Despite the sordid floor show that has threatened to pull focus away from the serious work facing our Vermont senate over the past week, that distinguished body did manage to pass the H.35 water bill today.

While not the long-term fix that is so badly needed, passage of the bill is an important first step toward addressing the critical condition of Vermont’s greatest natural resource, Lake Champlain.

Furthermore, it means that the EPA shouldn’t have to take control of the situation; something that no one is eager to see happen.  That agency will let us know in July what it will take in the way of limits on Total Maximum Daily Load of phosphorus to keep Vermont’s efforts independent from direct Federal mandates.

H.35 sets a price tag for the effort of $7.5 million which will come from a 0.2 % surcharge on the property transfer tax as well as fees on pollution permits, some larger farm registrations and the sale of products that contribute to the problem (fertilizers and pesticides).  

An alternate funding scheme which would have asked all Vermont landowners to make a small contribution to the clean-up was rejected, although it is difficult to see how the accepted scheme will ever raise enough money to do the job.

Lauren Hierl, political director of Vermont Conservation Voters acknowledged how challenging it was for the Legislature to frame a passable bill, and expressed measured appreciation for the effort:

“Today, the Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation that aims to clean up Vermont waters, including Lake Champlain. The hardest work is still to come implementing programs to clean up major pollution sources, but this bill sets out an important framework for moving the state toward healthier waters, and provides critical funding for clean-up efforts. I thank the Senate for its diligent work on this water quality legislation.”

To which Kim Greenwood, the Vermont Natural Resource Council’s tireless water program director adds:

“The real substance of what’s to come is yet to be proposed,”

The bill provides for performance audits that will measure the effectiveness of spending choices.  With the limited funding channels that the senate has approved, it will be all the more important to ensure that what little there is is well-spent.

Note: I am proud to serve on the Board of Vermont Conservation Voters.

Custom would have it that in the event of a death or resignation of a sitting legislator, the Governor would appoint someone from the same party-often at the recommendation of local party leaders. Usually the party leaders would give three names to the Governor to consider. Sara Branon Kittell was appointed under such circumstances in 1995 by then Governor Howard Dean.

The fact that former Senator Randy Brock has been tapped by the Franklin County Republicans as their sole nominee to fill Norm McAllister’s seat is disappointing. McAllister isn’t in poor health, and he didn’t die. He’s resigning in disgrace. Recommending a former challenger to the Governor- and no one else- seems like an intentional political play at a time when Franklin County is reeling from the scandal of the allegations against Senator McAllister.

Governor Douglas ignored the Grand Isle Democrats recommendations and appointed Bob Krebs to the seat held by the late Ira Trombley, and he’s been a capable legislator. The Governor can appoint whomever he chooses. Perhaps the Franklin County Republicans could take a pause from their own political calculations and consider that Randy Brock would be a pretty tough pill for the Governor to swallow. Is there no one else in the county who has integrity and enough experience to represent us in the Senate next year?

The details of the allegations against McAllister have cast a pall on our community, and Franklin County needs to have representation in the Senate that can move us beyond this scandal into the future that we all deserve. That the local GOP is trying to make a difficult job impossible for the Governor after turning a blind eye to years of inappropriate behavior by their resigning Senator is just sad.  

Today, the Senate declined to take up the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but this will not put an end to the issue. Bernie offered his senate colleagues additional counterpoints drawn from hindsight, for those with short memories who remain susceptible to the global corporate siren song.

__________________________________________________________________________________

BURLINGTON, Vt., May 8 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after President Barack Obama promoted a job-killing trade agreement at Nike’s corporate headquarters:

 

“The president at Nike headquarters told us that every trade union in America is wrong, that progressives working for years for working families are wrong and that corporate America, the pharmaceutical industry and Wall Street are right. I respectfully disagree.

 

“This trade agreement would continue the process by which we have been shipping good-paying American jobs to low-wage countries overseas and continue the race to the bottom for American workers.”

Bernie is right.

I heard the pitch on NPR this afternoon, about how Nike will bring jobs back to America if we sign this new trade agreement. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  

Nike, the poster child of bad corporate citizenship is trying to dictate terms for yet a further surrender of American economic independence; and they’re offering… what exactly?  Their scouts’ honor promise to bring jobs back home from where they relocated them years ago?  

The only way they will ever do that is if American workers accept sweatshop wages and working conditions so that Nike’s bottom line is unaffected by the move.  Is that somewhere in the fine print of the Trans-Pacific Partnership?  We really have no idea.

The TPP is, for all intents and purposes a ‘secret’ pact which the Obama administration is for some reason hell-bent on Fast-Tracking into effect without the benefit of public scrutiny.

One has to wonder into what closet of mysteries the President has peered to have his support won over for this bizarre surprise package.

It is important not to be distracted from the untrustworthy nature of this pitch by the instinct to assume the best intentions on the part of a Democratic president.

Have we forgotten NAFTA and the flight to far away sweatshops that was essentially led by Nike?  We have Bill Clinton to thank, at least in part, for that one.

New rule of thumb: whenever the majority of Republicans are on the same side as the Democratic President, and the majority of Democrats are not, there is a good chance that that the President is listening to some very bad advice from some very influential people.

Call it temporary insanity, if you will.

Writing for Huffington Post, David Pruett characterizes the agreement as a Trojan Horse concealing a sinister agenda to cede U.S. control of many important safeguards to international corporate interests.

At the heart of the matter…er the horse… is  something called the Investor-State Dispute Settlement provision, or ISDS.  This provision would give international corporations, such as Nike, the ability to lay hands on U.S. internal policy whenever it threatened to place them at a business disadvantage.

  

According to The Economist, ISDS gives foreign firms a special right to apply to a secretive tribunal of highly paid corporate lawyers for compensation whenever the government passes a law … that [negatively impacts] corporate profits — such things as discouraging smoking, protecting the environment or preventing nuclear catastrophe.

…Or raising the minimum wage, perhaps?

That’s not something to which most working class Americans would assent if it were laid out in plain language for them, but as things now stand, it appears that we will not even be given a chance to peer into the TPP  horse until its already making mischief inside our gates.

In my dream world the biggest story of the year would would have been a triumphant, tri-partisan agreement on water quality sweeping to legislative victory and signed into law. I knew that was all over when a friend sent me a link to the Burlington Free Press article that broke the story last night. Instead, 2015 will be remembered as the year that Sen. Norm McAllister (R-Franklin County/Alburgh) was arrested (last night) and brought up on three counts of sexual assault and three counts of misdemeanor prohibited acts (this morning).

First, I’m going to follow John Walters’ sage advice and focus first on the fact that these are allegations, and Norm plead “Not Guilty” this morning. If the charges prove true, our sympathies should be with the victims.

The Paul Heintz article in Seven Days included an excerpt from the affidavits released this morning by the Vermont State Police. They include a phone call recording between McAllister and a woman whose son was renting from Sen. McAllister and was behind on payments.

“I was worried,” she told McAllister. “I said, ‘Oh my God, is he throwing my son out?’ I was scared, Norm.”

McAllister replied: “Well that’s going to depend on how willing you are to please me. How’s that? Are you willing?”

“I told you I would,” the woman said. “As long as it’s going to take care of my son. My son means a lot to me.”

“We’ll see how it happens,” McAllister answered.

Now, I’m the chair of the Franklin County Democratic Party and I’d be lying if I said that I was ignoring the upside of this whole awful mess for my fellow Democrats. However, I’m troubled by the near giddiness that some of my liberal friends have shown knowing that Sen. McAllister will be placed in the position of defending himself against these serious allegations.

This story isn’t funny one bit. It’s about women being coerced and violated in a way that should make us all angry, whether these particular allegations prove true or not. Former Rep. Rachel Weston used the occasion to speak out about her first encounter with Sen. McAllister when she joined the Vermont House. Sharing a link to a story about McAllister’s arrest on her Facebook page she said:

This is the same pervert who made a comment about wanting to see me naked during my first day in the legislature in 2007, when I was 25. I remember another prominent Republican accused me of lying when I talked openly about it being harassment.

This should not be the Story of the Year. We all deserve a lot better. I hope that justice is served and that we can focus our energy for the rest of the year on empowering women and improving our state. I for one, can’t wait until the cloud of this scandal passes over Franklin County. Unfortunately, it’s likely to be a while.

Governor Shumlin is again calling for budget cuts to forestall proposed tax increases in the latest end-of-session jockeying with the Legislature. Here's what he says on his web page:

I feel that the income tax changes being considered are not geared toward improving our economy or Vermonters’ prosperity. Instead of making these changes and asking working Vermonters to pay more in income taxes, I feel we should do everything we can to reduce spending further and avoid these increases. My message is simple: Let’s find additional spending reductions before we ask Vermonters to pay more income taxes.      

 I think he's dead wrong here. Look at the cuts he's talking about. The big ticket items that advocates are criticizing include: 

$2.87 million in state employee payroll. (On top of the cuts they're already taking.)

$2 million in cuts to weatherization. 

 All to avoid some moderately progressive tax changes.

It's not everything, but by limiting itemized deductions in general, and the mortgage interest deduction in particular, you're holding harmless the generally lower-income segments of the taxpaying public who can't take advantage of these tax benefits.

At this late date, I say save the programs and raise the money from taxes. 

Reposted from Fairewinds Energy Education.



In case you missed the bulletin, on May Day, the financial world just tipped a bit on its axis toward clean energy.

Forbes, that bastion of conventional wisdom on Wall Street broke with its tradition of support for nuclear energy when Jeff McMahon posed the following question in a bold headline:

“Did Tesla Just Kill Nuclear Power?”

The gist of the story is that, at a divestiture debate held at Northwestern University in Chicago last Thursday, “famed nuclear critic” (McMahon’s characterization, not mine) Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer of Fairewinds Energy Education, stopped Argonne Laboratories director Jordi Roglans-Ribas dead in his tracks when he based his case for nuclear energy on that tired old saw with which we are all so familiar:

Roglans-Ribas had just finished arguing that any future free of fossil fuels would need nuclear power, which provides carbon-free energy 24 hours a day, supplying the reliability lacking in renewables like solar and wind.

Gundersen called that claim a “marketing ploy.”

“We all know that the wind doesn’t blow consistently and the sun doesn’t shine every day,” he said, “but the nuclear industry would have you believe that humankind is smart enough to develop techniques to store nuclear waste for a quarter of a million years, but at the same time human kind is so dumb we can’t figure out a way to store solar electricity overnight. To me that doesn’t make sense.”

I love it.

…And Arnie had the inside story to back-up his position.  He broke the news to the assembly of earnest young minds that, at about 10:00 that same evening, they could expect an historic announcement from entrepreneur, Elon Musk of Tesla Motors, that an industrial scale storage battery was about to enter the market, ushering in an era in which the cost of energy storage (and therefore truly clean alternatives) would ultimately be driven down to rock bottom.

And so it was.  The details are laid out in Tesla’s own site, but Arnie summed up its implications for nuclear:

“So the nuclear argument that they’re the only 24-7 source is off the table now because  Elon Musk has convinced me that industrial scale storage is in fact possible, and it’s here.”

It’s just a matter of time before the cost of energy storage drops as precipitously as has the cost of computer memory over recent years.

That’s the top line news, but here’s where we dive into a little speculation…something with which investors are not unfamiliar.

Overnight, nuclear has been transformed for the ‘smart money” from a prince to a toad.  

This could well be one of those infamous “tipping points” about which Malcolm Gladwell wrote; the signature moment when Wall Street finally gets off the nuclear merry-go-round and on with the move to clean renewables.

Maintaining that nuclear is a clean sustainable option is like having closets and an attic filled to the rafters with trash while you keep the front room clean for guests and simply pray that the whole place doesn’t collapse over your head.

It’s a losing bet.

At last, Wall Street, that Supreme High Roller of Loaded Dice, seems to be coming around to recognizing that it isn’t even worthy of the gamble

I know how hard it is for legislators to get excited about doing something that will get a fierce negative reaction from a vocal minority and little positive attention from the silent majority.

However, I’m urging all of you in the Vermont House to take action now and remove the philosophical exemption from Vermont’s vaccination laws. We enjoy living in communities that have the luxury of being without the fear of measles and other vaccine-preventable illnesses. Let’s not allow well-intentioned people who choose to ignore science to put any of our children at further risk.

Vaccines work, but only if our population has very high rates of compliance with doctors’ recommendations. The science is clear, the debate is nearing its end and it is time to get rid of the philosophical exemption. Let’s not wait until there is a measles outbreak in Vermont to take action. Getting rid of the philosophical exemption is the right thing to do for the health and safety of Vermont.

BERNIE SANDERS CALLS FOR MANDATORY VACCINATIONS OF PALESTINIANS; POLITENESSMAN HITS HIM WITH STEEL HANKIE THROWN ALL THE WAY FROM TEXAS  

(Dedicated to my beloved Jewish Princess, Maggie Lenz McQuilken)

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders drew more flack today, this time from voters in Walden, as he tried to amend statements he made a few weeks ago to voters in Cabot about Hamas and Israel.  He also drew a STEEL HANKIE from PolitenessMan.

“What I meant to say was,” Sanders started to explain, “was that possibly a solution to that volatile situation over there might be to vaccinate the Palestinians with some kosher nice serum.  I’m sure Wall Street and Big Pharma have something like that already approved by the FDA.  Of course, the vaccinations would be mandatory, to protect…”

“Fascist!” someone from the crowd yelled.  Others began to heckle Sanders, calling him a hypocrite on war and justice.  And the person who yelled ‘Fascist’ then yelled:  “You LIB-ER-Al FUCK!”

“Is that you, Colby?”  Sanders interjected.  “I want that person removed!”  Sanders screamed to the 14 State Police officers doing security.

Then, all of a sudden, ‘THUNK!’–a STEEL HANKIE slammed Sanders in the skull.  Attached to it was a note that a gray-bearded man picked up and read out loud to the crowd:

“Senator Sanders,” the note read, “I think your positions on some issues need clarifications and much more tidiness.  It is impolite and impolitic to expect voters to accept a shallow posture of credence.  Especially when you claim to be their savior and their servant.  Good servants, knowing their place, do not commit breaches of good decorum.  You must be civil and truthful to the voters.  All candidates must comport themselves so.  It shall be my mission in 2016 to see to it that all candidates maintain the good manners of courtesy, deference, and sophistication when addressing the voters, so that all of us, candidates and voters, can achieve the state of political aplomb necessary to deal with the Global Rudeness that threatens to destroy our planet.  I have sent this STEEL HANKIE all the way from Texas where I am dealing with a very untoward situation involving Governor Abbott here.  He is contributing to the acceleration of Global Rudeness.  President Obama felt I was the only way to deal with Governor Abbott.  After he got done laughing.

“My regards, Senator, and adieu to you.  And also to Mr. Michael Colby, as I assume he is there, what with all the offensive language being bandied about.  Thank you.”

“Sonofa…” Sanders began, “…I mean…well…if it’s coming from PolitenessMan, then I guess I owe you all a huge apology.  Officers, you can unhand that man.  It was rude of me to have him taken into custody.  And I promise all of you folks that the next time someone calls me a LIB-ER-Al FUCK, I will answer by saying: ‘Thank you.  I am grateful that you called that to my attention.  And I will do my best to ameliorate that.  May I buy you the beer of your choice at the Three Penny Taproom in Montpelier after this forum and hear more of your eclectic views?’  And THANK YOU, PolitenessMan.  Already I am inspired to use a higher level of speechifying.  Good luck in Texas.”

Thus, once again did PolitenessMan correct a situation before it deteriorated into another vile and vulgar display of Global Rudeness, the number one threat to life on this planet.

Adieu.

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

(PolitenessMan should take over the Protest Movement.)

Jap Prime Minister Abe, in a speech in Ferguson, California, said that:  “Comparing things to Baltimore and Bill Cosby, I would say Japanese actions in Nanking in 1937 and the so-called Bataan Death March are basically cases of a few individuals under stress.  Your police are now reacting to threats from your black people much the same as our glorious Imperial Army had to react to threats from Chinese women terrorists in Nanking, and those American and Filipino soldiers in Bataan?…well, we were trying to get them quickly to camps before your B-17s from Australia bombed the whole column.  They just weren’t marching fast enough.  No discipline.  But we saved as many as we could.  Look it up.  But not in Japan.  We’re so peaceful, we don’t carry war books in our libraries.”

When Abe was asked about whether Japanese agents were responsible for driving author Iris Chang to suicide in 2004, by repeatedly harassing her on her book and lecture tours, or if, in fact, Japanese agents actually staged her suicide, Abe replied:  “No, no, no.  Bill Cosby was responsible for Iris Chang.  He ravished her while she was in a drunken depressed state.  Look it up.  Hasn’t that come out yet?  It will.  Don’t forget, you Americans Atom-Bombed us.  Twice.  That’s a lot worse than, say, 25 million Chinese deaths and a few American POWs and a bunch of Chinese and Korean Dragon Lady terrorists trying to give the entire Japanese Imperial Army VD.*

“Now,ask me about how much more of your National Debt you want Japan to invest in,”  Abe said.  “And who’s that old geezer back there with the BATAAN DEATH MARCH SURVIVOR T-Shirt?  Perhaps one of those who kept falling down and holding up the march?  When people in Japan fall down, they do the honorable thing.  It’s call Seppuku.  When we take over America after calling in your debt, we will be honored to teach you about honor.”

*(I HATE the Japs–Still truly the world’s most EVIL PEOPLE)

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

Some free advice to the Bernie Sanders campaign: focus on making it a bad thing in the public eye when a candidate has too large a war chest and is unwilling to disclose exactly from where the donations came.

I know; everybody has a wish list for the Bernie campaign, but this messaging effort will be crucial before anything else even has a chance to be heard.

According to the New York Times, FEC Chairwoman, Ann M. Ravel is predicting a full-on Wild West of campaign finance corruption for 2016, with zero possibility of intervention by the FEC.  The system is irreparably damaged, and it will take a mass rejection by voters of the funding message to bring about any meaningful change.

Here is your opening, Senator.  If all of us, and you most especially, focus on campaign finance issues as a key component of the get-out-the-vote message, there is a chance…just a chance…that we might, by the power of the vote itself, begin the country’s move down the path to genuine reform.

Every time the media trumpets who has the biggest war chest in any campaign, we should be responding with questions as to how that war chest breaks down in terms of corporate and individual contributions.  What is the average size of those contributions and what has been disclosed as to who the biggest funders are?

Never mind just satisfying the rule of law; If those answers are not forthcoming, make it a defining negative for the candidate to have too much money in the race.

You, Senator Sanders, are the only candidate who is likely to have a public enough platform to make that case despite your own funding challenges, because you have built credibility amongst a populist following like none other.

If you succeed in nothing more than making that message stick, you will have lanced the boil that putrefies our body politic.