Graham Platner ends Senate bid. And, why Nolan Wells' death captured national attention
Source: NPR Topics: News · Bias: Center
Summary
Democrat Graham Platner ended his bid last night for U.S. Senate. And, prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump has been enlisted to help get answers in the July Fourth weekend death of Nolan Wells.
Graham Platner ends Senate bid. And, why Nolan Wells' death captured national attention
Center
Democrat Graham Platner ended his bid last night for U.S. Senate. And, prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump has been enlisted to help get answers in the July Fourth weekend death of Nolan Wells.
It’s hard to believe that we’re less than two months away from the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, that horrible day when war arrived at our doorstep.One thing that’s always stuck in my head was the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers onboard the four jets that wreaked such deadly havoc were citizens of Saudi Arabia. This doesn’t necessarily mean that kingdom had an active hand in the terror, and the 9/11 Commission found no evidence that the Saudi government knowingly funded or directed the attacks. But it still makes you wonder.I bring this up now because you may have heard that Trump this week approved a landmark 30-year deal to provide the Saudis with the civilian nuclear program they had long sought. It gives U.S. companies a monopoly on developing a nuclear infrastructure for the Arab country without the necessity of requiring monitoring and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency to make sure the “peaceful” use of nuclear fuel isn’t enriched for a weapon.If it sounds like a horrible idea, that may be because it is. No oversight to keep a rogue nation in line? What could possibly go wrong besides everything?But of course, money talks, and that’s something the oil-rich Saudi Arabia has in outrageous abundance. It’s the only language that Trump understands, and the deal would be worth billions in contracts to U.S. firms that work in nuclear technology.And of course, this is a giant victory for the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, better known as MBS, who has long vowed to build a nuclear weapon if Iran is permitted to. It’s frankly difficult to argue with this logic, even if Trump’s much-repeated reason for his war is to stop Iran from making nukes.What’s the difference between Iran and Saudi Arabia having a nuclear weapon? Several billion dollars, that’s what. The deal with the Saudis pretty much guarantees that nuclear nonproliferation is out the window in the Middle East for the foreseeable future.But let’s get back to MBS for a moment. He is the key to this whole deal, and his relationship with Trump is at the center of it. The president basically sees the guy as a living, breathing ATM who has access to so much wealth that Trump is willing to look past the fact he’s a murderous swine.It was a little under eight years ago that a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist and editor named Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage. He never left. He was assassinated and carved into pieces by a bone saw, and all suspicion fell on MBS for having approved the operation to murder Khashoggi for his critical assessment of the Saudi government.MBS denied any involvement. But we might imagine that this incident would stain the relationship between America and Saudi Arabia. And that assessment would be wrong. Trump for one never thinks less of someone who dismembers a journalist and in fact has disparaged other journalists for making MBS feel uncomfortable in press briefings.When Trump traveled to Riyadh in 2025 and stood beside MBS, he smiled broadly while declaring of him, “I like him a lot. I like him too much.” Indeed, we all know how Trump feels about vicious leaders. These are his people. His cup of admiration runneth over.There is also too much money at stake for Trump to ever seriously question his buddy about something so minor as a nuclear agreement. He is literally selling out the world’s safety. Just look at how handsomely his relationship with the kingdom has paid off for his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.It was in 2021 that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) committed $2 billion to Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners. It’s been emphasized by Kushner that this is an investment in the fund, not a personal payment to him, except for the fact that the fund is him. He owns Affinity and his firm collects management fees. Senate investigators estimated in 2024 that Affinity had accrued roughly $87 million in fees from the Saudi government to date.Then this past March, Kushner – while working purportedly as a Mideast envoy – in his spare time spoke with potential investors from PIF about raising an additional $5 billion for Affinity. Do I even need to mention that PIF is led by MBS?It thus goes without saying that this nuclear pact stinks of nepotism and payoffs. The interest conflicts are glaring and multitudinous. You think that when there are billions of dollars of family money at stake, the extended Trump family is going to worry about inspections and keeping Saudi Arabia from developing nukes when that’s already their stated goal?This is how graft and corruption puts the world at risk. It extends far beyond personal accountability. The only thing keeping the kingdom from enriching its own nuclear fuel to create weapons is its own assurances.Are we really supposed to trust the Saudi energy ministry’s promises of “cooperation on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy”?
President Trump late Saturday night once again urged Republican senators to “terminate the filibuster” in an effort to pass his oft-championed voting bill and other legislation “before it’s too late.” “The all Republican Senators! Terminate the Filibuster, which the Dumocrats will do as soon as they get the chance, and PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,…
Sen. Mitch McConnell's extended Senate absence complicates the SAVE America Act's path through budget reconciliation as Republicans scramble for votes.
Judge rejects administration’s request to lift injunction secured by several Democratic-led states on 25 JuneA federal appeals court on Saturday declined to allow Donald Trump’s administration to implement in 23 states his executive order that aims to tighten rules for mail-in voting before the November elections that will decide control of Congress.The Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals rejected the administration’s request to lift an injunction several Democratic-led states secured on 25 June from a lower-court judge who concluded that key parts of the Republican president’s order were unconstitutional. In asking the court to pause the US district judge Indira Talwani’s ruling while it pursues an appeal, the Department of Justice argued that because government agencies had yet to finalize actions and policies to implement Trump’s directive, any lawsuit challenging his order was premature. Continue reading...
Three-judge panel of Democratic appointees let stand lower court’s ruling that fee constitutes an unlawful tax A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a bid by Donald Trump’s administration to halt a judge’s order preventing it from imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers.The Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals declined to put on hold a lower court judge’s 8 June ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general, striking down the fee on the basis that it constituted an unlawful tax Congress never authorized. Continue reading...
Maine Democrats on Saturday overwhelmingly nominated Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president and logger by trade, as their party’s nominee to challenge longtime Republican incumbent Susan Collins in November’s high-stakes US Senate election.“Well, thank you, Maine,” Jackson, 58, said after securing the votes of 566 of 571 delegates during Saturday’s special Democratic convention at Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. “Today we turn the page, today this becomes a general election campaign, and today we win the work of defeating Susan Collins in November.”“For nearly 30 years, Collins has told Maine that she is ‘concerned’,” Jackson said, referring to the 73-year-old incumbent’s go-to word when President Donald Trump and Republicans attack rights and justice. “She was concerned while she rubber-stamped Trump’s Medicaid cuts and gutted our healthcare.”“She’s concerned when she cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy,” he continued. “Concerned when she confirmed justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. And really tragically, she was concerned when she gave [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] billions to terrorize our neighbors and murder people in the streets with no accountability.”“But concern does not lower the costs of groceries or gas,” Jackson said. “Concern does not keep our monitoring wards of rural hospitals like down in Lincoln County open. Concern does not restore all the rights that she’s taken away. Maine does not need another six years of concern. We need someone with courage. We need a fighter, and we need a senator who remembers exactly who sent them to Washington.”“So if you’ve ever been ignored, underestimated, pushed around, or told that you have to wait your turn while the rich cut the line, I’m asking you to stand with us in this campaign,” he continued. “If you believe in your heart that healthcare is a right, stand with us. And if you believe that workers deserve power, stand with us. And if you believe our freedoms are worth defending, stand with us.”“And if you believe that Maine deserves a senator who will fight like hell for working-class people, well, stand with us,” Jackson added. “We have a party to unite, we have a movement to build, and we have a senator to defeat.”Jackson’s improbably rapid rise followed former Democratic nominee Graham Platner’s withdrawal from the race earlier this month amid allegations of sexual assault and abusive behavior. Supporters of Platner’s progressive platform warned at the time that they would not back a replacement candidate who did not share the same pro-worker, anti-war agenda.While Collins spokeswoman Blake Kernen called Jackson a “low-energy version” of Platner, Maine Democrats decided the fifth-generation lumberjack fit the bill.“The working class has been left behind and forgotten about,” Shelly Mountain, a former Aroostook County Democratic Committee chairwoman and Jackson delegate at the convention, told NBC News. “He is definitely working class and always—has always—been a champion for the working class.”Progressive politicians, advocacy groups, and labor organizations cheered Jackson’s nomination, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) saying that “he’s ready to fight for working people and flip this seat.”International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) president Brian Bryant said Saturday that “Troy Jackson knows firsthand what it means to work hard for a living and fight for a better future for working families.”“Throughout his career, he has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with union members and working people, never backing down from a challenge when workers’ rights were on the line,” he added. “He represents the strength of a people-powered movement focused on fairness, opportunity, and economic justice. Troy has our full support as he heads to the general election.”
