Action Items to choose from (or do all of them: your choice!) Scroll down to the matching number of your option:
Time Sensitive: Tell USPS to oppose privatization and protect vote-by-mail
Ending the shutdown
Support Tennessee candidate for the House of Representatives
Sign a petition to demand that companies who have donated to Trump’s ballroom take back their donations
Reminder: When you call vs when you email via our reps’ websites (best way to contact them in writing), don’t forget to begin with: “Hi, my name is [name] and I’m a constituent calling from [zip code]. That is important, because if they don’t know you’re actually a constituent, your opinion will be ignored.
Find your State Representative: By name: Here By district: Here
(Please note that for those of you receiving this email who are not represented by Senators or House members in our district, I have to leave it up to you to find the contact info for your own representatives.)
This week the US Postal Service is holding its annual open meeting, and this is the one chance for the board members to hear from the public. Today, Monday, November 10th, is the last day for comments from the public.
Speak out to oppose any effort to privatize the USPS.
Show your support for ensuring that mail-in ballots remain an option for voters.
Advocate for the Postal Service to expand banking services around the country. (Postal banking would allow everyone, including low-income families and people who don’t live near banks, to access banking services at their local post office.
Demand more opportunities for the public to weigh in on USPS business.
2) Ending the shutdown: I don’t know about you, but I’m very disappointed in Senator Angus King and the Democrats who voted on this empty shutdown deal. First of all, the GOP has given no cause for anyone to believe their promises of a vote to be held later. Plus, even if it is held, if the Republicans hold the line on not extending the ACA premium tax subsidies, the vote will mean nothing: It will show the people which of their Senators chose to throw their constituents under the bus with the currently skyrocketing costs of health insurance. Silver lining? That should help flip more Senate seats in the midterms. But I think that silver lining would have been there even had the Democrats (and those that caucus with them, like Angus King) stood firm in their resolve. The Republicans were doing a fine job all by themselves in spotlighting their cruelty and disregard for human lives. And speaking of Republican cruelty: As states have tried to move to fill in the SNAP gap caused by the administration’s refusal to release funds to pay for SNAP benefits, the Trump administration has told states that they must told states that they must “immediately undo” any actions to provide full food stamp benefits to low-income families. They are threatening harsh financial penalties on states that do not comply quickly with the new federal orders. Talk about sick! Political games are more important to these…[fill in the blank with whatever nasty wordage you like]…than making sure people don’t go hungry, especially now, right before Thanksgiving. The cruelty is unbelievable. So whatever happens with the shutdown, we need to keep pushing our representatives not to collude with the GOP’s cruel policies and to stand firm for the rights to healthcare for all Americans. Silver lining? Now Mike Johnson will have to call the House back into session, at which point he’ll have to swear in Adelita Grijalva, who will then sign on to demand the release of the Epstein files. It’ll be interesting to watch him dance around that. Contact Angus King and tell him how disappointed you are in his working with the GOP to come to a pathetic compromise to end the shutdown. Sure, the deal voted on will, if made law, help all the federal workers furloughed/fired during the shutdown, but what about all the Mainers who stand to lose their healthcare and access to rural hospitals that will be force to close now (Ellsworth is one of those in danger of closing)? Contact Susan Collins and blast her—again—for voting with her party on a budget that will cause so much harm to her constituents. Contact Jared Golden and tell him to stand firm with House Democrats in demanding an extension of the ACA tax credits. All the Senate Dems were asking, by the end, was an extension of one lousy year, not the permanent solution first demanded. Is that really too much to ask? Tell Golden, too, that Mike Johnson must now swear in Adelita Grijalva and hold the vote to release the Epstein files. And, of course, Golden must vote for the release of those files.
3) Support Tennessee candidate for the House of Representatives: Democrat Aftyn Behn is running for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District House seat on December 2nd. This is an open seat following the retirement of GOP Rep. Mark Green in July. This is a very Republican district, but so far, the race is fairly close. If she loses, the Democrats might lose any advantage they have when it comes to a vote on the release of the Epstein files. Ways you can help her campaign:
Sign up to write postcardsto rally Democrats to vote in this critical special election. Once you sign up, you’ll receive free postcards, a voter list, and instructions with three short message options. Depending on those instructions, you’ll have until November 17th or 21st to mail your postcards (you have to provide the postcard stamps), so NOW is the time to move on this. You can sign up here: https://turnoutpac.org/postcards/ I have to say, though, that the website is not super clear on how to sign up, other than simply joining them or signing up for updates.
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).
Read Action 179 and CALL YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVE!!
Click here for a list of more actions from the HCD, including those concerning ICE 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!
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!
New Action Planned at Home Depot
Home Depot continues to allow ICE to terrorize, intimidate, and abduct people, non-citizens and citizens alike, from their property.
We are planning a regular vigil action on Stillwater Avenue in Bangor across from the entrance to Home Depot on Saturdays and we need more volunteers for planning and participating! Please contact George for more information!
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:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Veterans’ Day Rally Tuesday, 11/11
Join us Tuesday, 11/11, to stand with Vets Say No as we collectively refuse to allow growing fascism to be normalized.
We will be at the usual Tuesday vigil location, the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building & Courthouse, 202 Harlow Street, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. We will have a speaker and please bring signs thanking our veterans as well as donations for food pantries! This will be after the Bangor Veteran’s Day march.
Food AND Medicine Annual Solidarity Harvest November 13-24
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.
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.
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.
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 Coalitionand the People’s Coalition for Safety & Justice. Volunteers trained across Maine to respond, verify, and connect families to help.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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 have an easy way to donate to Indivisible Bangor. Drop off your returnable bottles and cans to Ohio Street Redemption in Bangorand 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.
And now to the Mid Maine Indivisible morning Call to Action!
Action Friday November 7th: Call King and Collins to Vote Against the CR Today Unless the Health Insurance is Voted on and Passed First!
Good Morning Folks, end of week six of the shutdown. Getting cool out there – good time to plant your garlic for next year.
Top Action to Take Today:
On extension of the ACA credits, it is reported that Majority Leader Thune is planning a vote on the CR today, without including the extension of ACA tax credits. Apparently there are moderate Democrats moving in that direction. Please call King and Collins and ask them to vote against the CR, unless Thune puts the vote for the tax credits up FIRST. If it passes then approve the CR. Otherwise Democrats should hold tight on their demands. Bullies thrive on capitulation. For talking points on this call here.
More Actions if You Have the Bandwidth
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. The Winslow Food Cupboard goes all over Kennebec County, If you are able to help, please click here (WCCPantry.com) and then click on the white “Donate Now” button.
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, orcall the Legislatureinto 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 a judge has told them they need to release the funds TODAY and 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. They need to be back in session to negotiate the new CR in any case.
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!
Background: As you know, before they will end the government shutdown, the congressional Republicans are holding hostage the extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits. (They need Democratic votes to overcome the filibuster and pass a continuing resolution to fund the government.) Most Democrats are insisting that the extension be approved before they will vote to end the shutdown, because they are sick and tired of “falling for Lucy with the football”(1). If the extension is not approved, health insurance premiums will more than double for 22 million of our fellow citizens. Republicans are hard at work persuading Angus King, Jared Golden (still in office), and a handful of other congressional Democrats (and of course Collins) to capitulate.
Yes, the shutdown is painful. But we should have “learned our lesson” by now. We cannot trust the Republicans to do the right thing. They have the power to simply extend the tax credits first, then end the shutdown. Or, include the tax credits as part of the “continuing resolution”. Republicans have the power to do that, now. The fact that they are not doing it speaks volumes about their lack of trustworthiness, their callous indifference to millions of Americans who need the tax credit to be able to afford health insurance, and their adherence to the Project 2025 playbook (which, in a nutshell, is a blueprint for destroying the social safety net).
Action: Call King, Collins and Golden today. Demand that they NOT CAVE to the demand to pass a continuing resolution to end the shutdown without including the extension of the ACA tax credits.
Contact:
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.
IF the capitulation has already happened, call in protest.
Extra Credit:
(1) https://slate.com/culture/2014/10/the-history-of-lucys-pulling-the-football-away-from-charlie-brown-in-peanuts.html AI overview says: “”Falling for Lucy with the football” is a metaphor for repeatedly being deceived by someone or falling for the same trick over and over, despite previous negative experiences. It represents a cycle of dashed hopes and a naive belief in a person who consistently betrays trust, often symbolizing the conflict between optimism and cynicism.” In this instance, Republicans have touted for many years that they will propose a better alternative to the ACA, but they have proposed absolutely nothing. There is no reason to suspect that they will in the future, because the only sensible alternative is “medicare for all”, which is anathema to their privatization agenda.
(2) For more in-depth info, check out this Google document here. Thanks to Emanuel Pariser for this action item.
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, 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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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 Coalitionand the People’s Coalition for Safety & Justice. Volunteers trained across Maine to respond, verify, and connect families to help.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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 have an easy way to donate to Indivisible Bangor. Drop off your returnable bottles and cans to Ohio Street Redemption in Bangorand 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.
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?
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, orcall the Legislatureinto 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!
Background: The legislature is not in session and won’t be until January 1, unless Governor Mills calls it back into session to deal with the impending crisis of loss of SNAP benefits for our most vulnerable citizens. (1) There is $1 Bn in the “rainy day fund”, part of which could be established as a contingency if Trump continues to dither about reinstating federal funding. Likewise with the fuel assistance – LIHEAP – program. To do this, Mills just needs to decide this is more urgent than campaigning to replace Susan Collins. In other words, she needs to continue to do the job as Governor, until the end of her term.
If our state Republican legislators prefer to follow the MAGA cult rather than cooperating to provide life essentials for our most vulnerable citizens, a roll call will tell the voters who is willing to sacrifice our people on the altar of their MAGA ideology. It will tell us a lot about who to vote for/campaign against in 2026, right? Next November, Mainers will elect a Governor, U.S. Senator, two Members of Congress, and every single member of the State House (151 seats) and State Senate (35 seats).
Action: Contact Governor Mills and demand that she calls the legislature back into session to deal with the emergency caused by the Trump administration’s cutoff of SNAP and fuel assistance. Contact your legislators and demand that they cooperate with this effort.
Find your State Representative: By name: Here By district: Here
Find your State Senator: By name: Here By district: Here
Urgency: Do it today. It’s going to take them time to get their act together, and meanwhile people are in danger from hunger and cold. Plus, Thanksgiving is around the corner, fer god’s sake!
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, 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!
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:
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Bangor Public Library Technology Workshop: Avoiding AI – TODAY!
Generative AI is being pushed hard by major technology companies everywhere, and invading your devices. On Wednesday, November 5 from 2-4 PM, the library will host a workshop on “Avoiding AI,” covering the basics of how this technology works, why it is unreliable as a source of information, privacy concerns associated with AI, and how to disable it on your devices as much as possible. If you are curious about large language models and artificial intelligence, or mad that everything from ChatGPT to Microsoft’s Co-Pilot to Google’s AI summaries and more seems to show up without you asking for it or being able to get rid of it, join us to learn more and take control of your devices and your privacy.
Date:TODAY – Wednesday, November 5, 2025 Time:2:00pm – 4:00pm Location:Norman Minsky Lecture Hall
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
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.
Thursday, 11/20/2025 12:30-1:45 P.M. Bangor Room, Memorial Union The University of Maine, Orono
Other News:
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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! Voting is integral and so is helping our community. SNAP (read this and this) and LIHEAP benefits will be drastically reduced soon. Obamacare health insurance premiums will increase to levels that will make it unaffordable for many Mainers. Read this PDF dated October 17, 2025, from the Maine State Legislature.
Also, this message from Maine DHHS: “The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has told all states that November SNAP benefits cannot be issued right now because of the federal government shutdown. Any benefits already on your card are still available and can be used to buy food.” The official notice can be read here.
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 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.
Governor Mills Announces $1.25 Million for Maine Food Pantries
Governor Janet Mills announced today she is taking action to deliver $1.25 million to Good Shepherd Food Bank and other anti-hunger programs in Maine as the Federal shutdown is poised to cease food benefits for 170,000 Maine families, older adults, children, veterans, and people with disabilities on Saturday, November 1, in partnership with Maine philanthropy.
Spotify is capitulating to the regime, but we can make them reverse course.
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.
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 Coalitionand the People’s Coalition for Safety & Justice. Volunteers trained across Maine to respond, verify, and connect families to help.
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.
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!
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!
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.
Speaking of the shutdown and, as if you don’t have enough news to read, here are two New York Times gift articles concerning the shutdown, including how Donald Trump is using this as another excuse to punish Democratic districts while attempting to bribe Argentinian voters to vote for his ally:
COVID vaccinations are available without a prescription in Maine
On September 12, 2025, the Maine CDC issued a standing order (PDF) “all recommended individuals six months and older can receive routine COVID-19 vaccination.”
Please call your pharmacy to verify before you arrive to make sure this order has not changed. Click the button/link for more information from the Maine.gov site.
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!
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!
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 have an easy way to donate to Indivisible Bangor. Drop off your returnable bottles and cans to Ohio Street Redemption in Bangorand 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.
And now to the Mid Maine Indivisible morning Call to Action!
Action Wednesday November 5th: Big Wins in Maine and Nationally – Take a Breath
Good Morning Folks, big wins yesterday!!! Thank you everyone that pitched in on referendum Questions One and Two. We have beaten back a voter suppression attempt, and enacted a gun control law that will give us an added layer of protection from gun violence.
Not to mention what happened nationally – big wins in New York City, New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania (retaining 3 Democratic Supreme Court judges).
This is something like reaching an oasis in a desert.
Top Action to Take Today:
Take the day off and relish this moment.
Our collective action brought results.
Thank you everyone for ringing the alarm bells that need to be rung.
Rest up. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
More Actions if You Have the Bandwidth
On our Food Emergency – people are ramping up mutual aid efforts. Here are a couple of valuable resources 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. 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.
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, orcall the Legislatureinto 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.
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.”
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.
Entering 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.
TODAY’S ACTION (s) (just pick one!)
Call or email Governor Mills to ask her to declare a STATE OF EMERGENCY or Call the Legislature into Special Session: This would allow her to release SNAP funds for November while Trump and his Republican allies support making tens of millions of children and their families hungry just in time for Thanksgiving.
Ask our Congresspeople to demand the USDA release it’s billions in “emergency funds”: The USDA has several billion dollars set aside for situations of this nature. They must release it now so people can eat in November.
Join the Maine People’s Alliance in bringing your story to our Congresspeople: Are your insurance rates going up? Did you lose SNAP benefits – the MPA wants to hear your story and use it to fight for Mainers in the ongoing shutdown budget battle. Fill out this form and tell your story here.
Ask our Maine Law Makers to Ring the Alarm on Trump’s murder of civilians in the Caribbean: Trump’s orders to blow up boats in the Caribbean because they are carrying drugs is illegal, unconstitutional, and a trial run for what he would like to start doing at home. These killings must be investigated and Trump must be held accountable. Call Pingree, Golden, King and Collins to raise a storm about these killings. Go to 5calls.org for a script.
Groundhog Day Alert, if you haven’t yet – Call King and Collins and ask them to vote with the Democrats on the Government Shutdown. This is the only sure way to make sure our Health Insurance rates don’t skyrocket!
If you’ve already called King and Collins to vote with the Democrats on the shutdown: Call one friend and ask them to do the same. Give them the information below on numbers. You could also email 5 friends with the same request.
Call Reps Pingree + Golden and ask them to demand that the House Recess End Now: Work needs to get done and the Epstein files need to surface, we now have the votes necessary to force their opening if Adelita Grijalva can get sworn in. For a script on this call go to 5calls.org.
Call or write Governor Mills and ask her to Sign LD 1971: Go here to make a comment on this on her website.
Call Governor Mills and our Congressional Representatives: Ask Mills to deny any request from the Trump administration to deploy National Guard Troops for local law enforcement; Ask our representatives to sound the alarm about the use of US Military to intimidate and harass peaceful, public protests. Go here for wording on this.
With great appreciation for all the engagement everywhere! As always, throw a little sand in their gears!
“To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us,” Zohran Mandami Mayor Elect of New York City
“New Jerseyans will not bend the knee or give in to darker impulses” Mikie Sherrill, Governor Elect of New Jersey
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!
We finish the week with our Visibility Brigade on Friday. Join us as we hold letters to spell out messages for the drivers on I-95! Learn more here. Tell them you read about it here!
VOTE TODAY!!!
Election Day is TODAY,Tuesday, November 4, 2025. Get out and VOTE!
Keep the NO KINGS momentum going by VOTING on November 4th!
Vote “No on 1” to reject the Leonard Leo and Laurel Libby (and recently endorsed by Paul LePage in the Bangor Daily News) scheme to suppress the vote here in Maine. Question 1 will reduce the ability for Mainers to request absentee ballots, affecting our senior citizens, active military, and homebound citizens the most.
Talk to your friends about Question 1, its real purpose, and to vote NO! While this question may by pushed as a “common sense” voter ID law by MAGA supporters, focus on the real world ramifications of its restricting of absentee ballot access.
Yes ON 2!
The United Way of Southern Maine endorses a Yes on 2 vote. “That’s why United Way of Southern Maine supports a Yes vote on Question 2. Question 2 would give families and courts a way to step in early before tragedy happens. It’s a way to help save lives. In simple terms, Question 2 would allow courts to temporarily take away someone’s access to dangerous weapons if law enforcement, family, or household members show that the person may hurt themselves or others. If the court agrees, the person would need to give up their weapons until a hearing is held, typically within 14 days. After that, the judge could end or extend the order based on the situation.” Read more here.
BANGORCity Council and School Board Elections
Many municipalities are holding elections for positions on city councils and school boards! Bangor has been in the news lately because of the far-right activist running for council who describes himself as an “America First” nationalist (BDN). He is one of 9 running for three positions on the city council. Read the BDN article for profiles of the these 9 candidates.
Bangor is one of a handful of towns holding public office elections include Brewer, Hampden, Old Town, andOrono. Click on the town names to go to their elections page. This is not a comprehensive list, so check your town office to verify. Check here, Find a Municipal Clerk or Registrar, to find your town!
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! Voting is integral and so is helping our community. SNAP (read this and this) and LIHEAP benefits will be drastically reduced soon. Obamacare health insurance premiums will increase to levels that will make it unaffordable for many Mainers. Read this PDF dated October 17, 2025, from the Maine State Legislature.
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 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.
Veterans’ Day Rally
Join us at our regular Tuesday Vigil at the Federal Building on 11/11 at 11:00 am to stand with Vets Say No as we collectively refuse to allow growing fascism to be normalized.
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!
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, 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!
We finish the week with our Visibility Brigade on Friday. Join us as we hold letters to spell out messages for the drivers on I-95! Learn more here. Tell them you read about it here!
VOTE TOMORROW!!!
And Volunteer on election day!
Election Day is TOMORROW on Tuesday, November 4, 2025. Have you thought about volunteering at your town office to help? It’s a great way to learn about the election process as well as to give back to your town. Call your town office today-click the button/link for the list of all Maine towns, find your town, and give ’em a call!
Keep the NO KINGS momentum going by VOTING on November 4th! Or even earlier as early voting is now available! And check out the State of Maine website, Your Right to Vote in Maine.
Vote “No on 1” to reject the Leonard Leo and Laurel Libby (and recently endorsed by Paul LePage in the Bangor Daily News) scheme to suppress the vote here in Maine. Question 1 will reduce the ability for Mainers to request absentee ballots, affecting our senior citizens, active military, and homebound citizens the most.
Talk to your friends about Question 1, its real purpose, and to vote NO! While this question may by pushed as a “common sense” voter ID law by MAGA supporters, focus on the real world ramifications of its restricting of absentee ballot access.
And CANVASS! CANVASS! CANVASS!See below for information on how you can talk to your neighbors about Question 1 and why they should vote NO!
City Council and School Board Elections!
Many municipalities are holding elections for positions on city councils and school boards! Bangor has been in the news lately because of the far-right activist running for council who describes himself as an “America First” nationalist (BDN). He is one of 9 running for three positions on the city council. Read the BDN article for profiles of the these 9 candidates.
Bangor is one of a handful of towns holding public office elections include Brewer, Hampden, Old Town, andOrono. Click on the town names to go to their elections page. This is not a comprehensive list, so check your town office to verify. Check here, Find a Municipal Clerk or Registrar, to find your town!
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 Coalitionand the People’s Coalition for Safety & Justice. Volunteers trained across Maine to respond, verify, and connect families to help.
It is important that we continue the good work we did on No Kings Day on 10/18 in other ways! Voting is integral and so is helping our community. SNAP (read this and this) and LIHEAP benefits will be drastically reduced soon. Obamacare health insurance premiums will increase to levels that will make it unaffordable for many Mainers. Read this PDF dated October 17, 2025, from the Maine State Legislature.
Also, this message from Maine DHHS: “The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has told all states that November SNAP benefits cannot be issued right now because of the federal government shutdown. Any benefits already on your card are still available and can be used to buy food.” The official notice can be read here.
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 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.
Governor Mills Announces $1.25 Million for Maine Food Pantries
Governor Janet Mills announced today she is taking action to deliver $1.25 million to Good Shepherd Food Bank and other anti-hunger programs in Maine as the Federal shutdown is poised to cease food benefits for 170,000 Maine families, older adults, children, veterans, and people with disabilities on Saturday, November 1, in partnership with Maine philanthropy.
Spotify is capitulating to the regime, but we can make them reverse course.
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.
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.”
Bangor Public Library Technology Workshop: Avoiding AI – This Wednesday!
Generative AI is being pushed hard by major technology companies everywhere, and invading your devices. On Wednesday, November 5 from 2-4 PM, the library will host a workshop on “Avoiding AI,” covering the basics of how this technology works, why it is unreliable as a source of information, privacy concerns associated with AI, and how to disable it on your devices as much as possible. If you are curious about large language models and artificial intelligence, or mad that everything from ChatGPT to Microsoft’s Co-Pilot to Google’s AI summaries and more seems to show up without you asking for it or being able to get rid of it, join us to learn more and take control of your devices and your privacy.
Date:Wednesday, November 5, 2025 Time:2:00pm – 4:00pm Location:Norman Minsky Lecture Hall
Stay tuned for a Veteran’s Day action in Bangor. Details coming soon!!!
No Kings Bangor Recap
An estimated 4000 people showed up on that bright, sunshiny day on 10/18 to be with friends and neighbors and listen to leaders in our community who spoke about our love for our country and the dangers of the Donald Trump administration. Thank you to everyone who attended and made this a truly spectacular day!
We have plenty of photos on our Facebook page– check it out! If you’re not already part of our Facebook group, just ask to join!
Jordan Wood Is Returning to Bangor!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
Speaking of the shutdown and, as if you don’t have enough news to read, here are two New York Times gift articles concerning the shutdown, including how Donald Trump is using this as another excuse to punish Democratic districts while attempting to bribe Argentinian voters to vote for his ally:
COVID vaccinations are available without a prescription in Maine
On September 12, 2025, the Maine CDC issued a standing order (PDF) “all recommended individuals six months and older can receive routine COVID-19 vaccination.”
Please call your pharmacy to verify before you arrive to make sure this order has not changed. Click the button/link for more information from the Maine.gov site.
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!
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!
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 have an easy way to donate to Indivisible Bangor. Drop off your returnable bottles and cans to Ohio Street Redemption in Bangorand 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! – Dave from Indivisible Bangor
And now to the Mid Maine Indivisible morning Call to Action!
Action Monday November 3d: Use Your Personal Contacts to Save Absentee Voting + Help With Our Food Emergency
Good Morning Folks, it’s the day before our referendum election. Let’s do what we can to defeat Question One, and enact Question 2.
Top Action to Take Today:
The most important thing you can do today is to get support for Saving Absentee Voting – by voting No on One and getting friends, relatives, and neighbors you know to do the same. Jeanine went through her contacts and texted each potential No on One friend individually and asked them to vote tomorrow, and to vote No on One! You can do this with your phone contacts, your email contacts, the contacts in your rolodex…you get the picture. Finally if you have the time and energy you could hold a sign the appropriate distance from the polling place that says No on One.
You may wonder why Yes on 2 is any less of an issue. The thinking is that if we defeat the Voter ID law, and Yes on 2 fails, we will have a chance to get back to it. If we lose on the Voter ID law, it will be much harder to resurrect Yes on 2. Vote Yes on 2!!!
More Actions if You Have the Bandwidth
On our Food Emergency – people are ramping up mutual aid efforts. Here are a couple of valuable resources 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. 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.
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, orcall the Legislatureinto 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.
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.”
alls 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. Seven civilian vessels have been blown up and dozens of people killed, with no hearings, no due process, and only two reasons. 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.
Finishing our fifth 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.
TODAY’S ACTION (s) (just pick one!)
Save Maine Absentee Voting,: Only 1 days left before the referendum. Call/text/email your contacts, one at a time, to be sure they vote tomorrow, and that they vote No on One!
Call or email Governor Mills to ask her to declare a STATE OF EMERGENCY or Call the Legislature into Special Session: This would allow her to release SNAP funds for November while Trump and his Republican allies support making tens of millions of children and their families hungry just in time for Thanksgiving.
Donate to a local Food Pantry today: To offset the impending cutoff of SNAP funds by the USDA check out where your local food pantry is here.
Ask our Congresspeople to demand the USDA release it’s billions in “emergency funds”: The USDA has several billion dollars set aside for situations of this nature. They must release it now so people can eat in November.
Join the Maine People’s Alliance in bringing your story to our Congresspeople: Are your insurance rates going up? Did you lose SNAP benefits – the MPA wants to hear your story and use it to fight for Mainers in the ongoing shutdown budget battle. Fill out this form and tell your story here.
Ask our Maine Law Makers to Ring the Alarm on Trump’s murder of civilians in the Caribbean: Trump’s orders to blow up boats in the Caribbean because they are carrying drugs is illegal, unconstitutional, and a trial run for what he would like to start doing at home. These killings must be investigated and Trump must be held accountable. Call Pingree, Golden, King and Collins to raise a storm about these killings. Go to 5calls.org for a script.
Groundhog Day Alert, if you haven’t yet – Call King and Collins and ask them to vote with the Democrats on the Government Shutdown. This is the only sure way to make sure our Health Insurance rates don’t skyrocket!
If you’ve already called King and Collins to vote with the Democrats on the shutdown: Call one friend and ask them to do the same. Give them the information below on numbers. You could also email 5 friends with the same request.
Call Reps Pingree + Golden and ask them to demand that the House Recess End Now: Work needs to get done and the Epstein files need to surface, we now have the votes necessary to force their opening if Adelita Grijalva can get sworn in. For a script on this call go to 5calls.org.
Send a hand-delivered letter to Senator King to let him know you would like him to vote with the Democrats on the CR to extend the ACA tax credits: Up to now he has consistently voted with the Republicans throughout the voting on the Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the budget. He has also voted yes on the Democrat alternative. An Indivisible member of the DC Indivisible group Herd on the Hill will hand deliver your email as a letter if you send her the letter as an email.
Call or email our Congressional Representatives to publicly condemn the administration’s use of our Military to create havoc in Blue Cities: It is time to publicly denounce these unconstitutional, king-like actions of our Executive branch. Where is the outrage? Go to 5calls.org for a script on this request.
Call or write Governor Mills and ask her to Sign LD 1971: Go here to make a comment on this on her website.
Call Governor Mills and our Congressional Representatives: Ask Mills to deny any request from the Trump administration to deploy National Guard Troops for local law enforcement; Ask our representatives to sound the alarm about the use of US Military to intimidate and harass peaceful, public protests. Go here for wording on this.
With great appreciation for all the engagement everywhere! As always, throw a little sand in their gears!
~~Mid Maine Indivisible
“For A Blast From Neil Young Check out Time Explodes a montage of our current political situation with Neil Young’s Guitar Accompanying it. Moving. Remember 4 Dead in Ohio?
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!
Background: Earlier this year, the Hancock County Dems acquired hundreds of used road signs from candidates who no longer needed them. Using white paint and long handled rollers, we converted the signs to “blank canvas” for future use, ready when the inspiration strikes. Recycling not only saves money, but is probably better for the environment. Plus, you get to use your creativity on a road sign you make. The Deer Isle/Stonington Dems were particularly effective in this effort, making excellent use of those plastic signs that have channels for inserting metal stakes. That type of sign needs to be painted, or have poster board stapled to it to cover the existing text. Unfortunately, plain ordinary poster board is not waterproof.
It will be easy to recycle the red “No on 1” and similar waterproof poster board signs. No paint required! Simply remove the sign from the stake, gently pull apart the glued edges, flip the sign inside out, and glue, staple, or tape the edges shut again. Voila! A blank canvas which will accept various kinds of permanent, waterproof markers or paint! There will be significant scarring along the edges where the original glue was. You can cover this up with a strip of dark paint, or a strip of duct tape (which now is available in lots of colors and patterns). If you are careful, you can use the duct tape also to seal the edges at the same time. Store the signs with their original metal stakes inserted, but wait to staple the bottom shut until after you have finished decorating the sign, because that’s easier to do without the stake inserted. Check with your town Democratic Committee about where the signs can be stored. Share your signs!
Action:After 8 pm November 4 (or for safety sake, first thing in the morning November 5) go around and pick up all the outdated “No on 1” signs you placed before someone else does! Then prepare them for recycling!
Extra Credit: (more on sign prep and placement)
Remember the law requires that signs IN THE ROAD RIGHT OF WAY have to have a contact name and address, and a date the sign was placed. (It’s also a good idea to write the date 6 weeks later when the sign must be removed.) Signs lacking this information can be confiscated by the highway department (not by some random person). There are a LOT of nonconforming signs out there, particularly the black “resist” signs and signs for various candidates. Campaigns: please take note of the rules, before your signs get confiscated! It’s also a good idea to place a warning against vandalism on the sign. Print out a small version of something similar to the text shown below, and affix it to the sign. You can put the warning on one side of the sign, and the contact info and date on the other side. You can use printed labels, but remember not all printers use waterproof ink. Ifyour ink runs in the rain, cover the labels with clear packing tape.
When can you place your signs? IF IN THE ROAD RIGHT OF WAY, you get 6 weeks from January through June, and another 6 weeks from July through December. If you are making a sign for a candidate, the best time to place the sign is probably 6 weeks before the election. The primary is June 9, 2026 and the general election is November 3, so plan on placing your signs April 28 and September 22. If your signs are not for a candidate, you can place them for any 6 week period during the half year. You could even place them for one week each month of the year – 12 weeks total. But be sure to remember to change the date label. This could be a great way to keep your candidate in the public eye all year.
Signs fully on your own property and outside of the right of way don’t have to follow these rules for labeling and dating.However, there are setback requirements for signs on your property. Check MRSA Title 23 Chapter 21 Section 1914 for those requirements.
How do you know if your sign is inside or outside of the right of way? It depends on the classification of your road, and there are lots of special circumstances. Always check with your town office, road commissioner, or the State highway department for the right-of-way width at your location. As a general rule, a typical residential “two rod road” has a right-of-way width of 33 feet. To find where that is on your property, measure the width of the road where you would like to place your sign, find the midpoint, and then measure 16 ½ feet from that point into your property. That’s the edge of the right-of-way for a typical, uncomplicated two-rod road. That may not describe your road! Always check.
Print something like these labels and place them on your signs. Fill out the dates and contact info with a sharpie, when you are ready to put the sign out.
Recycled and ready for a message!
~~~~~
Find your State Representative: By name: Here By district: Here
Find your State Senator: By name: Here By district: Here
Background: In the wake of his ballroom fiasco, Trump has fired the entire Commission of Fine Arts (1). Their website is still up, but we can expect that it will be substantially revised to reflect the “Trump aesthetic and priorities”, which have been described as “dictator chic” (2). This aesthetic is repugnant to many of us, particularly those of us raised in New England, with our “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” values (3) and the restraint shown by our “old money” residents and institutions against flamboyant display (4). From destroying the Rose Garden, to the gilding of the oval office, to the Big Ugly Ballroom, to Trump’s notional “Arc de Trump” (5), “dictator chic” style has infested Washington at breakneck speed. It’s a direct, parvenue, “nouveau riche” affront to our citizens who are increasingly struggling just to get by. Trump claims that his excesses are being paid for by his private sector cronies. News: all of those cronies expect something in return, something that will benefit them personally or the companies that have made them obscenely rich. And it’s something we citizens are most likely paying for with our tax dollars, should we care to “follow the money”. This is not American government under our Constitution and the rule of law. This is the government of a banana republic, satisfying the childish and venal whims of an arrested-development tyrant. How much longer are we going to put up with it?
Action: Other than throwing your body in front of a wrecking ball or a bulldozer (definitely not recommended!) ridicule and satire may be the best remedy here. We know it gets under the thin skin of the megalomaniac (6). The technical term for this type of protest is “tactical frivolity” (7), but serious art also has always been a means of protest expression (8). One could envision a traveling “Maine rebels” art exhibit – maybe something like that is already developing “under the radar”. Let us know. If your art is musical, join Jesse Welles in creating memorable contemporary protest songs (9). Or, write a protest poem. Whatever your art form, you are sure to come up with something, either as a creator or a promoter.
Urgency: Ongoing until the nightmare is over, and then for years afterward. We need to keep factual history from going down the “memory hole” (10).
(3) This saying is the title of a page on the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum website, which we predict will go dark soon, along with much of the rest of the publicly-accessible National Archives. Better do any planned research now, and archive as much as you can, before the Trump censors go to work.
(4) “New money, Bobby, is old money that got away” – cartoon by William Hamilton, New Yorker, 1988. Pride in restrained style used to include Republicans – see Nixon’s comment about his wife’s “cloth coat” https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/richardnixoncheckers.html
