Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Ben McCombe

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 5h

(Miami Herald) - The Trump Administration has made the decision to attack military installations inside Venezuela and the strikes could come at any moment, sources with knowledge of the situation told the Miami Herald ..

@miamiherald.com
www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...

U.S. poised to strike military targets in Venezuela in escalation against Maduro regime

The Trump Administration has made the decision to attack military installations inside Venezuela and the strikes could come at any moment, sources with knowledge of the situation told the Miami Herald...

www.miamiherald.com

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Reposted by Ben McCombe

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 1d

“He was very strong on congratulating me.”

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 16h

24 anecdotal data points are useless, especially if it seems likely he was asking people at the platners town halls.

The polls are where to look.

And if you really think no one has changed their mind after the SS tattoo or the bigoted Reddit posts, you're a terrible reporter.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

ADHD hyperfocus and a topic that ticks all my boxes might be a factor too.

But it's mostly:

"He has had an SS totenkopf tattoo for 18 years and is running for Maine Senator in his first campaign ever? Wtf is going on?!"

That's worth 10 days of research and debate if anything is.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

A guy with a wealthy, politically connected family, cosplaying as working class with an SS tattoo for 18 years that he is lying about not knowing its meaning of is not authentic.

He can act authentic, but hasn't Tulsi, Fetterman and Sinema taught us to look closely at candidates?

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

Every single Senate candidate has a team of professional consultants/strategists behind them. That's normal and to be expected.

That's not my main criticism of Platner's team.

It's their poor choice of candidate, terrible vetting and bad management.

Viral videos don't cover up cracks for long.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

Mamdani is great. He has substance, zero baggage and a great team behind him.

And yeah ever since the SS tattoo new broke I've been astounded at people defending him.

It's a swing US senate seat.

Too important for a first-time candidate with a backpack full of red flags, including an SS Totenkopf

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Reposted by Ben McCombe

Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 1d

Too many Americans either didn’t care or didn’t believe. Hopefully they do now.👇

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Reposted by Ben McCombe

Your Internet Friend Tom Tomorrow @tomtomorrow.bsky.social · 1d

I think about this piece of shit pretty often.

smiling middle-older-aged lady holding mass deportation now sign

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

He's giving me Alex Jones vibes here with the overacting, silly voices and fake outrage.

Very few comedians turned political pundits impress me.

Will always love Jon Stewert, but The Daily Show has always been comedy first.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

It kinda is.

One less vote for Harris means trump effectively gains one net vote.

Of course if they vote for trump he gains two net votes, which is worse.

Not voting is half as bad voting for Trump.

Half a Trump is still terrible.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

Here you go, I suspected she might do that so screen shotted it.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

Which is why they probably added the extra question which informed the respondents about it, to try and measure it's potential impact.

22 point drop in a week is massive regardless, and it's likely his support has fallen further as more people become aware of the tattoo and other issues since.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

And that poll wasn't a couple of weeks after the contoversies. It in the field from 20-25 Oct.

The Reddit posts emerged on the 16th - 17th. SS Tattoo on the 20th. SoCall put the poll in the field the day the SS tattoo broke.

It's likely underestimating the impact significantly.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

For example don't start them at senate level.

Take a page from Beto, councillor, Mayor, congressmen then Senate.

Don't pick a guy from a wealthy family and run him as working class.

Don't just delete Reddit accounts without going through them thoroughly. There's so much still there to find.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

Sure he tapped into something, with the help of some big hitting consultants and his political connections who helped producr some slick viral videos.

Democrats need to lean on that and find not regular person candidates who can talk the talk, but also pick/vet candidates much better than this.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

She was setting him up by asking exactly when he first knew it was a Nazi tattoo and if more would be coming out.

His denials mean if anything else does come out, he's cooked.

Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

Or worse, a Tulsi.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

22% drop since his high of 58% before the controversies.

High of +34% net vs Mills before controversies hit, to -5% after.

39 point net fall.

When voters are informed of his tattoo he's gone from +34 ahead of Mills to -30 behind.

64 point net fall.

All in the space of a week.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

That's outdated.

Here's all the polls since mid October.

Mills ahead by 5 in the latest one by SoCal.

Ahead by 30 when respondents were informed he had a Nazi tattoo.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

That's just an artifact of the tool used to scrape deleted Reddit posts.

Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

@franifio.bsky.social has deleted her post I was responding to.

Hopefully she will post a correction now she has more information to base her conclusions on.

But here is the original for reference.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

She just deleted the post.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, I posted them to her twitter account.

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Ben McCombe @benmccombe.bsky.social · 1d

His mother bankrolled him, along with a VA loan, and is his biggest customer.

Between his $4500 pm VA payment and the farm he could have had a sweet life.

Now he's the Nazi tattoo guy for life.

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