After all the tax breaks and giveaways the State of Vermont supplied them with over the years should we be at all troubled (or even surprised) by this?

The maker of the Keurig single-cup coffee system said Thursday it plans to build its new cold-brewed beverage maker line at a plant in Douglas County [Georgia], creating about 550 jobs.  

Vermont-based Keurig Green Mountain will make its single-serving cold drink system at a plant in Lithia Springs, about 20 miles west of downtown Atlanta. The state and Keurig said the company will spend $337 million over five years on the project. […]

Keurig was offered and is eligible for tax credits for creating jobs as well as a sales and use tax exemption for machinery. The jobs tax credits alone could be worth up to $4.8 million over five years, according to an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

[emphasis added]

Data availability varies but according to Goodjobsfirst.org subsidy tracker Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (AKA Coca-Cola cold pod packing inc.) got $9,254,071 worth of assorted grants, low cost loans, tax credits and job training gifts here in Vermont, the majority since 2011.That’s a nice little bit of our limited state money put to work helping Keurig-GMCR’s bottom line and shareholders.  

I guess Vermont didn’t know that Keurig-GMCR might have had Georgia on their mind in 2012 when hitting us up for an additional $250,000 tax break on a cutting edge packing machine. Business savvy Secretary of Commerce Lawrence Miller championed the idea because:

“This is the type of production equipment we’re going to see more of in different industries,” Secretary of Commerce Lawrence Miller said  “And it’s those companies on the cutting edge that we want to attract.”

How’d that attraction work out, Secretary Miller?  

Keurig Green Mountain to create 550 jobs in Georgia.

Douglasville, Georgia, that is. And it’s going, going, gone, off to the union-free right-to-work south to join mad river canoe, green mtn salsa and who-all, after having gobbled up over $9 million from VEDA for “small business development” over the last ten years, with a banjo on my knee.

A couple years down the road, look for Co-cola to keep a small facility in Waterbury dedicated to on-site retail bottling of spring water, a natural consequence of H756 (aka the Green Mountain Coffee K-cup Tax Exemption Bill) of March 2012.

http://vtdigger.org/2014/06/19…

Norwich University is a military school justly known for its peace studies program, now known as Studies in War and Peace. Today it was one of the biggest warmongers of recent years speaking to a crowd of nearly three thousand.

 Yes, as we posted the other day, Condoleezza Rice was the speaker this morning, and as the event unfolded it was clear that I wasn't the only one who could not imagine letting the event go by unchallenged.

The Burlington Free Press is reporting that several protesters were there, calling her a war criminal and repeatedly interrupting her speech.

 Among the protesters was longtime Vermont activist Ed Stanak, who made the following remarks:

 I respect your First Amendment rights to give a speech but I have an obligation as an American citizen to confront you as a war criminal.

– You lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction.

-You acquiesced in the use of torture as national policy.

– You are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and the destruction of Iraqi Infrastructure.

-And you are responsible for the deaths of more than 4,000 American service members.

One of the first Americans to die was a Vermonter who grew up just 40 miles from here in South Burlington . Marine corporal Mark Envin was only 21 years old when he died.

The other American were dead are…[ before being able to read the names of American war dead, Stanak was escorted from the Shapiro Field House exclaiming “War criminal ! “ and “No justice, no peace ! “ ]

(Posted by Ed Stanak on his daughter's Facebook page.)

Naturally Rice made a show of being tolerant, while characterizing the protesters as “those who would defend Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda”. Yes, she's still peddling the lie that there was some connection between the two.

Oh, one other thing: if you want to see the video of the protest you're out of luck because Norwich killed the video feed.

Thank you to Ed Stanak and the other protesters who stood up to the lies of this war apologist. 

(This blog’s been getting a little dull lately, so I’ll punch it up with a little humor.  These pieces on the MILNE/BUKNATSKI campaign, and the poor suffering Vermont Republican Party, I hope to continue with right up to November.)

Hi.  I’m Peter Buknatski.  I’m running for Chief Director of Vermont Garbage and Sewers this year on the new MAKE THE VERMONT REPUBLICAN PARTY LEGAL ticket.  It’s actually just the same old Republican Party, we just jazzed up the name.

You see, folks, the Vermont Republican Party has fallen on hard times this year.  We don’t seem to have anybody interested in running for office.  Now, Mr. Milne, as you know, is running for Governor.  And then there’s me, Peter Buknatski.  And that’s about it.  Bummer.  So keep those two names in mind:  MILNE & BUKNATSKI.  We need to get at least 5% of the vote to maintain our status as an official political party in Vermont.  It will be a close one.  I think those goddamn Progs have more candidates than we have this year.  You see, they have teamed up with the Dems to embarrass us.  Don’t let them get away with this CONSPIRACY!  Vote for MILNE & BUKNATSKI.  Tell your friends.  Tell your pets.  Help us.  PLEASE.

Now, you might want to know a little about what I stand for.  Well…I stand for DEMOCRACY.  I stand for Vermont Republicans being treated as well as Vermont’s Gays, not being treated like Vermont’s Habitual offenders.  I stand for civil and human rights for Vermont Republicans.  Because once the Vermont Republican Party is gone, there will be a great loss to Vermonters’ Quality of Life.  Think of all the FUN we provide, the sheer entertainment!  Remember our candidates of the past?  Remember, for instance, Rich Tarrant?  Wasn’t he a HOOT?  Without us, Vermont elections would be borrr–ring.  Yes, without us, who would be there to cut the ribbons on Opening Day of the Vermont Kiddies Lemonade Stands Festival?  Remember Jim Douglas, and all the ribbons he cut?  He was our ACTIVIST Governor.  Without us, the Second Vermont Republic would be in power.  We’re all that’s holding them back.

So, PLEASE.  I beg of you.  I appeal to you as a fellow Vermonter.  MILNE & BUKNATSKI.  Help!  

Now, Mr. Milne (Can never remember his first name.  Sam?  Whatever.) didn’t want me to make this appeal.  He thought it would be unseemly.  Also, he thought my name linked with his would just confuse people more.  Well, we don’t have any big name play going on this year, like in 2002, when Jim Douglas ran for Governor.  Wasn’t that a brilliant move?  He was voted in virtually unopposed every two years as Secretary of State.  He was Sec of State for a hundred years.  People got used to him.  It was automatic.  People said on election day:  “Oh, here’s Jim Douglas again as a Republican/Democrat running unopposed for Sec of State.  Yawn.  What the Hell.”  So, when people checked-off their ballots in 2002, especially those voting early in the morning, before any coffee, and those voting late, after 5 or 6 drinks, they saw Jim’s name and said: “There’s Douglas again for Sec of State.  Yawn.  Or ‘Hic’–What the Hell.”  Wasn’t that a great moment in Vermont politics?  People woke up the next morning to find Jim Douglas their new Governor, and said: “What the….?”  But we did it!

But that was THEN, and this is NOW.

NOW, we don’t have any big names to play with.  Just MILNE & BUKNATSKI.  That’s it.  But we will keep on with it, in spite of ourselves.  Perhaps one election year in the future, say 2026, people will say:  “Milne?  Didn’t he run for Governor once?  Yawn.  What the Hell.”  As for me, I’ll probably be DEAD.  I’ll have died of boredom if we don’t get that 5%.  Do you want to see me DEAD?  I’m 65 years-old.  I walk with a cane.  I have to go to Charlie Os World Famous all the time just to get people to listen to me about this CONSPIRACY.  Last week, I think I picked up two votes there.  Well, at least one–I had to buy him three beers.  Yes, if this keeps up, I’ll be DEAD.  Do you want that on your conscience?  And what about poor Sam?  Mr. Milne?  Can he hold out til 2026?  I think not.  I think you hold his life in your hands too.  We’re talking about HUMAN LIFE now.  As the Peace Ninnies say:  “NO MORE VICTIMS!”

MILNE & BUKNATSKI!  Remember those names.  We’ll be together at Charlie Os World Famous in Montpelier next Friday evening, shaking hands and shooting pool.  Regular guys.  And if there’s a blonde out there reading this, and she has another blonde friend, come join us.  I think I can suggest to Sam that a sex scandal with a couple of hot blondes will punch up our campaign.  Thank you.

And Mr. Milne thanks you too.  MILNE & BUKNATSKI!  Think of us as one!

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, VT.

(Oh, and Mr. Milne:  What I have written above is the sole product of my imagination.  I have satirized and ‘savaged’ the Vermont Dems very often on this site in the last 10 years.  Now it’s the Vermont Republicans turn.  Live with it.  If you start any trouble about any associations your little p-brain comes up with, forget about my support this Fall.  I am, like Douglas, running unopposed.  And one more thing–Scott and Scott is too confusing.  We have a Scott already as Lt.Gov.  It’s like Darryl and his other brother, Darryl.  So, I’ll be calling you SAM.  Think about getting your name legally changed.  If you don’t like Sam, consider JETHRO.  It’s down-to-earth.  See you in the next ‘chapter’–we’re gonna have fun at Charlie Os World Famous.)  

Dear oh dear. One of the three fringey Republican candidates for Congress, Mark Donka, has his knickers in a big ol’ twist.

This is the same Mark Donka who lost badly to Peter Welch in 2012. How badly? Try 72-23. And now we know why: the media is conspiring against him.

Last week, Paul “The Huntsman” Heintz posted a piece about a rather offensive item on Donka’s Facebook page. Donka had posted a link to a far-right-wing hit piece entitled “Why are all the mass murderers Democrats?”

After Heintz took note of the post, there was a quick kerfuffle, and then Donka removed it from his Facebook page — even while offering a very conditional, tortuous rationalization for the post along with the tiniest dollop of regret.

A few days after that, Donka came up with a novel justification for the whole event: he was trolling the media, AND IT WORKED!

Last week I posted a link to an article that was very far out as an experiment.

You see, when I ran for office in 2012 I sent out press releases on an almost weekly basis with not one mainstream media outlet in Vermont publishing even one of them. They included topics such as a plan to reduce tuition costs and actual effective methods of reducing the cost of healthcare. Just recently I sent out a press release calling for the justice department to lead the investigation into the VA problems. No surprise that no one followed through in printing that either.

So I wondered if it was because I am not considered to be a legitimate candidate worthy of mention by the media or because I am a conservative and challenging one of their good old boys. Well I posted the link and waited to see what would happen and I got my answer. This article I linked was so outlandish that it is incomprehensible that anyone would take it seriously. But that is exactly what happened. I even fed Paul Heinz at Seven Days a few quotes just to make it seem a little legitimate.

So at least as far as Seven Days and The Valley News are concerned they are willing to give me coverage as long as it is negative coverage and not informing people that there are better ideas out there than the lame, worn out, and ineffective ideas that our current people in Washington have.

What ever happened to responsible journalism?

See? He didn’t agree with the offensive piece, not at all; he deliberately posted it in order to reveal the media’s hypocrisy: they refused to cover his serious campaign, but pounced at the chance to report a scandal.

It’s just The Man tryin’ to keep Mark Donka down.

Well, a couple of teeny-tiny problems with his great conspiracy theory. Maybe three.

First and foremost, this late-blooming rationalization is pretty transparent. When first confronted with the “mass murderers” post, Donka danced all over the place, offering tentative justifications and pullbacks in quick succession. He gave no indication that he’d just sprung a trap on the media. It took him a few more days to fabricate that story.

Second, it wasn’t the entire Vermont media. Heintz wrote a single online story. The Valley News, which is Donka’s local daily paper, understandably picked it up. And that, as far as I know, is it. Nothing in the Freeploid or Mitchell Family Organ or VPR or WCAX or WPTZ or Fox 22 or WDEV or VTDigger. Even the poo-flinging monkeys of Green Mountain Daily ignored it, because as far as we’re concerned, Mark Donka is pretty close to irrelevant. Except when he goes this far out of his way to make a spectacle of himself.

Third, it’s not unusual for a politician’s press releases to be ignored by the media. It’s done far more often than not. You should see all the stuff sent out by Shumlin, Sanders, Leahy, Welch, and the two major parties. The vast majority are quickly deleted. Just because a politician makes an announcement, or wants to generate publicity about an issues, doesn’t mean it’s actual news. It’s usually not.

Third and a half, it’s not the media’s job to help you create interest and momentum in your campaign. The media focuses most of its attention on candidates who have an actual chance to win. They don’t completely ignore others — witness the Freeploid’s front page story on Emily Peyton a few weeks ago. But the focus of the coverage is on those with a real chance at being elected. Even more of the coverage goes to incumbents, whether Democrats, Progressives, or Republicans, because they’re the ones actually doing stuff and moving the debate.

Besides, when you’re a minor candidate with fringey ideas, no amount of media coverage would change people’s minds. As someone who’s spent his professional life in media, and felt a great sense of responsibility for the quality of my work, I can tell you that virtually all of it makes not a single bit of difference. Most people, even most voters, pay little or no attention to The News. Those who do pay attention don’t allow The News to interfere with their established opinions and beliefs. (Indeed, there’s evidence to show that a story disproving your beliefs can somehow wind up reinforcing your beliefs. Such is the power of the mind.)

Mark Donka didn’t lose in 2012 because the media failed to report his positions. He lost because he had no campaign organization, no money, and no appeal to most voters.

And Mark Donka is blowing smoke out his hindquarters with this “trapping the media” arglebargle. He posted that “mass murderers are Democrats” thing because he agreed with it to some extent, and he thought it would appeal to his Facebook friends. There’s other stuff on his Facebook page that’s almost as offensive: endless yammering about Benghazi, a sad bit of snark about Michelle Obama’s participation in the #saveourgirls campaign, a really misguided rant about how we’re spending billions on foreign aid while our own people go wanting, hate pieces from the likes of World Net Daily.

No, from the totality of Donka’s Facebook page, I conclude that he’s a far-right Fox News conspiracy theorist who’s so far out of step with the Vermont electorate that he has absolutely no chance of beating Peter Welch. And to ask the media to spend significant time on his beliefs is to ask the media to waste its resources and our time.  

Your friend & mine Jack McCullough has previously warned you of the pending arrival of Condoleezza Rice. The very next day, our fair land will welcome a much more constructive political figure, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. She’s the featured speaker at the VDP’s annual David W. Curtis Awards dinner on Friday evening.

And hey, you remember the VTGOP’s endless crowing over the success of its Chris Christie fundraiser in December? Well, the Warren event is going to easily surpass it in attendance, and most likely in fundraising as well. Late last week, the VDP had to put a lid on ticket sales because they’d already sold more than 900 — nearing capacity at the Champlain Valley Expo. The party has already taken in more than $125,000, plus whatever additional funds they wangle out of attendees on Friday night. (There is still room for a few more folks, but VDP is asking anyone interested to call them for information at 802-229-1783.)

VDP Executive Director Julia Barnes tells me the Curtis event is “record-breaking.”

By comparison, the Republicans were practically orgasmic over a turnout of 650 for Christie. And remember, this was pre-Bridgegate, when Christie was widely considered the front-runner for the 2016 Presidential nomination.

Of course, a lot of folks would like to see Warren as the Democratic nominee… or, an intriguing prospect I heard recently, a Clinton/Warren ticket. Sounds good to me.

FYI, Warren will be doing a late-afternoon chat and book signing at Phoenix Books in downtown Burlington; I’m sure tickets for that event will go fast as well.

Clearly, the Democrats’ ceiling for enthusiasm and fundraising is far higher than the Republicans’. And clearly, there’s a whole lot of interest in a politician with a clear and positive liberal message. I look forward to finding out just how successful Friday night will be.  

Busy Thursday morning? If not, you might want to make time to listen to one of our more notorious war criminals and possibly our most incompetent National Security Advisor.

Yes, Condoleezza Rice is coming to Norwich University Thursday morning and they still have free tickets left! All you need to do is follow the link and fill in your information for the event.

This seems to be a good week to be thinking about Rice, what with the predictable (and amply predicted) collapse and disintegration of Iraq, thanks to her efforts, happening before our very eyes.

Maybe there will be a Q&A session where she can be induced to reprise some of her lies. You remember these classics, right?

The aluminum tubes “are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs”.

 “[W]e don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”

“I never saw intelligence casting doubt on Bush Administration WMD claims.” (Paraphrase)

Since the governing principle of Rice's foreign policy positions is that the United States must defeat the Soviet Union, she must feel the time for a comeback is at hand. I think the destruction of Iraq, and her role in creating the current civil war, is what she should be questioned about.

In the wake of the nominating filings and the endless analysis you'll hear about them, I want to reassure my colleagues that we will still have joke candidates to watch at the statewide level. JV is correct in pointing out that there aren't many joke candidates out there, but the cupboard (or nut barrel?) is not completely bare.

In addition to perennial joke candidate Em Peyton, I count one joke candidate on the Democratic ballot.

Yes, our friend Brooke Paige, who took his quixotic birther quest from Montpelier all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, has filed petitions as a Democratic candidate for governor.

 Can we expect a series of heated debates in which Peter Shumlin is called upon to prove that he really was born in Brattleboro, on the right side of the river? Will it be questions about his bona fides as a Vermonter because his mother was born in the Netherlands? 

Or will the candidacy of Mr. Paige meet the fate of most fringe candidates: little attention and fewer votes?

Stay tuned to find out, but I have a feeling that today's post might be the last thing you hear about Paige's candidacy. 

 No sooner did I post this than Christian Avard,an old friend of GMD, reminded me that we also have Cris Ericson running on the Marijuana Party ticket. We'll see if she uses this year's election to reprise her anti-semitic attacks on supporters of Israel she used when she was running for Senate in 2010.

No injuries were reported. New Hampshire’s Donald Hall, former US poet laureate put his thoughts about Scott Brown into a no- holds- barred political haiku style poem. Simply said Hall is no fan of the former Massachusetts Senator.  

Get out of town,  

Scott Brown!  

Scott Brown the former Senator from Massachusetts is a candidate in New Hampshire’s Republican US Senate primary. About a year ago the VTGOP brought Brown in to speak at a $125.00 a head fundraiser in an attempt to rally their struggling party.  

Even though the big laugh from last week’s Bill Maher show was that line about “ammosexuals,”  something bothered me about his conversation with Ralph Reed.

When Maher posed the deliberately provocative question, “Why do you believe in a magic being?” the Christian conservative smugly replied with predictable answers, including something about needing a “moral compass.”

Surprisingly, Maher didn’t challenge him on that.  It’s become such a popular truism that it even blunts the response instincts of a seasoned combatant like Bill Maher.

How he should have responded was by pointing out that even atheists and agnostics have a “moral compass.” If they did not, we would live in utter chaos.

Why else would Vermont, the least religious state in the nation with the laxest gun laws, have extremely low rates of gun violence compared to other states, and at the same time, some of the most environmentally conscious and humanitarian laws in the entire country?

Sounds like we’ve got a pretty healthy “moral compass” guiding us here, with or without a belief in God.

‘Fact is, the moral compass of ethical atheists is arguably more authentic, since it draws not from some infantile concern with punishment or reward, but from a deeply seated understanding of right and wrong, justice and injustice, compassion vs. cruelty.

Of course that’s not to say that believers are all motivated solely by the threat of damnation. Most good people are simply that…good people.   Take away the threat of hellfire and brimstone and they will still be good; not because some deity has decreed that they should be, but because everything in their being tells them to be.

In contrast, one has to wonder where the moral compass has gone in the Taliban and Christian fundamentalists, whose attitudes toward women are profoundly unjust; truly “immoral” to most other civilized people.

Where was the “moral compass” in the Crusades or the Inquisition?  Where had it gone when Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants were murdering one another over territorial imperative?

Why is it that so many malevolent social movements seem to resolve themselves into cults of hate that use the bible or the Koran as weapons of control, even destruction?

What Maher should have said was this:

“My moral compass is just fine, thank you very much.  

Where is it among House Republicans who have so little love of their fellow man that they won’t allow immigration reform to move forward; or the minimum wage?  Why do they think their “moral compass” is superior to that of all women, who would like to have the right to govern their own bodies no matter which state they live in?”

”

One must logically conclude that ethics and morals have nothing whatsoever to do with theism; and if you need a supreme being to make you behave like a decent human being, your moral compass has a bent needle.