In fairness, I thought I should modify this post with information provided to me by Sen. Sander’s office, that five or ten Democrats are expected to co-sponsor once the bill has been introduced.  Still it’s hardly the number one would expect given public sentiment and the draconian nature of attacks on Social Security.

_______________________________________________________

Well, Sen. Bernie Sanders has  proposed a bill that would protect Americans’ Social Security benefits for the next seventy-five years…and absolutely no one is co-sponsoring it.

That’s right, one of the most popular public programs of all times has only a single champion today.

Why, you might ask, is that?

Bernie’s plan is simple: all Americans with incomes over $250,000. should make contributions to Social Security on that higher income, the same as they and everyone else does on income below that amount.

I don’t know about you, but around my house that sounds eminently reasonable.  

Contrary to what Republicans would have us all believe, Social Security is not insolvent.  It is in danger of nothing so much as the sinister Right’s scheme to divert our public investment into private pockets.

The reason other Senators won’t touch this bill with a ten foot poll, even though most Americans would say, “Hell, yes!” if the question were put to them, is simply because, under the current campaign financing system, money makes policy; and saving Social Security will not serve the monied-class agenda of the Right.

“Money makes policy.”   In fact, let’s be perfectly honest and chuck that dated sentiment, “E pluribus unum” and replace it  with “Money makes policy.”  “Out of many, one” couldn’t be much farther from the truth.  Citizens United simply sealed the deal.

Cruelly selfish positions such as those espoused by the current crop of Tea Party Republicans used to be carefully avoided as “politically incorrect” so long as an immigrant working class still had the ear of its government.  In our new post-democracy, politicians have only to please stateless corporations, the uber-rich and their bizarre puppets on the far right in order to ensure the kind of media investment necessary to bring home the bacon.

Up is down and down is up if they say so; and no matter how many independent economists debunk Reaganomics, if it fits the meme of the power class, we’re stuck with it.

The resounding moral cowardice of Congress when presented with almost any opportunity to ease pain and fear among our most vulnerable populations truly makes me sick.  

I’m growing doubtful of our ability to survive these difficult times as a nation even vaguely resembling the fortress of ethical compassion that we once were.

( – promoted by Sue Prent)

In its coverage of the 5.9 Virginia-centered earthquake this week, on page 8 of the “A” section the Wednesday Burlington Free Press ran a sidebar of “notable” quakes felt in Vermont since 1638. Unfortunately I did not find it on the paper’s website, or there would be a link here. The source was credited as the U.S. Geological Survey.

The list mentioned 14 “documented” quakes “shaking up Vermont.”

Omitted: a 6.0 quake that was felt in Burlington in the early 1980s on a hot summer late-night/early morning. I was there. It felt like some large person had grabbed the side of my bed and was pulling it back an forth in my tiny, closet-sized bedroom in a small apartment a block off North St.

I remember the 72-point type in the Free Press headline a couple of days later as the Geological Survey decided the quake’s magnitude was 6.0.

My spouse remembers it too: her parents were visiting from Wisconsin in  her recently acquired condo a handful of blocks south of Main St., and she was sleeping in the guest room on the floor on a futon.

So why is this event, trumpeted on the front page of the (pre-electronic archives) local daily as measuring a 6.0, not on any of the lists of significant earthquakes in the northeast?

Where did the records go? Why did no one at the Free Press think to physically check its own archives?

Down the memory hole indeed.

(A ‘happy’ end of Summer poem for Junior)

busted unions and democracy

irradiated food and people

wars to kill the whole planet

my garden is dying too

soon we’ll grow to hate nature

yeah that’s what they want

pin the blame on a heat wave

companies will sell us the water

nobody’s responsible for God

and God is sure acting up

he must be a real character

God should maybe run a company

the doctor says I’ve got cancer

to be careful of what I eat

I laughed til I coughed blood

be careful what I think too Doc

I used to have roses in my garden

used to look at them every day

it’s like people now who don’t

look at each other on the street

everybody knows but they’re afraid

they’ll see how much worse it is

so you go on living and wait

for that monthly check in the mail

some day soon I’ll go out there

and there won’t be any check anymore

people will turn to killing each other

politicians will encourage them

they’ll give out big money for it

send all the checks in the mail

so people can go out and make death

as the last right they have in life

the sky will fill up with clouds

and it will stay that way just waiting

for the end

but you know

one happy thought to think?

most of us will never live to see it

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

New York’s Attorney General, Schneiderman, is apparently the last hold-out preventing Wall Street from gracefully completing the heist that left them with untold billions in profits, while thoroughly trashing the mortgage market and setting off the on-going recession. The White House (eager, no doubt to clear the way for fundraising for the ’12 re-election campaign) is pushing hard to get all the state Attorney Generals to sign on to a $20bn settlement deal that would immunize Bank of America and the rest of the money mafia from further criminal or civil prosecution, effectively letting them get away with a fine and a stern warning. They must be laughing all the way to the bank at the thought of this…

But Schneiderman is having none of it. He’s in the middle of his own thorough investigation of the mortgage scam shenannigans, and he has made it clear that he has no interest in selling out his potential cases by signing on to a get-out-of-jail-free card for the banks. Predictably, he is now being vilified by the Administration’s henchmen and the bank’s paid-for friends on various oversight boards. More on the whole sordid affair from Matt Taibbi in the latest issue of Rolling Stone Magazine.

So, what I’m wondering is this: when did Bill Sorrell in Montpelier decide that he was on board with this grand giveaway to the banks? It’s one thing that he’s reluctant to do much digging himself (I don’t know if the settlement amount is reasonable or not, but he seems to have readily compromised with Countrywide/BofA locally, rather than explore more drastic measures), but it would be nice if he would refrain from sabotaging the honest work by his colleague in New York and not simply sign on to a White House-brokered deal that epitomizes the corrupt relationship between our politicians and the crooks in the financial world.  

I had hoped to live-blog from the Unity event, but could not connect to wireless.  ‘Not such a serious loss however, as little happened beyond the expected.  Lots of tribute speeches, lots of applause; celebration of the tremendous turn-out among Democrats (70,000!); and vague references to the nearness of the vote.  

My best estimate is that there were about 300 (+ or -) Dems assembled at Union Station; a smattering of partisan t-shirts among them, but generally quite civil and good-humored.  Of course the gubernatorial candidates were all present and smiling.  Gov’s Kunin and Dean were there and Phil Hoff was fondly referred to, evoking the glory days of Democratic hegemony in the state’s highest office.

There was a moment of silence in memory of the two recently fallen young soldiers from Vermont, during which you couldn’t hear a keyboard click.  Acknowledgement of Chairman Judy Bevens; then salutes to all the winning and losing Dems in yesterday’s race.  First among those to take the podium was Doug Hoffer.  Was it my imagination or did he actually get the loudest cheers from the assembly?  He thanked Tom Salmon for becoming a Republican.  Laughter.   Next was Jim Condos who promised accountability and transparency when he would inevitably take the Sec. of State’s office.  Then Steve Howard, who promised to fight for Vermont’s Middle Class (“middle class values” as he put it, which I found a little odd.)  Jeb Spaulding was mentioned, and all those who had decisively carried their legislative districts.

Sen. Leahy was introduced to thunderous applause and made some remarks on behalf of Peter Welch (who was also there.) He complimented his campaign manager, Carolyn Dwyer; and then presented checks to Jim Condos, Doug Hoffer and victorious Senate nominees.  I asked Doug later how it felt to accept that check from Sen. Leahy and he had a one word answer: “Great!  He said he expects he’ll be getting a lot of advice from all kinds of people now!

They wrapped-up the event with all five candidates for governor, standing shoulder to shoulder on the podium, beaming into the crowd.  No mention of the vote tally; no suggestion of a winner. That was it.  Mission accomplished?

Now we wait… some more…

Take action, by clinking on the below link, to bring green jobs to Vermont!

https://secure2.convio.net/sie…

The Vermont Sierra Club, 350VT, and the Vermont Iron Workers Local 7 are working together to fight climate change and pollution through building a renewable energy future. Increasing our green energy portfolio will also build a green economy.  

But this green economy must mean a good economy with middle-class jobs for working Vermonters. Now we need you to take action to make sure that green jobs go to Vermonters.

Too often, developers use non-union workers from out of state to construct the renewable energy projects that were supposed to serve Vermonters.  This is not good enough. With unemployment high, and our economy still in crisis, we need to build green and sustainable jobs for Vermonters.  Keeping these jobs and our money in Vermont would be a huge boost to our state and our local communities.  

Whenever a wind farm is built, whenever a large solar complex is erected, whenever a biomass installation is constructed, we need to know that these construction and continuing maintenance jobs are in fact Vermont jobs; the kind that pay liveable wages and provide good benefits.

Renewable energy projects are the future. Will that future be one of economic prosperity or poverty for Vermont’s working families? We, environmentalists and union members, choose economic prosperity — and you can too by taking action today.

Take action, by clinking on the below link, to bring green jobs to Vermont!

https://secure2.convio.net/sie…

Please join us in working with the Governor and Public Service Board to mandate that Certificates of Public Good should only be issued for renewable energy projects when the developer agrees to hire local, and pay family sustainable wages with benefits.  Anything less perpetuates poverty, unemployment, and scarcity among our friends, families, neighbors, and fellow Vermonters.

Thank you for everything you do for Vermont’s environment and working families.

David Van Deusen

Sierra Club — Vermont

Michael Morelli

VT Iron Workers Local 7

David Stember

350VT

Take action, by clinking on the below link, to bring green jobs to Vermont!

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Imagine my surprise when I heard the (u)n-credible Entergy VY spokesman Larry Smith’s pronouncement regarding yesterday’s earthquake on this morning’s VPR news!

Vermont Yankee nuclear plant spokesman Larry Smith said nothing was recorded by the plant’s seismic monitor.*

*corrected

Perhaps ‘nothing was recorded’ because the machine wasn’t plugged in … or had no ink in its graphic pen … or was under a pile of newspapers … or because we’re not supposed to worry about what an “unlikely” earthquake might do to fuel pool containment, not to mention cooling systems and reactor containment.

Or perhaps nothing was measured as the flip side of how Entergy’s hyper-sensitive lab instruments measured tritium in riverbank samples “below minimum detectable levels.”

At our house, 171 miles northwest of the nuclear power plant, the lights flickered once, and that was all.

But imagine, my friends, what will happen when there’s a serious earthquake, before or after the plant closes. With onsite storage of old fuel (which, we learned from the ongoing Fukushima disaster, is still radioactively HOT!), that Vernon site, so close to the elementary school (3-tenths of a mile on the same road), will be dangerous for a very long time.

Just ask Arnie Gundersen.

I wonder whether the closing costs include the cost of building a new school. I wonder whether the evacuation plans include using roads that might be torn apart in a serious quake. I wonder why it is that we’re using this hellish fuel at all: have we no regard for the future? For our children and their children?

Earthquake, yeah. Nothing recorded, uh-huh, right.

Here at GMD we've spent quite a bit of time on Tasers, and especially the Taser issue in Montpelier.

We're not going to stop because we think this is an important issue. Tonight I have just a quick update on what's been happening.

Last week I testified before Montpelier's Taser Advisory Committee and the testimony was covered by the Times Argus. You know the drill: the story's behind the paywall.

Here's the lede:

MONTPELIER — On Tuesday, the City Council’s Taser committee heard testimony from a Vermont Legal Aid attorney who said police in Vermont have used stun guns to torture people.

Jack McCullough, an attorney and director of the Mental Health Law Project at Vermont Legal Aid, pulled no punches in his assessment about whether Montpelier police should carry Tasers — they shouldn’t, he said.

Then today Mark Johnson covered Tasers on his program on WDEV. I know, this is sounding like the Jack McCullough show, but here's the link to me on the show.

I've lived in Montpelier since 1983 and I've been involved most of that time but I haven't had as many people wanting to talk to me about any political issue as this year with the Tasers. I don't think I've talked to a single person in Montpelier who supports Tasers for our police department.

It will be interesting to see what the Council does when it receives the committee's report in October.

A new video from Fairewinds discusses how TEPCO’s own measurements prove damage occured to the fuel pools:

Newly Released TEPCO Data Proves Fairewinds Assertions of Significant Fuel Pool Failures at Fukushima Daiichi from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

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Rumors that the nuclear core has melted through the containment at Fukushima and is now in the groundwater prompted the latest video update from Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Assoc.

While Arnie doesn’t think sufficient evidence for this has been provided yet, he believes that the sensational report of cracks and steam or smoke rising from the grounds has obscured focus on much more important issues which are factually supported.

First of these is the discovery that radioactive sulphur has been detected in California. The question is how that sulphur was created.  As Arnie explains in this video, the logical conclusion is that this is evidence of spontaneous chain reactions taking place at Fukushima long after the reactors had been shut down by plant operators, a finding consistent with his April hypothesis.

Another troubling issue is the continued position of the NRC that the spent fuel pools were not a “problem” at Fukushima despite the fact that plutonium has been detected more than a mile away from the site.  it is difficult to get past the impression that the NRC simply doesn’t want to address the implications this would have for US reactors.  

When pressed about the plutonium deposits, the NRC has suggested that they must be from the reactor fuel itself; but, as Arnie explains, if this is in fact true, it is potentially even more troubling since the only way that material could have travelled from the reactor to the surrounding landscape would be if both the reactor and the containment had been breached.

Finally Arnie focuses on the distribution of cesium over northern Japan and the currently allowed practice of burning materials heavily contaminated with cesium.  He points out that, whereas those materials would be treated in the U.S. as extremely hazardous, requiring secure storage for thousands of years; the Japanese are effectively re-releasing the cesium into the atmosphere where it can contaminate the environment a second time over an even broader region of distribution.

There’s much more, so be sure to listen through to the end:

New Data Supports Previous Fairewinds Analysis, as Contamination Spreads in Japan and Worldwide from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.