Fact check: Senator Collins is running for her sixth term, not fourth.
Also, I've seen it noted that the main reason Collins keeps winning is that she shows up to everything in Maine. People there know her, and they like her, and they're comfortable with having her as a Senator.
If anything, Platner's ability to rebuff the Nazi allegations is a side effect of his pursuing a similar strategy: show up everywhere, get to know people, convince them to vote for him by making a personal connection.
Maybe she keeps winning because she’s a highly effective senator who is able to get an outsized portion of funding for her state and is among the most prolific legislators in congress? Hasn’t missed a single vite. To replace her with a low life like Platner, a product of the media outrage culture, would be tragic.
It seems to me the best advertising for Graham Platner are the people calling him a Nazi. In the entries for "dumbest thing done when young" getting a stupid tattoo (which seems to be his offense, speaking factually rather than mind reading) comes very low on the list. Personally I could beat it several times over.
This week I saw Sean Duffy blaming Pete Buttigieg for everything that's going wrong with air travel. If I were Pete and I were running for president I would run clips of Sean Duffy in every ad. "This is the guy who replaced me, and look where we are now."
I wouldn't disagree with you. Pete seems to be conscious for a start... Where does Trump find these idiots? I'm guessing it's Fox News, the well-known oxymoron.
What's sad is they haven't always been. It's like suddenly they got up on the wrong side of the bed as the opposite of their former selves. Their transitions happened awfully damn fast, to positions of totally bad faith.
This is the frustrating thing about MAGA and the right. Once they take a position no amount of facts or logical argument will sway them. As you said, it only makes them dig their heels in further. You called it 'brand'. Some call it tribalism. Belonging to the group. Drinking the Coolaide. It's the same thing - their opinion becomes part of their identity. So facts, counterarguments etc are attacks on their sense of self. If for example the topic is Trump and the economy, and you hold up the petrol prices and grocery prices they actually experience every day, they'll say "but the share market's never been higher". There is no way they'll admit they were wrong to vote for him - even given the dent to their very own wallets. They will not admit Platner is not a Nazi despite him showing up and being a good guy. If Fox says Nazi, he's a Nazi. The only way we'll ever get these people to see sense is to guide them gently and make it seem like it was their idea when they change their minds. Get them off Fox for a start. That shit is poison. Did you see yesterday they said Iran was deploying attack dolphins with explosives attached to them? Seriously. They did it with a straight face then proceeded to dissect this 'information' as if it was fact, and called it a "vindication" of Trump's strategy. Clearly they stumbled on a joke and didn't recognize as such, which only goes to show, Fox will take anything and turn it into bite size bits of outrage to inject directly into MAGA's eagerly awaiting veins of hate. Dicks.
Yeah! These guys just get stuck on their opinions, it’s so frustrating. I literally did what you said and held up petrol prices right to their face and they just ran away from me. Why can’t they be more smart like like us!? Ughhh
I detect a slight note of sarcasm. I'm not smart. This I know. But it seems like there are plenty of examples of the right clinging to things Trump says, that don't match reality. I'm kind-of fascinated and at the same time horrified by the way Trump got into power. As a 'not American' it's like watching a car accident in slow mo. I can't look away and I guess to maybe help me deal with my fear (of human nature?) I'm trying to understand it. Trying to understand people who voted for Trump. Trying to understand the pathology of "Trump's really looking out for the working class" while petrol prices go through the roof, farmers struggle, jobs fall, federal workers are fired etc etc. "I'll never get the US into a forever war" - while literally kicking off a forever war. The ability to look at an incontrovertible fact and ignore it, or dig heels in, as per Mike's article, is the point here.
Try to understand yourself first and question why you would call something a forever war that’s only lasted 3 months and involved zero boots on the ground. Or why petrol prices are the only thing that matters and a major security threat like a radical islamist regime with a nuclear weapon should have zero weight? Where are jobs falling? Unemployment is lowest in history. Question why you have such certainty around such weak positions and why they are, in your brain, incontrovertible.
It's a forever war because it's the Middle East. Iran is not going to hand over any nuclear material, fundamentally it will never give in to threats or bullying from the US. Even if Trump pulled out today, unless you wipe out all 93 million of them and their supporters elsewhere, it's going to fester. The goals for this war are all over the place. There seems to be no exit strategy just an oil shock - which isn't just about prices, for some people it's life and death. In some countries, they can't afford to cook, farmers can't transport their goods to market. For what? The US is not safer, it's only a matter of time before Iran and their proxies organize themselves enough to pull off another Sep 11. Trump said 2 weeks, then 3 tops. Even it it's not forever, Trump campaigned on not getting into any wars. This is a war, although nothing lasts forever if you want to be literal. Do I really need to list the actual facts that Trump and his Trumpers choose to ignore? There's a new one every day. Zero boots - sure, zero US boots. Plenty of innocent people have their 'boots' on the ground and are under the constant threat of being bombed. As for a regime with a bomb that isn't America? What about Russia? North Korea? Pakistan? Not exactly a stable bunch. What right does the US have to step in to say no to Iran? Also, where's YOUR evidence of nuclear material? This is WOMDs all over again. And fact: Trump said their nuclear program was OBLITERATED. So... why the war again?
Again, just filtered talking points you’re accepting as fact. Its an absolute disaster that those places you listed have a nuke, which is why its worth going to great lengths to prevent iran from being added to the list. Also I shouldn’t say ‘Iran’ but the minority of psychos that control that country and are holding their people hostage. Let’s let them have a nuke and spread their terror/revolution across the world, sounds fun!
Mr. Brock, I am not part of the commentariat, so I have no brand to protect. I am part of the electorate that has been repeatedly burned, Sinema, Manchin, Fetterman. My hope is that candidates like Platner and Talarico are for real. I do appreciate your endorsement of Platner, if I could vote for either, I would. But I would still wait and see.
Your concerns speak to me. To be fair Pete Buttgieg has stood up well, Talarico is a Christian, and although I'm not religious I admit that Christianity is a decent moral framework for good behaviour, and Platner is so naive he didn't think a Nazi tattoo was worth getting rid of, which shows optimism about the human race. Possibly misplaced optimism. They all seem to like Sanders which is a good sign, and I think we have to be optimistic otherwise we just drop into nihilism. And we have the king of nihilism of the American President so that's not a good move.
Graham Platner is doing the same thing as Pete Buttigieg was doing in his earliest days. Be willing to talk to anyone, anywhere, about anything. These are ideals that I’d say a majority of people admire. Grace allows us to realize that as humans we are fallible, and are capable of course correction. The political machines are engineered to paint a perfect picture, or destroy the opposition. They due a disservice to the rest of us for that work for the purposes of maintaining their own power.
My opinion is simple: money grubbing asshole. On the net somewhere there is the details of the money he's taken (what he's taking it for would be more interesting) and it's scary. I believe that the democratic establishment, for the most part, is not even interested in winning elections. They are interested in not rocking the boat so the lovely lucre keeps coming in. I believe we have to forget historical alliances and just look at the behaviours. For example, it's obvious that Trump is a Russian asset. Now move the same "judgement by behaviour" onto Schumer, or most of the democratic party bigwigs. What does it tell you?
Given how much of this Graham Platner is a Nazi thing was based on primary opposition research sponsored by Chuck Schumer, I wonder what you think of his role in this contrarian system. Personally, I think he does much to justify the phrase "controlled opposition."
“They will conclude that they have been lied to by the people they trusted to tell them the truth.”
You have fundamental misunderstanding. One side has a knee jerk reaction to call anyone who disagrees with them a nazi. This gives them zero credibility on subsequent claims. Another side rarely does so unless presented with evidence like, I dunno, say a nazi symbol stamped on someone’s chest and a slimy pattern of behavior.
If you support the genocide in Gaza, or the Russian war on Ukraine, or ICE brutality at home, you're a Nazi. It's a matter of which actions you stand behind, and which you stand against. Platner is against all these. So of course Nazis, and their sympathizers, are mad.
Fact check: Senator Collins is running for her sixth term, not fourth.
Also, I've seen it noted that the main reason Collins keeps winning is that she shows up to everything in Maine. People there know her, and they like her, and they're comfortable with having her as a Senator.
If anything, Platner's ability to rebuff the Nazi allegations is a side effect of his pursuing a similar strategy: show up everywhere, get to know people, convince them to vote for him by making a personal connection.
Maybe she keeps winning because she’s a highly effective senator who is able to get an outsized portion of funding for her state and is among the most prolific legislators in congress? Hasn’t missed a single vite. To replace her with a low life like Platner, a product of the media outrage culture, would be tragic.
if he will be a vote against reactionary judges nominated by trump, nothing else matters. full stop.
Why have a congress at all then? Lets just replace the gov with a communist islamist dictator of your choosing and not bother with any of this.
It seems to me the best advertising for Graham Platner are the people calling him a Nazi. In the entries for "dumbest thing done when young" getting a stupid tattoo (which seems to be his offense, speaking factually rather than mind reading) comes very low on the list. Personally I could beat it several times over.
This week I saw Sean Duffy blaming Pete Buttigieg for everything that's going wrong with air travel. If I were Pete and I were running for president I would run clips of Sean Duffy in every ad. "This is the guy who replaced me, and look where we are now."
I wouldn't disagree with you. Pete seems to be conscious for a start... Where does Trump find these idiots? I'm guessing it's Fox News, the well-known oxymoron.
Tabby, Greenwald, et al are frauds. Always on the wrong end of things for the wrong reasons.
What's sad is they haven't always been. It's like suddenly they got up on the wrong side of the bed as the opposite of their former selves. Their transitions happened awfully damn fast, to positions of totally bad faith.
Absolutely correct. It's like they woke up and saw they could make money or something...
I liked Greenwald's early shit, before he went commercial.
You are so on the freaking money here, Mike. What a joy to read today. Many thanks!
Thanks. I'm here all week.
This is the frustrating thing about MAGA and the right. Once they take a position no amount of facts or logical argument will sway them. As you said, it only makes them dig their heels in further. You called it 'brand'. Some call it tribalism. Belonging to the group. Drinking the Coolaide. It's the same thing - their opinion becomes part of their identity. So facts, counterarguments etc are attacks on their sense of self. If for example the topic is Trump and the economy, and you hold up the petrol prices and grocery prices they actually experience every day, they'll say "but the share market's never been higher". There is no way they'll admit they were wrong to vote for him - even given the dent to their very own wallets. They will not admit Platner is not a Nazi despite him showing up and being a good guy. If Fox says Nazi, he's a Nazi. The only way we'll ever get these people to see sense is to guide them gently and make it seem like it was their idea when they change their minds. Get them off Fox for a start. That shit is poison. Did you see yesterday they said Iran was deploying attack dolphins with explosives attached to them? Seriously. They did it with a straight face then proceeded to dissect this 'information' as if it was fact, and called it a "vindication" of Trump's strategy. Clearly they stumbled on a joke and didn't recognize as such, which only goes to show, Fox will take anything and turn it into bite size bits of outrage to inject directly into MAGA's eagerly awaiting veins of hate. Dicks.
Yeah! These guys just get stuck on their opinions, it’s so frustrating. I literally did what you said and held up petrol prices right to their face and they just ran away from me. Why can’t they be more smart like like us!? Ughhh
I detect a slight note of sarcasm. I'm not smart. This I know. But it seems like there are plenty of examples of the right clinging to things Trump says, that don't match reality. I'm kind-of fascinated and at the same time horrified by the way Trump got into power. As a 'not American' it's like watching a car accident in slow mo. I can't look away and I guess to maybe help me deal with my fear (of human nature?) I'm trying to understand it. Trying to understand people who voted for Trump. Trying to understand the pathology of "Trump's really looking out for the working class" while petrol prices go through the roof, farmers struggle, jobs fall, federal workers are fired etc etc. "I'll never get the US into a forever war" - while literally kicking off a forever war. The ability to look at an incontrovertible fact and ignore it, or dig heels in, as per Mike's article, is the point here.
Try to understand yourself first and question why you would call something a forever war that’s only lasted 3 months and involved zero boots on the ground. Or why petrol prices are the only thing that matters and a major security threat like a radical islamist regime with a nuclear weapon should have zero weight? Where are jobs falling? Unemployment is lowest in history. Question why you have such certainty around such weak positions and why they are, in your brain, incontrovertible.
It's a forever war because it's the Middle East. Iran is not going to hand over any nuclear material, fundamentally it will never give in to threats or bullying from the US. Even if Trump pulled out today, unless you wipe out all 93 million of them and their supporters elsewhere, it's going to fester. The goals for this war are all over the place. There seems to be no exit strategy just an oil shock - which isn't just about prices, for some people it's life and death. In some countries, they can't afford to cook, farmers can't transport their goods to market. For what? The US is not safer, it's only a matter of time before Iran and their proxies organize themselves enough to pull off another Sep 11. Trump said 2 weeks, then 3 tops. Even it it's not forever, Trump campaigned on not getting into any wars. This is a war, although nothing lasts forever if you want to be literal. Do I really need to list the actual facts that Trump and his Trumpers choose to ignore? There's a new one every day. Zero boots - sure, zero US boots. Plenty of innocent people have their 'boots' on the ground and are under the constant threat of being bombed. As for a regime with a bomb that isn't America? What about Russia? North Korea? Pakistan? Not exactly a stable bunch. What right does the US have to step in to say no to Iran? Also, where's YOUR evidence of nuclear material? This is WOMDs all over again. And fact: Trump said their nuclear program was OBLITERATED. So... why the war again?
Again, just filtered talking points you’re accepting as fact. Its an absolute disaster that those places you listed have a nuke, which is why its worth going to great lengths to prevent iran from being added to the list. Also I shouldn’t say ‘Iran’ but the minority of psychos that control that country and are holding their people hostage. Let’s let them have a nuke and spread their terror/revolution across the world, sounds fun!
Mr. Brock, I am not part of the commentariat, so I have no brand to protect. I am part of the electorate that has been repeatedly burned, Sinema, Manchin, Fetterman. My hope is that candidates like Platner and Talarico are for real. I do appreciate your endorsement of Platner, if I could vote for either, I would. But I would still wait and see.
Your concerns speak to me. To be fair Pete Buttgieg has stood up well, Talarico is a Christian, and although I'm not religious I admit that Christianity is a decent moral framework for good behaviour, and Platner is so naive he didn't think a Nazi tattoo was worth getting rid of, which shows optimism about the human race. Possibly misplaced optimism. They all seem to like Sanders which is a good sign, and I think we have to be optimistic otherwise we just drop into nihilism. And we have the king of nihilism of the American President so that's not a good move.
Thanks for your thoughtful and hopeful reply!
Thanks, Mike, well said.
She's falling apart…
The contrast between authenticity & disingenuousness is nowhere more apparent than in the Maine Senate race.
Graham Platner is doing the same thing as Pete Buttigieg was doing in his earliest days. Be willing to talk to anyone, anywhere, about anything. These are ideals that I’d say a majority of people admire. Grace allows us to realize that as humans we are fallible, and are capable of course correction. The political machines are engineered to paint a perfect picture, or destroy the opposition. They due a disservice to the rest of us for that work for the purposes of maintaining their own power.
My opinion is simple: money grubbing asshole. On the net somewhere there is the details of the money he's taken (what he's taking it for would be more interesting) and it's scary. I believe that the democratic establishment, for the most part, is not even interested in winning elections. They are interested in not rocking the boat so the lovely lucre keeps coming in. I believe we have to forget historical alliances and just look at the behaviours. For example, it's obvious that Trump is a Russian asset. Now move the same "judgement by behaviour" onto Schumer, or most of the democratic party bigwigs. What does it tell you?
Given how much of this Graham Platner is a Nazi thing was based on primary opposition research sponsored by Chuck Schumer, I wonder what you think of his role in this contrarian system. Personally, I think he does much to justify the phrase "controlled opposition."
“They will conclude that they have been lied to by the people they trusted to tell them the truth.”
You have fundamental misunderstanding. One side has a knee jerk reaction to call anyone who disagrees with them a nazi. This gives them zero credibility on subsequent claims. Another side rarely does so unless presented with evidence like, I dunno, say a nazi symbol stamped on someone’s chest and a slimy pattern of behavior.
If you support the genocide in Gaza, or the Russian war on Ukraine, or ICE brutality at home, you're a Nazi. It's a matter of which actions you stand behind, and which you stand against. Platner is against all these. So of course Nazis, and their sympathizers, are mad.
Delusion at maximum levels.
is that all you got? anything substantive? didn't think so.....how's the weather over there in moscow?
Just want to point out you wrote “didn’t think so” in the middle of your comment as if I had an opportunity to jump in before you even posted it. Rofl