I'm pretty worried about declining literacy and all the attendant social/political/cultural/psychological degradation that comes along with that. But I think writers in particular should have a little more confidence in the enduring value of the written word.

My new catch phrase is "have some pride" So many of our problems are fundamentally about people refusing to behave as if they or anything they love has any value

really, REALLY wish there had been more discussion at the time he covered up the tattoo that he did so with... other, slightly more obscure white nationalist symbology.

what a surprise. again, he reacted like this when the Nazi tattoo was revealed! he wasn't contrite, there was no actual acceptance or suggestion of change, it was pure entitlement and anger. All of this should have been obvious.

sadly this also ends his career as an oysterman as he no longer needs to pretend to have a job

And may we not fall for the obvious grift again, amen. (We will.)

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I just saw someone say that hindsight is 20/20 on Graham Platner, and let me just say that if you did not see this coming, your vision for such things needs to be checked.

Data center developers in Pennsylvania plan to rely on at least seven new natural gas-fired power plants that would emit climate-warming gases equal to adding 14 million cars on the road every year, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project. From @insideclimatenews.org

i love how every facet of the Entertainment Industry is a massive money printing machine and across its every tendril the people who actually make that money wind up broke and unemployed

my new favorite social media trend is posting birthday plans to close friends like a band advertising a pop-up show to fan club members. the internet has made everything feel insane but at least we're in it together, I guess.

Never trust the actions or words of a person incapable of genuine self-reflection. Leftist women have spent years calling out these types of misogynist internet edgelord men. I wish I had hope that the ones like these two, who have built loud, sycophantic followings, will change for the better.

oh well! rape happens!

The portable AC in my attic apartment went out for a few hours on Friday. It was 97 degrees inside at 9 p.m. I was very close to being one of these people. I did not leave the Gulf Coast for this!!

AI is the leading reason for layoffs in America for the fourth consecutive month. Workers are scared that they’re losing their place in this economy. AI guardrails that protect our jobs are more critical than ever.

Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old Black man, went out with a group of people to Horn Island off the coast of Mississippi for a July 4th party. The people he went with returned. He did not. His body was found on the island yesterday.

Heartbreaking hearing that the woman who Platner raped was hesitant to come forward because she agreed with his politics and didn’t want to damage the movement. If you didn’t already realize, this sort of thing happens a lot you just don’t usually hear about it

if i had a nickel for every time progressives/leftists in swpa tried to warn others about the abusive, racist grifter cosplaying as a salt-of-the-earth, working-class, everyman's hero type, i'd have 2 nickels. bsky.app/profile/publ...

After 8 years, I’m just tired of talking about it. It’s all very simple. Abusive men are always protected, and people who speak up are attacked. You’re accused of ruining their lives, and they go on to cause more harm. It’s nothing new. I’m exhausted.

Moraff was the campaign manager of several candidates here in Pittsburgh, including very popular ones, and criticism of Moraff was ALWAYS twisted to be criticism of the candidates. This tactic made it impossible to talk about these fucking slime balls and their behavior toward women.

It all feels like forever ago and now I’m just exhausted and bitter. This whole thing has been like watching a train barreling down slowly, and screaming yourself hoarse. Nobody ever listens, when it comes to bad men doing electoral work. Nobody ever listens, and they try to scare you.

I may never stop feeling bitter about this. We tried to speak out in 2018 and it led to months of harassment from DSA members, even national. They tried to expel us after pointing out this abuser’s work with his abusive friends. People even showed up at our jobs. Talked shit to our coworkers.

If roughing up a girlfriend and locking her in a room was a virile, authentic a rejection of “smoothgroined” “HR lady” politics, but a rape is too far, then what’s at stake is not a principled rejection of violence against women but a cynical assessment of how much violence a man can get away with.

Must be said, Bluesky was way more correct about Platner

Nolan Wells' mother has confirmed his death. He vanished on July Fourth after going out to Horn Island, just off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This morning, a ranger found a body on Horn Island. www.mississippifreepress.org/nolan-wells-...

You can’t get a Platner the kind of party support he got without a lot of people working behind the scenes who are willing to protect racists and rapists. If victims are systematically pushed out, then that’s who’s left in the room: only people who think violence and bigotry are “not that bad.”

A lot of the best takes on Platner have come from women pushed out of politics in the wake of men’s violence. Sometimes they were victims, sometimes they were in solidarity with victims. Often, the perpetrators were staffers who will never face the scrutiny candidates do. It’s a systemic issue.

it once again bears repeating: that platner is even a candidate is because this guy, who was run out of Pittsburgh for recruiting/managing multiple candidates accused of DV/SA, who himself has allegations against him, recruited platner he should be blacklisted until the end of time

the high-profile people who supported platner ignored the nazi tattoo, so a bunch of women came forward to report sketchy behavior, which they also ignored, until this woman had to come forward and tell her full story. i hope they do some reflecting on how and why they put her in that position

Ken Klippenstein should never live this down.

full fuckin stop

the last round of allegations against platner were also credible, btw.

Can anybody check on K*n Klipp*nst*in? wonder if he's taking a break from calling people who think domestic violence is disqualifying for public office "smoothgroins," breaking news considered and all that.

Intimate partner violence and sexual assault usually co-occur. In fact, men who hurt their significant others are among the most likely to commit *all* kinds of violence. The idea that men can mistreat women in private and be trusted in public is absurd.

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This is part of why it’s important to not lean into edgelordism or defenses of toxic masculinity—you become completely blind to (and tolerant of) obvious moral failings

Re: Graham Platner, I felt like I was being punked when people acted like he wasn’t obviously dishonest and untrustworthy this entire time. Starting with the unbelievable defense of his tattoo, which I was shocked to see people fall for

it was really something how many center-left pundits had a noble savage view of the Maine senate race. “oh these voters are morons, just throw an epic based longshoreman at them and they’ll vote for whatever” as a defense for their guy being an obvious timebomb

Sounds like the annoying and shrill pro-DEI ladies who said that perhaps running someone who in adulthood knowingly had Nazi tattoos inked to their body was not a great idea were right...

Yes, and, the work of establishing democratic freedom on earth will not be done until rape culture lies in ashes

He lied about every single thing. Everyday. He ran knowing full well who he is while presenting himself as someone else (poorly). He wasted everyone’s time & money & shattered people’s credibility. He used the political process as a vanity project to the detriment of the folks he wanted to represent

I have edited a lot of sexual-assault-accusation articles, and this one easily clears every veracity check: contemporaneous emails with her therapist, a boyfriend who knew, a woman she warned—all before Platner ran for office. Good on Politico for nailing it, and on Jenny Racicot for speaking up.

Incredible how some of us weren't simply bloviating when that NYT story dropped! www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

The billionaire co-founder of AirBnB wants you to blame the babies of undocumented immigrants for starter homes being unaffordable.

Sorry to lib out but I guess my thought on the Fourth is that if it wasn’t possible for this country to really be an egalitarian multiracial democracy someday, the most disgusting people alive wouldn’t be trying so hard to foreclose that possibility