Caught this article and thought, “On the one hand I can understand fighting fire with fire”
But it saddens me that it’s gotten to this point and It muddies the waters.
The article is about a veteran running against Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). It’s a hit piece and I personally found it as offensive as the hit pieces against Pete Hegseth.
What it looks like at this point to me, is a veteran that became disillusioned with the military when he began questioning the reasons he’d joined in good faith to protect our country.
That questioning is not uncommon. They see friends blown away, they see the results of war, they see politicians getting rich from the military industrial complex, and REMFs giving orders that make no damn sense.
They seem to realize they’re pawns and question if the honest motivations that made them become soldiers were naive and wonder if they’re on the “right” side.
I’ve known a few military people that went through this and came to the conclusion that the only fight they’ll engage in, is one where they can clearly see and understand the threat but they’re not interested in some overarching geopolitical bullshit that has no clear endpoint or goal.
Some of them become pacifists, some become thoughtful and introspective, some work their way through it, and decide that war should be the absolute last resort and then only in defense of their homes and families. They seem to be somewhat agnostic about concepts like nationalism and patriotic duty. And some become stone cold killers who are never fit to live in non-military society again, they become the monsters that fight other monsters and that’s all they know or remember.
The duty that many citizens have completely forgotten and abdicated is our duty to reach out to all of these soldiers to hold their hand guiding them back from being warriors to being people again.
We’re supposed to hug them when they wake in the middle of the night, wild eyed and dangerous, because they were reliving the nightmare of battles they’d been in. I’ve always believed it was our duty to remind them of what they sacrificed their youth and innocence to protect, we’re supposed to be rocks they can cling to in those turbulent moments where all these soldiers can do is wait for the sunrise to break on a new day.
I’ve seen a few sunrises sitting next to men in that state. I can’t fix or heal those psychic wounds, only time can do that. But I can be a rock, a calm point in the storm, waiting for the sunrise with them.
It’s been said the last thing you want to do, is make a soldier turn his plowshare back into a sword. Because that man will fight with a fury of a demon out of hatred and anger at having his hard won peace stolen from him again.
I believe that with all my heart. A soldier who’s forced to do that risks everything because he risks being taken by the abyss.
This hit piece is about Graham Platner. He’s running against Susan Collins for a Maine senate seat.
He’s got a skull & crossbones tattooed on his chest. He’s 41, a vet and referred to the tattoo as a Totenkopf. That’s German for skull. The tattoo doesn’t mean he’s a NAZI.
I’ve known a lot of soldiers that had skull tattoos of various types. Some choose traditional pirate tropes, others choose Baron Samedi, other variations I’ve seen include skulls with new life sprouting from them represented by green plants growing around or through them.
The article implies he got it when he was 22, and in the Marine Corps. I found a photo that is supposedly him, and honestly the tattoo quality is really bad. It’s a crap tattoo. Duh, a drunk 22 year old on leave, kind of typical.
As muddied and indistinct as the lines were, a coverup piece would probably be a nightmare to design. It would take a real artist not some $20 per hour hack.
I know a lot of people who’ve had coverup tattoos to eliminate their youthful regrettable choices. I know about an equal number of folks that just said, “Fuck it”. It wasn’t worth the time or money to bother.
So this guy having a skull tattoo doesn’t meet my personal qualifications to mark the guy as a NAZI.
This looks more like the rabid assholes on the extreme right trying to get payback for the extreme left’s making hay about Hegseth’s cross tattoo.
The article also quotes Mr. Platner as saying;
“Tell them that if they expect to fight fascism without a good semi-automatic rifle, they ought to do some reading of history.”
The author of the article claims this is a call to violence.
I don’t look at it that way. If you cite WWII as an example, it was semi-automatic and full automatic rifles that beat back the penultimate fascists known as NAZIs.
The article printed another quote;
“After the war, I’ve pretty much stopped believing in any of the patriotic nonsense that got me there in the first place, and am a firm believer that the best thing a person can do is help their neighbors and live a loving life.”
He added;
“Still got the guns though. I don’t trust the fascists to act politely.”
That tracks with several ex-military folks I know. I’ve heard similar sentiment from soldiers who saw hard combat, including one Vietnam Vet whose leg was spared by a penny in his pocket. He was very happy to have lost a penny rather than have a Purple Heart. The penny in question is mounted in a small glass case on his bookshelf among a few pieces of memorabilia from the war.
Later in the article Mr. Platner is quoted as saying he’s a socialist, later a communist and that he grows psychedelics.
Okay, that’s when I get a bit concerned. My question would be is he communist lite, or hardcore communist? On its surface Communism does look very appealing. However historically, the problem has been in the implementation, because human nature is not, in my opinion, compatible with Communism.
I’d like to read and hear more about Mr. Platner. It’s unlikely that I’d agree with him on all points but I’m willing to listen and if he’s got good ideas I don’t care what his political ideology is.
The article is decrying the Democrat party and their apparent love for bad candidates and bad ideas. Okay, I’ll agree with that generally.
Both are apparently true, the first is exemplified with Biden and Harris. The latter is exemplified by the Democrat Party doubling down on ideas, rules, & regulations, that have failed.
If the Democrat Party would simply be able to say, “Yep, that didn’t work as expected. So we’re going to defund and dismantle it.” I’d have a lot more respect for them.
Then I think about John Fetterman. When he was running, I thought he was possibly one of the worst candidates I’d ever seen, (other than Biden), but as it turns out, while I disagree with him most of the time, I’ve started to see him as a voice of reason within the Democrat Party. At least he’s willing to call out others in the party who are “Off the rails.”
Maybe Mr. Platner could bring a fresh view. Maybe being who he is, having actually seen combat, & worked for a living wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Democrat party and the Senate.
I’ve long believed that what we need in Congress is average people. Yeah AOC is “average” so maybe my theory may not hold water. But she’s not particularly bright and I suspect she’s kind of a “Go Along with the crowd,” kind of person. When I say “Average” people, I mean free thinkers who don’t vote lockstep along party lines.
I’m worried about the Republican Party doing exactly the same thing. If Republicans are expected to vote strictly along party lines, in short order they’ll be no better than what we’ve seen with the Democrat Party.
Ideally what I want in Congress is a bunch of people who do the research, can justify their votes, and who are unafraid to have a different opinion. In other words, I would like a real cross section of America. I’d like thoughtful people who eschew rhetoric and party affiliation. I’d like to see votes in the House and Senate that look more like the results of the general vote.
While at the moment I think the Democrat Party is full of a bunch of loons. I don’t think it’s right or productive to paint all Democrats with the same brush. (Yes, I’ve done it in these very pages. I apologize, I was pissed off.)
We need balance. Hit pieces from either side aimed at destroying new or unknown candidates are not productive. In fact, I think they lead to maintaining the status quo because they poison the possibility of new blood entering office.
Nowhere in the article is there mention of what Mr. Platner is actually campaigning on. Perhaps the ink would be better spent describing the candidate’s thoughts on changing the political landscape, what kind of experience he has, what he plans to do for his constituents, and how he plans to do it.
Were I living in Maine, those are the things I’d be interested in. Not a candidate’s tattoos.
We all know Newsom is running for President. Come on… we can admit it.
What will be interesting will be if the violence and lawlessness goes up once the reduction in force is completed. Odds are that if that were to happen, it will go largely unreported by the media. That is, until city blocks are on fire, the fires can be seen from space and it can’t be swept under the carpet anymore.
everything that asshole says is a fucking lie, and that he’s more crooked than a mountain country road. So I tend to ignore his bug eyed visage and anything he says automatically. However in this case, after reading the transcript of the sewage flowing from his mouth, I’ll say this: