Modernized voting, or election tampering?
Klar: Zuck Bucks in 2024
Klar: Study shows lithium mining threatens water supplies
“Maladapted” environmentalism does more harm than good.
Dame: Democratic Party “No place for Moderates” any more
As the Dems push extremist candidates, the VTGOP embraces moderates.
Evslin: Republicans fell for Democrat’s brilliant (unintentional) head fake
Now Rs have the wrong player at bat.
Primary: Klar: John Rodgers for Lieutenant Governor!
Why I am supporting a former Democrat to lead Vermont.
Roper: We are governed by high school bullies
Poor Dave…. He thought he was being all good and woke, checking his white male privilege and using it to be a feminist ally and what does he get? “Creeper!” written in lipstick on his locker right before the prom.
Lindberg: why I don’t read the local newspaper anymore
Bought a copy and, reading it, quickly realized why he had stopped.
Klar: Paris Olympics displays climate change hypocrisy
Coca-Cola’s single-use plastic bottle boondoggle.
Wennberg: How Vermont won the biggest environmental lawsuit in decades
Vermont has been a “California Car” state for many years, along with several of our neighbors.
Cairns: Reassessment, etc. will price many homes out of property tax credits
Increased property assessments won’t increase the amount of the property tax credit.
Klar: Do cows or cars hurt the planet more?
EPA and UN eclipse logic with methane gaslighting.
Roper: EV fees should go to road maintenance and repair
Not to “non-public” charging stations.
Beck: How the supermajority operates
It isn’t moderate to impose $17B in carbon fees or increase electric rates by $1B, the super majority voted for these over the Governor’s veto too.
Keelan: Truth & Reconciliation Commission joins growing line of groups paid to Study
What exactly is going on in Vermont with all of these studies? The State is paying big bucks to fund “studies” on how to spend even more tax dollars.
Beck: It isn’t Moderate to crush Vermonters
Clean Heat Standard was designed for the benefit of special interest groups and climate legislators with no understanding of economics, science, or Vermonters.
Klar: Fox News vindicated in lawsuit for telling the truth
The defamation suit that Nina Jankowicz, former dir. of Homeland Sec.’s disinformation board, filed against Fox News was dismissed in DE, July 22.
Malloy: Seize the day, Vermont
Vermont does not have to struggle continuously. There’s an opportunity right in front of all Vermonters for themselves and the 14th star to shine bright. Seize the day.
Warner: Big Brother about to be your daddy in Massachusetts
Mass. Bill H4750 To eliminate Fathers and Mothers from birth certificates passes 40-0.
Roper: Speaker Krowinski feeling the (“Clean”) Heat
Spews misinformation about her Party’s misleadingly named “Affordable Heat Act” fiasco.
Ellis: The Prosecutor vs. the Felon
The 2024 election has completely changed with a single letter. It happened so swiftly and so absolutely that no one can be blamed for being a bit confused.
Klar: AOC wants to impeach two Supreme Court justices
Why? You have to read it to believe it.
Warner: Dear Democrat neighbors, we need to talk about your mental health crisis
Pew Research indicates more than one in two (55%) “white women” who identify as liberal in their political ideology suffer from some form of serious depression or anxiety.
Walch: The reality of the Clean Heat Standard
Two maxims that used to be part of investigative journalism have now fallen to the public: (1) do your own research and (2) follow the money.
Warner: What the assassination attempt on Trump reveals about our government
We have witnessed an unprecedented amount of convoluted government activity shedding light on its current state.
Klar: America’s shrinking farmland threatens food security
Solar panel fields have been reclassified as farms.
Roper: Clean Heat Standard comes with $17 BILLION price tag!
Would require $3.20 per gallon carbon tax on home heating fuel.
Wennberg: Fund each student’s education, not the System
Before Act 60, regardless of the funding formula then in place, every time the property tax reached about 70% of the cost of education, a tax revolt ignited..
Klar: No, solar panels are not farmland
Government counts solar panel arrays as agricultural lands.
Roper: Conservation Law Foundation cashes in on GWSA “Please, Sue Us!” Clause
Vermont taxpayers will foot the massive bill for legal costs
O’Neil: How Kamala Harris silenced dissent, demonized conservatives
Harris has many disadvantages and questionable decisions to account for.
McCormick: Democrat helping Republican defeat Sen. Chris Bray
Republican Chairs must use this opportunity to mobilize all voters to see the necessity to shift the Senate with 11 or more Republican Senators.
Cargill: The legal cases that prove education choice is constitutional
The overarching question is whether education choice is constitutional. In most states, the answer is yes, as we highlight in a new study.
Roper: No way. Shocker. Who’da seen this coming?
The real scandal here is that the Democrats are choosing a nominee for president in a manner like the Soviets in their day chose a General Secretary.
Roper: Education “reform” committee overtly stacked with special interests
Meet the ‘Blob’: Vermont’s new Commission on Public Education or just another tax-and-spend scheme?
Klar: What’s causing this brutal heat wave?
Cheap fakes of climate science.
Warner: What the Trump assassination attempt says about us
As individuals we still possess the power to engage our political enemies with honor and integrity at a time when both of those appear to be passé.
Klar: Trump felony convictions imperiled
Void, mistrial, or delay? Trump may not be a felon much longer.
Lintz: Guide to Vermont’s new Short Term Rental Tax Law
A guide in Plain English!
Caiazza: Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) falls short
Environmentalist: I conclude that although RGGI has been effective raising revenues it is not an effective CO2 emission reduction program.
Roper: Make Big Oil Pay? Court says no way
Make Big Oil pay? Heck yeah! But it ain’t gonna happen. And in the meantime, we are going to dump a whole lot of money and time – neither commodity we can’t afford to waste – down a legal commode.
Keelan: the Welcome to Vermont Tax
The sustainability of many cultural institutions would be nonexistent without the second homeowner.
Bucchieri: Unfair ‘open primary’ allows Dems, Progs to influence GOP convention
The opposing team dresses some of its players in your team’s uniform. They infiltrate your team and sabotage its plays. Neither fair, nor ethical.
Walch: Follow the money to find who benefits from electrification
Even if the grid is working, if people can’t afford paying their electric bill and have no other fuel source as a back-up, they won’t be able to cook or heat.
Kinsley: Rebuttal of teachers’ union hit piece against Scott
Tinney’s “hit piece” on Governor Scott is nothing new for the VT-NEA, although I’m surprised by the shrillness of the tone.
Roper: Clean Heat Standard will hurt poor Vermonters on LIHEAP heating assistance
More testimony damns this damnable law.
Dame: VTGOP joins Senator Welch in calling for Biden to drop out of presidential race
“We also encourage the other members of Vermont’s Federal Delegation to join us and Senator Welch in asking Biden to step aside for the good of the country.”
MacDonald: The emissionary position
If you really want to lower “global emissions”…
Haines: Iran influencing Gaza campus protests
Statement from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on recent Iranian influence efforts.
Ellis: Biden’s conflict of interest
Many stalwart Democrats consider Biden a liability: The good of the country is at stake, and Biden’s age is endangering us all.
Dame: Smaller paychecks start this week
One estimate indicates we are garnishing the wages of Vermonters to the order of nearly $120 million per year.
Roper: What “Paying Just a Little More” really means
An analysis of the new payroll tax that hit this month.
Fernandez: Pondering Pascal’s Wager in secular Vermont
“Old time religion” practitioners are now the odd souls in the Green Mountain State’s nouveau humanist-pagan zeitgeist. Social vengeance replaced divine mercy.
Lee: The ATF has resumed openly murdering Americans
It seems the ATF intends to confuse the public and exercise increasingly arbitrary power to terrorize and prosecute American gun owners. Abolish the ATF.
Ellis: Turmoil in the West Wing
In a nationally televised debate seen by 50 million-plus people, we saw an 81-year-old president struggle to string words together for 90 minutes.
Ehlers: Beware blue-green algae – check before you swim
Blue-green algae produces neurotoxins and liver toxins. The problem is growing rapidly as politicians accelerate development and fail to regulate polluters.
Malloy: Read the 1972 article about taking over Vermont
In 1970, Blumstein and Phelan proposed political migration to a single state for the purpose of gaining political control and then establishing a living laboratory for experimentation. Pollak takes that idea and applies it to Vermont.
Dame: VTGOP calls DNC plans to circumvent convention a true “threat to democracy”
After last week’s unsettling performance at the Presidential Debate, Democrats have been in full panic mode.
Dawson: How to stop politics from dividing families in Vermont
With the arrival of summer, one in which families tend to spend more time together, experts are recommending avoiding political chats to keep the peace.
Klar: The First Amendment odyssey of Julian Assange
An icon of whistleblower journalism tastes freedom.
Bufka: to revive dying America, let us “mutually pledge to each other”
Our country seems to be dying. We can help it to be reborn. But we can only do that together.
Despathy: Scott Campbell’s Astounding Delusion
This demented irony is sadly lost on many legislators with tunnel vision who choose their favored industries and agendas over the people in Vermont.
MacDonald: Fossil-fuel companies won’t pay for “climate change” – Vermonters will
Fuel companies should stop doing business in Vermont. The State is, after all, in a huge hurry to get to its all-electric, no-fossil-fuel paradise.
Roper: The Property Tax gaslighting has begun!
No, a 14% property tax increase is not a decrease.
Klar: Industry fraud brings down Boeing planes
Senate subcommittee grants whistleblowers a platform.
Angwin: Stasi come home
The rise of the Informer State.
Banzhaf: Obama for Vice President?
Constitutionally OK, some legal experts say
Keelan: “Extend and pretend”
Has the Vermont Legislature lost its compass?
Jablow: Vermont’s bear hunt exposed
The data that F&W published in their report was incomplete, likely because the public would be unhappy to know hunters killed cubs, yearlings, and many females.
Evslin: Equal educational opportunity in Vermont requires school choice
The current educational funding formula is not constitutional, effective, or equitable.
Roper: This massive Property Tax increase may be unconstitutional
How’s that for adding insult to injury!
Bean: Biden and Trump golf match?
All in all, the real winner of the debate was not Trump or Biden, but it was CNN.
Klar: Fake meats for US troops
Corporations to use American soldiers as guinea pigs for cell-grown meats.
Bossange: Montpelier needs transparency
When lawmakers are trusted with their own ethical oversight, corruption and self-interest take over.
Wells: A Vermont we can afford
Urgent reform is needed, and it’s time to get to work.
Dawson: Volunteer litter pickers clean up local towns
Green Up Day — an annual litter pick-up event held in over 250 towns in Vermont since 1970 — has so far eradicated over 24 million pounds of litter and 450,000 tires from the streets.
Roper: Whither goes the Office of Racial Equity?
According to the Racial Equity Office’s state website, the last public meeting it held took place July 26, 2023. Since then: NOTHING.
Sturgess: Big Pharma courting Trump?
Susie Wiles is a lobbyist for Big Pharma. She’s also a key advisor to President Trump. That’s a problem.
Higley: A perspective on the session
Talk in Montpelier is about how we don’t have nearly enough time to consider all the bills we should, and how we need a doubling of our pay.
Harrison: Overridden!
Clearly the Democratic supermajority in the legislature and Governor Scott are not on the same page and see such issues as affordability differently.
Bufka: Why be a Critical Thinker?
What is critical thinking? What are the obstacles to critical thinking? Why be a critical thinker?
Klar: Have fake meats exceeded their shelf life?
Faux meats battle market realities.
MacDonald: Who made Vermont use fossil fuels in the first place?
Vermont citizens will need to come together and agree that whatever the deal may be, their current crop of “leaders” does not have their best interests at heart
Schulz: Memo to anti-cop politicians
In New York City and beyond, some public officials need a refresher on the sacrifices police make for public safety.
Keelan: Could oil and gas deliveries be cut off?
It is too bad Vermont and New York legislators can’t be honest. Their states need money to address years of neglect of their infrastructure.
Banzhaf: DoJ refuses to prosecute AG, but an SC could
GOP should ask Court to appoint a non-statutory Special Counsel
Klar: Furor over fake-meat bans?
Banning and labeling cell-cultured meats take a political controversy to boiling point.
Husock: Can local journalism be saved?
A promising approach uses local philanthropy and know-how to offer trustworthy coverage not driven by fashionable political trends.
Roper: Equity Advisory committee members souring on Clean Heat Standard
“A boondoggle that really is designed to support entrenched interests.”
Page: Property tax relief dies in petty act of arrogance
Krowinski blamed the governor for the coming train wreck of unaffordability, because – wait for it – Gov. Scott Didn’t Attend The Meeting In Person.
Ellis: The Old Guard has departed, political realignment looms
The Vermont Democratic Party has decided not to send established figures like Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Instead, they are sending a group of very young delegates that includes a host of next-generation political activists.
MacDonald: Of course, Vermont has an unconstitutional religious test
The religious test is not a fluke. It is evidence that the patients are running the asylum. You can see the results. Higher taxes. Declining services. Dumber students. Increased lawlessness. Drug crimes. Drug deaths. And the only answer the inmates can think of is for you to give them more money and power.
Despathy: Details matter
Plain and simple, the supermajority chose REV and VPIRG, special interest groups, and their high cost, impulsive Renewable Energy Standard.
Despathy: Advice from a Vermont environmentalist
The RES Series, Part II: The advice of Annette Smith, Executive Director, Vermonters for a Clean Environment (VCE).
Thurston: Vermont’s largest solar company on verge of collapse. Time to rethink energy policy
With iSun filing for bankruptcy, one might wonder if legislators will think twice about overriding the Governor’s veto of H.289.
LaMarche: Decency in decay
Mayor Stanak is knowingly eliciting another eventual confrontation and dispersant of at least one if not many, encampments.
Despathy: Steamrolling Vermonters one law at a time
The RES Series Part I: The interests of renewable energy industrialists versus those of Vermont and the the environment.
Roper: Who wins “Biggest Dunce” award for the Biennium?
To celebrate BTL’s 150th post, cast your vote for who made the biggest ass of themselves in the 2023-4 legislative session.
Klar: Black Christian Nationalism?
Black voices about Christian America.
Hillary-backing California mogul just donated $300k to Trump
There’s a real chance President Trump is convicted of felony charges and sentenced to prison. Bluntly, that’s part of why I’m supporting him. I believe our justice system is being weaponized against him.
Candidate Brown: “So concerned about our state that I could no longer sit on the sidelines”
How is it that our legislature is passing bills that will double your home heating and electric bills when so many Vermonters are struggling to make ends meet?
