For opinion pieces on any topic.
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Thus far, I am the only volunteer to be re-appointed to the Town of Brattleboro Finance Committee. I was re-appointed shortly following last March’s Representative Town Meeting.
The Town Charter calls for the existence and work of the Finance Committee. This is the wording in the Charter:
For those unfamiliar with Hedges, he has spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years.
This essay hit me right between the eyes:
By Chris Hedges November 10, 2014
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 – Sharp increases in prices for many generic drugs were examined today at a Senate hearing where three pharmaceutical companies refused to testify.
Generic drugs, copies of drugs no longer protected by patents, historically have cost much less than brand-name prescription medicines. But federal records made public at the hearing show the price for 1,215 generic drugs increased 448 percent on average from July, 2013 to July, 2014. During that period, nearly 10 percent of all generic drugs more than doubled in price, according to the analysis of data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today that it would be “insane” to construct the Keystone XL pipeline to ship the dirtiest oil on the planet from Canada’s tar sands region to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico.
“The scientific community is telling us that we have a narrow window of opportunity to address the crisis of climate change and to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy,” Sanders said in prepared remarks. “This legislation would move us in exactly the wrong direction toward not only more dependence on fossil fuels but on some of the dirtiest fossil fuel imaginable. That is insane.”
I didn’t vote this year. For the first time in well over a decade, I was too annoyed to participate. Over the last six years, I’ve watched as the Democrats held power but proved unwilling or unable to wield it effectively. To make matters worse, those of us who fall left of center have been effectively stifled. Mainstream Democrats saw to that. So while many on the left fret about the Republicans and their Tea Party antagonists, I would argue that it was this stifling of discussion within the Democratic party that led to the debacle of the 2014 midterms. The Democrats are a party that is silently divided.
This self-indulgent blind, deaf and dumb US electorate is dangerous for the genocide and eventual WW III it mostly unconsciously continues to vote for.
Americans voting on Tuesday are dangerous because the grand majority of them will be voting unconsciously for continuing genocidal wars, which, as Martin Luther King cried out one year to the day before he received a bullet to his head), “are meant to maintain unjust predatory investments on three continents.” America’s interests abroad’ is what this overwhelming majority of those voting will understand as protecting American freedom at home.
BURLINGTON, Vt., Nov. 14 – Calling on the Postal Service to avert damaging service cuts and job losses, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pointed to a new report today that revenue for the mail delivery service rose by $569 million during the fiscal year that just ended.
It was the second year in a row that profits rose, mainly because of increases in package deliveries to online shoppers.
Despite almost $1 billion in revenue growth over the past two years, the Postal Service is forging ahead with plans to shut down as many as 82 mail processing plants beginning in January. The closings would put 15,000 jobs in jeopardy.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced today that a Senate panel he chairs will hold a hearing next week to explore why the costs of certain generic drugs are skyrocketing. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who has worked with Sanders on this issue, will take part in the Nov. 20 hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging.
Price hikes for generic drugs also reportedly have come under scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice. Subpoenas recently were issued to two generic drug makers seeking information about their interactions with competitors, The Wall Street Journal disclosed on Monday.
BURLINGTON, Vt., Nov. 10 – U.S. Senate Veterans’ Affairs’ Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement on Tuesday’s observance of Veterans Day:
“The truth is that we can never truly repay the debt that we owe to those men and women who put their lives on the line to defend our country. Since World War II, more than 500,000 Americans have lost their lives in war. Millions more have come home wounded in body and spirit. As a nation, we have a moral obligation to provide for the wounded and their families and ensure that all veterans receive every benefit they have earned and deserve.
BURLINGTON, Vt., Nov. 10 – Welcoming President Barack Obama’s support for net neutrality, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today urged the Federal Communications Commission to protect free and open access to the Internet.
In a l, Sanders said the commission should act decisively. “As you know, President Barack Obama has made a strong statement on net neutrality and the importance of preserving a free and open Internet. I strongly agree with him and so do the American people,” Sanders wrote to Wheeler.
Heres’ why I think Scott Milne should demand a re-count of the 2014 Election Results; and I’d like to see a total forensic exam of all the results, not just the Governor’s race, but the majority of people in Vermont are just concerned with the outcome of the Governor’s race.
The Vermont vote totals reported at 100% show 193,087 votes for all votes for Governor candidates, and 191,504 for all votes for Representative to Congress candidates. The difference is 193,087 – (minus) 191,504 = (equals) 1,583 fewer people seem to have voted for the first item on the ballot.
I can’t believe my eyes! They have done it again! In 2010 it was clear as a bell, they had an “unoffical” vote count, and then on the “official” vote count that followed, they cut my votes for Governor and for U.S. Senate right in half.
This time, The results of total votes at 96.365 counted were for me, Cris Ericson for U.S. Congress 3,605 votes at 1.89%. Today at 100% of the votes counted, my votes have been reduced to 2,750 at 1.44% coming in 3rd out of 6 candidates.
Frisky Fringe Candidate Seeks Fundraiser For 2016
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Campaign Fundraiser Need Now for 2016 Race!
This is like moving Christmas sales up before Thanksgiving. Yes, the candidate who came in last place for Governor of Vermont, and 3rd place for Representative to Congress, wants to lure some kind folk to explore the money trail, and bring home the wagon train full of cash to promote her 2016 run.
How do you raise campaign funds? If you are an attorney or lawyer, this is what you need to learn before contacting the candidate. Remember, they didn’t teach you everything in law school.
BURLINGTON, Vt., Nov. 7 – After Tuesday’s extremely low voter turnout, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced today that he will introduce to make Election Day a national holiday.
“In America, we should be celebrating our democracy and doing everything possible to make it easier for people to participate in the political process. Election Day should be a national holiday so that everyone has the time and opportunity to vote. While this would not be a cure-all, it would indicate a national commitment to create a more vibrant democracy,” said Sanders, who was not on the ballot on Tuesday.
Progressives Make Gains Respectable Showing For Liberty Union Socialists;
Radical-Capitalist Libertarians Fall Flat, By David Van Deusen
Thus far, one of the more interesting aspects of the 2014 Vermont election was the relative strength of the Progressive Party & and the respectable showings of the Vermont Liberty Union Party. The Democratic Party, in a year that saw record low turnout (43.7%), had a net loss of eleven in the VT House, and two in the VT Senate (and a surprisingly close contest for Governor). Even so, and even with voting patterns seemingly favoring the right, the Democrats retained a commanding lead in both the VT House and VT Senate. And while the Republicans made some gains (small in the big political scheme of things) the further left also did better than traditional election logic would seem to allow for.
At around midnight we have, for Representative to Congress, at 11:54 PM
Precints Reporting 80.36%
(1) Peter Welch 113,392
(2) Mark Donka 55,035
(3) Cris Ericson 3,368
(4) Jerry Trudell 3,309
(5) Matthew Andrews 2,761
(6) Randall Meyer 1,523
Below you’ll find the complete preliminary vote totals for Brattleboro. Click on the attachment to open a PDF showing the complete numbers.
Official results will be confirmed in the near future.
VERMONT – NEA THE UNION OF VERMONT EDUCATORS SHOWS THEIR TRUE COLORS, A PURE EXAMPLE, ON THEIR PART, OF CYBER BULLYING, BY GUESS WHO? THE VERMONT – NEA !
HOW SHOULD SCHOOLS ADDRESS CYBER BULLYING? BY QUITING THE VERMONT – NEA
The Vermont – NEA, the union of Vermont educators, has displayed a gross and horrendous act of cyber bullying and dis-information by telling their taxpayer paid teachers and other educators who to vote for, and who NOT to vote for!
BURLINGTON, Vt., Nov. 1 – A United Nations panel on Sunday is set to issue a major report detailing what a draft called “the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts” of global warming.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the new report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is expected to make the strongest case yet for decisive action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
“The scientific community across the world is sounding the alarm. Climate change is real and it will have devastating consequences around the globe unless we act boldly and decisively,” said Sanders, a member of the Senate environment and energy committees.
CHAMP, the LAKE CAMPLAIN MONSTER a sad political tale by Cris Ericson
Lake Champlain waters flow north, so if a natural gas pipeline, carrying entirely un-natural fracked gas, is built
underneath Lake Champlain near Ticonderoga, then while they are building it there will be a great deal of upheaval of the lake water and underlying soil, a huge muddy mess, and the mud and debris will flow north to Burlington.
