For opinion pieces on any topic.
Dear President Maduro, slanderous Western media, promoting war and violence for capital gains of the mercilessly amoral automaton functioning speculative interest banking industry, has put you in their spotlight to better target you with defamation. This is then your opportunity to be heard a bit world-wide. In telling the truth about the USA, you will be protecting all of us, Venezuela included.
This morning we learn that there is a write-in candidate for the one year Brattleboro Selectboard seat. Former candidate Kathryn Turnas II announced her candidacy in an email this morning:
“I plan on running as a write-in candidate for the one year Select Board seat. If you decide to write me in please use Kathryn Turnas II.
Thanks in advance and see you at the polls.”
The issue that needs to be examined is the ‘claw back’ provision of Medicaid. Unfortunately, even many legislators are unaware of this problem. This provision in the law is punitive and prejudicial. It will be imposed only on the very poor – those who qualify for Medicaid. This is a death tax that will be imposed only on the very poor. Will poor unmarried citizens be ‘penalized’ for their low income and also for not having a spouse? Those who are dirt poor will now even have their dirt taxed away from any heirs. Of course, those with accountants, lawyers, financial planners can avoid this unfair tax – but poor people do not have that kind of support system.
An open letter to Governor Shumlin and to our federal and state delegations:
This winter Route 9/Western Avenue off of Interstate 91 Exit 2 in Brattleboro has been in abominable shape. Despite the best efforts of the Brattleboro Department of Public Works to keep ahead of new pot holes through patching, both new-timers and old-timers in town say this is the worst shape they have ever seen the road.
Traffic has slowed to a crawl as everyone tries to avoid flat tires or damage to their undercarriages.
Drivers bob and weave like prize fighters, hopefully not into the fists of oncoming traffic. (Of just the
drivers the DPW has heard from, department head Steve Barrett reports well over 20 blown tires.) This focus on the decrepit road condition distracts drivers from watching for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Humans are not like penguins. We are not designed to walk on the ice. My father, who is in his 70’s, was walking in his hometown. The sidwalk was not cleared, and he slipped and fell on his side with a sickening cracking and terrible pain.This simple fall resulted in 6 broken ribs. He is in much pain, can hardly move, and even breathing is hard for him.
On my street, here in Brattleboro, I have noticed that again and again and again, some people clear their sidewalks, and some do not. South Main should be passable all the way from one end to the other.
Right now, there is slush, and tonight, the slush may well freeze, bumpy and slippery.
Sixteen Senators and what do you get? “Another day older and deeper in debt. Senators Sanders and Leahy don’t you call me cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company (stole).”
We spend a broken record’s worth of time in repetitive cadence about the vagaries of entitlements, the disabled, the plight of the elder poor, the kids, and then just your general poor people, not to mention the downtrodden middleclass.
Here’s what I got out of the budget discussion at Tuesday’s Selectboard meeting: “We’re broke. Must close library, sell parks.” Now I know that they didn’t actually advocate for any of these draconian changes, but these items were mentioned, and somehow that became my takeaway from the meeting. Unnecessary frills may have to be eliminated because important things like police and fire facilities must be built and next year we’ll need a new grader.
Welcome to the new reality, folks: Towns can no longer afford themselves.
BURLINGTON, Vt., Feb. 20 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today welcomed White House assurances that President Barack Obama will not call for cuts in Social Security benefits as part of a budget blueprint that he will submit to Congress on March 4.
“I applaud President Obama for his important decision to protect Social Security,” Sanders said. “With the middle class struggling and more people living in poverty than ever before, we cannot afford to make life even more difficult for seniors and some of the most vulnerable people in America. I look forward to working with the president to support the needs of the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor.”
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Eminent historian Prof. Noam Chomsky, has said over and over again, without provoking much negative outcry, “If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.” US Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson at the Nuremberg trials of Germans in 1945, felt obliged to point out that “these laws are not meant only for Germans, but for the citizens of all nations.” Why do Americans not get it?
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Eminent historian Prof. Noam Chomsky of M.I.T., various times voted world’s most famous intellectual in international polls, has said over and over again, without provoking much negative outcry, “If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.”
BURLINGTON, Vt., Feb. 16 – With unusually cold winter weather gripping much of the nation, the Vermont congressional delegation wants the Obama administration to clamp limits on propane exports to bring down skyrocketing prices for the home heating fuel.
Calling for “urgent and decisive action,” U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) asked Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to use her emergency powers to temporarily halt exports of propane. In , the lawmakers sought the export curbs at a time when domestic prices of propane nationwide are 60 percent greater this winter than one year ago.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 – A group of senators today urged President Barack Obama to spare Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the budget blueprint that he will submit to Congress on March 4.
A written by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and signed by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and 14 other senators praised the president for improving the economy and creating jobs while reducing the deficit. In making the case against cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, however, the senators expressed concerns about retirement insecurity, growing income inequality and rising poverty.
Brattleboro Citizens’ Breakfast is hosting a Selectboard Candidates Forum on Friday, February 21, 2014 at 8:00am at the Gibson-Aiken Center, 207 Main Street.
The forum is not a Selectboard meeting and is not intended for the purpose of taking action on any Town of Brattleboro Selectboard business. While individual candidates may express their opinions on Town business, the purpose of the forum is to elicit candidates’ views.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
Every morning, my room-mate Jake and I go for a walk.
Sometimes, we witness behavior that seems suspicious. For example, a carful of people pulls up to a house, a person gets out, knocks on the door and is admitted. Within about a minute, the person exits, gets in the car, and the gang drives away.
When we see this happening frequently, it appears that something is going on. Maybe they’re borrowing a few eggs for breakfast, but I think it’s drugs.
After a few days, this seems to stop happening, only to begin again in a few weeks.
Spending levels at 16 intelligence agencies are currently treated as classified information
WASHINGTON DC (February 12th, 2014)— Led by Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), a bipartisan group of 62 House lawmakers sent a letter today to President Obama calling on him to disclose in his fiscal year 2015 budget the top line spending levels at the 16 federal agencies known to conduct intelligence activities. The President is expected to deliver his budget to Congress on March 4.
According to the lawmakers, “The current practice of providing no specificity whatsoever regarding the overall budget requests for each intelligence agency falls woefully short of basic accountability requirements… As you develop your fiscal year 2015 budget, we strongly urge you to take a simple step toward much needed transparency by including the total amount requested for each of the sixteen intelligence agencies. We believe the top line number for each agency should be made public, with no risk to national security, for comparative purposes across all federal government agencies.”
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today praised President Barack Obama for signing an executive order raising the minimum wage for workers employed by federal contractors.
“President Obama is taking a very important first step by giving a raise to hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers for federal contractors,” said Sanders, who was invited to this afternoon’s White House signing ceremony. “The president’s action adds momentum to the push in Congress to raise the minimum wage for every worker in this country to at least $10.10 an hour,” Sanders added.
Sanders last Sept. 25 sent Obama a letter, signed by 14 other senators, urging the president to issue an executive order setting a minimum wage at $10.10 an hour for federal contractors.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who serves on the Senate energy and environment committees, issued the following statement today after The Solar Foundation reported that Vermont employs more workers in solar power jobs per capita than any other state:
“We have a bold vision in Vermont for an energy transformation phasing fossil fuels out as quickly as possible in favor of clean, renewable energy. Solar energy is a central part of that vision. A dramatic expansion of solar power is a clean and economical way to help break our dependence on foreign oil, reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, and create good-paying manufacturing and installation jobs in Vermont and across the United States.”
The film, Economics of Happiness, restores our faith in humanity and challenges us to believe that it is possible to build a better world.
Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment; fundamentalism and ethnic conflict.
Early/absentee ballots for Annual Town and Town School District election to be held on March 4, are now available in the Brattleboro town clerk’s office. Anyone wishing to vote prior to March 4, may apply for an early/absentee ballot until 5:00 p.m. on Monday, March 3.
Early/absentee ballots may be voted in person in the clerk’s office, mailed to the voter by the clerk’s office, picked up by the voter or delivered to the voter’s residence by two justices of the peace. All voted ballots must be received by the clerk before the polls close on election day in order to be counted. Early/absentee ballots remain sealed until election day. Absentee ballot envelopes are opened at the polling place and ballots are processed through vote tabulators in the same manner as those voted in person that day. For more information or to request an early/absentee ballot call 251-8157.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) congratulated Vermonters who are among the world’s top athletes competing in the Winter Olympics that formally open today in Sochi, Russia.
“Vermont has a long tradition of excellence in winter sports that we owe partly to our state’s cold climate and mountainous terrain, but also to an outdoor spirit that dates back generations. I would like to acknowledge these athletes individually and wish them the best of luck in pursuing the gold,” Sanders said in the statement printed in today’s Congressional Record.
Was hemp, not marijuana, the real target? As a member of the cannabis sativa family, it is the botanical cousin of marijuana. Harmless, yet extremely valuable as a ready source of natural, biomass fiber, it paid a dear price for being competitive in the fiber products market of the 1930’s, and it brought its cousin marijuana down with it.
When corporate DuPont sought to diversify out of explosive munitions in 1910 it turned its attention to the textile fibers market. By the early Thirties, DuPont had significant investment in synthetic fiber research and development. Nylon was introduced in 1938 as the “first true synthetic fiber created wholly out of chemicals.”
