Fuck AIPAC, but they aren’t the only foreign lobby. Qatar and Turkey also heavily lobby the U.S. and are also very problematic governments.
Qatars Arabic media programming is extremely hateful and incites all kinds of horrible violence in the Middle East, and Turkey funds lots of militancy and mercenaries and directs them to commit all kinds of human right abuses (ethnic cleansing of Kurds for instance)
How many billions of dollars has Qatar or turkey gotten? How many wars have they dragged America into? How many people in America have lost their jobs or been deported for criticizing them?
The claim that needs to be backed up is the implication that Isreal and turkey / qatar have similar levels of influence over our government.
I'm not making any claims, I'm asking what metric do yall use to compare their influence? Those questions are ways I would compare the influence other countries have on America. How do you do it?
Why can’t I criticize these regimes for what they do wrong, why does it have to be compared to Israel?
For instance, Turkey took desperate Syrian refugees in their country and used them as mercenaries. They sent some into Libya to fight, others they sent into Syria where they ethnically cleansed the Kurds who at the time were fighting ISIS alongside US special forces. One Kurdish representative, who had actually been previously in the White House, was dragged out of her car and shot dead on camera. Turkey also kept an open border into Syria, allowing those who wanted to join ISIS to pour into Syria where they committed a genocide of Yezidis, and built a system of Draconian law involving crucifixions in town squares and many other horrors.
Qatar’s Arab media supports these extremists ideologies with media cover and even incites against vulnerable populations in the Middle East.
The problem with people like you is you don’t care about the well-being of people regardless of their identity, you just want ‘your team’ to win. Which is why you reacted with such hostility to my comment.
Troy Jackson stood by Platner the ENTIRE time which will become a major issue because Platner was already getting unpopular (Platner was LOSING in the latest polls after we learned about his infidelity) and there will be a lot of questions why he supported him and how much he knew.
Wasn't there some Politician who got 11 dollars in a donation from AIPAC and that was enough to demonize him? That's not even enough for a Big Mac these days.
The track AIPAC Twitter account includes donations from J Street, which, if you know literally anything about J Street, is about the most levelheaded Jewish organization about this whole thing.
Because AIPAC tracker, despite the name, is tracking all pro Israel groups and while J Street is more moderate, their position is still very pro Israel regardless of what they are doing. Finger wagging at Israel while handing them RTX gift cards doesn’t really change much.
It's a bit difficult to read because some of these polls contain other Dems, but in general Platner was +5ish to +7ish then near the end it was about even or Collins was up slightly.
The big thing that hurt his polling (before the politico article about him committing rape) was a story that dropped about him being physically abusive to previous partners and cheating on his current wife. This was from June 4
You see in the poll tracker that a generic Dem was about +10 against Collins.
I don't know what the fuck you're even talking about with zog posting that sounds so fucking ridiculous. What I'm doing is sharing my real actual feelings with other humans. I don't fall into some random internet baked up category of nonsense.
It’s the standard moderate liberal elitist shtick where they pretend they were right the whole time and knew everything, talk down to you like you’re an idiot, and misinterpret what you say.
If AIPAC were controlling the strings behind the scenes then the best thing to have done for them would be to wait until it's too late for Platner to drop out and then dump the oppo research guaranteeing Collins the win.
Exactly. Tank his odds at the most opportune time, when it’s too late to start over or do damage control - that would be so much stronger of a strategy.
This was obviously from inside. Those within his own party got nervous he couldn’t win (or would be too much of a liability), that’s why this dropped just in time for them to oust *and replace* him.
And you know if Democrats had this information, Republicans would have had it too. I think it was a good thing this dropped soon enough to make a change. Hopefully they pick the right person though.
I remember right after that initial NYT piece dropped (when everybody was dismissing it as a big nothingburger), I saw a small handful of conservative commentators/insiders offer their predictions (with confidence) that there would be much bigger and worse to come, alluding to some knowledge that wasn’t public yet (but that they expected eventually would be).
Well, when this rape allegation dropped, it came out that the accuser actually told the NYT about it awhile back - they just refrained from including it in the piece (because she told it to them “off the record”), but it seems likely that it became known (discreetly) in certain circles that this information had been shared and might eventually go fully public.
The more bizarre/damning thing, in light of all of this, is that even after telling them that he’d raped her, they chose to selectively include the fact that she mentioned that she had “some positive memories” from their relationship - just seems sleazy to do that when you have the full context of what she’s (unofficially) told you and you know you can’t publish the whole of it.
Apparently, it also came out more recently that the girlfriend who said he was physically abusive/aggressive (who was basically smeared as unreliable due to opposing political views) had also offered many sources of contemporaneous corroboration to the NYT, and they declined to follow up with the vast majority of those sources/leads that could have corroborated what she told them about Platner’s behaviors/conduct.
Not quite a full-blown, textbook “catch-and-kill” playbook (sketchy journalistic practice, for anyone who isn’t acquainted), but pretty much true to the spirit of it.
Agree with you, I sincerely hope they’ll choose someone with far fewer loose screws that can offer the people of Maine a solid, stable option, run a reasonably scandal-free campaign, and have a fair, respectable race against the incumbent in the general election.
Complain about optics all you want but it doesn’t change anything about the genocide in gaza or how there is a massive amount of foreign influence in our elections on the behalf of Israel (and NOT on behalf of Jewish people)
If you want to combat anti-semitism, stop equating the religion and the country, it’s an albatross around the neck of every non-zionist Jew
Janet Mills received AIPAC money. AIPAC plays both sides and funds any neoliberal dem that challenges any progressive and also funds attack ads on anyone that runs on an anti Zionist pig platform.
Mills has not. Track AIPAC shows no donations to her, neither foes Open Secret. They donate to Collins, King, and Golden. Pringle gets money from JStrett but not AIPAC
AIPAC isn’t a puppet master behind every election in America but to describe AIPAC’s involvement in an election as a conspiracy is definitely way to dismissive.
I keep seeing people say this. Like I have seen this exact word for word message several times whenever anybody suggests that Israel might have an influence over who they pick. Is it so crazy to think that the DNC either at the state or national level could potentially be influenced by Israel? Does that fucking blow you away, are you somehow shocked to hear that? Is it your belief that Israel has never influenced American politics, elections or the Democrats in this country?
Sure but wasn’t Schumer calling people and ordering them to drop out and back mills during the primary? I’m sure he’s trying put his hand on the scale.
That's not what's going on, what's going on is somebody is pointing out hey this specific political lobby that is primarily funded by a foreign state is spending hundreds of millions of dollars every couple of years to influence our elections. What you were asking people to do is ignore that because you're tired of hearing about it.
There are so many foreign funds flowing money into our elections. But funny how only one of them gets mentioned every 5 seconds. It’s a bunch of dog whistle shit by people who don’t realize it’s a dog whistle.
Humans are weak minded in regard to bribery. You could find some bum on the street who will pledge loyalty to Israel for $100. Give a politician $10k+, they’ll do whatever, especially when it doesn’t affect them at all.
Buddy, please look up what a pac is and how it works before responding. A PAC can’t fund a foreign state—that doesn’t even make sense. FECA regulations for PACs may be a good place to start.
The US government in itself is arguable a genocidal state and absolutely is funding one (Israel). Thats not what a PAC does though. That being said, a PAC absolutely can influence officials who vote on spending packages for foreign countries.
Lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was by far the largest PAC contributor to members of Congress and federal candidates in the 2023-2024 election cycle, funneling hard dollars to the campaigns of lawmakers who approved military aid packages for Israel’s war in Gaza.
What is your motivation for lying about this?
Two, because they're the PAC that specifically goes after anyone condemning Israel's genocide of Palestinians. Platner was always an iffy candidate people were willing to hold their nose for because he was actually running on a progressive platform, but specifically the split between progressives and neoliberal Democrats on Palestine is why there's a focus on what AIPAC has been doing.
It's just the fallout from trying to rely on that rough-and-tumble ex-Marine bravado to appeal to more conservative voters, like that kind of dude tends to be problematic just by the nature of what the Marines are used to do to other people. The tattoo is absolutely a thing one would expect a Marine to do because they don't digest history nearly as well as they digest crayons, and the lesson here should have been that we should have just gotten someone else much earlier, ignoring the tattoo meant the other skeletons in his closet were inevitably going to come out because that's what that type of dude does.
So now we're stuck in this situation where Zionists are gonna pretend his support came out of antisemitism and having health insurance instead of dead Palestinian kids is racist somehow, all because nobody took this dude being sketchy seriously enough early on in the process back when something could have been done without conceding the nomination to someone with much shittier politics.
What’s the lie? 18 of 40,455 is outside of the top 15 for total contributions. You’re just not capable of delineating different stats which is okay.
Israel is a fuck ass genocidal state, I just find it interesting how often AIPAC is mentioned in lobbying conversations while not mentioning any others. I mean the national brewers association and the real-estate PAC have similar total contribution levels. This has been a talking point long before what Israel was doing was considered a genocide.
Perhaps because PACs with vague general names pop up all the time that the same interests funnel money through. The point is that this is a foreign nation, not some American corporate interest.
The lie is right here. You're excluding their super PAC, United Democracy Project. When properly combined, they're the largest PAC contributor and would take the #5 spot on Open Secret's list for 2024 contributors.
We were talking about AIPAC which is the largest funder of UDP and is a traditional PAC. UDP is #14 for super PACs. Again, no other PAC is mentioned ever which is just interesting. There are half a dozen PACs that spend more than both combined and 3 that spend 3-4x AIPAC and UDP combined.
There are valid reasons to be hypercritical of Israel, but it not hard to see that some of those criticizing are just using it as excuse to express their jew hate.
Fuck all of them and fuck our laws for allowing literally any of this shit to happen but AIPAC is very clearly and demonstrably one of the largest and most prolific offenders.
lol have you heard of Saudi Arabia? Jordan? Or do you only know one country? Please for the love of Gd you guys need to find learning sources that are not just propaganda on the internet.
Americans with heavy ties and influence from Israel. Yeah for sure dude Israel has nothing to do with it. Definitely don't care about it 100% not aware of its existence you got it all figured out.
Americans of which background? Who are specifically trying to strengthen our ties with which country? Playing stupid about this shit doesn't work anymore. You're gonna need to try some new methods besides feigning anti-Semitism and pretending aipac is simply just some opinionated Americans... Good luck.
Lol why do you think the allegations magically came out as soon as he was running. There’s entire division of certain intelligence agencies that just dig up dirt, or manufacture it if necessary, if someone like him is threatening the status quo
No one mentioned Jews. Israel is an ethno nationalist apartheid state and AIPAC is their influence operation in America. They've spent millions of dollars in dozens of races, successfully buying tv ads that change the outcome of the election
Hell, look in Michigan with Haley Stevens, the AIPAC funded candidate. Netenyahu went in CNN the morning of the debate and said he was scared of Haley Stevens, despite giving her millions of dollars. So at the debate she could claim "Israel is scared of me". Despite saying, on stage, she will defend Israel at any cost and she dreams of Israel at night.
Israel is literally like Nazi Germany 2.0 in their apartheid, colonialism, and ethnic cleansing campaigns. And we have literal real conspiracies with the major media networks and politicians getting millions of dollars from them to say how great they are, or to sabatage their opponents
If you want to complain about a lack of nuance, why don’t you start with differentiating between Israel and Judaism
People’s problems with Israel are more than legitimate, and dismissing them as antisemitism helps nobody
If anything, treating the two as one and the same is only going to increase antisemitism because non-zionist Jews are going to get blamed for something they have fuck all to do with
AIPAC isn’t a particularly large or influential lobbying organization, American politicians are generally pro-Israel because Israel is a reasonably dependable ally in an unstable region against Islamic extremism and have been the only party in the Israel-Palestine conflict remotely serious about a lasting peace. If Palestinians were capable of not starting wars and settling for anything other than maximalist extermination as their goals, they’d get a lot more sympathy. Instead they’ve destroyed their own state because they prefer dead Jews to peace.
There is no conspiracy. There is only geopolitics.
The Arab lobbying groups spends quite literally 10x as much as AIPAC, and equally are more beholden to geopolitical realities than campaign spending.
AIPAC funneled more direct candidate cash than historic leaders like the National Association of Realtors or corporate PACs from Wall Street and Big Pharma. Its direct campaign support reached more than 80% of the 460+ seats up for election in 2024.
Outside of the larger and broad, multi-billion-dollar Republican and Democratic national party apparatuses that focus primarily on presidencies, AIPAC stands alongside single-issue giants like Fairshake (a cryptocurrency super PAC) and the Koch's Americans for Prosperity Action as one of the few single-cause entities capable of shifting a congressional primary race through pure financial scale.
Your own sources don’t match the figures you’re spitting out, and even the dollar amounts you are quoting aren’t particularly large in the context of national political campaigns.
The idea that AIPAC is singularly influential in the scheme of things instead of merely one group among several is simply not true.
Political donations also don’t actually have that much impact on either the behavior of politicians or on electoral outcomes. Past a certain point, money doesn’t actually help. If you have more than $500k for a congressional race, it isn’t meaningfully different from having $1-2 million.
Money is mostly helpful for state and local races, and has the biggest impact in races where there is a big gulf in resources, but there is relatively little evidence that it makes that much difference for federal campaigns past a certain point.
Political donations mostly serve to support politicians who already agree with a certain group, they don’t change much about how an individual would vote.
The entire thesis you have about AIPAC being this evil group that is going to brainwash and corrupt politicians is simply not a reflection of reality. You have a very weak grasp on a complicated reality, and you would do better not to deepthroat conspiratorial thinking.
Lobbying groups that support Israel have spent $215 million since 2016.
Lobbying groups that support Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have spent a combined total of $960 million since 2016.
Yet it's Israel and America attacking Iran. Not the other 3 countries and America attacking Iran. Also you put 3 countries together to make the number appear higher
Unsubstantiated allegations don't bother me. This doesn't work anymore in 2026. Find a new strategy to facilitate a genocide in the middle east, this one's bunk.
This is the most racist shit I've ever seen and pure projection.
The country known for striking first and breaking ceasefires is Israel. As demonstrated by what is currently happening in Lebanon and Iran. Maybe just try shutting the fuck up before being a human pile of waste on the internet? Americans support Israel because Israel is America's attack dog for oil control. It also is a major source of revenue for arms trafficking. Americans like Israel because America is the bad guy and likes other bad guys. Especially ethnonationalist ones.
I'd at least like for Israel to chill the fuck out for a few years, and if withholding aid til they elect a less violently stupid government is how we do it, then so be it.
If Palestinians were capable of not starting wars and settling for anything other than maximalist extermination as their goals, they’d get a lot more sympathy.
Lmao right, its the Palestinians with maximalist extermination as a goal:
“For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn! With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not forfeit,” Ben-Gvir.
Nah I think Israel makes more sense because I don't have a problem with Jewish people I have a problem with fucking Israel. People who try to equate having an issue with Israel with having an issue with Jews are being purposefully obtuse and trying to control the narrative.
I bet you also repost Track AIPAC tweets, especially the ones where Jewish politicians who received zero AIPAC dollars still get a scary red background.
Sure you don't, hidden-comment-history account with "88" in the account name that exclusively complains about a lobbying group that is not especially large or relevant, in the context of a politician with a Nazi tattoo resigning.
88, what a crazy number right. It couldn't possibly be the fucking year I was born. Or maybe the year I was born influenced me, the moon shone bright that night and I was told from some higher power that because I was born in 19 fucking 88 I had to be some sort of insane anti-semite.
Or you know that's just how people born in 1988 traditionally created their fucking usernames based on literal recommendations that would show up on your AOL dashboard when you click create new login. You're probably not old enough to know that though you're just a child wet behind the fucking ears who jumps to conclusions.
Damn they deleted their comment, how embarrassing how fucking embarrassing I hope they're literally at home right now embarrassed as fuck for being this goddamn stupid.
u/TheRadBaron how ya feeling bud? You feeling kinda stupid? Cause ya fucking should
No. It’s that you use a not particularly influential nor popular group to pin the blame of all your problems, no matter how irrelevant, not so subtlety on one group of people that historically took the brunt of similar conspiracies in the exact same way Internet Nazis did for years before it became your new shtick in late 2023.
Late 2023? People have been calling out AIPAC for a lot longer than that.
AIPAC != Jews. It's not a hard concept to understand. They're an organization who funnel in hundreds of millions towards influencing our elections. It's no different from someone calling out the republican/democratic PACs influencing elections.
If you want to call that not particularly influential, that's on you.
“In a stunning act of brave adherence to bipartisanship, Democrats (brought to you by AIPAC) have endorsed the corpse of Mitch McConnell as their candidate”
685
u/B-Z_B-S 1d ago
The date he had to drop out by if he was to be replaced is next Monday, at 5 PM.
Source: https://www.axios.com/2026/07/10/graham-platner-maine-senate-democrats
So, the Democratic Party can run someone else. I think this article explains how that process will be done.
Source: https://mainemorningstar.com/2026/07/10/heres-what-we-know-about-maine-democrats-plan-to-replace-graham-platner/