Democratic Maine Senate Candidate Graham Platner’s New Campaign Manager Lasts Less Than A Week
‘I did used to love America’
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Second key staffer leaves campaign of Democratic Senate candidate embroiled in Nazi, communism controversies
Graham Platner, the Maine-based oyster farmer running as a Democrat to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins, has lost a great deal more in recent days than his sizeable lead over Gov. Janet Mills in the polls.
Just days after former state Rep. Genevieve McDonald resigned as political director of Platner’s campaign, the Democratic candidate’s longtime friend Kevin Brown indicated he too was jumping ship, leaving the role of campaign manager open.
‘Graham deserves someone who is 100% in on his race.’
Earlier this month, numerous damning posts previously made by Platner on Reddit came to light — including posts where he apparently identified as a communist, branded rural white Americans as racists, suggested service members worried about being raped should buy “Kevlar underwear,” joked about homosexuals, promoted political violence, and smeared all police officers as “bastards.”
McDonald promptly resigned as the political director of Platner’s campaign over the posts, noting, “These statements were not known to me when I agreed to join the campaign, and they are not words or values I can stand behind in a candidate for the United States Senate.”
Shortly after Platner apologized for his past remarks on Reddit, footage went viral revealing that he had an apparent “totenkopf” tattoo on his chest — a skull image popularized by Adolf Hitler’s SS elite guard and adopted as the symbol of the SS-Totenkopfverbande, the branch that guarded the concentration camps.
While Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and — according to a recent poll — the majority of young Democrats recently indicated that they will stick with Platner despite his incendiary posts and apparent Nazi tattoo, Brown, a Democratic operative who worked on Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s failed presidential campaign, has revealed he is jumping ship.
Brown indicated that the move, first reported by Axios, was the result of new familial demands on his time.
RELATED: The Democrats’ convenient case of political amnesia
Photo by Sophie Park/Getty Images
Brown said in a statement obtained by WGME-TV, “Graham is a dear friend. I started this campaign Tuesday but found out Friday we have a baby on the way.”
“Graham deserves someone who is 100% in on his race, and we want to lean into this new experience as a family, so it was best we step back sooner than later so Graham can get the manager he deserves,” Brown added.
Brown’s departure comes just after the Platner campaign reportedly began sending nondisclosure agreements to staffers.
McDonald told Politico that the campaign offered her $15,000 to sign an NDA, but the campaign suggested this amount was a severance payment.
A spokesperson for the campaign indicated that the consulting firm Spruce Street was recently hired to “take over campaign compliance to institute standard practices that had yet to be put into place. Some of those standards had to be instituted retroactively, but as a matter of course we do not require anyone previously involved in the campaign to do so,” apparently referring to signing an NDA.
Blaze News has reached out to Platner’s campaign for comment.
A SoCal Strategies Maine poll of 500 likely Democratic primary voters conducted October 21-25 found that Mills, who officially jumped into the race on Oct. 14, holds a 5-point lead over Platner, 41%-36%.
Prior to the news of Platner’s alleged Nazi tattoo — which the Mainer recently had inked over with supposed Celtic imagery — a University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll indicated that among those who plan to vote in the 2026 state Democratic primary, 58% of respondents said they would support him, and only 24% said they would support Mills.
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Democrat Firm Sues To Take Out Blue City’s Latina GOP Rep, Crying Racial Discrimination
‘A naked attempt to disenfranchise voters’
Mass shootings at, near 2 historically black colleges on their homecoming weekends raise concerns about possible deadly trend
Mass shootings at and near a pair of historically black colleges and universities over their homecoming weekends Friday and Saturday left one dead and at least 11 wounded, authorities said.
The violence was an eerie repeat of tragedies that took place last fall at two HBCUs — also during their homecoming festivities — and some observers are concerned about a possible trend.
‘This is becoming an every-year occurrence at a lot of schools.’
1 dead, 6 wounded at Lincoln University
At Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania — about an hour and 15 minutes west of Philadelphia — one person was killed and at least six people were wounded after a shooting Saturday evening, WHP-TV reported.
Officials identified one suspect as 21-year-old Zecqueous Morgan-Thompson, the station said, adding that court documents indicated he was charged with carrying a firearm without a license and was being held in Chester County Prison on $25,000 bail.
Officials said they believe the suspects did not attend homecoming with the intent to commit a mass shooting, WHP reported.
RELATED: Black men don’t want to go to historically black colleges and universities? Here’s why
A 25-year-old male from Wilmington, Delaware, was identified as the deceased victim, the station said, adding that he reportedly was shot in the head. The six wounded victims are expected to survive and are in the same age range — between 20 and 25 years old, WHP said.
Lincoln University’s president in a Sunday statement said classes are canceled Monday in order to have a day of “healing and reflection,” the station said.
More from WHP:
Authorities have not released the names of any victims. The DA said they were in the process of speaking with victims to learn more about what happened during the shooting.
Lincoln University’s police chief said the shots were fired in the parking lot of the International Cultural Center on campus. He said at the time there was a tailgate ceremony taking place following the college’s homecoming football game. He said tents and other tables were set up throughout the lot.
5 wounded near Howard University
Five people were shot near Howard University — a historically black college and university in Washington, D.C. — on Friday night during its homecoming weekend, WRC-TV reported.
D.C. police said the victims — four adults and a teenager — were taken to hospitals and were expected to survive after the shooting at Georgia Avenue and Howard Place, the station said.
Witnesses told WRC that dozens of people ran down Georgia Avenue from the shooting scene to a McDonald’s after shots were fired.
According to a statement from Howard University, a fight or confrontation between two suspects occurred before shots were fired, WRC reported, adding that police said none of the shooting victims are Howard students.
The university added in a Saturday statement that nobody from Howard was involved in the shooting, the station reported.
WRC said the university’s Homecoming Kick-Off Alumni & Friends Welcome Reception and the Greek Step Show were being held Friday night.
‘Something’s going on’
The Root, in its report about the pair of shootings, quoted a TikTok user as remarking, “First Howard, now Lincoln, something’s going on.”
The outlet added, “Among the jokes and quippy TikToks is something darker … Black Americans are feeling unsafe.”
The Root said another TikTok user recalled shootings last year at HBCUs and wondered if this represents a trend. Another user said, “This is becoming an every-year occurrence at a lot of schools, smh,” according to the outlet.
Last fall, two shootings occurred at two HBCUs — also during their homecoming weekends.
A dozen people were shot — one of them fatally — at Tuskegee University in Alabama last November. The deceased individual, an 18-year-old, reportedly died at the scene. One man reportedly was charged with possession of a machine gun in connection with the shooting. A month prior, five people were shot — one fatally — in a crowded area near a campus concert at Albany State University in Georgia.
Following the 2024 HBCU shootings, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter penned an op-ed stating that there is a “growing and disturbing trend of gun violence that is threatening to change the nature of Black colleges’ most sacred institution — homecoming.”
The AJC reporter, Ernie Suggs, added:
In 2022, four people, including three students, were wounded near Clark Atlanta University after a drive-by shooting during a homecoming celebration.
In 2023, five people, including four students, were shot at Morgan State University. It was the third consecutive year that homecoming festivities at the Baltimore school were marred by gunfire.
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How China can use GPS against us — a disaster waiting to happen
China has developed multiple ways to avoid using a global positioning system — if it needs to — in the event it launches an attack on the West’s systems.
Using a combination of Cold War-era technology and advanced GPS methodology, China — in conjunction with other American adversaries — has insulated itself from attacks on its systems in order to achieve an operational edge for its most crucial technologies.
‘The United States and a lot of our Western allies are kind of uniquely vulnerable right now.’
GPS provides the required background for telecommunications networks, electric grids, banking systems, and also mass transport. In addition, it guides precision munitions and military equipment, while providing conventional navigation for the average person in their car or smartphone.
Aiden Buzzetti, president of the pro-America nonprofit Bull Moose Project, told Return in an exclusive interview that the United States is out in the open in terms of a potential GPS-related attack.
“We know that the Russians jam GPS … in the Baltics, the commercial flights in Sweden and Finland, and that general region will run into issues because of GPS interference by the Russians,” Buzzetti told Return. “The North Koreans do it, too. Basically all of the the main adversaries of the United States in some way or another practice GPS jamming. Whether it’s Iran going after bases … it’s a pretty consistent theme across the board.”
Because of this ongoing threat, China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia have all built a layer of protection surrounding their use of GPS.
“The United States and a lot of our Western allies are kind of uniquely vulnerable right now,” Buzzetti explained. “We rely a lot on the satellite signals, but in their own countries, they’ve been using some older technologies, some Cold War-era technologies and then newer terrestrial technologies to make sure that they’re not vulnerable to the same kind of attacks that we are.”
The technology Buzzetti is referring to ranges from unique and seemingly outdated to complex and futuristic.
RELATED: America doesn’t need to copy the Chinese. We need to beat them.
Aiden Buzzetti, president of the Bull Moose Project
In a report about securing the U.S. 5G network and GPS infrastructure, Bull Moose wrote that enemies of the state have been hard at work “future-proofing” their positioning, navigation, and timing capabilities.
The same countries have engaged in “navigation warfare,” the document alleges, but have continuously implemented the following systems to give themselves a decisive strategic edge in electronic warfare:
Loran-C radio navigation network
This radio navigation system, first implemented in the 1950s, uses a receiver to determine its position by listening to low-frequency radio signals transmitted by radio beacons.
Operating at 100 kHz, China has continued its ongoing usage and integrated its systems with South Korea’s and Russia’s to create the regional Far East Radio Navigation Service, established in 1989.
Simply put, Loran-C is an old radio system that ships and planes use to calculate distance through the help of signals from radio towers.
Inertial navigation systems/quantum positioning
These systems use motion sensor and a computer to continuously calculate position based off a previously determined fixed point. In quantum positioning for example, gyroscopes and accelerometers are used to determine velocity and orientation without the use of external signals, unlike a GPS.
Gyroscopes measure angular velocity, while an accelerator measures the proper acceleration of an object, meaning how fast an object is speeding up or slowing down.
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A cell tower for 5G network among buildings is pictured on January 1, 2021 in Qingdao, Shandong Province of China. Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images
LEO satellites
In addition to these methods, China has significantly increased its use of low-Earth orbit satellites, launching dozens at a time as recently as this summer, along with launches dating back to 2024.
The result is now a network of LEO satellites that provides faster communication (internet), surveillance capabilities, and support for GPS systems that are much harder to jam than medium Earth orbit GPS signals.
Essentially, they could be considered China’s version of Starlink.
“China is ensuring that no single point of failure can knock out its navigation capabilities,” Buzzetti said, adding that if the United States does not work to shore up its systems, it could be vulnerable to attacks that take down entire categories of essential infrastructure. Because China has been diligent in ensuring it does not rely on GPS, he suggested, the United States should re-examine the companies that lobby and work within the United States on communications projects and, where necessary, abandon them.
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Glenn Beck took the NEW American citizenship test. Was it as HARD as they say?
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has rolled out a new citizenship test that is now being criticized as too difficult for immigrants to pass — with some saying the difficulty may deter those looking for legal citizenship.
Applicants will be asked 20 questions out of a pool of 128 questions and must get 12 correct to pass.
The Washington Post compiled a 10-question quiz based on the newly revamped test, and Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck decided to test it out.
“Who wrote the Declaration of Independence,” the first question reads, with a multiple choice set of potential answers including “A) Benjamin Franklin, B) John Adams, C) Thomas Jefferson,” and “D) George Washington.”
“It’s multiple choice?” Glenn asks, shocked, before answering firmly, “Thomas Jefferson.”
The second question is “Name a power that is only for the federal government,” which Glenn again gets right. The answers provided were “A) Print paper money, B) Declare war, C) Make treaties, or D) All of the above.” The answer was D).
The third question is “What amendment says all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are U.S. citizens,” which Glenn also gets correct as the 14th Amendment.
The rest of the questions — “The American Revolution had many important events, name one”; “Why were ‘The Federalist Papers’ important?”; “James Madison is famous for many things, name one”; “When did all women get the right to vote?”; “Why did the United States enter the Persian Gulf War?”; “Name one example of an American innovation”; and “What is Memorial Day?” — were fairly simple, though a couple of them had Glenn and BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere slightly stumped.
“When did all women get the right to vote” had two answers in the multiple choice that Stu admits he had to guess on, as their right to vote was voted on in 1919 but wasn’t passed until 1920.
“This is a trick question,” Glenn says. “Cause I think the vote happened in 1919 or at least it started … but I think it finalized in 1920.”
“I would’ve guessed 1920, but I will be honest with you, total guess,” Stu agrees, guessing right.
“This is the type of thing, like what does this have to do with citizenship?” he asks.
“Why are the dates the important thing? It’s the story. It’s what’s behind the story. The range of dates in a 12-year period to me makes no difference,” he adds.
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Beloved basketball coach, wife identified as victims of fatal crash allegedly caused by illegal alien truck driver
Authorities have identified two of the three victims in a fatal crash in California last week involving an illegal alien truck driver.
‘If California had complied with the Secretary’s emergency rule, … he would have never been able to get behind his big rig.’
Clarence Nelson, a 76-year-old Pomona high school basketball coach, and his wife, Lisa Nelson, 69, were killed after a semitruck plowed into several vehicles on the I-10 freeway in Ontario on Tuesday, Fox News Digital reported. Four others were injured.
“This week, our community was deeply saddened by the tragic incident in the City of Ontario,” state Senator Susan Rubio (D) said. “It’s heartbreaking to learn that two of the lives lost were from my district — Pomona High School basketball coach Clarence Nelson and his wife, Lisa.”
“As a teacher, I know how a loss like this ripples through an entire school community,” she stated. “My heart goes out to their families, the Pomona Unified School District, and everyone mourning this tremendous loss.”
The driver of the truck, Jashanpreet Singh, is a 21-year-old Indian national in the United States illegally. He was suspected of speeding while being under the influence of drugs at the time of the crash.
The California Highway Patrol arrested Singh, and he is facing charges of driving under the influence of drugs and causing bodily injury and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
Singh pleaded not guilty on Friday. His next court appearance is scheduled for November 4. Singh requires an interpreter for his upcoming hearing, ABC News reported, citing court filings.
RELATED: The shocking details behind another fatal illegal alien truck crash
Photographer: David Peinado/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed an arrest detainer against Singh. According to ICE, he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 2022 and was released into the country by the Biden administration.
The Department of Transportation accused California of violating federal law by issuing Singh a commercial driver’s license.
In September, DOT Secretary Sean Duffy announced the results of a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration audit that found “systemic non-compliance” among driver’s licensing agencies in several states, including California. Duffy ordered a pause of California’s issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, requiring the state to identify all unexpired licenses that fail to comply with regulations.
In mid-October, the DOT stated it was withholding roughly $40 million in federal funds from the state over its failure to comply with English language proficiency standards for commercial drivers.
“If California had complied with the Secretary’s emergency rule and prevented the upgrade of this individual’s driving privileges earlier this month, he would have never been able to get behind his big rig,” the DOT stated about the deadly crash involving Singh.
The department claimed that California initially issued Singh a non-domiciled CDL in June. However, it noted that because Singh was 20 years old at the time, his license included a “K restriction” that limited his driving to intrastate operations.
On October 15, when Singh turned 21, California removed the K restriction without applying the stricter standards DOT announced in its September final rule.
Photographer: David Peinado/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“If California had complied with the Secretary’s emergency rule and prevented the upgrade of Singh’s driving privileges, Singh would have been required to return to the DMV (on or after October 15) to have the ‘K’ restriction removed and upgrade his CDL,” the DOT stated. “At that time, Singh would have been subject to the emergency rule and found ineligible to retain the non-domiciled CDL due to Singh’s status as an asylum seeker.”
The California DMV told Blaze News that the federal government approved Singh’s employment authorization, which it claimed was valid through August 2030. The DMV stated that it verified Singh’s documents using the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, also known as SAVE. It also acknowledged that on September 26, the DOT issued an interim final rule that changed eligibility requirements.
“MISINFORMATION ALERT: The state does not determine commercial driver’s license eligibility,” the California State Transportation Agency wrote in a post on social media. “The FEDERAL government approves and renews all FEDERAL employment authorization documents that allows individuals to work and obtain commercial driver’s licenses.”
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DHS: Nancy Pelosi is ‘putting a target on the backs’ of federal agents with arrest threats
The Department of Homeland Security fired back at former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) after she and other California Democrats laid out plans for the arrest of federal immigration agents for supposed violations of state laws.
Brooke Jenkins, the San Francisco district attorney, said her office already has plans to arrest federal agents should they use force in her city as they did during violent protests and riots in Los Angeles and Chicago. Jenkins explained the San Francisco Police Department is on board with the idea in cases of “clear, excessive use of force.”
‘If politicians and activists don’t like the law, they should try to change it instead of demonizing our brave men and women in uniform.’
DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin called the plans “gross” in a statement to Blaze News, adding, “America’s brave ICE and Border Patrol agents put their lives on the line every day to enforce U.S. law and arrest the worst of the worst — including gang members, rapists, and murderers.”
RELATED: House Democrats’ ICE ‘tracker’ will ‘put our lives in danger’: DHS agent
ICE CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
“From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the vilification of ICE must stop. Nancy Pelosi’s rhetoric is putting a target on the backs of federal law enforcement officers who are already facing a 1,000% increase in assaults against them. Our law enforcement is ENFORCING federal law — if politicians and activists don’t like the law, they should try to change it instead of demonizing our brave men and women in uniform,” McLaughlin added.
The Department of Justice sent a letter to Pelosi and Jenkins warning them that their plans violate federal law and that there will be consequences should any state or local police arrest federal agents while lawfully carrying out their duties.
The heightened threat level DHS personnel are facing was realized in the San Francisco Bay last week after a driver apparently attempted to ram a U-Haul truck into a checkpoint at Coast Guard Island Alameda. Coast Guard security personnel shot at the suspect after he did not listen to verbal commands to stop.
“The truck driver was wounded in the stomach and is being held for mental health evaluation. A bystander was struck by a fragment, treated at a local hospital, and released,” DHS said about the shooting.
Anti-ICE attackers have increasingly used vehicles to allegedly ram federal agents’ vehicles or block their path on the road during operations. Attacks in that fashion have taken place in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles.
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‘Whiny’ Kamala Harris teases presidential run despite polling worse than the Rock
Former Vice President Kamala Harris has teased another presidential run despite her historic 2024 loss and widespread unpopularity.
Even after her brutal electoral loss in November, Harris said in a recent interview that her political career was “not done” and that serving in public office was “in [her] bones.”
‘They put you as an outsider, even behind Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson.’
“I am not done,” Harris said. “I have lived my entire career a life of service, and it’s in my bones, and there are many ways to serve.”
“I have not decided yet what I will do in the future beyond what I am doing right now.”
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Although Harris teased the idea of being the first female president, the interviewer gave her a blunt reality check. The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg pushed back, pointing out that she’s simply not popular enough to be a politically viable candidate.
“But when you look at the bookies’ odds, they put you as an outsider, even behind Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson,” Kuenssberg said. “I mean, is that underestimating you?”
“I think there are all kinds of polls that will tell you a variety of things,” Harris said. “I’ve never listened to polls. If I listened to polls, I would have not run for my first office or my second office. And I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here in this interview.”
Losing to Trump in all seven swing states and in the popular vote indicated a resounding rejection from the American people. Even still, Harris seems to remain hopeful of the presidency, which critics attribute to simple self-delusion.
“Kamala came across as a whiny, delusional, angry and bitter woman who cannot accept that she was a terrible candidate who got the shellacking she deserved at the ballot box,” Piers Morgan said in a post on X. “No chance she ever gets another go at it.”
RELATED: Democrats feign outrage as Trump administration shutdown layoffs hit: ‘They seem to be enjoying it’
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Although Harris made clear that preliminary polls won’t deter her from weighing her options, the failed candidate may have some stiff competition.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California also hinted at a presidential bid in a recent interview with CBS, saying he would be lying if he didn’t acknowledge the possibility.
“Who the hell knows?” Newsom said. “I’m looking forward to who presents themselves in 2028 and who meets that moment. That’s the question for the American people.”
When pressed about whether he would consider running after the 2026 midterms, Newsom admitted that it was a real possibility.
“Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom replied.
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