Opinion

SCREAM AND RUN AROUND IN CIRCLES! VERMONT STATE LEGISLATURE FAILED TO MAKE MARIJUANA LEGAL!

Do you want to help make marijuana legal in Vermont? The state legislature did not make marijuana legal this spring, so it is up to you to do something!

You can get on the Nov. 8, 2016 general election ballot in Vermont for the Vermont Marijuana Party by collecting petition signatures.

On Friday, May 13, at 7:30 p.m., at the The School for International Training, Room IC‐101, International Center, 1 Kipling Road, Brattleboro, The Windham World Affairs Council is presenting Dr. John Hagen, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, who will speak on “American Engagement with Niger: A Case Study on Confronting Violent Extremism in Africa.” As the academic lead for a U.S. State Department initiative that is helping to develop professional military education for the army of Niger, John Hagen is in a good position to analyze the situation in that country and discuss U.S. involvement there. This event is free and open to the public. Coffee/tea/conversation will precede Dr. Hagan’s talk at 7:00 pm. For more information, visit: www.windhamworldaffairscouncil.org

BURLINGTON, Vt., May 4 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders today announced the Department of Health and Human Services awarded $5.5 million to six community health centers in Vermont. The health centers will use this new federal funding to renovate facilities, increase patient capacity and expand primary care services.

The Vermont awards are part of $260 million in health infrastructure funding announced today for 290 community health centers in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The funding comes from the Health Center Trust Fund, which was created by a Sanders provision in the Affordable Care Act that provides $11 billion for community health centers across the United States. Congress extended the Sanders provision last year with bipartisan support.

Continuing our election year discussion series, we come to what major media have taken to calling the Acela Primary. It’s named for the Amtrak train line that makes its way through Delaware up the coast and over to Rhode Island.

The latest headlines show us that Trump and Clinton both use Delaware corporations as perfectly legitimate and legal mechanisms for handling millions of dollars of business income. Others use them, of course, to shuffle income around and avoid paying taxes, but not the candidates. No way!

Kasich and Cruz are making some sort of pact to work together to take down Trump. Trump has promised that he’s been putting on an act thus far, and will behave like a good Republican now that he’s heading for the nomination.

All political eyes are now on New York.

It’s Trump’s home state, so he should do well. It’s Clinton’s adopted home so she should do well. It’s where Sanders was born, so he should do well. It’s where people know and dislike Trump, so Cruz should do well. Everyone will win!

For me, it’s a bit more fun watching candidates hop around NY than NH. I know the state better, so it has a bit more relevance. In terms of political campaigns, the pressure is on and the candidates are firing on all cylinders, including taking swipes at one another. And for some reason, New York matters greatly this year.

“I watch Bernie. He wins, he wins, he keeps winning, winning and winning, and then I see he’s got no chance. They always say he’s got no chance. Why doesn’t he have a chance?” “Because the system is corrupt. And it’s worse on the Republican side.”

Donald Trump, during a rally in Rochester, N.Y.

http://tinyurl.com/eyewitnessaccounts

‘Kill the Messenger’ is a 2014 film based on a true story, the work of journalist Gary Webb in uncovering the circumstances behind the CIA’s, Nicaraguan Contras’, and organized crime’s roles in massive drug trafficking, leading to the early 1980s crack cocaine epidemic. This in turn led to the USA’s over-incarceration binge, which has imprisoned black Americans in numbers vastly out of proportion to their percentage of the general population.

[Gary Webb’s original journalistic revelations in these matters were originally published in the San Jose (CA) Mercury News, and he later compiled them into his 1998-99 book ‘Dark Alliance: the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion’.]

I’ve been hearing a lot of scary news among the pundits whose screeds populate my news feed in the morning.  Usually they pertain to what horrible things will happen if this or that person (usually Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders) is elected.  This got me thinking about what would happen if any of them were actually to win – as one of them is almost certain to do.

In our latest episode, the election year continues to astound and amaze. Despite some political poker faces and a bit of bluffing, no one yet has a winning hand. About the only thing that can be said with certainty is that no one will really know for some time to come. This will cause heart palpitations for some, but for the rest, it provides us with more time and space for armchair political commentary.

I asked Town Clerk Annette Cappy about some of the lingering questions regarding recount and revotes.

– Are we satisfied with the most recent recount numbers?

Annette Cappy, Brattleboro Town Clerk: I am. The second recount mirrored the election results exactly for both David Gartenstein and Avery Schwenk. Dick DeGray picked up 2 votes. Those results seem very reasonable. Using the tabulators doesn’t necessarily ensure 100% accuracy. There is always a slim margin of error whether using tabulators or counting by hand, which is why the process of recounts is included in the statutes.