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Anybody who has mixed feelings about him need to listen to his interview with Jon Stewart on the Weekly Show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-itNjgCJDxU
MSM/Corporate Media are doing a massive smear campaign on him because he's railing against the Iran war and against Israel's incursions. The money machine is stacking against him and he needs as much support as possible. The tattoo is a red herring.
Weekly Show 🏅
What is infuriating about Platner isn't that his rhetoric is bad or that his totenkomf is "fake news" or whatever. It's that it really is just Platner or actual fascists.
In a better world, Platner would not be a viable candidate, because he'd be running against a dozen Zohran Mamdani's. In this world, it's Platner versus The Genocide Machine.
And I'm not going to vote for the Genocide Machine. I'm still disgusted that a Shoot-And-Cry Iraq Vet is the best we can do.
I've seen people talk about the only option being Platner for months now. Isn't the primary like, today? A lot of people have seemed hellbent on absolutely not supporting anyone but Platner, and absolutely not supporting any "Mamdani" to go up against him.
Yeah, but Janet Mills dropped out in April. She was the only significant contender against Platner for the nomination.
Mills is currently the most unpopular Governor in the country, with a 29% approval rating (worse than Trump). I don't think it's quite so much hellbent on Platner as it is hellbent on not electing another Schumercrat. The only other candidate on the ballot - David Costello - has no budget or constituency. He spent the bulk of his career in Maryland, doing work as a mid-level staffer for the governor.
Exactly fucker brag about going to Iraq to murder people. Sucks that the best the DNC can put forward. That's my problem glad I don't have to make that vote.
Sick and tired of holding my nose to vote for a lesser evil.
The DNC didn't put Platner up. Schumer backed Janet Mills, a wildly unpopular governor already pushing 80. Platner drubbed her in the primary precisely because she was such a wet fart of a candidate.
Genuinely infuriating. But I'm enjoying the "Vote Blue No Matter Who" crowd go into convulsions over whether or not they want to sink this guy or sink their chances at taking the Senate.
Not the DNC but Morris Katz, the leader of Democrat consultancy firm Fight Agency.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Katz_(political_strategist)
deputy media consultant for John #Fetterman 's 2022 Senate election campaign, and later worked for Dan Osborn's campaign in the 2024 Senate election in Nebraska. He is a close adviser of #Mamdani and Graham #Platner.
Well I no longer a registered Democrat so I can even vote in their primary anymore. Regardless DNC put up two shit candidates. This guy just other Fetterman and no progressive hero. His past actions show who he really is.
Any way I am in Oklahoma lets see how it plays out. He probably will win at least Colin got to go. But I won't get excited not until we see how he vote once he is in office.
Fetterman is deep in the tank for Israel. If anything, Platner is the opposite of Fetterman. Genuinely curious to see what happens in a Senate where they're both sharing a committee assignment.
The DNC DID NOT PUT PLATNER UP.
The DNC opposed him, and still does.
No they do not, Chuck Schumer recently endorsed him.
MFW the tankies all fell for Israeli smear campaigns
I’m glad you said it because it’s been painfully obvious. They literally released a hit piece that he was a bad boyfriend. Not abusive just “bad” after 5 tours as a marine
Well I mean there's a lot of y'all who saw one documentary by PETA about the worst farm in the US, maybe world (a farm that no farmer I've met would mind seeing shit down) and decided that that's every farm.
Propaganda doesn't stop being propaganda when it's your side pushing it. The most important lesson I learned from being in too many cults is that: if you tell a precisely told truth in the right time and at the right spot, you can mislead people (i.e. lie) very easily and with plenty of deniability.
Yeah he is obviously being smeared in the media. However, that doesn't mean you should just ignore the red flags.
The tattoo story is sketchy AF. I watched the interview (not with Jon Stewart, the one with Chris Hayes), and what I got out of it is that this guy knew exactly what he was inking on his chest, and now he's trying really hard to explain it away as complete ignorance.
Well, here's my take: either his story is made up and I wouldn't vote for a Nazi, or it's true and I wouldn't vote for a moron.
Stop for campaigning Susan Collins.
Because that is your choice, Graham or Susan.
Or maybe you're just really invested in the GOP holding on to Congress, in that case, I guess keep doing what you're doing.
When I was a little kid, I thought the ghost outfits looked cool. Does that make me KKK because I had a stupid idea as a youth?
We all have moments in our life that we regret. The man's actions then may have been misinformed. Do you condemn everyone for transgressions forever? Have you made mistakes that you can't take back?
Point being - despite that ~~symbol having been reappropriated/misappropriated/etc. from Nordic symbology~~, could there be a chance that it was done by an impetuous Marine in his HOOOO-rah days thinking "man, that's some cool skull and bones," and not something ingrained in their psyche or philosophy? Irony being the Mitchell and Webb skit being more on the nose than usual.
Edited: *I did not realize that the skull and bones was the symbol. I thought people were up in arms about the Norse wolf since there are some white hate groups that use their symbols/runes.
The totenkopf is not an appropriated Nordic symbol.
Oh, lordy - fair. I gravitated to the pregnant wolf with the knot since there's a trend of white nationalists to use that symbology. Editing my above statement slightly.
What an absolutely insane attempt at an analogy.
Platner wasn't a kid when he got the Totenkopf tattooed. You can claim innocence as a kid, he can't. That's the difference.
Also, assuming he did a stupid tattoo when he was serving and he didn't know - and yes, okay, everybody makes mistakes - he had 17 years to find out. Not once did anyone in the supposedly Jewish side of his family point out that he had a SS tattoo on his chest? Not once did he have the curiosity to find out exactly what he had had tattooed all those years ago? Really?
Draw your own conclusion, but I'm not buying it myself. Like I said, at best it's sketchy. And if you're not sure whom to vote for in Maine, this might tip the balance, because nobody who isn't MAGA wants to vote for someone who reeks of Nazism.
And that's why I'm saying he's a terrible candidate, and the dems just don't know how to win anything.
It's a skull-and-bones. In modern day it is far more associated with pirates than it is Nazis, and he was in the Marines.
I'm Jewish, if I saw that on his chest I wouldn't have any idea what it means. How could I inform him of his mistake if I didn't know. And if I did know I would have been steering clear of him, not talking to him about his tattoo.
You really believe he knew it was a nazi tattoo and still chose to get into politics on a platform that is the direct opposite of the establishment? And somehow not knowing the establishment would turn over every rock to discredit him and a nazi tattoo would easily kill his political career. And then also piss off all the nazis by publicly covering it up? And also not have the insight to side with the republicans where Stephen Miller literally plagiarizes Goebbels to give a public nazi speech? If he wanted to be a nazi politician he would've had far easier time being that by siding with the republicans and not run on a platform that pisses off both republicans and democrats.
I'm drawing the conclusion that he was a dumb ass crayon eating marine who got his tattoo vetted (multiple times) by the USMC and didn't think anything more about it. Because the alternative is that he's the biggest moron on the planet and Nick Shirley exists so he's obviously not the biggest moron.
Yeah alright. Fair enough. Your argument is valid.
Then like I said, if he's not a Nazi, I wouldn't vote for a crayon-eating dum-dum.
So, you'll vote for the actual fascist instead?
He was a crayon-eating dum-dum. It's pretty clear somewhere along the line he stopped being a crayon-eater and grew up. 10-20 years ago I wasn't a crayon-eating dumbass but I was a neoliberal dumbass, now I openly criticize neoliberalism for being fucking stupid. People change and I doubt Platner holds the same views he had 20 years ago when he was a dumb grunt.
Were you also at Abu Ghraib? Did you also serve several tours in Iraq, murdering countless civilians? Did you also work for Blackwater?
Is he still in Abu Ghraib? Is he still murdering civilians? Is he still working at Blackwater? And perhaps more importantly, has his military career made him more pro American foreign policy or more anti American foreign policy?
Apt username.
Did you even know what traits separated a totenkopf from any other skull and crossbones before this scandal? And your hypothesis is that sometime in those 17 years his Jewish family recognized it, told him, and he said "nah, I'll keep it"? The secret Nazi theory just doesn't make any sense.
The reality is the totenkopf is a relatively obscure symbol, is similar to popular benign symbols, and tattoos blur over time. That's why he got through the military tattoo reviews.
According to Wikipedia, nothing distinguishes a totenkopf from other skull symbols, with or without bones behind it. Poison symbol? Totenkopf. Punisher logo? Totenkopf. Skull with a bullet hole in it? Believe it or not, totenkopf.
This is so fucking disingenuous.
Might want to think about taking a step back and considering why you're defending Nazi symbology
Go read the Wikipedia page. It's silly.
I have no idea if it's a realistic depiction of what qualifies or not, but practically any skull used in a vaguely militaristic context qualifies under its description.
you:
me:
Why do people think this is a good defense? How low is the fucking bar?
Do you think he's a secret Nazi or a reformed Nazi? Because there's a galaxy between a person who is trying to trick their way into advancing white supremacy, and a person who has walked down a dark path and learned from it.
I would personally never vote for anyone who ever had such disgusting views, regardless of claims of "reformation".
Call me crazy I guess.
It doesn't matter what I think - but I think he's a dimwit, for what it's worth.
My point is that, once again, the democrats managed to find possibly the most controversial candidate they could find, when it would have been so easy to go with someone with a genuine connection to the voters and without the stupid baggage of awkward questions.
"The Democrats" didn't do anything. Platner is the outsider here. I swear to God, if Mills had stayed in the race y'all would be wailing about DNC corruption. But a flawed outsider? Also DNC corruption, somehow.
Platner is only where he is because he has a real connection with voters. If he didn't, he'd have been pushed out by Mills, tha actual DNC "Next Wo/Man Up."
Its crazy to watch the slop operate on people in real time.
I'm going by what the man himself said to Chris Hayes in that interview. No slop involved.