details in that article are both credible and passing those checks would not have been fakeable without an incredibly elaborate conspiracy.
That doesn’t mean the allegations are true, but I believe it’s likely they are true.
Well hate say Told everyone so, but I was against this guy from the jump, and told everyone he was no progressive and all I got was scorn and downvoted. Hate to be right, but now we fucked and Republicans win.
Spends an entire lifetime as a rightwing, establishment enforcing chud. Spends six months pretending none of that ever happened so that he can become a senator with zero relevant experience. ‘I believe him.’
What a shitty article. This person probably nods their head smugly when he hears Schumer is sending a strongly worded letter to donald
Came here to say this. I kept checking to see if this garbage was an opinion piece. I don’t care how shitty the guy is; the article reads like it was written by an angsty teen.
I dunno what they’re expecting. He said the allegations were false. Why would he do that and then give “contrition and humility” to the people that supposedly made horrendous false allegations against him that torpedoed his career?
It goes deeper than that because the person who’s accusing him stated plainly that he was actually blackout drunk when the incident occurred and that he didn’t remember it the next morning.
Though I got to say for me, my doubt about him came several weeks ago when it was revealed that he had a Kik account he had been using up till less than a year ago that he was using to meet women. And if you know anything about Kik, you know that’s a very concerning thing. People use that platform are not good people.
What’s crazy is everyone acting like he was “forced” to do this.
Dude could have 100% just stayed in the race, no one had the authority to make him drop out.
If he was half the monster the media has been wanting us to believe he is, he definitely would have stayed in the race, and no one could have done anything about it.
He got Franklen’d
Edit:
Chuck Schumer did say he’d cut of DSCC support…
For those who don’t know DSCC is what Schumer and the neoliberals still control after losing the DNC, it’s really not that important, but it’s wild so many accounts are suddenly showing up on Schumer and Israel’s side on this.
Even if they just fell for the propaganda, it’s not a good sign for midterms they were fooled so easily, and since it worked it’s going to be more prevelent.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is the Democrats’ fundraising arm specifically for Senate races. It has been an entity for more than 100 years.
It’s not “what Schumer and the neoliberals still control after losing the DNC.” I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean.
It’s important because it’s one of the major three national Democratic Party committees that collect and spend funds on federal-level elections. (Republicans have parallel committees, too.)
Withholding funds from a specific Senate race is a pretty serious step for the party to take.
It’s not “what Schumer and the neoliberals still control after losing the DNC.” I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean
I meant they are two distinct organizations:
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DNC
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DSCC
And that since the neoliberals lost the DNC, they keep acting like the DSCC is important.
Withholding funds from a specific Senate race is a pretty serious step for the party to take.
If you had been asking questions instead of making false statements and waiting for someone to correct you, I’d have linked some resources for how much the DSCC normally pays, and how much the DNC has been paying since the neoliberals got the boot.
Now I’m never going to see any of your comments again instead.
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Fuck Schumer, fuck the DNC and fuck all the idiots that thought it was a good idea to run a guy that had a Nazi tattoo on his chest for 18 years as a progressive.
He was also a guard at Abu Ghraib… during the torture and systematic sexual assaults. And then he joined up with blackwater because he hadn’t had enough killing.
But hey! Anti-establishment hero, amirite?!?!? Real shame there was a concentrated smear campaign run on a politician in an important race. Damn you secret establishment cabal!
If he was half the monster the media has been wanting us to believe he is, he definitely would have stayed in the race, and no one could have done anything about it. He got Franklen’d
Franken was not credibly accused of rape and sexual sexual assaults… Maybe he stopped because if he didn’t there would actually be a criminal investigation. You know, because of the crimes?
Just the fact that he re-enlisted twice to go to unjust wars and then signed up to be a mercenary makes him a monster. The rape and Nazi tattoo just adds more fuel to an already burning pile of shit.
many accounts are suddenly showing up on Schumer and Israel’s side on this.
People have been saying this shit for over a year. You just claim anyone who disagrees with your terrible takes have fallen for propaganda.
Removed by mod
Dude had a swastika tattooed on his body a
Who told you that?
And more importantly why did you believe them?
Removed by mod
Like a totenkopf is much better?
We don’t need to relitigate this. That tattoo along with everything else should have made it clear he wasn’t a good candidate. If we had heeded those warning signs, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
According to lemmy absolutely nobody could every recognize a totenkopf as an exclusively Nazi symbol worn by the SS. Same motherfuckers will post a GIF from inglorious basterds. The death’s head is a well known recognizable Nazi symbol everywhere but lemmy apparently.
I had never heard the term totenkopf before this guy.
Ive seen thousands of skulls in various ways. I still don’t know what makes something a totenkopf and what makes it not one, definatively
I’m aware it was used by nazis, but wouldn’t have ever questioned in without the SS tag or swastika.
Good for you. It’s still an incredibly recognizable exclusively Nazi with a capital N symbol.
The left has a real problem with intersectionality and excusing American imperialism. Platner should have never had the support he did to begin with and it’s incredibly disheartening to see others on the left argue that he was going to be our Leftist Saviour when this is his past:
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He talks about ignoring US orders to stop firing explosive devices at Iraqi civilians. He brags about how his unit came up with a way to rig up their equipment so they could shoot grenades at them. I want to be clear the US military ordered them to stop shooting mortars in densely populated civilian areas because they were killing so many people.
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He brags about fighting to defend Abu ghraib against Iraqi freedom fighters that were trying to liberate the torture and rape facility
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He jokes about urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan.
We can also examine some of his claims and opinions on social media.
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He talks about how he’s regretful he did not participate in the American Indian wars (the US conducted genocide against the indigenous population of the area nowadays referred to as the mainland United States) and the Haitian intervention.
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He talks about how to defeat Isis American needs to kill millions of people in the Middle East and that America should do it, even if it takes decades of killing.
I don’t believe for a second that this man had no idea what a totenkopf was. MAYBE when he first got it, but the years after? No way.
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Okay there are two problems here:
First the idea that Nazis get to monopolize skulls and crossbones is utterly ridiculous. The same kind of ridiculous as picking fights with Buddhists for using swastikas—and just in case, the idea that Nazi swastikas are oriented differently from religious ones is false; religious swastikas come in all orientations. Second the (very believable) story is that he didn’t know it was a Nazi symbol. At that point the burden of proof is on the accuser.
Yeah, it’s far more likely that he wanted a cool tattoo, went to a tattoo place, saw a cool skull, and said “yeah, that one” without knowing that there was lore behind it. And he had it removed. People are allowed to not know everything, people are allowed to make mistakes, and I applaud people who admit their mistakes and seek to correct them.
Platner had a ton of baggage, some more warranted than others. This one was a nothing burger. But he’s dropped out for a maybe credible real problem, so we let that play out while looking for somebody else to run for Senate. It can’t be that hard to find somebody with a similar message and less baggage. Just somebody who will fight this class war for us, who can reach conservatives with that message, and who hasn’t done any raping. Is that such a high bar?
Any tattoo place displaying a totenkopf is displaying ss runes and swastikas right next to it. Because only Nazi tattoo shops give Nazi tattoos. Anyone that knows anything about tattoo culture knows this. Nobody accidentally gets a Nazi tattoo.
Is that such a high bar?
You’re forgetting “who can beat the establishment at the media game.” That’s the real bottleneck here, and either way grassroots campaigns take time to get going. Save for a major upset occurring, this is now a tossup between the libs and the fascists.
It wasn’t a believable story when Platner was obsessed with the military throughout most of his life.
Supporters wanted plausible deniability and it blew up in everyone’s face.
And why should interest in the military directly lead to Nazi symbols?
When Platner observed, “we live in a political system that is not built for normal people”, the implication was that he is a normal person, which the shenanigans of recent months have comprehensively disproved.
Even if you don’t think Platner is a normal person, you can’t deny that he appealed to a lot of normal people. But then, maybe “normal” just isn’t a useful adjective. I don’t know. Of course, Platner doesn’t necessarily have to be a normal person himself for the statement to be true. Platner can be abnormal and we can live in a political system that is not built for normal people. It can also be true that liberal elites have a general disdain for “normal” people. Or at least they have disdain for the voters who find uncouth, crass, ill-mannered populists appealing. Whether or not those voters are “normal” is a matter of debate, I suppose. But if they’re not normal, who is? And even if the populists aren’t “normal,” they still exist. In the millions. Ignorant, unrefined and problematic they may be, they exist. In this society, with you. What will the liberal elites do about them? They’ve tried snark and condescension, but for some reason it just hasn’t worked.
He appealed to a lot of credulous, and hopeful people. On the one hand, I don’t blame them, because people need hope. On the other hand, come the fuck on. Stop believing everything nice that someone says! This dude said all the right things, but his past actions were all red flags. Yes, people can learn and change, but it takes more than words to demonstrate that change.
Lesson learned. Troy Jackson has already taken off all mentions of Gaza from his campaign platforms. Hope it was worth it yall!
Incel meme aside, a lot of the US public really seems to think you can either have a really questionable candidate that agrees with you on some key issue but comes with massive baggage, or a candidate that supports the genocide in Gaza.
As in NY and elsewhere, that this just isn’t true. The establishment Dems don’t want you to know this: you can have both a baggage-free candidate and a candidate that is anti-Israel in the same person.
Blame the dems. Not voting for a rapist is still the right call. There would have been other candidates if the establishment wasn’t a shitshow addicted to losing.
Because what’s the point of a primary? There were other candidates and Platner beat them all at the polls despite the DNC’s best efforts.
rapist [citation needed]
I cannot believe I let you guys lecture me about “the enemy of the perfect” two years ago when the options were Trump and Diet Trump.
Because what’s the point of a primary? There were other candidates and Platner beat them all at the polls despite the DNC’s best efforts.
Pretending like this happened after this woman stepped forward with credible evidence, which was after another woman had stepped forward and y’all collectively decided to not believe her, is disingenuous at best.
He wouldn’t have been chosen in the primary if he had been properly vetted.
You don’t like Troy Jackson for his replacement? Then start talking about the positives of the other potential candidates. Let’s stop victim blaming and shitting on women and start focusing on moving forward.
Or maybe Platner was already a personally flawed candidate but people looked past that because of his policies? That it took a Sanders-2016-level bipartisan hit squad to convince people that his personal life from 5 years ago was somehow relevant to being a Senator? He was properly vetted, that’s the entire point of a primary. Literally nobody was buying the Fox News “dog ate my evidence” allegations. Or that Platner was still polling ahead of all other candidates until the day he pulled out, and only did so after Chuck Schumer made the unprecedented call to pull all funding support?
As I said, I hope it was worth it to give the win to the woman who put Kavanaugh in the SCOTUS to overturn Roe v. Wade . There are no other potential candidates, Collins is going to sweep. Kindly buckle in for another 2 years of MAGA congress.
Have you actually looked into how the two recruiters who found Platner vetted him?
It wasn’t 7 years ago, it was 5. Why are you also pushing misinformation?
Yes yes, the gatekeepers of THE PARTY didn’t do enough to uphold the blood purity of THE PARTY for you. This is surely going to beat the elitist allegations against all other candidates in Maine and the rest of the party. Graham Platner was vetted in the primary, which he won against the odds of all establishment forces.
Yeah my bad, got my numbers confused, I’ll change it.
Why are you pushing misinformation that allegations about a person’s personal life are in any way directly relevant to their ability to legislate from across the country? It’s a job interview for a Senator, not boyfriend. On that matter, have you seen the screenshots of the accuser talking to a friend about Platner in 2023 about setting him up with another friend? Even when asked straight up if he forced himself on her, she deflected and said the biggest red flag is that she thinks he has a high body count.
I am glad that we caught him when we did, though. If she would’ve (republished) those accusations even one week later, the DNC would’ve missed their window of opportunity to hand pick his replacement. Any earlier, and it would’ve still been a coin toss in the primary. What a stroke of luck. On a Monday, no less. Very brave of her to work up the courage after 5 years to go forward with her tale.
You think that being a rapist has no relevancy for how someone would yield power over others?
Do you hear yourself?
You don’t seem to understand how the dems work internally. There’s a “wait your turn” mentality; the org pressures candidates to influence the options. Platner didn’t bend to that which is why he stuck out in contrast to their pick (Mills). That’s why they went so hard against him; he wasn’t blessed by the establishment to run.
I was in favor of Platner through various controversies until now because most of them, including SA allegations, were largely unsubstantiated from questionable sources (like known gop operatives or est dems making mountains of molehills) and appeared to be manufactured. The most recent allegations are different, so my stance on him has changed.
He was the most progressive in the running because the rest kowtowed to chuck schumer and didn’t run. Blame the dems, just like the Biden<>Kamala fiasco; they’re addicted to losing; they would rather lose elections than lose control of the party.