Vermonters mistrustful of state and national elections and government need a good dose of civics education, Vermont’s Deputy Secretary of State says.
Low-tax NH attracts workers. High-tax VT pays them to come
In our neighbor across the river, Vermont looks like a dying state that pays people to move here.
Keelan: does VT really want new housing?
Here’s the dirty little secret about Vermont’s affordable housing crisis: communities don’t want more housing.
Roper: So-called ‘Smart Growth’ forces Vermonters into flood zones
The ‘Smart Growth’ concept of building homes in urban areas would force Vermonters to live in high-risk flood zones. Good idea? Maybe not.
Thayer: Rise Up
Instead of teaching that our great Country was founded on the desire to be free and choose one’s own destiny, Critical Race Theory teaches that America was founded on racism and oppression. This is not about promoting the American dream for all citizens, it’s about pitting people against each other in a never-ending power struggle.
Commentary: communism the ‘second oldest faith’
When Marx was asked what his objective in life was, he said, “To dethrone God and destroy capitalism.”
Commentary: There’s no affordable housing in Realtor’s hometown. He knows why
In East Warren, there were trailers, modest homes next to mansions, with no issues. Now we only have mansions.
Commentary: 15-year-old urges VT to become first to end homelessness
Theoretically, many homeless people could use the $2500 from the State to acquire more permanent housing. There’s only one problem: there is no housing available.
Calling Out the Big Lie
It’s time for Vermonters to heed Alexandr Solzhenitsyn and “live not by lies.”
Climate science settled? Not so much
Disciple of physicist Richard Feynman says scientific honesty requires an open mind on the lasting effects of climate change.
Opinion: Sanders, AOC offer death sentence for the poor
Senator Sanders continuously rants about economic inequality being a death sentence for the poor. What he and the Ocasio-Cortez squad advocates is the real culprit.
Fernandez: Free scoops of propaganda at Ben & Jerry’s
What the media did not report last week is that Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in 1995 hired a well-known anti-Zionist activist. She is now Chairman of the Board at Ben & Jerry’s.
Flemming: Sacrificing the sick to Vermont’s Green Energy plan
“So much of my work involves impacts to minorities, and I don’t mean necessarily the BIPOC populations. I mean people who are in the minority compared to everything else. And so, what we are doing in Vermont is a policy of sacrificing people,” Annette Smith of Vermonters for a Clean Environment told a Vermont Climate Council Subcommittee July 21.
Licata: persecution in Burlington
Religion, reason, and fair elections are all victims of the ideological persecution now being perpetrated on a Burlington City Council candidate.
Roper: OF COURSE the rent is too high
The next time a politician laments on the campaign trail that the rent is too high, take a moment to see if their voting record helped make it so.
Cuba, Bernie’s Fantasy Island
Sanders should speak to Florida’s Cuban population before he decides to sing the praises of a murderous tyrant like Fidel Castro.
Keelan: what’s next, Legislature? UVM sports boycott?
Will Vermont join California in boycotting other, less woke states? And if so, will UVM sports be the tool?
Page: Ben & Jerry’s boycotts Israel, embraces China
Left-leaning Ben & Jerry’s boycotts Israel, but still makes a big killing on Bing Keeling in China.
Senate “tackled” pensions? Not really
That can of pension underfunding the Legislature kicked down the road is now the size of a bulk tank.
Flanders: Left threatened by King’s ‘Content of Their Character’ dream
My classmates learned that I could exceed expectations of even the average girl. And our Math Teams WON while I was Captain.
McClaughry: Parents are waking up
What parents are awakening to is that their children are being told the lie that America has made little or no racial progress and therefore its legal, economic and political systems must be turned upside down.
Fernandez: the veiled history of Arab-Moslem Slavery
Are Vermont students even being taught the 1300-year record of the black slave trade beneath the whip of Arab-Moslem masters?
Cairns: Advance child tax credit a landmine
The Advance Child Tax Credit is an entitlement that needs to be repealed. However, it will do a lot of damage in the meantime, a Stowe tax advisor says.
McClaughry: The Big Apple gun hassle
New York City makes it almost impossible to get a permit to carry a firearm for self-protection. Here’s what TV journalist John Stossel had to do when he applied.
Warner: Critical Grace Theory
Marx, like so many others, virtually plagiarizes the teachings of Jesus.
McClaughry: Hospital to pay single-payer architect $400K
I have a real problem when a wizard comes into Vermont, creates an unworkable $3 billion plan, ignores all criticism, watches it implode, abruptly gets out of town – and then reappears seven years later to pocket $400,000 a year to supply her clear vision that produced a colossal failure last time around.
Critical Race Theory will cripple America – if we allow it
The proponents of this teaching will negatively teach our children and grandchildren to hate, be racist, and to judge all people by the color of their skin.
Keelan: Why the super-rich pay no taxes
Just how DO the super-rich avoid paying taxes? Columnist and retired CPA Don Keelan explains.
Wagner: In the blink of an eye, everything has changed
All of a sudden we see a move to defund the police, move BIPOC to the head of the line, allow 16-year-olds to vote, ensure that mail-in balloting is the way to vote, tax 200 new goods and services and shame all white Vermonters. What’s the hurry?
Roper: ‘Global Warming Solutions’ a facade for CRT
Critical Race Theory is the dominant lens through which the Vermont Climate Council is approaching its mission of greenhouse gas reduction.
Fernandez: ‘Adultist’ the trendy new label for indoctrination
Action Civics is the beginning of recruitment efforts to pit children against their parents for not supporting ‘equity’ and ‘inclusion’ – in other words, the neo-racist policies designed for the institution of communism in the U.S.
Evslin: Self-driving car’s ethical dilemma could kill you
The car is on a narrow mountain road with a 3000 foot drop off to the left and a solid cliff on the right. It comes around a turn and there are four children unaccountably in the road. There is not enough space to stop or even slow down substantially. The car knows that.
Licata: Storm clouds on the 4th
On our nation’s 245th birthday, it would be nice to set our eyes on the window displaying blue skies. Instead, we see storm clouds.
Page: Supreme Court rules, Leahy moans
Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision allowing electoral freedom to states made Sen. Patrick Leahy go all Elmer Fudd.
McClaughry: Country votes NO on carbon tax
In what is believed to be the first time a carbon tax has been put to a national vote, upscale urban regions including Geneva, Basel, and Zurich voted in favor of the CO2 law, but 51.6 per cent of voters, and 21 of the country’s 26 cantons, said “get out of here with your carbon tax”.
Roper: Let’s grow kids, or let’s grow government?
A new law, crafted and pushed by the special interest group Let’s Grow Kids, could have major negative consequences for children, families, and taxpayers.
Steyn: Our increasingly unrecognizable civilization
America, and the West in general, have become almost unrecognizable from what they were not that long ago.
Krauss: Will Leahy, Sanders call out Senate men’s club hypocrisy?
Vermonters might remind Senator Leahy that the real White House was partially constructed by black slaves. The private clubs that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) frequents apparently aren’t eager to admit many of those ancestors as club members.
McClaughry: Put ‘Vermont Proposition’ back on shelf
The Vermont Proposition is a sincere liberal’s dream for somehow ending racism, reducing inequality, defeating poverty, countering the menace of climate change, and replacing grassroots democracy with a hugely expanded and unaccountable administrative state. Put it back on the shelf.
Flora Scott: Sheriff protector against bad cops
We don’t need to defund the police. Your sheriff is the highest elected local law enforcement officer and authorized to intervene on your behalf if other police step on your constitutional rights.
Evslin: World reacts to possible UFOs
How Fox News, CNN, Joe Biden and Donald Trump might react to news of aliens of the extraterrestial kind.
Sexton: evil isn’t hiding. It’s right in front of you
Some Vermonters didn’t throw away their freedoms. They went to church, they didn’t wear the rag on their faces, they went to work, they gathered with families and friends, they refused the jab. And they were attacked, they lost people they thought were friends. Family members attacked and fear them, even still.
Leahy: don’t defund Capitol Police
The police we (Congress) need to defend us are overworked, stressed out, and lacking equipment, Sen. Patrick Leahy told his fellow senators. Solution: more, not less, funding.
Roper: Bad (non) start for pension reform
Politically powerful unions trashed the plan, which would have required them to shoulder some of the financial burden for repairing the system, and threatened any politician who dared indicate support.
Warner: Komrade Karl and the AfterBern
What a racist scumbag Marx was. Do socialists know this? Does Bernie?
Keelan: As climate war escalates, so do mortgage costs
Anyone who’s endured the myriad of issues that come with closing on a home mortgage might want to get ready for the next wave of complexity and cost. And once again, climate change is the driver.
Pipes: Thoughts on Juneteenth
Without the sacrifice made by hundreds of thousands of white men, and that of their families, there would be no Juneteenth.
Musician: Masking is torture for kids
Speaking/singing are integral to developing a strong sense of self. If infringed upon, this will lead to a general thwarting of the human spirit.
Frenier: CRT as religion
Ask yourself: Is Critical Race Theory taught to our children in such a way that they are able to see alternative views? Are these alternative views studied as part of the curriculum and with respect?
McClaughry: ‘Vermont Proposition’ same old stuff
Periodically, it seems, concerned citizens of Vermont gather to revive the idea of creating an inspiring Vision for the state’s future. Last month the largely federally-funded Vermont Council on Rural Development released the draft of its “Vermont Proposition
Roper: Answer to CRT is school choice – which black Americans support
School choice will benefit everybody. If you really believe in a social justice – the real thing, not just a bumper sticker slogan — school choice for everyone should be an easy cause to embrace.
Flemming: Pearson ‘libertarian’? Not so much
meeting. Libertarianism is a philosophy of voluntary action being morally superior to coercive action. When it comes time to vote on just about any issue, Pearson has chosen coercion over liberty just about every time, as you can see from his Roll Call Profile. His insistence on codes being “not voluntary” is just the latest case in a long-standing trend.
Condos: mailed ballot law lets voters ‘cure’ mistakes
Today we should be proud as Vermonters. Around the country we are witnessing an assault on voting rights, as state legislatures use conspiracy theories and lies as cover to restrict the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of American voters.
Peterson: 69-year-old Newbie’s first year in the Legislature
Seeing the freshmen class of some 30 or so legislators, many younger than my own children, made me feel like the old dog I am. The question was, could I learn new tricks.
Keelan: bill will gut Vermont construction industry
The good news is that the legislation referred to as H.157 did not make it over the finish line last month before the Vermont General Assembly had adjourned. The bill, which passed the House, would have required construction contractors who work on residential projects over $2,500 to register with the State of Vermont’s Office of Professional Regulation by April 2022.
Fireovid: Scott veto gives citizens chance to protect voting rights
Think about it. If Democrats can easily force small changes in our Constitution, what’s to stop them from making large changes? It’s extremely important that we-the-people firmly protect the only document that protects our rights.
Fernandez: Pro-Palestinian propaganda in local newspaper
Israeli benevolence doesn’t get any coverage by the monolithic pro-Palestine media-complex.
Vermont media covers critics of Critical Race Theory
What the Vermont media wrote about last Friday’s gathering of critics of Critical Race Theory tells much about their own views and prejudices.
McCoy: Home registry bill is government overreach gone TOO FAR
A bill before the Vermont Legislature, S.79, would make Vermont the first state in the nation to have a statewide, government-run, centralized registry of all privately owned homes being rented out.
Alice Flanders: Those who can and those who won’t
I am not a proponent of Critical Race Theory, as I am firmly convinced that this political agenda broadens the societal gap, and honestly, takes us all back to pre-civil rights times, where folk are wrongly judged by race, religion, creed, sex or national origin. I believe it is nonsense to subjectively evaluate people based on the color of their skin, rather than based on character, academic achievement, team playing ability and determination.
Evslin: Docs who won’t vax shouldn’t practice
I’m NOT saying that Rauch should be barred from practice because he speaks against vaccination; he has a right to free speech even if that speech is unpopular. He and other medical professionals who refuse vaccination should be barred from practice because their refusal to be vaccinated makes them a danger to their patients.
Brock: Legislature swatted flies while house burned down
That, in a nutshell, is the 2021 legislative session. We washed the dishes, disposed of some crumbs and swatted a few flies. But we didn’t deal with the urgent and immediate issues that demanded our real attention.
McClaughry: when should juveniles become adults?
In the present instance, the House passed S.107 with a 70% majority, and so there’s a good chance the majority party can override Scott’s veto. A better plan would be to let the veto stand and reach a well thought out agreement in 2022, as the governor proposes.
Warner: Tyranny of the weak
We’ve entered into a new era in America. It is an era where those who identify in any of a multitude of victim classes have banded together to form a monolithic body politic who have managed to use their weaknesses, and perceived weaknesses, as the justification for enacting political and cultural tyranny on those who they perceive as their oppressors.
Ingalls: They gave their lives
They gave their lives so that this collection of 50 states could carry on with the novel idea that citizens would govern themselves.
Keelan: media covers defunding police, but not their ultimate sacrifice
n May 10, closer to home in Pittsford, a memorial ceremony was held at the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Academy. The annual event remembered and rendered respect to the 40 Vermont law enforcement officers who lost their lives in the line of duty in the past 213 years.
Evslin: we may need compulsory vaccination
Right now the unvaccinated are taking a risk with their own lives. Unfairly the final vaccine holdouts will be parasites on the partial herd immunity achieved by the rest of us getting vaccinated and will be danger to those who can’t get vaccinated or have weak immune systems and provide a breeding ground for new variants which could be vaccine resistant. We may still need to make vaccination compulsory.
Media cancels history of East Jerusalem
The incendiary conflict between Arab and Jew inside the resurrected walls of The Eternal City cannot be understood without acknowledging East Jerusalem’s modern historic origin
Bucknam: If Republicans are ‘nervous,’ why is left frantically stifling dissent?
On May 9, Kevin Ellis wrote an open letter to Republicans in VTDigger. His commentary echoes Leftists’ blinkered view of Republicans, and more disturbingly, their dystopian view of our Republic.
Ingalls: Opioid abuse, not racism, is Vermont’s public health emergency
And as for some of the findings in this Joint Resolution, the fact that 241 of the 251 deaths due to COVID19, for which race and ethnicity are known, 96% are white, non-Hispanic people. According to the US Government Census, Vermont is 94.2% White. So it does not appear that any population disportionately has seen deaths because of systematic Racism.
Licata: Don’t be nervous, liberals
You have been trained to like lots of spending and the coercions necessary for government dependency. From Lyndon Baines Johnson to Barrack Obama, that was the deal. At the bottom of it all is a system built on 10s of trillions of dollars of government debt and unfunded liabilities; and the deconstructionist, Marxist-laden Postmodern Critical Race Theories that permeate today’s Democrat and Progressive Party’s. You wanted to keep all the power for yourselves.
Skylark: Three things that should not be political
The 1998 book “Happiness is A Serious Problem” by Dennis Prager says we have a moral obligation to friends, coworkers, and family to maintain a happy attitude out of respect for them, even when you don’t “feel like it.”
Attack of the Liberal Beast
The new liberals are also gunning to cancel our First & Second Amendments. Achtung! No more gender-based toilets or nouns. Nein! True social progress demands you support transgenderism, even if California Republican Governor Hopeful, Caitlyn Jenner, knows exactly what she’s talking about.
Winooski rep wrong: white Covid death rate highest
The fact that 241 of the 251 deaths for which race and ethnicity are known (1 death has no association) are in white, non-Hispanic people does not appear to matter to many elected (and sadly public health) officials who seem to be focused only on “systemic racism” and what they declare as health care disparities in POC.
McClaughry: three lawsuits that will change Vermont education
In three lawsuits currently in process, plaintiff parents ask that public funds follow their children to the school of their choice.
Evslin: urban Progs stop rural broadband
You’d think Progressives would be all in for a plan to use a fraction of federal Rescue funds to assure that every Vermont family regardless of income or location had a chance to get connected immediately to the broadband service they need to participate in the post-pandemic world. You’d be wrong!
Fireovid: veto S15, vote-by-mail bill
Do you want to give up your voting rights? No? Well then, we have ONE option left to kill this bill. We have to convince Gov. Scott to veto it, and we have to convince Republican legislators to oppose any effort by Democratic legislators to override the Governor’s veto.
CFV: VT economic recovery needs capital, workers
Acquiring capital has always been a challenge for Vermont. We don’t have many deep-pocketed families willing to invest millions of dollars in startup ventures like the former merchant cities of Boston and New York or the gold-rich investors of northern California. Fortunately, what we do have is proximity to financial markets.
Keelan: racial progress, no thanks to CRT
Has there been progress in correcting the injustice of what took place on the shores of Virginia in 1619? Yes, but it was not accomplished by having classes on indoctrination defining Critical Race Theory. Much was accomplished through education and example.
McClaughry: George Till, salesman for the Service Tax
I think Rep. Till would be startled to learn that quite a few of his average constituents use tax preparation services and investment advice, and almost all of them use plumbers, electricians, lawn mowers, auto mechanics, driveway plowers, computer techies, tailors, accountants, taxi drivers, lawyers, tutors, music teachers, delivery drivers, loggers, excavators, barbers, cosmetologists, manicurists, day care operators, babysitters, gravediggers, and as many as 140 more service occupations.
Editor: Sanders practices thrift on national defense
Sen. Bernie Sanders – born-again budget hawk – has announced the Senate Budget Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow on “Waste, Fraud, Cost Overruns, and Auditing at the Pentagon.”
Scott admin would spend $200 mil on carbon reduction
Vermont will receive $1 billion through the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). This funding presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to immediately accelerate “no regrets” climate action work. Governor Scott’s proposed ARPA budget calls for $200 millionover three years to facilitate direct, strategic, and measurable emissions reductions.
Gassetts: Non-citizen, 16-year-old voting bills violate Constitution
Some of our present Vermont lawmakers have proposed and voted on two bills that will change the Vermont State Constitution. Rather than following the lawful process laid out to amend the State Constitution, they are flagrantly usurping The people of Vermont, those they are elected to represent.
Frenier: Pandemic exposes need for school choice
The forced remote learning fiasco imposed on Vermont public school students this past year highlighted the lack of common benefits available from the state’s education system.
Mazur: do BLM supporters know?
Liberals and Progressives herald Black Lives Matter (BLM) with signature flags and lawn signs. How many really know their ideology and how it’s deluding a whole generation?
Shepard: RINOs for Biden – are you happy now?
I think it is time to check in with a few of those RINOs. We need to ask folks like Mitt Romney, Governors and former Governors Charlie Baker, Larry Hogan, Phil Scott, John Kasich, Rick Snyder and others, like John Bolton, Jeb and George W. Bush, Carly Fiorina, Jeff Flake, Colin Powell and Cindy McCain if President Biden has been their kind of Republican.
Page: Uppity women speak out!
None of this cliquey high school drama stuff mattered to Lefebvre, who saw Vermont electoral integrity at stake and realized that she was elected for such as time as this. Worn out by her insistence, and desperately seeking a unanimous vote, Hanzas blinked first.
McClaughry: Vermonter deep-sixed Roosevelt plan to pack Supreme Court
President Biden is under pressure to find a way to control a Supreme Court whose present majority may find constitutional limits to what the Democratic party’s left wing is urging him to do. He has created a 36-member Commission to cope with the explosive question of packing the Supreme Court with additional Justices in order to create a compliant 7-6 liberal majority to support his proposals.
Kinsley: Pandemic legislation reactionary
If you look at the list of bills the legislature has passed so far, you might be tempted to think they are focused on the pandemic. However, if you look a little closer, you can see that these bills are actually reactionary. They would direct federal funding to emergency housing, food banks, and childcare assistance; all worthy programs, but they serve the immediate need, not the future need six months to a year from now.
Ross: It must be now. Silence is defeat
Too many Americans have allowed themselves to be defined as the enemy. This attack on our values starts with the majority party in Congress and includes our President. Their attacks are relentless as well as mindless. They lie shamelessly, they ignore the Constitution, they are re-writing American history to fit their false narrative, and they pursue an agenda that will end the society that has made our country the envy of the world.
Shepard: Catholics Biden, Pelosi devout – but to what?
Catholic Democrat politicians are certainly devout, but I am not talking about their religion. Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Xavier Becerra, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Andrew Cuomo and others talk often about their Catholic faith. The supportive media regularly refers to them as Devout Catholics. But are they?
Moore: spend one-time fed $$ on wastewater treatment
More than 150 Vermont downtowns and village centers are without a public wastewater system, which limits economic growth. Failed septic systems prevent the redevelopment of buildings; wastewater system limitations stop a general store from adding a market café; and a lack of public water and sewer is often a key limiting factor to a community’s ability to add new housing or businesses.
McClaughry: Sierra Club war on methane-emitting cows
The climate craze has targeted Vermont dairy farms, as if getting rid of their methane emitting cows will make any detectable difference in the planet’s climate, while wrecking Vermont’s dairy industry.
Stuyt: Marijuana and suicide linked?
Research data linking marijuana use to people with suicidal ideation, attempts, and completed suicides are steadily increasing.
McLeod: Medical freedom the issue of our time
We often hear that the ethical principle of informed consent is the bedrock of modern medicine, but it is not commonly understood why. The Jacobson decision provided a precedent for other decisions, particularly the 1927 decision of Buck vs Bell, which upheld the primary tool of the worldwide eugenics movement: involuntary sterilization.
Keelan: Scores of bulldozers, but no operators
Vermont does not have the building trade labor force to meet today’s demand for new construction, home repairs, and residential and commercial remodeling. If the ARPA comes to fruition, many of the projects Vermont needs to accomplish will, at best, be wishful thinking. The labor force is not here.
Brock: Baking a broadband cake
Imagine if you were baking a birthday cake and you had the benefit of having the Vermont Senate Finance Committee helping you. That’s what it’s like as we debate how to extend broadband throughout Vermont.
McClaughry: the costly Montpelier hotel fiasco
Everybody in Montpelier is already well aware of the decades long and now abandoned Capital Plaza hotel and parking garage project, but for the benefit of others let me quote Charles Martin, of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.
Sexton: stand for freedom, and not alone
Now doctors, dentists and other businesses are invading our personal lives by demanding we be vaccinated before visits or going into shops or offices – all in violation of Federal HIPPA law.
LaClair/Savage: why won’t Legislature support military retirees?
The Democratic majority in the Legislature is trying to sweeten a big ‘tax the Cloud’ bill with a tiny tax exemption for military retirement. Instead the Legislature should tax neither.







