There is an important struggle over responsible land use playing out in Randolph, where a significant tract of prime agricultural soil is at risk of permanent loss in the name of what some might maintain is “just progress.”

The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and the Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC) who are partnering with Preservation Trust of Vermont in challenging the oversized development at Exit 4 in Randolph, have asked the District 3 Act 250 Commission to dismiss the project application because it is so egregiously non-conforming.

Brian Shupe, Executive Director of the VNRC commented on what is at stake in Randolph:

“This sprawling project is an enormous waste of agricultural soils…if (it) gets approved, in this location no farmland in Vermont is safe.”

Two of the principle reasons why Act 250 was drafted by the Legislature were  to preserve valuable working landscapes for future generations and to stop the spread of highway-centric sprawl that undermines the character of Vermont. This, the framers believed, is fundamental to our quality of life and longterm viability.

Apparently hoping to slide past the well-established standards of Act 250, developer Sam Sammis courted the State’s favor by promising to build a brand-new Visitors Center to replace one that is currently closed and in need of maintenance.

The proposal of a privately owned and operated Visitors Center at the location was first revealed in 2012.   At the time, it was described by Mr. Sammis as a “win-win” public/private partnership involving a 5,000-sq. ft. visitor center with

“…a 40,000-sq.ft. facility showcasing Vermont products, all at no taxpayer expense.”

The Shumlin administration jumped right on board with the proposal, but many in the environmental community were immediately concerned with the scale and location of the project, while others were concerned that the partnership might have unanticipated consequences impacting public control of an interstate exit.

Mr. Sammis’ vision has grown substantially since the original announcement.  The overall scale of the project has mushroomed to well-over a million square-feet, including a hotel, some private homes and light industry; all closely clustered around Exit 4 and consuming irreplaceable quality farmland.

To permit this project would mean essentially gutting Act 250 and abandoning the principles that have for so long made Vermont stand-out as a beacon of beauty and environmental responsibility above all and any other state.

Mr. Sammis may think of it as a “win-win” for the state, but I rather doubt that. I think that overlooks what visitors are actually looking for when they come to Vermont.

Remember the days of our childhood road trips?  Dad or Mom would actually stop in a small town we’d never visited before. While they gassed-up the station wagon, we “took advantage of the facilities,” then strolled down the block to buy ice-cream or soda; or maybe we picnicked in the park.  We saw a lot of America that way and had no need of commercial “visitors centers.”

Maybe we weren’t in such a hurry to be someplace else back then.

I kind of think the appeal of Vermont for tourists is that, even now, its largely rural environment; its lack of billboards and clutter, links us to a cultural memory that other places have left far behind.

The framers of Act 250 recognized that therein lies an intangible commodity that must be protected and preserved for the benefit of Vermonters in generations to come.

I urge everyone to read Ghettoside by Jill Leovy (white lady reporter for LA Times), Spiegel & Grau, 2015.

This is a book about the plague of black on black murder, focusing on male blacks.  I’m only up to page 60 or so, but I thought I’d share with you her opening info, since it’s something I ranted about myself decades ago when I was a print reporter.

Ms. Leovy presents a subject most of us Whiteys don’t want to hear about–Urban black men murdering other urban black men at astronomical rates, something like 8 to 10 times more than white on white murder.  And the cases solved by the cops run about 30%, as compared with about 80% clearance for white on white murder.  Even Hispanic murders have a higher ‘clearance’ rate.  This has been going on and getting worse for decades, especially in South Central (Watts) LA, mainly because, according to Leovy, there is a substantial lack of law enforcement when it comes to black on black murder.  Urban police departments (she’s focusing on LA) don’t use the same amount of manpower and resources to solve male black on black murder than they use on white on white or Hispanic on Hispanic murder.  As one black woman says in the beginning of the book:  “Another black man down.  And nobody cares.”  

Black men shooting down other black men is viewed by the police, the media, and, yes, all of US as something everyday endemic to black communities, much like feel-good liberalism is endemic to Vermont.  And also something we don’t want to hear about, so the media hasn’t been reporting most male black on black murder.  Not as ‘juicy’ a story as celebrity murder, gun-nut massacres, and even white on white murder.  Another woman in the beginning of the book laments that when her husband was killed there was no story about it anywhere in the papers, on TV, or radio, because:  “Nobody cares.”

Leovy presents the case that black on black murder rates would go down if police investigated these murders more fastidiously; put the same effort into apprehending the killers as the effort they put into finding the killers of white people–in other words, EQUAL LAW ENFORCEMENT.  South Central LA has been at the bottom of the barrel in ‘clearing’ black on black murder.  Leovy writes that only around 17 to 20% of black men now in prison are there for the murder of another black man.  That most of our prisons are filled with black men who have committed the heinous crimes of shoplifting, car theft (whitey’s property), drunkenness, drugs, or general ‘arrogant behavior’ on the streets.  Black men go to prison for petty crime, not for murdering other black men.

Also, there sometimes is the ‘revenge murder’– where a couple of black men who are friends of the victim know that the cops are going to do little or nothing to bring in the killer.  If they know the killer, they go out and murder him, vigilante style.  And, according to Leovy, this solves another problem for the cops.  And the cops are not going to go after the revenge killers because the whole neighborhood would say something like:  “You leave those boys alone!  They did your job for you, cause you don’t care!”  So, ‘unequal’ law enforcement begets more male black on black murder.

Leovy writes that white activists and liberals do not want to talk about male black on black murder, and especially not about having more ‘law enforcement’ as a solution to it.  Bringing up black on black murder and suggesting a law enforcement solution is ‘racist’ according to these liberal activists.  Yes, equal law enforcement for male black on black murder suggests ‘police brutality’ to the liberal activists. They would rather not hear about it at all.  They would rather mouth the same platitudes and clichés about ‘education’ and ‘jobs’ and ‘outreach’ over and over again than face the reality that black men know that killing another black man is ‘no big deal’ to the police–or to ALL OF US WHITEYS.  It is more important for us whiteys to ‘feel good’ by saying ‘Black Lives Matter’ than really knowing just how much Black Lives DO NOT MATTER to us.  Because we don’t want to know or speak of male black on black murder, we make for more of it.  And Hell, the cops say when there’s a black on black shooting, one more dead N-Word is just one less problem out there. Let them kill each other.

Here is where lib-er-al-ISM has brought us–Now the cops are killing black men, cause what the Hell, they probably need killing, and “Nobody cares.”  Except for liberals who don’t want to be ‘identified’ with any of it.  That’s what the lib-er-al squawking is all about.  They have to squawk about this latest outrage of cop on black male murder to show that they are NOT racists.  Yet, black male on black male murder–we (I’ll include myself now) don’t want to hear about it.  And THAT, to me, is where the real racism is.

Now, one more thing, although I haven’t come across it yet in this book–GUN CONTROL.  Liberals seem to think that gun control, like education and outreach, is the answer to all gun murder in the U.S.  NO!  Saying that we need gun control as a substitute for ‘equal’ law enforcement of all gun-related male black on black murders is avoiding the issue–and TOTALLY RACIST.  Guns will always be available, and if we turn our backs again on urban male black on black murder because we’ve passed some ‘feel good’ gun laws, THAT IN ITSELF IS MURDER!  We’ve got to say that BLACK LIVES MATTER every time a black male is gunned down by another black male and the police blow-off the proper investigative procedures.  That BLACK LIVES MATTER every time a black man is murdered for no goddamn good reason except for being on the wrong street corner at the wrong time.  BLACK LIVES MATTER should mean cops should be held just as accountable for not solving male black on black murders as they should be for murdering black males themselves.

EQUAL LAW ENFORCEMENT FOR ALL AMERICANS!  And let’s pay attention when we hear a story (IF we get to hear it) about another black on black murder.  There is no such thing as a ‘nothing’ murder.  No such thing as a black person being ‘less murdered’ than a white person.  It’s all MURDER.

And PLEASE–I don’t want to hear shit about how ‘gun violence’ by black men against black men “effects us all.”  That’s BULLSHIT.  We’re white privileged assholes who have it pretty damn soft.  We’ve got our cops watching over us.  And we have our signs and candles.  Black folks pay taxes too–WHERE IS THEIR GODDAMN POLICE PROTECTION?!

Peter (Talking To Myself) Buknatski

Montpelier (SENSITIVEVILLE), Vt.

I’ve got to agree with Seven Days’ Paul Heinz when he cries foul over the governor’s highly selective concern about conflicts of interests.

Without weighing in specifically on the appointment of Alyssa Schuren as commissioner of the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (because I do think her record of recusals demonstrates her ability to avoid conflicts of interest), raising questions about such an appointment is entirely legitimate.  

That it was the chair of the GOP who raised the question is not surprising, but the knee-jerk reaction by Shumlin who attacked it as ‘sexist’ was uncalled for.

The fact is that the Republicans are only too happy to let the door swing between regulators and lobbying interests because the advantage usually favors their own partisans.  Since the possibility in this appointment exists for environmental advantage rather than business advantage, it was perhaps inevitable that it would be met with Republican indignation.

The governor takes a dim view of former administration EB-5 overseer Brent Raymond taking the up-exit to work for Mount Snow, but Alex MacLean barely exhaled before signing on with Jay Peak after she took her leave as the governor’s assistant.  While she wasn’t a commissioner, there is no doubt that she enjoyed the privilege of great influence in her administration job.  Quid pro quo, either before or after the fact, is equally damaging to public confidence in government integrity.

The weeds surrounding the EB-5 boondoggle are deep and full of helping hands.  The interests being furthered in those weeds belong less in the political arena than they do in the financial purgatory of business as usual, where who you know or whom you are related to can be leveraged to tremendous economic advantage.

That is one of the disadvantages to our intimate little state.  There are many advantages to being small, but like incest, conflicts of interest have greater opportunity to flourish in very small communities.

I will be very interested when the dust clears in the Northeast Kingdom to see whom the real winners (and losers?) are in that particular skirmish.  That is, assuming that we get a truly independent assessment of the scoreboard.

We like to think that those with whom we generally agree politically are above suspicion; but when our preferred party has, overwhelmingly, the upper hand, that is exactly when we should be most interested in establishing strict ethical guidelines with meaningful consequences; precisely because we do hold the high ground.

As we grapple in Franklin County with the consequences of not having established consequences for truly bad behavior by a public official we see only too well the cost of indulging in the smug notion that “we don’t have that problem in Vermont.”  

If it’s a problem elsewhere in the U.S., you can bet it’s already here.

(See, with Sanders gaining in the polls and drawing big crowds and being a real contender now, it’s not surprising that the establishment ‘corporate’ media shifts the focus away from the issues he’s brought to the campaign to what the voters really want, right?–the ‘salacious’.  His past love life?  His past ‘procreations’?  What?  His past high school and college ‘partying’?  ASSHOLES!  Well, here’s something for them.  Because I’ve learned the real story.  Illegitimate son?  Could that be you, Michael, out there in Walden?  I knew it.  I knew you were a lib-er-al fuck!  But my scoop is going to bust this campaign wide open.  And I dedicate this story to Peter Diamondstone.  And Donald Trump.)

THE REAL SCOOP ON BERNIE SANDERS

It was revealed today by undisclosed recipients that Bernie Sanders was born 73 years ago in France, the son of Polish woman beet-picker Olanda Sanderoski and Nazi SS Captain Hans Kissinger, who fell in love after the Germans invaded Poland, and then moved together to France when Kissinger was re-stationed there.

Sanders was born at the headquarters of the SS Death’s Head/Hells Angels From Dixie Armored Division.  Sanderoski had by then joined the Nazi Party herself, and she, Kissinger, and baby Bernard had to flee to Ireland after the Normandy invasion, where they lived under the name O’Sanders until 1948, when they moved to New Jersey as part of the post-war European migration to the U.S.

Sanders grew up allegedly not knowing about his parents’ participation in Nazi war crimes.  His favorite TV show in the late fifties and early sixties was Leave It To Beaver (from whence the Leave It To Bernie campaign slogan comes).  But his favorite character on Leave It To Beaver, however, was Eddie Haskell, the Nazi on the show.

Sanders attended Cliffside Park High School in New Jersey and fathered three illegitimate sons, named Larry, Darryl and Darryl, through affairs with women who themselves were the daughters of ex-Nazi SS men living in Jersey under new identities.  It has now also become known that Sanders is a cousin of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who himself was fathered by a Nazi war criminal named Von Christiandorf.

Sanders had many romantic affairs in his early days in Vermont, while his illegitimate sons would move to Hollywood to seek their fortune in television.  It is believed that Sanders and former Vermont Governor Maddy Kunin were lovers and also dowsers and Satanic Vegans.  Kunin, it is of course known, is the daughter of Hermann Goring’s right hand man, Adolf Kuninburg, who fathered her in 1933 in Munich.  Kuninburg is still alive at the age of one hundred and one, and living comfortably in a retirement commune in Greensboro, Vermont.

It was Kunin, the older woman in Sanders’ life, who manipulated Sanders’ election as Mayor of Burlington, Vt., with the help of other ex-Nazis from Burlington, Montpelier, Walden, and other towns in Vermont.  These Nazis, with help from Vermont ice cream moguls, The Fucking Rodriquez Brothers, created what now is the Vermont Progressive Party.

Sanders, although claiming to have absolutely zero knowledge of any Nazism attached to his parents, friends, lovers and supporters, is believed still to be a shill of the Vermont Progressive Party, which hopes that a President Sanders will ban cigarette smoking nationwide and replace the Bald Eagle with a Kale Plant as our new national symbol.

More details of this story are breaking every second now, and I can’t keep up with them, so fuck it, I’ll get back to this on Monday.  Because on Monday, here in Montpelier, Sanders is scheduled to meet with leaders of AIPAC, to explain to them how someone fathered by and involved with Nazis all his life wound up becoming a Jew.  It is rumored AIPAC fears that Sanders is secretly allied with forces wishing to destroy Israel, and put Muhammad’s face on the new twenty dollar bill.

                –30–

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt

(Don’t laugh.  Did you know that Donald Trump was fathered by Josef Mengele in 1946 when Mengele was hiding out in Bavaria?  I see a Nazi Masterplan/Conspiracy here in 2016.  And I haven’t even gotten all the good sex stuff yet.)

(See, with Sanders gaining in the polls and drawing big crowds and being a real contender now, it’s not surprising that the establishment ‘corporate’ media shifts the focus away from the issues he’s brought to the campaign to what the voters really want, right?–the ‘salacious’.  His past love life?  His past ‘procreations’?  What?  His past high school and college ‘partying’?  ASSHOLES!  Well, here’s something for them.  Because I’ve learned the real story.  Illegitimate son?  Could that be you, Michael, out there in Walden?  I knew it.  I knew you were a lib-er-al fuck!  But my scoop is going to bust this campaign wide open.  And I dedicate this story to Peter Diamondstone.  And Donald Trump.)

THE REAL SCOOP ON BERNIE SANDERS

It was revealed today by undisclosed recipients that Bernie Sanders was born 73 years ago in France, the son of Polish woman beet-picker Olanda Sanderoski and Nazi SS Captain Hans Kissinger, who fell in love after the Germans invaded Poland, and then moved together to France when Kissinger was re-stationed there.

Sanders was born at the headquarters of the SS Death’s Head/Hells Angels From Dixie Armored Division.  Sanderoski had by then joined the Nazi Party herself, and she, Kissinger, and baby Bernard had to flee to Ireland after the Normandy invasion, where they lived under the name O’Sanders until 1948, when they moved to New Jersey as part of the post-war European migration to the U.S.

Sanders grew up allegedly not knowing about his parents’ participation in Nazi war crimes.  His favorite TV show in the late fifties and early sixties was Leave It To Beaver (from whence the Leave It To Bernie campaign slogan comes).  But his favorite character on Leave It To Beaver, however, was Eddie Haskell, the Nazi on the show.

Sanders attended Cliffside Park High School in New Jersey and fathered three illegitimate sons, named Larry, Darryl and Darryl, through affairs with women who themselves were the daughters of ex-Nazi SS men living in Jersey under new identities.  It has now also become known that Sanders is a cousin of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who himself was fathered by a Nazi war criminal named Von Christiandorf.

Sanders had many romantic affairs in his early days in Vermont, while his illegitimate sons would move to Hollywood to seek their fortune in television.  It is believed that Sanders and former Vermont Governor Maddy Kunin were lovers and also dowsers and Satanic Vegans.  Kunin, it is of course known, is the daughter of Hermann Goring’s right hand man, Adolf Kuninburg, who fathered her in 1933 in Munich.  Kuninburg is still alive at the age of one hundred and one, and living comfortably in a retirement commune in Greensboro, Vermont.

It was Kunin, the older woman in Sanders’ life, who manipulated Sanders’ election as Mayor of Burlington, Vt., with the help of other ex-Nazis from Burlington, Montpelier, Walden, and other towns in Vermont.  These Nazis, with help from Vermont ice cream moguls, The Fucking Rodriquez Brothers, created what now is the Vermont Progressive Party.

Sanders, although claiming to have absolutely zero knowledge of any Nazism attached to his parents, friends, lovers and supporters, is believed still to be a shill of the Vermont Progressive Party, which hopes that a President Sanders will ban cigarette smoking nationwide and replace the Bald Eagle with a Kale Plant as our new national symbol.

More details of this story are breaking every second now, and I can’t keep up with them, so fuck it, I’ll get back to this on Monday.  Because on Monday, here in Montpelier, Sanders is scheduled to meet with leaders of AIPAC, to explain to them how someone fathered by and involved with Nazis all his life wound up becoming a Jew.  It is rumored AIPAC fears that Sanders is secretly allied with forces wishing to destroy Israel and put Muhammad’s face on the new twenty dollar bill.

                –30–

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt

(Don’t laugh.  Did you know that Donald Trump was fathered by Josef Mengele in 1946 when Mengele was hiding out in Bavaria?  I see a Nazi Masterplan/Conspiracy here in 2016.  And I haven’t even gotten all the good sex stuff yet.)

This week, perennial chameleon Bruce Lisman has posed the rhetorical question: should he run for Governor?

Since he asked, I’m happy to share my own two-cents worth.

Yes, Mr. Lisman, please do.

You’ve been playing a pretty mean Republican dog whistle for years now while coyly refusing to step onto the recital stage.

Like all the honchos who tanked Wall Street and sent our collective retirement savings into the toilet, you somehow managed to leave the party with a buttload of equity.

Lil’ ol’ Vermont, with its anemic Republican party, must have seemed the ideal place to play-out your whale-in-a-wading-pool fantasy of political anointing.  

So away to the Green Mountains you flew; where you passed the time offering plenty of ‘non-partisan’ criticism of Democratic leadership, coupled with just the right amount of anti-tax rhetoric.  You offered precious little in the way of actual…you know…policy solutions?  Why commit when you didn’t have to?

You waited for what I suppose you expected to be a groundswell of well-heeled support to elevate you into the running for statewide office.  When none appeared to be forthcoming, and Peter Shumlin cleared the way for a wide open horse race, you thought you should nudge things along a little by popping the question yourself.

Good for you, Bruce; finally you choked out the ‘ask’ we have all been expecting for years.  For someone who claims to champion ‘transparency’ you have certainly maintained an opaque agenda for a mighty long spell.

It’s no good feigning demure neutrality.  Once you throw your hat in the ring, the questions will be persistent and straight to the point.  

We on the left relish the prospect of plucking away the layers of obfuscation, like so many artichoke leaves, to get to the meat of the matter.

Let the games begin.

The Vermont Legislature is a part-time citizen legislature that begins its session in January and ajourns in May. Legislative pay is not that high, there aren't a lot of legislative staff, and many times legislators come to rely on lobbyists for expertise when it comes to certain legislation.

Many of the legislators are retired, have the flexibility to hold a legislative position while having another job or some other circumstance that allows them to serve in the legislature. This in itself is not a bad thing, but I view it as holding back many people who would otherwise be interested in a career in politics.

The barriers to entry are high. How? The pay is low enough that it turns off many people who would otherwise be excellent legislators (people need to make a living) and the part-time aspect of it disrupts schedules for many citizens. Most people don't have the flexibility required in their lives (whatever they may be). Most jobs I know of certainly wouldn't allow you to take off months at a time to serve as a legislator in a part-time capacity.

This bothers me tremendously. While the commitment of our current legislators is commendable, I see that the challenges the state faces might not be adequately met by the current system. How so? The state faces many funding challenges, an aging population and high costs of living and an increasingly complex set of issues that require full-time commitment from the people's representatives. The fact that we have a citizen legislature is an anachronism, a half-assed measure that seems outdated.

A Burlington Free Press article describing how Vermont is unable to escape a tech albatross is a perfect example. After the fiasco that took place with Vermont Health Connect, many legislators feel ill-equipped to vet computer technology overhauls and there is no committee to handle technology issues. 

Hmm, well of course they are ill-equipped. They lack a sufficient number of professional legislative staff. Their primary focus most of the year isn't on serving in the legislature, it is on other things. They're bringing a water bucket to a forest fire.

So what do they do? They kick the can down the road, even when many important government programs handing out benefits are operating on computer systems dating back to the 1980s and for which they can't find sufficient staff or parts to keep it going. Are these guys for real? The article states there are many federally mandated programs which are on hold in Vermont (about 50) and the state is facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. Are you f*cking kidding me?!

A profession legislature brings many benefits. Among them, it attracts more qualified members, more time for policy development and DELIBERATION, increased ability to influence the policymaking process and an increased ability to focus on legislative issues. There are downsides to it of course, namely that it COSTS MORE MONEY. 

If legislators aren't up to the task, then they should resign, or even better yet, vote to reform the legislative branch and transform themselves into a professional body that will give themselves the time to actually tackle these issues. For the moment, all I hear is the clattering of a can hitting the road.  

(This goes to my question about what has happened to the fight for an “Equal Rights Amendment?” – promoted by Sue Prent)

Following Historic Win in Women’s World Cup,

Leahy Unveils Senate Resolution

Calling For Award Equity For Female Soccer Athletes

WASHINGTON (Monday, July 13, 2015) – The 2015 Women’s World Cup drew international attention and record-breaking audiences, yet the female athletes who competed this year were compensated far less than their male counterparts.  Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) spoke out against this pay inequity Monday, and unveiled a resolution calling on the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to immediately eliminate gender discrimination between male and female athletes.

“The United States women’s soccer team and all World Cup champions should be rewarded for their performance, for their grit, and for their teamwork, rather than devalued for their gender,” Leahy said.  

Leahy introduced a Senate resolution calling on FIFA to immediately eliminate gender pay inequity between male and female athletes.  The need to correct this unfair disparity is underscored by the fact that the Women’s World Cup winner – the United States – was awarded $2 million after beating Japan in a soccer match that drew 25 million viewers just in the U.S. alone.  By comparison, the 2014 Men’s World Cup winner – Germany – was awarded $35 million for its win over Argentina.  

FIFA’s policy is not just discriminatory; it is far outdated compared to other sports championships.  Wimbledon – tennis’s top prize – finally implemented an equal prize payment structure for all athletes in 2007, and as a result, U.S. tennis player Serena Williams will be awarded the same prize money for winning the women’s final this weekend as her male counterpart.  Leahy said it is time for all sports to match this basic ideal of equal pay for equal work.

“Wimbledon chose to be on the right side of history in 2007 by ensuring pay equity for female and male athletes,” Leahy said.  “I hope the story of the American Women’s World Cup champions not receiving fair treatment by FIFA will inspire more people to join the fight for equal prize awards.   With this resolution that I introduce today, let the Senate be on record in support of fair treatment for all World Cup champions as we urge FIFA to change its policy, just as the All England Club did years ago.”  

The Senate resolution is available online.

# # # # #

We remark on the efficacy of his stewardship in the Auditor’s Office, over and over again, here on GMD, but it must certainly be gratifying for Doug Hoffer  to receive high marks from the National State Auditors Association’s External Peer Review Team.

As is most fitting to the rigorous standards one expects from such a body, state auditor’s offices are subjected to this review once every three years.

This being the second review of our state auditor’s office conducted since it transitioned to doing performance reviews, it is the first that surveyed work entirely done under Auditor Hoffer’s supervision.

The review assesses staff’s familiarity with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards; looks at the office’s Professional Standards Manual to ensure that it reflects those aforementioned Standards; and takes a look at some audits performed by the office over the previous three years in order to determine how well those Federal and State Standards have been applied.

For this review period the audits sampled were those that looked at Correctional Health Care (October 2014), the Sex Offender Registry (July 2014), the Liquor Control System (November, 2014), and the State Energy Plan (March, 2015).

Says Hoffer:

“I am proud of the quality of work this office produces” Auditor Hoffer said. “I have an extremely talented team who deserve credit for the high marks on this latest peer review, and I have no doubt that we will continue to maintain this rating following the highest professional standards as we work to hold government accountable.”

What’s this we hear about the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce getting preferential treatment over other regional development associations in the form of a $100,000. grant earmarked for the purpose of sweet-talking Quebec businesses in what are described as “outreach efforts?”

The appropriation started out as a $500,000 fund for marketing Vermont as a good place to do business. That amount shrank to $200,000 during conference committee, and the Quebec outreach proposals appeared in the waning hours of the session as a $100,000 appropriation. The money comes from the Vermont Enterprise Fund, which was originally intended as a cash incentive for the IBM sale to GlobalFoundries but was never used for that purpose.

So, in other words, a slush fund created to groom private economic interests from abroad appears to have been opportunistically hijacked by the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce before the rest of the boys were even given a peek under the hood.

What surprises me is that this comes as any kind of a surprise to  Tim Smith of the Franklin County Industrial Development Authority.  

Mr. Smith objects to what he correctly sees as an unfair advantage negotiated by the LCRCC, and a lack of transparency in the process.

All I can say is welcome to my world, Mr. Smith.  

In the broader world of politics, the Chamber is not known for playing fair.

And while we are on the subject of local Chambers of Commerce, why are we still allowing them so much unfettered influence on the business of business in Vermont?

The answer is probably that they have become so insidious in small town America that we hardly notice they are here.  

Most Vermonters completely overlook their connection to the soulless Mother Ship of Greed: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful global economic player which just this past week was excoriated by the New York times for engaging in an organized effort to combat  anti-smoking efforts around the world.

Already infamous for their efforts to discredit Climate Change science, the Chamber is also the champion of the tobacco industry as it faces off against expanding health education that is making it more and more difficult to ply this killer trade even in third world countries.

Three years ago, Ukraine filed an international legal challenge against Australia, over Australia’s right to enact antismoking laws on its own soil…Taras Kachka…argued that several “fantastic tobacco companies” had bought up Soviet-era factories and modernized them, and now they were exporting tobacco to many other countries. It was in Ukraine’s national interest, he said, to support investors in the country, even though they do not sell tobacco to Australia.

Mr. Kachka was not a tobacco lobbyist or farmer or factory owner. He was the head of a Ukrainian affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, America’s largest trade group.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce derives its power from the sheer number of small local and regional affiliates that unify under its name.  It is their passivity with regards to the Chamber’s overarching agenda of  anti-Climate science and pro-smoking that allows it to continue against the forces of both education and common sense.

When the state awards funds to even a minor agency of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, it becomes complicit with their appalling agenda.

Until local and regional Chambers rise up and conspicuously disassociate themselves from the Mother Ship, they will get no quarter from me.