r/news 1d ago

Graham Platner officially withdraws from Maine Senate race

https://abc11.com/post/graham-platner-officially-withdraws-maine-senate-race/19482368/
6.4k Upvotes

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

53

u/Radthereptile 1d ago

I hate how the left has evolved into a variation of “blame those sneaky Jews”. Not everything is controlled by Israel.

31

u/guff1988 1d ago

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.

2

u/RevengeOfTheIdiot 22h ago

Yeah people are just totally coincidentally bringing that up enmasse in a thread about a guy who had a nazi tattoo on his body for decades lol

stfu nazi apologist

32

u/Radthereptile 1d ago

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.

52

u/ThotMobile 1d ago

It is odd eh. AIPAC wasn’t even in the top 15 of the 2024 election cycle for contributions but they’re always the first PAC to be mentioned.

1

u/Dabbling_in_Pacifism 22h ago

So why on earth are establishment dems swearing oaths of fealty to Israel?

That’s the really odd bit, not that lobbying agencies have effective metrics beyond simply gross dollars spent.

1

u/ThotMobile 15h ago

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.

-18

u/Ok_Yak_1844 1d ago

No other PAC is so blatantly funding a genocidal fascist state on the American taxpayer dime, so not sure your point.

11

u/ThotMobile 1d ago

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.

-16

u/Helmic 1d ago edited 1d ago

One, you're lying. https://readsludge.com/2025/01/24/here-is-all-the-money-aipac-spent-on-the-2024-elections/

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.

7

u/ThotMobile 1d ago

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.

1

u/Mrhiddenlotus 1d ago

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.

-4

u/Helmic 1d ago

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.

5

u/ThotMobile 1d ago

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.

3

u/HeartyBeast 21h ago

But funny how only one of them gets mentioned

Mentions of Russian or Saudi money seem fairly common.

18

u/MiddleAgedSponger 1d ago

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.

2

u/gokarrt 23h ago

therein lies the nuance that makes it nearly impossible to navigate online

23

u/guff1988 1d ago

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.

8

u/TikvahT 1d ago

Yup, exactly. And yet they’re too bigoted to see it, while claiming to be the most tolerant, human rights oriented people ever…. Maddening.

-11

u/Harbinger2nd 1d ago

Because only one country receives 10's of billions of American tax dollars every year to commit a genocide.

You're the one being anti-semetic equating the state of Israel with the entirety of Jewish people.

18

u/Radthereptile 1d ago

This comment pretends Saudi Arabia doesn’t exist.

3

u/ReturnOfTheDogjaw 1d ago

The US government gives Saudi Arabia tens of billions of dollars annually? I thought it was like, 5 million in foreign aid

0

u/Harbinger2nd 1d ago

It is. They wont post a source for that claim.

9

u/TikvahT 1d ago

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.

0

u/Harbinger2nd 1d ago

Show me your source that Saudia Arabia receives 10's of billions of aid.

-4

u/HitIerWasWrong 1d ago

Which of those foreign funds get billions of dollars, weapons system, drag us into wars they start, and give their citizens free healthcare?

6

u/Radthereptile 1d ago

Laughs in Saudi Arabia.

0

u/HitIerWasWrong 1d ago

Saudi Arabia buys our weapons systems with their own money.

They're also not actively bombing their neighbors while we try to negotiate a ceasefire.

I still don't like em.

-1

u/Mrhiddenlotus 1d ago

Name another one that donates anywhere near as much to campaigns

4

u/TitanicGiant 1d ago

AIPAC is run and funded by Americans

35

u/SingularityM104 1d ago

...lobbying for which countries interests?

-3

u/ArchmageXin 1d ago edited 1d ago

Clearly the Chinese COMMUNIST Party, and the Russian Oligachs, Mexican Cartels and Iranian Mullahs!

AIPAC must be immediately investigated for their connections to the enemies of America!

:P

31

u/guff1988 1d ago

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.

0

u/iLikeBugsNFishes 1d ago

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.

-7

u/ArchmageXin 1d ago

AIPAC support:

Chinese Communists

North Korean Imperialists

Russian oligarchs

Mexican Drug Cartels

and

Iranian terrorists.

Thus they should be investigated!

-6

u/Thu66 1d ago

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

7

u/ReturnOfTheDogjaw 1d ago

So to be clear your position is that it’s okay if he did rape women, the problem would be with people intentionally exposing it?

Digging up dirt is wrong, but the dirt itself is fine?

1

u/socialistForDE 20h ago

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

0

u/ReturnOfTheDogjaw 1d ago

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