Impending Theft of Resources From Children In Poverty To Enrich Millionaires Who Own General Dynamics' BIW

Yesterday my husband had a hard day.

Mark found our representative in the Maine Legislature, Bradlee Farrin (R-District 111), and spoke with him about opposing LD1781, a $45 million tax giveaway bill that will likely come to a vote next week.

Photos: Peter Woodruff, retired BIW worker

Mark's been going regularly to Augusta, a 2+ hour round trip, to lobby against corporate welfare for General Dynamics/Bath Iron Works. This week he went twice, once on Tuesday and again on Thursday.

He's been leaving phone messages for Farrin but had not had a return call yet, so he was on the lookout to speak with him in person.

A former legislator now lobbying for outdoor recreation, Jeff McCabe, helped Mark find Farrin in the throngs of school children on field trips and lobbyists in expensive shoes. McCabe pointed Farrin out in the crowd saying, he's the guy with the amazing tan. (Farrin is from the central Maine town of Norridgewock, and represents a district marked by profound poverty.)

My husband waited for Farrin to finish talking to a man he recognized as the lawyer from Preti Flaherty who was always by BIW vice president John Fitzgerald's side in taxation committee work sessions for LD 1781

Farrin told Mark he will vote yes on a tax giveaway for GD/BIW because we "need jobs," and then he began badmouthing waste in schools, and unions driving up the cost of doing business at BIW. Mark told him the biggest union at BIW, S6, had voted not to endorse LD1781. This news appeared to alarm Farrin who quickly consulted his phone. Then he told Mark that S6 hasn't endorsed yet because they are waiting for further negotiations.

Photo: Portland Press Herald

Preti Flaherty is a lobbying firm that bills many, many hours working for corporations like General Dynamics. As GD/BIW survives on Pentagon contracts that our federal taxes fund and that have the costs of doing business (and paying state and local taxes) built in, you could say that the Preti Flaherty lawyer arguing for corporate welfare for his client is paid by me and thee.

The 43,000 children living in poverty don't have Preti Flaherty lawyers on their side for the simple reason that they cannot afford them.

Ditto the 20,000 of them living in deep poverty, many of whom reside in inadequate housing in Farrin's district.

Advocacy organizations like Maine Equal Justice Partners that track and address childhood poverty must compete with lobbyists who can offer inducements like trips and big campaign contributions. (The $$ is often laundered through PACs that make their origins hard to trace.)

Mark came home yesterday from Augusta angry and discouraged.

He's afraid the bill will pass in a floor vote likely to come next week. 

Despite hunger strikes, hundreds of letters to editors, and constituent contacts that Senator "Brownie" Carson of Brunswick (a town adjacent to Bath) told one of our band of citizen lobbyists exceeded any other issue he's ever heard from voters about.

Mark was angry about the impending theft of resources from the poor children of our state in favor of the millionaires and billionaires who own and operate General Dynamics and BIW.

He was discouraged because its hard for him to spend the day surrounded by slick lobbyists on expense accounts telling lies and offering bribes in what should be the government of, by and for the people of Maine.

My husband is idealistic. He believes the roughly 30% income tax rate that he and I pay should go to fix the roads, fund education, house and feed needy children. It makes him feel slightly sick to spend the day among cynical opportunists. He cherishes his beloved community of citizen lobbyists who have returned again and again to speak up for those without the resources to be there themselves.

I'm idealistic, too. But I'm uplifted by his report that every time he goes to the State House there are class field trips ranging in age from elementary to high school. Those children read the signs our side is holding even if their teachers won't let them take the informative flyers that Mark is handing out. 

Photo: Peter Woodruff

I tell Mark, the children see their teachers censoring your message. That makes your information more appealing to many teens and tweens who witness the fact that the adults seem scared to let them find out more about why you're against General Dynamics.

Of course my mood is probably better because I get to spend the day with little kids while Mark is in Augusta. It's a dirty rotten job for my sweetheart, but somebody's got to do it.

The Progressive Caucus meets next week to hear from Democratic "leadership" as they try to justify opposing the Republican tax bill benefiting the 1% while endorsing corporate welfare for, um, the 1%.

We hope for a big turnout at the State House on Tuesday, March 27 from 9:30am on. If you can't make it, you can use this tool to send legislators an email: NO corporate welfare for General Dynamics!

Culture Of Violence Built By The Best Government Money Can Buy

Law enforcement is swarming over the schools in my pokey little state as gun threats are made daily and hourly by disturbed youths with access to photos of assault rifles, if not actual assualt rifles.

My taxes pay for the government branch that created the PR tweet shown above.

"A young boy, Ali, is cradled by his mother in the hospital where he was taken after he was injured by a U.S. cluster bomblet. He had shrapnel lodged in his brain and his doctors said he was not expected to survive." (Photo and caption by James Rupert)

Forty-three thousand children in my state are growing up in poverty while our legislature is about to give a $60 million tax break to General Dynamics, which builds warships capable of carrying nuclear missiles.

Can you connect any of these dots?

Second graders at the school where I teach are worried about school shootings. One was kept home by her parents after a nearby larger school district shut down for the day due to online threats with AK-47 images saying "you're all dead" on a certain date. Three students at that high school were arrested following a second threat that same week. (The fact that the person posting knew how to spell "you're" correctly probably narrowed the field of suspects quite a bit.)

Another second grader made plans to run from the school to her babysitter's house nearby, identifying the door she would use and the friend she would take with her.

Another second grader alarmed our school's custodian by dropping a toy rifle cartridge in the hall and leaving it behind rather than taking it home as instructed. His teacher threw the cartridge away and notified his parents.

Our school leadership team spent half an hour talking about how our district's high school had also received a threat that day. Administrators sent out alarming, somewhat garbled phone messages to staff and parents advising the school was on "lock out" meaning classes continued but no one was allowed to enter the building except district staff.

We also talked about the problem at our elementary school of students wishing to be helpful by letting adults in who are waiting outside to be buzzed in (our school secretary is very busy). Since we are studying Positive Action, students look for ways to be kind and cooperative. A dad who was let in by a fifth grader told her: "You shouldn't have let me in."

Another, much more affluent high school in my state has students that are riled up and organized. Their amazing spokesperson Pearl Benjamin gave this speech in the state capitol yesterday, as reported by the facebook group Suit Up Maine.

Image: Michele Stapleton

Suit Up Maine

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#ENOUGH #NeverAgain #ThrowThemOut#MEPolitics #2020voters

We're proud to share the complete remarks from Camden Hills Regional High School student Pearl Benjamin, made today at the gun reform advocacy day at the Maine State House, organized by the Maine Gun Safety Coalition. Our future is in good hands.

My name is Pearl Benjamin. I am 16 years old and I attend Camden Hills Regional High School. My friends and I have grown up as part of a generation with a different set of norms from most of yours. When my parents were teenagers, the norms were cassette tapes, cigarettes, and boom boxes. In my generation, what’s normal are smartphones, Netflix, SnapChat...and mass shootings.

Every year more than 2,500 kids are killed with guns in America. That’s seven of us every single day. This is our “normal”.

How did this come to be? Why do my classmates and I now expect regular “lockdown” drills to prepare for the threat of an armed peer? Why have we been burdened with anxiety at our schools, afraid that ours might be the next to fall victim to an angry guy with a gun?

The answer is simple: our safety is not a top priority for you. Legislators favor political power over our lives- accepting campaign contributions from the NRA, prioritizing industry profits over safety, and indulging the whims of Call of Duty voters who *have to have* their deadly toys. Here in Maine, 18-year-olds can purchase assault-style weapons. No permit is required to purchase a gun, and background checks are not required for private sales. That means violent criminals, people who are dangerously mentally ill, and boyfriends who hit their girlfriends can all buy weapons.

Legislators: and I’m speaking to all of you--Republican, Democrat, and Independent; Liberal, Conservative, and in between --you have not done enough to protect me and my peers from the terrifyingly real dangers of gun violence. I know that because I know kids who have guns. I know how easy it is for just about anyone to purchase a weapon that can kill me in an instant. Legislators, you have not done your part to create a system that puts as much space as possible between kids and assault weapons designed with one purpose and one purpose only: to kill.

I don’t feel like it should be the job of teenagers to teach adults about right and wrong. My friends and I didn’t come here today to try to convince you that our lives are more important than your job, the gun industry, or the hobbies of weekend warriors. We’ve already tried that, and you didn’t listen. Today we are here to warn you. We are here to tell you that your time for valuing your own benefit over the lives of others is running out. Because of my generation, your position of power is no longer set in stone.

This movement launched by American teenagers is as formidable as it looks. We are passionate. We are informed. We are unphased. Some of you still don’t quite understand where all these intelligent, outspoken kids came from (we must be actors). Actually, kids like me have been saying things like this for a very long time. In cities all over this country, kids like me have been yelling about innocent brown kids in hoodies being killed by those so-called “good guys with guns.” We have been here, making the same arguments and calling for the same reform for years. And you have ignored us. You are ignoring us now. I think I know why. It’s because we are too young to vote, and too easy to dismiss. Lawmakers don’t feel threatened by us. After all, we’re just lazy, screen-obsessed teenagers, right? Who cares about our complaints.

If you’d been listening, you’d have learned something about the teenagers around you. The teens that came with me today are impassioned students who also work multiple jobs, teach kids in after-school programs, and own their own small businesses. You know what else they do? They attend select board meetings, write newspaper articles, submit public testimony, and call their members of congress. We are productive citizens dedicated to making the world a better place- a place where kids like us feel safe and happy in our towns, our schools, and our homes. A place where Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School can claim its place in history as the site of America’s LAST school shooting.

Legislators, it’s time to pass common sense gun laws. It’s time for universal background checks. It’s time to ban high capacity magazines. It’s time to raise the minimum age for gun sales to 21. It’s time to ban assault-style weapons. And it’s time to dismantle the manipulative NRA.

Take action while you still can, because if you don’t fit into this new world we are creating, believe me, we will vote you out.

I love her optimism and I admire her enthusiasm. But unfortunately I do not agree that voting will solve our addition to violence, state-sanctioned or otherwise. Part of the reason I don't is that I'm quite a bit older than Ms. Benjamin and I have seen how the system neutralizes those who are elected to public office.

I also call B.S. on hoping that the legislature -- even in a pokey little state like ours -- is significantly different from Congress. Here's how one Maine legislator who is not affiliated with either of the corporate parties explained the process in an email that was shared with me last night:

I think it useful to understand why the major party statehouse leadership is inclined toward supporting corporate welfare.  The leaders purchase loyalty from their caucus members through funds laundered by the leadership-PAC process, funds that mostly originate with "the lobby" which are primarily corporations.  Those members who are most loyal (and can be 'trusted' to follow instructions) become committee chairs, so it is not surprising that they are generally weak personalities.  (Remember that half of the 15 Democrats who flipped their votes to get rid of ranked choice voting were committee chairs.) 

The most vulnerable statehouse leaders are those who are seeking higher elected office; the others are not accountable to anyone.

Maine lobbyists more than doubled their income last year. So working through the legislature by electing officials is very unlikely to bring about the gun policy reforms Ms. Benjamin is calling for.

However, a massive walkout by high school students across the state might do it. A massive walkout by teachers would almost surely do it -- because no economy can function without the free public babysitting service offered by public schools.

Will teachers do it? Maybe the urban ones will. In my pokey little district teachers won't even discuss contacting their legislators to oppose a bill that would allow people with concealed carry permits to bring their guns onto school property (LD1761, currently tabled in the education committee).

It's my strong suspicion that the recent frenzy about school shootings and rash of copycat threats will mostly result in lots more police and soldiers in our public schools.

That will make people like me resign or retire rather than work in a prison-like settings, and open the way for even more "troops to teachers" to move in. I'm too old to have children in school anymore, but the problem of how to earn a living or afford retirement might even dovetail with the problem of where and how my grandchildren will be educated. Almost all live in cities where high schools already have metal detectors at the door and "school resource officers" aka armed police patrolling the halls.

One of my grandchildren is almost in high school, and plans on attending the school where three teenage boys were led away in handcuffs yesterday for making online threats. The local papers reported that all the electronic devices in their homes were siezed as well. Police are big on doing that to activists also, and the laptops and tablets are seldom returned.

In the wake of school shootings, the paper makes it sound like police confiscating all this expensive gear is prudent. What do you think? Will that save us from the culture of violence that the best government money can buy has built for our children to live in?

REVISED 3/5/18: It now appears that the teen boys who were arrested were framed by their father, who is on the lam. Local sources report the father is estranged from his sons and has stolen their online identities before, in Canada. What a world.

The Best Government Money Can Buy Is Not Very Good

Mark Roman posted this photo to facebook with the comment:
"In the statehouse hall. Asked her if I could hire a lobbyist for my cause.
She told me I would have to pay. Probably $5,000 and up."

My husband went to our state capitol yesterday as a citizen lobbyist opposed to LD1781, the tax giveaway bill for General Dynamics/Bath Iron Works. By citizen lobbyist I mean that Mark was unpaid, funding his own travel expenses, and without the wherewithall to wine and dine legislators. 

He met up with the lady above who was tabling in halls thronged with people whose shoes cost more than many Maine families make in a week.


As reported by Maria Villenueve in the Portland Press Herald last week, Maine lobbyists more than doubled their income in 2017. Among the biggest spenders on lobbying was BIW, whose parent company General Dynamics has deep, deep pockets.

Bruce Gagnon lobbying Taxation Committee co-chair Rep. Ryan Tipping

There were several other citizen lobbyists on hand including Bruce Gagnon on the 16th day of a hunger strike until the bill is defeated or passed. (The bill was tabled yesterday by the Taxation Committee yet again with the explanation that the Maine Revenue Service still didn't understand the amendments BIW wrote to make the bill more palatable.)

Cynthia Howard lobbying Taxation Committee co-chair Sen. Dana Dow

Many of those present have joined Bruce's fast in solidarity; there are 27 people now listed on a calendar that supporter Mary Kate Small is keeping. 

Also, many of those present had been arrested outside BIW protesting at "christenings" of warships -- see here and here for a complete list of those names. John Morris (left in the photo above) is one of many, and Peter Morgan (right) has been a dedicated supporter during the arrests and subsequent trials.

You can read Kevin Miller's coverage of yesterday's lobbying effort in this Portland Press Herald article, "Controversial bill to give BIW tax credits stalls in State House, extending foe's food strike."

To support the resistance to LD1781 you can:

• sign a petition here
• contact your own legislators using this handy tool
• use the list below to contact the Taxation Committee members and the bill's co-sponsors

Dana.Dow@legislature.maine.gov,
Andre.Cushing@legislature.maine.gov,
Ryan.Tipping@legislature.maine.gov,
Justin.Chenette@legislature.maine.gov,
Denise.Tepler@legislature.maine.gov,
Stephen.Stanley@legislature.maine.gov,
Gay.Grant@legislature.maine.gov,
Janice.Cooper@legislature.maine.gov,
Maureen.Terry@legislature.maine.gov,
Gary.Hilliard@legislature.maine.gov,
Matt.Pouliot@legislature.maine.gov,
Bruce.Bickford@legislature.maine.gov,
Jennifer.DeChant@legislature.maine.gov,
Sara.Gideon@legislature.maine.gov,
Senatorjackson1@gmail.com,
Jeffrey.Pierce@legislature.maine.gov,
Eleanor.Espling@legislature.maine.gov,
Michael.Thibodeau@legislature.maine.gov,
Garrett.Mason@legislature.maine.gov,
Eloise.Vitelli@legislature.maine.gov,
Kenneth.Fredette@legislature.maine.gov

Photo credits: Martha Spiess, Peter Woodruff and Mark Roman