For years Vermont’s climate change warriors have urged driving up oil and natural gas prices to force consumers to weatherize, and switch to alternatives such as “cold climate heat pumps” and advanced wood pellet furnaces.
Flemming: Is Vermont media coverage really worse now than 10 years ago?
In his gushing over VTDigger, Walters neglects to mention the most positive media development of the past few years: the inception of conservative media in Vermont.
Commentary: Clean Heat Standard would have afflicted Vermont farmers fighting global famine
A capacity for local food production means that when times get tough, Vermont will have affordable nourishing food and will limit hunger in our communities.
ACLU: are Vermont’s prosecutors not reporting bad cops?
Elected prosecutors have a major role to play in holding police accountable for misconduct. That can include pressing criminal charges when police abuse their power and violate civil rights – something prosecutors rarely elect to do.
The New Fascism, Part III – Vermont’s Clean Heat Standard was corporate-driven legislation
Replacing fossil fuels with environmentally-unfriendly biofuels, without clear limits, would have created serious problems.
Evslin: An overabundance of caution is excessive
When it’s just plain dangerous to shut down nuclear power plants, baby formula factories, and schools “due to an abundance of caution.”
Tynio: add school security, build citizen proficiency with firearms
Considering that shootings have also taken place at many locations outside of schools, I wish to encourage law abiding citizens to become proficient with firearms and to carry them whenever possible.
McClaughry: Is there a sea level rise problem?
I got to thinking, the level of Lake Champlain varies by six feet over the course of each year, and that’s been going on since Champlain first visited here in 1609.
Dame: Dem solution to school shootings easy to explain, won’t solve underlying problem
Democrats act as if the solution to school shootings is to either take some guns away from all people, or take all guns away from some people.
Klar: China controls vital diesel fuel additive, and we’re running short
DEF is an emissions control liquid required by the EPA in diesel engines manufactured after 2010 as an “aftertreatment technology” to reduce vehicle emissions.
Proposal 5 has nothing to do with Roe V. Wade
Although advocates of Proposal 5 often cite respect for Roe v. Wade as a rallying cry, what they are calling for is, instead, a radical departure from that Supreme Court precedent.
Bananas: My dog is a bigoted bully
I am writing to seek help with my dog who has been revealing himself to be a bigoted, racist, transphobic, bully, and I don’t know what to do.
Despathy: the New Fascism being sold as ‘public-private partnership’
Why was Sen. Patrick Leahy at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos last month?
Madden: does Becca Balint get her facts right before she takes a position?
It’s easy to advocate for things that prove you’re on the “right side,” even when what we should be doing is telling more complex stories.
McClaughry: Farewell to Scary Mary
Ms. Jankowicz is a voluble and sharp tongued 33 year old social media activist from the nether regions of the Democratic Party, eager to wield the hammer of the Biden Ministry of Truth.
Benning: Clean Heat Standard wrong tool for the job
The only thing using the wrong tool of the Clean Heat Standard would accomplish would be to drive a substantial portion of our population into financial distress.
Krauss: legislators, accept the pay sacrifice
For the benefit of the institution of a citizen legislature, please accept the temporary financial discomfort, serve your time honorably, and then go back to gainful employment as thousands of legislators past and present have done.
Thayer: Act NOW to protect school children
Many of the modern pharmaceutical drugs used to treat these specific conditions carry warnings that people taking them may experience suicidal or homicidal thoughts.
McClaughry: Stare decisis and Roe V. Wade
Justice Alito noted especially, among the cases overturned, the notorious Plessy v. Ferguson decision (1896) that upheld racial segregation on railroad coaches.
Despathy: What the New Fascism looks like
Could fascism be stealth – hidden in plain sight, sold to the people by offering protection, security, services, justice and aid?
Johnny B Patriarchy Profile: Satan Klaus
The WEF meeting began to fill with the A-list of the super-rich, so elite you won’t find their numbers in the Yellow Pages because they exchange them in their little black books on Epstein Island.
Keelan: Dems threw a bone, no-one took it
The many organizers behind the Clean Heat Standard are intelligent, committed to the doctrine of climate change, and have substantial in-state and out-of-state financial resources.
Flemming: Mass shooting deaths lower in U.S. than in some European countries
As far as the chances of dying in a mass public shooting, the US stacks up favorably vs. most European countries. Our rate still falls in the bottom half.
Guard schools with ex-Marines, former Marine and Congress candidate says
Banning assault weapons won’t do much more than tick off conservatives.
Corrected updates – Peyton: Until political violence from the left and the right ends, we’ll keep our guns
With governmental violence what it is, arming up is the very wisest thing the people can do.
Klar: ‘Progressive’ Montpelier taxes the poor, rewards the rich
Vermont’s EV car program is supported regressively by diverting tax dollars from low-income Vermonters to finance fancy “planet-saving” cars that no regular Vermonter could afford until it is ready for the junk yard.
Balint: march for federal gun laws
The Senate must end the filibuster, then expand background checks and waiting periods for people who do not pass a background check.
Davis: banning semi-autos won’t work – here’s why
The ‘gun violence epidemic’ parallels the obesity epidemic, the drug abuse epidemic, and is a direct reflection of the entitled, cynical, and nihilistic view held by a large chunk of Americans.
Sexton: it takes a good person with a gun to stop a bad person with a gun
We are rolling the dice every day the schools are not protected.
Warner: why I bought a gun after moving to Vermont
Unlike the West Coast city I grew up in, I learned gunshots in Vermont meant someone was either practicing or putting food on the table.
Bradley: 1994 assault weapons ban ‘had no discernible impact on gun crime’
The leading study on the effectiveness of the 1994 ban stated: “In general we found, really, very, very little evidence, almost none, that gun violence was becoming less lethal and less injurious during this time frame. So on the balance, we concluded that the ban had not had a discernible impact on gun crime during the years it was in effect.”
Dodge: don’t tax the poor to change their behavior
The Clean Heat Standard is like raising taxes on sugary beverages: taxing the poor to change purchasing behaviors.
Evslin: Good News for Democracy
The good news is that state courts this year have reversed some egregious gerrymanders.
Is ‘Let’s Go Brandon!’ fair game at school sporting events?
Schools can prohibit foul language, but any child can see that this language is simply not foul.
Sexton: won’t join Dems and liberals
Jim Sexton: “More people who self-identify as Republican, then vote for and support the left/far left agenda has nothing to do with more Republicans in the Statehouse.”
Roper: Don’t let Gavin Newsom decide what kind of car Vermonters can buy
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, via executive order is dictating what Vermont vehicle consumers can and cannot buy, if we go along, but we don’t have to.
Don’t Be A Boob: The Bananas Formula For Babies
Fake news reporter Johnny Bananas says the story of the demise of formulating babies is greatly exaggerated.
Evslin: Pandemic Lesson #2 – Experts are too narrow to make policy
There is no simple “the science” according to which a leader can govern.
McClaughry: Biden’s Ministry of Truth
This is a partisan government office created to pass judgment on any speech that might diminish support for the Biden Administration’s program and performance.
Eshelman: Let’s Go, Superintendent Millington
Tyranny is tyranny, and the only solution to stopping or escaping it is universal school choice.
Kauffman: Prop 5 goes far beyond the claims of Governor Scott
Governor Phil Scott promulgates a perception of Prop 5/Article 22 that is not based in reality.
Keelan: Where are all the young men and women?
In Vermont, we have many young people, perhaps upwards of 20,000 or more, who are disengaged from a workforce that reportedly has over 26,000 open positions.
Peter Welch behaves like Joe McCarthy, former student says
Last month, Welch put out a statement on his official congressional website stating “It’s long past time we created a dedicated government agency to regulate and address the wide range of issues raised by social media platforms…That’s why I am working on legislation to create a federal agency to do just that.”
Page: Mr. Mayor, what about the stabbing and two weekend shootings in your city?
Elected officials issue press releases about mass shootings in other states as Vermont’s drug violence grows and our police leave.
Silverstein: when breast cancer becomes ‘chest cancer’
Thoughts on powerhouse Patricia Posner commentary on the erasure of the feminine lexicon.
Evslin: StarLink stress tested in Ukraine
Whether you’re fighting Russians in an Eastern European country devoid of working power lines or just RV’ing in low-cell country, Tom Evslin says his favorite LEO satellite system might be just the thing.
Strong: Senatorial ignorance about abortion amendment speaks volumes about Pandemic Legislature
If a serving state senator doesn’t know what Article 22/Proposal 5 is – not even its name and general intent let alone its potential impact – how well informed do you think the average voter is?
Hansen: After CHS veto, repeal climate catastrophe law
Humility will be required to admit that the Global Warming Solutions Act is a failure; courage will be required to repeal it.
Sanders: Forget filibuster, pass abortion law
Sen. Bernie Sanders wants a national law supporting legal abortion and he’s willing to waive the filbuster to get it.
Peterson: Mascot bill laughable, if it weren’t so sad
The school mascot bill is all about cowering to ‘woke’ parents.
Fernandez: Howard Dean can’t prove Elon Musk ‘full of hate’
Howard Dean doesn’t trust Elon Musk to handle Twitter fairly because he’s full of craziness and hate.
Antley: THC caps reduce cannabis mental illness, to dependency
The Vermont House listened to the science and not the dependency-pushing Big Marijuana industry when it kept THC caps on legal retail marijuana.
Smith: Clean Heat Standard helps big corporations, hurts the poor
H.715 misrepresents the word “Clean”. 350vt’s analysis of H.715 shows that more than 50% of it will be met by biofuels. The biofuel marketplace is exploding globally, trading the damaging effects of fossil fuels for the damaging effects of biofuel production.
Not saying they’re connected…..
The Vermont Legislature recently passed a long-sought ethics law.
Republican Ingalls defends Democrat Chittenden over BETA attack
Not often a Northeast Kingdom Republican defends a Chittenden County Democrat.
Keelan: There is just no place to live
Don Keelan explains why housing is scarce and new housing almost non-existent in Vermont.
Hit & Run
Hit & Run Visual Commentary by RW Geer
Evslin: I was wrong about ‘The Science’
I urged vaccine requirements for air travel and some professions like medicine thinking that vaccinated people were largely not spreaders. I was wrong. The “science” was wrong.
Dame: Stop the ‘mystery tax’ on energy
No one who voted for the Clean Heat Standard can tell you how much it will cost, what the impact will be, or if it will actually work.
Elkins: appalled by division in GOP
Josh Elkins, a Franklin County resident considering running for office, is appalled by the division he saw at the GOP platform meeting last Saturday.
Madden: We Need Liberation from the Two Party System
The mutual disgust with how ineffective and corrupt this system is happens to be one of the few remaining areas of agreement between the left and right.
Stahler: Devil in the details of Clean Heat Standard
The Clean Heat Standard is fraught with both unknowns and unrealistic goals, so the Legislature should wait for the March, 2023 report to answer important questions.
Ministry Of Truth Announces Target Of Today’s Two Minutes Hate Is Tucker Carlson
The Two Minutes Hate crescendoed in wild jeers, hissing, weeping, and gnashing of teeth as the screen proclaimed, “TUCKER CARLSON: PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE.”
McClaughry: Peddlar of Shumlin’s failed single payer gets $400K to run One Care
Someone who tried and failed to make Peter Shumlin’s single payer plan work has been hired to run One Care, the ACO running health care in Vermont.
Reversing Roe: what it would mean for Vermont
The Dobbs Court specifically condemns the Roe Court for overreaching, but the abortion landscape that lays ahead reveals what Roe sought to avoid.
KGB, DGB
Visual commentary by Dan Jeffries about the plan by U.S. Department of Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas for a Disinformation Governance Board to monitor and suppress ‘disinformation’ by American citizens.
Families must disclose income to schools
A Vermont pupil weighting bill passed by House and Senate requires every family to disclose income to local school districts.
McClaughry: Nuclear power revival?
With some climate hawks admitting closing nuclear power plants wasn’t such a hot idea, John McClaughry of the Ethan Allen Institute expresses hope for a nuclear power revival.
Chittenden: Beta flap shows need for flexible regs
With every regulation, there are places where the rules don’t work – like an airport, where you can’t put parking behind their buildings (because that’s where the planes go).
McClaughry: EVs and child labor
Amory Lovins tells John McClaughry his concern about child labor and EV batteries is right on – at least for now.
Kerrin: Burlington Progs pushing legal prostitution on Vermont
Prostitution legalization is being pushed by an out-of-state group with the help of Montpelier lobbyists and Burlington Progressives.
Kauffman: no-one is listening to parents
The Vermont Family Alliance questions why parents are being kicked out of the village regarding their children’s “reproductive liberty” decisions.
McClaughry: Ghosts guns and murderers
Ghost guns account for one percent of murders, prior offenders for 90%.
Yacovone: Let lawmakers work from home
Forcing legislators to work at the Statehouse in this age of remote work makes little sense, a Morrisville lawmaker says.
Evslin: Neither high energy costs nor dependence on Russia are acceptable
A few smart moves here in the U.S. will reduce CO2 emissions, energy costs, and reliance on oil from Russia and other bad actors.
Angry birds in a time of twits
Thunk – thunk – thunk – it’s the sound of an angry bird world.
U.S. Senator: Give nations billions for climate change “or we’ll look like jerks”
John McClaughry reports that a ‘climate hawk’ U.S. senator from New England says that unless we give billions to foreign countries for climate change adaption, “we’ll look like jerks.”
Patrissi: Doctor, ex-cop Meyers unwelcome at Dem debate
“Deafening silence” describes how the four invited candidates in the VT Digger April 13 Congressional debate reacted when asked to advocate for the inclusion of fellow candidate Louis Meyers.
McClaughry: Un-elected officials would set heating fuel ‘tax’ rate
Since when do appointees set tax rates?
Digger won’t print pastor’s letter protesting Prop 5 freebie ad, cites ‘misunderstanding’
VTDigger says a Sheldon letter writer critical of their providing free advertising to a pro-Prop 5 group “may have a misunderstanding of this matter.”
Keelan: Legislature seems out of touch
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.







