Maverick Media

Vermont Yankee: Taking Back the Power

2012-01-26T09:00:00.001Z

Calling all citizens,

Defying the will of Vermonters, Entergy Nuclear has successfully won the first stage of its strategy to break its word and to usurp the authority of the Vermont legislature.

In their negotiations to get permission to buy Vermont Yankee, corporate officials agreed to abide by future state statutes, and promised to forgo the right to sue the state over statutes that might be contrary to Entergy's interests. But they were lying, sued the state, and have won the first round in a federal court suit that reverses the state legislature's refusal to extend Vermont Yankee's operating license.

Judge J. Garvin Murtha effectively said that [contrary to prior Supreme Court rulings] the legislature has no authority to regulate the operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. The Public Service Board is now the only state entity with the power to decide Yankee's future.

The judge also bought Entergy's argument that he should base his ruling not on the written legislation, but rather by retroactively reading the minds of the legislators to judge what they were thinking at the time.

This ruling goes hand in glove with current Federal policies that enrich the 1% and keep power firmly in the hands of large corporations. It affirms that corporate power and influence trump the interests of the citizenry. And it reinforces the notion that only the federal government can be trusted to keep us safe from radiological accidents caused by corporate malfeasance and profit-driven lax practices.

More significantly, the ruling should serve as the catalyst to spark Vermonters who have been watching the struggle from the sidelines to join the citizen effort to shut down VY before an accident shuts it down for us.

A majority of Vermonters know that Vermont Yankee has run its course and needs to be shut down, as originally licensed. Now is the time to turn to your neighbors.

With as few as five to ten friends, you can form an affinity group that takes non-violent training to help in the effort to shut down VY. You customize your affinity group to match the interests and willingness of its members, from pledging to engage in direct action/civil disobedience, to standing quietly on the sidewalk or organizing other actions. While a coalition of organizations IS working to coordinate these diverse efforts, don’t wait to engage in any way that seems appropriate to you.

Entergy has the judge's approval to continue operating past its March 21 close down date. But Vermont can (and may) appeal the decision, and the Public Service Board should be encouraged to deny a Certificate of Public Good.

But more important…

The region is mobilizing to descend upon Entergy's presence in southern Vermont and engage with a campaign of rallies, marches, direct action and political engagement to make it increasingly difficult for Entergy to conduct business as usual.

THE MOBILIZATION BEGINS

March will be a month of action. It will start early, with Students at Greenfield Community College walking from the college to the reactor on March 3.

On March 11, the anniversary of the ongoing Fukishima nuclear disaster in Japan, commemorations will be held in various locations throughout the state. On the following weekend, non-violence training will be held in Middlebury. (Free training is available from SAGE Alliance to any group requesting it.)

A “Shut It Down” rally will be held at the State House – with state representatives – on March 21. A major rally (without civil disobedience) will follow, on either March 25 or April 1 in Windham County.

We will make clear how strongly Vermonters support the state's right to regulate our utilities.

Civil disobedience and direct action will be directed towards Entergy Nuclear if they continue to operate beyond the March 21 license expiration date. These actions, beginning in late March, will continue as needed.

The State of Vermont will continue to assert its right to control the state’s energy generating future. But it needs the help of everyone. Only with a strong partnership of people power and government action can we assure victory over the entrenched interests of the money powered corporate oligarchy.

Starting now, every American who lives anywhere near an Entergy related establishment should know the truth about the company – and how they use their influence with the federal government (they brag about it on their website) to increase profits and deny the sovereign rights of communities and governments.

Together, we can take actions and create a narrative that resonates with people across the country and contributes to the growing political consciousness that the Occupy Movement has nurtured. Let’s keep up the momentum. The expiration date of Vermont Yankee’s license provides a sharp focus for the months ahead.

Contact www.sagealliance.net for help organizing an affinity group and staying connected. Take back the power from federal overreach and take back Vermont from those who would put us all at risk for the sake of profit. The Arab Spring and the Occupy movement demonstrate the potential power of the people. When we stand by and watch, we often find ourselves in peril. When we assert our sovereign power we take the first step towards building a better future.

Never Violence, Only Victory.

The SAGE Alliance sagealliance.org

Prelude to Upheaval: From Disaster to Outrage

2012-01-23T17:46:00.007Z

For most Vermonters the big stories of the last year were the state's response to Hurricane Irene, which produced the state’s worst natural disaster since 1927, the struggle over closure of Vermont Yankee, and passage of the first-in-the-nation universal health care system. After almost a decade the state had a Democratic governor who pledged to usher in single-payer health insurance and usher out Yankee. Around the country people were rallying to the economic critique of Vermont's popular US Senator, Bernie Sanders.

Occupying UVM

Yet in Burlington, where Sanders made his political breakthrough three decades ago, financial trouble at Burlington Telecom, a city-owned enterprise, and a deal with military contractor Lockheed Martin forged by Progressive Mayor Bob Kiss sparked local outrage. By spring there were clear signs of political upheaval ahead.

The larger story of the last year, in the Green Mountains and far beyond, was the sea change in public discourse – from anti-government rage to a radical focus (also angry at times) on economic inequality and concentration of wealth. Conservatives called the new movement class warfare, but it actually reflected an overdue wake up from a long period of mass amnesia.

The pace of change quickened – revolt across much of the Middle East, Greece and other European countries on the verge of economic default, and a titanic struggle for the soul of the US in the presidential race. Many progressives and Democrats were experiencing Obama Fatigue, while among the Republican candidates Mitt Romney had the organization and the money. But Romney was also a member of the 1%, a “vulture capitalist” who seemed to lack core principles.

By early October, from Vermont to San Francisco, thousands were protesting the growing wealth disparity between the rich and almost everyone else. In Burlington, Montpelier and other communities in the state, people began gathering to express themselves and organize. Using social networks and a collective (aka leaderless) approach the Occupy movement spread rapidly to hundreds of US cities, gaining momentum as unions and politicians offered support.

According to a Gallup poll, 44 percent of Americans felt that the economic system was personally unfair to them. More to the point, the top 1 percent had greater net worth than the “bottom” 90 percent. And, in an unusual generational twist, more people under 30 viewed the general concept of socialism in a positive light than capitalism.

The movement’s objective was nevertheless ambitious – to occupy parks, schools, corporate offices, streets, anywhere and everywhere – until something real is done about what the movement defined as economic tyranny. And tyranny is an uncomfortably apt description of the current “world order,” if you can call it orderly except in the capacity to concentrate wealth and power at the top.

On the other hand, some participants sounded shocked at the heavy-handed response in many places, as if they had discovered something new about the relationship between the state and those who dissent. What about Cointelpro, the Palmer Raids and countless other counter-intelligence ops over the years? Others suggested that the new efforts to create self-governing communities represented a breakthrough of paradigm-altering significance. Was this arrogance or just idealism and ambitious goals?

Many in the movement see it as a counterculture, a transformational social experiment. In order to succeed, they argue, it needs to remain separate and uncompromised by the dominant culture. One problem identified last fall was that to fully participate in its non-hierarchical, consensus-based process people had to make it a central part of their lives. This posed a problem for those with limited free time.

As protesters chanted "We are the 99%” the local elections began in Burlington. At a Democratic debate two days after declaring his run for mayor, State Sen. Tim Ashe, once a Progressive member of the City Council, proposed fusion with Democrats to defeat the Republican challenge. But there were three other candidates and one, Miro Weinberger, a housing developer angry about how the city had been managed under a Progressive Mayor, Bob Kiss, thought he was best qualified for the challenges.

In late October activists launched an ongoing encampment at City Hall Park. As long as some basic rules were followed Mayor Kiss signaled that he was prepared to be flexible. Things went fairly well at first, in contrast with violent confrontations between police and protesters elsewhere. But an impromptu concert sparked relaxation of normal restrictions and the next day some people were still intoxicated, including a 35-year-old homeless man.

Joshua Pfenning’s death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound was traumatic, especially for those who knew him and tried to help. It also abruptly ended the encampment. But General Assemblies have continued, while dozens of working groups develop the movement’s next phase.

By Thanksgiving almost everyone was talking about the one percent (or 1%, as some prefer), the few with most of the wealth – bankers, oil tycoons, hedge fund managers and the rest. But as filmmaker Robert Greenwald pointed out, there is an even smaller elite – the top 0.01 percent, wealthy military contractor CEOs.

That made the embrace of Sandia Laboratories and Lockheed Martin by Vermont’s progressive leaders, including Sanders, somewhat perplexing. On military funding and partnerships with defense corporations, otherwise vocal critics of the 1% and military-industrial complex made much the same arguments as other members of Congress.

Shumlin and Sanders push Smart Grid

Although Lockheed ultimately backed out of its climate change agreement with the city – at least partly in reaction to public pressure – Sanders succeeded in attracting Sandia, which is managed by Lockheed for the Department of Defense. The result is a multi-million dollar satellite lab at UVM to usher in Smart Grid metering, announced at a December press conference with gov. Peter Shumlin.

Along with Senator Pat Leahy and Congressman Peter Welch, Sanders also supported the prospect that Lockheed-built F-35s might be bedded at the Burlington International Airport. If the plane was going to be built and deployed, he argued, Vermont should get a share of the manufacturing jobs and support for its National Guard.

On the other hand, he continued to fight for working people and speak out strongly during the year against economic inequality and corporate personhood. Momentum grew for Town Meeting and legislative action on a Constitutional Amendment to declare that money isn't speech and corporations aren't people. A state legislative resolution introduced by Sen. Virginia Lyons, the first of its kind in the country, has a decent chance of passage. It proposes “an amendment to the United States Constitution that provides that corporations are not persons under the laws of the United States.”

In December, local Democrats reconvened their caucus – it stalled in November after three rounds – and nominated Weinberger, the political newcomer. Two days later Republican Kurt Wright, a state legislator with more than a decade of experience on the City Council, launched his campaign. The emerging dynamic pitted an experienced insider downplaying his conservative approach against a neophyte outsider with business expertise – at a time when the city faces difficult choices.

The shape of the race shifted again with the entry of Independent Wanda Hines. An African-American organizer who works for the city, Hines filled the vacuum created by the Progressive Party’s indecision and division. On Jan. 22 local Progressives opted not to run a mayoral candidate this year, but may still endorse one of those running.

Major questions loom as Town Meeting Day approaches. For example, will voters at Town Meetings send a strong message on corporate control of the political process by recommending a Constitutional Amendment? And will the state legislature act? How can the progressive movement deal with the recent damage to its local brand? Could Vermont’s liberal city actually elect a Republican who thinks selling the municipal electric department is the preferable way to reduce the city’s debt?

Beyond the Queen City, with a federal judge ruling on Jan. 20 that federal authority trumps Vermont law -- meaning that Vermont Yankee won't have to close in March and extended legal and regulatory fights lie ahead -- how will activists and the public respond?

And one more: Will the 99% movement for economic justice and economic democracy that emerged so dramatically last year find a way to pose specific questions about the limits of corporate influence, turning its potential and aspirations into an inspiring and practical vision?

Summing up a year, in Vermont or beyond, can become a superficial or even misleading exercise. But who could ignore the signs of change last year as the Tea Party’s no-nothing rejectionism gave way to a global outcry against economic unfairness and corporate exploitation? That much at least was obvious, and not a bad way to wake up and get ready of 2012.

Return of The People's Republic

2012-01-22T20:44:00.000Z

An intimate look at the rise of Bernie Sanders and the progressive movement that changed Vermont.

Now available from Maverick Media

A fast-moving description that illustrates one of the great efforts at innovative government of the past fifty years…

--Pierre Clavel, Cornell University

If you were going to create somebody to write about Bernie Sanders’ years as socialist mayor of Burlington, you might make him a fortysomething Vermont journalist and bookstore founder and former government worker who almost ran for mayor of Burlington himself…That’s what you have in Greg Guma.

—Mark Satin, New Options

A treasure house of first-hand information and perceptive, if often controversial analysis of great value to anyone concerned to explore realistically the possibilities for combining third-party electoral politics with other methods of working for justice, peace, environmental sanity and genuine democracy.

– David Dellinger, author/activist

If you are at all interested in Vermont and Burlington, and public policy, get this book.

– Phil Hoff, former Vermont Governor

Remembering MLK: Death, Life & Secrets

2012-01-21T10:00:00.001Z

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of a Memphis motel as he prepared to support striking Black sanitation workers there. Although James Earl Ray initially confessed to the crime – he later recanted – doubts about what happened persist.

In the late 1990s, former FBI agent Donald Wilson, who investigated the murder, presented evidence he claimed to have found in Ray’s car – slips of paper that support charges of a conspiracy involving federal agents. Wilson didn’t produce the evidence earlier, he said, because he didn’t trust other investigators and feared for his family’s safety.

Coretta Scott King and the rest of King's family won a wrongful death civil trial against Loyd Jowers and "other unknown co-conspirators." Jowers, the owner of a restaurant near the Lorraine Motel, claimed to have received $100,000 to arrange King's assassination. The jury of six Whites and six Blacks found him guilty and concluded that "governmental agencies were parties" to the assassination plot.

William Pepper, who represented the King family in the trial, charged that Ray was framed by the federal government, and that King was killed by a conspiracy that involved the FBI, CIA, military, Memphis police, and organized crime figures from New Orleans and Memphis. A friend of King near the end of his life, Pepper also represented Ray in a televised mock trial in an attempt to get him the trial he never had. The results of his investigation are provided in his book, An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King.

Yet, it’s easier, in a way, to accept that King was the victim of a conspiracy than to face other aspects of his life. As Kentucky civil rights leader Georgia Powers put it, “He was a great man – but he was still a man.” Like Bill Clinton, whose record as president was largely overshadowed by relentless investigation of his personal behavior, King was hounded by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who hoped to discredit the civil rights leader by exposing his alleged “womanizing.” Many civil rights leaders dismiss such charges as mean-spirited attempts to sully King’s memory and discredit his achievements.

Georgia Powers certainly had no intention of doing that. On the contrary. She worked closely with King in the 1960s, organizing to end discrimination in public accommodations and employment and pass open housing laws. In 1967, she became that first Black and first woman elected to the Kentucky State Senate, a position she held with distinction for the next 20 years. During her first term, less than a month before King’s death, she spearheaded passage of a statewide open housing bill.

MLK and Georgia Powers

But her relationship with King was more than professional. As she revealed in her 1995 book, I Shared the Dream, their work together led to a love affair that continued until the last moments of his life. Keeping that secret for almost three decades, she went public only after other civil rights leaders released inaccurate accounts of their relationship and the events surrounding King’s death.

She was particularly upset by a comment in And The Walls Came Tumbling Down , an autobiography written by Ralph Abernathy, King’s close friend and confidante. Although willing to attribute Abernathy’s repetition of Hoover’s smear to illness and poor memory, she felt compelled to set the record straight. “When Dr. King’s life is researched,” she wrote, “I want the part relating to me to be available in my own words. It is my own history as well, both the good and the bad.”

It began with mutual admiration, she explained, and “progressed into a deepening friendship in which we shared opinions, confidences, and laughed often.” She called him “M.L.,” and he called her “Senator.” But King was under tremendous pressure, and ultimately turned to Georgia for intimacy and emotional support, she claimed. Although they sometimes discussed issues and strategies, his main unmet need was time to let his hair down and set his cares aside.

“Some people called him a prophet, and compared him with Jesus,” she recalled. While she did believe that he was divinely inspired, “I knew Martin had all the imperfections, foibles, and passions of a mortal man.” A meticulous person with an affection for silk suits, he enjoyed laughter and jokes, barbecued ribs and soul foods, not to mention the company of attractive women. In short, she said, “He had a good appetite for life.”

He also had a strong sense that he wouldn’t get to see his visions come to pass. Tired and melancholy one night, he told her, “I’m just as normal as any other man. I want to live a long life, but I know I won’t get to.”

Georgia was in Memphis with King on the day he died. The previous night he’d confided, “I’ve never been more physically and emotionally tired.” On April 4, they waited most of the day to see if a temporary restraining order against the planned demonstration would be lifted. But King was adamant. Regardless of what the court decided, he promised, “We will march on Monday.” When Abernathy asked whether he feared what might happen, King answered softly, “I’d rather be dead than afraid.”

As the meeting broke up and the group prepared for a soul food dinner, King brushed past Georgia on his way out the door. “I’m looking forward to a quiet and peaceful evening,” he said. “Don’t make any plans.” They were the last words he ever spoke to her. Moments later he was shot.

^^^

Looking back, Georgia regretted that her actions may have hurt others, especially King’s wife. But despite those feelings, she didn’t regret her decision, insisting that it wasn’t just some tawdry affair. “When we were together,” she recalled, “the rest of the word, whose problems we knew and shared, was far away. Our time together was a safe haven for both of us. There we could laugh and speak of things others might not understand. He trusted me, and I him, not to talk about it.”

As the years passed, however, she became increasingly uncomfortable with the rumors that distorted their relationship. She also realized that her own life, like so many, was full of hidden truths. One was her ancestry. Although she didn’t know the identity of her father’s father, she eventually learned that he was White. Another involved her great aunt Celia Mudd, who was born into slavery but eventually inherited the rural Kentucky farm on which she spent all her life.

Eventually, she uncovered most of Celia’s story. The key was a 1902 will in which Sam Lancaster, whose father had bought the Nelson County farm, left it to his most trusted employee – the former slave whom Georgia knew as Aunt Celia. That fateful decision led to a court battle with Sam’s surviving brother. The case went to Kentucky’s highest court, yet most newspapers declined to report about it. A Black woman inheriting more than 500 acres of land from a White man apparently wasn’t considered news. Neither was the fact that Celia Mudd went on after winning the case to become a local philanthropist, admired by Blacks and Whites alike. Powers eventually turned this forgotten history into a novel, Celia’s Land.*

Several years ago I visited the farm on which Celia spent her life. Stepping into the old slave quarters where she was born, I reflected on how much we still don’t understand about that time, when Whites believed Blacks were no more than property. I also thought about how often racism is still ignored, distorted, or downplayed.

Rather than the petty arguments, name-calling and cruel distortions that often characterize political discourse these days, what we need is the courage to face our own and society’s uncomfortable realities – to openly acknowledge them, replace hatred with compassion, and stop accepting convenient myths.
(Original version posted on April 4, 2008; most read post, Jan. 2012)

* I worked with Georgia on the book and have written a play, The Inheritance, based on Celia Mudd's story.

What is The Vermont Way?

2012-01-20T20:53:00.000Z

A fresh look at the remarkable Green Mountain State... An engaging, accessible study of Vermont’s political, economic and cultural evolution and influence...

THE VERMONT WAY

Restless Spirits and Popular Movements

COMING IN 2012

Find out more

Immigration, Rights & Citizenship

2012-01-19T14:30:00.001Z

This article is excerpted from a longer analysis written in 2006 but contains material originally published in Toward Freedom and Borderlines, and from a talk delivered at Eastern New Mexico University on September 15, 1996.

In 1996, President Clinton signed a so-called Anti-Terrorism Bill. But it actually set the stage for more recent assaults on civil liberties and undermining non-citizens' rights. A few months later, in an election-season capitulation condemned even by supporters, he embraced welfare "reform," denying most benefits to immigrants – even legal residents. The law also imposed a state feudalism that punished the poor and the vulnerable while giving governors open-ended welfare checks – called Block Grants – to spend as they pleased.

Ending an entitlement that began with the New Deal, welfare "reform" put much of the burden of cuts on immigrants, eliminating access to food stamps and Supplemental Security Income. Even disabled legal immigrants lost benefits. New York Times columnist Bob Herbert called this "a form of officially sanctioned brutality aimed at the usual suspects – the poor, the black and the brown, the very young, the uneducated, immigrants. Somebody has to be the scapegoat and they're it."

Anti-terrorism legislation passed during that period also hurt immigrants. For example, it allowed asylum officers at the border to turn back people fleeing persecution or death if they just didn't thoroughly document their case – or request travel documents from the government that was threatening them.

But the most sweeping attacks, then and now, have come in the guise of immigration "reform" legislation, largely designed to drive the undocumented underground, perpetuate exploitation, divide communities, and punish children. A true example of post-modern doublespeak, such "reform" epitomizes a fortress mentality that fuels hate crimes and allows racism to wrap itself in the flag.

Throughout the 1990s, Human Rights Watch accused the US Border Patrol of routinely abusing people, citing a pattern of beatings, shootings, rapes, and deaths. In response, INS detainees in a private jail rioted in June 1995 after being tortured by guards. But even when such crimes – including the sexual abuse of women in custody – have been reported, agents know that the most they will get is a slap on the wrist.

Today, the US Congress is considering legislation that would, at best, combine a “compromise” legalization program with new border and interior enforcement measures likely to increase arrests, detentions, and confrontations in Latino and ethnic communities. Blocking traditional avenues of legalization, the leading proposals would increase the size of the undocumented population, while undermining the legal and human rights of immigrants.

After 9/11, the US considered placing soldiers along the Mexico border. It hasn’t happened yet, but such a plan may still be in the works. Meanwhile, efforts to curtail immigration through tighter security have done nothing but redirect the flow into the most desolate areas of the border, increasing the mortality rate of those crossing. Between 1998 and 2004, at least 1,900 people died trying to cross the US-Mexico border.

Fragile Rights

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States," states the 14th Amendment, "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

That could change, however. Some politicians want to abolish the citizenship guarantee of this 130-year-old Amendment. The rationale? Too many undocumented immigrants come to the US to insure citizenship for their children. Like the idea of letting states deny free public education to children of undocumented parents, it uses the immigrant "threat” as a pretext for attacks on basic rights and constitutional principles.

“Citizenship in this country should not be bestowed on people who are the children of folks who come into this country illegally," argues Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican leading the charge. In 2006 at least 83 GOP co-sponsors pushed a bill that would restrict automatic citizenship at birth to children of U.S. citizens and legal residents.

In the past, the Supreme Court has described citizenship as the most basic of all rights, a "priceless possession." The opening clause of the 14th Amendment was designed principally to grant both national and state citizenship to the newly free Blacks. Under its terms, citizenship is acquired by either birth or naturalization; thus, any person born in the US is a citizen – regardless of parentage.

A primary goal of the Amendment was to overrule the Dred Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court held that neither Blacks who were "imported into this country and sold as slaves nor their descendants" could become citizens. During debate in 1866, Congress also considered the likelihood that it would apply to children of immigrants. Until the 14th Amendment, there was no constitutional definition of US citizenship. Ironically, the Republican Party pushed this and other Reconstruction measures through Congress after the Civil War.

Some claim that, if children born in the US to illegal immigrants are citizens, it's too easy for their parents to obtain visas and citizenship later. The idea surfaced in a 1996 GOP platform proposal; recommended by a panel created by then House Speaker Newt Gingrich, it called for "a constitutional amendment or constitutionally valid legislation declaring that children born in the United States of parents illegally present are not automatically citizens." Scholars have warned that an amendment would almost certainly be needed to make such a profound change.

A month before she died, Barbara Jordan, former chairwoman of the US Commission on Immigration Reform, denounced the idea. "To deny birthright citizenship," she told Congress, "is to derail the engine of American liberty." Walter Dellinger, Acting Solicitor General at that time, added the following prediction: It would create "a permanent caste of aliens, generation after generation born in America but never to be among its citizens." Nevertheless, the proposal is back.

MAVERICK CHRONICLES: 2011 YEAR IN REVIEW

2011-12-30T09:00:00.001Z

Rednecks out to back a witch, two parties running in a ditch

Yes, it’s strange very strange… Must be the season of the rich

^^^

Think back …. corporate theft, natural disasters, dead birds, cultural counter-revolution and a general retreat from reality. It’s the start of 2011 and things are looking grim. Yet still, at the same time, every day, more inconvenient facts are breaking through.

Dead bird in Arkansas

One new WikiLeaks cable in early January showed, for example, that the US embassy in Paris had advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any European Union country that opposed genetically modified crops. Seriously, trade war with Europe. Such revelations were becoming a daily occurrence.
The prison at Guantanamo entered its 10th year of operation, despite Obama's campaign promise to close it. This was one of the most obvious promises that had not been kept, and a prime cause of that growing political disorder – Obama Fatigue.
For the more paranoid, there was also a theory circulating that the whole course of the leaks controversy actually advanced a long-standing Obama and Bush repression agenda. After all, the government was already shutting Wikileaks’ server in the US, although no identifiable US law had been broken.
Need more evidence? Ok, policing the Web was underway before the current leaks scandal; namely, the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (S.773). And even if that couldn’t get through a girdlocked Congress, the US Department of Homeland Security had already begun to crack down on the Internet, quietly seizing and shutting down web domains without due process, or DHS simply seized domains and posted a "Department of Justice" logo on the site.
Over 75 websites were seized and shut in one week. Hmm…. but that's another story. Meanwhile, a few highlights from Maverick Chronicles:

January 6: End of the World Department

“On New Year’s Eve, thousands of red-wing blackbirds tumbled from the sky in Arkansas. A few days later a flock of mixed birds died in Louisiana. Then a hundred jackdaws were found dead on a street in Sweden. A little spooky. Maybe they all just got the flu or became confused, right? It’s getting strange out here, like the opening of some apocalyptic thriller that doesn’t work out too well.”

Complete Episode

Also includes: The Lockheed Deal * Recent Wikileaks * Microcredit * Corporate People Campaign * War and Peace in Burlington * Google Words * Rumor: Wikileaks is a CIA plot

January 14: Is the Empire Collapsing?

“Last Friday Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the Senate Budget Committee. He warned that the government must get its budget deficit under control or “the economic and financial effects would be severe.” But how do you get the budget under control when the government, regardless of party or president, is committed to basically running the world? The Congress has just passed the largest military budget in history, and there is no indication that any of America’s wars and occupations are near an end.

“The financial crisis isn’t over either. More foreclosures and financial sector troubles loom ahead, which will probably lead to more bailouts for those “too big to fail.” The dollar is also in danger. And the Republican prescription? Cut into Social Security and Medicare to pay for the wars and bailouts.
“So, the question for this week is: Is the empire collapsing? Even if there is a modest recovery, are its days as the leading economic power in the world winding down?” Complete Episode

Also includes: Why Lockheed Likes Vermont * Hateful Speech and Violence * Arizona Circles the Wagons * Wikileaks and Digital IDS * Tom Delay Gets Off Too Easy * Rumor: Blackbird Deaths Linked to Phosgene—and Murder

January 20: A New Global Boss

Obama considers future accommodations.

“As President Hu met with Secretary of Defense Gates, China simultaneously tested a new stealth fighter and publicly criticized US arms sales to Taiwan. The basic message – between the lines – is that the days of US dominance may be coming to an end – militarily and economically. Like many people in this country, Chinese leaders have serious doubts that the US economy will fully recover, that the borrowing will stop, or that it can regain its competitive edge.
“So, the question for this week: Are we seeing a basic power shift? If the US can’t even control its domestic bankers, how does it expect to deal with China? In short, does America, and perhaps the rest of the world, have a new boss? “ Complete Episode

Also includes: Baby Doc Comes Home * Another Step for Space Tourism * Comcast Gets Its Way (Again) * Wikileaks Founder Speaks Out * Informer Found in Anti-War Group * A Libertarian-Progressive Alliance? * Moving to Amend * Rumor: Lance Armstrong’s Drug Connection * Plus, Signs of the Times

In February I took some time to work on a book about Vermont’s evolution and values. But before turning off the news for a month, I wrote another essay, How Vermont Was Born – based on an earlier look at state history – and went on the air for one more round up with my friends at The Radiator, Burlington’s community radio station.

February 10-11, 2011: A Creationist Nation?

“Four in 10 Americans believe that humans were created by God about 10,000 years ago, while only 16 percent of us think we developed over millions of years without divine assistance. The rest say we’ve been evolving for millions of years – but God certainly helped.

“Actually it’s not as bad as it sounds. The number of people who accept the “creationist” idea has actually gone down. The high was 47 percent back in the 1990s. As you might suspect, people with less education are more like to be creationists.
“...So, the question for this week is: What are the chances that the country will someday accept a true radical as its leader? I’m not talking about a leftist, of course, but rather someone who thinks science has a liberal bias and the Bible is a history book? Can it happen here?” Full Episode: Part One

Also includes: Endangered shellfish * death of a detainee * Tea Party developments * New Orleans demographics & Big Brother in Chicago * an immigration video game

Part Two: No Welcome for Lockheed

Also includes: Payback from wayback (Matthew Lyons) * Rumor: Obama is taking over the Internet

March 3: Vermont’s Progressive Era Turns 30

March 22: The Next Phase & The Vermont Way

March 30: Libya, Obama and the Holy Triumvirate

April 8: At the Brink

During my winter retreat into Vermont’s past, things continued to heat up. Spring began with a series of shocks, from Japan to the US and the Middle East...

BURLINGTON… “A tax increase was recently rejected, but another vote, as well as service cuts, may be on the way. So says Mayor Bob Kiss. Burlington Telecom threatens the city’s economic standing and local residents are unhappy about the mayor’s proposed partnership with military contractor Lockheed Martin. Is the city’s progressive era over?”

NATIONAL… “Evidence is mounting that the Libyan rebels fighting the regime of Muammar Gaddafi are under the direction of US intelligence agencies. Despite repeated claims by Obama officials that the rebels are a largely unknown quantity, it has become clear that key military leaders of the anti-Gaddafi campaign are well known to the US government and have longstanding ties with the CIA.”

GLOBAL… “The operator of Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant said this week that it has found radioactive iodine at 7.5 million times the legal limit in a seawater sample taken near the facility. In response Government officials imposed a new health limit for radioactivity in fish. On Thursday, a pair of 7 plus earthquakes struck off Japan's devastated northeast coast within a minute of each other. Another Tsunami threatened and people were told to move away from the coast.”

Full Episode / Also includes: Disease clusters * Want a Job? Answer this..

April 14: Obama’s Deficit Talk

April 15: Can the economy be saved?

By this time I was beginning to think… "we tend to be impatient. It’s known as hyperbolic discounting and helps explain a lot, everything from addiction to the slow response to climate change. Short-sightedness often undermines our long-term planning. One solution: rethink the question before answering.” Full Episode

Also includes: Remembering the Civil War * another Chernobyl * crackdown in Tibet * freaking fracking * inconvenient repression * who are the beautiful people * Webbie nominees.

April 21: HAARPing on the End Times
”…when we think about End Times, it isn’t usually about a world without affordable gas but rather one based on much more extreme doomsday visions, many visualized in films. Usually such scenarios, especially those developed for television, show human beings somehow avoiding the worst and surviving. Not so, however, in the Planet of the Apes franchise and Dr. Strangelove. Both dared to actually contemplate the extinction of humanity. Both were also nuclear fantasies; Apes put the button in Charlton Heston’s dead hand while Strangelove said a machine will decide.
“Here’s a theory just as terrible but more outside the box. For the moment let’s call it the rumor of the month: According to writer and radical theorist Richard K. Moore, a New World Order depopulation conspiracy is using covert technology developed by a defense program known as HAARP to cause earthquakes and tsunamis.”
Full Episode / Also includes: Saying no to Jasmine * Good sense at the AZ corral

April 22: Vermont’s Nuclear Showdown Begins

“Entergy Corp has filed a federal lawsuit to prevent the State of Vermont from forcing the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to shut down in 2012. The corporation claims it "had no other choice" than to go to US District Court to resolve the dispute, which pits the decision of the state's elected officials – and the opinion of most Vermonters – against a federal agency's regulatory authority. It’s a state’s rights showdown of immense importance…”

Full Episode / Also includes: a popular vote option * Pulitzer watch

April 28: Heavy Physics and the Ultimate Particle

“We’re either gawking like tourists or compulsively peeling the onion, aren’t we? Gawking at celebrities and superfluous royalty, secretly enjoying the pointless gamesmanship that passes for politics in this post-modern house of mirrors, or else we’re pulling back the layers of reality, peeling away anything that keeps us from some ultimate truth. Or both at the same time.

“In Switzerland, at the Large Hadron Collider, where men in white coats send atoms crashing into one another at enormous speeds, they are definitely looking for something ultimate: The thing that makes everything else possible. The Higgs boson particle, sometimes known as the God Particle.”

And the year was just getting started….on April 28, the Vermont Legislature passed legislation for a first-in-the-nation universal health care system. Peter Shumlin had campaigned for governor on a promise to create a state level single-payer system that would contain health care costs and guarantee universal access to medical. After the final vote, he celebrated the victory with an appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show.

May 5: “This just in: Donald Trump is now demanding Osama Bin Laden’s long form death certificate. While we’re at it, let’s see some paperwork on the death of Trump’s campaign for president.”

Finally, the bold absurdity of Sideshow Don burst through the media bubble. As Donald Trump fired another has-been on his “reality” show, Obama ran a high-tech hit on the most wanted man in the world. Bin Laden's execution was one way to get a second term as president, and pretty well buried the theory that he is a Muslim. Or a pacifist. Full episode / Also includes: Rolling Stone on Vermont and the nuclear age * Google’s lawsuit

May 6: Selective Justice

“Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Egypt and even Saudi Arabia. All have seen protests and government repression in recent days. But not one of them has been attacked by the US, France or Britain and none of their “rebels” are receiving military, financial, or moral support from Western powers...

“Still, Gaddafi's real crime isn’t his support for terrorists and/or freedom fighters, but rather backing the wrong ones, from the US point of view. He didn’t back the Nicaraguan Contras, UNITA in Angola, Cuban exiles in Miami, and the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala – all beneficiaries of generous US backing. There was just one band of “freedom fighters” that both Gaddafi and Reagan supported – bin Laden’s old group, the Moujahedeen in Afghanistan. Twisted minds evidently think alike.” Full Episode

May 12: Last of the Power Couples

“Experts have been predicting the end of the US as the leading power on the planet for some time. It just appears to be happening faster than anyone expected… And what country could overtake it? The smart money is on China, already the second largest economy in the world. In 2001, Goldman Sachs predicted that it would rival Germany by 2011. Mission accomplished. In April, the International Monetary Fund revised the forecast: China’s economy, they now project, will be the world’s largest by 2016. That’s five years from now and it could be sooner.

“But China’s leaders, despite their pride and ambitions, don’t want to see the US go belly up. It’s more of a symbiotic relationship, competitive but respectful and slowly leaning toward long-term commitment…

“So, you might say there are two Big Ones now, similar in some ways, two superpower behemoths, both ruled by unlovable elites and desperately clinging to hegemony. It looks like a good match, possibly the early days of a long, intense love-hate relationship. In that case pity the poor planet.” Full Episode

May 19: Do Psychopaths Misrule Our World?

This became one of my most popular articles in years, going viral on a variety of websites. Just a taste:

“…why are millions so fascinated, often even seduced, by people whose behavior actually points to pathology? Perhaps we are wired to be attracted by psychopaths, sociopaths, narcissists, people so focused on their own central role in whatever takes place that the rest of us are sucked into their reality.

“Think about entering a portal and emerging into the head of Donald Trump. What could that level of self-absorption be like? Begin by imagining a complete lack of empathy, one of the tell-tale signs of the psychopath…”

May 25: Truth Decay

Almost as widely ready, but considerably more controversial. Here is the basic point:

“…some theories may be distractions or even deliberate deceptions, but others are worth considering, as long as we stipulate that they aren’t necessarily facts and resist exaggeration. The problem is that it’s becoming more difficult to tell the difference in an era when facts have been devalued. There are so many possibilities, the standard of proof appears to be getting lower, and theories tend to evolve, expand and mutate rapidly in unexpected ways as they circulate through cyberspace. As yet, there is little follow up to see whether new facts reinforce or discredit a particular idea or prediction. Corruption of truth meanwhile contributes to social division and civic decay. Yet there are apparently no consequences for stoking paranoia, intentionally confusing speculation with fact, or perpetrating a premeditated hoax.”

Complete Article

Hundreds of responses were posted, especially on Alternet and Truthout. Here is my reply.

June: Remembering Gil & No Ron Re-Run
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;

The revolution will be live.

The death of Gil Scott-Heron at the end of May wasn’t much of a surprise, yet it felt still like a significant loss. In the early 1980s I’d seen Gill perform live in Burlington, one of the best live performances I’d experienced. But his final decades were tough and troubled.

In the US most people celebrated Memorial Day as usual. But Hondurans experienced a very different historical moment: the return of President Manuel Zelaya, 23 months after being forced into exile at gunpoint.
Meanwhile, Vermont officials embarked on implementing health care for all through a single payer system called Green Mountain Care. Key elements would include containing costs by setting reimbursement rates and streamlining administration into a state-managed system. Still, Vermont would need a waiver from the federal government to implement its plan by 2014 – no simple thing.

And this…

EXECUTIVE CYBER-ACTION – “Cyber-attacks will soon be considered acts of war, according to the New York Times. In the future, a US president will be able to respond with economic sanctions, cyber-retaliation or a military strike if key US computer systems are attacked. Not only does this look like another step toward an era of Info Wars but one more example of executive power expanding at the expense of democracy and sovereignty.”

Full Episode / Also Includes: Ousted President Comes Home * Vermont’s Road to Single-Payer * Question: Is a Progressive-Libertarian Alliance Possible?

The 2012 campaign for president was underway. But much of the discussion sounded like an exercise in myth-making, especially when it came to Reagan and his era. It felt like the right time for a recap…

Unpacking the Reagan Myth (Before It Spreads)

“Upon the death of Ronald Reagan seven years ago in June, mainstream media created a fake, soft-focus biography of the first celebrity president. Even today it’s common to hear politicians, including President Obama, voice deep respect for his communication skills, overall performance and impact on the country. It’s as if millions of people have been dosed with a drug that makes you forget years of greed, debauchery, and abuse – the political equivalent of Rohypnol.” Full Story

June 10: Maverick Chronicles

Includes: Danes in Space * Comedy Central trumps Fox

After looking at psychopaths and conspiracy theories, my investigation of social distemper brought me finally to consider the power of psychiatric drugs and digital technology to influence how we see the world...

Mind Games: Cyberspace and Psychiatric Drugs

Are They Messing with Our Heads?

“Brain-altering drugs and digital “indoctrination” – a potent combination. Together, they pose a potential threat not only to the stability of many individuals but of society itself. Seduced by the promise that our brains can be managed and enhanced without serious side-effects, we may be creating a future where psychological dysfunction becomes a post-modern plague and powerful forces use cyberspace to reshape “reality” in their private interest.

“Do prescription drugs create new mental problems? And if so, how could it be happening? For Whitaker the answer lies in the effects of drugs on neurotransmitters, a process he calls negative feedback. When a drug blocks neurotransmitters or increases the level of serotonin, for instance, neurons initially attempt to counteract the effects. When the drug is used over a long period, however, it can produce “substantial and long-lasting alterations in neural function,” says Steven Hyman, former director of the National Institutes of Mental Health. The brain begins to function differently. Its ability to compensate starts to fail and side effects created by the drug emerge…” Full Story

June 17: Maverick Chronicles

MASS. VS. ENTERGY – “Vermont has a new ally in its struggle to close the Vermont Yankee Nuke next March. When Yankee owner Entergy's request for a preliminary injunction against the state is heard in federal court this month, the state will be joined by Massachusetts, which is backing Vermont's position in the case…”

OBAMA & SECRECY – “On March 28 President Obama received a “transparency award” from five open government groups… The presentation took place at a closed, undisclosed meeting in the White House, however, and, as a petition criticizing the award notes, “If the ceremony had been open to the press, it is likely that reporters would have questioned the organizations’ proffered justification for the award…”

LIBYA: THE BLAME GAME – “A rumor has circulated that Libyan soldiers were issued Viagra to help them in raping woman as part of Gaddafi’s war on those opposing his regime. But this has the ring of disinformation, perhaps aimed at making any military response seem reasonable…”

INFOWAR UPDATE –“The International Monetary Fund says it was targeted by a sophisticated cyber attack earlier this year. Officials provided few details but said the attack was "a very major breach." Cyber security officials surmise the hack was designed to install software to create a "digital insider presence." The IMF has sensitive economic data about many countries…”

Full Episode / Also Includes: Getting ready for the First Lady * National Syrup Security

The pace of change was quickening – Greece on the verge, revolt across the Middle East, a titanic struggle for the soul of the US in the presidential race. Mitt Romney had the name recognition and the money. But there was a hitch, beyond his being a member of the 1% and lacking core principles…

June 24: Can a Mormon be President?

“Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman aren’t the first Mormons to seek the presidency. That honor goes to founder Joseph Smith, a Vermonter by birth who struck out for the west in revival days. Check out the story of Smith’s fateful 1844 run, and some thoughts about how things have changed.” Full Episode

Also Includes: Bernie Sanders v. the world – Koch Brothers Edition * Interview with Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen * patriotism and the first lady’s visit * Greece on the verge * the Afghan transition * Rumor of the week.

Image Trouble * Mormons, Presidents and theBilderberg Way

Gundersen on Nukes Also includes: Will Yankee Refuel?

Before a late summer break and a turn toward local affairs, I took one more run at exploring whether a working alliance between progressives and libertarians could actually develop. Previous essays during the spring had been distributed by various progressive websites. This one was greeted with almost universal disinterest. So it goes…

Is a Progressive-Libertarian Alliance Possible?

“….Don’t both libertarians and progressives believe that the size and reach of the US military should be cut? Don’t both think that civil liberties are being eroded by executive orders and legislative overreach? Beyond that, they also agree, perhaps more than either has yet acknowledged, about the greed and dysfunction of big institutions, and the need for more transparency and oversight. In this regard, Sanders and Paul are pointing the way. At times libertarian voices are even bolder than their progressive counterparts, especially those who say that the War on Drugs should end and most if not all drugs should be legalized…” Full Story

July 19: Ready or not, we had entered the age of digital publishing. With that in mind I released BIG LIES, a new book available on Kindle, Nook, iPad, iPhone, and so on. (Hint.) From high crimes to presidential death matches, secret wars and perception management, it's a skeptical look at US history and the first years of the new millennium. Subtitle: How Our Corporate Overlords, Politicians and Media Establishment Warp Reality and Undermine Democracy.

August 2: In Chicago, 13,000 cops prepared to protect NATO/ G8 leaders from expected protests. http://t.co/F7SP4p2 It looked like they were preparing for some kind of war in May 2012. Hmm.

August 6: Michael Moore had it right. The slow death of the US middle class began 30 years earlier with Reagan and Patco. http://t.co/KROEBDb But now the nature of the conflict was becoming clear. Class warfare was about to become a household word….

^^^

It had been a year since I returned to New England from Arizona, ground zero in the debate over immigration and anti-Obama fervor. The mood out west was no surprise, with so many angry white folks retiring there from corporate and military jobs. But Vermont had also entered a period of tumult and political change, not to mention dealing with major flooding caused by Hurricane Irene.

Shumlin and Sanders

After almost a decade the state had a Democratic governor, Peter Shumlin, who pledged to usher in single-payer health insurance and usher out Vermont Yankee. Progressives around the country were rallying to the speeches of Bernie Sanders, US Senator and Independent Socialist. But in the Vermont city where he made his political breakthrough, the financial scandal at Burlington Telecom and a deal made with military contractor Lockheed Martin by Progressive mayor Bob Kiss sparked local outrage.

I hadn’t expected to start reporting again after so many years. But toward the end of the summer I heard a story that needed to be told – struggle at Burlington College, and at the center of it Jane Sanders, wife of the beloved politician – and approached VTDigger, a new online news outlet. Beyond that, I noticed that the local press was missing some stories, and also saw the chance to cover Burlington at a key moment in its history. The race for mayor would be hotly contested and potentially change the city’s direction.

^^^

Sept 2: Lockheed Loses Burlington Showdown

Deal Derailed by People Power; Reveals Prog Identity Crisis

Sept 7: Burlington College: Forward into the Past

Sept 13: Council backs Mayor Kiss veto, rejects resolution aimed at Lockheed Martin * Burlington College Grapples with Growing Pains *

Sept 15: What the Frack…are they thinking?

“The problem with fracking (Hydraulic fracturing) is its environmental and human health effects, which appear to include contamination of ground water, risks to air quality, migration of gases and chemicals used in the process to the surface, and the potential mishandling of waste. Let’s also not forget any costs associated with the environmental clean-up processes, loss of land value and impacts on humans and animals.

A 2010 EPA study "discovered contaminants in drinking water including: arsenic, copper, vanadium, and adamantanes adjacent to drilling operations which can cause illnesses including cancer, kidney failure, anaemia and fertility problems…

“And hydraulic fracturing isn't just a US problem. Food & Water Watch has brought fracking to the attention of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which is currently considering a report on the human right to water and sanitation.” Full Episode

Also includes: New Song by Dave Lippman * Poverty Rising * Pacifica Remembers 9/11 * Murdering Journalists * Burlington: The College, the Mayor and Lockheed * Local Democracy and the Big Question: How Much to Buy Rick Perry?

By early October, from New York to San Francisco, thousands were protesting the growing wealth disparity between the super rich and almost everyone else. The movement had spread to hundreds of US cities and around the world. In Burlington too, people began to gather, to express their outrage about economic inequality and the excesses of banks and other economic interests.

Turning Point Times: A Maverick Scrapbook (October stories)

In the corridors of City Hall it was hard to ignore the rumblings of an imminent political change... At Fletcher Allen Medical Center, officials said that mentally ill patients from the Vermont State Hospital were putting the hospital and its staff at risk...

Oct 9: American Autumn – A Season of Rebellion

“It’s quite an objective – to occupy parks, colleges, streets, whole cities even – until something real and radical is done about what this nascent movement has defined as economic tyranny. And tyranny is an uncomfortably apt description of the current “world order,” if you can call it orderly except in the capacity to concentrate wealth and power at the top.”

Also includes: Memories of Mobilizations Past * Will Vermont Be Occupied? * Burlington Politics: Is this the end of an Era? * From the Vault – vintage audio * The Question: Could the Arab Spring become a counter-revolutionary fall?

The emerging OWS movement gained momentum as unions joined and 99% forces prepared to bring their energy to communities across the country...

Oct 15: A Digital Age Rebellion (and some enemies)

“You don’t see this kind of thing every day: the political establishment caught off-guard, unsure of how to respond to a burgeoning grassroots uprising. Difficult to define, dangerous to ignore, impossible to predict, even the name raises prickly questions. Occupy. The Occupy Movement.

“But occupy what, for how long? Some say everywhere, indefinitely. Meanwhile, some pols and a large swath of the labor movement have signed on – at least until someone goes too far. Is this a Left-wing Tea Party or a US sequel to the Arab Spring, an Internet-enabled popular revolt?”

Also includes: Tracking the Occupations * Class Struggle in the Company Towns * Cooptation, surveillance and the movement * Manipulating social media.

On October 15 protesters marched in various Vermont communities chanting "We are the 99%." Meanwhile in Burlington, the local election season began and the city came up with a possible solution to one of its BT financial problems -- don't build out to cover the whole city...

Oct 22: Outrage and the Machine

“…let’s focus for just a moment on the relish with which the death of Muammar Gaddafi was greeted last week. Shouldn’t it have made people just a little squeamish? In TV clips, the ousted dictator was shown bleeding, then dumped in the back of a truck just before being killed. The young executioner was initially hailed as a hero and TV comedians had a field day.

"The response was similar after Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlak were killed. Shot in the face? Great! Predator Drone strike? Boo-yah. With that background, it feels like the right time to mention the #3 story on the latest Project Censored list: Obama Authorizes InternationalAssassination Campaign."

Also includes: Journalists Targeted at Occupy Protests * Blood Lust - American Style * Regime Change in Burlington * a song from the street

At a Democratic debate just two days after publicly declaring his run for Burlington mayor, State Sen. Tim Ashe proposed fusion with Progressives to defeat the Republican challenge. But there were three other candidates and one of them, Miro Weinberger, well-funded and angry about how the City of Burlington had been managed, thought he was the leader to handle it.

Leaves fell as activists and Occupy supporters geared up the next stage – an ongoing encampment at City Hall Park. The Mayor signaled that he was prepared to go along...

^^^

Maverick Chronicles Intro

^^^

By November almost everyone was talking about the one percent (or 1%, if you like), the few with most of the wealth – bankers, oil tycoons, hedge fund managers and the rest. But as filmmaker Robert Greenwald pointed out, there was an even smaller elite – the top 0.01 percent, wealthy military contractor CEOs.

That was just one thing that made the embrace of Sandia Labs and Lockheed Martin by Vermont’s leaders, including Bernie Sanders, especially perplexing. On such projects, otherwise vocal critics of the 1% and military-industrial complex made the same pork barrel arguments as almost every other member of Congress. In some cases – as with the invitations to Lockheed, its F-35s, and Sandia – it went as far as pushing “public-private” partnerships, positive PR, selling out a neighborhood, and marginalizing critics.

Nov 4: Blame Game: Which 1 Percent?

Due to my work as a reporter for VTDigger, my focus turned to Burlington, and specifically to the City Council and the race for mayor. Studying and talking to four Democrats competing in the caucus, I developed a series of profiles, a modest attempt to delve a bit deeper into their experiences and approaches. There too, the buzzword was partnership with businesses in tough economic times. However the candidates disagreed about their qualifications, there was consensus among them about a general loss of direction and the need for some type of change.

Full Episode / The 1% in Honduras *As the Regime Changes: a new political soap opera begins (with news story links)

Nationally, the discourse had shifted – from the Tea Party’s anti-government rage to a focus (also angry) on economic inequality and concentration of wealth. Conservatives called the new movement class warfare, but it actually reflected an overdue recovery from a long period of mass amnesia.

Nov 23: Staying Occupied in Burlington

“…it certainly feels as if we’re living through tumultuous, even revolutionary times. The pace is rapid, sometimes overwhelming. Six month ago the Middle East erupted in what we now call the Arab Spring. Since September protests against economic inequality have spread to hundreds of cities across the US and far beyond.”

In Burlington, the untimely death of a 35-year-old homeless man in a tent at Occupy Burlington cut short a peaceful local encampment. Things had been going well, in contrast with violent confrontations between police and protesters elsewhere. But an impromptu concert sparked relaxation of some normal restrictions and the next day a number of people in City Hall Park were still intoxicated, including Joshua Pfenning. His death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound was traumatic for the movement, especially for those who knew and tried to help.

A few days earlier, representatives of Occupy Burlington had attended a City Council meeting, building on their early success and hopeful for official support. It was an unusual Council session, also featuring public comments from local skateboard enthusiasts and a lively council debate over their own democratic rules. New Rules for Democracy

I also teased out some of what was emerging from my reportage and linked it to both Vermont history and my own past.

Full Episode / Practicing democracy – from the city council to a park encampment and on to the caucus * Is America over? * Immigration Problems * Caucus Interruptus and other stories * Financing downtown redevelopment * plus a few rumors

The campaign against economic inequality and corporate personhood that had been building throughout the year took a step forward in Vermont with the November launch of a big push for Town Meeting and legislative action. Move to Amend organizer David Cobb returned to the state to sustain the momentum and, in early December, Greg Palast helped Toward Freedom celebrate its 60^th anniversary with a SRO talk about corporate crimes.

Dec 2: Vermont Pols Push to End Corporate Personhood

“The amendment resolution introduced in Vermont last year by Sen. Virginia Lyons, the first of its kind in the country, proposes “an amendment to the United States Constitution that provides that corporations are not persons under the laws of the United States.”

Dec 6: In fedora and trench coat, Palast exposes vultures who profit from crisis

“The vultures get their hands on money that they claim is owed by the poorest nations, usually during a civil war. Then they find loopholes and seize all the wealth.”

Hunting Finance Vultures: A Talk with Greg Palast

An edited transcript

In the run up to holiday season Burlington’s suspended Democratic caucus concluded with a narrow victory for Miro Weinberger, a newcomer to local politics. Two days later, GOP candidate Kurt Wright launched his campaign. The emerging dynamic pitted an experienced insider against a political neophyte with private sector expertise at a time when the city faces difficult choices. Questions remained: Would the Progressives stand aside? Would Independent Wanda Hines enter the race? Could Vermont’s liberal city actually elect a moderate conservative who proposes selling the electric department to reduce the city’s debt?

It’s difficult to sum up what has changed since the year began, in Burlington or worldwide. Even explaining what I’ve observed locally in the last few months is tough. Instead, here are some December stories. Together, they provide a year-end look at the state of the city.

Dec 8: Mayor’s race turns to trust and skate park funding

Dec 11: Weinberger wins caucus, Progressives delay decision

Dec 12: As the Regime Changes: Caucus Edition (maverick)

Dec 12: Sandia center at UVM will accelerate smart grid

Dec 18: Kurt Wright – Downplaying party, banking on experience

Dec 20: Downtown outdoor smoking ban gains momentum

All in all, a remarkable year, a time when the Tea Party’s no-nothing rejectionism gave way to an international outcry against economic inequality and corporate excess. Personally, I’d call that a start. But we’ll have to wait to see how it works out in 2012. Imagine: a presidential death match for the soul of the empire, millions living in their own realities, but even more hungry and in desperate need, plus all manner of doomsaying. Can’t wait.

VTDigger Story Index * The Vermont Way series

(last update 12/30/11)

Indefinite Detention: It CAN Happen Here!

2011-12-19T15:27:00.001Z

The National Defense Authorization Act will allow the President to merely claim a person is a terrorist in order to lock them up and throw away the key – without charge and without trial. Given all the fear and demagoguery surrounding "terrorist" threats, it’s not surprising that the bill passed both the House and the Senate with wide margins.

The only hope now is a Presidential veto.

By Sue Udry, Defending Dissent

The trauma of Sept. 11, 2001, gave rise to a dangerous myth that, to be safe, America had to give up basic rights and restructure its legal system. The United States was now in a perpetual state of war, the argument went, and the criminal approach to fighting terrorism — and the due process that goes along with it — wasn’t tough enough.

President George W. Bush used this insidious formula to claim that his office had the inherent power to detain anyone he chose, for as long as he chose, without a trial; to authorize the torture of prisoners; and to spy on Americans without a warrant. President Obama came into office pledging his dedication to the rule of law and to reversing the Bush-era policies. He has fallen far short.

Obama refused to entertain any investigation of the abuses of power under his predecessor, and he has been far too willing to adopt Bush’s extravagant claims of national secrets to prevent any courthouse accountability for those abuses. This week, he is poised to sign into law terrible new measures that will make indefinite detention and military trials a permanent part of American law.

The measures, contained in the annual military budget bill, will strip the FBI, federal prosecutors and federal courts of all or most of their power to arrest and prosecute terrorists and hand it off to the military, which has made clear that it doesn’t want the job. The legislation could also give future presidents the authority to throw American citizens into prison for life without charges or a trial. The bill, championed by Republicans in the House and Senate, was attached to the military budget bill to make it harder for Obama to veto it.

Nearly every top American official with knowledge and experience spoke out against the provisions, including the attorney general, the defense secretary, the chief of the FBI, the secretary of state, and the leaders of intelligence agencies. And, for weeks, the White House vowed that Obama would veto the military budget if the provisions were left in. On Wednesday, the White House reversed field, declaring that the bill had been improved enough for the president to sign it now that it had passed the Senate.

This is a complete political cave-in, one that reinforces the impression of a fumbling presidency. To start with, this bill was utterly unnecessary. Civilian prosecutors and federal courts have jailed hundreds of convicted terrorists, while the tribunals have convicted a half-dozen.

And the modifications are nowhere near enough. Obama, his spokesman said, is prepared to sign this law because it allows the executive to grant a waiver for a particular prisoner to be brought to trial in a civilian court. But the legislation’s ban on spending any money for civilian trials for any accused terrorist would make that waiver largely meaningless.

The bill has so many other objectionable aspects that we can’t go into them all. Among the worst: It leaves open the possibility of subjecting American citizens to military detention and trial by a military court. It will make it impossible to shut the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. And it includes an unneeded expansion of the authorization for the use of military force in Afghanistan to include indefinite detention of anyone suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda or an amorphous group of “associated forces” that could cover just about anyone arrested anywhere in the world.

There is no doubt. This bill will make it harder to fight terrorism and do more harm to the country’s international reputation. The White House said that if implementing it jeopardizes the rule of law, it expects Congress to work “quickly and tirelessly” to undo the damage. The White House will have to make that happen. After it abdicated its responsibility this week, we’re not convinced it will.

Sue Udry directs Defending Dissent, a non-profit foundation that has opposed repressive legislation for decades.

It’s too late for petitions. The only way to stop this step toward friendly fascism is to phone the White House and demand a veto of the National Defense Authorization Act. Here’s the number: 202-456-1414

Media & Movements: Blackout to Spin Control

2011-12-16T22:37:00.001Z

Upset about how the media has handled recent protests around the country? First most of the press ignores Occupy Wall Street (and other places), then they go wall-to-wall for a while. And yet they continually question what it’s all about – as if economic inequality is an obscure notion -- and eventually manage to divert the discussion.

This is not a new approach to coverage of social movements. Let's take a look back just ten years:

In April 2001, less than five months before 9/11, most media outlets provided a useful lesson in spin control during coverage of an economic summit in Quebec City designed to win support for a so-called Free Trade Area of the Americas, known as the FTAA. After largely ignoring the story in the days immediately preceding the meeting, TV networks went all in as soon as the first protesters began dismantling the security perimeter separating them from the gathered heads of state.

The images were simply irresistible.

Less than 24 hours later, however, despite an escalation of police violence in Quebec, large protests throughout the Americas, and serious disagreements among the leaders attending the summit, the coverage shifted again. Footage of the protest was abruptly dropped from the coverage, and a new story emerged.

The Associated Press led the charge, announcing in a headline that the proposed trade deal had been "ratified." Despite reality – notably the fact that ratification was in serious doubt and years away – the intention was to leave the impression that a deal had been struck and the protest had become irrelevant.

That was Saturday night. By Monday, the official line was in place: Despite protests, announced the wire service, an "accord" had been signed. Newspapers across the country dutifully disseminated the misinformation. In fact, all that they signed was a "communique" – about as binding as a joint press release – that expressed a willingness to keep at it.

Behind the scenes, all was not well. Even before the meeting, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso had expressed concerns about the risks posed to vulnerable Latin American economies by the trade agreement.

Venezuela dissented from several points in the communique, saying it wouldn't be able to meet the 2005 deadline for ratification. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien provided his personal assurance that, despite such equivocation and the leadership of Hugo Chavez, it could stay in the global club anyway -- as long as a referendum could be stage-managed at some point.

Caught between US pressure and internal opposition to corporate trade deals fueled by the Zapatista rebellion, Mexican President Vicente Fox struggled to find some middle ground. While backing the FTAA, he called for initiatives to promote democracy and reduce poverty, decrying the "whims of market forces." That was carefully excised from US reports.

Doubts were also growing that newly-installed President George W. Bush would succeed in winning "fast track" – recently renamed "trade promotion authority." According to US Sen. Max Baucus, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee at the time, Bush didn’t have the votes “because they've not yet worked out ways to adequately and meaningfully deal with labor and environmental issues."

Without "fast track" legislative authority in the president's hands, the argument was that many Latin American countries would not take US promises seriously, and the FTAA was unlikely to be implemented. Insiders said Bush had less than a year to win that fight. He never did. The FTAA and other trade and investment deals --- not to mention a Bush pledge to "compete in the long term with the Far East and Europe" – faltered in the years that followed.

The corporate press never admitted it, but the Quebec talks failed. No agreement was reached on an FTAA text, which helped explain why a draft document wasn't released. Instead, the "communique" attempted to spin the setback by focusing on an empty promise that future FTAA member countries would have to observe "democratic norms."

Actually, this allowed the US to rationalize the exclusion of Cuba, the hemisphere's harshest critic of corporate-driven trade rules, and intensify pressure on Haiti, whose President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was again out of favor in Washington.

A year later, there was an unsuccessful coup attempt in Venezuela. Aristide was forced into exile in early 2004. Both exercises in regime change showed faint US fingerprints.

Casualties of a covert war for globalization? Perhaps. In any case, both stories hit a virtual press blackout, emboldening at least one other coup since then. Think Honduras.

A Brief Recap…

There has been no admission of US involvement in the removal of President Manuel Zelaya, the first successful coup in Central America in about 25 years. But US policy clearly shifted after he decided to improve relations with Venezuela. Even after the UN General Assembly demanded Zelaya’s reinstatement, Obama declined to call it a coup.

The ousted, democratically-elected president agreed to exile in the Dominican Republic. His replacement, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, was a conservative landowner with a business degree from the University of Miami. Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina called his election illegitimate. Secretary of State Clinton backed the new leader.

Manuel Zelaya

Two years later, Zelaya returned. The post-coup government has become a pariah in the region. A State Department cable released by Wikileaks reveals that US leaders knew the coup was illegal. The cable was titled, "Open and Shut: The Case of the Honduran Coup."

Nevertheless, Amy Goodman was the only US journalist on Zelaya's flight home. He was greeted by tens of thousands of people cheering and waving the black-and-red flag of the movement born after the coup, the National Front of Popular Resistance. In Honduras it’s known simply as "the resistance."

Since the coup, violence has been widespread. Anyone daring to speak out risks intimidation, arrest and possibly murder. At least a dozen journalists have been killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Scores of campesinos have also been killed. The UN is concerned that organized crime groups are targeting lawyers.

Back to Quebec….

Playing the "democracy" card during the 2001 Quebec summit underscored the hypocrisy that often characterizes talk about "free" trade. If world leaders were actually concerned about democracy, they might have spoken up about the US-financed war raging in Colombia at the time, or perhaps refused to attend the next World Trade Organization meeting, slated to be held in Qatar, an Arabian Peninsula monarchy where demonstrations are against the law. They didn’t.

Despite the official spin and a media preoccupation with protest tactics, the Quebec Summit was a golden opportunity for the movement against corporate globalization to build global solidarity. In addition to the 70,000 people who took to the streets of Quebec City, thousands more converged across the US, at the Mexican border, and in South America. An emerging independent media network provided effective on-the-spot reporting, countering the corporate line, highlighting state repression, and uniting the opposition.

Back peddling during the Summit and afterward was a direct response to the protests. But that’s not how it was reported – when it was mentioned at all.

Five months later, when planes crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, a people’s movement -- growing for almost a decade and poised for "revolutionary" impact -- was sidetracked by tragedy and war.

In the mainstream media, it was all too quickly forgotten.

As the Regime Changes: Caucus Edition

2011-12-12T17:19:00.002Z

In the final days before Democrats in Burlington chose a candidate for mayor, a debate erupted over skate park funding. But even hotter topics are ahead. Here is a preview of things to come in the People’s Republic: VTDigger.org: Mayor’s race turns to trust and skate park funding Also, the outcome of the dueling Democratic and Progressives caucuses: Weinberger wins...Progressives Delay...

Listening parties: from left, Progressive Mayor Bob Kiss, Republican candidate

Kurt Wright, possible Independent candidate Karen Paul, and Democrats

Norm Blais, David Berezniak, and Joan Shannon.

Yes, it was down to the wire. Who would win the Democratic caucus – Progressive turned Democratic Senator Tim Ashe or Airport Commissioner and housing developer Miro Weinberger? Would the Progressives field a candidate if Ashe didn’t win? Had Republican Kurt Wright already previewed his campaign strategy? And what was with that recent City Council vote to reconsider skate park funding? So many questions, and even more to come.

Here’s another: should non-citizens in Burlington get the right to vote? That’s coming up soon on Vermont’s leading political soap opera: As the Regime Changes.

Shortly after my latest article was filed, former Gov. Howard Dean endorsed Weinberger for mayor. A few days later the housing developer defeated State Senator Tim Ashe at the conclusion of the Democratic caucus. But even more interesting, Republican leaders announced that State Auditor Randy Brock will be their unity candidate for Vermont governor next year against incumbent Peter Shumlin. During his announcement speech, Brock offers a red meat attack rich in subtext:

"If my travels around this state have taught me anything, it is this: Vermonters don’t want to live in a 'laboratory for change.' They don’t want to be the guinea pigs or lab rats in a grand social experiment."

Wow! Human guinea pigs trapped in a laboratory for change. Now that's a reality TV concept. If this is the starting point, the campaign should be interesting.

A few days later, during a press conference with Bernie Sanders in Burlington on the launch of a new multi-million research center, the governor responded -- in a way -- by embracing the idea that, on energy and more, being a laboratory for change is precisely the idea.

^^^

Masters of the (Smart) Grid: GMP Chief Powell, Gov. Shumlin, Sen. Sanders, and
Sandia VP Rick Stulen announce a Sandia-led Vermont lab. (12/12/11)

Hunting Finance Vultures: A Talk with Greg Palast

2011-12-06T21:17:00.003Z

“The vultures get their hands on money that they claim is owed by the poorest nations, usually during a civil war. Then they find loopholes and seize all the wealth.” – Greg Palast

Palast and hat.

By Greg Guma In his new book, Vultures' Picnic, Greg Palast pulls together documents and stories from more than three decades of detective work, unraveling the schemes of the Energy-Finance Combine and exposing several real life vulture capitalists. On Dec. 12, he will visit Burlington and share some of what he has found out at Main Street Landing during a 7 p.m. talk sponsored by Toward Freedom.

We talked on December 4, covering BP's crimes in the Gulf and Caspian Sea, Entergy's exploitation of hurricane Katrina, what it's like to interview a corporate predator, making the transition from investigator to journalist, and why Uber-Vulture Paul Singer wants him off British TV. Here are some excerpts. Also check out my feature about Palast and the vultures for VTDigger.org -- In fedora and trench coat, Palast exposes "vultures" who profit from crisis. Below this interview you'll find recent radio coverage by Free Speech Radio News.

* * *

Guma: By the time I got to Page 348 in Vultures' Picnic, when you’re talking about Joe Stiglitz and the IMF riots, I had to wonder whether the current uprisings are part of the plan. You know, decriminalizing banking, privatization and the assumption that austerity will lead to unrest and a crackdown…

Palast: No doubt about it. Same smell, same scene. But Joe Stiglitz (economist and former member of the Clinton cabinet) doesn’t give me the information. It’s very important to him that he doesn’t violate his agreements.

Guma: Why did you use a reportage verite style for this book?

Palast: Because this is how I do it. Since The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, people are used to it. And people know about me from reporting on the presidential voting scandal. There I gave you the information that I cover. I thought it was important to say how I’m getting it - and sometimes failing to get it. I didn’t want to keep doing the same thing. Another reason is that I wanted to make the point that I’m an ordinary guy in extraordinary circumstances. People should know my story.

Guma: If the British government is an arm of BP’s imperial power, what is BP an arm of?

Palast: Actually, BP is an arm of Morgan Stanley. It used to be that BP was an extension of military intelligence, now the roles are reversed.

Guma: There’s so much to say about BP. Starting with homicide…

Palast: Exactly. The information we got from an eyewitness right after the blow out was that this was not the first time. And it was the same reason, cheap crap cement. And they covered it up by beatings and bribery and blow jobs. Vulture Picnic is saying that they covered this up – and by doing that 11 guys died. I’m saying, as a former racketeering and fraud investigator, that it was a crime.

There’s a lock up between Big Oil, Big Finance and Big Government. All the oil companies knew about the problem prior to the blow out, and the Department of State may have hidden it from Congress.

We tracked them to Azerbaijan and got arrested in the desert, but Badpenny gave me a camera pen so I got the documents out. When I work for BBC and The Guardian, I’m under British law. I have to give this evidence to BP and ask them whether it’s right. And they have never denied it. Did you have another blow out? No denial, just blah blah blah.

There were three crimes. Crime number one: PB destroyed the Caspian Sea and the Gulf. The Gulf of Mexico is a crime scene. Crime number two: The government knew and covered it up. And crime number three: The US press is ignoring it, except maybe a public whipping, maybe.

The New York Times is a local paper that does gossip. And NPR has become the National Petroluem Network. In Britain I’m mainstream, I work for the BBC and The Guardian. So, they can’t tell us that didn’t know this.

Guma: You say that one of the lessons for BP was, “Don’t prevent, don’t pay.” Which brings us to the vultures. Who are they?

Palast: You can get a lot of the details in 1^st chapter, which you can download free.

First, there really is a Goldfinger, and compared to him the movie villain was a girl scout. The vultures get their hands on money that they claim is owed by the poorest nations, usually during a civil war. Then they find loopholes and seize all the wealth.

The number one US vulture is Paul Singer, an advisor to Romney. His office recently called the BBC in London to say they have a file on Palast. They really want to smear me and implied that a lawsuit was coming. Paul Singer is the number one donor to the Republican Party. So, they are not minor players. He makes his money by literally killing babies, according to the former Deputy Secretary of the UN. And what Singer wants is Palast off the air. He sent a complaint to The Guardian.

His buddy – they literally have a club – is Goldfinger, who bribed the President of Zambia with $3 million. In return he let Goldfinger collect a phony debt and take $45 million off the Zambian treasury – the money we gave them to fight AIDs. This is also a crime.

We tracked the trail of the president. His bank was in Geneva and Badpenny followed the trail, pulling off the role of a TV star. She says, “We’re from a reality show, Shopping with the Rich and Famous.”

Since we put this on the air the laws have changed in several nations. Now they bar these vulture speculators. But this was a case of bribery. The door is closed, but not in America.

Guma: When you get into the room with someone like that, or the generalissimo of globalization, is anyone really there?

Palast: I find that the government guys are just careerists. But the actual vultures are brilliant and frightening, and most are fairly charming. And they know their shit. The oil guys are actually quite brilliant. You really have to know your stuff, and not get charmed. Think back: How many news guys licked the loafers of Ken Lay?

Because they know me – and I have a degree in international finance – they have a tough time saying I don’t understand. Actually, they run from me in some of these stake outs.

Guma: Let’s talk about nuclear power. Vermont Yankee may close next March…

Palast: The operative word is “may.”

Guma: …and Entergy is suing. What can you add to the discussion for Vermonters?

Palast: There’s no effective earthquake proofing. Remember we’re talking about a seismic event, for instance the kids from Al Qaeda. If things screw up you have only one thing between you and disaster—those diesel generators. But we know that they might as well as put Hanukah bushes around the plant.

There is no way those generators can fire up – actually maybe a 50 percent chance. In nuclear power, the problem is always something cheap. There are three things involved in every plant: cement, steel and fraud. The companies just change their names.

Entergy had enough brains to get Hillary [Clinton], a smart move. When I investigated them for the City of New Orleans I went through their books and found a corrupt cesspool. The NRC calls the standard “management integrity.” They don’t have it.

They were the power company for New Orleans. Parts of the city were dark for more than a year after the hurricane. There are places that still don’t have electricity. They said that unless rates went up the lights wouldn’t be turned on. The city went down and they took the power for the plant and sold it for profit. As a result Entergy made a fortune off Katrina. They could sell power at a premium elsewhere. They took the gain and pocketed it.

When they run scams like that, don’t trust them. If they’re lying about the money they’re lying about everything.

Guma: After years investigating corporate crimes was making the change to investigative journalist empowering?

Palast: It was necessary. What was the point of doing this, I thought, when I had to dump stuff in a file and seal it. I was going insane, not being able to make this public. Going public is vital to me. In London I am on the front page, and all over Europe and Africa. Here I can barely get on the radio. But at least I can shout from across the water, as opposed to not being able to say anything because it’s under seal.

Guma: So, the vultures eat the carcasses – whole countries sometimes – but the real killing is made by Switzerland, Norway, US and Britain – the so-called donor nations. And the ultimate winners are the energy-finance combine. Is this an institutional or structural problem, or mainly the actions of the vultures and others in the 1%?

Palast: I hate the bad apply model. That’s why I hated the Enron story. I wrote about it as an example. The whole tree is rotten to the roots; that is the key. And the so-called investigative journalists are the biggest part of the cover up because they find a bad guy for you to pick on. This justifies the status quo.

Guma: Despite all that, aren’t you more optimistic with the rise of Lula, Chavez, and Morales in Latin America, and the overall mood at the moment?

Palast: Sure. The problem is religious, and this is a religious book. These are matter of faith and personal courage. That’s the story I’m telling. It’s about whether we have the courage not to be slaves, toadies and greedsters.

Greg Palast: Vultures in the Congo

Vermont Pols Push to End Corporate Personhood

2011-12-02T03:36:00.005Z

As support builds to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, organizer David Cobb returned to Vermont last week to discuss pending state legislation and Town Meeting votes aimed at amending the US constitution. From VTDigger.org

Over the last decade more than a hundred cities and towns across the country have passed ordinances putting citizens' rights ahead of corporate interests. They have banned businesses from dumping toxic sludge, building factory farms, mining, and extracting water for bottling.

Some have also refused to recognize corporations as people.

On Jan. 21, 2010, however, the US Supreme Court firmly rejected that idea in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case, ruling that corporations are “persons” with First Amendment rights and cannot be prevented from spending unlimited funds on political campaigns.

Vermont State Legislature

David Cobb is determined to change that, and returned to Vermont this week to promote the next steps in a campaign to amend the US constitution. Last January, Cobb, a former Green Party candidate for president who leads the Move to Amend campaign, spoke about the issue in Burlington, Waitsfield and Montpelier during a tour of the state organized by the Women's International league for Peace and Freedom. He also met with 11 state senators who agreed to support a Vermont resolution calling on Congress to initiate the process.

In a joint interview with Cobb on Vermont Public Radio, Ben Cohen explained this week that he originally felt amending the constitution “was an incredibly high bar. But when the Occupy Wall Street movement came around, I thought this makes it possible.”

On Tuesday evening Cobb took part in a Montpelier panel discussion with Jennifer Taub, a Vermont Law School associate professor, as well as Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade. Since the Occupy protests, public attention has turned to economic inequality, corporate power and restricting the use of money in political campaigns.

In Vermont several organizations have picked up the call, including the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and Clean Yield Asset Management, which co-sponsored the Montpelier event to “kick-start a statewide conversation.” Sen. Bernie Sanders is leading the charge nationally, VPIRG’s Paul Burns calls the issue “one more opportunity for our small state to take the lead,” and activist groups, in Vermont and elsewhere, have held house parties to plan for a “day of action” on Jan. 21, the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision.

The day before that, a Friday, Move to Amend will help to organize rallies at more than a third of the country’s federal courts, including the Supreme Court, in many cases while they are in session. Some participants will commit civil disobedience by blocking courthouse steps, Cobb predicts.

UPCOMING: Investigative journalist Greg Palast, author of Vultures' Picnic, will speak in Burlington on Dec. 12 at 7 p.m., Main Street Landing. In this 2009 report he looks for the roots of the current economic crisis -- international "rules" that eliminated barriers for toxic assets. Here is a new report from Free Speech Radio News on how the vultures' repo ops increased cholera in the Congo.

In an interview, Cobb agreed with Cohen that the energy and tactics of the Occupy movement can help generate a public groundswell. “One of their main demands is to abolish corporate personhood and get the money out of politics,” he said. Cobb, who has worked on the issue for a decade, has visited several Occupy encampments and participated in teach-ins.

Both Move to Amend and the Vermont Progressive Party want to put corporate personhood-related questions on the ballot for Town Meeting day in March. Meanwhile, Progressive Rep. Chris Pearson may introduce legislation to create new disclosure requirements for big donors who pay for political ads.

In 2009, Democrat Jason Lorber introduced H. 299, which proposed modifications to Vermont's public financing system and a provision to regulate reporting and disclosure of independent expenditures. Last year, the Senate Government Operations Committee introduced S.294, requiring that sponsor identification information be included on electioneering communications.

Cobb says that legislative efforts in areas like disclosure and financing can improve the process. “But we need to understand that this can’t be the end game," he insists. "If you reform the system but don’t deal with corporate personhood people can still raise and spend unlimited amounts.”

The amendment resolution introduced in Vermont last year by Sen. Virginia Lyons, the first of its kind in the country, proposes “an amendment to the United States Constitution that provides that corporations are not persons under the laws of the United States.”

Corporate profits and institutional survival “are often in direct conflict with the essential needs and rights of human beings,” it states. Corporations have used “so-called rights to successfully seek the judicial reversal of democratically enacted laws,” and governments have become “ineffective in protecting their citizens against corporate harm to the environment, health, workers, independent business, and local and regional economies.”

The resolution also points out that large corporations own most of the country’s mass media and use them to “convince Americans that the primary role of human beings is that of consumer rather than sovereign citizens with democratic rights and responsibilities.” With all that in mind, it concludes that the way forward is amendment of the Constitution “to define persons as human beings.”

Cobb calls the resolution a historic document and praised Lyons for showing leadership during the last session. “This is the first state to introduce at the legislative level a statement of principles that corporations are not persons and do not have constitutional rights,” he explained back in January. “It’s the beginning of a revolutionary action completely and totally within the legal framework.”

Vermont Law School Professor Cheryl Hanna, moderator of the Montpelier discussion, is a bit skeptical about constitutional amendment as a strategy, calling it “the least politically viable" approach. Two-thirds of Congress must approve, and then three quarters of the states, she notes.

The argument against focusing on amendment is that, due to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the rights of corporations to spend money during campaigns, changes like disclosure requirements, disclaimers, and increased transparency are probably the best short-term hope for mitigating the damage. “We have to look for ways to try to make it work within our limited power," argues Pearson, who may focus on requiring disclosure of top political contributors.

Another approach is to expand shareholder democracy and rights, requiring management to keep them informed and win their approval before making campaign donations. A model version, introduced last year in Maryland, would prohibit a corporation from publishing or distributing campaign material in the state unless it is true, the board of directors has decided the expenditure is in the best interests of the corporation, and the content of the campaign material and the money have been approved by a stockholder vote.

Cobb says it is essential to combine such legislation with a constitutional amendment strategy. “Abolitionists and trade unionists were also told that their strategy wasn’t viable,” he notes. “Our job is to expand the definition of political viability. When people are offered a choice an overwhelming number choose to do both.”

On the other hand, he acknowledges that it could take a decade or more to reach the final goal. “In the meantime, we need to create political space, have protests and political campaigns, and also go into state legislatures,” he says.

How a resolution calling for amendment of the constitution is worded will also make a significant difference. “It’s not like legislation, which can be passed and then altered,” he explains. “We have to get this right. If it’s just about money in elections we will have missed the boat. Disclosure is not going to solve the problem.”

Move to Amend offers some basic language, much of which is incorporated in Lyons’ version. Rejecting Citizens United, it calls for a Constitutional amendment to “firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.” Linking that issue to participation and the right “to have our vote and participation count,” it also demands protection of communities, the economy and democracy “against illegitimate ‘preemption’ actions by global, national, and state governments.”

Somewhat different wording is advocated by Free Speech for People, a Massachusetts-based group founded by John Bonifaz, who has worked with Cobb in the past. This group’s approach, which has the support of Sen. Sanders, calls on “the United States Congress to pass and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizen United v. Federal Election Commission and to restore constitutional rights and fair elections to the people.”

Occupy Burlington on Church St.

At the conclusion of a 90-page dissenting opinion on Citizens United, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote: "At bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.”

While eager to work with almost anyone on the issue, Cobb advocates an approach that combines careful legal strategy with political engagement and direct action, along with a straight-forward challenge on both corporate personhood and campaign finance.

“We should learn from the past,” he advises. “When the demands aren’t sufficiently concrete and systemic, they end up compromised.”

“Look, I’m a trade unionist,” he continues, “so I know we can’t compete with the Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street on raising money. Our strength is organizing people. A movement to amend will embolden and empower labor itself, and not simply organized labor.”

Cobb acknowledges, however, that neither unions nor non-profit groups have inherent, inalienable constitutional rights. Like corporations, they are also creations of the state. But their members have those rights.” This focus on individual rather than institutional rights is part of why a movement to amend the constitution can win support “across the ideological spectrum,” he believes.

The problem can be traced back to the mid-1970s. Congress amended the Federal Election Campaign Act in 1974 in an attempt to regulate campaign contributions and spending. Two years later, in the case of Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court said that spending money to influence elections is constitutionally protected speech and struck down parts of the law. It also ruled that candidates can give unlimited amounts of money to their own campaigns.

In 2008, the dispute that led to the Citizens United decision was over the right of a non-profit corporation to air a film critical of Hillary Clinton, and whether the group, Citizens United, could promote the film with ads featuring Clinton's image, an apparent violation of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as McCain–Feingold.

The US District Court for DC denied a motion by Citizens United for a preliminary injunction to stop the Federal Election Commission from enforcing provisions of McCain–Feingold that prevented the film, Hillary: The Movie, from being shown on TV within 30 days of Democratic primaries.

The Supreme Court struck down a provision of McCain–Feingold that prohibited all corporations, both for- and not-for-profit, as well as unions from broadcasting “electioneering communications,” defined as a broadcast, cable, or satellite communication that mentions a candidate within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary.

On the other hand, the Court did uphold requirements for disclaimer and disclosure by sponsors of advertisements. The case didn’t involve the federal ban on direct contributions from corporations or unions to candidate campaigns or political parties.

Justice Stevens wrote at the time that the Court's ruling "threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation. The path it has taken to reach its outcome will, I fear, do damage to this institution." His dissent also said that the majority had "changed the case to give themselves an opportunity to change the law."

Until Citizens United, a century of US election laws prohibited corporate managers from spending general treasury funds in federal elections. Instead, they had to make expenditures via separate segregated funds, commonly known as corporate political action committees. Shareholders, officers and managers who wanted a corporation to advance a political agenda could contribute funds for that purpose.

But the Supreme Court's ruling says that corporations have the same First Amendment rights to make independent expenditures as natural people, and restrictions prohibiting both corporations and unions from spending their general treasury funds on independent expenditures violate the First Amendment.

According to Robert Reich, a public policy expert and former Secretary of Labor, the 2012 presidential race will probably be the priciest ever as a result, going as high as $6 billion. “Yet all this money is drowning out the voices of average Americans,” he noted in a Nov. 27 column for the San Francisco Chronicle. “Most of us don't have the dough to break through. Giving First Amendment rights to money and corporations has hobbled the First Amendment rights of the rest of us.”

Despite those odds, Cobb remains optimistic – at least that the current wave of Occupy activism, as well as legislative and Town Meeting activity in Vermont, can light a spark. “My commitment is to make democratic representation a reality again,” he says. “To do that we need to abolish corporate personhood and destroy the fiction that money is speech.”

Republicans Say the Darndest Things

2011-11-29T03:03:00.001Z

A brief political news quiz, based on research by the Christian Science Monitor. Match Republican presidential candidates with some of their memorable quotes. Answers below, but try not to cheat. Who says conservatives can't do comedy?

1.On the Occupy Wall Street protests, what upstanding GOP citizen said, “That’s not free speech. That is trying to destroy the greatest nation in the world?”

2. What Republican hopeful said, "We don't need more weapons... We do not need to be the policeman of the world?"

Chet Arthur, early GOP POTUS

3. On cutting federal agencies, who said "too many chefs not only spoil the broth, they make it inedible and prohibitively expensive?"

4. This one's really good, or at least ironic. Who said "..if you have a good enough leader who's positive enough, they can ignore the other candidates?"

5. This is probably too easy, but who said “I’ll work every day to make Washington, DC, as inconsequential in your life as I can?”

6. Tough one. What hopeful believes “the people want to know your heart and soul, and they can tell if you’re faking it pretty quickly?”

7. What mental giant said, "I’m ready for the ‘gotcha’ questions and they’re already starting to come?"

8. Think hard. Who said, “The judiciary cannot create life, and it did not create marriage, and it has no right to redefine either one?”

9. Discussing liberty, which candidate said "...the question we need to ask ourselves tonight is: Will it end with us?"

10. Which GOP statesman admitted the obvious about Obama with this, “It’s a good issue to keep alive. It’s fun to poke at him?”

11. Another easy one. On legalizing grass, who said, "Having done both I can tell you that marijuana is a lot safer than alcohol?"

12. Finally, what candidate suggested "that you serve your eggs with hollandaise sauce in hubcaps. Because there’s no plates like chrome for the hollandaise?”

Answers

1. Herman Cain, in Nashua, New Hampshire, displacing blame as his campaign imploded.

2. Ron Paul, in Iowa, speaking his own truth to another no-nothing audience. The complete quote: "We have more weaponry than everybody else put together. And if you add up what we have and our allies, we have 70 percent of the weapons of the world. We don’t need more weapons.... We do not need to be the policeman of the world.”

3. Mitt Romney, on the need to combine or reduce the number of federal agencies. Speaking of "prohibitively expensive," Mitt should know.

4. Newt Gingrich, explaining leadership on CNN. Seriously.

5. Rick Perry, before jumping in and proving that he was actually talking about himself.

6. John Hunstman, whose brain may be his biggest problem in the GOP race. (He has one.)

7. Herman Cain. The full quote is a keeper: "I’m ready for the ‘gotcha’ questions and they’re already starting to come. And when they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, I’m going to say, 'You know, I don’t know. Do you know?' And then I’m going to say, 'How’s that going to create one job?'”

8. Rick Santorum. Yes, it is hard to remember that he's in the race.

9. Michelle Bachmann. Another verbatim gem: “For 21 generations, the torch of liberty has been successfully passed from one generation to the next. And the question we need to ask ourselves tonight is: Will it end with us? Will we be the first generation to fail when it is our turn to pass the torch of liberty? Will we allow this great experiment in human liberty called America to end on our watch?"

10. Rick Perry, on whether President Obama’s birth certificate is fake. A moment of unintentional candor.

11. Gary Johnson, pro-pot Republican. It's a big, rainbow-colored tent after all. Full quote: "What I'm advocating is the legalization of marijuana. Having done both I can tell you that marijuana is a lot safer than alcohol."

12. Mitt Romney, explaining how to dine while playing human in a New Hampshire restaurant. The full quote: “I saw the young man over there with eggs Benedict, with hollandaise sauce. And I was going to suggest to you that you serve your eggs with hollandaise sauce in hubcaps. Because there’s no plates like chrome for the hollandaise.”

How'd you do? With characters like these, it's the best reality TV show yet -- Far Right Survivor: Presidential Death Match Edition. Only when you vote these bozos off the island they get speaking deals and corporate appointments.

Scores: 1-6 correct: Oblivious. 7-9: Normal. 10-11: Well-informed. 12: Irritating.

Staying Occupied in Burlington

2011-11-23T21:48:00.004Z

MAVERICK CHRONICLES, 11/23/2011: Practicing democracy – from the city council to a park encampment and on to the caucus. Plus, Is America over? Thanksgiving memories – Mumbai and Obama, immigration and the moving border, Burlington’s mayoral race, financing downtown redevelopment, and a few rumors. Stories and Thoughts by Greg Guma

What can I say? It’s been hectic. And it certainly feels as if we’re living through tumultuous, even revolutionary times. The pace is rapid, sometimes overwhelming. Six month ago the Middle East erupted in what we now call the Arab Spring. Since September protests against economic inequality have spread to hundreds of cities across the US and far beyond.

Marching past City Hall

Whatever happens with the onset of winter, the national discourse has shifted – from the Tea Party’s anti-government rage to a focus on concentration of wealth by a tiny elite, the illusive, wealthy and well-connected one percent. Conservatives call the new movement a form of class warfare, but it actually reflects an overdue recovery from a long period of mass amnesia.

On the other hand, some participants in recent protests seem shocked at the heavy-handed official response, as if they’ve discovered some new truth about the relationship between the state and those who dissent. Haven’t they heard of Cointelpro, the Palmer Raids and assorted other counter-intelligence ops? Others suggest that their efforts to create self-governing communities represent a breakthrough of paradigm-altering significance. A little grand for a movement less than a year old.

On the ground, things aren’t so simple. To say that you represent almost everyone – except a few super-rich pigs at the top – doesn’t mean that you actually do, or that the vast majority of people will continue to identify with various tactics or the overall grievance, no matter how it is presented.

But that’s a discussion for another day. Instead, here is a bit of what I’ve been studying and writing about. And first, a side trip down memory lane...

The Edge of Obama: Thanksgiving 2008

This excerpt from The Howie Rose Show, originally broadcast on WOMM-FM in Burlington in November 2008, looked at the recent bombing in Mumbai, the opening weeks of the Obama era, and other timely topics . It was a lively post-Thanksgiving conversation with FP Cassini and his dad. Enjoy.

^^^

Practicing Democracy: From the Border to the Caucus

Cardenas: The border is moving.

After interviewing four Democrats running for mayor in Burlington, I recently took a brief break from local politics to attend a talk by Mexican organizer Macrina Cardenas and Danilo Lopez, who recently played a key role in sparking a revision of state policy on bias-free policing. Macrina’s point, in saying that the border “is moving,” seemed to be that free trade and inconsistent immigration policies have produced devastating social, legal and economic impacts far away from Mexico. Maybe it also relates to the general militarization of society since 9/11. Another topic for the future. Meanwhile…

Nov. 7: Immigration problems don’t stop at the border

There is much doomsday talk these days, even in establishment circles. The cover of the latest Foreign Affairs, official house organ of the eastern establishment (only kidding/not really), screams:

IS AMERICA OVER?

The lead article by George Packer goes directly at inequality: “Inequality hardens society into a class system, imprisoning people in the circumstances of their birth – a rebuke to the very idea of the American Dream.”

But the next essay counsels that the way back is “retrenchment,” or “cutting back to move forward.” In this case, the topic is overextension of US imperial ambitions. The authors, Joseph Parent and Paul MacDonald, suggest what they see as a more humble – and frugal – approach. But the best they can offer is a prescription for “modest decline.” They actually admit that overseas “commitments” are unsustainable and suggest making “a virtue” of the necessity to pull back. It’s making lemons out of… The advantage for America? This can “not only slow its decline but also sow the seeds of its recovery.”

Inspiring stuff.

No less dispiriting is much of the left’s analysis. Here is John Feffer, assessing whether Europe is over in Foreign Policy in Focus:

“The social ideals that once animated the European project are dissipating fast. The continent has simply become a good place to do business, particularly in financial services. The current crisis and the resulting austerity measures have served to further Americanize Europe through privatization, reduction of government services, and the like.

“Europe as a continent will, of course, continue. But what made Europe a compelling political, economic, and social alternative wedged between Anglo-American free marketeers and Soviet nomenklatura is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. A much less appetizing European history, whether the dangerous interwar period of the 1930s or the fratricidal melee of the 8th century, now threatens to repeat itself.”

Roman infrastructure?

It’s good to know that Europe will continue to exist, though it may look a bit like pre-Nazi Germany.

The mood in Burlington is a bit better, despite the untimely death of a 35-year-old homeless man in a tent at Occupy Burlington. Things had been going well, in contrast with the violent confrontations between police and non-violent protesters elsewhere. But an impromptu concert seems to have sparked relaxation of the normal restrictions on drugs and alcohol. The next day a number of people at the camp were still intoxicated, including Joshua Pfenning.

His death, reportedly from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was traumatic for those in the movement, especially those who knew and tried to help.

A few days earlier, representatives from the encampment had attended a City Council meeting, eager to build on their success and win official support. It was an unusual session, also featuring public comments from local skateboard enthusiasts and a lively council debate over their own democratic rules.

Nov. 9: New Rules for Democracy

That Sunday, just three days after the Pfenning’s death and the city’s decision to end the encampment, more than 1,300 people gathered two blocks from my home for an historic Democratic Party caucus.

As the Regime Changes: Caucus Interruptus

It’s been a strange journey already, and it has hardly even begun. The elections aren’t until March 6, 2012 – just two days after my 65th birthday.

Decades ago, back when I was editing The Vanguard Press and chairing the Burlington branch of the Citizens Party, I ran for the City Council myself as a fusion candidate. In that case, it meant getting the Democratic nomination after entering the race as a “third” party candidate. Democrats like Phil Hoff and Joey Donovan were supportive, understanding even then what Tim Ashe has been saying lately – that the feud between Democrats and Progressives need not be permanent.

But this is now, and it will take some time to heal several decades of mutual mistrust, and some moments that veered into open hostility. In a recent series of articles for VTDigger.org I have attempted to delve a bit deeper into this tumultuous relationship at a time of transition. Here are three recent dispatches:

Nov. 10: A Defining Moment for Burlington Politics

Nov. 14: Caucus Stumbles on Mayoral Ties

Nov. 21: Doubts about Fusion

DJADOG rocks the caucus.

One of the pleasures on my new job is the chance to spend time in and around City Hall, an elegant building at the corner of Church and Main Streets, at the base of the city’s famous pedestrian area. Even when there isn’t an encampment in the adjacent park it is a lively and beautiful spot.

Most City Council meetings aren’t as well attended as the one on Nov. 7 when the skateboarders and Occupiers came to make their cases. Often it is just the 14 members of the council (also known as the Board of Aldermen), plus the mayor, a few key staff, and the Channel 17 camera person.

Some of the business is tedious, and, for those unfamiliar with parliamentary process, a bit opaque. But there are also frank and informative discussions at times, and actions that reveal underlying issues and new directions.

At the most recent meeting, for example, the council heard about a proposed tax incremental financing (TIF) district, a financial strategy designed to promote redevelopment and increase the tax base. It’s a big deal – the city wants authority to take on $10 million in debt in hopes of making public improvements that promote private development. Yet I was the only journalist who did more than mention it.

Yet that isn’t what makes it odd. It’s that, 30 years ago, back when I was a candidate for the council and Bernie Sanders was making his first run for mayor, the impact of redevelopment was one of the main problems the emerging progressive movement pledged to solve. When Bernie said “Burlington is not for sale,” he was talking about redevelopment on the waterfront and throughout downtown, the whole thrust of a proposed “master plan” designed to gentrify the city beyond recognition.

That didn’t happen, in part due to Sanders’ election, but also because local citizens continued to resist redevelopment plans. In fact, when the Sanders administration tried to make a deal for waterfront development that included a hotel and condos near the water’s edge, public opposition stopped it.

But that was then… and now all three political parties apparently support targeted redevelopment through TIF.

Yes, times are tough, and state and federal help with some worthwhile local projects is unlikely. But those projects will likely be things like parking garages and amenities that increase the value of nearby properties. In the short term, there will be jobs; in the long term, more valuable real estate and tax revenue. It sounds fine, except that success also means higher rental prices, more downtown traffic, and more tourism dependency.

As Bernie and others used to note, the jobs will be temporary or low-paying, and the local cost of living and luxuries will increase. It’s a tough bargain. But this is now…

In any case, here’s a report on the most recent City Council meeting, including details about TIF, some recent praise for the city’s oft-maligned Mayor, and a resolution on oversight that failed to persuade.

Nov. 17 Financing for Downtown Redevelopment

It was upbeat session and ended with an official nod to the Occupy movement: wiggling fingers to vote for adjournment. But some juicy questions hung in the air. Considering the recent praise and success in pushing his agenda, will Mayor Bob Kiss run again? Rumors are circulating that he may step in as an Independent candidate if the Progressives decline to give him another nomination.

Stranger still is the whisper that Councilor Karen Paul, who introduced the doomed oversight resolution, may also run as an Independent – if Miro Weinberger doesn’t prevail at the reconvened Democratic Caucus. Was the resolution really the tentative start of a campaign?

Or is this all just smoke and mirrors? We’ll have to see. Until then…Occupy Yourself. And have a restful time despite the holiday.

Blame Games: Which 1 Percent?

2011-11-04T19:07:00.003Z

Evidence of impending social breakdown or paradigm shift to the contrary, the old order has not yet capitulated. But we are living in fluid times, at a moment when it’s sometimes possible to get a better look at the big picture.

Right now everybody’s talking about the one percent, the very few with most of the wealth -- bankers, oil tycoons, hedge fund managers. You know, Them. But as Robert Greenwald points out, there's an even smaller elite -- the top 0.01 percent of wealthy Americans, military contractor CEOs.

One %ers, or just rich and crazy?

These are bad bosses, he says, who don’t create nearly as many jobs as they claim and waste huge amounts of taxpayer money doing it. “What you may not know,” Greenwald adds, “is that the huge amount of money these companies’ CEOs make off of war and your tax dollars places them squarely at the top of the gang of corrupt superrich choking our democracy.”

In many areas, including CEO salaries and dollars spent corrupting Congress, he points out that war profiteers are far greater offenders than even big banks like JP Morgan Chase or Bank of America. For instance, the top brass of military companies outpace the big banks in the knack for enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else. In 2010 Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush received $22.84 million, Lockheed Martin honcho Robert Stevens got $21.89, and Boeing chief James McNerney got $19.4 million. The amounts are equal to the takes of JP Morgan Chase and other bank CEOs.

“The war industry gets away with blowing our money on job-killing spending because it can bend Congress to its whim,” Greenwald explains. "In the process, the industry is like a vacuum sucking up brain power and engineering resources that could and would establish and grow entirely new wholesome industries.”

This is precisely what has made the embrace of Sandia Labs and Lockheed Martin by Vermont’s congressional delegation, including Bernie Sanders, so perplexing. On this and other military projects, these otherwise vocal critics of the 1% have consistently made the same pork barrel arguments as almost every other member of Congress. In some cases – as with the invitations to Lockheed, its F-35s, and Sandia – it goes as far as pushing “public-private” partnerships, positive PR, selling out a neighborhood, and marginalizing critics.

Recently, the war contractors’ grip on the country has caught the attention of Occupy Wall Street, who are targeting war profiteers in a draft list of demands with a call to bring home “all military personnel at all non-essential bases” and end the “Military Industrial Complex’s goal of perpetual war for profit.”

Encouraging. But what about connecting the outrage and those strong sentiments with the elephant in Vermont's room -- the seduction of UVM, Burlington and the state by military contracts that mainly enrich the 1%?

The 1% in Honduras -- A US-Backed Cocaine Baron

Speaking of wasteful spending and wrongheaded policy, fresh Wikileaks cables reveal that the US embassy in Honduras – which means also the State Department – has known since 2004 that the richest man in that country, one Miguel Facussé, is a cocaine importer – and also allegedly responsible for the deaths of campesino activists. In short, US “drug war” funds and training are being used to back a known drug trafficker in his war against peasant farmers.

According to a new article by Dana Frank in The Nation, “The US is funding and training Honduran military and police that are conducting joint operations with the security guards of a known drug trafficker to violently repress a campesino movement on behalf of Miguel Facussé’s dubious claims to vast swathes of the Aguán Valley, in order to support his African palm biofuels empire.

"Despite strong anti-drug rhetoric from US officials, State Department cables recently made available by Wikileaks show that the US has been aware of the drug ties of one of Honduras’ most powerful and wealthy individuals since 2004, yet has continued to support him. US military and police assistance is also aiding the businessman, landowner and coup-backer Miguel Facussé, in a campaign of repression targeted at the campesinos whose land Facussé wants for production of palm oil.

“Despite the objections of 87 members of Congress, US funding for the Honduran military and police continues, even though reports continue to emerge of police involvement in killings, such as in the recent case of the son of a university rector, and journalists and human rights activists continue to be targeted, with impunity."

Dana Frank is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz and author of books, including Bananeras: Women Transforming the Banana Unions of Latin America. Here is her complete article: WikiLeaks Honduras:US Linked to Brutal Businessman.

As the Regime Changes: A New Soap Opera Begins

For the past two weeks I’ve been looking at the Democratic race for mayor, a hot topic in Burlington. Specifically, I've studied and talked to the four candidates competing in the Nov. 13 caucus. The result is a series of profiles.

Pitching visons: from left, candidate Miro Weinbberger standing,
with Tim Ashe, Jason Lorber, and Bram Kranichfeld seated.

The Caucus is expected to draw a huge crowd to the classic Memorial Auditorium downtown on a Sunday afternoon. The winner will face a Republican who almost won three years ago, and possibly other candidates, in early March voting. I hope to talk with the GOP's Kurt Wright, whom I've known for decades, sometime later this month.

Meanwhile, here are early installments in what promises to be a series revisiting the Queen City in transition: Will it be peaceful, or a radical realignment?

Chapter One: Tim Ashe Steps Up

Ashe hopes to prevail as fusion candidate

Chapter Two: Miro Weinberger’s Big Plans

Weinberger mixes commitment and leadership

Chapter Three: Bram Kranichfeld’s Community Connection

Kranichfeld’s run stress openness, quality of life

Chapter Four: Jason Lorber Wants to be CMO

Lorber focuses on transparancy, values

And for those who haven't followed the story so far, here’s a recap that appeared just before Ashe – since christened “a young Bernie Sanders” by the head of a local union – jumped in the race: Mayor’s Race Heats Up

Until next time…Remain Occupied. It’s better than the alternative.

Turning Point Times: A Maverick Scrapbook

2011-11-01T21:46:00.001Z

October 2011

Stories, sounds, images and thoughts from a month of upheaval and realignment. From Toward Freedom, VTDigger, The Vermont Way, Soundcloud, and Maverick.

NEWS STORIES

Vermont and Beyond: Voices of Occupation, Days of Rage

Toward Freedom - Oct 5, 2011

From New York City to San Francisco thousands of people were protesting the growing wealth disparity between large corporations and the super rich and almost everyone else. By the first days of the month, the movement had spread to hundreds of US cities and around the world. In Burlington too, people began to gather, to express their outrage about economic inequality and the excesses of banks and other economic interests.

Mayor's race heats up in Burlington

VTDigger -Oct 6, 2011

In the corridors of City Hall it was hard to ignore the rumblings of an imminent political change...

Housing Waterbury patients at Fletcher Allen is risky, trustees say

Oct 11, 2011

At Fletcher Allen Medical Center, officials said that mentally ill patients from the Vermont State Hospital were putting the hospital and its staff at risk...

Vermont labor backs the Occupy Wall Street movement‎

Oct 13, 2011

The Occupy Wall Street movement gained momentum. Labor joined in and 99% forces prepared to bring their energy to communities across the country...

About 800 Vermonters “occupy” streets of Burlington and Montpelier

Oct 16, 2011

In Montpelier, protesters marched from City Hall to the Statehouse chanting "We are the 99%."

City Council wants PSB to drop Burlington Telecom build-out rule

‎Oct 18, 2011

As the local election season began, Burlington came up with a possible solution to one of its BT financial problems -- don't build out to cover the whole city ...

From Left: Democratic candidates Ashe, Lorber, Kranichfeld and Weinberger

Ashe hopes to prevail as fusion candidate for Burlington mayor

Oct 23, 2011
At a Democratic debate just two days after publicly declaring his run for Burlington mayor, State Sen. Tim Ashe proposed an alliance with Progressives to defeat the Republican challenge...

Weinberger mixes commitment, business leadership in bid for mayor

‎Oct 25, 2011

Another Democratic candidate, Miro Weinberger, countered: he was angry about how the City of Burlington has been managed -- and he's the leader to handle it...

Burlington may let Occupy Vermont protesters camp in city park

‎Oct 26, 2011

Leaves fell as activists and Occupy supporters geared up the next stage – an ongoing encampment at City Hall Park. The Mayor signaled that he was prepared to go along ...

Out of this world: The Chittenden mysteries

Oct. 30, 2011

At month's end, for Halloween, a Vermont tale from the vault -- a spooky search for the truth about ghosts, astral projection and the afterlife...

BLOG POSTS

October 9

American Autumn: A Season of Rebellion

MAVERICK CHRONICLES, 10/7/2011: Memories of Mobilizations Past, Will Vermont Be Occupied? Burlington Politics: Is this the end of an Era? From the Vault – vintage audio with dialogue, stories and thoughts about progressive politics, Mormon ambitions, Obama’s election, Pacifica, and more. The Question: Could the Arab Spring become a counter-revolutionary fall?

AUDIO: We Got Sold Out, street music from the People's Republic. Recorded 10/9, 2011 along Church St. in Burlington.

October 15

A Digital Age Rebellion (and Some Enemies)

MAVERICK CHRONICLES, 10/14-15/2011: Tracking the Occupations: substance, style and a victory in Liberty Park. THE VERMONT WAY: Class Struggle in the Company Towns. NEW MUSIC TRACK from Taco Land. The Plot Thickens: cooptation, surveillance and the movement. PROJECT CENSORED: Manipulating Social Media. VTDIGGER: State Hospital closing is putting staff and patients at risk.

October 15 Updates: Going Global (story on worldwide protests) and Vermont Occupy Rallies.

October 22

Outrage and the Machine

MAVERICK CHRONICLES, 10/22/2011: Journalists Targeted at Occupy Protests, Blood Lust - American Style, and Regime Change in Burlington. Plus, a song from the streets.

The Vermont Way

October 11

Boom and Bust in the Quarry Towns

The Moran Station, seen from Lake Champlain.

October 26

Burlington: The Public Power Story

And so it goes. Keep in touch...Seriously....

Greg Guma

Vermont news and features on VTDigger.org

Website: Maverick Media * Videos: The Vanguard Maverick

Keep in touch on Facebook or follow ProverbialG on Twitter

"Reality is the lie agreed upon"

Outrage and the Machine

2011-10-22T23:33:00.002+01:00

MAVERICK CHRONICLES, 10/22/2011: Journalists Targeted at Occupy Protests, Blood Lust - American Style, and Regime Change in Burlington. Plus, a song from the streets.

As the occupy movement faces the arrival of colder weather, let’s begin with a warm rendition of Woody Guthrie’s classic, “This Land is Our Land,” sung by Burlington area musicians and activists last weekend in City Hall Park as they prepared to hold a General Assembly and march in solidarity with protesters in communities across the country and around the world.

This Land Is Our Land by Ronin Wolfe

Despite positive press in recent weeks, it’s been rough for some people involved with this rebellion – including journalists. In New York, the NYPD claims the right to decide who does and doesn’t qualify as a reporter. As a consequence, at least three journalists have been arrested. Two others have been assaulted while covering the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Since the protests began in late September, reporters arrested for not having a press card include John Farley (MetroFocus magazine), Natasha Lennard (NYT freelancer), and Kristen Gwynne (Alternet). Those covering the demos must meet certain requirements to get press credentials from the police. The standards include having published or broadcasted breaking news at least six times in the past year. It’s an arbitrary bar, impossible to honestly enforce.

The requirements leave out most new journalists, reporters who don't normally cover breaking news and media workers with online publications that may not be considered “official” media, according to the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.

Journalism advocacy groups go farther, objecting to the idea that the police department should be issuing press cards in the first place. Meanwhile, journalists have been assaulted while trying to report. Fox 5 Cameraman Roy Isen was pepper sprayed, while his colleague, reporter Dick Brennan, was hit by a police baton, according to Reporters without Frontiers. The police said the assaults were "inadvertent."

Occupy Burlington's General Assembly gathers in the park.

And what have reporters seen? Among other things, they’ve witnessed hundreds of people being arrested, police beating and pepper spraying peaceful protesters. In fact, many of those arrested were filming or photographing, according to one of the detained journalists. The NYPD has denied that those with cameras are being singled out.

More troubling news: emails containing the words "Occupy Wall Street" were blocked in Yahoo's email service last week, says ThinkProgress. According to "Fast Company," Yahoo admitted that Occupy protest-related emails were not getting through, but claimed the problem was "not intentional" and would be resolved. For More: Journalists covering Occupy Wall Streetdetained, beaten and pepper sprayed

Blood Lust – American Style

"He'll bring them death and they'll love him for it."

On Caesar and the mob, in Ridley Scott's Gladiator

No, not the Republican audiences that have cheered for Rick Perry’s record on executions or the political outliers who think individual responsibility means sick people should be left to die. They are certainly out there. But let’s focus for just a moment on the relish with which the death of Muammar Gaddafi was greeted last week. Shouldn’t it have made people just a little squeamish? In TV clips, the ousted dictator was shown bleeding, then dumped in the back of a truck just before being killed. The young executioner was initially hailed as a hero and TV comedians had a field day.

The response was similar after Osama bi Laden and Anwar al-Awlak were killed. Shot in the face? Great! Predator Drone strike? Boo-yah.

With that background, it feels like the right time to mention the #3 story on the latest Project Censored list: Obama Authorizes InternationalAssassination Campaign.

Gaddafi in better times.

The current administration has quietly put into practice an “incomplete idea” left over from the Bush II era: a presidential international assassination program. Court documents, evidence offered by Human Rights Watch and a special UN report all suggest the same thing. US citizens suspected of encouraging “terror” have been put on “death lists.”

Obama’s Director of National Intelligence has told a Congressional hearing that the program, including the death list, is within the rights of the Executive Branch and doesn’t need to be revealed. The CIA has so far murdered at least two people under the program. When the policy was challenged in a New York City court, the judge refused to rule. Instead, he said “there are circumstances in which the executive’s decision to kill US citizens overseas is constitutionally committed to the political branches and judicially unreviewable.”

So, are we now OK with murdering Americans without the slightest due process – if they’re not in the country at the time and they meet the government’s criteria? Sure looks like it. Given that, public cheering for the assassination of strangely dressed, quirky foreign leaders or dark, bearded “extremists” accused of treason or human rights crimes– or maybe just considered a potential threat – is not a stretch.

But let’s be clear: We DO have at least one death panel, a secret group of senior government officials. Once you’re on their list, apparently there is no way off – except in a body bag. Yet the public response to this new approach to law enforcement has been much like a Death Match version of American Idol. Remember Schwarzenegger’s movie, The Running Man. We’re almost there.

Regime Change in Burlington?

Tim Ashe

On a sunnier note, the Burlington race for mayor is heating up. No one except Bob Kiss, who has gone from Progressive Party savior to scapegoat during the last few years, knows what he will do. But Tim Ashe, his one-time ally on the City Council, isn’t waiting. Last week he became the fourth announced Democratic candidate who wants to replace the mayor. I’ve begun interviewing the hopefuls for VTDigger, starting with Ashe, who wants to build a fusion movement of Democrats and Progressives. But first he has to win the Democratic caucus in November. That event promises to be a memorable moment in local political history.

The future of Burlington Telecom is already one of the big issues of the campaign. In the last seven years, the municipal-owned utility has brought its own TV, telephone and high speed Internet service to much of the city, creating more competition in an industry prone to monopoly. But the Kiss administration also borrowed $16.9 million from the city treasury and failed to pay it back within the required two months.

The mayor and his chief administrative officer Jonathan Leopold kept the debt secret until after the March 2009 elections that gave Kiss a second term. In 2010, BT was challenged by the Department of Public Service on behalf of consumers, as well as Comcast, the main competitor. The Public Service Board said that the city had violated four conditions of its license. Burlington is also being sued by Citibank for fraud and breach of contract, based on a $33.4 million lease purchase deal for equipment.

The city must find a way to repay the borrowed money and "cure" its other violations. If not, BT’s license could be revoked. Last week, the City Council came up with a partial solution: drop the condition that requires Burlington Telecom to build a system that reaches every city resident. If you’re still interested at this point, here is a more detailed report: City Council wants PSB to drop Burlington Telecom build-out rule

The mayoral campaign is already raising thorny questions. For example, could the People’s Republic, birthplace of Vermont’s progressive movement, be heading for a privatized future? Burlington government runs several huge enterprises, but may not be prepared for the challenges of the future. Ownership of BT is in jeopardy, Republican candidate for mayor Kurt Wright wants to sell the Electric Department, and public-private partnerships are the rage (unless you’re a military contractor).

Or how about this: Everyone says the political system isn’t working, here or anywhere else. But the Queen City may not be ready to go post-partisan quite yet. Tim Ashe’s fusion campaign is based on uniting people in two Parties. But some say Parties are precisely the problem, and Burlington would be better off without partisan elections. Others say it’s about civility, money or special interests. But a new social media-driven politics may also be emerging. So, are Parties over, or what?

These are some of the questions I hope to explore in the coming months. But I’ve already said too much. Until the next time…

Occupy Media: This Revolution IS Being Televised

2011-10-19T19:08:00.000+01:00

With capitalism in crisis and the US Right backing policies that will deepen inequality, even some of the rich see the need for change – if only to preserve the profit-making system. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) looks at recent protest coverage, concluding that much of it has been significant and sustained.

Media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests started out exactly as one might expect. There was little coverage at first (FAIR Alert, 9/23/11), and as it expanded, much of it consisted of snide dismissals of demonstrators' ignorance, hygiene and so on.

But then something happened. Following incidents of police abuse, including the unprovoked pepper-spraying of several demonstrators on September 24, media coverage began to pick up (FAIR Activism Update, 9/29/11). NPR executive editor Dick Meyer explained that the protests were not covered early on because they "did not involve large numbers of people, prominent people, a great disruption or an especially clear objective." But within a day or so, NPR was covering the protests, as was the rest of the media.

Soon the actions were being treated as front-page, top-of-the-newscast material. Consider this Brian Williams introduction at the top of the October 5 NBC Nightly News:

We begin tonight with what has become by any measure a pretty massive protest movement. While it goes by the official name Occupy Wall Street, it has spread steadily and far beyond Wall Street, and it could well turn out to be the protest of this current era. The lyric from 45 years ago in the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth" could also describe this current movement right now. Once again, there is something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear, but it encompasses a lot of things: anger, frustration, disenfranchisement, income disparity, unaccountability and general upheaval and dissatisfaction.

A USA Today editorial (10/12/11) was headlined "Five Good Reasons Why Wall Street Breeds Protesters." A New York Times editorial (10/9/11) took on the "chattering classes" who complained that Occupy Wall Street lacked a clear message or specific proposals: "The message--and the solutions--should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention since the economy went into a recession that continues to sock the middle class while the rich have recovered and prospered. The problem is that no one in Washington has been listening."

This is not to suggest, of course, that coverage is uniformly positive or respectful. October 15 saw massive demonstrations around the world, which made it onto the front page of the next day's Washington Post -- in the form of a lower right-hand corner blurb approximately one column inch long, directing people to page A20 to find news about protests in "more than 900 cities in Europe, Africa and Asia."

Some coverage was absurd. Reuters (10/13/11) published a disgraceful piece attempting to link the protests to billionaire George Soros -- a false conspiracy one would expect from talk radio host and former Fox News star Glenn Beck (FAIR Blog, 10/13/11).

Of course, actual Fox personalities were plenty busy. Host Bill O'Reilly quipped (10/14/11), "Do we have all kinds of crackheads down there?" He later added that the Wall Street protest is "dirty and filthy. There's rats running all over. There's dope all over the place. They're having sex outside at night and all of this stuff." Fox Business reporter Charles Gasparino declared (10/17/11): "It's not just protest Wall Street. It's protest Wall Street and it's an embrace of Communism and there is no doubt about it."

"Starbucks-sipping, Levi's-clad, iPhone-clutching protesters denounce corporate America even as they weep for Steve Jobs," Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer explained (10/14/11). Krauthammer maligned the protesters as "indigant indolents saddled with their $50,000 student loans and English degrees" whose policy proposal boils down to "Eat the rich."

In the New York Times (10/17/11), former executive editor Bill Keller devoted a column about the "good news" happening around in the world--none of which has to do with the global movement against inequality: "Bored by the soggy sleep-ins and warmed-over anarchism of Occupy Wall Street?" Keller asks, before cheering Slovakia's position on European Union bailout, which has done more "than the cumulative protests of Occupy Wall Street have done in a month of poster-waving." A column by the Times' David Brooks (10/11/11) dismissed the protesters as "Milquetoast Radicals."

But overall the protests have received significant and sustained media attention. This is surprising, given corporate media's history of marginalizing or belittling progressive protest movements (Extra!, 7-8/00; 7-8/05, 7/11).

So why are things different this time around?

From the very start, activists were criticizing the media for paying little attention to the demonstrations (FAIR Action Alert, 9/23/11). This likely had some impact, as did the persistence of certain media figures--Current TV's Keith Olbermann and MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell among them--in essentially shaming the corporate media into paying more attention.

One of the core complaints--that the media could hardly justify silence on OWS, given their keen interest in any Tea Party activism (Extra! 12/09, 9/10) -- probably weighed on the minds of some editors and producers as well.

There is a tendency among elite reporters to view politics as largely a contest between the two major political parties. In that light, OWS could be considered newsworthy as a political opportunity for an embattled Democratic president and his party. As the Tea Party providing a jolt of enthusiasm and energy to the Republican Party, pundits are wondering if OWS will do the same for the other side.

Political reporters, ideology aside, do seem to crave a certain type of balance. As Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank explained (10/11/11), "A revived populist movement could be a crucial counterweight to the Tea Party, restoring some balance to a political system that has tilted heavily to the right."

But media have a hard time understanding a movement that does not appear to want to associate its activism with the political establishment. Much of the early criticism about the movement's lack of a "message" could be interpreted as elite confusion over political activism that does not seek to work the normal levers of power. Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum (10/18/11) argued that the current demonstrations resemble earlier protests against corporate globalization "in their lack of focus, in their inchoate nature, and above all in their refusal to engage with existing democratic institutions."

She added: "Democracy requires institutions, elections, political parties, rules, laws, a judiciary and many unglamorous, time-consuming activities, none of which are nearly as much fun as camping out in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral or chanting slogans on the Rue Saint-Martin in Paris."

Applebaum's column concludes by acknowledging that global economic power can undermine democratic institutions -- but that protesters should nevertheless work within the existing political order or they "will accelerate that decline." It is a difficult suggestion to square with protesters' concern that the political system is rigged.

Still, the quantity and tone of much of the coverage is surprising. It's unlikely that corporate media, whose general Wall Street boosterism (Extra!, 7-8/02) reflects both their ownership and their dependence on corporate advertising, would suddenly turn against their owners and sponsors.

At the same time, American capitalism is seen by some elites as in a state of crisis, with consumer-led growth hampered by stagnating incomes and the limits of debt-based consumption. While the Tea Party movement proposes lower taxes and deregulation--policies that are likely to exacerbate inequality--there is at least some appetite among the wealthy for redistributive reforms to preserve the health of the profit-making system, as evidenced by billionaire Warren Buffett's calls for raising taxes on high incomes.

While the desire for fundamentally overhauling the economy is likely to be limited among those who have benefited most from its current structure, a widespread protest movement can create pressure to acknowledge the concerns of the economically pressured majority. Even some Republican politicians and presidential contenders have done so.

As the Occupy Wall Street movement spreads, political elites are trying to find ways to adopt some of its message. A Washington Post front-page story (10/15/11), headlined "Obama Looks to Harness Anti-Wall St. Angst," reported that the White House plans to "turn public anger at Wall Street into a central tenet of their reelection strategy."

The Post article acknowledges the inherit difficulty for a White House that drafted an economic team with deep ties to Wall Street to try and run against Wall Street. But it is nonetheless a sign that political and media elites sense that there is something significant happening in the streets--even if they don't know what it is.

The real test of corporate media's willingness to seriously engage the protests and what they acknowledge to be widespread feeling behind them will come as these translate into calls for concrete policy and legislative change.

This analysis was originally published by FAIR - Have Corporate Media Warmedto Occupy Wall Street? and is posted here under Creative Commons license terms.

A Digital Age Rebellion (and Some Enemies)

2011-10-15T10:38:00.006+01:00

Vermont's Oct. 15 solidarity rally takes the message to UVM. Click for Slide Show.

MAVERICK CHRONICLES, 10/14-15/2011: Tracking the Occupations: substance, style and a victory in Liberty Park. THE VERMONT WAY: Class Struggle in the Company Towns. NEW MUSIC TRACK from Taco Land. The Plot Thickens: cooptation, surveillance and the movement. PROJECT CENSORED: Manipulating Social Media. VTDIGGER: State Hospital closing is putting staff and patients at risk. Stories and thoughts by Greg Guma

PLUS October 15 Updates: Going Global (see story on worldwide protests below) and Vermont Occupy Rallies.

You don’t see this kind of thing every day: the political establishment caught off-guard, unsure of how to respond to a burgeoning grassroots uprising. Difficult to define, dangerous to ignore, impossible to predict, even the name raises prickly questions. Occupy. The Occupy Movement.

But occupy what, for how long? Some say everywhere, indefinitely. Meanwhile, some pols and a large swath of the labor movement have signed on – at least until someone goes too far. Is this a Left-wing Tea Party or a US sequel to the Arab Spring, an Internet-enabled popular revolt? Here’s my pre-10/15 coverage of Vermont developments: Vermont Labor Backs the Occupy Movement.

Funny about Money

Jesse Guma, intrepid correspondent for Reporting Satire, gets into a radical mood in this exclusive, on-the-scene tour of Occupy Wall Street politics. This analysis isn’t for the irony deficient, but it does showcase some of the diversity and scope. It also ridicules a “media circus” that seeks to exploit and diminish at the same time.

And not so funny…

Late Thursday, Mayor Bloomberg made a move to end the occupation. Claiming that he only wanted to clean the park, he told protesters that they would have to be out by 7 a.m. Friday morning. He would allow them back, he promised, but without tarps or sleeping bags. And no lying down. If accepted, such rules would severely limit any permanent presence . Duh?

The intention looked clear: bring the occupation to an end. But when morning came the clean up was postponed, averting a possible showdown with protesters who had vowed to resist being forced out. Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said the owners of the private park, Brookfield Office Properties, had put off the cleaning. Actually, more than hour beforehand supporters of the protesters had started streaming into the park, creating a crowd of several hundred chanting people.

The previous night Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights wrote a letter to the property owners, the city and the police making clear that "closing down Occupy Wall Street violates the First Amendment and is flatly illegal." Friday morning, he described the protesters' General Assembly decision making process and organizing that brought out thousands to defend the park, as well as the "roar of joy" that went through the park before dawn when it was known that Bloomberg had backed down.

He noted that the protesters had done a massive cleaning of the park: "The health emergency was a pretext to destroy something all Americans should be proudest of. ... You can eat off the ground in this park." So, a victory. But not before this beat down by police the night before. It's graphic and shows where things can go:

Going Global (10/15 Update)

By Saturday morning, people were rallying around the world. The protests began in New Zealand and rippled east, touching off demonstrations in most European capitals and other cities. This coincided with a Group of 20 meeting in Paris, where ministers and central bankers from the big economies were holding crisis talks.

The worldwide spread of the protests was, at least in part, a response to calls by Occupy Wall Street demonstrators for more people to join them. This also prompted calls for similar occupations in dozens of US cities.

While some rallies have been relatively small, tens of thousands of people snaked through Rome’s city center. Some protesters wore masks and helmets, set fire to cars, smashed the windows of stores and banks and trashed the defense ministry offices. Police fired a water cannon. Demonstrators threw rocks, bottles and fireworks.

In Asia and the Pacific region most rallies have been peaceful so far. In Auckland, New Zealand, 3,000 people chanted and banged drums, denouncing corporate greed. About 200 gathered in the capital Wellington. In Sydney, about 2,000 people, including representatives of Aboriginal groups, communists and trade unionists, protested outside the central Reserve Bank of Australia.

Hundreds marched in Tokyo, including anti-nuclear protesters. In Manila a few dozen marched on the US embassy waving banners that read: "Down with U.S. imperialism" and "Philippines not for sale."

In Paris protests coincided with the G20 meeting. In the working class neighborhood of Belleville, drummers, trumpeters and a tuba roused a crowd of several hundred that began to march to city hall. A group of trumpeters played the classic American folk song "This land is your land."

The Rome protesters call themselves "the indignant ones." They include unemployed, students and pensioners. In imitation of the Wall Streeet occupation of Zuccotti Park, some have camped out across the street from the headquarters of the Bank of Italy.

In Germany, which hasn't been very sympathetic to southern Europe's debt troubles, thousands gathered in Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig and Frankfurt. They called themselves the Real Democracy Now movement. Demonstrators also gathered peacefully in Paradeplatz, the main square in Zurich, Switzerland’s financial center.

In London, several hundred people gathered outside London's St Paul's Cathedral for "Occupy the London Stock Exchange." Thousands were also protesting in Greece, Vienna, Sweden and Helsinki.

CLASS STRUGGLE: IT’S AN OLD STORY

Watching history unfold lately – especially with the labor movement joining what has so far been a youth-and-Internet driven movement – I was reminded of earlier struggles for economic justice. On October 18, 1935, for example, Vermont workers called a strike against Vermont Marble in the depth of the Great Depression. So, here’s another excerpt from The Vermont Way: Restless Spirits and Popular Movements. This one looks at the rise of company towns likes Proctor and Barre, the family that ran Vermont Marble, and two strikes that led to the first ban of sit-down strikes: Boom and Bust in the Quarry Towns

OCCUPY POLITICS

Tribal Style and Fighting Words

The style and process of the Occupy movement has been part of the allure, at least so far. Spontaneous and relatively leaderless, the protests have provided a platform for people who don’t usually seek the spotlight to express their anger, support, ideas and hopes. Following a model established at Occupy Wall Street, amplified sound has been largely avoided. Instead, each speaker says a few words, then pauses while the audience repeats them, often in unison. There’s a choral effect and a sense of togetherness, especially near the core of a crowd.

As Hendrik Hertzberg described it in The New Yorker this week, “There’s something oddly moving about a crowd of smart-phone-addicted, computer savvy people cooperating to create such an utterly low-tech, strikingly human, curiously tribal mean of amplification – a literal loud speaker.”

In this and other respects, Occupy differs from the Tea Party Movement that emerged two years ago, although early Tea Party outrage also centered on federal bailouts of banks. Where the Tea Party has tended to attract an older, predominantly white following, however, Occupy is youth oriented and multi-cultural. Skepticism is expressed about leaders in general, but with an anti-corporate rather than an anti-government thrust.

Last June, as part of a “day of action” in New York, a group first attempted to occupy Liberty Plaza – also known as Zuccotti Park – a strategic space close to Wall Street and the New York Federal Reserve. Although that attempt failed, a People’s General Assembly was formed. For the last month the park has been the site of an ongoing encampment, serving as a nexus for deliberative democracy and proposals for action. It’s certainly no surprise then that Mayor Bloomberg, while sounding vaguely sympathetic, attempted to shut it down.

According to David DeGraw, a leading Occupy Wall Street organizer, “The uniting factor is that most of the people here realize that America has been taken over and is currently occupied by global financial interests. They have seized control of our government, economy and tax system, and have rigged our political process against hardworking Americans.”

As in New York, the goal in Washington, DC is to remain in Freedom Plaza for several months. But the agenda is more pragmatic; developing and pressing for sustainable legislative solutions to promote universal healthcare, economic justice, and the end of the Afghanistan War.

Nevertheless, in a recent article about the DC branch of the movement, activist and writer David Swanson talks in epochal terms about a permanent state of people’s occupation: “We intend to make it possible for anyone to visit D.C. with free accommodations. Just bring a sleeping bag and agree to work with us to pressure Congress, the White House, K Street, the Pentagon, and all the lobbyists and profiteers for peace and justice. We have free food, we have free drink, we have free trainings and seminars, we have tents, we have peace keepers, we have a big victory under our belts, and we welcome all peace makers for they shall inherit Freedom Plaza. We own it. It is ours.”

With fighting words like these, inspiring as they may be, there’s bound to be a pushback.

Musical Interlude

Before moving on, here’s C’est la Vie by Taco Land. Give it a listen as you read.

C'est la Vie by Taco Land

The Plot Thickens…

As you might expect, the establishment is a bit uncomfortable and looking for ways to get ahead of the curve. For conservatives, it's simple – denounce the whole thing as an anti-American 60s throwback, a sign of slacker entitlement if not moral decay. But many others are perplexed and looking for a game plan.

On Salon.com, Glenn Greenwald considers a nagging question: Can OWS could be turned into an activist wing of the Democratic Party? His conclusion: Not likely. Still, on TruthOut Steve Horn claims that “the liberal class is working overtime to co-opt a burgeoning social justice movement.” Here’s his take, MoveOn and Friends Attempt to Coopt Occupy Wall Street Movement.

But the most unsettling recent development may be this: Corporate-aided surveillance is up. Just as the nuclear industry hired private security firms to watch, discredit and infiltrate anti-nuclear groups beginning in the mid-1970s, expect banks and other financial enterprises to defend their interests – aggressively. Fortunately, there are also some strategies to stop it.

Sourcebook for the Media Revolution

Censored 2012 is here, an annual collection of the top censored stories of the last year, edited by Mickey Huff and the Project Censored staff, all in one handy volume. They call it a sourcebook for the media revolution. We certainly need one.

Former Project Censored director Peter Phillips kicks off this year’s edition with a look at the NATO/US/military industrial media matrix of managed news and propaganda. The Top 25 Censored Stories aren’t just announced this year; they're housed in Censored News Clusters that analyze the architecture of censorship by looking at topical connections of the most commonly underreported stories.

A Truth Emergency section looks at propaganda theory and practice: censorship, framing, spin and other tactics that shape the public mind in democratic cultures. The final section is international, focusing on human rights and the right to know, a collaboration between Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored and the Fair Share of the Common Heritage.

THIS WEEK’S CENSORED STORY

Manipulating Social Media: Activism Meets InfoWar

It’s #2 on the new list and certainly relevant to the digital uprisings underway: The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda. But hey, don’t worry. They promise not to do it here.

A California corporation has been awarded a contract with US Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop an “online persona management service.” This will allow a single soldier to control up to 10 separate identities, hypothetically based all over the world.

The "multiple persona" contract is thought to have been awarded as part of a program called Operation Earnest Voice (OEV), first developed in Iraq as psychological warfare against the online presence of al-Qaida supporters and others resisting the US military and political presence in Iraq. The effort proved successful. Now it is being used elsewhere in the Middle East and beyond – with assurances that nothing will happen here at home. You see, it would be unlawful to “address US audiences” with such technology, and of course, no self-respecting spook would do that.

ON VTDIGGER

Risky Business: Housing State Hospital Patients at Other Hospitals

Officials at Fletcher Allen Medical Center said last week that mentally ill patients from the Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury are putting staff at the Burlington hospital at risk. Fletcher Allen officials say the current situation is risky for both patients and staff, especially if potentially dangerous patients who were previously under state care can reject treatment. With thanks to VTDigger Editor Anne Galloway.

Past Digger Stories

Other Online Collections:

AlterNet * Common Dreams * ZNet * Global Research

So, see you on the (virtual) barricades...

Music was part of the mix on Saturday at City Hall Park.

Calling for a fair contract outside Fletcher Allen.

American Autumn: A Season of Rebellion

2011-10-09T16:00:00.002+01:00

NEW AUDIO: We Got Sold Out, street music from the People's Republic. Recorded 10/9, 2011 along Church St. in Burlington.

We Got Sold Out by Ronin Wolfe
***

MAVERICK CHRONICLES, 10/7/2011: Memories of Mobilizations Past, Will Vermont Be Occupied? Burlington Politics: Is this the end of an Era? From the Vault – vintage audio with dialogue, stories and thoughts about progressive politics, Mormon ambitions, Obama’s election, Pacifica, and more. The Question: Could the Arab Spring become a counter-revolutionary fall?

OCCUPY (ALMOST) EVERYWHERE

Uncle Sam outside Vermont Yankee

It’s quite an objective – to occupy parks, colleges, streets, whole cities even – until something real and radical is done about what this nascent movement has defined as economic tyranny. And tyranny is an uncomfortably apt description of the current “world order,” if you can call it orderly except in the capacity to concentrate wealth and power at the top.

But we all know that these occupations – unlike the ones in Iraq, Afghanistan and dozens of other countries over the last century – are basically symbolic, an expression of outrage and a way to bring together various threads of a popular movement for economic justice.

Where is it heading? What will be the longer-term goals? Will it be the Left’s Tea Party, an updated anti-globalization movement, the US Autumn follow up to the Arab Spring? Opinions vary, to say the least. Meanwhile, the pace accelerates in a primal race, not so much with the banksters as with the weather.

It's a great time of year for big events, as the leaves turn and you feel the cold coming on. The air almost crackles. In October 1989, while I was coordinator of Burlington’s Peace and Justice Center, the objective was to create connections between the peace and environmental movements. Rather than a demonstration, this took the form of a weekend conference, Building Ecological Security, and led to a city panel that developed Burlington’s first concrete agenda to address energy efficiency and climate change.

Ecological Security Logo

In 1996, I was living near the southern border in New Mexico while running a legal advocacy organization for immigrants. It was a time of backlash and border militarization. As the season changed and the presidential elections approached, we gathered in the antique Old Town plaza for a multi-cultural solidarity rally and launched a statewide campaign for immigrant rights.

Four years later, I was back home in Vermont. Along the way I had seen the emergence of the anti-globalization movement, massive direct actions that disrupted meetings of “world order” groups like the International Monetary Fund, and Independent Media Centers that supported and promoted citizen journalism and the growing movement.

In October 2000, as editor of Toward Freedom, I called for a gathering to discuss the rapidly changing media landscape – Building Independent Media. Headlined by people like Amy Goodman, Michael Parenti, Danny Schechter, and leaders from IMCs across the country, it fostered synergy and collaboration as we prepared – without knowing it at the time – for the cultural and economic counter-revolution known as the Bush years.

More than a decade later, we are at the edge of another winter, a year before another presidential election, as the nation and planet face economic disruption, cultural division and environmental peril. Given all that, a wave of peaceful occupations is the least we should expect. A wrap up: Vermontand Beyond: Voices of Occupation, Days of Rage

UPCOMING IN VERMONT

On Saturday, October 15, a parade and rally will be held in Montpelier, the state capitol, as a Vermont reflection of the national mood. People will gather at City Hall around 3 PM, then march to the State House at 3:30 for an old-fashioned speak out. Here’s a Facebook link. Contact: sarah@workerscenter.org Two days later, on Monday October 17, a vigil will be held at the State House from 4 to 6 PM.

Vermont’s Workers Center is also organizing around the state in support of the “occupy” movement. On October 15, as people rally in the state capitol, volunteers will canvas their communities to find out what people think are the biggest challenges and how to create solutions that "put people and the planet first." Rallies in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street are also being planned for Burlington, Brattleboro and Rutland.

Burlington – Sunday, October 9, 12:30 PM and Saturday, October 15, 2 PM, Burlington City Hall Park. Contact: avery@workerscenter.org

Brattleboro – Saturday, October 15, 2 PM, Wells Fountain Park. Contact: kate@workerscenter.org

Rutland – Saturday, October 15, Time and Location TBA. Contact: kate@workerscenter.org

BURLINGTON POLITICS: End of an Era?

Speaking of Autumn recollections, one of the most memorable, both politically and personally, was 1980. Earlier in the year some of us had formed a new political party, inspired by Barry’s Commoner’s analysis and decision to run for president. We were sick and tired of Jimmy Carter, and perhaps underestimated the difference that election of a Republican would mean.

Bernie, right, picketing City Hall, 1978

But that’s another story. In late summer Robin Lloyd, a member of the new Citizens Party, agreed to run for US Congress against the Republican incumbent, Jim Jeffords. The Democrats weren’t even putting up a challenger. Robin had never run for office. But she had an issue about which she – and a growing number – were extremely passionate. The danger of nuclear weapons and need for a nuclear freeze.

It was the right moment, and an early breakthrough in what became an historic movement. Thirty years later, the Queen City’s progressive leadership is under attack, with four announced mayoral candidates so far and tough talk about finances, transparency and the city’s unique political scene. Here’s a report written for VTDigger: Mayor’s RaceHeats Up in Burlington

FROM THE VAULT

Over the last few years I’ve been able to collect audio from various radio talks. Here are some favorites:

Inside Pacifica 2006 Recorded in New York in June 2006, this is a discussion with the Pacifica National Board about challenges facing the network. Board Chair Dave Adelson tried to maintain order and I outlined a vision for the future. Midway through, however, an outburst from the audience captured the intense feelings of the time. This also includes comments by the late Ambrose Lane, along with Alan Minsky, Bob Lederer, Lonnie Hicks, Rip Robbins, Lydia Brazon and Acie Byrd, plus my call to remain independent and inclusive.

Enter Obama: The 2008 Election Broadcast originally on WOMM-FM in Burlington on November 14, 2008, this wide-ranging discussion during The Howie Rose Variety Show covered the fight over gay marriage, secret operations and final assaults at the end of the Bush era, Barack as Marketer-in-Chief, Cheney’s Midas touch, and South America's response to the drug war. The news hour concluded with a “comment” on what might lie ahead.

Pacifica and Progressive Politics In this September 2010 interview on the Progressive Radio Network (PRN), I talked with host Stephen Lendman about Pacifica, 9/11 theories, the need for dialogue, national vs. local control, challenges facing progressives, the tyranny of the minority, media changes, cultural counter-revolution, and the way beyond polarization.

Mormons, Presidents and the Bilderberg Way In this June 2011 edition of Rebel News on The Howie Rose Show, hosted by Phinneus Sonin, I tell a Mormon bedtime story – of Joseph Smith's tragic run for President – and discuss his Vermont connection and the implications for today. Joined by FP Cassini, we also tackle a hot rumor – that the Bilderbergs like Rick Perry.

Voices of Occupy Vermont As protests against corporate misrule proliferated across the country, Burlington residents gathered at the Citizens Bank on Sunday, October 2, 2011 to present and discuss a Vermont agenda for the growing movement. They say they will be back. Meanwhile, these are some of the voices, discussing future plans and a new agenda, as members of the audience repeat key phrases and cheer support.

QUESTION: COULD ARAB SPRING BECOME A COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY FALL?

A fair question. And here’s one big red flag: In Egypt, sad to say, Mubarak-era media repression tactics are back in force. Despite the change promised by the revolution, Egypt's transitional government, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), is using excessive force and repressive laws against those who share information and opinions or take part in peaceful demonstrations. Leading journalists already liken it to the old Mubarak regime.

Despite initially vowing to do away with Egypt's hated emergency law, which has been used to clamp down on dissidents for 30 years, SCAF has done the opposite. On 15 September, it passed a decree that allows it to invoke emergency law almost at will, in response to situations including, but not limited to, dissemination of false news and statements, vandalism and the obstruction of roads. According to a report from the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and others:

"[The decree] will allow for the intimidation and harassment of persons involved in peaceful protests, demonstrations, and strikes. It also constitutes a direct threat to freedom of expression and a free media." A statement signed by 20 Egyptian civil society groups calls for the abolition of the decree and an end to the campaigns against civil society organizations that have continued since last spring.

In late September, the Ministry of Information raided and shut down Al-Jazeera's Egypt affiliate after the government failed to issue the station a license. Equipment was seized and an engineer was arrested. Such shut downs are likely to continue since the government has issued a "freeze" on new licenses for satellite stations, reports the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Another troubling development is the recent banning of journalists from political trials, including the trial of Mubarak, notes Reporters Without Borders. One of the most alarming cases involves jailed blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad, who was given three years for questioning the supposed neutrality of the armed forces during Egypt's mass uprising in January and February. He was rushed to the infirmary several weeks into a hunger strike, after he stopped drinking, causing people to fear for his life. For more information, check out IFEX.

Until next time…