Welcome, friends, to the new year. And, welcome to the 200th year of Maine's existence. Our state has a very proud heritage, particularly given the nature of its official beginning. Maine was admitted as a "free state" to balance the admission of Missouri, which was being added as a "slave state."

The longer President Donald Trump talks, the more lies he tells. And now, at a time when the world may be teetering on the brink of war, the president and the U.S. are paying the price.

Newly elected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in the news this week for his plan to modernize the English government bureaucracy after England exits the European Union. I heard radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt was discussing Prime Minister Johnson's bringing of the bureaucracy into the 21st century, breaking bureaucratic stagnation and its disservice to the public

Commemorating a new day, at the beginning of a new year and a new decade, I stood the other day on a hilltop of a popular hiking spot and I surveyed the Atlantic Ocean to the east — I could almost see the Appalachian Trail far to the west and the lights of the cities to the south — and I thought about the past and the future of our great state.

With the election of Gov. Janet Mills in November 2018, Maine was able to turn the corner on the ugliness, lawlessness and cruelty of the LePage administration. Whether you agree with Mills on every issue is immaterial. The state of politics in Maine has changed and that gives me hope for the future of the United States.

The first thing I notice about Patrick McNamara's video on the LinkedIn business networking site? It is low-tech. Positioning his smart phone vertically, Mr. McNamara looks directly into his phone's camera. Sometimes we see his full face. Sometimes we see his head profiled. And sometimes part of McNamara's face is out of our field of view. Each video is just under a minute in length, with McNamara offering on each five-to-six lessons on what he calls "basic dude stuff."

Call me conservative, but I love tradition. And there is no finer tradition on these pages than the month of December, when I get to make predictions for the coming year, and -- as I'm about to do now -- I hand out superlatives for the year that was. 2019 came and went all too quickly, but there are plenty of bests and worsts to talk about. And so, we look back on the previous 12 months, and we remember. I give to you, the 2019 Conifer Awards:

'Twas the day after Christmas, when all through the House, Not a legislator was stirring, not even to grouse; The impeachment articles were delayed by the speaker with care,

I'll start with an admission: I genuinely like Jared Golden. To be clear, I view the manner in which he was elected to Congress to be repellent and illegitimate and I think that Bruce Poliquin should be the 2nd Congressional District representative.

In the era of President Donald Trump, Russian misinformation and Twitter bots spewing volumes of toxic fake facts, it’s good policy to be skeptical of what you see and hear. The satirical newspaper The Onion -- a great source for laughs -- has trouble competing with reality.

How many times I've driven past True Cemetery in South Livermore -- I don't know. It's also called Twin Bridges Cemetery after the two lovely iron bridges enabling traffic to cross over the Androscoggin River. Those bridges were destroyed by the State of Maine in 2005, replaced by a solitary concrete bridge with no soul.

Maine’s new state budget includes $2.7 billion more in spending than the previous two-year budget. This is a 16 percent hike in spending, a growth rate of more than three times the rate of inflation. Somehow, in this explosion of spending, this budget neglects to pay for the most fundamental of things that state government is supposed to take care of -- our roads and bridges.

My last column was about the immigrant Ulster Scots. Now, I’d like to introduce you to Scottish immigrants who didn’t come voluntarily.  

In general, Maine citizens need a better understanding of how government works, and more involvement in choosing and monitoring their elected officials. Limiting by law the number of terms one person can serve consecutive and/or total terms in office (aka term limits) has the opposite effect on citizens. As such, I oppose mandatory term limits for our elected officials.

One of the greatest gifts Maine could receive this holiday season is full and dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund to be included in the fiscal year 2020 federal budget.

I will begin this annual tradition of mine by acknowledging a failure of my final prediction of 2019. In last year's column, I told you that this year I would simply do a top 10 list, as the number of required predictions was getting unwieldy.

President Donald Trump has earned his impeachment. Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have an obligation to give it to him.

With Thanksgiving 2019 behind us, retailers’ obligatory Christmas promotions have pushed away the last remnants of turkey, pie, gherkins and Pilgrims. From now through December 26 -- the day after Christmas -- we will see and hear Christmas promotions of all kinds -- including music promos.