Op/Ed

Happy New Year! I would like to share this LETTER TO THE EDITOR I wrote to THE VERMONT JOURNAL which they Pubished Dec. 18, 2014

My favorite fantasy is to imagine men in Vermont in the 1770’s riding their horses across the hills and mountain trails, splashing naked in the hollowed gorges and streams, and fighting for their freedom.

How is Representative Town Meeting (RTM) better than the “normal” open Town Meeting that every other Vermont town uses?

Taken on its own merits in a vacuum, RTM is a fine concept. But we don’t live in a vacuum; we live in the state of Vermont. If there were 30 people running for 14 seats, and there were platforms and discussions and a system of accountability between representative and those being represented, then it would be great – but we have 14 people running for 30 seats and it’s not clear who’s representing what. If there were so many people attending Town Meeting that it was impractical to allow everyone to participate in a Robert’s Rules style meeting, then I can see where RTM would be a good alternative – but space doesn’t seem to be an issue.

I’m hoping you are getting some warmth, food, and rest in the coming days. Perhaps a present or two, too.

With holidays and such, things may slightly slower around here for the next week or so. We’ll be checking in and making sure things get posted, but we’re also going to try to enjoy some time with the family.

A big thank you to everyone who adds their thoughts, comments, news, and events to iBrattleboro. A big thanks to all our wonderful advertisers, as well. Click on their ads and ennjoy their services.

Today’s NASDAQ has Fairpoint Communications, Inc. at $14.34 USDs. Adjacent to the figure for Total Calculated Compensation of $2,359,299 (FY 2013) to Paul Sunu, as Businessweek notes, Fairpoint’s CEO is “connected to 15 board members in 3 different organizations across 7 different industries.“

Maybe that’s not so exceptional for a business man with 25 years experience in finance, corporate management and law, with degrees in political science and Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois’ Urbana-Champaign and the College of Law.

As I continue to say goodbye to my many Vermont Yankee friends I have a heavy heart. I have followed IBrattleboro for a long time but I have not contributed – other than for an obituary – prior to today. Candidly, I believe I am in the minority in respect to my opinions as compared to most of you.That’s okay as our differences are part of what makes us such an incredible community.

That said, during the past two months I have found myself in far too many conversations with departing Vermont Yankee employees. Most [ read almost all ] do not wish to leave. Many [ read most ] are in tears as they speak with me. Yes, some remain angry if not bitter. But that seems to have dissipated over the last 12 months or so. Universally they are simply sad to have to leave.

Ramsey Clark and yours truly believe the great economic power shift Eastward augurs a future grand scenario in which the present and poverty of constructive thought from First World journalists will come to be recognized.
I plan to translate this treatise into various languages spoken in the neocolonial plundered world.

Yeah I think I’be been ‘pushed around’ on iBrattleboro just a bit. And I have definitely spoken out quite a bit — and been taken to task for — questioning why people on iBrattleboro would want to debate serious issues under pseudonyms … and especially why they might expect to do so and still be taken seriously. It particularly irked me recently when someone criticized a Town employee by name on this site, but declined to give their own!

Today, we again have news of another persons stabbed, (multiple times), on Elliot Street. My friend was reading the paper. I didn’t have my reading glasses, but I saw the headline had the word stabbing in it, and I immediately knew it was going to be on Elliot Street and in the early morning hours, as happened over and over again on that street, at that time.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Milne who, for all intents and purposes, lost in his campaign against Peter Shumlin is asking the state legislature to vote for him. Not because he won the election, which he clearly did not, but because the Vermont Constitution sets aside any popular win under 50% and turns the decision over to the legislature.

Without going into precedents where losing candidates concede, this candidate will not lick his wounds graciously.While perhaps, as Milne is reported as saying that “Vermonters are fed up with the governorship of Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin” might be true, not enough of them voted to give Milne the governorship.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the House,
Our Legislators were stirring and beginning to grouse.
Jonathan Gruber had hung them by the media without care,
Terminating single payer before it goes anywhere.

Governor Shumlin was nestled all snug in his bed,
While visions of losing in 2016 danced in his head.
With Mama in her kerchief, and I in my cap,
Were frying our brains on medical Mary Jane crap.

When out on the porch there arose such a clatter,
It must be our state representatives spouting their ideological blather.
Away from the door I flew like a flash,
Avoiding their Montpelier tax and spend dash.

Rules of Thumb are those little unofficial, unscientific statements we hold to be somewhat true in a given circumstance. I use them often. A few small examples of things I’ve heard that sort of hold up:

– stay 4 seconds behind the car in front of you (or 1 car length for very 10 mph)
– an ounce of liquid is about what you pour in a count of one
– to figure out how long you’ll wait in a bank teller line, multiply the number of people ahead of you by 5 minutes, then divide by the number of open windows.

I have one of my own invention: The Tabloid Rule of Truth

The Tabloid Rule of Truth is that if a celebrity is on the cover of a tabloid for some reason, the truth of the story can be determined by how many tabloids have the same story on the cover.

Hooray! The iBrattleboro Advent Calendar is back.  It’s become a yearly tradition.

Thank You!

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   

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.

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
****************************************************************
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.

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

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!