James Myall
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jamesxmyall.bsky.social
James Myall
@jamesxmyall.bsky.social
860 followers 1.6K following 2.2K posts
Maine-based economic policy analyst. British-American, recovering historian.
Posts are my own views, not my organization's.
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jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Good news as SNAP benefits in Maine have begun arriving on people's cards on schedule #mepolitics
November 10, 2025 at 6:10 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
I regularly get unsolicited invites to political fundraising events in my work email. I think it’s because I’m a registered lobbyist, which is a little troubling. Anyway, this one was particularly fun #mepolitics
November 10, 2025 at 2:05 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Over on FB, Senator Dick Bradstreet and Gov LePage are celebrating their food drive. But one table of canned goods won’t come close to helping all 6,000 of Bradstreet’s constituents who will get partial or no SNAP because of the president. It can’t substitute for federal/state help #mepolitics
November 7, 2025 at 12:24 AM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
I'm fascinated by how closely these results on ostensibly non-partisan ballot question are essentially mirror images of each other. Sadly, I don't think we have any exit polls, but it seems there was very little ticket-splitting on these votes. #mepolitics
November 6, 2025 at 5:38 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 1:28 AM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Don't wait for Republican leadership. Work with individual Republicans who have hundreds or thousands of vulnerable constituents at risk. Make opponents of food security take votes on the record against it. #mepolitics

www.mainepublic.org/politics/202...
"I can't tap into it myself," Mills said. "It would need an emergency bill to do that. And I have yet to hear from Republican leadership that they are willing to pass a single emergency bill to back-fill some of these benefits, like SNAP benefits, with the Rainy Day fund. I can't do it without their help."
November 4, 2025 at 5:43 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
By 1922, folks were happy to see the end of Cabbage Night and its replacement by Halloween. (BDT Oct 31, 1922, p 6)
October 31, 2025 at 10:24 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Have a safe Cabbage Night, everyone!

Bath [Maine] Daily Times, Nov 1, 1893, p4
October 31, 2025 at 10:03 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
#mepolitics
October 30, 2025 at 11:48 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
This didn’t have to be a partisan battle. Republican governors in Vermont and Virginia recognize the need to keep people fed. Too bad Republicans in Maine are too busy scoring cheap points.
Stewart said there was “no need” for a special session. Both he and Faulkingham continued to focus on Mills and her campaign support from U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, whose caucus has voted down Republican efforts to fund the government over Democrats wanting to extend health insurance tax credits expiring this year. “Gov. Mills needs to have a direct conversation with Schumer and demand they step up and do their job,” Faulkingham said.
October 30, 2025 at 9:31 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
We actually got border entry data despite the shutdown. The upward trend continued in September, but still 24% fewer authorized entries than the year before #mepolitics
October 28, 2025 at 10:32 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Ending weapons sales to Israel had majority support among Mainers in August. (UNH poll)
October 27, 2025 at 2:25 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
1902 - President Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter Alice (18) adopts a Maine Coon Cat during a family trip to Lincolnville.

The White House renovations mentioned in the article include the construction of the East Wing

Lewiston Daily Sun, Nov 12, 1902
October 25, 2025 at 12:25 AM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Nero builds a Golden House for himself, AD 64.

Suetonius, Nero 31.1-2
There was nothing however in which he was more ruinously prodigal than in building. He made a palace extending all the way from the Palatine to the Esquiline, which at first he called the House of Passage, but when it was burned shortly after its completion and rebuilt, the Golden House. Its size and splendour will be sufficiently indicated by the following details. Its vestibule was large enough to contain a colossal statue of the emperor hundred and twenty feet high; and it was so extensive that it had a triple colonnade⁠ a mile long. There was a pond too, like a sea, surrounded with buildings to represent cities,⁠ besides tracts of country, varied by tilled fields, vineyards, pastures and woods, with great numbers of wild and domestic animals. In the rest of the house all parts were overlaid with gold and adorned with gems and mother-of‑pearl. There were dining-rooms with fretted ceils of ivory, whose panels could turn and shower down flowers and were fitted with pipes for sprinkling the guests with perfumes. The main banquet hall was circular and constantly revolved day and night, like the heavens.⁠ He had baths supplied with sea water and sulphur water. When the edifice was finished in this style and he dedicated it, he deigned to say nothing more in the way of approval than that he was at last beginning to be housed like a human being.
October 22, 2025 at 10:39 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
#mepolitics
October 22, 2025 at 12:03 AM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Didn’t find a direct quote from Platner but there is this

www.yahoo.com/news/article...
October 21, 2025 at 12:17 AM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Because Canadians traditionally made up 2/3 of border crossers, the disparity between the decline in Canadian crossings and everyone else (basically Americans) is even larger than the chart above suggests. American crossing is almost flat while Canadians are staying away.
October 20, 2025 at 3:02 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Border crossing numbers update - the US data is delayed due to the shutdown, so here are some numbers from Statistics Canada. They do a nice job breaking out where travelers come from as well, so you can see Canadian visitors are driving the declining border crossing numbers #mepolitics
October 20, 2025 at 2:56 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
It’s fun watching the consultants turn Paul LePage into Ned Flanders. “Frankly, it ticks me off!” He says in his fleece vest. #mepolitics
October 19, 2025 at 11:15 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Mainers only recognize one kind of king.

(Portland Press Herald, Oct 28, 1926, p1)
October 19, 2025 at 3:15 AM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
The Maine Constitution says “the legislature shall never, in any manner, suspend or surrender the power of taxation.” Yet the state GOP is mad the Governor didn’t unilaterally enact a $100 million/year tax cut. #mepolitics

mainehousegop.org/newsroom/mai...
October 18, 2025 at 1:18 AM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Some examples of the impacts of the expiring health insurance tax credits on Mainers, from the Department of Health and Human Services #mepolitics

(apologies for poor screenshot)
October 17, 2025 at 6:03 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Looking forward to tomorrow’s appropriations committee meeting where the agenda can be boiled down to “five hours of how the federal government is screwing us.” #mepolitics
JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS AND FINANCIAL AFFAIRS Margaret Rotundo, Senate Chair Drew Gattine, House Chair DRAFT AGENDA Friday, October 17, 2025 REVISED 10-16-25 Room 228 State House 10:00 am (in conjunction with the Joint Standing Committee on Taxation) The effect of changes to federal income tax Laws on Maine income tax laws and revenue - Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Office of Tax Policy 12:30 pm Impact of federal shutdown on State finances and operations - Kirsten Figueroa, Commissioner, Department of Administrative and Financial Services 1:00 1:30 pm (in conjunction with the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services) Fiscal, Administrative and Program impacts of recent federal legislation on the Maine Department of Health and Human Services - Sara Gagné-Holmes, Commissioner, Department of Health and Human Services, et al
October 16, 2025 at 7:23 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
In this interview he expressed qualified support for red flag laws in general but I don’t think I’ve seen him weigh in on Q2 specifically.

www.huffpost.com/entry/maine-...
October 16, 2025 at 1:14 PM
jamesxmyall.bsky.social
Lamest possible answer from the Wikipedia page:
October 13, 2025 at 9:00 PM