Jon Reisman

Several stories came across my laptop as 2022 wanes. They were not much mentioned by the legacy media, or they were spun as overwrought conservative conspiracy theories. 

• Governor Mills seeks to regulate and muzzle the less than obedient press. 

Janet Mills and the Democrats are no fans of the First Amendment. Since her days as Maine’s Attorney General, she has used her power to stigmatize and diminish views she disagreed with. Her efforts to sue, prosecute, persecute and harass climate   change “deniers” and pro-life advocates are clear examples of the authoritarian anti-free speech policies the left has pursued.

In the early days of Covid, she and Dr. Shah gave regular press conferences. Most of the press was deferential and submissive, having voted for and supported her and the leftists she appointed.

Reporters from the MaineWire (Right) and the Maine Beacon (Left) were exceptions. They were branded “advocacy” journalists, and Mills sought to ban them. When that didn’t fly, she had her communications flack petition the Maine Press Association  seeking some sort of licensing/code of ethics scam which would rid her of these troublesome and insufficiently subservient “journalists”. This only came to light from a long delayed Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request. The Maine Press Association demurred, but no mention of the First Amendment can be found in their response. Two, or maybe one and a half, cheers for the MPA.

The MVNO frequently reprints pieces from the Maine Beacon, reflecting the leftist views of the Maine Peoples Alliance. I do not think I have ever seen a reprint from the MaineWire. The Maine Wire does occasionally reprint my columns, reflecting their free-market freedom-loving viewpoint.

The MaineWire has acquired a new editor and attitude in Steve Robinson, a Maine native and millennial Bowdoin alum who has been a brash breath of fresh air and a lefty nightmare. I highly recommend it if you’re tired of the propaganda from Pravda on the Penobscot.

• Western Maine School Board caught trying to cut Parents out of gender “affirming” policies.

The Oxford Hills school board was primed to promulgate woke gender affirmation policies that would have explicitly kept parents in the dark. The policies were being promoted by Out Maine, a taxpayer subsidized non- profit, Portland law firm Drummond- Woodsum, and the Maine Department of Education. 

Citizens in South Paris decided to exert the much revered “local control” and “democracy” and initiated a recall of the two leading woke school board members… and all hell broke loose. Cannot have the peasants and parents interfering with the Maine Education Association, the Maine School Management Association, Education super-lawyers or the LGBTQ+ mafia. The Educrats tried to have the recall ruled illegal and cancelled and the peasants silenced and squashed. So far it has not worked. However, they will persist.

The US Attorney General has indicated that parents protesting in this manner are considered domestic terrorists, and the FBI is clearly functioning as the Democratic Party’s Stasi, so I expect that this will become a federal case in short order.

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Selectman and a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here, or to him directly via email at [email protected].