Categories
ideological culture partisanship political challengers

A Perfect Fit?

Graham Platner, Democrat, Maine, The View, democracy

“These are character flaws that I’m tired of hearing about,” offered Whoopi Goldberg, Monday, on The View. 

She was speaking about Graham Platner, the leading Democratic Party candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in Maine currently held by Republican Sen. Susan Collins . . . and of his litany of scandals — the latest to garner attention being his sending of sexually explicit texts to as many as a dozen women during his marriage . . . while having been married for only two and a half years.

“Platner has faced criticism for a series of inflammatory Reddit posts and, more recently, for a Nazi symbol tattooed to his chest,” The Free Beacon reported last year. Mr. Platner says he was unaware that his tattoo was a Nazi symbol but, according to the Beacon, “Two Platner associates have contradicted his claim of ignorance.”

The Reddit posts included calling himself an “antifa supersoldier” and a “communist,” while also using anti-gay slurs and belittling veterans, police, rural white people, and African Americans.

After counting all his various scandals, The View regular Sunny Hostin concluded, “So he’s a liar, a racist, an antisemite,” then added, “He’s a homophobe.”

Nonetheless, Hostin said she is “conflicted.” Meaning she might still want him to be Maine’s next senator?

Now making a play for the Senate, Platner has kindly covered up the tattoo and deleted those deeply offensive Reddit posts. 

The 41-year-old presents himself as a working-class guy, though he comes from a wealthy family that placed him in a $75,000 a year prep school. He is an oyster farmer, but most of his income derives from disability payments. He told reporters that he bought his home with a VA loan, but his father loaned him the money.

“You’ve shown me who you are,” The View’s Sara Haines said of Platner, “and I heard you.” She declared, “This man should be nowhere near Congress.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist, begs to differ: “We desperately need somebody like him here in the U.S. Senate.”

Graham Platner should fit right in.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Thought

Benjamin Franklin

Thou canst not joke an Enemy into a Friend; but thou may’st a Friend into an Enemy.

From Poor Richard’s Almanack (1739).
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Today

Singapore’s Constitution

On June 3, 1959, Singapore adopted a constitution.

Categories
ideological culture political challengers

Post-Conflagration L.A.

Spencer Pratt, Karen Bass, Los Angeles, mayor, election, AI

Though Angelinos started voting early in the mayoral race, today is L.A.’s election day. It’s a race watched with varying degrees of enthusiasm and alarm across the country. Polls show no candidate close to a majority, which means the top two will likely face-off in a November runoff.* 

Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV star, has run a study-worthy campaign and could finish close to the top.  He’s a former Palisades homeowner. He now lives in a trailer on his property, upon which he cannot yet re-build after the fires that swept through the area in January 2025. And he’s built his campaign around the government’s absolute failure on every level to assist — or just get out of the way — of a recovery.

His video ads — and satirical contributions by fans — have been magnificent.

Erstwhile Castro-loving incumbent Mayor Karen Bass — who was celebrating in Ghana during the conflagration, basking in the glory of the continent’s first woman president — is in no small part responsible for the city’s worse-than-inept response to the fires. And candidate Pratt isn’t letting anyone forget it. 

A month ago, Mayor Bass blasted Pratt for “exploiting the grief of people in the Palisades,” calling it “reprehensible.” A weird twist of the reality of Pratt’s righteously indignant stance. What she did and didn’t do during and after the Palisade Fires are better described as “reprehensible.” 

The other major candidate is Councilwoman Nithya Raman, an outspoken homeless advocate who didn’t like it at all that homeless started camping outside her home.

Yesterday, the race was described as “neck-and-neck” by KTLA-5, with Hollywood actors Jane Fonda and Samuel L. Jackson cited as “supporting Mayor Bass, while Chelsea Handler and Mindy Kaling are backing Councilwoman Raman.”

In most other cities these endorsements would likely fizzle.

But in L.A. . . . ?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* The latest UC Berkeley/LA Times poll shows Mayor Bass with 26%, Councilwomen Raman with 25% and Pratt with 22% support. Los Angeles does not use the same Top Two system that California uses statewide, whereby the top two vote getters move on to the General Election. In L.A., if a candidate garners a majority, the race is over. 

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Thought

Aesop

The shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle’s own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.

From “The Eagle Wounded by an Arrow, Aesop’s Fables (c. 600 BC).

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Today

Citizenship

On June 2, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.

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crime and punishment Regulating Protest

Not Nice About ICE

New Jersey, ICE, protests, immigration

There are both peaceful and violent protesters outside the Newark ICE detention center. But in the last several days the violence has escalated. A cordoned-off special protest area was set up, then repeatedly breached. The city’s mayor has declared a curfew near the site, between nine at night and six in the morning.

The protesters’ complaints against the treatment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at the Delaney Hall location run along familiar lines. New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, says that many of those held in this private facility are in the country legally, not illegally, and all lack adequate council, allowed visitation, and medical access.

Those who are indeed here legally should not be held, of course — they should be released — and the Democratic governor is right to seek remedies for any deplorable conditions that actually exist.

But burning tires and bonfires on the streets outside don’t expedite careful review of detainees’ cases.

Some of the most noticeable protesters, you will not be shocked to learn, wear masks and have become increasingly violent towards the police who are trying to keep the peace, as well as towards the facility and ICE personnel accessing the site.

“We know that people from outside of the state have been interfering in the protests and escalating them,” the governor said at a Saturday press conference. “Five of the six people arrested last night by state police were from outside New Jersey.”

Governor Sherrill urges the protesters to “bring the temperature down.”

And she asks out-of-state activists to leave the issue to New Jersey citizens.

Meanwhile, the governor tries to place much of the blame on an increased ICE presence — rather than just the masked pseudo-revolutionaries — for the decreasing ability to ensure justice is being done in Delaney Hall.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob. 

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Thought

William Godwin

No man must encroach upon my province nor I upon his. He may advise me, moderately and without perniciousness, but he must not expect to dictate to me. He may censure me freely and without reserve but he should remember that I am to act by my deliberation and not his. He may exercise a republican boldness in judging, but he must not be peremptory and imperious in prescribing. Force may never be resorted to but, in the most extraordinary and imperious emergency.

William Godwin, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), Book II, Of Rights.

Categories
Today

First Day of June

  • The Roundheads defeated the Cavaliers at the Battle of Maidstone in the Second English Civil War on June 1, 1648.
  • The court-martial for malfeasance of Benedict Arnold, a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, began on this date in 1779.
  • Kentucky was admitted as the 15th state of the United States in 1792 on the same day of the month.
  • Tennessee was admitted as the 16th state of the United States exactly four years later.
  • Territorial Governor Alexander Ramsey declared the Territory of Minnesota officially established — 1849.
  • The Treaty of Bosque Redondo was signed, allowing the Navajo to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico, in 1868.
  • The United States Census Bureau began using, on June 1, 1890, Herman Hollerith’s tabulating machine to count census returns.
  • Adolf Eichmann, a former SS officer in Nazi Germany, was hanged on June 1, 1962, in Israel . . . for having committed crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other offenses.
  • The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims was first published in the June 1, 1974, issue of Emergency Medicine.
  • George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty to end chemical weapon production in 1990, on the first day of June.
Categories
Update

SNAP Restrictions

On Thursday, Paul Jacob discussed a report claiming that there has bern an increase in “food insecurity” in the United States. He identified a few ways in which government could help by “helping”less.

He also mentioned that a sizable minority of states are putting a number of restrictions in place on those who can receive benefits and on what foods can be paid for on the SNAP system.

Here are a few sources of information on these new restrictions:

“Louisiana SNAP recipients face new geographic restrictions as of Tuesday, May 26th,” by Nathan Rizutti — “Starting May 26, 2026, EBT cardholders will be limited to in-state purchases. This change helps prevent and protect against EBT theft while keeping SNAP, FITAP, and KCSP benefits in-state.”

“Missouri plans food benefit restrictions, but grocers say details remain unclear,” by Steph Quinn — “The changes, planned for Oct. 1, would prohibit purchases of candy, prepared desserts and sugary drinks through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Next summer, the same restrictions will also apply to SuN Bucks, the summer food program serving hundreds of thousands of Missouri children.”

“SNAP Benefits 2026: When EBT Cards Reload in Every State,” by Caitlyn Moorehead — “If you collect these benefits in 2026, you may have started to feel the changes to the SNAP program and varying new restrictions. However, payment scheduling should remain relatively the same regarding the process for the cash benefits to be deposited on the same day each month, based on factors such as your Social Security number, last name, case number or EBT account number.”

“SNAP benefits 2026: New maximum payments and monthly increase details,” by Stefan Brand — “The USDA adjusts SNAP maximum allotments, deductions, and income eligibility standards at the beginning of each federal fiscal year, which begins on October 1st, with changes based on shifts in the cost of living. The Thrifty Food Plan, commonly known as the TFP, calculates the cost of a market basket for a family of four and serves as the USDA’s estimate of how much it costs to provide nutritious, low-cost meals for a household.”

“SNAP FOOD RESTRICTION WAIVERS WILL REACH 7.5M HOUSEHOLDS BY END OF 2026, NUMERATOR REPORTS” — “Food Restriction Waivers (FRWs) will structurally change the program. By the end of 2026, 19 states will have waivers in place, affecting roughly one-third of SNAP participants. These policies directly restrict the use of SNAP benefits for categories such as soda, candy, and energy drinks —categories that were already more likely to be embedded in SNAP baskets.”

It should be remembered that restricting the food covered by “food stamps”

  1. Helps recipients avoid unhealthy and non-nutritious food and drink, thereby allowing those who have hope of becoming productive actually become productive rather than dooming them to lives of useless indolence;
  2. By disincentivizing unhealthy eating, this saves on subsidized health care, too, allowing for thriftier use of state aid overall, thereby stressing the taxpayer burden less;
  3. Reminds recipients that what they receive is not the result of any right they have — which would imply allowing even whimsical and self-harmful behavior — but, instead, the result of taking from others and giving to recipients, at no small cost to those others.

This last point is worth considering at length. It has been charged that restrictions on the scope of no-priced food distribution is “paternalistic.” Sure, but prodigal spending on the poor is already paternalistic — one might say “maternalistic,” but that implies that mothers are indiscriminate distributors of benefits to their charges, and only men see the point of restricted, responsibility-free subsidies. But that is not true.