Thank you to supporters who have been donating to our ActBlue fund!
Welcome to all the new members on our mailing list!
Here is today’s newsletter from Indivisible Bangor, followed by the great list of important actions and information from our friends at Mid Maine Indivisible that includes information on the Trump-ordered extra-judicial killings in the Caribbean and Pacific and Mike Johnson STILL keeping the House in recess so Adelita Grijalva can’t be sworn in, preventing her from signing a petition to trigger a vote on legislation that would force the release of federal files on Jeffrey Epstein (PBS).
Also, actions from Hancock Country Democrats. Two new actions are Action 175 – Dictator Chic and Action 178 – Release the Rainy Day fund. Click here for a list of more actions from the HCD, including those concerning ICE, Question 1, and more.
Also, check out the latest from the Bold Coast Civic Alliance (10/27) that discusses protecting our public lands, contacting members of congress, and more.
A lot of research goes into these additional actions, so be sure to read them!
Weekly Vigils
Weekly vigils are happening here in the Bangor area!
First up is the Tuesday Weekly Vigil at the Federal Building in Bangor, followed by the Wednesday Weekly Orono Vigil.
Bangor Visibility Brigade
TOMORROW
We finish the week with our Visibility Brigade on Fridays. Join us on the Essex Street overpass at the new time of 3:00 p.m. as we hold letters to spell out messages for the drivers on I-95! Learn more here. Tell them you read about it here!
WE DID IT!
We defeated the MAGA-backed voter suppression effort, Question 1, and passed Question 2, the “red flag” law. Bangor elected three progressives to the Bangor City Council. Read more election results in the Bangor Daily News Election 2025 coverage. Also, the Question 1 issue garnered national headlines, with articles appearing in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and New York Times!
Nationally, California voters approved Proposition 50, which will allow the state to redistrict in a way to add more Democratic seats to the House in an effort to counter the Trump-led redistricting in Texas and other states. Democratic candidates won the governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia and the mayoral race in New York City. Read more about this backlash against Donald Trump and his policies nationwide in this gift article from the New York Times, “The Backlash Has Arrived: 6 Takeaways From a Good Night for Democrats.”
A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who volunteered to help with campaigns, attended a rally, canvassed, wrote letters to the editor, spoke to their friends and families, phone banked, donated money and food, passed out leaflets, posted flyers, and helped the cause in any other way. IT WORKED-RESOUNDINGLY!
We will keep up this momentum of great work in the coming months!!
Upcoming Events:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Students Rise Up
November 7, TOMORROW
Frontline for Freedom is sponsoring student resistance actions, both nationally and at the University of Maine. The immediate focus is on students “rising up” on Friday 11/7, and then a sequence of events leading up to May Day, 2026. While there are no actions planned in Maine this time around, please keep this on your radar for future events!
Please visit Frontline for Freedom for more information and visit this Action Network site to sign up to get more involved here at the University of Maine with Students Rise Up.
Veterans’ Day Rally
Tuesday, 11/11
Join us next Tuesday, 11/11, to stand with Vets Say No as we collectively refuse to allow growing fascism to be normalized.
Location to be determined, so stay tuned!
Food AND Medicine Annual Solidarity Harvest
November 13-24
Food and Medicine will be holding its annual Solidarity Harvest next month. Please consider volunteering to help them assemble and distribute locally-sourced meal baskets, each with nearly 30 pounds of produce, which is enough food for 8-10 people. The dates for this year are November 13-24. More information, donation, and sign up is here!
Jordan Wood Is Returning to Bangor!
November 13
Democratic Senate Candidate Jordan Wood is coming to meet you. We’ll be at the Bangor Public Library. Come out to meet Jordan, learn why he’s the strongest candidate to defeat Susan Collins, and hear about what his plans as your next Senator: sweeping campaign finance reform, passing the Ultra-Millionaire Wealth Tax, enact universal childcare and addressing the affordability crisis head on.
Thursday, November 13, 6:00pm-7:30 pm. at the Bangor Public Library.
UMaine Fall 2025 Series:
DIVERSITY, EQUALITY, INCLUSION, AND RELATED DEMOCRATIC VALUES AND POLICIES UNDER ATTACK AT UMAINE AND BEYOND
November 20
In 2025, DEI policies at UMaine and beyond are under attack; students, researchers, and others are threatened and live with great fear and uncertainty. This program will explore these current threats and how we can respond, resist, uphold freedom of speech, and create democratic alternatives. Elliot Benjamin has a Ph.D. from the University of Maine and has been deeply committed to Indivisible Maine and Indivisible nationally, especially in 2025. Doug Allen retired after 46 years as a professor of philosophy at UMaine and has served as Coordinator of the Socialist and Marxist Studies Lecture Series since its inception in the mid-1980s.
Please email Elliot Benjamin (ben496@prexar.com) for more information on this discussion and for the Zoom link.
Thursday, 11/20/2025
12:30-1:45 P.M.
Bangor Room, Memorial Union
The University of Maine, Orono
Other News:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Donate to a Food Bank or Pantry
It is important that we continue the good work we did on No Kings Day on 10/18 in other ways!
Please DONATE to a local food pantry- food, personal items, and even cash. Faith Linking in Action maintains a database of all food pantries and free meals– organized by both location and day of the week– in the Bangor area. Check it out here.
Also, ActivateMaine has created a site, SNAP Into Action: “a statewide effort to help those who are affected by the freezing of benefits due to the Government shut down.” If you know of any food drives that are happening, please visit this site to add it to the database!
If you get the paper edition of the Bangor Daily News, the first section of the paper on Friday, October 31, has a list of 260 food pantries.
HEATING ASSISTANCE CUTS
Read about how the shutdown is affecting LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) in this NPR article and how it affecting Maine in this Maine Public Radio article from 10/30. This is in addition to the cuts that are already part of H.R. 1, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” that President Trump and the Republicans passed this summer. Read about that in an article from News Center Maine. Also, in this article from Snap Navigator, dated 7/15/2025.
LEAVING MAGA
Are you someone or do you know someone who wants to leave MAGA? Please visit this site created by a man who was once in MAGA and has since left. Leavingmaga.org
Boycott Spotify
From Ezra and Leah-
Earlier this month, Spotify began running ads to recruit for ICE, making them an active enabler of the hiring spree to build an American secret police force. That’s bad, and if we want there to be consequences for capitulation, we have to be the consequence!
If you’ve joined a weekly “What’s the Plan?” call, you’ve probably heard me and Leah reflect on the lessons from the successful Disney/ABC/Kimmel campaign. The regime bullied, the institution capitulated, the people rebelled, the institution reversed course, and democracy sat up a little straighter the next day.
What worked to influence Disney can work with Spotify! Like Disney, Spotify is a multi-billion dollar corporation that relies on subscriptions. That means we, the paying customers, have real influence.
So on Thursday, Leah and I sent a formal letter to Spotify, pointing out their problematic ads and requesting a meeting. If they do not respond by tomorrow, we’re going to launch a campaign to push them from capitulation to active resistance. Stay tuned for more soon, and come to “What’s the Plan?” on Thursday to discuss next steps.
PANDORA & SIRIUSXM
Note, according to the Huffington Post (10/31) and Rolling Stone (10/15), Pandora is also running ICE recruitment ads. Pandora is a subsidiary of SiriusXM satellite radio. SiriusXM acquired Pandora in 2019 “to form the world’s largest audio entertainment company.”
The Maine ICE Watch Hotline Is LIVE!
The purpose of the hotline is to protect immigrant families by providing accurate, real-time information about ICE and Border Patrol activity and connect Maine families to resources and support services during a time of heightened enforcement and targeting of immigrants and refugees.
The Hotline project has already trained over 100 community volunteers, both as operators to receive calls and verifiers to confirm or refute reported sightings of immigration enforcement activity.
A project of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and the People’s Coalition for Safety & Justice. Volunteers trained across Maine to respond, verify, and connect families to help.
REAL INFORMATION. RAPID RESPONSE.
Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition ICE Watch Resource Hub.
Read more about it here in this Newscenter Maine article.
Verifying ICE and Border Patrol activity in real time.
Bangor City Council and the 287g Agreement
Background on the 287g agreement on the ICE site (including a list of all 1,034 agencies in the country that participate) and a more accurate take from the Immigrants Legal Resource Center. Wells, Maine, has already entered into an agreement and is the only municipality in Maine to do so.
Wednesday night, October 15, the Bangor City Council voted on a resolution. View proceedings here.
Bangor Daily News articles:
Bangor residents frustrated as ‘watered down’ resolve on ICE fails in City Council vote
Bangor City Council to reconsider public comment policy after hateful attacks
Stop the Military Occupation of American Cities!
We cannot allow Donald Trump’s continued use of armed federal agents and the military on American soil to intimidate and terrorize civilians to stand. This cannot be the new norm. The sole purpose of these actions is to intimidate and terrorize the local communities into compliance. Please contact your congressional delegation in Washington to let them know this is unacceptable and un-American. This should not be tolerated in our country!
OBAMACARE Price Hike Info Now Available
Information on premium increases for ACA healthcare plans for a dozen states has been made available, according to a New York Times article “Higher Obamacare Prices Become Public in a Dozen State – Consumers are facing greater costs for their 2026 A.C.A. health coverage as Congress continues to debate whether to extend subsidies that help people afford their premiums.”
From the article, “Based on the newly posted information, a family of four making $130,000 in Maine would face an increase of $16,100 in annual premiums next year.” Such an increase will result in many Mainers simply not having healthcare insurance any longer.
This is what the Democrats in the Senate are fighting against. Please contact your Maine senators and let them know you would like them to vote with the Democrats on the Continuing Resolution to extend the ACA tax credits!
And see Mid Maine Indivisible’s call to action to learn how you can get a letter hand delivered to Senator Angus King!
Angus King
DC: (202) 224-5344
Augusta: (207) 622-8292
Susan Collins
DC: (202) 224-2523
Augusta: (207) 622-8414
Bangor: (207) 945-0417
STOP THE TRUMP SHUTDOWN
What you can do
Republicans shut down the federal government because they insist on taking away healthcare and giving Trump another blank check to fuel his dangerous and illegal power grab. The Indivisible toolkit has everything you need to know about our next steps, including how to hold Republicans accountable, how to help Democrats hold the line, and how to mobilize locally against blank checks for a wannabe king.
Join Indivisible Bangor!
Do you want to become more involved? Would you like to help with the website and communications? How about helping to organize events, such as rallies and overpass actions or be a peacekeeper? Volunteer with Indivisible Bangor! We have had a huge influx of new members these past few months and to keep up, YOUR skills, connections, and input are needed!
Weekly member meetings are on Zoom with in-person meetings on the first Wednesday of the month. Please click the button to sign up and we’ll help you with the process of becoming a member of Indivisible Bangor!
New members, and current members, too, are invited to join one of our monthly Zoom informational meetings!
Make Some Calls!
It’s mentioned a few times in these newsletters about calling your representatives in Washington, D.C. It’s one of the most important things we can do and it’s so easy!
Write Some Emails!
If you are more comfortable with sending emails to our Maine congressional delegation in Washington, click the links/buttons. This is a good option if you have lengthy comments or questions.
We are on Blue Sky, Instagram, and Facebook!
Follow us! Invite your friends! Comment! You’ll be glad you did!
We have an easy way to donate to Indivisible Bangor. Drop off your returnable bottles and cans to Ohio Street Redemption in Bangor and tell them to put it on the account of Dave Cox. They’ll add the money to our kitty, mail out a regular check, and the money goes to our bank account to help with our expenses! You can find them here!
****Be sure the attendant writes down “Indivisible Bangor” because several donations have not been credited. Thank you!****
And you can donate here, too! Donations help pay for supplies, website, outreach, and to fund the many upcoming actions in Maine.
Thank you for all you do! – Indivisible Bangor
And now to the Mid Maine Indivisible morning Call to Action!
Action Thursday November 6th: For the Heart + Start Considering What You Can Do About the Food Emergency
Good Morning Folks, Tuesday proved the power of solidarity – across party lines and ideologies to support common sense efforts. People organized, talked to one another, and showed up to vote. It’s how things work when there are NoKings. Thank you to every one of you who took one or more of those actions.
One other big win – Californians overwhelmingly voted to redistrict with a Democratic slant to offset Texas’s Republican slanted re-districting. Partisan gerrymandering is not a progressive value. However when the circumstances dictate – as my friend Peter used to say: “One must always be able to rise above one’s principles!”
Top Action to Take Today:
The food emergency is gathering force. One approach is to get involved with or start a mutual aid effort if there are no food banks in your area. Here is a resource for starting a mutual aid campaign put together by the No Kings Alliance. If you have a food bank/soup kitchen in your area send them some money.
If you want to find out the food assistance programs nearest you, here is a listing by town. Donating to Good Shepherd or your local food bank is one of the most effective things you could do at this moment.
For the Heart
For Your Heart this Seventh Week of Fall:
What is the situation, our relationship to it, and then what is our correct function relating to the way things are?
~Nancy Hathaway Center for Studying Mindfulness
A WORD ON STATISTICS~~~Wislawa Szymborska(translated from the Polish by Joanna Trzeciak)
Out of every hundred people,those who always know better:fifty-two.
Unsure of every step:almost all the rest.
Ready to help,if it doesn’t take long:forty-nine.
Always good,because they cannot be otherwise:four — well, maybe five.
Able to admire without envy:eighteen.
Led to error by youth (which passes):sixty, plus or minus.
Those not to be messed with:four-and-forty.
Living in constant fearof someone or something:seventy-seven.
Capable of happiness:twenty-some-odd at most.
Harmless alone,turning savage in crowds:more than half, for sure.
Cruel when forced by circumstances:it’s better not to know,not even approximately.
Wise in hindsight:not many morethan wise in foresight.
Getting nothing out of life except things:thirty(though I would like to be wrong).
Balled up in painand without a flashlight in the dark:eighty-three, sooner or later.
Those who are just:quite a few, thirty-five.
But if it takes effort to understand:three.
Worthy of empathy:ninety-nine.
Mortal:one hundred out of one hundred –a figure that has never varied yet.
More Actions if You Have the Bandwidth
To follow up politically on the SNAP issue, Mills has released 1.25 million for SNAP food benefits, which is about enough to fund a day and a half of the need in Maine. This is not sufficient. Ask Governor Mills to declare a STATE OF EMERGENCY in relation to the Republican refusal to fund SNAP, or call the Legislature into special session. Either option would result in more funding being released to keep kids and their families from going hungry this November. Call her at 207-287-3531, or go to her website and make a comment. (SNAP = Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program serving almost 170,000 families in Maine) California, Virginia, Louisiana, and Minnesota have all declared states of emergency to keep this program going. Mills may agree that this is a good way to alleviate immediate suffering in Maine.
People are ramping up mutual aid efforts. Here is a valuable resource in these hunger times. The Maine USDA has The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP); this gives out food to organizations which are getting food to hungry people. Could your school, non-profit, church, synagogue qualify for food? Go here to find out.
Calls to Our Representatives:
The Trumpublicans are cutting off SNAP benefits even though the USDA has a rainy day surplus of several billion dollars! 42 million people in the US get SNAP benefits. Let King, Collins, Pingree and Golden know that the loss of these benefits affect nearly 170,000 people in Maine (over 12% of the state), and the USDA money needs to be released now so people can eat in November. Thank them for supporting a bipartisan bill to keep SNAP benefits coming during the shutdown, and ask them to help end the shutdown by voting with the Democrats on the CR.
Trump and his gang have started a series of extra-judicial killings in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific. A dozen civilian vessels have been blown up and dozens of people killed, with no hearings, no due process. . Trump wants to distract from his problems at home by creating a “war” on drug traffickers in which he can order anyone he wants killed by claiming they are drug dealers. What could go wrong? Congress has done nothing about this. Our lawmakers should be demanding an investigation of these murders NOW. For more information go here.
Closing our sixth week of House recess, Speaker Mike Johnson has kept the House on recess in order to keep from having to swear in a new member of Congress: Adelita Grijalva won an election in Arizona on September 23’d, and has not been sworn in because of the recess. She is the final vote needed to get the discharge petition passed that will release the Epstein Files. Call Representatives Golden + Pingree to demand that the House be opened so that work can continue on this issue as well as many, many others. See 5calls.org for more on this.
Call King and Collins to support extension of the ACA tax credits by voting with the Democrats. (If you have done this already this week, call one friend and ask them to do the same. If everyone on this email did so, it would generate close to 200 calls today!) A family of four in Maine making $130k, is estimated to have a $16,100 ANNUAL increase in costs to their healthcare if these insurance tax credits are not extended. More on this from a NY Times article (gifted) here. (Thanks to Indivisible Bangor for the article!)
Arts and Politics!
Fall of Freedom“is an urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation. Our Democracy is under attack. Threats to free expression are rising. Dissent is being criminalized. Institutions and media have been recast as mouthpieces of propaganda.
This Fall, we are activating a nationwide wave of creative resistance. Beginning November 21–22, 2025, galleries, museums, libraries, comedy clubs, theaters, and concert halls across the country will host exhibitions, performances, and public events that channel the urgency of this moment.” (from their website) They have a toolkit to help with creating graphics, posters, events to join the Art Resistance. (Thank you Connie for this.)
March on DC November 20 – 22 – Remove the Regime! Consider joining this National Event which will combine a march, rally, and congressional lobbying. Go here for more information. This event may involve encounters with Trump’s shock troopers, so please be prepared.
It’s a piece of cake to email or call with these links!
The names of our senators and representatives listed below are links that go right to their official congressional contact form pages. The telephone numbers are links that should open your phone app to call that number. It’s that easy!
Senator Angus King
DC: (202) 224-5344
Augusta: (207) 622-8292
Senator Susan Collins
DC: (202) 224-2523
Augusta: (207) 622-8414
Bangor: (207) 945-0417
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree
DC: (202) 225-6116
Portland: (207) 774-5019
Waterville: (207) 873-5713
Congressman Jared Golden
DC: (202) 225-6306
Bangor: (207) 249-7400
Caribou: (207) 492-6009
Lewiston: (207) 241-6767
Find your State Representative:
By name: Here
By district: Here
Find your State Senator:
By name: Here
By district: Here
Our government in Augusta:
Governor Janet Mills
Email Governor Mills
Call (207) 287-3531
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows
Contact Secretary Bellows
Call (207)626-8400
Attorney General Aaron M. Frey
Contact Mr. Frey
Call (207) 626-8800
Questions or comments? Contact Dave!
