by Jonathan Reisman

This week’s “quick hits” column is a consequence of summer-time dreams being interrupted by meteor showers and media powers. I submitted a long-stewing paper on how rural Maine and the Second Congressional District have been well and truly screwed by Maine’s climate, energy, and equity policies. I have my doubts that the paper will be accepted, but completing it amidst a mid-July heat wave (undoubtedly caused by extreme weather, climate change, and Trump) was both cathartic and deeply satisfying.

by Jonathan Reisman

The increasing violence, protests, and division in the country have created a dangerous dynamic whereby policy decisions and events are perceived quite differently across the tribal political spectrum. Division is both a cause and a consequence, and there is often an amplifying feedback loop that increases the division even more. 

by Jonathan Reisman

I have been a widower for 18 months, and it sucks. Grief, tears, sweet memories, and regrets ebb and flow. Forty-plus years after we moved into an unfinished home on Cathance Lake in Cooper, the house and grounds reverberate with memories, equally likely to make me smile or cry. The garden was always a shared passion — I’ve planted and managed it for the last two seasons, but it lacks the careful weeding and farmer’s wisdom and spirit that Ern provided.

by Jonathan Reisman

My maternal grandfather, Abraham Plaut, left me many gifts — a love of baseball, bridge, parody, the English language, and Yiddish idioms. Lately, all of those have been combining into a recurrent thought/meme: Oy vey iz mir, or woe is/to me. The Ashkenazi cultural overlay usually brings the phrase a touch of coping comedic optimism (hand wave/press to forehead) as opposed to depressed despair (chin cup/frown), but recent events have been challenging. 

Oy Vey: 

by Jonathan Reisman

The special “emergency” legislative session has mercifully almost completed its work and mission to advance leftist lunacy and screw over anyone who doesn’t agree, especially in rural Maine. 

by Jonathan Reisman

“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?”-- Rodney King, May 1, 1992, after widespread Los Angeles riots in response to the acquittal of police accused of beating him.

“Defiance”- No Kings.org.

Our deep and widening divisions were on uncomfortable and transparent display in California,

by Jonathan Reisman

As the legislative session winds down, numerous party-line votes highlight our divisions and dysfunction. Given the general thrashing majority Democrats have given Republicans on the budget; spending; the 1st, 2nd, and 14th Amendments; and energy, climate, and equity policy, one might have wondered if a mercy rule should have been imposed. But the beatdown has potential policy and political accountability consequences for the candidates and content of the 2026 elections for the Blaine House, the State House, Congress, and the Senate. 

by Jonathan Reisman

by Jonathan Reisman

Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made. –Attributed, likely apocryphally, to Otto von Bismarck 

Regardless of the source, the verity of the observation was evident in Washington and Augusta last week. Close observance of the sausage-making process is not for those with a weak Constitution, and it does make me wonder occasionally about the wisdom of promoting transparency ... you are likely to see some things that you can't unsee but wish you could.

by Jonathan Reisman