Scattered Acres

Thanks to ranked-choice voting, Jared Golden, a Democrat, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine’s Second District in 2018, beating the incumbent, Bruce Poliquin, by a hair when votes were redistributed. Golden was an attractive candidate with Marine Corps service in Iran and Afghanistan and as a graduate from one of Maine’s fine liberal arts colleges. He was reelected in 2020; but with fewer votes than polling had predicted. The District, however, was carried by Donald Trump which provided him with an electoral vote under Maine election law.   Wise to his constituency, Golden chose to show that he was no garden variety Democrat. The first thing he did upon arrival in Congress was to cast a vote for  Speaker of the House other than for Nancy Pelosi . I haven’t been following his voting record closely until he emerged this week as one of nine Blue Dog Democrats. This group insists that the House vote on the “hard” infrastructure bill and uncouple it from t...

Here, in the People’s Republic of Amherst, we had a revolution a few years ago. Or was it a counter-revolution. The broad based Representative Town Meeting of 240 members was thought to be cumbersome and inefficient, with some even saying that it wasn’t representative at all. In the name of efficiency and effectiveness, the voters of Amherst agreed to a charter that called for a city council type government for the Town of Amherst. The legislative agenda for the town would now be set by 13 Councilors who would elect a Chairperson and hire the City Manager.  The town has a hefty capital improvements program on the table. At the head of the list is a $36 million improvement to the beloved Jone Library. The argument goes that the library needs $15 million in improvements, so if you can stitch together a grant from the state and some contributions from those who can afford it, that leaves only about $14 million in bonds to be paid off by the town’s taxpayers. So what the heck, the town...

Dear Jared Golden, I had high hopes for you. You have a good military record and you got yourself an education. But lately you’ve been voting Republican - and as a Democrat, uniquely so. Granted that your congressional district voted for former president Trump, giving him one of Maine’s electoral votes. But that does not call for a duly elected Democratic congressman to vote against the much needed aid for an ailing economy in the time of a global pandemic that is not yet over. You’ve gone about as far as you can go. Don’t even think about ever running for the Senate or state-wide office. The votes wouldn’t be there. Regrettably, you have become a follower of your constituents rather than a leader. And when the voters come to their senses about what is good for them, good for Maine and good for America, you might have a tough time getting reelected at all. Remember the old adage, “When the voters are given a choice between a fake Republican and a real Republican, they will choose the r...

It didn't take four years to know that Donald J. Trump would be an American catastrophe. If I didn’t know for sure before his inauguration, I was certain of it on the day of his inauguration. George W. Bush reportedly referred to Trump’s inaugural speech as "some weird shit" after the ceremony concluded. It took only Trump’s insistence on the size of the crowd to realize that he was prepared to construct a fantasy universe built on lies. No, his inaugural crowd on the Mall was nowhere near as large as that for Obama. Anyone who saw the pictures would know it.  That Trump was a nasty campaigner was nothing new. After all, the gentlemanly George H. W. Bush employed Willy Horton to beat Mike Dukakis and LBJ has a little girl counting the daisy petals left before Barry Goldwater would start nuclear war. But in office from the very first minute, one had to know that Trump was something different. One can disagree with his policies that squandered the goodness in America. But...

I’m not sure we need $600 each from the new slug of federal stimulus funds. While I always appreciate money that comes over the transom, we run a tight financial ship that provides for the essentials in life and small pleasures. In other words, as retirees, we plan prudently for what we need and what we want with the resources at hand.  Millions of people are hurting as a result of the pandemic through absolutely no fault of their own. That includes the laid off unemployed and the myriad of very small businesses that are forced to abide with pandemic guidelines that destroy their financial viability. Those who continue to work as before are doing well. What is needed is 1) a predictable safety net for the unemployed, 2) aid to keep small businesses with fixed expenses afloat until restrictions upon them are removed, and 3) aid for states, cities and towns that are working with reduced revenues and, incidentally, employ millions.  So do I need $600? $1,200 for the two of us? Do...

Do you know how close Joe Biden came to losing the election? Terrifyingly close! According to the vastest figures available on line, Biden won Arizona and 11 Electoral votes by 10,457 popular votes, Georgia’s 16 Electoral votes by 11,779 popular votes, and Wisconsin’s 10 Electoral votes by 20,682 popular votes. Biden won these three states by 42,918 votes. Together they account for 37 Electoral votes which, if gone to Trump, would have caused a tie in the Electoral College and thrown the election into the House where Trump wins the majority Republican states.  OK, a tie. But additionally, if Nebraska’s single Biden Electoral vote from the 2nd Congressional District hadn’t gone to Biden by 22,091 votes, Trump wins. Or if Nevada’s 6 Electoral votes hadn’t gone to Biden by 33,596, Trump wins.  Under the Constitutional provisions for the Electoral College and the custom of winner-take-all by states, Biden won the presidency by a mere 65,009 votes. Imagine that. The loss of a ...

There is light at the end of the tunnel. COVID-19 vaccine is on the way. It may not be here for all of us for a while and it may not be soon enough for some who will succumb to the virus. The vaccine is welcome news, nevertheless. But the pandemic didn’t have to be so bad. Trumpian leadership failed from the beginning. The president’s vanity trumped the simplest of defenses - a mask, social distancing, limited travel. That a vaccine was developed at warp speed is a tribute to the science that Trump has so disparaged.  A second pandemic is upon us. It’s the assault on truth. It may turn out to be far more dangerous, more widespread, and long-lasting than the coronavirus pandemic that we know. Again, it didn’t have to be this way. President Trump is on record for tens of thousands of lies. As a narcissistic sociopath and pathological liar he is under the delusion what what he says is true. And a good many millions of people believe what he says. His lies have gone viral . Trump’s pow...