BRAINSTORM Forceful action against Trump
Tuesday, 10/28/2025, at 5 p.m.
Organizer: Brattleboro Common Sense (BCS)
Location: by Zoom. Ask for link. Small group may meet in person at 16 Wasington Street, 3rd floor
This notice will appear in the Reformer tomorrow, Oct. 27, 2025.
LEGAL NOTICE
Brattleboro Common Sense, Inc. invokes
Per Brattleboro Charter III- §6-AA an emergency ordinance
• To create a legal defense fund for soldiers who defy unlawful orders,
especially from President Trump, and a fund to advertise the oath and defense fund
Their oath is to defend the Constitution, not the president.
(+ required info)
TOWARD A FORCEFUL NO_KINGS MOVEMENT
People who want NO KINGS are invited to brainstorm about next steps to engender opposition to Mr. Trump among the people who effect his orders.
BCS director Kurt Daims spoke at the Massachusetts School of Law on legal actions against illegal wars, as reported by Seth Gitell
The New York Sun | September 16, 2008,
“. . . Where the conference broke new ground was on the amount of time and discussion focused on getting members of the uniformed officers corps to come over to their side. . . .
“A Brattleboro, Vt., activist and author of a successful petition in his town calling for the arrest and indictment of Messrs. Bush and Cheney, Kurt Daims, addressed the audience: “We have been trying to tell Congress, ‘don’t fund the war.’ We’ve just got to go around them,” Mr. Daims, a panelist, said. “We don’t talk to the president … We don’t talk to Congress … We talk to the military and say ‘Hey, your oath is to the Constitution, not to the president.’”
“. . . Subsequent speakers spoke for and against the concept of anti-war activists bringing their message directly to members of the military.”
(Announcement January 7, 2020)
Preventing crimes by Donald Trump
╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬
╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬
╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬
This past Thursday Brattleboro Common Sense (BCS) proposed a way to interrupt the chain of command for illegal orders to start a war against Iran. It was widely predicted that Mr. Trump would start a new war in order to distract people from his impeachment trial. But we cannot simply wait for his impeachment trial to remove him. Instead we must address this new emergency with forceful action to interrupt the chain of command through which Trump acts.
BCS volunteer Bruce Clauson (now director) proposed the ordinance to the Brattleboro selectboard yesterday evening. After outlining the proposal he suggested it be named for U.S. Major Hugh Thompson, who placed himself in the line of fire to end the massacre in the Vietnamese village of My Lai in 1968. Selectboard Chair Brandie Starr asked Mr. Clauson to submit the ordinance for inclusion in the board’s agenda. We believe the orientation of the new name is excellent and the project, with its moral support of military officers, simple enforceable mechanism and direct connection to the primary actor, is a potent initiative.
Trump doesn’t personally perpetrate all his crimes himself. Whether he’s putting immigrant children in cages or blasting innocent people to bits, he does it by giving orders. If people refuse his orders, as heroes have dared before, then Trump’s crimes will be stopped. So, we need to remind U.S. military officers that their oath is to the Constitution and not to the president, and that under the Nuremberg Principles they must not thoughtlessly follow illegal orders. And we need to honor them and start a legal defense fund for them, and we need to start an emergency ordinance to do this NOW.
● contact officers about their oath to the Constitution
● start legal defense fund
● create Justice Coordinator
Wars are more than ugly enough, with civilians who know nothing about the conflicts that envelop them and have no idea why fiery death falls on them from the sky, why they suffer for the conflicts between leaders of governments they don’t support, just as we don’t support this one. From such horrors conscience drives soldiers to madness. Let’s help our officers act on conscience now.
BACK TO THE PRESENT: BCS has streamlined the ordinance. ?? We are looking for veterans and civilians to present it to selectboard.. BCS will promote the ordinance independently while it moves through official channels. Contact BrattleboroCommonSense@gmail.com .
It is time for ACTIVE resistance to Mr. Trump. Brattleboro Common Sense (BCS) in common cause with people protesting nationwide and around the world, proposes this action, to block unlawful military orders from him; an emergency ordinance per Brattleboro charter article IV section 6AA, as follows.
The people of Brattleboro honor the courage and the sacrifices of our troops. We remind them that they took an oath of allegiance NOT to the president, but to the Constitution of the United States — the enduring doctrines of liberty and justice of our nation. We implore their vigilance “against all enemies, foreign or domestic”, and in accordance with the Nuremberg Principles we exhort them to refuse unlawful orders and to file charges against anyone giving an order to start a war of aggression or commit any war crime.
We recognize the courage such fidelity to duty requires. We pledge funds for the legal defense of any soldier who becomes the target of reprisal and is prosecuted for honoring the Constitution in this way, for such a hero will deserve the thanks of the nation and the world.
The selectboard and town manager shall therefore create:
• a fund to advertise the oath and ordinance, and
• a separate fund for legal defense,
each in the amount of $180,000 (one hundred eighty thousand dollars) to be withdrawn from the unassigned budget balance.
The Army officer’s oath of office is printed here in its entirety for reference.
I, _____ , having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.
PROSPECTS
Other challenges to presidential power
We (Trump opponents) are ready for the next step against him. For us the ordinance is easy to support. For his friends it will be harder, and they deserve compassion: we are asking them to recognize their hero is a madman. Although the Bush Indictment Resolution placed Brattleboro in an international spotlight and was strongly supported in a USA TODAY poll, many supporters of President Bush, Junior felt that the resolution unfairly blamed Mr. Bush for the Iraq War, and this was a reasonable objection. In 2009 BCS promoted the True Pardon Resolution, which was a letter to President Obama proposing a plea-bargain to the whole story out. This had bipartisan support. (It was illegally blocked by the selectboard and didn’t come to a public vote. BCS later won a court decision and promoted the charter change that the charter review committee approved for preventing such censorship .) So, one president will be defended by his devotees, while the other was judged reasonably. Today he may benefit Success depends on winning his friends. The lines are drawn. He will not listen to us on the other side.
It is fitting that we should confront a war-loving president this way, as we did with the Bush Indictment Resolution, which brought worldwide fame to Brattleboro in 2008. It’s sad that such proposals don’t go out of date. But BCS and Brattleboro people have gained experience. Many of us will recall the backlash that overwhelmed our town offices for days with death threats and threats to disrupt Vermont’s economy. We broke new ground, and we stood our ground. We must push on.
contact info@BrattleboroCommonSense.org
Website: brmse.org