Op/Ed

Historical ID of now US Secretary of State John Kerry, who today quite rightly condemned the terror attack on the offices of a Paris newspaper plus a history of French colonial and neocolonial terror.

What first comes to mind is US Secretary of State John Kerry’s prestige for his heroic Swift Boat killing of a Vietnamese in his own beloved country during the holocaust the US committed in Vietnam.  A wounded Vietnamese freedom fighter, who had been aiming a rocket launcher at the Swift Boat Kerry commanded, was shot by Kerry as he was running away. Kerry by daringly running his boat right at the danger was decorated for having saved the boat and its crew. [“KERRY leaped ashore, pursued the man behind a hootch and killed him”  from official Silver Star Citation “For the President, E.R. Zumwalt, Vice Admiral, Commander of US Forces in Vietnam”]

After seeing the Edward Snowden movie Citizen Four at the Latchis recently, I was left with an impression that was not what I had expected. I had expected to be buried in acronyms – I was. I expected moments of understated drama – they were there. But what I didn’t expect was this lingering feeling of claustrophobia which comes of spending two hours watching a man whose physical existence is now confined, 24 hours a day, to a single beige hotel room which could have been anywhere but happened to be in Hong Kong. What struck me more disturbingly was that you don’t have to be an NSA whistle-blower to feel a hint of that claustrophobia in your own life. Many of us, I suspect, feel confined to a smaller space these days, especially in the time since Snowden’s revelations.

Open Letter To Vermonter Voters,

I have complained here at ibrattleboro.com during the fall of 2014 that my vote count was lowered from the “unofficial” vote count to the “official” vote count four days later.   This never happens to major party candidates.  It happened to me in 2010, and it happened to me in 2014.  I want some positive, constructive changes made!  Because this never happens to major party candidates, I am now complaining that I believe the Constitution of the State of Vermont is being violated.

The purpose of writing this is to express my grievance over Governor Shumlin’s recent dismissal of Act 48, the Vermont Law, passed in 2011 by Mr. Shumlin himself –who rode into office on the wave of public support for this law in the first place! This law states that all residents of Vermont have the right to receive the best, high quality and publicly financed medical care– in other words, Universal, or Single-Payer Health Care. He has now abandoned us, having already missed several deadlines for putting various parts of it into affect so that it would be fully implemented by 2017. In his own words, on Dec 17, 2014, Governor Shumlin claimed that “…Now is not the time…”

Regarding Killing the Prince of Peace in Afghanistan on his birthday, no sense thinking up some new observations, last year’s and those of previous years should suffice.

Below the list of articles, readers are invited to imagine appropriate completions of New Year’s resolutions for a few of problems Americans will face in 2015.

Well it’s official. At approximately 11:00 am today VY powered down for the last time. There may finally be peace in the area as the protesters, most from well outside the evacuation zone I might add, have officially become unemployed. They can move on to another area and chain themselves to the perimeter fence of another nuclear facility. If they don’t mind the cold and would like to enjoy the benefits of no sales tax maybe they should consider Seabrook N.H. 

On December 26, 2004, shortly after 0.58 UTC, scientists of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had been made aware that a deadly tidal wave could be building up in the Indian Ocean from an earthquake of 8.1 magnitude, yet did not warn any of the many nations that might be about to be hit.

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