Sen. John "Foghorn" Kennedy, on Hannity (guest host Kellyanne Conway):
"Saying Platner was picked by the “Hamas wing of the Democratic Party,” he sarcastically asked, “Who could possibly have seen this coming? It’s not like there were signs or something.” "Every American who was paying attention and who has an IQ above a toaster knew that this guy’s motherboard was fried ... even my colleague Sen. Schumer, who can’t even cook a cheeseburger.”
“They stand for the same thing: Kill all the millionaires, open all the prisons, open the border, defund the police, defund ICE,” Kennedy said, wildly exaggerating even the most radical elected Democrat’s beliefs. “Every single one of them knows the words to the Cuban national anthem. They’re all neo-socialists.
“Now, unless you were playing Frisbee in the quad during history class or economics class, you know that the list of countries that has tried, that have tried socialism and rejected it is as long as King Kong’s genitalia,” he went on, rattling off a list that included Cuba, China, Vietnam and Venezuela.
He "apology" did not sound very apologetic. A lot of blaming going on and none on him. Jeebus, even Swalwell went quietly into that good night. And FFS, if you have one thing in your closet, come clean about it or just don't run for public office especially rape allegations.
It's the Establishment's fault because they were too slow to get on board with him and endorse him but it's also the Establishment's fault for not vetting him thoroughly and for actually expecting that he not be made entirely of red flags and it's also the Establishment's fault that he is now writhing furiously to avoid taking responsibility for his own actions.
Countdown to him becoming a talking head on Faux News, Newsmax, OANN, or a frequent guest on the Steve Bannon Talking Lice Newshour, Fucker Carlson’s sad Xitter reboot, Pander with Candace or some other Reich-wing perpetual grievance machine starts now.
If you just read the transcript, without knowing who said it, you might think this was by Donald"grab-em-by-the-pussy"Trump (ignoring that the language is at a much higher level than Donnie-boy could ever reach). And yet --- DFT is president, and Platner is crucified. What's the difference? Could it be that one of them is Red and the other is Blue?
I don't live in Maine. No where near it. I vacationed one golden summer 25 years ago in Bar Harbor. I recall swimming alone at a hidden beach, and that the puddle-jumper from Boston lost my luggage (and the old Mainer who ran my B&B told my airline, when they called late to say they were sending a taxi down from Bangor with my bags, to wait till late morning. I ate my blueberry muffin wearing mostly clothes i'd worn the day before.)
Anyway, lovely state and all that. Which is to say I have not read much about this shit until yesterday. I was aware of Graham Platner. I simply did not care to know more. Maine is far away, sparsely populated, and the home of seriously disappointing things, like Susan Collins and Stephen King novels.
Well, I read up on ol' Graham today.
As a person who appreciates old movies, Id say this whole episode is one we've seen before -- "The Great McGinty," 1940, Preston Sturges.
Now, it's not a 1:1, but it's about a hobo plucked off the street by political kingmakers. An "everyman" bum is transformed into a populist candidate. Of course he's as corrupt as his handlers. He rises to governor, and only falls, ironically, on fallout from his first honest act.
Apparently this Platner shitheel was plucked from obscurity by so-called political consultants who see their jobs less as facilitating electoral democracy and more in the line of casting directors. He had "the look." And, if you put out your palm against the inconsistencies of his life story, "the background."
But, it was the oldest cynical American story -- substance is for suckers. Steaks are sold by their sizzle. (BTW, Susan Collins plays the same game. There's no solidity there either.)
What's different this time is that the bullshit ploy failed *before* the election. And that is down entirely to a few women who wouldn't give up.
The episode exposes the reality that a muscular irrationality continues to infect the most comfortable people in this country. The ones that don't empty-headedly support Trump are self -claimed progressives impressed by a closet of grimy sweatshirts.
Basically tell Maine voters this: If you like and agree with what Platner's platform was, just imagine it coming out of someone else's mouth. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater
Its all so frustrating because his speeches were INSPIRED and 100% spot on...There are SO many opportunities for republicans and the centrist dems to impugn progressive ideology by conflating progressivism with Platner, the man...
Thing is? Collins STILL has to go. That fact MUST remain front and center, ALWAYS remember the violence SHE did to so many women with her DECIDING VOTE for Brett Kavanaugh.
I understand why as human beings we have a much more visceral reaction to DIRECT physical violence than to the kinds of violence the right inflicts on people through their policies but it IS violence regardless and enacted on a MUCH grander scale
Wall St. Journal reporting a DC girlfriend circulated emails warning off other women as he’d been a lot more than inappropriate. Title of article “hiding in Plain Sight.” Maine Dems should be castigated for failing due diligence. Instead of oppo research these polls should research their own candidates - DUH! Didn’t these blinder-wearing pols know those anointed often have skeletons? Decades ago GOP VP nominee was found to have been treated for depression - immediately axed. Interesting to wonder whether mental health stigma would be applied today. Nah, Trump’s been POTUS twice and any 10 yo can see he’s a malignant narcissist.
In defense of the vetting a LITTLE bit...this last scandal involved emails between the victim and her therapist, the release of which would be a MASSIVE HIPPA violation without her express permission (which she clearly eventually gave )
I COMPLETELY understand why she didn't fully come forward earlier and am so glad she finally did so, in time to replace Platner as the democratic candidate
My only point is that this intel wasn't available to anyone vetting Platner until it 'was'
I have to admit in hindsite that I should have taken those earlier red flags seriously...A lot of folks did, and to those folks...you were right...I was wrong
Fortunately the VAST majority of his earlier supporters have ended that support quickly and with no doubling down. Hopefully this will move through the news cycles and be forgotten as Eric Swalwell was when his shit got revealed...Persona non-grata
Shouldn’t he have been vetted so it didn’t get this far? M-X was posting some truly messed up stuff in Tabs this morning about how candidates are being selected. My rep is being primaried by four or five people; he’s pretty reliably liberal, just a little on the old side. I get that people are in a throw the bums out mood but let’s not punch ourselves in the eye doing it. Jesus.
He was never really vetted by people who know how to do that.
His candidacy was started and promoted by the consultant class equivalent of a traveling salesman who actually asked a journalist to delete damaging quotes from another one of his candidates, thereby proving he has zero ethics.
Lord knows I'm no centrist or Establishment Dem, but it seemed to me that part of the sales pitch for Platner's campaign was to sneer at how slow the Establishment is to get on board with "insurgent" campaigns and shame them into backing Platner without actually doing due diligence on him.
There was an interview with the smarmy DSA guy who cultivated him. I don't feel like looking for it, but trust me, he's awful. He said they kind of contracted out a vetting process but ignored most of what they found because they didn't want a candidate who was "grown in a vat"--that is, the bad-boy stuff was a feature, not a bug.
"I was just a poor aggrieved rapist-oysterer who wanted a pension..."
I wonder how many Establishment people started The Vetting by asking the candidate "Anything we should know?" and concluded it with a follow-up, "Anything 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦?'
It’ll sure be a bummer for people who think like you if it turns out in a couple months that it in fact was a political hit job. Ms Racicot seems credible, but you never know…
Continues to look like Platner doesn’t understand what “No” means
Guy who was blackout drunk on the regular insists he didn’t do something.
Sen. John "Foghorn" Kennedy, on Hannity (guest host Kellyanne Conway):
"Saying Platner was picked by the “Hamas wing of the Democratic Party,” he sarcastically asked, “Who could possibly have seen this coming? It’s not like there were signs or something.” "Every American who was paying attention and who has an IQ above a toaster knew that this guy’s motherboard was fried ... even my colleague Sen. Schumer, who can’t even cook a cheeseburger.”
“They stand for the same thing: Kill all the millionaires, open all the prisons, open the border, defund the police, defund ICE,” Kennedy said, wildly exaggerating even the most radical elected Democrat’s beliefs. “Every single one of them knows the words to the Cuban national anthem. They’re all neo-socialists.
“Now, unless you were playing Frisbee in the quad during history class or economics class, you know that the list of countries that has tried, that have tried socialism and rejected it is as long as King Kong’s genitalia,” he went on, rattling off a list that included Cuba, China, Vietnam and Venezuela.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kennedy-socialism-king-kongs-genitalia_n_6a4ea95ae4b04b52a93e0e9e?origin=home-whats-happening-unit
He "apology" did not sound very apologetic. A lot of blaming going on and none on him. Jeebus, even Swalwell went quietly into that good night. And FFS, if you have one thing in your closet, come clean about it or just don't run for public office especially rape allegations.
That's funny.
"The Establishment wanted me out!"
Then why didn't the Establishment drop this story before the primary?
It's the Establishment's fault because they were too slow to get on board with him and endorse him but it's also the Establishment's fault for not vetting him thoroughly and for actually expecting that he not be made entirely of red flags and it's also the Establishment's fault that he is now writhing furiously to avoid taking responsibility for his own actions.
Stupid Establishment! Always ruining things!!
This. The conspiracy mongering is unbelievable.
Countdown to him becoming a talking head on Faux News, Newsmax, OANN, or a frequent guest on the Steve Bannon Talking Lice Newshour, Fucker Carlson’s sad Xitter reboot, Pander with Candace or some other Reich-wing perpetual grievance machine starts now.
Yup.
Seems to me that he's absolutely riddled with Joe Lieberman levels of resentment.
(stealing talking lice newshour)
If you just read the transcript, without knowing who said it, you might think this was by Donald"grab-em-by-the-pussy"Trump (ignoring that the language is at a much higher level than Donnie-boy could ever reach). And yet --- DFT is president, and Platner is crucified. What's the difference? Could it be that one of them is Red and the other is Blue?
yes, in the sense that red doesn't worry about such trifles, while blue does.
Rapey, Nazi tattoo, has been guy sez what? No longer care, moving on past the road kill.
I don't live in Maine. No where near it. I vacationed one golden summer 25 years ago in Bar Harbor. I recall swimming alone at a hidden beach, and that the puddle-jumper from Boston lost my luggage (and the old Mainer who ran my B&B told my airline, when they called late to say they were sending a taxi down from Bangor with my bags, to wait till late morning. I ate my blueberry muffin wearing mostly clothes i'd worn the day before.)
Anyway, lovely state and all that. Which is to say I have not read much about this shit until yesterday. I was aware of Graham Platner. I simply did not care to know more. Maine is far away, sparsely populated, and the home of seriously disappointing things, like Susan Collins and Stephen King novels.
Well, I read up on ol' Graham today.
As a person who appreciates old movies, Id say this whole episode is one we've seen before -- "The Great McGinty," 1940, Preston Sturges.
Now, it's not a 1:1, but it's about a hobo plucked off the street by political kingmakers. An "everyman" bum is transformed into a populist candidate. Of course he's as corrupt as his handlers. He rises to governor, and only falls, ironically, on fallout from his first honest act.
Apparently this Platner shitheel was plucked from obscurity by so-called political consultants who see their jobs less as facilitating electoral democracy and more in the line of casting directors. He had "the look." And, if you put out your palm against the inconsistencies of his life story, "the background."
But, it was the oldest cynical American story -- substance is for suckers. Steaks are sold by their sizzle. (BTW, Susan Collins plays the same game. There's no solidity there either.)
What's different this time is that the bullshit ploy failed *before* the election. And that is down entirely to a few women who wouldn't give up.
The episode exposes the reality that a muscular irrationality continues to infect the most comfortable people in this country. The ones that don't empty-headedly support Trump are self -claimed progressives impressed by a closet of grimy sweatshirts.
Basically tell Maine voters this: If you like and agree with what Platner's platform was, just imagine it coming out of someone else's mouth. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater
Its all so frustrating because his speeches were INSPIRED and 100% spot on...There are SO many opportunities for republicans and the centrist dems to impugn progressive ideology by conflating progressivism with Platner, the man...
Thing is? Collins STILL has to go. That fact MUST remain front and center, ALWAYS remember the violence SHE did to so many women with her DECIDING VOTE for Brett Kavanaugh.
I understand why as human beings we have a much more visceral reaction to DIRECT physical violence than to the kinds of violence the right inflicts on people through their policies but it IS violence regardless and enacted on a MUCH grander scale
Wall St. Journal reporting a DC girlfriend circulated emails warning off other women as he’d been a lot more than inappropriate. Title of article “hiding in Plain Sight.” Maine Dems should be castigated for failing due diligence. Instead of oppo research these polls should research their own candidates - DUH! Didn’t these blinder-wearing pols know those anointed often have skeletons? Decades ago GOP VP nominee was found to have been treated for depression - immediately axed. Interesting to wonder whether mental health stigma would be applied today. Nah, Trump’s been POTUS twice and any 10 yo can see he’s a malignant narcissist.
Maine Dems?
Everyone was yelling at Maine Dems for endorsing Janet Mills.
This is a candidate pushed by progressives.
Who obviously do not understand the use of a devil's advocate.
But we can have that discussion later. Now I hope they don't overcorrect and find someone to rally behind.
In defense of the vetting a LITTLE bit...this last scandal involved emails between the victim and her therapist, the release of which would be a MASSIVE HIPPA violation without her express permission (which she clearly eventually gave )
I COMPLETELY understand why she didn't fully come forward earlier and am so glad she finally did so, in time to replace Platner as the democratic candidate
My only point is that this intel wasn't available to anyone vetting Platner until it 'was'
I have to admit in hindsite that I should have taken those earlier red flags seriously...A lot of folks did, and to those folks...you were right...I was wrong
Fortunately the VAST majority of his earlier supporters have ended that support quickly and with no doubling down. Hopefully this will move through the news cycles and be forgotten as Eric Swalwell was when his shit got revealed...Persona non-grata
Shouldn’t he have been vetted so it didn’t get this far? M-X was posting some truly messed up stuff in Tabs this morning about how candidates are being selected. My rep is being primaried by four or five people; he’s pretty reliably liberal, just a little on the old side. I get that people are in a throw the bums out mood but let’s not punch ourselves in the eye doing it. Jesus.
He was never really vetted by people who know how to do that.
His candidacy was started and promoted by the consultant class equivalent of a traveling salesman who actually asked a journalist to delete damaging quotes from another one of his candidates, thereby proving he has zero ethics.
Lord knows I'm no centrist or Establishment Dem, but it seemed to me that part of the sales pitch for Platner's campaign was to sneer at how slow the Establishment is to get on board with "insurgent" campaigns and shame them into backing Platner without actually doing due diligence on him.
There was an interview with the smarmy DSA guy who cultivated him. I don't feel like looking for it, but trust me, he's awful. He said they kind of contracted out a vetting process but ignored most of what they found because they didn't want a candidate who was "grown in a vat"--that is, the bad-boy stuff was a feature, not a bug.
I haven't heard anything about him threatening to sue the accuser, so I would add that to the evidence that the accusations are factual.
"I was just a poor aggrieved rapist-oysterer who wanted a pension..."
I wonder how many Establishment people started The Vetting by asking the candidate "Anything we should know?" and concluded it with a follow-up, "Anything 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦?'
His should not be the only head rolling
It’ll sure be a bummer for people who think like you if it turns out in a couple months that it in fact was a political hit job. Ms Racicot seems credible, but you never know…
I am exhausted by assholes saying it's a hit job. You can't say "believe women" but make it conditional for your side
I'd vote for Platner against TFG, still.
Of course, as I've said before: I'd vote for the re-animated corpse of Charles Manson over TFG.
Even if they couldn't get that corpse up and running again, if it's on the ballot...