Smith wrong on Iran
Contrary to Republican 1st Congressional District candidate Ande Smith’s claim during a June 1 debate on MPBN, the Obama administration didn’t “channel billions” of dollars to Iran. After complying with their preliminary obligations under the nuclear agreement — permanently disabling their nuclear reactor in Arak and mothballing thousands of centrifuges, among others — Iran had billions of their own money frozen in foreign banks because of sanctions over their nuclear activities released.
As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton was instrumental in setting up the sanctions regime that forced Iran to compromise on its nuclear program, leading to the nuclear deal. And if there were any question as to the benefit of the deal, consider that Gadi Eizenkot, the military leader of the Israeli Defense Forces, has said that the Iran nuclear deal removed an existential threat to Israel by reducing the threat of nuclear armament in the nation.
Neither does Smith have his priorities straight regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearing, uninvited by the president, before Congress. Netanyahu speaking before Congress was direct interference by a foreign official in the foreign affairs of the United States, an arrogant breach of protocol and blatant disrespect to President Barack Obama by Netanyahu and then Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner.
Netanyahu spoke before Congress attempting to influence its members against the nuclear agreement his own lead military official endorsed. Rep. Chellie Pingree was absolutely correct to ignore this breach of respect and shameless political move by Boehner, the GOP and Netanyahu. Smith has his priorities confused.
Stephen Demetriou
South Portland
Fiberight proposal questionable
A Feb. 23 BDN OpEd by Greg Lounder, president of the Municipal Review Committee, begs comment. It focused on the $84 PERC tipping fee and predicted that will have to go up. Perhaps, but what about the $70 fee touted by the MRC? Fiberight is to employ a highly questioned process to produce biogas.
There is no production model from which to derive expected costs nor marketing model to point to expected income. Some suspect the $70 is out there simply to look good against $84.
What’s more troubling involves a comment made by another MRC board member at a recent forum in Blue Hill. A resident asked if Fiberight would adversely be affected by moves to divert organics from the waste stream. It is this organic material that feeds Fiberight’s process.
The board member tacitly affirmed that would be true but dismissed the notion. She explained that it is not an issue because there have been attempts to develop the process to compost organics — but without success.
The truth is, composting organics is not rocket science. It’s been done for decades. Recent news articles detail how it is a rapidly growing industry nationwide, with several companies in Maine involved and with many towns eyeing it as an answer to disposal of a major portion of the municipal waste stream. Several cities on the West Coast have actually mandated it.
In order to stay in business, Fiberight will need to stymie efforts to expand composting, which is not good.
Dale Sprinkle
Surry
Trump crossed the line
Presidential candidate Donald Trump has not only crossed the line of acceptable political discourse, he obliterated it when he suggested during a phone-in interview on “Fox and Friends” that President Barack Obama may have been complicit in the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida.
“We’re led by a man who is very — look, we’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind,” Trump said. “He doesn’t get it or he gets it better than anybody understands. It’s one or the other, and either one is unacceptable.”
As Atlantic magazine correspondent James Fallows noted, “I am not aware of any modern precedent of a major-party nominee publicly accusing an opponent, let alone a sitting president, of treason.”
Trump has passed from amusing to outright dangerous. Pay attention, America.
Kent Price
Orland
Time to fully fund clean elections
Because of years of lawmakers raiding Maine’s Clean Election Fund for other purposes, the fund could run dry in the 2016 or 2018 election.
Fortunately, there’s an easy solution. Legislators must return the most recently borrowed money — $1.7 million to the Clean Election Fund.
Since 2003, lawmakers have transferred more than $9 million out of the Clean Election Fund for use elsewhere in the state budget. It’s time to return that money to ensure the program that voters overwhelmingly support is solvent.
For the Clean Election Fund to run out of money in this or a future election cycle would be an insult to Maine people, especially after they just overwhelmingly reaffirmed their mandate on Maine’s first-in-the-nation Clean Election Act.
It’s time that lawmakers end the IOU’s and fully fund Maine’s Clean Election Fund.
John Albertini
Charleston
Safety not guaranteed for LGBTQ
On Sunday, our country awoke to news of yet another mass shooting. As I prepared to gather with my community in mourning, I was called to put words to a nagging feeling: Straight, cisgender, white Americans awoke to a tragedy that defies description, but, unlike me and my queer siblings, they likely awoke to a feeling of safety.
LGBTQ+ people live with the awareness that safety is not guaranteed. We walk the streets knowing harassment and violence could come at any moment. Trans folks and queer people of color know this threat even more intimately than others. Let us not forget that Sunday’s shooting took place on Latin night at Pulse.
I recently worked a pride event where I spent hours trying to negotiate with a man who sat across from our children’s area spewing homophobic and transphobic slurs. This was not the first time I’ve endured horrifying oral abuse on the job. When he held up a metal pipe and pointed it toward me, mimicking a machine gun, I thought to myself: Am I safe? The answer was no.
As a community, we must grieve those who have lost their lives to the hatred that spurred this attack. We must hold in our hearts every queer person who wonders how they will face the world in the morning. We mustn’t let hateful voices turn us against other marginalized people. We must love one another. We must survive.
Maggie Campbell
Bangor