For opinion pieces on any topic.
The Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia has a lot of oil.
The Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia has a lot of Shiites.
Many of the oil workers in the Eastern Province (as well as Bahrain, Oman & UAE) are Shiites.
These Shiites are currently very angry.
BURLINGTON, Vt., Jan. 4 – The deadline for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) sixth annual State of the Union essay contest is noon on Friday. Sanders essay contest calls upon Vermont’s high school students to address what they view as the major issues facing the United States. President Barack Obama will deliver his final State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress on Jan. 12.
Sanders’ annual essay contest is an opportunity for Vermont high school students to articulate what issues they would prioritize if they were president. A panel of Vermont teachers will judge the essays and select a winner. The 20 finalists will have their essays entered into the Congressional Record — the official archive of the United States Senate and House of Representatives.
This year’s seasonal epiphany had a fitting theme – peace and how to attain it. It was a two part revelation. The first is very simple: stop starting new wars. If there’s not already a war somewhere, don’t start one. Period. No matter how undemocratic you think the regime or how crappy their policies, bombing a country does not improve the lives of the people there. On the contrary, it destroys lives in every sense.
Petitions for Brattleboro Town and Town School District Officers and Town Meeting Members are now available at the Town Clerk’s office. Town elections and the Presidential Primary will be Tuesday, March 1, and the Annual Representatives Town Meeting, Saturday, March 19.
Petitions for Town Officers must contain at least 30 valid signatures of registered Brattleboro voters and be filed in the clerk’s office no later than 5:00 P.M. on Monday, January 25 in order to have their name placed on the ballot.
So many things happened in 2015, it’s hard to catalog in one year-end summation. To a large extent, It was a year defined by crises, including financial distress in Greece and China as well as the Syrian refugee crisis and the rise of ISIL. But before we plunge into the disaster zone, it was also a political year. What better place to start than the US presidential campaigns, now well underway.
Here in Vermont, many were heartened by Bernie Sanders’ strong start and people-powered campaign. It was nice to see someone take on Hillary, even as he gave her a pass on her various scandals (emailgate, Benghazi). There was also the rise of Donald Trump as the Republican frontrunner who can say almost anything and still gain in the polls. Despite the theatrics, politics this year provided a patter of response to the events of 2015, as the real world intruded into the carefully crafted platforms of the various candidates. They were forced to take positions on gun control, foreign affairs, Black Lives Matter, and the global economy, articulated in a string of debates held by both parties. Voters who are paying attention got the chance to hone their own positions against those who would be our leaders over the next several years.
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Will 2016 be the year in which a prominent voice quotes King’s condemnations of US wars. Good people everywhere should resolve this new year to follow Ramsey Clark in his efforts toward hearing the truthful and liberating words of King as a catalyst toward achieving justice and adjudicated compensations that will end profitable genocide
TEXT:
Will it happen in 2016, during the weekend holiday in the United States dedicated to Martin Luther King’s birth date. that of the dozens of nations presently under attack, whether by US NATO UN military or economic warfare, one will field a celebrity status leader reading to the public from King’s long suppressed sermon Beyond Vietnam – a Time to Break Silence?
At about this time each year, Brattleboro businesses generously donate over $50,000… to the Town of Brattleboro for a town business license.
That’s $50,000 that is diverted from food and heat drives, year-end bonuses, and holiday gift buying and into the town’s coffers. It is also an unnecessary hurdle for business owners in Brattleboro.
There are many things wrong with this approach, all easily solved if we are serious about being business-friendly.
It doesn’t need to be collected at this time of year.
The current system requires payments be made during the holiday season, when food drives, heat funds, and donations to other worthy causes need funds. This is the only time it can be collected, according to the way the town operates the program.
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Jesus warns harming God’s children is equivalent to harming the Lord. “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” This principle of a common humanity is basic to the Nuremberg Principles of Int’l Law, written to prosecute anyone, who would ever do what the Nazis did, which included bombing, invading and occupying innocent nations as Christian Americans have done since end of World War Two
With the intense focus on the supposed Islamic Bonnie and Clyde team of Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a lot of people seem to have forgotten that the initial reports of the tragedy fingered 3 white guys. Cops on KTLA reported that witnesses said as much.
Indeed, the Fox affiliate in Los Angeles tweeted that police were seeking 3 white males in relation to the shooting, in this tweet helpfully screen-capped at patheos.com in a story by Lilandra Ra.
So the Donald wants to forbid entry to the US by Muslims? So much for the First Amendment.
Hardly an original proposal.
Did you know that Jews are forbidden entry to Saudi Arabia by the laws of the Kingdom? Foreigners wishing to work in the kingdom have to sign an affidavit stating that they are not Jewish. I was required to furnish a letter from a clergyman corroborating that fact.
Dear Friends,
With the Paris Climate conference finally setting the stage for concerted action on behalf of the Earth and Nature, it may very well be time for our local politics to reflect this sea change. Neil Johnson has written an urgent appeal to help get the Green party registered as a statewide party in Vermont. Its time has come. He needs four more town to caucus. It needs to be done by tomorrow (Monday, 12/14). Emily Peyton will be organizing the caucus in Putney.
Who said life can’t be exciting, if you wait until the last minute!
3:42 minutes
Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon in 1969. There have been six manned U.S. landings between 1969 and 1972. A cursory trolling of the Internet will bring a trove of manned moon landings hoax claims and debunkers of the hoax theory. Did man walk on the moon or not?
One strong indicator against man walking on the moon hoax is that if the 1969 landing was a hoax, then all six manned missions to the moon were a hoax, as well as all of the unmanned vehicles landings and all the manned orbits around the moon. If a hoax is in order, then it would not make sense to create a hoax for just the first manned mission but to create a hoax for the entire array of Apollo missions.
In fact, there are too many indications that the manned landings were for real.
I awoke this morning, and turned on the radio. It was the ending of the Thom Hartman show on KVT.
A caller was discussing what he called “externalities”
[Factors whose costs are not reflected in the market price of goods and services. Externalities are a loss in the welfare of one party resulting from an activity of another party, without there being any compensation for the losing party. Externalities are an important consideration in cost-benefit analysis. (businessdictionary.com)]
Hartmann commented that the American business model calls for privatizing the profits and socializing the externalities.
He cited two examples:
I miss reading all the comments and good wishes in the donation column. I miss having a local charity that gave 100 percent of the proceeds to its intended beneficiaries.
I miss Pat Smith running the newspaper campaign. I miss how people would write: In lieu of local Christmas cards. I miss how you could write anything you wanted and make it as long as you wanted and it would get printed.
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A Nuremberg Trial for US Funding Slaughter of Syrians Destruction of Libya Iraq Afghanistan by jay janson
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“Assad killed his own people peacefully protesting!” Sound familiar? Substitute ‘Gaddafi’ for ‘Assad,’ and one is on one’s way to bring to mind so many other similarities made to be forgotten in TV, radio and printed news and entertainment in Western media, media owned by corporations profitably investing in the illegal and unconstitutional use of US Armed Forces and CIA. CIA creation and use of ‘Islamic’ terror is reviewed.
TEXT:
…..
I
broke into the
White
House and raped Ben.
Since
the abortion laws
were
repealed
he
had to carry
our
baby.
158 families are trying to buy our government.. . .
A handful of super-wealthy Americans is in the process of buying our government.
If you want to know how, and how to stop them, let explain:
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 – The Vermont congressional delegation – Sen. Patrick Leahy (D), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) and Rep. Peter Welch (D) – announced Tuesday that they have called upon the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to improve public input on proposed changes to nuclear plant decommissioning regulations.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, who serves on the Senate energy and environment committees, led the effort which urged the NRC to hold public meetings in each state where a nuclear power plant is currently being decommissioned and to extend the deadline for public comments.
Ted Cruz has taken a hard line on immigration. Cruz was born on December 22, 1970, in Calgary, Alberta. Therefore, Cruz is himself an immigrant. Huh?
On December 3rd, the House of Representatives unveiled a marble bust of former Vice President Cheney, which will reside in Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol. At the unveiling ceremony, Cheney was, in the playful words of NPR, “lightly roasted” — as though he’s some sort of grumpy though beloved avuncular stand-up comic. Courtesy, Glenn Greenwald.
