For opinion pieces on any topic.
I always thought very highly about Humane Societies and animal rights people in general. It’s not always the case.
In the film “The Stand At Paxton County”, I got an entirely different view of the whole situation. (It’s currently available on Netflix)
Though the film is fiction, it’s based on reality.
Homelessness has been stopped in its tracks in Brattleboro. As I write this, there is not a single person that I am aware of that does not currently have shelter. This is an incredible achievement. What’s more incredible is that it was accomplished within the last 30 days.
As we saw COVID-19 advance toward Vermont, we at Groundworks Collaborative worked closely with our State partners to establish and enact guidance that eventually led to everyone that was without housing, or who was precariously housed, being able to access local motel rooms. It is quite remarkable that a vision Groundworks has held for our community—that everyone has their basic needs met with dignity—has become a reality during this crisis. This need not be an anomaly.
Groundworks’s staff have answered the call when needed most and I have to share my deep appreciation for their work—especially as they put themselves and their families at risk to come to work each day. Without them, we would not be able to be so effectively meeting our community’s basic needs.
This little video says it all:
COVID-19 has brought on an economic crisis not seen in the US since the Great Depression. And as with all historic financial disasters, it is far from inevitable that the working class-left will emerge from the chaos with a progressive agenda moving forward. Another competing force is the far right. Such reactionaries will use the crisis to seek to implement privatizations, cuts to social services, elimination of environmental regulations, and even more tax cuts for the rich. There will also be those on the extreme right who will use the crisis to argue for a neo-fascist re-ordering of society.
We, the Labor Movement, must recognize the opportunities and dangers the crisis presents. We must also be sober in our analysis that the future is unwritten, and the outcome undecided. And here, we shall only emerge as the victors and we shall only have the ability to move a progressive program forward if we are able to build the power required to overcome the other. And right now, the battle over the United States Postal Service is the front that has been opened by the Trump Administration, and therefore constitutes one of the major fights we must engage in.
On behalf of some of Windham County’s more vulnerable citizens the Windham County Heat Fund would like to thank all of the generous people who donated to the heat fund this year. We raised $27,020 and gave out $28,770. We carried over a small surplus from the previous year.
The fund received $8690 in local corporate and church donations from the Brattleboro Elks, St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, the Brattleboro Sunrise Rotary, Clear Solutions, Broad Brook Grange, American Postal Workers Union 3535, First United Methodist Church and the Insight Center. They are all perennial supporters of the heat fund, as is iBrattleboro who provides free advertising during the heating season. We could not do our work without them.
On Wednesday, April 15th, 2020, Champlain Valley Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) hosted a Zoom panel discussion with organizers from several labor and social justice groups in Vermont and around the U.S. Panelists discussed the pandemic-related challenges they are facing in their communities and workplaces and, most importantly, how they are seeking to overcome these challenges and advance bold left demands for workers’ rights and economic and social justice [and a Union based Green New Deal].
Following the panel discussion, DSA opened up the floor to questions from participants. The goal of the call was to strategize ways to coordinate our work more closely, develop shared demands and provide concrete ways for people to tap into these current campaigns and actions.
With August Primary elections and the November General elections coming up around the corner, we encourage all voters to visit their My Voter Page to update their registration address, including their physical AND mailing addresses, and request an absentee ballot to be mailed to them.
The My Voter Page is now found at https://mvp.vermont.gov. If you encounter problems logging into your My Voter Page, please contact the Town Clerk’s office at 802-251-8157 for assistance. People can also register to vote using the online voter registration page at https://olvr.vermont.gov. Note that both of these links have been updated.
UK Telecom providers are facing calls from ministers to halt the spread of “crazed conspiracy theories” about 5G after mobile phone masts were set on fire and employees abused by people peddling “nonsense”.
Activists have been targeting the infrastructure being used by emergency services combating the coronavirus. Cabinet minister Michael Gove described ‘conspiracy’ theories blaming 5G for the spread of Covid-19 as “dangerous nonsense”.
The Dems have shown that they’d rather lose the election to Trump than to nominate the only one who could beat him.
In an April 5 comment on a recent article, under the subject line: And people still need to move…. , cgrotke wrote the following:
“It would be a shame if, at the end of this, everyone is simply in debt up to their eyeballs, and everyone needs to work off the “debt” of these strange months for the foreseeable future. That would be a very slow digging out of the economy.”
Under the category: “This is so crazy, it might just work!” please allow me to offer up a solution:
Now you can run for President in Vermont, or any political office in the 2020 primary election and 2020 general election without collecting ballot access petition signatures 2020!
https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2020/H.681
I would challenge anyone to find a single instance were VT Representative Cynthia Browning voted in favor of any piece of major legislation that benefited Vermont workers or was supported by Organized Labor. And this week she challenged the quorum of the House thereby compelling 100 lawmakers to converge on the Statehouse, despite the rapid spreading virus, in order to enact emergency voting procedures desired on a tri-partisan bases during the crisis. The Vermont AFL-CIO celebrates Browning’s removal from the powerful Ways And Means Committee and encourages Speaker Mitzi Johnson to not appoint her to any committee. We further call on the Vermont Democratic Party to continuously reject Browning as a recognized member of their Party and thereby refuse access to their Party lists, endorsements, and assistance during the November General Election. And frankly, the Vermont AFL-CIO asserts that such actions should have been taken years ago.
There’s something very unifying about a global crisis — a great inescapable event that affects us all at the same time. Such crises seem rare but in modern times, they happen often. We have world economic crises, a global climate crisis, and a crisis of faith in our leaders that’s led to widespread social uprisings around the world. These sorts of crises affect everyone to some extent, but the effects are hard to gauge. Some people are affected disproportionately, others not at all.
“WHAT IS NEW TODAY • Selectboard member Dave Schoales has resigned so that Selectboard member-elect Ian Goodnow can be appointed. This will allow the composition of the Selectboard to change in the manner decided by the voters at the same time when that transition normally would take place. The Town’s Charter states that “newly elected Selectboard members’ terms shall begin on the first Monday following the final adjournment of the annual Representative Town Meeting.” Due to the postponement of this year’s Representative Town Meeting, the commencement of Ian Goodnow’s service would have been delayed indefinitely. Instead, a special Selectboard meeting will be held soon so that the continuing 4 Selectboard members can appoint Ian Goodnow to fill the vacancy created by Dave Schoales’ resignation.”
If you are a Vermont voter or if you know a Vermont voter, would you please share my 2 political candidate petitions
to qualify for the official election ballot in November as an independent candidate for Representative to U.S. Congress & for Governor of Vermont?
Thank you so much!
Strange times, eh? And such a quick, sudden shift for just about everything. Aside from whiplash, how are you holding up?
I find myself going back and forth between trying to continue some semblance of business as usual, and being in shock at how this is not business as usual at all.
I have been advised this morning that some rumors of significant COVID-19 impacts are circulating in Brattleboro. Examples include “hospital staff have been instructed not to report to work” and “police officers are wearing masks whenever they are in public.” These rumors are not true. Please continue to monitor the situation on the Vermont Health Department’s website at https://www.healthvermont.gov/response/infectious-disease/2019-novel-coronavirus. Please also continue to encourage members of the public to use that Health Department site as their source of reliable information about COVID-19 in Vermont. The link to that site remains posted in the “News” section on the right side of the Town’s homepage. The Health Department is updating the site at least daily and some days it is updated multiple times.
The national Democratic party machine has once again managed to set up its circular firing squad as the bullets started flying. Instead of developing a comprehensive strategy to use the presidential primary as a way to unify Democrats, they have created chaos while allowing Trump to set the agenda for just about everything they do.
The grand obsession is to focus almost all of their messaging and energy on their anointed candidate who they believe has the best chance of beating Trump in November. Debate over the issues important to voters has been tainted by the obsession.
Brattleboro Town Selectboard will hold a pre-town meeting information forum on Wednesday, March 11 at Academy School beginning at 7:00 PM. Representative Town Meeting articles will be discussed, including the budget. At 6:30 p.m., town meeting members of each district will be available to meet with constituents to offer residents an opportunity to share their views and discuss articles to be voted on at the annual meeting. Also, at that time, all three districts will be accepting nominations to fill town meeting member vacancies for 1 year.District 1 has eleven seats to appoint, District 2 has one seat to appoint, and District 3 has four seats to appoint.
Super Tuesday is over and the air waves are quiet. As you can imagine, I was very disappointed with the results; both with Bernie’s unexpected losses in Texas and here in New England but also when Pete And Amy precipitously threw their support to Biden along with Betto O’ Rourke. And even more when I heard that there had been a meeting of the party leaders before all that where I’m sure they pressured the moderate candidates to give their support to Biden. And Obama weighed in and Harry Reid and others. Then, in the “unkindest cut of all” Bloomberg bows out and moves to give Biden the use of his money! And now I here that the party is pressuring Warren to stay in to take votes away from Bernie. What kind of an election is this?
