Another Op-Ed piece from our friend William Boardman, retired Windsor County Side Judge.
(Click on photo to enlarge)
springfieldvt.blogspot.com/trump-inaugural-this-american-carnage.html
The Trump Inaugural Address: A Progressive's Review
springfieldvt.blogspot.com/trump-inaugural-this-american-carnage.html
Sanders, joined by Rust Belt Democrats, praises Trump for nixing TPP
www.washingtonpost.com
Video: Bill Clinton was Trump in 1995, On Illegal Aliens
A one minute video clip from Bill Clinton's 1995 State of the Union Address
Spin, spin, spin! I've heard it all before. What I find most disturbing is that Trump and his people are still trying SO HARD to sell it with "alternative facts." The carefully cropped crowd size photos, for instance. He has packed his cabinet with people who's only qualification is the desire to eliminate the agencies they lead. He engages in petty squabbles to divert people's attention and create confusion, while he dismantles America, piece by piece. Sure, he'll throw a few crumbs at the working class, just enough to make us happy for time. THEY ALWAYS DO. Meanwhile, there'll be a tax amnesty, MORE tax cuts for billionaires, and a continuous erosion of the ground under our feet. And then, THE COLLAPSE! Fight on, Bernie, we need you now more than ever!
ReplyDeleteTuesday, Trump is talking with the 3 big auto industry. Setting policy if they decide to take manufacturing out of the US. Haven't seen such an ambitious start since President Reagan. So what if industry get a tax abatement, what are you against a working class? A middle class. His cabinet is full of successful people good at what they do, make money. And how is that bad? We do not make a tv's, vacuum cleaners or sewing machines in the US. In Vermont, Irving is the largest supplier of propane, gas, and heating oil in our region. Our electricity come from Green Mountain Power, both of these are a Canadian subsidiaries. 2/3s of our utility base cost goes out of country. So do I care about the size of the crowd last Friday, or alternative facts, yes, but I am PRO American business. We're relying on the Russians to get our astronauts to the space station. A space program, a strong military, a robust manufacturing base, a solid infrastructure of highways, working men and women, saving and spending money, buying US products, living the dream. Just means the welfare state will have to get off their asses, and join the real world! So how can Bernie top that? From mayor of Burlington, Congressman, Senator how has he measured up? Bernie took a bus load of Vermonters to Canada to buy drugs a few years ago, anti-American business? Come on let's make America great again!
DeleteDo you mean the same Bernie who threw in the towel AFTER promising his supporters he would take his "fight" all the way to the convention?
DeleteThe freeze and media blackout of EPA, the revival of the pipelines, his assertion that there were 3 - 5 million fraudulent votes in the election....just today. What tomorrow? He's making a mockery of the election process all because he can't accept the popular vote....he's also making a fool of himself. When will our representatives have enough of this pettiness and put a stop to it?
ReplyDeletewww.truethevote.org/statement-regarding-trump’s-claim-illegal-voting
DeleteYour blog has value in its aggregation of stories about the Springfield community - especially for someone like myself that no longer lives in Springfield, but continues to care about the community. However, the value of your blog is consistently undermined by your insistence on spouting partisan rhetoric about national affairs. Keep doing what you do well. Leave the rest to InfoWars, Breitbart, and Fox News.
DeleteAnother wingnut organization: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_the_Vote
DeleteActually, our Leader did have a larger turnout than Obama in either 2009 or 2013. It's just that because they wore their costumes, the KKK attending blended into the white ground cover installed by the National Park Service. There are photos on the Internet that show them there.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/reuters-editor-defends-photo-president-trump-inauguration-article-1.2953125
DeleteHe's making it clear that we are all still being lied to. It's all clear now. Five full days in office & look how the ball is moving!
DeleteChuck Gregory 11:26: You have a brilliant mind and your personality is great, no disrespect, but the KKK attends all of these events as well as Black lives Matters, Black Panthers etc...this does not mean he's endorsed by them. None of this matters. He is our President now & we all just need to accept that. Your intelligent, don't fall into the misleading bs. Lookup the facts and comprehend whats already been done WITHIN 5 DAYS!
DeleteI'm not saying the KKK endorses him; I was just saying that their presence in costume would explain why it looked as though he had 750,000 fewer in attendance than his predecessor.
DeleteI'm very impressed with what he's done in five days-- almost a dozen of his closest staff have told the press they have to constantly pull him away from the TV; he's ordering the Department of Justice to looking into voter fraud in an election he WON; he's old the Department of Agriculture not to let its scientists release any of their work to ANYBODY (not even other scientists in the government) and denied "sanctuary cities" funding for their police departments (admittedly not very much, but still...). This man is truly our Leader!
What's wrong with this picture? The fact that Trump is OBSESSED WITH IT. Why should we accept the "legitimatacy" of the election when Trump can't? Even Bush wasn't THIS nuts! And it's WAY to early to start dancing in the streets, Trump hasn't actually accomplished ANYTHING yet; so far it's all just words! Kicking the "bums" off welfare may make YOU feel good, but it won't even make a scratch in the federal budget. Food stamps actually generate $1.87 in economic growth for every $1.00 spent (hey, that's a profit!) Social Security and Medicare are earned benefits, so don't even go there. Bernie took people to Canada to keep them from being SCREWED by "American business," (you know, the ones who send our jobs overseas, then wait for a TAX AMNESTY) but I guess if you're "pro business" you're OK with that. Oh yeah, Reagan had an "ambitious start" alright; only took him a year to destroy the economy! MORE SUPPLY-SIDE FAKERY!
ReplyDeleteThe mainstream media has been obsessed with trying to discourage people from following "fake news" sites online so it's important to point out that they aren't always so trustworthy as they would have us believe. Now owned by only 6 large corporations.
ReplyDeleteAll published news articles by any national media should have a numbered list of sources at the end so we can have some chance to check on and judge for ourselves how truthful, untruthful or exaggerated the story is.
Did anyone watch the inauguration? We that did seen it for ourselves. The news is lying and it just proves that we are being lied to, even about the simplest of things. The crowd was shoulder to shoulder! From the house all the way to the monument. Why lie about it when their were millions of witnesses!?
ReplyDeleteMaybe millions on TV and internet, but rather sparse (in attendance) compared to his predecessor's.....maybe half of who came out to Obama's first Inaugural and not quite as many as Obama's second......according to most reliable sources, not Trump himself.
ReplyDeleteNone of it matters. He is our President now!
DeleteYes, he is the President. HE NEEDS TO START ACTING LIKE ONE! It's not just liberals and moderates saying this; conservatives are also shaking their heads in bewilderment! Leaders around the world are also. You know it's getting bad when MEXICO tells him to stick it! I wonder who'll be next! Britain, Germany, MAYBE IRAN?
DeleteBritain, Germany, Spain, Australia...all around Europe has now been (is) invaded by muslims. They are in such fear of speaking up and doing something about it in fear of being called racist. Muslims are raping their women (mass reproduction), raping the welfare (because they can claim their 5 wives, most being CHILDREN!)Violent acts and disrespectful towards natives, Forcing allah down every ones throat. Spain's PM was factually forced to convert. Doesn't anybody understand Trumps plan for us all? He is preventing America from being over-run! Yes, we had total chaos and destruction sneaking in like the snake evil it is. You know it's getting bad when a President has to immediately take stiff action on these issues. Mexico told him to stick it and five hours later their Peso value dropped 1.2 percent! Be properly informed. WWIII is here and it is a kind of War we've never seen. Slowly being invaded and over-taken from our traditions from the inside out. Are you proud to be an American? You will be after doing research yourself. Why is this new news? Because our news does not want us to know about it. Why? Everyone respond please, I'd like to hear from you all.
DeleteSpoken like a true paranoid zenophobe. People like you said the same thing about Irish, German, Italian and Eastern European immigrants; I believe they used words like "Papist," and "Popish threat" since they (my ancestors included) were ALL CATHOLIC! And so the ugliest of all American traditions continues!
Delete^ Irish, German, Italian and Eastern European immigrants did not promote the mutilation of female genitalia, and execution of Christians and gays. My great grand parents were immigrants that readily assimilated, learned English and became productive community members and business owners. With adherence to Sharia law and a culture of ignorance, we can not permit this element into our county. No other Arabic nation wants them and it's for good reason.
DeleteCan anyone explain to us why the 52 muslim nations can't take in refugees? Saudi Arabia is a wealthy oil nation that could easily afford to take them all but have yet to take any.
DeleteProbably because the refugees, in most cases, are moderates, which is why they NEED to leave the Middle East. Saudi Arabian society is hardly moderate; the West props up the Saudi government in return for oil, not because of their political points of view (most of the 9/11 attackers were Saudi.) The Middle East is a complicated, twisted MESS, and probably always will be. What I STRENUOUSLY object to is the scapegoating of people based on their religion. Historically, that puts us in the same category as Hitler or Stalin. Even in America, the scapegoating of faiths other than WASP Protestantism, has a long and ugly history; in the Jim Crow South, Catholics were almost as likely to be lynched as Blacks. Jews were (and still are) hated by many. And now, it's Muslims. I've known a few Muslims; I had an Iranian immigrant in one of my classes in high school. He absolutely HATED, and was truly TERRIFIED by Ayatolla Khomeini, who he said was "worse than Hitler." Other than a foreign accent, you couldn't tell him apart from any other student. One of my college professors was a Muslim from India; a highly intelligent, peace-loving individual. This idea that ALL Muslims are crude, ignorant butchers is ludicrous, and is the same type of hate-filled propeganda that Hitler used to persecute the Jews, AND I WILL TOLERATE NONE OF THAT IN MY COUNTRY, ONE THAT BOTH I, AND MY GRANDFATHER DEFENDED AGAINST THAT VERY EVIL!
DeleteSweden opened its doors to muslim immigration way back in the 1970s. Today it is the rape capital of the Western World. As Muslim men immigrated to Sweden, they brought with them an Islamic culture sanctioning rape of non-muslim women. This resulted in a drastic increase in rapes in Sweden — more than a thousand fold — since first opening its doors to Muslim immigration. And violent crime increased 300%.
DeleteA 1996 Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention report bears this out. It noted that Muslim immigrants from North Africa were 23 times more likely to commit rape than Swedish men.
If these are the moderate muslim men, I sure hope the radicals have an aversion to settling in our moderate Western countries.
See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdGPPLmR5Bc
Sorry, editor, I CHECKED YOUR DATA, AND IT'S WRONG! See, that's what you get from the Alt-Right media, even in Sweden; LIES, LIES, AND MORE LIES! From 2005 to present the rape rate in Sweden HAS REMAINED THE SAME. It's only zenophobic nut-jobs making false claims that are on the rise! I sincerely hope you have the INTEGRITY to publish this. As I've said to other posters, don't argue social issues with someone with a Degree in Sociology, unless you have your facts straight! And not "alternative facts," either!
Delete“Sexual harassment is not automatically binding to migration and immigration,” the Swedish prime minister said earlier this month, explaining, “We have had sexual harassment in Sweden for many, many years, unfortunately.”
DeleteThere are two reasons as to why the prime minister could make this statement without fear of being contradicted: Swedish law forbids police from noting ethnicity or religion in crime reports. That would be considered racist in the new politically correct Sweden. So if you can’t refer to a rapist by his country of origin, and you don’t count which ethnic minority commits what percentage of the rape, anyone would have to agree that there’s no proof it’s the Muslims doing the raping in Sweden.
The last time a Swedish government agency ran a thorough study of rape rates in Sweden was in 2005, (Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRÅ)) It revealed that from 1997 to 2001 foreign-born individuals from all regions were 5.5 times more likely to be charged with rape than individuals born in Sweden. The report does not break down the foreign-born category by country of origin. However, a 1996 report by the BRÅ did break down rate of rape convictions by country of origin, using data from 1985 to 1989 it found particularly high rates of rape convictions among certain immigrant groups.
After controlling for age, sex and place of residence, the highest rates were for individuals born in North Africa (Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia), Italy, and Iraq who were convicted of rape at rates of 17.5, 16.5 and 12.5 times the native Swedish rate respectively.
Total national rape statistics: Swedish born rapists (39%), migrants (38%), migrant children (13%) and unregistered migrants (10%). Immigrants were responsible for 62% of the entire country’s rape crimes. The total Muslim population in Sweden was estimated at only 4.4% in 2013. This explains why the liberal Swedish government decided to eliminate both the reference to country of origin in rape studies, and then to eliminate official rape studies altogether.
Since 2013, more than 160,000 more muslims have arrived in Sweden seeking asylum. Less than 500 of them have managed to secure jobs. See:
www.thelocal.se/20160531/fewer-than-500-of-163000-asylum-seekers-found-jobs
Again, you're using OLD DATA, and misrepresenting the facts. Since, as you pointed out, nation of origin is not included in the CURRENT statistics, THERE'S NO WAY TO DETERMIN WHO'S RAPING WHO! And these are just REPORTS of rape, not CONVICTIONS! It's far to easy to ACCUSE someone of rape, especially if they're "foreign" or "different." YOU HAVE NO DATA WHATSOEVER, JUST "ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE" BY PEOPLE WHO HATE IMMIGRANTS, AND WERE PROBABLY LYING! I can surf the web too, you know!
DeleteMy ancestors came here from Germany to escape the "Folkische" movement; a hard right, ultra-nationalist, anti-intellectual, POPULIST movement that gave rise to Adolph Hitler. And so history repeats itself.
ReplyDeleteHow many of our anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-whatever people have had a pay raise in the last five years? Probably an insignificant percentage. How many of them have health care coverage that will stay with them even if they get laid off from their job? How many of them have been able to put aside enough savings to live on for four months? Again, probably an insignificant percentage.
ReplyDeleteThey are being fooled by a major political party and its co-conspirators (Fox News, our Leader's minions)into focusing their attention away from their own victimization. They deserve better, they're not getting it, and they don't know they're the pigeon in the con game.
As for Muslim nations taking in refugees, Jordan has taken in so many the country is becoming unstable. Ditto for Lebanon. Kenya also has one of the highest Muslim refugee populations.
ReplyDeleteToo bad that we, who created the preponderance of the refugee population almost entirely on our own, find that taking in 200,000 is an intolerable burden.
Chuck, how many do you want to sponsor? The new family in Rutland is a prime example. No English. Minimal education. No job skills. No health insurance. Instantly on the welfare rolls. Local school mandated to hire an interpreter. At a minimum, they should have to eventually reimburse the State for every cent they've been gifted. Beyond that, freedom isn't free. Our fore fathers shed a lot of blood to make American great. At the hint of a civil war, these cowards flocked to safe haven. How would our history have played out if able bodied males abandoned the Republic?
DeleteYOUR FOREFATHERS WERE IMMIGRANTS, DUMB-ASS! And I suppose your ancestors spoke perfect English, had jobs lined up, and plenty of money? I doubt it. Most immigrants came here with little more than the clothes on their backs, and then busted their butts building this country! I know mine did. Then again, maybe we should've sent your ancestors home, then we wouldn't have to live with YOU! I'm sure we could've EASILY found SOMETHING wrong with them! (Not so nice when the shoe is on the other foot, is it?)
DeleteAnd another thing; American-born "Loyalists" outnumbered the Colonial "Patriots" by 2 or 3 to 1, so there were plenty of "cowards" in this country!
Delete2:01, Here's a video you should watch. It shows how those so-called "refugees" have a gleam of malicious glee in their eyes as soon as a helping hand reaches out to them. And they talk among themselves in that sinister language, obviously plotting to rape us (yes, you and me too) as soon as they set foot in Springfield. Look at their swarthy skin, their foreign-looking footwear, the daggers they finger menacingly.
ReplyDeleteClearly, every last one of them is plotting to wreak havoc on your house, even though it's 8,645 miles from where they were filmed.
I noticed none of the people who foolishly offered them assistance was carrying an assault-type rifle; definitely not real Americans. I guess you're right, and as soon as I've changed my underwear I'll start checking under my bed to make sure I'm safe.
https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000004674545/41-miles.html
Aw no, not your underwear . . . .
Delete