Democrats' Smear Against Marine Graham Platner, Maine Senate Candidate, Shows Fatal Party Character Problem

Graham Platner is a Marine and U.S. Army veteran, and oyster 
farmer, running for nomination in the Democratic Party Primary 
for U.S. Senate in Maine.

Vile Democrat Lies Display Dems As Party of Nothing; Puke Party Should Be Saying, Thank You, Marine

Commentary

Graham Platner is a Marine, U.S. Army veteran, oyster farmer, and a Democratic Party candidate running for the U.S. Senate in Maine in 2026, reads this progressive populist's campaign webpage.

Platner is a peace-and-justice, anti-Genocide, pro-privacy, pro-liberty economic populist who is running on a platform that a few decades ago was  more-or-less standard Democratic commitment.

But today; hey, Democrats are the wrong party for Platner, says Chuck Schumer and the liberal media.

You see, Platner right out of high school joined the Marines and fought as an infantryman in four combat deployments in wars that this Marine campaigns on now as pointless and endless. 

And Platner is against Israeli-committed Genocide, never a popular position with the dopes who run the Democratic Party today or hold federal elected office.

Writes Platner:

I have not minced words on this issue. We are sending American taxpayer dollars to underwrite the starvation of Gaza, in what can only be accurately described as a genocide.

I stand with all people seeking peace, democracy, and self-determination. In this moment, that means a clear-eyed condemnation of the Gaza genocide, and the use of every means available to America to bring it to an end.

Now, the Democrat slime machine led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, liberal media and Democrat Party hacks who know nothing about serving our country, or the truth, are slurring Platner as a Nazi sympathizer.

It's bullshit.

In 2007, Platner as a young man was serving downrange as a combat Marine in Croatia, and on shore leave went out drinking with a bunch of other Marines; got very drunk; and visited a tattoo parlor. Horrors.

Platner chose a skull-and-crossbones tattoo from the wall that resembles nothing so much as a Grateful Dead icon, and had the tattoo put on his chest.

So, Democrat Party establishment and liberal media today are trying to say the tattoo is a disqualification for Platner's campaign, because some say the tattoo looks like a Nazi icon from WW II.

The first and last words of this nihilistic Party should be, 'thank you for your service; thank you for being a Marine.'

Guess how many Democrat Senators are standing up and defending Marine Graham Platner?

One. Bernie Sanders. 

Democrats' program of lies, typical opposition research, comes right after national Democrats drafted the 77-year-old Maine governor, Janet Mills, to run against Platner in the Maine U.S. Senate Primary to be held in June 2026.

Democrats are low, weak, devoid of character. Democrats don't care about honor, and this bunch of weaklings are afraid of truth.
#

 

and, from the Right:

 

Uniparty will say anything, smear anybody, to tarnish political opponents. Give me one Marine Graham Platner over the whole bunch of cretins.

George Laughton Claxton: Infantry, Mr. Agent Orange, Badass Veterans' Advocate, Passes Away

George Laughton Claxton
Walled Lake, Michigan
April 4, 1943 - August 22, 2022

Update: Veterans are seeking Claxton's Agent Orange papers to move them to The Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive at
Texas Tech.

In veterans' advocacy, there are pretenders.

And there are badasses — determined souls who never give up.

George Claxton was a badass. He passed away on August 22, 2022.

Before the effort George Claxton launched, no veterans or families of veterans exposed to herbicide or chemicals in the Vietnam invasion received any relief for Agent Orange, Dioxin,

As a Vietnam veteran remarked, "After George's litigation, Vietnam Veterans of America’s National Agent Orange/Dioxin Committee, was completed some veterans and some families got some relief.  Considering that he was opposed by the chemical industry, the DoD and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VA that was no small victory." That's Bob Walsh, Vietnam veteran and fellow veterans' advocate.

George Claxton started the effort that has recently resulted in the opening of the Camp Lejeune water litigation and the PACT Act.

OBITUARY GEORGE CLAXTON

George (DH) Claxton died Monday August 22, 2022 after a lengthy illness.

George was born April 4, 1943 to Pastor John Claxton who preceded him in death. He served his country from 1965-1970.

He served a two year tour of duty in Vietnam with the 25th Infantry Division (TROPIC LIGHTENING).

He was truly a veterans advocate with particular emphasis on veterans exposed to herbicides in Vietnam. He served for 10 years as State Service Director for Vietnam Veterans of America while serving as Chairman of VVAs National Agent Orange/Dioxin Committee.
 

He was the second individual plaintiff (in 1983) in the class action suit (MDL-381) pitting Vietnam veterans against the seven (7) chemical companies who manufactured the herbicides and insecticides used in Vietnam. 

His filing (Claxton vs Dow Chemical et al.) was 163 pages long.

In the suit against the VA (Nehmer v. Veterans Administration) he was one of ten plaintiffs who, when the case was decided by Judge Henderson in May 1989, was the beneficiary of the decision that forced the VA to reformulate its Agent Orange adjudication rules.

Within the veteran community, George Claxton was known admirably as Mr. Agent Orange. As far back as 1985, he was boring people to tears with his "million dollar words" Claxton was instrumental in the programming of a cable television show about Agent Orange that aired for over 4 years in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

He also appeared on focused programming on Channels 2 and 50 in Detroit and Channel 6 in Lansing, Michigan relative to the subject of Agent Orange and tort claims arising out of exposure in Vietnam.

He also has been the subject of, or has guest-authored articles about this issue in THE DETROIT FREE PRESS, THE LANSING STATE JOURNAL, and USA TODAY. George had the guts to go into prisons and do claims work with incarcerated veterans "long before it was cool to work with incarcerated veterans."

He fought with both the Michigan Department of Corrections and the Veterans’ Administration medical centers in the state over the issue of getting incarcerated veterans transported to the medical centers from the prisons.

Having won that battle, George tackled the problem of prison guards wearing weapons inside the medical center while escorting incarcerated veterans. That was also a win. George discovered barrels of Agent Orange from Dow chemical were stored at the Michigan State Prison in Jackson. This was exposing all inmates and staff as well as re-exposing Vietnam veterans.

He went to the Department of Corrections, no response. He tried to get the 3 television networks to expose the situation. This was a dead end.

Finally, he convinced the DETROIT NEWS to cover the issue. It was a small article toward the back. It was rumored to be the only way the editorial staff could be rid of him.

There was a rally, organized by George, to establish a Michigan Agent Orange Commission.

There were several prominent toxic exposure speakers and a shopping cart filled with oranges labelled dioxin on the Capital steps. The State legislature authorized the Michigan Agent Orange Commission and appointed George as a member.

The commission contracted for a research study of Vietnam veterans, with various jobs in Vietnam, for body burden of the toxins sprayed in Vietnam.

The results proved all "in country" personnel were exposed to the toxins.

Rumor has it that a high school student contacted George for assistance in researching a term paper on Agent Orange. Two days later George gave the student a 25-page paper complete with references and bibliography. The result was nearly a thesis retyped, without typing errors, which the student submitted.

After Vietnam, George increased his education. 1973 Bachelor of Science (with honors) Northern Michigan University. Attended Cooley Law School 1974-1975 and 1978-1980. George authored the MICHIGAN PHYSICANS GUIDE ON AGENT ORANGE.

He participated in "First Citizens Conference on Dioxin" Twice he returned to Vietnam to participate on the "Symposium on Herbicides in War" His peers characterize him as someone who for 30 years plus, gave of himself, 24 hours a day, 7 days each week for something in which he firmly believed and to which he totally committed.

During his retirement due to illness, George would be sitting at his computer searching for research reports on toxins. He assisted attorneys building the brief with the latest research results. If not at his desk, he was traveling at his own expense to educate veteran families concerning the health effects of toxins. He was deeply concerned about the birth defects associated with a parent’s exposure to toxins.

When told President Obama had signed the CHILDREN OF VETERANS TOXIC RESEARCH LAW, he replied, yes we got it. George Claxton was a lifetime member of: Vietnam Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, American Legion, and AMVETS. Unfortunately, George’s health preventing him from understanding that President Biden signed the PACT Law on August 10, 2022.

The provisions of the law are what George worked toward his entire adult life.

Poisoning Leaves Cursed Betrayal

Industrial Ag threatens the small farmer and society as
never before. Communities are fighting back.

Update II: See also the Petition to EPA to stop Dow from Poisoning our Children with Chlorpyrifos, pesticides used by Big Ag.

Updated - Vietnam War combat veterans—aware of reporting on the vectoring of pathogens and pollutants into Wisconsin society by industrialized 'farming'—advise the current horror inflicted in southeast Asia on Vietnamese victims by unexploded American ordnance (UXO) and Agent Orange should inform public policy, pointing to recent pieces on the topic by George Black, The Nation; see also Haberman, NYT).

Agent Orange from the 1960s still deforming and killing people? Yes, this is still happening in 2015, the magnitude of the horror to which those American veterans who still live in Vietnam attest.

Agent Orange and other defoliants—generally regarded as among the most most toxic molecules ever synthesized by human beings—are extreme examples of mass poisoning, intended to destroy the verdant Eco-system of southeast Asia to facilitate killing southeast Asians held in disfavor of the U.S. government during the Vietnam War.

Dow and Monsanto which manufactured the weapons of Operation Ranch Hand (1961-71) are imprecations to many Vietnam-era veterans, one reason why Republicans in the Bush-Cheney administration targeted and even imprisoned Vietnam-era veterans who "tenaciously [pursued] a claim for [disability] benefits" sustained during their service to our country. (Horton, Harper's Magazine) That administration had to discourage Vietnam veterans from pretending to negative health consequences sustained from the war.

Many veterans with whom I have spoken place Karl Rove behind some of these criminal prosecutions, an unconfirmed fact, but not much happened during the Bush-Cheney administration without the chickenhawk Rove's go-ahead.

You don't have to look too far these days to find a Vietnam War veteran exposed to Agent Orange and other predictable effects of the Vietnam War, the observant might find such men at a community hospice.

Whether American war planners intended to kill, deform and traumatize Americans and Vietnamese or whether killing, deforming and traumatizing are merely predictable consequential side effects of the war, to victims of Agent Orange it doesn't matter.

Dow Chemical Company and Monsanto Company remain today, bigger than ever, business allies with American Big Ag.

Big Ag

This is fitting as Big Ag engages in its own we-didn't-know-the-consequences-our-motives-are-benign PR campaign against local communities such as Bayfield County and the town of Saratoga in Wisconsin. Other examples of Big Ag PR in Wisconsin are legion in America's Dairyland.

Big Ag using antimicrobials on an industrial scale (John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future) in the production of milk for example causes the "evolution and proliferation of antimicrobial-resistant strains of bacteria."

This is one reason why politicians should become serious students of biological evolution—especially the governor of America's Dairyland, Scott Walker—as Big Ag's new model of industrial agriculture represents a case study in which MRSA (Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and other pathogens are vectored into human society as the CDC and health surveillance agencies routinely see human-enhanced evolution of pathogens in action.

As victims of MRSA, Ecoli, and other pathogens proliferate, should Blue Baby syndrome (aka methemoglobinemia now prevalent in Yakima Valley in Washington state, caused by too many nitrates in surface waters and aquifers) come to Wisconsin, the local CAFO operating as LLC business entities will become as obscene to Wisconsin citizens as Dow and Monsanto are to Vietnam combat veterans—like the amiable bunch of crazy bastards of an old unit in Marine Force Recon who operated in southeast Asia and did many things, some of which were legal under international law.

As Wayne Griffiths of Bayfield County (Wisconsin) writes: "As a Vietnam-era military medic I think the we should consider the lessons from Vietnam. In particular I am concerned about the use of chemicals in an environment and the long term health problems they can cause for generations to come. We need to consider what we do today is inherited by future generations."

Scot Walker's Appointee, Kevin Kavanaugh Embezzled from Veterans; Gets Out of Prison

Scott Walker appointees, Timothy Russell (left) and Kevin Kavanaugh
(right) appear in front of a Milwaukee County court in January 2012.
Both are convicted of embezzling from veterans and their families.

It was announced today that Kavanaugh is getting out of prison early. Good, let 'em out. Let him live his life.

Scott Walker appointed Kevin D. Kavanaugh to head the Milwaukee county Veterans Service Commission when Walker served as Milwaukee County Executive (2002-2011).

Kavanaugh had no veterans' advocacy experience, no non-profit experience and no administrative experience.

No matter, Kavanaugh was an old crony and personal friend of Walker's from years back, so Kavanaugh got the veterans' gig for services rendered to Walker.

As Cognitive Dissidence reports: "Two of Scott Walker's cronies - Tim Russell and Kevin Kavanaugh - were arrested and charged with stealing from a fund meant for veterans and their families. (Actually, the fund was being used to promote Walker and his campaign for governor.)"

Here's the John Doe criminal complaint against Kevin Kavanaugh.

With Scott Walker personally appointing scum like Kavanaugh who proceeded to steal $10,000s from veterans and their families, I don't believe Walker has a shot at the GOP nomination for president in 2014.

Running for president, with the authority of commander-in-chief, won't go without frequent mention of Walker's appointees' stealing $10,000s from veterans.

The Wisconsin media largely buried the story of Walker’s people stealing from veterans in 2011-12, the national media won't.

Not many in central and northern Wisconsin even knew of the John Doe criminal investigation (2010-2013) and Walker cleaned up in those regions of the state in the recall election winning 53.1 to 46.3.

Walker won with the help (possibly illegal) of $10s of million spent in a relatively small state. Now, these immense sums of money appear to be the focus of a new John Doe investigation.

To give you an idea of the money poured into Wisconsin, consider the recall races in 2011 and 2012 cost $137 million in Wisconsin with a population of some 5,686,986. 

Florida has an estimated population of 19,317,568, and its governor, Rick Scott, spent $73 million all by himself.

It was announced today that Kavanaugh is getting out of prison early.

Good, let 'em out.

I'm still with Joe ‘Ragman’ Tarnovsky: "The following award is being presented to Scott Walker, Kevin Kavanaugh and Tim Russell for actions BELOW and INFERIOR AGAINST VETERANS: The Distinguished RAT BASTARD Tail for Thievery and Lack of Accountability."

Learn from the Ragman. That goes double for Scott Walker.

Joe is a Vietnam Combat Veteran, having served 26 months in the Republic Of South Vietnam, 10 months with Company A, 27th Combat Engineers, 28 August 1968 to June 1969, and 16 months as a crewchief/doorgunner with the 240th Assault Helicopter company on UH-1C Hueys, the Mad Dog Gunship Platoon from July 1969 to 22 October 1970. Joe graduated from Cuyahoga Community College in 1982 with a Associate Of Arts Degree and from Cleveland State University in 1986 with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology; he also accumulated 12 hours of graduate work at Cleveland State. He lives with his best friend, his wife, and they have 34 rescued cats, 7 rescued dogs. Joe has spoken at high schools and colleges for 25 years about PTSD, war and how not to treat returning veterans when they come home to America after fighting for their country. 

Proposed VA Rule Will Hammer Veterans, If Adopted

Time to screw our veterans again

Jamie Reno has an exclusive piece on a new proposed rule by the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (DVA) (VA) that will slap away veterans seeking disability benefits after the VA's Veterans Benefits Administration screw up veterans' claims. 

Reno notes an almost identical piece of legislation, HR 1404, in being considered in the House and studied in the Senate. Concerned readers should contact their House reps.

Screwing up veterans' claims is the norm.

Justice John Roberts in oral arguments in Astrue v. Ratliff (No. 08-1322) (2010):

"In litigating with veterans, the government more often than not takes a position that is substantially unjustified?"

- Yes

Justice Roberts: This is "really startling." 

The VA benefits claim procedures are supposed to be non-adversarial, in effect paternalistic, under the Veterans' Judicial Review Act of 1988 (VJRA). And the proposed regulation, RIN 2900-AO81, is substantially insulting and would block veterans who need our help as they come home.

Notes Reno: "Under current law, veterans are able to simply write a letter to apply for and/or to appeal a claim. No form necessary, no special language needed. This policy has actually been a welcome protection for veterans for veterans with disabilities that limit their cognitive functions."

This new anti-veteran proposed rule would make the benefits process adversarial and turn the VBA into one huge, mean-spirited health insurance company for our veterans, emphatically so for the large numbers of veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

What you can do now

Written public comments may be submitted through www.regulations.gov; by mail or hand-delivery to the Director, Regulations Management (02REG),
Department of Veterans Affairs,
810 Vermont Avenue NW., Room 1068,
Washington, DC 20420; or by fax to (202) 273-9026. (This is not a toll-free number.)

Comments should indicate that they are submitted in response to “RIN 2900-AO81—Standard Claims and Appeals Forms.”

Copies of comments received will be available for public inspection in the Office of Regulation Policy and Management, Room 1063B, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday (except holidays). Please call (202) 461-4902 for an appointment. (This is not a toll-free number.) In addition, during the comment period, comments may be viewed online through the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) at www.regulations.gov.
---
Writes Reno:

Glenn Bergmann, a partner at Bergmann and Moore, a Washington D.C.-area law firm that solely represents veterans with VA disability claims, has studied the proposal and the relevant case law. He tells Veteran Journal that, "While on the surface these proposed regulations look veteran-friendly, they really are not."

Bergmann says that if approved this VA proposal will "gut decades of veteran-friendly case law by eliminating reasonably raised claims made by veterans. If VA’s proposed regulation goes into effect and forces veterans to use only VA’s forms, then VA tilts the scales of justice from a pro-veteran claim system to an anti-veteran process."

Bergmann adds that veterans with mental health issues such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) will be at a particular disadvantage if VA’s proposed regulation is adopted.

Obama: More post-traumatic stress help for vets

By Julie Pace

WASHINGTON – The government is taking what President Barack Obama calls “a long overdue step” to aid veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, making it easier for them receive federal benefits.

The changes that Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki will announce Monday fulfill “a solemn responsibility to provide our veterans and wounded warriors with the care and benefits they’ve earned when they come home,” Obama said in his weekly radio and online address Saturday.

The new rules will apply not only to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but also those who served in previous conflicts.

No longer will veterans have to prove what caused their illness. Instead, they would have to show that the conditions surrounding the time and place of their service could have contributed to their illness.

“I don’t think our troops on the battlefield should have to take notes to keep for a claims application,” the president said. “And I’ve met enough veterans to know that you don’t have to engage in a firefight to endure the trauma of war.”

Veterans advocates and some lawmakers have argued that it sometimes could be impossible for veterans to find records of a firefight or bomb blast.

They also have contended that the old rules ignored other causes of PTSD, such as fearing a traumatic event even if it doesn’t occur. That could discriminate against female troops prohibited from serving on front lines and against other service members who don’t experience combat directly.

“This is a long overdue step,” Obama said. “It’s a step that proves America will always be here for our veterans, just as they’ve been there for us. We won’t let them down. We take care of our own.”

A study last year by the RAND Corp. think tank estimated that nearly 20 percent of returning veterans, or 300,000, have symptoms of PTSD or major depression.

A senior official at the Department of Veterans Affairs said the agency doesn’t expect the number of veterans receiving benefits for PTSD to rise dramatically, as most veterans with legitimate applications for benefits do eventually get claims. The goal is simply to make the claims process less cumbersome and time-consuming, said the official, who would speak only on condition of anonymity ahead of the VA’s announcement.