"Larger, and harder, muscles than most": American Politics, June 2026

Have at it.

No dignity, I like the way you work it ...

american politics, june 2026: a pedophile looks at 80

hearing the title track in my head in a KMFDM-style

Muscle and hate

american politics, june 2026: a pedophile looks at 80

excellent

honestly it’s kind of insane how relevant Nitzer Ebb’s “Join in the Chant” is

All I know is, should the Maine guy get elected and accrue actual power, we can be absolutely sure that power will not make his behavior worse.

we can be absolutely sure that power will not make his behavior worse.

if your point is that power always makes people behave worse, then that should apply equally to every candidate for every office everywhere, so it has no practical application here. if it doesn't always apply then there is no grounds for certainty.

I don't know if I had a point beyond an easy jab at the guy, but I do know that, as history has shown again and again, power rarely makes people behave *better*.

possibly applies even more to people with a bunch of red flags

Which is to say, as soon as he gets elected he's probably going to get a skull tattooed on his forehead and start sexting everyone with a cell phone.

It'll be like that U2 album, except when you look at your phone it will be a Platner dick pic.

sad but true

like all of us, I can imagine a far better person I'd rather see elected to the Senate. imagination can be cruel.

as history has shown again and again, power rarely makes people behave *better*.

Go Go Godzilla

Platner probably got one of these on his back
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Boc.png/1280px-Boc.png

ok watch it

like all of us, I can imagine a far better person I'd rather see elected to the Senate. imagination can be cruel.

If only the party had nominated Saint Johnny Unbeatable! (Meaning "saint" in the strictly non-religious sense, of course, because you can't trust those churchy types.)

unperson i'm having trouble figuring out what is sarcasm and isn't, sorry? i haven't been glued to this thread so i'm just reading your posts in isolation, so i'm probably just confused heh

but, just to give an example of how i think i might be misreading you, it _seems_ like you're using sarcasm voice (here and at the end of the last thread) to criticize those who have problems with platner's...issues?

and if i'm right on that, then i guess your stance is like "pobody's nerfect, just support the democrat, he'll be better than susan collins"?

but again i think i'm misreading everything, confused

especially in response to other vaguely sarcastic posts

He won't just be better than Collins, he'd be better than any other Democratic challenger currently nominated for the US Senate.

let's not be hasty

i guess your stance is like "pobody's nerfect, just support the democrat, he'll be better than susan collins"?

No. My stance is that based on the platform page on his website and every video of a speech or an interview I've seen him give in 2026, Graham Platner would be the leftmost senator in the Democratic Party. And that people who say no one should vote for him because he used to be a Reddit troll, or because he got drunk and got a fucked-up tattoo, or (worst of all) because he was texting with women who are not his wife, have their fucking heads up their asses.

I'm completely ok with saying people should vote for someone else in the primary. Assuming he wins, I'm also ok with saying they should vote for him in November, but I am 100% going to point out he's a nazi at every opportunity because Democrats really should do better.

He's not a fucking Nazi.

Just mentally copy and paste that under every post here that says he is from now on.

you can say it a million times, but he fits the profile perfectly

xp that's clear, thanks unperson! probably don't need to put have their fucking heads up their asses in italics but hey, when you have 100% knowledge about the future, that's a gift and you gotta do what you gotta do

you can say it a million times, but he fits the profile perfectly

What are you, the Mein Hunter?

i'm actually bothered more by his sexting with half a dozen people up until his wife and campaign confronted him about it last fall. it's not about the character thing, it's more like that's a really bad sign about his leadership qualities (putting the campaign at risk with his personal behavior) and it says that when his dick is involved, he makes very bad decisions. that's not in the distant past or a dumb tattoo - it speaks to who he is right now

but my head is way up here in my ass and it's been dark ever since my headcam ran out of batteries so i don't know

the tattoo stuff, i think, is also really dumb and a very ominous sign about how dumb this guy has been.

but yeah, you can know all that and also hold unperson's perspective - that before he fucks up and has to step down for a scandal, he'd be a reliably progressive vote in the senate, that would be awesome. a reasonable person can believe all the worst about platner and still vote for him. a reasonable person could also be aware of just a bit of platner's life and choices and decide not to vote for him because of that. neither one of those decisions are cause for belittling each other here

up until his wife and campaign confronted him about it last fall.

That's not what happened. He stopped sexting a year before his campaign started. His wife brought it up in a campaign meeting when they were discussing dirt that could be dug up. And someone fired from the campaign leaked what she said to the NYT.

platner is hot af. i'd go flatner for platner.

need alfred's opinion tbqh

In funnier news, Trump is now backing away from the J6 payout fund... according to Axios:

The Trump administration plans to drop its controversial $1.8 billion "weaponization" fund the president sought to compensate alleged victims of prosecutorial conduct under his predecessor, two senior administration officials told Axios.

"It's dead for now," one of the sources said.

Why it matters: Bashed as a political slush fund that could be tapped by those convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, Trump's proposal has drawn bipartisan pushback in the GOP-led House and Senate.

Of course, the whole Payout fund to J6ers was a compromise--Trump just wanted to take the money for himself.

This CNBC article is fun, too.

Trump tells CNBC: ‘I don’t care’ if Iran negotiations are over

President Donald Trump on Monday shrugged off the possible collapse of peace negotiations with Iran, telling CNBC, “I don’t care if they’re over, honestly.”

“I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less,” Trump told CNBC’s Eamon Javers in a phone interview midday Monday, saying he thought the protracted discussions “started to get very boring.”

Trump had been asked about the prospect of Iran ending talks with the U.S. in light of reporting earlier Monday that Iranian negotiators would take that step — and also move to “completely block” the Strait of Hormuz — due to Israel’s military operations in Lebanon against the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah.

Asked if the Iranians told him that they are not going to negotiate further, Trump said, “No, they haven’t.”

...

In his call with CNBC, Trump said he wasn’t worried about oil prices, which had spiked after Iranian state news outlet Tasnim reported earlier Monday that Tehran was halting negotiations and clamping down on the Hormuz Strait.

“I think the oil will be dropping like a rock in the very near, you know, the very near distance,” Trump said.

But he also insisted that Americans who understand the importance of halting Iran’s nuclear ambitions will not mind higher gas prices as a result of the war.

“Once you explain that this is all about Iran having a nuclear weapon, people are willing to pay a little bit more,” he said.

Trump asserted that prices at the pump will drop “very quickly.” But he also repeatedly signaled he was in no hurry to restart the stalled negotiations with Iran.

“If they’re over, they’re over. If they’re not, you know, I think they took too much time. Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring,” Trump told CNBC.

every day, i wake up hoping that he has died

I wonder what would win if you gave people a choice between $3 a gallon gas and Iran w/nukes and $5 gas and no nukes in Iran.

Trump just wanted to take the money for himself.

he was, after all, the ultimate J6er!

I wonder what would win if you gave people a choice between $3 a gallon gas and Iran w/nukes and $5 gas and no nukes in Iran.

i had a similar thought, and i think we both know the answer

Too many people would be cool with anything if Trump gave them $3. "You are now all better off today than you were yesterday! You're welcome!"

i have a feeling that’s why his signature is going to be on our cash

All the cash in going to say "pay to the order of Donald Trump," and then his signature, and then he will get all the money.

Trump asserted that prices at the pump will drop “very quickly.” But he also repeatedly signaled he was in no hurry to restart the stalled negotiations with Iran.

“If they’re over, they’re over. If they’re not, you know, I think they took too much time. Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring,” Trump told CNBC.

He truly is the President this country deserves, like an avatar of our collective stupidity.

"I'm bored. Let's do something else."

I'm glad he can at least still be frank with us.

as his dementia progresses I think he's telling the truth more and more, I do believe he's bored out of his mind by the Iran stuff and is frustrated he can't move the news cycle this time

otm "boring" is the most honest word in that sentence, he's been bored with this war since about week 2. How much has he said about it publicly vs. the ballroom, the Kennedy Center, Stephen Colbert, etc.

He liked seeing the videos of bombs blowing up, but since the ceasefire began the sizzle reels are lacking.

he cant really say much publicly since he doesn't know shit. all he can talk about is nuclear weapons and blowing people up and how tremendously we're winning every single day, he has no clue what any of the actual details are, can't imagine he can name a single person he killed or anyone who's in charge now, guessing he'd never even heard of the Strait of Hormuz until they closed it

And we thought Dubya 'The Decider' was stupid. Well, I mean he was, but...

_i guess your stance is like "pobody's nerfect, just support the democrat, he'll be better than susan collins"?_

No. My stance is that based on the platform page on his website and every video of a speech or an interview I've seen him give in 2026, Graham Platner would be the leftmost senator in the Democratic Party. And that people who say no one should vote for him because he used to be a Reddit troll, or because he got drunk and got a fucked-up tattoo, or (worst of all) because he was texting with women who are not his wife, _have their fucking heads up their asses_.

Presumably. Fetterman ran as a progressive populist too and then changed his tune in office. Not to say that would happen here, but all the scandals point to a certain recklessness in his personality that makes him hard to trust.

However, I would probably vote for him in the primary if I was in Maine. At this point he almost has it wrapped up and more scandals etc could only help Collins, which is obviously bad. First objective right now if removing republicans

Fetterman is kind of a cautionary tale for anyone who wants a career in politics though.

a cautionary tale for shreks

all the scandals point to a certain recklessness in his personality that makes him hard to trust.

On the contrary. I don't trust anyone who's never made a mistake, and you shouldn't either. That's how you get Pete Buttigeig.

To be fair, I did start to have doubts about Platner today, when I saw that the Free Press had published a pro-Platner essay.

First of all, Pete Buttigieg is good not bad (fuiyd, I'm not going to read your diatribes), and for Platner it's way more than one mistake, it definitely shows a pattern of recklessness.

That said, I were in Maine I would enthusiastically vote for him because he's the democrat in the race

My straight female friend and MSNOW watcher, a wonderful person who's as engaged politically as anyone, said just today that she'd love for him to run. That's his audience.

My imagined dream candidate for 2028 is Jon Ossoff. He is super articulate like Pete, and is very inspiring

I mean, I'd fuck him, but he comes across as Imagined White Guy Dream Pony.

look I like my presidnets like I like my houses, WHITE, honey

god I wish white genocide was areal thing (I know, me first)

Unperson, do you believe that Platner beloved these were “mistakes”? I don’t. And some of it is very recent. I don’t understand why people are taking him at his word.

xp well Harris ran two years ago and everybody here hated her.

That's not at all true. From the last week of July and well through August and the first debate we applauded the aren't-they-weird tactics that knocked the Trump campaign flat for a while; then she started palling around with Dick Cheney's daughter.

She did not pal around with her. Two appearances with Liz Cheney, who had one single point of intersection with Kamala Harris which was about saving democracy, that was all it took for you?

I don't want to argue with you, I'm tired of politics, I don't know why I posted here

https://i.ibb.co/vxzBvgwY/Screenshot-2026-06-01-at-8-46-51-PM.png

Unperson, do you believe that Platner beloved these were “mistakes”? I don’t. And some of it is very recent.

They were only "mistakes" in the sense that they are now the subject of public discussion, because he's running for Senate. A normal person's Reddit shitposting, or ILX snarking, is their own business. A normal person's texts to women not his wife are between him and his wife. But when you run for political office, all of a sudden every motherfucker on earth gets to pretend they've never said anything stupid or ill-considered.

I don’t understand why people are taking him at his word.

What does this even mean? Are you trying to say "His Reddit posts and his tattoo carry more weight with me than his publicly stated positions or his remarks on the stump, and they make me think he's going to join the Republican Party and vote with the Republicans once he's elected"? Then why don't you just come out and say exactly that?

Yeah, the dumb endgame to ‘I don’t take him at his word” is like some scenario out of a 60s spy potboiler.

Platner’s claimed communism and got a Nazi tattoo, if he has a Fetterman stroke he’ll become the most centrist man to ever live.

🖼

wow that’s a level of cringey flop sweat you usually don’t see from them.

Yeah, the dumb endgame to ‘I don’t take him at his word” is like some scenario out of a 60s spy potboiler.

it’s not when you have a Fetterman right there. anyway you’d be a damned fool to take a politician at their word.

fetterman is a bit of a special case due to the brain damage tbh, and platner is running to the left of fetterman's campaign

Why would anyone want to emulate Fetterman? Seriously.

It’s like—he may cut his penis off, because you’ve got that Wu Tang affiliate right there.

Wu-Tang Glans

tbh i have uh some brain damage and it has made me more impulsively like me before, a change of degree, not of type. so i suspect we have fetterman unleashed.

but the severe-tbi recovery cliché is “if you’ve seem one tbi, you’ve seen one tbi.” Xp

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked the promotion of eight Navy captains to be one-star admirals, including two female and two Black officers, according to current and former U.S. officials.

At the same time, Hegseth is trying to promote at least one member of his inner circle who was previously passed over for promotion several times, some of the people said.

Two of the sources said Trump claimed he'd helped keep Netanyahu out of jail — a reference to his support during Netanyahu's corruption trial.

Summarizing Trump's remarks to Netanyahu, the U.S. official said: "You're fucking crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this."

A second source briefed on the call said Trump was "pissed" and at one point yelled at Netanyahu: "What the fuck are you doing?"

Omg @ milo

It’s like—he may cut his penis off, because you’ve got that Wu Tang affiliate right there.

― The Quaker Gurvitz Army (President Keyes), Monday, June 1, 2026 9:14 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Wu-Tang Glans

― Lady Sovereign (Citizen) (milo z), Monday, June 1, 2026 9:59 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

hey this is a funny wu-tang pun, i should go post it over in the excelsior thread to me ilxor chums :) i'm sure they'll like it

meet the new completely unqualified DNI

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Pulte

oh fuck the guy who snoops through government records

yeah he's actually dangerous

(he’s the guy looking through the mortgage applications of members of the Fed board to blackmail them)

We'll probably see an espionage investigation opened into James Talarico in September.

xxp TBF Tulsi probably did too

was there ever an update on what was/is in tulsi gabbard's safe? the thing with the whistleblower that led to gabbard's departure?

literally hundreds of scandals to keep track of, can't

The Ark of the Covenant

the pee tape

Wasn't the whistleblower thing about Tulsi shutting down an inquiry into a phone call made to a foreign intelligence agency from inside the White House?

seems like that might be worth investigating but who knows?

oh that's right! the whistleblower complaint was locked in the safe! that's what was in the safe. they kept it in there for 8 months, hiding it from congress.

ok. glad that safe is empty, ready to go for the next acting director of national intelligence

and then they finally, in feb, were able to get the whistleblower complaint about gabbard out of the safe and into the public eye (barely), and then shortly after gabbard finally resigned.

this is very wizard of oz, "and you were there, and you were there", just a very long bad dream, details slipping, too much corruption

election 2028: "let's tone down the corruption"

Pulte is going to be director of national intelligence and be the federal Housing Finance Agency chairman at the same time!

again the double duty! spies won’t get a mortgage now!

Or you'll only get approved for a mortgage if you agree to spy on your new neighbors.

And that's how HOAs were invented

in different area codes

platner is hot af. i'd go flatner for platner.

― shaking babies (map), Monday, June 1, 2026 3:26 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

need alfred's opinion tbqh

― shaking babies (map), Monday, June 1, 2026 3:26 PM

Pass. I don't mind the Mountain Man look but this guy looks purposely disheveled, like Ava Gardner in Mogambo but with a beard and BO.

pretty sure i've seen a hot person in that configuration of head/facial hair and it's dean ambrose/jon moxley. it's def not platner (then again people's personalities are incredibly instrumental in whether i find them hot and platner's got nothing for me in that department)

it occurred to me that I've hooked up with more men with tattoos in the last 10 years of my life than the previous 20.

the thing with Platner is that he just reminds me of a lot of some of the people I grew up with. people who were raised on the internet and edgelord TV shows, who have never really known a time when the government was functional, who have a lot of conviction but are mostly kinda dumb...in a sense I kinda trust him more than I do overly focus grouped talking heads like Buttigeg or Newsom. would be nice if we could just get someone who didn't fucking suck though

oh i'm not planning on watching platner speak if i can help it. he's a politician of course he isn't actually attractive.

thank you ivy for introducing me to jon moxley.

xp tats are so commonplace and accepted now. i joined a facebook group of older gay men ogling vintage working class beefcake and it's wild how many comments i see along the lines of "the tattoos ruin it for me."

yeah "politician" acts like an antibacterial wipe on my sex drive. Ossoff's the only one I've taken more than a second look at.

i really think that the worst democratic presidential nominee option for my mental health would be buttigeg. at least i can safely hate newsom. pete would be an absolute disaster, constant irritation via all the gay men i'm friends with on fb and instagram. aoc would be ideal.

https://i.imgur.com/wGmRE26.jpg

I steer clear of people who make these exact sartorial choices because I find it unappealing to be lectured about how I'm part of an international banking conspiracy

tats are so commonplace and accepted now. i joined a facebook group of older gay men ogling vintage working class beefcake and it's wild how many comments i see along the lines of "the tattoos ruin it for me."

This is such a huge generational shift. As Gen X I feel very much on the hinge, we were the group where it kind of exploded but still not to the degree you see in millennials and Gen Z. I have so many friends with tats (not to mention my spouse) that I barely even notice except to admire a nice one, but when I'm out with my octogenarian parents they comment on every single one they see. Always the same things: "I bet they'll regret them when they're older," "How hard are they to remove?," "Won't it make it hard to get a job?" Meanwhile like half the nurses they see at the doctor's office have ink.

all I can say is this - just leave some space for when you get older. so many tatted up folks I know look like they're barely even 30 and they've already used up all the prime real estate. do you not think you'll have any good tattoo ideas when you're 40?

"I bet they'll regret them when they're older"

this is me with the face tattoos

"Won't it make it hard to get a job?"

my septuagenarian parents should lunch with your parents.

I’ve resigned myself that probably the doctor that pronounces me dead thirty years from now will have face tats

Hopefully not Nazi ones.

I saw a cool chin tattoo over the weekend, but it was a 80+ native american woman and it looked like she'd had it for decades

a tat stamping on a human face forever

Out on the road today, I saw a nazi tattoo on a democrat...

https://i.imgflip.com/atd39e.jpg

“I spoke to President Trump for three hours, and that Marco Rubio guy, the head of the state department, he is anti-Latin American,” Lula said.

"I bet they'll regret them when they're older"

this is me with the face tattoos

― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, June 2, 2026 1:57 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

sometimes i see older hardcore punks around, who were early adopters of face tats and i worry for them, like the scene you were a part of starts to disperse and evaporate and they seem like they are borderline unhoused at best, and your job options are pretty limited

In keeping with the thread title: on the left, a photo of Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers; on the right, a version of that same photo sent out by campaign staff.

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:t6ubj2wlhc34awzcymh3qpur/bafkreihpuhrbrbogzh7yst5sbz7hizncpysquoiw3fajifqyf73c6nn4mu

lol I just saw that post and was wondering if the thread title was a reference to it. I am quite glad that these days I often don't recognize the title quotes

that's not real... is it?

no the thread title is a typically deranged Trump Truth post waxing poetic about hot guys he’s seen

I was referring to the photo^^^ - did they really think they could get away with that?

that’s dating profile pic vs reality right there

Maybe we need a WDYLLAI thread.

Anyway Todd Blanche says the big beautiful slush fund is dead. Every once in a while there’s still a “too far.”

I wonder if they're making that concession to preserve the blanket immunity from any future IRS audits that he snuck in there

how did anyone in Trumpworld think the slush fund would fly? (also, they’ll just do it under the table)

Well, in this case, as implied, the question is not how they thought it would fly - they try all sorts of brazen stuff - but why they backed down.

Well, in this case, as implied, the question is not how they thought it would fly - they try all sorts of brazen stuff - but why they backed down.

Well, in this case, as implied, the question is not how they thought it would fly - they try all sorts of brazen stuff - but why they backed down.

Well, in this case, as implied, the question is not how they thought it would fly - they try all sorts of brazen stuff - but why they backed down.

Well, in this case, as implied, the question is not how they thought it would fly - they try all sorts of brazen stuff - but why they backed down.

Wow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlTJrNJ5lA

I’m seeing a lot of double (and more) posting lately. Did you post once and it showed up multiple times, or did you post multiple times because it seemed not to go through at first?

It's this bug: TURN BACK YOU POXY FULE!

If it seems not to go through on Submit Post or you get some sort of server disconnect, open another window and check if your post has appeared. It will usually post despite any confusing subsequent message.

it froze up a few times in a row, wasn't loading, or reloading.

yeah it happens to me constantly.

Not me

Not me

Not me

Not me

Not me

Not me

Not me

Not me

...
I'll allow it.

Rick Perlstein has thoughts on Platner, and on rural/vet culture. (He mentions that Maine is in fifth place for percentage of veterans in the population. Alaska is #1. Montana is #3.)

Interesting primary results tonight in Montana. Alani Bankhead is ahead of Reilly Neill by 10 points despite having been out-fundraised by a factor of 10. I didn't know much about her before tonight and I voted for Neill, but this interview makes her seem pretty good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llO1m0WszQI

In the House primary for my district, Ryan Busse (who ran for governor and lost) is ahead of Sam Forstag, who I voted for, by about four points.

seeing somewhere that blanche is claiming that tho the slush fund is dead, the “settlement” that djt is immune from tax audits evermore persists.

i gotta think that R’s are just “he’ll be dead soon, everyone will forget all, no matter the magnitude of his crimes.”

that “don’t audit me ever” thing, while ridiculous, is completely unenforceable anyway.

Yeah that can be revoked by any future president. It's not like they're going to investigate Trump while he's in office anyway.

But Dems ought to absolutely hammer on the slush fund nonstop — it's a case where he actually blinked and backed down, it's a political freebie to just constantly remind people that he tried to steal $2 billion from our tax dollars.

Wow Katie Porter in 5th place with 5% of the vote in the CA Gov. primary. Quite a fall from grace.

Seems like she hadn't really been a serious contender for a while, but there was a lot of consolidation around Becerra and Steyer in the last few weeks to prevent the possibility of two Republicans at the top. So I don't think her finish is necessarily an accurate measure of her natural support.

In the House primary for my district, Ryan Busse (who ran for governor and lost) is ahead of Sam Forstag, who I voted for, by about four points.

This flipped overnight; Forstag (who, remember, was endorsed by Bernie and AOC) beat Busse by five points.

iowa governor race is going to be weird. there's one really well-funded democrat who had no competition in the primary, and the trump-endorsed republican lost the primary to a guy who may not even live in the state

i'd have voted for porter if she were polling better, yeah. she hasn't been a contender for months at this point.

I heard a couple radio pundits who were just like "vote for who you like"... I voted for Porter as kind of a knee-jerk thing in that we need more women in leadership roles, CA has never had a female gov so I decided to not worry too much about strategy. But yeah, she had a couple stumbles early on and wasn't really able to overcome them

Tom Kean, Jr., the New Jersey Republican congressman whose prolonged absence from both Capitol Hill and his home district has garnered intense scrutiny about his condition, managed to win a primary on Tuesday despite everything.

Kean, who ran unopposed for the party nomination, cast his last known vote in March and hasn’t been seen in public since, even as the congressman sought reelection to his third term. Ahead of the polls closing, Kean issued his first public statement in many months, reiterating that he is recovering from a medical issue and promising that he will return to the public eye in due time while not providing an official timeline.

“I am more energized than ever to keep fighting for the people of New Jersey’s 7th District. Right now I am focused on my recovery and under the advice of healthcare professionals, I will transition from virtual work to in person work within a matter of weeks. At that time, I will be completely transparent as to the nature of my medical condition,” Kean said. “Once again, I appreciate all of the prayer and patience from my constituents and colleagues. I understand the need for transparency on this matter and I look forward to sharing my experience with the public.”

At that time, I will be completely transparent as to the nature of my medical condition,” Kean said. "In the meantime you can make bets on the nature of my medical condition on Polymarket!"

it really is an interesting time to be alive

In CA i voted for Raman for LA mayor and Steyer for gov, but they both are apparently on the outside looking in for November.

I’m not too worried about Pratt (30%) winning in the fall (though I’m a little bit concerned something weird could break his way), and I don’t think Trump tactics will work on LA voters. I can’t imagine many Raman voters (22%) going his way nor Bass voters (35%) changing their mind. The Dems do need to step it up considerably though, neither candidate had a good game. Same goes for the governor’s race. Just an embarrassing group of candidates, though Steyer might’ve been good.

Man Becerra seems like kind of a zero huh?

yeah... people who worked with him in the Biden admin described him as basically a nonentity

My guess is Keane is undergoing chemo

why would he be so secret about that?

because in today's GOP, being sick is a sign of weakness, something for losers and low-t men

^^^ also, doesn’t want RFK jr. prescribing him bear glands of whatever

I'd put 100 imaginary dollars on him being dead by July.

People were speculating that he was in rehab, right? Especially with the weird "There are no cameras where Tom is" quote. His reference to his "medical condition" is vague enough that it could include addiction.

of course, today's GOP would never consider addiction to be a medical disease, as it is self-inflicted by weak losers and low-t men

addiction just means you can't hold your booze

I wonder how this will actually work in practice... the "deep state" has a way of moving things forward despite shit like this

A set of sweeping policy changes unveiled by the White House would leave officials appointed by Donald Trump vetting every public grant issued to universities and nongovernmental organizations on the basis of their fidelity to “American values”, as defined by the president, triggering widespread concern.

All federal grants approved by Trump’s political appointees must “demonstrably advance the president’s policy priorities”, according to a lengthy proposal published by the office of management and budget (OMB).

gross

also a recipe for paralysis, which I’m sure is by design

I'm sure it's somewhere in Project 2025! Complete ideological control over the sciences

sounds like another way to threaten universities if their students are protesting the genocide in gaza (and whatever else they don't like students and NGOs to acknowledge)

Dan Sullivan (R) vs. Dan Sullivan (R) in Alaska:

https://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/alaskas-dan-sullivan-faces-new-senate-reelection-opponent-dan-sullivan-republican-primary

“Everybody in Alaska knows I’m Dan Sullivan-R. So he’s trying to do that. Why? He’s not an R"

move over fibermaxxing

The Interior Department on Thursday said it would regild the four gold-plated Arts of War and Arts of Peace equestrian statues near the Lincoln Memorial.

Each of the statues were sent as a gift to the U.S. from Italy about 75 years ago.

The new regilding project is slated to cost $5.1 million and marks the latest million-dollar effort to renovate or update existing architecture in the nation’s capital. Most recently, President Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have touted updates to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

“We’re auramaxxing Washington, D.C. ahead of America’s 250th birthday,” the department wrote in a post on social platform X, embracing a Gen Z lifestyle term focused on maximizing your “aura.”

This fucking guy, good job everyone.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/us/politics/platner-maine-senate-girlfriends-relationships.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nlA.GW7E.V7CJtqrkhYIf&smid=nytcore-ios-share

welp

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-men-defending-graham-platner-in-all-the-wrong-ways/

Mr. Platner, she said, knew when they were dating years ago that the tattoo was a Nazi symbol, and that he called it “my Totenkopf.”

“I would never have known what that was,” she said. “He would joke about it being a Nazi tattoo.”

see ya bud

look we all make nazi tattoo mistakes

I hear he's matured a lot tho

hahahahahaahaha

Kennedy Center memo directs staffers to remove Trump’s name from the arts center
Staffers are ordered to remove references to Trump from email signatures, letterhead, voicemails and website pages, among other items.

this guy is a fool and a mistake, again, it blows my fucking mind that he has suppport from people like Warren and Sanders. Do they just ignore this shit? Are they unaware?

What's really amazing about Platner is how he's gotten so far without stating any policy positions at all. I mean you read all these stories about him, and there's literally nothing there but his clothes, his tattoo, his dating history... but what has he said he'd like to do if elected? And how does that compare with what the woman he's running against — what's her name again? Does she have any kind of history as a legislator people could look into? — would like to do if she holds her Senate seat? I have no idea! No one does!

Collins is mentioned repeatedly in that story so I'm gonna assume you didn't read it, which is a kindness to you because the other option is you are still angrily rooting for the domestic abuser

just want to point out that he isn't currently running against Susan Collins

I'm rooting for the Democrat in a contest where only one of two people can possibly win. How about you?

How about rooting for a different Democrat?

like maybe one who doesn't abuse women

How about rooting for a different Democrat?

OK, sure. I am on the record as supporting David Costello or Janet Mills or even Andrea LaFlamme as valid choices for Maine voters. Best of luck to everybody! Let's just have fun out there!

I honestly don't get you. Even at the most value-less cynical level, saying stuff like "there's literally nothing there but his clothes, his tattoo, his dating history" is a wild underestimation of how damaging that stuff is to the prospect of him being elected. Like it's okay to lament the fact this putz is the widest ratfucking target in 2026, instead of pretending him being an abuser isn't as newsworthy as his entirely theoretical policy proposals

a wild underestimation of how damaging that stuff is to the prospect of him being elected

What country do you live in? What year is it? Who is president?

sorry that some of us still have principals

I mean sure, I could be wrong about that, this is a super grim time

Why do you think Graham Platner appeals to the voters of Maine? I have a theory about that. Do you?

I think political posters on ILX are wildly underestimating how angry average people are in 2026. I think "populism" in the "fuck all these scumbags, let's burn this place to the ground" sense is more popular among "normie" Democratic citizens than at any time since probably the 1930s. Graham Platner speaks to that anger. Not in symbolic ways (ooh! a white man in a dirty sweatshirt, with guns and tattoos!) but literally, in the words that come out of his mouth in front of crowds.

I do not think the fucking New York Times writing articles about Platner's history as a shitty boyfriend is gonna carry a whole lot of weight with the voters of Maine.

I tend to agree ^^^

It shows where we are sitting in the spectrum of trust that the fact this latest attempted kneecapping was published in the Times made me raise an eyebrow.

My monocle popped out and fell in my soup!

Boooooooiiiiiinng!

Platner's polling lead over Collins isn't that big and is apparently shrinking, but maybe the pollsters aren't as clued in to the Maine voter mindset

https://wgme.com/news/local/new-poll-shows-graham-platners-lead-over-sen-collins-getting-smaller-maine-senator-sexting-scandal

totally bewildering as well to see people (Seth Abramson, for example) doubling down that there is nothing in this article that constitutes assault when, in fact, there absolutely is. And then they just refuse to acknowledge that when it's pointed out to them.

it’s unfortunately not bewildering to me at all

dem flop sweat vs left flop sweat

all you have to do is flop, both of you. you got this

lean back and think of like i dunno, lebron

Waiting for Mills to dramatically reenter the race.

Never mind, I guess she sort of has: https://wgme.com/news/local/gov-mills-reminds-maine-voters-she-remains-on-senate-primary-ballot-graham-platner-susan-collins-democrats-republicans-politics

she's gonna reveal that she has TWO nazi tattoos, to stay relevant

his tattoo explanation was such a transparent lie, good to have that corroborated

hahahahahaahaha

*Kennedy Center memo directs staffers to remove Trump’s name from the arts center*
_Staffers are ordered to remove references to Trump from email signatures, letterhead, voicemails and website pages, among other items._

good news!

as I frequently say, unperson otm

this is some bleak shit, people here rooting for a nazi abuser fake working class fuckwad just because he’s “on our team,” all of you doing this can eat shit afaic

How about we ear oysters instead

Feel like Platner's kind of worn out the forgivable sins. Mills is probably the best option now? Though I don't know much about the other Dems.

you only eat oysters in a month with an r in it but platner is welcome to chow down on some day old shrimp

dude worked for blackwater, was a rich kid, then tended bar in DC and dated Republican women. He knowingly got and kept a Nazi tattoo, lied about it, and is now accused of abusing women. I mean wtf, people were more bent out of shape about Al Franken. I know there's no 'pure' politician but holy fucking shit

The Democratic Party was not interested in recruiting anyone to run against Susan Collins. They were happy to leave her right where she was, or maaaaaybe run a shambling corpse against her just to claim they tried. Platner was recruited, he said yes, has expressed positions that if he's elected will make him one of the most left-wing senators in the country, and the people of Maine seem happy with him. It's awful to contemplate, I know.

sickening imo

what i'm getting here is that if the race is really really important than a guy abusing women doesn't matter, not even worth bringing up. bc he's saying the right things

sorry y'all i can't get with that :)

yes i guess what huh maybe probly yup

women will just never matter enough. the man is too important

restraining and trapping someone in a room is abuse. i don't want this guy in politics. i think the people who do are maybe the problem with the world?

In other news, 4 House Dems voted with Republican Dems to cut WIC food aid for pregnant women, and for children .
The measure passed the House by a narrow vote of 213 to 210.

These 4 Dems voted with the Republicans to pass the cut.
Rep. Don Davis (NC-01); Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03); Rep. Adam Gray (CA-13);Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34)

Millions of WIC recipients would have less money for fruits and vegetables under the legislation, which funds the Agriculture Dept...per The Washington Post

4 House Dems voted with House Republicans is what that was supposed to say

shouldn’t pregnant women and children get a job?

ivy otm

I just cannot imagine reading that article and then being okay with this guy.

the country’s most left-leaning senator …. as long as you are not a women, a person of color, queer, a religious minority, or disabled.

I am not okay with Platner personally. I don't know what to do about the fact that I would like there to be a Democratic majority in the Senate in 2027 and electing a Dem in Maine to replace Collins seems to be an important step in making that happen. What are our options?

Gluesenkamp Perez is a fucking scourge

I guess we can hope that Mills jumps back in and runs as an independent and wins like Lisa Murkowski did a few years back.

But I think it's more likely that she and Platner would split the vote and it would hand the election to Collins.

I would like to see Platner to drop out before the primary vote, but that doesn't seem likely.

I mean, the vote is in three days. He is on the ballot. If he dropped out now, I think he would still win.

I will not be voting in Maine and have muted all these discussions on social media

I just tell Stephen King how to vote and he votes for me.

Scary Clown '26

I'd actually be curious to know King's opinion of the secret Nazi who imprisons women

In additional other news Senate Republicans in the wee hours this morning passed a bill to give Ice and Border Patrol 70 billion more through the rest of this Trump term, and it will contain no new restrictions on ICE . Senate Republicans also voted down amendments that would bar the creation of that Trump slush fund for J6 rioters and others. Blanche says it’s a no-go now but Trump has not given it up completely.

In additional other news Senate Republicans in the wee hours this morning passed a bill to give Ice and Border Patrol 70 billion more through the rest of this Trump term, and it will contain no new restrictions on ICE . Senate Republicans also voted down amendments that would bar the creation of that Trump slush fund for J6 rioters and others. Blanche says it’s a no-go now but Trump has not given it up completely.

So the woman who accuses Platner of imprisoning her in a room is the same one who started the "Ladies for Kavanaugh" group. Strange world.

Whenever Democrats are put in this position of endorsing terrible people, I wonder, who's worse off than me, a gay Hispanic dude in Florida? If I had to vote for Platner as my only option in a general election, I'd accept him as an evil to hold off worse evils, i.e. Trump having any operational control of the Senate.

In a primary, though, I'd have options.

Yeah, I get a little frustrated by "fuck this guy forever, anyone who supports him is a piece of shit" sentiments that don't consider long-term outcomes. Platner sucks as a human, but he's also a chess piece in U.S. politics.

Also, because we're Serious Online People, we might be the only ones who give a fuck now.

The other thing I keep thinking about is how politics has been nationalized to the point where we're all supposed to have an opinion about a Senate candidate in Maine. Maybe mh has the right idea.

Yeah, I get a little frustrated by "fuck this guy forever, anyone who supports him is a piece of shit" sentiments that don't consider long-term outcomes. Platner sucks as a human, but he's also a chess piece in U.S. politics.

“We need to think of the long term outcomes, so we must rally behind the fake working class former Blackwater dude with a Nazi tattoo who has abused women and regularly throws around dehumanizing slurs”

You all do realize that this sounds completely fucking insane, right?

yeah this isn’t a case of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, this guy is bad news

this is a dilemma that comes up in pro sports a lot, your team has a dude who is clearly an unrepentant piece of shit, be it an abuser or a MAGA asshole or just Aaron Rodgers, you can hate the guy and talk shit about him without rooting for the team to lose. Dems taking the Senate could prevent a lot of bad shit from happening and unfortunately Platner looks like he's gonna be a key piece in that

pro sports are fucking stupid, so yeah, the analogy tracks

tell that to senator coach tommy tuberville

listen this country is down 5 points in the fourth quarter with 7 seconds on the clock. it's 4th down and we're in the red zone - our own red zone - on the 10 yard line, 90 yards to go.. you don't need me to tell you what we need here. god tells us. it's a hail mary. coach needs everyone to leave it all out there on the field, to barf for america, barf and keep running, and do not accept defeat. we can't accept a field goal, we will not accept anything except a touchdown. and if we, as fans in the football field of the united states, do not see the touchdown we promised dying children in hospitals, then we will boo. we will call into "sports radio" and let "ownership" know that we "need to win the super bowl" as soon as possible, and we need to get these jokers out of washington and get some "heisman trophy winners" on our team. in summary, we need to cut SNAP benefits and build more missiles for genocide, all hands in the middle, ONE TWO THREE BREAK USA

oh and we need to tighten our belt and sit at the kitchen table and have a national conversation as well

“We need to think of the long term outcomes, so we must rally behind the fake working class former Blackwater dude with a Nazi tattoo who has abused women and regularly throws around dehumanizing slurs”

You all do realize that this sounds completely fucking insane, right?

Sure, that sounds insane, but that's not what I said. Closer would be: "We need to think of the long term outcomes, so let's hope the people of Maine elect a Democrat to help flip the Senate."

I don’t trust platner, haven’t since the tattoo story came out, but he’s running for senate, not to be my friend. I don’t think working to help elect a republican is the best of bad choices here

Voting should never make you feel bad, is what I'm learning. You should step into the booth with a song in your heart and a bluebird on your shoulder, knowing that you have virtue on your side.

what i'm learning is that there are only two objects in the universe: right, and wrong, and they are placed 4 trillion lightyears apart. there are no opinions between these two objects. all opinions exist only as right, or wrong, 4 trillion miles apart

4 trillion miles lightyears apart

well on the actual ballot there is and if there's anything we can be certain of it's that anyone who is going to reliably vote to enable Trump is going to do a hell of a lot more to dehumanize people than just throwing slurs around. kinda like how people refused to vote for one candidate because of their support for Israel and now we've got a guy bombing schools in Iran for funsies. all this is to say the state of things in this country fucking sucks and everyone who lives here has a stain on their soul regardless of what they do or don't do. as much as I want this guy to go down in flames to send a message to the party about not nominating complete pieces of shit I also don't want Susan Collins to cast the deciding vote (despite "deep concerns") for putting anyone who votes Democrat into a concentration camp

to send a message to the party about not nominating complete pieces of shit

The thing is that the party didn't want this guy, the Maine voters did

In a scenario in which Mills doesn't drop out, is there any chance in which these latest stories are enough to boost her to victory? Or does Platner win, anyway? (I'm inclined to think the latter.)

The thing is that the party didn't want this guy, the Maine voters did

I'll repeat what I said above:

The Democratic Party was not interested in recruiting anyone to run against Susan Collins. They were happy to leave her right where she was, or maaaaaybe run a shambling corpse against her just to claim they tried. Platner was recruited, he said yes, has expressed positions that if he's elected will make him one of the most left-wing senators in the country, and the people of Maine seem happy with him. It's awful to contemplate, I know.

I reread some old posts earlier and it was fun watching Platner supporters become more vociferous over time as more and more stuff came out. It is too bad the nazi tattoo didn't end his run

_to send a message to the party about not nominating complete pieces of shit_

The thing is that the party didn't want this guy, the Maine voters did

they haven’t yet, the primary is Tuesday

In the opinion polls I meant, enough to make Mills drop out.

It should also be noted that the DSCC did not want Platner, but other Dem-aligned organizations and individual Dems like Sanders and Warren have endorsed him. (My wife initially liked him because he received an early endorsement from David Hogg's PAC.)

I reread some old posts earlier and it was fun watching Platner supporters become more vociferous over time as more and more stuff came out. It is too bad the nazi tattoo didn't end his run

― rob, Friday, June 5, 2026 10:50 AM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

well, there was a time when other options were still possible

on a more positive note, Abu El Sayed in MI looks pretty intersting. He's trailing Stevens right now though

There were a couple of weeks of early voting in Maine before the first sexting story came out, so Platner might already be the winner even before election day. Will definitely be interesting to see the difference between the early vote and day-of ballots.

The best scenario I see atm is for Mills to win via a big election day swing. Assuming Platner wins the primary and doesn't drop out of the race — which both seem more likely than not — then sure, I still hope he wins against Collins. We live in a dumb governing system where having 50 vs. 51 seats in the Senate matters a whole lot, and as objectively bad a guy as Platner seems to be, that's one bad guy vs. Republican control of the Senate for the next two years of the Trump administration. You can argue that either way, but you can't pretend there's actually an easy ethical answer to it. Sometimes all there are are bad choices.

I doubt Platner will drop out.. he's already doing the 'We all make mistakes, let's learn to grow from them' etc ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

xp I haven't checked lately, but isn't it equally or even more likely that Platner gets elected but the GOP retains control of the Senate anyway?

yeah no way is this asshole going to drop out

Depends how it goes in TX too.

The best scenario I see atm is for Mills to win via a big election day swing.

Is this really the best scenario, though? To me it sounds like a formula for "she'll lose in a blowout, but at least she was a nice person I could feel good about supporting from afar."

xpost And of course Sherrod Brown (whose ex-wife said in an affidavit that he struck and threatened her) is trying to flip back his old seat in Ohio.

Depends how it goes in TX too.

― The Quaker Gurvitz Army (President Keyes), Friday, June 5, 2026 2:43 PM (three minutes ago)

yeah I looked at a few models (no idea who is trustworthy these days though) and most of them had the Senate at R 50 - D 47 with three toss-ups, though they don't agree on which races are toss-ups lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEi9rugxYcg

I haven't checked lately, but isn't it equally or even more likely that Platner gets elected but the GOP retains control of the Senate anyway?

Yep. They need to flip four seats and not lose any. But Maine is one of the most flippable, so they almost certainly can't do it without that. The Dems' best shot is probably North Carolina, then Maine, and then after that you have Texas, Alaska, Iowa and Ohio. So they pretty much have to win NC and Maine, and then still flip two of those other four, all of which are semi-longshots.

But even in the scenario where they win Maine but not the majority, the Maine seat still matters because that's one fewer they have to try to pick off in '28.

Is this really the best scenario, though? To me it sounds like a formula for "she'll lose in a blowout, but at least she was a nice person I could feel good about supporting from afar."

I don't know. Five more months of talk about Platner's multiplying negatives could have a fairly corrosive effect, there's no guarantee at this point that he's the most electable Dem by November. Whereas Mills' biggest negatives — she's a septuagenarian centrist — are also true of Collins.

Obviously there's no way to really know. But Mills would be bringing a lot less baggage into the general election. And at this point how can anyone think that all the bad Platner stuff is already out there? It's not like reporters will stop looking.

And also I think it's the "best scenario" because Platner doesn't seem like a good dude, and it's better to not have bad dudes in positions of power. Maybe he really has "changed" or whatever, but I feel like maybe he needs to do a lil more work on himself. Not disregarding the extent of his PTSD, I think that's real, but also again maybe not the best formula for being in the national spotlight.

MT is kind of a toss-up at the moment. There's an open seat and the outgoing asshole hand-picked his desired successor in a really slimy way:

Alme is the chosen would-be successor of U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, who withdrew from the race minutes before the candidate filing deadline on March 4. Daines then endorsed Alme, who also acquired the incumbent’s campaign staff.

There's also an independent candidate (Seth Bodnar) who's out-fundraising both the Republican and the Democrat, and there are strong rumors now that the Democrat, Alani Bankhead, might drop out and endorse Bodnar.

More about the shape of the race here.

xp thanks tipsy

I saw a poll earlier that Mills has 50% approval as governor. I don't know what went wrong with her primary campaign really, but the idea that she's widely hated doesn't seem quite right. It's hard to find Mills vs. Collins polls that are up to date, but the ones I did see she wasn't doing hugely worse than Platner. And yes above all, the realist/pragmatic argument is weak given this guy's propensity to end up on national TV denying some heinous shit

isn't there a maine thread or something where all this shit can go

lol

THE MAINE MONSTER!

bunch of weirdos

would be nice if the dems could find some non abusers to run

they usually lose

Really unhappy to know that a lot of you are okay with Nazis if they have a D next to their name, but I shouldn't be surprised.

depends on what you mean by "okay with."

and, uh, i guess "Nazis"

Anyone here live in Maine?

I’m cool with Nazis but I draw the line at tattoos.

he was a bartender, the lowest of characters

He's quick with a joke or a light of your smoke

Send Tables to Maine on behalf of ILX as a correspondent to get the man on the street's opinion.

In even more other news-

“If the government decides, very quickly, to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty... nothing can be done?” asked Judge Patricia Millett.

“I think that’s right, yes,” responded DOJ attorney Yaakov Roth

Millett is an Obama appointee. There's also a Biden appointee and a very right-wing Trump appointee hearing this appeals court case

Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, questioned whether the plaintiff in the lawsuit, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, had a basis to sue in the first place, especially when set against Trump’s claim that the ballroom would serve as a critical national security bulwark in addition to an event space.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/05/white-house-ballroom-donald-trump-00951892

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/05/white-house-ballroom-donald-trump-00951892

They should bulldoze it

Or paint a clown face on it, at least then it'll be honest.

we must rally behind the fake working class former Blackwater dude with a Nazi tattoo who has abused women and regularly throws around dehumanizing slurs

The Senate is nothing like a governor or the president. In terms of real political outcomes on matters like budgets, immigration, the surveillance state, support of Israel and the Iran war, etc., the worst thing Platner could do as a US Senator from Maine would NOT be secret admiration for Nazis expressed via a tattoo or having a history of working with Blackwater, it would be to vote consistently with the Republicans, which is what Susan Collins already does like clockwork -- because voting on legislation is what the job of Senator boils down to.

How the hell many times have ILXors on these US politics threads identified the Republican Party as a "death cult"? I lost count in 2017. All the accusations leveled against Platner are personal failings. The most obvious failing of Collins is that she unfailingly votes Republican, not that she sports a "death cult" tattoo, but that she is a willing participant in furthering a real functioning death cult. She's directly and provably culpable in all the horrible things being done in our names with our tax money that have wrecked millions of lives. No one can say that about Platner. You want to talk about "red flags", look at her voting record.

Even if you want to believe realpolitik demands that you support the Totenkopf abuser it’s not actually necessary to talk about it here. Or anywhere. Embrace the concept of shame.

Nobody here needs to support him because nobody here lives in Maine afaik.

Embrace the concept of Maine.

Just for fun, can we talk about the fact that the woman who made the most lurid accusations in the Times piece is a career Republican hack who literally worked on Brett Kavanaugh’s PR team? And the reporter who wrote the story won an award from AIPAC? And that there’s no corresponding Times story about Ken Paxton literally letting a child rapist out of prison?

The New York Times is trying to sink Platner, just like they’re trying to sink Hamawy in NJ and Abdul Al-Sayed in Michigan. But the keen political minds of ILX would never fall for transparently dishonest bullshit from hacks with decades-long track records of carrying water for the right. Those of us who support Platner because of his stated policy positions, we’re the problem.

Fwiw the Republican woman who accused Platner thinks the NYT did her dirty and that the story was "a gift to the Platner campaign."

More bullshit/kayfabe intended to keep the story alive via right-wing media who can now combine “Graham Platner is history’s greatest monster!” with “The treacherous liberal media betrays Real America again!” Win-win.

unperson, you are such a despicable human being, it’s hard for me to comprehend.

and before i get FPed, want to bring up that unperson has been consistently belittling some of the very few queer and brown people on here voicing concerns about Platner

unperson has been consistently belittling some of the very few queer and brown people on here voicing concerns about Platner

The fuck I have. I've been stating my own position. I haven't called you a petulant child or an idealistic-to-the-point-of-paralysis shithead all week. Whoops!

If you look at other online spaces there are differing opinions about Platner from people on the left. In this particular playground only one opinion can be voiced because we are a bunch of cement heads apparently,

The only person accusing Platner of any physical abuse is a GOP operative who helped draft Susan Collins statement on her confirmation vote for Kavanaugh. Everyone here wrote off Tara Reade over less than that.

oh i certainly didn’t

Anyone here or anywhere else can have any opinion on Platner that they want, but to deny again and again that the guy has shown himself to be untrustworthy and even *against many of our supposed ideas * is foolish. In some ways he is the apotheosis of liberalism in our current sham democracy, where we are to be grateful that a demonstrable white supremacist and utter fake is on “our side.” Liberals love a little light bigotry as a treat.

The guy is a total POS fuck face that I’d rather not see or hear from again.

By all accounts and from what I’ve seen of him he’s the kind of person I tend to recoil from when I come into contact with personally.

https://nypost.com/2026/06/06/us-news/maine-senate-candidate-graham-platner-was-an-a-hole-extraordinaire-when-he-bartended-at-tune-inn/

bad bartender too apparently

I’m not sure what fuck all the dems in the senate would do with a one seat majority if it came down to this turd beating Collins anayways. Surely they won’t do enough to justify green lightning another one of these horrible middle age straight white men riddled with a questionable past.

It's a negative vote -- it keeps the Senate from rubberstamping Trump nonsense, insofar as the Senate has done anything the last 16 months.

But this guy makes us swear a lot!

Think about our blood pressure!

I know everyone likes to clown on Will Stancil, but I agree with his response on Bluesky to someone who said, "A vote is an endorsement. It says that being a Nazi and a domestic abuser is A-OK to you."

Stancil replied: "I'm sorry but I just don't believe this is correct. An endorsement is a statement about what you believe. A vote is an effort to pick between one of several possible futures."

"However much I dislike Platner - and I've been pretty consistent on not liking him - I greatly prefer the future where Democrats control the Senate and not Republicans, regardless of who represents Maine in the body."

A vote may not be an endorsement but among the non mn vote having community choosing to be an aggro cunt to anyone turned off by the Nazi/abuser/&c stuff kind of is an endorsement I’m afraid

It’s fine he probably won’t assault any of his girlfriends while in office.

I hope mn is Maine I refuse to check

Oh, I am def not defending unperson.

xp No, MN is Minnesota. ME is Maine because why not.

A vote may not be an endorsement but among the non mn vote having community choosing to be an aggro cunt to anyone turned off by the Nazi/abuser/&c stuff kind of is an endorsement I’m afraid

this.

the fact that (other than Alfred afaik) everyone here making the instrumentalization argument is a straight white middle aged man is really telling.

The fact that everyone one of your posts here is some kind of identity politics shaming technique is telling.

“I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less,” Trump told CNBC’s Eamon Javers in a phone interview midday Monday, saying he thought the protracted discussions “started to get very boring.”

A child.

The fact that everyone one of your posts here is some kind of identity politics shaming technique is telling.

nice, liberal racism at its finest

I’m working on making it finer.

Everyone here wrote off Tara Reade over less than that.

Everyone? You sure about that?

I’m working on making it finer.

― The Quaker Gurvitz Army (President Keyes), Saturday, June 6, 2026 12:23 PM (eleven minutes ago)

is 'it' the racism? are you serious?

i'm kinda surprised how much i think the thing that most makes platty untrustable is that he dated that *insert acceptable slur here* ever, at all. cmon man. cmon. nah. it's got to be some kind of nth level plot now. i think i am pretty serious.

_and_ he's a _bad_ bartender, too? these are flaws you can not personally grow your way out of

Xp dude makes enough "edgy" jokes to have convinced me

apparently got along well enough there with ryan grim!

Yes, I made a lot of ‘edgy’ jokes on here. A regular Shane Gillis I am.

How do some of you make it through the day with such literal minds

I feel like ILX's "accuse everyone you disagree with of bigotry" contingent has really expanded lately. There used to only be one or two, now there are like a half dozen of you assholes. It's so much fun!

yeah, talk about a politician you literally don't want to have a beer with.

xposts

maybe if you didn’t act like a bigot we wouldn’t be making a deal out of it.

remy bean made some very thoughtful and measured posts why, as a Hispanic man, he is uncomfortable with Platner, but apparently it didn’t penetrate some of you.

don’t you know, Boring, that’s just idpol speaking.

Then I withdraw the statement I forget making that Remy Bean must be comfortable with Graham Platner.

Pres Keyes, I think a lot of us, and I believe you too, have over the years realized how edgy “comedy” bigotry by white cis hetero males is hurtful to real people in powerless communities who are fellow humans and citizens and that broadly as “liberals” or whatever, we need to stop hurting these communities and that alleged ironic comedy bigotry is indistinguishable from and just as hurtful as “genuine” bigotry. If Platner has made a heartfelt apology along those lines, great. If not, he’s a piece of shit.

Then I withdraw the statement I forget making that Remy Bean must be comfortable with Graham Platner.

wasn’t referring to you specifically in that post

anyway it’s not one thing it’s a whole confluence of factors that make me suspicious of him, and yeah, being an internet edgelord on the Black Lives Matter era is only one part of it.

in the Black Lives Matter era

Boring, in response to Table calling me a racist I made an ironic joke rather than raging out and getting my feelings hurt. If that kind of thing is too toxic then I don’t know what to say.

it’s a whole confluence of factors that make me suspicious of him

I'm still curious what "suspicious of him" means.

Do you think he'll change parties and become a Republican?

Do you think he'll introduce legislation to limit black civil rights, or women's rights?

Do you think he'll vote for increased military funding?

Do you think he'll abuse his staffers?

What are the nature of your suspicions?

I know everyone likes to clown on Will Stancil, but I agree with his response on Bluesky to someone who said, "A vote is an endorsement. It says that being a Nazi and a domestic abuser is A-OK to you."

Stancil replied: "I'm sorry but I just don't believe this is correct. An endorsement is a statement about what you believe. A vote is an effort to pick between one of several possible futures."

"However much I dislike Platner - and I've been pretty consistent on not liking him - I greatly prefer the future where Democrats control the Senate and not Republicans, regardless of who represents Maine in the body.”

this is interesting - is voting an endorsement of what one believes?

i’m with the original commenter. voting is, at the very least, a tacit endorsement of what you believe. voting for someone who you find reprehensible means that, if you do have a red line for what you will accept, it hasn’t yet been crossed. this tacit endorsement of accepting total bullshit that you wouldn’t put up with, say, if they were your manager at fedex, the apathy it represents, is lethal when combined with the like 50-100 billionaires making up half the election spending….lol it’s a shitshow! anyway, i can see reasonable people disagreeing, i guess, but i think it’s waaaay more complicated to just dismiss the ways that votes ARE endorsements - if stancil and others don’t see it that way, that’s fine but since so many other people do see them as endorsements, they’re just getting played by following the rules of a system that got steamrolled recently

So much of the discussion in this thread seems to boil down to "He seems like an asshole, and such a person cannot be allowed to join the US Senate."

I don't disagree with the first part. He does seem like kind of an asshole. But the positions he's campaigning on are ones most of the people posting here would support. So either you want those positions advocated for in the US Senate, even if the person advocating for them is personally distasteful to you, or you don't.

xpost

judging a guy for his actions vs. his words: classic or dud

Do you think he'll change parties and become a Republican?

This is what makes the hardman support so baffling - if he was an ideological leader, the person who could make Medicare For All or a Green New Deal happen then it would make sense for some people to disregard their existing beliefs and attitudes to champion him so hard when it's completely unnecessary (those people not being Maine voters or members of the donor class). I get it from someone like you who is purely tribal, of course - you'd vote for Trump if he had a D behind his name and call everyone who demured a pansy who doesn't have your highly developed sense of political reality.

Platner's got Sinema-Fetterman written all over him.

is voting an endorsement of what one believes?

the idealist position is 'yes', but it applies much better in an ideal world than in reality. the only possible vote for a person that will infallibly represent what you believe in is a vote for yourself. every alternative vote will require some degree of compromise.

I'm still curious what "suspicious of him" means.

this q wasn’t for me, but the first thing that i think is that he has poor judgment. not long ago (although that, definitely), but in the last year. it was a big mistake for him to launch a huge ass campaign knowing that he had all this going on (and there’s gonna be more, probably supported by the republican operative, true, but i think NO one will be surprised if it’s also corroborated by other, multiple people. if you watch the end of that hayes interview clip above, the last 2 minutes, you can see where this is going.

he exercised poor judgment and instinct in thinking that this would not be a problem. he keeps talking about how proud he is of himself, first, and then quickly adding “our movement”, and if he really believes in that, he would understand that in a movement there is not one or a few but like a DOZEN OR TWO AMAZING LEADERS who all know each other and work with each other and believe in each other, etc, etc, and if one person goes down or needs a break or needs to step back or whatever, there are always so many more people ready to step up.

like, imagine having a timebomb in your back pocket that could go off at any time, and you decide that rather than supporting one of many other amazing young thoughtful potential candidates that exist ALL AROUND US, you instead decide…"hmmm, i need to be the guy. i’m going to run for senate even though i have these secret time bombs. and if someone finds out about my time bombs…that will be a betrayal. to me"

these are not good leadership qualities. they make me _suspicious_ of his _ability to be in office for longer than 18 months without bringing down the uss maine_

but wait! i forgot, i actually have a point! i kept forgetting to make it. and it’ll piss off everyone, both sides. COMING UP

Platner's got Sinema-Fetterman written all over him.

It’s worth remembering that Fetterman, like Manchin before him, is a lockstep D vote about 93% of the time. Israel/Gaza is pretty much the only place he breaks with the party’s left flank, and even there he’s still right in line with Schumer and Jeffries, aka the leaders of his party.

I'm in London about to meet the ILX crew. Stay tuned!

lol ok, no i don’t. anyway, i’m actually not worked up about this, i just think that reasonable people, especially the kind of reasonable people that the democratic party counts on to tacitly endorse them, can have differing views on the meaning of a vote and what it stands for beyond a 0 1 binary decision (or whether it means anything beyond that at all), but surely everyone should be able to understand why many, many people are reluctant to show support or get out the vote for a guy whose recovery from being a dirtbag is certainly worth rooting for but is also carrying some more timebombs

Boring, in response to Table calling me a racist I made an ironic joke rather than raging out and getting my feelings hurt. If that kind of thing is too toxic then I don’t know what to say.

no I understood that, I thought you had said something in a previous post about how many of us had said some edgelordy stuff in the past. I’ll
confess, I did too, but hope I’ve grown since then. And I hope I am
not coming off here as shaming people or calling them incorrigible racists. All
I’ve been trying to do is explain why I think Platner is deeply sus to me, which as I said is a confluence of many factors no individual one in is maybe disqualifying (except for abuse) but together make me think he’s going to be an unreliable ally.

say hello to londoners alfred! oh my god you’re all going to have negronis aren't you

Platner's got Sinema-Fetterman written all over him.

This is far from true.

Platner's got Sinema-Fetterman written all over him.

point taken, there are some signs of this, as z_tbd pointed out. to the degree the comparison turns out valid he'd be his own brand of bad and frustrating, leading to widely popular and useful initiatives being delayed, degraded or derailed.

this is, ofc, the primary reason why so many ilx progressives are fed up with the democratic party and spend vast amounts of their time and energy slagging off on it. the dems haven't acquired a unifying direction, defined by a short set of simple values. that's one thing the republicans do have, except those values are: taxes are bad, weapons are good, the US is a Christian Nation, socialism is evil, change is only good when it is retrograde. anyone who doesn't sign on to that agenda gets disciplined into submission or ejected.

say hello to londoners alfred! oh my god you’re all going to have negronis aren't you

― z_tbd, Saturday, June 6, 2026 1:52 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Negronis for everyone!

It’s worth remembering that Fetterman, like Manchin before him, is a lockstep D vote about 93% of the time

is it worth remembering this? is being six-percent republican not, like, bad? what math are you using to derive this figure? how much do you even care about our country funding a genocide (oh wait i remember your answer being "not at all")

anyway, again, what i'm getting from the surprisingly insistent defense of this guy, is that people think smoke has zero relationship to fire, and that what a guy says now is more important than what a guy has done in his past

is voting an endorsement of what one believes?

the idealist position is 'yes', but it applies much better in an ideal world than in reality. the only possible vote for a person that will infallibly represent what you believe in is a vote for yourself. every alternative vote will require some degree of compromise.

thanks for answering this aimless! and i agree with your rejection of the ideal world and your focus on reality, too! i agree with what you said, that no vote can perfectly represent a belief, but i don’t think that conflicts with the idea that voting is an _attempt_ to endorse your beliefs, no matter the impossibility of doing so. so many things are not 0.0 / 100.0%. most things are between those ideal, perfectly true and repeatable points. almost everything in reality is _between_ 0 and 100, like when i speak to you, the meaning of this paragraph, even! there is no way you could 100% understand it (even if you were in my mind somehow, because i’m not 100% believing what i’m saying now either, lol! i’m going with things that i believe 92% and up today. oh boy. malkovich.) colors, of course - the way i see green can never be like how you see it and plus we’ll never be able to verify it anyway, and what if we did verify that we see green in exactly the same way? wouldn’t that be sad? it would be like if we listened to the melvins in the exact same way, very strange!

frankly this guy is going to be in a position of power, with an entire power structure beneath him, and i don't think it's good for him to have that. really amazing that my position is unreasonable here, because the guy says good things xp

is it worth remembering this? is being six-percent republican not, like, bad?

It's less bad than 100% GOP votes, no question.

When matters is what the Republican votes are and how many people they hurt.

Also: Angus King, an indie who caucuses with Dems, does not preen like Fetteeman when he occasionally votes with GOP.

tl;dr even though it’s true that it’s impossible for a vote to perfectly represent a voter’s beliefs in a candidate, it still does function as an endorsement and is understood that way by many others

ivy otm

he seems like he has a lifelong history that he regrets, which is a bummer but also true of many people who chose to lie low and just do the work without the pursuit of power

is being six-percent republican not, like, bad?

considering how consistently bad the republicans are, being any percentage republican is bad. nobody here is in love with this guy as a model human being. his asshole quotient is much too high for that. the only defense of his candidacy being made here, afaics, is that he is running against someone who is 98% republican and therefore much worse in practice, even if she has a sort of vaguely grandmotherly image.

frankly this guy is going to be in a position of power, with an entire power structure beneath him, and i don't think it's good for him to have that. really amazing that my position is unreasonable here, because the guy says good things

I don’t think it’s unreasonable and personally I’ve already said I think Mills should be the nominee in light of the past week’s worth of further damning stuff.

If he is the nominee anyway, then I still hope he wins because of the broader power dynamics of the U.S. Senate as a possible check on the worst abuses of the Trump administration. I can understand not agreeing with that, BUT I think that people who want to make that argument should acknowledge the significant potential moral and ethical downsides of that position. My only objection is to anyone pretending that there’s some obviously right morally uncompromised position here, because (as is often true in our political system) I don’t think that’s the case.

you are quite adept at summarising the utterly suffocating liberal melt ethos tipsy and your politics suck shit, mate. I wouldn't be able to live in a world where your bullshit realpolitik is the limit to any ambition for change. Just saying, mate!

don't post on the US pol thread calz, we don't want you getting a month ban again. leave them to whatever the fuck is going on here.

consider me gone!

I don’t mind getting yelled at, whatever, but I am quite honestly curious Calz what you think the morally best choice would be between Platner and Collins and why. Because if you haven’t given that enough thought to make a coherent argument about it, then you’re the one avoiding the actual moral issues. FWIW.

(I don’t really expect an answer that’s not some string of insults, but would be happy to read one.)

they make me _suspicious_ of his _ability to be in office for longer than 18 months without bringing down the uss maine_

I mean the truly ideal scenario is that he gets into office, is forced to resign in swift order, and then the next governor of Maine replaces him with a different Democrat. (There is a gubernatorial election in Maine this year, too, so this plan requires a Democrat winning that race.)

his guy is going to be in a position of power, with an entire power structure beneath him

that's not how the Senate works. individual neophyte senators have very limited power until they work their way up the seniority ladder far enough to be a committee chair, or get elected their party's Leader or Whip. Even then, the real power comes via votes on the floor and those must be in aggregate to succeed. If fewer than 39 other senators join your vote, your position on anything makes no difference at all to the power structure.

any other kind of power you accrue depends on how you choose to play your strengths and weaknesses in the pursuit of your positions. we all know about Manchin/Sinema because they leveraged their individual vote within a literally 50/50 Senate by joining the opposition or making threats to do that. Collins is best known for making the same kind of threats to join the democrats, but then never following through to cast a deciding vote against her caucus. Never.

thanks for the wisdom from your long career on the senate aimless

in the senate

totally ruined my attempted burn 🔥 of Aimless. You’re a good guy but you do your Aimsplaining thing very often.

truly, the operations of the US senate are a deep mystery, known only to a few adepts who have spent decades within its occult precincts and those initiates are sworn to eternal secrecy, like the Illuminati.

even though it’s true that it’s impossible for a vote to perfectly represent a voter’s beliefs in a candidate, it still does function as an endorsement and is understood that way by many others

I think the internet and social media have had a lot to do with this perception. It's easier to think that your vote is an endorsement when you are surrounded by thousands of messages in favor of a candidate that function as mini-endorsements. Filling in the circle for a candidate feels like you're doing the same thing as making a positive Facebook post about them. But it's not.

you do your Aimsplaining thing very often.

both my parents were teachers. i was a technical writer. i like to make accurate descriptions of ideas or processes, including accurate descriptions of my beliefs or my opinions and what they are based upon. it's a bit compulsive. ;-)

fair!

really amazing that my position is unreasonable here

FWIW I don't think it is, and I think most of us agree with you, there are just a couple of people here who seem to be in Platner's corner.

The politics of this in the broader online world outside ilx are interesting, as someone mentioned above. The most vociferous Platner defenders are super anti-Zionist lefties, and the loudest objections are coming from the center (many of whom are probably more alarmed by his stated politics than his personal transgressions). From the former I’ve seen comments like, “Oh so genocide’s fine, but this is where you draw a line?” (Not a position I’m endorsing, it’s just falling out in interesting ways on the left.)

The most vociferous Platner defenders are super anti-Zionist lefties, and the loudest objections are coming from the center (many of whom are probably more alarmed by his stated politics than his personal transgressions). From the former I’ve seen comments like, “Oh so genocide’s fine, but this is where you draw a line?”

This is exactly why I find table's posturing so laughable. Last year, when we were talking about Kamala Harris, his argument was that Gaza was the single most important issue, period, no exceptions, if you're wrong on Gaza you are the embodiment of evil and thus only a bigot and fascist could ever support Harris. Platner is 100% in line with table's position on Gaza, uses words like "genocide" and "war crime" constantly, but his tattoo and the testimony of his Republican ex-girlfriend that he was a shitty boyfriend are the reasons he must be cast out. One might almost suspect table is just looking for reasons to cast people out.

Or that I have courage of my convictions, and Nazi tattoos don’t appear on people without them being Nazis, and I also don’t like Nazis?

There are plenty of virulent anti-semites and racist motherfuckers who are calling the genocide a genocide, that doesn’t mean I support Tucker fucking Carlson or Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Like even dudes who have been in prison— I have known quite a few!— who get the Nazi tats as part of expedience and protection, it might be understandable but if you keep that shit when you get to the outside, then that’s sus!!

I like just about all you and I really wish some grace could be given to each other knowing that we are fundamentally on the same side and the real world impact of our opinions is minuscule. Nobody here likes nazis ffs.

Only the good Nazis

lol calzino was picking on tipsy of all people?

not even the first time

I quoted something on the Iran thread that he got mad at. But no ill will from me. Times are hard and weird and people are going to vent.

tipsy has the right approach

tipsy has the right approach

Taking a dispassionate view of how hard and weird the times are becomes easier when there is some cushioning between you and the struggle and the weirdness. From what calzino says here about his personal circumstances, that distance doesn't exist and hard times are perpetual and inescapable, so the privilege implied by dispassion feels like an affront... is how I break it down to an extent.

It’s worth remembering that Fetterman, like Manchin before him, is a lockstep D vote about 93% of the time

is it worth remembering this? is being six-percent republican not, like, bad? what math are you using to derive this figure? how much do you even care about our country funding a genocide (oh wait i remember your answer being "not at all")

― ivy., Saturday, June 6, 2026 11:03 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

if the worst case scenario is 10% defection rate (which would be completely at odds with this platform), that would be so, so much better than collins

This idea that Platner is going to turn out like Fetterman is pretty daft. Fetterman was always taking AIPAC money and direction even when he was presenting as a Progressive. Platner is hated by Zionists, Centrist Dems, and Fetterman himself. The dynamic is completely different.

As someone who compared GP to Fetterman early on, I can now say that I agree the comparison shouldn't be so direct; as in, I wouldn't expect Platner to do *exactly* what Fetterman has done. The comparison is better rooted in the fact that GP's entire narrative is that he has undergone a massive political shift in relatively short time from edgelord right-wing merc posting in favor of sexual assault to staunch leftist, plus he has no record of public service or political action (I think z_tbd had a good post about this like 50 posts ago) to go by. So the "Fetterman vibes" are more about him being demonstrably malleable in his political convictions and policy commitments, which are the things we're being asked to count on to balance out his horrendous character defects. Speaking of: wtf at unperson consistently downplaying the allegations as "shitty boyfriend" behavior. You don't have to believe the source if that's how you want to live your life — a very cool logic that of course applies to anyone on the left accusing anyone on the right (milo has also been otm a few times itt) — but denying that what is alleged constitutes domestic abuse is a different matter.

xp -

Instead of “taking AIPAC money” he’s expressed a wide range of reactionary viewpoints and gotten paid to commit war crimes himself.

His entire leftist cred is based on vibes less than a couple of years old. Sinema genuinely had stronger progressive bona fides when she got elected.

Platner becoming Fetterman is a best case scenario of political reversion, he’s as likely to become a paleocon as an annoying centrist.

Maybe he holds the line, maybe he doesn’t. Anyone convinced they have some real insight into the ideology by which he’d represent Maine is lying to themself.

wtf at unperson consistently downplaying the allegations as "shitty boyfriend" behavior

I will have been married for 33 years next week. My wife and I have had altercations in the past that many of you in this thread would undoubtedly describe as "domestic abuse" if you thought you could score a rhetorical point by doing so. And to reiterate, the woman accusing Platner of being physically abusive to her is a Republican political operative who literally worked to get Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. So her stance on domestic violence is basically "if it happens to me, it's awful; if it happens to literally anyone else, I could give a fuck."

i know you won’t be receptive to this kind of language but there’s a lot to unpack there

xxp

Guy with nazi tattoo loudly proclaiming they don't take AIPAC money as if the two cancel each other out. I know it's hard to accept because people on here have very sincere beliefs about Gaza, but in the wider internet, you do not have to dig deep to see these conversations spill into outright antisemitism on a regular basis.

He strikes me as a leftist in the same way that JD Vance is a Catholic, a late life conversion that becomes their whole loud personality, even when it becomes strangely at odds with people who have held these beliefs their whole lives.

and honestly, it doesn’t have to be / shouldn’t be here
xp

milo OTM above

i know you won’t be receptive to this kind of language but there’s a lot to unpack there

There really isn't. We got married at 21 and we used to fight a lot. Now we don't.

Feel like people may be less bothered by “we used to fight” than your “and you snowflakes might call it domestic abuse” framing.

it’s literally categorically domestic abuse. saying “i too was a domestic abuser” as a method of advancing your argument is certainly a choice

I get it if you gotta choose the smaller shitbag but at least call the shitbag a shitbag.

Definitely a lot of people out there conflating "this is a common occurrence" with "this is an acceptable occurrence".