genocide

The first White River abductee

/ paladin1787 / Leave a comment

Hi! If you’re opposed to a genocide but also opposed, on a technicality, to your representatives speaking out against that genocide… then I hate to break it to you, but you may not be opposed to that genocide.

To be clear: this somewhat crude statement is not for those who hold this belief, because, after all, they already know they’re not opposed to the genocide. (And to not be opposed to it is to support it, aye?) Rather, this statement is for those who would be swayed by those people’s arguments. Are you sure you want to be swayed by someone who supports a genocide?

I’m interested to hear what standard business the selectboard is neglecting by holding a special meeting in the week between its regular meetings. And don’t just list off a bunch of things Hartford needs that are already in process and that we can’t hurry up. (Wilder water service upgrades being a huge one.) If there’s even one thing we need that *can* be sped up, I would love to help it/them along. I’ll volunteer to do what research and/or coordination might be of use. But only if the TM believes that thing could be done faster with more internal work. There may not be many things like this, if anything. But I’m willing to be proven wrong. I’ll ask the TM about the items a few of you mentioned this week, and report back. But feel free to send me other things as well. I am here to serve.

(Standard legal disclaimer: I’m writing to speak for myself alone.)

I am also here to move the “Overton Window.” It was actually part of my campaign for this role. If you don’t know what that is, Google it. My point is simple: it is not extreme or radical to oppose, by any means at our fingertips, the now-one-sided violence of the Palestinian genocide. Many voices out there would have you believe opposition is extreme. As of this month, legal U.S. residents are being targeted for expulsion for simply voicing opposition. I repeat: it is not extreme or radical for an elected official to demand that their constituents not be sent to a foreign gulag—on the basis of anything, let alone their beliefs or their ethnicity.

About twenty four hours ago, George Anderson, who lives in White River Junction and has lived in the U.S. for more than a decade, thought he was walking into his final U.S. citizenship interview. He’s a student at an Ivy League university. He could—should—have walked out a citizen. Instead, ICE effectively kidnapped him from the building. At this moment he’s being held in some Vermont cell, not charged with any crime. The Trump administration seeks his removal from the country with the same argument it’s making against another legal-resident student: that Anderson’s presence, based on *expressed ideas*, is a threat to the interests of the U.S.

Is this not town business? When your neighbors start getting snatched up for—expressly, in court filings (!!)—their views? If you’re wondering what you would have done in Nazi Germany, this is it. You’re doing it right now.

Pardon me, I misspoke. The name of the White River man in detention is not George Anderson; it’s Mohsen Mahdawi. Everything else I said is accurate, though. Hopefully his name doesn’t change how this story makes you feel.

All this makes *me* feel like I need to do everything I can to stop it. Are you distressed enough to say it’s worth abandoning some norms? (Trump, for his part, threw out norms a long time ago.) Many seem to have the impression that keeping to norms—like the “stay in your lane” oft lobbed my way—is the correct path to oppose a norms-free administration. My brothers and sisters: Democrats have tried that for decades now, and look where it’s gotten us. It’s a failed strategy. The only strategy that works is: attack injustice, with all your power, all the time. Never allow a technicality to prevent you from standing against inhumanity. Never let process be what keeps us all from a just outcome. If you understand this then you know: all that matters in the case of the Gaza Ceasefire resolution is: Does it do anything real? If yes, then it’s worth passing.

Resolutions themselves are not extreme. Town boards have a history of proclaiming a variety of…colorful…things. A city once honored the 75th anniversary of the Bloody Mary cocktail. Another proclaimed that “getting sick is prohibited,” to bring attention to the town’s inadequate access to healthcare. Yet another elected board wrote and passed a resolution about me. That one had a point, of telling a story (one not about me), but it’s still ridiculous. This Gaza resolution isn’t ridiculous, because it accomplishes some potentially-useful things.

It is not extreme or radical to fight against unjust bombings or fascist actions, and in so doing, to use every ounce of power one has as a white person; a college educated person; a person with a higher-than-median income; with political power. Every ounce. Until it’s used up. If I’ve overstayed my welcome, then don’t vote for me next year. But if you’re ever on the receiving end of fascism—and it seems any of us could be—then perhaps you’ll remember: I’m fighting for you, too.

Also fighting: Some other members of the town board. Perhaps not most state reps & senators, but ours are. They are humans and have hearts; so they’ve taken to their social accounts to speak about Mahdawi. Perhaps they’re brainstorming whether they can bring to bear some of their limited power against this kind of thing. If you and I and all of us 1. Brainstorm well where our actual power lies and where the chinks in the system’s armor is; and 2. Ready ourselves to be all used up… then maybe we stand a chance.

One thing that’s a little extreme: ad hominem insults. Or claiming I’ve been sarcastic about my board duties. (I don’t do sarcasm, my friends will tell you. It’s too often misunderstood.) Everyday town business is so important to me that the minute a colleague suggested a special meeting—to ensure this topic didn’t reduce normal capacity—I said “that’s a grand idea,” and started asking others about it.

Does speaking out for Gaza do more harm than good? Well, what harm? Will we shy away from all action on the possibility of future harm? If so, one might argue, the harm is already done. Shall we debate strategy until the modern-day SS is on our doorsteps? It would appear that day has come.

We should treat ICE agents like people treated the SS. Maybe that’s why they cover their faces now. Of the hundreds abducted by ICE and sold into slavery in El Salvador this spring, one was a 19-year-old with no criminal record in the U.S. or in his home country. No tattoos. An ICE kidnapper who grabbed him outside his home said “He’s not the one.” Another said “Take him anyway.” So they did. This is why people say “abolish ICE.” We would do well to remember that “I was just following orders” was not an acceptable defense at the Nuremberg trials.

Did you know that Anne Frank didn’t die in an extermination camp? She died of a preventable illness in what was basically an overcrowded deportation waypoint facility. The U.S. operates those today. Kids die in them today. And when Biden was president. We’ve been here a while.

Gaza Ceasefire resolution 2025

/ paladin1787 / Leave a comment

I am here to answer some frequently asked questions about the special meeting, currently scheduled for 4-22, on the topic of a new draft of a Gaza Ceasefire resolution. As always, I’m speaking for myself and not the board or town government. If after reading, you think passing a ceasefire resolution would be more valuable than harmful, please let the selectboard know at selectboard@hartford-vt.org and/or by showing up to the regular meeting 4-15. If you feel you’re in the majority with this view, make it known; otherwise the board is liable to assume you are the minority. Onward with the FAQ:

– “Should we have a special meeting about Gaza?” When hundreds of children keep getting killed and the last of the hospitals is nearly bombed out of existence (remember the uproar at the first hospital bombed?), not discussing Gaza was not on the table. With a special meeting, we can ensure that no time is taken away from the board’s duties to discuss our *SUPER* important normal town business. Also with a special meeting, individual board members can choose to not file for payment for that night if they wish. That said—I do not begrudge any board member from filing for payment, as it is work on the town’s behalf to hear from folks.

– “Is this town business?” Is making veterans feel welcome here town business? Is making queer people feel welcome here town business? Calling into question whether (or not) a statement on Gaza is town business feels a bit like a red herring. For those who feel that way, I would encourage you to think about whether you would be happy if we passed a resolution with content regarding your interests. As someone representing some swath of the public, I don’t abide by subterfuge. If you want to abolish all resolutions, then lobby the board for that. From where I’m standing, though, that doesn’t seem wise as we careen towards a more overt fascism. It makes sense we would want to retain the right to speak up for justice.

– “You (Brandon) pushed for the special meeting. Why?” Because the ceasefire didn’t hold, and we’re supplying weapons and political cover to Israel’s extermination campaign yet again. Because I don’t wish to remember my time on the board as having witnessed this and done nothing. Because the last Selectboard failed the several hundred Hartford residents who petitioned that board, by not passing the resolution. (I wish to do right by those residents.) And because there are still a few levers of power left to a national minority party. These are mentioned in the updated resolution, which was formed by a committee made up of most of the original resolution committee.

– “What are these potentially effective things? What could we possibly do from Hartford? Isn’t a local ceasefire resolution just empty ‘virtue-signalling?’” I share your ire against virtue-signalling, I assure you. The new resolution has three potentially-effective provisions: 1. It calls on our Congressional delegation to filibuster any legislation the Trump administration considers crucial until an arms embargo is placed on Israel; 2. It calls on the same delegation to block Trump nominees until an arms embargo; 3. It defines “antisemitism” for our town as the organization Jewish Voices for Peace defines it. This the definition I knew growing up, describing racial/ethnic discrimination. This ensures our town staff don’t follow the doctored definition that the Trump administration is using to try to deport people.

– “Are there more pressing things Palestine organizers are doing?” Yes! Our neighbors (like two Dartmouth grad students) are getting their visas revoked for standing up for Palestine. If legal residents are facing discrimination based on their views, then U.S. citizens are next. (Even if citizens never face this, it is capital-B bad.) But that’s defense. A ceasefire resolution is offense. Organizers seem to agree that a resolution is still worth passing. If we see something terrible being done with munitions made in VT and NH (they are), and paid for with our tax dollars (they are), and say nothing, then the perpetrators will—very logically—get the idea that they can keep it up. Because they faced no consequences.

– “This feels like a Selectboard-led initiative rather than a public-led one. Why should I support it?” It’s true that I pushed for a special meeting without being in direct contact with the group that made the prior resolution. This group effectively reconstituted itself once the board voted (6-0, with one member absent) to hold a special meeting. In so doing, this raised the possibility of a new resolution, and the group went to work. To me this feels like a natural progression.

Remarks about the upcoming Gaza ceasefire resolution vote

/ paladin1787 / Leave a comment

“The most revolutionary act is a clear view of the world as it really is.” – Rosa Luxemburg

According to a UN report, half the people of Gaza are expected to face death and starvation by July, via the collapse of local agricultural systems and “extreme access constraints” on humanitarian aid.

(FYI, while I’m a selectboard member, I’m not speaking for the board or the town.)

Being anti-war only in hindsight is being pro-war. In 10 years, everyone will have always been against this. That’s what we saw with the Iraq war. But the problem is that everyone wasn’t always against it. A lot of people defended it in the public square. And now they get the benefit of the public having a short memory. This one won’t be like that. The public learned from Iraq. We are committed to remembering where people stood. Whether they were able to say “this is bad, full stop, no qualifiers, and I am willing to risk something to say it.”

What I’m doing now is what, in 20 years, I will have wanted to have done. I’m doing that which I won’t regret.

With all due respect, if you can’t make a simple statement saying that this is bad, “this” being something the UN says there’s a chance is genocide… then that’s decent proof you’re too concerned about what less-informed people think of you. (Or at least more-propagandized people.)

I keep coming back to “are those even votes you want?” Are you happy representing genocide deniers? I am happy to *offer education* in good faith to those with the tendency to deny what this is: collective punishment, and dozens and dozens of well-documented war crimes. But there’s a difference between speaking with those people—giving them your time and effort—and *seeking to represent* this particular view of theirs. In effect, this view is the dehumanization of some very poor, brown, humans. I don’t know about you, but I won’t represent ideas that some other humans don’t have the right to exist. These views simply don’t deserve to be represented.

If “every life is precious,” then why was killing 274 Palestinians this weekend acceptable to rescue four hostages who could have been released in a prisoner transfer, like Hamas has been proposing for months? If killing 60x civilians compared to the number of hostages rescued is acceptable, then what about the 9,112 Palestinians, effectively political prisoners, that Israel currently holds? These four hostages all say their treatment was good, and are in good health. Meanwhile reports about hostages held by Israel describe the worst methods of torture you can imagine. Are you starting to see how grossly the double standard, of humanity/inhumanity, is being applied in the media you’re consuming?

To my fellow board members: would the people saying it’s “not town business” even vote for you? It’s been shown that Biden’s recent lurches rightward, like with immigration policy etc, have not earned him any more would-be votes. I posit that the same thing happens here. If you cater to the most conservative voters, I believe that *generally*, you will not gain their votes. If they really liked you, they may tell you their opinion, but they’d say they trust your decision whatever it is. And that’s important: it’s your decision. You can’t deflect onto not having better polling or something. The town puts us here to make decisions based on what *we* see, and feel, and want. That’s the whole point of us.

Republican Chuck Hagel once got up in front of Congress and said something I agree with wholeheartedly. I’ve been having trouble finding the speech, but I’ll never forget it. In essence he said, I’m astounded how rarely anyone in this body stands for anything. I don’t even care if you stand for the opposite thing I stand for; just stand for something. Believe in something and act on it. Speak with a moral conviction, whatever it is. That’s what people really hear. But more importantly, that’s the only honest thing to say.

Some have said Gaza is “dividing the left.” I believe that, on the contrary, Gaza is *defining* the left. Are you on it? I would love for you to be.

It’s clear that most in Hartford care about antiracism. But is there a “Palestine exception” for that? I’ll share some wisdom from Yousef Munayyer on Twitter: “Violence to free Israelis, the vast majority of whom already enjoy freedom, is totally normalized. Violence to free Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are oppressed, occupied, and subjugated, is totally taboo. This is the height of racist supremacy.”

Lots of people have shared this “flash fiction” between two characters:

“We can disagree and still be friends.”
“Yes, about pizza toppings, not racism.”

From Twitter user @ihategender: “Too many aspiring allies think racial justice is about diversity, ‘inclusion,’ and multiculturalism. No, no, no, Sweetie. This is about overthrowing power that benefits you disproportionately, often exclusively. Are you ready to sacrifice access, entitlement, innocence?” How about votes? Connections? Clients? That said, do you really want connections to those people? Do you need those clients?

Have you noticed that when folks can’t seem to offer evidence to the contrary, or an actual argument with moral weight, then they default to a procedural point? Not that procedure isn’t important; rather, if someone else makes an argument with logical and moral weight, and all you can counter with is procedure or your opinion of procedure… then perhaps you should consider looking for a logical or moral argument with equal strength.

Fellow Hartford residents: The purpose of a system is what it does. When it comes to political systems, we should simply not believe the rhetoric, the stated intentions, the reasoning, the “I didn’t intend for this,” the equivocating. Because we can’t ever be sure about any of that. So we should only ever evaluate a system (like a government) based on what it gets done, and the consequences of what it gets done. What our federal government has been doing is ensuring that one of our client states can continue starving and maiming tens of thousands of civilians. What our local selectboard does, faced with this, is yet to be seen.

I’ll end with verse from T.S. Eliot:

Half of the harm that is done in this world
Is due to people who want to feel important.
They don’t mean to do harm—but the harm
     does not interest them.
Or they do not see it, or they justify it
Because they are absorbed in the endless
     struggle
To think well of themselves.

Feel free to email me to be added to my mailing list. Hey -at- brandonsmith -dot- com

How we know what we know: Gaza edition

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Marcy Bartlett and I share a love of humanity. That much is clear. I spoke with her at length in the early spring, and I believe her to be a reasonable person. So I feel compelled to bring up that which I’ve been made aware about the topics she addressed to the listserv and the selectboard this week. My set of facts is pretty different than the ones Marcy based her letter on, but, I submit, no less true. I would like to see some of the sources for her assertions.

(FYI, while I’m a selectboard member, I’m not speaking for the board or the town.)

To preface: all this is really disorienting. Having learned at an early age that genocide is “the crime of crimes, the worst thing a government can do,” now it seems some talking heads and even the U.S. Congress want the word “genocide” redefined to not include the one happening now. We’re supposed to treat this like some boutique, far-left issue. Respectfully, I refuse. This is an issue for everyone.

(Before you think to list all the genocides in recent decades and question folks’ response to this one as opposed to those, the difference here is that the U.S. is providing the weapons, the money, the targeting intelligence, and the political cover on the world stage. Not to mention the U.N. vetoes. It’s that simple.)

Marcy’s letter’s subject references “antisemitism,” perhaps referring to the idea that to not support Israel in this moment is to possess ethnic hatred of Jewish people. Scores of famous rabbis and scholars of Judaism have spoken publicly, in the strongest possible terms, that conditioning support for Jewish people on support for the state of Israel is dangerous to Jewish people everywhere. For a helpful primer on why, see this short explainer by Jewish Voices for Peace.

Did you know that the technical definition of genocide includes a number of ways of treating a people group other than just murdering them? (Very specific things; this isn’t a designation one can lob willy-nilly.) That’s because quality of life is important, too, and some things a government can subject a people group to fully destroy a quality of life. In this sense, a genocide against Palestinians may have been going on for decades now. When people say Gaza is an open-air prison, they have evidence backing up their claim. That evidence is included at the bottom of this piece on my website.

Did you know Israel refuses to investigate how many of the deaths on Oct 7 were killings by Israeli personnel or weapons, despite calls from its own people to do so? A few admissions, or near admissions, in Israeli news sources allude to the “immense” amount of “friendly fire.” Israelis have called for these investigations, but the IDF has said it would “not be morally sound” to investigate them.

Let’s talk about hostages. Do you know about the Israeli practice of “administrative detention?” We prohibit holding people without charge, and/or indefinitely, in our country. (The biggest case of violating it being at Guantanamo Bay). But in Israel, they currently have about 3,424 Palestinians held in this way. That’s compared to the roughly 130 Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Did you know that the first week of May, Hamas accepted a deal that would see reduced Israeli military presence in Gaza, and would include release of all Hamas-held hostages? The deal had been finalized with the support of the director of the CIA. Israel rejected the proposal, with independent observers saying Israel appears to seek one thing above all: fully destroying Gaza.

Did you know the diplomat who recently resigned from the state department, a Joe Biden appointee, says she kept trying to tell the government that our policy of continually arming Israel for attacks on Gaza is actually making life more dangerous for Israelis? After so many months of not getting through, she felt her only choice was to publicly resign in protest.

Addendum: Why Palestinians live in open-air prisons:

  • Before Oct 7, when Israel prohibited Gazans from entering the sea, fishing boats from Gaza were only allowed a certain distance away from the coast. (About 7 miles at the north and 14 miles at the south.) No boats were prohibited to leave the designated zone. So Gaza had faced a Naval blockade for many years, if not decades.
  • The southern border of Gaza, with Egypt, features a continuous steel wall for its ~8 mile length. The rest of Gaza is completely enclosed in walls and razor-wire fences, with armed watchtowers, not unlike the walls of American prisons. It’s a closed system. There were only two checkpoints through which Gazans could come or go. But most couldn’t even use those:
  • Palestinians have lived under a “tiered citizenship” system. Those Israel has forced into exile can’t relocate to Gaza. Those in Gaza can’t relocate to the West Bank. Those in the West Bank can’t relocate to East Jerusalem. And it’s nearly impossible for a Palestinian in East Jerusalem to obtain citizenship. If you’d like to move down the slide, however, you are permitted. You just have to sign papers saying you agree you won’t be allowed to move back upward to a “tier” in which you existed previously. You read that right: only downward mobility.
  • Even intra-tier movement has been restricted. In the West Bank, Israel has fragmented Palestinians into 227 enclaves, surrounded by Jewish-only settlements and military checkpoints which severely hinder Palestinian movement. Palestinians are allocated access to only 3% of the country’s land by the Israeli government.

Protest arrest & answers to common town questions

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This is the third in a series of four posts on related subjects. Yes I’m a selectboard member; no I’m not speaking for the board or the town. (As if I could!)

This will be the first time I have publicly discussed this, because I prefer focus not be on myself when hundreds of children and workers in scrubs are found in mass graves on hospital grounds with their hands zip-tied behind their backs. But since it’s been mentioned around town: I was among the 90 arrested at the protest at Dartmouth on May 1. It was a principled stand in the tradition of a dozen mass student-led movements spanning American history, which created changes we all consider good. These changes simply didn’t happen until thousands (or tens of thousands) were arrested at hundreds of protests.

People in power seem to only like protest action that exists politely in the periphery. Perhaps so they can ignore it. If you think protests need to be polite, to be officially permitted—such that they can be ignored—then it’s possible you don’t fully grasp what protest is for.

The arrested Dartmouth protesters, 73 of whom are students and faculty including former Jewish Studies Chair Annelise Orleck, will have our day in court, assisted in defense by the NH ACLU. We will use the court to speak. Again, that’s largely what Hartford residents pay me $100 every two weeks to do: to speak on behalf of what I’m hearing. What I did getting arrested isn’t much, but it added to the numbers, in solidarity. If we all do a little, if we all speak and demand and do a little, maybe things will budge.

Fighting for justice “over there” *IS* fighting for justice here. It sets the standard that no one can be starved or blown to bits in the name of capital, hegemony, or anything else. All have dignity. Including us. Gazans would do the same for us; indeed they literally have. They’ve stood up in protest of all kinds of things: lack of U.S. civil rights, apartheid in South Africa, income inequality when our banners decryed the chokehold of “the 1%.” Crucially, however, we and Gazans stand for one another not out of reciprocity, but because it’s right.

To the idea that I’m an “individual member pushing my agenda,” that’s only true in small part. Sure, I’m acting on what I believe, but this is no different than how other board members act, in that I’m also supporting hundreds of folks in town who happen to share these beliefs. We shouldn’t let anyone silence the beliefs of a group of citizens by trying to ascribe those beliefs to a single representative alone.

I’m also here supporting the hundreds of students and community members who came out to protest May 1, and the hundreds who support sending a message to our national representatives via a ceasefire resolution. One gentleman cited a chapter of Vermont law that outlines the limited powers selectboard members have. That’s why the worth of a resolution—which the state grants us the power to make—is merely in its ability to send a message. We’ll soon decide whether this message is worthwhile.

Judging by how often it comes up, folks seem to want to assume the board neglects “the business of the town.” Especially if it’s made known that in our free time, we think about non-town things. (Or in this case, how non-town things affect our town.) Anyway, below is a response to questions posted here yesterday, sent by the town manager after I passed around an early draft of a response. I’m spreading the response because others may wish for updates on the same subjects.

Fairview Terrace retaining wall: “The Selectboard has heard from design engineers who have opined on project costs and the Selectboard has approved of a plan to propose a $4,100,000.00 bond to the voters in November to support construction to allow the road to be reopened to one-way traffic.”

Former Hartford Diner site: “As Brandon has stated, there is pending litigation. However, I share your concerns over this eyesore and hope to find the best way to clean up the site, without running afoul of the property rights of others. This may require the Town to take title to the parcel, at least long enough to perform the needed cleanup work.”

Status of replacing aging/failing water lines in Wilder: “We have engineers working on design and we expect work to begin this year.”

Accessible doors to the Bugbee Senior Center: “The Town has architects designing needed improvements to the facility, including ADA access.”

The listserv has its limitations, so if you’d like to hear what I have to say without this filter, email hey@brandonsmith.com to be included in future mailings.

What’s a local politician for?

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This is the first in a series of four posts on related subjects. Yes I’m a selectboard member; no I’m not speaking for the board or the town. (As if I could!)

“Divide and conquer” is the greatest tool that history’s oppressors, and indeed today’s oppressors, have ever known. If they can convince you to not care about some fellow humans, they can ensure that, despite being vastly outnumbered, they can keep benefiting from others’ misery. It’s that simple. The only solution to this is global solidarity: a commitment to true justice, from and for all people. The only solution is caring what any government (or government of corporations, as the case may be) does in our name and with our money.

The Hartford-based, anti-Gaza-genocide group that’s currently working toward a Selectboard resolution is doing precisely this. I support the group’s efforts. It’s not taking much time from the selectboard at all, actually. They’ll bring it before the board, we’ll hear some minutes of testimony, and we’ll either vote it into the record or we won’t.

I do hear the argument that this doesn’t have much effect. Indeed it doesn’t have any *direct* effect. But remember that oppression can only be countered by global solidarity. Everyone who has a platform should use it to identify injustice when they see it, and call for it to end. Everyone has a role to play in making change, and people with political capital MUST use that capital to fight injustice in the course of their everyday business. (Read: while doing their everyday business. Which the Selectboard has never stopped, and will never stop. You have a town concern? Write us!) What else is political capital for?

To the argument “we pay the board to run the town, not to fight injustice.” If the people you pay to run the town only make $100 every two weeks, like we do, then your town will cease to run. What I’m saying is that you don’t pay us, on the selectboard, to run the town. You pay an office of seasoned professionals real salaries to do that. (They do a bang-up job, BTW.) Rather, you pay the board to watch the world and think about how it affects us and how we affect it; to listen to you; to make suggestions to the professionals who run our town based on all this watching/listening/thinking; and to speak when speaking is needed. What I’m doing here literally IS our job. And right now, with our bombs creating objectively more destruction than in Dresden in WWII, speaking is necessary.

Multiple Israeli military and political officials have said on camera that “all” their bombs and shells come from the U.S. For its part, Hartford residents send about $280,000 annually to Israel via an average aid package around $3.6B. Typically around half of that is in the form of weapons. But since October 7, our townspeople have sent about 10 times as much in weapons alone, or $2.8 million in just seven months. (Citations follow.) An aid bill is being debated now that, if it passes and at least 2/3 of the value is in weapons, Hartford residents will have sent $3.7 million in <8 months. At this rate annually, it’s an amount closing in on a quarter of Hartford’s General Fund budget.

The listserv has its limitations, so if you’d like to hear what I have to say without this filter, email hey@brandonsmith.com to be included in future mailings.

Citations for weapons aid to Israel since October 2023: