Wednesday, November 1, 2023

NH House and Senate Prepare to Gut Citizen Involvement in Siting Large Power Facilities

 



The Whisper of Wind
Signed Originals.    Unsigned Open Edition Prints




NH House and Senate Prepare to Gut Citizen Involvement in Siting Large Power Facilities

HB 609 Will eliminate the Site Evaluation Committee and Create a Bureaucratic Freeway for Everything from Nukes to Kooks, just bring money.  



It may be that I am just nostalgic for a time when State Representatives and Senators were responsive to constituents. That’s not a partisan statement, when I was first elected to the NH House and later the Senate both houses were firmly in the hands of the Republican Party. It wasn’t my party, but irrespective of whether they were to my left or right they had integrity and they were fair in their treatment of the public. 


No self-respecting Chair of a committee would even think of taking testimony without alternating between those in favor and those in opposition to a bill. Furthermore a Chair would NEVER preside over a hearing in which he or she was the sponsor of the legislation. It’s bad form, it’s unethical, and it’s just plain wrong to allow a bill’s sponsor to use the power of the chair to conduct a running commentary and debate with members of the public seeking to simply have their voices heard. 


But that is just what Rep. Michael Vose (R-Epping), Sponsor of HB 609 and Chairman of the House Science, Technology, and Energy Committee, the Committee hearing the bill, is doing.  


The public hearings on this bill features a parade of suits, vested business and bureaucratic interests, testifying at length and only when the public finally gets its opportunity - two hours into the meeting -  Rep Vose announces that they will be limited to 2 minutes in their testimony. 


It seems if you came to the public hearing wearing a suit and tie you could speak as long as you cared to; but if you came looking like you left the dairy farm, the garage or the woodlot hastily, sorry, you have two minutes to make your case. 


While introducing the bill back in March, Vose said the “SEC has a lack of institutional knowledge, sparse technical expertise, turnover, and a dearth of funding and dedicated support staff.” That’s political speak for “we know better than you” and, just to add insult to injury, “we will reward ourselves with more money and personnel that we could have just given to the SEC.” 

  

“Moving jurisdiction to the PUC,” he said, “would professionalize the site evaluation process, making it more timely and efficient with increased resources and staffing.”  No one thought to just suggest that we give the SEC those same resources and we get the staffing we need but maintain citizen involvement?


The bottom line is this: There is NO need to eliminate the SEC. It has served us well over the years but it has one problem: It’s too damn responsive to those pesky citizens. This is a solution in search of a problem. There is no problem, except that the vested energy interests might have to work harder to build consensus and that is just too inconvenient for bureaucrats who are dependent upon the politicians and the business interests who would rather not be bothered with justifying their projects. After all, they know better than all those hayseeds filling the public benches and asking to be included in the process.


Less than a decade ago the law creating the Site Evaluation Committee was reformed to improve its function and the public’s access to the process. The reforms - brilliantly crafted by Senator Bradley and former aid to Governor Judd Gregg and Forest Society Representative Will Abbott, among others, have worked. Some projects have been approved and some have not. But there is one project that really sticks in the craw of the politicians and the energy interests: The Northern Pass debacle that led to the thumping that Eversource received - a unanimous and well-deserved thumping by the way from both the SEC and the State Supreme Court. 


We should be asking that our government be MORE responsive to the needs of citizens, not less. If energy interests and bureaucrats and politicians figure out how to work for consensus, so much the better. 


If you ever wondered whether “agency capture” was a problem at the State level in addition to the Federal level, wonder no more. 




Notes & Links


The “final” public hearing on HB 609 is scheduled for November 6, 2023 at 9:30am in the Legislative office building. 




A Ripple of Hope 
Signed Originals.    Unsigned Open Edition Prints



About Wayne D. King: Author, podcaster, artist, activist, social entrepreneur and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor. His art (WayneDKing.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published five books of his images, most recently, "New Hampshire - a Love Story”. His novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline as well as the photographic books are available at most local bookstores or on Amazon. He lives on the “Narrows” in Bath, NH at the confluence of the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc Rivers and proudly flies the American, Iroquois and Abenaki Flags. His publishing website is: Anamaki.com.


Podcasts are produced at Anamaki Studios in Bath, NH. 

This land lies in N’dakinna, the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki, Sokoki, Koasek, Pemigewasset, Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude those who have stewarded N’dakinna throughout the generations.







Sandstone Moon Over Arches National Park
Signed Originals      Unsigned Open Edition Prints







Workout Washday Impressions
Signed Originals     Unsigned Open Edition Prints




Sunday, October 15, 2023

Keep Mount Washington’s Name but Restore the Asquamchumaukee

 A Former Mountain Guide and an Abenaki Descendant Makes the Case for a Split Decision


Painted Bend in the Asquamchumaukee

So much of my time during my daily walks now is consumed by thoughts of my Native American heritage and how and where I reside within the circle of life in which I find myself. Though I have always had an innate sense of my heritage it was not until I was well into my middle age that my father revealed to me that my Grandfather was half Abenaki and half Iroquois. My father only reluctantly shared this with me because he had made a promise to his own father to continue a cultural survival practice of the Abenaki known as “hiding in plain sight”, a practice of blending into the white culture as a means of avoiding the harsh realities of discrimination against native people. I never expected that I would find myself in the twilight of life trying to rebraid the sweetgrass of my heritage, my life, and my spiritual and artistic place in the cosmos, yet here I am. 

Most recently I have come face to face with a challenge that presents cross-currents in that process. Like trying to run a rapid where two rivers flow together creating conflicting water hazards as well as exciting and interesting features that make the moment challenging and treacherous; disrupting my balance, throwing me into a miasma of standing waves, holes, eddys, rocks and drops.    

It’s not an existential challenge, like those I have written about with respect to wealth disparity or Climate Change or AI. In fact, to most folks it is probably a blip on their radar, if that. 



Autumn in a Blue Pool -
Signed Original
.  Unsigned Open Edition Prints

Recently, Kris Pastoriza of Easton, NH submitted a petition to restore the original names of Mount Washington and the Baker River to their Abenaki names. 

The Baker River, as far back as anyone’s memories extend was known as the Asquamchumauke or Asquamchumaukee. I was raised with the word Asquamchumaukee ending in a double e. Perhaps because some folks pronounced the word with the last syllable “kee” and others pronounced the final syllable as “auke”.  You will often find folks referring to the mountain, from which its waters flow, Moosilauke, the same way.  Neither is wrong, neither is right. Like many of the names and words from native languages the reality is that no one can dictate with certainty the correct English spelling for them. Chances are that the first time they ever appeared in text it was committed to paper by the hand of an uneducated woodsman who was barely able to write himself,  or - on rare occasions - herself. 

Asquamchumaukee is an Abenaki word, variously translated as “Place of Mountain Water” and “Salmon Spawning Place” The river, of the same name, runs 36.4-mile-long (58.6 km) traversing the towns of Warren, Wentworth, and Rumney in Central, NH. It rises on the south side of Mount Moosilauke and runs south and east to its confluence with the Pemigewasset River in Plymouth

The area has been home to the Abenaki people for more than 18,000 years and, except for occasional forays by the Haudinausanee, also known as the Iroquois, to hunt or pester the Abenaki, they were the inheritors of the region from the paleo-Indian group known as the Algonquin from whom their heritage and language is derived. Algonquin is the root language for many nations, ranging from the Abenaki in the east to the Sioux and Cheyenne of the plains. The villages and groupings of the Abenaki have, until recently, dominated the area.  



Autumn in the Birches - Signed Originals


Mount Washington, as most New Hampshire folks know, is the highest Mountain in the northeastern US at 6,288 feet above sea level. According to New Hampshire lore, the first man to ascend to the summit of Mount Washington was a fellow named Darby Field. Field's ascent, in 1642, was actually of Mt Agiochocook, an Abenaki name said to be derived from one of the Algonquin names for the Mountain; although it too bears several different spellings and even names.  The mountain would not begin the journey to its new name for another 140 years when it would be named, informally, by a cartographer, Manasseh Cutler. 

Field's 18-day hike to the summit took place when he was 32 years of age, and - because Field himself was illiterate - there is no first-hand account of the journey. What little we know about it comes from the journals of Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Early accounts of the journey suggest that Field made the trip simply for the love of adventure but a recently discovered letter suggests that he was in search of a route to Lake Champlain in what is now Vermont for a commercial enterprise looking to expand their fur trade.


Rowing by Moonlight


Since Field was of European descent, he was credited as the first to climb, though he had an entire entourage of native guides, at least two of whom ascended the mountain with Field according to Winthrop. Unsurprisingly, their names have been lost to history.

History texts claim that the Abenaki did not climb the highest peak in the northeast because they believed it was the dwelling place of evil spirits, and death or bad luck would come to those who tried, though chances are that this was a convenient myth created by colonial minds since the Abenaki word translates roughly to “Place of the Great Spirit”.  

The Abenaki, who called themselves Wabanaki are part of a broader confederacy that included 5 major sub-groups: Abenaki, Malecite, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot. with small sub-groups bearing more recognizable names: Pemigewasset, Winnipesaukee, Contoocook, Pigwacket, Sokoki, Cowasuck (aka Androscoggin) and Ossipee, among others. 

So now we come to the crux of my own personal dilemma. 

My first adult job was as a guide in the White Mountains. I have traipsed from Old Spec to Monadnock, from Mt Chocorua to Moosilauke. Much of that happened before the revelation of my Abenaki and Iroquois roots, yet even then I relished the chance to share the legends and stories of the Native American people for whom many of the Mountains of New Hampshire are named. 

Yet, I must profess an ambivalence to renaming Mt. Washington. Not because there is any reason to shy away from Agiochocook, but because it sits at the pinnacle of a range named the Presidentials and these mountains represent the founders who laid down the guardrails that even allow us to have this conversation and “first in the hearts of his countrymen” was George Washington. 

Like all of the founders of this nation, and all of us for that matter, Washington was a human being with feet of clay. Yet he was also a great American hero and the foibles of his humanity should be taught not erased. There are mountains enough here for us to celebrate all of the American family and that is what I want our children to learn. 

Now the Asquamchumaukee is a different matter altogether. 

In 1712 Thomas Baker set off from Northhampton Massachusetts with a troop of scalp hunters. These were not soldiers, they were not in the service of anything more than the bounty that had been established on Indian scalps. They were self-styled Indian killers. 

At the confluence of the Asquamchumaukee and Pemigewasset rivers, they came upon a peaceful village of Pemigewasset Abenaki. The men, of the village are said to have been off hunting when Baker’s scalp hunters came upon the village of women, children and the elderly. They attacked the village and indiscriminately killed everyone, scalping them, stealing their furs and other provisions and then returned to Northhampton to collect the bounty on scalps. 

Baker never returned to the area and never distinguished himself in any other capacity in his lifetime. This one bloodthirsty and barbaric act would be the pinnacle of his career and for that the river was named in his “honor”. 



Deep in a Dorchester Wood
Signed Originals     Unsigned Open Edition Prints

But there was no honor involved, only shame.

Years later the Abenaki would capture John Stark a few miles northwest on the river. He would be led to their village in Saint Francis as a captive and over the course of a year living among them, adopted into the tribe before being released to return to New Hampshire where he would become General John Stark the Hero of Bennington, often said to be the turning point of the Revolutionary War. It was John Stark who yelled the famous phrase to his comrades: “Live Free or Die”. 

For the rest of his days, John Stark would always remember the Abenaki people for the great kindness that they had shown to him. 

Ms. Pastoriza was not incorrect in the factual case she made. She should be praised for seeding this discussion. If for no other reason than it allows us all to examine the nuances of the times and the ongoing struggle for the dignity of all people.

On the other hand, the members of the State Council on Resources and Development have not acquitted themselves likewise. They are the ultimate example of agency corporate capture. 

Mark E. Doyle, director of the New Hampshire Department of Safety Division of Emergency Services and Communication, who wrote that the change “could prevent or significantly delay the provisioning of emergency services,” to both the river and mountain “because of potential confusion, lack of familiarity, or pronunciation during stressful, life-safety situations.” 





Apples in a Hedgerow No 1 - Original



What hogwash.

Doyle should be relieved of his position for either incompetence or lack of imagination. His remarks demonstrate that he is either woefully unqualified or he was cynically casting around for a reason to oppose the petition and could come up with no more creative approach than to suggest that the sophistication of his technology and the ignorance of his subordinates would pose some threat to their ability to respond to an emergency. He clearly believes that the rest of us are all far too stupid to see through his juvenile explanation. I can assure you that we are not. If they are going to keep him in a position for which he is clearly not qualified, at the very least, a fourth grader should be hired to teach him about the novel concepts of computers and GPS. 

As for Scott Mason of Fish and Game, well most of us who witnessed his sycophantic behavior as handmaiden to Eversource during the Northern Pass fight knew he was unqualified for the position to begin with and his appointment was never a serious matter to begin with. 

Links

https://indigenousnh.com/2018/12/06/the-wobanadenok/

About Wayne D. King: Author, podcaster, artist, activist, social entrepreneur and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor. His art (WayneDKing.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published five books of his images, most recently, "New Hampshire - a Love Story”. His novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high-voltage adventure to stop a private powerline as well as the photographic books are available at most local bookstores or on Amazon. He lives on the “Narrows” in Bath, NH at the confluence of the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc Rivers and proudly flies the American, Iroquois and Abenaki Flags. His publishing website is: Anamaki.com.

Produced at Anamaki Studios in Bath, NH. 

This land lies in N’dakinna, the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki, Sokoki, Koasek, Pemigewasset, Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude those who have stewarded N’dakinna throughout the generations.

Sumac Fall
Signed Originals.    Unsigned Open Edition Prints


Spirit Pony in a Painted Dreamscape
Signed Originals.    Open edition prints


Flames along the Asquamchumaukee

 Signed Originals.     Unsigned Open Edition Prints

The Hitching Post Lilac
Signed Originals    Unsigned Open Edition Prints

Sunday, October 1, 2023

Take a Late Fall Tamarack Tour - After the gawkers are gone a season of gold beckons.


Cattails and Tamarack Under a Painted Sky        waynedking.com


Want an extraordinary foliage experience without the crowds? Try a Tamarack Tour. 

We live in one of the most beautiful places on earth.  Yet for many of us who live here, it becomes all too commonplace.  We find ourselves annoyed by the inconveniences that arise from the flood of visitors to the Granite State during the foliage season. Sure we are often captivated by a favorite tree in foliage or a special place where the changing seasons have a near-spiritual draw for us. . . but all those tourists! All those long waits for a seat at our usual restaurants or jockeying for parking on streets that usually have plenty of open spaces! If you are grateful for anything, it’s probably that the season only lasts for a few weeks. 

So, for those who bridle at the crowds of the foliage season in NH and Vermont, but still can find that spark of romanticism that the bittersweet days of autumn can bring to our souls, there is an alternative: Plan a Tamarack Tour.

The Tamarack is also known as the American Larch. Larches are the only coniferous tree that loses its needles in the fall and they do so in a spectacular fashion. In the later weeks of autumn in the Northeast - generally well after the mind-bending colors of the traditional foliage have passed - the Tamarack will begin to turn yellow. Eventually, its needles will fall off, unlike its siblings of the pine, fir, and spruce varieties, but not before presenting its own autumnal display.

If there hasn’t been a windstorm, stripping leaves from the trees, many of the other trees will still have their leaves, but they will have gone to brown, setting up a near-perfect tableau for the colors of the Tamarack, splashing varied hues of yellow across the landscape and mixing with the greens and blues of the conifers and the browns of the deciduous trees. 

For the aesthetic, it can be a heart-melting visual experience.

According to the UNH Cooperative Extension: “Tamarack is very intolerant of shade, and is referred to by foresters as a pioneer species. In other words, it is one of the first species to occupy a disturbed site, establishing readily on burns, clearcuts, and abandoned agricultural land, especially those with poorly drained soils. It is commonly seen growing on roadsides, old log landings, field edges, and other places where a significant disturbance created an opening and exposed mineral soil. Tamarack seeds germinate well on mineral soil and on moss, which is why they can become established in peatlands.

Due to tamarack’s affinity for wet sites and its intolerance of shade, it is typically found in association with other species that share similar ecological characteristics. Some common associates in wet organic soils are black spruce and northern white cedar. On sites with slightly better drainage, balsam fir and white spruce are found growing with tamarack. The species is also found in association with quaking aspen, grey birch, and white birch on old field sites, along with alder, willow, and red-osier dogwood in areas of old poorly drained pasture or field.”

Tamarack is an Algonquin word, the ancient root language of both my Paternal grandparents - he of the Iroquois Confederacy and she of the Abenaki nation. The word translates roughly into “wood used for snowshoes”. The wood is flexible yet tough. Native people also used the fine roots of tamarack to sew birch bark for both dwellings and canoes. Other uses of tamarack by native people included dogsled runners, boat gunwales and ribs, and fish traps.

In his extraordinary book “A Sand County Almanac” Aldo Leopold described the color of Tamarack in fall as “smoky gold” but variations in the mineral composition of the soil can yield colors in a broad spectrum of yellow and gold.

Take Your Best Shot:

The best places to see Tamarack are in wet, boreal areas, especially in the North Country and Great North Woods of New Hampshire (where you might get lucky and see a moose or two as well) and the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont. There are also some select areas in Southern NH and the Monadnock region where you will find them, though you may need to enlist the help of a local native to identify those spots (look for the ponds and wetlands).

The image below was captured on the southern end of The Easton Road between Franconia and Rte 112 in Easton, just north of Franconia Notch. I came upon it at a particularly sharp bend in the road, at the end of which a bog revealed itself dusted by the season’s first snow and the bright yellow of its Tamarack.  It inspired the poem beneath it, as well as a scene in the book I was writing at the time,  "Sacred Trust". Penned later by the warmth of a fire in my beloved home in Rumney, my Alice sitting by my side, filling the draft pages of my novel with the red pen marks of an editor. Laughing just enough to bolster my confidence to continue.




Notes & Links





Recommended scenic roads and hikes on your Tamarack trail.


Bradford Bog: Hike the bog from East Washington Road in Bradford, NH. There is a trail guide and map available online at Bradfordnh.org 


The Easton Road, Franconia to Rte 112. 


Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge, Whitefield, NH. Pondicherry has often been called one of the “crown jewels” of New Hampshire’s landscape, and visitors to the site will easily understand why. The ponds, wetlands, and forests of this refuge support a wide variety of significant ecological features. Trailhead address: Presidential Rail Trail, 289 Airport Road, Whitefield, NH 03598.

Tripoli Road: Waterville Valley to Rte 93

Hoar Pond: Nussdorfer Nature Area, New Ipswich, NH The area around Hoar Pond is populated with a stand of tamarack. Parking off Old Country Road, which is found from River Road off Route 124. Look for brown and white signs.

Ponemah Bog Trail, Amherst, NH

https://www.nhaudubon.org/lands/sanctuaries/ponemah-bog/

The Fells, Philbrick-Crecenti Bog, Sunapee NH

https://lake-sunapee-living.com/lake-sunapee-hiking-biking/philbrick-cricenti-bog-trail/



Quincy Bog in Rumney, NH lays claim to a champion Tamarack. Founded by the legendary couple Ann and Joe Kent of Rumney, Quincy Bog has a beautiful little trail, just over a mile long skirting the bog with special walkways made from (you guessed it!) Tamarack which is strong and especially impervious to rot. 


UNH Cooperative Extension Tamarack Page:

https://extension.unh.edu/blog/2019/12/tamarack





About Wayne D. King: Author, podcaster, artist, activist, social entrepreneur and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor. His art (WayneDKing.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published five books of his images, most recently, "New Hampshire - a Love Story”. His novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline as well as the photographic books are available at most local bookstores or on Amazon. He lives on the “Narrows” in Bath, NH at the confluence of the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc Rivers and proudly flies the American, Iroquois and Abenaki Flags. His publishing website is: Anamaki.com.


Produced at Anamaki Studios in Bath, NH. 

This land lies in N’dakinna, the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki, Sokoki, Koasek, Pemigewasset, Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude those who have stewarded N’dakinna throughout the generations.




Friday, September 15, 2023

Hold onto your hats! Everything that you assume about the Upcoming Presidential Election May be Wrong

Hold onto your hats! Everything that you assume about the Upcoming Presidential Election May be Wrong


The DNC May Drive Bobby Kennedy Jr. or Marianne Williamson into an Independent Campaign for President.


With Biden and Trump deadlocked in polls, as the presumptive nominees of their parties, saving Democracy may demand that Kennedy swallow hard and take on the establishment of both parties.




The Highlander of Benton Heights
Original Signed Art       Open edition 



Chapel in the Lupine Field
Signed Originals   Unsigned Open Edition Prints 




I’ve been thinking a lot about Daniel Webster lately. 


In the back of our minds, most Americans - and especially those of us from New Hampshire and Massachusetts know that Webster was an important force in the struggle to end slavery. In fact, in his time Webster was the most famous elected official in the struggle against slavery. Yet somehow - though Webster was renowned for his booming voice and condemnation of slavery - his voice has been stilled to a shallow echo of itself. In the years since then. 


Depending on which historian you consider your “go to” authority you will hear various stories accounting for this. All of them, however, revolve around Daniel Webster’s “about face” on the Fugitive Slave Act.  


Several months ago, I interviewed historian and author Joel Richard Paul, author of the recent biography of Webster “Indivisible: Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism” for The Radical Centrist Podcast” ( link below)  Paul argues that, while Webster was strongly opposed to the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act, he was also deeply concerned that the Union was not strong enough at the time of its passage to win the inevitable Civil War that Webster believed was coming. Webster felt it was imperative that he buy extra time for the Union before war ensued. He knew that agreeing to a compromise that allowed for the Fugitive Slave Act would be a stain on his legacy, even though Lincoln himself agreed to the compromise.  It seems that in hindsight, even Webster underestimated how deeply it would cut into his reputation and legacy. 


There is a stark, and troubling, parallel between this and the recent behavior of Bernie Sanders. 


You perhaps will remember how the Democratic party used every possible means of underhanded and anti-democratic means to deny the nomination to Bernie back in 2016. Many have argued that it was this behavior that ultimately gave us Donald Trump as our President. Though we will never know because there was never a head-to-head election between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.  

Now, we’ll get back to the Sanders/Webster comparison in just a moment; but first, let’s talk about how the Parties have run roughshod over the process, and more importantly over “we the people”. 


Let’s first be clear about the legal authority of the two parties - THEY HAVE NONE. 



Tamarack Monochrome Under a Platinum Sky
Signed Originals      Unsigned Open Edition Prints

For all intents and purposes, they are two corporations, with NO constitutional franchise whatsoever.


Thats right. There is nothing in the constitution or in the main corpus of law, that gives either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party any legal authority. After all remember that George Washington warned us in his farewell address to beware of factions (That is what the parties are after all)  as did Madison, Adams and Franklin among many others.  


If the Federal or State Governments had not - long ago - surrendered the mechanisms for conducting elections - particularly primary elections - to the two major political parties, candidates vying to be the alternative to the chosen candidates of the power brokers in the Democratic and Republican parties would be able to challenge, in the courts, the banana republic tactics currently infecting our election process, and the Federal and State Governments would NEVER be able to get away with the perversion of the process that both the Republican and Democratic parties are engaged in. 


Let’s look at the mess they have created.  If the Democratic Party gets their way New Hampshire citizens, who have for 100 years honorably and diligently conducted the first-in-the-nation Presidential Primary, will not only be bypassed by the primary process, but delegates chosen by the people will not be seated at the Party’s Convention and their votes will not be counted. 


During the election of 2020 Donald Trump accused Joe Biden of hiding in his basement as a means to avoid accountability. This time, both candidates are hiding and they are using the party’s apparatus to allow them to avoid the voters. All of this is happening at a time when the presumptive nominees of both political parties are individuals who the vast majority of voters do not want running for the office. Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump hover at about 70% of the electorate that wishes they were not the choice in the next election. This does not even begin to address doubts that the public has about Kamala Harris or Trump’s “player to be named later”. Neither political party can claim the high ground when it comes to election shenanigans but for the moment the Democratic Party is the winner in the anti-democratic stakes. 


The Spirit of the Drafthorse
Signed Originals     Open edition print

This week, the Democratic National committee will meet to affirm a new set of “Rules”, nothing with the force of law of course because they have no legal authority. The rules create special categories of delegates that are intended to override and steal the votes from New Hampshire citizens. Joe Biden is expected to “skip” New Hampshire’s primary, but the special delegates to be adopted by the Democratic Party will be able to override any vote of NH citizens. It gives new meaning to the old phrase: “Heads I win. Tails you lose.”  Any alternative candidate, no matter how well they do, will find their votes cast for Joe Biden. If you thought the Chicago Convention of 68 was bad, this one could be worse.


Now, back to Bernie. Last week he was asked how he could support this system of alternative delegates that was used against him in 2016. He said that we were in an existential fight for democracy. In other words, to prevent an authoritarian from becoming President, we have to use authoritarian tactics ourselves. Bernie would do well to remember what happened to Webster. By selling his soul, he tanks his legacy. 



Notes & Links


Indivisible: Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/indivisible-daniel-webster-and-the-birth/id1448723412?i=1000602184529



About Wayne D. King: Author, podcaster, artist, activist, social entrepreneur and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor. His art (WayneDKing.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published five books of his images, most recently, "New Hampshire - a Love Story”. His novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline as well as the photographic books are available at most local bookstores or on Amazon. He lives on the “Narrows” in Bath, NH at the confluence of the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc Rivers and proudly flies the American, Iroquois and Abenaki Flags. His publishing website is: Anamaki.com.


Podcasts are produced at Anamaki Studios in Bath, NH. 

This land lies in N’dakinna, the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki, Sokoki, Koasek, Pemigewasset, Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude those who have stewarded N’dakinna throughout the generations.




Newfound Rendezvous Impressions
Originals    Open edition prints


Oliverian Spring Originals   Open Edition Prints 



I Dreamt a Field of Lupine Originals      Open Edition Prints







NH House and Senate Prepare to Gut Citizen Involvement in Siting Large Power Facilities

  The Whisper of Wind Signed Originals .     Unsigned Open Edition Prints NH House and Senate Prepare to Gut Citizen Involvement in Siting L...