In an age of gross zeitgeist dysfunction -- when untruth, delusion, and deception rule - politics is mere advertising, which is to say surface shimmer playing on the public's wish-fulfillment fantasies. The trouble at this moment in history is that the American public's wishful fantasies are inconsistent with the circumstances that reality offers to us and the choices for action that they present.

2011 was the year that the US achieved unprecendented victory in its campaign of death and destruction in the middle east.  The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, and threats against Iran have so destabilized the middle east that US military companies tripled their arms sales in 2011.  According to the Huffington Post US arms sales went from 21.4 billion in 2010 to 66.3 billion in 2011, the most successful year ever for the US arms industry representing 3/4 of all arms sales worldwide!...

Facts:

1. Geo-engineering, weather control, is a real science that Gates and others say is needed to fight climate change
2. Chem-trails (aerosol reflective metals, aluminum, strontium, barium) are real, not a secret. Supposedly to reflect sun out, reduce warming, but results show they may also increase greenhouse effect at night).
3. HAARP is real: sends concentrated beams of micro-waves into the atmosphere, causing condensation/precipitation, or evaporation, depending on what chemicals are in the atmosphere.
4. Gates is an investor in Monsanto...

Roger Pion, the self-employed Vermont farmer who rolled a 20,000 pound tractor over seven police cars in early August, was released Auguust 30 after four weeks in jail. Asked by a Fox 44 news reporter if he had any regrets, the taciturn Pion said, “No.” http://www.fox44abc22yourvoice.com/story/19420132/roger-pion?clienttype=printable

Pion (pronounced PEE-on) has become something of an internet folk hero since he used his father’s tractor to crush five Orleans Sheriff’s...

Dear ORION,

We encourage our neighbor Sue Halpern, one of Vermont's best wordsmiths, to probe more deeply next time she interviews our junior Senator Bernie Sanders. Her simplistic portrait of "Bernie" masks more disturbing elements embedded in his so-called "Man of the People" record.

For example, Bernie’s campaign literature decries corrupt and wasteful military spending. He says “we have tripled military spending since 1997, we must take a hard look at a bloated and wasteful Defense Department”. Yet he supports the Vermont National Guard receiving 18-24 more F-35 fighter planes! The F-35 program is THE poster child for...

If you've been thinking a credit union is just another kind of bank, look out, because here come the State of Vermont to accuse you of language abuse, not yet a felony, but subject to civil penalties. 

More precisely, the Vermont Dept. of Financial Regulation decided in June that the Vermont State Employees Credit Union (VSECU) had to stop using the word "banking" to describe the activities of the credit union, even though many of those activities are identical to those performed by banks. 

The VSECU, whose website is headed "Redefining Banking," was started in 1947.  In the eyes of Financial Regulation...

Police-initiated violence that lasted less than three minutes on July 29 in Burlington, Vermont, provoked weeks of complaint, and has now led police to produce an 83-page “preliminary after action report” that argues that the officers involved “showed exceptional professionalism under adverse, complex, and rapidly evolving circumstances.”

http://www.bpdvt.org/July%2029%20After%20Action%20Report%20-%20Preliminary/July%2029%20After%20Action%20Report%20...

Friends and Neighbors,

Many of you are concerned about the F-35 being based in Vermont. The best way to encourage debate on this matter (with a Governor, U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative who have indicated support for the F-35 before any of the important facts were known) would be to take one of the following actions at the primary elections August 28, 2012.

1. PROGRESSIVE: The coalition strongly urges this action, because there are many openings on this ballot and therefore good chances to elect a nominee. Please vote in the primary election on the Progressive ballot, including the...