Yeah, it’s one thing to explain why you have a tattoo of Chinese characters that actually read “do not reverse, severe tire damage”, another to explain stuff like this.
Like, put a circle-slash on it or something.
The only good news is that this came out long before the primary. If Platner was already our candidate in Maine when this came out, we’d be handing the win to Collins on a silver platter. Now he can hopefully drop out of the primary in disgrace and a different Democrat can take the fight to Collins.
It sounds like his team provided the shirtless videos to Pod Save America to try and get ahead of the story? Holy shit, you’d think he could have removed the tattoo or at least covered it up before this went public if that was what he was trying to do.
nvm too off topic
I must be extremely ignorant (or, in keeping with this thread a stupid MFer), because I have never heard of “totenkopf” till a couple posts above. And, I was unaware of what it looked like. I must have seen it in movies and whatnot, but it wasn’t something I was conscious of.
That being said, in no way am I excusing someone from tattooing it on their body. If you seek it out, you must know what it means.
Me, either. No memory of ever hearing the word or seeing the design.
The design is visible on every picture you’ve ever seen of a Nazi SS person. From the movies or for real. It’s kinda distinctive. They were not real large e.g hat emblems, but they were real obviously a dead human skull.
“SS death’s head” was IIRC the standard term in English.
His story is that he was stationed in Croatia with the Marines in 2007 and he and some friends decided to get matching tattoos, staggered into a local tattoo parlor (his account doesn’t specifically note that alcohol was involved in this decision, I am merely speculating) and pointed at one of the scary-looking designs on the wall.
I actually found that plausible, but links in this thread seem to confirm that he knew about it long enough ago that it really should have been removed by now.
A skull and crossbones is often a symbol of danger or used for pirate iconography.
The totenkopf though, as used by the SS, isn’t a generic skull and crossbones. It’s a specific shape. If indeed this guy was a military history buff he knew exactly what he was getting.
The most charitable thing you can assume is that he isn’t actually a Nazi sympathizer but thought it wasn’t a big deal, which itself is still so stupid and tone deaf that it should disqualify him from being eligible for nomination in the eyes of Democratic voters. And that’s the best case scenario for this loser.
So, even accepting his story at face value, this is someone who makes a permanent change to his body without any due diligence about what the symbol even means. Is that the lind of thoughtful deliberation we want in someone passing laws the rest of us have to live under?
I don’t know much about Croatia. Is is the kind of place where you’d find Nazi symbols displayed openly in any random tattoo parlor?
That I’ve heard of, but I couldn’t have picked out the design in a crowd of tattoo designs.
Unless, you know, the meaning really wasn’t that big a deal to him (ninja’d above). Make of that what you will. I too hope he drops out of the race (and public life in general). Or maybe we can watch him complaining that he was canceled for having a tattoo.
And the guy got the ink in Croatia.
Croatia had its own fascist, nationalist and anti-semitic movement (the Ustashe) which collaborated with the Nazis when they moved on Yugoslavia in 1941. It was one of the most ardently collaborationist governments in occupied Europe - they even raised two divisions of Waffen-SS to fight alongside the Wehrmacht, probably what makes that Totenkopf tattoo design popular enough to be standard fare in a Split tattoo parlor.
I don’t know what’s more disturbing - that he got it, or that a bunch of other Marines, at least one of which should have known better, got it along with him.
ETA: @Robot_Arm , there is still a significant hard-right Croatian nationalist movement today - for example, they still get occasional FIFA sanctions for using fascist imagery and chants at soccer matches.
Yeah, exactly this.
Not to detract from the pile-on over Stupid MFer Platner and his stupid MFing tattoo. I am so tired of these MFing Nazis on this MFing country!
Someone else posted this cite in a different thread, but I think it belongs here too. Submitted for your consideration and entertainment: Woman charged with pepper spraying Waffle House employees. Be sure to read to the bottom where she parlays this silliness into a Really Big Deal.
Would you describe yourself as ‘military history buff’? Me neither. I had heard the term totenkopf before. I was not exactly sure what it was reading the report above, but assumed it was probably nazi skull symbology.
I have a strong suspicion that people who would self describe as ‘military history buff’ would know what it was.
Lots of people are pretty obsessed with imagery of skulls and various percieved bad assery. Its often tongue in cheak supposedly, but I don’t know because I never wanted a skull image on my clothing or skin. I can’t imagine choosing to tatoo a nazi skull on your body without understanding the implications.
Soldiers of all nations and eras are sorta fascinated by human skulls.
I can certainly imagine a Marine young enough, ignorant enough, and drunk enough that back in the more innocent era of 2007 he’d have a Nazi skull tattooed on him without a) being a Nazi, or b) realizing the Nazi-ness of that particular skull icon.
20 years later in MAGAmerica and he’s still proudly wearing the tattoo? He’s an avowed current Nazi. Period.
I have to wonder why the bail was $30,001. Is there some significance to the extra dollar? Did she short the waitress on the tip?
The bond was set at $30,001 not the bail.
The bond is some percentage of the actual bail, so it’s probably rounded to the nearest dollar.
Ok, now I have to ask because I’m ignorant as there are no such things in German jurisdiction: what’s the difference between a bail and a bond?
Nope.
Ever heard of Día de los Muertos? Human skull imagery is used in lots of stuff beyond Nazis or bad assery (thanks for the term). 
From what I can tell, it’s bail if you (the defendant) pay it yourself in cash (or property). It’s bond if you pay money to a third party (a bail bondsman) to pay your bail for you; AIUI, if you pay bond, you pay a fraction of the total bail amount to the bail bondsman, and it’s the bondsman who is making the financial pledge to the court.