I've directed John Roberts in a good half-dozen or more shows, and he's been a friend for a long time as well. Good preview/interview from @kerryreid.bsky.social of the large-cast play he's cooking up in an Edgewater bar: chicagoreader.com/performing-a...

Leadership at DSA. Top people around Bernie. The masthead of Jacobin. Chapo. I’ve worked in Dem politics since the 1990’s & in all those years I don’t think I’ve met as many trust fund nepo-babies as you’d find at one “leftist” strategy meeting.

Disappointed in what, Morris? Disappointed how?

Couldn't POSSIBLY be!

Lemme explain what the words BELIEVE WOMEN should mean. They don't mean you have to believe women no matter what. They do mean that you have to treat women as a source the same way you'd treat a man.

Alarming story that confirms my own reporting along similar lines: Dan Moraff, the political strategist who plucked Graham Platner out of obscurity to run for senate and barely vetted him, was barred from Rep. Summer Lee’s 2022 campaign after three complaints of sexual misconduct.

AIPAC is bad. They tried to buy my Congressional district & attacked the eventual winner, a progressive advocate for a 2 state solution whose mother is Israeli, because he wouldn’t be a goon for Netanyahu But too many of the anti-AIPAC people aren’t differentiating btwn Israel’s gov’t/Israel/Jews

They were pushing Platner to reach across the aisle to connect with Tucker Carlson, all while accusing Democrats of playing too nice with right wingers. What do these people even believe in?

Wearing an SS Nazi Death Camp Tattoo for 20 years while posting racist, sexist, homophobic, and ableist things all over social media, while excusing rape as justifiable and laughing about desecrating corpses... THAT is why we're telling you Platner is a bad man. He's Trump-lite. Get rid of him.

& is also gender just as we often ask female victims to see a male abuser's point of view (what @katemanne.bsky.social calls himpathy), we reframe male-coded entities (the right) behaving badly as a failure of female-coded entites (liberalism) to give them the understanding & respect they're owed

Awful

Looking forward to seeing "Dive," the first show from Dark Room District, this weekend at Fritzy's Tavern. Here's my @chicagoreader.com feature! chicagoreader.com/performing-a...

Pretty sure if the honeybees are in the upper midwest, they let out an "OPE!"

The Platner mess has exposed a very specific sub-tendency on the American socialist left: urbanites whose politics are defined by their hatred of their liberal neighbors, and channel that distaste into a condescending fetishization of rural/working-class male identity

Hmmmm....

This is such a bullshit take... The DSAs, Regressives, and Bernie Bros were pushing Festerman 2.0. Everyone with a functional frontal lobe knew this dumbass was trouble and were screaming louder than the bolts holding Trump's chairs together. But nah. Y'all wanted Nazi Platner.

Character matters more than policy statements. You can appeal to people of character and persuade them on policy with sound arguments. Narcissists, as we've seen, have to be babied and coaxed and flattered. So their pronounced stances aren't worth much.

I said it on another post, but I know for a fact that those fuckfaces ain’t learnin’ a single thing from this whole debacle. All they know is that they want revenge right now. They’re gonna try to torpedo every single candidate democrats have just to get it. If white men can’t fix it, no one will.

He’s not Sarah fucking Connor. He’s an angry dick who had an SS tattoo for 20 years. “Oh but his politics are exactly what I want to hear!” You’re a mark. This guy has already been caught lying to the public and lying to his wife. But don’t worry, I’m sure he’s not lying about his politics.

I read shit from women defending that POS and all I can think is, "I hope to God you don't have a daughter."

One thing about the whole "we have to run rough-hewn manly dudebros to beat them at their own game" theory is this describes, to within a rounding error, zero notable Republican politicians.

Just got out of "Suffs." I needed that.

Just one note for the future: Think about ALL the people who were so quick to push this guy as "the only choice". Ignoring all the red flags for months. Think about whether you want to listen to them the next time they pretend to know what they're talking about.

I remember Katha Pollitt once compiled a list of all the women she knew who’d been sexually assaulted, abused or subject to domestic violence. It was a LONG list. A male colleague of hers was shocked saying he knew only one rape victim. But Katha noted the guy knew several women on her list

I know this is not enforceable but I think anyone who says anything like, "I believe women but I am suspicious that this woman is particular is paid/coming forward for attention" should have to cite examples of multiple women who have made money & success out of accusing high-profile men of rape.

"Cuz he's white" is absolutely the reason. Great thread here.

Hey @ryangrim.bsky.social, I hear you're extremely concerned about ethics in journalism. While we're on that subject, remember when you laundered lies from a Nazi blog to claim Platner's wife was Jewish?

It's amazing how many men especially never consider how many survivors are in their circle of friends before they spout out.

"she asked for it"

Hogg left this tweet up, even as he was throwing his full support behind Graham Platner, who opposes assault rifle bans. Hogg is a lying, grifting, MAGA-empowering piece of shit.

Anyway, my apologies to those who told me I was wrong to assume that Platner would be just another Fetterman. He's actually MUCH MUCH WORSE.

It's pretty weird that there are still people who seem to think that a man with "progressive" politics can't be an abuser when we just had the Cesar Chavez stories break earlier this year. Men rape. Not all men, but it's something done across the spectrum.

This month's special issue of @chicagoreader.com is on "Broke Day Trips," and there are a lot of great suggestions for how to get out of town without breaking the bank. chicagoreader.com/brokedaytrips/

Someone who was truly interested in flipping the Senate would have stepped down by now. Even Swalwell, who had a record of public service and not "trust me, bro" promises, left the governor's race AND Congress in two days. (AS HE SHOULD.)

It’s not just that due process doesn’t apply to political candidates—it’s literally the opposite of the evidentiary standard for political candidates. The burden is entirely on *them* to prove to *us* that they possess the integrity and good sense to hold office.

A play in four acts, none of which* contain an acknowledgment, apology, any hint of responsibility, nor shift from attention seeking to anything approaching self-awareness. Shocking from a vocal Platner stan, who all have been so reasonable up to now. (*If there has been, please let me know.)

“We want people who volunteered for a white nationalist who abused at least one woman that they knew of, to choose. Otherwise we will goose step over to Susan Collins, who I’ve voted for every time her name has been on a ballot.” Fuck Platner. Fuck Katz. Fuck Bernie.

"We worked very hard to get this rapist nazi on the ballot and how dare you presume not to consult us on how to replace him" I genuinely hope they keep burning bridges. Burn them all down guys, that's the juice.

so many people lit their life's work on fire in public for that guy for no reason when it was so clear like when my 70something mother who does not like politics read the reddit quotes she said "I think he's done something against a woman, I know that kinda man" and refused to vote for him.

Fuck it, put her name in too . 🤷‍♂️

"No, we didn't 'endorse' him. We 'recommended' you vote for him. These are very different things, and we view them very differently. We are very serious."

"WHY DIDN'T SHE JUST REPORT IT TO THE POLICE!" scream a lot of leftie men who have been screaming about how cops can't be trusted.

One thing that shouldn't be forgotten is that even before Monday's story dropped Platner was a bad candidate running an incredibly shitty general election campaign -- sour, whiny factionalism in a blue state, weak fundraising, no answer to Collins oppo www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-07-07...

Leftists: OMG the Maine Senate seat!! We must win it at all costs Us: Ok. Then support the woman running L: No!! she is old U: Bernie is old L: Bernie is immortal U: so vote for the woman running. L: No! <raises up oyster boy> He will be our savior. He will save us from fascism 1/

I was hoping there was video of the Belgian team mocking “Dance Party Donnie” to his favorite gay anthem, and here ‘tis!

Exactly

A reminder: DV and SA are wrong even if you hate the politics of the victim.

notable that Klippenstein just completely omits his deranged use of "smoothgroin" to suggest that everyone who was wary of Platner was sexless and jealous of his incredible virile masculinity. wonder why!

Lyndsey Fifield with more details on what keeps looking more like it was the NYT doing a halfassed attempt of a catch-and-kill on his behalf with how that previous Graham article was written.