If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.
That’s a phrase I must have heard a thousand times when I was growing up. Definitely one of my mom’s favorites.
Democrats win GOP seat in New Hampshire, notching 10th straight special election flip
The third time was the charm for New Hampshire Democrat Bobbi Boudman, who flipped a Republican-held seat in the state House in a special election on Tuesday night.
Boudman, a financial analyst, defeated Republican Dale Fincher, a Christian nonprofit speaker and investment firm founder, by a 52-48 margin to win Carroll County’s 7th District.
The seat became vacant last year when state Rep. Glenn Cordelli gave it up after reportedly moving out of state. Cordelli had previously beaten Boudman twice in a row, first by a 56-44 margin in 2022, then by a wider 57-43 spread two years later.
Donald Trump also carried the district, which includes the towns of Ossipee, Tuftonboro, and Wolfeboro, by a 54-45 margin. Ordinarily, that might have been enough to keep the seat red, but Boudman was undeterred, and Republicans were nonetheless worried.
If you appreciate our commitment to keeping you completely up-to-date on important special elections, we hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber by clicking the button below:
Shortly before the election, the New Hampshire Union Leader’s Kevin Landrigan wrote that the GOP was “pulling out all the stops.”
Fincher raised $25,000 for the race, while outside groups spent at least $30,000 on his behalf. Fincher’s benefactors included the Republican State Leadership Committee, the GOP’s official campaign arm dedicated to winning legislative elections, and the Koch network’s Americans for Prosperity.
Boudman, by contrast, raised $12,000 and, according to campaign finance records, received no comparable outside help.
The two candidates clashed most notably on the issue of school vouchers, with Fincher supportive of the state’s “Education Freedom Accounts” and Boudman opposed. Boudman also had deep roots in the area, while Fincher only recently moved into the district, which forced him to run in the GOP primary as a write-in.
So the Republican candidate raised twice as much as the Dem, and outside groups tossed in another $30k for the Republican, and he still lost.
Dear Republicans, I would like to share another one of my mom’s favorites.
Money isn’t everything!
Open thread.
Trivia Man
I love to start the day with good news.
Old Man Shadow
Well apparently all it takes to barely convince enough Republican voters to vote in the Democrat is for the GOP to attack U.S. cities, destroy the economy, staff the executive branch with incompetent morons, start another illegal war in the Middle East for the Saudis and Israel, and kill health care for tens of millions of Americans.
Makes me feel all patriotic and squishy inside.
Baud
@Old Man Shadow:
The playing field is not level. It sucks, but it makes every win sweeter.
HeleninEire
JFC. “Education Freedom Accounts.”
Freedom fries, much?
ArchTeryx
@Old Man Shadow: As Baud said, there is no way the playing field is level. It is heavily tilted toward Republicans in New Hampshire, though not as bad as in the gerrymandered South. Also, their legislature has a staggering number of seats for what is one of the smaller states in the union, so each district is pretty tiny.
All that being said, any election where we beat the odds is one worth celebrating. Small wins are better than total defeat, which we’ve known for far too long.
AxelFoley
@Trivia Man:
Smells like…victory.
Jackie
For those keeping count, that’s TEN FLIPPED SEATS for Dems (so far); ZERO for Rethugs since FFOTUS2! :-D
WereBear
@Old Man Shadow: Why didn’t we try this before, right?
rikyrah
Robert L. Tsai
@robertltsai.bsky.social
Follow
Nadia Schadlow, Trump’s former Deputy National Security Adviser, hasn’t read the Constitution
bsky.app/profile/robertltsai.bsky.social/post/3mgrxve3vvs2y
A Ghost to Most
Fortune favors the prepared.
Mike E
NC legislature: President Pro Tem Sen Berger, an architect of the 2010 Teapublican coup, went from two votes down to 23 behind…a recount is imminent, also his son sits on the very red NC supreme court so his fat may be saved from the fire.
rikyrah
InteractivePolls
@IAPolls2022
Jeannie LaCroix (R) defeats Muhammad “Sef” Casim (D) in Prince William County’s Woodbridge District special election for Board of Supervisors.
The GOP flipped a seat, but here’s the background of that win.
Miss Aja
@brat2381.bsky.social
Follow
🧵
Y’all want to see a cautionary tale of exactly what Black Folks have been trying to warn y’all of for years?
This guy Sef Casim ran as a young progressive candidate against a BW and all the usual suspects lined up behind him.
After he won the caucus/primary a bunch
wjla.com/news/electio…
of old racist and antisemitic social media posts he made were found and posted.
As you can imagine a lot of folks were pissed. In spite of that the young progressives and some Dems said he was forgiven and the base of the party should just move on.
Guess what…THAT DID NOT HAPPEN.
The usual suspects voted for the racist antisemite anyway but this time the base told them to kick rocks and wrote in the BW’s name.
A Republican just won this seat and some of y’all might think that’s awful but damn that. The party should have sat his racist antisemitic ass down instead of
trying to force him down Black and Jewish throats.
Knock this bs off Democrats. The base is fed up and we’re all about showing y’all about the finding out stage of life🤷🏾♀️
9:43 PM · Mar 10, 2026
And here’s what happened tonight. Make sure y’all read the part where it basically implies Montgomery split the party instead of racism, misogyny, and antisemitism splitting the party.
Wild shit but bravo to those that took a stand.
potomaclocal.com/2026/03/10/r...
bsky.app/profile/brat2381.bsky.social/post/3mgquh5s4rd2n
suzanne
@rikyrah: I just listened to Ezra Klein’s interview with Schadlow, and OMG. He didn’t roast her directly, but he got her to sound just incredibly disingenuous and clueless.
One thing that I do appreciate about Ezra Klein is that he gets some of these lunatic people to dig their own graves and then jump in.
Kristine
I would blow up today’s featured photo and hang it on my wall. Beautiful!
Castor Canadensis
@Old Man Shadow:
Hysteresis.
It’s worse in humans than in electromagnetic devices.
JimV
I wonder what your mom (and mine who had the same saying) thought of Yoda’s conflicting statement, “Do or do not. There is no try.” See how much better Mom’s attitude was? If only Yoda had listened to his mom, and preached accordingly, maybe the Dark Side would never gotten control. Nice post, I’ll be donating.
tam1MI
@rikyrah: The Further Left are about to hand the Maine Senate seat back to Susie Furrowbrow on a platter because of their sick infatuation with Nazi Tattoo Guy, so, sad to say, I doubt any lessons were learned.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
All I can say is, at least this happened at the local Board of Supervisors level, rather than U.S. Senate if the Nazi tattoo guy wins the Dem nomination in Maine.
JML
School vouchers are a scam. They never accomplish what they claim to do, mostly just subsidizing shitty white people who want to send their kids to private schools and have someone else pay for it. Eliminate them all. No public money for any school that doesn’t follow the same basic rules of the publics IMHO. Sick of these leeches getting fat on taxpayer money while pretending it’s all because of how great they are, and sneering at the public schools.
Also, I would give real money for people to stop modifying “unique” and “historic”. It’s my biggest grammatical pet peeve and hells bells it’s come up a LOT today.
Baud
@rikyrah:
That’s why they attempt to delete the old posts.
Unlike NC, Maine is a very white state.
Timill
If at first you don’t succeed, get the T-shirt.
Trivia Man
@JimV: Practice makes progress
Our variation drilled in to our kids.
rikyrah
Dean Obeidallah
@deanobeidallah.bsky.social
Follow
WOW!!! GOP Rep James Comer Says Trump DOJ Asked New Mexico Officials to End Jeffrey Epstein Investigation! The property was being probed in 2019, but Trump DOJ took over and shut things down. This is the cover up in action! mediaite.com/media/news/j...
Dean Obeidallah
@deanobeidallah.bsky.social
Follow
This is backed up by NY Times reporting last week: “A state-led inquiry into Mr. Epstein’s actions was taken over by federal prosecutors in 2019, and then apparently fizzled, according to New Mexico officials and recently unsealed records.” NY Times Gift link: nytimes.com/2026/03/01/u...
bsky.app/profile/deanobeidallah.bsky.social/post/3mgrs4vybb222
opiejeanne
@HeleninEire: Have you heard about the Trump Savings Accounts for Kids? New law that takes effect on July 4, 2026. Kids born between Jan 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028 will have $1000 automatically deposited in an account with their name on it.
Dear Lord, like I’d trust him to keep his paws off of that money.
Baud
@opiejeanne:
Rebrand and expand in 2029.
rikyrah
@Baud:
true, but when Little Concerned Susie Collins beats Mr. Blackwater with a Nazi Tattoo, Don’t say shyt.
Archon
@tam1MI: I completely dumbfounded on how and why any Democrat would vote for Nazi tattoo guy in the primary. I recognize that the issue is slightly more complicated in a general election but to me something has clearly gone off the rails in Maine that a guy like this has a good chance of being the Dem nominee.
Trivia Man
@JML: Private schools should not be allowed selective enrollment. Race, religion, disability, or anything else.
if you get funding, follow the same rules for financial transparency, academic standards, anti-discrimination policies, employee rights, safety standards … all of it.
You want public money? Be public.
Matt McIrvin
@ArchTeryx: New Hampshire is odd in that lately it’s consistently voted Democratic in presidential elections, but its state politics are more “purple state with a functionally Republican lean”. Which, now that I say it, sounds like much of the US during the Obama era.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Collins will be tough to beat. If Mills wins the primary and loses to her, all the usual suspects will point fingers too.
I suppose, if we lose, the margins will tell us something, compared to Collins’s past wins. Also, how we do elsewhere.
Hopefully, Trump will be toxic enough that win regardless. Doubly hopefully, our new senator won’t end up a disappointment.
Archon
@rikyrah: Why look into somebody buying 330 gallons of sulfuric acid the day he found out he was the target of an FBI probe?
WereBear
@rikyrah: Thanks, that is very illuminating.
suzanne
@Archon:
This is my sense, too. I want to get a better idea of what is happening. Maine is very purple, not characterized by either far-right or far-left politics. I know Mills has low approval ratings as Gov, but she did get elected twice. Collins is an institution. What the heck is happening up there?
suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: I think Collins is gonna win, no matter who the Dem nominee is. Honestly, that’s why I’m less concerned about this race. I don’t think NaziBoy is coming within a hundred yards of power.
TF79
Reportedly? Did he disappear into the ether or something?
Belafon
@HeleninEire: You are free to give your money to rich people so they don’t have to pay for their kids’ education.
Belafon
@tam1MI: Sadly, the far left in this case also includes unions in Maine.
Jackie
Cornyn is openly begging for FFOTUS’s endorsement.
Now who does FFOTUS endorse? Decisions, decisions…
Old Man Shadow
I thought it was “If at first you don’t succeed, whine incessantly about how unfair it was because it wasn’t your fault, it was someone else’s fault, then start a podcast appealing to other people about how their mediocrity is other people’s fault, not their own, and run for office as a Republican”?
suzanne
@Belafon: Unions used to be a core element of the Democratic coalition, and they were never considered far left. (Unless the term “far left” has lost all meaning, which could be possible.) Unions aren’t communist or even socialist.
p.a
The one who wears the Florsheims on feet AND hands.
Belafon
@opiejeanne: Yep, and parents can add to that account. So poor kids will have $1000 when they graduate, and rich kids will have a whole bunch of money.
Baud
different-church-lady
WHO’S THE STRAPPING YOUNG BUCK WITH T-BONES NOW, ASSHOLES?
Baud
Belafon
@Archon: From discussions I’ve seen on bluesky, he appeals to the “working class” with everything that implies. They didn’t like it when I pointed out what that implied.
different-church-lady
@suzanne:
Look at it this way: either Collins wins or we end up with another Fetterman.
Thanks for letting my brighten your day.
p.a
@suzanne: More than a few states in fiscal trouble whacked their union employees with cuts to hours, wages, health, and pensions. Every instance is different, some of the contract bennies may have been seen as unreasonable, but it seemed to be idea #1 too often, as opposed to other solutions. Always egged on by conservative media.
A contract is sacred… except union contracts.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Exactly right. Don’t support Nazis even if they have a D behind their name.
Belafon
@suzanne: Sorry, my point being, from what I read, is that the unions have not only endorsed him over Mills, but have told Schumer to get out of the primary or they will back Collins.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
To be another Fetterman, he’d have to break with Bernie, who is his biggest backer.
Belafon
@different-church-lady: A Fetterman from Maine, like one from Texas, would probably be ok. I’m worried he’s worse.
suzanne
@p.a: I am wondering if there had been a candidate in Maine who was stronger than Mills on union rights if we would have been able to avoid this situation. We talk a lot about core Democratic values, and support for labor rights should be one of those values, IMO.
Old School
Come on oil companies, just about all of them are gone!
Baud
@suzanne:
So small tent?
suzanne
@Belafon: I just see a lot of complaints about “the far left” that have nothing to do with leftist politics, and I think some people now just call everyone they don’t like “the left”. The far left are communists and anarchists, most union members are not.
Union rights are a pretty centrist thing. God, even my grandfather, who was pretty conservative, supported union rights.
Belafon
@suzanne: One of the things Platner did right was completely take over the consideration of who is the best candidate against Mills and Collins. There were other candidates, but we don’t even know who they are.
suzanne
@Baud: Why wouldn’t support for organized labor be a core Democratic value?
(I have a sneaking suspicion why! It has to do with who donates money!)
Belafon
@suzanne: The original sentence said “the left”, and since I knew the unions had a hand in Platner’s stance as a candidate, I was trying to make a joke about them being part of the left. It fell flat, obviously.
Another Scott
I’m reminded that the Ford Motor Company was Henry’s 3rd car company.
Try, try again, indeed.
Forward!!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@suzanne:
What does that mean, labor unions have a veto?
What if environmental or civil rights groups support Mills? Then neither candidate deserve our support?
Josie
@Jackie:
As a Texan, I am saddened to see how far Cornyn has fallen, even though I have never agreed with his conservative views. He was once a highly respected former judge and senator. Now he is a pawn in Dear Leader’s game. Truly, everything that man touches dies.
Geminid
@Archon: Platner’s proponents are able to make plausible explainations and excuses for his various liabilities. These excuses do not hold up upon more thorough examination. Basically, the more one knows about Platner, the worse he looks.
But Platner hits the right thematic notes for some people. The Platner campaign’s task is to keep people’s focus on the themes and not his personal details. That’s worked to some extent so far, but his opponents keep bringing the receipts and chipping away.
I think debates could play a big role in the outcome in June. I typically don’t watch much video, but I will watch these debates.
Although, there may end up being only one debate, or maybe even none. But I assume Mills wants to debate, and I think Platner will have to agree to at least one.
rikyrah
@Baud:
when it comes to Former Blackwater
When it comes to Nazi Tattoos
Yeah, our tent doesn’t need to be that big.
suzanne
@Baud:
They don’t get “a veto”…. they get to throw their weight around just like everyone else.
I think supporting union rights is the right thing to do. I think it is a core value. By being weak on this, we got away from what a good chunk of Dem voters expect from us and left an opening for someone like Platner.
Baud
@suzanne:
What do you know other than that the unions support Platner? What union rights do you think Mills opposes? I don’t have any information that Mills is outside of whatever our tent is.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@schrodingers_cat: Well, if both sides are Nazis, then I guess I’d have to fall back on my policy of not voting for the Republican candidate even with a gun to my head. If I voted in Maine, that is.
rusty
To give some context to the New Hampshire Education Freedom Accounts. NH is dead last in the country what the state gives local communities for schools. The national average is close to 50%, NH provides only 22%, provides zero for school construction, etc. Because schools are so dependent on property taxes, there is a wide variation in school spending and property tax rates among property rich towns and property poor towns. The state had an educational reserve fund that was intended to address inequities and to be used as part of a 25+ year series of court cases to address funding and educational disparities. Instead, the Republican controlled house, senate, governor, executive committee, set up school vouchers (the “Freedom Accounts”), and used the reserve fund to pay them. The first couple of years they have an income limit, intended to go to poorer families. Each year however, the limit was raised and last year it was eliminated. The program is not funding limited, the Republicans set it up to pay out no matter the cost, and it was wildly exceeded expected costs, in a state with no income or sales taxes to cover the excess spending. The reserve fund is almost gone, and the only funding source will soon be the regular education fund (did I mention we are dead last in what the state pays per student already?). 3/4 of the kids getting vouchers were never in the NH public schools, and much of the funding goes to Christian schools or home schoolers. Some even goes to wealthy boarding schools in the state! There is also no auditing of educational outcomes, so arguments that the private schools or homeschooling are better are deliberately unprovable. The legislature continues to come up with schemes to kill the public schools, we are still waiting on the final vote for open enrollment, where theoretically you can send you kids to any public school in the state. It would be funded by a formula to transfer money between towns, that those who understand the system say will drain even more money from poor schools and towns and reward wealthy towns. It would ultimately kill public schools entirely in poorer towns.
taumaturgo
It seems Maine is full of Nazi sympathizers or sick and tired of the “concerned” Collins. An average of 4 different recent polls shows Platner beating Collins 46.5% to 40.5%. Decent showing from a candidate receiving incoming fire from the opposition and from Democrats.
different-church-lady
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: C’mon now here, we’re talking maybe-perhaps-reformed-accidental-Nazi-possibly.
p.a
@suzanne: chicken-and-egg from the 1960s: did the “New Left” alienate the WWC (when the WC really was mostly white) with their elitism (if they were: conservative media was doing its thing even then) or did the hardhat thugs drive off the left with their stubborn bigotry?
As usual, I think the race issue was the determinant if not only reason.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Whatever. Mills would face an uphill battle in the general election. Nazi tattoo guy doesn’t have a chance, AFAICT. All we can do is nominate our best candidates, support them however we can, and hope for the best.
Of course there will be sniping after Election Day if we don’t have 51 Senators in the 2027 Dem caucus, even though everyone knows the odds are against that happening. :shrug:
suzanne
<a href=”#comment-9867519″>@Baud</a>: There’s a lot of press from Maine about this. The Mills Admin is accused of bad-faith bargaining by the SEIU and vetoing legislation to protect farm workers. The state employees have argued that they are dramatically underpaid.
Baud
@suzanne:
And that takes her out of our tent?
jowriter
@Baud: I don’t think it’s time to rule out Mills. Maine is an old state with a median age of around 45-46 years old, and sorely short in the youth department. My family has had a house there for some time but we are not residents and so do not vote in the state. I’d love to look at the tabs in any poll of the Maine electorate. Granted, ME-02 where we are leans Republican but I wonder who is being polled. Mills has some cred with being first woman in a variety of positions, including the first woman DA elected in NEW ENGLAND, as well serving as a state rep, and two terms as AG before being elected twice as governor. C’mon, Platner’s mom is his customer for selling oysters and he’s never run for anything. Let’s get real.
Baud
@jowriter:
I don’t rule out anything. Primary is in May. Whoever wins, wins.
RaflW
Thanks for the New Hampshire news! Another ‘Trump’ district has a local flip. Keep sweatin’, GOPers!
Also, has GA-14 special been talked about in prev. threads? It looks like maybe only a 4 point swing towards Blue there – but voting in a massive, 17 candidate choice, it’s gonna be noisy.
I did see yesterday some data that Hispanic voters in GA-14 moved decidedly left, though. Making that district blue is a real stretch, but for any statewide races, and if the shift persists to 2028, things could look quite different for the peach state.
suzanne
@Baud: It doesn’t take her out of our tent — again, anybody can be a Dem if they want! There’s no way to kick anybody out!
It does imply that we needed to be stronger on this issue and voters are telling us so. We probably could have found a labor-friendly Democrat candidate who isn’t a Nazi.
jowriter
@Baud: Primary is June 9. There’s some time here.
Gvg
@Trivia Man: I can see exceptions for a school that specializes in disabilities. Our county has a charter school that is for reading disabilities like dyslexia. There would be no benefit in admitting a student that didn’t have that issue. There could be disagreements on diagnosis I suppose and a question of space to complicate things always. The goal was teaching how to adapt and putting them back in regular schools. It was only offered 1-5th grade. I think most kids only went a year or two.
I have a habit of always thinking of exceptions. Sorry.
Kelly
The Further Left are about to hand the Maine Senate seat back to Susie Furrowbrow on a Platner
Archon
Sounds almost like parody but frankly I no longer understand America and it’s voters as of November 5, 2024
different-church-lady
@Kelly: SEE YOURSELF OUT!
Old School
Since I’ve only been slightly paying attention to the Maine Senate race and a fair number of people seem convinced Platner is a Nazi, I’ll ask: Is it just the tattoos? Or is there more to this description?
ArchTeryx
@taumaturgo: Maine is full of very, very provincial people. They basically think they’re better than the rest of us and outsiders are absolutely not welcome. It’s riding that particular provincialism that’s gotten Furrowed Brow Susie Q re-elected a bunch of different times. She’s got deep roots in Maine. And that’s all a whole lot of Mainards care about. If you’ve got generational roots in the state, you’re good – even if you’re a Nazi. If you don’t, you’re shit, no matter how much they may agree with your politics.
That’s particularly true in rural Maine, but then, a lot of white rural America is a giant shithouse anyway, so why should they be any different?
suzanne
@Archon: I have said before that I think we need more red lines in our party, not fewer. Labor rights should be one, IMO. Bigotry should be another. It’s important to stand for things.
Baud
@jowriter:
Thanks.
Baud
@suzanne:
Belafon
@suzanne:
We had many, many unions at the convention speaking in support of Harris and Democrats. The party hasn’t gotten away from supporting unions. Biden stood in line, as did Harris and others.
What has happened, is that Democrats have become the party that doesn’t support the “working class.” It’s a talking point of Platner’s, just like it’s a talking point of Bernie’s. And when he says “working class”, what he means is whites, and the problem the Democratic party has is that whites are just one of many types of constituents rather than THE constituent. And by problem for Democrats I mean it’s a problem for whites.
Kelly
Rural Oregonian here: Yep
different-church-lady
@suzanne: Well crap, then Collins is running unopposed.
ArchTeryx
@suzanne: Problem is, you put too many red lines out, you end up with a permanent minority. And then your principles don’t mean crap. The fascists understand power. The Left really does not want to.
The extremely R-tilted playing field does not help matters, either. Principles are a lot easier to maintain when you’ve got dozens of fascist billionaires funding billion dollar Senate campaigns.
cain
@rikyrah: This is good because we’re strongly signaling to the democratic party that this is not business as usual. We are not going to be putting up with nonsense. Fetterman was the last straw.
Ruckus
@WereBear
Why didn’t we try this before, right?
Humanity, as a group is often slow off the line, because it doesn’t want to step on toes/feet. Sometime stepping on the foot of a moron is the only way to get their attention. It helps if it’s an entire, or at least a significant percentage of the group. I mean sure you could slap them but if their brain is as close to a non-functioning body part as it can get and still facilitate breathing, slapping usually doesn’t make a difference.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Biden walked the picket line in a strike. And yet so much of the organized labor vote went for the party of oligarchy. I don’t think they are voting R because Rs are better on labor rights. They most certainly are not.
It just tells me that people who support Platner want a Democratic party where non white people have no power
cain
@Baud:
What has Collins brought the state of Maine anyways? What is the demographics that are voting for this woman? I’m puzzled as I understand that Maine is more of a independent state than blue or red.
ArchTeryx
@different-church-lady: She’s very, very good at playing the game in Maine. That’s what makes her so damn difficult to defeat, much, much harder than her once-colleague Olympia Snowe. Snowe’s name didn’t go back four generations in Maine like Collins does, so when Maine started going D, the R after her name became enough of a liability she retired. Even Saint Bernard is a carpetbagger, but Vermont has more tolerance to outsiders (since their whole economy depends on tourism) than Maine does.
schrodingers_cat
@cain: Federal $$ and constituent services.
cain
@Jackie:
lol – turtle is not going to let that happen. The fillibuster is exactly why the GOP has been winning these past 20 years. They are not going to give up the one tool that has been repeatedly successful especially when what seems like a colossal blowback based on Trump’s actions. If the senate is in play, there is no way he’s going to risk it.
different-church-lady
@ArchTeryx: OK, but what if Plantner isn’t really a Nazi? What if he’s just a bonehead who’s getting enlightened? What if Mills isn’t really anti-union? What if we’re just taking overheated rhetoric from a bitter primary and turning it into excuses for being cynical? What if (once again) we’re being harder on ourselves than the opposition?
suzanne
@Belafon: Mills specifically seems to have gone against labor and is getting opposition for it in her state. I agree that Biden and Harris were stronger. (Though Biden opposing the US Steel/Nippon merger probably hurt Harris in PA.)
schrodingers_cat
@Belafon: Thanks for setting the record straight.
ArchTeryx
@cain: Collins brought her name. That’s enough for most Maine residents. The Collins name has been semi-royalty for several generations. That makes her, in their minds, the Genuine Article, and that (plus incumbency) is enough. But against another Maine native that takes that out of play, I think she’ll have a real fight on her hands. And that’s what this whole brouhaha is about.
Geminid
@Geminid: I found this article in the Maine Morning Star, dated February 24:
Gov Mills committed to 3 televised debates hosted by Maine media outlets as well as two forums organized by Maine’s Democratic Party. No dates were set though.
As of publication time, Platner had not announced his plans regarding debates. My guess is he’ll try to get by with just one.
Kelly
Sarah Taber, who knows agriculture, reports 92% of nitrogen fertilizer used in the USA is made in the USA. The N fertilizer stuck in the Persian Gulf is trouble for other countries. Looks like countries with a lot of brown people so Trump probably would like it even if he knew.
bsky.app/profile/sarahtaber.bsky.social/post/3mgmyelgf6s23
different-church-lady
@Kelly:
Mostly in Washington.
[Sorry, but it was right down the middle……]
cain
@Old School:
Trump doesn’t understand they are using small boats to drop the mines. They can even use drones. He’s just looking at big boats and the navy. He’s such a fucking fool.
If they successfully mine the straits he’s managed to fuck the entire world’s economy. He’s going to blame Bibi because that’s how it works with him. The other Arab nations are now super nervous
Hell, even the Warner Bros buyout was leveraged on arab funds who are now looking to back out because of this. So, he’s fucked skydance and the ellisons. They thought arab peace was a given. haha!!
When Trump turns on Bibi, it’s going to become glorious. The sheer turmoil there is going to cause even AIPAC to mill around in confusion.
suzanne
@Baud:
There was a third good candidate at the beginning, IIRC…. named Wood? He dropped out to run for something else. That’s a bummer.
Everyone else is, like, Marianne Williamson or something.
ArchTeryx
@cain: Anything that takes AIPAC out of the game is fine by me. At this point they’re just a Bibi lobby using Israel as a shield against their really obvious pro-fascist bias. There should be a lot better lobbies for Israel than them.
cain
@Baud:
The Ivan Drago philosophy, I get it.
p.a.
Mills & unions. Caution: AI
Key Areas of Interaction
Geminid
@suzanne: A lot of people think Arizona Democrats could have come up with a candidate more liberal than Kyrsten Sinema who could have beaten Martha McSally in 2018. Doesn’t mean there was one.
Ruckus
@Belafon:
I hate to agree with you, because of my skin color. It’s not actually white but it is a pretty light color, compared to some of my neighbors. I’ve written this here before, but it often requires repeating. We all have the same chemical in our bodies if we have any skin color whatsoever, some of us just create more of the same chemical than others. Hence light to very light brownish and darker to very dark brown. It’s the same damn chemical in ALL of our bodies, it’s just how much each of our bodies create of this chemical. A person of little color can sun bathe and the body will create more skin color. Which of course will fade away back to our normal color level if we don’t continue to sunbathe, so as not to get skin cancer. Another fun part of life. It’s genetics and nature at work.
suzanne
@ArchTeryx:
It’s a tightrope, right? Too many red lines and you’re excluding people. But not enough red lines, and you don’t stand for anything and people don’t think you’re in their corner.
Matt McIrvin
@suzanne: I actually don’t have a problem with the far left at all, what I have a problem with is specifically “so left they’re right” politics. People smuggling in crypto-rightist ideas (particularly cultural and “throw the powerless minority under the bus” stuff) under the banner of progressive populism. Some of those people present as radical left and claim they’re refocusing on class war, others as centrists.
ArchTeryx
@suzanne: It gets a lot tighter when the playing field is tilted so heavily against you. They have all the money. That’s not a guarantee of a win especially in an extreme anti-incumbency time, but it’s far easier to maintain your principles and ALSO have power when you have a bottomless pool of funds to campaign off of.
Principles are the luxury of the rich. The rest of us just have to make what compromises we have to to survive. And that gets harder every goddamned day.
cain
@schrodingers_cat:
That makes sense. We are in fact going to be utilizing some of that against my wife’s former employer. Mailing out to the Merkeley, and other folks because Workers (un)Comp denied our claim because the employer screwed up (maliciously) and the delayed care caused permanent disability and can no longer work.
Basically, we’re going to fight workers comp and get on SSI disability and have her retire since she can’t work. Then we’re moving out of this country after we sue the living fuck out of the school system. My wife is the only Indian educator that we know if in the state of Oregon. Oregon isn’t some progressive funland, it’s progressive bonefides are mostly performative. But also, they hire very poor administrators across the state. Like company boards, it’s a revolving door of the same assholes. It’s why we are bottom 3rd in education.
Bupalos
@Archon: I’m actually starting to consider the hyperidentity left portion of this forum just blatantly going into full anti-intellectual mode about “Nazi Tatoo Guy” and knowing nothing beyond this moronic sensationalist silliness to be a hopeful counter-indicator.
He was proclaimed DOA here when the Dem oppo stuff hit, and lo-and-behold when voters actually listen to the guy and think about what they want politics to be, it turns out he’s far from DOA. I think the new know-knothing predictions about the general will fall equally flat. Platner’s simply a better candidate than Janet “Save the Fillibuster, Protect the Robert’s Court” Mills.
That everyone here knows Platner had that tatoo but no one knows that Mills thinks the fillibuster should be kept (to be used on Judicial nominations!!!) fits with the reality that these spaces always verge on politics-as-entertainment and politics-as-identity.
suzanne
@Geminid:
The lesson from both places is that we need more-and-better Dems.
cain
@p.a.: AI is such bullshit. :) We tried to use it to write some letters to congressional people and it failed miserably. It can’t seem to stop generating the same stuff and no matter how you prompt it you can’t get it do what you want. I ended up writing a lot of it myself.
Maybe I need t get some higher tier 500m parameter LLM or something.
different-church-lady
@Bupalos: I dunno about anyone else, but I think “Dumb enough to get a maybe-Nazi tattoo” is somewhat different from “Fillibuster: pros and cons”
cain
@Kelly: Those other countries have raw products that we need. Like aluminum. There is going to be a shortage there.
reuters.com/world/middle-east/strait-hormuz-turmoil-prompts-investment-manager-ninety-one-up-alumini…
Interesting Name Goes Here
@rikyrah: And this is why I have a fucking problem with Progressives now. They have let themselves be taken over by hostile forces the same way MAGA took over the Tea Party movement, except they are somehow even more ignorant of what’s happening to them.
p.a.
@cain: As an information aggregator I’ve found it an adequate step 1. Faint praise I guess but a place to start. I wouldn’t ask it to do more.
suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: I’m in agreement with you. But, fortunately, those people are rare!
It’s just so weird. Like, Harris lost Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin. Purple states! Not leftist strongholds! There’s some lefty cities, but those states have a ton of red voters who want tax cuts and big trucks, and they vote like it.
different-church-lady
@cain: I saw a presentation by a guy who described how he eventually trained an A.I. to successfully write short presentations mimicking his own style. And I couldn’t help but think, “It sounds like it would have taken a hell of a lot less time to just write them yourself.”
different-church-lady
@Interesting Name Goes Here: If we’re talking about the very-online left, it’s because attention/engagement is so much more valuable to them than progress. They’ll gravitate towards right-wing tactics because the politics of outrage will always get them more attention. It doesn’t seem to matter who they’re getting the attention from.
Bupalos
@different-church-lady: It’s definitely different. One is sensationalist garbage that Platner has been able to overcome with voters who actually engage with the reality of the issue. The other is an actual critical national policy issue that Mills is fully on the wrong side of, and ignorant enough on national politics to think has to do with judicial nominations. I mean, sure, it did back in the day, in a whole different era. But maybe actually do the work if you want to sell yourself as the solid workhorse.
different-church-lady
@Bupalos: Fully on the wrong side of? Right now it’s one of the only bulwarks we have against a fascist regime.
WaterGirl
@Old Man Shadow: I prefer my mom’s version! :-)
Baud
Raise the terror alert!
Bupalos
@different-church-lady: It’s a tool of the Republicans that have a permanent advantage in senatorial representation. And they’d zap it in a second if it was actually standing in their way. Are we never going to learn this?
But I think you missed the real nut here which is that MILLS THINKS THE FILLIBUSTER IS STILL ACTIVE FOR JUDICIAL NOMS because she is (in terms of national politics) an ignorant neophyte.
She had no interest in running until Schumer stepped in, she doesn’t support labor, she has the least contrast one can imagine with Collins, and of the two candidates she’s the one who polls worse against Collins.
artem1s
@Archon:
low info voters don’t know he’s a Nazi and a grifter and the horseshoe left don’t care.
Trivia Man
@Gvg: Absolutely- exceptions prove the rule.* My proposal welcomes a discussion and refinements to make it equitable. But lean towards inclusion rather than exclusion.
*Prove in this proverb is like when you proof bread, not prove a fact.
cain
@different-church-lady: it takes a lot of persistence. Undeniably, there is utility. But it really can’t do your work for you. Like I was trying to generate some images and I ended up having to use inkscape directly and then asking AI to show me how to do certain things in it. That actually worked out better.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
There are those people. But there are also some people are truly far left but believe that the two parties are the same or that they would somehow benefit from harming our ability to get elected. I’m pretty open to ideas, but not to the use of harm to innocents to advance one’s political agenda. Thankfully, there are only a few of them, although trolls amplify their message.
cain
@Baud: California? I’d have thought they’d try to hit Texas or something. Trump hates california and wouldn’t care about what happens there.
Either way, I hope the FBI is doing their due diligence and protecting us from these threats.
Bupalos
@artem1s: It’s the national “politics as entertainment” scene where Platner’s identity is about the tatoo. And that’s because it’s the national scene that is ignorant about this race beyond whatever titillates their little scandal-meter.
Everyone in Maine knows about it and it hurt him badly at the outset. They’ve just gone a little deeper and figured out it’s basically another bullshit way to try and tank progressive politics. So now the issue, and his ability to address it pretty eloquently, may actually be helping him. Meanwhile, he continues to simply be better on policy.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
Stryker Medical device corporation Hacked
Ortho surgical robot and medical device company hacked, servers in multiple countries and locations wiped. Affecting orthopedic device surgeries and supply chains. This will most likely affect patients scheduled for surgery in multiple countries. Hack is by possibly Iran linked hacking group. I feel like I am living in multiple SciFi/Horror films at the same time…
Baud
@cain:
Hell, I see bombing California as a term in the peace treaty.
jonas
To be fair, there are quite a few communities of color that get suckered into the charter school grift as well. It usually goes like this: a group of people are pissed off at something going on in the local public school. Sometimes the school isn’t being run well and there are real concerns; other times it’s people who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. So then these people think “Hey, *I* could run a school way better than this. Let’s start a charter school!” So they apply for money and hire on some consultants who help them sign leases on properties and hire teachers and admins and everything and then… they discover that running an actual school is a lot harder than bitching about the one that’s already there. Between recruiting staff, implementing curriculum, maintaining facilities, along with dealing with a million other compliance issues, it turns out that replicating what public schools have done for decades is bloody hard. So they start cutting corners, hiring sketchy classroom personnel, not keeping track of what students are being taught, etc. etc. and the place enters a death spiral. Wash, rinse, repeat. Meanwhile a bunch of consultants and administrators have gotten a bunch of money out of the process and move on to the next
griftproject, leaving a bunch of families and kids in the lurch.This isn’t *all* charter schools, but there are enough cautionary tales out there that people should be really, really careful before thinking it’s so easy to just snap your fingers and make a great school.
HinTN
I was saddened to learn yesterday that Aftyn Behn will not run again to represent the folks in Tennessee who so narrowly failed to elect her during the special election last year. It’s good for Nashville that she will seek reelection to her seat in the Tennessee House. I heard that she received all manner of threats against her person and that this was part of her decision. If this is true and the TBI / FBI did not go after those making the threats then there are even fewer reasons to believe in any law enforcement agency.
Another Scott
@rusty: Thank you for the context.
A friend of mine from high school (Dayton public schools) got some sort of voucher to send his kids to Catholic school. He rationalized that the schools were better and money was just being wasted in the city schools. He wouldn’t see that he was making the situation worse, especially for people farther down the income ladder.
:-(
The way to fix problems isn’t to make them worse, it’s to fix them!
Grr…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Trivia Man
@Kelly: Ive been hearing of trouble with urea supply specifically.
Kelly
@different-church-lady: ;-)
jonas
@Baud: It’s probably because LA is home to the largest ex-pat Persian community in the world (I believe), many of whom are rabidly anti-regime (along the lines of Cubans in FL). I guess they figure if you damage CA somehow, this will show them, or something.
prostratedragon
@cain:
In addition, since Aaron’s post:
So not only can mines be laid by dinghies, but “unkown projectiles” could possibly be launched from land, eg some sand pit somewhere.
schrodingers_cat
I fail to see why we need another candidate in the ME senate primary when we have one who has won statewide office not once but twice. Unless you are an ageist and a misogynist.
Baud
@jonas:
That makes sense.
Trivia Man
@suzanne: the only guideline I’ve heard so far to address this is “everyone is welcome to our table but only if they agree to welcome others.”
When someone says they will support the party ONLY if the party excludes gay/ trans/ muslim/ black/ elderly/ disabled people then i dont want them deciding our direction. i welcome their vote, but they dont write my laws.
Bupalos
@schrodingers_cat: Maybe you want a candidate that supports and is supported by labor, that doesn’t foolishly want to preserve the Fillibuster, that doesn’t oppose Supreme Court reform. Or even simply one that knows that the filibuster for judicial noms was nuked some time ago.
Or someone who polls 5 points better than Collins rather than 2 points worse?
dunno, spitballin here.
Baud
Fingers crossed this is the beginning of a TACO.
Geminid
@Bupalos: I thought the tatoo issue helped Platner by taking the spotlight off the many objectionable posts he made on Reddit and tried to erase when he knew he was running for office.
That won’t be the case if Platner advances from the primary. The Collins campaign will spend $60 million, $80 million– whatever it takes– to bury him in attack ads, and he gave them plenty of material on which to base them.
It will work, too. That’s my biggest objection to Graham Platner: he is unelectable.
As for the tatoo, I don’t think it shows he’s a Nazi. Getting it and keeping it on his chest for 22 years only shows poor judgement. But Platner’s lame, self-serving alibis about when he realized what this tatoo meant prove he’s a liar.
suzanne
@Trivia Man: I like that. Though I want to include environmental justice and economic justice in our vision of a sustainable, equitable, and resilient future.
Tazj
@tam1MI: But , he appeals to the white working class and Janet Mills is old. Besides the tattoos, I think he invited a white nationalist on a talk show or was on his talk show. He doesn’t appear to be a good Democratic candidate to me at all but I don’t live in Maine.
As others have said Mills is one of the few politicians who have stood up to Trump to his face but working class trumps everything with some pundits now.
Baud
Speaking of offensive tattoos, Roger Stone had been quiet, no?
Baud
artem1s
no it has everything to do with White flight union members who decided to vote Igotminefuckyou when they retired (Teamsters, UAW, AFL-CIO, and other predominantly white male unions). Also,too Dixiecrats were predominantly Dems because of unions, coal mining and tobacco money. Most fled the party after the Civil Rights Act was passed and the last of them left after the DOJ won the tobacco court case. Ohio went red because of loss of manufacturing businesses and union jobs.
SEIU on the other hand has been gaining members because they embraced social services, health care and other sectors that that are not as White male dominated. So Dem voters in unions are shifting from factory to service workers. Doesn’t mean it’s not a core tenet of the Democratic Party. It’s just not discussed as only about union jobs. It’s more pro-labor, pro-worker than pro-union.
trollhattan
@Baud:
“Practically nothing left” seems so not Bibi. Has Trump not been paying attention to the “Hamas is under every woodpile” policy?
Iran is stuffed to the gills…with Iranians.
Bupalos
@Geminid: I think you’re simply wrong about practically every aspect of this. My guess being that you did the same kind of shallow assessment of the posting history and the way that is now received in our new politics as evidenced in the “proves he’s a liar” judgementslism.
So anyway, we’ll see how this plays out, and one of us may prove to have been wrong and one right. Or it may end up some mix. But so far I think the anti-Platner pundits here are already at a deficit. And I think it’s because they don’t tend to actually think very deeply about this or engage with the actual campaign.
prostratedragon
Greg Greene just wants to make sure:
trollhattan
@prostratedragon:
“Bro, do you even lift?”
Narcissist says what?
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Baud: photographs steal your soul.
suzanne
@artem1s: So why has the SEIU accused Mills of bad-faith bargaining?
If support for workers is a core Democratic value, our pols should hold to it. Note that this is in no way an endorsement of Platner! We can and should expect better.
Geminid
@Bupalos: My assessment was not shallow, certainly not as shallow as yours. I don’t think you have payed much attention to this race at all except on the abstract level.
And Platner *did* lie about when he realized his tatoo was a totenkopf. Are you saying he did not? Or are you just avoiding the issue with platitudes about “our new national politics,” whatever the hell that means.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@different-church-lady: If it was just them, I wouldn’t feel so strongly.
But as Platner and Hogg and the Unions and Bernie and the entirety of the Progressive broadcaster field demonstrate, it’s not just an online thing. It’s bleeding over into reality. That particular SCP is breaching containment, and if people don’t start getting wise to that, they’re going to find themselves staring a vaguely humanoid statue of hatred in the face, and it’ll be spouting empty feel-good platitudes about “The Elite” and daring them to break eye contact.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@Tazj: At this point, if anyone says they’re for the working class, assume they’re dogwhistling hard for white people and no one else until at least three independent investigations can say otherwise.
Baud
@suzanne:
The AI summary at 112 doesn’t say bad faith. I think the union has to declare bargaining is at an impasse to file a complaint.
Steve in the ATL would know, but I think he’s out galavanting somewhere.
JMG
“Christian nonprofit speaker and investment firm founder” translates to me a “inherited some money but does not have a real job.”
Baud
Times of political realignment are not for the faint of heart.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Yeah, too quiet.
Bupalos
This place has even infected Suzanne.
get it together people, you’re making yourselves rediculous.
suzanne
@Baud:
mainemorningstar.com/2025/11/24/state-workers-union-files-complaint-accusing-mills-administration-of…
PatD
@rikyrah: Sounds like the party working as it should. Sometimes people make it through who are morally compromised and they should not win. It’s too bad those posts weren’t found earlier.
Trivia Man
@suzanne: As always, the devil is in the details. I think it is important to start with general markers.
I believe in human rights for all humans. Anybody that wants to exclude anyone for xyz does not agree with me. “Even richard nixon has got soul.”
Individuals are incapable of matching corporations with power, the government has a responsibility to make the field level. Case in point: steal $100 from the cash register- boom! Straight to jail! Steal $100 from the employees paycheck? Thats a civil matter, good luck.
The environment belongs to us all, it can’t be used for private profit to the detriment of all.
Bupalos
@Geminid: I don’t know how much of the Maine coverage and articles on Platner you’ve read, or town hall addresses you’ve consumed, or what you know about mills etc. But either it’s a lot less than I have or we just have a very different way of looking at these things. Especially the few more comprehensive ones about the posting history. Like have you actually read through a whole lot of them, or just had some selected for you?
That you somehow think you know what Platner thought of his tatoo and it’s Naziness says it all. I think there’s one anonymous source that claims he knew. So someone has given you something to run with what you want to believe, and you’ve run with it. Personally, I don’t really care, I think it’s almost a parody of a kind of politics that died 10 years ago.
Anyway, I think you’ll prove to be wrong about this politically, but we’ll see. Did you have a take on his political prospects when the Schumer opposition research package dropped back in Nov?
suzanne
@Bupalos: Even moi?!?! LMAO.
Look, Platner is not being honest and transparent. He is suss AF. I can accept a lot. If he had a story about how he was a white supremacist and then got woke, and did a lot of work on himself…. fantastic. Love it. If he had a story about being a total dumbass and getting a tattoo while wasted and then he got it removed as soon as he knew what it was, I’d roll my eyes and chalk it up to youthful dumbassery. (I myself had a hoe phase, it happens.) But I don’t think he’s been candid, and that indicates to me that he’s hiding more. Not okay.
Now, having said all of that….. I can also understand why some Maine Democrats aren’t happy with Janet Mills, either. That is a perfectly defensible position.
It’s dipshit too-online thinking to conclude that there’s a Good and a Bad candidate. Not true! Sometimes there’s bad and mediocre, sometimes bad and more bad, sometimes there’s multiple good candidates. Labor issues aren’t my personal red line, but they are for a lot of great Democrats.
Baud
@suzanne:
Thanks. I was partially wrong. The complaint makes clear that an allegation of not bargaining in good faith is a prerequisite for a complaint.
Here’s the statute. legislature.maine.gov/statutes/26/title26sec979-D.html
PatD
@suzanne: I’ve complained about this for years but I think people are just lazy and will default to whatever shorthand is easiest for them. A Liz Warren Democrat and Bernie Democrat are both “progressives” but there’s a world of difference in between. Most progressives are not even DSA types.
Bupalos
@suzanne: That’s fine. I just think literally calling him a Nazi is beneath you. I personally disagree with even the “he is sus and isn’t trustworthy” lighter take where people just cobble some judgements together on a few popularized items and insist on a sum. Just not warranted. But people trust who they trust.
Anyway, you don’t have to worry about trusting Mills or not, she openly already says she’ll back the Robert’s court, oppose doing away with the fillibuster, and sacrifice labor to budgets. So she can’t betray me, she’s already an open Nazi-sympathizer. At least Platner would surprise me.
suzanne
@PatD: “Progressive” is a term that goes all the way back to Teddy Roosevelt. It has an actual meaning, and it is not “the people who annoy me on Twitter”.
It also includes a lot of loyal, hardworking Democrats, both pols and voters, and any Dems who like to regularly take a dump on them should ask themselves what exactly their endgame is.
Trivia Man
@Tazj: I loved that whole “see you in court” exchange. To quote the old saw, “Quiet, piggy”
suzanne
@Bupalos: Okay, fine. Maybe he’s not a registered member of the Nazi party. But we have significant reason to think he has white supremacist views and he hasn’t credibly explained otherwise.
PatD
@Bupalos: Mills’ major problem right now is that she is currently the least popular governor in the country and people are looking for change candidates. Some of that is just incumbency and the state of the economy.
Unfortunately, a good number of Maine Democrats have gotten behind the Nazi tattoo candidate instead.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@suzanne: My endgame is to keep out of a reality where one party wears red and one wears blue, but both are the same shade of asshole. Until Progressives start understanding that shit, I’m going to keep calling them out for putting their class war fantasies over my right to exist. They’re as progressive as Bill Maher and they’re too goddamn stupid to realize that, because if they weren’t they would have fired Platner out of a goddamn cannon months ago.
Martin
@Interesting Name Goes Here: It’s notable that Mamdani used to be on that list in these arguments and no longer is.
Bupalos
@suzanne: I don’t really think so. Did you read much of his posting history on the whole? He’s pretty far to the anti-racist end of the spectrum if you ask me. Have you heard him address it in town hall after town hall? This is just a kind of baseless claim that seems reasonable because people are repeating it. They’re repeating it because it’s being pushed.
People are largely just doing the book/cover thing with him that they’d do with Cole. And a lot of people are very interested in that false image that people are primed to believe proliferating.
PatD
@Interesting Name Goes Here: You wouldn’t win one damn election without “progressives”. I’m not sure what’s in the water in Maine but you’re not putting that evil on me. That’s a white people problem over there.
Bupalos
@Martin: Or AOC.
Nothing succeeds like success.
Baud
@Bupalos:
True. If Platner wins the primary, he’ll have his chance to prove himself to his detractors. Just like anyone else.
Bupalos
@Baud: there are already rumblings here on the identity left where if he wins Maine, it doesn’t mean they were wrong about him, it means something is wrong with Maine. As usual with the thinnest-sourced things that people vociferously believe, “Platner is a Nazi” can’t fail, it can only be failed.
Baud
@Bupalos:
Who cares? If some people never warm to him then they never warm to him. Again, just like anyone else.
WaterGirl
@Old School: Russian roulette! No big deal – there’s only one bullet in the chamber.
Bupalos
@PatD: I’m starting to think you people obsessed with degrees of nazi-ness in tatoos are maybe the real Nazis.
Anyway, that’s probably how the normies are going to see you. Does it occur to you at all that maybe people in Maine have a better idea about this than you do??
PatD
@Bupalos: Mainers can make their own decisions and the rest of us are free to judge them for it. I fully understand why people might vote for Platner. I understand why Mills is struggling in this race.
But I will also say that I understand why many will never be able to look past having a damn Nazi tattoo for years and then not even apologizing for it. This isn’t American History X. I don’t need to like the guy at the end of the movie.
Another Scott
@Bupalos:
The most important thing is for Democrats to get the majority in the Senate again, so that they have the leadership.
JanetMills.com (from March 4):
That’s a great message.
Is tattoo guy saying anything like that?? The only spam I get in my in-box is his complaining about the Democratic Party.
I don’t live there. I hope Maine Democrats make a sensible choice.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
WTFGhost
@Bupalos: My beginning and ending suspicion is that a man with a Nazi tattoo might change parties. If he wins, and is a loyal Democrat for his entire term, my fears are entirely disproven at that point.
Still, if he won the primary, and I lived in Maine, yeah, I’d vote for him; better a possible party switcher than a definite administration “concerned supporter”.
Ruckus
@Gvg:
I have a habit of always thinking of exceptions. Sorry.
Don’t be sorry. There are exceptions to most every thing that humanity knows anything about. Exceptions to how humans act and what they think they see abound constantly. Exceptions to how things work, or don’t. Exceptions to what we should look like or dress like. Exceptions to who can live with each other. Exceptions to minding one’s own business. The list may not be endless but it is long. And often hated by some who seem to think that their way of life is the absolute best. But life isn’t a board game. It’s life. It is sometimes far different for some, it is sometimes far too much the same for some. Today there are a lot of millions of us breathing, sleeping, doing that which we all like to participate in… It’s life. In all it’s good, all it’s bad and everything in-between. Some of us are lucky and life treats us grand. Some of us are pompous, arrogant jackasses and often because of that, life treats us like crap. It also sometimes seems to reward them. Life isn’t fair or unfair, it’s life. It comes with the good and the bad – and the often, can’t believe it. It’s life. It can be what you make of it, even while that can be nothing good. It sometimes doesn’t last long at all. I once saw it last someone six months. It sometimes lasts seemingly 2 lifetimes. And we never really know. It can be what you make of it. It can be what it makes of you. Enjoy what you can, live with the rest and learn how to be a decent person. You likely won’t always be one but the more you try is usually better. This world has grown its population a lot in the last 100 years. And now has to work harder at being good, decent and rational. Because even with all the decent people, there are also more who have zero idea of decency. And refuse to learn. But then it is humanity.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@PatD: And they just gave Maine a preview of their inability to win elections without black people. Mamdani had to go hard with black people in NYC to win, and even then I think he just got a little more than half. Talarico is going to have to go just as hard, because apparently his numbers were Not Great despite winning.
Progressives can either learn that lesson and stop flirting with fascism, or they can keep it up and watch what happens. Personally, given what I’ve seen so far, I think they’re going to lose Maine and likely Texas before it sticks.
Geminid
@Bupalos: I’ve read the articles including Jacobin’s making the best case for Platner’s social media posts, showing all the good ones that could be used to balance out the bad. I’ve also read a few hundred social media posts explaining them by Platner advocates.
But let me ask you: have you read Platner’s comments about sexual assault in the military, and how it’s treated too strictly? They pissed me off snd I’m a guy; I expect women will take them harder. You may not have seen them, but Maine voters will plenty.
I’ve also read the timeline put together by “Capital Hunters.” They review Platner’s adult life in general, and the tatoo controversy in particular. They found that the Defense Department issued new rules regarding tatoos in 2007. These rules mandated that all service members had to have their tatoos examined by an officer.. Some were allowed, but some including the totenkopf were not.
Platner would have had his tatoos reviewed. He claims the Marines refused to let him reenlist in 2008 because of his “sleave” tatoos. But under the new policy, those types of tatoos were grandfathered in. The totenkopf would not have been.
Platner says he’s a military history buff. I would think he’d be curious enough to find out what his chest tatoo meant. The totenkopf is prominently displayed on the caps of Nazi villains in a well over dozen war movies just in this decade. It’s notoriety as a Nazi symbol is second only to that of the swastika.
Also, Platner must have taken a couple hundred showers with other Marines and soldiers during his decade of service. I cannot believe the tatoo wasn’t a matter of comment. People talk about tatoos.
I’m sure you can explain to me that all this does not really prove Platner knew about the tatoo before last October. And I can explain to you that I did not just fall off some fuvking turnip truck.
Anyway, the timeline I refer to above can be found under”Platner timeline” by capitalhunters.bsky.social. I’m pretty sure you won’t read it though, because you don’t want to know more Graham Platner. He’s been your guy ever since the slick announcement video that launched his campaign came out last July.
So you avert your eyes from Platner’s problematic past and discreditable postings. But Maine voters will have them blasted at them every day from June to November.
Bupalos
Obviously unless it’s written inside a tatoo he got when he was 22, none of the Schumerdems would be able to read it, but as a matter of fact, yeah, he is…
“
Platner, a veteran who served in the U.S. Marine Corps and the Maryland Army National Guard, completing four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the resolution was an opportunity for Congress to reassert its constitutional role in decisions about war and take back power from Trump — but Collins chose not to act.
“I’m incredibly disappointed, but not remotely surprised,” Platner told Beacon in an interview. “Sen. Collins continuously displays that she does not have a problem sending young American men and women off into harm’s way for deeply stupid reasons.”
Platner also described the strikes as part of the administration’s effort to cover up the Epstein Files. “More Americans are going to die because Donald Trump doesn’t want us to read [the Epstein Files] about him being friends and taking part in an international ring of child traffickers.”
A slightly better message with arguably more personal credibility… delivered at the 3rd anti-war event he’s been at in the last 3 days. So yeah. Care to forward that spam you’re referring to?
Martin
@suzanne: Honestly, I don’t think there’s any answer that he could give that would appease that crowd. Let’s be honest – none of these are honest arguments and they really never were. In 2008 Hillary was a neocon ex-Goldwater Girl to half the Democratic Party and in 2016 she was our girlboss queen. It was always subjective, it was always biased against other things. We will meet people where they are only under the conditions that we decide, and we will rewrite those rules and standards on the fly to make it work. And a lot of it comes down to ‘I don’t know but they deserve the benefit of the doubt’ and ‘I don’t know but they don’t’. I think POC are extremely familiar with being on the receiving end of that phenomenon. If we found out next week that Talarico had the same tattoo and had it removed, I’m 100% sure we would find a way to rationalize why it was ok to support him. This is not unlike the MAGA phenomenon where they find a way to support Trump even when he’s doing the opposite of why they supported him yesterday. Everyone is susceptible to locking in on a personality, on a way of campaigning, on a policy, and so on and holding onto that so tightly that they lose the ability to see anything else.
It’s clear that a lot of people have locked onto the tattoo and no matter what he says, no matter what policies he advocates for, or endorsements he gets, or even his likelihood of winning (which in every poll I’ve seen puts him slightly ahead of Collins and in better shape than a Mills/Collins race) they are prepared to die on that hill. So in that case, their opinion isn’t worth engaging with because there’s no analysis taking place. There’s nothing to debate with. It’s fundamentally no different than talking to MAGA because it’s an absolute, an article of faith, etc.
To me it seems that a lot of people saw Platner as a spoiler, and not wanting to get Nadered again, decided then and there he needed to go down, all they needed was the talking point, and that was delivered and that’s what they locked in on. And just as we saw with the assessments of Mamdani early on, once committed to that position, they can’t back off no matter how events on the ground may change. And the truth of the matter is, on a lot of this stuff, it’s impossible to predict. This community was pretty supportive of John Edwards back in the day and that blew up pretty badly, and while some people say they saw it coming – they really didn’t – they got lucky. Fact is, on most of this kind of stuff, we’re just bad at it – so it becomes a weird hill to die on.
Do I wish there was a candidate in Maine that resonated with the parts of the electorate that Democrats are getting crushed by as well as Planter that didn’t have that stuff? Of course. Do I wish Mills was 20 years younger and did resonate with voters better? Of course. Do I wish some of those other candidates in the race got more attention, and maybe were seen as a viable winner against Collins. Yes, that as well. But we have what we have. Some people are willing to risk the Senate and 2 more years of unrestrained Trump over a tattoo that may or may not be predictive of some future behavior. Personally I wouldn’t, but either way, it’s up to the people of Maine to make that call, not me. They see a LOT more of this race than I do, they know Mills a lot better than any of us do.
And just like a lot of people are real quick with the ‘Mamdani won’t work outside of NYC’, that’s true for every candidate. Maybe Dems need to run more oyster fishermen in Maine and do a better job on tattoo inspections.
PatD
@Interesting Name Goes Here: I can’t get you to stop slandering a group of voters that make up at maybe 1/3rd to 1/2 of Dem voters. We aren’t all the same and we don’t all vote the same way.
Most progressives are just liberals and standard issue Democrats. Mamdani is different from Talarico who is different from Platner. And no one is going to be responsible for how Maine votes other than Maine voters.
PatD
@Interesting Name Goes Here: In my experience, sitting out will work about as well as it did in 2000, 2016, and 2024. Everyone loses. But sometimes you have to send a message, right? That’s what the Gaza folks thought they were doing too.
different-church-lady
@Martin:
There’s the tattoo. Then there’s the social media posts. Then there’s the podcast… “The tattoo” is more of a catchphrase for “this has the aroma of Fetterman” rather than about just the the tattoo itself.
For me, that is an observation about what we say, rather than my conclusion about Platner. There’s a huge variety of ways this could turn out: reformed dunderhead; populist champion; undermining horseshoe leftist; etc. But pointing out that the signals in front of us about his character aren’t adding up in an encouraging way is not unfair.
cain
@Baud: He can TACO all he wants, but Iran is going to drag his ass right back into the mud. That new guy is not going to fuck around. He’s gunning for Trump hard.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@PatD: That group of voters is led by Bernie Sanders (who backs Platner). Their voice is far greater than any amount of “slander” I can muster. They’re the ones playing footsies with Nazis. You got a problem? Take it up with them. Stop trying to throw out gotcha smokebombs like people can’t see that Progressives care far less about racism and bigotry than they’re willing to admit.
Bupalos
Why do people do this? Like, you couldn’t know if it was true or not (it’s not, you bozo) and it absolutely corroborates that you’d just make up what you kind of suspect about a something and then fill in details and believe your own scenario. Which sounds a lot like what you’re doing with Platner. Like why not make up where I was and what I was doing when I saw the slick video? Give the lie some detail credibility.
I have seen those claims and thoughts about secretnazitattoogate, their thoughts and claims. I’m not swearing on my life what level of awareness Platner had on what day that his tatoo had Nazi affiliations, and I don’t need to because I think the issue is ridiculous and about 1/100th as important as Mills wanting to defend the Supreme Court and filibuster. I consider her the more fascist-aligned and that’s enough for me to find this whole secret-Nazi exercise silly.
Anyway, you’re on record. Platner has no chance, zero, you know it, I know it, the whole world knows it. So let’s just stop this “who’s the REAL lying Nazi” stuff and just wait and see what happens eh?
Geminid
@Bupalos: I don’t know why you would use the example of John Cole to shield Graham Platner.
I doubt very much John Cole would have posted that 14 years after his experiences in Desert Storm. But Graham Platner did in 2020.
That’s something Maine voters will see, only it will be just the first line: “Wanted to have an adventure and kill some people.”
I think of another Platner Reddit post. This story is too complex for campaign fodder but I think it speaks to character.
Platner’s story was he was stationed in an Iraqi city and the order came down to stop using mortars in the crowded city; Marines were to engage enemy combatants with direct fire only.
The reason was simple: when a Marine fired a mortar shell, they couldn’t know if it would come down an enemy soldier or some granny bringing vegetables home, or some kids kicking a ball around.
This might have been in 2005, when US commanders in Iraq tightened up on reporting requirements for civilian deaths. They realized they had to limit civilan casualties if for no other reason that American service members were being killed in revenge.
So what did Platner do? He rigged a grenade launcher with a bipod so he could lob grenades around the neighborhood.
Platner bragged about this in a post 5 years ago. I guess he thought it showed a McGyver spirit, and some “You are Not the Boss of Me” energy.
But it also showed what the Marines would call insubordination. Platner could have been brought up on charges for this, and should have been. Maybe he was, and that’s why he wasn’t allowed to reenlist.
I think it also shows a certain amount of sociopathy, both in the doing and the bragging.
Bupalos
@different-church-lady:There’s the tattoo. Then there’s the social media posts. Then there’s the podcast… “
It isn’t about a drunken tatoo, it’s about ethics in gaming journalism!
Anyway, to back off all this, I think a lot of this Platner/Mamdani/Crockett hate is an understandable reaction to a change in our politics that has already happened, that I might not be completely comfortable with, but which I recognize as the new reality which Dems need to catch up with. It goes by many names (including populism,) but it puts an absolute premium on human authenticity in candidates. It’s now MUCH more important that a candidate seem to speak openly, plainly, and in easy to understand ways than that they lack flaws.
WTFGhost
@suzanne: There have always been people who’ve considered unions communism, or, at least, union organizers to be troublemakers to be run out of town.
Yeah, but, “no bigotry,” and support for union organization and collective bargaining seem like a pretty low bar to clear. “Never felt forced to give a union the crappy end of the stick,” can’t be a red line, city and state budgets can force the hand of a mayor or governor.
That said, if a governor has been tough dealing with unions, I’d expect there to be a lot of positive outreach. “I know you don’t trust me yet, but I solemnly pledge you dis, dat, and de udder ting.”
I’m sorry – that’s if a puppet ruler… never mind.
And you’d still reasonably expect pushback from the pro-union crowd, in the primary.
Similarly, if I had a Nazi tat, I’d expect pushback from the “no bigots” crowd, in the primary.
That said, I’d expect both groups to recognize that anything is better than having an “occasionally extremely concerned” supporter of Trump in the Senate.
PatD
@Interesting Name Goes Here: Ah, I see. So you don’t see any difference between any of us. I don’t need to defend anyone else’s behavior. That’s their problem and yours.
Bupalos
@Geminid: I just think we probably have a different idea about where our politics is and is going. I think the things you’re expecting to sink him would have 20 years ago. Now, I think every little (and honestly, they are quite little) piece of evidence of a politician being decidedly un-stagemanaged works more in their favor.
I think Platner will win in Maine, because he does the work, and he’s going to have a ton of people who know him and think they know him. And when a plastic Trump-posable action figure like Collins tries to convince them they don’t, because “he said this ill-considered thing in an internet chat” it’s going to boomerang. Her fakeness will shine.
But again, we’ll see. Maybe your model of politics is still in operation, but I don’t think so and I think the timeline of the Platner Mills race already shows this to some extent.
Geminid
@Bupalos: Platner and his defenders claim his Reddit posts should be excused because he has changed in the five years. But he lied about his knowledge of the tatoo five months ago. So what has changed? And how is this not important? It speaks to a basic character issue, and that’s important in my book.
As for the filibuster issue, so what if Mills rules out across the board filibuster abolition? Angus King does also, yet he still voted for a filibuster carveout for the John Lewis Voting Rights. I think Mills would follow her colleague in such a case, and on other critical legislation as well.
Anyway, this would be problem in 2029 at the earliest. And it doesn’t matter how Platner would vote on filibuster reform if he can’t get elected.
As for saying you’ve been for Platner ever since his launch video, I’m extrapolating from all the other people who fell for Platner when they saw that video. Sure, maybe I was guessing, but you started this guessing game, in comment #160.
Geminid
@Bupalos:
Now you’re trying to use Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Mayor Mandani to shield Graham Platner. But I have said a lot of good things about Mamdani and Crockett here, and I bet the most of the people here criticizing Platner have also.
Yet you try to equate criticism of Platner with criticism of Mamdani and Crockett. A cheap rhetorical trick in my opinion.
suzanne
@Geminid: Yeah agree with you here. I have said many, many praiseworthy things about Crockett, Mamdani, and a whole stack of others. Even politicians I criticize, I often vote for! It’s okay! I’m not a cheerleader, and I like most Dems, though the degree varies.
I’m not voting or donating to anyone in Maine, so my opinion means less than nothing. Platner would be a hard no for me. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t support other pols who are on the left-er side of the Dem spectrum.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@PatD:
It’s been 10 (11, really) years since the festering pustule came down that damn escalator, and in that decade and change, I’ve watched Progressives try to give away the game three times. They succeeded twice. The only thing that stopped them was a fucking pandemic. Right now, Progressives acting on behalf of Bernie Sanders are going from state to state trying to primary and oust Democrats, and it just so happens that 95% of their targets are Black.
You want respect, earn it. Because after 10 years of this shit, I don’t have any for Progressives anymore. The next time they do something beneficial for this country will be the first time.
Bupalos
@Geminid: I am only equating them as harbingers (really the wrong word at this point) of a new more wide-open politics that centers personal authenticity, with policy flowing from that. There are “old rules” reasons why these people are guaranteed to lose. But those rules may no longer be in effect. Any way, you clearly don’t consider me good-faith interlocutor, and I think our differences here have probably been sufficiently explored. So how about we just let it rest with “we’ll see.” You can feel free to continue with your campaign against our leading candidate in Maine, but no need to address them through an argument with me.
Another Scott
@Bupalos: Thanks for the excerpt. It seems to be from The Beacon.
The headline says he “Condemns” Collins’ vote, but doesn’t actually show a quote with him saying that. Instead it quotes him as being “incredibly disappointed”. Which isn’t quite the same thing, is it?
The Beacon is a news site of Maine People’s Alliance which may be a great outfit – dunno. It looks like they’ve registered a PAC with the FEC, but it seems to have little activity.
They like Platner. That’s fine. As Baud says, people have a right to have preferences. I don’t look for slants like that in my news sources, though.
The spam I’m getting is from (as seems very common these days) an outfit that pretends to be from the candidate, but actually splits the donation with them. They include Platner’s standard e-mail spiel, and similar things in later e-mails:
Really, fundraising
e-mailstexts from Democrats are at the top of his list of annoyances??Yada, yada, yada.
Maybe that works with other people, but doesn’t work with me. My view is that Democrats are one of the only things keeping the fascists from winning, and beating up on Democrats is counter-productive.
And VA, NJ, and special election results show that Democrats know how to win in the current environment and don’t need to be throw on an ice floe in favor of very, very problematic candidates who appear out of nowhere, have never held elective office, yet try to convince us that they can do a better job.
YMMV.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Bupalos
@Interesting Name Goes Here:
and it just so happens that 95% of their targets are Black.
I heard it was 99%. Seriously, if you’re just going to make up this kind of dumb shit, why restrain yourself? No one that has the least familiarity with the campaigns are going to be able to keep the drink in their mouth anyway when they read this tripe.
PatD
@Interesting Name Goes Here: Im not sure who you’re arguing with as I don’t owe you a damn thing. If you want to pick fights with each of, I don’t know, millions of Democrats who identify as progressive Democrats then that’s on you. All I know is that I’ve voted for the Democrat against Trump 3 times and have not one thing to be ashamed of when it comes to voting.
Pick your fights with Bernie supporters. I’m not one of them and have no time for it.
On the other hand, I do support primary challengers to those who vote for Trump’s priorities or are simply too old or ineffective. But that has nothing to do with ideology. I want people who are motivated and have the necessary energy to do this job effectively regardless of how “progressive” they are. If you can’t win your primary as an incumbent what good were you? No one is entitled to a job in Congress for life.
Bupalos
@Another Scott:but doesn’t actually show a quote with him saying that.
yes it does. There’s a quote, and it does, and look, this is stupid, if you know anything about Platner other than the things you’re willing to read into a tatoo, you know that he’s like 24/7 on no dumb wars. He’s been giving better quotes than mills literally every single day, attending war protests every day, and keeping a schedule that wouldn’t be advisable for “different era” Mills. You don’t have to go to any particular source to find this out, it’s a way bigger part of his political persona than Mills.
Kayla Rudbek
@Matt McIrvin: Gene Quinn at IP Watchdog is originally from New Hampshire as I recall, and he’s a business Republican (although the older I get, the more I think that the business Republicans are also religious in that they don’t pay attention to actual facts like which political party is actually better for business)
Another Scott
@Bupalos: Ctrl-F “condemn”
1 hit, in the headline.
Have a nice day.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Bupalos
@Another Scott: oh, you want him to use the word “condemn” instead of just… completely condemning her action but not using the word “condemn?”
ok we’re in agreement then.
Chris T.
As long as it’s not “If at first you don’t succeed, so much for skydiving…”