Dean Obeidallah: Susan Collins Can’t Win If Democrats Pick This [Type Of] Candidate (link…)
If the choice of a candidate comes down to the decision of the Maine Dem Party, I can see two arguments being posed in the days to come:
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“We have to listen to the aspirations of our constituents; we can’t do another Harris-style coronation!”
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“The voters should have known Platner was not solid; the tatoo, Blackwater, the drinking!”
If they don’t make the right choice on those two arguments, they will be locked out for another six years…
I have an open mind that the Maine Dem Party will try and do the right thing.
But if they try and swap in someone who’s Israel First and/or no pro-worker, I think there should be a massive Platner write-in campaign -even if his resignation letter might disqualify a later appointment.
Jackson is OUTPOLLING Collins at the moment. Wait for some ziopolls claim that he is not!! That would be political malpractice if the Maine Dem Party tries to go against credible polling with a less pro-worker, more Israel First candidtate…
I still support Planter. I believe that there is a presumption of innocence. People seem so attention thirsty that their zeal for clicks out weights their desire for sound judgment.
I believe the only two people that know what happened between them is the two people involved. The timing is suspicious, and no court could adjudicate the facts in time for the election. That isn’t Grahams fault.
Would these allegations surfaced if he had not ran for Maine’s congressional seat?
Likely not, although these allegations seem be backed by the idea of disclosure. That seems like an odd statement.
Although given the timing there is no way proper judgment could be rendered by anyone. That seems to lack judgment. It seems like obscuring very serious allegations by taking away the public’s ability to scrutinize them in a way they deserve to be.
Sure we all would like to know who Graham is. Although it would appear the forces opposing Graham have exposed who they are. Accountability is important, but this isn’t accountability this is hysteria.
This hysteria masquerades by wearing the clothes of sound judgment. Perhaps there could be a hope that everyone takes a moment and calmly reconsiders their positions.
Sorry about all the edits I clearly am out of practice in the area of dialectics.
I gather she believes she got raped (note that is not the same as “she got raped”!) I am pissed off she came forward so late! To be fair to the [Dem] voters of Maine, she should have done it at the beginning of his primary (NOT when the NY Times article was dropped…)
Let’s recap:
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she sends an invite for him to get a “glute massge”;
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she then rescinds it (and by that point he might have been blackout drunk and couldn’t read it! -not to excuse Platner, but just to explain how it came to pass…);
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she leaves her door open after rescinding her invitation (and don’t give me any of this “it’s Maine” crap! Maine has had some very violent killers…)
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she doesn’t go to an ER to get emergency contraception (she didn’t call the police, but that’s understandable because she appeared to have been a friend of his, so she did not want to wreck his life…);
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she didn’t stay over at a friend’s after the incident; and
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the piece de resitance: she waits until the close of the primary to come forward!
I think/believe the culprit of the incident on Platner’s part was an extreme level of intoxication. That doesn’t excuse him, but it explains it and puts it in a different light as opposed to being a mad rapist. It’s analogous to manslaughter with drunk driving as opposed to pre-planned vehicular homicide (THOUGH CLEARLY NOT THE SAME IN TERMS OF SEVERITY!)
Well; let’s see if the caucus listens to the sentiment of the people reflected in their LOCAL longstanding newspaper polls (vis a vis Jackson…) If they blow that off or even those local lomgstanding newspaper pollsters succumb to mega zionazi bribery, nothing can be done except a write-in for Platner (to express contempt for the Party if they pull that one…)
But you should recognize that he can’t run now (even if elected…) because he sent in a letter of withdrawal.
I don’t see why they didn’t redo the primary in 2 weeks, in a mad dash. <sarcasm>I guess the Maine Dem Party’s schedules were full</sarcasm> (though I am open to an explanation here as to why that was not possible, as difficult as it would have been…)
Yeah it seems like this should have been handled differently. I don’t know the details so perhaps I am way off base. If I am forgive my ignorance. It seems like she was upset but also felt conflicted about it. If it was more serious fine. Take your allegations to the police.
If it wasn’t also fine deal with it privately.
This version seems like an odd combination of the two. It harms maximally all involved including the two parties and their families who didn’t deserve to be involved. What graham now is condemned without all the facts? Conversely she shouldn’t feel fear that she needs to be quite.
Many women have had their lives ruined by this sort of thing. They deserve to be taken seriously. Many men have also had their lives ruined by a rush to judgment.
I would hope forgiveness would surface allowing cooler heads to prevail. I would wish Graham apologize for his behavior because this could have been handled better by everyone.
If she feels that it is appropriate I wish she would consider accepting his apology.
In my opinion the people that deserve to answer questions are Jessica Piper and Adam Wren. Given what we know now. How could they omit important facts and claim they hold integrity?
Grahams’s mistake was getting repeatedly blackout drunk. Her mistakeS -well, those are listed above. He has to accept responsibility for the alcohol, and he should take a LITTLE solace that the outcome was not a drunk driving death,
ICE agent just killed in Maine. Wait for the protestations from Collins!
Where the fuck were you these past 12 years??
There should be no street autonomy for ICE. Their only job should be to do customs inspections and transport illegals who committed crimes. Only local police should be charged with detaining immigrants who committed crimes. Once a court has weighed in on it and it is determined that someone needs to be deported, ICE’s job should be the transport of such criminals back to their country of origin (or country of entry, if that cannot be determined…)
If some immigrants are entering illegally, fix that entry; don’t send a gestapo out to kill on our streets…
Do you have any information as to why TYT does not seem to have done an interview with Costello, LaFlamme or Mills or the Democratic officials who have some say-so in the process in Maine? Or maybe even interview Platner if it seems like he is still in the running. Or maybe TYT has done this? There’s a story here, as to helping the public both in and outside of Maine understand what the various legal and other issues are.
From an interview I heard a month or two ago, it sounds like Mills is just the usual establishment-endorsed Democrat, but hopefully TYT can also research this for themselves.
I do see that AIPAC is clearly supporting Collins. It would be a shame if Collins runs against another AIPAC supported candidate.
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I have almost never seen Turks interview Dem leadership. Turks are the enemy to them.
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Platner cannot run; he filed his resignation letter (though nothing will stop protest writeins from happening if the caucus gives a middle finger to voters and pick someone who is not reflecting the popular choice in LOCAL polling that is trustworthy…)
ah, I see, there is to be a convention on July 25 in Bangor. Well, it looks like the Dems in Maine are more on top of this than I realized. In theory it looks like whoever is nominated will come out of that process in something like a fair way, though I can’t read the procedure and tell if it will be fair for sure. I don’t see Mills as a declared candidate. That’s a good thing I guess, since she had Schumer’s endorsement and this makes me think she’s probably compromised.
"…Process
No political party in Maine has replaced their nominee in an election before. While the exact process to be used was not immediately certain, Maine Democratic Party officials and others like Maine Senate president Mattie Daughtry called for an open and inclusive process.[222] On July 8, the Maine Democratic Party voted to hold a state party convention to nominate a candidate to replace Platner as the Democratic nominee;[223] the convention will be held on July 25 in Bangor.[224] The convention will consist of 600 delegates overall, including the party’s state committee.[223] 500 of the delegates will be elected at county-level meetings. All delegates at the convention will be unpledged.[225]
In order to qualify for the convention, replacement candidates must collect at least 500 signatures, with at least 50 signatures from 8 different counties.[226]
Shah was the first to meet the signature threshold.[227]…"
My take: if they don’t pick Jackson, there will be a rebellion.
The voters want the issues that were pushed by Platner; look at the other candidates and see who comes close to supporting them. It will come down to an indicator based on trusted local polling.
The problem in Maine is the Dem politicos are at odds with some of the issues that had been pushed by Platner and endorsed by the voters (anti-Israel First; REAL pro worker issues; etc.)
If Progressives cant figure out a simple trick like this, we have no hope. Let’s think about this for a minute, shall we? She is so scared of the potential consequences for reporting rape, that she doesn’t kick him out that night, she doesn’t call the cops, she lets him sleep, and she never goes to the ER. She tells her therapist it happened, but just before she goes public with her accusations. Do we see the problem here? Somehow, she miraculously gained the immense courage required to go public knowing it would bring the hell hounds down on her head. We have to stop sanctifying the marginalized or were fucked. This attitude of “well, she said it happened so it happened” must stop. So, what if Platner were to spearhead an effective effort to remove Israel from our govt, thus stopping future genocides? Are we saying the word of this unknown woman outweighs the potential to save millions of lives? Jesus H Christ man, wtf are we doing???
It’s a difficult situation because the Dems want to set an example of no acceptance for misogyny in their candidates. If the Dems let it slip by, then it’s another victory for the Repubs of a further normalization of destructive behavior (and this normalization of Trump and Repub behavior by corporate media is flipping me the fuck out!)
I don’t think Platner assaulted her; it was a case of confusing signals sent at a time when he was EXTREMELY drunk That can’t excuse the poor judgement of his being extremely drunk (at the time, it was not a rare occurrence for him!)
Yes: she was a ditz to come forward so late, so that the voters could not decide in the primary! (maybe Jackson would have entered the primary at such an earlier date and in light of the greater charge being alleged -we’ll probably never know…)
So we deal with it. Thankfully Collins is so horrible, even though Jackson is not as good a speaker as Platner is, she will ultimately go down…
Ditz? Maybe, but how do we know? Why do we just have to take her word for it? At the time she didn’t have the courage to “come forward”, presumably due to fear of the reaction from law enforcement, family, friends, whatever. Ok, fine, but she somehow found remarkable courage to reveal this when she KNOWS the spotlight will be nuclear. Does that make sense to you? She didn’t have the courage to tell her therapist, at the time, but somehow found it two years later when there’s a fucking CNN truck outside her house? The ideas behind the 5th, 6th and 14th amendments aren’t just for the court of law. Their spirit is an underpinning of true democracy. Sure, the burden of proof is critical because so much is at stake in criminal court. However, I would argue there is even more at stake in this burgeoning rebellion against corporate and foreign government PAC $. This threat is existential and if we have a true fighter, willing to take on AIPAC, Pharma, Oil, etc then THEY have to prove what they are saying is true and not vice versa. Think about the lengths to which Mosad, MI6 and the CIA have gone, to advance and protect their political interests. They developed an industrialized child rape and trafficking “program” to gain blackmail control on the worlds most powerful people. IF they can do that, doesnt it seem highly likely they could “convince” a rando woman from Nowhere, Maine to take a tiny kernel of truth and turn it into a giant, damaging lie? It’s the drug cartel playbook and its very simple. The easy way or the hard way. Take the bag or we kill your family in front of you. That sort of dynamic tends to sharpen the mind and help a person remember exactly what they want them to remember. Maybe I am way out there, but that is the point. Maybe and maybe not, so if they cant prove it, they can eat a bag of dicks.