The Democratic presidential debates need to have spring loaded traps underneath each candidate and any time one of them says "we need to move on" or "I'm focused on the future, not the past" they should be immediately launched through the roof of the auditorium.

Twice Dems literally put up two candidates that were qualified and competent and both would’ve made damn fine presidents and we’d be sleeping well tonight with a liberal Supreme Court and Trump at trial. Alas, white men don’t take their unresolved mommy issues to therapy and here we are.

Uncle Fester

Thanks! Amen! And that there is a certain kind of person who is incessantly judged worthy of forgiveness, pardon, slack cut, etc. and Platner is the perfect specimen of same. Or even whom we are told we must forgive or not hold responsible for his (yeah, usually HIS) actions in the first place.

so...just, in future, it would be helpful if we could avoid obsessing about what people feel in their heart and look more directly at what they are doing.

and people who dismissed the tattoo because they thought they could see into his heart were also putting him above the coalition that he was supposed to be serving.

and the way to recognize that damage, the way to show you are remorseful and have changed, is to step down. and when he didn't do that, that was a huge sign that he saw himself as more important than the movement or the coalition.

"people who have nazi tattoos for twenty years should be progressive leaders" normalized hate and bigotry in damaging ways.

for Sojourner's, I wrote about Platner and the idea that the way you evaluate bigotry is by looking into the heart of the bigot, rather than at the effect of the bigotry. sojo.net/articles/opi...

The Leftovers

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

NEW: Aurora Police say an ICE detention center employee shot a protester last night. She is expected to survive. 42-year-old Brandon Booth, who works for the ICE contractor GEO Group, is being held on suspicion of attempted second degree murder and other charges.

“In an email last August to fellow Democratic operatives, Moraff described Platner as “a cross between a rugged JFK and Bernie Sanders” and hailed him as “one of the most talented politicians of our time. Maybe any time.” They weren’t winning men or people without degrees. The entire theory failed.

To the question of why it’s so important to examine politicians morals and personal behavior, and act on it. We were days away from being in a situation where this psycho murdered someone in the streets and Maine democrats were running a senate candidate with the exact same resume and profile.

I wrote this on twitter about the Graham Platner debacle, specifically in response to Sheldon Whitehouse continuing to cast aspersions on one of Platner's alleged victims: Lyndsey Fifield. We were very close to something disastrous, which the GOP intended. Not being truth-forward put us in danger.

1/ Wondering what the FBI has been doing with 2020 election materials it seized in a raid earlier this year, and how it figures into Trump’s plans for the midterm elections? Well, @ProPublica has been working to find out. 🧵👇

Platner, "for all his flaws," conveyed that he's real good at telling people what they want to hear. Where's the evidence he ever actually put his money where his mouth is? Besides selling oysters to his mom's restaurant. Didn't even have to be political office. What in the resume adds up?

also if you ignored all the massive red flags, you don't get to say 'well actually I was morally right all along', you should eat shit publicly because you were a fucking moron.

A reminder that Trump shut down not one but two of his own voter fraud commissions because they found no evidence of fraud, and that he filed 61 lawsuits after 2020 and lost all 61 because he could offer no evidence of fraud. 25th Amendment NOW. 2/2

Trump must be impeached for undermining and subverting our free and fair elections. And when he sends ICE agents to the polls, then we must turn civic action into civil disobedience and take to the streets. Sit in. Protest. Withhold our labor. Everything must be on the table.

6 years later and the orange felon still can’t provide any factual tangible credible evidence of the 2020 election being rigged except for the fantasy he creates in his psychotic head.

People have become jaded to it, but a President who threatens to outlaw media in a free society should be immediately removed from office. Trump's words are completely antithetical to the core American commitments of free speech and free press.

Trump's speech was nothing. It wasn't a Reichstag Fire moment or the end of democracy or a national emergency or anything. It was a hoarse old man shouting about how wronged he is and how pathetic our country is. Nobody is listening anymore.

Trump will lie about the 2020 election. Trump will lie about the 2026 election. But, if Trump claims powers he does not have, or tries to undermine free and fair election, we will sue and we will win. If you doubt me, take a look at my record in beating him and his allies in court.

Love @tedlieu.bsky.social for this:

Let’s be really clear about this lettuce situation: it’s not just the destruction of public health tracking, it’s also years and years of ending regulations that would have prevented conditions causing outbreaks in the first place, combined with climate change that makes them more likely to happen.

I would like one plank of the 2028 Democratic platform to read: WE ARE GOING TO SEND EVERY ONE OF YOU CORRUPT MOTHERFUCKERS TO PRISON.

So Cleta Mitchell's little cohort of election deniers and influencers that were brought to the WH to prepare to spin Trump's speech tonight were told to sign nondisclosure agreements. www.ms.now/news/electio...

Rep. Aisha Gomez: “To look at people standing up against ICE and see ‘paid protesters’ says nothing about us and everything about you.” “That you cannot conceive of us loving our neighbors so much that we would actually do something for them.”

This is as compelling a case for keeping the SC primary first in the nation as you'll find. I agree wholeheartedly that the party needs, at this juncture in history, to keep faith with the Black voters who are an indispensable part of our coalition.

Once again tapping the “most working class voters in the United States are non-white” sign.

According to the article, all she's been doing is TAPING articles onto the walls. TAPING. Not spraypainting, not carving, not damaging. Just TAPING. And they're calling that vandalism. This too is fascism.

Again, the folks who claim to value authenticity the most are the ones who have the worst calibrated authenticity sensors. Just embarrassing snow jobs...

I think one reason data center outrage is so pronounced is people spent decades recycling and composting and otherwise scrimping to offset energy use and protect clean water, and the second we hit an inflection point for cheap electricity the banking industry said we’re taking all of it, fuck you

"Stop criticizing us or will keep murdering people" is just a jaw-dropping thing for a government official to say.

If/when the sore loser blames China tonight, it'll explain to everyone why he & his lackeys have been going on about "Communism" for the past month. All because Trump just can't take a loss. They are the worst poker players in the world. bsky.app/profile/robv...

They also stormed the county elections to intimidate the vote counters. Kind of a rehearsal for Jan 6. It didn't start with Trump, Republicans have always been this way.

When Democrats fought to extend the Florida recount in 2000, Republicans blanketed the airwaves with this stuff, even printing up Sore/Loserman signs that mimicked the Gore/Lieberman campaign. It was very effective! Trump *is* a sore loser and he *is* throwing a sad tantrum. Call it out like that!

The argument that somehow Platner’s life history of getting kicked out of (fancy private) school, aimless drifting, and being a drunk asshole is somehow representative of the lives of working class people is deeply insulting to actual working class people.

it strikes me as a problem that one half of American politics is not just weird, fasc-y, or oppurtunistic, but also legit pants on head stupid.

If you’re a journalist with erudite friends that have dinner parties with wine, Platner seems working class. If you’re a lib from upstate NY he seems like that dumb guy John, who sucks, from down the street

Believe it or not, normie Dems also want you to have nice things and live a good life. They just don't lie to you about getting it to you quickly with shit that likely won't work.

Whatever he says tonight, the clip Ossoff mentions here and clips from the impeachment trials should be playing on repeat. The brazen negligence of the media to continue treating Trump with kid gloves is apparent

The murders will continue until the murders are allowed to continue.

We’ve known for years that foreign governments have attempted to influence our elections – many supporting President Trump. But the fact is, the IC resoundingly found that no foreign governments successfully interfered in the 2020 election.

That's a lie. Let that sink in. This stupid new talking point that giving Israel money to buy weapons from the US has anything to do with Israeli domestic safety nets takes levels of delusion. We don't have UHC because of racism in america so voters don't elect pple who will enact it.

*candidate gets a commercial funded by AIPAC* AIPAC CANDIDATE AIPAC CANDIDATE *candidate gets shitloads of money from GOP PAC* This is a totally normal progressive who deserves your support!

So now he wants to obscure the judgment of troops and turn them into hyped-up killers. And what of the women? When is it enough? Generals? Former and current. Will you speak? Military doctors? Former Secys of Defense? Former Commander-in-Chiefs? Mothers of active duty troops? Isn’t it ENOUGH??

UPDATE: Today, I had my court hearing for protesting rigged maps.

Like when you gave our ventilators to your puppet master Putin, or when you downplayed the gravity of Covid, or blamed China? Or was it poo-pooing maskwearing or promoting quacky treatments? High on my list is the utter disrespect you showed to Dr. Fauci. Thanks big guy for squat.