Magdi Jacobs

Please really try to watch what Russia does to Ukraine.

This isn't going to be the last time. The so-called "DSA" & their affiliates are basically a capitalist racket, profiting off fear, rage, desire-for change, audience-capture, etc. They're manipulating our politics for profit and dopamine. Be on the look out.

It is very hard to come forward about rape and/or domestic violence, even if one does not fear repercussions.

Rape and domestic violence are intimate betrayals of the deepest depravity. When we come forward, we are opening ourselves up to whole new worlds of public violation.

But the women whom Graham Platner abused had a lot more to fear than "mere" public violation. They feared Graham Platner. They feared Graham Platner's supporters. And, yes, they feared Morris Katz.

In terms of the Platner saga, from my side of things, I was working with people to get the truth out. I wasn't just going to tweet out what I had learned.

The truth needed to be dealt with responsibly. To protect the victims. To protect Platner (perpetrators deserve rigor, too). To protect the truth itself.

So there were many of us in the background working on this project. I would learn when a news story was about to drop. "The story on DV is about to come out." "The story on rape is about to come out." "The story on Hotchkiss is about to come out."

And then we'd hear: "Platner's team is trying to kill it." Or "Platner's team is delaying it." Or, the worst one of all, "I think Platner's team may have actually killed this one."

You cannot imagine the grief, or the pain, or the frustration. All while knowing we were barreling closer to the nomination being set in stone. A moral and political catastrophe.

"Platner's team" was Morris Katz, as well as Platner's lawyers. Spending Democratic resources to bury the truth about domestic violence and rape.

Meanwhile, Katz himself, as well as some of his allies, basically ran a mafia-style intimidation scheme throughout Maine.

When one woman wrote an Op-Ed on Platner's character, a local union communications director (AFL-CIO) said she should be put up against a wall. Morris Katz himself threatened to ruin Genevieve McDonald's career if she told what truth she knew about Platner. The victims were terrified. Anyone who knew the truth was terrified.

I really want people to sit with this. Morris Katz didn't just bury the truth about Platner; his whole political apparatus scared people. They scared women. Victims of violence.

Two of Graham Platner's alleged victims decided to come forward in the face of this terror. At enormous personal cost.

To see Morris Katz normalized within Democratic party politics is not just a slap in the face to these victims--though that would be bad enough--it is a slap in the face to victims everywhere.

You are telling us we can fight and fight and fight for the truth. That we can risk everything to get the truth to the light. That we can sacrifice not only our comfort, but even our lives, for the truth. But at the end of the day? The men who fight *against* the truth matter even more.

They matter more than victims. And they matter more than the truth itself.

And you are telling all of us that not only do these men matter more than all victims, including every victim who comes forward. You are telling us that these men are actually worthy of celebration.

It is shameful.

First there was "ARPA is austerity."

Then not a peep of online progressive support for BBB--the largest proposed expansion of the safety net since LBJ.

Then, when the Afghanistan withdrawal* led to the outcome that ending the "endless war" was always going to lead to--the return of the Taliban--not a single defense of ending the war itself.

(*Afghanistan withdrawal: Yes there are criticisms to be made about the logistics of withdrawal, but that is a separate conversation.)

Capping insulin costs wasn't just "not enough," it was monstrously callous towards the lives of all those living with diabetes.

Then sending people only 4 COVID tests was going to lead to "dying on the steps of the CDC." Then Biden's COVID policy was tantamount to Reagan's AIDS "response." They literally said that.

Then the CDC--and Biden--were planning the mass eugenics of disabled Americans.

Then Biden wanted all college graduates with student debt to die in poverty.

Then: Genocide Joe.

Not a peep about expanding healthcare during all of this, btw.

Nor any praise for Biden essentially ending drone warfare.

Nor any praise for Biden's pro-worker policies. Including Biden's use of trade to improve worker welfare (and environmental practices) overseas.

No praise for IRA, historic climate change legislation not just domestically but globally. No praise for cutting child poverty in half. No praise for anything.

The online "Left" should be ignored in perpetuity. Utterly useless group of people, unless we're taking about how they help fascists. They're great at that.

ARPA was literally the opposite of austerity. Biden gave everyone $1,200 and they wanted $2,000. Not to mention other provisions like expanding healthcare subsidies and the Child Tax Care credit. They just think "austerity" means "not enough for me."