The Man Who Spoke for Britain, the Man Who Spoke for France
The Last Titans: How Churchill and de Gaulle Saved Their Nations and Transformed the World By Richard Vinen Simon &...
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Washington Examiner
Betting man? I’d wager Vance wins 2028 nomination
Center Right
When it comes to prediction markets, the artificial intelligence bubble has nothing on Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Nearly tied with Vice President JD Vance in the odds for the 2028 GOP Presidential nomination, Rubio’s odds are more overvalued than any other political bet. That’s not to say Rubio is doing a poor job as […]
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The New Republic
Mixed Feelings About Platner? Fine. But He Needs to Win. Case Closed.
I’m guessing you have a pretty good idea of what Graham Platner was getting up to last week—fending off yet another round of allegations about his character. But what about Susan Collins, Maine’s incumbent GOP senator and the person almost sure to be Platner’s opponent this November? You probably didn’t hear a word about her. The only significant news story of the week in which she figured (aside from being mentioned in all the Platner stories) is that she cast her 10,000th consecutive vote in the Senate—a milestone, to be sure, but something of a double-edged one as it serves to remind voters that she’s been in the Senate since Christ left Chicago.This is just how Collins wants things. As long as the subject is Platner’s boozing and his ex-girlfriends, Collins may skate to reelection. So, the key thing Platner has to do, assuming he wins tomorrow’s primary and stays in the race, is to maneuver things such that come October, the topic is Collins’s record, not his past.We’ll get to that record in a bit, but first, let’s deal with the Platner question. Two big stories came out last week. The first was about his sexting with several women in the early days of his current marriage. He married Amy Gertner in 2023. Early in the campaign, Gertner told an aide who was a friend about the messages, and the friend—now presumably an ex-friend—told a lot of people and shared some screen grabs with The New York Times. Gertner denounced the friend, Genevieve McDonald, and defended her husband and marriage. On that one, I think your average person would say Well, if his wife doesn’t care, why should I?The second story was potentially more damaging and concerned Platner allegedly twisting the arm of a former girlfriend and slamming a door shut on her; also, that he “regularly grabbed her by the shoulders,” according to The New York Times, which broke the story last Thursday. It’s disturbing, no doubt. It’s worth noting that this woman is, or was at the time, apparently a very committed conservative Republican—the cofounder of “Ladies for Kavanaugh,” which she formed to confront what she termed the “baseless, 11th-hour accusations orchestrated to stop [the justice’s] confirmation.” (One question the Times left on the table but crossed my mind and maybe yours was how Platner could have said “you are literally everything to me” to someone who, according to Newsweek, worked at the Heritage Foundation at the time.)Two other exes told the Times of similar treatment from Platner. On the other hand, “several” other exes (dude got around!) described him as “a fun and caring partner,” and some remain friends with him to this day. Platner denies all the physical stuff, so someone is lying.Personally, I don’t know what to make of the guy. I suspect he’s not telling the truth about his Nazi tattoo and I’d bet you that he knew what it meant, but I also don’t think that makes him a Nazi. He has obviously lived a life that we would at the very least call picaresque. Balzac would have had fun with him. There’s also the question of, as it is often said in politics, what else is out there. Any good campaign—and Susan Collins does run good campaigns—knows to sit on the really bad stuff until after Labor Day, although campaigns can’t always control when things are disclosed, and anyway, all the revelations about Platner seem to be coming from establishment Democrats who are unnerved by his lefty swagger.There’s a lot we don’t know, and a chance we’ll find out all about it. I do, however, know these two things. One, Platner is almost certain to be the Democratic nominee. Two, short of revelations involving murder, rape, or a taste for child pornography, Platner needs to be backed by Democrats to the hilt. That may seem like a really low bar, and maybe it is. But I’m less interested in his personal life than I am in Collins’s public one, because that’s what really matters here.So let us now return to the question of Collins’s week. The Senate cast a bunch of votes last week. And Collins did what she always does when she’s up for reelection—she voted with the Democrats on the ones people pay attention to, and as a Republican on the others. There were a number of votes related to Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund. On most of those, like this one for example, she was one of maybe two or three Republicans (Thom Tillis and Bill Cassidy, who are both retiring) voting with the Democrats. On other less highly visible matters, though, she went with her party and with Trump. Last Wednesday, the Senate rejected a resolution that would have overturned Trump’s rollback of Biden-era emissions standards for coal- and oil-fired power. She went party-line on that one. The day before, she voted to confirm a federal judge for Kansas who, at his confirmation hearing, refused to say that Trump lost the 2020 election. Ah, judges: This brings us to where Platner needs to direct attention in this campaign.
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RealClearPolitics - Homepage
Graham Platner, Deep Water Man
It's going to be a red-flag weekend on the coast of Maine after new claims about his treatment of women.
Center Right
New York Post
Knicks Are 2 Wins Away.. But Is The Hard Part Still Ahead?|NY Got Game
The New York Knicks are back home with a 2-0 lead in the 2026 NBA Finals after surviving a thrilling 105-104 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 2. Now, the series shifts to Madison Square Garden with the Knicks just two wins away from their first NBA championship since 1973. On this episode...
Right
Reason.com
Judge Ryan Nelson (9th Cir.) Charged with Battery for Allegedly Knocking off Man's Glasses in Parking Space Dispute
Idaho State Journal (Jimmy Hancock) reports (including video): U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ryan Douglas Nelson faces two… The post Judge Ryan Nelson (9th Cir.) Charged with Battery for Allegedly Knocking off Man's Glasses in Parking Space Dispute appeared first on Reason.com.
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Washington Examiner
One dead after Palestinian man goes on shooting rampage in central Israel: Police
A Palestinian man opened fire in several towns across central Israel on Sunday, killing one person and injuring five others, police said. Israeli authorities said a 35-year-old Israeli man was killed in the shootings, with two of the five injured suffering severe wounds. The gunman in Sunday’s attack was in his 20s and had Israeli […]
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The Gateway Pundit
BREAKING: Rigged Election Buries LA Mayoral Candidate Spencer Pratt in Latest Ballot Dump – Democrat Nithya Raman Projected to Win (VIDEO)
Los Angeles Mayoral Candidate Spencer Pratt fell into third place behind Democrat City Councilwoman Nithya Raman in the Los Angeles mayoral primary after a damning ballot dump heavily favored the Democratic candidates. The post BREAKING: Rigged Election Buries LA Mayoral Candidate Spencer Pratt in Latest Ballot Dump – Democrat Nithya Raman Projected to Win (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Far Right
New York Post
Orioles vs. Blue Jays prediction: MLB odds, picks, best bets for Sunday
Baltimore’s Shane Baz won for us five days ago. We haven’t won since.
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