Austerity for Vermont

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Jul 242011
greek2

Most Americans don’t really understand austerity but they know from watching CNN that it involves demonstrations and riots, so it’s not something they want to be involved with. Because of this the folks in D.C. have created the debt ceiling debate. This is even more confusing so the majority ignores it and labels it politics or high finance.

Once upon a time in America we created an institution whose goal it was to inject money into business. If the business produced a good product and did well those that invested in this business were rewarded. This was the theory behind the creation of Wall Street. Then came lobbyists, deregulation, and corporate personhood. What we have now is no longer a free market but a corrupt market. The quality of a product is in no way a determining factor in its success.

MacDonald’s does not make the best burger, nuclear power is not cleaner safer and more affordable than solar, and investing local tax dollars in Wall Street does not help grow local business.

Inferior products are subsidized, bad management is rewarded, and businesses that have failed due to these factors are bailed out by the government. The real solution to the 2008 crisis would have been to bail out the small banks and all the mortgage holders that got screwed by the big banks and idiots like Alan Greenspan.

The bank of Milton would have injected the money into the local economy because if their bank executives used our tax money to buy new cars, vacation homes and fur coats for their wives, the local community would have fried them.

Many economists will argue that these guys in the financial sector are really brilliant and that this whole situation is very complex and they just were blindsided.

I have said this about 9/11 and I will repeat it for Wall Street. If the people in charge did a bad job and it caused a problem this severe they should be fired and washing dishes somewhere. If they did it on purpose they should be in jail. Neither happened after 9/11 or after the “crash in 2008” If I managed a business and bankrupted it or burnt it to the ground killing half of my employees, I would be unemployed or in jail.

The corrupt market economy that created too big to fail, and too big to jail, rewards failure and for this the taxpayers will suffer. Cutting services for the majority and using the money saved to enrich those who caused the problem. That’s austerity!!!!

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“Injust” Rewards

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Jul 242011
gd-hydra

Why is Michael Dubie getting an honorary degree? Does UVM really need to help the 200 billion dollar a year propaganda machine of the Pentagon by giving General Dubie a degree? It’s bad enough that every minute of every day the public is force fed, support the troops, they are doing a great job protecting our country and keeping us safe. Really?

  • Does anyone really still believe we went to Iraq to fight terrorists, not steal their oil?
  • Does anyone still believe that 1000 guys with no military equipment are about to invade Vermont from 10000 miles away?
  • Does anyone still believe that killing one million innocent people made the U.S. a safer place?

Our own intelligence services don’t even buy this. They believe our actions are stoking the fire. All the better for war profiteers like Sandia and Lockheed Martin.

One thing for sure is that Dubie is a good soldier, because good soldiers don’t ask questions, they obey orders. He’s supported thirty years of illegal invasions by the U.S. including Iraq, and Afghanistan to name a few. Does the pending Lockheed Martin deal being brokered by President Fogel and Bernie Sanders and supported by Dubie somehow have a role in this fake degree?

During the 60’s counterculture movement General Dubie would have been refered to as a fascist pig. His degree would have been met with loud massive protest. Hopefully the situation in Egypt will empower people in the U.S.

It’s time for the citizens of the world to stand up for each other and promote peace by calling out institutions like UVM who reward bad behavior with honorariums and business contracts.

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Pete on the F-35 in Burlington

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Jul 242011

Pete’s letter originally appeared in the F-35 in South Burlington blog

Vermont Based Weapons of Mass Destruction

The recent announcement of Burlington being a finalist for the F-35 is very disturbing in that it makes Vermont a target for revenge for our atrocities abroad. Corporate lapdogs Sanders, Welch, and Leahy all praised the decision to bring more weapons of mass destruction to Burlington. F-35’s are made for killing and if current history continues, the majority of those killed will be dark skinned children. Let the genocide continue in the Middle East with Vermont’s Congressional support.

Congress has shown repeatedly that rewarding bad behavior is OK as long as the cash flows. No organization exemplifies waste, corruption, and incompetence quite like the Pentagon. They lose 2 trillion dollars in 2001 and it’s soon forgotten. They cover up rape, torture, and mass murder and it’s OK because to speak ill of them would endanger the golden goose.

It is no surprise with leaders like ours in Congress that the man leading in the race for Governor of Vermont is in the military. With him as governor, and his brother in a position of power, the addition of the F-35’s may just seal the deal for military rule in Vermont. Vermonters should be distancing themselves from this group and their failed policies, not embracing its gross misuse of our tax dollars and crimes against humanity.

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