Author: Delian Valeriani

We all knew it was probably inevitable, but it is here, finally – the global pandemic which was occasionally scratching at the back of our minds is now a living reality. Murmurs from China were overshadowed by a media whiteout of incessant investigations against President Trump. Italy locked down, but still little attention was paid to the threat upon the horizon of the Atlantic. And then all the toilet paper was gone. Then the entire non-essential Earth was under de facto house arrest, in a “just two more weeks” state of emergency. Crowded stadiums became gatherings of no more than…

Maine’s energy profile is composed primarily petroleum, natural gas, biomass and renewable energies like wind and solar. Natural gas prices fluctuate wildly, and irrational fears of pipelines keep them high. The biomass industry is on shaky ground. New, large scale hydro is unrealistic. Windmills, which we want to expand, only work when there is wind, and this may not be when there is demand (all the while demand is increasing). Nuclear energy can provide the consistency Maine needs. However, irrational fears of nuclear energy hinder and endanger our society, while blind acceptance of “renewable” energy is not without costs of…

Today a new president takes office. He has been called the most divisive president in history during a time when America seems as divided as it has ever been. But, is our country really as divided as it seems? Yes, absolutely. We are in the midst of a right-wing renaissance powered by the internet. The right has always been a minority, but a very active, if disorganized one. Once, Rush Limbaugh was the lone voice in the wilderness of AM radio, a barbarian raiding the flocks of the establishment media who paraded around with their pelts of objectivity–wolves disguised as…

I want to take the time to thank the anti-Trump demonstrators for their civility as they greeted the elector for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, outgoing Maine GOP Chair Rick Bennett, and his supporters, of which I was one. With the organizers’ Facebook pages encouraging protesters to stop Maine’s only Trump elector “by any means necessary,” it was far from the only possible outcome, particularly in light of recent, more aggressive protests in Portland. Maine has once again demonstrated itself to be above the fray which much of the rest of the nation seems to plunge itself into. It set the…

The citizens’ initiative is a procedural piece of legislation invented by progressives to divest power from elected representatives to the hands of the masses. This structural mutation is a significant step away from the initial intent of the founder’s vision. Though not unconstitutional by any means, it is an underhanded subversion of the principles of liberty, and constitutionality does not, in and of itself, mean that these progressive steps away from republicanism are practically sound. While the ability to petition the government in a negative form (de-legislation) is an important feature of a free state, the nature of many forms…

Democracy is contrived to be a panacea of human liberation, and the fountain of justice which will cure all social ills. In foreign affairs, we assume that oppressed people merely require a little democracy to melt away their chains of oppression. It is surmised that if we just had more democracy at home, all iniquity would disappear. Democratic philosophy conceives of all responsibility as shared. In such a weltanschauung, a man like Donald Trump, who puts his name on everything in huge letters, is the absolute devil.  It believes that no one should have more responsibility than anyone else, and that…