Opinion

For opinion pieces on any topic.

Brattleboro Selectboard Meetings Have Become Too Long

by cgrotke | Op/Ed

Brattleboro Selectboard meetings have become very long. Too long, really.

It isn’t the number of items on the agenda. Even a short agenda can lead to a very long meeting.

Holding the meetings online might be part of the problem. 

First, it adds time to each meeting to explain how to participate. It adds time to invite people to speak and wait for them to work out technical issues. Almost every virtual meeting has delays due to the meeting being virtual. Sometimes they are short delays, but they add up.

It’s Not Over til the Fat Lady Sings, Pt 2

by tomaidh | Politics

The legendary “Fat Lady” was Kate Smith who had a wonderful contralto voice.

She sang “God Bless America” at the end of NY Yankee games for years.

Yankee catcher Yogi Berra changed the saying to “It’s not over till it’s over”, which is the situation we’re in right now with the presidential election.

Dealing with High Rental Costs in Brattleboro

by Lise | Op/Ed, Opinion

I’ve been following the rental debate involving the Brattleboro Selectboard and the Brattleboro Tenants Union, and finding aspects of it perplexing. Brattleboro is gentrifying — it’s a hip little town in an attractive part of the country and the trend in rents has been up in recent years. That won’t get better now that people with more money than we have are moving here to get away from Covid. The solution to the problem of rising rents for lower income people has typically been to move away to someplace more affordable. It seems weird to me that you would be expected to get a loan, subsidy, or grant to rent in Brattleboro. If the rents are too high, then many moderate income people won’t be able to live here.  Simple as that.

I Am Feeling Hopeful

by SK-B | Politics

Written at 9:29 pm, Wednesday

https://www.foxnews.com/

I feel that Fox has been preparing it’s audience to recognize a Biden win by letting straight-up reporting of the results speak for itself, without no hint of inflaming passions over the idea that the election is being stolen. Apparently Fox does not want to incite conflict. They are reporting what Trump says, matter-of-factly, and reporting that: Biden predicts victory, says he will govern as an ‘American president’

Unofficial Brattleboro General Election Results 2020

by Not Signed In | Politics

Good evening,

Please see attached for the “unofficial results” for Brattleboro’s General election. These are the results from the ballot tallies, not including write-in votes, and not including other towns’ results for the races.

Thanks to the amazing poll workers and the American Legion who made today possible! Considering our number of absentee voters, we had a lot of voters coming through the doors. The day was smooth and safe!

Thank you,

Hilary

Criminally Responsible Americans Vote for Commander of Their Worldwide Genocidal Killing Machine

by jay janson | Op/Ed

Good people of the 3rd World should not let themselves be taken in by worldwide satellite beamed CIA-fed media prattling on continuously about American democracy during ongoing presidential elections. Sadly, Americans are duped into participating in elections that back crimes against humanity ordered by the ruling genocidal Wall St. plutocracy which militarily and financially plunders 3rd World humanity.

We Need A New COVID World View

by RDavis | Op/Ed

One of the consequences of this lingering pandemic is a lack of perspective by too many people. Forget about the 30 percent of American sycophants of Trump because they never had a healthy perspective to lose.

What I am talking about is the ability of caring human beings to forget about how they fit into the overall scheme of things when it comes to daily life. As we temporarily lose some of the freedoms we once enjoyed we tend to forget that most of us really do not have it that bad compared to many other people in this country and around the world.

Scott vs Zuckerman

by tomaidh | Politics

I’m generally not critical of Governor Phil Scott, but he HAS been using his veto pen a little too much.

Governor Phil Scott’s recent vetoes :
• Global Warming Solutions Act
• Minimum wage increase
• Reduction in penalties for possession of marijuana
• 24-hour waiting period for handgun purchases
• Family and medical leave
• Systemic Racism Mitigation Oversight Act
• Regulation of toxic substances

Vermont AFL-CIO To Hold General Strike Authorization Vote In Event of Trump Coup – Labor Will Defend Democracy

by David Van Deusen | Politics

10/25/2020, Montpelier, Vermont – The Executive Board of the VT AFL-CIO, representing 10,000 unionized public and private sector workers across Vermont, shall hold a General Strike Authorization Vote at its November 21, 2020, Convention should the U.S. Presidential election deliver a winner, but should the losing candidate refuse to commit to a peaceful transfer of power on Inauguration Day, January 20th, 2021. To our west, In New York, the Rochester and Troy Central Labor Councils of the AFL-CIO have already called for the National AFL-CIO to call for a General Strike in the event of a coup.

For months, Donald Trump has repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power in the event that Democrat Joe Biden wins the election. Trump has also made the irresponsible claim that the only way Biden can win is if the election is “rigged.” Trump is presently losing in the polls to Biden in a majority of battleground states, and is behind in national polls by 8.1% (with a national approval rating of just 44.4%). Trump has also told violent neo-fascist organizations to “stand by” while previously saying that “good people” marched with the KKK and other extreme right groups in Charlottesville. It has further been reported by The Atlantic that Republican officials in a number of states, including Pennsylvania, are discussing having state legislators send pro-Trump delegates to the Electoral College even if voters in their state give Biden the win. Together, these actions give the appearance of what amounts to a potential Trump led coup attempt following a Biden win on November 3 (or when all the votes are counted thereafter).

The Word “Race” Has Two Definitions!

by CrisEricson2016 | Politics

Wow, the word “race” has two definitions!

When, Why, Where and How did the Democrats change from being pro-Slavery while the Republicans were anti-Slavery? This topic is going around the internet now that we are so close to the November 3rd pre-climax of the 2020 Presidential race, waiting in agony for all of the many law suits filed in different states about mail-in ballots to be resolved in the months to come before we have a certified winner.

Fraudulent Election?

by tomaidh | Op/Ed

It’s less than 3 weeks to Election Day, and polls indicate that Biden is leading by double digits.

Trump hates to lose, and he is acutely aware of these polls.

In these days before the election, we hear allegations that Trump will attempt to retain power through voter suppression. There is a strategy to suppress voter turnout by purging voters – especially inner-city voters – and to suppress mail-in voting.

Happiness

by tomaidh | Politics

At a White House news conference, (Monday, Oct 5 ), President Donald Trump said that top Defense Department leaders want to keep waging wars in order to keep defense contractors “happy.”

“The top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t (happy) because they want to do nothing but fight wars so all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.”

Does David Zuckerman Have a Sense of Self?

by Dfk-b | Politics

I just received the following solicitation from David Zuckerman’s campaign. Below it is a copy of the email that I sent in response:

On Fri, Oct 9, 2020 at 8:01 AM Emilie, Zuckerman for VT wrote:

Donna,

I have worked with David for many years. Throughout that time, Vermonters have often asked me, “Why doesn’t David cut his hair?”

From COVID-19 To Picket Lines – One Year of Building Progressive Union Power Within The Vermont AFL-CIO

by David Van Deusen | Op/Ed

We have a long way to go before we can claim the transformative victories for Organized Labor and the working class that our dreams, desires, and needs demand. And we know that with the continuing pandemic and the economic crisis we will have many challenges before us. Even so, over the last 365 days we have made tremendous progress in making the Vermont AFL-CIO a more powerful labor organization and the most progressive State Labor Council in the North America. We have done this by diligently advancing the goals and principles articulated in our Ten Point Program For Union Power [https://vt.aflcio.org/news/vermont-afl-cio-ten-point-program]. Since your new leadership came to power in September 2019 [and again through a special election in 8/20] we have taken the following actions:

COVID-19: From the start of the pandemic we aggressively advocated for immediate actions at the State level to mitigate the worst potential consequences of the virus and the subsequent shutdown. As part of this effort we, working with allies, saw through expanded access to unemployment insurance, free childcare for essential workers, free food provided to working families, a moratorium on evictions, and crisis pay being provided to many Vermonters including the 8000 home healthcare workers organized into AFSCME Local 4802. We also stood with our healthcare workers from AFT and OPEIU when they demanded adequate PPE and safe working conditions.

Governor Scott Did What He Should Have. Is That Exceptional?

by spoon | Politics

It’s true that, given the limited extent of impact and damage in Vermont from the virus, Scott has done a proper job. However he only did what any of us would do. If you recall, one of his earliest public statements was that he was in completely uncharted territory with the pandemic. He didn’t know anything more about it than any of us in the state. So he called the state’s medical team together, got a bit of an education and followed their advice. I’d like to think that all of our governors would have done the same. He was very lucky in this particular crisis to have had the federal government step in fairly quickly with a huge cash infusion that gave us all time to understand and assess the situation and choose our actions under less stressed conditions.