Now, Rupert, ultimately the biggest questions lie in the field of metaphysics, what is the ultimate nature of reality, why is there something rather than nothing, what is the nature of consciousness, and then kind of science and spirituality basically do their best to understand that. That's ultimately what we're here doing is trying to understand that. And a good way to, you've said this question before, a good way to begin your Atmavichara self-inquiry is by asking the question, what is my source? Where do I come from? What is the genesis of all of this? What is my real nature? And you had a really good conversation with Sam Harris as well, because I think it was a good way to juxtapose the consciousness only with someone that is also interested in spirituality, but also has a grounding in deep science and materialism. And so he kind of said in return that there's a big temptation to make consciousness the very first principle. And that he then said that that would mean that consciousness then subsumes cosmogony, the Big Bang, and the reasons for that. But then you counter with the question, what is it that knows or is aware of your experience? I think there's good reason for making consciousness the first principle simply because it is the first principle of our experience. So why not start there? It's just an undeniable fact of experience that consciousness that all that is or could ever be known is experience. And consciousness is the fundamental and primary prerequisite of all experience. So if we want to build a model of reality, why not start there? It is the primary element of our experience. So isn't that scientific just to start with something that is actually experienced something that is real in experience rather than starting with an abstract idea, namely the existence of something called matter outside and independent of consciousness, which nobody has ever found or could ever find or will ever find because all it is ever possible to find is the content of consciousness. That to me is abstract. What to me is really realistic and scientific is to investigate experience, ask us what is the primary element of experience. It is obviously consciousness and to build our model of reality based on that rather than on something that is abstract. Okay, so the take is that the most the ground or the most fundamental first principle is experience and then that is consciousness that is awareness, and then that is the nature of reality is that is consciousness is awareness and not that there is a big bang that happens 13.8 billion years ago and after the billions of years of evolution of matter, then the complexity of body activity creates a consciousness that is, is there is there a point of any synthesis there or that model of sorry, sorry to interrupt you that that model of reality is based on the evidence of thought and perception. It presumes that what we perceive of the outside world is is real in the way that it is presented to our senses, and that thoughts interpretation of sense perception is correct and extrapolated from this model of reality we go all the way back to the big bang. But this is this idea is based on the presumption that perception and its interpretation through thought is correct. Okay, okay, not be maybe our senses don't yeah, maybe the combination of perception and conception, that is the finite mind maybe they don't give us an accurate model of reality maybe reality is filtered through sense perception and appears in accordance with its limitations. In other words the limitations that we see that we believe pertain to reality may simply be the limitations of the perceiving apparatus the finite mind through which we perceive. We cannot be sure that the limitations that belong to our perceiving apparatus. Yes, actually pertain to reality itself. How do we know that we are not simply seeing a an object if I station or a reification of the limitations of our own mind. Yes, yes. After all, when the activities of thought and perception subside as they do in deep sleep time and space also subside when thought and perception begins again when thought begins. Again, time seems to begin when perception begins again, space seems to begin. And this happens every, every single time thought and perception disappear. Objective experience disappears every time it arises again. Objective experience arises again. Is that a coincidence. Could there be a connection. Yeah, I would suggest that there is. And these are those hints that we were mentioning earlier these most simple hints in science there is Occam's razor, the most simplest is likely correct. And in this case it's so in a sense simple and so it's so much like a hint. Absolutely. I liked your analogy, your summary at the beginning about the dream. We're given numerous hints as to the nature of reality and if as you say we use Occam's razor Occam said that of two competing theories, we should always choose the one that makes the least assumptions. So here we have two models of reality one that or reality appears within consciousness and is the activity of consciousness. That doesn't make an assumption it is actually our experience. The second assumption is that what we what we know of reality is generated by something outside consciousness, namely matter, and indeed gives rise to consciousness. In other words, the second theory suggests that that which is never experienced, namely matter independent of consciousness gives rise to that which is alone experienced, namely consciousness. So this this makes an enormous assumption the assumption of the existence of something outside consciousness. If it was necessary to appeal to the existence of something called matter in order to explain our experience, then it would be legitimate under Occam's razor to refer to such a substance but it is quite possible to make sense of our entire experience of reality referring only to consciousness in the way that you suggested with the dream analogy and it is this consciousness only model also not only enables us to make sense of our experience of reality, but enables us to make sense of many phenomena that the matter model does not is not able to explain. So the consciousness only model has far greater explanatory power than the matter model. If we were to visualize the Ouroboros the the snakes head eating its tail if we were to envision the wholeness of that, then is then the the infinite consciousness is then present at the present everywhere, but it's present at the God head and the tail in the sense that the tail portion this model of science that currently is that many of us agree to and consensus enjoy the benefits of is at the tail point infinite consciousness is at the tail point and the big bang is the process of the tail point itself, still evolving over time into what we have. So there is still that process and it's going towards a telos of a God head of the continuation. Is that approximately how do you resonate with that. I think the the model of the of the big bang is is a model that is accurate reasonably accurate within the parameters of sense perception and thought it is an interpretation of reality within the limits perception and and conception and it is as such a reasonable interpretation and has is is a useful interpretation I'm not suggesting that I love science I have numerous scientists friends I have great respect for for what they do it's a valid interpretation and can be drew carbon literally made us what we are really yes so so it's a it's a valid relative model of reality that that is useful has numerous useful applications but it is not an accurate model of reality and that there are no accurate models of reality even the consciousness only model that I am suggesting it is that falls short that there are no accurate models. Interesting and that's the idea of the elusiveness of the mystery and the beauty of that and to continue openly and blissfully in complete honor of that mystery while while simultaneously being interested in the models in making and playing with models that can help us live better lives. Yes. Okay.


Greetings Rick Winston my fellow Americans my name is Jim Higgins I've been in Vermont for about 40 or so years teaching, community organizing, journalism, and most recently editing. And most recently I'm part of the editorial team that massaged Rick's book Red Scare in the Green Mountains Vermont in the McCarthy era 1946 to 1960. And today I'll be interviewing Rick about the nature of this book what started it in his mind and what's in it. I first met Rick by the way about 45 years ago when he showed up at the Plainfield co-op upstairs and did a one-hour long Scott Joplin rag console. Which is when I realized this may be a true renaissance man. So I knew he had other strengths. The book that he is written is published by Rootstock Publishing based in Montpelier. The book is due out in July and Rick is along with his wife Andrea Cerrota the founder of the Savoy Theatre here in Montpelier. And also more recently since he sold they sold the theater a teacher organizer and musician and about six other things. So I have here in my hand to quote Joseph McCarthy in Wheeling West Virginia when he announced flashing a sheet of papers that had no names on it but he claimed 205 American names are on it who were communists in the government. But I do have in my hand a real document that is a list of 11 questions. I thought you were going to say 205. I would follow up questions and I'll start. But first a little quick capsule. The book is a description of nine rather disturbing incidents that happened in Vermont during the McCarthy era. It's also a profile of some rather remarkable and colorful characters. Some good guys and some less than good guys. I was astonished to learn for example that Putney School was part of an extensive FBI investigation. Primarily aimed at the founder, founder's children who had a love affair and lived in Red China wrote books and that got them on the A-list with the FBI. The Alex Novikov firing from UVM is in there. A famous example of a purge of a fellow who had 20 years prior. A membership in the Congress Party but was active in the trade union organizing with his colleagues. I learned that in Bethel Randolph era there was a massive cluster of Reds, so-called Reds, Owen Latimore among them. He is the one who single-handedly, according to McCarthy, lost us China. Another character that we should all know about is Senator Ralph Landers who was part of the takedown team on McCarthy in the U.S. Senate. Getting right to the questions Rick. Researching, writing, public speaking on this subject has been a decades-long mission for you. One that includes organizing from co-organizing of Vermont Conference in 1988 in Burlington.  Is this purely personal beginning with your parents? Life-changing encounter with the Red Hunters? Is that your prime motive power here or is your mission more of a present-day political crusade independent of that family upheaval? I don't think of myself as a crusader but let me go back to that 1988 conference which was in Montpelier by the way up at Vermont College. I've always had an interest in this period going back to my parents who are both New York City school teachers, act of union members and teachers union and also like many of people of their generation, especially children of immigrants, active politically in the Depression and Communist Party what I think of as rank-and-file members. They were very threatened by the McCarthy era at the Red Scare. I'm using those terms interchangeably but it has to be noted that McCarthy's rise and fall only took up five years and the McCarthy era expands on both ends of that chronology. So my father lost his job teaching. My mother was threatened with the loss of her job but through an accident of chronology by the time they got to her things had changed just enough so that she continued to teach till she retired. So I started learning about this when I was a teenager and asking them questions about what they have been through. I was coming into my own political consciousness. So I've always been fascinated by the period and it's all its currents and cross currents. I met people my own age, teenagers whose parents were way more involved than my parents were, learned quite a bit from them. Actually started out in college as a history major thinking I was going to pursue something in that area but wound up getting kind of the siren song of English literature took me away from that. So when I arrived in Vermont I started paying attention to okay where am I now? I'm in a state that elects hardly anything but Republicans but the very fall that I arrived in Vermont was Bernie Sanders first gubernatorial run as a Liberty Union candidate. So I started paying attention and I was thinking about well what what happened here during that time? How did people react to these to the strong anti-communist hysteria that was all over the country? I found two very like-minded people. One was Michael Sherman who had just shown up in Vermont to lead the Vermont Historical Society in the late 80s and another one was our mutual friend Richard Hathaway professor at first at Goddard and then at the Vermont adult degree program and the three of us kind of hatched this plan to put on this conference just in the not having any kind of crusade in mine but rather let's find out what happened here. There were title again Vermont in the McCarthy era that was and enough people who were involved were still alive at that time. William Hinton for instance was our keynote speaker. So the conference ended it was very successful but over the years I kept thinking we've only scratched the surface and maybe when I really retire I'll do a little more exploration. I went back through the conference booklet and I had reprinted a lot of headlines from local papers since one of my jobs on the conference was to put together that the conference booklet and there was a headline about Owen Latimore and Bethel and I said gee we never did anything with that and that'll be a good place to start and I went back to the library after all those years all the back to the microfiche machines and that resulted in an article for Vermont history the Journal of the Vermont Historical Society and that's what kind of started this this ball rolling. I've just been aware for a few years that even though bits and pieces of the story are available nobody has yet done a comprehensive look at this time this place and there we have it yes. All right just for the heck of it let's jump ahead for a moment before we slice and dice your book go ahead and draw me a political line if you will if you can between the so-called rock-ribbed republicanism of Vermont in the late 40s and 50s which you described quite thoroughly in your book and that same line say three years three decades later that includes an avowed socialist like Bernie Sanders elected and reelected to represent Vermont and Washington DC that's a strange quickly line but give me a little sense in you know three or four minutes yeah yeah well this was one of the fascinating things about the book seeing what that you know Bernie did not come out of nowhere and people talk about Vermont being rock-ribbed Republican and makes a nice image but the fact is and I'm generalizing a lot here is that in the 30s 40s and 50s there is basically two wings of the Republican Party in Vermont the Democrats never had a chance of winning any office but the Republicans were quite split and for convenience sake they were called the proctor wing and the Gibson wing where the Gibson Aiken wing and the the proctor wing you know proctor is the big name down in Rutland in the mining industry down there very business-minded very conservative tending towards right-wing Republicanism and on the other hand there was Gibson and Aiken who were could have been easily mistaken for a New Deal Democrats they supported many of the programs of the New Deal boy Republicans like that are few and far between these days so they Vermont was a very Republican state but it was not necessarily a conservative Republican state exhibit a would be Ralph Flanders who is seemingly the very picture of a conservative Republican businessman but he is the one who decided that McCarthy McCarthy's tactics were very offensive and and if well my golly if nobody else is gonna do it I'm gonna do it so there was enough pushback against the hysteria of the time and a Democrat in southern Vermont named William Meyer saw an opening and he's in the book yes we have a chapter on William Meyer who became in 1958 the very first Democrat to be elected to the US Congress in 104 years in Vermont thank you Jim now William Meyer after he lost his re-election bid and lost several other bids for Senate was one of the founders of the Liberty Union along with Bernie he Meyer got very disenchanted with the Democratic party's attitudes towards the Vietnam War and said this Democratic establishment is not gonna do the job we need a third party and that's where Bernie enters the picture I think the the the ground was very fertile so that's that's sort of it in a nutshell and it all passed through mr. Meyer Bennington I believe yeah Bennington area a teeny teeny town called West Rupert have you been through as Rupert it's I blinked it's pretty small all right well let's get back to Vermont again in the late 1940s and 50s set the table for us and discuss the national anti-communist campaign so-called red scare that eventually leaked into Vermont politics give me again a very quick overview of the primary strategic national livers for the red scare and ultimately the launch of McCarthyism a couple years later well the end of World War two saw the collapse of the alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union and as the Soviet Union started making its advances in Eastern Europe all by the way agreed to by the the author conference that the that the Soviets would have a sphere of control in the countries that they occupied but there had been a strain of anti-communism in America ever since the Russian Revolution witness what historians refer to as the first red scare which is like 1919 and 1920 when they were rounding up anarchists and radicals like Emma Goldman at this time Vermont had a our sole congressional representative was very much an outspoken anti-communist Charles Plumlee of Northfield also featured in the book yeah and so just on the other end of the spectrum from Bernie the seeds had been planted in in Vermont and nationwide that when the US and USSR alliance collapsed there was a lot of fear about communist influence abroad and also subversion from within and just in those years right after the war there was Harry Truman under pressure from Republicans instituting a loyalty oaths program in also at government because he didn't want to be called soft on communism in the fall of 1947 there was the the hearings on Hollywood that resulted in the Hollywood blacklist and and one of the big national internet international events was the communists led by the Soviet Union taking over the government of Czechoslovakia because that sort of that was not in the that was not in the plan so one of the first chapters in the book has to do with Henry Wallace who was had been FDRs vice president from 40 to 44 and Wallace was getting very disillusioned with post-war US policy and he ran in 1948 as a third-party candidate and one of my chapters is about the Wallace campaign in Vermont and here's a headline from the Times this is the Burlington Daily news when the artist Rockwell Kent came to speak in Burlington in favor of Henry Wallace Rockwell Kent welcomes aid for Wallace from commies so that's that that's an indication of the tenor of the Times so anyway nationwide anti-communist hysteria and you know finding little fishers in Vermont to spread out well that word fissures leads to my next question what about that leakage into Vermont of this hysteria when exactly did it first appear and who in Vermont got publicly smacked first maybe second give me a few names who got it well originally this book was going to be subtitled Vermont in the McCarthy era in 1948 to 1960 because from what I learned that the first evidence of all this was the Henry Wallace campaign and how in the specifically the Burlington Daily news and the Burlington Free Press were so anti-Wallace and the the Daily news especially went after a one of the deans at Linden State Teachers College named Luther McNair who gave a speech endorsing Wallace and advocating peace with the Soviet Union they went after him so viciously that he wound up resigning in the the Daily News and yes let's back up the Daily News was owned by William H. Loeb who in later years was very well known for running the Manchester Union leader in New Hampshire but not many people know and it was a surprise to me that he got his start in Vermont first with the St. Albans messenger and then with the Burlington Daily News so they led a campaign against this man Luther McNair and were basically in their articles threatening to put pressure on the State Board of Education and he resigned before things got too heavy so anyway that was going to be my first chapter 1948 and then I discovered in 1946 that Congressman Plumlee who had fended off many different primary opponents over the years had a true serious challenger Andrew S. Newquist Andrew E. Newquist I have to separate that because Andrew Newquist's son Andrew S. Newquist is a long-time Montpelier I was very helpful to me and putting this chapter together anyway Professor Newquist who he was a political science professor at the University of Vermont announced that he was going to run against Plumlee and was attacked by Plumlee and several other newspapers of course the Daily News among them for being a communist leaning and a New Deal supporting and the knives really came out for him so he had to constantly be defending himself saying I'm not a communist I'm not a communist sympathizer and he did pretty well but he could not beat Plumlee so he was one and done right yeah one and done and then Plumlee won one more reelection campaign and then retired he had a role at Norwich University he had been the president of nor he was first a legislator from Northfield then president of Norwich and I think his first run for Congress was 1934 just before we were born the the episodes of anti-communist witch hunts in Vermont that you examine clearly many of them do have their origins in national politics for example Professor Alex Novikov his fire at UVM in 1954 began many years earlier with two anti-communist witch hunts that turned his name up one in the New York State and one in with the Jenner Committee out of Washington did you root out any episodes of a witch hunt that was purely to bring it to the present locally grown someone who was not fingered first by a DC Congressional Committee but originated right here in Vermont well you know there were the there were national resonances with the Wallace campaign I mean you could say that the campaign against Luther McNair by the Daily News was Vermont grown but it had its origins in what McNair was saying about national politics same thing with Andrew Newquist and the episode that happened in Bethel was an interesting one because there was a local woman in Bethel named Lucille Miller who had kind of taken upon herself to be an exposure of communist domination and infiltration etc. and she was feeding a national columnist for the Hearst newspapers Westbrook Pegler another funny headline here's a here's a column from Westbrook Pegler 1950 Vermont Yankees or suckers for commies but this was fed to him by Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Miller was trying to get attention to the fact that in Randolph Center there were a group of people who had summer homes who were in the circle in Washington DC that included Alcher Hiss there were labor lawyers and they're like five different families and she said you have to go to Randolph Center with them you can go there with a butterfly net they're all over the place so when oh in Lattimore was going to buy a summer home in Bethel and then got named by McCarthy as the top spy in the State Department incidentally this was a big surprise to Lattimore's she didn't work in the State Department and spent many many years fighting this charge in court so that brought national attention to Vermont although the the story was locally manufactured before you describe other episodes deeper into the situation tell us about the Vermont lay of the land both the mainstream political power structure which you touched on and the mainstream landscape and the land of hard-week hard-working people who were paying attention but first show us a few more of those newspaper show us what Vermonters were seeing in their daily papers well here's a headline from the Rutland Herald what's it saying Flanders moved to oust McCarthy sent to committee Joseph McCarthy and Ralph Flanders were on the front page of Vermont newspapers seemingly every day from March 54 till September 54 when the centra vote was taken and when William Hinton was called in front of the Senate Internal Security Committee in 1954 there was a headline from the Free Press Vermont farmer cites fifth amendment when questioned on red status at the time yes William Hinton was ever he was a farmer he was farming in Putney he was living in Vermont but the fact is he had just returned after six years in red China so he wasn't any old Vermont farmer yes he certainly was but that's a whole other story you mentioned that they were daily exposed to these head launch reminding them of the national drama playing out in your hundreds of hours of research through microfiche machines quite a number of newspapers tell me about what you might have seen in the lettuce the editor yeah I would say yes the fact is that people were depending upon the newspaper people in general were not afraid of expressing strong opinions against McCarthy or against McCarthy's persecution of Owen Lattimore even though the Vermont Daily News the Burlington Daily News and the Burlington Free Press which was a conservative paper but not quite as a headline hunting as the the Daily News those stood out as the as the more right wing of the Vermont papers but Robert Mitchell writing in the Rutland Herald John Drysdale the White River Valley Herald thought of Randolph and I have a whole chapter on Bernard O'Shea who was first in Swanton and then in Enosburg Falls these people were pulling no punches in their editorials and and people were responding you know I would say it was it was at least one-to-one of the pro and con and as soon as Flanders got into the act there were many more letters supporting Flanders than being against him so there's one thing I didn't quite manage to get into the book a graduate student at Columbia University in 1954 did his doctoral thesis on taking a sampling of opinions about McCarthy in Bennington and and showed that on the one hand people liked his aims but disapproved of his methods there were all kinds of ways to read the statistics that he got but I think there was more pushback in Vermont that there may have been in other places nationally and it helped that if Ralph Flanders was was out there that people felt well of our senators saying these things then maybe it's not so bad if I say these things I recall reading in one of your chapters that William Loeb was famously biased of course from page editorials but he also so you reported famously edited out letters to the editor that contradicted their editorial position do I have that right I never got a hard and fast answer on that you know it was hard to find that the daily news did not print nearly as many letters as the Herald the Brattleboro former you know you could count on seeing a letter to the editor every day in those papers not in the daily news and of Chittenden County no less yeah yeah at the time one of the most populous counties in the state all right now let's take a look at the pushback that you mentioned earlier one of the testimonials for your book came from Tony Hiss Alger Hiss's son who wrote the view from Algiers window he stated in the blurb they submitted supporting your book that your book quote recreates the little-known story of how valiant Vermonters rallied to withstand the pressures and distortions of the McCarthy era close quote give me a few more examples of the valiant pushback from Vermonters that you unearthed first a little word about Tony Hiss of course the son of Alger Hiss who was famously accused of being a Soviet spy not convicted of that he was convicted for perjury and went to jail for two years and while he was in jail Tony Hiss who is like seven or eight at the time because the Hiss family had a summer place in Pecham Vermont was sent to stay with friends there and he in in this memoir called the view from Algiers window which recounts that his how he was able to maintain his relationship with his father while his father was in jail but he talks very eloquently about the just good old ordinary folks in Pecham who liked the family and took him in and gave him a kind of measure of sanity that that let him have a somewhat normal childhood also he went to as a adolescent went to Putney's school she also credits a lot but the pushback you know on one hand we had senator Flanders the the most prominent of Vermont politicians taking on McCarthy and saying I am I am offended by your behavior and your methods and you're ruining it for the real anti-communists like me down to the newspaper editors like I'm thinking specifically of John Drysdale who when McCarthy was slandering Owen Latimore did expose after expose of what what the real story was and at a certain point Drysdale realized he only had a weekly with a very small circulation so he talked to his friends Robert Mitchell the Rutland Herald and John Hooper at the at the Brattleboro reformer and they kind of formed a consortium to get a very well respected journalist from New York to come up and investigate and do a six-part series that ran on the front page of both the reformer in the Herald every day for a week that summer and that you know went a long way to saying we don't do things like that here so that was nice to say somebody else who was very outspoken about these things and she needs some good PR these days is Dorothy Canfield Fisher a really amazing person and who lived in Arlington and wrote a book called Vermont traditions and she quoted a neighbor of hers in the book because people were always accusing the Communists of trying to bore from within and her neighbor said anybody who tries to bore from within and Vermont is gonna hit granite and I have a little article in there about people who started a summer camp for children of people who were under suspicion nationally who could send their kids to camp in Vermont in the summer and not be not be bothered and let their parents deal with crises at home you didn't have to go to that camp did you no I didn't even know about it eligible all right let's looking back to the eventual Vermont fallout from that nefarious time do you believe the Vermont that Vermont finally fell in line as it were did we eventually after even after McCarthy died and McCarthyism faded a bit did we succumb to the national anti-communist Cold War militaristic fervor or yeah it's it and lastly on that note did you on earth any continuing efforts after the McCarthyism climax to purge investigate teachers trade unionists in Vermont as sort of a residual effect of all that yeah well second part first just you know in 1971 the history professor Michael Parenti was fired from University of Vermont for being a little too politically outspoken in his classes it was perfectly echoing the Novikov case of 20 years earlier where the faculty votes one thing and the trustees say howdy-goes so that happened to not only it's Parenti but four or five other UVM professors Bernie Sanders was continually red-baited in one way or another whether he was took his honeymoon in Russia you know when he got married or whether he spoke in favor of the Cuban Revolution and so people were even people in the Democratic Party who were in the Burlington Alderman Alderman you know that whatever that council is called we're saying you know the socialists are going to take over Burlington we can't have this but you know I think it's hard to generalize and about any political era that it's one thing or another and what's fascinating about this period in Vermont is that there was acquiescence sometimes there was that falling in line and there was pushback sometimes and there is on the whole more pushbacks than acquiescence which is which is certainly not the case in New Hampshire where it was they had an attorney general who wanted to be a little McCarthy and Loeb really had his headquarters by that time set up in Manchester there is by the way full chapter in his book yeah it's very instructive to see what happened in New Hampshire that didn't happen in Vermont and vice versa and it really gives a lot of fodder to all the historians and philosophers who say there's a there's a real difference between philosophically aesthetically you know whatever so I'm reluctant to say yes we did this or no we didn't do that and you know to it must have been difficult for people in Burlington 1953 to come forward publicly and support Alex Novikov you know there were people who did that and I have a chapter on Novikov's chief defender at the at UVM who never lost his bitterness about how his friend was treated there remember reading about your Wallace campaign chapter that he came to Vermont came to Burlington and had an awfully difficult time getting set up for his whistle stop tour in fact the Loeb newspaper the Burlington Daily News captured the guest the list of who attended this slightly attended and who gave him money who gave him money and how much and published it so it was perilous times to in Burlington certainly with the Daily News right there to come out even for a nationally recognized presidential candidate who was once the vice president alright someone once said and correct me if I got this wrong I think it was Kurt Vonnegut that history doesn't repeat itself but it sure as hell rhymes that is a great quote I have never heard that and I it sounds like something Kurt Vonnegut would say right did you trick Google I try to what Google whenever possible so what have we learned if anything about resisting those quote four horsemen of Calumni fear ignorance bigotry and smear that main senator Margatre Smith mentioned in 1950 another forthright Republican mm-hmm especially now that social media plays such huge roles in fueling those four horsemen and especially and I'm going to pull up another quote from a blurb and especially as Joe Sherman wrote quote the nasty life tearing reputation ruining anti-comic campaign of 70 years ago has many similarities to what we're being swept along in with the Trump administration as I'm sure some of Winston's characters thought or said this can't happen here it can and will if the momentum that the Republican nation Republicans nationwide are now writing like power drunk horsemen of the apocalypse is not brought to a halt that's quite a colorful quote is history rhyming Rick yeah by the way Joe Sherman is a terrific writer and his book about Vermont politics from 1940 to 1970 called fast lane on a dirt road is I have used that book and hopefully turned a lot of people on to it you know another quote occurred to me as you were quoting Vonnegut who said it I don't know but something to the effect of a lie is halfway around the world before the truth can put on its boots and and so things are you know the the news cycle is so much faster that if somebody is accused of something these days it's it's a very dangerous situation and there is a lot of accusation going around and fear mongering one of the big aha moments for me was when I realized that there there was a direct line between what's happening today and back then it came out during the presidential campaign in 2016 that Donald Trump's mentor in New York State in New York City real estate as the social world his mentor was Rory Cohen who had been McCarthy's right-hand man and destroyer of many reputations and all of a sudden it all became made a certain terrible kind of sense to me that you know there's who would want Donald Trump as a protege and who would want where I cone as a mentor so there you go cone does rhyme with cone yeah it's a little dangerous to get into specifics now because you know we're doing this interview on Valentine's Day February 2018 and Trump might be gone by the time this book comes out who knows but the forces that Trump has unleashed are not going anywhere and I think we are seeing a fear mongering that does have a parallel in the McCarthy era the fear of the other those people are going to come over and take away what we have and telling blatant untruths and smearing people calling them names without regard for you know McCarthy didn't have any sense of propriety himself he was constantly making up a littling nicknames for the people in the Senate who boy that rings a bell yeah so and we have you know we have a situation where people say am I gonna stick out my neck against the immigration agents and protect this family who's gonna get taken away or am I going to do something about cutting all this funding for whatever helpful program you could name you know I think people are asking themselves these days how much am I willing to put myself out there seeing that the atmosphere in this country has changed so much so quickly so anyway hopefully this this book has some lessons for that we look at the examples of people like John Drysdale and Bernardo Shea and Bernardo Shea had a editorial in 1950 that's that was labeled this silly hysteria and he talked about an incident that's been repeated many times you know somebody in a very public place having a clipboard with the Bill of Rights saying will you sign this petition and that's what you know there is a kind of a fear of keep your head down don't sing anything and don't get on a list yeah don't get on a list so that's that's what we have to be fighting these days well I have to warn you that you're you just made a headline that is probably halfway around the world by now which is that Vermont author author claims that Trump will be gone within six months stranger things have happened let's put it that way before I ask you the little what's next for you having done these nine compelling stories which one the end of the day do you think about most I am still really drawn to the Bethel and Randolph episode with Owen Lattimore's involvement because it had the most it had the most strands this is the Lucy Miller chapter yes and that it involved a very local event that all of a sudden became national very quickly it had the local people who said how can we get the truth out quickly and it had an absolutely fascinating cast of characters we haven't mentioned yet the guy who started it all in Bethel who was a well-known architect explorer named Bill Hollenmore Stephenson who as a summer resident in Bethel who sold some land to Owen Lattimore and Lattimore brought his friends who are escaping the Chinese communists from Mongolia so there's a whole Mongolian contingent that was in Bethel the story screwed up the FBI investigators opening mail written in Mongolian in fact a very early iteration in my mind about this book was maybe maybe that chapter could be could in essence be the whole book but I think this serves a better purpose so what is next for you Rick one of your blog posts that I saw by the way if you want to get to the blog post just Google oh I mentioned that dirty word Red Scare in Vermont or Rick Winston Red Scare and you'll get right to your blog and other postings really started yet needs work that's a work in progress anyway I saw someone had written a little note there to you some day quote someday I'll tell you my father's story yeah surely in your travels you've encountered a lot of people with stories to tell are you gonna begin collecting more stories and passing them along or are you gonna wrap up your briefcase and rest for a while truthfully I haven't thought that far ahead okay but it is great and I and I'm sure once this book will start circulating I will start hearing more and more of these stories in fact I got a call out of the blue from an author in New York who is doing a memoir about her father and she did the same thing she just typed in Red Scare Vermont and came up with me she has been trying to find out information that family legend has it that her father was named as a communist by Loeb on the front page of the Daily News Burlington Daily News and he had to resign his post in Vermont and move the family to New Jersey unfortunately I couldn't help her and short of going in those microfiche machines going through every day of the Burlington Daily News in 1954 and 55 but I am sure I'm gonna hear a lot more of those stories and I've included in the book as an overview at the beginning an essay that Richard Hathaway wrote for a 1988 conference and he was kind of setting the stage for this is what was happening nationally and internationally and he was writing in 1988 the legacy of McCarthy and McCarthyism is still unfolding and those very words could be written today so the book is by no means a definitive picture of the times because I can well imagine meeting people who tell me stories and say oh if I had only known I would have that would have been chapter 10 or whatever the seat will stop somewhere well you're not gonna be stopping because you have a book now coming out in July again that's root stock publishing in Montpellier and how are you gonna get the message out are you gearing yourself for a book tour book promotion speaking engagements radio interviews you're gonna do all that most of the above fortunately Vermont is a small enough state so we could say well this bookstore and that bookstore and you know it's it's doable there's only a few overnight stops and if you remember the great New York Times columnist Russell Baker oh I love Russell he wrote a fantastic column imagining Mark Twain and Herman Millville meeting each other in the airport on their on the respective book tours I don't think I'll be flying anywhere but you know I'm hoping to there are now at least three book festivals in Vermont maybe more for all I know and and and hopefully you know they're the story will get beyond the Vermont borders and and people are saying oh that sounds interesting certainly classes in the 50s and colleges and universities around the country should take note of this book will probably it'll cross their desk at least if they don't order five fifty copies they'll at least know about it yeah well very good Rick Winston author of Red Scare in the Green Mountains Vermont in the McCarthy area night era 1946 to 1960 I'm Jim Higgins and thank you all for listening thank you Jim


Patrick Nicoleth, welcome for coming to WPC TV. You are the head of technology, if I can use that expression, at Capgemini. We are now, I suppose, at the beginning of what is now called the fourth industrial revolution. What are the challenges, do you think, of that revolution? The challenges is the multiplicity of technology development. You have in parallel the cloud that we have not yet absorbed in its totality. You have cyber security as a new challenge. IT has been built on performance and cost. You need to add cyber security. Then there is obviously artificial intelligence, different forms of artificial intelligence. Then you have Internet of Things that will accelerate with the adoption of the 5G standard. Then you have the blockchain, very much talked about. And augmented and virtual reality that will bring a new level of abstraction. All of this will create the new enterprise system or the new government system. That is challenging. It is hugely challenging. Can the challenges actually be surmounted reasonably easily, or do you think there will be some big hiccups along the way, whether it is cyber security or whether it is an aversion to artificial intelligence. I don't know what you think could happen. No, we won't be in a position to absorb it all in one go. All this technology will evolve over time, number one. Number two, there is always a question of the social acceptance. You can think whatever you want, develop whatever you want. People must socially accept it and then you can translate it in your system. So that will slow down. Cyber security is a problem today that we have to address today. We will have others along the line. And then we will develop incrementally and start to see how all of this works together. It raises some, still some questions is what would be the framework, if I may say so, of these new enterprise or government systems. Sir, I mean you're saying for me just to conclude fundamentally, it really is going to be a social challenge, acceptability as well as a technological challenge. It will be a social economical challenge for sure. You have question, if I pick just one artificial intelligence is what are the rules? Blockchain is a new internet on top of the existing internet. What is the governance? So we cannot escape this debate. And then there is the social acceptance by you, by me, by my industry sector, etc. And then there is the economic impact, notably digital inclusion. It remains. It's going to be very, very interesting indeed. Thank you very much.


And here's a new set up box here at the people. So what is this product? This is a Somebody call this a mini PC. Somebody call this a TV box. Also you can call this a TV set up box So it's running Windows With Windows and the Intel CPU inside. So which Intel is there at home three seven and 35 a 76 All right, this is a for USB. We have a full USB 2 on the back 2 in the front and then Like that's HDMI RZ45 for the LAN Also supports a TV card Right. This is the other side 2 USB For the audio jack So it's running right here on the TV. Yes And we have a full Windows Intel desktop computer basically. Yes Yeah, they are there to purpose the firstly if you can connect it in a living we connect to the TV Then you can watch TV problem. You can connect to the Brutus Keyboard in a Brutus mouse At home you can just the browser the internet and then also you can Watch TV. I'm like TV program. You can also install some apps and actually this is totally a win window space So full windows 8.1. Yeah 8.1. You can also install some apps more video apps or whatever Some video apps to watch more video. It's a full computer and you're selling right now There's lots of demand actually right? Yes. So what kind of price do you have? Here in China we are saying Around hundred dollars for a retail Including Windows So for around the hundred dollars you get How many GB? 2 GB RAM and 32 GB storage 32 GB storage 2 GB RAM Windows desktop computer for around the hundred dollars So you see you can watch very nice for the video also In all you can also you the other function is to use it like a computer even in the office you can use this one This before we have very big a computer case But now we just need a very space small computer case. This is all in one You just need to connect to your monitor Keep up a mouse Then it's probably a computer and it's work very fast and the performance is good enough and So you're selling in China, but people are interested around the world This is amazing product. I didn't expect too much when I designed these products But when I started launch this product, I got Many many inquiries from worldwide. It's very famous product right now. So there's lots of Orders that you're trying to ship quickly, right? Yeah, I have a lot of back-order a lot of back-order and distributor can contact you and you're ready to ship everywhere Yeah, I also want to tell you the story actually I start this idea 15 years ago in Taiwan We at that time we did record a set of us. We try to make a Also all in one with Intel inside with Windows, but at that time it's not successful. Firstly The Intel CPU and the hardware was too expensive and How much was it? I think that retail price without Windows already more than Around 200 or 300 dollars. That was 15 years ago 50 years ago and plus Windows I think the more than 30, 300 dollars and secondly 15 years ago. There's no ecosystem no Not too many software, but as you can see For the windows we we have a many apps here so price points and We have many apps again and the softwares and it's very good to use right now and so Potentially, it's also enterprise People want to use it for every single desk in the office Yes, this is big big quantities. We're talking. Yes This is thing about 100 other 100 other things maybe for desktop Even the Windows licenses are almost like this price and so when we talk about Windows right now. Are you considering also booting other OS? Oh, yes We are also making a new version to make a deal code system. We will make an Android plus Windows maybe maybe in the future. We are also considering to make a Chrome OS so potentially also Chrome this is much people Chrome box maybe and Maybe Ubuntu if people want they can maybe get it working also. Yes. All right. So there's all this stuff working right here Very entry-level desktop computer this PC is Is ready and is stable it doesn't get hot Is a good No fan, all right So there it is and And the performance how's the performance? It's good enough. I think when I use this in an office is better than the Serial on with Windows XP or X Windows 7 is much faster than that. All right. So there we have it the usable Productivity machine right here the people X 7 X 7


This is stock number 9814. We are here at Summit Automotive in Fonda Lacrosse Gonson Your new and used heavy-duty truck headquarters. Remember we are the guys with the trucks on 41 Today we are taking a look at this super clean 2013 Ram 2500 Crew cab Short box with the mega cab This truck has the 6.7 liter Cummins diesel From this HD video you will be able to tell just how clean this truck is For the age of miles on it all the way around inside and out Did just run through the car wash it is really cold out today, so we got a little bit of ice on it, but Shoot all of our videos in 1080p, so if you have HD capabilities on your computer Tablet or a smart phone vise through mine right now because it's like right here looking at the truck with me Once again, like I said a little bit of ice on these rims But all that's just nice not corrosion or anything polish little rims has brand-new thunder Ranger tires these are LT28570 R17 tires. They have all the trim up They have been on the buy some nice condition Maximum steel metallic is the color Really good-looking color on here Front bumper is in really nice condition. No dense or dings has factory quad lights headlight lens It's our nice and clear Now angle the truck with how I did because I wanted to see to show you the color When it's on the dark side It's kind of a dark gray almost black Most of the scrapes on that rim and as you go down this side of the truck You can see just how clean that body is how reflective and nearer like that paint is You take these HD videos, so if you are far away Or even if you're close by this cannot make a trip down Still see the truck through the truck and have confidence in the vehicle that you're looking at or even get here very clean on this side Well, obviously all looks pretty good This back tire is like brand new as well. You can see the plane and underbody on this truck Isn't really nice condition It's like that all the way underneath You can see that this truck has been straight-piped and also has PDF to leave Has to come around to the back. No dense or dings on the rear bumper has a whole towing package Which includes the receiver hitch 4-pin and 7-pin wiring Tailgates in pretty nice condition the only thing I noticed one little thing right there a couple of little stuff But other than that very nice And it's locked and it's frozen shot Apologize Inside the spray and liner is in really nice condition Does have that ram box it shuts nice and solidly And it does open nice to when it's not frozen shot has a backflip Hard tonneau cover And as you come around to this side, you can really see that metal flake in the paint really good looking color and Down this side the truck is just as clean as the passenger side No dense or dings on this box Back tire is brand new as well that rim other than the ice. There's a nice condition Very clean down this side of the truck No major dents or dings does have their toe Nears these also fold in like so And they just pull them out like so Inside the big morning package gives you the gray clock interior There are no rips or tears on these seats. They are in really nice condition Has power driver seat weather tech floor mats throughout driver side lumbar. This one does have a tuner in it Auto headlamps our windows power locks and all of yours And as we hop inside the truck here, you can see that this one has 92,089 miles compass Outside temperature display only 14 degrees today Has the leather wrap steering wheel cruise controls on the right Bluetooth and audio controls on the left As a six-speed automatic transmission turned out four-wheel drive Factory brake controller stability control factory exhaust brake and a tow-haul mode This one comes with the 8.4 touchscreen radio What's cool about this radio is that if you want to get navigation you can get navigation added to this radio for 595 bucks also has 115 volt 150 watt plug-in Passenger seat is very clean as well No rips or tears on that does have side curtain airbags, and it does have a power sliding rear window math lights and 911 and assist buttons those are features of the vehicle you never have to pay a subscription for Take a quick look at the back seats and then we'll check out under the hood Back seats are just as clean as the front seats no rips or tears back here. It does have the latch child safety system Sorry about that power slide rear window no rips or tears on these seats Has the load floor on the bottom in floor storage on the back Back carpeting is a nice shape like I said these seats fold up for extra storage and the load floor goes down like that Really nice if you got pets you can put both sides down. They have a nice clap Muddy boots or tools you can put them on there and not wreck your nice seats and storage underneath those seats as well We'll take a quick look under the hood I'd personally like thank you for checking out the video today Hopefully from this video. You've been able to tell just how clean this truck is all the way around Inside and out under the hood we have 6.7 liter coming diesel Engine base very clean it's very smooth This truck has been fully safe to be expected as a fresh oil and filter change all the fluids have been checked and topped off Truck has been gone through and is 100% ready to go See more pictures of this truck or one of our other 450 new and used cars trucks SCVs minivans wranglers half tons and quarter tons one tons you name it We've got to go to our website www.SummitAuto.com full pictures and descriptions of every single vehicle on our lot videos of every single used vehicle that we have all at SummitAuto.com Thank you so much for checking out the video if you want to check out just our use in the tour You can go to truckson41.com that's truckson41.com and if you want to make this truck yours today Give us a call<PHONE_NUMBER> ask for one of our sales associates standing by to take your call and Make this one yours today. Once again numbers<PHONE_NUMBER> and if you'd like to check out more videos You can go to youtube.com slash summit auto remember to like subscribe and share on this video and all the videos that you see there In fact in a second you'll see a link to subscribe to a YouTube channel on your left a link to more having you Truck videos like this one on your right if you have not been on our website on the bottom link to this vehicle on our website Click those checks out you will report out below. This is super cool. 2013 Ram 2500 recap short box Ram box. Good morning. Thanks again


What's up everybody, it's Jason here with jasperjasecasebricks.com. It is a new release day, happy Wednesday, happy new release day, 2020 top sterling baseball is back guys. Two box break random hit here on our website jasperjasebricks.com. Ten year hiatus guys, it's been a while since we've seen some sterling, top sterling baseball, we've seen some bowman sterling, but top sterling. One of the ultra premium for fathers, top sterling is back in stores and shelves hitting this spring of course a little delayed now, we're more in the summer now. But again, each master box holds two cards. One is going to be an on card, autograph rally card numbered to 25 or less and one unique rally or potentially autograph rally card numbered one of one, which there is two per case. So there's two out of the eight boxes you will have a one on one. So again guys, the way this works guys is we will open up both boxes, type in all the customer names and the hits and whatever you match up is what you get. So they go Josh, Jeffrey, Alan and Michael. So let's actually open up the case. Looks like we've got an eight box case and I don't think we got too much of this guys honestly. Next day it was a very, very limited release. It didn't make too much of it. So get in while you can with us. I actually don't even know if this is going to be available for personal boxes to be honest, but I guess we'll find out. So we will have Donner's optic personals though and good and champions, but don't know about Sterling. Let's just get out of here. All right, so we'll just say this is one. This is one. This is two. This is two. This is three. This is three, four. Oh, sorry, not four. This is four and it matches up.  Let's see if I can roll anything one through four. If not, we'll roll again. If it's five or six, two. All right, guys, good luck. These cards are just going to be shown or what? Oh, there are many box again. I forgot about that. Nice little fancy box though. Oh, I guess the themes are one of them is going to be just an on card autograph relic card number to 25 or less. And then the other one's going to be a unique relic or autograph relic card that's going to be a one of one. So one will be guaranteed. Oh, does it say it on the box? Oh, so this one says 1990s MLB All Stars, which was this one, and then MBP award winners. Gotcha. I just don't know which one is which though. It's going to be which one's going to be a relic. Any guesses before I start though? That's kind of cool. All right, first one. Good luck. We have a Vladimir Guerrero senior, and that is 17 out of 25. And we got a out of 10, three out of 10, Bob Gibson. It's pretty nice. On card as well. Next one. Yeah, they probably got those guys signing like crazy. All right, this one is a retired numbers and tops all star rookie cup team. I can't believe no one wants to get the Red Sox. It's amazing. I know we have Red Sox fans here. Do they not like the optic checklist for them? I mean, remember it's 12 boxes guys. But I mean, I guess, hey, I guess we could leave that break for Joe then and just do these other breaks that sold out. I said, I'm going to do plenty of optic quality on the on the personal side. So wanted to help out and get a case in. Oh, yeah, right. That good one champion is fire, man. So chance to get LeBron exquisite stuff. You got Jason Dominguez in there. Now we have potential number one draft pick green in there for the NBA. Upper deck is their one product a yearly good win champions. And that's where you can get everybody. All right, you guys, good luck. And we have 10 out of 10. We got Jeff Bagwell. And the last one here guys is a Glaber Torres and it is a two out of three Glaber Torres. Nice three color patch. That's a two out of three Glaber Torres. So there you go guys, two boxes. They were towards two out of three, 10 out of 10. Jeff Bagwell, Bob Gibson out of 10 and Vlad senior out of 25. So I'm going to quickly pause the video guys, type in the list of hits. And then we'll come back around to my customer names and see who gets what to stick around guys. All right, guys, welcome back. So there's the hits right there. There's a customer names. Let's roll the dice and let's see what who gets what let's roll it. And we got a two and a six eight times. Good luck. One, two, three, four, five and six. And actually it was eight, nine, 10 or I say nine, 10, seven, eight. I'm off today guys. Jesus eight times proves that one done Alan. All right, eight times here. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Eight times. Bob Gibson at the top down a Vlad girl senior at the bottom. So there you go guys. So Josh Cruz, you got Bob Gibson three out of 10. Jeffrey with the Jeff Bagwell 10 out of 10. And Michael last but not the labor tour is two out of three little patch out of there. And Alan got black girl senior 17 and 25. So again, the next one is on the website guys. And I'm sure probably will sell off pretty soon three left. Jasper's case breaks.com.