I do not know how to make replies to comments under my original article so I am using this space to make that reply.

The entire Burlington City Council (B.C.C.) meeting was taped by opponents of the F-35 and handed to Channel 17.  That tape will corroborate many or most of the things I stated in my original article describing that meeting. However, the camera cannot catch what is not in its field of view.

I was a bit puzzled by the discussion (in the comments to my original article) about partisanship which makes it appear that this publication may be highly partisan. So I will state my case without regard for anyone else’s sore toes as a result.

First, the Republican party in the state would ideologically support the F-35 build and its coming to Vermont. That is prima facie to be expected. I am aware that one possible Republican candidate for governor in the last race expressed reservations about it. But he did not represent the party’s views and he soon dropped that position.

I have voted democratic all my life except for the exception of voting for and helping Republican US Senator Robert Stafford in a campaign for a re-run for office the early 80s when he was chair of the Senate Environment Committee.

My focus here is that the Democratic political machine from the top in Washington, starting with Senator Leahy all the way down through Governor Shumlin and on to the local democrats on the B.C.C. – all of whom held to the party line.  This made public testimony a token formality – a sham. There was no intention to really listen to opponents testimony – including our legal expert, real estate and housing expert  and EIS experts.

The political theater was orchestrated between the business community, Mayor Weinbergers office , the state Democratic Party, the VTANG,  and the green ribbons campaign – to support the F-35 basing in Vermont.

We figured on four Progressive and four Democrat votes a few days prior to the meeting. From personal contact with them, we know that some of the Democrats on the council were leaning toward voting against the F-35 a week before. They abruptly did an about face in the last couple of days prior to the meeting to vote against all the proposals – even amendments to them – scorched earth!

I was told prior to the meeting by one Democratic councilors in a telephone conversation that pressure from the top in D.C. was the cause (of the later cave-in). One of the concerns was that if Senator Leahy became incapacitated sufficiently to affect his performance as arguably the Senate’s most powerful Senator that a mission might not be found for VTANG if the F-35s were steered away from Burlington. However, VTANG is a federally mandated entity – we cannot rid ourselves of it in any way and a mission will be found for it.

I am sure you are all aware of a test balloon made public by the Pentagon that suggested they may choose an active duty Air Force base for this first round of basing of the F-35. Senator Leahy subsequently called the Pentagon’s General Welsh to express his desire to see the F-35 sited as soon as possible – and that obviously means at Burlington – reversing his earlier repeated public statements that he has nothing to do with the decision. (We have done an FOIA request to obtain in part the record of that call). Senator Leahy has been an unabashed supporter of VTANG in very active ways for years.

For those of you who have not followed this controversy, go to VTDigger and enter F-35 or Leas, Greco,Fleckenstein or Gonda in the search box.

The Burlington business community, most of the Vermont legislature, Governor Shumlin, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger all supported the F-35 coming here. All took actions to solidify that support, including Shumlin’s junket to Florida to listen to the F-35 and F-16 paid for by business interests in Burlington to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. Even though the EIS indicates the F-35 is 4x louder than the F-16, sure enough Shumlin stated, in effect, that he was surprised the difference in loudness was hardly noticeable. (We have our own story about that one from witnesses at Eglin at the time: they said the F-35s flew especially quiet that day.)

So taken together with the actions of VTANG, the behavior of the B.C.C.’s chair Joan Shannon described in my original article, the last minute vote change of some democrats on the B.C.C., we are seeing the much referred to “Industrial-Military-(Political)Complex”in action here in little Vermont where town meetings and citizen democracy has been taken for granted.

To put it simply- we watched the Democratic political machine in action from top to bottom as it played self out over two years of opposition to the F-35.

The worst offender and hypocrite is Bernie Sanders. Here we have a “Progressive” talking out of one side of his mouth about the fat military budget and how poor folks are picking up the tab for that, but in his own back yard he supports this Washington pork while thousands of people in the noise zone are harmed by the warplanes there.

One has to wonder why the unqualified support from our federal delegation. I suspect several reasons. One, Democrats need to be seen as strong on national security to counter the conservatives’ traditional strength. Two, Senator Leahy has limited time left in office and may want to feel he has left a visible legacy here in the form of the F-35. Three, Senator Leahy’s family through marriage to a Pomerleau stand to rake in big bucks if and when the area where communities are being destroyed by houses being torn down are rebuilt with commercial buildings such as hotels. I believe Sanders and Welch follow Leahy’s lead.

Finally, a figure that I have seen is the federal delegation in total received $140,000 from the defense industry – primarily from Martin-Litton the builder of the F-35 in 2011 in campaign contributions (I may be wrong about the exact year).

Senators Leahy, Sanders, and Representativ a good documentary. It is a “60 Minutes” story waiting to happen.  e Welch – I know all of them and have voted for them every election.

However, their long-standing constant refusal to sit down with opponents of the F-35 to review the facts along with their support for the F-35 begs a question.  Why? All of the facts are on the side of the opponents. I believe they know that and this is the reason for their stone-walling- while harm to many of their constituents continues on a daily basis and will get worse when the F-35 arrives – if it does.

And this is in spite of the fact that this is not the AIR Force’s first choice. Political pressure has caused much of the EIS process to be flawed in order to point to Burlington as the first choice.

So I do not know what you folks are afraid of in giving my original article top billing. It puzzles me. I researched your biographies to see what you political leanings and backgrounds are and I see that it is “Democrat” for the most part.

I have always voted Democrat, except as noted above, but seeing the party’s action from all available evidence in this controversy has forced me to turn to being a third party supporter – and the best chance for a third party is the Vermont Progressive Party (along with several other opponents).

I do not know where that puts me in regard to Bernie Sanders though. If his run for president is a serious intention we will certainly derail that before it ever gets started right here in Vermont. We have the ammunition make sure that tanks.

But getting back to the issue of the intrusion of the military (VTANG) into civilian life – I have only touched the surface of it in my original article. It gets much worse than what I have written. What I have written is just the publicly visible part of their behavior – on tape.

Collusion with the business community and supporters of the F-35 is another aspect of this questionable behavior. Distortion of the facts is yet another issue they need to be called out on.

Individual personal behavior of some of them in uniform at Burlington ward meetings is also questionable by attempting to intimidate those testifying against the F-35. Put this together with the national Military Industrial Complex and now along with the Democratic political machine and it gets really interesting.

We will yet get a national story out of this. For those inside the opposition movement – they see this story has the makings of a good novel or at least