Well, it wasn't true in November 2023!
Political scientist, kayaker Emeritus, UMaine Political Sightlines at https://amyfried.substack.com/ Books on how U.S. conservatives weaponized distrust, New England politics, professionalizing polling, and perceptions of public opinion as a resource
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Well, it wasn't true in November 2023!
This is worth sharing far and wide. Federal Employees and contractors oral history project. Im not involved in this. Just got the link, idea seems to be to create a record of the assault on the American Repuvlic after Jan 2025. www.fecohp.org
Susan Collins tripled down on her support for RFK Jr as recently as three days ago. It's disqualifying. tinyurl.com/2s4a4j7t #MEpolitics
Brandywine
senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, former chief economist to Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) & director of budget and spending policy for Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign👇🏽
WELKER: Do you have 100% confidence in Secretary Kennedy? LANKFORD: I believe he's who the president picked. He's challenging some of the assumption - what is it about autism? He seems to be following the science WELKER: The science has debunked links between autism & vaccines for more than 20 yrs
I condemn the Trump administration but that doesn’t make me anti-American. That’s how most people think of Bibi’s administration and Israel.
If you’re defining “Zionist” to mean you don’t think Israel should be destroyed, of course Israelis are Zionists (as are most Americans).
She’s interested in being governor.
I’m sure Hannah Pingree understands that the House minority has no power to start an impeachment.
This whole thread is just appalling. The hearing arises from the Trump admin conspiring with a foreign country to violate a federal court order in the middle of the night so it can deny due process to children who escaped dangerous circumstances.
Whether or not these people are actual foreign agents is almost irrelevant. Their actions are observationally equivalent to & indistinguishable from the actions actual foreign agents would be taking. The consequences of our total Article I constitutional crisis, right here:
If they go on, Trump tariffs will harm workers all over the world and spark political instability.
I’m excited to support Matt Dunlap, who, per word on the street, is quite likely to challenge Jared Golden.
Not really. The states run elections.
Point taken.
What do you mean, specifically?
Yeah, that disdain for Hillary Clinton was appalling and frequently misogynistic, and was stoked by Bernie bros. It got us today’s far right MAGA Supreme Court and enormous harm to people and our planet.
Looks great! I used to teach an APD senior seminar sometimes.
Should be a “kind of long” driveway.
Susan Collins voted for the VA Administrator. #mepolitics
You can feel that way and not vote for someone or who they back. In 2020, he got less than one in three votes in the Democratic primary in Maine. (Because it was a crowded field, that was good enough to come in second.) He’s endorsed Troy Jackson for gov and Troy is currently third in the polls.
They’re doing all this to prevent people from MEMORIALIZING A MASS SHOOTING
Bernie’s endorsement doesn’t seem to have helped Troy Jackson. Why would it help Platner?
Caucuses are wildly unrepresentative and undemocratic.
I’d also note that Bernie’s endorsement of Troy Jackson doesn’t appear to have helped Jackson’s campaign. Endorsements typically have little impact, so that’s not surprising.
This “explicit” is a weird editorial choice. The constitution gives the president no power over this at all. It’s not ambiguous.
Platner might do great in the primary but I’d ask you to think about what sort of candidates win statewide Democratic primaries and general elections in Maine. Are they full throated progressives?
Obviously unconstitutional. Not going anywhere.
Caucuses are wildly unrepresentative and undemocratic. And in the 2020 ME Dem primary, Bernie got less than one in three votes.
www.google.com/search?clien...
You do. What do polls show? By the way, I live in Maine.
Susan Collins called the Bangor police when two twenty something women wrote in chalk on her sidewalk, beseeching her to protect reproductive rights. Then she and her husband moved to a house in a somewhat rural area with a kind driveway from the road and no sidewalk.
I went to work on my lecture over some ramen and the server asked if I worked in healthcare, because she’s a cancer bioinformatician who can’t find a job and is in now in tenuous visa territory. I’m so sad and angry about this country, and it keeps hitting me at the moments I don’t expect it
ICE detain man who is legally in U.S.—son of a decorated military veteran. "As a granddaughter of a Master Sergeant veteran," she said. "I never believed my home would be at risk in the country my family fought for." He is living in U.S. legally—and has never commit a crime. Dallas, Texas.
Absolutely but that’s not always clear.
Sanders endorsed Troy Jackson for the gubernatorial primary and Jackson is firmly in third place in the polls. He is not a kingmaker.
And I’ll be voting for the primary challenger to my Democratic congressman.
This is an impressive start to Platner’s campaign. The volunteers are key. Time will tell how broad is his appeal. #mepolitics
The @status.news newsletter looks into the current president's "visible bruises" and asks: Why are the country’s biggest newsrooms silent? www.status.news/p/trump-heal... [paywall likely]
I mean Bernie.
If we are going to prevail against them, we need as large an opposition tent as we can get. We need disciplined counter-mobilization. That means protests where SJP doesn't get on stage and tell people that if they don't support the destruction of the state of Israel, then they need to go home.
But how popular is he in Maine?
Remember when Republicans claimed government was too big and too intrusive and threatened liberty?
This was transparent about RFK Jr from day zero. Millions of dopes think “well, that logic is brutal but effective,” when it’s brutal and INeffective. Letting diseases rip through the population—especially when it’s DOZENS of diseases all at once—doesn’t leave a strong and healthy population behind.
Trump update: White House pool reporters snapped a photo of the president this morning as he heads to play golf
Just saw a video of Bill Maher calling Mamdani a “straight up communist” and I continue to be struck by the depiction of policies associated with the New Deal Order as far-left extremism, which goes along with a refusal to depict Trump’s unprecedented authoritarian actions as far-right extremism.
You’d expect Trump to be out golfing if he’s reasonably healthy.
www.politico.com/news/2025/08... #ProudBlue If this survives SCOTUS Trump will demand Mike Johnson reinstate the tariffs in Congress. Johnson will do it putting all House Republicans on record supporting higher prices and massive unemployment. That should be final nail in their coffin in 2026
I hope people realize how absolutely fucked this situation is. This isn’t normal. People are resigning all over the place because the government is mishandling our data, ruining our public health services, and generally making Americans less safe.
Every time your electricity bill goes up for the next 10 years, it can be traced back to this Administration’s actions. They are making solar and wind power illegal to build in the United States. They are artificially restricting supply while demand is going up.
don't sleep on what's happening in prosecutor races!
It is less a mass deportation regime as it is a mass kidnapping and indefinite detention regime
Art depicting “Sandwich Guy” now at the scene of the alleged misdemeanor.
Go Matt Dunlap!!
Whoa.
There it is. She will never admit she might have screwed up bigtime. #MePolitics
Dr. Dmitri Daskalakis, who resigned from the CDC says that RFKJr said he believes that Avian flu should be allowed to "burn through" the chickens and then children and others, so we can propagate a "stronger species". RFKJr believes in eugenics. RFKJr needs to resign or be fired.
Something blue states will need to explore: how to create cross-state compacts dedicated to a functioning government as the Trump administration walks away from it's responsibilities.
I kind of think Jared Golden (who has a likely primary challenger) and his Republican opponent Paul LePage are going to regret their full-throated support for tariffs. #mepolitics
New impeachment charge dropped.
Cook’s brief is not the place to adjudicate claims against her! There has to be a process, with evidence and arguments.
RFK Jr's CDC purge is just the latest chapter in his war on public health. Contrary to his lies, vaccines don't cause autism. Failure to vaccinate will cause deaths. www.autismpolicyblog.com/2025/08/kenn...
More or less universally a country seeking to limit foreigners studying in that country is a sign of a society, culture, great power in severe decline.
Not a single Democrat voted for RFK Jr.
I was wondering when this would come up? I have never in my life seen such vile attempts to revise an event we saw with our own eyes. What we saw was a failed coup, in which a mob attacked the House and the Senate, tried to murder our duly elected representatives, and literally killed cops.
All these cite one source - US Commerce Department “revision” They explain it as a result of “huge investment and production output” plus strong “purchasing power by US consumers” All this doesn’t really make sense given the reality we live in - tariffs (aka tax on consumers), unemployment..
WSJ Page One: @wsj.com www.wsj.com/business/ret...
Like Biden did.
The feds have already taken over the train hub in the District of Columbia. They’re talking about doing this in Boston. Penn and Grand Central stations in NY, then other cities’ hubs could be next. This would allow Trump to control travel. Straight up authoritarianism.
Tough luck for kids with brain cancer, in part to due to Susan Collins voting for RFK Jr. #mepolitics
Must read, from @donmoyn.bsky.social. This is an outstanding summary of the collapse of the pillars of US democratic government. As I told my students this week, the US is a consolidating competitive authoritarian regime now. How long will it endure? open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...
Breaking: BILL CASSIDY is calling for CDC's vaccine advisers meeting to be postponed. "If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership."
What a pathetic set of complaints against Bellows. My family got a new license plate and Real IDs, no problem. And the rest is just being big mad that a state official didn’t salute Trump and the feds. Remember when Republicans said they backed states’ rights? #mepolitics
Got the new license plate and it looks fantastic. Btw, did you read the briefs and other docs on the 14th amendment disqualification clause? Have any knowledge of its historical background and past applications? Actually know the basis of Bellows’ & the SC’s decision? Or just mad cause pro-Trump?
It’s funny to make assertions re: what Mainers think with no evidence. Also it’s not illegal for a state SOS to do things presidents don’t like! Remember states’ rights? Used to be a big Republican thing. AND, just used ME Real ID to fly, no problem. & it’s common for a state SoS to run 4 office.
There is a massive walk out at the CDC by staff unfolding right now. It is NECESSARY. I stand in solidarity with my CDC colleagues. standing up for science and public health. It is a moral imperative.
from the biggest public health association “RFK Jr. must be removed from his position.”
Susan Collins in June as RFK Jr worked to dismantle the country's public health and medical research infrastructure. When Mainers chant, "Shame! Shame! Shame!" at Collins, her vote to confirm this unqualified ghoul is surely near the top of their minds. #MEpolitics
I know nobody really cares about the hypocrisy of this, but as a Jewish Studies PhD at the University of Chicago, some of my best friends and colleagues were Israeli PhD students who would have had to leave the US under this new Trump admin rule. Hurting Israeli students to fight antisemitism.
Susan Collins empowered a death cult, #mepolitics
Wind and solar generated a monthly record high percentage of 26.3% of China's electricity in April 2025. They generated 25.7% in May 2025. W&S gained a big 4.3 points of market share from July 2024 to July 2025. W&S will soon generate 30% plus of China's electricity in multiple months. #energysky
The Trump administration’s incompetence is frequently dangerous.
Authoritarianism watch:
Dying to know what RFK thinks mitochondria are.
Impeachment requires a majority in the House, with removal by 2/3 of the Senate.
According to federal data, 13 of the top 20 cities in homicide rates have Republican governors. None of those cities are Chicago. 8 of the top 10 states in homicide rates are led by Republicans. None of those states are Illinois. And yet Trump is sending troops here.
Thread:
It’s outrageous that Sec. Kennedy is trying to fire the CDC Director — after only a few weeks on the job — for her commitment to public health & vaccines. The Sen. HELP Committee must hold a hearing with Kennedy & the CDC Director as soon as possible. Vaccines save lives. Period.
Some of these top CDC officials being pushed out had bullet holes in their office windows
Senators can’t fire cabinet officials and blame should be directed to Republicans, included Susan Collins, who voted for RFK Jr.
I had serious doubts about CDC Director Monarez’s willingness to stand up against RFK Jr.’s personal mission to destroy public health in America—I’m glad that I was wrong. If there are any adults left in the White House: we cannot let RFK Jr. burn what's left of CDC. FIRE HIM.
if communications between a Senate-confirmed agency head and the Senate are redefined as "leaking," then we are done with Congressional oversight as a check on tyranny
Wow
They're resigning because RFK Jr., who Susan Collins voted for, is dismantling a CDC that has a commitment to science and has promoted conspiracy theories and hate toward scientists. #mepolitics
Update: At least three other high-ranking officials in CDC have also resigned. “I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health,” one of the officials said in a note to staff.
‘Said another CDC employee: “It’s utter chaos.”’ Indeed. Looks like a lot of resignations coming. Remember that these are people who have chosen to spend their careers trying to improve people’s health. For them to take this step things have to be really bad. 🧪 www.statnews.com/2025/08/27/c...
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