The climate around Phil Scott

local/regional, , , ,

scottbalanceRepublican Phil Scott is doing his bit for the party to promote carbon tax hysterics on climate change this week.

One of his many recent tweets,(Team Scott must not have heard that marketing studies show that after three tweets,engagement dramatically decreases.) a “news” story from Vermontwatchdog.org  warns of an alleged carbon tax apocalypse.

Vermont Watchdog is the local franchise mouthpiece of the Franklin Center for Government, a nationwide organization said to be at the forefront of right-wing efforts to thwart action on climate change and blur the distinction between statehouse reporting and political advocacy.scottwatch

Watchdog dutifully prints a Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee  ad in part of the article, but if you peel away the hysterics, the gist of the piece is centered on a series of  VPIRG’s proposals. Their proposal to fight climate change (and yes, Phil it is real) suggests a series of tax changes, instituting a global warming impact tax (carbon tax), starting an energy investment fund, and also energy rebates and tax cuts.

But this post isn’t exactly about the complicated carbon tax issue, but rather the policy crowd Scott runs with to get elected — his “in crowd.” The Vermont Watchdog is actually a “local” outlet, but also funded by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a 501c3 non-profit. Much of its funding is reported to be fueled with money from various hard right sources including the infamous Koch Brothers’ climate-change-denying organization.

Former Reuters chief White House correspondent Gene Gibbons didn’t mince his words in a 2010 report on the Franklin Center:

“For the most part, the people in charge of these would-be watchdog operations are political hacks out to subvert journalism in their quest to grab and keep power using whatever means they have to do so.”

The keynote speaker at a Franklin Center Watchdog.org  training session in 2012 was none other than right-wing  provocateur and ACORN “sting” artist James O’Keefe

So,what was it, only a couple weeks or more ago that Scott actually made it clear…well sort of that he thought climate change science was real ?

And now he is tweeting support for Koch Brothers-sponsored  “news” stories about climate issues.This doesn’t exactly fit with his own claims that his view “evolved.” Lie down with Big Carbon, get up covered in soot.

Phil Scott wants a Tiger Team of his own

local/regional, ,

Once upon a time, Governor Douglas had nine Tiger Teams, and now Phil Scott wants one of his own. If you’re thinking these are bad kung-fu action movies, you’re off the mark; instead they’re teams of officials created to prowl through state government, supposedly looking for inefficiencies and ways to save money. I don’t remember if the nine Douglas Tiger Teams ever actually accomplished anything, but Phil Scott says he will form a very similar group. scottstigerteam

I know this because of his crowing on twitter that he is “…the only candidate w/ a plan to modernization [sic] State Govt.” These declarations of his seem to occur at surprisingly regular intervals — but that’s what Twitter is for, I guess.

Scott says: “On the first day I am Governor, I will sign an executive order creating the Government Modernization & Efficiency Team (GMET).” And I can’t begin to guess why on day one. You know, god save-our-souls and have mercy on the state of Vermont if he doesn’t get to this on his FIRST freakin’ DAY, should he become governor! I wonder: is Phil liable to forget to do this if he waits a day or two?

Anyway, Scott’s proposed GME Team will be overseen by Vermont’s Chief Information Officer. According to the campaign website, the team’s areas of interest include: increasing operational efficiency, accounting improvements for IT projects, consolidating and streamlining and/or automate services (layoffs?) to name a few.

But like the Douglas Tiger Teams of yore, Phil’s GME Team may prove a handy cover for a little Republican budget slash n’ burn “In addition to the limits we would impose on budget growth, our goal will be to reduce the current operational cost of every agency and department by one cent for every dollar currently spent, in my first year in office.  This could generate as much as $55 million in savings.”

One of the Douglas’ Tiger Team so called “savings,” highlighted in his 2010 budget address, was a proposal to cap certain types of ER visits funded through Medicaid. This Medicaid “savings” (along with earlier proposed cuts to mental healthcare providers’ salaries) were heavily criticized because advocates said it would have made it harder for Vermonters in need to get proper health care.

Scott’s GME Team proposal gives little hint at any specific cuts, but it sure looks like his version of the Tiger Team will be wearing the same stripes as ones from the Douglas era.

What and when they knew: the shadow over Degree and Parent

local/regional, ,

Election day is nearing and Franklin County voters must decide whether or not it is important for them to have representatives in Montpelier who are at least minimally aware of potentially dangerous or compromising situations close at hand.

So far, we have not had the privilege of hearing substantive accounts from either Dustin Degree or Corey Parent of their day-to-day interactions with Norm McAllister and his teenaged “intern.”

It is a troubling gap.

Mr. Degree appears to have been an intimate of Mr. McAllister, who has himself implied that Mr. Degree knows far more about him and the situation with the teenager than anyone else; and Corey Parent has said in a sworn deposition that he often drove the teenager to and from Montpelier. Furthermore, the “intern” herself has testified that she devoted time to working both for Mr. McAllister’s and Mr. Degree’s election.

While no one would accuse either Degree or Parent of being complicit with Mr. McAllister’s alleged crimes, to accept that they were wholly unaware of the unhealthy relationship is to also accept that both gentlemen are singularly lacking in curiosity and intuition; two things that would seem fairly important to the offices that they currently hold.

Their inability in such close proximity to appreciate the real danger to the young girl (or even a hint of impropriety) represents a failure by Degree, at the very least, and possibly Parent as well, to uphold the sworn obligation to protect their constituents.

If I were a Franklin County Republican, I would be taking a second look at the Democrats in this election cycle, because all of the incumbent Republicans must share some guilt for allowing McAllister to run rampant over their party and failing to protect the best interests of the county.

Bernie makes a binary pitch

National, , ,

Senator Bernie Sanders had a busy Labor Day in New Hampshire. The campaign visit to Vermont’s upside down doppelganger is the first since his big win over Hillary Clinton in the early spring primary. On this trip he headlined three rallies to support Clinton for president, including a Labor Day breakfast sponsored by the AFL-CIO. upRdown

Sanders expressed support for, and urged supporters to cast their vote for Hillary Clinton. “We are talking about which candidate will better represent the needs of the American people.”

He stressed the points of agreement with Clinton but made it clear what the stakes are. “I am not the world’s most partisan person,” he said. “But the truth is, if you look at Donald Trump’s record, what you find is that this guy is a pathological liar.”

Clinton, he said, “is the superior candidate, hands down.”

Speaking prior to Sanders at the breakfast event, Democratic Senator Jean Shaheen reminded voters about New Hampshire’s recent history with third party presidential candidates: “What happened in 2000 is Al Gore lost New Hampshire by about 7,000 votes, and 19,000 people voted for Ralph Nader,” she said. “And we got George W. Bush, and we got the war in Iraq.”

Shaheen translation:  “You can’t bet half a cigarette. If you break it in half, you don’t get two nickels, you get shit.”

Some random Labor Day stuff with an old cartoon

Business, National, ,

strike
[Note: the guy is leading with a left] 1919: 150,000 coal miners strike for higher wages, better working conditions, and recognition of United Mine Workers of America.
Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894. In Vermont, 1895 there were Labor Day parades and celebrations in Barre and Montpelier. After speeches in Montpelier the Barre baseball team defeated National Life, 11-7. The machinists defeated the stone cutters, 13-12.

 

Some misc. 2016 labor statistics:

16.4 million The number of wage and salary workers age 16 and over represented by a union in 2015. This group included both union members (14.8 million) and workers who reported no union affiliation but whose jobs were covered by a union contract (1.6 million). Among states, New York continued to have the highest union membership rate (24.7 percent), and South Carolina had the lowest rate (2.1 percent).

108.0% The projected percentage growth from 2014 to 2024 in the number of wind turbine service technicians (4,400 jobs in 2014), the projected fastest-growing occupation. Meanwhile, the occupation expected to add the greatest number of positions over this period is personal care aides (458,100).

6.3 millionThe number of commuters who left for work between midnight and 4:59 a.m. in 2014. They represented 4.5 percent of all commuters. The most common time was between 7 a.m. and 7:29 a.m. – with 20.6 million commuters.

26.0 minutes The average time it took workers in the U.S. to commute to work in 2014. New York (32.6 minutes) and Maryland (32.3 minutes) had the most time-consuming commutes.

And does anyone remember back when Labor Day was considered the traditional  start of the presidential campaign season?

Phil Scott’s key answer

Business, local/regional,

I’ve read and heard one of the keys to the Phil Scott vision for the state’s future is increasing the number of 25-45 year-olds who live in Vermont. Now Scott doesn’t supply many specifics for meeting his goal and enticing this age group to Vermont, but in comments to the Burlington Free Press he indicated he believes helping a company feel more confident by way of various tax incentives should be a big part of it – or maybe that’s the key to all his plans.

But there are other solutions to this puzzle. And here are samplings from a short list (lifted from here ) of policy suggestions that might realistically incentivize the desired demographic (and other age groups) Scott claims he wants to woo to the Green Mountain state:

a) Offer a higher wage. Yes, yes, wages are so 20th century, but The Kids Today have a strange affinity for them. Maybe it’s nostalgia. […]

b) Good health insurance. […] Silly Kids Today.

c) Retirement benefits. […] They’ve been told their whole lives that Social Security just won’t be there for them so they need an alternative. Blame whoever keeps telling them that (shhh!!!!).

d) On the job training. […]

e)Job Security. The Kids Today would like some assurances that their jobs might be around a few months hence. […]

Oh, but implementing any of those would take a bit of leadership, and Scott’s business buddies would squawk a lot. Philand the millennials

But let’s be fair to Scott’s key solution – business-friendly tax policy – it might be just the thing 25-45 year-olds are into.

And I am probably not alone in recalling those times long ago, when we were still young, meeting up with friends on a Saturday afternoon and making plans to head out on the town that evening, in search of a little “business certainty, a tax incentive” or if we got really lucky “a tax exemption.”

Nobody does it better.

National,

In case you’ve missed it, Garrison Keiller has just taken Donald Trump to the woodshed as only he could.

In an open letter appearing on the op-ed pages of many American papers (including, I am happy to report, the St. Albans Messenger) America’s Grandpa has penned the ultimate response to Donald Trump’s public year of personal bad behavior.

A sample:

“You are in the old tradition of locker room ranting and big honkers in the steam room, sitting naked, talking man talk, griping about the goons and ginks and lousy workmanship and the uppity broads and the great lays and how you vanquished your enemies at the bank”

Like a modern day Mark Twain, Garrison Keillor, older than dirt and considerably wiser than the spoiled septuagenarian man/child he lampoons, has brought his unique perspective to a presidential race that has been too long on sensation and too short on self-awareness.

His letter is destined to be one of the great literary relics of our political times, a highlighted footnote to the report card on twenty-first century U.S.-style democracy that I am sure we have coming to us in the not-so-distant future.

Monster slugs are devouring defenseless baby birds in nests

National, Uncategorized, , ,

slug.jpg.653x0_q80_crop-smartThat’s right, it is the month’s best (mostly) non-political headline!

It seems a certain type of slug has been found to be preying on young chicks of ground nesting birds in Europe. “The actual moment of slugs predating on nestlings isn’t easy to observe,” says Katarzyna Turzańska at the University of Wroclaw in Poland. “You are more likely to come across the traces of the ‘tragedy’: dead or alive nestlings with heavy injuries, covered in slime – and often slugs’ droppings found nearby.”

Scientists say this is an unusual but not unheard of behavior among slugs. Studies have recorded similar events before, and of course scientists observe that slugs do leave a slimy trail. “When a slug finds itself inside a nest – probably accidentally, or maybe by actively searching for this type of food – it just starts foraging on the living nestlings using its radula, or tongue covered in tiny teeth,” says Turzańska. “The nestlings are unable to defend themselves and are eaten alive.”Trumpslug

Luckily the resemblance Donald Trump’s hair and a slug-like caterpillar share was already made years ago, so it wasn’t toooo  big a stretch of the imagination to make a connection to this wildlife behavior. Notice that the tactics Trump used to take over and dominate the GOP presidential primary election are remarkably similar to those employed by the predatory slug for devouring ground-nesting chicks.

While in the GOP primary, accidentally, or maybe  actively searching them out, Trump was able to “devour” 16 rival Republican candidates. These were the GOP “nestlings” Christie, Rubio and all the others he defeated, who are now dead politically or alive  with heavy injuries – left covered in “slime.”

And if you need more evidence, look at the trail Donald Trump leaves behind – he is the alpha slug of the GOP.

What’s Phil Scott doing as acting governor this week?

local/regional, ,

psstagefright2aSince Sunday and until Thursday, Phil Scott will be acting Vermont governor. Performing official duties as acting governor is one of only three statutory duties the part-time Lt. Governor position has. Vermont is a stable democracy so the acting governor can’t abolish the legislature or lock the governor out of the statehouse — no worries there.

Governor Shumlin will be away attending an international governors’ conference in Boston, a climate summit in Mexico and a drug prevention conference in Nevada.

Over five years Lt. Governor Scott (Vermont’s “spare” governor) has been acting governor plenty of times before his upcoming stint. Scott tells WCAX News  that after his latest stint as acting governor, he has now filled in for Gov. Peter Shumlin for 368 days, a little more than one year of Shumlin’s five-plus years in office. [WCAX isn’t called WGOP for nothing]

Speaking of work — Scott didn’t supply details for WCAX on how many days over five years, as part-time Lt. Governor, he’s spent working on the other two statutory duties: presiding over the state senate and casting tie breaking votes. How many hours a year does he put in toward earning his $61,776.00 a year part-time salary?

But back to this week: since he is running to be governor, the work  Mr. Acting Governor Scott has chosen to do is to campaign for himself. He’s scheduled several call-in news radio programs and a public reception for the next few days. Clearly he’s working for Phil; it’d be a real stretch to consider his working in his own self-interest as benefiting the rest of Vermont.

Entergy Vermont Yankee takes a leak into the future

Business, local/regional, , ,

The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is shutdown, no longer generating power and starting the decommissioning process. And Entergy VY is still struggling with a persistent ground water intrusion problem (think very leaky basement) in and through the nuclear reactor turbine building.curleyleaks

Back when the plant was operating, there was, it seemed, always a steady drip, drip, drip of news coming out of the troubled plant — a high temperature electrical fire here, a decayed cooling tower collapse there, and forty mysterious underground pipes “discovered” as  the source of radioactive tritiated water leaks — just to name a few of the ‘highlights.’ So the current radioactive water intrusion is only the latest in a long history of mishaps.

Happily Vtdigger.com reports VY officials think they have gotten a handle on the rising tides: “Vermont Yankee administrators say they’re getting a stubborn groundwater intrusion problem under control and are no longer pursuing a proposal to discharge radioactive water into the Connecticut River.”

Early this spring Entergy bought homeowner-grade kiddie pools (the NRC actually approved their use for this purpose) to hold the overflow. The pools were then abandoned in favor of more durable rubber storage bladders; gallons of contaminated water were shipped out by tanker truck, an expensive task. And now reports suggest the company will no longer pursue state permission to dump its tainted water into the Connecticut River.

The aggressive flow of water, at its height in February, was as much as 3,000 gallons a day. Yet  officials maintain: “Simply sealing “a number of cracks” in the turbine building has helped.”

And the Entergy VY spokesflack brags: “We had a plan, we implemented the plan, and the plan worked.”FreeVYpoolz

Aw come on, “We had a plan!”  Bah! I think they are winging it –right from the time they rushed out to buy their first kiddie pool to capture overflows of radio-active water.

And now, what VY fails to mention and the reporter at Vtdigger.com definitely should have noted is that Vermont and most of the Northeast are in the midst of record-breaking drought!   Vermont has seen record low rainfall, with the drought  even more severe in Southern New Hampshire and Western Massachusetts.

Ground water levels are low throughout the region — therefore groundwater intrusion at VY’s turbine building would be record low. No water = no leaks!

But Entergy is decommissioning and headed out VY’s back door, pausing just long enough to patch a few cracks in the ‘basement,’ bless Mother Nature for the lack of rain, and cross their corporate fingers. I wonder if part of their plan includes setting up the kiddie pools again next spring?