And hear our most excellent home-grown, all-Vermont Funk band, Electric Sorcery !! Playing 2:00 PM at the historic Gathering Inn, Hancock, Vermont !

The doors of sound have been ripped off the hinges by Electric Sorcery who routinely electrify Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Towns are regularly woken out of their slumber by the by the wicked sound of this power trio.

Electric Sorcery takes psychedelic music firmly rooted in the 70s and adds their own special twist. Funky rhythms and psychedelic guitar riffs come together to create an intriguing sound that is sometimes very heavy.... This is a fun listen and anyone who gravitates towards the psychedelic sounds of the 70s needs to hear this… - SeaOfTranquility.org 

Meet & Eat    Greet & Drink

Saturday, September 25, from 2 – 4 PM  

1295 Route 100

Diagonally opposite the Hancock Hotel

Please bring your concerns, your hard questions, and your ideas.  The Independent vision for Vermont is all about you, your families and communities !

BirdInTheHand

Folks,

As of Friday morning, I am officially on the ballot for Vermont Senator for Addison County!  Thanks to you all for your hard work and great ideas.  Your contributions have served to get the Independent word out there, encourage people to register to vote, even built a parade float.

But I’m not gonna do an NPR on you and beg for even more funds.  Funds’ll come, somehow.  What’s really needed is organisational help.  I’d like to set up a community forum in Addison County every month until the election.  A forum in which people from all walks of life can address the candidates directly with concerns, questions, and even vent steam together with neighbours on how broken the system is.  If you know something about community organising and publicity, please contact me directly, robert@senatorwagner.com.

Update: CollapseNet is Live ! 

http://collapsenet.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1042...

We are not ineffective, we are not few in number. You are not alone. 

TWEET: #CollapseNet #Vermont #VTGov #Montp #TransitionTown  

Folks,

This will be a way for individuals, families and communities who are building lifeboats in Vermont, to connect, share information and expertise, teach, learn and reskill.

Please pass this on. If you are on Twitter, please tweet the ablve links with the hashtag #CollapseNet.

Here’s the press release:

• http://www.collapsenet.com
• http://www.collapsenetwork.com
• http://www.collapsenet.net

May 21, 2010 – CollapseNet ™, a long-anticipated new effort from internationally-recognized author, lecturer and activist Michael C. Ruppert, will officially launch on Tuesday June 8, 2010. The site will be a first-of-its-kind effort to promote the rapid and focused sharing of information between millions around the world who are preparing for the collapse of human industrial civilization – The Lifeboat Movement.

This opens a new era in Vermont politics.

Today, the old political machine that passes the governorship back & forth between Republicans and Democrats, the machine that steals everything in Vermont that isn't nailed down, the machine that takes away teachers pensions and cuts public transport as they pour Vermont's rich resources into the wars and into Wall Street... paused.

The photo shows Katie Lane-Karnas accepting Dennis Steele's petition signatures at the Secretary of State Office. 

From Pete Garritano, who is running for Lieutenant Governor, also as an Independent:

My name is Peter Garritano. I am running for Lt Governor as an independent candidate. I am married and have two kids and I live in Shelburne. I love Vermont because of its natural beauty, and the friendly nature of the people who live here. People here want to live and let live and I think this is a lesson that would serve us well in dealing with some of today’s important issues.

My passion in running for office came as a result of the wars and the incredible human and economic toll they have taken on both the people of the Middle East and the citizens of Vermont. I don’t care why we invaded, we have been given an endless supply of dubious excuses, I do not want my tax money being used for war and killing.

It’s time to start a direct democracy, bottom up not top down, by the people and for the people, where important issues like war, and health care, and how our taxes are spent , are voted on by the people of Vermont. Our elected officials have consistently failed us in all these areas.

Peter Garritano

VTGarritano.com

About Dennis

• About Dennis
• Military Service

What can you do?

• Befriend Dennis on Facebook
• Join our facebook group!
• Join your county on Facebook!

This is a blow to Vermont liberals, lefties and democrats who have buried their heads in the sand to keep pretending that their Obama walks on water, folks who have buried any and all opposition to the ongoing wars, torture and domestic loss of liberties in exchange for a smile and a promise of 'change'. The Left can't ignore the only recently announced White House approval for a controversial expansion of offshore oil exploration. And now, in an ecological catastrophe of global proportions, the feds are even slower to respond, than the Bush Administration responded to Katrina. The Black Swan was popularised by Nassim Taleb in his recent book by that name. Taleb regards almost all major scientific discoveries, historical events, and artistic accomplishments as 'black swans'—undirected and unpredicted. He gives the rise of the Internet, the personal computer, World War I, and the September 11, 2001 attacks as examples of Black Swan events.The Black Swan has its origins in a centuries-old scientific assumption that ‘All swans are white'. Just because nobody but Australian aborigines saw them until recently.To me, the Black Swan Event is a catastrophe that causes a chain reaction, in a world of global energy and food dependencies. It relieves the tension of that which is ready and waiting to happen, but hasn't happened. Academic snobs don't see it, but are experts at covering their tracks, afterward. Party politicians can't see it and even if they could, it's not within their daily protocol of memorised answers to pre-arranged questions by the mainstream media.The 'tension' is Peak Oil, if you haven't heard of it here's what it's about. Once that tension is released, centrally planned economies such as the fiat currency and debt-based US Empire simply break down. The centralised nanny-state with drones checking for protesters productive workers born in Mexico & pot plants (as despair, domestic violence & rape multiplies) simply doesn't work. The USSR disintegrated overnight. All empires go... once whatever dependency it was that fuelled its overstretch... goes. The tension... releases.What remains are localised economies based on minimal energy usage, the way the human race lived for most of its existence. Vermont is one hopeful example of a small, governable entity. Vermont was a independent republic until 1791. We can be free again! Imagine Free Vermont, and vote for Dennis Steele for Governor. Engage in, and promote, local food production.So what's the Black Swan? It's all over the newspapers, predictable in hindsight, but strikes to the heart of the Empires energy plans. The bastards will have to invade Venezuela now (at the very least, maybe Bolivia for good measure), just to continue fuelling the military overstretch, hundreds of bases worldwide, and the never-ending wars. All of which consume approximately half the oil said to be consumed by the US. Think of it, half the oil! This is the Empire's next move: US builds up its bases in oil-rich South AmericaFrom the Caribbean to Brazil, political opposition to US plans for 'full-spectrum operations' is escalating rapidlyThe rest of this post I dedicate to Michael Ruppert, whom I just interviewed for Montpelier's local paper, The Bridge. Ruppert will be touring Vermont in May, screening his film Collapse and dealing with questions and concerns from audiences. This tour is sponsored by Chelsea Green Publishing, the Vermont Independent Candidates, Radio Free Vermont, Vermont Transition Towns, and others:

• May 13 – Burlington Contois Auditorium, City Hall 7:30 p.m.
• May 14 – Montpelier Unitarian Church, 7:30 p.m.
• May 15 – Brattleboro Brattleboro Union High School, 7:30 p.m.
• May 16 – Woodstock Woodstock Town Hall Theater, 7:00 p.m. Features screening of film and Q&A with Michael Ruppert afterward

Click here for more information on the tour!'The oil slick is now the size of Delaware. It will be Ohio-sized within days. Florida has declared a state of emergency. All commercial fishing in the Gulf is threatened. All widlife is threatened. And when and if the slick gets to NOLA it will have a disatarous impact on energy production and the brave, battered, courageous people who live there. Coastal refineries may have to close... What might happen if the oil ignited? Oil should be at $100 before the end of next week. I suspect between $150 and $200 (maybe higher) this summer.'Worse: Napolitano and Salazar are already talking about huge claim funds. Massive class-actions against BP are starting. Insurance claims may well dwarf Katrina. The economy of the entire Gulf Coast is in jeopardy. From what I heard there is no real plan to stop the leak and no estimation as to when that will happen. (I might have missed that.) What happens when the slick hits Cuba? The rest of the Caribbean?'The current fradulent Wall Street bubble will pop in shorter order than anticipated.'Within about a week, man's greed and reach for energy have found natural and unyielding limits. Two coal mine disasters and an oil slick that will cause as yet unknown catastrophic damage, loss of life and property. And yet there are still those in this movement who think we need to argue with people who believe there's plenty of easy oil about anything.'It would be so poetic if history recorded that this was the event that marked the cliff edge of human industrial civilization. Maybe then someone will get the point. Maybe then we will find our hundredth monkey... And maybe Mother Earth will have poisoned us with the substance we have so greedily raped her -- and killed each other -- for... You want oil?... I'll give you oil.' 

Posted by Ugo Bardi on April 5, 2010 - 11:10am in The Oil Drum: Europe

The classic Ford model T; made from 1908 to 1928. Note the high chassis, soft suspensions and light wheels; this car was designed for running on unpaved roads. With asphalt - made from crude oil - becoming more and more expensive, are we going back to this kind of vehicles?

Peak oil is said to be an inversion of tendency of the economy; but also of many things of everyday life that seem to have started to go back to earlier times.

 03-07-10 Democratic candidate gubernatorial forum and debateListen for yourself. When the moderator goes to the floor for questions, Dennis stood up immediately and was able to confront the candidates about bringing home the Vermont National Guard.One candidate cited the official Tax Foundation statistic... of $1.08 in federal money returned to Vermont for every tax dollar remitted to Washington as the reason not to pursue Vermont Independence. (Debunked here, it's interesting how Dem/Rep candidates never figure Vermont's share of the ballooning US debt into this phony assertion)Another candidate fell back on patriotic jingo, saying that only America affords great opportunities. Unlike, I suppose terrible countries such as Canada, New Zealand or Switzerland.Another expressed disapproval of the illegal war in Afghanistan, but also said that when called... one goes. But as an illegal war, the call-up is illegal. So he's falling back on the Nuremberg Defence. However, the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal (IMT), specifically stated that following an unlawful order is not a valid defence against charges of war crimes. And war crimes in Afganistan and Iraq continue on a daily basis. Torture, in particular!

Date: Saturday, 10 April 2010
Time: 5:00 – 9:00 PM
Location: Ripton Community House
Route 125, Ripton, Vermont
Bayley-Hazen Boys

Just came from the Ripton Town Meeting. Folks are uneasy. We have excellent management, excellent intentions, great visions... but we're having the life sucked out of us by the US Empire: its wars, racism, cruelty and waste of human potential.

And there's the rub. How can we achieve a green, peaceful Vermont, within such an Empire?

Our State representative gave us some unfortunate numbers from the State budget. I confronted him with the actual numbers, already presented to the Legislature, which show a $1.2 billion a year give-away to huge corporations. This puts the entire tax burden squarely on people who work for a living, and small-to-medium size business. Of course there's a crisis, but the crisis is entirely unnecessary. His reply was to plead ignorance of the situation.

A very brave lady then spoke up, declared that 'it is not about numbers, it is about real people'. I bow to her on this essential fact.

Our management are excellent, yet they have failed us. They need to decide whether their loyalty is to the Empire, or to their people in Vermont. Choose the Empire, and they must be confronted and voted out. Most are Democrats, whose opposition to the Bush wars fell silent the moment the Bush wars became Obama's even bigger wars, and our Guard were federalised and sent off to Afghanistan.

How much sacrifice can we endure? How long will our representatives ask us to turn our backs on the needy, cutting programs and care to those who can least afford to lose it, before we say 'Enough is Enough'?

Vermont Yankee Radioactive Plume

This week, Peter Shumlin, President Pro Tem of the Vermont State Senate, announced that the Senate will vote on whether Vermont Yankee should be closed on schedule.

The first vote will be this week and the final vote will be next week! After years of work by thousands of Vermonters, this is it!

Click here to send a message to your Senator.