By John McClaughry
The climateers on the Senate Natural Resource and Energy Committee — that would be all five of them, Democrats, handpicked — seem to be getting desperate that Vermont is falling behind its completely arbitrary path toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 70% by 2050. Already they are thinking up new ways to make Vermonters suffer to make us comply with the 2015 Paris Agreement, that practically zero other countries are complying with.
Sen. Mark MacDonald, D-Orange
Sen. Mark MacDonald, Democrat of Orange County, is out front with imaginative ways to stop using gasoline, diesel fuel, natural gas, propane and heating oil. He suggests reimposing President Carter’s 55 mph speed limit on all of our highways. He says that wouldn’t cost anything, ignoring the costs of extra travel time for people now traveling at 65 mph.
MacDonald also wants to impose a gas guzzler tax on pickup trucks and large SUVs. In climatespeak, designed to keep you from figuring out what you’ll be made to pay for, this is a “vehicle efficiency price adjustment program.” At least MacDonald called it by its recognizable name. Sen. Becca White, Democrat of Windsor County, announced that she was having a bill drafted for what the climateers call a clean fuels standard.
Confronted with the regressive impact of these proposals, MacDonald came up with this answer: “We don’t do things based on helping poor people. We do things to save the world.” Let that one sink in.
John McClaughry is vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute. Reprinted with permission from the Ethan Allen Institute Blog.
to your old joke – that’s exactly what misogyny sounds like.
That’s the sadistic face of facism. Facism is how we judge people like old mac donald–looks like a sadist to me.
There’s a simple way that the state can meet the foolish climate change requirements the legislature imposed: Park all state vehicles! No road maintenance! Consider the impact on the economy. Within a short period no more fossil fuel would be used in the state.
McDonald and his cohorts going to do one nutty-zero thing after another, no matter what the consequences piled on already-struggling, over-taxed, over-regulated Vermonters trying to make ends meet in Vermont’s near-zero real growth economy.
More revenue for the motor vehicle dept. Ol mcdonald is just helping his over bloated fellow gov workers at the expense of the poor smuck just trying to get to work..like their anti 2nd amendment infringement they don’t mind making a criminal out us.Pretty pathetic to have to revert to failures of Jimminy Carter but that’s the quality legislators we get now days. The beatings will continue until moral improves.
Ha! Great because the 55 speed limit will drive more vacationers to New Hampshire. From all the revenue we will garner, we’ll be able to improve child care and educational opportunities.
Keep it up MacDonald and fellow travelers please!
I would like to know how many under the Golden Dome making such proposals exclusively own and drive EV’s daily (even in mud season!) and have converted their homes to green energy exclusively. I’ll wait.
mr. macdonald and ms. white appear to be the over zealous front men for this latest batch of climate
diktats desired by the climate evangelists. mr. bray has his own pet regulations, to further his donor’s goals. It does seem that Vermont is quicky establishing itself as a post-constitutional society/state.
This group of legislators deems itself above any actual legal boundaries. These corrupt political elites have no limits to their whims, nor the costs incurred by Vermont’s citizens. They do not even pretend to be public servants- these elitists have established class warfare as the preferred weapon to achieve their goals- They now believe themselves our rulers- as evidenced by S.39, a bill to increase pay and benefits for our (formerly) citizen legislature.
Soon enough I suspect that even Mr. McClaughry will question why he remains a Vermont resident- as the migration out of conservative taxpayers moves from a stream to a river…
Do you know how to say “Adios”? The last one out of Vermont is a rotten egg.
Mrs. Bammo:
Do you not recognize that ms means female and it is extremely disrespectful to call ms white a, ‘zealous front man…. ? Not respecting women is misogynistic, not just a figure of speech.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Bammo shall continue to use words that are appropriate.
per wiktionary/wordnik:
front man
noun
1. A person acting as the public face of some other, covert group.
2. striker, attacker, forward
3. The lead singer in a musical group
4. a person used as cover for some questionable activity
I see no reference to specific gender in this definition, it refers to “person” however- I do I see where ms. senator rebecca white’s actions correlate to definition one and four. Should you define this word as misogynistic, that’s your choice. The “woke” left has attempted to redefine many words in the past 36 months…incorrectly.
Your definition is antiquated and disrespects woman.
My rebuttal has absolutely nothing to do with wokeism. I reject it.
Ms. Joy you are such a real joy! I see that you trigger easily. Happiness is a lost trait in liberville.
I do appreciate the segue to define misogyny and give a current example- The partially extinguished uproar in Randolph, allowing a
teen male to enter and change in a female locker room is an example of misogyny. Defined as: hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy, by Wordnik.
That Vermont’s “woke” politics has descended to and defends such actions is repugnant, disrespectful to all, contemptuous and prejudiced toward the teen females subjected to the school principal’s, superintendent’s and school boards misogynistic directives and attitudes toward women. If situations such as this are to become the standard to what Vermont’s citizens hold themselves to, we have indeed become a sorry lot. As Vermont’s population changes to these liberal worldviews and allows this blatant disregard for females and children, then it seems we deserve whatever our “leaders” demand of us and “allow” us to have. Having come full circle, I can now tie ms. whites frontman worldview status on all things climate and carbon to the similar “woke” worldview on gender and resulting misogyny- same worldview, just different frontmen.
But I am antiquated myself, by virtue of rejecting their “worldview” and “woke”politics. Consider me but an antiquated conservative.
Hate to break it to you, but it’s been the men that have been disrespected for at least the last 30 years.
It’s most popular to dis-men, they can do no right and only the women know best and do no wrong. Just watch any tv show.
But then again, mankind on it’s own is hopeless, and that btw includes women. We just have a tendency to veer off in different ways.
Some people, man or woman, are a long way from respect…..
It is Ms. KillJoy everyone! C’mon man!
I guess Mr. Bammo should have said front persons. Just think what that’s going to do to his social credit score. He’ll have to purchase 500 carbon credits to make up for it.
They are going to lock him down and feed him bug sandwiches.
I’m negative 4.5 million credits now, what’s another 500.
Frontman just sounds better than front person.
Regardless, I wonder how “front man” macdonald is going to like paying the
“vehicle efficiency price adjustment” charge that every carpenter, plumber, electrician, landscaper and more will have to charge to recoup the cost of their “man-cave pickup trucks” they actually need to ply their trade…
I’m sure I’ve said this before but I just cannot believe the blind stupidity of Vermont’s leftest legislators. It’s unbelievable that they cannot see the future repercussions of all of their foolish legislation. Unfortunately time will tell lead to the truth, but by then it will be too late.
As a woman, I was not offended by the comment at all. I spent 20 years in a male dominated line of work. When my boss would say, “OK guys, let’s get the meeting started,” I was also not offended. It’s been 15 years since I changed carreers. I continue to be a woman who isn’t looking for ways to be offended.
Atta girl. Way to go. Good luck
Yes he should have, Mr. Allen.
Mr. Bean, I am not reading comments from the perpetually pissed lefty on this site because they don’t ready it. Lefties do not comment here and I doubt they read TNR.
But, in the interest of trying to learn from conservatives, I from-time-to time do read TNR comments. Nothing to learn here thoufgh from the regular, incredibly boring posters. Same old, same old; they are by far nothing more than vulgar, nasty haters who can tolerate no opinion that doesn’t agree with theirs.
Rarely do I read intelligent comments here but, I do very much appreciate them when I do.
I quote “….nasty haters who can tolerate no opinion that doesn’t agree with theirs”
First; look at the hateful behavior of the democrats in congress. The worst of those on the left should charged with treason.
Second, everyone has a right to their own opinion, but when the left starts dictating what the rest of us can and cannot do, that’s where I draw the line. For example; no more gas stoves, jack up the price of fossil fuel to allow the global warming crowd the run a ponzi scheme, everyone must compost, you can only access public forests by non-motorized methods, the power companies must purchase net metering power at an inflated rate and then charge a higher rate to the rest of us, guns frighten me therefore no one is allowed to own them, (pending) you can only drive 55 MPH so we can stop global warming.
Let me tell you something, I am so sick and tired of the leftest
BS, especially the fallacy of global warming. If you all would just mind your own business instead of forcing everyone to fall in line behind you as you march to your one world ecotopian future, we would get along much better. Unfortunately I have learned that is never going to happen. So, l choose to use the guidance of Saul Alinski as much as I can.
Robin, I am not looking to be offended, I seek to educate. Something the very crabby old men on this site take have absolute NO interest in. Sad.
If you were here to “educate” you wouldn’t pick fights and critique everyone with your values. You fool no one on this site as we all are extremely educated on what’s going on in the world. We don’t just hang at TNR which is the ONLY non leftist and still a comment site in the now commie state of VT. We are mostly all generational Vermonters who’ve seen the state and country being changed from free independent soil to a repressive country/state most of us fought to prevent. So Joy go on your business of being educated and we will enjoy our ours as we see fit.
In reference to DBean’s comments below; I read local, state, national, and international news for an average of two hours every day. That being said, I’m pretty sure I’m far more informed in what is really happening than you are. I can tell you that after thirty years of living in Vermont, and now looking in from the outside, liberal Vermonters haven’t got a clue to reality.
Hey Frank just call them commies nazis and leftist pukes that will irritate karen ops I mean joy but she won’t have a excuse to use her prename qualifiers and call you names. I think her last name maybe Grinch…She defiantly appears to be a perpetually pissed lefty, no joy in that…
To be avoided like the plague…
Joy reminds me of an old joke that goes like this, question. Why is it that married men die before their wives? Answer, because they want too!
they have been left with no choice?
They take up smoking and drinking and carousing, and not exercising, to ensure they are “outtahere”