Kate Larose: Still very much on the case.

local/regional, , ,

5bd1e5bb-a460-4c6e-8858-3c4062e1d8edI’d like to introduce Kate Larose who was a talented 2018 candidate for the statehouse from St. Albans, and will hopefully be successful the next time she decides to toss her hat in the ring.

Kate is a generous, public spirited member of our community, who recently organized an excursion to the southern border in order to lend a helping hand to asylum seekers caught in the snare of Donald Trump’s xenophobic fantasies.  

Here is a link to the GoFundMe page that Kate has created for the ongoing effort.

Upon her return from the border at the beginning of March, Kate suffered a concussion that has left her with some temporary challenges.  Nevertheless, she penned the following which I am happy to share with our GMD readers:

“After thinking about it for 10 minutes I turned to my husband and asked, embarrassed, “Is it 2018 or 2019 right now?”  These moments are becoming less frequent in recent weeks, but my struggle to get my life back after smacking my head on the ice this winter continues on.  There are good days and bad days.

This morning I woke up and found I was having a good day.  And realized that it’s May 1st, celebrated as May Day— a reminder of the pain, suffering, and advocacy that it took to obtain current working conditions such as the 40-hour workweek, two-day weekends, and a ban on child labor.  And that this time last year I was running for office, in large part because bills like $15 minimum wage and paid family and medical leave were being debated in the statehouse, but not expected to pass.

Though I came up short on the votes in November, I was relieved knowing that there was a majority in the house and that the issues my neighbors told me were critically important to them—issues that would substantially change lives for the better for at least 90,000 Vermonters—would pass into law even with the governor’s expected veto.

This morning was the first time I’ve been able to give much thought to this since the accident, and I only got to this point due to privileges that most of my neighbors don’t have: decent healthcare coverage, access to short term disability insurance, a spouse who can use paid sick time to drive me to my many medical appointments.  (It comes as no surprise that a recent report found that 66% of all bankruptcies are tied to medical issues, given the high costs of healthcare and unpaid time out of work.)

There are no excuses for paid family and medical leave and $15 minimum wage to not become law in July.  No excuses for people not to have the same access to recovery and medical care that I have.  Yet too many politicians are wavering under the pressure being heaped on by lobbyists. The corporate donors. The voices of those who are able to take seats at the statehouse (because they’re not busy working two and three jobs to make ends meet).

Out of our Franklin county delegation of 13 elected officials, only one (thank you Rep. McCarthy!) is in support of minimum wage, and only two (McCarthy and Fegard) are currently in support of paid family and medical leave insurance.

So here I am a year later, still wondering to myself if it’s 2018 or 2019.

Contact your reps today and ask that they vote in the best interests of Vermonters: not in the interests of their circles of supporters or desired longevity of their political careers.

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”  If you believe this to be true, please consider running for office.  Franklin county and Vermont needs you!”

 

Trump: Mission creep

International, ,

There seems to be a bit of Trump-style mission creep happening for U.S. troops deployed to the U.S. / Mexico border.trumpmcreepThe Trump administration has sent roughly 4,000 US troops and 2,000 National Guard personnel to the U.S. / Mexico border. The troops were deployed — according to the administration — to help assist U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials. The move was widely considered political theater-part of Trump’s long-running campaign against immigrants. Several governors have refused to deploy their states’ National Guard troops.

Now the Pentagon has announced the deployment of 300-plus additional troops — and the force’s mission is being expanded with some rules for engagement loosened. The changes, they say, expand the mission but are still designed to keep the military from violating longstanding prohibitions on military participation in domestic law enforcement.

Govexec.com reports these tasks and numbers include:

  • 160 troops who will be “driving high-capacity [Customs and Border Protection] vehicles to transport migrants;”
  • 100 more troops for “administrative support” work like cooking and passing out food, building or improving heaters, and “monitoring the welfare of individuals in CBP custody;”
  • 20 more troops for “attorney support” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel already in the region.

The Washington Post writes that soldiers will be able to hand out snacks and refreshments such as crackers and juice boxes. And will now be allowed to drive CBP vehicles […] military personnel would remain in a “segregated driver’s compartment” when driving migrants to detention facilities. Customs and Border Protection officials would provide security on those trips.

Handing out crackers, juice boxes and sitting in “segregated driver’s compartments,” well, that all sounds benign enough.

But in early April at the Texas border Donald Trump bemoaned to reporters that constraints prohibited the troops from getting as rough as he’d like. […] “Our military, don’t forget, can’t act like a military would act. Because if they got a little rough, everybody would go crazy. They have all these horrible laws that the Democrats won’t change [and] they will not change them,” the president said, without explaining what laws he means, or how his political opponents thwarted him.

So how benign can a tense situation remain when Trump, the Commander-in-chief is openly wishing the law would allow the situation to get “a little rougher?” Who does he think he is? Two guesses, and the first one doesn’t count — or as DT’s friend would say, “первый на не в счет ! ”

 

Bernie’s own book of the month club

Business, National, ,

Bernie Sanders has become a millionaire, and he did it by selling his new book! In blunt fashion Sanders explained his get rich strategy: “I wrote a best-selling book. If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.” NYTimes.com

During the 2015 primary campaign the pre-millionaire Bernie employed a book buying/selling strategy that never would have gotten him rich but might be worth a glance now as the crowded Democratic primary race heats up.

According to FEC filings, the Sanders campaign bought thousands of dollars of his books. Sanders spent almost $445,000 of his donors’ campaign funds with Verso Books, the publisher of Outsider in the White House, which was a quick re-working of his earlier Bernie book: Outsider in the House. I mentioned the purchase in a diary: Campaign dollars to donuts back then without really taking aim at it; I don’t recall it making any waves in that long campaign.

FECtwo

Buying your own books with your campaign-donor dollars sure looks a little shady, but it isn’t unheard of or apparently illegal. But since the Citizens United decision super-PAC dark money is running rampant in campaigns — and with the six-member Federal Election Commission often deadlocked, enforcement is spotty.

In recent years candidates for national office have been regularly buying their own books (aka 300-page hardcover party favors) with campaign money. For instance in 2015 the csmonitor.com reported that Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign paid $122,252.00 to the publisher of  his book A Time for Truth. Ben Carson, Sarah Palin, Herman Cain and Mitt Romney all used campaign or PAC funds to buy their own books.

The FEC found a variety of likely violations made by Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign over a book-promotion deal and campaign funding. After three years of wrangling, a deadlocked vote between Democratic and Republican Commission members halted any possibility that the FEC would be investigating the former Speaker of the House.

Now, I’m fine with Bernie Sanders in the millionaire club, despite what some see as hypocrisy. But he really shouldn’t be in that particular book club.

WCAX/Gray TV’s Greta Van Susteren: “I am now the local media.”

local/regional, National, , , , ,

WCAX’s catch phrase was once “Vermont’s Own News station” but no more. In May 2017 the station became part of Gray Television, a large  corporation based in Atlanta, GA, with 144 local TV stations covering 10.4% of U.S. households. Layoffs hit the WCAX newsroom about a year later.

Although not considered to be as openly right-wing as Sinclair Broadcasting — which stipulates all outlets must carry conservative political content — Gray TV may be “Foxifying” WCAX  a bit.

This fall, just in time for the 2020 presidential race, Gray-owned stations will begin airing Full Court Press, a Sunday public-affairs program featuring FoxNews veteran Greta Van Susteren. On theHill.com Gray TV Chairman and CEO Hilton Hatchet Howell, Jr., characterized Full Court Press this way: “Our goal is to provide critical information without bias to allow viewers to form their own opinions and reach their own decisions by exploring all sides of a complex issue.”

For those not familiar with her, Van Susteren spent 14years as a prime-time FoxNews host — replaced by Tucker Carlson in 2016.Then in 2017 she was on MSNBC but was dropped after six months.plutotweet

At Fox, Van Susteren once wondered if the government was wasting our tax dollars at NASA because of the long delay getting satellite images from Pluto back to Earth.

More recently Media Matters reported something more problematic : With one terrible tweet, Greta Van Susteren helped fuel a conspiracy theory that made its way to the president, who repeated it within hours

On Twitter, former Fox News and MSNBC host Greta Van Susteren tweeted that the “FBI obviously tipped off CNN,” adding that “even if you don’t like Stone, it is curious why Mueller’s office tipped off CNN.”

Nearly three hours later, Van Susteren conceded that she might be wrong about CNN acting on a tip. Even so, the original tweet, which had accumulated thousands of retweets, remained up and continued to be shared. The new tweet, correcting her mistake, had just 95 retweets at the time of this writing. [The Mueller investigation later vigorously denied the claim in a court filing]

The 2016 presidential primary and general election brought in upwards of $100 million on political ads in broadcast and cable television in New England markets. And now Full Court Press here in Vermont with a little bit of FoxNews is going to get a share this fall for Gray Television. vanSuswcax2

Van Susteren told The LA Times: […] she expects Gray’s geographical reach to help in booking presidential candidates to appear on the program.

“Politics begins in local markets,” Van Susteren said. “I am now the local media. I’m going to reach their voters.”

Gives a whole new spin to the late columnist Peter Freyne’s moniker for WCAX: he always called it WGOP; only now, of course he might call it WFOX, or WGRAY.

Howard Dean, Canadian cannabis corporation, and Anheuser-Busch

Business, National, , ,

VtDigger.com reported this past weekend that the former Vermont Governor and DNC Chairman Howard Dean has formally joined the board of directors of Tilray, a large (Nasdaq traded) Canadian-based international cannabis company that manufactures and markets cannabis flower and extract products. There was no mention of how much compensation corporate board members receive.

Dean actually “went to pot” months ago, in December 2018, when he, along with former RNC Chairman Michael Steele became advisors to Tilray.

As recently as 2003, when running for president, Dean was opposed to legalizing pot; according to VtDigger.com he said: […] decriminalizing drugs would send “a very bad message to young people.” The country already had issues with alcohol and tobacco, “and adding a third drug is not a good idea.” Fast-forward to 2019: Faced with “the combination of deciding medical marijuana might really have some efficacy, backed up by studies that I thought were reasonable, which I didn’t think were reasonable 10 years earlier, backed up by my daughter’s public-defender experience, I flipped.”

As a physician Dean was impressed with the pharmaceutical operation Tilray is running and he was impressed by research that shows CBD is useful as a treatment for seizures associated with two severe forms of epilepsy.tilrayfortune1

But Tilray is big business and part of a fast growing hyper-competitive industry. Therefore they are looking at a wide ranging menu of possible uses for their cannabis products for shareholder profit. It wasn’t mentioned in VtDigger that early this year, not long after the two former national party chairs signed on  that Tilray  announced that it had partnered with Anheuser-Busch in a $100-million venture to study (and possibly market) not only a non-alcoholic CBD beverage but also one containing THC … the psychoactive ingredient.

I wonder if you will need Doctor Dean’s prescription for that drink.

In defense of GENEROUS paid family leave

local/regional,
While it certainly is fair to ask questions about the numbers involved in the paid family leave program under consideration by our Legislature, there is no question that, whatever the costs, they will, in the long-run, be outweighed by benefits provided under such a policy.  
Secure in the knowledge that paid family leave will be available when needed, young working families will find Vermont a more attractive place in which to take up residence, bringing with them the skills we sorely need in order to continue Vermont’s pathway to prosperity.  Even individuals who never draw directly upon paid family leave will benefit indirectly from the increased economic activity and social stability that paid family leave has been widely demonstrated to provide.
Furthermore, paid family leave can allow a family’s resources to extend further in caring for a family member’s temporary health challenges without the expense of hired nursing care.  
An added benefit of paid family leave lies in strengthening family bonds and relieving some of the emotional stress and guilt associated with conflicts between work and caring for a loved one.  There are actual costs attached to such conflicts when workers are forced to stay on the job even though they feel they should be at home.  Productivity suffers and the workers themselves may have ill health effects from the associated stress.
Virtually everywhere else in the world, paid family leave is the norm.  The U.S. is one of only three countries where it is not.  Only four out of fifty U.S. states offer paid family leave.  If our objective is to attract and hold a young workforce in Vermont, generous paid family leave is an essential incentive to make this small, wintery state competitive.
We cannot afford to be cheap about this fundamental benefit when our near neighbors, New York and New Jersey, have already outpaced Vermont in adopting paid family leave.

The Valley News: reporting on the minimum

Business, local/regional, , ,

The business reporter for The Valley News recently did a story about minimum wage changes in the works in Vermont and New Hampshire legislatures. Both states have Democratic majorities with GOP governors who oppose hikes. In 2018 Vermont Governor Scott vetoed a minimum wage increase.

The focus of the VNews article is on “tipped” service workers that are allowed to be paid lower minimum wages than other workers and in theory can make up the difference in gratuities.

At issue in both states are changes to the overall minimum wage and possible hikes to the minimum for tipped workers. Currently: In New Hampshire, the minimum wage for employees who earn more than $30 per month through tips — known as the “tipped minimum wage” — is 45% of the applicable $7.25 per hour minimum wage, or $3.27 per hour.

In Vermont, tipped minimum wage for employees who earn more than $120 per month from tips is 50% of the applicable $10.78 per hour minimum wage, or $5.39 per hour.

Both states have written into their rules that if a server’s tip income falls below the general wage floor then the employer is required to pay the difference to bring the server up to the general per-hour minimum wage.

While that may seem to paint a bleak picture for the waitstaff’s income, the opposite is often true. As a rule, servers are the highest-paid non-management employees in the restaurant business.

Included are  quote and comments from Governor Sununu’s office (who opposes any change) and a representative of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce (a group that has opposed hikes in the past). The reporter also wrangled a couple comments from two high-end pub/restaurant-business owners (who presumably oppose changes). And finally he chatted to three servers who work for tips in the same prosperous local establishments. No comments by low-end tipped workers, a legislative sponsor, or  an economist are included.EPItipped1

If the article had included a supporter of the changes, they might have related a less rosy picture of the current situation … the negative points most people working at a sub-minimum wage for tips experience. The Economic Policy Institute wrote in 2018: that in states that have a lower tipped minimum wage [such as Vermont and New Hampshire] , tipped workers have worse economic outcomes and higher poverty rates than their counterparts in equal treatment states (regular state minimum wage plus tips, the law in eight states).

Now, to be fair I have to assume all the newly elected legislators from New Hampshire and Vermont Democratic majorities who support minimum wage hikes were reluctant to talk to the newspaper. Because otherwise the VNews business reporter would have managed to include a quote from one or even two of them…wouldn’t he?

wageslaves1

An Intervention

Uncategorized, ,

Scan 3Custodial Care interview #3: Eric Trump

Interviewer:  So, Mr. Trump you believe your father could benefit from placement in our facility?

ET:  Yes, I do; he’s lost it. Totally.

Interviewer: I see.  Could you elaborate for me?

ET:  Well, he’s always been a little long on fantasy and short on the truth…like when me and Donnie and Vannie were little and he promised us a dog.  I mean he PROMISED us!  Still waiting for that dog, man.

Interviewer:  I’m sorry to hear that; but what has he done recently to raise your concerns?

ET:  What hasn’t he done?  He’s got that damn iPhone, you know; and we can’t peel him away from it.  Last weekend he locked himself in the bathroom for three hours and just let fly.  Not a word of truth…just the biggest whoppers you ever heard!  He lies like a million times a day!

Interviewer:  What about your siblings? Can’t they do anything to make him stop?  I hear that sister of yours can really get around him.  And Don Jr.;  what about him?

ET:  Junior?  Don’t make me laugh.  His voice gets higher every time he talks to Dad.  He wants so bad to be a chip off the ol’ block that we call him “Mini Me.”  But Dad is one of a kind: a gold-plated swaggering sonofabitch who believes his own bullshit.  That’s a hard act to follow. Donnie’s brand of bullshit just makes him stink, and he knows it.  Smells like desperation.  No wonder his wife showed him the door.  I hear she’d had enough even before he started fooling  around with Little Miss Paparazzi Bait.

Interviewer:  Your sister then; surely, she has some influence…

ET:  Pu-leaase!!  All she can manage is to get more for her.  Of course it works both ways. Vanny’s got more plastic on her than a Barbie doll. She was always his favorite, but she knew she better be picture perfect or he might drop her like he did our Ma…and Tiff’s Ma…and those three Ukranian house maids we had over at the Tower.  

She’s Daddy’s little girl, alright, but even she can’t make him behave.  And that goonie husband of hers…

Interviewer: Jared?

ET:  Yeah, Jared…Mr. Know-it-all Asshole.  “Why can’t you be like Jared??”  “Jared is smart.” “Jared’s going to make my Saudi hotel finally happen.”  “Jared’s got the Sheik’s ear.”  I am so sick of him!  I really hoped he’d end up in jail like his dear ol’ dad…  

Interviewer: Yes, I see you have issues with a lot of family members,  but we’re really here to discuss your father.  What makes you think he needs custodial care?

ET: Well, I downloaded the dementia checklist and he’s got all that, plus a few extra kinks.  He’s selfish and childish. He imagines stuff.  He’s paranoid.  He repeats himself endlessly.  He’s forgotten all but about 250 actual words, which he just repeats louder and louder; and he doesn’t always manage to get even those out in the right order.  He keeps making racist, insulting and just plain crazy remarks, right out loud. I tell you, it’s embarrassing to be out in public with the guy!

Interviewer:  Yes, I see…

ET: You tell him the simplest fact and he says or does just the opposite, as many times as he can.  Like that time he watched the eclipse on the White House lawn.  Everyone told him to wear those special shades, but no, he had to be the big tough guy and stare straight into the sun. He complained for a week about the “sand” in his eyes!

… And they say I’m the dumb one.  What a moron!

Interviewer:  Yes, yes, many people wonder…

ET:  He’s destroying the family businesses…again!! He shouldn’t be allowed near an iPhone.

Interviewer:  …And think of what he’s doing to the nation….

ET:  Screw the nation!  He’s tanking our inheritance.  We’ll all end up working at Walmart.

Interviewer (aside):  Your lips to God’s ear.

Leaving Howell: VT group threatens to move en masse if state won’t address concerns

local/regional,

Taking a page from businesses that often leverage the threat of picking up and moving offices and jobs out of state unless certain tax breaks and incentives are provided, a group of Vermont residents in Howell Center are making a similar pitch.howellinsign

Calling themselves “Leaving Howell”; a group of 20-25 households in Howell Center (part of Howell Falls) have signed and published a pledge to sell out and relocate to New Hampshire. The group’s major concerns  — maintaining public infrastructure: roads, local aging sewage treatment plants, and reliable broadband service — carry state wide implications for commerce.

They draw a contrast between the millions of dollars and attention lavished on out-of-state and in-state businesses (programs difficult for the state to audit). This they say happens even while many local concerns that could be addressed with equal vigor by Vermont state agencies are given only scant and piecemeal attention.

“The entire state would benefit if Howell and other towns were actively managing these challenges. State development agencies should refocus on local municipal needs and problems” said Percy Alleline, the group’s spokesperson. “If tax incentives and grants can be used to supposedly lure and retain out-of-state businesses here, why not a similar effort for Vermont’s small town residents’ needs?” Alleline added that Leaving Howell membership almost doubled in size after news spread last year about the Agency of Commerce and Community Development’s plan to give young out-of-state professionals $10,000 to move here and work remotely online. “For many, that personalized relocation program and the accompanying advertising blitz was a last straw — and anger turned to action.” Group members have observed that craft brewed beer can help but will not save us.

Few people in Howell Falls doubt that the problems facing small towns require  state help, but some are uneasy with this level of activism. While development officials say it is unlikely all of the group would pack up and leave en masse for New Hampshire, the threat is not taken lightly by town selectman worried about their property tax base. “A loss of even one or two households in town could affect our tax base.’  

The Howell Register in an opinion piece agrees with the organization’s overall goals but doubts their methods. They believe few are likely to scuttle across the Connecticut River to Live free or Die. Four of the group’s principals — Percy Alleline, William Haydon, Royce Bland and Tobias Esterhase are large land and business owners. The Register concluded “… there are three of them and Alleline that are seventh generation residents… real Vermont ‘Howellers’. ”

The Onion cure for Mueller Report & mudseason blues

International,

Haul yourself out of a springtime funk-hole with a bit of satire.

The Onion.com: If it wasn’t Trump whom Russian President Putin was conspiring with in the 2016 U.S. election, then Vladimir is left to ponder who he was dealing with.vladonion

MOSCOW—Saying that he had been “totally blindsided” by the revelations from the recently released findings of the Mueller investigation, a shocked Vladimir Putin reportedly came to the realization Tuesday that he didn’t conspire with Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign after all. “What the hell? I worked so hard on this—if I wasn’t colluding with the Trump campaign, who the hell was I colluding with?” said the dumbfounded Russian president, growing increasingly angry [added emphasis]

[…]“Man, it seemed so legit. I can’t believe I let myself get conned like this. I spent so much time emailing back and forth with DonaldTrump46@hotmail.com about compromising the democratic voting process, and now it turns out it was all fake? And we spent so much time gathering all that kompromat on the wrong people. Goddammit, I feel like I’ve wasted my life.” At press time, Putin was frantically double-checking that Russia had assisted in propping up a dictator in Syria and not some other country.