Just thinking about – Carbon War on the poor; Scott, Trump and Texas; universal voting at Town Meeting

Guy Page

5 years ago

It’s Friday afternoon, and I was just thinking about….

Spectacular non-leadership by example. Does the executive leadership team of alleged “healthcare cost control” outfit One Care understand the concept of Leadership By Example? Seems there name should be “Don’t Care.” It seems doubtful. Otherwise they wouldn’t seek an 18% raise when the providers they oversee are reeling from the one-two punch of the pandemic and a $63 million cyberattack.

Burlington’s carbon war on the poor. The Queen City’s proposed “expect to suffer” fossil-fuel heat conversion program would inflict the most pain on the homeless and very poor. Adding $10,000 of mandated costs to new or rehabbed housing discourages new development. Vermont already has the oldest housing stock in the nation. Burlington’s plan makes finding any home even more of a pipe dream for the truly needy.

Phil Scott, Donald Trump, and the Texas lawsuit. Gov. Scott told Stewart Leadbetter of News 5 at today’s press conference that the Texas lawsuit before the Supreme Court “is bizarre in a lot of respects. I think we need to move on here. I don’t know what the intent is.”

Oh, that’s an easy one, Governor. Texas wants to ensure that whoever is inaugurated January 21, half the country won’t believe the election was a fraud. It wants to protect the vital constitutional succession of government by exposing all of the suspected fraud so that the Court can render a fair, impartial and much-needed authoritative decision that can help America truly “move on.”

Pros and cons of universal absentee voting for Town Meeting, as Gov. Scott suggests. On the one hand we’d all miss the eyeball-to-eyeball accountability of our local officials, not to mention the apple pie afterwards. On the other hand, it might give 9-5 Vermonters an opportunity to weigh in on some of the local government issues that matter to them: like, for example, the expected nine percent increase in school taxes. Apparently some in the Legislature – so, so eager to hold the general election by universal absentee ballot – are chary of giving all Vermonters a Town Meeting ballot. I wonder why?

For once, I agree with the Times-Argus. The notoriously, reflexively liberal editor of the Times-Argus penned these words to the wise about why shopping local for the locals is more important than ever: “If we say that after the pandemic we want to return to some semblance of “normal,” we must be investing in our local businesses, especially right now. Otherwise, if we choose to rely on Amazon and other large-scale retailers, we could be left with deep regret about our short-term decision-making made out of a desire for convenience.”