him in this way all the way to the election. None of the billionaire parasites or Wall Street financiers or right wing think tanks want anyone knowing what Graham knows and talking like Graham does near the Capitol.

It might cut into Wall Street PROFITS, don'tcha know! Can't have that...

That's a new one on me. Googling didn't help.

I did think of that, but didn't want to assume.

The ReThug party will dump major money on this campaign.

Susan Collins is the senior Senator from Maine. She has served six terms,... amounting to 36 years she has warmed that seat.

The GOPee figures if they plow enough money into this race they can keep Collins' head above water and above the fray, and eventually drag her across the finish line again.

Be prepared to see/experience a nasty mud fight. Right-wing pacs will spend a boat load of money to trash and put Graham Platner in the most negative light possible.

Do not fall for the Fascist bullshit,... it wil! be relentless.

Look deep into Graham Platner's background. He is not bidding his various indiscretions or his past. Remember we are human beings none of us are perfect or infallible. Planner walks the walk and talks the talk. It is astounding when you see his super macho man history. But the guy came out of the dark tunnel of his youth and surfaced a true blue honest to goodness progressive liberal. The guy is genuine from the heart. He is so eager to get deeper in the game of politics. He goal is to effect change and bring America to a better place. He has the drive and the gumption to pull it off.

Don't forget he comes with a few flaws,... but to be honest don't we all.

Look in to his background,.. acquaint yourself with who he really is. Look into his youth. Follow him on his growing up phase. His fears... His ambitions,.. His goals. It is all there on the web to see.

Sourced Wikipedia - Platner page,...


Graham Cunningham Platner (born September 1, 1984) is an American oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran who is a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2026 U.S. Senate election in Maine, seeking to challenge incumbent Republican senator Susan Collins.

+++++++++

Graham Platner

Platner in 2025
Personal details
Born
Graham Cunningham Platner
September 1, 1984 (age 41)
Blue Hill, Maine, US
Party
Democratic
Spouse
Amy Gertner ​ m. 2024)​
Relations
Warren Platner (grandfather)
Education
George Washington University (attended)
Occupation
Oyster farmerharbormaster
Website
Campaign website
Military service
Branch/service
United States Marine Corps
Maryland National Guard
Years of service
2003–2007
2010–2011[1]
Rank
Sergeant[2]
Battles/wars
Iraq War
War in Afghanistan
Graham Platner's voice
Duration: 30 seconds.0:30
Platner criticizing the Democratic Party's corporate donors and backers
Recorded December 20, 2025
After graduating from high school in 2003, Platner enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served eight years, including three combat tours in Iraq, later joining the Maryland Army National Guard and deploying to Afghanistan before leaving military service in 2016 and returning to Maine. In 2018, he worked as a State Department security contractor before entering the oyster farming business, taking over a Maine operation in 2020 and later becoming active in local government. He announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2025.

Graham Platner's Wikipedia page,... link below,....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Platner

+++++++++++

Jon Stewart,... Weekly Show podcast,.. 1 + 1/2 hours of a person to person interview with Graham Platner.

Jon Stewart seems really impressed by him, too.

Also, I understand he's been endorsed by both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. That says a lot, imo.

.... need of the common women and men. This is what Senator Sanders and E. Warren recognize in Planner and why they gave him their full endorsement.

We need to breakup the monopolistic powers of the monied classes here in America. Deconstruct the status quo that really only serves the benefits of the monies class. Rocking the boat and making waves is long past due. Off shoring manufacturing decimated the blue collar classes. As did making the unionization of the workforce much more difficult to nearly impossible. The advent of robotic factories and manufacturing will be another blow to blue collar workers while pulling another rug out from under them.

Now comes Artificial Intelligence computer systems and data bases so that computers and machines can do human thinking for them. These Artificial Intelligence platforms will now decimate the professional and white collar workforces leaving many without their well paying jobs to support their families.

The road ahead does not look pleasant for America's white collar, professional collar, upper to lower middle classes, blue collar and upper and lower poorer classes of our citizens. We must rapidly revamp, rebuild, reconstruct, and reconfigure our hyper capitalistic system. At the rapid pace of "advancement" we are going we are rapidly severing and disconnecting large segments of our society from their ability to make their financial ends meet and cover their day to day basic needs.

This will inevitably invite social discord, up risings, and major social strife.
A more aggressive stance to deal with these coming issues would be a very wise course of action to take,... Like PRONTO.

Status quo thinking moved to the back burners of the stove with settings set on low. Progressive & provocative thinking moved to the front burners with the setting set on high full blast. The turmoil hyper capitalism is currently bringing to the lives of American citizenry is not to be trifled with, it is not a parlor joke. It is tearing apart and decimating our society. It is questionable whether or country can endure much more of,.. before something or large groups of citizens upraisings, riot, and/or explode. We must bring experts and caring individuals alike to Washington DC to grapple on to these issues and deliver resolution to these growing and compounding social, cultural, and policy - difficulties.

Americans have proven again and again in the past that they have an astounding ability to collaborate and work together in unison to bring closure to various problems and difficulties that confront us. History is calling, kicking & screaming, cavorting, cajoling, and imploring for us to get our shit together and do so once again.

Will we answer the call,... or will we quickly transfer the call to the ignore section of our messaging system ?

the elites who rule the corporate media, Wall Street, the SuperPacs, think tanks like Heritage and Cato, not to mention ALEC. Should have typed 'TPTB' or 'PTB.'

I did think of that but I see abbreviations that I don't recogbize every day, so I didn't want to assume.

are getting old already. It's not that hard to just spell out the words, certainly easier than readers doing lookups on Google. We have language for a reason.

People who served in the marines in Camp Lejeune know all to well the culture of drunk stupidity and getting a tattoo they know nothing about...

and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of locations who can do this?

In some cases it’s easier and cheaper to do a cover up rather than a removal.

Pete Davidson reportedly spent over $200k getting most of his removed.

He was perfectly happy to keep it for something like 18 years before that.

Just saying ..

known it because his tattoos would have been reviewed when he tried to return to active duty in 2009. He could have had it removed but chose to keep it and switch to the National Guard instead.

So, no.

Further, being drunk and getting a skull tattoo tracks. Also, knowing what a Totenkopf tattoo actually is and looks like is rather niche knowledge, except among actual Nazis/Neo-Nazis.

If you want to call the man a Nazi, don't beat around the bush.

waiver. So did he get it in the Guard?

I am inclined to cut some slack for a tattoo someone got when they were young and drunk. Especially since he had enough sense to get it covered up when he realized it was problematic.

I also agree about the desth's head/Nazi association being omewhat niche knowledge. When I heard he had a Nazi tattoo, I assumed it was a swastika or maybe the SS double lightning bolt runes.

I had to do some research just now to find out exactly what the totenkopf used by Nazis looks like, and one thing I found out is that it's not just a skull, with or without crossbones. It's a very specific rendition of a skull and bones that is distinct in many ways from the kind you might see on a Halloween costume pirate hat. (I won't post a pic here, but anyone who wants to know what it looked like can easily find out by googling .)

If that is what Platner's tattoo originally looked like, I'd say getting it was a pretty big oops, but assuming he knew exactly what it was is a stretch, imo. I'm pretty sure a lot of people would look at it and think "Pirates, arrrrr!" rather than recognizing it as a Nazi symbol. Unfortunately, those who know what a totenkopf is won't be able to unsee the Nazi association, so covering it up was a good idea, imo. Completely removing it would be even better, but that's a lot more expensive as well as time coneuming.

The lightning bolts you mentioned are the 'runes'. The 'before' tattoo does not have them, so it is ambiguous. The 'death's head' badge worn by the German army (Heer) armored troops in WWII was very similar. Thus, yes, it is a niche thing.

They dont actually give thorough formal briefings on these things. I served in the Army myself and can attest to that.

I've looked but haven't seen any. I may have missed them.

People who served in the marines and know the culture enough to be far more credible than you and I. I started an OP to see if they respond: https://democraticunderground.com/100221212750

That being said I do know somebody who served adjacent to his unit at around the same time and knows the culture well. He says it is overwhelmingly common for people to do. That insight in itself has completely transformed how I feel about Platner.

a person.

The closest I can find is Ruben Gallego who served adjacent to his unit at the exact same time in 2005 as a Marine. He was one of the first major figures to endorse Platner's Senate campaign.

I had a marine around that time argue with me that a M1 Garand was a machine gun cause that was what the M stood for.

To Vegas with a bunch of people for work, I worked in travel and made reservations at a lot of the hotels there, we went to have tours of them. One night late at night after a lot of drinking we ended up at tattoo parlor middle of night where everyone but me got a tattoo. I took taxi back to hotel, but boy did they pour on the peer pressure and I came closest in my life to getting one.

So I can just imagine marines and the whole macho thing.

Last edited Sat May 2, 2026, 08:57 PM - Edit history (1)

But I can also attest from my time in the army that military culture in itself is pretty irresponsible off duty.

There's a reason this weekend safety brief has become a staple of military leaders:

My daughter just gave my grandson who is going to senior prom tonight in Texas.

She has always been worried if her sons got a girl pregnant Texas would force a baby. So her lecture was on sex and drinking but did say if you drink call me for ride don't care how late.

/pedant

The reports originating from an anonymous source are that he said those words years later as a joke -before he admitted he knew what it was still, but nonetheless well after he got them.

But in that account he still knew what the tattoo was and didn't get rid of it. I will never understand how that's not a problem to some people. Growth is good, but if it's only done when it's convenient, that's not likely to be growth.

I wasn't good with keeping Swalwell or Franken either.

That nobody can point to anything he's done over the last 20 years that demonstrates he either was never the sort of person who would knowingly get a nazi tattoo or if he used to be that he's changed is hard to ignore for me.

That he blamed women for being raped is hard to ignore for me.

That he used retarded as a slur during the campaign is hard to ignore for me

That he told an antisemitic YouTube host that he's a long time fan is hard to ignore for me.

Obviously your mileage varies and you believe his words today. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I have found actions are required to believe people have fundamentally changed. I haven't seen or heard of his actions demonstrating a change.

One anonymous "acquaintance" told this to Jewish Insider but was not willing to go on record due to the "sensitive nature" of the issue. Lol. This acquaintance sure has a sharp memory of what was said during those booze-filled nights by someone who was not even a friend, at a bar, over a decade ago. 'MmmOK.

And Politico ran with this "journalism" without any independent verification.

The knives are out for Platner, clearly.

Much sharper than the knives coming out for Platner.

But I do have a nose for sniffing out gaslighting and shady, self-serving narratives and "explanations" in the media and elsewhere. It's a tough job but...

While I did resist the lure of the tattoo gods, I certainly held up my end of the drunk stupidity thing...........

Warner, King, Shaheen, Hassan and Fetterman have the worst "progressive" voting scores among Democratic senators. Of these five senators, Fetterman is the only one representing a "swing state."

I suspect Fetterman receives so much vitriol from progressive Democrats because he publicly supports Trump on a number of very unpopular issues, and he seems to enjoy doing so. He also ran as a much more progressive candidate, so voters feel betrayed.

https://progressivepunch.org/scores.htm?house=senate

She's a citizen now but who knows?

And there are stories that his wife is pissed and worried about his statements.

He tends to vote with D's from time to time but he is NOT a Democrat.

I think it is Dan Osborne who said he would caucus with neither the Democrats nor the Republicans, and be an independent.

What does that mean for votes for leadership?

Do you suspect such an independent would vote, independently, for a Democrat or a Republican and then not be part of the caucus? Or would such a person abstain from voting for leadership in the first place? Or would they, by virtue of their "independence", make a claim for leadership itself?

Then the political question of it is the former, are they not a de facto Democrat a la Bernie Sanders or Angus King?

I would appreciate your learned insight.

Thank you for this chart. It is the type of thing I find very interesting. I love simple hierarchies and lists.

Both Sanders and King caucus with the Democrats, though.

What if an independent was not a member of a caucus? People have explicitly run for election promising to caucus with neither party. Do you think that means they would vote for no leader? Or themselves?

Lapucelle posted the chart to me. It is informative.

I hadn't heard of anyone doing this. Do you happen to have names of those that did?

before reading your link, he sounds like an ass. Take Dem money and then abandon them.

Your question presumes he will win and my take from the article is that Dem voters feel betrayed and he has no chance of a win without their support/votes. That makes your question moot point.

He is an interesting case.

Sen Schumer and my Senators, Brian Schatz & Mazie Hirono, are doing quite well, too.

https://progressivepunch.org/scores.htm?x=7&y=3&house=senate&party=&sort=crucial-current&order=down

I agree with you that it is a handy tool, Cha.

Us vs Them. THEY are lying to you!!!! It is a diabolical conspiracy.

yeah OK

running for governor in California that is being endorsed now. Billionaires are okay after all.

out the window.. Whoosh-Poof!

are the ones giving Platner a purity test.

It is a buzzword that is arbitrarily applied to support Democratic leadership when it does something problematic and to undermine populist candidates when they speak to the party.

I am not looking for a prophet. I am looking for a vote for Majority Leader.

Concerned Collins. If would be nice if the Democratic establishment would read the room, understand the moment and strongly support him.

there's no mention of his posts admonishing women to watch their alcohol consumption or risk getting raped.

Or, probably not shocking at all.

... when he posted it. Now that hardly qualifies as an angsty/rebellious teen's words... nor is it a "youthful" indiscreet comment... nor is it or blurting something out in a drunken bullshitting session with friends at the bar. He had time to think and type and know that the words were being published and out there for the world to see. --- Sigh. I'm with Maya Angelou on this... I believe who people are the first time they show me.

Thank you!

I agree that people should be believed the first time they tell you who they are. But I also believe they can change (not excusing behavior but acknowledging their potential for growth).

I also dont believe this is the first time he told us who he is. He made clear to the world in his announcement that he is a fairly belligerent, bad mouthed no filter Marine veteran with many regrets who still makes mistakes. His reddit comments reflect that he is still capable of making the same mistakes, but also that he has had time to reflect and grow so that his mistakes are more likely to be new and not old. (That being said his views on anti racism as part of this growth and DEI are probably quite important. If you find me anywhere that shows he has recently in the last year tried to popularize himself off anti DEI fervor, I will still support him in my mind for a Democratic Senate but not give a penny to his campaign).

I respect anybody who is legitimately concerned about his behavior, but also know that the current stakes in November are far too high to let that get in the way of us winning the Senate back. I probably would have supported Mills if she didnt drop out, but that ship has sailed.

Thank you again for your very wise words!

because he had been a marine, and the comments were "mild". It was sickening.

as niyad pointed out, people are more outraged by his disgusting tats

Nope.

I wish Maine Dems would NOT have elevated someone with his troubling flags ... but at this point they DID, and we need him to beat Collins.

but that doesn't mean I have to accept or ignore all the horrible things he has said and done.

that you not amplify them with other people at this time.

If you agree he needs to win the election in November ... please understand that your words can have impacts beyond what you expect or intend.

I saw this play out in a terrible way between Clinton and Sanders in 2016. Maine is one Senate seat but we need every single one we can get this year. Even if the D is an imperfect human being - if he will vote for a Democrat as Senate Majority Leader - we need him.

Maine is one of the two Senate seats we are most likely to flip. And I do get that Planter is more likely to vote correctly on all of the important legislation than the current occupant of the seat. The current occupant of that seat is also offensive, and she has done incredible harm and is completely unacceptable.

I don't plan to start threads here about Graham Platner, or actively campaign against him. Many Maine voters seem willing to look past his history, their prerogative to do so, but nobody was lied to. He is who he is.

But the voters get the final say and they haven't voted yet. Yes, Platner is very likely to win. But there are other Democrats on the ballot, David Costello is one. Look at the California Governor primary. I doubt there are many who would have told you that Xavier Becerra would be current favorite in the polls if you asked them a month ago. The primary is little over one month away. We should respect it and let it play out.

A whole lot can and probably will happen between now and June 9.

among likely voters.

It's time to get behind the leading democratic candidate, and stop tearing him down. This seat is too important to screw up.

The primary isn't over.

Surely there is some way for Janet Mills to win. After all, the primary isn't over.

I mean if Costello throws his support to Janet Mills... and then finds 10 others to do it, they'll have 44%.

Then, all they need to do is find 2%! Then, they are within striking distance!

I mean, after all, the primary isn't over.

THE PRIMARY ISN'T OVER!!!!!

Come on, Mainers. Figure out a way to overcome the tyranny of math.

Maybe if we throw around the term "purity test" a few times we can bend the laws of reality to undermind the will of Maine democrats.

After all, we wouldn't want to look like fools on this forum.

Go ahead and write a letter to Maine and tell them to cancel the primary if that's how you feel.

Go ahead and tell the Maine voters their primary is over so there's no sense in voting.

Go ahead, I'm sure nobody will think you are foolish for suggesting this.


Graham Platner is very likely to be the Democratic nominee. You should not fear Maine voters participating in their primary election.

However, it appears that every elected Democrat is falling in line behind Platner.

The cope from some on this forum that he isn't going to be the nominee is absurd.

Primaries are good. We should have them.

When Platner wins 80% of the vote, will that make a difference to his detrators?

I've been quite clear about that in this thread. Why that isn't good enough for you, I don't know.

You are not clutching your pearls and attempting to make me feel like a bad Democrat.

before. They know all about that.

TY!

Short version:

Graham Platner won because his campaign was centered on taking on oligarchy and fighting for the working people of Maine and the U.S.


https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221212664

Maybe people will wake up to the root cause of the world's woes .... the insane concentration of wealth among "The Epstein Class" of pigs.

Until then, there are high prices, a war that FartMan said he would never start, and so on.





Keep it simple!

Trouble is you have to sort the messaging and discover who and what's behind it.

I canceled my subscription back then. They’re dead to me.

Someone I can have a beer with. I don’t want someone I can relate to. I don’t want someone who is charming, warm, friendly, whatever. I want someone who is learned, both academically and with resl-life experiences. Someone who isn’t bought and paid for, and will never be. Someone who sees the bug picture and understands how all living beings have their “place in the choir”.

Snippets without the broader context can paint a misleading picture.

Is he a fake, when comparing his rhetoric now to the totality of his previous writings?

Of course a candidate for office has to think carefully about what he says, but that applies to every single candidate ever, especially in this modern media era.

In any event, barring some huge unforseen development, Plantner will be the Democratic nominee.

We NEED that Senate seat.

the army of paid trolls and bad actors who seek to divide Democrats (all Americans really).

THe’s an imperfect person as we are all. If we won’t settle for less than perfection, we’re already fucked.

This is for everyone: Support Democrats up and down the ticket. Tune out the noise. And if you haven’t done so already, read the first half of the Mueller Report. It details how online groups were infiltrated and manipulated. There’s a reason why the republicans wanted to sink the report, and it didn’t have to do with “collusion.”

... blacks are bad tippers comments, or as recently as last month, using the R-word. I think that people are perfectly justified in being "upset" (your word) with him.

Thankfully, I've seen nobody in the "vote blue no matter who crowd" (again, your words) go so far as to advocate that people not-vote, or "leave it blank" or to vote "uncommitted"... so why would anyone take issue with, or make passive aggressive comments about a certain "crowd" having standards and expressing their disappointment and doubts.

Denial: "No way he can win."

Anger: *gestures around*

Bargaining: "There are still other Democrats in the race!"

Depression: "Voters are poopyheads."

Acceptance: *passive aggressive comments for eternity - literally sometimes lasting over ten years*

Because, as we get younger politicians from Millennials on down, we're going to have to start contending with the reality of social media histories. As a Xennial, I just barely edged out having my entire teens and 20s documented online. If anyone found my Reddit name right now, it is the most boring shit on earth, because I've been old enough to know better. If I don't want my boss to see it, it probably shouldn't be online.

People think it's 2014 for some reason. "Can you believe he said this thing in the past?"

Yeah. But, I dunno. I don't care. Voters don't care. Twitter isn't real life.

It just feels ancillary. "He had a bad tattoo!" Ok. Entrenched politicans have been skimming the system for decades. But that's fine. It's the tattoo I should get really worked about?

I just don't that much. It's not great. Platner's not my first pick. But when considering moral weight, the powerful have so much worse on their end of the scale that I'm not going to pretend to take a moral high ground. "Sure I support people who hire everyone and their uncle into nepotistic positions at tech companies, AI, and crypto while I take their donations and write legislation they can easily exploit. But have you seen the tattoo?"

People need to get real about some of this. Bad words, bad thoughts, dumb behavior vs. generational damage to the People.

I know which one I care about more.

And 100% agree.

And at this point he may be the difference between a democratic senate majority and pure fucking evil taking complete hold.

I would f'n look it up. Call me crazy, but I'd be a bit curious.

We have choices here. Not great ones, but there they are.

At the end of the day, which is worse in your world?

Do you want change or the same old shit?

Is someone who will keep the current system in place measurably better than a flawed person who sees it needs to change?

How many lives are worth outrage? How much change should be sacrificed for virtue?

The man hasn't committed any crimes near as I can tell.

And I'll just note without emphasis how many of the same people supercharged banging tables about Platner went to the mat for Swalwell right up to the point of it being virtually impossible to do so.

I'm just over this pretense. Completely.

It's a purity of convenience. Invoked when useful, discarded when the true goals are being met.

I'm just so over it. I'll take someone with reform potential who's said shitty things over the entrenched incrementalists who don't mind if brown kids go to bed hungry if it means they get more donations and guaranteed re-election.

Every time. Not even a contest.

Honestly, not even a conversation at this point.

The performative is going to be the death of this party, I swear. Politics - where the policies are nice, but the splenetic is core.