Preserving The American Political Philosophy

LePage Years Part One Lepage years Part Two In 2018, Amazon was looking for a location for new headquarters In an  article by Wharton University, Management, it is speculated that Amazon knew all along where their new headquarters would be located: . .. Amazon received 238 proposals by the October 19 deadline from big cities like Boston, Chicago and Atlanta; smaller hip cities like Austin and Portland; gritty, nouveau-hip sites like Detroit and pre-hip Camden, N.J. (where the slogan is “Experience the Rebirth!”): regional bids like ones from Central Indiana or a three-city package in Missouri; and Northeast hopefuls betting on proximity to the corridors of power, like Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C  T he Headquarters Checklist: How do Companies Pick a Location - Wharton University In November 2018, Amazon chose a cit y for its new location - New York, New York. awarding the biggest to the biggest. Is this a surprise? New York has a great energy for ideas and colla

The viability and constitutionality of Maine's centrally managed economy, which I have called Maine State Inc- is perpetually kept out of the political dialogue by politicians and the Maine media alike, but these programs serve the interests of the few at the expense of the many. All of the candidates in the gubernatorial race are co-conspirators in "targeted sector economics". The last accountability on Maine's "economic development" programs was in 2006 which concluded that there was no evidence that these programs create jobs and that they do invite corruption. See Pine Tree Watch Dog article http://pinetreewatchdog.org/tax-break-deals-studied-and-studied-but-questions-remain-unresolved . If Independent candidates emerge taking on the issue of Maine State Inc, all of their opposition will be part of the singular force of the political oligarchy, which has intentionally excluded discussion and awareness of these programs from public dia

This is a link to an article about the federal unconstitutionality of Governor Lepage's internet tax law by Brian Daugherty  describing the way it affects the income of ordinary Maine people. Why Maine’s New Internet Tax is Bad For Business Michelle Anderson from Millinocket, Maine, has been an Amazon affiliate for close to 12 years.  On Thursday she received a letter from the Amazon Associates Program explaining why she will no longer be welcome to participate and why she will be losing over 20% of her yearly income. “ We’re writing from the Amazon Associates Program to notify you that your Associates account will be closed and your Amazon Services LLC Associates Program Operating Agreement will be terminated effective October 6, 2013. This is a direct result of the unconstitutional Maine state tax collection legislation passed by the state legislature and signed by Governor LePage on June 5, 2013, with an effective date of October 9, 2013.” For more th

I have my head in the sand working our redesigning our website- which now comes up three times on the first page of a google search of "ceramic birds" with similar results for other related terms (thanks to my own SEO efforts) . We are getting a lot of phone calls as a result and so the need to get this job completed is all the more important. As long as my energy is focused there, I am not wanting to change that. I feel a bit remis about not attending to this blog but the vise versa is true when my attention is focused here. However- when I recieved an email with this report   from Sam Adolpsen of The Maine Heritage Society about the DHHS deficit in which he advocates cutting welfare and "progressive special interests" . I responded with the following: Dear Mr Adolphsen, Is "Progressive Special Interests" equitable with corporate welfare? How about eliminating the 10% annual investment in the government chartered Small Enterprise Growth Fund, which m

There is another excellent discussion started by John w k on As Maine Goes. This one is about what the United States constitution says about "fair share" and points out that the math is provided for with in the constitution. Here is a quote from the first post by John w k But let our founding fathers speak for themselves with regard to the importance of applying the rule of apportionment: Pinckney addressing the S.C. ratification convention with regard to the rule of apportionment : “With regard to the general government imposing internal taxes upon us, he contended that it was absolutely necessary they should have such a power: requisitions had been in vain tried every year since the ratification of the old Confederation, and not a single state had paid the quota required of her. The general government could not abuse this power, and favor one state and oppress another, as each state was to be taxed only in proportion to its representation.” 4 Elliot‘s, S.C., 305-6

Maine Web News- The Candidates Discuss MPERS Lepage promises to honor promises to state employees pension funds and suggests changing the system for future employees. Lepage says he will have to talk to the legislature, but does not explain why- which is because contractual terms of agreement have been embedded into the Maine State constitution since 1997. For a candidate who is running on a platform that includes respecting the constitution, I find this failure to mention the constitutional mandate which clearly impacts the unfunded liability problem disappointing. Both Kevin Scott and Moody articulate the solution better than LePage, who suggest the same ideas, but not as forcefully. All agree that the problem must be "isolated" to quote Kevin Scott, meaning that future employees must be hired on a different set of terms. Moody addresses the issue of risky investment choices made by the managers of the MPERS fund more forcefully than the others and he brings up a crucial po

Letter submittted to the Boothbay Register May 2, 2010- I am glad to say that this letter is published in the issue coming out on May 05, 2010. This article was also published on The Augusta Insider. When The Augusta Insider "merged" with Pine Tree Politics all articles examinining state capitalism in Maine were no longer available. A Call For a People's Veto. Dear Editor, I recently submitted a letter, which was also sent to Senator Trahan , who did not respond. This letter concerned the use of taxpayer funding by the Small Enterprise Growth Fund and the proposed LD1 and LD1666 . LD 1666 was rejected by the appropriations committee but subsumed into LD1 and then passed unanimously by both the House and the Senate and signed into law by Governor Baldacci. The Maine Chamber of Commerce describes LD1 as “An Act To Stimulate Capital Investment for Innovative Businesses in Maine” . LD1 is marketed by the Small Enterprise Growth Fund with the following words “This program c