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.


The Games of Boris Spassky – Part VII – Spassky’s Immortal Game

Known as the Match Of The Century two years prior to Spassky’s defense of his title against Fischer, the USSR v The Rest of the World match held in Belgrade during the spring of 1970 was a truly unique event featuring four rounds of play on ten boards involving two dozen of the best grandmasters of the time.

The World Championship was firmly in Soviet hands since 1948, so half of the Soviet team held the title: Spassky, Tigran Petrosian, Mikhail Tal, Vasily Smyslov and Mikhail Botvinnik. As reigning champion, Spassky played on the top board facing Bent Larsen whose string of recent successes elevated him to first board over the until recently inactive Fischer.


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.


Please Feed the Bees Instead of Mowing Your Lawn! Happy Bee-Mommy Day!

Daisy and I are not mowing our lawn as long as there are dandelions, wild strawberries and other wild ground cover the BEES need for food! I never had children and like many women I was bruised by Vice President J.D. Vance’s remark, before he was elected V.P., calling women with no kids “childless cat ladies” or something like that, so, after sending flowers on social media to women family and friends who did have children, then, I declared today “Happy Bee-Mommy Day” for all the childless cat ladies like me, even though Daisy is a dog!


A Moment for John Carnahan

John Carnahan at EOM

John Carnahan was one of the first true Brattleboro folks I got to know. He and I worked together with many others to bring the Estey Organ Museum to life.

John had great knowledge of Brattleboro and Vermont history, and seemed to know just about everyone.

He politely corrected me when, early on, I would mention the city of Brattleboro. “”Brattleboro is a town.”


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.


April 2025 Precipitation Report

A little wetter than average April with cool weather in the first half but warmer days in the second half. Measured 4.62″ this month with measurable moisture on 17 of 30 days compared to the normal of 3.85″.  For the calendar year my number is 14.54″ compared to the NOAA average of 13.97″.

Also recorded 2.7″ of snow, bringing the season total to 54.5″. My snow average is 62.6″ per season.  All numbers are from my location in the SE corner of Brattleboro and do vary with location.