A young GOP candidate asks bitter critics of the Democratic win in November: did you volunteer for a Republican? Did you vote?
Whitworth: Vermont and the Sixth Great Extinction
Every current and planned Vermont wind turbine development is in forestland that our Agency of Natural Resources has designated “highest priority.”
Gassett: Town Meeting bill oppresses freedoms of Vermont citizens
The directives in this newly passed Bill H42 will oppress citizen involvement in local government.
Mermel: Fatal flaws appear in Clean Heat Standard
Since the state currently cannot stop the smuggling of fentanyl, it is unlikely it can stop fuel.
McClaughry: Facial recognition threat to privacy rights
Facial recognition data in government hands could lead to a staggering invasion of individuals’ most basic privacy rights.
Roper: $383 million childcare proposal not ‘for the kids’
Finding ways to help more parents stay home to raise their own children is both better for the children and potentially less costly for the taxpayers. But it doesn’t create a long-term taxpayer funded voting block of unionized preschool teachers.
McClaughry: Seven top legislative issues of 2023
Shamelessly renamed ‘the Affordable Heating Act,” S5 will create a carbon tax and state bureaucracy to subsidize heat pumps and weatherization.
Ryan: Tyre Nichols and getting rid of the bad eggs
We have moved for well over two decades towards a “militarized” policing structure. That trend needs to be reversed and quickly. The general public should never be viewed by police as an “enemy”, which I believe at this point occurs far, far too often.
Covey: Hunting & trapping good for families, communities and wildlife
Hunting and trapping offer so much good that it’s not enough just to say, “I don’t approve.”
Keelan: Now they are in my kitchen
The Takeawayers have already been in my toolshed, where I store my lawnowers, chainsaw, leaf-blower and weed-whackers.
Legislator: If we love Vermont so much, why are we trying to change everything?
The wealthy will be able to enjoy our country farmlands and forests while the working class will be a new “servant class.”
LaBarge: What’s really behind the new Affordable Heat Act
This year legislators changed the name of the vetoed “Clean Heat Standard” to the “Affordable Heat Act” in an attempt to make it more palatable to Vermonters, wink, wink.
Sexton: Baruth says children old enough to decide gender surgery, but too immature to handle guns
Children old enough to choose life-altering surgery, too young to possess firearms?
Roper: $383 million price tag for childcare is a launch pad, not the ceiling
The $383 million acorn is destined to become a might oak.
Kelly: why did VP Kamala omit ‘Life’ from Declaration of Independence speech?
In a recent speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Roe. V. Wade decision, VP Kamala Harris left “life” out of ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.’
Bradley: Firearms possession a second-class right no longer
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 made it clear and the 2023 Vermont Legislature needs to understand:it is no longer constitutionally acceptable to infringe on the rights of honest and law-abiding citizens.
Lesser: Vermont’s windmill-tilting Climate Action Plan
The Perfect Little Climate Conscious State intends to force ordinary Vermonters to upend their lives – and livelihoods – to accomplish nothing except climate virtue signaling and enriching the state’s green energy industry.
Evslin: Average weather is not normal
There is scarcely ever a weather year that is average anywhere.
LaBarge: Answer me this, D/Ps – what is Affordable Housing?
People can’t afford an apartment or house because they have to spend too much on health care, child care, property taxes, food, clothing, heat, electricity, internet, phone service, car registration, car insurance, garbage and recycling fees, gas for their cars, diesel, and sales and use taxes.
Rep. Wilson: Legislature’s misplaced priorities
The demand and priorities of Burlington hold strong, dangerous and inappropriate influence over the whole of Vermont.
Evslin: Debt ceiling compromise we need
There is a way forward with the debt ceiling – but not the path supported by the Wall Street Journal.
McClaughry: NYC building emissions standards infiltrating Vermont?
In New York City, ‘non-compliant’ building owners must buy carbon emissions offsets. Coming to Vermont?
Bean: The real problem with Vermont
We all think we’re just hiding in the hills up here, but it’s time to come down to reality.
Klar: Vermont the Yukon gold rush for fetal tissues
Article 22 guarantees the tissue mine will remain open.
Despathy: GWSA sets the state up to fail
On climate action, there is a line between brave and impudent.
Engineer: Abandon ‘affordable heating’ disaster, move on to hydrogen
There’s been much talk on getting rid of fossil fuel but little sane discussion of replacements.
Keelan: five decades in D.C. too long?
Many will consider me a fool for even questioning the longevity benefit of our Washington Senators.
D’Amico: Anti-trappers seldom right, never in doubt
Actually, foot-not-leg hold traps aren’t particularly painful. But try to tell an anti-trapper that.
McClaughry: Return of the Hidden Milk Tax
This is nothing less than a price control takeover of the Vermont dairy industry.
Klar: VT Tech bans Randolph dad’s screening of trans-skeptical documentary
Vermont Technical College won’t allow the father of a girl who complained about undressing in front of a trans biological male to show a Matt Walsh film, calling it ‘discriminatory.’
Hornblas: on school masks, stop passing the buck
In response to a public records request, the Vermont Agency of Education admitted it has no written evidence for mask safety.
Roper: Clean Heat ‘carbon tax 2.0’ has new name, new number
The shortform name for this year’s version of last year’s Clean Heat Standard bill is now the brazenly misleading “Affordable Heat Act.”
Despathy: Affordable Heating Act a cruel attack
This is beyond a racket.
Brook: SARS-CoV2 deliberate U.S. creation?
Did Tony Fauci foresee almost every detail of the pandemic and pandemic response? Or did he actually help make it happen? Just asking….
Superabundant energy, declining population could mean a bright future
One of Vermont’s pre-eminent tech gurus thinks 2023 could be the start of something very, very good for the world.
Self Defense in Vermont
The logic is simple: criminals want easy victims, they do not want armed adversaries.
Ellis: Homeless issue spells danger for Democrats
The homeless don’t have a home because we, as a society, have not built enough affordable housing, blogger Kevin Ellis warns his fellow Democrats.
Klar: Don’t drink Bill Gates’ glyphosate Kool-Aid
Their corporate creators say new GMOs will save the world by sequestering carbon. Don’t be fooled, farmer John Klar says.
Johnson: Congress a rigged, uniparty dictatorship
The people of the United States elected 432 people to represent them in Congress, yet even before they start their first day at work they are completely controlled, unable to vote their conscience.
Koch: Congress a clown show
The tail continues to wag the dog, and the ten percent continues to deny Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California the votes he needs to get on with the people’s business.
Universal mailed ballots, dropboxes among departing Secretary of State’s top achievements
I am especially proud of how my team here at the Secretary of State’s Office responded during the global pandemic,” departing Secretary of State Jim Condos said.
Kauffman: With Article 22 passed, Baruth and others back minors’ transgender rights
Lawsuits are challenging laws that kick parents out of the village regarding their child’s reproductive experiences and choices.
Keelan: Self-reliant Vermont a relic of the past
Many citizens depend on the government and nonprofit organizations for food, housing, medical/dental, and addiction recovery services.
McClaughry: The Affordable Heating Fraud
With a veto-proof and disciplined 104-38 majority in the House, the Democrats are eager to pass a renamed “Clean Heat Standard” whether Gov. Phil Scott likes it or not.
Evslin: Two lessons half-learned in 2022
We have come a long way from the socks (or was it gloves?) that President Obama sent after Russia’s invasion of Crimea.
Ehlers: $773,000 homes mean Montpelier really doesn’t want affordable housing
$730,000 homes aren’t the solution to Vermont’s affordable housing crisis. But what is?
Rep. Wilson: parental rights, affordability my legislative priorities
Our children must be fully supported and our schools must prioritize parental rights and create a space in which all of our differences in belief systems and values are respected.
Walch: Legislature should “make a plan” that makes us less reliant on electricity
Facing power outages, Vermonters are told to ‘make a plan’ to deal with living in the cold and the dark. So, why doesn’t the Legislature approve more energy diversity, rather than less?
Donahue: Reflections on Article 22 vote
Colonialism and the massacre of indigenous people was not recognized as wrong, because conquerors had the right to claim new lands and new property rights and to kill for that purpose.
Dame: Balint, Welch and VT Democratic Party took big campaign $$ from Bankman-Fried
The Vermont Democrat Party should return the nearly $10k it received from Bankman-Fried, so that law enforcement can use that money to make defrauded investors whole.
Evslin: Nuclear fusion is good news – except to renewable-industrial complex
Suppose you’re in the solar energy or nuclear energy or battery business. Should subsidies continue to flow to you or should we have a Manhattan project to commercialize nuclear fusion given evidence that it can be harnessed?
New York’s new law regulates blogs with ‘hate postings’
“Legislators can fight crime and respond to hate without violating the First Amendment or drafting me into the speech police,” a critic of New York’s new ‘hate speech’ law seeking $1000/day fines says.
Roper: Expand, don’t restrict school choice options
What this means for Vermont is that now other high achieving schools, such as Rice Memorial High School (tuition: $12,214) in Burlington and Christ the King (tuition $5,590) in Rutland are available choices for tuitioning students. That’s a good thing.
Klar: Correcting my harsh commentary about Zuckerman
It appears that I was mistaken in my attack of David Zuckerman, for which I owed him a meeting, and an apology.
Wilton to Milton school board: you’re supposed to manage administration, not the other way around
The Milton school board appears to be managed by the administration, rather than the school board managing the administration as duly elected representatives of Milton’s citizens.
Despathy: Keep Vermont Cool is not so cool
Those Drive Electric ads you see with the huckster trying to sell internal combustion to skeptical Vermonters? The real life hucksters were in St. Johnsbury, trying to sell the Clean Heat Standard.
Evslin: Burning the ships when we still need them
It’s a brave gesture to burn your ships behind you. But what if you still need them to survive?
Keelan: If a 7-year-old can trust and hope, so can we
The boy asked, “Is there any hope that my mother and father could be together at my house on Christmas morning? Can you make this happen, Santa?”
Steidler: Enviro elites ignore needs of postal drivers
Since the USPS announced its plans to replace its vehicles in February 2021, there has been a primal scream from the left for nearly all these vehicles to be electric. But there is seldom any concern about the welfare of postal workers.
McClaughry: Heating Oil Price Crunch
The cost of heating oil rose from $3.30/gallon last October to $5.46 this October. Inventories are at their lowest level since 2008.
Thayer: Zuckerman has questions to answer
The media is not doing their job. They helped create this mess, a former candidate for lieutenant governor says.
Klar: when populism and socialism marry
Increasingly, American mainstream media clamor against “Christian Nationalism.”
McClaughry: Supreme Court has already ruled against local gun control ordinances
Sen. Phil Baruth, the new leader of the Vermont Senate, has publicly announced repeal of the Sportsmen’s Bill of Rights will be considered this session.
Bernie blames news media woes on (who else?) Big Corporations
Bernie Sanders says corporate-owned media aren’t doing enough to cover poverty or the climate crisis.
Warner: ‘Died Suddenly’ examines early deaths in the age of Covid
Instances of myocarditis and pericarditis in young men were occurring among the vaccinated at staggering levels.
Evslin: Less rising seas, more sinking land
Huge populations supposedly threatened by rising seas are actually facing flooding due to sinking land.
Finnie: Thanks for ‘Day of Infamy’ memoir
Former State House security guard urges Capitol flags be flown at half mast on Pearl Harbor Day.
Tarrant: current state constitution a ‘shim-sham show,’ historically speaking
Lincoln’s ‘better angels of our nature’ were absent when the Vermont State Constitution was amended in 1870, 1913, and 2022.
Brook: Ferguson study justifies any flu season as ‘pandemic’
A study by a ‘father’ of lockdown policy suggests the pandemic potential of a flu virus should be largely based upon the very high number of people who have either no symptoms or negligible symptoms. Huh?
Williams: Vermont, the Biomedical Security State?
Since the pandemic, Vermont is looking more and more like what Dr. Aaron Kheriaty calls ‘the Biomedical Security State.’
Despathy: Climate change & cobalt blood money
Vermont is aiding and abetting an industry with unethical, destructive and cruel practices beyond our comprehension.
Klar: Trans Randolph student admits staring at disrobing girls was “retaliation”
“The first thing I hear is “Rabbit, get out! What are you doing in here? Shut up!” and like “I don’t want you to see,” or whatever and so I retaliated at this point because this is the second time that they had been indescribably rude to me and my gender identity.”
Siegel: ‘Brave enough to lose’ race for governor, now focused on issues
To lose is hard. To walk into the fire with your eyes wide open is hard.
Keelan: from crypto to EVs, tech-driven changes need second look
The Big Brains running Big Tech are making Big Mistakes.
McClaughry: Johnstown Flood of bills will sweep through Vermont State House
The Democrat-led House and Senate now have the power to drive through any measure decided upon by its leaders, spurred on by their clamoring interest groups.
Evslin: Legislators must First Do No Harm
Advocates of climate change legislation believe the price of fossil fuel is too low to give Vermonters an economic incentive to switch.
Smith: Living off the grid not so simple
Grid customers and utilities have a long way to go to understand how this new system would actually work.
Higley: December 1 deadline for rule on 2035 ban on new gas-powered vehicles
Dec. 1 is the deadline for Agency of Natural Resources adoption of a rule banning gasoline-powered new vehicle sales and registration in just over 12 years.
‘Scribblings’: VT House Dem leaders heavy-handed on rank-and-file
Vermont House Democrats are like the dog that finally caught the car.
Eight-year-old shamed in Vermont school over pronouns
The problem for the eight-year-old boy is that his brain does not warp like the warped dimensions of gender pronouns.
Evslin: Trump was the middle finger of the proletariat
There are important reasons why almost half the voters supported Trump in 2016 and 2020 and why so many remain loyal to him today.
McClaughry: Election Aftershocks
The Republican membership of the House sank from 43 to 38, with no bright new faces among them.
Libertoff: Maple syrup, Thanksgiving, and Small World connections
While my culinary standards are low, I refuse to eat pancakes without Vermont maple syrup.After making derogatory remarks about the fake stuff, I produced my cherished Morse Farm container.
Despathy: To meet carbon ‘goals,’ Vermont will play the corporate carbon credit game
Faux solutions will not offer real Vermont emissions reduction, nor will it make water and air cleaner or reduce ubiquitous microplastics.
Benning: To elect candidates, VT GOP must move on from Trump
If the VTGOP is to survive and thrive, we’d best be moving on.
Support Trump in 2024 – or not?
Dangerous to the entrenched bureaucracy or toxic leader? Readers weigh in – and so can you.
Meyers: Balint team falsely called Molly Gray ‘homophobic’
VTDigger’s coverage of the 2022 race for Congress was not a Watergate moment.
McClaughry: Three useful election law improvements
Multi-member districts make for appallingly issue-free elections.
Keelan: for local soccer coach, uncommon service was a common virtue
State trooper, school board member, selectman, soccer coach, husband, dad. Uncommon service indeed.
Evslin: Phil Scott wins huge victory – and now has an even huger job ahead of him
Democrats are already discussing huge unfunded mandates, “environmental” legislation which will drive up energy costs and hurt the environment, and schemes which will make housing more expensive and less available.
Koch: Democracy at stake when ballots are counted
Joe Stalin said what matters isn’t who votes, but who counts the votes.
Lindberg: Feel good about banning slavery? Not so fast
African children are forced to dig up cobalt, essential for EV batteries, with their bare hands.
Fireovid: Republicans, let’s talk about abortion
The Vermont Republican Party has now put many other important rights – parental rights (including school choice), gun ownership rights, religious freedom, freedom of speech, medical choice – in grave peril.
Tucker: The economic disaster of the pandemic response
It seemed to be widely believed in 2020 that the best approach to pandemics was to institute massive human coercion.
Beerworth: Planned Parenthood spent big on misleading Article 22 advertising
Passage of the Article 22 amendment now permanently shields Planned Parenthood’s abortion business from any oversight or state limitations at any time throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
McClaughry: Biden’s idea of our fiscal future
The on-paper deficit reduction in the Inflation Reduction Act is totally wiped out by the administration’s decision to cancel vast swaths of student loan debt.
Ellis: Democratic Dilemma
Democrats have lost control of the narrative, a Democrat and former lobbyist and newspaper reporter says.
Thayer: Help the Red Wave roll across the Green Mountain State
In these closing days of the 2022 mid-term elections, the Red Wave must hit as a tsunami throughout the Green Mountain State.
Klar: Randolph school officials lied to student in pursuit of Blake Allen, another mom says
Charges of deception by school officials in the Randolph high school volleyball locker room story.
Sign-stealing illegal, discouraging, expensive
A campaign sign for Republican House candidate is tossed to the ground while those of Democrats are left standing.








