Guy Page: Just thinking about carbon war on the poor; Scott, Trump and Texas; universal voting at Town Meeting

By Guy Page

It’s Friday afternoon, and I was just thinking about the following topics.

Spectacular non-leadership by example. Does the executive leadership team of alleged “healthcare cost control” outfit One Care understand the concept of Leadership By Example? Seems there name should be “Don’t Care.” It seems doubtful.  Otherwise they wouldn’t seek an 18% raise when the providers they oversee are reeling from the one-two punch of the pandemic and a $63 million cyberattack.

Burlington’s carbon war on the poor. The Queen City’s proposed “expect to suffer” fossil-fuel heat conversion program would inflict the most pain on the homeless and very poor. Adding $10,000 of mandated costs to new or rehabbed housing discourages new development. Vermont already has the oldest housing stock in the nation. Burlington’s plan makes finding any home even more of a pipe dream for the truly needy.

Guy Page

Phil Scott, Donald Trump, and the Texas lawsuit. Gov. Scott told Stewart Leadbetter of News 5 at today’s press conference that the Texas lawsuit before the Supreme Court “is bizarre in a lot of respects. I think we need to move on here. I don’t know what the intent is.”

Oh, that’s an easy one, Governor. Texas wants to ensure that whoever is inaugurated January 21, half the country won’t believe the election was a fraud. It wants to protect the vital constitutional succession of government by exposing all of the suspected fraud so that the Court can render a fair, impartial and much-needed authoritative decision that can help America truly “move on.”

Pros and cons of universal absentee voting for Town Meeting, as Gov. Scott suggests. On the one hand we’d all miss the eyeball-to-eyeball accountability of our local officials, not to mention the apple pie afterwards. On the other hand, it might give 9-5 Vermonters an opportunity to weigh in on some of the local government issues that matter to them: like, for example, the expected nine percent increase in school taxes. Apparently some in the Legislature – so, so eager to hold the general election by universal absentee ballot – are chary of giving all Vermonters a Town Meeting ballot. I wonder why?

For once, I agree with the Times-Argus. The notoriously, reflexively liberal editor of the Times-Argus penned these words to the wise about why shopping local for the locals is more important than ever: “If we say that after the pandemic we want to return to some semblance of “normal,” we must be investing in our local businesses, especially right now. Otherwise, if we choose to rely on Amazon and other large-scale retailers, we could be left with deep regret about our short-term decision-making made out of a desire for convenience.”

Read more of Guy Page’s reports. Vermont Daily is sponsored by True North Media.

Image courtesy of Public domain

9 thoughts on “Guy Page: Just thinking about carbon war on the poor; Scott, Trump and Texas; universal voting at Town Meeting

  1. Spectacular non-leadership by example:
    “AMONG the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction.” James Madison, Federalist #10

    Burlington’s carbon war on the poor:
    The ‘carbon war’ is an apt description. Like the Wu Flu crisis, creating an environment of uncontrollable fear, the proverbial ‘emergency too good to waste’, is a common ploy used by tyrannical governments to control the masses, when, as history continues to show us, the best policies, the most efficient policies, the least expensive policies, are those created by free market economies. This is why tyrannical governments (factions) seek to stifle truly free enterprises.

    Pros and cons of universal absentee voting for Town Meeting, as Gov. Scott suggests:
    “It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes.” Joseph Stalin

    For once, I agree with the Times-Argus…. we must be investing in our local businesses,…:
    Easily said. But what does it mean? Which ‘we’ are you talking about? Which businesses are ‘we’ talking about?

    When Marx and Engels opined economically, the phrase that best characterizes their philosophy is the now infamous: ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.’ The problem is, of course, in how ability and need are qualified and quantified, and, more importantly, who makes the determination. An elected elite? A dictatorship? An appointed oligarchy? Or a Free Market?

    • Post script: As long as we’re ‘thinking’ – consider where our circumstances first began to go astray. Figuring that out is the first and best way to make corrections. Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. John Jay, one of the Federalist Paper’s authors was but 31 years old. James Madison was only 25 years old in 1776. And Alexander Hamilton was just a kid at 21 years old.

      Now consider all of those young adults out there asking us to pay for their student debt and what they’ve been taught. Most of them don’t know who James Madison was, let alone what Federalist Paper #10 says.

      If we want to correct course, change the public education system. Allow an education free market to thrive. Give parents School Choice vouchers and allow them to choose the school that best meets the needs of their children. Then stand back and watch the innovative, entrepreneurial spirit be unleashed.

    • Town meeting was held in mid day on a week day for farm, church convenience.
      Enormous value in face to face meetings to ask questions, suggest improvements, hear opinions, gather facts, thank town workers for their efforts.

      But, Today Town meeting must be moved to a Saturday date, morning preferred. Pie to follow!!

      .Absentee ballots, requested by citizens is perfectly ok.
      Mail out ballots have proved a disaster

      We have given away any control over school spending, county spending, state spending –
      Let’s hold firm to control of our Town spending !!

  2. Re: The Supreme Court’s rejection of Texas’ suit.

    The Supreme Court did exactly the right thing by protecting the federal construct of our Constitution. This isn’t about the merits. It’s about the very, very bad precedent of allowing one state to drag another into federal court because it does not like what another state has done with a process solely within that latter state’s sovereign jurisdiction.

    It is inconceivable to me that conservatives angry about the merits of the claim don’t stop to think about the absolutely horrible precedent that would be established by opening this door. It would not just provide gratification in the instant case. Every election in the future would be subject to litigation, and one only has to think back to 2016 to imagine what liberal states would be filing for cases. That sword cuts both ways.

    The president’s own Supreme Court appointees rose above the fray by recognizing Texas & Co. should not have standing for that very reason, and did exactly what we who seek sanctity of the Constitution think judges should do. I thank them for protecting the federalist system laid out in our Constitution.

    • Post script: As long as we’re ‘thinking’ – consider where our circumstances first began to go astray. Figuring that out is the first and best way to make corrections. Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. John Jay, one of the Federalist Paper’s authors was but 31 years old. James Madison was only 25 years old in 1776. And Alexander Hamilton was just a kid at 21 years old.

      Now consider all of those young adults out there asking us to pay for their student debt and what they’ve been taught. Most of them don’t know who James Madison was, let alone what Federalist Paper #10 says.

      If we want to correct course, change the public education system. Allow an education free market to thrive. Give parents School Choice vouchers and allow them to choose the school that best meets the needs of their children. Then stand back and watch the innovative, entrepreneurial spirit be unleashed.

    • So then the question arises, where does a state go to remedy a constitutional violation of another state that affects that state? The Supreme Court has jurisdiction to resolve issues of constitutional violations between states and was the reason Texas and 19 other states turned to the Supreme Court. The court has original jurisdiction as outlined in the constitution. The court didn’t reject the merits of the suit, they claimed Texas and apparently 19 other states didn’t have standing. So if the voters of 20 states feel they were cheated by unconstitutional acts of 4 other states that altered the result of the voters of their states and could be proven if allowed to go forward, where is the remedy?

      You have an opinion and so do 75,000,000 who disagree and believe that the court shunned it’s responsibility. This election was fraught with fraud and was designed to flip the outcome. If half of the voters feel that the election was stolen, the faith in our elections will be tainted well into the future and there will be resistance to an illegitimate in coming administration. The Supreme Court failed it responsibility to protect the constitution and the election process.

  3. You have to seriously wonder like the strings on a puppet, who is the real connections to Scott? What he’s been saying and doing doesn’t seem to stem from a Vermonter. His valuation about the TX lawsuit is a prime example, then gun control, then over the top virus controlling measures. One of the worse since Huff. No obvious research on matters, just jump at the tug of the strings.

  4. First time in years I’ve agreed with anything in the T/A…..Mean to tell me someone over there has noticed that every small business in Vermont is being HAMMERED by this COVID total nonsense, while the Big Box stores are raking in money……

    COULD THIS…..COULD IT…..HAVE BEEN INTENDED…OR FORESEEN?

    I’m wondering whether Scott and Condos are planning on staying home for Christmas….vs..yaknow
    travelling to China?

  5. Once again, our RINO governor has shown his ignorance of what matters to the people. So, he doesn’t understand the intent of the lawsuits being filed by patriotic citizens who know that election/voter fraud was extensive? How can he put forth such ill-informed comments? Inquiring minds want to hear from the 2000 or so people who signed sworn affidavits to what they witnessed on Election Day and afterwards. I guess if you are already cozy with the ‘ruling class’ occupants, you can dismiss what really concerns and affects your constituents!!

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