Not even close.

I would love to find more Mamdanis' and less Platners' to run for office as Democrats. Mamdani is an exceptional candidate and an exceptional person.

Last edited Fri May 1, 2026, 10:46 AM - Edit history (1)

ETA: He's had 40 years to organize around the things he now says he believes in. Has he?

average person and that he wants to fight the real enemies—corporations and billionaires. This seems like a simple concept everyone on all sides should be able to grasp.

their hope that he can be a good senator -- which I myself judge on actions, not feelings -- based on nothing more than those vibes.

Susan Collins in the Senate for 6 more years. That isn’t vibes but reality.

voting for a mistake.

So would not voting.

Let the Maine voters decide who they want to represent them.

Too much pearl clutching going on in this forum.

...in all the ways that matter (reliable Dem votes on nearly all major bills -and actually winning the seat)

Last edited Fri May 1, 2026, 11:58 AM - Edit history (1)

defeat from victory for years. I mean, this began way long ago during the FL recounts in 2000. The Dems went down there as 'gentlemen' while the Repubs went in with knives and brass knuckles to win. And they did.

And speaking of Senate 'material,' our guys let McConnell deny Obama his judicial picks - I don't know what the man was thinking nominating Merrick Garland anyway, but he's who O picked - and McConnell refused until Trump got into office and then we allowed the Repubs to PACK THE COURT with a supermajority, and also appoint dozens of other fanatical judges.

I do understand lots of stuff is going on in the background that we may not hear about. I get that.

But I have often lamented, as Platner did to Jon Stewart, that the Dems don't seem to know how to actually wield power any more. And we need to be standing for something, and fighting back as ugly as it takes. And they don't seem to be.

Now, don't get mad at me here - some people did when I pointed these things out. One even said I'm 'full of crap.'

But I know what I know and see what I see, and what I see now is the greatest reallocation of wealth we have ever seen in this history of humankind. Since the first corporate tax cuts, this government has gone deep down the rabbit hole of corruption, and it pisses me off that our people did not jump on the Powell Manifesto back in 1971 and fight tooth and nail against this Chicago school trickle down economics, because that is a SYSTEM designed to transfer wealth from the public treasuries into the pockets of a few modern robber barons and corporations.

I mean, right now we individual taxpayers have most of the onus of funding the government - individual taxpayers pay in around 50.4% of the income tax revenue while corporations are just over 4%. That is a gross and unsustainable imbalance. Then, the GOP gets involved in wars because they are utterly OWNED by Wall Street and the Military Industrial Complex Ike warned us about in the way-back-when.

That coup happened in the early sixties when JFK was shot. I'm not saying it was causal, but what happened is a) JFK did not want to send more than a few hundred advisors to 'Nam, b) LBJ took over after his death and said, "I am not about to send American boys 8000 miles away to fight a war South Vietnamese boys ought to be fighting," but c) we had 500,000 people over there by 1965. We lost 58,000 people, but 3.2 MILLION Vietnamese were killed. The only benefit from that war was to Wall Street and the MIC, which raked in $158 billion - which would be near $900 billion in today's dollars.

It is always about fucking money, fucking greed. Today's billionaire parasites are just a modern version of the old robber barons who fucked over working people every chance they got - the Sedition Act that put paid to Eugene Debs, the Taft-Hartley Act that hamstrung unions, the Powell Manifesto, the trickle down corporate cuts beginning in 1981, the death of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, the 'war on terror' that led to the forever wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - again based on lies, but again Wall Street and the MIC did GREAT. Even the ACA was a compromise that funnelled lots of money to Wall Street financiers and for profit healthcare and insurance companies, as well as big pharma.

I have repeatedly said we need to get rid of the doctrine of shareholder primacy established in the 1919 Supreme Court ruling that set forth the idea that shareholder profits trump worker interests, consumer safety and the environment itself. This is the problem - the elephant in the room. Trump is a sociopath, yes, for sure. But he is only the symptom of a system of shareholder primacy corporate governance that encourages and REWARDS sociopathic behavior.

In the mean time, the Democrats have done a poor job of EDUCATING our voters on that. Because THAT is the issue that has been fucking us up for decades.

But no, we have not. I spent the four years Biden was president being told how great the economy was while carrying substantial HEALTH CARE DEBT. Why? Why does it have to be this way? The middle class getting squeezed every which way but loose. Why?

See, we used to think this was our government. A government of, by and for the people.

But it is not, really is it? Starting in the 1970s, it morphed into a government of, by and for corporate interests and billionaires.

This is the elephant in the room, Whiskey, and I'm seeing lots of younger people pulling their hair out because they work their asses off and can't even pay the bills. This is by design. Wall Street wants a fearful, docile populace so they can drain the treasury, put all of us in debt slavery and live on islands. These jerks have salted away maybe $30 trillion in offshore havens like the Cayman Islands for what? What good is that? None to you and me, for sure.

The real truth, Whiskey, is that the big donors that route corporate money to campaigns of both Democrats and Republicans are fine with the current system because Wall Street is doing great! Main Street is not, because again this is the biggest act of class warfare that has ever happened in terms of sheer magnitude, but it is the same old feverish greed on the part of little guys in billionaire suits who always just want a 'little more, just $1 more dollar..."

It is sick, and I am tired of it. I did everything right. I worked my way through college then grad school, have had a career spanning nearly 40 years, and for the last 20 I have been an economist. I feel like Galadriel who has fought the great defeat for three ages. I'm fucking TIRED, because all the good policies that would create a strong and happy middle class with good socioeconomic mobility have fallen by the wayside due to corporate corruption flooding the government.

What we need is a phoenix to be born out of these ashes, and the politicians in power these last four decades have lit the fires. If we want to make this a government of, by and for the people again, we need to get rid of the third way Democrats, the establishment people who merely view Trump as an aberration, thinking we can go back to business as usual after he is gone. Because fuck that. I'm TIRED of getting squeezed. I'm tired of paying in $18k to the Federal government a year and getting NOTHING in return.

I do not support a trillion dollar war budget, nor do I support having MY tax money spent on a stupid fucking oil war Trump started to benefit big donors, corporations and the big investment centers. The corruption we are seeing, along with the Epstein files, shows just how low these robber barons are - how depraved, vile and immoral.

We need to get rid of the influence of these dirtbags. This is why I like AOC, Mamdani and now this Platner. I watched that interview with Jon, and he did in fact hit it out of the park. If we got a bunch of people like this in there, they could face off against the Wall Street greed-heads, the MIC, the political-donation-industrial complex, and the new prison industrial complex.

We don't need any more fucking COMPLEXES in the US. We need healthcare, childcare, free college, a K-12 system we can be proud of that ACTUALLY PRODUCES critical thinkers, and a new Fairness Doctrine because right now we are the most brainwashed people who have ever walked the earth.

Every single media outlet is publicly traded, Whiskey, and what this means is the fiduciary responsibility of the senior producers is ALWAYS AND ONLY to generate shareholder profits. Nothing at all about truth. Which is why we get only the partial truth, and this partial truth is delivered in a way that generates rage. Because it is good for 'engagement' and for ratings.

That is the real truth, and it is ugly. We need to elect a new batch of people who will start addressing this shit. Because we Baby Boomers are nice and gentle. Why? We generally had good schooling because that was before people like the Heritage Foundation began making inroads into K-12. But Wall Street ensured that any moral instruction in the school did not take place or got watered down to creationist bullshit. I learned Aesops fables, and from the hootenanies we used to have in elementary school where we sang This Land is Your Land, Blowin' in the Wind and other folk ballads.

We need massive change, people. We do. Because it ain't working. And the greed heads are making the mistake greed heads always have. They are pushing too hard, taking too much away. Can't you feel the currents? And the MAGAts are pathetically brainwashed compared to us, but we kind of are too.

Because the central issue is getting rid of the robber barons and pulling the teeth of Wall Street. Until that happens, our suffering, and the suffering of our children and grandchildren will continue without relief.

A final thought about the imbalance -
* The US is $39 trillion in debt.
* Trump and his cronies are playing the market to maximize profits with his every tweet.
* The fascist-oligarchs are trying to impose a surveillance state by ramming AI down our throats.
* We are sending our kids and grandkids to fight in a fucking war and they don't have enough bullets or food.
* The USPS, which Wall Street has wanted to privatize and bust the union, is not delivering 'care packages' to military zip codes in the Mid-East.
* My healthcare premiums went UP 19.2% this year alone. My gas was $4.29 a gallon when I filled up a couple days ago, and a 1 lb pack of lean hamburger was $11.99. But hey, Wall Street is doing GREAT, right?

There are just over 3,000 billionaire parasites on this earth. The 1% numbers about 83 million. They OWN or CONTROL 43% of the world's wealth. In the meantime 3.5 billion people live in poverty. Of these, around 900 million live in extreme poverty and seventeen people a minute die of starvation. Seventeen. A minute.

WHY ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH DOES IT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY?????????????????????

That's all.

how to either.

(all three branches) have been making the mistakes I highlight above for decades. And those mistakes have hurt our people and everyone else in the world.

But we've been watching Schumer do it for years and he hasn't been doing well for some time, now. There comes a time when the old ideas stop working and become stagnant...time to try something new.

Id make the argument that its way more "senate material" than anything Collins brings to the table.

Such as ending the filibuster, it is hard to do. I’m not a big fan of either candidate, but Mills has given him plenty of room to grow in popularity with some really bad takes on what the majority of primary voters want.

Wtf is wrong with Maine. Susan Collins? ffs

Independent, but caucuses with Dems. Great guy. And in the past, Ed Muskie.

Even VT and Mass elect Republican governors from time to time.

Good old Mitt Romney is gone; he put his dog on the car roof and left MA!

VT keeps reelecting Phil Scott. He's moderate, generally, and on some things I agree with him. That's the only way a Republican can win statewide office up here, though I can never bring myself to vote for him. But he showed his true colors with his goofy return to office policy for state employees, which finally got slapped down by the State Labor Relations Board after the state spent gobs of money implementing it. And this wasn't about covid. Remote and hybrid have been options for some state employees since 2012. And why Waterbury of all places? Typical small VT town with limited office space, when greater Burlington / Chittenden county is a short drive away? State offices have been scattered across the Burlington metro for ages. Well, to line the pockets of his development pals of course! And probably himself if we dig deep enough. Seems no matter how much you think a particular Republican has seen the light, they'll always be a money grubbing Republican deep inside.

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5829206-scott-administration-telework-fiasco/
https://www.rakevt.org/2025/11/25/phil-scotts-return-to-office-mandate-lines-his-friends-pockets-with-state-funds/

We were down in Mass yesterday. Nasami Farm Nursery in South Deerfield. Love the Native Plant Trust!

I had family out that way and my dad went to Deerfield Academy. Glad you came down for a visit!

Keep on keeping on in VT.

jinx!

Link to tweet

where no one could see it until it was too late...

*cough*Fetterman*cough*

I wouldn't piss on Fetterman if he were on fire.

But just because they don't like each other, doesn't mean they're not cut from the same cloth. That's the thing about populists. It's hard to tell what's genuine and what's just schtick. Bernie Sanders is time tested consistent. Platner is not. He may very well be a trojan horse, or at best an unreliable vote.

Fetterman can go fuck himself. I was skeptical of Platner at first, but I think he has a real chance in beating Collins.

Of course, he conceivably could be another Fetterman. But if he's a fraud, he's at least gifted and largely original.

Personally, I think he's the real deal. I hope I'm right.

... because if gets elected on this platform, and his subsequent actions don't match, he's unlikely to get re-elected. Meaning, I think he's likely to "do good" regardless of how sincere he is, because to do otherwise would be politically damaging to his future.

Whatever their true feelings, I don't think anyone looking for a successful career in politics is looking to Fetterman as a role model.

I hate to use superficial metrics as a way to pick candidates, but if I go with, “No more white males.” We can get a lot of progress.

And as much as I hate Fetterman, he’s still better than Dr. Oz,

I don’t want purity tests, but we need to vet more thoroughly going forward. Those who are currently infesting the GOP will easily ditch that party and worm themselves into the Democratic Party if that’s what it takes to maintain control in the future.

Several metrics would be of use:

1) educational history. It’s hard to fabricate years of education experience. And, we don’t need any Dunning-Krugers.
2) public service, especially volunteerism. A decade or so of doing local non-religion based public service is also hard to fabricate.
3) family lines, in-laws… a rich benefactor somewhere there? That’s a nope.

tell he's very intelligent, much more so than Fetterman and most politicians. To be fair, I think Fetterman went off the reservation due to his stroke.

If there is a debate between Platner and Collins, you can bet he'll win decisively.

we have to go with who we can potentially elect to office. Sounds like he's definitely not perfect, but if he can push Susan Collins out then it's a step in the right direction.

to get anything done will be very different that what Mamdani, as mayor, can accomplish.

I’m watching but haven’t really jumped on the bandwagon. I just keep thinking how Fetterman was when he arrived on the scene……

Peace ☮️

Peace ☮️

while playing populist, then yes. Seattle's new mayor has the same issue (her parents are successful, but her grandfather was even more so; he wrote the books and screenplays for two blockbuster movies in the 50s. She never mentions him).

Janet Mills has been a good governor and I was really sorry to see her pushed out, though I agree that her age is a factor for a first-time senator. We do need more Democratic women in the Senate.

I am on the fence about Platner, but if he wins, I will keep fingers crossed that he doesn't turn into a Synema.

just to not have Dithering Susie any more, Fortunately I live in Virginia.

... in having serious reservations about Mr.Platner's "youthful indiscretions". He's only 40, give or take, so "youthful" wasn't all that long ago for him.
I'm almost twice his age, so I've got a bushel of "youthful indiscretions" of my own. Hell, I still agonize over stupid shit I did 60 years ago! He acquitted himself well with Jon, and said all the right things a candidate should say, and I hope he's overcome some of his more distasteful attitudes. But – please forgive my ingrained septuagenarian cynicism – I hope we don't wind up with another Trojan Horse in a hoodie.
That said, the Dems desperately need new blood, and the Old Guard should be grooming people like Platner, not snarling, "Get offa my lawn", in a vain effort to retain their control. Whatever. I hope he ensures Collins' retirement.

*concerned*

If Thom likes him, then I do too.

After reading all the comments here I will make it a point to learn more. Collins needs to go.

(Excuse me---Fetid-man)

They may be sincere or they may not be. And given the debacle that is US politics right now, a lot of folks are uber susceptible to just that kind of manipulation. I don't know about Platner and that's precisely the problem. I don't know. Unlike a similar populist, Bernie Sanders, Platner's sincerity isn't time tested. Fetterman had more vetting in that regard and look how that turned out.

That left him with mental deficits. There are articles about him with emotional incontinence and fugue states where we stares at walls.

He is a few years my junior, but I can attest, that school makes the most charismatic people...

That he's going to Maine's Fetterman.

This is not about the mayor of a city. This is about the US Senate which we need to take our Democracy back. No more criticism against Platner. He needs our absolute support. The Republicans are going to go all out against this guy. Don’t help the Republican side by criticizing him.

If not Platner who then? Another focus group approved moderate, vanilla flavored nonentity? That's what it sounds like to me.

If you look at the polling, I would say the people of Maine have listened to Platner and have made their decision. Platner buried Mills, the DNC establishment approved candidate. That must tell you something.

Everything I have seen in every special election or small town school board election since 1/20/25 tells me that the American people have had their fill of status quo candidates spouting the usual platitudes. They want someone who has dirt under their finger nails and knows what it is to work for a living. Think AOC for just a moment as an example of that desire.

We are at that Roosevelt moment where people want to completely overturn a system the is skewed toward wealth and corporatism and is focused on the needs of We the People. Get on board.

He is young, down-to-earth, very humble, remarkably eloquent, and he is a very forthcoming fella. Furthermore, the dude is
clever enough to represent his fellow Mainers’ interests in the US Senate.

Adiós Susana 👋🏻

Thanks for the thread mainer

He will, however, have more in common with Mamdani than Fetterman in terms of policy.