Blog Posts
I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around Musk’s attack on the civil service, efforts he claims he makes to rid the government of waste, fraud, corruption and an evil deep state of unelected bureaucrats. He seems to think civil servants have been spontaneously generated in their offices to interfere with the workings of democracy, like a virus or parasite.
The truth is that civil servants are the people whom we have hired to work for us to accomplish goals and services that Congress has legislated across many administrations. Many have devoted decades to serving us in jobs that we, through our representatives, created.
It’s so telling in President Trump’s executive orders and Musk’s actions what their values are. The utter disregard, hostility and contempt they have to civil servants is stunning. These are the people we’ve hired to do the work that Congress over many different administrations has mandated. Have they taken time to hear what that work is, who the workers are - many of whom have devoted much of their working lives to the work Congress has legislated? No, just dispose of them like so much trash – the people that we hired to do our work.
Dear Senator King,
How dare they talk about these thousands of workers who make government function as trash, evil doers, as inefficient and lazy. Trump always projects out onto others his sins. I watch as programs that I care about and know tiny pieces of are closed down. USAID, the CFPB, the FBI and DOJ. Staff who, in many instances, have dedicated many years of their lives to do the work requested of them, are now flung aside, disposable to the whims of billionaires.
I've never seen officials as callous, cruel, disrespectful, and wrong as those at the helm now. They seem intent on the demolition of our institutions and, already controlling vast amounts of wealth, intent on cementing their power over Congress' and civil society.
Dear Senator Collins,
So many issues...but let's just focus on the CFPB for a moment, the agency Musk has wanted to delete, the one that you voted to establish but have also expressed concerns about.
It’s a really a David and Goliath story. The U.S. financial industry controls 22.3 trillion dollars (2022 figures) in assets and puts huge investments into lobbying Congress and the president, developing new “products’, and squelching resistance through fine print agreements and forced mediation. After the financial collapse of 2007-2008, millions of Americans lost their homes. Let me say that again, millions of Americans lost their homes.
The government gave multi-billion dollar bailouts to some of the largest financial institutions. Consumer advocates pushed for some relief for homeowners with some minor success but were able to push Congress and the President to create the CFPB to protect consumers going forward and to impose stricter regulation on the finance industry.
The CFPB has been remarkably effective in protecting consumers from fraud and unfair lending practices, returning more than $21 billion to consumers since its founding in late 2010. Follow the money in both directions. Consumers have been protected from fraud on so many level. Banks have been forced to comply with fair lending practices. Just look at the lobbying and political contributions of the financial industry to Congress and you’ll see how effective the CFPB has been.
Dear Senator Collins,
I don't see on your website info on your speaking out about the likely illegal attacks on programs and agencies that Congress authorized by Musk and the Trump administration. We need your voice. I listened to Angus King's remarks on the Senate floor before the vote on Vought's confirmation. I was gob-smacked that it didn't move a single Republican to vote against him. Nor you.
Thank you, Senator King, for your vote against Vought and for you brave, eloquent, and accurate speech on the Senate floor. Where is our other Maine senator in this fight?
It's hard to keep up with the pace of chaos - I remember a high school principal telling me once about a mill near him growing up, how it took years to design and build it but only seconds to destroy it.
I'm hoping that you'll bring the CFPB to the spotlight - it's one of the unheralded success stories, in my view, of government regulation. Tens of billions of dollars have been returned to defrauded individuals and banks overseen to prevent the worst abuses. Also, it's not funded by income taxes. I know that it's been on the radar of finance and industry since its inception and has bravely, steadily worked to keep to its mission. Please help efforts to prevent Musk from "deleting" it. I see his minions got access yesterday and notice their homepage content is gone.
So many issues. You can't be getting much sleep. I'm certainly not.
Thanks again.
A dear friend in Portland helped found a medical sister city project, Konbit Sante, between Portand, Maine and Cap-Haitien, Haiti in 2000, where they have helped build and expand medical care to this area of a quarter million Haitians on the northern coast. It's been an incredibly difficult but successful venture and has been vital to both Haitian and Maine citizens as well as a sign of hope for the world. The recent, possibly illegal shut down of USAID has caused one of Konbit Sante's programs - the only one funded by US government funds - to close. It was a program that offered maternal, infant and child health care. According to Konbit Sante,
As a direct result of this mandated stoppage:
Thousands of children will no longer receive essential vaccinations and vitamins.
Community health workers will no longer run family planning clinics, educate women about their pregnancies, or monitor the conditions of expectant mothers and infants.
Thirty workers in all, including community health workers, nurses, lab technicians, and support staff, are no longer working at Fort Saint Michel.
My thanks to the Senators who are holding the senate floor in filibuster to slow the confirmation process of Trump's nominees. So much conflict of interest, so dangerous a time, so blatant the attempts of the administration to illegally dismantle the agencies and programs that you, Congress, have enacted. I beg you to vote against Vought's confirmation and to find the courage to join the filibuster and start thinking of how to disrupt the dangerous excesses Trump and Musk are trying to get away with. And please work to get Musk out of our business - he has no right to be in the our Treasury, stealing our data, shuttering agencies, firing employees, offering deals.
Dear Senator Collins,
A fork in the road...It seems so indeed. A non-elected, non-confirmed billionaire seems to be in charge of ending programs that Congress enacted, laying off and firing federal workers, stopping government funding.
What was your job again?
I so fear that our president, twice impeached, felony convicted, provocateur of the January 6th attacks - a man unable to abide by the laws and norms of our country - is now making every effort to seize congress's power and finish consolidating his control over the Supreme Court. There aren't many guardrails left, are there? In spite of the fact that so many of your colleagues loathe the man and his relentless bullying and divisive words and actions, despite many of them having been in the Capitol on the day of his attempted insurrection - fearing for their lives - they seem, from this distance, to have become obsequious court fools to the man, fearful (not without reason, I grant) and enabling.
But again, What is your job?
Dear Senator,
I am grateful that you voted against Pete Hegseth's nomination for Secretary of Defense. It is sad that the President would pick someone whose only real competence for the position was his fealty to the President, not his abilities, history or experience. It is a dangerous time when the main qualification for positions seems to be loyalty to the man not the country. I only hope that you will work tirelessly to convince two more of your colleagues to join you in voting against Hegseth's approval when it comes to floor for a final vote.
Dear Representative Golden,
How terribly disappointing that you voted to enact the Laken Riley Act which accelerates the process of stripping due process from residents. You co-sponsor a bill to make sure that silencers canbe used by gun owners, citing among other reasons the confusion of the ban, the overreach. My God, the Laken Riley Act is a terrible overreach, allowing for indefinite detention of folks accused of a crime, any crime no matter how minor, convicted or not. To quote Paul Simon "Sorrow is everywhere you turn -- And that's worth some money, think about it, that's worth some money." What a boon for the private prison industry, what a nightmare for civil rights and due process, what a merciless and cruel act.
The murder of Laken Riley was a terrible act of violence but the Act will not prevent violence but will continue to accelerate people's fears, people's divisions. We need real solutions to immigration reform but not the demonization of those seeking shelter, safety, asylum in a world gone mad with violence and vengeance. You must do better than this, Representative. The Laken Riley Act is a complete red herring bill and does nothing to solve real problems.
Dear Senator Collins,
Who would have thunk it, another four year term with Donald Trump at the helm. And, as before, though he is uniquely unqualified to lead any government, being completely absorbed with his own interests and power, he has the singular gift of of being a substantial mob head, a real "Don", able to intimidate those around him into submission, whether through election "primarying", to tweeted threats against critics, their families, their freedom or by aggregating government control and using it against those against him or even just those who remain neutral. And my, isn't it breath-taking to see senator after senator succumb to these threats, embrace his unqualified, dangerous cabinet picks, crawl to Mar-a-Lago to curry favor - all in the good company of tech tycoons, oil executives and more.
I know you remember only too well the chaos, greed and narcisism of Trump's first four years. Being a team player, you tried to ask hard questions and occasionally would speak out, but were often so willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the man - in spite of his long track record of misogyny, moral and financial bankruptcy, pathological lying, vindictiveness, extortion and chicanery. Eventually, after January 6th, you, too, recoiled and voted to bring him to task, though you, alas, were unsuccesful in that attempt.
Dear Senator King,
You’ve been a steadfast supporter of Israel and have spoken out strongly on Israel’s right to defend itself after the horrendous attacks of October 7.
Israel is the military superpower in the Middle East, but has always been in a precarious and difficult situation with its neighbors. As one Israeli statesman said, “we jumped out of a building on fire and landed on another people.” In it’s attempt to keep its own people safe, Israel has brought increased oppression and fear to its Palestinian neighbors. Not an easy situation for any of the parties.
I know he used this analogy more than once but in April of 2009 Obama remarked "moving the ship of state is a slow process. States are like big tankers, they're not like speedboats. You can't just whip them around and go in a new direction. Instead you've got to slowly move it and then eventually you end up in a very different place." I think the same is true of the economy.
Dear Senator Collins,
In situation after situation, crisis after crisis, opportunity after opportunity, you have let down your constituents in Maine. During President Trump's tenure, you most often went along and enabled him, rarely spoke out against constitutional outrages beyond "I think he's learned his lesson now." In backing Mitch McConnell's blockage of Merritt Garland during Obama's presidency to voting for Trump's radically conservative justices pushed through by McConnell, you have continued to foster a system that allows minority rule and extreme attacks on civil rights and democracy itself. Except for rather narrow "feel good" legislation and bills that directly bring money into Maine, you have simply been a cog in the wheel. We elect Senators to represent the people but also to use the insight from their position of power to lead, especially through difficult times...
The war in Ukraine is bringing hell on earth, as all wars do - the deaths of so many people, the maiming and killing of children, the terror and fear, the destruction of homes and livelihoods, the millions of refugees fleeing for safety, the damage to soldiers as they engage in war's killing and destruction. The recent trip to Kiev by the three European prime ministers was tremendously moving to me and to the world - their courage, resolve, their solidarity. To publicly announce their planned trip and make it by train as bombs fell in Ukraine was inspiring and must have have given some pause both to the Russian leadership and the soldiers on the field.
I realize that you and other religious leaders are in an unusual position to act as peacemakers in ways that no other folks can. Your public presence in Ukraine, standing with the people against war could bring an abrupt halt to the slaughter and convince parties to negotiate an end to the war. Though there are many wars being waged in our world today, this one is particularly dangerous as it has the potential to escalate into a nuclear war that would threaten humanity’s very existence. In light of the terrible slaughter and the potential apocalyptic outcome, I urge you to go with a contingent of your cardinals, bishops and priests to Ukraine, to make a public pilgrimage to vigil, fast and pray for peace, to stay until peace is re-established. Please invite Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, to join you with some of his clergy, and invite leaders of other religions to join you as well. You could travel by rail bringing humanitarian assistance to areas currently cut off from such critical supplies and bring the light of Love and Peace to these besieged areas, visiting the Russian soldiers as well...
Humanity has been sorely tested these past two years with the Covid pandemic. As the lethal virus spread quickly from China to the West and deaths started to mount, the medical and scientific communities, working with governments around the world scrambled to sort out what could be done to limit the virus's damage. Uncertainty abounded – the source of the virus was unclear, treatments not yet proven, different nations took different precautions, the scientific community strove for unity but without enough knowledge of the virus yet to achieve it, many missteps and corrections were made along the way as history with the virus accrued – often adding to a sense of chaos and uncertainty. In the US and other countries, narratives often devolved along political lines, with significant and growing mistrust between factions, as governments strove to implement safety plans. There were hopeful moments, as well, with people recognizing and honoring front line workers who faced increased risks, and with governments, at least in the beginning, seeming to recognize that we needed a just and concerted worldwide effort to survive the pandemic and that people deserved the safety net that only communal action and shared resources can bring.
There is sometimes wisdom in waiting to act or speak after horrific events, acts of violence, angry actions or words. However, the long silence held by you and many of your colleagues in the face of the President's constant lies and extremist incitement, his disregard for the constitution and the principles of the his office leave me gasping and nearly speechless as well. The insurrection at the Capitol was just the latest example.
Since the protests following the killing of George Floyd and the plea / insistence that Black Lives Matter, I've noticed a number of placards and road signs in our rural county that announce All Lives Matter or America Matters or Maine Lives Matter.
