Opinion Page

  'In its first year, the bill would provide a $3,000 direct payment to every man, woman and child in a household making $150,000 or less — $12,000 for a family of four — and use the estimated $4.4 trillion in revenue raised over the next decade to address the most pressing crises facing working families.' - Bernie Sanders US Senator from Vermont March 2nd, 2026 https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-and-khanna-introduce-legislation-to-tax-billionaire-wealth-and-invest-in-working-families/ ~ CNN June 2nd, 2026: 'A University of New Hampshire poll released last week found that 10% of primary voters named her as their first choice.' https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/01/politics/maine-senate-janet-mills-graham-platner ~ NBC News June 14th, 2025: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/maine-senate-results ~ Pew Research December 10th, 2025 'Most Americans (66%) say the federal government has a responsibility to make sure all Americans have...

  So the primaries are over and it looks like most of us survived with our ideals intact, if not our grocery budgets. What brings forth change doesn't kill us so it must have made us stronger according to Nietszche. I'm waiting for the change to materialize like a windfall profit chocolate carmel mocha coffee kind of strength. These dreams infect us as we wish upon the stars. Tomorow will be better than today even if the WiFi is not working to tell us so.  Graham Platner soundly raced on to victory with a margin that set the corporatists mouths agape as they tremble at the thought of Bernie's 5% billionaires' tax going to the rest of us so we can afford to attend cage matches at absurd places and steamed peas in a lightly salted cannola oil high in healthy omega3 when we air travel - you know like the good people do. Janet Mills who was only polling at 10% got 19% despite suspending her campaign, a nice thank you to the Governor who helped shape Maine into the relative...

  - Janet Mills Bluesky 'Under Governor Mills leadership, Maine's uninsured rate dropped the fastest of any state in 2021 and in the last few years has been lower than ever.' http://www.maine.gov/governor/mills/issues/health-care Governor Mills gave Maine the lowest poverty rate in the nation. 'Maine’s 2022-24 average supplemental rate was 6.7%, the nation’s lowest. The comparable U.S. rate was 12.7%.' https://www.pressherald.com/?p=7651784 'At 14, Gov. Mills had a steel rod inserted into her back due to her scoliosis, leaving her immobile for nine months. She’s also openly discussed surviving an abusive relationship, serving as a mom while district attorney, and losing her husband of 29 years following a stroke.' - Democratic Governors' Alliance https://democraticgovernors.org/updates/icymi-op-ed-praises-gov-janet-mills-grit-and-accomplishments/ 'Mills briefly attended Colby College before moving to San Francisco,[5] where she worked as a nursing a...

  Page 2 'By Ella Fitzgerald’s 18th birthday on April 25th, 1935, drummer/bandleader Chick Webb had already given the teenage singer a life-changing gift. She’d been scraping by on her own in Harlem, even after winning first prize at the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Contest in November 1934. A few months later, Webb was finally convinced to listen to her sing, urged on by a couple of his sidemen. In early March 1935, Webb gave Ella her first “live” tryout with his band, playing for a fraternity dance at Yale University. A couple of weeks later, he hired her after a longer tryout at his orchestra’s home base, the Savoy Ballroom.' https://www.wbgo.org/music/2023-04-25/ella-fitzgeralds-auspicious-debut-on-the-national-jazz-scene-with-drummer-bandleader-chick-webb - Keith @ Bluesky Personally, I know I did write the lyrics to those songs because I know what color 'violent green' is. I became intrigued by a Rolling Stone Magazine story about Dan Rather being assaulted by two peo...