It was political theatre of the surreal, the person who attempted to engineer the destruction of democracy shamelessly taunting the individual who is fighting to defend democracy. A battle royal emerged in the White House last week as two world leaders — President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — had an acerbic fracas […]

If you think that people are disagreeable these days about politics and culture, you can’t imagine how heated people got when I asked for suggestions on what to name my yellow Labrador puppy four years ago. Blame social media. My puppy’s breeders, Mike and Maryanne, named each pup based on its behavior. They called my […]

The idea that Donald Trump is going to shut the post office down is another one of those internet rumors generated by the ignorant to raise the hackles of the ill-informed. It does, however, point to an essential truth: the United States Postal Service is poorly managed, in a state of almost perpetually near-bankruptcy and […]

I didn’t come from a wealthy family but happened to live across the street — oops, road, we were never permitted to call it a “street” — from one very wealthy lady, a memorable woman who had the economic resources to build what she insisted was a white “Connecticut Farm House” breezily overlooking the fact […]

The U.S. is like a nation at war. The federal government is on the attack, deploying the power of the American economy and military to force other nations, states, the media and even citizens to follow the orders of President Trump and his agents. This brutal campaign would reshape the economy and transform the world […]

“With the new Trump Administration, every day feels like Christmas!” Thus sayeth Kari Lake, the bubbly television personality who endeared herself to Trump by boldly repeating the Big Lie that Trump won the 2020 election. Although Lake lost in her bid for an Arizona Senate seat, Trump awarded her steadfast loyalty by picking her to […]

This is what democracy looks like On Saturday, close to 400 people gathered on the Newcastle/Damariscotta bridge to protest the Trump/Musk dismantling of the federal government, the unconstitutional way in which this is being carried out, the attempts to circumvent the rule of law, the impending assault on Medicaid and other programs essential to the […]

“This award is being terminated for the convenience and the interest of the U.S. government,” read the email distributed last week by the State Department. The recipients? Programs that support some of the world’s poorest people. According to The New York Times, the 5,800 affected organizations serve refugees, treat people with tuberculosis and HIV, vaccinate […]