Opinion

On social media we have personas we prop up, be they wild pseudonymic selves, or some semblance of our verifiable ID’s. On Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, et. al., there’s the ever-present component of a post being liked or faved, or recycled.  Many posters curry favor, pander, intimidate, or otherwise stoke the flames of approval-by-click. Many online personalities have cultivated followings of several hundreds or thousands of people.

A pattern occurs which supposes that every submission will get at least some percentage of affirmation. Meaning many tokens of approval and affection. I’m wondering what happens to general human relations when this newly dominant form of sharing comes with expectation of a cluster of facile responses- from mostly strangers, or ‘friends’ through association?

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Okay, once again during Martin Luther King’s 2016 birthday celebrations, genocide justifying US media has suckered the world by suppressing King’s condemnation of “US atrocity wars and covert violence on three continents since 1945 meant to maintain unjust predatory investments.” Once again, the last year of King’s life during which he was vilified as a traitor for condemning the mass murder that was being perpetrated by his countrymen in Vietnam and Laos, has been tightly blacked out of all mention. Let’s get Beyond Vietnam translated into all languages.

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What the world and most every Americans under the age of fifty, do not know (for it having been criminally suppressed in all US media for nearly a half-century), is that exactly one year before being assassinated, Rev. King condemned the US war in Vietnam and all previous “atrocity wars and covert violence on three continents since 1945 meant to maintain unjust predatory investments” and held all Americans, including himself, responsible for these atrocity wars for “not being willing to give up the pleasures and privileges that come from the immense profits from those predatory investment the wars and violence had been protecting.

     The post bringing us the Police/Fire survey begins by stating that the town is asking the public to weigh in on how to proceed.  In actuality it is asking the public to choose between one of the projects they have chosen to put before us.  Sort of like voting in the former Soviet Union.  The state named the candidates from the Communist Party and the people got to decide which one they wanted.  The citizens could theoretically vote them all down but there wasn’t any point.  There would just be another slate of Communist Party members.

I use a store mobility scooter when grocery shopping.  Today at Hannaford’s at the checkout, they asked me if I would like them to get me another cart to go out to my car.  I said, “Why would I need another cart?”  They said because you aren’t allowed to take the cart outside anymore.  A myriad of thoughts went through my head.  It’s hard enough for me to get all the way into the store now, since they moved the electric carts out of the entranceway, and they expect me to get all my groceries and me out to my car without the e-cart? What is going on? 

A letter from corporate apparently came down with the pronouncement.  I will be calling corporate 1/7/16 to find out more.  The line I was given by the frontline staff was that there have been accidents because the carts are too low.  I said, oh, are they going to stop allowing children and any Little People in the parking lot, too?  Never at a loss for a sarcastic retort, am I!!  I apologized, and said I would contact corporate with my concerns and stop taking out my anger on them.

The Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia has a lot of oil.

The Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia has a lot of Shiites.

Many of the oil workers in the Eastern Province (as well as Bahrain, Oman & UAE) are Shiites.

These Shiites are currently very angry.

This year’s seasonal epiphany had a fitting theme – peace and how to attain it.  It was a two part revelation.  The first is very simple: stop starting new wars.  If there’s not already a war somewhere, don’t start one.  Period.  No matter how undemocratic you think the regime or how crappy their policies, bombing a country does not improve the lives of the people there.  On the contrary, it destroys lives in every sense.  

So many things happened in 2015, it’s hard to catalog in one year-end summation. To a large extent, It was a year defined by crises, including financial distress in Greece and China as well as the Syrian refugee crisis and the rise of ISIL. But before we plunge into the disaster zone, it was also a political year. What better place to start than the US presidential campaigns, now well underway.

Here in Vermont, many were heartened by Bernie Sanders’ strong start and people-powered campaign. It was nice to see someone take on Hillary, even as he gave her a pass on her various scandals (emailgate, Benghazi). There was also the rise of Donald Trump as the Republican frontrunner who can say almost anything and still gain in the polls. Despite the theatrics, politics this year provided a patter of response to the events of 2015, as the real world intruded into the carefully crafted platforms of the various candidates. They were forced to take positions on gun control, foreign affairs, Black Lives Matter, and the global economy, articulated in a string of debates held by both parties. Voters who are paying attention got the chance to hone their own positions against those who would be our leaders over the next several years.

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Will 2016 be the year in which a prominent voice quotes King’s condemnations of US wars. Good people everywhere should resolve this new year to follow Ramsey Clark in his efforts toward hearing the truthful and liberating words of King as a catalyst toward achieving justice and adjudicated compensations that will end profitable genocide

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Will it happen in 2016, during the weekend holiday in the United States dedicated to Martin Luther King’s birth date. that of the dozens of nations presently under attack, whether by US NATO UN military or economic warfare, one will field a celebrity status leader reading to the public from King’s long suppressed sermon Beyond Vietnam – a Time to Break Silence?

At about this time each year, Brattleboro businesses generously donate over $50,000… to the Town of Brattleboro for a town business license.

That’s $50,000 that is diverted from food and heat drives, year-end bonuses, and holiday gift buying and into the town’s coffers. It is also an unnecessary hurdle for business owners in Brattleboro.

There are many things wrong with this approach, all easily solved if we are serious about being business-friendly.

It doesn’t need to be collected at this time of year.

The current system requires payments be made during the holiday season, when food drives, heat funds, and donations to other worthy causes need funds. This is the only time it can be collected, according to the way the town operates the program.