Platner can say damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Or not. This pile on has a timbre to it, believe a candidate who's fought the fight, or a late figurative assassin with no real hard evidence but crying RAPE? It rings false. To me. As a set-up. But - we shall see. Platner has a choice, and we do not know inner workings of his and his wife's weighing all.
But - Fetterman fueling the pile on? Whose loyalties does Fetterman hold highest?
How does this ring to you? Many words, where's the beef? There's much circumstantial goings on. What does it mean? Where will it lead?
What is right and what is wrong? Crabgrass feelings remain, Platner should press on. Win or lose, he does not compromise to extreme collective focused pressure.
What's the real evidence against him? Who has advanced it into the pubic arena?
I distrust mobs. Especially mobs for the status quo as superlative in a political party.
UPDATE: Bernie quitting on him disturbs me greatly. I expected it, but it still disturbs.
The suggestion of the foreground hand is one down, four more to come.
Vexingly, the local Maine report links to a subscription walled NBC item.
Leave it there. If more is to come, let it. If it is convincing, act on it. If it is more of the same, with equally thin actual evidence, screw it.
The number of accusers matters, but each accusation should be judged in terms of its own weight. Recruiting bad-mouthing is no hard thing. Having substance to charges is better than naked claims, "He raped me and 15 others," needs then 16 clear instances of separate careful attention to quality of each claim. Numbers don't carry the day outside of election voting.
If Platner caves, end of story, except for who the Maine Inner Party shifts into the race against Collins, a stiff like Schumer, or a progressive like Bernie?
The sad expectation is if it comes to Platner giving up, expect a stiff.
If Platner simply holds the line, other shoes drop, voters in Maine will have the choice of how tired and dessicated Collins is, and whether absent a progressive is there any hope.
We are on a short timeline.
UPDATE: This is the woman orchastrating the allegations against Platner.
Explore that link as much as you feel worth your time.
I do not question her dedication or sincerity, but if she's only got what she's shown so far, say so or show more. So far, one woman claiming rape, but possibly with a grudge. This woman. Ms. Hunt, knows the timing in which she dropped her load on the man, Platner.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kirsten Gillibrand was the first Democratic senator to call for her colleague Al Franken’s resignation in 2017
as he faced allegations of sexual misconduct, building a profile as a
leading advocate for women that became the centerpiece of her 2020
presidential bid.
But the New York senator is taking a different
approach when it comes to sexual harassment allegations hitting closer
to home, those against her state’s Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo.
In
a series of statements, Gillibrand has said accusations of offensive
behavior by Cuomo are “serious and deeply concerning” and that the three
women “who have come forward have shown tremendous courage.” She has
said that the claims against Cuomo are “completely unacceptable” and
called for a full investigation — but stopped short of demanding his
resignation.
Top Democrats in New York and nationally have
similarly refrained from suggesting that Cuomo step down. That includes
New York’s senior senator and the chamber’s majority leader, Democrat
Chuck Schumer. It’s a far more cautious approach than the parade of
Democratic senators who followed Gillibrand’s lead in calling for
Franken’s resignation.
That’s fueling questions about whether, more than three years into
the #MeToo movement, the push to hold powerful men accountable for
sexual harassment and abuse is losing steam. Gillibrand paid a political
price for her role in the Franken resignation and her tone toward Cuomo
may reflect that.
“Our country needs to do better for women writ large,” said Rachel
O’Leary Carmona, executive director of Women’s March, an advocacy group
that grew out of the January 2017 demonstration when tens of thousands
of women, most clad in pink, descended on Washington to protest Donald
Trump’s presidency. “Both parties and at every level of government.”
Franken ultimately resigned, but Democrats later questioned whether
they had moved too quickly to oust him. During her presidential
campaign, Gillibrand faced questions about her decision and insisted she
didn’t regret calling for Franken to give up his Senate seat. But she
acknowledged that doing so hurt her with top donors and may have
hampered her effort to win a following in the leadoff caucuses in Iowa,
which borders Franken’s state of Minnesota.
Pete Buttigieg, who essentially tied for first place in Iowa, has
said that when it came to Franken, he would “not have applied that
pressure at that time before we knew more.” The former mayor of South
Bend, Indiana, is now President Joe Biden’s transportation secretary.
Carmona’s
group has gone a step farther than Gillibrand and other leading
Democrats, calling for an investigation against Cuomo but also demanding
his “immediate resignation,” noting that “conduct doesn’t have to be
illegal to be disqualifying.”
Calls for Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Maine, to withdraw his candidacy intensified Monday after a woman accused him of sexual assault in an exclusive report by Politico.
While Platner denied the claims, many top Democratic figures quickly called on the beleaguered nominee to step down.
In
a joint statement, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Kirsten Gillibrand said
Platner should “immediately withdraw”.
“The
allegations reported today are incredibly disturbing – violence, abuse
and sexual assault are absolutely unacceptable,” they said. “The DSCC
will not invest in the Maine Senate race if Platner remains on the ballot.”
Maine’s
Democratic party leadership said Platner should withdraw from the race,
while Ro Khanna, the California representative who has been one of
Platner’s most vocal supporters, alsosaid
he should drop out. “I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or
violence against women is a red line,” he wrote on X. “These allegations
are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the
race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”
Elizabeth
Warren, the Massachusetts senator who endorsed Platner in March, said
in a statement “there can be no tolerance for sexual assault”. She said:
“With so much at stake, the best path forward is for Graham Platner to
step aside as the Democratic nominee and address these serious
allegations outside this Senate race.”
Ruben
Gallego, a Democratic senator from Arizona, also said on X: “The
allegations against Graham Platner are troubling and deeply serious. I
am rescinding my endorsement.” Martin Heinrich, a Democratic senator
from New Mexico who had also supported Platner in the primary, said he
could “no longer support” his candidacy. “He should step aside,”
Heinrich said in a statement.
In the Politico
report, published on Monday, Jenny Racicot, 41, who previously dated
Platner, said he forced her to have sex despite repeated objections.
Platner denied the claims in a statement to Politico.
“These
allegations are troubling, serious, and false. Any accusation of
non-consensual behavior is categorically untrue,” he said.
Racicot
told the outlet she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner for
more than two years. She alleges that in late 2021, an intoxicated
Platner entered her home uninvited and forced himself on her. Racicot
said she terminated contact after the encounter.
The
report cited accounts from a man Racicot later confided in, as well as
recent therapist emails, and messages where she warned an acquaintance
about Platner in 2023.
Platner, an oyster farmer and former marine veteran, who secured
the Democratic nomination and faces the Republican senator Susan
Collins in the general election, has faced a series of scandals before
this week.
Platner has cast himself as a populist everyman with an anti-oligarchy message. Before his run for public office, he made controversial comments on social media and got a Nazi-linked tattoo, which has since been covered up. Platner has said he did not initially understand the meaning of the tattoo.
In a video message
on Monday published after the Politico report, Platner again said the
accusations were false, but that he was mindful of the political reality
the accusation will carry.
“We are taking the
time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the
people that I love, the movement I belong to and the goal of defeating
Susan Collins,” Platner said.
He thanked the voters who helped propel him to the nomination as a political newcomer.
“You
never turned your back on me, and I will not turn my back on you now,”
he said. “Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition,
and see Susan Collins defeated, and we will use every tool at our
disposal to do so. As Maine goes, so goes the nation.”
This is Gillibrand and Schumer dumping the same shit they dumped on Franken, who was the Senator I voted for and wanted in Washington to represent my State's interests, and to show the progressinve wisdom that caused me to so vote.
Cuomo, the pair, Gillibrand and Schumer, took a hike. He was a stiff they fit in with.
Franken and now Platner, they eviscerate. Are they sincere? Who the fuck knows but the Cuomo quietness suggests they are grossly inconsistent. They only judge progressives harshly.
Bottem line: Fuck the both of them. As Crabgrass sees things, Platner should stay in his bid to be a progressive voice in a Senate lacking progressive voices, but full of far too many Scuhmer/Gilllibrand bullshit clones.
Platner’s campaign said the senatorial candidate “vigorously denies” the claims.
“These
allegations are very serious and Graham vigorously denies them,” the
statement said. “They are also coached and coordinated by out of state
establishment operatives. For a year, opponents of this campaign have
thrown everything they can at Graham – calling him a Nazi, a war
criminal, and a communist. None of it has been true and this is no
different.
“It is not a coincidence that this
story comes a week before the ballot deadline, just as the previous
false allegations came a week before the primary. Graham began this
campaign to fight for a Maine where everyone is treated with dignity and
where Mainers are put first, and no amount of desperate smears will
stop this movement from seeing that vision through.”
That is a strong statement of continuation. Crabgrass views it as proper, and hopes that it holds. This kind of last minute corruptly timed attack should not win. People see it, and it most surely is a weight against others deciding, like Platner, to run.
FURTHER: Beyond Gillibrand and Schumer possibly getting ahead of their story and outrunning actual evidence, the Politico account that launched the endorsement withdrawal landslide is:
The story is she was on a couch, Platner entered, groped, they went to the bedroom and had unprotected sex, the claims of consensual or not vary, she got cleaned up while Platner fell asleep. She did not awaken him, discussing things the next morning, and that being the last sex between them. No police report. No claims of apparent forced bodily injury, bruises or scratches. She scrubbed roughly contemporaneous web traces. After that, vague hearsay. She sought out Cheyenne Hunt who'd previously in April 2026 managed claimants against Eric Swalwell, and only after that she came out agressively against Platner, timed as it was. There is ambiguity. Whether Hunt has other claimants against Platner. It is unclear, but none have come forward with detail, and the expectation is Politico and Hunt had discussions before Politico published.That a Politico show-us-more request to Hunt did not get more shown.
That's not how Politico worded it, but this timing is suspect, and who jilted who is unclear after an extended relationship. Just that there was this ending encounter with consent disputed. I believe Platner's claim things were consensual. Others believe otherwise, apparently. Or are willing to throw Platner overboard after Politico published as it did, however they believe things.
To scuttle an otherwise popular progressive likelihood of unseating Susan Collins in a progressive campaign that resonated greatly with Dem primary voters in Maine, on this, seems too thin, to me. With Franken there was the clowning around photo that was in truth, poor humor. But something tangible. Platner and spouse show the public a solid marriage, with nothing to suggest doubt about it. It is their candicacy, not merely his. They both embrace the chance to unseat Collins and go to DC to make the nation better. In their view of what better would be. A view I share.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
has thrown her support behind Abdul El-Sayed, the doctor and
progressive Democrat seeking the party’s nomination in Michigan’s
closely watched US Senate race.
[...]
The prevailing candidate will represent the party in November’s US midterm elections, with Democrats looking to flip control
of the House of Representatives and the Senate, away from Republicans.
Obtaining a majority in the upper chamber is widely considered to be the
tougher challenge, and retaining seats like Michigan is seen as
critical to Democrats’ wider bid to regain control of the Senate.
El-Sayed’s populist economic platform
includes banning tax incentives for companies such as Amazon, imposing
new taxes on billionaires, eliminating medical debt and strengthening
anti-monopoly laws to curb corporate price-gouging. He has also called
for an end to “blank check” military aid to Israel and other countries.
Ocasio-Cortez’s
endorsement marks her first in a competitive US Senate primary during
this midterm cycle. However, it is not her first time endorsing the
progressive candidate. In 2018, fresh off her upset over Representative
Joe Crowley in the New York House primary, Ocasio-Cortez traveled to Michigan to boost El-Sayed in his long-shot bid for governor. He lost the race to Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.
El-Sayed
welcomed the support, writing on X: “AOC has spent her career taking on
the powerful on behalf of everyday people, and she has shown all of us
what courageous, smart, values-driven leadership looks like. I’m deeply
honored to earn her endorsement. Onward to victory.”
So far, NewYork, Colorado and the midwest are showing penetration into status quo Dem political middle road inner party yuck. Reform will happen, or not, now or later. Hope endures. Medicare for all could happen in my lifetime. May I live so long.
Minnesota has an August primary, so it will be as it is, no trend setting.
Homeland Security Nazis have gone ballistic because a cancer-fighting Hmong man was pardoned by the Minnesota Pardon Board, frustrating a deportation effort. The Pardon Board is a body requiring unanimous agreement among three members, the Governor, the Attorney General, and the Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. The Nazis wanted to deport him over the State crime he committed. The pardon frustrated that. The Board was, decades ago, created over citizen unrest over pardon power exercise by a past Governor then empowered to solely make pardon decisions. So, the State's decision the Nazis do not like had that solid multi-official basis to it. (And Nazi is a personal Crabgrass description judgment, the ICE goons are not officially Nazi, just mirroring that status in ICE leadership, mood and mode of operation.)
The Hmong are with us because of the recruitment role they had as fighters for the CIA secret Laos war during Vietnam. The Ho Chi Minh trail went in Laos and Cambodia parallel to the Vietnam west border. The secret war was primarily to impede traffic on the trail. And to fight the Red Scare in Laos. They were a highlands people, an isolated culture at the time, and the Laotian War ran for years. It is documented on the web for any reader wanting to research it. A General Vang was the leader of the Hmong war forces during the time. He was part of the refugee bloc settled into Minnesota and the Hmong have, to use Emmer's term, assimilated.
St. Paul, MN, has a Hmong mayor. While is Seattle a home I'd occupied was sold from an estate during a crazy pricing period for a bit ovre a million dollars to a Hmong hospital emergency room physician. The Hmong in their population segment still practice organic agriculture and nationwide are regular farmers' market vendors. That part of their original Laotian culture remains.
After the Vietnam exodus reporting from time to time was about Thai refugee camps. That was the Hmong warrior families before the nation realized responsibility for making them refugees via The War, and had the conscience to allow them to emigrate here.
A similar story applies to the Somali emigration to the US. After the US embassy bombings in Africa the CIA was tasked with tracking down two key al Quada bombing masterminds who'd fled to Somalia. The Somali Americans Emmer trashes were the one clan that was willing to cooperate with the CIA, and the two perps were hunted down and are no longer alive. Cooperation with the CIA was not a popular thing and a Somali majority at the time was hostile to the segment that emigrated to the US.
They had a culture left behind, as did the Hmong, and are assimilating as an entire community, with their start on that process being decades later than the Hmong.
Back to the Hmong and assimilation needing understanding - Years earlier closer after the abandonment of Vietnam by the nation, a housing bloc in Seattle housing recent Hmong immigrants encountered scrutiny when the Hmong group there were growing opium poppies, a normal traditional medicine in their culture. No big SNAFU, it was a simple telling them it was not allowed stateside. They conformed. It made the newspapers, and the story can be found on the web, even as it is decades old. But assimilation is the main story, and Mr. Emmer can take his Somali hate and shove it.
Also, assimilation is not an instant thing, habits take time to change. But, Bottom Line, Americans are Americans, and those of refugee backgrounds of recruitment bu and service for the CIA and have encountered homeland grief over it are owed something, the CIA cannot simply be allowed to discard its service providers as no longer of value after the CIA effort has failed. These are human being groups that put themselves at a disadvantage, for CIA pranks and fronts, and we as a nation accept tnem slowly into citizenship and prosperity, electing a mayor, med school grads, etc.
And then -- there is Mr. Emmer. Mr. Short Fuse and hate-'em as a politically charged decision Emmer. Wishing we in MN CD6, had better, we presently do not. But will.
________________UPDATE______________
This is the Trump administration specifically targeting Tim Walz. See: here and here.
Do they fear Walz as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, as more genuine and less a stiff than JD? Or are they aiming to divert attention from Trump failures and Epstein, or possibly just unable to restrain themselves while the war loss consequences are working out unfavorably to Trump/JD?
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s rejection of Donald Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship
via executive order — a blatantly unconstitutional effort that should
have been immediately rebuked by the court — right-wingers descended
into a full-blown ethnonationalist frenzy that ventured into outright
eugenics.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller,
himself the descendant of European refugees from 20th-century pogroms
and the Holocaust, told Fox News that the Trump administration would be taking “a hard look” at banning all pregnant women from entering the country.
Miller, the architect of Trump’s most draconian and inhumane
immigration policies, complained to Fox News that “people from all over
the world from third-world nations — nations that on their own would
have never invented the wheel, let alone modern technology, let alone
medicine, let alone air travel — they can just come into the country,
have a baby, and then that baby is automatically a citizen?”
“The baby can sit on a jury when he turns eighteen, and sit in judgment
of you, and sit in judgment of me,” a hysterical Miller railed to host
Jesse Watters.
The entire world in one sense does sits in judgment of that hate filled person.
That individual caused all the pardon board special effort to save a few from the intense insensible hate Stephen Miller emanates, even without speaking.
ICE agents stake out immigration hearings for people with refugee status and round up people here
with work or student visas for minor offenses like speeding tickets,
all to get the numbers up. But these actions were not enough for Miller.
"Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?” he reportedly screamed
at ICE officials. One ICE leader protested that the agency's lead, Tom
Homan, said they're supposed to be going after criminals, not people who
are just working everyday jobs. Miller reportedly hit the ceiling,
furious that arrests aren't widespread and indiscriminate. Trump has
repeatedly implied he was only targeting criminals, but as Charles
Davis reported at Salon, that conflicts with his promise of "mass deportations." Undocumented immigrants commit crimes at far lower rates
than native-born Americans. The expansive efforts to find and arrest
immigrants in California, which kicked off the protests, appear to be a direct reaction to Miller's orders to grab as many people as possible, regardless of innocence.
For Miller, the goal of "mass deportations" has never been about law and order, but about the fantasy of a white America.
But Miller doesn't seem to care about crime. Or, perhaps he thinks
having darker skin should be a crime. For Miller, the goal of "mass
deportations" has never been about law and order, but about the fantasy
of a white America. His desire to deport his way to racial homogeneity
has always been not only deeply immoral, but pretty much impossible. His
impotence shouldn't breed complacency, however. As the violence in Los
Angeles shows, petty rage can lead to all manner of evils.
Ask Tom Emmer about Miller. Crabgrass expects Emmer would say, "A nice guy." And then talk to you about crypto.
Reacting
to the Lakers’ recent moves, Smith argued Wednesday that the Lakers had
no chance of winning a championship because their top three players
were white.
Smith said:
Where
the hell the Los Angeles Lakers think they’re going with a bunch of
white dudes? Your three top players are white dudes? Really? This ain’t
golf! This ain’t baseball! Hell, it ain’t even soccer! What do y’all
think this is? This is basketball!
In
NBA history, when have you seen your three most prominent players on a
basketball team all be white, and that takes you to the promised land?
Somebody got to say it, so I’m saying it! This is basketball. I’m not
complaining. I’m simply making the point. The Los Angeles Lakers, you
ain’t going anywhere being led by three white dudes in today’s
generation of basketball!
Smith
went on to praise the Lakers’ white players, emphasizing that he still
believed they were good. He did, however, accuse Lakers general manager
Rob Pelinka of turning the team into “white central.”
In Minnesota, this resonates, back before sports were integrated likely is when an NBA team was champion with three white guys as leading players. The Minneapolis Lakers won, back before team ownership greed moved the team to LA, when the name "Lakers" made sense in the land of 10,000 lakes.
The superstar then was center George Mican, who played wearing specacles, which is of interest too in Minnesota because of Olivia Miles rookie WNBA player tearing up the league this season while also wearing spectacles while playing. Crabgrass memory is that Jabbar wore protective goggles after too many fingers to the eyes, and Rambis was the other big league player remembered as using eye glasses. Other than those two between Mican and Miles, contact lenses seem to hold use among visually impaired high school, college and big league players.
Back to Stephan A. Smith. He's right. The NBA, like the NFL but more so features top talent being black players, disproportionately so. But there is a prejudice there, as many "black" players are of mixed race ancestry, just as Tiger Woods has been noted as an outstanding African-American golfer, while not termed an Asian-American golfer. But aside from Smith's complaint, the main feature is the three-point shot changing the game these days, and Larry Bird, whiteness and all, arguably was the best three shooter of all time. If not the best player, best trash talker. Bird had all the skills aside from highlight dunking.
And where will LeBron land with his parting ways with the Lakers? It would be his 24th year, and you hope he signs a guaranteed two-year contract, wherever he goes.
And some college players make more money then if they went pro, now that nil and transfer portal have changed the college game. Miles has a foot in the portal movement, having played an extra college year after transferring her way into the new more lucretive WNBA contract this season. Playing on a far better contract than had she gone pro last year.
And, yes. The rest of the world cares more about FIFA. But --- your blog and you can post anything you want to is the way of the web.
UPDATE: Smith actually should remember the Celtic championship days, where Bird, McHale and Danny Ainge started. He's not too young to have missed it and not too old to have forgotten. Parrish and DJ were facilitator players but the three white guys were top scorers and starters. The three played real minutes. But your center and point guard are crucial, your shooting guard less so. Thus I can cut Smith some slack. Even with his Laker bias clouding his acknowledgement of Celtic ball being a character defect.
Taiwanese government agencies conducted raids on
Super Micro offices and several local affiliated companies as part of an
ongoing investigation into suspected illegal exports of Nvidia AI chips
to China.
Bloomberg reports
that Taiwanese prosecutors expanded their crackdown on technology
smuggling operations with coordinated raids targeting Super Micro
Computer and its business partners. The Keelung District Prosecutors
Office announced that investigators searched the residences of six
individuals and facilities belonging to three affiliated companies on
Monday. According to a person familiar with the situation who requested
anonymity, Super Micro’s Taiwan office was among the locations targeted
in the operation.
The raids represent a significant escalation of Taiwan’s first major
public enforcement action against AI chip diversion to China, following
years of pressure from the United States to play a more active role in
preventing Chinese access to advanced semiconductor technology. The
United States has maintained strict export controls on cutting-edge
components, including Nvidia AI chips, due to concerns that such
hardware could enhance Beijing’s military capabilities. The vast
majority of these advanced chips are manufactured in Taiwan.
Super Micro issued a statement confirming its cooperation with Taiwanese
authorities. “Super Micro is committed to protecting our advanced
technologies and intellectual property,” the company stated. “Super
Micro products continued to be targeted in these matters, and we
continue to cooperate with law enforcement and government officials in
Taiwan and other jurisdictions in which we operate to ensure our
technology is distributed as lawfully intended.”
Under current Taiwanese law, exporting AI chips to China does not
constitute a criminal offense. Local authorities can warn potential
sellers about possible violations of US regulations, but the only legal
recourse available through Taiwan’s court system involves charging
suspected smugglers with violations of other existing local laws. Taiwan
is now considering legislation that would criminalize such exports
directly, providing prosecutors with additional tools to combat illicit
technology trade.
So, Bloomberg's story, but Bloomberg is paywalled, so Brietbart, no paywall, gets Crabgrass coverage. For readers to whom "Supermicro" is a new mention, this link.
That was a early returned item from search = Elon Musk xai memphis use of super micro hardware
Supermicro is not a small player, and it's product focus goes with those AI noise farms that nobody wants in their back yard, and which Musk after his SpaceX cash grab now talks of suitable for placement in space orbit.
