Join Action Corps Vermont for Bagels on the Bridge, July 4th!

Join Action Corps Vermont for a light breakfast and gathering on the pedestrian/bike bridge from Brattleboro to the island in the Connecticut River — by the Brattleboro entrance to the old Hinsdale bridges, near the Brattleboro Amtrak station.

You’re welcome to then join Action Corps Vermont and Buddhists for Peace in the parade. Action Corps campaigns for U.S. policies to save lives around the world, and Action Corps members will carry signs in the parade protesting U.S. violence in the Middle East.


Medicaid Monday Speak-out

The Vermont Workers’ Center / Nonviolent Medicaid Army is holding a speak-out on Monday, June 16 at 5 p.m. in front of the Brattleboro Post Office, 204 Main Street. The budget reconciliation bill currently in the Senate is projected to lead to at least 15 million people nationwide losing access to healthcare. If you are unable to get needed care or concerned about the assaults on Medicaid, rising health insurance costs and medical debt you are invited to join in. There will be information about the proposed cuts and ways we can organize for a healthcare system that puts people before profits.

For more info email: windham@workerscenter.org


Science Is The Enemy

We now live in world where scientific inquiry, research and the development of innovation and things to make our lives better have become the enemy. The reason is clear. When someone does not understand something and when they are primarily fueled by ego and the abuse of power they will work to squash what they are not capable of understanding.

Trump has no clue about the details of research programs that he is defunding. He and his team have decided that research is mostly conducted by left wing liberals who are promoting the support of the LBGTQ community and everything that he personally finds distasteful.


Ten Million Lives At Risk

If the proposed budget that includes Medicaid cuts passes, ten million Americans will lose support that keeps them alive. Republicans in Washington are hiding behind the fraud and abuse mantra saying that their cuts will make the program run more efficiently. What they really want to do is to eliminate the program so that “those people” do not use up the money that the fat cats want more of. It’s that simple.

In Vermont 151,000 people, or 26% of the population, receive some degree of benefit from the Medicaid program. People will lose access to health care and medications. A lot of people will suffer and die if they lose this benefit. The politicians who vote for these cuts should be prosecuted for first degree murder when the first diabetic dies because he could not afford enough insulin to control his blood sugar.


How Do You Tell What People Are Interested In Right Now?

How do you tell what people are interested in right now?

I posted a bunch of videos on YouTube, mostly made with free online text-to-video generators. To my surprise, people aren’t interested in Medicaid Funding, the River to the Sea, marijuana legalization, political corruption, twitch.tv, and there is some interest in live streaming games, then I quickly got over 950 “views” on a video about starting a new minor political party in Vermont.


Refuse the Real ID, The Real Reasons Why The Real ID Will Really Destroy America

This interview will help you understand why we all would want to reject the Real ID now, and restore our drivers licenses to pre-real id status or use enhance drivers licenses.

https://rumble.com/v6twenn-digital-ids-the-real-danger.html?ck_subscriber_id=2400192912

I will not get into the fact that we have a constitutional right to travel absent a license as long as we are not doing commerce. This article is to help you understand the deeper agenda.


Brattleboro District 3/9 Forum

REMINDER

District 9 forum to discuss the revised Brattleboro budget to be considered at the Special Representative Town Meeting:

Wednesday 14 May, 7 pm, Community Room, Brooks Memorial Library


Heat Fund Update

The 20th year of the Windham County Heat Fund has made it clear that we need to maintain our efforts. The need is growing. When Daryl Pillsbury and I started the fund we thought it would only need to continue for a few years because the cost of home heating fuel was so high. We quickly learned that the cost of fuel was not the most important factor in the equation.

As the United States economy has widened the gap between the have’s and have not’s average Americans struggle to pay their bills. Paying for fuel to heat their homes often takes a back seat to paying the rent, buying food and medicine and paying for other basic necessities.

Our goal has always been to raise $50,000 a year and we exceeded that this year. Over the past 20 years we have raised over one million dollars and provided help in about 2000 cases, whether individuals or families.


The Problem With Real ID With An Affidavit of Fact

The Real Id was created on the basis of the recommendations of the 9/11 commission, or so DHS tells us, and TSA as well. But did the 9/11 commission actually recommend search of all Americans, and a national ID  with unilateral biometric surveillance and control in mind?

Here is an Affidavit of fact style statement of ONE of the issues with Read ID, more to follow soon.


Rain On His Parade

The time has come for the protesters of the current administration to take it to the next level. There have been marches on Washington over the years and they have had some degree of effect, while sending messages that need to be heard from loud voices.

The difference in 2025 is that there is more at stake than ever before. Trump is quickly transforming our democracy into an oligarchy that will eventually become a dictatorship if there is no massive pushback. It is worth repeating that not enough legislators in congress are willing to fight against the new king. If they don’t kiss his ring they are subject to vindictive retribution.


The Next Step

Outrage and anger. Many Americans are feeling things that make them feel powerless to change. The talking heads are telling us what we already know. The Trump administration is ignoring the legal system and defying any constitutional restraints that a moral and ethical administration would respect. The dictator is firmly in place and no one is willing to make him accountable.

Can the people of this country figure out a way to stop the madness, to force a madman who has become completely intoxicated with power to follow the rule of law? Every day we wake up to a new assault on our freedom. The rest of the world looks at the U.S. and realizes that we are in turmoil and that we have become vulnerable to economic assault. The measures that Trump is putting in place are hurting Americans the most.


Hands Off March in the Rain in Brattleboro

A good size crowd (estimated at near 2000 by the Reformer) met at the Center Congregational Church on Main St.  There they listened to Rep. Becca Balint speak, then walked to the Town Common For more speeches.  It was a loud but civil crowd.  All on a rainy day.


Political Murder

Over six million Americans who rely on federal government fuel assistance to heat their homes or pay electric bills to fend off extreme heat may have to find another way to pay for things that keep them alive. The government office that administers the LIHEAP (Low Income Energy Assistance Program) has been gutted and all of the staff have been fired.

Theoretically, the money still exists to meet people’s needs but there will be no way to get that money to people. The bottom line is that if this program doesn’t do what it has done in past years a lot of people are going to suffer and die. This kind of action by the Trump administration is nothing short of murder.


Brattleboro District 9 Forum

Brattleboro residents of District 9 are invited to attend a District 9 forum where we will hear your questions and concerns in advance of Brattleboro’s Representative Town Meeting; District 9 RTM members are encouraged to attend to hear from their constituents. The forum, organized by Robert Oeser and David Levenbach, will be held in the Community Room of Brooks Memorial Library at 6:30 pm on Wednesday 19 March. (The Community Room is on the third, top floor of the library, near the Children’s Reading Room. There is an entrance to that area from the Municipal Building parking lot and attendees might find that a more convenient way in light of another event to be held in the Main Reading Room that evening.)


Death By Medicaid Cuts

Cutting social support programs that help the most vulnerable in our society has always been a Republican blood sport. Most of those rich old white men have contempt for “those people” who live on handouts because they deem them too lazy to help themselves. It is an old trope. But now things have gotten worse.

The current Republican budget plan which looks likely to pass includes massive cuts to the Medicaid program.

Here is some context from the Center for American Progress. “Last week, House Republicans passed a budget resolution directing Congress to make cuts that would slash Medicaid funding and threaten health care access for millions in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Medicaid is the largest single health insurance program in the United States and covers 72 million Americans, including low-income kids and adults, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities.”


The Zelensky- Trump Setup

If you think that the shouting match that unfolded between Zelensky and Trump in the White House was some sort of spontaneous, unexpected event then I have some oceanfront property in Nebraska I can sell you for a very low price.

Trump never intended to make a deal with Ukraine’s leader so he used his usual grifter/bully tactics to stage an event that would allow him to withdraw U.S. support from Ukraine. At least in his twisted, devious mind he would now be able to throw all support behind Russia.

The entire scene in the White House was bizarre from the start. It was billed as a deal-making event where Ukraine would agree to sell rare earth minerals to the U.S. in exchange for concessions in the Russia-Ukraine war.


Local Solutions Protect Us All – Windham County Heat Fund Benefit at Vermont Jazz Center

On Saturday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m. the Windham County Heat Fund will hold a benefit concert in conjunction with the Vermont Jazz Center. It is 20 years since we started the fund and the need never diminishes. This concert is not so much of a celebration but more of a lamentation of the fact that the fund still needs to exist. On a hopeful note, we do not rely on any government funding for our efforts and that means our money is local and it stays local.

This has been an unusual year for the fund. Although it is still February our statistics put us at the end of the season, meaning we are very low on funds because about 100 individuals and families have been provided with $48,850 in fuel while we have received $45,503 from individual donors, local businesses, churches and grantees. The surplus we had at the end of last year has made a big difference.


Interfaith Youth Group Sets Sights on Spring Service & Learning to Asheville, NC

A multicultural community of idealistic teenagers and young adults, the Brattleboro Area Interfaith Youth Group comes together monthly to develop friendships, to have fun and to provide service to others. Twenty-one members of their group, ranging in age from 13 to 22, are busy fundraising to make their dream of a service and learning trip to North Carolina a reality this spring.

Brian Remer, one of the adult leaders describes the group as being made up of young people who are interested in sharing their life experiences and cultures and providing each other support while doing community service that helps others. Nearly half of the group are young newcomers from Democratic Republic of Congo, refugees who were resettled in the area in the last several years.

“We first got the idea last fall when we heard about the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene on the area surrounding Asheville, North Carolina, as it was eerily reminiscent of the damages we experienced from Hurricane Irene in the Windham County area,” Remer said.


A Bigger Prize

I told myself I was going to try to keep away from writing about the madman who is running this country. All of us have to figure out a way to preserve our sanity for the next four years and retreat has become an option for many. But the future that I see unfolding demands to be talked about because all of our lives may be transformed in ways we do not welcome.

I got a call from a woman in Florida who is married to a Puerto Rican man and they have two small children. They are living in a state of heightened fear every day and they are looking for a safer place to live. She knew nothing about Brattleboro but happened upon our little town in the cybersphere and wanted to talk to someone who lives here.