Op/Ed

I was so proud of our town last night when I saw how many people turned out for the Black Lives Matter rally and march. It was the most diverse group I’ve evr seen gathered in one place in Brattleboro; white people; black people, asian people, students, retirees, families with kids in tow, business owners, farmers, librarians…it was an impressive sight. It was a peaceful and powerful event and the police officers present seemed to understand that it was not – in any way an indictment of them but rather a unified attempt to stop the never ending violence in this country.

Reading the comments in the  article about the same event on the Reformer’s FB page this morning elicited a very differnt feeling in me. While some of the comments were positive, most were displays of blatant, in your face racism, hatred and ignorance. Many commenters called BLM a “terrorist group” like ISIS and said the rally was only meant to be anti police. Horrible cartoons and memes were posted- people seeming quite proud about openly racist and, of course, the inevitable “terrorist” cartoons about our President.

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Unless Martin Luther King is wrong, the movement to protect US Blacks from White people will go nowhere while Black GIs help white people kill Africans in Africa and other non-Caucasian people all around the globe. Slogan ‘Black Lives Matter’ is ignominious, humiliating, undignified, embarrassing, pleading, definitely not noble, not appropriate to repeated murdering of innocent folks and children and other inhuman behavior.

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Independence Holiday in the USA becomes a time when citizens tend to reflect on the nations two hundred forty year history. It is a history typical of six European empires in the areas of genocide and plunder. US genocides perpetrated after 1945 will be prosecuted once economic power shifts to a China led plundered world. A plethora of lawsuits for restitution will make past illegal wars woefully unprofitable.

It’s very easy to fear that which you don’t know (or highly misunderstand). And the average person knows very little about drugs and addiction. Part of this is by design. The very lucrative “war on drugs” would have never happened if people were better informed. TPTB filled us full of fear about drugs and druggies, and Presto! Unlimited funding!

This has left a deep scar upon society which destroyed lives and persists today.

One consequence is the morbid fear felt by most of the populace about drug treatment and the people undergoing it.

1871: (Phoenix) Those people contemplating suicide may have their desires gratified by travelling their teams smartly across the bridge over the Whetstone brook, near Mr. Loomis’s blacksmith shop. The chance is good, and “not to be sneezed at.”

What is a suicidal ideation? “Suicidal thoughts, also known as suicidal ideation are thoughts about how to kill oneself, which can range from a detailed plan to a fleeting consideration and does not include the final act of killing oneself. The majority of people who experience suicidal ideation do not carry it through.”  

Now look it, people, in 1965 when the Beatles song Michelle went to number one, the human race reached the population of 3.5 billion. Scientific pundits tried to warned us that a planetary Earthly population of 3.5 billion people had reached its level of sustainability.

Just a quick observation that this is the first year in many years that we have a “normal” downtown Brattleboro. No burned out buildings are sitting or being repaired, no road paving projects are scheduled, and no sidewalks are being torn up. 

Anything can happen, and things can change, but it is nice to have a bit of time to enjoy downtown Brattleboro rather than just fix and clean it year after year.

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Ali declared “murder and burn another poor nation [Vietnam] simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. … such evils must come to an end” For lack of world public interest in prosecuting obvious US genocidal crimes against humanity and peace, “such evils” have remained profitable. As a devout Muslim, how did Ali feel as he watched the murder and burning of millions of Muslim children.

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Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali was our hero, not only for his performance in the ring and his infectiously happy and charming wit, but for his clear, upright, honest, compassionate and unequivocal condemnation of his nation’s racist invasion, bombing and genocidal occupation war in Vietnam.

The Democratic Party in Vermont is turning out to be a bunch of flaming hypocrites!

I’m not listing all the forums I have not been included in as a Democratic Party candidate for Governor of Vermont, but this is the most recent one I found out about today that I have been excluded from; and now I can see the Democrats for their true colors.

I have not yet been invited to any Governor candidate forum or debate in Brattleboro.

“I do not celebrate Memorial Day”

 I do not celebrate this one day

to commemorate the war dead.

I do not honor this one day

to remember their sacrifice.

No, I will not honor them

on this one day…

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1994, Ramsey Clark wrote in his The Fire This Time – US War Crimes in the Gulf, “The greatest crime since WWII has been US foreign policy,” in Crime in America, 1970, “Crimes are meant to be prosecuted,” and in Challenge to Genocide, 1998 that ‘investments in the illegal and genocidal use of the nation’s Armed Forces, CIA and mass media will be made unprofitable and brought to an end through prosecution under the law’

May 30, 2016
John O’Connor
Town Treasurer/ Finance Director
Town of Brattleboro
230 Main Street
Suite 111
Brattleboro, VT 05301

Dear John,

I was  preparing bills and I just felt compelled to air a pet peeve that I have had for years.

Every year I get a Property Tax Statement that contains four tear off tabs that I am to mail in to the Town with a check for the quarterly payment of my property taxes. 

The issue of inclusion has long been a concern of lesbian and gays. Following the gay riots in 1969 it was gay pride that was the focus of the movement. The Gay Liberation Front was the militant group of activist who helped to establish gay rights.In those days many gay people did not believe in bisexuals and oftentimes, like straight people, they denied there was such a thing. Gay pride was born of and lives in a dichotomous, black and white world where gays and straights are the axis of powers.

The struggle for gay rights extended through the Seventies and Eighties. Subsequently, it was gay people who took it upon themselves to add bisexuals to the initialism to create LGBT, in good part because it helped to buff up their numbers. The success of social movements regularly depend on how many thousands or millions they can put into the streets or add to their mailing lists to demonstrate widespread support.

Forest Square, also known as the Tree Streets, in Brattleboro was once a very desirable part of town to live. The area was given its name due to the ample number of trees, the streets are named after trees, and the streets were planted with large shade trees lining the sidewalks and roads.

The very largest trees in the neighborhood today were likely planted in the 1860s by Brattleboro’s Share Tree Association. There was a concerted effort to plant new trees to provide shade for future residents, since much of the town was being cleared of trees as people cut them for wood.

The shade trees grew up together and became quite large and doing all the things trees do – provide shade, homes for birds, food for squirrels, places to play and climb for children.

U.S. | Racial Justice
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin & Speaker of the VT House Shap Smith are Racial Profiling!

by Cris Ericson (ru18vote [at] gmail.com) Saturday May 7th, 2016 5:07 PM

Should Vermont Speaker of the House, Shap Smith, be charged with conspiracy with Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin for creating a new form of racial profiling of people charged with a criminal misdemeanor by forcing them to submit to a DNA test because that is just a new form of being Hitler because DNA testing shows whether you are “Cohanim Jewish” J1 haplogroup Y chromosome or Black or Native American Indian, etc.?

Please be sure to include North End Butchers, Windham Wines and Adams Seafood in your shopping plans this spring and summer. With the coming closing of Black Mountain Trading Co., on Putney Road, I would like to urge all to frequent the North End Butchers, Windham Wines, Adams Seafood and other merchants in the little shopping mall on Putney Road just north of Hannafords.

North End Butchers is starting to get fresh vegetables from local growers, they have their usual fine selection of locally grown meat, sandwiches and a nice assortment of prepared foods. They have even been carrying locally grown shitaki mushrooms.

From the early days of one room school houses to the present, town residents and tax payers have been directly involved in their students’ education. Act 46 takes this role away from us.

The Dummerston community has built and paid for its school building and grounds. All decisions pertaining to our school are made annually by Dummerston residents by discussion and Australian ballot.

Implementation of act 46 completely removes the people from direct decision making about their children’s education. Furthermore, our schools will lose their identity as community centers.

Act 46 is being enacted without any information provided to the public, nor does the public have the opportunity to give input or feedback.

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It would seem Sanders fighting for Americans to have free health care and free education would have tempered his words about a Gaddafi who saw to his people receiving for many years what Bernie wants for Americas. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and the pro status quo Republican candidates opposing her are perhaps already an anachronism, i.e., persons with practices that belongs to an earlier time.

This year, as I was doing my taxes, I got to wondering what is up with the healthcare “Personal Responsibility Tax” for the uninsured, and whether or not low income people really have to pay it.   This mostly affects the self-employed and people without coverage through their employers, but that’s a few people, so it seemed worth investigating.  As it turned out, finding out how to claim an exemption was most of the battle, and a battle it was with many spreadsheets and worksheets and interactive tax tools to be filled out.  The answer I arrived at was “no” — unless you make more than $53,737 (as a single person), you’re not required to pay the uninsured person’s tax.  This is because you are not required by law to expend more than 8.05% of your income to buy h

My name is Chris Pratt. I have no problem disclosing who I am because I have nothing to hide.  Same goes for my website . I challenge the reader to show me one fact (hundreds of thousands are listed here) that is not well referenced and/or supported by an original video and/or a published article.

We are up against billions of dollars and thousands of faceless people paid to discredit and conduct character assassinations on people who are brave enough to question, to doubt or to demand further investigations or evidence. We are outnumbered and out spent at levels that are unimaginable. It truly is a David and Goliath quest for truth and openness vs deception and secrecy.

Sometimes at meetings about something really important like chemtrails, I get kinda wound up when I realize the attendees know almost zilch about the subject. You’d think that people would look up at the sky now and then wouldn’t you?   Thanks to Post Oil for getting the conversation started.

James Hansen just published a climate study that says we’re in for a lashing from climate change much worse than scientists have previously predicted.  It makes me restless listening to people thinking that writing to their Congresscritters or holding a petition is going to yield results. How many petitions are going on? Do we see anything getting better come out of them? Maybe the occasional bone is thrown in order to shut us up or give some evidence that the system is working.