Burlington Beat: Changes at the Top

Recent stories from VTDigger.org (plus drugs & dissent)

On March 6  residents of Vermont's largest city will select a new mayor. After the vote, however, some department heads in Burlington are also expected to change. Is this job creation or creative destruction, or perhaps part of a more epochal changing of the guard. In any case, here's another installment of my campaign coverage...

Campaign Notebook: 

Weinberger and Hines try to be different

     Feb. 20: If elections were decided by the number and quality of plans a candidate produced Miro Weinberger would be way out in front. Since last September the Democrat has released a five-point financial plan, a rescue plan for Centennial Field, leadership and downtown housing plans, and strategies for improving education. Last week, at a press conference with local entrepreneurs held at Union Station plaza near the waterfront, he added another one – a development plan to “jump start” the city’s economy. Continue reading

     Two Burlington schools will also have new CEOs soon…

UVM trustees choose Minnesota provost as next president

Tom Sullivan says Vermont is a good fit.

     Feb. 22: The University of Vermont announced the selection of legal scholar E. Thomas Sullivan as its 26th president on Wednesday. Sullivan, who has been senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Minnesota for the last eight years, will assume his new post on July 15 and receive more than $440,000 annually for the next three years. Continue reading

     A new president is also being sought for Burlington College, after the abrupt departure of Jane Sanders last September. If you know the right person to run a small college on the brink of something (or if that’s you), go to BC Job Postings

     The race for Burlington mayor took more unexpected turns last week. The local Progressive Party finally decided not to endorse a candidate, but one of its two City Councilors is backing Republican Kurt Wright. Meanwhile, there are unanswered questions about local finances, especially whether a ballot item to fund future development projects will be defeated by rumors and the delay of a state audit.

Council President requests pre-election release of TIF audit

     Feb. 26: Most members of the Burlington City Council claim that they want the ballot item establishing a new tax increment finance (TIF) district covering much of downtown to be approved by voters on March 6. But if it fails Council President Bill Keogh knows where to place the blame: on the shadow of doubt and “erroneous conclusions” that emerged from a TIF audit of Milton.

     That is why, three weeks ago, Keogh requested fast-track release of Burlington’s waterfront TIF audit by State Auditor Tom Salmon — in hope that the results would be available prior to the vote. Continue reading 

Mind Games: Drugging Dissent

Dealing with various political and institutional leaders as a journalist these days, I've been reading up on how they operate in The Dictator's Handbook. My objective is to understand how best to "help" them reveal themselves and their strategies. But this week's most revealing insights so far have come from Bruce E. Levine, a clinical psychologist who recently published an essay on Alternet with the provocative title, Would We Have Drugged Up Einstein? How Anti-Authoritarianism Is Deemed a Mental Health Problem.
     Levine says that drugs are marketed specifically to "cure" people who question authoritarianism. Makes perfect sense. This piece connects some important dots. A few of my favorite lines:
     I have found that most psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals are not only extraordinarily compliant with authorities but also unaware of the magnitude of their obedience. And it also has become clear to me that the anti-authoritarianism of their patients creates enormous anxiety for these professionals, and their anxiety fuels diagnoses and treatments.
     And his conclusion:
     In every generation there will be authoritarians and anti-authoritarians. While it is unusual in American history for anti-authoritarians to take the kind of effective action that inspires others to successfully revolt, every once in a while a Tom Paine, Crazy Horse or Malcolm X come along. So authoritarians financially marginalize those who buck the system, they criminalize anti-authoritarianism, they psychopathologize anti-authoritarians, and they market drugs for their “cure.”

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BIG LIES: How our corporate overlords, politicians 

and media establishment warp reality and undermine democracy

MOMENTUM II: A Presidential Death Match

Coming soon! FIRST LOOK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MOMENTUM II 
CONTACT: FANTASYWORKS LLC
Presidents have long been the focus of bio-pictures and, to a lesser extent, TV sit-coms. In recent times, however, the race to be “the decider” has become a common theme in more imaginative storytelling. 
    On the tube, the plots have often been dramatic; Martin Sheen fighting for a second term on The West Wing or Dennis Haysbert narrowly avoiding assassination on 24 come to mind. In 2008 HBO took on the 2000 Bush-Gore Death Match in Recount. Next month not-TV will release Game Change, a TV translation of the political bestseller about the 2008 race and, for cultural train-wreck fans, the emergence of Sarah Palin.
     Movie makers often tend toward comedy. Released in 1997, Barry Levinson’s Wag the Dog was prescient in its dark comedy premise that a president facing scandal might resort to staging a phony war to distract voters and jack up his poll numbers before the vote. The following year Primary Colors combined laughs and pathos as John Travolta played a fictional version of Bill Clinton during his first campaign. More recently, the plots have become a bit unlikely.
     In Head of State, Chris Rock became an “everyman” candidate who was supposed to lose but defied expectations. He won by telling the truth (with jokes), echoing the title of Al Frankin’s satirical book. Playing a talk show host, Robin Williams also used comedy to win an election in Man of the Year, a less successful Levinson project. This time the joke was on the voters: Williams’ victory was the result of a computer glitch.
      But these projects just scratched the surface. As any political junky knows, campaigns are high drama, filled with the possibility of betrayal, murder, even war. Gore Vidal launched the genre with The Best Man, a 1964 film (based on his play) in which a principled (pre-Sergio Leone) Henry Fonda had to decide whether to go negative during a brokered convention in order to prevent an unscrupulous Cliff Robertson from winning the nomination. Most people got that they were playing fictional versions of Adlai Stevenson and Jack Kennedy.
     Times – and movies – have changed. Since more people get their opinions today from TV shows and cinema than newspapers and talking heads, we deserve films that rip their stories from the headlines. To fill that niche, during the 2000 presidential race Maverick made a development deal with FantasyWorks to develop the next political-action franchise. The way we pitched it, a presidential blockbuster is less costly, more entertaining and certainly less damaging than the real thing. Everybody wins.
     The title, Momentum, telegraphed out-of-control energy – and also what makes the difference in most campaigns.
     In Momentum I, released overseas on video late in 2000, an unscrupulous governor (Michael Douglas) used a phony assassination attempt to secure the nomination. Some reviews called it Extreme Gekko. He faced a former basketball player (Kevin Costner) and a wrestler-turned-talk-show-host (Arnold Schwartzenegger) running as an independent. The solution was to use Islamic fundamentalists (led by John Malkovich) to take out Arnold on TV -- in exchange for Afghanistan. When the plot failed, Arnold hunted down Michael (plenty of Act 3 action) and Kevin became president.
      The tag line for the ad campaign said it all: “Momentum. Some people will do anything for it." Foreign sales went well, but it never got the expected platform release. Distributor negotiations stalled. Since then the film has been re-edited three times, the latest version for release in 3-D.

(unreleased 2008 poster)

     In Momentum II, which is set for release this summer, we move ahead many years. Now a former candidate’s daughter is on the road to the White House -- after her dad lost the presidency 20 years before due to a scandal. (I can't reveal what.) Her chief opponents are a war hero and a charismatic billionaire with a youthful following. The popularity of the incumbent President is so low that one of these three is likely be the next president.

FantasyWorks Gets a Dream Cast

    As Christine Norris Nichols, a driven Congresswoman haunted by the need to settle old scores, you could hardly do better than Michelle Pfeiffer, still a potential box office draw and due for a Meryl Streep moment. After the scandal Christine's mother and father broke up, and later her playboy husband died in a mysterious plane crash. Now her main relationship is with her dad, Ted Nichols. 

     A well-connected lawyer and popular public speaker, Nichols often shows up on TV chat shows. In an early scene Gene Hackman, who nails it as a cynical yet charming old fixer, gets well-deserved applause tearing into a Sean Hannity clone.

     But the path to the nomination is not clear. The film opens with military action as retired General Frederick Oxhart (friends call him Fox) orchestrates the dramatic rescue of POWs held in Iran after an abortive attempt to bomb a suspected nuclear installation. That’s one way to get momentum.

     Laurence Fishburne, who first appeared on screen in Apocalypse Now and achieved icon status in the Matrix trilogy, delivers the goods as a career soldier with principles, personal demons and an iron will. FantasyWorks also considered Samuel Jackson. Personally, I'm happy to see Fishburne on the big screen again.

    The wild card in the race is Nathan B. Crane, who would be the youngest president in US history if he won. Crane recently rocked the media world with the launch of a 3D television network over the Internet. Inspiring and charismatic, he’s practically a rock star.

    Armie Hammer nails the role of an overconfident entrepreneur – a better looking Donald Trump – with money to burn. Early on, Ben Affleck was cast, and Matt Damon and Brad Pitt considered it. But the development phase went on so long that they had all aged too much. After J. Edgar, Hammer is ready for a break-out role.

Act One Begins

     During a brutal primary season, with the prospect of a brokered convention looming ahead, rumors fly about Fishburne’s alleged connection with a private military company that has received diamond concessions in exchange for backing a fundamentalist rebellion in Africa. It’s not true, but Armie exploits the controversy to press his change agenda, arguing that both of his opponents represent an obsolete politics.
     The momentum is shifting. But Hackman is really behind the smear. He is determined to gain access to the White House for himself and secret Chinese backers.
     Cut to: On the way to a campaign event, Michelle’s plane almost crashes. The mishap totally dominates cable news, drawing attention to her husband’s death and giving her a sympathy bump. When Internet rumors begin to circulate that her hubby was returning from a secret tryst when he died, the role of victim triumphing over adversity revives her flagging campaign. Shades of Hillary’s travails and the Kennedy curse. 
     Now Michelle has the “big Mo”...

Find out more: 

Momentum II highlights (and a casting call) 

ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED: 2008/FW/MM 2012
AUTHOR: EUGENE MICHAEL SCRIBNER

Burlington Beat: Countdown to Town Meeting

Recent Stories from VTDigger.org

Campaign Notebook: 

Kurt Wright's cross-party alliance takes shape

    Feb. 12: While Democrat Miro Weinberger added Gov. Peter Shumlin to his growing list of prominent Democratic endorsers in the race for Burlington mayor, Kurt Wright provided a deeper look at the unusual political alliance he is creating, and identified some players in a possible City Hall team. Continue reading

The City Council at work: from left, Joan Shannon, Kurt Wright (white shirt), Bill Keogh, Ed Adrian, Paul Decelles, Bram Kranichfeld, David Hartnett, Bob Kiss,
Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, and CCTV.

Sanders, Searles push transportation plan 

with $408 million for Vermont

    Feb. 14: A national transportation group report ranks Vermont's rural roads as the worst in the nation, and that's unlikely to change unless the U.S. Senate's version of a pending transportation bill prevails. If it doesn't, the state will have to cut $160 million from transportation spending over the next five years, Vermont Transportation Secretary Brian Searles said. Continue reading

More live TV coming to public access; 

Burlington Telecom to add new channel

    Feb. 16: Channel 17 has signed a new contract with Comcast Cable, and is stepping up its live coverage. Lauren-Glenn Davitian, executive director of the public access channel which serves Chittenden County, made the announcement in a report to the Burlington City Council. Continue reading

City Council grapples with student housing and UVM relations

    Feb. 16: The Burlington City Council took on nagging quality of life issues in the Queen City Monday night. Council members heard conflicting and sometimes angry reactions from Burlington residents and landlords to proposed new occupancy limits aimed at student housing. Ultimately, they rejected the ordinance change. But they passed a resolution with recommendations for a renewed agreement with the University of Vermont that covers housing and other town-gown relationships. Continue reading

NEW! State Auditor & Burlington clash over controls     

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Prelude to Upheaval: From Disaster to Outrage

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.

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