Jon Queally
Nov 15, 2025

Echoing recent viral comments by music superstar Billie Eilish, Maine Democratic candidate for US Senate Graham Planter is also arguing that the existence of billionaires cannot be justified in a world where working-class people with multiple jobs still cannot afford the basic necessities of life.

In video clip posted Friday of a campaign event in the northern town of Caribou from last month, Platner rails against the “structures” of an economy in which billionaires with vast personal fortunes use their wealth to bend government—including the tax code—to conform to their interests while working people are left increasingly locked out of controlling their own destinies, both materially and politically.

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[–] 8 points 11 months ago

I really liked what he said about Dick Cheney after he passed. I like this too. I hope he keeps it up. Even if it isn't genuine, it's lovely to see this type of rhetoric spread.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    They just get to a spot and ride the wave

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  • 26 comments in c/pravda_news@news.abolish.capital view that post
    [–] 30 points 11 months ago

    Seriously, tho. Eliminate Brian Niccols, and Starbucks customers wouldn't, and might not ever, notice. Eliminate 6,666 bariastas, and there'd be riots! (Okay, not really, but it'd really put the hurt on corporate profits immediately, like, literally the same day.)

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (16 children)
  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago (15 children)

    isn't he the ex-blackwater mercenary who got a nazi tattoo? is that really the best candidate we can get to represent the working class...?

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  • [–] 13 points 11 months ago (13 children)

    He got a stupid tattoo as a young Marine and all we got is a very blurry pic. News flash: Young Marines do stupid shit.

    In 2018, Platner returned to Kabul, Afghanistan, for about six months as a State Department security contractor with Constellis, the private military company formerly known as Blackwater, where he provided diplomatic security to the US ambassador to Afghanistan.[17][10][18][19] He returned to Maine the same year, saying he had quickly grown more disillusioned with the military and what he called fraudulent funneling of taxpayer money to private defense companies.

    This is why we'll never fucking win. No one will ever be pure enough for the left. He should have been planning his political career in his teens!

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  • [–] -1 points 11 months ago (10 children)

    If we cannot draw the line at Nazis I'm not sure we're worth saving. There is zero chance he wasn't aware of the origins of that tattoo. He's defended marines with SS tattoos in the past as simply the "culture". Its not about if he is or isn't a Nazi, its about the obvious indifference to Nazi's and their symbols. His populist rhetoric is masking his ties to the military industrial complex and his history of American chauvinism.

    You don't have to look hard to find better working class veteran representatives, Michael Prysner is right here.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (7 children)

    Half your country is "nazi" right now, so what's your solution, thanos snap them out of existence? There is no other path than forgiveness and reeducation.

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  • [–] -4 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    That's absolutely true, but it doesn't mean we should have the forgiven misguided fools - if indeed that's what he is - run for office. How about someone who wasn't a mercenary and who knew what a nazi skull was not to tattoo it. It's not a huge ask right? That's as low as a bar can get.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    You running for office? No? Weird.

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  • [–] -4 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    Maybe we can find you a nice tattoo removal parlour soldier boy. New tech does miracles these days don't despair.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago

    You mean the guy who in 2020 said he joined for "Adventure and [to] kill people"? Who was glad he got both?

    I'm not American but I wouldn't want an unrepentant killer as an elected official. Unapologetic for what he did to other people in the middle east, just the money wasted on killing them and destroying their lives.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    Finally. There is no such thing as an ethical billionaire. Those two things are mutually exclusive.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago* (2 children)

    Fuck this Nazi piece of shit. He went back to Iraq 3 different times, the last serving as a merc for blackwater. He is not remorseful in the slightest just a few years ago he was talking about how sick it was working for blackwater. He had a totenkompf tattoo all the way up until running his campaign. Oh and he still has a blackwater fridge magnet. It was in the background of a photo of him with his arm around a zionist funded by aipac. If he wins, he will fuck Mainers over so fucking hard, mark my words.

    Post from 2020:

    https://search.pullpush.io/?author=p-hustle&subreddit=usmc&type=comment&q=kill&sort_type=created_utc&sort=desc&before=1578009600&after=1577836800

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    Everything about military is true but he very obviously didn't know the tattoo was a Nazi tattoo hence all the very very left wing posts from his private years old reddit account.

    Unless you think he planned years in advance for this? The Jarhead?

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  • [+] 0 points 6 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

    Mainers are going to get fucked so hard by your decision if you are and you vote for him. Get ready for fetterman 2: electric boogaloo. Except this man has actually tortured/killed people for black water, so he'll be even more ruthless. You won't be able to blame a stroke either, it will all have been your complete willingness to capitulate to nazi terrorist scum.

    EDIT 07/07/26: FUCKING IDIOTS TOOK THE BAIT AGAIN! Y'ALL ONLY CARE IF IT'S AMERICAN VICTIMS, YOUR TRUE COLORS EXPOSED. ALL OF YOU PLATNER SUPPORTERS WALKING WITH YOUR TAILS IN BETWEEN YOUR LEGS. YOU ALL DISGUST ME THAT THIS IS WHAT IT TOOK.

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    [–] 3 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Skinny Fetterman talks a good game during campaign season.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Dude's personal Reddit account got leaked. He is not putting up a front.

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  • 17 comments in c/politics@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 22 points 11 months ago

    He's not wrong.

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  • [–] 22 points 11 months ago (7 children)

    These greedy fuckers won't even loose anything if they payed their workers a healthy wage, but they just want to hoard their wealth for whatever reason. Don't the realize society is more productive when people can afford to live?

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  • [–] 15 points 11 months ago

    It's not about money as much as it's about the power they can buy with it. When they look outside they only see an ocean of slaves to their wealth. People not being able to afford to live doesn't really concern them. They are trying their hardest to replace people with machines so they control all the wealth and the means of production leaving the mass populous helpless in perpetual destitute.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    Are we talking about people with $1B in the bank, or people “worth $1B” though?

    If you got rid of the stock market today, forgave all loans and capped property values, it would be interesting to see who is actually rich.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    You have a good point, most of these billionaires have most of their wealth tied up in loans, stock market and property. Their wealth is calculated speculation on the value of their assets not in physical dollars.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago*

    Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, has calculated that Americans have $1.8 trillion in excess savings. Of that, he believes that more than half sits in households in the top 10 percent of the income.

    There are

    10 million (10,000,000) hundred thousands in a trillion, for people to make 100k a year and when these people make that much they will put it back into the economy making those billionaires more money.

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  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    Well how am I supposed to build my $500 million yacht so I can dicksize with the other big dogs? /s

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    The whole tattoo scandal might have ended up being a plus, it came to light too late to replace him so now he has to lean in hard or his chances are entirely gone.

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  • [–] 12 points 11 months ago

    too late to replace him

    United States Senate election in Maine, 2026

    • Filing deadline: March 15, 2026
    • Primary: June 9, 2026
    • General: November 3, 2026

    We don't even have the full list of candidates he's running against yet (assuming he stays in).

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  • [–] -5 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    That's what they say until they actually get to 1B, after which the tone changes completely. Same with power. And influence.

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  • 5 comments in c/usa@lemmy.ml view that post
    [–] 6 points 11 months ago (1 child)
    [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    I bet Hulagu Khan gave better loot shares from Iraq than US Army.

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    I don't care what this Nazi thinks.

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  • 4 comments in c/aspen_anti_billionaire_society@midwest.social view that post
    [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    As long as he doesn't admit that his military service was unethical and wrong, and retract&apologize for his earlier racist comments justifying thousands of iraqi deaths with "our way of life is better than theirs" or something like that, I will just assume he's a nazi trying to pander to the working class.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    He's not wrong but I refuse to vote for anyone nazi aligned.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    I appreciate your insight on this. Looking at everything done and said about the tattoo and his old Reddit posts, I am definitely more comfortable voting for this guy still than his opposition who we know is a child rapist capitulator, without question. Bernie literally still supports this guy

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago*

    Lesser-evil politics in action. "I will vote for this literal nazi, who says nazi shit and has a nazi tatoo, because the alternative is worse somehow". I'm sure there were people further right than Hitler in 1930s germany, and germans just voted strategically to keep them out.

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  • 3 comments in c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 6 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Disclaimer: I don't like Platner.

    I'd go further: Nobody works hard enough to justify $1 million. Redistribute all the wealth above that and you'd likely eradicate poverty.

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago

    And he's fucking right.

    Here's hoping he wins.

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