kingsofMaine

@Grizzly660xp They have immunity! Like every other corrupt politician. Whatba world!

Who will stand in the breach? The true measure of a man can only be tested in battle. Some battle in war, some battle within, some fight demons never seen — and the measure isn't in the winning, it is in the fight and the getting back up after a defeat and being willing to be measured again. I am here. Choose me.

Accurate

100%

Truth

Quiet Strength As a young man, I thought strength was loud and bold. As I matured, I knew that kind of strength was mostly in movies. I saw different kinds of men with bravado and flash, and while I knew some of those men had courage, they weren't truly strong. Roughly fifteen years ago, I met a man who wasn't loud — definitely not bold. He had a quiet strength that I had never seen before. I don't know if he ever demanded anything from anyone, yet everyone respected him. I never heard him say a bad word about anyone. He would help anyone with anything, often without even having to be asked. He took care of his family in the ways that count. This man has died. He leaves behind a wife of nearly 43 years, a son and a daughter, one granddaughter, many siblings, so many other family members, and two beloved dogs. This morning, my last childhood fantasy died with him. I had always carried a picture of what a good death looked like — shaped by movies and historical accounts — a battle, fighting for what you believe in. That isn't without honor. But now I know the difference. This man died surrounded by his family. His wife on one side, his daughter on the other, his son at his feet — all with a hand on him as he passed. Others in the room sat with tears streaming down their faces as his soul left his body. And I knew at that moment, for the first time at 50 years old, that there is a difference between an honorable death and a good death. A good death is this — surrounded by everyone who loved you. — My wife's father @MaineContrarian

Yep!

Fact Checked✅

Shady Shenna wants you to know - she's VERY upset with President Trump for acting to shut down the rigged Democrat absentee ballot scam -- very upset.

THE COMPANY THAT OWNS MAINE'S WOODS — AND THE WORKERS IN THEM Part 1 of 2 | The Maine Contrarian A Canadian conglomerate controls 1.3 million acres of Maine timberland, dictates wages and contract terms to roughly 2,000 logging contractors, and faces no meaningful competition in the regions it dominates. When loggers push back, they risk being blackballed from the only work within a hundred miles. The company is JD Irving, Limited. New Brunswick. Part of the Irving Group — Canada's largest refinery, 800+ fuel stations, a delivery fleet, and all of New Brunswick's English-language newspapers. They control the press that covers them at home. In Maine, they've never been covered. That ends here. THE STRUCTURE Maine's North Woods logging economy runs on the independent contractor model. Loggers finance their own equipment — a new harvester runs $500K–$700K, a forwarder $300K–$500K — then bid for contracts with large landowners. On paper: small business owners. In practice, in regions dominated by one employer: dependent laborers with all the risk and none of the rights. In Aroostook County and the St. John Valley, that employer is Irving. The Maine Legislature's 121st Session investigated this and put findings on the record. Should have been front-page news. Wasn't. The committee documented Irving offering "take it or leave it" contracts. Where Irving controls accessible timberland, refusing means no work. Irving's contracts allow rate changes at any time, termination for any reason, and — the most extraordinary provision documented — seizure of a contractor's equipment after termination to finish the job. Irving can end your contract and take your machine. This is not a labor dispute. It is a documented power structure in which a foreign conglomerate controls the wages, terms, and assets of Maine families — and the state has done nothing meaningful about it. THE MATH Stacey Kelly, Fort Kent, has logged since 1981. He led the 1998 border blockade when loggers blocked roads that landowners used to move cheaper Canadian temp workers — "bonds" — across the border to undercut Maine contractors. After 40+ years, Kelly estimates his effective hourly wage after equipment costs, fuel, maintenance, and insurance: around $17. On a machine worth half a million dollars. In one of the most dangerous jobs in America. The Maine Forest Service publishes annual stumpage prices — what contractors receive per ton for raw timber. What those reports never show: what mills charge for finished product. That gap is extracted value flowing north to New Brunswick. When federal investigators examined the paper industry in the 1970s, Maine mills paid ~$16/ton for spruce and charged $300+/ton for finished paper. Secret meetings were documented in Jay, Maine. International Paper, Weyerhaeuser, Great Northern Nekoosa were named — coordinated pricing, systematic elimination of independents who refused. The investigation went quiet. Companies got bigger. Mills closed. Maine workers absorbed the loss. THE WALL Federal antitrust laws — built to stop corporate price-fixing — are used to prevent logging contractors from collectively negotiating their own rates. The framework meant to protect consumers from cartels is turned against workers at the bottom of the chain. Loggers can't legally coordinate on minimum rates. Landowners face no equivalent restriction setting what they'll pay. Not an accident. The system working as designed. Sen. Troy Jackson — fifth-generation Allagash logger who led the '98 blockade — fought this for years. In 2023 Gov. Mills signed LD 1459, giving loggers the right to collectively bargain. Real win. But it doesn't undo 70 years of suppression, recover unpaid wages, or void equipment seizure clauses. It doesn't change that in Irving country there is no competing employer — and Irving has always known it. Part 2: regulatory capture, revolving door, and what Maine's North Woods families lost. #Maine #MaineContrarian #NorthWoods #JDIrving

THE SYSTEM THAT PROTECTS ITSELF Part 2 of 2 | The Maine Contrarian REGULATORY CAPTURE Maine ranked 46th out of 50 states in the State Integrity Investigation — one of eight states to receive a failing grade on accountability and transparency. The methodology didn't count scandals — it measured laws and practices that deter corruption. States with few known scandals often ranked low precisely because they lacked the tools to surface them. Maine has no revolving door law covering officials moving into industries they regulated. In 2007-2008, Maine's chief utilities regulator negotiated a job and equity shares from a wind developer while still heading the agency that had that developer's active business before it. The AG investigated. Finding: no laws violated. Because there were none. That was utilities. The same revolving door operates in forestry regulation. The Maine Forest Service has ongoing, constant contact with the major landowners — Irving holds 1.3 million acres, Seven Islands another major tract. Enforcement staff who spend careers alongside these companies have pathways into them when they leave. No law stops it. No disclosure required. The result: enforcement calibrated not to threaten relationships that regulators may someday want to leverage for their own employment. WHAT ENFORCEMENT LOOKS LIKE When Plum Creek Timber was investigated via FOAA, internal agency documents showed staff expressing alarm. One staffer questioned in writing how a large company could build a 7,500-foot powerline corridor without a permit. Result: $57,000 fine. The largest in Maine timber history. For a company managing nearly a million acres. Not a penalty — a licensing fee that tells every major landowner exactly what getting caught costs. Plum Creek is gone. Irving is still here. Bigger than ever. WHAT MAINE FAMILIES ACTUALLY LOST Stacey Kelly's $17 effective hourly wage, on a machine worth half a million dollars, after a lifetime in the woods: that's a retirement that doesn't exist, a mortgage that can't be carried, a kid who looks at what his father earned and leaves the state. Maine has lost more than half its sawmills in 30 years. Nearly 30,000 Mainers depend on the industry. Millinocket, East Millinocket, Bucksport, Madison — hollowing out for two decades. The people who stayed work harder for less, while the primary beneficiary of their labor is headquartered in another country. The Canadian "bond" workers who undercut Maine loggers weren't a market phenomenon. They were a tool — deployed to suppress rates when Maine workers organized. One historian noted bluntly: Irving put most small contractors out of business, then complained it couldn't find workers. Manufactured scarcity used as leverage. WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN LD 1459 was a real step. But it is one statute against a structure backed by millions in corporate resources and a regulatory environment never built to challenge it. FOAA the communications between Maine Forest Service staff and JD Irving from 2000 to present. Contact between a monopoly landowner and its regulators, in a state with no revolving door law, is a documented corruption risk. That paper trail belongs to the public. The Maine AG's antitrust division has authority over monopolization harming Maine workers. The Legislature-documented wage suppression in the North Woods deserves formal review under that authority. Every contract with equipment seizure provisions should be examined. If Irving has seized contractor equipment, that abuse belongs in public record. Maine's North Woods built this state. The people who work them deserve better than a foreign conglomerate's take-it-or-leave-it deal — no competition, no enforcement, a revolving door ensuring nothing changes. The Maine Contrarian is filing FOAA requests. If you've worked for Irving or any major North Woods landowner and have information: contact us. #Maine #MaineContrarian #NorthWoods #JDIrving #LoggerRights #Accountability

@adamcarolla All because they proclaimed this guy king of science. Hypocrites.

Can we bring this back?