PUTNEY — Our system is so completely $%#@ up! You know it. I know it.
So are you going take me seriously, or are you going to say, “Oh, she isn't real, only those two candidates that rise to top of the corporate Democrat and Republican pile are real politicians?”
Are you one of those people who have a layer of hypocrisy between your inner anguish and anger, and what politician you will consider? If a politician doesn't ride in a fancy car, and she doesn't have an expensive suit, and if she hasn't been “one of the fold,” then is that politician stupid? If she doesn't have a hairdo, painted nails, lipstick, mascara, a pantsuit, at least nominal heels, and a pearl necklace, then is she a crazy woman and not a leader?
I hear you. I see your body language, and I also share your prayers for an earnest, positive remedy to the crazed world situation.
It is your prayers that have brought me into the picture - too bad you don't recognize me for the help that I can provide you.
Don't worry. I don't want to be your governor.
Why? Because if I got there, it would depict major backing by corporate government insiders, where the vote count is not as secure as you think here in our lovely little state.
How do I know this? Because I ran for governor in 2010 as an independent without asking for any donations. I saw, and learned, that this is so.
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Running for governor was an experiment, because I knew that without experiencing the system and learning how it creates winners or losers, I would not know firsthand where the fairness and unfairness exists.
I knew I wouldn't want to have authority over you, anyway. I would have wanted the authority to stand before the corporatocracy and speak the truth about corporations' lawlessness. I would have wanted to act to restore the power of the purse to you and me and all of us (at least those of us who are not money addicts).
I absolutely would have wanted to say to the federal government:
You have abandoned the people; your role in representing major wealth endangers the entire planet. And here in Vermont, we are going to alter our relationship to you. We are going to stop sending you taxes as individuals, we are going to create a tax forwarder office, and everyone's taxes will stop inside our border before they go to your insanity.
We here in Vermont will support your government, but only the parts of it that we feel are not ludicrously perverted from addiction to power. We will support only peaceful means, and remove our funding of violence.
We will support the highway system, the education funding, the environmental protection. As a state, we say you have led us down the wrong path, and we have a choice too. We are not your minions!
We have slaves to free here in Vermont. You in Washington, directed by corporate addicts to control, have abandoned the United States, and we no longer have any illusion that you are working for the good of All.
It is for the good of all that we tend to our freedom from the enslavement you have created. Working 40 hours for a wage that gives less than half a living? Who are you kidding? Is this the best you can do? Oil spills, aspartame, nuclear radioactivity, 9/11, everyone on antidepressants, and no one healthy? And you want us to pay more?
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You, reader, want to vote for Peter Shumlin again? Or Brian Dubie? We are expected to do that, and we will be directed to do that in more ways than I can name.
I wasn't running for real last time, because I needed to learn what a run would be like, to know how I want to call my own shots.
But this time I am running for real.
I will represent the independents. Our state has a majority of independents, but we are not allowed to have a modicum of press, so I have chosen a label, and a party - the Green Tea Party - and as a republican/independent.
Why? Because only by doing this will I get the maximum exposure, and I intend to play the game enough to give you the benefit of a break from tradition.
I want to raise $30,000, and because I know how to stretch a dollar, that amount will go further than any normal politician would imagine. I am an auntie-politician. I like my toes next to the dirt and my politics clean.
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Enough posturing: we have so much to do, it's hard to imagine where to begin.
I usually begin with the power of the purse. Our right to control our destiny will happen only when we have the power of the purse to ourselves here in Vermont.
What has Shumlin done to restore our economy? Well, he has done all he can, but he really can't do very much unless he institutes a major public bank within the state of Vermont.
Here's a little lesson in economics: Where does money come from? It comes from the creation of credit. What happens when big financial corporations (the ones that are too big to fail) are the source of our credit, or when we are dependent upon the crumb handouts from that corporate federal government?
We owe interest and taxes and fees up the yin-yang, and we don't have enough money in circulation to enable the amount of exchanges we need.
Yes, a lot of us are bartering, and time trading, too; we are cutting back and pinching pennies, but we can't pay our bills or even earn enough to do so, correct? There isn't enough money in circulation, here at the bottom, that is.
So, what is a public bank?
Well, what is a public library? You understand that concept, right? You take a book out and you return it; if you don't, you get fined and a new book is bought. Book sales and so forth, abound there.
If one state in the union - North Dakota - has a budget surplus, job growth, and income growth, and that state is the only one to have such a bank, you'd think our politicians would be all over it, wouldn't you.
But Peter Shumlin is not. And don't tell me he hasn't a clue, because I was with him on the campaign trail last year telling him to care enough to implement one.
He called me the “expert” on monetary issues, and he gave me his solemn word that if he won, he would meet with me personally to become well-versed and (hopefully) advocate for the public good in this most powerful way.
Peter and I shook on it, and I have reminded him since, but he has blown me off, entirely without any intention to keep his word.
He has blown you off too, incidentally, and it makes me wonder. Think it through: We know that Peter has serious political aspirations - he's got White House fever running in his veins. He knows that it is a corporate rule, and he knows that a public banking measure denies financial corporate power moguls the control over this tiny state that they crave.
I am certain that is why he has blown me off. It's not because he is too busy. (Too busy to spend a couple of hours learning how North Dakota has created its own mini-Federal Reserve?) It's not because he is too dumb; he is smarter than most.
Peter has to know that, with public banking, states can create small business loans, support other banks (the small commercial banks are healthier in North Dakota than anywhere else in the United States) and get the benefit of the interest from those loans to reduce taxation in their state.
Public banks can issue interest-free loans if they want to, and still be helping business to grow.
Don't you want the power of the purse here in Vermont? If you don't, you can remain a slave, too.
I hope your chains don't get much tighter; it looks like it hurts.
You will hear more from me, but when will you listen? I pray to the Universe it is soon.