I can't get to the comment section fast enough to thank you for this! The capture of so many allegedly smart and thoughtful people by the corporate class can be demoralizing. I have deep appreciation for the quality of your writing and clarity of moral purpose. May you thrive.
“Platner in the same moral political category as Trump “
Are you kidding ? Putin perhaps but Platner?
“ His character is too compromised for a seat in the senate ‘. Really ? Once you clean out the liars , grifters , Epstein cling ons & soon to be octogenarians your senate will be giving seats away .
Remember
Albert Einstein once said, "The measure of intelligence is the ability to change." It's a phrase that feels simple, but within it lies a profound truth: real intelligence is not about clinging to what we know, but about having the humility to unlearn, to relearn, and to evolve “
French's character assasination attempt on Graham Platner was contradicted and dissed by the majority of commenters in the Sunday Times. The majority said that the suggestion that Platner has less character than the grifters, illiterate morons and liars now occupying Republican seats in the Senate is laughable. Krugman and others who have left the NYT recently have made it clear that editorial control is suffocatingly tight on the NYT Opinion desk. Nowadays they are whores for the Wall St. hedge funds who are the majority shareholders of The New York Times Company. They think they can influence Mainers in choosing their Senator, no doubt thinking of them as rural idiots; a classic example of narcissistic hubris if I've ever seen one. No one in New England gives a rat's ass what the NYT's major shareholders think about their candidates.
The trans community has been the canary in the coal mine for a lot of this stuff for a looong time now, and we saw the disingenuousness of the NYT editorial page way back when. David French is just one of many—David Brooks, Pamela Paul, Bret Stephens, etc. All the “reasonable voices” that preached a kinder, gentler form of hatred and exclusion. It’s quite sickening how much water they carry for the right in so many “innocent” ways.
Happily, in this moment a hefty majority of democratic and independent votes are on to this game and are not buying what those oh-so-reasonable laundry operators are selling.
I find it suspicious that the entitled, legacy wealthy are always arguing for lower tax rates against capital but are fine with higher tax rates against income...This is the foundation for the length of the economic ladder and have nothing to do with any meritocracy...Economic success is dependent upon from which rung on the economic ladder you're born, not on how hard you climb!!!
Hi Mike. You're hitting it out of the park. I live in Maine these days and I have been doing everything I can to support Graham's campaign. It'll be a challenging campaign, but he will defeat Susan Collins and become Maine's newest U.S. Senator. (The French opinion piece was a disaster, deeply flawed for many of the reasons you mentioned.)
And say hi to Anthony; we were law school classmates.
Platner seems to be someone who has gone through some changes and come out the other side a better man . His ego allows him to speak of those changes in an unabashed honest way . Why I think he is a kind of miracle candidate
I respect his service but I do worry a small bit about Mr. Platner's past being prologue (Fetterman, Sinema and Gabbaard have all been quite traumatic) BUT if I were a Mainer, I vote for him. Collins has been particularly egregiously calculating and disingenuous under the cover of her "concern cosplay" so she MUST be replaced. I also worry about 2 of my 5 relatively unknown blue Congressmen that are particularly squishy around corporate/military interests.
As an aside, David French along with the always wrong Bret Stephens and others of that "very serious" ilk are the go to assassins of every left leaning idea (or person) that might actually do us some good but God forbid that we try it out because "Daddy War-bucks" might not get paid as much. Their hit pieces have the unintended effect of relieving my qualms a bit.
Read that French piece this morning and wanted to vomit!
I too had thought well of him but now I feel enraged by the smooth intellectual massaging by a man who obviously considers himself oh so moderately well informed.
Personally I thought I was a moderate but now I realize that these oh so moderate stick in the muds are just afraid to upset the apple cart that they’ve always comfortably lived in🤮
(PS I’m an 81 year old Republican woman who can’t stand the unfairness and hypocrisy that are smothering the American spirit I used to be so proud of)
French advocated for Dobbs. He backed the Senate holding up Garland nomination for 9 months. he created the monster that GOP is. and anti-obama out and out, just like every other gop commenteriat.
I believe DF was a Republican. Perhaps he still is. I’m not sure. He certainly is not a MAGA Republican and has spent many hours and words in his column criticizing trump and MAGA. To be honest, I’ve never quite trusted Republicans, even the ones who hate trump, because regardless of how off the rails the current MAGA Republicans are, below the surface of the anti trump Republicans is still a Republican. And once you bite into the Republican philosophy, that we all simply need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and all is well; and their belief that poor people are lazy and want to live on the dole; and that woman and blacks are a different stratum of society….and on and on, it is difficult to have any faith in Republicans. And while I do like DF and read him regularly, this stance against a man who wants to level the economic playing field for Americans when millions are struggling—there is something wrong with that picture. Lastly, DF is anti-abortion and while I can respect a person who is against abortion for themselves, when that view is pushed onto other people, there is nothing holy or virtuous about it. Now I see DF with a clearer lens.
You mean the 150 billion additionally funded for ICE
You mean the two planes KKKKristi was flying on with her lover Cory (before she got fired).
You mean the billion per day spent on the war that isn’t a war according to trump?
There is so much grift, corruption and sycophancy screaming at us every day it’s hard to decide where best my tax money is being spent by the regime these days.
Regardless, your ability to see so clearly how our tax money is being spent on those “lazy people who do not want to work” while the trump corruption is screaming at us every day is revealing about how one’s mind can work in mysterious ways.
Fascism.
It’s all out in the open. We see it happening. We know it’s happening. Don’t forget to applaud MAGA for job well done.
I can't get to the comment section fast enough to thank you for this! The capture of so many allegedly smart and thoughtful people by the corporate class can be demoralizing. I have deep appreciation for the quality of your writing and clarity of moral purpose. May you thrive.
“Platner in the same moral political category as Trump “
Are you kidding ? Putin perhaps but Platner?
“ His character is too compromised for a seat in the senate ‘. Really ? Once you clean out the liars , grifters , Epstein cling ons & soon to be octogenarians your senate will be giving seats away .
Remember
Albert Einstein once said, "The measure of intelligence is the ability to change." It's a phrase that feels simple, but within it lies a profound truth: real intelligence is not about clinging to what we know, but about having the humility to unlearn, to relearn, and to evolve “
French's character assasination attempt on Graham Platner was contradicted and dissed by the majority of commenters in the Sunday Times. The majority said that the suggestion that Platner has less character than the grifters, illiterate morons and liars now occupying Republican seats in the Senate is laughable. Krugman and others who have left the NYT recently have made it clear that editorial control is suffocatingly tight on the NYT Opinion desk. Nowadays they are whores for the Wall St. hedge funds who are the majority shareholders of The New York Times Company. They think they can influence Mainers in choosing their Senator, no doubt thinking of them as rural idiots; a classic example of narcissistic hubris if I've ever seen one. No one in New England gives a rat's ass what the NYT's major shareholders think about their candidates.
The trans community has been the canary in the coal mine for a lot of this stuff for a looong time now, and we saw the disingenuousness of the NYT editorial page way back when. David French is just one of many—David Brooks, Pamela Paul, Bret Stephens, etc. All the “reasonable voices” that preached a kinder, gentler form of hatred and exclusion. It’s quite sickening how much water they carry for the right in so many “innocent” ways.
“All saints have a past. All sinners have a future.” — Bishop of Providence
David French thinks Platners character is too compromised for the senate?
Is he joking???
Look at the Oval Office. Look at the cabinet. Look at the THEIR ACTIONS.
Look how they protect a pedophile.
And PLATNER’S character is too compromised???
Whatever French was smoking, can I have some ?
Happily, in this moment a hefty majority of democratic and independent votes are on to this game and are not buying what those oh-so-reasonable laundry operators are selling.
I find it suspicious that the entitled, legacy wealthy are always arguing for lower tax rates against capital but are fine with higher tax rates against income...This is the foundation for the length of the economic ladder and have nothing to do with any meritocracy...Economic success is dependent upon from which rung on the economic ladder you're born, not on how hard you climb!!!
Hi Mike. You're hitting it out of the park. I live in Maine these days and I have been doing everything I can to support Graham's campaign. It'll be a challenging campaign, but he will defeat Susan Collins and become Maine's newest U.S. Senator. (The French opinion piece was a disaster, deeply flawed for many of the reasons you mentioned.)
And say hi to Anthony; we were law school classmates.
Platner seems to be someone who has gone through some changes and come out the other side a better man . His ego allows him to speak of those changes in an unabashed honest way . Why I think he is a kind of miracle candidate
Perhaps he should be cloned not badmouthed .
David French has always seemed phony to me. Thank you for calling him out.
Check out the way he whitewashes supreme Court rulings. They could do nothing wrong in his eyes
I respect his service but I do worry a small bit about Mr. Platner's past being prologue (Fetterman, Sinema and Gabbaard have all been quite traumatic) BUT if I were a Mainer, I vote for him. Collins has been particularly egregiously calculating and disingenuous under the cover of her "concern cosplay" so she MUST be replaced. I also worry about 2 of my 5 relatively unknown blue Congressmen that are particularly squishy around corporate/military interests.
As an aside, David French along with the always wrong Bret Stephens and others of that "very serious" ilk are the go to assassins of every left leaning idea (or person) that might actually do us some good but God forbid that we try it out because "Daddy War-bucks" might not get paid as much. Their hit pieces have the unintended effect of relieving my qualms a bit.
I am very sure that Platner is not the same kind of personality as Fetterman or Sinema, as a close political watcher.
I couldn’t have said it better.
I too am tattooed white trash, and i endorse graham plattner with all my heart. He's my people.
Read that French piece this morning and wanted to vomit!
I too had thought well of him but now I feel enraged by the smooth intellectual massaging by a man who obviously considers himself oh so moderately well informed.
Personally I thought I was a moderate but now I realize that these oh so moderate stick in the muds are just afraid to upset the apple cart that they’ve always comfortably lived in🤮
(PS I’m an 81 year old Republican woman who can’t stand the unfairness and hypocrisy that are smothering the American spirit I used to be so proud of)
French advocated for Dobbs. He backed the Senate holding up Garland nomination for 9 months. he created the monster that GOP is. and anti-obama out and out, just like every other gop commenteriat.
I believe DF was a Republican. Perhaps he still is. I’m not sure. He certainly is not a MAGA Republican and has spent many hours and words in his column criticizing trump and MAGA. To be honest, I’ve never quite trusted Republicans, even the ones who hate trump, because regardless of how off the rails the current MAGA Republicans are, below the surface of the anti trump Republicans is still a Republican. And once you bite into the Republican philosophy, that we all simply need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and all is well; and their belief that poor people are lazy and want to live on the dole; and that woman and blacks are a different stratum of society….and on and on, it is difficult to have any faith in Republicans. And while I do like DF and read him regularly, this stance against a man who wants to level the economic playing field for Americans when millions are struggling—there is something wrong with that picture. Lastly, DF is anti-abortion and while I can respect a person who is against abortion for themselves, when that view is pushed onto other people, there is nothing holy or virtuous about it. Now I see DF with a clearer lens.
“People living on the dole who can work ARE lazy…”
Nothing better than someone proving my point while telling me I am “deluded.”
“Love giving it out to people so much.”
You mean tax breaks for the billionaires?
You mean the billion spent on the ballroom?
You mean the 150 billion additionally funded for ICE
You mean the two planes KKKKristi was flying on with her lover Cory (before she got fired).
You mean the billion per day spent on the war that isn’t a war according to trump?
There is so much grift, corruption and sycophancy screaming at us every day it’s hard to decide where best my tax money is being spent by the regime these days.
Regardless, your ability to see so clearly how our tax money is being spent on those “lazy people who do not want to work” while the trump corruption is screaming at us every day is revealing about how one’s mind can work in mysterious ways.
Fascism.
It’s all out in the open. We see it happening. We know it’s happening. Don’t forget to applaud MAGA for job well done.
Retired military generals are calling him a fascist. I didn’t come up with the word, but I do know what the meaning of the word is.
Cutting billions of taxes for the super rich and spending billions illegally is what is bankrupting our social programs.