The bar for charging police officers with a crime is now so low the expectation is that any use of force could be twisted into a criminal case, the former Director of the Vermont State Police says.
When you give something to people and require no payback of any sort, you dehumanize them. You create an imbalanced relationship. People must have a measure of responsibility and investment in their own lives.
The dishonesty displayed by Vermont’s extremist Woke-ists has been on full, possibly libelous display in the Blake Allen case.
Vermont’s supermajority just put Vermont on the path to significantly higher home heating fuel, despite the veto of Governor Phil Scott. But don’t expect the controversy to end there.
Vermont Bill H-386 is seeking to reduce the Vermont Constitutional Requirements of the voting age in Brattleboro.
An in depth look at how reporters mislead citizens to promote a political agenda.
Sportsmen, and women, and the Fish and Wildlife Department have brought this renewable resource to where it is today, since it was all almost wiped out by land clearing for farming in the mid to late 1800s.
Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.
Do we care what it takes to get us an EV or a kilowatt of electricity? Vermont has been in denial. The cost is too great for this to continue.
When a pro-choice leader announced “our autonomy over our bodies is not up for discussion,” it sent a clear signal: If you are pro-life in Vermont, your judgments do not matter. That’s a big mistake.
One interest group fared extraordinarily well during the just-completed legislative session. That’s the interest group comprised of Representatives and Senators.
Increasingly and oddly in these days of supposed inclusivity, Mascots of Color need not apply. And if one already has the job, prepare to be eliminated.
The racist ideology of “The White Man’s Burden” has permeated our public schools, universities and other establishment institutions and is mortally wounding the future for Black American children.
Mostly the childcare bill just costs too much. But it also intrudes Big Government into a sphere of life best handled by small business and families.
You did not explicitly say you would do these things when you ran your political campaigns. We Vermonters were not marching in the streets demanding that you do these things to us.
To cover all this drunken sailor activity by the supermajority, the Democrats and Progressives are just asking you to, as always, “pay just a little bit more.”
Having double-minded men and women administering two-standards of justices is nothing new in American politics.
Ensuring a sustainable, realistic budget wisely appropriated for the good of all must be a primary goal. This did not happen this session.
And why job loss from AI is still a problem.
The real danger here is that the “24,000 job vacancy” myth feeds the “40,000 new homes needed” myth, creating a false sense of urgency.
The Vermont House and Senate often disagree on what priorities should be or the best way to pay for a program, but on this point they heartily agree: they themselves deserve a lot more money.
The Legislature just budgeted tens of millions of dollars to create new state jobs. Too bad it couldn’t have kept more retired military instate by exempting their pensions from taxes.
VTDigger has presented a biased perspective on gender-affirming industry ‘shield laws,’ H.89 and S.37, into law on May 10th by Governor Scott.
I decided to watch the Louder With (Steven) Crowder coverage and play along to the drinking game with a nice Temperanillo and cigar.
Vermont wouldn’t be Vermont without Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys militia.
Vermont already has a two-cent excise tax on heating oil, kerosene and dyed diesel. It raises about $5 million per year. So, a per gallon surcharge on home heating fuels would have to raise about sixty times that amount to pay for the Clean Heat Standard mandates, or $1.20 per gallon. That’s just math, folks!
“Let us hope that the ghost of no SVHC Trustee will ever come back and say if only I had done my job.”
While listening to Committee testimony and Floor readings on H.89 and S.37, I heard witnesses and legislators toss the words “evidence-based” like pizza dough, except there was no crust.
Allocating harm where it does the most good.
The red hot policy issue in the state right now is S.5, the (un)Affordable Heat bill passed by the Democratic supermajority in the House and Senate. Gov. Scott vetoed it last Thursday.
Founder of anti-natural gas plant group says S.5 is all about establishing market share for fracked gas.
This program is extremely expensive and extremely regressive. It will cause a lot of pain for Vermont’s most vulnerable citizens, and will achieve exactly NOTHING in regard to solving Global Warming.
Gibbs exposes dangers and deceptions within the “green” energy-related movement hijacked by corporations and investors out to make a profit.
When I emigrated to this country, at age 27, I spoke French as my mother tongue and Dutch as a second language. I knew a few medical terms in English but was unable to order my groceries at the store.
Reporting of side effects isn’t required under Vermont’s “ostrich-head-in-the-sand” aid-in-dying law.
The Town of Hartford Select Board has adopted a new committee to assess the town for its racial and marginalized persons scorecard.
Census data shows blue states losing people and income to red states.
Law-abiding citizens who are under threat have a right to defend themselves, and to quote Martin Luther King: “A right delayed is a right denied”.
Democrat rule has placed Vermont in hospice while we wait for it to die like every other Democrat-run hell-hole in America.
A key lawmaker admits S.5 won’t do much to reduce global carbon emissions. So why does she still support it?
Governor Scott often is the voice of forgotten Vermonters and has become the conscience of the state.
The arrogant and “we know best” attitude that has now consumed our legislature is by far the worst in Vermont’s history.
Punishing and charging fossil fuel dealers to “pay” to continue to distribute their necessary products is cruel and will result in higher costs to Vermonters for heating fuel.
Those that heat with wood, electricity, or natural gas receive special treatment and become a protected class in S.5 while continuing to pour carbon into the atmosphere.
The case for frugal use of old cars and trucks.
In plain English, if you believe you are unfairly or extralegally regulated by a Federal agency, you now have a constitutional right to have that dispute settled by an independent third party judge
Promise that “nothing would move forward without affirmative action by the future legislature,” is shown to be very, very false.
Democrats have become emboldened to not only ignore the voices of the Republican minority, but they have now decided that they do not need to listen to the very voters who elected them to office.
Efficiency Vermont is another classic Vermont case whereby a nonprofit can capture large hundreds of millions of dollars with little input from the public about where and how the money is spent.
As many of you were yesterday upon hearing Fox News Network was “parting ways” with Tucker Carlson, the shock was sudden but the surprise was short-lived.
Artificial intelligence is the same kind of challenge to the (over-) educated class that globalization was to those without a college degree.
The Clean Heat Standard bill (S.5) is designed to shield the law from the charge of being a carbon tax – although it will have precisely the same effect on consumers.
If current legislation passes, more dairy farms will go under, landlords will continue to raise rents, energy, health care and transportation costs will rise,. We will see more lawsuits against the State of Vermont and a doubled salary increase for the legislators.
Supporters reject amendment capping price impact at 20¢ per gallon for heating fuel.
The handling of the pandemic has resulted in a sorely divided population.
We must address the regulatory barriers that exist on the local and state level, including reducing the barriers to environmentally thoughtful development that have been caused by Act 250.
Instead of heeding numerous warnings with the threat of being towed, students decided to do what they do best: dismantle barriers.
The bill will exacerbate climate change, impair human health, and add to the biodiversity crisis.
Calling a bill that would add $630 to individual Vermonters’ heating bills the “Affordable Heating Act” is disingenuous.
Firearms purchase waiting periods don’t reduce suicides, but they do put people in danger and threaten to end gun shows
Of all the malevolent findings, the most prominent is the action the vaccine takes against human reproduction.
It’s clear the process is broken. Status quo can no longer be an excuse.
There is a distinct possibility that the paradise that is Vermont is on the verge of being lost. Legislators in the Statehouse are considering a bill (S.100) that will force dense housing over rural lands.
When this year’s significant housing bill, S.100, arrived at the House’s Committee on Housing, many of the members were looking forward to conducting thoughtful legislation to collaborate and make it possible to increase the housing stock in our state.
Columnist George Will will speak at the Ethan Allen Institute dinner May 31. What would his speech sound like if written by ChatGPT? Could you tell the difference?
H.230 specifically targets the LGBTQ+ community for gun control, in the name of suicide prevention.
According to the Tax Foundation, in 2022 Vermont already had the 4th highest state and local tax burden in the country at 13.6 percent. But, oh, wait till next year!
I have grave concerns that Vermonters cannot sustain the nearly one-half billion dollar increase in spending over the next two years.
A disturbing new report from the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) adds to growing concerns about global leaders pushing to normalize pedophilia.
Who do you know who is slated to get a raise of 23% plus? Answer: Your local legislator! And what’s more, that’s only part of the story—it gets worse!
The current supermajority rules and it is all about programs and committees, out-of-state agendas, and a huge growing bureaucracy. Who really stands to benefit? The very few elites.
Why not? Who cares if it’s ridiculous and unconstitutional?
The term convention of states (COS) can be confusing to the average citizen given its vague federal and constitutional implications. What are the risks if any?
Doubtless this new religion will eventually be challenged by American secular jurisprudence. The outcome of that court battle will determine whether America remains a land of the Constitutionally free.
H89 and S37, the so-called shield bills, do not extend equal personal reproductive protection as required under Article 22.
Could the real existential threat to Vermont maple syrup be very actions taken to prevent climate change?
Government should allow and encourage (not require, not subsidize) more building of less expensive housing including rental units.
It is becoming so clear that the Democratic/Progressives want to control everything: healthcare, wages, vehicles, food, guns, our children, religion, lightbulbs and even straws.
50% of (birth-registered) males experience complications from gender-assignment surgery – pain, surgical site bleeding, urinary dysfunction, sexual dysfunction. For (birth-registered) females, hysterectomy causes sterility.
Virginia is for part-time legislature lovers – thirty calendar days in odd years and sixty in even years.
With the pool of future accountants already thinning, ESG will add another layer of distracting responsibility. And the fraudsters are waiting.
Banning sales of certain classes of firearms because they can be used in mass shootings – the so-called “assault weapons” ban – was tried for ten years with approximately zero positive results.
The problem is that independent pharmacies are getting paid less than what it costs to fill the prescription for the patient.
I became a self-avowed atheist. Not just a happy-go-lucky atheist. A radical atheist – one that reveled in the oratorical brilliance of Hitchens as he verbally dismantled cohorts of Christian apologists.
At what point do dump fees become so high that people leave their household trash and old couch on the side of the road? Especially if they are feeding their children, or feeding an addiction.
The enviros are sometimes willing to allow more more housing in urban areas – but never, ever out in the countryside.
Conceived in Liberty and born to immigrant parents in 1776, America died today after a brief illness. For many, it is hard to believe that she is gone.
“Rules for thee and not for we” seems the motto of the day.
There are so many reasons for compassionate, conservation-minded people to oppose S.5 – pick at least one and tell your House representative, Alison Despathy advises.
America’s rising, out-of-control crime wave claims a growing number of Postal Service workers as victims of robberies, beatings and even murder.
House committee clarifies it’s a (very limited) “throttle down.”
You, like me, may not even bother to look out the windows on a daily basis to lament the sad goings on in our world.
S. 5 would negatively impact the price of heating fuel or bring collateral damage to Vermonters, small businesses and our economy as a whole.
These anti-hunting activists have decided their fellow citizens merit no regard, including even the simple courtesy of a civil debate as is evidenced by elitist, segregationist statements.
Gone are the days of Martin Luther King Jr.’s colorblind society.
Whereas progressive European countries are pursuing science-based policies, the VPA is listening only to wildly biased, unscientific opinions of ideological activists.
Authentic Vermont embodies agriculture, self-sufficiency and independence, a strong work ethic, healthy communities and families, faith and honorable values and fiscal responsibility.
The Sunk Cost Fallacy is the notion that once an entity invests in something, it becomes harder to walk away from it.
Vermont legislators are set to expand Article 22, “personal reproductive liberty”, without voter approval or a day in court.
Sen. Ram Hinsdale urges readiness to house massive numbers of climate refugees.
