 Okay, I'm not interested in going so what you'd like is 30 minutes how does the flag look man? My hair looks semi comb. So okay let's just talk about queues here's what I would like I would like you know a 10 minute queue then 10 and then then you bring it down to five there's one thing my friend I've had a couple eye operations you've got to come like criminally close with the sign right just cannot read it hey good afternoon everyone we're back this is the second installment of the Burlington Democratic show live at 525 we're gonna be on for a half hour today I'd like to thank the producer Megan thank you so much for all your good work and kindness and my favorite cameraman Daniel who came in special to town to do this show Daniel thank you so much I also should thank Jordan I should also thank Lauren Glen Davidian and Kevin and anyone who's helped on channel 17 all these years after after a delay of cheese I'm trying to think when we did the last show I believe it was February or January of 2020 we the Democratic show has been off the air for I guess that's about 17 or 18 months we did our first show back last week which was 45 minutes and I have to tell you I was nervous it it sometimes it shows 30 sometimes it's 45 that was 45 and so I tried to throw you know I threw in the kitchen sink so this time we're gonna try to bracket it down to just a few different topics and and obviously all all pertaining to Democratic issues but you know what I'm gonna do I think with all the serious issues facing the country we're gonna start with the National Dems first of all at the last show the we had just our last American troops had left Afghanistan and you know it was a very tough exit it was very sad Taliban the way they treat they're very very they're very very tough evil people and the way they treat treat women and people that they do not identify with or followers of Islam is is really violent and you know I've heard it's called 15th century I've heard also someone referred to as 13th century but finally after 20 years we were out of Afghanistan so we were talking about that and anyone who thinks that any kind of exit from Afghanistan would have been easy I think I think they're kidding themselves you know if we had listened to our military advisors I think we'd still I said this last show I think we'd still be in Vietnam so there was no easy way to get out of Afghanistan I did some reading about the history of Afghanistan and it's basically four different regions and four different languages and and you know it touches it touches very very sensitive areas like Pakistan like Iran and it's a very always been very volatile by my recording the Prussians have tried to invade there the Russians the French the English and now the Americans and it's really it's a country that it's such a big country and so broken into factions and sections it's very difficult to do that a central government has never really proven to work there so when we talked last month we were out of Afghanistan and I want to thank anyone who served anywhere in these wars the last 20 years boy they were difficult wars sometimes fought in the and mountainous blizzard is conditions or fought literally at 125 or 130 degrees in Iraq so as President Biden made that difficult move out of Afghanistan you know I applaud him for the decision he made and I don't think any exit would have been easy and I wish any I wish all the citizens of Afghanistan peace that's a piece that they have not had for basically been in almost constant turmoil and invasion for a couple hundred years so moving on getting back to the obviously the biggest topic in it's not politics but it has turned into politics is the coronavirus the booster variant wearing your mask which I heartily recommend inside I usually try to wear them inside they wear them here at the station quite often so and we're stuck as I as I talked about last last show we're stuck at about 75 well in Vermont we're about I think 84% the last time I checked but we're stuck with a stubborn one-seventh of the population maybe a touch more that are just are not getting the vaccine and for someone who got it as as quickly as I could and on the first shot I had no side effects on the second shot I was just a little bit tired my 86 year old mother had the shot I believe anyone that comes into the station is required to be vaccinated so don't be frightened don't be scared if you're not vaccinated maybe reach out to a friend and say hey it got it got away from me or got ahead of me or can we do some reading can we go to the library can we go online and look at the science and you really can't argue with the science of this shot this shot saves lives I am 58 years old so I am not eligible for the booster yet but I will I'm hopefully going to try to sign up the first day and I would recommend anyone who can get the booster shot please do it and I'd like to thank all the I'd like to thank all the pharmacies drugstores places where the booster shot was given community health UVM University of Vermont has done an outstanding job on COVID and so if anyone's watching this and they're saying well you know I'm not vaccinated I don't trucks a vaccine down to nothing I don't trust the president I don't trust the politics let's look at let's look at this let's look at the science and let's and I trust Dr. Fauci and I trust the CDC and and their long history of working with disease control in America remember we've had all sorts of the you know the the Spanish the Spanish flu in 1918 the polio epidemic we've had all sorts of stuff smallpox diphtheria whooping cough they all sound funny but they're not funny when they when they they hit young people or kill people and thank God for these vaccines so basically let's say you're living in the old north end and you're watching this and you're saying Jesus you know maybe this guy's right call a friend to maybe maybe they can go with you to get the vaccine it literally takes just a minute it's absolutely free and the the the nursing staff and the health staff are they couldn't be kinder when you go get that shot so that's my not lecture but that's my plea to all of you because the only way we're going to get everything back on track is if we can get to 98 99% vaccinated we will never be able to get to 100% but we're going to really work on it and I'd like to I'd like to thank I'd like to thank our elected officials for all their work on this on this issue okay well that's over so we were we were cooped what we did last last week we talked about Afghanistan for a while we talked about the virus I will continue talking about that please wear your mask inside when in doubt put your mask on if you've been vaccinated fine if you're eligible to get the booster shot please get the booster shot and if you're someone like me you're not eligible yet the you know the day or week it's you're eligible please get that shot and if anyone is watching out here and they have a friend or family member that hasn't had the vaccine for a lot of different reasons you know just try to talk to them and let's talk about the science and let's talk about the safety of our whole community so that part is over the the you know tough stuff tough stuff talking about war and talking about about something that's called almost 700,000 Americans and I think a couple million people worldwide we thought we had a handle on it this spring but as we see this this variant has a lot of different it's as dr. Fauci said it's very sneaky so let me let me talk about let me talk about the state Democratic Party we are now going through our reorganization every two years you required by by the Constitution of the state of Vermont all parties to keep their status must re do a reorganization and a reorganization is where you elect officers and you also build a caucus for example every two years the Burlington Democrats meet elect officers and also people sign up to be a member of the Burlington City Committee we had that I believe that we did that on okay today October I think we did that on September 27th and we were up at the senior center at the Miller Center and we were with Chair Adam Roof and former state representative Joey Donovan and my friend and state committee member Hannah King who was very helpful on the technical level and we the meeting was basically virtual we had a few great speakers we had we had Keshia Rom-Hinsdale and we had the chair of the county committee Ed Cafferty and the mayor of Burlington Mayor Murrow Weinberger and basically even though it's a routine meeting it was fun to be able to see people again talk to people again even if it was on the zoom screen I'd like to thank all the people that helped and were involved and then now so so we go from town or city to county to the state now our county meeting will be October 27th it will be virtual you can go to BurlingtonDems.org to watch it we will have a live portion portion if someone wishes to attend who's been vaccinated and wears a mask we believe that will be in Winooski we're not sure yet where so if you Burlington democrats.org you can check that or you can give me a call to 802-540-0717 so to make a long complicated story short we have to have state county and then I'm sorry city county and then state reorg so we've done our city reorg and that's now there are 251 towns in Vermont but I believe only about 180 are incorporated and so now we move on to the county and the county elects officers and also elects officers to the state committee now I am the I am the committee man to the state committee from Chittenden County and I'll be running again and we also have the chair and a committee woman that go down to Montpelier and represent Chittenden at the state Democratic Party I also want to talk about we the Democratic Party had our annual Curtis Hoff awards on last Saturday the Saturday the 9th and it was held at the double tree at the Hilton but unfortunately with the variant it was virtual and we just had a few people there I was fortunate enough to be able to attend and we honored three really cool Vermont people my great friend Mary Sullivan who's a national committee woman former state representative former delegate to the convention long long time a Democrat has worked on campaigns I believe since 1974 in Vermont when she worked on Senator Lay he's first campaign which was an unbelievable come from behind win and Mary thank you so much you are a great friend we also we honor two other people we honored a gentleman also state rep and current state rep Mary's retired his name is Kevin coach Christie and everyone calls him coach for his long years of coaching in the White River school system he also sings one of the coolest versions of the national anthem you'll ever hear he's passionate about social justice and he represents the White River Hartford area for many years he's also been a delegate to the convention and it's been my privilege to be at the convention with him and he's a real fighter for for everyone in Vermont and anyone who hasn't been in White River for a while it's it is really picked up there are all sorts of beautiful shops and great restaurants and the cartoon Institute is there and the northern stage it's really worth a fun trip down you can take the you can take the Amtrak for monitor sometime I think it's 19 bucks so well worth doing so I'd also like to thank coach Kevin coach Christie representative Christie and also longtime Democrat Dottie Kyle thank you Dottie for all your work for the party long time has been involved with the Vermont Dems in all sorts of different ways and these people I bet you they've all had about 40 years with the Democratic Party so we're talking about talking 120 years of you know helping mostly volunteer stuff until they're in the legislature or something helping the Democratic Party all in different parts of the state so thanks to former representative Mary Sullivan representative Kevin coach Christie and Ms. Dottie Dean so they were the three honorees at the Curtis Awards now the Curtis Hof Awards just to talk about the Curtis Hof Awards a little bit the Curtis Hof Awards are named after former governor Phil Hof who was the first Democratic governor elected in 1962 three term governor he was he helped he helped put in the interstate highway system he also was around before 1962 every town in Vermont only had one state rep for example Burlington would have one and the tiny tiniest little town let's say Hardwick Pechum or some little town like that would have one so they finally were able to change the charter and the state Constitution for example we now have 10 state reps and it was basically a system where the smallest town had the same number of reps as for example Rutland or White River would have the same number as little Townsend or Hardwick or Marlboro or North Hero or Isle of Mont just to give you an idea it changed everything because the legislature had been very much dominated very much agrarian dominated and as we came into the late 60s with the president Eisenhower highway system which was not completed till 1970 you know you take that for granted be able to jump on it in Brattleboro or White River and go all the way to the Canadian border and or all the way to St. Johnsbury it was quite a thing so Governor Hof he passed away I believe in about 2017 he was a member he was the greatest generation he was a bomber pilot in World War II he was he was the king of Winooski they used to call him and David Curtis was a very interesting man too David Curtis started off as a Republican in the state legislature very conservative but as the 60s evolved he evolved and his politics changed and he he was one of he unfortunately came down with the AIDS virus and had the truth and the guts to say he did have the virus and fought very tirely for the rights of AIDS victims all around the state all around the country he came back to legislature as a Democrat so he was elected as a Democrat and a Republican and a Democrat and he kind of evolved as Vermont evolved because Vermont had been up until the election of Governor Hof it had been Republican dominated state I don't believe it voted for a I don't think it voted for a Republican I'm a Democrat to make people Clinton I'll have to check that we'll let you know in the next episode but anyway you had representative David Curtis and he unfortunately passed of AIDS in 1999 and he he fought to his last breath for the rights of AIDS patients all around the world so these awards are about very fine people and people with courage to do the right thing so that's the awards that we had and we had as I said those three winners we also had Congressman Welch with Senator Leahy all T. J. Donovan my my good buddy Jim Condos the Secretary of State Beth Pierce I believe Doug Hofer we also had the the executive director of the party Claire Cummings speak so she's a great new addition she's from Maine she worked on some campaigns in Vermont she's a wonderful addition to the team the Vermont Democratic Party has a full-time office in Montpelier we have a campaign office usually in Burlington so there are a lot of ways to get involved there is still time if you're listening to this and you're in the 11 towns of Chittenden County and you want to be on let's say you would like to be on the town committee for South Burlington you can do that you can get in touch with the South Burlington Democrats or the Essex or Essex Junction Democrats or Charlotte or Shelburne the 11 towns of Chittenden and we're trying to organize all of them so as we move on through this kind of mandatory reorg you know all these little steps are what's necessary to get us into this on-year election because we are 13 months away from possibly the most important midterms of my life my 58 years I know that's a bit of a cliche excuse me and but I will tell you we if the Republicans are able to take back the House and Senate the agenda of the president will be stalled I saw I read the New York Times today that the only Democratic congressman from Kentucky is retiring now the odds are virtually certain that a Republican will replace that man and I'd like to thank him because that's not easy to get elected from Kentucky unfortunately we're seeing with the Republican Party that they are pandering to the lowest possible interests you know scaring people about the virus that the government is mandating stuff the only reason the government is is working on these things is to save people's lives and I am I was fortunate enough to be a delegate for President Biden and I I have a great deal of faith in him and and and vice president Kamala Harris and also I really like the makeup of his cabinet and and you know the leadership of the Senate and the House you know represent Speaker Pelosi and and Senator Schumer and Senator Leahy and and Senator Durbin all these great people representative Haier and in Maryland and I why I'm doing this I must thank our great congressional district I do this every time but it's important Senator Sanders is doing unbelievably brilliant work on the budget committee and you know finally we have someone with compassion at heart who's head of that committee and perhaps we'll take a look at the military budget and perhaps take a look at the climate that the cost of the climate change stuff and so and so some of these programs are going to be more green and more lean and I'd also like to thank Senator Leahy our great friend who has done so much for Vermont he is chair of the Appropriations Committee and then Congressman Welch who I think is about one of the top congressmen in in the country actually I just ran into him on the street today and I said hi Congressman Welch I appreciate you I know you've been here many times and you're a big fan of Channel 17 he's a member of a number of committees especially and including intelligence committee and Congressman Welch you know his experience at the State House was invaluable to him and he just keeps rising and rising in the House and we see Senator Leahy is the is the top he's the top senator in the Senate he's President Pro Tem so in the succession it goes President Vice President Speaker of the House President Pro Tem and obviously with that important job he's also chair of the Appropriations Committee and with Senator Sanders on as chair of the budget committee I think we have someone fighting for the people for example he's working on for Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security to cover dental and eyeglasses and I think anyone who's in their older years might need a pair of glasses or see a dentist once in a while and what a kind man I'd like to thank him and also to make it a little bit funny I was told I haven't been up there yet I apologize that Karina his daughter has taken over Smitty's the restaurant on North Avenue and they're doing a lot of Cuban food maybe like pressed Cuban sandwiches so I'd like to just give a shout out to that good family and I'll have to go up there and have something to eat and say hello to them good luck with that Karina I appreciate that it sounds like those sounds like great sandwiches getting back down to these three these are three of the tops we are beyond lucky to have them and you know as we go into these difficult days hopefully this infrastructure passes I remember when I was at the Democratic convention almost 12 years almost 10 years ago I saw speech by Congressman he said the average public school in America is almost 60 years old so that was nine years ago so that means the average school in America so almost 70 years old our bridges our roads our highways they all need desperate work sometimes this stuff has not been worked on since World War two and as you know that was over 75 years ago so this infrastructure bill this this bill to work on green jobs it I could be on the show for three hours and talk about the bill I think it's thousands of pages long but I support it it's an investment in our country it's an investment and you and I now my last couple minutes I I always talk about voting and I saw this in the New York Times and it says in an unprecedented manner so far 19 states have enacted 33 laws that make it harder for Americans to vote now whenever that happens when people don't want people to vote that is just racism pure and simple that is politics that's gerrymandering and anytime you hear them say let's throw it back to the states that's taking a conservative view on this now I am proud to live in a state where I believe I've looked at all 50 not not super carefully but all 50 states we have things like early voting same day registration for example if you don't have a driver's license or Vermont ID we can register you with the last four digits of your social so students can vote people who don't have a good ID can vote as long as they have social security number we also have what's in vitally important same-day registration so thank you I this is a democratic show but I have to thank Governor Scott for signing the the bill that allowed for what will happen now for the next elections for example town meeting day is that you will get a ballot in the mail you can choose to send it in or you can bring it to the polls you can drop it at city hall you can drop it in the mail there's a stamp attached or you can bring it to the polls if you don't want to vote it you can vote at the polls so it's really great and I'd like to thank all the Democrats and Republicans in the in the Vermont State Senate House that worked on that I must thank my friend Jim Kondo's for his great work on that and Secretary Kondo's has been a tireless advocate for voting rights in Vermont and he's a top Secretary of State also like to say a quick hello to my buddy Eric Covey who just sent me some voting forms from the state from the state out from the Secretary State's office I'm down to about one minute I know we've been talking around a lot of different issues but it was necessary after after a 17 month break to do that I would like to just thank my producer Megan I would like to thank Daniel on the camera I would like to thank Kevin Jordan Lauren anyone who helps with channel 17 and this is a I'm always honored and glad to be on this the people here could not be nicer and it's truly community television I wrote my bicycle here it's in the old North End which is my heart this is the place this is the spot we're getting down to about 30 seconds now so I believe that I will will be on again it will be the second Wednesday next month which will be in November and I don't know if we'll be 30 minutes or 45 we'll see we can do one or the other again I'd like to thank channel 17 we've had a good day today for anyone who isn't vaccinated please consider vaccinating if you'd like to get registered to vote please call me 802 540717 I'd like to thank everyone it's been an excellent show I hope you have a great day hope to see you next month thank you and take care thank you yeah