Jon Reisman

One iconic scene from Casablanca features Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) shutting down Rick Blaine’s (Humphrey Bogart) club on Nazi threats/orders. Renault announces he is closing the club because he is shocked to discover there is gambling going on, immediately after which a croupier presents him with his winnings.

I had a few post-primary Casablanca-like shocks as well:

Some 150,000-plus Maine Democrats enthusiastically backed Totenkopf-tattooed oyster Führer Graham Platner after 10 years of calling Trump and his Maine voters fascist Hitler wannabes. Apparently, they want to build concentration camps in the old mills across the 2nd Congressional District. There’ll be signs upon entry, and the showers/gas chambers that work will set the morally damaged Trump voters free. Progressive guards from the Maine People’s Alliance will ensure that the dirty Trump voters don’t poison the water and drink the blood of good democratic socialists.

Ranked Choice Voting procedures required Democrats to employ the police they want to defund to transport ballots to Augusta for a totally transparent Shenna Bellows-directed RCV recount/reallocation of votes to their proper progressive place. As a consequence, Mainers will not know who won the gubernatorial primaries and 2nd CD Dem Primary for a week or more.

In the 2nd CD Dem primary, Matt Dunlap narrowly edged out Jordan Wood for second place, giving Dunlap a good shot at securing the nomination over first round leader Joe Baldacci. I don’t think the morally deficient 2nd CD majority Trump voters will be supportive of any of the Democrats, all of whom support the National Popular Vote Compact to disenfranchise the Trump voters. 

This may also be a problem for Shenna Bellows, should she successfully secure the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, after attempting to take Trump off the ballot, although that action presumably played very well in the majority Trump Derangement Syndrome-plagued 1st CD.

If Shenna leapfrogs over Troy Jackson in the first round of RCV reallocation of Angus King III’s votes, she stands a very good chance of being the Democratic nominee, which is good news for Rick Bennett. If Shenna does not overtake Troy Jackson, I’d bet on Hannah Pingree.

I expect GOP leader Bobby Charles to emerge from multiple rounds of RCV allocation with the nomination, but that’s as much hope as hard analysis. Charles is also likely the best-case scenario for Rick Bennett, who is trying to thread the needle as a recovering Republican and not a totally insane climate alarmist.

In the SD-6 GOP primary, Billy Bob Faulkingham cruised to an overwhelming victory with nearly 80% of the vote. He will take on Independent Passamaquoddy Chief Aaron Dana in November.

In the HD-10 GOP primary, incumbent William Tuell won more than 60% of the vote over challenger Dan Daley. Tuell will take on Pembroke’s Genevieve Lemire in November.

I am still awaiting any explanation of the difference between national socialism (Nazis) and democratic socialism (Platner, Sanders, Warren, Bellows, Jackson). They seem to share a virulent hatred for capitalism and Jews, and an unfortunate delusion about the likely consequences of socialism, whatever variant they addle themselves with. 

Given their unwillingness to define equity and what a woman is, I won’t be shocked to still be waiting through November. 

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at jreisman@maine.edu.