For opinion pieces on any topic.
The film, Economics of Happiness, restores our faith in humanity and challenges us to believe that it is possible to build a better world.
Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment; fundamentalism and ethnic conflict.
Early/absentee ballots for Annual Town and Town School District election to be held on March 4, are now available in the Brattleboro town clerk’s office. Anyone wishing to vote prior to March 4, may apply for an early/absentee ballot until 5:00 p.m. on Monday, March 3.
Early/absentee ballots may be voted in person in the clerk’s office, mailed to the voter by the clerk’s office, picked up by the voter or delivered to the voter’s residence by two justices of the peace. All voted ballots must be received by the clerk before the polls close on election day in order to be counted. Early/absentee ballots remain sealed until election day. Absentee ballot envelopes are opened at the polling place and ballots are processed through vote tabulators in the same manner as those voted in person that day. For more information or to request an early/absentee ballot call 251-8157.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) congratulated Vermonters who are among the world’s top athletes competing in the Winter Olympics that formally open today in Sochi, Russia.
“Vermont has a long tradition of excellence in winter sports that we owe partly to our state’s cold climate and mountainous terrain, but also to an outdoor spirit that dates back generations. I would like to acknowledge these athletes individually and wish them the best of luck in pursuing the gold,” Sanders said in the statement printed in today’s Congressional Record.
Was hemp, not marijuana, the real target? As a member of the cannabis sativa family, it is the botanical cousin of marijuana. Harmless, yet extremely valuable as a ready source of natural, biomass fiber, it paid a dear price for being competitive in the fiber products market of the 1930’s, and it brought its cousin marijuana down with it.
When corporate DuPont sought to diversify out of explosive munitions in 1910 it turned its attention to the textile fibers market. By the early Thirties, DuPont had significant investment in synthetic fiber research and development. Nylon was introduced in 1938 as the “first true synthetic fiber created wholly out of chemicals.”
WASHNGTON, Feb. 4 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today issued the following statement after the Senate voted 68-32 to pass and send to President Barack Obama a new five-year farm bill:
“This was a difficult vote on a bill which has some positive provisions but also some very negative ones.
“This bill will bring greater stability to Vermont dairy farmers by helping them to manage risks and produce products more efficiently. It also is good news that a successful MILC program will stay in place until new insurance provisions for dairy farmers are implemented.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 – Leaders of more than 20 veterans’ service organizations today joined Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at a news conference to support the most comprehensive legislation for veterans in decades.
The bill (S. 1982) is backed by the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and many other organizations.
My original film “deceptions” has now become part of a Deceptions Trilogy. That first film was released in 2010 and the second, deceptionsTwo, “Lest We Forget” was uploaded to my You Tube Channel last week and the third, deceptionsThree,”What Can I Do?,” is in gestation. This channel has now received over 180,000 views, not viral but very respectable.
My latest work, “Lest We Forget,” is a grim documentary that chronicles American war crimes and atrocities that compare if not EXCEED those carried out by Hitler and his fellow Nazi’s and the exaggerated hype that surrounds the War on Terror. Please take 28 minutes to watch these war clips and investigative reports. In 6 days well over 8,000 others have.
BURLINGTON, Vt., Jan. 31 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will hold a town meeting tomorrow on privacy rights and the National Security Agency’s increasing violations of our constitutional rights. Two of the nation’s preeminent authorities on civil liberties — Georgetown Law School Professor David Cole, and Heidi Boghosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild — will join Sanders and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) at Montpelier City Hall to address government surveillance and corporate attacks on our privacy rights.
Who: Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Peter Welch and two of the nation’s preeminent authorities on civil liberties: Georgetown Law School Professor David Cole, and Heidi Boghosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to provide a stronger role for states in the process of decommissioning nuclear power plants like Vermont Yankee.
Entergy, the Louisiana utility that owns Vermont Yankee, plans to shut down the reactor by the end of this year but it could take decades to deal with nuclear waste at the Vernon, Vt., site and other matters related to decommissioning the plant.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement tonight after President Barack Obama delivered his fifth State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress:
“I welcome President Obama’s focus on reducing inequality and helping working families in America. The American economy is not sustainable when so few have so much and so many have so little. It’s a moral issue and it’s an economic issue.
“The American people, no matter what part of the country they are from or what political party they support, want us to put millions of people back to work. They want to deal with income and wealth inequality. They want us to raise the minimum wage.
At 5pm on September 11, 2001 World Trade Center Towers 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were damaged but still standing. Nevertheless, earlier that morning the lower Manhattan skyline had changed forever. The smoke, fumes and dust of Towers 1 and 2 had already firmly established in American minds the smoke and mirrors affect designed and desired by the brainchildren of the attackers.
The two main objectives of any building demolition in populated areas are, one, to break up and pulverize the building into small manageable pieces of dust and debris, and, two, to put the building debris into its footprint. That’s why demolition experts can pull down buildings that stand close to other buildings without damaging them.
in case you missed it (icymi), fyi:
Three lawmakers (via vtdigger; 1/27/2014):
BURLINGTON, Vt., Jan. 23 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board urged President Barack Obama to shut down the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone data:
“This report underscores that the collection of records on virtually every phone call made in the United States is an unconstitutional violation of the privacy rights guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment. The president’s recommendations last week did not go far enough to rein in the out-of-control National Security Agency. Congress must pass strong legislation to protect the privacy and civil liberties of the American people.”
BURLINGTON, Vt., Jan. 22 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, told reporters today that the Senate is expected to soon take up legislation to restore pensions for military retirees as part of the most comprehensive veterans’ legislation to come before the Senate in decades.
The measure that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has called a top priority for the Senate also would address a host of other programs for veterans, including expanded health care and dental care and improved education benefits.
Sanders (I-Vt.) told a news conference that the measure would rescind a 1 percentage point cut in the annual adjustment for benefits for military retirees under age 62. There has been a groundswell in Congress to undo that provision in the bipartisan budget deal that Congress approved late last year.
If there’s one single thing we as humans absolutely know about the weather, it is that we don’t know the weather. I keep hearing this trendy-phrase: “the new normal,” which I find both annoying and silly because can anyone actually say what normal is on a grand scale regarding the weather? The word normal is so ambiguous as to render it meaningless in this context.
It is with a sense of gladness that more people are increasingly not buying into the theory of global warming and Climate Change. I have always been someone to question things – to question what I am told. It is encouraging that more people are questioning and doubting the notion of Climate Change/global warming for the dubious and flawed theory that it is.
On War-Promoting Media’s Snow Job and King’s Condemning US Wars for Predatory Investments
DESCRIPTION:
Mainstream media vilification of King as a traitor followed his world shaking sermon “Beyond Vietnam – a Time to Break Silence.” Media calumny only halted with the assassination that would protect a safe return on trillions of dollars invested in wars from a charismatic leader determined to stop these massive crimes against humanity for overseas as he had led the halting of horrific unprosecutable racist crimes at home.
TEXT:
Congressman Peter Welch,United States House of Representatives
Official Appearance Schedule, Tuesday, January 21st, 2014
10:00 a.m.
Business Visit: Sovernet
5 Rockingham Street, Bellows Falls
11:30 a.m.
Visit with Brattleboro Fire Department
103 Elliot Street, Brattleboro
DESCRIPTION: 1/12/2014″Iraq: “Devastating” Dossier Alleging British War Crimes Lodged with the International Criminal Court.” Americans reading this might be compelled to wonder when a headline will read: ‘Alleging US War Crimes.’ Nuremberg, Trial Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson noted that the laws regarding genocide were not just for Germans but for citizens of all nations. King held all Americans responsible not the gov. he dismissed
BURLINGTON, Vt., Jan. 17 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement after President Barack Obama announced new measures on the oversight of government surveillance programs.
“I appreciate the president’s willingness to examine this important issue but I think that his remarks did not go far enough. There is no question in my mind that the collection of data on every phone call made in the United States is unconstitutional and a violation of the Fourth Amendment and that the government has engaged in massive violations of civil liberties and privacy rights.
WASHINGTON, DC (January 17th) – Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) made the following remarks after the President’s speech on intelligence surveillance reforms:
“While I appreciate the President’s effort to strike a better balance between the twin imperatives of protecting Americans from harm and ensuring their civil liberties, the steps he announced today fall short of reining in the NSA,” said Welch. “Under his plan, the unconstitutional bulk collection of Americans’ emails and phone records will continue. Congress should pass the Leahy-Sensenbrenner legislation so that the American people do not have to worry about the government monitoring their activities. And it should pass my legislation to shine a light on the taxpayer-financed budgets of America’s intelligence agencies.”
