What Vermonters DON’T need from the Legislature is added stress on our police shortage and energy costs.
Roper: Senators admit Clean Heat Standard is a carbon tax
Just before approving the Clean Heat Standard bill, two key Vermont senators agree: John McClaughry got it right, it really is a carbon tax.
Bucknam: H659 supporter wrong about GOP ‘pure hatred’
It’s not ‘hatred’ to oppose a bill that allows children to make serious, lifelong changes to their bodies without parental permission.
Thayer: Public school parents, claim your right to know
Parents of school children need to know and claim their right to know what the8r children are learning.
Burning bush updated
Moses and the Burning Bush, as imagined for the Woke Age by Dan Jeffries.
Imprimus: The Continuing Importance of Thomas Sowell
Today’s public charter schools, which often have predominantly low-income black and Hispanic student bodies, are successors to the high-achieving black schools that Sowell researched more than 40 years ago.
Dame: H715, the Upcoming Mystery Tax
The Clean Heat Standard would intentionally make every kind of home heating fuel more expensive – but we just don’t know how to calculate the increase, or what the total amount will be.
Do we really want to change the Vermont Constitution? Part 2
Prop 5 will open a constitutional can of worms on women’s health, mothers’ rights, and fathers’ rights.
Mazur: ‘Voting mules’ cast 5 million ballots
A film by Dinesh D’Souza claims ‘voting mules’ were paid for harvesting and delivering millions of ballots in the 2020 election in key battleground states.
Bernie Sanders On BLM Founder: ‘No One Should Get Rich Enough Off Politics To Buy Multiple Homes’
Buying a $6 million mansion is an “outrage,” said the junior senator from Vermont from one of his three homes.
Luebke: there’s a Fox in Vermont’s Election Hen House
The Vermont Secretary of State’s office “found no problem” with a Progressive House Caucus leader opening sealed ballot bags on Election Night, a Pawlet Republican says.
The Case for Easter
History and logic are on the side of the most otherwise fantastic event in human history.
Dame: Dems, Progs think parents are the problem
House Bill H.659 would allow elementary school children to take hormone blockers and other gender drugs against the will of their parents.
McClaughry: Senate bill attacks tuition choice
S219 puts tight guardrails on tuition choice, especially to “egregiously religious schools.”
Brook: consumers need more recycling info
From the consumer’s point of view, recycling in Vermont leaves many important questions unanswered.
Babylon Bee: AOC Drafts Legislation Opposing Ghost Guns – ‘Ghosts Don’t Even Need Guns Since They’re Dead Already’
Ghosts are scary enough already, AOC claims.
Hansen: Clean Heat Standard increases carbon emissions and class divide
The Clean Heat Standard penalizes the already chronically-abused Vermont middle class.
VT Underground: The Great Tribulation
VT Undergound is waiting for the final gavel to fall.
Kerrin: VT sex trade tied to drug gangs, and it’s everywhere
The City of Burlington won’t acknowledge this charter change sets the stage for prostitution decriminalization statewide.
McClaughry: Bill McKibben backtracks on nuclear
A decade ago climate activists like Bill McKibben were hair-on-fire to close Vermont’s largest producer of carbon-free electricity. Now the 350.org thought-leader is having second thoughts.
Bananas: Wash your brain for good personal grooming
JB describes many helpful techniques for a good brainwashing. You’ll feel so much better when it’s done.
VT Underground: What is a woman?
This used to be an easy question….
Hansen: facilitate, don’t force energy transition
Who benefits from the forced transition to electric vehicles? Who loses?
McLinden: Qualified immunity protects you and me
Qualified Immunity is not intended to give police a free pass in violating the rights of others. It is intended to protect officers from a flood of frivolous lawsuits that would make it difficult and potentially financially ruinous to perform their jobs.
Keelan: a second home in the mountains
It’s not for sale, and the $10 million annual upkeep of this summer home doesn’t include the security service. But that three-hole golf course is really something.
VT Underground
Just so I understand….
Thayer: Budget growth of $1 billion in just one year unsustainable
The Democratic leadership’s priorities need major adjustment. Stop trying to be all things to all people.
Dame: Dems in Legislature wants to control flagpole in Barre
The Donut Democrats continue to prove they have lost the middle by putting ideology ahead of constituents and true freedom and unity.
Fernandez: Bernie at large and considered dangerous
Bernie’s idol was the early 20th century demagogue who said, ‘patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.’
McClaughry: Legislature pushes big changes in last six weeks of biennium
The Legislature is moving fast on big items with longterm consequences for Vermont property owners and taxpayers.
Dodge: Why change the Vermont Constitution?
Prop 5 is an open door for ideologies about multi-gender marriage, surrogacy, gender changes, insurance coverage, education, sex trafficking, competitive sports, and healthcare to name a few.
Klar: ‘Environmental justice’ bill creates More Imperfect Union
A Senate bill redistributes the cost of environmental pollution from the city mice to the country mice. Because, Vermont’s systemic racism.
Ryan: pot store burglaries may be cartel power play
If/when Vermont legal pot stores are hit by robbers, Vermont law enforcement should take note of lessons learned in Northern California: the thieves might be Sinaloa cartel operatives trying to rub out the competition.
Klar: In Vermont, can’t say ‘let’s kill all the lawyers’ anymore
If S265 passes, best be careful what you say about politicians – you could be sent to jail, John Klar says.
Frenier: there’s a solution to religious/woke school dilemma
Vermont officials seem surprised to learn that many Vermont taxpayers, myself included, do not want their tax dollars used for woke indoctrination.
Editorial: Balint and Ram talk big about housing – but have no right to
Two Democratic senators who want to go to Congress say a bill they passed shows they care about creating affordable housing. The bill, and their voting records, say otherwise.
Roper: VT short 4300 weatherization workers needed to make ‘clean heat credits’
There needs to be a measure of reality for “clean heat credits.”
Bananas: Help Wanted – GRASS for my dog
Save Rynancy!
Sexton: no fake Republicans
Fight the abortion and anti-gun culture and everyone who supports it – including the fake Republicans.
Roper: Scott admin pushes Senate for follow-up Clean Heat Standard vote
Will Phil Scott drop the veto hammer on the Clean Heat Standard if it lacks a follow-up report? Time will tell.
Babylon Bee: Psaki Reminds Reporters That Biden Doesn’t Speak For The President Of The United States
Fake news site Babylon Bee reports on the growing chaos in Ukraine – and in Joe Biden’s statements about it.
From VT Underground:
Jim Jeffords was a Republican when he was elected, but not when it counted when the US Senate chose the next majority leader. Since then, Vermont conservatives have been gunshy of liberal Senate candidates. Will 2022 be different?
Dame: Laws should make government affordable, accountable, flexible
There are three things that fundamentally separate Vermont Republicans from the Progressive Democrat alliance that currently controls the legislature; affordability, accountability and flexibility.
Evslin: Fracking saved our freedom
Without fracking, we’d be at Putin’s mercy. And Iran’s.
Colburns: Climate Action Plan will put VT farmers out of business
Shame on the 96 House legislators for voting against waiting for a year for a report on the impact of the Clean Heat Standard.
Despathy: discrimination and segregation during the “pandemic of the unvaccinated”
The unvaccinated in Vermont have endured massive verbal and emotional abuse from state leaders, experts, neighbors and community members.
King: Famine looms. Why won’t political elites say so?
There is a rough road ahead for the world. Our political class isn’t leveling with us.
Martineau: My View from Montpeculiar
Reaganism: “Either You control your government, or it will control You.” Hear that, Burlington?
Thayer: What it means to be Republican
Since the inception of the GOP in 1854, Republicans have supported “We the People,” not “We the Government.”
Fernandez: No media coverage, but the Israel-Palestine conflict still rages
While Russia is portrayed as the vicious predator over a smaller state, the liberal media consistently portrays the small Jewish state of Israel as the unjust regime.
Evslin: We cannot afford for Ukraine to lose
Evslin on how to defeat Putin.
Is the Electric Vehicle for you?
EVs require nickel produced in a Siberian slave labor camp and lithium mined from polluting Tibetan mines. Still feeling virtuous about buying one?
Sanders names names on corporate greed
While the world complains about Russian oligarchs, Bernie Sanders is crying ‘outrage’ on their American brethren.
Dame: Pretending crime doesn’t exist
Over the past two years Democrats in Montpelier and Washington have tried to ‘reduce crime’ by making fewer things a crime!
Klar: Agricultural reset begins with food, famine, and fear
Food security will be the future battleground in America. Gun owners will surrender their weapons with a food buy-back plan.
Klar: ‘Climate salvation fantasy’ H606 would make 50% of VT an ecological reserve
A recent Vermont legislative initiative purports to save the planet…. by “conserving” fifty percent of all Vermont territory for wildlife by 2050!
Evslin: Legislature’s zeal for higher energy prices ignores inflation, war
Tom Evslin thinks the Legislature should look $4.81/gallon home heating oil and declare ‘mission accomplished’ on their strenuous efforts to make fossil fuels more expensive.
Desperate times…..
Orange Hair Intimidating?
Rep. Sally Achey: Clean Heat Standard designed to drive up heating bills
The objective of the Clean Heat Standard is to make using fossil fuels for home heating so prohibitively expensive that people give it up for other options.
Roper: Legislature ducks accountability for disastrous energy bill
Just like Act 46, the school merger law, the Clean Heat Standard shifts policy-making power to an unappointed board. If something goes wrong (again), will legislators just wring their hands (again)?
Vermont leads the way (?)
Once again Vermont is leading the way….or taking one for the team… or something.
EV’s awful, embedded environmental costs
Making a single EV auto battery requires 500,000 pounds of ore – including some mined by children in dangerous mines in the Congo.
Gun seizure violates ‘probable cause’ protection in Constitution
The Constitution allows property seizure based on ‘probable cause’ that a crime has been committed. S4, the gun seizure bill, fails that standard.
High gas prices = ‘conservation’
Some legislators are okay with the high cost of gasoline because it promotes conservation. How about you?
At least he got the lollipop
Anthony Fauci is all in on all future Covid-19 injections.
Rejected Barre votes transcribed by hand: questions raised, answers given
133 votes were rejected by the tabulator at the Barre City Meeting, Clerk Carolyn Dawes ordered them transcribed and tabulated. Former candidate Brian Judd asks penetrating questions about what happened and why.
Bananas: Fill out those brackets for this year’s anti-Christ
March madness is already here. Vegas odds on the identity of the Anti-Christ!
Thayer: Parents stood up at Town Meeting
Do you know what is going on in your local schools? On your local schoolboards? In your local district’s administration offices? These courageous parent candidates did not either, until one day they started to listen, pay attention, and ask questions.
Jericho woman met Mother Theresa in Calcutta, urges lawmaker to support unborn
Mother Teresa’s voice was soft as she spoke to us— I sat literally at her feet on the cool concrete and contemplated her gnarled hands and bare toes.
Condos: Sunshine isn’t enough to combat election ‘myths’
Condos and Winters remind us that public faith in government has plummeted to its lowest level since the Nixon era.
House overrides veto of Brat 16-year-old voter bill
The House of Representatives today overrode Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of a bill allowing 16-year-olds to vote and hold office in Brattleboro.
Let’s hope so…..
Warner: a personal case for prayer
Aaron Warner was homeless and living in a friend’s garage when he decided to inquire of the Creator’s willingness to help.
Keelan: so many crises, so little unity
Every issue crisis is framed as ‘number one.’ Our leaders focus on the loudest cause-seeker who has their immediate attention.
Redic: The right to bear arms and Ukraine
The assault on the right to bear arms, whether from Ukrainians or Vermonters, neither secures borders nor restrains “dangerous behavior.”
Point/Counterpoint on Postal Reform
Everyone agrees postal service is getting worse and worse. Two national experts discuss whether a bill passed by Congress will fix the real problem or just make it worse.
McClaughry: John Kerry talks climate amid Ukraine crisis
Sure hope the war and death in Ukraine doesn’t make Important People lose focus on climate change, John Kerry says.
Strong: Proposal 5 gives autonomous right to something that takes two people
Autonomy means “having the freedom to govern oneself or control your own affairs.” But, scientifically speaking, reproduction takes two people.
Virologist: COVID race stats need review
Although the dominant official and media narrative says Covid-19 harms more black people than white people, the actual data says otherwise.
Bananas: How to be an anti-racist, Vermont style
Whiteness is an essential feature of systemically racist Vermont, particularly in winter, where the outdoor topography can be seen covered in soft blankets of snow, knitted by an equally racist Mother Nature.
Dame: this war is Putin’s fault, not Biden’s
Pretty refreshing to see a national leader grab for a rifle instead of a ride out of town. Would ours do the same for us?
Evslin: call the Russian Bear’s bluff
Vladimir Putin NEEDS to export oil and gas. If he didn’t, he’d have threatened to cut off NATO Europe weeks ago. Call his bluff.
McClaughry: Expanding parental choice in education
The Supreme Court said the state must pay tuition to sectarian schools, if that’s what the parent wants. Because, school choice. But the Vermont Senate Education Committee chair says students and staff must be “protected” from religious schools.
Thayer: As gas prices soar, so does Progressive desire to tax more
Progressives will make our gas crisis worse, not better.
Jesses: Under Proposal 5, do Black Lives Matter?
Where’s the racial equity in black/white abortion statistics?
Granite Grok: Offensive words, take 3 million – ‘Gypsy Moth’
From now on, get used to protecting your trees from the annual infestation of the Spongy Moth.
Evslin: Stop buying Russian oil – and consider no-fly zone, too
Stop buying Russian oil? Heck yes! And, Tom Evslin won’t ‘just say no-fly zone.’
Climate plan all pain, no gain
The legislators fashioning this red-hot poker of a policy know just how painful it will be for their constituents.
Dame: Dems plan tax relief for wealthy, not for nurses, seniors, and veterans
Plenty of tax relief for wealthy parents, but none for nurses, seniors and veterans – that’s the legislative majority’s plan, Paul Dame says.
Keelan: Burlington’s Hole in the Ground
Lack of an adequate policing, a gaping hole in the city, and vacating retailers have dulled the luster of Vermont’s Queen City.
Achey: Why I voted no on the Clean Heat Standard
We soon learned we have no authority or ability to force out-of-state fuel dealers to buy Vermont credits. The only alternative was to stick a whole bunch of local mom & pop fuel dealerships with the mandate to buy credits.
Bananas: Grand Opening of my new restaurant
Chek out the restroom graffiti in Johnny’s new communism-themed restaurant.
Evslin: Ukrainian bravery will unite the US
Welcome to the Freedom Tent, Bernie! The more the merrier.
Bucchieri: S265 treats public servants like privileged elites
Advice to elected officials: if you can’t take the heat, don’t take the seat.
The ‘threat’ of American social media…..
Vladimir Putin comes clean on the Fifth Column.
Thayer: S-30 veto was right call
Less firearms restrictions on law-abiding citizens, more prison sentences for criminals.
Bradley: Zoom keeps public out of “public” hearings
The Senate and Natural Resources and Energy Committee Feb 10 online “public hearing” on hunting and trapping bills was anything but public.
Hillary’s not-so-great reset
In 2009, then-Secretary of State offered a literal ‘reset button’ to her Russian counterpart. Once again, our Democratic leaders have let the Russians push our buttons.
Tebbetts & Kurrle: VT farms need workers, capital, local food outlets
To emerge strong from the pandemic, Vermont farmers needs more workers, capital, and local outlets for their products.
Evslin: To defeat Putin, we must win the Energy War
This is a war we must win. The only hope for winning without actual fighting – and this may be a vain hope – is to take wartime measures to defang Russia by relieving European dependency on Russia’s gas and oil.
