time to secede; take 2

The upcoming lame-duck session of the US Congress convenes on November 17. They will be facing an overwhelming situation including being asked to bailout the automakers. Without massive government intervention, GM will declare bankruptcy before the end of the year. Ford has 6-9 months (maybe). AIG, who previously was bailed out to the tune of $85 billion dollars will need an additional 40. And it’s still going to fail. The collapse of our national economic system is at hand. We are being led to believe that that matters to us, when in fact, we have here in Vermont, all the resources we need to live independently and sustainably. As Vermonters, we need to begin to invest in the infrastructure that will guide us into our future. This means solar/wind farms in every community. This means community gardens/orchards on every corner. This means localizing our control of education. This means creating a health care system that relieves small businesses from providing the expense of that system. It is time to start thinking about separating ourselves from this convulsing beast of an empire. It is time for us to start taking value in the strength of our local community. It is time for us to secede. FreeVermont.

Time to Secede

Kyle Gilbert’s death, as well as every American soldier’s death, and every Iraqi man, woman and child’s death caused by our imperialist invasion, is murder perpetuated by the neocon/neofascist movement (see the Project for a New American Century), as well as the entire corporate elite that have economically enslaved the American people and by us, whose silent complicity has allowed these crimes against humanity to be committed in our names. It is time for us to rise up and atone for our collective sins by learning to live correctly and sustainably in all of our personal, business, and political actions. The United States of America has been perpetuating crimes against the ideals of democracy, self-government, individual liberty and localized community based living throughout its 200+ years of existence (see the Whiskey Rebellion, Shea’s Rebellion, 400 years of Native American genocide, No Child Left Behind, the Phillipines in the early 20^th century, Iran 1953, nearly every Latin American country in the 20^th century, Iraq 2003). It is time for people to start standing up for the pure democracy of one person, one vote that we Vermonters uniquely practice every year at town meeting. It is time to throw off the immoral mantle of American imperialism and to dedicate ourselves as Vermonters to provide a society based on true justice, individual liberty, personal responsibility, private ownership of our means of survival and local, community based sustainability and to build a place where basic human rights are guaranteed for every useful citizen. It is time for us Vermonters to bring back the citizen soldier, who owns and understands the tools of self-defense that are needed to protect our freedoms and liberties. It is time for the immoral politicos of Washington DC and the insatiable financiers of New York to get their greedy fingers out of Vermont and for us to once again rise up as Vermonters against immorality, tyranny and hate. It is time to re-stake our claim of self-governance. It is time for us to secede.

$700 billion theft

There are a few things that are very important to understand about our $700,000,000,000 Congress-approved taxpayer bailout of the financial industry. First, the $700,000,000,000 does not exist. It is a figmentation of a financier’s dream. This is NOT taxpayer’s money. Our taxpayer money goes to pay the salaries of the financiers who have dreamed this dream. With the extra $700 billion, the Wall Street bailout now exceeds $1.5 trillion. The entire federal budget is only $2.9 trillion (not counting Iraq and Afghanistan, of course). Where is this “money” coming from? It’s coming in as foreign credit, then given to the corporate elite of New York and Washington DC, and handed to us as a pile of debt. And it stinks. It stinks very badly. Second, the estimated “toxic debt” is $2-3 trillion. This $700 billion pocket change is only the next installment in the bailout process. Third, the housing crisis is predicted to get worse. The $700 billion does nothing to address what Fox News reports will be 2 million foreclosures in the next 2 years. Fourth, who else other than Bernie Sanders, Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader thought of the basic morality of giving a virtual blank check to be spent on the greedy beasts that created this problem in the first place? If you want to promote economic growth, then spend the “money” on growth, not the toxic scum of the economy. Ultimately, this will go down as the greatest theft in history. The corporate elite will once again get away with this crime using the federal government, basic fear and public ignorance to preserve their privileged way of life. What does that say about us?