Last night Greensboro Bend and Stannard were shut off by the state police. My wife was at the circus by Walker Ford at about 5 PM when she was passed by the VSP’s military-surplus armored car which headed up Rt 14 in a hurry.  Helicopters flew overhead.  Residents coming home from work were escorted by VSP to their homes, specifically so the VSP could verify they were going where they told the police they were going.

CAX was the ONLY news outlet that even mentioned this in a news brief saying something was going on but the VSP weren’t talking and that a camera crew was on their way.

But after the 11PM broadcast that article went into the Memory Hole and this morning a short article appeared saying that the VSP was looking for the half-brother of a guy from CT that almost killed a cop.

OK, that’s fine. But such a huge and heavy police presence in the middle of nowhere in Vermont is highly unusual.  It is sad to me that Vermont’s journalists play down such monumental police activity, thus ‘normalizing’ it. The VSP weren’t talking and the only news media that responded weren’t about to ask any questions.

Shap is sheepish about legalization. Two years ago at Town Meeting about this and he said (paraphrasing): “We’ll set up a panel to study decriminalization for a year, and look at their findings in the session after that.”

Well, Shap, you are now two years behind the curve.  Two states have legalized it, several other have demcrimmed.  Please, Shap, come join us in the 21st Century and legalize MJ this term!

Vermont’s number 2 cash crop – or is it #1 now? – is MJ, and the state is getting none of that action.  And the state is LOSING money by persecuting MJ users & growers.

Colorado made $1M on it’s first day of legal pot!  Why, oh why, doesn’t Shap want in on that action?

So today at 1 PM EDT, without any warning, Huffington Post locked out millions of their users.

A month ago they announced that new accounts would have to be ‘verified’, and there was a huge uproar.  They lied then when they said that existing accounts would be grandfathered in.  Today, without warning, they shut off access to all existing accounts that were not linked to a verified Facebook account, and arrogantly told their users that ONLY Facebook users are allowed to post there anymore.

50% of Americans don’t have a Facebook account. I don’t use Facebook because I refuse to support Zuckerborg, the radical extremist right-winger that owns that company, in his quest to sell your deepest secrets to the highest bidder.

Which means I, and many, many others are locked out of HuffPo forever.

My small business was hired to record a hearing next week held by one of the federal government agencies.  But, thanks to the anti-American radical extremists of the GOP, I am out $650. That was half of my rent for November.  Now I am screwed and I have no idea how I am going to make it up.

Republican politicians are terrorists, they will stop at nothing to damage America. That has been their top priority since 1980.

Obama, Leahy, Sanders, Welch! Don’t negotiate with terrorists!

(I like this idea.  Wish it were so. Our “inner child” always faintly hopes that the grown-ups really ARE in charge… – promoted by Sue Prent)

I saw a headline on Huffington Post, “Russia Offers a Way Out” and it got me thinking.  Obama was just in Russia at the G20.  Did he work out a plan with Putin to play Good Cop / Bad Cop on Syria?

It goes like this: Obama threatens to attack, and Putin says, “Hey, Assad, we get along, we know each other, right? Well, USA is hellbent on bombing you, and we’ve all seen the mess that makes, amirite?  Tell you what, if you let the UN in and give up all your stockpiles of WMDs, maybe, just maybe, I can convince Obama to ease off.  Whaddya say, ol’ buddy, ol’ pal?”

All Obama has to do is stand there looking like Harpo Marx when he gets tough…  Eyes crossed, growling, drooling like a barely constrained madman…

( – promoted by Sue Prent)

An interesting article in my email from VT Biz Magazine, reprinting an article from VT Digger.  It seems that Entergy doesn’t pay property tax, and only pays taxes on the power it generates.  So if it isn’t generating power…

…the state will take a budget hit of $11.5 million to $12.5 million a year.

So Jeb Spaulding, Janet Ancel and Tim Ashe are putting their minds to what can be done about it.

However the first part of that sentence gets it very wrong:

In addition to the loss of more than 600 jobs and the many economic benefits the plant brings to the Windham County region…

Those 600 jobs aren’t going to end the minute VY stops generating power. As I like to say, we’ve known that this plant was going to close for the last 40 years, it’s not like this is a big surprise.

I would have thought that Andrew Stein would know that and not sound like a shill for Entergy.

They won the ruling against the The People of Vermont, that’s why.

Entergy is facing fights in New York and California regarding their nuke plants in those states, with those states legislatures eager to do something about these ancient plants being run past their designed lifespan. Vermont was first and Entergy was eager to fight this battle here simply because Vermont is a much cheaper battle ground for them than NY or CA.

Now, with the circuit court ruling on their side – that anyone anywhere who even whispers the the word ‘safety’ irrevocably taints the law – Entergy is girded for battle against the tougher and more expensive NY and CA legislatures.

Vermont Yankee was just a bargaining chip in their fight against We, The People. Now that they’ve won against Vermont and pre-empted New York and California, VY is merely a spent delivery vehicle to be discarded.

We were all just pawns in their game.

(My darling wife is responsible for this concept, I am just the delivery vehicle…)

Over 2000 people in Vermont due to become homeless due to sequestration!  

Massive federal budget cuts, known as sequestration, are continuing to wreak havoc on poorer Americans. One example: More than 2,000 Vermonters in 774 households may lose their homes in the next few months as a result of funding reductions for low-income housing.

 

http://thinkprogress.org/econo…

And they got this from Seven Days:  

Housing officials plan to remove 774 households from a program that subsidizes rents for many of the state’s poorest residents. The cuts have already affected hundreds of Vermonters who had been taking part in what’s known as the Section 8 voucher system. No one knows what’s become of many of the tenants who have already been turned out.

http://www.7dvt.com/2013gimme-…

(This is a very interesting development.  VASA has been making their arguments for opening public lands to them for a number of years now.  It’s nice that the citizens of Woodbury can get it together themselves to lobby effectively! – promoted by Sue Prent)

Last month, the Woodbury Select Board approved the VASA-written ordinance allowing ATVs on certain class 3 town roads.  This was after a 4 hour long, very heated, public hearing the month before.

Almost immediately a petition was started to hold a Special Town Meeting on the Board’s ordinance.

Well, last Thursday that Town Meeting was held.  Usually Woodbury Town Meetings draw 100 – 120 people, but this one brought in 170-something! Six people spoke, all of them against the ordinance.  The three best points made were:

1) This ordinance is not about the townfolk, this will go out nationwide to ATV clubs everywhere and our town’s roads will be torn up by non-tax payers. It will cost the townspeople to fix them.

2) Some of these roads dead end in wetlands and other sensitive habitats. North Road is supposed to connect to Cabot, but they voted to close all their roads…

3) There will be NO enforcement.  One resident’s home was burgled and the VSP jumped into action – and took 3 hours to show up.

Woodbury has already seen an increase in unlicensed and unhelmeted riders on all roads, even Rt 14, because the low-intelligence riders already believe this ordinance allows them to ride anywhere they want. My wife almost ran over a kid on Rt 14 on a sharp corner with short sightlines.

The question was called and the vote was taken.  The Select Board’s ordinance was voted down by 2/3 (100 and teen-something) to 1/3 (60-something).   The meeting ran 35 minutes, not including the time it took to vote.

GE just announced a new wind turbine design with a possible 24% increase in output. An interesting feature is power storage so that it can feed the grid when the impellers stop turning.

Imagine if we’d started this development in 1974! Instead, friggin’ Reagan ripped Carter’s solar power panels off the White House in 1980 thus starting the stunting of alternative energy for 30 years.

http://thinkprogress.org/clima…

I think industrial wind turbines are too huge for Vermont, personally. I wouldn’t mind so much if they were half the size.