Troy Jackson, a powerful Maine legislator now running for Senate, once angrily threw a water bottle in a meeting after he couldn’t persuade a lawmaker to vote his way. He yelled at another lawmaker, prompting her to post on social media that straight men were “too emotional” to be in politics. And he cursed and shouted in a meeting with the speaker of Maine’s state House, until she kicked him out of her office. During the six years Jackson presided over Maine’s Senate, until he left office in 2024, his temper was a feature of his leadership, and one that Democratic lawmakers discussed among themselves as a problem and even raised with the governor.... [S]ome Democrats fear that Jackson’s history of conflicts with women lawmakers could hurt him in the general election against Republican Sen. Susan Collins, given that she has won past elections in the consistently blue state by appealing to independent and left-leaning women.
He only yells at women. He doesn't rape them.
Top comment over there — guess:
"Now do Trump."ADDED: Was it an empty or a full water bottle? The article doesn't say. Makes a difference. It also doesn't specify that it was a plastic water bottle, but the presumption of plastic is strong. Surely, they'd say if it wasn't. But with empty/full the chances are equal. To not say creates a presumption. But which way does the presumption go? Since I read the article as antagonistic to Jackson, I'm going to presume it was an empty bottle. An empty plastic bottle. That's close to nothing. And we're told only that he threw it, not that he threw it at anyone. Yet this water-bottle story is the first sentence of the article.
ALSO: Have you ever thrown anything as a way of expressing emotion? Even in a private, non-work environment? It's some kind of red flag, throwing things. Who does that?
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70 comments:
Frankly, he sounds a bit like LBJ, except that I'm sure he's much more tame than LBJ was. Or Andrew Jackson, who preferred duels. And of course, everybody's Maverick, John McCain was famously nasty until the press decided he was a good Republican because he was willing to lose.
Wait, WaPo readers want candidates who are just like Trump?
Platner-lite. But he's a 'powerful Maine legislator', huh? They tried lily-gilding before, and it didn't work out so well, but maybe they have a better handle on this guy's history.....
Was there any mention of the DSA? Have the Progressives safely navigated away from this iceberg? Or has it been decided that studying this change of course does not benefit the narrative?
He sounds like a normal Democrat. What’s the problem?
Senators don't do anything actual. So a little theater might be a contribution.
Outhouse arousal/Blue jerk-off poo water, rape, nazi tattoo... fake oyster farmer, raised with wealth, no experience...
Amazing what the white hard left will put up with.
Six pollsters in Maine who cover politics there. None ever published a poll that showed Collins in the lead in 2020. Not one. She won by 8 points.
Mike - phycological warfare mixed with - "lets give the vote counters some cheat cushion"
Either way, a masculinist, a rabid Diversitist, a DEIst in policy.
Abort, sequester your liberal license, and progress no further. Let us bray.
Post-Obama white males in the Democratic Party must always sit at the back of the bus (Puppet Biden, Sparkle Ken Newsom, VP nominee "Hunter" Walz). Now Jackson.
They get cranky because the strings lifting their arms and arms up the sock puppet that make their heads bob start to chafe. See the post on grumpy Bill Maher.
With politics becoming high school "boys tables" vs. "girls tables," the boys at the girls table never function quite right.
I don't think that throwing a water bottle or yelling should be disqualifying. I think that the guy's jejune political ideology should be as disqualifying as Platner's.
I am also gobsmacked that apparently nobody considers Platner's stepping aside while publicly alleging that he was blackmailed and extorted into doing so to be interesting enough to investigate and report on. Doesn't this bother anyone?
Foisted or hoisted... on their own petard?
"He yelled at another lawmaker, prompting her to post on social media that straight men were “too emotional” to be in politics."
I'm not going to comment on that, but has anyone considered that a coven may be messing with Maine's politics?
Ok to accept his emotional outbursts. Never ever accept his political goals. Re-focus on those.
I think the process that the Maine Democratic Party put together was impressive, amazing, fair, and transparent. Anyone who was a registered Democrat in early June could vote for delegate in their county, and Mainers did.
Democrazies are rank and vile.
Whether it's Susan Collins enabling mass murder or Troy Jackson throwing a water bottle, both Maine Senate candidates have had their problems.
Biggest issue with Jackson throwing a water bottle is that it wasn’t from Poland Spring, Maine
Good and Hard for the Pine Tree State.
Nirav Shah might have beaten Collins. I don’t think this guy can. I think that Democrats assume that white working class voters prefer voting for a man — any man — over voting for a woman, however accomplished she might be. To me it’s just more stereotyping of working class voters, but perhaps they’re right.
🚨 national average price of gasoline now $4.004/gal (via GasBuddy) but will actively rise throughout the day, could be $4.05/gal or so enroute to $4.10-$4.15/gal for now. Diesel now $5.13/gal heading to $5.25/gal in the days ahead.
https://x.com/GasBuddyGuy/status/2079566747951128903?s=20
Another one the librarian party isn't going to like
@IEE: At $4 per gallon, gas is still 20% to 25% below the inflation-adjusted Bidenflation peak of $4.50 to $5.50 during 2022.
Poland Spring isn't the water for politically conscious mainers though. Used to be owned by Nestle, and still isn't a "real" maine brand.
Sticking with Platner would have been a “suspicions confirmed thing.” Democrats are losers. Their pols are corrupt losers. Everywhere I post I ask, “Other than Fetterman, are there any high profile Democrat pols with integrity?” Lots of insults. No real takers.
Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...
“I think the process that the Maine Democratic Party put together was impressive, amazing, fair, and transparent.” Of course you do. LOL!
I've never seen anyone throw something in a work environment — not as an expression of emotion. I've seen people throw a crumpled piece of paper in the trash, maybe tossing it a slight distance.
"once angrily threw a water bottle in a meeting after he couldn’t persuade a lawmaker to vote his way"
Wait, what are the presumptions here? Was the lawmaker male or female? Was the bottle thrown at the lawmaker or in a harmless direction? What's being revealed and what obscured?
gas is up for summer!
Impeach!
In any work environment in the US you would have a very fun conversation with HR if you threw anything or even splashed someone playfully with a little water. THe Dems being the party of librarians or HR people or scolds if you want, would interpret this way in the way I think they would. Firing or several negative paperwork.
Severe negative
"I think the process that the Maine Democratic Party put together was impressive, amazing, fair, and transparent. Anyone who was a registered Democrat in early June could vote for delegate in their county, and Mainers did."
Really? Could anyone vote for Graham Platner? What happened to the actual primary, where registered voters voted for him? He said publicly that he was extorted and blackmailed by the "powers that be" in the Democratic party. Where is the "transparency" on that?
It's not just that he threw a water bottle, or that he threw it at a lady in Graham Platner's political support group. It's that it was frozen, at the time. Hey what could go wrong? He only yells at women, after all, and we all know it makes them feel wanted because he secretly wants to date them.
@ Enigma: “Americans will spend ~$1 billion more on gasoline this weekend compared to the same a year ago.”
https://x.com/GasBuddyGuy/status/2079567841682952619?s=20
"Since I read the article as antagonistic to Jackson, I'm going to presume it was an empty bottle."
The article was in WaPo. I'm going to assume it was a full bottle.
Never mind the insane nazi left - gas prices! and Jan 6th!
@boatbuilder: It's shaping up to be a very anti-establishment election cycle at a time where Collins is about as "DC-establishment" and incumbent could ever get so that fact alone ought to dispel any notion that she's bulletproof.
And for all the excitement Platner had generated among those claiming to be against the establishment, it wasn't enough for him to hold a lead in the polls to Collins once the press had to do the job of vetting him that his own recruiters and strategists refused to do. Exciting already had it's chance and didn't get it done. Jackson has a track record of standing up for working people at a time when working people claim they want someone who fights for them. If I had the opportunity to vote for that over some 70-something career politician that Democrats love to advertise their supposed contempt for on what seems a daily if not hourly basis, then I think I'd be plenty excited.
Add to that the fact that in addition to getting a do-over to replace a nominee who was in a near-total free fall, ME Democrats get to select a candidate who clearly wasn't foisted on them by out-of-state Senators the likes of Chuck Schumer and the beltway insiders or Bernie Sanders and a team of obviously unqualified Gen-Z revolutionaries posing as political strategists with the intent of using the state as a petrie dish.
This process might not be anyone's idea of perfect, but it can still work well enough to unseat Collins and that's good enough.
I worked for a Postmaster that, in a meeting of his management team, threw a pencil at a female supervisor for raising a question he did not like. Had she reported him, he might have been sent away on a 120-day detail to Bumfuck FL. But he had massive connections in the good old boy Post Office and he would have been back after his vacation. She, however, left the USPS soon after. I kept my mouth shut but, then again, I later married his ex-wife that he kept holding a torch (and somewhat nasty one at that) for. Too long a story to post here but we later became good friends when he re-married.
Mainiacs!
Basically, the D party is run by women and they can destroy any man's candidacy by crying about how they yelled at them or was "Too rude". Or, "raped" them - said "Rape" always being unsupported by any contemporaneous (sic) evidence and only being brought up when the Man is running for higher office.
The D's have come along way since Harry Truman's "If you cant stand the heat, get out of the Kitchen" and "If you want a friend in politics, buy a dog".
Of course the main factor is "Does AIPAC like him?" that is truly the only question that matters. I assume that since the "bosses" are behind Jackson, they do like him. In which case, the big Donors will provide their $$, and the D's might have a chance to defeat Collins.
You'd think getting rid of Collins would be a slam dunk, since the last time a Republican POTUS candidate won Maine was 1988, and their congressional delegation except for her is all Liberal/left.
Further, why should any MAGA supporter vote for Collins? Just let her lose.
If Collins and Jackson debate, both will claim to hate Trump and accuse the other of helping him in some way. Of course how many people in Maine care is unknown. They'll probably just go to the polls and vote D or R just like they always do.
I keep reading comments about how unfortunate it was that Platner was forced out so soon before the election, which is over three months away. People need to relax. The prevailing wisdom has long been that few people pay attention until after Labor Day. The ME Democratic Party has been doing a good job of organizing a convention so quickly and keeping the process fair and open.
Peachy+2 said...
"..gas is up for summer!.."
Trump is doing MORE than ANY ONE ELSE, to reduce CO2 emissions!
higher gas prices == less driving == less CO2
meanwhile, the commies up in Canada are FILLING THE WORLD with smoke, soot, and (wait for it!) CO2 ! ! !
Canada is TRYING To destroy the ENTIRE WORLD
and Trump is trying to SAVE US FROM OURSELVES!!!
If there are still rules of decorum then flinging a water bottle in an emotional outburst is a violation of them.
“ALSO: Have you ever thrown anything as a way of expressing emotion?“
Well, first, there is a fundamental difference between throwing something, and throwing something AT someone. I understand that Jackson threw his water bottle at the state senator with whom he was arguing. Perhaps the incident was wrongly reported.
Second, yes I have seen cases of an employee throwing things. I was his first level manager, and the fellow showed little interest in controlling his temper. We wanted to fire him, or at least put him under a Performance Improvement Plan, but the next level up was afraid that if he left his wife would follow, and she was an enormously talented software engineer that no one wanted to lose. In other words we only kept him because of his wife.
Then one day he came to my office after yet another tantrum in a meeting. It was around 5:30 and the nearby offices were empty. I had done some University Theater back in college days, so I faked losing my own temper. I slammed a manila folder down on my desktop, I yelled, I got out of my chair and paced about on my side of the desk, I was totally in control, but it didn’t seem that was to him — and maybe for the first time in his career he saw what it was like to be in a meeting with someone who had (seemingly) lost it. He never was a perfect employee after that, but his deportment improved remarkably and he stopped disrupting meetings with his temper.
I won’t say that would work with everyone, but it did work with him.
"It's just this war... and that lying son of a bitch, Trump!"
I've seen physical violence in my workplace many times. (Technical theater is a very physical profession, lots of roadies, gaffers and riggers.)
One time, in the 80s I was the light board operator/master electrician for a show. We were doing tech rehearsals and we were behind on wiring up some chaser lights on the set. I told the lighting designer that I had trained one of the women on my crew to program the light board. I suggested that she take over the programming while I fixed the chaser light problems. So we start the tech rehearsal and suddenly the stage manager throws his headset down and storms up to the lighting booth. He grabbed the woman by her hair and pulled out out of the room and outside the building. So I ran up to see what the issue was and the stage manager yelled at me, "I do not want her on any light board for any show I'm in charge of!" It turned out that he used to date her. So I complained about this to my manager and all the upper management of the theater had a meeting about this. Then my manager came out of the meeting and told me that they had already hired the stage manager and that he was going to stay with the show. So I quit that job.
One point about all the people I knew who did workplace violence: It was never a "one time" thing. These people kept losing their temper again, and again and again throughout their careers. They were always knows as, "hotheads." A lot of them just yelled a lot, but their lack of self control was a consistent feature of their personalities.
This reminds of the "Wisconsin Supreme Court beatdown" where some male judge supposedly throttled a Female justice. Or so they claimed. IRC, nothing happened from it because it was obvious the Leftwing female judges were trying to use the "Physical attack" to destroy the male judge
You can sure if this Jackson threw a plastic bottle AT someone , we'd be hearing cries of physical assault and "assault with a deadly weapon". So, I'm sure that he just threw the bottle down on the ground in frustration.
Anytime its the Left, or the victim of the smears is a Rightwinger, you have to factor in the Leftwing propensity to go 11/10 on the hysteria meter. Its the same with zionists.
I think the Democrats want Susan Collins to win number one and number two. They are seeking to destroy male politicians in Maine they don't like.
I was the caretaker of 15 acres and 3 horses on a farm outside Cincinnati. One day spotted a couple of kids just beyond the paddock shooting a BB gun at the horses. I was angry. Walked up quietly and surprised them, asked to see their rifle and bent it around a fence post. Then I heaved it as far as I could away from the horses. Told them my phone number and said, “If your dad wants to know what happened to your Daisy BB gun, tell him to call that number, ask to talk to Mr. Meade and I’ll explain the whole thing for you.” Of course, I never saw or heard from them again.
As a kid myself I threw plenty of snowballs and water balloons, at other kids, who were also armed with snowballs or water balloons. In other words, in self-defense.
Meade - handled masterfully.
The woman who says the bottle was aimed at her said she was so frightened that she did not stand for re-election. I can't imagine being frightened of an empty plastic bottle but I would be scared of a full one or one of those stanley bottles full or not. He says he threw the bottle away from the group in frustration.
One writer at Splice Today referred to Platner as a "troubled lummox." It's accurate and it keeps a rarely used word alive. Another writer noted that what liberals (not socialists) are after now isn't any great policy reform, but a strategy that will make them relevant and electable again. Anti-Trump and undoing Trump are still their life blood, but that assessment also seems reasonable.
Lefties around here are nearly always pitching a bitch, amirite?!
I spent more than a decade attending full legislative sessions. They do not resemble ordinary workplaces. Elected officials must leave their jobs for months and interact with deranged homeless people -- and each other. And irritating activists, crooks, and other activists and crooks. I'm actually amazed at the general level of decorum. The issues are both immediately real (unlike as in law school) and existentially contentious. And I suspect that politics attracts at least three times more sociopaths than other fields. Plus, these people must please everyone constantly, on meaningless salaries, with no guarantee of re-election, let alone job protection, and certainly not the uniquely elite bath of tenure. I saw a few fistfights and several screaming matches, but most malfeasance was quietly constant, and just as quietly deflected. They did a better job than most of us could.
In contrast, higher academia for the non-tenured was hell. Constant screaming, grotesque accusations of racism and homophobia and so on. I've had students and co-workers get in my face when I did nothing to them. The professional schools -- business, law, medicine -- were indeed slightly better, but knives still quietly twisted in. It was a sickening, devious circus, start to finish. I would say manual labor was by far the most respectful field I worked in, then politics, then far below that was academia, and below that, in terms of violence and sheer theft were restaurant and non-profit work.
This Maine guy might be an ass, but nobody I can access is looking at his actual record yet.
"It's just this war... and that lying son of a bitch, Trump!"
The next six months will be critical for the ceasefire in Iran. Fortunately, Trump has totally eviscerated the Iranian military -- six different times -- so American success appears assured.
Ashley Webb, we hardly knew ye.
A quick Google search shows that it was a plastic water bottle (though not whether it was full or empty). It also shows that you can purchase an "official Troy Jackson tank top" from Jackson's campaign website, in case you also want to get the Masculine Sleazebag look that's so popular in Maine these days.
He & Amy Klobuchar can be the Sid & Nancy of the Senate.
I'll put it this way, if Troy Jackson was from Alabama, he'd probably be sporting a mullet and driving a Bandit Trans Am, with the screaming chicken decal on the hood.
Meade, the horse yeller.
I've spent almost 40 years working for big organiztions, mostly in corporate america, and have never seen any workplace violence. The worst incident was a man who got so upset at a customer on the phone, he yelled and punched a hole in the wall.
Oh, and an engineer yelled at a subcontractor and used profanity. Next day, he was gone. Desk cleaned out.
Fortunately, ive never had to deal with "outsiders". But it must be tough.
Top comment over there — guess:
"Now do Trump."
Okay. I won’t vote for either Trump or Jackson this November.
I, for one, appreciate that the Party is emphasizing his violence against women and his lack of self control, both prima facie reasons not to vote for him, because that level of distraction is required to keep voters from remembering that he is a Democrat, which is obviously so much worse for his voters to think about him.
"Surely, they'd say if it wasn't."
Cue Dave Burge: "Journalism is about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving."
Ann Althouse said...
I've never seen anyone throw something in a work environment — not as an expression of emotion. I've seen people throw a crumpled piece of paper in the trash, maybe tossing it a slight distance.
I would speculate that this is a reflection of your father's work as a chemical engineer affording you a nice upper-middle-class life-style. Had you come of age in a lesser-milieu, you might have seen a bit more. But you didn't have to work the night shift at Waffle House. Men used to get angry in the workplace and express that anger verbally and physically. As women rose from nearly 0% in HR (formerly Personnel) to 80% today, things changed.
BTW, when I first started working in the mid 80s, it was much more male enviroment. Men got into shouting matches over the best way to do things. Sometimes the boss would "blow his top" wondering where the hell that report due yesterday was.
And then would go golfing with each other on friday Afternoon.
All that changed in the 90s as the work place got more feminine.
The only time I have seen true violence was on a union construction site, I walked to the parking lot by our trailer and a union laborer saw me and went over and broke the side mirror of my car with a hammer, he smiled and walked away. They were just letting me know that they knew who I was.
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