Tag: maine

Schumer Takes Public Stab At Sanders As Democrats Descend Into Chaotic Political Scuffle

Democrats are already eating their own in Maine — and the Senate race hasn’t even started.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threw gasoline on an already fiery primary Tuesday by endorsing Gov. Janet Mills for Senate — a move that instantly put him at odds with Bernie Sanders and the party’s progressive base.

“We think that Janet Mills is the best candidate to retire Susan Collins,” Schumer said at a press conference. “She’s a tested two-term governor and the people of Maine have an enormous amount of affection and respect for her.”

But Schumer’s safe, establishment pick enraged the left. Sanders — who’s been boosting populist underdog Graham Platner, a Marine veteran turned oyster farmer — has already blasted party leaders for “wasting millions on an unnecessary & divisive primary.”

Platner, who’s drawn heavy progressive support and hauled in over $3.2 million by the end of September, didn’t mince words either. His campaign torched Schumer’s move as “the establishment backing the establishment,” vowing their guy would win “because he has Mainers behind him.”

The Democratic civil war couldn’t be clearer: Schumer wants the polished, 77-year-old governor who’s led Maine for two terms. Sanders wants the scrappy outsider who calls out the Washington elite — even if his past social media posts have become a political minefield.

Platner has been scrambling to explain a string of crude Reddit comments unearthed by CNN and The Washington Post — including one where he used a slur for the disabled, called himself a “communist,” said “all” cops are “bastards,” and downplayed sexual assault in the military.

Platner’s scandals worsened this week when he revealed he has a tattoo resembling an alleged Nazi symbol.

In a video posted to X, Platner blamed the remarks on his battle with PTSD and insisted the people of Maine know “this is not at all the person that they have come to know, and come to interact with in reality.”

The controversy didn’t stop Sanders from sticking by him, calling Platner “a great working-class candidate.” But Schumer clearly wants none of it — betting that Mills is the Democrats’ best shot at unseating Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who’s gunning for a sixth term.

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After Years of Calling Everyone Else Hitler, Democrats Suddenly Excuse Their Candidate’s Nazi Tattoo

The Democratic Party has spent the better part of a decade finding “Nazi dog whistles” in the most innocuous of places, including a blue jeans ad featuring Sydney Sweeney.

If you ask them, they’ll gladly tell you that Republican presidents from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump are just like Hitler. Robert De Niro thinks Trump advisor Stephen Miller, a Jew, is a Nazi. Back when President Trump nominated Pete Hegseth for Secretary of War, the Left made a big point of claiming his Christian tattoos were actually symbols of “white supremacy” and — you guessed it — Nazism.

But suddenly, Nazi imagery doesn’t seem to matter quite so much to Democrats. Not now that Graham Platner, a Democrat running to unseat Republican Senator Susan Collins in Maine, revealed he had a rather large Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest.

Platner’s excuse was that he was inebriated and on shore leave, and Democrats have spent the past 48 hours dismissing the troublesome ink as a distraction from the campaign. Even Bernie Sanders said it wasn’t a big deal. We doubt he’d be so blase about a Republican sporting such body art.

It’s one thing to think you’re getting the Chinese character for “peace” tattooed on your bicep. It’s another to get a literal Nazi skull inked on your chest.

As to the comment about “s**tposting” online, Democrats spent years pushing cancel culture on those young men.

An “authentic working-class party” would not want to be represented by someone like Platner and his Nazi tats. Then again, Vigeland is also the person who laughed at the traumatic brain injury inflicted on a teenage volleyball player by a “trans girl,” so perhaps she’s not the best judge of character.

But Vigeland wasn’t the only one. Journalist Ryan Grim is fine with Democrats embracing guys like Platner, too.

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Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner admits he got Nazi-linked tattoo while ‘very inebriated’

Graham Platner, a Marine vet who’s running for a US Senate seat in Maine, said he was “very inebriated” when he got a tattoo linked to Nazism while on leave in Croatia nearly 20 years ago and insists he’s “not a secret Nazi.”

The liberal candidate, 41, went out of his way to disclose the controversial skull tattoo on the right side of his chest as he shared an embarrassing video that shows him singing in only briefs at a wedding celebration for his brother.

The Democratic oyster farmer, in an apparent attempt to get ahead of bad press, said he was on leave with fellow Marines in Croatia in 2007 when he got the questionable ink, which appears to resemble the “Totenkopf” — an image adopted as a symbol by Hitler’s Schutzstaffel, or SS.

“We got very inebriated, and we did what Marines on liberty do, and we decided to go get a tattoo,” he explained on the “Pod Save America” show.

“We chose a terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall because we were Marines and, you know, skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing, and we got those tattoos, and we all moved on with our lives,” Platner explained.

“I am not a secret Nazi,” the Bernie Sanders-backed candidate insisted, claiming he was unaware the tattoo had potentially sickening connections to Nazism.

He said the tattoo never raised any red flags, including when he joined the Army National Guard. The Army prohibits ink that is extremist, racist or sexist.

“It never came up until we got wind that in the opposition research somebody was shopping the idea that I was a secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo,” he told “Pod Save America” host Tommy Vietor.

After a firestorm of backlash, Platner said he was planning to have the offending ink removed.

“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” the embattled candidate told Politico Tuesday.

“I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that — and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed.”

His former campaign director, however, disputed his claim.

“Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago, and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means,” Genevieve McDonald wrote on Facebook, according to the outlet.

She resigned from Platner’s campaign after his old Reddit posts surfaced, which include labeling all police “bastards,” describing rural white Americans as “actually” stupid and racist — and once calling himself a “communist” around 2021, according to CNN.

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Dem Running for Senate in Maine as a Humble Veteran Called Himself a ‘Communist’ and Painted Rural Whites as Stupid and Racist Online

A maverick Democrat running for the U.S. Senate insists that what he said online a few years ago is not what he means now.

Graham Platner is an oyster farmer who is challenging Gov. Janet Mills for the Democratic nomination to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the 2026 midterm elections.

As noted by New York magazine, his campaign has been fawned over by progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, which has helped him amass a $4 million war chest 13 months before the election.

Then came a report from CNN that mined the depths of Platner’s Reddit posts from 2020 and 2021, all of which had been deleted before he announced his candidacy.

For example, a 2021 Reddit snippet noted, “I got older and became a communist.”

His antagonism to the police came through when he wrote, “Bastards. Cops are bastards. All of them, in fact.”

He said police misconduct is “a problem that extends deep into the profession as a whole.”

Rural America came in for criticism when he responded to a post saying, “White people aren’t as racist or stupid as Trump thinks” by writing, “Living in white rural America, I’m afraid to tell you they actually are.”

The Marine veteran shared his disillusionment with his service.

“My time in America’s imperial wars definitely radicalized me further, and I’m significantly more left today than I was back then. It is difficult to see all that horror, as well as all the grift and corruption, and not find the entire thing utterly bankrupt,” he wrote. “I did used to love America, or at least the idea of it. These days I’m pretty disgusted by it all.”

But now he says all that was just a mixed-up guy venting.

“That was very much me f***ing around the internet,” he said to CNN.  “I don’t want people to see me for who I was in my worst Internet comment — or even frankly who I was in my best Internet comment… I don’t think any of that is indicative of who I am today, really.”

The 41-year-old said he is not what his years-old comments might imply.

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National Guard “Accidentally” Gives Service Members COVID-19 Vaccine Instead of Influenza Shot

This week it was revealed that the US National Guard wrongly administered the Covid vaccine to a group of service members who were expecting to receive an influenza vaccine, according to The Epoch Times. The incident occurred during a mobile vaccination clinic for the Maine National Guard and at least one member who refused the mRNA vaccine on religious grounds received the experimental injection without his knowledge.

That service member, Mathew Bouchard, is no longer a member of the National Guard. After the incident, he felt that the trust was completely broken. He was ordered to take a flu shot and feels like he was duped. Because the incident happened close to the end of his service contract, he chose not to renew.

Bouchard explained his decision to The Epoch Times:

“Bouchard said he was ordered to receive an annual flu vaccine and went to the clinic to get that vaccine. He verified his name, date of birth, and part of his social security number, and told officials at the clinic he was there for the flu vaccine. But he was injected with a dose of a messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine, officials told him.

‘You know how you went in for the flu shot? Well, that wasn’t a flu shot. That was a COVID-19 vaccine,’” Bouchard told The Epoch Times, recounting the meeting with superiors.

“I think, in my mind, at that point, it was like, I completely didn’t know if I trusted any people in the military,” he added.”

In addition to Bouchard, two other service members “were accidentally given a Covid vaccine” instead of a flu injection that day, Maine National Guard spokesperson Maj. Carl Lamb explained in an email to The Epoch Times. The clinic was administering both types of vaccine, which likely led to the egregious error.

“Accident” or not, the incident is inexcusable. Especially considering the recent data that has been revealed about the dangerous and deadly adverse reactions caused by the experimental mRNA vaccines – particularly among otherwise healthy young adults. Just this week, the surgeon general of Florida announced new guidelines about the vaccine that show the jab causes a stunning 84% increase in cardiac-related death among 18-39-year-old men. The state of Florida now officially recommends that young males refrain from receiving the mRNA vaccine completely.

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One American town takes war against homeschooling to enraging extremes

Homeschooling and homeschoolers have been under attack across America in a number of ways over recent years.

Despite those barrages, the industry is growing hugely.

But there have been special exams demanded, invasive interviews, physical exams, odd requirements for homeschool teachers and much more at times. In one case state officials rejected a college diploma submitted by a homeschool teacher because it was written in Latin.

Now one Maine town is going to an extreme – an attempt to bar those connected with homeschooling from serving on a local public board, the school board.

According to the Institute for Justice, “Town officials in Dexter, Maine are considering a proposal that bars homeschool co-op leaders and private-school employees from serving on the local school board.”

While supporters for the barrier claim it would prevent conflicts of interest, the IJ reported it actually is “retaliatory.”

The IJ noted that last summer, Dexter voters recalled school board member Alisha Ames, leader of the town’s only homeschool co-op, Power Source Ministries.

“The recall came after a campaign by the Facebook group ‘Stop the Power Trip,’ which accused her of putting the co-op ahead of public schools,” the IJ noted. “Even if the recall of Ames was warranted, the proposed ordinance goes much further. Instead of addressing one individual, it would bar homeschool co-op leaders and private-school employees from serving on the school board, shutting out many other residents from their right to serve their community.”

The backlash already has begun. State Rep. Heidi Sampson, of the Maine Education Initiative, warned town officials in a letter they are refusing to abide by First Amendment precedents, and that “exposes the town to significant liability.”

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Maine Woman Receives 250 State Election Ballots in Amazon Package Delivery

As voters in Maine prepare to cast their ballots in a state referendum election on November 4th, a Newburgh woman received a surprise delivery.  She was expecting a package with household goods and a toy lightsaber, but instead received bundles of ballots for the November 4th election, totaling over 250 ballots.

According to the Maine Wire:

The discovery raised alarms about election security, leading the Maine Republican Party Chairman to call for a federal criminal investigation as the state is mere weeks from deciding on whether it will join 36 other states in requiring some form of Vote ID.

The package arrived Tuesday looking beat up and re-taped, as if tampered with. Inside, along with household items, were bundles of ballots packaged in tamper-evident packs of 50 — the same format used for official shipments to local clerks. Election officials who reviewed photographs confirmed the documents appear to be authentic 2025 ballots.

The resident, stunned by the find, immediately turned the ballots over to the town office.

“I am greatly concerned for our state and its voting requirements,” she said.

“When I opened it, there were 250 official State of Maine referendum ballots inside my box. Thank goodness I am an honest citizen and immediately reached out to my town clerk and took the ballots to the town for safekeeping.”

Photographs obtained by the Maine Wire show that the ballots were included in the box with the household items the woman had ordered.

Previously Maine Wire posted to X a clip of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows admitting that non-citizens may be on the voter rolls in Maine, prompting calls for voter identification.

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Maine mass shooting survivors refile lawsuit after Pentagon watchdog report cites Army negligence

The survivors and family members of victims of the deadliest mass shooting in Maine history have refiled their lawsuit against the U.S. government following a new U.S. Department of Defense watchdog report that faults the U.S. Army for a high rate of failure to report violent threats by service members.

Eighteen people were killed in Lewiston in October 2023 when Robert Card opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar and grill. Dozens of survivors and relatives sued the federal government earlier this month on grounds that the U.S. Army could have stopped Card, a reservist, from carrying out the shootings.

Lawyers for the group filed their amended lawsuit on Tuesday. It cites a report issued by the inspector general for the Defense Department this month that concludes the Army failed to make mandatory reports of violent threats almost half the time.

Military law enforcement is required to report violent threats to the service’s military criminal investigative organization. The review found the Army did not consistently follow that policy in 32 of 67 violent threat investigations in 2023.

The report specifically mentions Card, who died by suicide two days after the shootings. It says failure to consistently report violent threats “could increase the risk of additional violent incidents by service members, such as what occurred with SFC (Sgt. 1st Class) Card.”

The longstanding pattern of unaddressed threats gives the Lewiston victims a stronger case, said Travis Brennan, an attorney for the group.

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Convicted Maine Killer Running For Bangor City Council Hopes Voters Will Give Her A Chance

Twenty-three years ago Angela Walker beat a man to death in an Old Orchard Beach confrontation stemming from an insult the victim had hurled at her.

Walker is now looking – and hoping – for forgiveness as she embarks on a municipal political career.

She’s among nine candidates seeking a seat on the Bangor city council.

Walker was convicted and later imprisoned in the brutal killing of Derek Rogers, a Canadian tourist who had allegedly called her a racist name.

Cops found that Rogers had been severely beaten and then suffocated to death with sand forced down his throat.

“That’s my past,” Walker told the Bangor Daily News as she announced her council candidacy. “I don’t live there anymore and I’m a different person.”

She also said she understands and respects people who have hesitations about her criminal history.

Sgt. Rogers, of Russell, Ontario, was 48, a career officer in the Canadian military.

His lifeless body was found on the beach August 1, 2002 in a section of the popular coastal beach town known as Ocean Park.

He had been a musician who played trombone for the Canadian Central Command Band.

Rogers, whose family had vacationed in Old Orchard for generations, had spent several weeks at the beach with his wife of 20 years, Faith, police said at the time.

She had left Old Orchard to return to work, but Rogers was staying longer.

He was found dead by a fisherman shortly after 3 a.m. on the boardwalk along the beach a quarter-mile from the cottage he rented.

Before cops were able to identify Rogers, police had to interview roughly 400 people to try to find out who he was, how he died and who killed him.

Walker, then 29, later admitted to the killing and lying to cops in exchange for a 10-year manslaughter sentence. The admission was in exchange for a reduced murder charge.

An Associated Press account of her courtroom appearance said Walker, “dressed in gray sweat pants and sweat shirt with her black hair neatly pulled back, admitted her guilt to the judge in a clear, emotionless voice.”

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7 Chinese nationals charged in MASSIVE money laundering, human smuggling, drug trafficking operation

Seven Chinese nationals have been charged in connection to a conspiracy to cultivate as well as distribute marijuana in the Northeastern United States. They undertook this operation by using a network of single-family houses in Massachusetts as well as Maine, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).  

A press release from the DOJ on the charges stated that Jianxiong Chen, 39; Yuxiong Wu, 36; Dinghui Li, 38; Dechao Ma, 35; Peng Lian Zhu, 35; Hongbin Wu, 35; and Yanrong Zhu, 47 were all charged in connection to the network distributing the drugs around the Northeast. Six of the defendants were taken into custody earlier this week, with Yanrong Zhu still on the run as a fugitive.  

Most of the Chinese nationals have been charged with money laundering as well as conspiracy, and some were also charged with bringing assisting with bringing foreign nationals to the US illegally.

US Attorney Leah B. Foley said of the charges, “This case pulls back the curtain on a sprawling criminal enterprise that exploited our immigration system and our communities for personal gain. These defendants allegedly turned quiet homes across the Northeast into hubs for a criminal enterprise – building a multi-million-dollar black-market operation off the backs of an illegal workforce and using our neighborhoods as cover. That ends today.” 

The DOJ further stated, “According to the charging documents, from in or about January 2020, the defendants allegedly owned, operated or partnered with a network of interconnected grow houses in Massachusetts and Maine to cultivate and distribute kilogram-sized quantities of marijuana in bulk. Specifically, the enterprise allegedly operated grow houses in Braintree, Mass.; Melrose, Mass.; and Greenfield, Mass., among other locations in Massachusetts, Maine and elsewhere.” 

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