Battle lines are drawn for November 2024 VT State House races.
by Rob Roper
Literally, and I quote, on the floor of the House following a vote to make Vermont the state with the highest corporate taxes in the nation, Progressive Democrat Brian Cina of Burlington took up the microphone and told Vermonters, “Read my lips: Yes! New taxes!” Cina’s — what should we call it? Attitude?… Promise?… Threat? — is characteristic of the Dem/Prog supermajority under the Golden Dome. He/they mean it!
It’s not just the corporate tax they’re jacking up, it’s the 20 percent property tax increase they just slammed us with, the new $100 million payroll tax that kicks in in July, the 20 percent hike in DMV fees that started in January, the 70 cent per gallon home heating carbon tax that’s coming after 2025, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. They’re also looking at sales tax increases and/or expansions, a tax on internet software, a sweetened beverage tax, a Clean Transportation carbon tax on gas and diesel to go along with the Clean Heat carbon tax, the Renewable Energy Standard bill that just passed the House will add as much as a billion to our electric bills, an income tax surcharge that would give Vermont one of the highest marginal income tax rate in the country while kicking in at one of the lowest income thresholds….
This is not a new phenomenon. As Republican Representative Scott Beck (R-St. Johnsbury) of the Ways & Means Committee noted, “In the last 10 years, personal income tax receipts in the state of Vermont have grown 54%, sales tax receipts have increased by 65%, and property taxes have increased by 53%. Corporate income tax as nearly tripled in the last 10 years. And yet, we’re being told we don’t have enough money.”
All of this is, of course, on top of inflationary impacts on household budgets: rising costs for food, energy, labor, vehicles, etc. that are also making it harder for folks to make ends meet.
So, what do Vermont Republicans have to say to these greedy, tax-happy, endless spenders of other people’s money on ideological boondoggles? GET REAL!
A couple of weeks ago the VTGOP dropped an op-ed outlining what the GET REAL agenda for a hypothetical Republican majority would be:
G.E.T. R.E.A.L. is a solemn promise and a positive path forward for our state by Vermont Republicans focused on improving the quality of life of our people. It is a prescription of policy proposals that includes: G.lobal Warming Solutions Act reform, recalibrating the law to reflect realistic and affordable goals; E.ducation reform, refocusing our schools’ mission back to excellence in core subjects; T.ransportation and infrastructure with a priority for fixing our roads; R.egulatory reform to lower the cost of housing; E.nvironmental protection initiatives focused on protecting and preserving our natural resources and landscapes; A.ffordability and tax reform to lower costs for working Vermonters; and restoring L.aw and order in our communities.
Yesterday they dropped another essay explaining in more detail what the “G” item in GET REAL would entail. (If you missed it elsewhere, you can read the full piece HERE.) I am looking forward to the rest of the series as it unfolds!
So far, I’d say this is a terrific, common-sense approach to connecting with Vermont voters. “GET REAL” perfectly encapsulates the feeling most of us get when the Democrats put forward one of their whakadoodle, multi-billion-dollar ideological schemes that is never going to work but will cost us massively in higher taxes and negative economic impact. (Remember Single Payer Healthcare? That was a fun waste of time and money! On to the Global Warming Solutions Act….)
GET REAL is also a meaningful call to action and the need to get serious about solving real problems facing real Vermonters in everyday life. We do, indeed, need to GET REAL about what needs to be done in these policy areas to garner results and who we need to elect in order to make that progress. Clearly, it’s not Democrats and Progressives.
Moreover, Vermonters seem ready to hear this message and respond to it. For example, at his most recent press conference, Phil Scott introduced Amanda Marie Shangraw, a third generation Vermonter and small businessperson. Her full remarks are riveting, and do watch the video below, but I’ll just share this summary clip:
I’m here today because I voted for a large majority of you, and I’m let down and hurting, and I’m defeated just like thousands of other Vermonters and small business owners…. I want to work and continue to create jobs and offer housing, and be a part of the solution, not the problem, but… Small businesses all around our state are folding, and I fear we might be next. These taxes are killing us. Please. Stop taxing the middle class, or in a year the middle-class won’t exist.
In other words, lawmakers, GET REAL!!! Get real about what normal people can realistically afford, what state government can realistically accomplish (and what it can’t), and the serious harm your policies are really doing to the rank-and-file citizens who are really the ones who make our state work.
But Republicans need to GET REAL about a few things too – and I’m talking to Republican voters, not just the party officials and activists. You can’t throw the bums out if no one steps up to replace them. You need field good, solid candidates for office running on the GET REAL message. A lot of them! And they need funding and volunteers to run those campaigns. Getting real takes real work. Let’s do it!
Rob Roper is a freelance writer who has been involved with Vermont politics and policy for over 20 years. This article reprinted with permission from Behind the Lines: Rob Roper on Vermont Politics, robertroper.substack.com
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Categories: Commentary
yep…what will we vote for…more resource confiscation/more intrusive government OR LESS?
here is Milie…..this could happen in Vermont…we know how to operate chainsaws…..
https://summarynews.whatfinger.com/2024/03/31/wow-javier-milei-just-freaking-went-there-he-just-fired-70000-gov-employees/
we could start with grant money…..no more free money….
There’s no reason Vermont can’t have a fiscally conservative, law-and-order, socially big tent Republican party that’s competitive in the state legislature.
I think conservative and big tent mean two different things.
Correct me if i’m wrong but I think conservative means living by the constitution of the united states of America and defending it according to your oath..
If we have a big ten it means we accept moderates who don’t agree with everything the constitution says and that’s been exhibited by the big tent we have been living under that includes Phil Scott who hails to be a republican however he’s a friendly of the CCP as exposed by Mike Pompeo he encourages us to denounce president Trump or were not republicans…
Phil Scott started a movement with the help of Patty McCoy the minority leader, TOM BURDITT, BUTCH SHAW, JOE BENNING and many RINOS in the THE SO-CALLED BIG TENT to remove president Trump from office early their vote for Biden in the destruction of America could get working as soon as possible to force us to live under the mess we live in today.
I have been trying since that took place to find out the names of the rinos that sold us out however nobody steps forward to provide it.
Rob since you’re usually up to date on everything do you have a copy of those people that sold out Donald Trump and the people that support him claiming that people who support Donald Trump are not republican?
So I suggest if we’re going to get real we need to know every candidate and everything about them.
It’s nice that we would like to pretend the ones that sold us out are okay now and everything’s going to be fine all we have to do is vote for them again however I totally disagree with that garbage.
If there are any people in office in the republican party that have lied to us or sold us out no one that is a conservative republican should ever vote for them again..
And I don’t care what Phil Scott says he has met with the CCP he has been pointed out by Mike Pompeo as being a CCP friendly.
If we’re going to fix vermont are we going to allow the CCP to become a part of that?
We need to wake up in the state of vermont.
I grew up here and in the old days none of this garbage would have ever happened…
It’s the big tent and let’s be moderates and lie to the people that caused all of these problems.
We need to get back to being conservative republicans and vote only for those that are conservative republicans.
Government has long ago ceased being a democratic republic, it is a corporation, actually multitudes of them. After the civil war it ceased being a democratic republic. WE do not have a democracy, we have corporatocracy. It acts as a vampire, sucking the lifeblood from We, The People while pretending to represent us and fussing about our “DEMOCRACY is under threat”. All governmental entities are for profit corporations, whose product is control and management of the (We, The People) humans, all directed to enrich the corporate elite and for continued false promises and false “solutions”, and false fears. Understand this fact to begin working on the solution. We cannot do politics as usual and arrive at societal health, prosperity and fairness. Unless we call the government structure itself out, and state we do not consent or submit to corporatocracy, we continue to be used, indentured and economically enslaved to a greater and greater degree. We need to repair and restart our democratic republic, even using our right to privately contract together to do so, and our capacity to use alternative exchange methods to enhance our private prosperity. We need to state publicly, that Government must be removed and replaced with fairly and equally exposed candidates elected without monetary influence, votes hand counted on the same, and voter ID’s presented. We need an economic plan that heals the following: The hatred stoked by corporate political media, Nature, our food supply, and our future generation’s skill and trade sets, and their long term stability in society. I am working on that, and I am here, looking for the best path to share it. Its a plan that does not depend on winning any election that cannot be validated (since now hand counting is disallowed and tabulators are demanded). See you and raise you one.
Richard Ley, as Addison County GOP Committeewoman, I agree 100%.
In 2022, Vermont was 4th in the most heavily taxed state game. Always needing to be first, this unrepresentative legislature seeks #1 status in 2025.
The tax increases are staggering- and they’re just getting started.
https://lccvermont.org/advocacy-update/advocacy-update-week-12-2024/
Elections do have consequence, BOHICA!
We’ll be the first colony of the United Nations in America…..another 1st!
Progressive DemocRATs are in power within the state and will do and spend
whatever they want for their agendas, any veto proposed is irrelevant, you put
them in power !!
Read my lips, you are being ” taxed ” out of your house and probably out of your state, yes your state is being run by carpetbaggers….. Wake up people.
Just listened to an interview with the governor on VPR, suddenly he’s involved in getting people elected, though it did mention he was also trying to get good people in other parties too.
It is very doubtful that suddenly a disorganized, organization can suddenly bring massive change to our state. We have no team, no plan and while Get Real is catchy, what does it say other than we don’t like what you’re doing, Get Real.
You will be able to ask anyone on the street what does it mean? They will not be able to tell you, so how can they get behind it? Well, I guess they got behind hope and change…so there is that.
We haven’t identified the instigators of our problems, so if we don’t know what is causing our downfall, how are we going to effectively bring about change? Vermont’s problems are not Donald Trump. Vermont’s problems are not VTGOP. Vermont’s problems are not VTDEMs, Vermont’s problems are not Joe Biden. But if they can keep us fighting about these items, abortion, gun control, sexuality, etc then those in power and who have orchestrated these plans can run the board as they have for 50 plus years with neighbor fighting neighbor, fear, division, lies and destruction of our Republic.
This is nice speech, but you know the gun owners of Vermont have been before the legislators for YEARS….many Vermonter have been before them for YEARS…and they don’t care. Many of us have been crying out to our own party for YEARS asking for reasonable changes and NOBODY has listened.
The New World Order doesn’t care. They have a plan, agenda 21 (World Domination of one government) and they are executing it with remarkable precision. It’s available for all to see and read. (Marxist decoder ring not included). Karl Marx, Saul Alinsky, and those who’ve dedicated their lives to a spirit that brings about Deception, Division, Destruction, really could care less about what you think or feel. They have an agenda, and Montpelier on both sides of the aisle are happy to carry it out.
May we be filled with Love, Joy and Peace, this is the only way, the only way for positive change in our hearts, state and country. TGBTG
GET REAL is 2024’s acronym for the same values and principles as 2000’s Take Back Vermont. In 200, Ruth Dwyer was the Republican Candidate, peter shumlin became governor- and the legislature was off to the races, with a super majority then as well. Then as now, liberal elitist democrats and progressives are the majority electorate. They are active in elections, have involved themselves in local government while conservative and moderate republicans have been on the outside looking in. There is NO fix to mail-in ballots, unless a super-majority of legislators decides otherwise. In fact, look for rank-choice voting to be enacted state-wide.
RCV seals the deal- it establishes one- party rule in perpetuity.
GET REAL is 20 years too late. phil scott’s sudden willingness to speak out is 8 years and 4 election cycles too late. phil scott’s decision to go along with the legislature in 2020 with voting changes helped assure one party rule in Vermont.
There is no good news, unless your politics leans left. Centrist politicians such as scott, brock and even Mazza are on the way out- replaced by krowinski, baruth, macdonald and their socialist apparatchiks. This is a race to the bottom, and Vermont’s current legislative majority has a mighty large brick on the gas pedal.
A closer look at proposed tax policy sets sights on exactly the demographic Vermont’s politicians seek to move into the state, and sticks it to all with NY and CT style tax rates. What’s more disturbing, is these people will come- to escape the things they disliked there- only to demand those things be legislated here.
You’re going to have to fix the mail in ballots & old voter rolls, especially in Burlington with college turnover. They are sending ballots to addresses for 10 years after folks move out of state and stop voting, and the various Town Clerks aren’t very good at keeping track. I guarantee there’s rampant fraud.
Re: “…fix the mail-in ballots & old voter rolls,”
But how?
Fraud is built into the current Vermont voting system. It’s a two-fold feature. First, the State sends unsolicited mail-in ballots to every registered voter, even while everyone knows the voter rolls have not been kept up to date. Then the mail-in ballot is returned, mostly through drop-boxes, not in person. The envelopes are signed. But by whom? Town Clerks can’t verify the signatures of those who submitted the mail-in ballots. And because the voter’s identity isn’t (i.e., can’t be) verified, the voter registration rolls are determined to be up to date by virtue of having received a ballot from the unverified registered voter. So, in the next election, the State sends out mail-in ballots to the supposedly confirmed list of registered voters who supposedly voted in the previous election. And on and on it goes.
This is not to say that fraud is rampant. But it doesn’t mean fraud isn’t rampant either. We simply don’t know. And the process can’t be ‘fixed’. It has to be replaced. With the current system, we can never know if there’s fraud or not. That’s the problem.
@ H.Jay All it really takes is ending mail in voting, requiring ID, and voting on paper.
Oh, and students who vote in Vermont get the in-state tuition rate and can’t vote at home. That fixes a big problem too. But the other three would do it.
All it really takes …. ??? But how? The fox is guarding the chicken coop.
Jay – Here is the law on how to. Now we need actual people to roll up sleeves sharpen pencils and get going updating voter rolls town by town person to person.
https://outside.vermont.gov/dept/sos/Elections%20Division/election%20info%20and%20resources/election%20law/title-17.pdf
The options are certainly limited.
I get it Libby. I’ve read the law several times.
Not only are ballots mailed to unverified voters on unverified voter checklists, Town Clerks can’t verify that the voter designated on the ballot envelope received by the Town Clerk was the person who filled out the ballot or signed the envelope in the first place.
It doesn’t matter if you ‘roll up your sleeves’. It doesn’t matter if the voter checklist is updated. It doesn’t matter because the checklist update process is determined, in no small part, by checking off who votes in the election – unverified as they may be – because we can’t verify that the voter was actually the person on the voter checklist to begin with.
And as long as a designated drop box is within sight of the municipal building, video surveillance is not required.
And once the ballot is removed from its envelope, the so-called chain-of-custody (for what it’s worth) no longer exists anyway. Any paper ballot recount just recounts unverified ballots. Garbage in – garbage out.
Never mind that in 2020, Mark Zuckerberg’s NGO donated more than $1 for every registered voter in my town to our Town Clerk to ‘facilitate’ this sham voting process. And there is nothing in the voting law you cited to prevent him or others from doing that again.
This is what the law you cited says. So – how do you propose we do anything about that? Elect a different Secretary of State, or different legislature? Given this election process, there’s a fat chance of that happening.
I have kicked the VT Republican Party to the curb. I will not be voting for any so-called Republican on my ballot for any position except Donald Trump for president and Gerald Malloy. I will especially not vote for Nikki Scott the 1st Eunuch king of Castrati. If you can’t say I’m Ultra Maga then you don’t get my vote. GET REAL ON THAT!
Not even Rob Roper supports Trump: “A Trump candidacy in 2024 is not the best thing for the country, the Republican Party, or for that matter Donald Trump.” 8/22/23. It must be getting lonely out there on your island.
You’re entitled to your opinion, Mark, but it’s not as ‘lonely’ for Trump supporters as you think.
First, more Republicans voted in the last VT primary than did Democrats – even though registered Democrats ostensibly outnumber Republicans two to one.
And I was surprised to learn that even in my VT town, known for its progressive leaning, Trump received more primary votes than did Haley.
Trump supporters compare policy issues when they vote. They’re smart enough to not cut off their nose to spite their face by voting for a ‘congeniality’ candidate with no conviction to our Constitutional Republic. We need the ‘pit bull’. That’s what it’s going to take to counter the deep state’s existing destructive policies.
Hopefully, you too will figure this out before November rolls around.
Jay – Vermont has an open primary. Many Democrats picked up a Republican ballot.
Trump has no convictions – he’s nothing but a con man and an unabashed grifter. Have you bought your $59.99 “God Bless America” Bible yet? Or maybe some “exclusive Victory 47” perfume for your wife at $99? Or maybe you splurged on a pair of those spiffy gold “Never Surrender” high tops at $399? It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
Re: “Many Democrats picked up a Republican ballot….”
There couldn’t have been many Democrats who crossed over in the primary. Haley only beat Trump by a couple of percentage points. If anything, the anemic Democrat turnout demonstrates their lack of interest in their own guy…you know – ‘the big guy’.
Re: “Trump has no convictions.”
Really, Mark whoever-you-are? So, Trump doesn’t want to stop unfettered border crossings that likely include foreign terrorists? He doesn’t want to lower inflation, or support School Choice, or lower the national debt, or stop all of the wars and foreign policy chaos that started up under ‘the big guy’? So, he doesn’t support our police or want to prevent crime in the streets – you know, like fix what’s happening in Burlington today.
And hey… there’s nothing wrong with selling bibles is there? They’ve been for sale for millennia. Sneakers and perfume have been for sale for a long time too. And you don’t have to buy any of it if you don’t want to. So, what’s your point?
Speaking of convictions: what are the convictions of ‘the big guy’? Or your convictions, for that matter?
Do you, and Vermont progressives, and ‘the big guy’, want to keep forcing us to pay for windmills and solar collectors so a couple of VIPRG lobbyists can make a $40 million profit? You don’t want us to buy Hydro Quebec electricity at half the cost? You want us to pay for the college tuition of deadbeats who won’t work to pay off their own worthless education loans? You want us to pay to protect Ukraine’s border but not our own border? You want us to pay for one of the most expensive public education monopolies in the world… a system that rejects parental rights, destroys the traditional family, and graduates 90% of its students even though half of them are reading at an elementary grade level?
No, it isn’t funny. And it’s people like you, and the people in government you support, who create this dystopian reality and still refuse to address specific issues. Guess we know who the real grifters are – don’t we.
I am very happy on my island along with about 75 million more Americans who will vote for Trump. You will find that out on November 6th when your libtard bubble is broken. As far as convictions I compare these to Joe Biden’s convictions every day.
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47
From Baptist News Global: ”
That Trump has turned Holy Week into an ugly carnivalesque grift is not surprising, given his character and the financial crisis he is facing due to legal troubles, but it should be appalling to every Christian.
Christian theology has a word to describe those who claim the attributes of a deity or who treat sacred things with contempt and disrespect. That word is blasphemy.
And the failure of Christians — especially white evangelical Christians to whom Trump is pandering — to speak out against such disgrace during the holiest week of the Christian liturgical year is a measure of our captivity and complicity in Trump’s denigration of both Christianity and our nation.
Mark in regard to your comment: From Baptist News Global:”
That Trump has turned Holy Week into an ugly carnivalesque grift is not surprising, given his character and the financial crisis he is facing due to legal troubles, but it should be appalling to every Christian.
Here is what’s appalling to every Christian I know.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/03/30/white-house-doubles-down-after-declaring-easter-sunday-transgender-day-of-visibility/
HAPPY EASTER Mark
Mark in regard to your comment: Trump has no convictions – he’s nothing but a con man and an unabashed grifter. Have you bought your $59.99 “God Bless America” Bible yet? Or maybe some “exclusive Victory 47” perfume for your wife at $99? Or maybe you splurged on a pair of those spiffy gold “Never Surrender” high tops at $399? It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
So, who are the real conmen? At least you get a pair of sneakers that have already tripled in value, perfume or a bible. But for the mere price of $100,000 you can get your picture taken with Joe the Bagman, Obama the Communist and Bill the Perjurer and Draft Dodger. Where was Trump when the pictures were being taken and the money collected? He was at NYC Police Officer Diller’s funeral service a few blocks away. His murderer was let out by Commiecrats running the show.
Get Real is a movement for any Vermonter 18 years – 120 years old who legally vote be you independent, dems, moderate dem to worn out progressive and republican. People can and do change parties. Really get some people together and actually go in and refresh update the voter rolls and voting procedures. Let’s go on holistic state wide communications and outreach including poor mans practices today: VDC commentators start to copy paste share these story as links to your own social media channels such as Facebook. Facebook is widely used in Vermont. And don’t put up paywalls for people to read the get real messages and how to’s and come together events. Get real and now update the VTGOP web site ( copyright 2021….) as now being the go to destination for where real everyday people can get real and helpful info on the how to’s for running for office, how to register to vote, go to to add to and check the calendar for state wide events and important dates , share stories and pictures and Get Real follow policy, give your comments and contribute at a Donate Now Button via PayPal.
Get real and set up Donate Now per Vermonts Campaign Finance. Here is the how to guide, the dates certain and filing procedures. Link get real Vermont Campaign Finance https://sos.vermont.gov/elections/campaign-finance/
I don’t get it. You want people that are conservative to donate their hard-earned money to the Vermont Republican Party that has a governor along with other party leaders that not only do not support the Republican candidate Donald Trump for president but didn’t vote for him in the 2020 election and now comes out with rhetoric that he must be defeated. Sorry, but no thank you. I think I’d rather buy mor ammo. We’re going to need it.
scott//// brock////// mazza//// all part of the covid mass murder club//// what part of r. i. c. o /// do you not under stand/// all of these crooks belong in jail///
All I have to say is “Is it bad enough yet?” I guess not because these big spending grifters are still in office, and Vermont is still trying to be something it is not . . . The big fish in the Climate Change pond. Vermont’s impact, due to its population size, is minuscule at best in the “Climate Change Problem” that those under the Golden Dome seem to be intent on fixing. As usual, their arrogance inflates their belief that they can change the trajectory of our climate by taxing and regulating the citizens of “little” Vermont into poverty. The only way this will change is to vote these arrogant grifters out in November. Like I said at the beginning of my rant “Is it bad enough yet?” We will see in November, when Vermonters get their say.
E. Grow, We can measure Vermont’s carbon footprint compared to the rest of the “fish”
Last year Vermonter’s consumed about 250 million gallons of heating fuels; average 22 pounds of CO2 when combusted. That is 250,000,000 gal x 22 lb. = 5,500,000,000 lb. / 2,000 = 2,750,000 tons. Compare that to 2023 global CO2 emissions of 37,400,000,000 tons.
Low income homeowners and renters will be indentures servants paying higher fuel costs ($.70/gal and higher) to satisfy the Global Warming Solutions Act.
The argument that CO2, from natural sources or the burning of fossil fuels, causes global warming is a hoax. CO2 levels, varying from 3 parts per million to just over 4 parts per million, are almost as low as they have ever been over the last 500,000 years or so. The only time CO2 levels were lower was during the last major ice age about 20,000 years ago. And at that time, if CO2 levels had declined any further, all life on earth would have ended because photosynthesis would have stopped. Mr. McCormick is one of those non-profit NGO geeks who raise money by perpetuating this scam.
they’ll cheat, they’re good at it….mail in ballots forced down our throats…no ID, no nothing…..Libs are the dirtiest and they’ll bury this state
Jay- thank you for laying out the clear recipe for registering voters, verifying and the overall voting process for me/us. And citing of Zuck’s infusing coin of the realm @ $1.00 per vote. Zuck also made diabolical beaucoup bucks on the Cambridge Analytica scheme. He sure likes Gaming the system from his pov that is somewhere on the spectrum….. What comes to mind, as today is Easter and the story of resurrection, is a former clever game called “ Resurrecting the Vote” as reported from Florida “ Resurrection Voting “ works like this: send others to go into grave yards, extract identities from grave markers , “register” them and those masses of people arise from the dead to vote. Now my guess is real live immigrants who need no resurrection can suffice ….Happy Easter Jay and hmmmm and more pow wowing on the game. Cheers !
Mark In addition to selling Bibles during Holy Week, Trump, who has been called a carnival barker, donated enough money to Tunnels To Towers so that the mortgage of the murdered NYC police officer would be paid off. His wife and baby will not have to worry about a roof over their heads, even though the bread winner in their family was murdered. I’ll vote for that Carnival Barker over the three stooges, who the day of that officers wake, were not very far away. They were picking the pockets of rich celebrities in a Big Dollar fund raising event. Can you tell me that any of those three
very rich men did anything to help the wife and child of that officer? I haven’t heard that they did. I’m sure that the silence is not because they were keeping it a secret. Trump did and didn’t make a big deal about it.
John McCormick That is my point. All the taxing to try and stop people from using carbon based fuels is for naught. There are no walls to prevent neighboring states “carbon” from floating across our state’s borders. It also does not change the fact that moving to other heating and energy sources is expensive, and will not change the earlier fact that I have stated. Vermont contributes very little carbon to the over all picture. One day’s carbon from a volcanic eruption (globally there are 8 or so on any given day) will negate all the savings little Vermont would have during the remainder of my lifetime. All while driving the poor into deeper poverty, driving businesses from our state, and reducing the affordability of life in Vermont for the rest of us. All this pain without any measurable success. Once again the Golden Dome will miss the mark.
E. Grow
Thank you. Spot on!
Mr. Eschelman
You said of me:
“Mr. McCormick is one of those non-profit NGO geeks who raise money by perpetuating this scam.”
If I had the money, I’d sue you for defamation.
Ahhh. The ‘lawfare’ strategy. Mr. McCormick, it’s a fact that you promote the CO2 scam. Thus, I look forward to hearing from your attorney – if you have the nerve to follow through on this extortion threat.
Wow, so much here to respond to that I can’t really know where to begin. Instead I will just offer my own comment (a day late, I often have to just think it over). Climate change, as it is popularly understood by those screaming we must stop it, is not real. There I said it, call me a climate change denier, I don’t really care. What is real, is every person has responsibility to be a good steward of G-D’s gift of creation. For me that is old Vermonter practicality, don’t waste, use it up, reuse it etc. Of course the climate is changing, it has been ever since the firmament (water canopy) collapsed in the Genesis account of history. The ice age that folllowed has been receding now for thousands of years, nobody cried the sky is falling when Europe began to emerge from the withdrawal of the glaciers or the Bering Sea land bridge disappeared. Nobody talks about the folly of building huge settlements at what is now at or below sea level. So we the little people are responsible for destroying (so we’re told) the planet by heating our homes and driving our cars by using a nearly inexhaustible supply of energy (the remnants of living beings and vegetation destroyed in the global flood), while the larger culprits are those who have been actively ripping open Pandora’s Box via chemtrails since at least the 1960s and only now are kinda sorta admitting it in their current push to spray the skies to reflect sunlight. Those people are the real culprits who are willfully and actively attempting to destroy the planet, and may well be those whom G-D says He will destroy “I will destroy those who destroyed the earth” in Revelation. As for me, I will live my life, ignore stupid, irrelevant laws, and vote for (most likely) someone who won’t get elected. I won’t play the two party system game, that has got to change, if there is any real hope of change. I won’t put all my hope in any one or group of persons to fix everything. There is ONE who did fix everything as it pertains to humanity’s future already. I can try to participate in the current earthly system to the degree that I dare, but place very little hope in the outcome, as powers corrupts and men’s (women too) hearts are weak and given to deception.