Bribe or contribution
Here’s a suggestion for a new law: If a campaign contributor receives a government contract with the assistance of the politician receiving the contribution and the contract is worth more than the contribution, charge the contributor with bribery and the politician with accepting a bribe.
Charlie Cameron
Addison
Feeling the ‘Bern’
Earlier this year, I proclaimed I was neither a Republican nor a Democrat while encouraging U.S. Sen. Angus King to co-sponsor the Grijalva-Ellison-Clark resolution in the Senate. The resolution would bring us one step closer towards providing students of higher education, in the U.S., the ability to attend public institutions of higher education and the chance to earn a degree without the tyranny of student debt.
However, following Bernie Sanders’ outline of a “progressive platform,” I have registered, for the time being, with the Democratic party such that I will be able to cast my vote for Sanders during the primaries, under at least two conditions.
First, if presidential hopeful Sanders continues to refuse money from corporatists — more specifically, continues to refuse support from super PACs — he will maintain my support. Second, Sanders must also clarify his stance on Israel’s horrendous, sadistic and barbaric assault in Gaza, which was initiated one year ago today and lasted for 50 days, killing 2,200 Palestinians — 550 of which were children.
Yet, I am indeed feeling the “Bern,” for now.
Bryer Sousa
Shapleigh
Sanders is no Trump
I have always enjoyed Kathleen Parker’s opinion columns, even when I disagreed with them. Unlike many of her fellow conservatives — and even a few liberals — she has a sense of humor and a “way with words.” But her column in the July 8 Bangor Daily News was a sharp disappointment. In an attempt at “balance,” she equated the presidential candidacy of the self-described socialist senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, with that of the nonelected egotistical billionaire blowhard, Donald Trump.
Like many Republicans, she accuses Sanders of wanting to “redistribute wealth.” There is no evidence for this, unless she thinks restoring the tax rates to what they were during the Reagan administration qualifies.
Moreover, she takes advantage of most Americans’ naivete regarding the word “socialist,” claiming Sanders’ ideas “send shivers up one’s spine.” As a pure philosophy, “socialism” merely means that the economy, or large parts of it such as banks and utilities, ought to be publicly owned and regulated. Nothing more. Honest folks can and will disagree with these ideas, but they hardly are comparable to Trump’s claims that we are being overrun by rapists from Mexico or that the incumbent president of the United States is not an American citizen.
I’m sure Trump is an embarrassment to Parker and most Republicans. The same is not true of Sen. Sanders and the Democrats, as the large crowds he has attracted here in Maine and elsewhere prove.
Lynn Parsons
Castine
Remove LePage from office
In discussing Gov. Paul LePage, we keep throwing around words such as “bully,” “tyrant,” “nuts,” “crazy” and maybe understandably so. However, I feel we are not addressing the real issue of mental instability. This man is not only horribly destructive to the people he is supposed to be serving, but he is equally self-destructive.
How can he possibly think the way he acts will enhance his future? Even the people who supported him are distancing themselves from these mentally unbalanced acts of self destruction. I’m all for outspoken. His actions are not “outspoken.” They are rude and crude and not representative of the state he serves and not even representative of a civilized person.
I have just come to understand that the attorney general can remove him from office for mental incompetence. Little wonder, he wants to appoint the attorney general. The only compassion this man shows is if it is something that has happened to him. All despots are that type of self-absorbed person.
Save us, save him, remove him from office now.
And, as for Good Will-Hinckley, shame on them. Had they had a backbone and exposed the governor’s extortion, such courage would have generated donations from foundations and individuals, which would have made up that money. Spineless.
Aynne Ames
Belfast