Category Archives: National

Big business: sugary CBD-infused delivery systems

Business, National, , ,

I haven’t had the stomach to read much in depth news for the last few days but found this sort of refreshing pause. Coca-Cola Corporation is in talks with a Canadian company, Aurora Cannabis Inc. about marketing an infused drink of some kind.

(Reuters) – Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) is closely watching the fast-growing marijuana drinks market for a possible entry that would expand the world’s largest soft drink maker’s ambitions further away from sugary sodas. sodapot

Coca-Cola announced its interest in a statement on Monday, responding to a report from BNN Bloomberg that said it was in talks with Canada’s Aurora Cannabis Inc (ACB.TO) to develop drinks infused with cannabidiol (CBD), the non-psychoactive chemical found in marijuana.

Coke would join a rush by major alcohol makers and a cigarette company to test the cannabis market and find partners ahead of the Oct. 17 launch of legal recreational marijuana in Canada.

Coke and Aurora, in separate statements, each said they were interested in cannabidiol-infused beverages but would not comment on any specifics or talks. Aurora’s stock soared 17 percent, while Coke’s edged up slightly.

Coke may be coming full circle back to its 1880’s “medicinal” roots. According to Snopes.com Coke really did — at least early on — have some coke, cocaine in it. Coca-Cola was named back in 1885 for its two “medicinal” ingredients: extract of coca leaves and kola nuts. Just how much cocaine was originally in the formulation is hard to determine, but the drink undeniably contained some cocaine in its early days.

It’s probably worth wondering if Keurig Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (sort of a Vermont corporation) to see if they too are looking into cannabidiol-infused beverages. In 2014 it was partnered with Coke but jettisoned that relationship in 2015. KGMCR is now partnered with Dr. Pepper brand sugar-laden drinks. I suppose corporate cannabis soda could be just what Dr. Pepper ordered for Green Mountain Coffee.

Cannabidiol, of course, doesn’t produce a high. No widespread word on whether it gives users the munchies, although some sources say … maybe. If so, how convenient to imbibe the medicinal compound in a hunger-reducing sugary drink — no brownies required.

President Donald Trump accused voters of meddling in the upcoming midterms

National, Uncategorized

A little something from the Onion.com

WASHINGTON—Warning that the group was secretly planning to affect the outcome of the November elections, President Donald Trump accused voters Monday of meddling in the upcoming midterms. “It’s clear that the disgusting and disgraceful voters are going to try to influence the midterms—the voters must be stopped!” said Trump in a series of tweets, asserting that millions of voters were potentially involved in a massive, coordinated effort to handpick election winners. trumpvote“I’ve been hearing about all these voters who are already plotting to go to their polling place, show their ID, and cast their vote all on the same day, and that’s a big problem. And it’s already happening, folks—just take a look at the primaries. We’ve got voters with ulterior motives online, too, trying to influence people by spreading information about candidates on social media. We absolutely cannot as a society allow voters to meddle in our elections, and if we don’t do something, voters will try to interfere with the 2020 presidential election, too.”…

If you peel the joke back you find it isn’t too far from the truth. Last week the GOP Senate leadership and White House killed a bipartisan election security funding bill that was making its way through the U.S. Senate.

The F-35 has friends in high places.

local/regional, National, , , , ,

Jasper Craven  deserves kudos for his well-researched and insightful look  (Vermont Digger, April 13) into political forces driving the rather incongruous choice of Burlington Airport for the Air National Guard’s F-35 program..

With three surrounding cities opposing the F-35 plan,  a considerable grassroots opposition force, and all the issues of locating in the midst of a bustling city, one must really ask…why?

Mr. Craven’s article synthesizes the interest factors into a landscape of political blackmail, over which Governor Phil Scott bashfully presides.

Like so much that unseats environmental and ethical concerns these days, jobs are at the heart of the matter.  More precisely, it is the threat of jobs disappearing.

It’s the kind of political blackmail we’re regrettably used to from DC, but it’s pretty disheartening to the good people of Chittenden County, Vermont.  

We have only the word of interested (and therefore conflicted) parties to the siting, that failure to locate the F-35 at Burlington airport would mean an end to the Air National Guard’s Vermont mission.  If we are to believe, as we are told, that the Vermont Air National Guard is considered to be an elite within the force, this claim seems rather counter-intuitive.

To politicians who have grown accustomed to short interest cycles driven by frequent elections, it’s sufficient just to dangle the possibility of job departures in order to recruit their support for the most dubious of enterprises.   This, in a year when Vermont unemployment  stands at the remarkably low figure of 2.8%.

One has to ask whether we can ever shake this bugaboo in order to do the right thing, if we can’t do it when unemployment is so low.

Despite the fact that joblessness is the Republican cudgel, in Vermont, it holds sway over our Democratic DC delegation as surely as it does our Republican Governor.  This means that business interests, represented in this case by Ernie Pomerleau of Pomerleau Real Estate and Frank Cioffi of the Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation, hold greater sway over politicos than do their constituents who must actually live with the product of their ambitions.  

Business interests are putting their money where their (collective) mouth is:

In recent weeks, Pomerleau has purchased, through his company, Pomerleau Real Estate, seven paid stories in the Burlington Free Press that highlight the stories of Air Guard members. An eighth so-called advertorial will be released in the near future.

Cioffi’s GBIC is also doing its part to pitch the project and dismiss  voices of opposition as little more than cranks:

GBIC has produced numerous reports promoting the F-35 in recent years. In 2012, it commissioned a study that projected no decline in home values from the F-35 basing, a claim that was challenged by real estate appraiser Steve Allen. He said the data set used was “extremely small” and therefore “statistically unreliable.” In addition, the study included home purchase data by the Federal Aviation Administration, which offered top dollar to residents.

A week before Scott’s Pentagon meeting, GBIC sent a detailed memo to Air Force Secretary Wilson providing background on the F-35 basing in Vermont. The GBIC memo appeared to downplay the state’s opposition to the planes, characterizing F-35 opponents as “a core group of perennial protesters, many of whom are longtime anti-military political activists.

“Vermonters overwhelmingly support the Air National Guard,” the report reads. 

“We are proud to have been selected for the basing of the F-35A.”

Say what?

Beyond all the legitimate issues about process and quality of life, which continue to roil  the community at large, there remains an overarching question  that has yet to be answered.  It is likely to remain unanswered for strategic reasons, but the people of Chittenden County, and indeed all of Vermont, should not be expected to accept the siting without an answer. 

That question has many parts: ie. what role will nuclear weapons play in the Vermont deployment of F-35, should it ultimately come to pass; will nuclear weapons be stored at or near Burlington airport; if so, how many and in what state of readiness; how will they be transported to and from the base;  what is the likelihood that armed nuclear weapons will fly through Vermont’s airspace on a non-emergency basis; and what provisions will be in place for dealing with an F-35 crash in Vermont, even, heaven forbid, a “dirty” accident (nuclear radiation release) in the beating heart of Chittenden County?

I would say that there is a 100% chance that we will never have answers to these questions, but will be expected to simply accept the Air National Guard’s greater wisdom on the nuclear issue.

Well, I for one, do not.

ICE and CoreCivic’s bottom line: when the money goes away, so does CoreCivic

Business, National, ,

CoreCivic private prison corporation runs eight detention and immigration centers under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). On Monday demonstrators targeted CoreCivic’s Nashville, Tennessee headquarters. [See Vermont CoreCivic connection below*.]

TheHill.com: Police in Nashville, Tenn., arrested 19 people on Monday after they blocked the entrance of the headquarters of a private prison company that operates migrant detention centers.

Demonstrators from the No Exceptions Prison Collective arrived around 5 a.m. to protest at the headquarters of CoreCivic, which operates eight detention centers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The activists linked their arms through heavy barrels, and one protester suspended themselves 25-feet in the air on a swing-like seat using a large stand.

Folks of a certain age may recall how in 1967 DOW Chemical, the manufacturer of napalm for U.S. military use in Viet Nam, was targeted on college campus by students and activists. In  demonstrations — sit-ins and marches — they called for an end to the presence of that company’s job recruiters on campus and for universities to cease investing in DOW Chemical stocks. Organizers at Harvard blockaded a Dow recruiter in an office for 7 hours, and similar such stories were commonplace on campuses across the US. Protests did not stop investment or campus recruitment — but perhaps weary of disruptions and bad PR, DOW ended production of napalm in 1969.

SPLC corecivic

In the present frenzied political environment, it impossible to predict what effect the “abolish ICE” movement may have toward the goal of curtailing widespread DHS immigration abuses at private prisons. But it is worth remembering the for-profit nature of these prison corporations. If/when their sacred bottom line suffers, CoreCivic’s ultimate loyalty is only to profits for shareholders and not to ICE or to the administration whose policies it carries out.

The question is, would abolishing ICE just funnel more money to private operators like CoreCivic? Or would it have a strong enough negative affect on the company’s bottom line to prompt its recreation in a different line of work? And if not, what actions would affect CoreCivic’s bottom line?

*Vermont CoreCivic connection: After being lobbied last year by CoreCivic officials Governor Scott and his administration were reportedly considering partnering with the prison business to build a 925-bed prison in Vermont, specifically in Franklin County. That project is currently reported to be on hold after negative feedback from the public and virtually every public official and legislator, regardless of political affiliation.

“A pleasant surprise”: Governor Scott grabs one from the Koch machine

local/regional, National,

Scottand koch machine2This is so common place now it hardly raised an eyebrow, but the Koch brothers once again opened up their wallets big time in support of Vermont Governor Phil Scott. Vtdigger.com reports: Just two weeks before the primaries, a political action committee funded by the Republican Governors’ Association has spent nearly $100,000 on TV ads for Gov. Phil Scott.

The RGA, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that backs conservative gubernatorial candidates, has poured $225,000 into a PAC called “A Stronger Vermont” this cycle, according to the latest filings with the Vermont Secretary of State’s office.

And you know it’s just great — as far the Scott campaign is concerned — to accept help from the ultra-conservative climate-change-denying Koch machine. Brittney Wilson, Scott’s campaign manager called the money pouring in to the campaign on their behalf a “pleasant surprise.”

And it is all fine, good, and legal because the Scott campaign jokes that they didn’t even know who the Koch brothers (one of the major backers of the RGA and giant[$]force  in the GOP for years) were. And naturally if you believe that you can believe there is never a slight bit of co-ordination between them. But for the Koch’s latest buy-in to the Scott for Governor campaign Brittney sent her heartfelt thanks and approval loud and clear via the media: “They really did a nice job running ads that portrayed the governor in a fashion that he wants to be portrayed,” she said of the ads the RGA ran for Scott’s 2016 campaign.

So, Vermont, I guess there’s just nothing to see here. And what could Phil Scott possibly be doing that might fall in line with the Koch agenda? I mean other than oppose his own commission’s carbon tax recommendation, just for one example. But he’d never go so far or be as stupid as Florida Governor Rick Scott (no familial connection that we know of, just political and philosophical brothers) and try to edit climate-change language from any state documents.  … Oh wait … come to think of it Phil’s administration did do that.

All it takes is a little Koch $$$$ to teach the world to sing in perfect conservative harmony — with the occasional anti-Trump sour note and copious coughing from fossil-fuel smog.

“Youthquake”voters: see Vermont and New Hampshire react

National, , , ,

In 2017 the Oxford Dictionaries chose “youthquake” as their word of the year. The term they said saw a 401% increase due in part, they said, to young voters mobilizing in that year’s general elections in the UK and New Zealand.yutequake

Here in 2018  most of the US  young voter registrations are up significantly. NBC News reported recently: […] young voters between the ages of 18 and 29 years old make up an increasing share of those registering to vote in a handful of key states.

Pennsylvania has seen the sharpest increase — 61 percent of new voter registrations come from young voters, compared to 45 percent before the [Parkland, Fla. school] shooting.

Target Smart, a Democratic data firm, found a two percent nationwide uptick in registrations by youth (18 to 29 years old) — who skew more liberal on many issues. Since the Parkland shooting, gun control measures have been a particular motivator, they find.

Vermont and its upside-down doppelganger New Hampshire are clearly reacting differently to the potential “Youthquake” voting.

In Vermont, since 2016 you can automatically register eligible voters who apply for a driver’s license or state ID. The state has seen 18-to-29 year-old voter registration up 6 percent in 2018. As Vermont Secretary of State and more recently as president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, Jim Condos is almost constantly in the news working to increase voter access and to guard election processes from cyber-attacks.

Meanwhile New Hampshire — home of the first-in-the-nation Presidential Primary © ™ — the reaction differs.  Governor Sununu (R, of course) last month signed legislation to take effect in July 2019 that will limit election participation by many college-age voters originally from out of state. From Slate.com: [the law] effectively imposed a poll tax on college students, compelling many of them to pay hundreds of dollars in fees to establish residence in the state before they’re permitted to vote in New Hampshire. Once it takes effect, the law is almost certain to chill the franchise of younger Democratic-leaning voters — to an extent that could swing the state’s famously close elections

Note that in the 2016 New Hampshire election, 19 percent of the general election voters were under 30 years old. And these more liberal young voters proved significant to Hillary Clinton’s popular vote total and electing former Governor Maggie Hassan as their Democratic U.S. Senator in 2016.

It says “live free or die” on New Hampshire license plates, but if they want the franchise, young voters  might be freer if they “see Vermont.”

Von Trapp EB-5 Brewery’s small beer job creation

Business, local/regional, National, , , ,

The headline says von Trapp Brewery so far unaffected by closure of Vermont EB-5 center but how about 900 jobs they promised?VonTEB5beer

Last week the United States Immigration Customs Service (USCIS) handed down their decision to shut down and terminate the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center, which is run by the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD). The closure comes as a direct result of the EB-5 Jay Peak Ponzi scheme. Bill Stenger and Ariel Quiros defrauded millions of foreign investors while under the ACCD’s and Vermont EB-5 Regional Center’s oversight.

But there are other Vermont businesses participating in the Regional Center’s EB-5 program, and as the Jay Peak dust settles those programs are getting some attention.

The EB-5 program is designed to provide capital investment by foreign investors and stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation. Approved participating businesses present the Regional Center with plans on how they would create a certain number of new jobs with their foreign investor funds — but as with so many other business incentives programs there’s little follow-up verifying actual results.

From Vtdigger.com’s article as published in The Stowe Reporter — von Trapp’s hometown paper:

Sam von Trapp said he’s seen no indication that his company will need to refund any investors.

He doesn’t know how many of those investors have received their permanent resident status, but says most of them have achieved “early levels of approval.”

“We’ve had an effective project, and our people are not at risk, but it is going to be a distraction and an annoyance if we indeed have to move to a different regional center,” von Trapp said.

It may all feel like a “distraction” for von Trapp, but for immigrant investors it is quite a blow. They trusted the Vermont Regional Center, investing millions expecting they’d actually get green cards as promised; now many are out of luck along with losing their investments.

And the promised new local job creation used to create positive buzz and sell EB-5 projects?  The von Trapp Family lodge pitched EB-5 jobs angle as Jay Peak and other businesses did. And like them the von Trapp organization made pretty BIG promises about new job creation.

The Wall Street Journal reported: In [2013] offering materials, Mr. von Trapp’s economist asserts the finished project will not only preserve 200 jobs at the lodge, but also will create 904 new jobs within three years – 66 jobs at the Trapp Lager brewery and restaurant, and the rest “indirect” jobs as the capital spending ripples through the economy.[added emphasis]

Following the 2008 recession The von Trapp Family lodge qualified as a “troubled business” under EB-5 regulations. The reasoning was that some investor funding could be used to help maintain existing jobs, not spent on creating new ones.

Stowe Reporter: von Trapp Brewing and Bierhall used investments from 40 immigrant investors.

von Trapp wouldn’t say how much funding was used from those immigrant investors, though a 2013 Wall Street Journal article states Johannes von Trapp had a goal to raise $22 million from 44 investors by June of that year.

By March 2013, the brewery had raised $2.5 million from five immigrant investors, according to the Journal.

More than 50 jobs were created during construction and operation of the brewery and the Bierhall, von Trapp said, although only brewery jobs count toward the green-card program.

Rather than sending “ripples through the economy” as von Trapp promised the EB-5 funded brewery comes up flat on job creation with something less than fifty jobs — and that hardly rates even a good belch. Calling Doug Hoffer …

The state of play for Trump’s enablers

local/regional, National, ,

nydailynews71618The New York Daily News front page on the day Trump met with Vladimir Putin in Finland and trashed the United States references his 2016 Iowa campaign remark that he could: “[…] stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,”

And his GOP enablers? Well, the New York Times reported some Republican leaders (mostly it seems those headed out the door for retirement) are expressing qualified outrage.

Yet as of today: “[…] no Republican in Congress pledged any particular action to punish Mr. Trump, such as holding up his nominees or delaying legislation, nor did any Republican promise hearings or increased oversight.”

More pointedly  Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration tweeted:

RReich716

In rare show of GOP courage one southwest Ohio state official resigned from the party as “a matter of conscience, and my sense of duty.” Here in Vermont?  Well, crickets so far — no press releases or remarks from Governor Scott that I know of or from anyone in the  VTGOP remotely  critical of Trump’s performance with Putin.

It was in Helsinki and not on Fifth Ave but for now it looks like Trump — as he predicted — may just be allowed by default to get away with this “shooting.”

And the GOP across the nation and in Vermont will be sure to stand at attention for the playing of “Taps” over the grave of our Democracy, while offering their ubiquitous and ineffective “prayers and thoughts” to the family and friends, as they do after every mass shooting that could have — should have — been prevented.

‘Tis the Reason to Say “Treason”

local/regional, National, , , ,

Kudos to BP for doggedly re-focussing us on Vermont’s timely issues.  These days, it is beyond me to do the job.  

I’m like the clueless cat who is so easily distracted by fast moving objects that he walks into walls.  Every morning I learn about some new outrage that Donald Trump has unleashed on basic American values and I’m off in hot pursuit.

So, please bear with me while I work through my indignity, time and time again.  

If you haven’t been surfing the underbelly of legitimate news sources, you may not have caught yesterday’s head-slapper du jour.  From The Washington Post and The Guardian, we learn that Russians are praising Scott Pruitt for removing restrictions on ASBESTOS(!) and showing their gratitude by marking bales of the carcinogen for export with Donald Trump’s face and name!!

Better than the Onion; you simply can’t make this stuff up.  In the story lie two reminders of the way in which the 45th president has so far managed to keep Republicans on his leash.

What, in any other administration, could singularly bring about ruin becomes nothing more than a forgotten anecdote when enmeshed amongst layer upon layer of daily scandal, violation  and incompetence.  Asbestos, the scourge of a healthy living environment throughout the late 20th century, has apparently been given one of Donald Trump’s famous pardons and is now poised for a comeback!!

It’s all but forgotten today because Donald Trump has spent the past two days ripping the pins out from under NATO and all of your traditional alliances, and shows every indication that he will kiss Putin’s pinkie when they meet privately later this week.

IMHO, it is time to break out the “T” word.  Surely it is treason for any president to take advantage of his presidential privileges in order to serve the counter-strategic interests of our most powerful adversary.

Still, the GOP has made its deal with the devil and is clinging to him like stink to garbage.  Most are so complicit at this point that they must inevitably be touched by the “T” word as well.

I was interested to read yesterday in the Messenger that one-term Republican Senator Carolyn Branagan, who filled Dustin Degree’s vacated seat when he was appointed to a position in the Scott administration, and who had earlier announced that she would not run again in 2018, announced that she was now considering running as an Independent.

No mention was made of her reason for dropping GOP endorsement, but Branagan is known to be a moderate and I’d like to believe that she has simply chosen the moral high ground.

Being a woman must be additional motivation to run far, far away, even from the Vermont GOP.

One has to wonder how many Republicans in regional races have made a similar decision to leave the party’s branding (and funding) behind.  Just how toxic will the GOP label prove to be in the coming years?

ICE, huh, good god y’all…what is it good for?

International, National, ,

 

“Abolish ICE” has been in the news big-time for a  week or more. Democrats started using the line and it became shorthand for putting the brakes on Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies. The administration’s policy has horrifically separated thousands of immigrant parents from their children at our order from their families in the months since it began

Trump counter-punched “Abolish ICE” as a slogan in a manner he must have hoped might cause jittery Democrats more jitters: said Donald the baby-snatcher-in-chief: “I love that issue if they’re gonna actually do that.” He also said that to support abolishing ICE is supporting “open borders”

peoplencages

But: it is a different U.S. agency enforcing his own “zero tolerance” border policy—Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol—is responsible for policing the country’s borders. And it is agents patrolling the US-Mexico border who have been enforcing the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, by arresting adults who illegally enter the US, and separating them from their children.

This isn’t to say what ICE does isn’t just as cruelly problematic. And both unions that represent ICE and CBP workers/officers endorsed Trump for president early in his GOP primary race. Each agency has expressed a desire to have the “shackles taken off” and be turned loose on immigration enforcement.

So, what does ICE do exactly?

Well, Govexec.com has provided a handy little explainer worth taking a look at:  ICE ( sister” agency to CBP) is 20,000 people strong and operates in all 50 states. It was created in 2003 by Congress and granted unique civil and criminal powers to defend the U.S. borders. The agency largely focuses on immigration enforcement and works predominately within the US. This means apprehending and deporting immigrants who don’t have the right to live there.

In recent months, ICE carried out a number of high-profile raids. In June, it arrested nearly 150 meat plant workers in Ohio. In April, the agency raided another plant in eastern Tennessee, arresting nearly 100 people. As a result of that raid, more than 500 kids missed school the next day. Critics warn these raids could lead to long-term trauma within these communities.

In Vermont ICE has conducted a large scale raid in January and has been accused of targeting farm worker clients of the aid support group Migrant Justice for arrest.

The Homeland Security Act that created ICE was passed as part of the Homeland Security Act in 2002 with record bi-partisan support in both the Senate and House. In that vote  Vermont Senators Leahy voted Yes and then former GOP Sen. Jeffords, newly Independent after bolting his party was a No and in the US House Independent Bernie Sanders was No.

Under Trump both ICE and CBP are treating immigrants and their families cruelly on a daily basis and should be brought under control. It wouldn’t make a bumper sticker but the Washington Post’s Plum-line blogger Greg Sargent wisely pointed out that a good response for Democrats and progressives to the Trump-induced chaos at the border would be something along these lines: Trump’s cruel and incompetent policies just ripped more than 2,000 children away from their parents, and there are no indications when he’ll be able to reunite them, even though a judge has ordered him to do so. It’s time for him to show some leadership and clean up the immense humanitarian catastrophe he has created, rather than wasting all of our time with his petty little tweets and lies.

I particularly like that last bit: “[Trump]clean up the immense humanitarian catastrophe …rather than wasting all of our time with petty little tweets and lies”  That might not be comfortably squeezed onto a bumper sticker but it would look sharp on a billboard.

Re: Huh,what is it good for?