GOP War on Women Comes to Vermont

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The latest bulletin from St. Albans City Representative Corey Parent makes no mention of an amendment which he and 32 other Republicans supported; one which, if widely known, is likely to reinforce the perception that the national Republican war on women has descended upon Vermont.

The amendment in question, attached to H.620, was introduced by Rep. Willhoit of St. Johnsbury, but failed 107-33. To wit:

“In Sec. 1, 8 V.S.A. § 4099c, by adding a subsection (h) to read as follows:
(h)(1) Upon request by a religious employer, as described in 26 U.S.C. § 6033(a)(3)(A)(i) and (iii) and as certified by the Commissioner of Financial Regulation, a health insurer shall make available a health insurance plan that does not provide coverage for contraceptive services.”

I think we can safely assume that there was no such measure afoot to defund Viagra supply for the gentlemen of our fair state.

Funny how that works.

You would think that, after the multiple violations against female constituents that Republican Senator Norm McAllister is alleged to have committed, Republicans in both chambers would be inclined to tread more softly on the matter of women’s reproductive rights.

That 33 Republican members of the House had the temerity to give employers dominion over the private consciences and reproductive rights of working women suggests that it is time to take the argument to a new level.

I am not aware of any other restrictions on employees’ purchase of goods or services that have been similarly ceded to the prerogative of their employers.

Put very plainly, support for legislation that would  effectively restrict access to contraception should be understood to be a vote in favor of abortion.

With Donald Trump as the national standard bearer, and the stench of rape, exploitation, and party indifference  lingering in Franklin County’s GOP  like limburger cheese on a  humid day, it’s going to be ugly for Republicans in this election cycle.

How to build a utopian community in White River Valley

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A mega-wealthy buyer gathering up parcels of land is news that will cause unease and even strike fear into most small town residents — except maybe a local real estate agent or two.

Well, that’s what is happening in the White River Valley as a Utah businessman recently bought almost a thousand acres in four local towns. David R. Hall, a Mormon developer, has $100 million set aside to spend, and says he’s just getting started.

newvistavt 1The ultimate goal is NewVista  a settlement he wants to build, composed of 50 diamond-shaped communities of 15,000 to 20,000 people each.

 

Over the next 30 to 50 years, Hall hopes to realize plans by the Mormon religious leader to create an integrated community that could house as many as 20,000 people within a few square miles. In a telephone interview Tuesday, Hall said he was hoping to purchase enough land to create a large contiguous plot on which to base his development, which he hopes could provide a model for an environmentally friendly, sustainable way of living.

[…] In 1833, Smith [Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism] and his followers imagined something they called a “Plat,” or “Plot,” of Zion — a city on a rectangular grid that would integrate all needs of a community into one design.  

“That’s the fundamental background,” Hall said. “We’re of course doing all the engineering to figure out how it might work.”

[From The Valley News’ upgraded, snazzier than ever website]

David Hall  inherited his fortune from the family engineering business, Novatek, which makes synthetic diamond drilling technology. Novatek, a privately held company, was acquired in 2015 by Schlumberger Ltd, the international an oil and gas exploration giant.

Vermonters in Royalton, Sharon, Strafford and Tunbridge are predictably worried about what this might do to their communities. Hall claims there should be no cause for concern, and with a time frame of 30 to 50 years this guy is obviously planning long term. Eternity perhaps?

So how do you build utopia in the White River Valley ?

Now reports are that Hall hasn’t reached out to the community, but I believe he actually has, just not in the  a way you might expect. He may not be out shaking hands to reassure the general public, but buried like a shale oil deposit to pump later is his inspired “good will” gesture.

Hall said he hopes to work with the Vermont Law School in South Royalton — “The best environmental law school in the country,” he called it — and floated the idea of building a research center nearby and giving grants to professors there.

Dangling that offer in front of  a struggling law school is better than showing up at twenty years’ worth of town meeting days. Do you think, perchance, David Hall might have permits and environmental regulations in mind?

Note to self: To build a 20,000 resident utopian paradise in a small town

  • First step: buy …err invest in a law school and professors.

Q-Burking* Mountain

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In 2014, right out of the gate, reports were that Bill Stenger and Ariel Qurios’ Burke Mountain project got off on the wrong foot when a name change clashed with local sensibilities.Burkenbottle

 It’s off to a rocky start. When Quiros bought the ski area, many locals and loyal skiers bristled that he changed its name to Q Burke Mountain — a move they perceived as arrogant.

It wasn’t purely arrogance; it was just that sending a message — the winners are now in charge — to potential EB-5 investors was deemed infinitely more important than the opinion of the locals:

 Quiros says the name change is a message to investors. […] But Burke Mountain’s international reputation for chronic failure was worthless to him. He needed to change the name to associate “Burke” with his and Stenger’s success at Jay Peak, which businesspeople know is owned by Q. Resorts.fb-logo

Fast forward to this past week, where at Q-Burke Mountain hotel and conference center events are taking an interesting turn. The new hotel opening was delayed due to a multi-million-dollar dispute with the general contractor. An announcement of 180 layoffs of local employees followed quickly.

Partners Bill Stenger and Ariel Quiros wasted no time laying off the blame elsewhere:

In a swipe at the state, resort officials said in the news release announcing the layoffs that “Q-Burke Mountain Resort has worked diligently to create jobs and to retain personnel even through rough times, however, job creation, job retention, and economic development do not seem to be as important to the state as previously believed.”

It may not be easy to pass that one off with a straight face. After all, Vermont has been promoting (some might say pimping) the Q-Burke and the Jay Peak developments to potential EB-5 foreign investors. Motivated by the prospect of NEK jobs, Vermont has been marketing them around the globe as a sound investment almost from the start. In fact, it took multiple loud complaints from disgruntled Jay Peak investors and an SEC investigation before the state tightened up its accounting enforcement.

Why growl and snap at the hand that enables your EB-5 money habit? Same reason they added “Q” to Burke, a message to investors, which in this case is: it’s not our fault and keep investing. Because one season of bad weather, reports of unpaid bills and the specter of a hulking empty hotel could slow their foreign investment to a trickle-when they need gallons per hour.

And, in closing let’s return to Burke 2014 and “Q” arrogance:

Quiros understands the community doesn’t like the new name, he says. But he believes they’ll come to appreciate the value it brings, once he proves the long-term value of his plan. He thought about public perception “300 percent,” and stands by his decision.

“If I make a mistake here, I lose everything! I lose everything,” Quiros says. “Because in the world market, I don’t get the money from a bank. I get from word of mouth.”

Exactly “300 percent” right: no money from banks. It comes through the State and Federal EB-5 Immigrant Investment Program. Chances are Vermont will get over the criticism (because of the promises of local jobs). But maybe it’s a risky strategy to dump on the state after they have helped provide a steady stream of investors. T rump

And there are plenty of other EB-5’s in other states begging for foreign investors. Donald J. Trump’s got one, a huge, beautiful, luxury Jersey City Hotel and conference center for example … just a coupla minutes from Manhattan and it’s huge , HUGE!

*“Burking” : originally meaning to smother,  but which later passed into general use as a word for any suppression or cover-up.

Five hundred bugged buses

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Here in Vermont recently there has been a flurry of reports over privacy concerns with the free public Wi-Fi’s foot traffic tracking system at the Church Street Market Place installed almost a year ago. But that’s just pedestrian compared to the secretly bugged public buses in Maryland. Apparently the Maryland Transit Administration didn’t think twice of secretly recording conversations on 500 of its public buses starting at least three years ago.

busrecorde 2Here in Vermont, questions remain about the extent that Burlington’s city supplied free Wi-Fi  utilizes monitoring capabilities above and beyond the impressive shopper foot traffic tracking system. VtDigger and VPR news both had good pieces exploring the privacy issue.

Unfortunately Vermont Edition didn’t ask Burlington Mayor Weinberger about it when they had him on the program a day or two later. Maybe there will be follow-up next time allows.The only sure way around tracking at the Church Street Market Place is not carrying a cell phone or other device at all to solve privacy worries in Burlington.

But on public buses in Maryland you better talk at a whisper or not at all if you want privacy.

Probably unbeknownst to many riders, the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) has been recording sound, as well as video, on 487 of its 771 buses, starting in 2013, in the name of safety and customer service. So are cities like Atlanta and San Francisco. In fact, the ability to record sight and sound comes standard on most new bus fleets being bought by city and state transit agencies.

The MTA says secretly recording conversations on buses is just another investigative tool and in addition they are able to secretly check the bus driver and monitor customer service, these are the added benefits. Nearly all new buses come equipped for audio surveillance but how many municipalities use them isn’t often reported.

Apollo Video Technology manufacturer of the listening devices defends the eavesdropping: Chief Operating Officer April Johnson, as a way to check the quality of driver and customer service. And, they insist, the listening devices aren’t overly intrusive or in violation of riders’ privacy.[added emphasis]

The standard rationale for this, heard almost every time a privacy question is raised goes like this: “…lawmakers look to strike a balance between personal privacy and giving police the tools they need to do their job”. If all of this- increases in cell phone tracking, police body cameras and license plate detectors recording and saving data- is all about striking a balance, it seems like someone’s got a thumb tipping the scale.

Early Lisman speech praised the 1927 Commission on Rural Life

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Back when he just getting his Campaign for Vermont underway (and still pretending to be a centrist) Bruce Lisman delivered a speech titled Prosperity is at the heart of the Campaign for Vermont.

cforVIn one of his first speeches made upon entering the Vermont political scene he cited the landmark 1930’s report by the Vermont Commission on Country Life [sometimes called Commission on Rural Life] as a positive example for Vermont leadership to follow.

In November 2011 when Lisman gave the speech to the Associated Industries of Vermont, the state was still recovering from the 2008 recession and in the midst of rebuilding after hurricane-turned-tropical-storm Irene. His address is part-attack on the Shumlin administration and part-branding himself as a white knight returning, to save his home state – with the Campaign for Vermont.

And he wrapped it all around this theme :

If we are exceptional, it isn’t just because it’s so damn cold and dark. It’s because in all that we have ever done we work hard, we work smart, we adapt quickly, we solve problems, and we know how to strike a deal to get things done.

We marry our kindness and caring gene to the gene that demands practicality and frugality.

Consider this: After the flood of 1927, our State launched Vermont’s Commission on Rural Life, a three-year project to re-imagine Vermont.

From that study, our leaders recognized the challenges we face, as individuals and as a state, are sometimes bigger than we can handle alone.

We were a bit humbled, but also enlivened by the opportunities for renewal presented by accepting a bit more dependence on Federal resources.

Irene offers a parallel opportunity to re-imagine Vermont in a world that is changing; an opportunity to examine the resources available and re-imagine.

Our challenges of today call for new imagination.

The Commission was the brainchild of Zoology Prof. H. F. Perkins of the University of Vermont – who also organized the 1925 Vermont Eugenics Survey. The Rural Life Commission’s final report took three years to complete and was the work of over a dozen committees and sub-committees.

One historian, writing in 1999, summed up the report like this: Beneath the surface of its 1931 final report, Rural Vermont: A Program for the Future, however, lay Perkins’s eugenic concern for protecting and nourishing Vermont’s “old stock.”

Over the years the eugenics component may have faded historically; to some readers, the report may generally be regarded (when regarded at all) as simply a multi-faceted government report from many years ago. Sections of the final report were working plans for rural rejuvenation and development. One chapter suggests the state should develop itself as the destination for tourists and summer residents – perhaps the birth of the modern tourist industry.

The report has all that – but with a little minor research the darker side emerges quickly. Not much about tourism surfaces when you Google it and the top search results center exclusively on Vermont Eugenics. And eugenics , according to the report authors’ intro, was the intended essence of it. As they explained in the introduction to The People of Vermont section: Thus, the center of interest from the beginning was in the people. The interest in land utilization, agriculture, forestry, and summer residence was in the background.

Governor-wannabe Bruce Lisman grew up in Burlington, graduated from UVM, and in recent years served on its Board of Trustees. It is possible he wasn’t familiar with the darker eugenics aspect of the study, or perhaps simply discounted it in favor of the convenient 1927 Vermont flood parallel to the ongoing Irene recovery for his talk.

And no one even batted an eye back in 2011 during Lisman’s speech favorably citing the Rural Life Commission’s report that, in part, promoted eugenics.

Now, five years later, Donald J. Trump wants to “build a wall” and without shame expresses openly anti- immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiments in the Republican presidential primary. I wonder what kind of headline Lisman would get today, if he praised the eugenics-tainted Vermont Commission on Country Life’s 1931 project to re-imagine Vermont.

Is there such a difference between demonizing adherents of Islam or dehumanizing Mexicans (Trump) on the one hand, and making sure that “undesirables” don’t pass along their genes (Perkins, with recent praise from Lisman)? Is this the kind of thinking – or at best, thoughtlessness – we want running Vermont?

If that’s the way the country and our state decide to go, maybe the Canadians really ought to consider building their own wall.

Peter Galbraith: “Galbraith to enter Democratic Primary for Governor”

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After weeks of hints and waiting, Peter Galbraith, yes Peter Galbraith will announce today that he,Peter Galbraith will enter the Democratic gubernatorial primary race.PGalbraith3

After extensive consultation with Peter Galbraith, Peter Galbraith has concluded the time is right to offer Peter Galbraith’s leadership to the state of Vermont. Peter Galbraith will be holding a news conference at the Vermont State House today.

Former Vermont Democratic State Senator Peter Galbraith has retained former Republican Roger Albee as Peter Galbraith’s campaign treasurer.

Neal Goswami of Vermont News Bureau tweeted that Peter Galbraith’s announcement was emailed to him by Ian Moskowitz who recently was political director for the New Hampshire Democratic Party and most recently emailed Peter Galbraith’s gubernatorial announcement email.

Peter Galbraith will be joining Sue Minter and Matt Dunne who entered the race prior to Peter Galbraith’s announcement later today.

Fukushima’s invisible victims

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It’s been a while since we last discussed the Fukushima Daiichi triple meltdown.  That is not for lack of issues; it is primarily for lack of any meaningful progress in the ongoingdisaster.

We have just passed the fifth observance of the first catastrophic day, March 11, 2011 and pretty much all of nuclear safety expert Arnie Gundersen’s grim predictions of what we would learn in the aftermath have come to pass.

What Arnie could not have predicted iin 2011 is how unwilling both TEPCO and Japan’s government officials have been to learn from this disaster, and how persistent the effort would be to suppress important radiological and epidemiological information.

Without accountability, deaths of citizens who lived near the doomed reactors following the triple meltdown have simply been attributed to the stress of evacuation, and supposedly no one has been harmed by radiation.  In an unbelievable extrapolation of a convenient myth, there has been a major government effort, supported by the atomic power industry, to increase allowable levels of radiation exposure and dismiss the need for future costly evacuations as harmful and unnecessary.

It was only a little over a week ago, that anyone in an official position at TEPCO was finally held accountable under the law.   I find it unbelievable that only three individuals can be held responsible for the cascade of unaddressed design flaws, corruption, lax regulation, human error and human arrogance that all contributed to making a bad situation much, much worse.

Now we are learning of an even more egregious breach of the public trust and social justice at Fukushima.

Individuals who have exhibited symptoms of radiation poisoning and other illnesses are apparently being shunned by some of their neighbors and dismissed by the medical establishment without appropriate care and without acknowledgment in their medical records.

This mistreatment specific to radiation victims is apparently not without precedent in Japanese history.

On his current speaking tour of Japan, Arnie Gundersen has had the privilege of speaking with a small group of survivors of the 1945 bombing at Hiroshima who share a unique perspective on what may lie ahead for the people of Fukushima

Hiroshima survivor, Tomiko Matsumoto, 85, recalls being a schoolgirl following that inhuman bombing.  Of the 80 students at her school, only thirty survived the blast.  Tomiko could be said to have been one of the “lucky” ones, but mere survival is a pretty poor kind of ‘luck.’

Still traumatized by the mental and physical horrors of the blast experience, she recalls that there was no proper care provided for the injured who were regarded with suspicion and hostility by their neighbors and callous indifference or unfeeling curiosity by their occupiers, upon whom they depended for any care that they could get.

The discrimination must have been the hardest for a young girl with no surviving family to bear:

“I was shocked because I was discriminated against by Hiroshima people. We lived together in the same place and Hiroshima people know what happened but they discriminated against each other. ..I was shocked.”

“There were so many different kinds of discrimination. People said that girls who survived the bomb shouldn’t get married. Also they refused to hire the survivors, not only because of the scars, but because they were so weak. Survivors did not have 100 percent energy.”

“There was a survivor’s certificate and medical treatment was free. But the other people were jealous. Jealous people, mentally discriminated. So, I didn’t want to show the health book sometimes, so I paid. Some of the people, even though they had the health book, were afraid of discrimination, so they didn’t even apply for the health book. They thought discrimination was worse than paying for health care.”

The mistreatment and insensitivity experienced by survivors continued into Tomiko’s adulthood. She was the victim of employment discrimination and personal shame.

Though she was lucky enough to bear children, both of her daughters are sterile and one suffers from anemia. Doctors have dismissed the possibility that the family’s health issues might be linked to her exposure to radiation from the atomic bomb blast.

It may be precisely because of their uniquely traumatic history of nuclear attack that modern Japanese society is ill-prepared to challenge the current meme being promoted by TEPCO and the Abe government, that no one was harmed by the triple meltdown at Fukushima and there is no cause for concern about using atomic power as an energy source.

Having emerged from beneath the cloud of WWII, they want to view themselves  under the lens of success and progress, not to revisit the shameful legacy of nuclear radiation sickness that they had hoped to leave behind.

Sadly, neither TEPCO nor the Abe government and functionaries right down to the regional level can be trusted to reveal the truth about radiation from Fukushima Daiichi and how it’s shadow has now been irreversibly cast over the Prefecture, marring the future of Japan.

So survivors of Fukushima, like those of Hiroshima before them are left to face unfolding health issues and despair in the friendless vacuum of their own thoughts and care.

(I am pleased to be a non-technical member of the Fairewinds Energy Education crew, but my posts on GMD are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Fairewinds.)

Bruce Lisman pitches his southern strategies

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Republican Bruce Lisman once again looks to a state down south to find one of his bright ideas for “fixing” Vermont. LISMAN_CHUNK_OUTLINES.indd

Lisman, who is campaigning in the Republican gubernatorial primary, wants to cap Vermont’s budget growth and to that end he casts his budget cutting gaze due South, this time to North Carolina.

In asserting that he could find real savings in Medicaid, Lisman pointed to North Carolina, where auditors found potential for $180 million in savings over a biennium. He said his Medicaid reforms would not unfairly strip benefits from those in need.

Lisman’s suggested southern strategy, according to reports, involves changes that are roiling North Carolina’s Medicaid program. And it is neither fast nor painless, and it is all very controversial:

Hardest hit will be the family practitioners and pediatricians who are supposed to take the lead in providing better medical care for about 1.7 million low-income children and adults in North Carolina. […] In fact, a 3 percent cut in North Carolina’s Medicaid rates, originally slated to start in 2014, took effect Jan. 1 – and doctors may have to go back through last year’s billing and pay that money back.

“This would wreak havoc with the finances of any business,” a statement from the N.C. Medical Society says.

The last time Lisman looked south for inspiration, he found a statewide jobs program from Bobby Jindal’s Louisiana. In this instance, while on one of his Vermont “good Ideas” listening tours, the crowd listened to Bruce praise a D+ rated program from Louisiana.

And it’s as if Bruce didn’t bother or care to do much homework on this one either. A non-partisan research group gave the program a D+ rating. The state-subsidized private-sector jobs created at an annual cost of $1.1 billion had few performance standards, no wage requirements, and according to the state’s own evaluation, subsidized workers unable to afford their own health insurance may fall onto the rolls of Medicaid, negating any positive economic benefits. 

Soooo…Bruce, let’s see how would that work?  Your “good idea”  jobs program is likely to fill up Medicaid rolls at the same time you slash away at Medicaid benefits. Looks like your “new direction” for Vermont might be circular.

So go for it Bruce. A little havoc — kind of like your era on Wall Street circa 2008. No worries for a one-percenter as long he keeps his state’s budget capped at 2% growth?

Not your father’s horserace

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I know that everyone from the conventional media to Hillary Clinton is racing to discount Bernie Sanders in the 2016 race for the nomination, insisting that the “math” is already against him.

What they don’t seem to understand is that the “math” is of little consequence to Bernie’s supporters who are focussed on issues of economic and social justice; and the only way progress will be made on those issues is if we bring them all the way to the convention.

Personally, I think that Bernie should continue doing exactly what he has been doing. Campaign on the issues that are important to most Americans and contrast his record with that of Hillary Clinton. Every voter in every state deserves an opportunity to weigh-in before the convention.

This is doubly important in a turbulent election year like 2016, when so many new voters are engaged in the conversation. There will never be a better chance to move progressive values forward in the political dialogue.

Were Bernie to simply fold his tent and steal silently into the night, as President Obama and the conventional pundits so fervently desire, not only would Hillary Clinton suffer the immediate uptick of slings and arrows from Donald Trump, she would also be likely to seek the conventional security of a centrist position. This would mean death to the forward-looking face of the 2016 Democratic party which has excited so many new voters.

It would also mean that Hillary’s campaign would languish in the ‘old news’ department, relegated only to responding to each outrageous new attack that DT slings her way. This is not the way any candidate wants to capture voter attention. Better she should be forced to flesh-out her positions on important issues in response to Bernie’s legitimate questions and that Barack Obama remains neutral a little longer. His interference would not exactly burnish her progressive credentials and could further alienate Bernie’s not inconsiderable bloc of loyalists.

The fact is that the president’s endorsement will not serve to peel away any support from Bernie since Bernie’s supporters are inclined to be disappointed in President Obama’s underwhelming performance on some key progressive issues.

If our democracy is to limp forward with any hope of regaining public confidence, it is necessary that the Democratic party do just as much soul-searching as will be required of the Republicans.

The writing is on the wall. We can’t keep shorthanding the political process to the advantage of just a few big power brokers and high rolling lobbyists.

It’s time to recognize that this not your father’s horserace.

Matt Dunne wants a little Bernie buzz?

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As of now, Matt Dunne is the one to beat, at least in terms of money raised. Vermont News Bureau’s Neal Goswami reports that Dunne now has more than $430,000 in cash-on-hand — the most of any gubernatorial candidate — for the remainder of the primary season and into the general election if he wins the nomination. Dunne’s Democratic primary opponent, Sue Minter,  currently has $328,500 cash on hand which is nothing to sneeze at, either. So this current advantage may not make Dunne a front-runner, but he can hang his hat on it for now.

Right now, it looks like the Dunne campaign hopes to piggy-back on turnout and fund raising among the Bernie Sanders voters. Should Sanders win or lose the nomination the enthusiasm for change he fueled is likely to spill over to some degree into November.newbuzzmenu

Dunne had already moved to mark out a share of that territory with his refusal of corporate donations. Said Dunne when he gave back about $16,000.00 in corporate donations “inspired by Bernie Sanders and his ability to compete with a people-powered campaign.” 

Good strategy, but the announcement likely produced fewer bangs for his bucks thanks to the scene-stealing skills of Peter Galbraith. At the news conference called by Dunne, Galbraith ‘reluctantly’ commented on whether he may or may not enter the gubernatorial primary race.

The other day Dunne’s campaign manager pitched or those voters again  – linking Bernie’s enthusiastic voter base with Dunne’s fundraising philosophy:

“There’s a wide mix, including a great deal of in-state Vermonters who have made small-dollar contributions,” Nick Charyk said. “We have contributions from Vermonters in every county in the state and a lot of Vermonters who have never made a contribution before who have said, ‘my first contribution was to Bernie [Sanders] and now I’m donating to Matt.’”

Whoever wins the gubernatorial primary – Dunne or Minter – better build a good turnout firewall: Republican Phil Scott not only has excellent statewide name recognition with all voters but can also count on support from some Democrats even in a presidential year. Senator Dick Mazza (D, alleged) is already fundraising for his favorite Republican friend. And Senator John Campbell, Scott’s other Democratic BFF may even be counted on to help out the Republican in a pinch.

And former state senator Peter Galbraith has warned us he is waiting in the wings and may enter the primary race – joining the performance already underway.