40 thoughts on “Rep. Charles Wilson: Where will we go when Vermont fails?”

1. We have to realize there is nowhere to go. We must stand our ground and change things on our own turf. We can run, but trust me, you’ll find the same things going on in other states.

   Vermont is easy to take over, small state, surrounded by people who think they know everything because they listen to VPR or some other public radio.

   Vermont can also be easily defended, we only need to change our direction and work in harmony.

   What would be the reaction if short little memes like the below were shown across the state? People might start to get it. Humor has a way of cutting through stuff. Enjoy….it’s gallows humor, but humor nonetheless.

   https://rumble.com/v2a93tg-fallout-top-10-memes.html

   It is frightening what has and is going on in OHIO……

2. As ex-Vermonters who lived there for thirty years it pained us to watch the cancer of liberalism make Vermont uninhabitable for us and I truly feel for people who cannot relocate. We now live in the NE corner of Tennessee. The TN state government has a quarterly state budge SURPLUS that is in six figures, and this is every quarter. There is virtually no winter and the associated costs of infrastructure up keep and vehicle maintenance, no vehicle inspection, no mud season, renewable hydroelectric, no income tax, we garden all year round, we are surrounded by national forests and mountains, and best of all, HARDLY ANY LIBERALS. In our county elections the democrats run as independents, ha ha. Moving was the hardest thing we ever did, and we are so thankful and happy now. It pains me to say this but Vermont is only going to get worse, for all the reasons we all are aware of, and some that haven’t reared their ugly head yet.

3. Seems like fellow Vermonters have become ignorant to facts and have embraced wokeness. We are a state where people are moving to because you can still enjoy your privacy and freedoms. But it is not the role of our government to support things like sex change surgeries and climate change without understanding the issues. Climate conscious is fine and has always been something Vermont has always been strong. Affordable heating act takes it one step too far on top of all the social welfare that continuously is adopted. Many of these things are fine however Vermont can not afford these things. Everyone wants these free benefits and also wants to keep Vermont the way it was. But both is impossible. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Vermont will not be able to sustain this spending without making changes for businesses to become more profitable and inviting businesses to Vermont to create better paying jobs and employment. Without this the welfare programs here will cost everyone with exception.

   • Jonathan, it is far worse than that. Demograpihics don’t lie, but Liberals do. 42% of VT population is over 65 or under 19. They pay very little in taxes. That leaves about 345,000 people working and paying taxes….but majority of that is average wages. In VT, about 25% of the higher earners are paying about 65% of all income and property taxes. On top of that , 70% of Vermonters get their property taxes subsidized! The coup-de-grace is that VT is looking at about a $8.2 BILLION spending 2023 budget…with 345,000 people working paying taxes? And majority of them make average wages?. If the 25% of Vt’ers, who pay 65% of all taxes, “get woked”… and start to leave, as I did…who is left to fund the VT Ponzi scheme? The final nail in coffin is VT has about $2 billion in State debt and about a $4.5 BILLION UNFUNDED Union pension & retiree healthcare benefits . The money just is not there and never will be…which is why I anticipate soon enough…the Legislative Socialists may attempt to put in a Wealth Tax and perhaps an EXIT TAX for those upper incomes that wise up and get out, before they try to put that in place… California is already thinking of doing that. VT won’t be far behind. Tax the rich aggressively, and the rich just leave :)…it’s then total Communism, not Socialism.

4. Rep Wilson starts off by lamenting about people coming to Vermont and trying to change things. Isn’t that what he’s doing?
   The people that whine about VT should see the disaster that states like Florida are. I worked in Florida for just a couple years and now back in VT. It’s a hot mess down there. Vermont is a unique state and I’m so glad it’s my home.

   • Having lived in FL off and on for about ten years, I can say that it’s ‘hot’, at least hotter than Vermont. But it is nowhere near the ‘mess’ Vermont is. Just my opinion.

5. I sold my home and moved to a state were I could live because of the high taxes, high fuel cost and I watched people getting free healthcare free groceries and free housing while I struggled felt like a marshal law state, the state I moved to cost me $29 for my car plate, my taxes are lower and I can afford food and gas.

6. Countries way ahead of CA and VT on the road to change the climate should be looked at carefully. Although our complicit media is mute on the subject the citizens have had humongous protests, often because of the hardships never imagined. It’s all there for everyone to see and benefit from their mistakes. Yet in answer to my exasperation that we don’t, while coming to a stoplight behind a pickup yesterday was a printed decal on the back window that said: KEEP VERMONT WEIRD.

7. Charles. Feel you. Got to vote with your feet. The political clan we have now have no education to understand what they are doing. This state will be the 4th after Illinois for out flow sooner rather than later. Wealthy and old who move here are realizing they made a bad decision. Unaffordable heat bill will stick a stake in this place because it will solve nothing and waste a ton of $.

8. Dave Stahler, Sr.
   February 19, 2023 at 6:41 pm

   I share the concern for the future of Vermont along with Charles. What has for a number of years been a slow erosion of the Vermont values that we once knew has recently accelerated exponentially into more of a socialist state. With the super majority now enjoyed by the Democratic/Progressive majority, it will only continue.

   However, there is a check on absolute power and this check comes from the power of the people. That said, the people have to exercise that power. The first thing that is needed is knowledge of the issues and the legislation coming from these issues. Charles asks: “How many of us have researched this issue, or do we just believe everything we are told?” That is the crux of the matter. The average Vermonter has not, or will not, make themselves knowledgeable about the issues and resulting legislation. And unfortunately many do believe what the media tells them.

   As one Vermont legislator told me last year when I voiced my concerns about the Clean Heat Standard, now called S.5 the AHA, and what it will do to the average Vermonter, he said that unfortunately the average Vermonter doesn’t stand up and holler until it hits them in their wallet. Well get ready to hear a lot of hollering, after it is too late!

   Knowledge is power. “The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life”—Confucius. Unless Vermonters endeavor to learn about the life changing legislation and regulations that the Vermont legislature is about to impose on us and exert our power to stop it, we will prove Confucius right.

   • Re: “the average Vermonter doesn’t stand up and holler until it hits them in their wallet.”

     Mr. Stahler, are you aware that 40% of the Vermont workforce is employed by the significantly tax subsidized health, education, and government sectors? In reality, this is why the average Vermonter doesn’t holler…. they are bought and paid for by the State. They aren’t fools – being the last to bite the hand that feeds them. And now they have an insurmountable voting bloc affecting a supermajority in Vermont’s Statehouse.

     Yes, in the final analysis, they are fools. Their policies are not sustainable. But they will not change their positions until they’ve extracted every pound of flesh they can – literally in some cases (e.g., H. 89).

     • the vtgop seems clueless about this fact. So the whole reduce taxes keeps people voting for higher taxes….because 40% get the benefit!

       there is much corruption and massive waste of tax dollars which could win their support….

     • I get your point on your “40%” of Vermont workers Jay. I know some of them. However, in the last 2 years or so I have tried to engage a number of life long Vermonters who are educated, hard working, financially literate, upstanding citizens, not part of your “40%”, and some are retired. Some are Republicans, some Democrats and Progressives, and some I presume are independents.

       When I explain some of the details of bills like the Vermont Clean Heat Standard/AHA and other climate related legislation and how they will effect Vermonters, they either throw their hands up and state “I don’t want to know” while others listen politely and then ask something like “what’s the weather tomorrow Dave”! It seems like if they don’t learn the facts then they don’t have to take that next step and act on that knowledge. Whether all of them vote is also troubling.

       It is very disturbing to see “average Vermonters” who are not part of your “40%” , end up acting like your “40%”. The end result is the same. They say that people get the government they deserve. It looks like the average Vermonter is getting what they deserve, Too bad the rest of us get caught up in the same mess.

       • David, the 40% cohort is but the tip of the iceberg. For everyone employed in these sectors, consider that they have the highest average pay, with the most expensive and lucrative employment and retirement benefits. They have families that rely on and support them.

         Consider too, in a State with above average taxation, the incentive to be in non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization is significant, to the point that Vermont has more non-profits per capita than any other State in the U.S.. In my town, for example, fewer than 10% of the electorate voted for conservative candidates. That’s nine wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.

       • Perhaps we are getting the government the propagandists want!

         This might be quite accurate.

   • People are seeing and questioning the lack of knowledge that the voters in Vermont have- as they blindly vote for things that will destroy their lives.
     It’s as though the voters walk right across the highway without even looking both ways- they don’t even know today that they should. And guess what happens.

     You all need to understand that this is largely the results of Mass Formation..
     People have been dumbed down, they are empty vessels filled with whatever the phone is telling them to think, thinking what the failed Marxist schools are directing them to think.
     There is propaganda today at obscene levels that we’ve never endured and are ill equipped to recognize (by design). So much of what you are seeing today is the results of this.

     Jordan Peterson, Dr.Malone, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson– MANY of the most brilliant minds we have are talking about Mass Formation.. you’ve got to read up on this and understand this because Vermont has a Stage 4 case of it and that has much to do with what you are seeing *as a result of it*
     Vermont has become ground zero for Mass Formation Psychosis!
     It’s like Group Think of epic proportions!
     You are group thinking yourselves right off a cliff today.

     This is an excellent video, it will change your life in 23 minutes because you’ll then understand a whole lot.
     We cannot change or fix what we don’t understand. Please watch this, you won’t regret it.
     https://youtu.be/09maaUaRT4M

9. Ed, don’t forget SC on your list! We finally left VT last year. I sure hope something gives up there. I know not everyone is as fortunate as myself to have the ability to relocate.

10. I read with skepticism until you mentioned the Global Warming hoax. You are certainly entitled to your right wing opinions about the welfare state and how destructive it is and how vermont is going downhill. The far left fanatics say the same thing for opposite reasons.
    But as soon as you said the “Global Warming hoax” you entered into the realm of blatant bald faced lies, and you lose any right to be a representative of any part of this country.
    I have been followed this issue for 30 years and researched it intensely for 13 years. And the science has only gotten more clear about the tremendous danger Climate Change will cause without immediate steps to decrease GHG’s. I know a number of climate scientists personally and have a good basic understanding science and they are overwhelmingly people with integrity and insight, working to figure out as clearly as possible what changes are happening and how those will effect us.
    I also know my representatives personally and they ALL are honest hardworking people trying to solve the many problems that affect us in the state.
    I would recommend you disconnect from
    Whatever sources are lying to you about the science and getting genuine information about the issue. If YOU have any integrity I would be happy to connect you with experts in a variety of different disciples connected to climate and they are universally willing to discuss specific issue with people who genuinely want to understand the facts.
    That you are saying this during the warmest winter I remember in Vermont is frankly bizarre.
    Hopefully you will accept my challenge and show that you are willing to listen to views from honest experts

    • The crisis of global warming is questioned by many reputable scientists. The media only reports on the narrative that supports the United Nations Agenda 2030. Yes, climate does change but the reality is that the ice in Greenland has recovered over the years. A very well known Princeton physicist, has discussed this in great detail, punching huge holes in Al Gore’s climate propaganda, which showed hurricanes spinning in the wrong direction based on their position on the Earth. Yes, we do need to continue efforts to reduce population and take care of the planet. The hoax being referenced is the climate catastrophic fear mongering. Here is another interesting piece of information about weather modification. Yes, the technology exists today https://youtu.be/uJs_NKWzsT4.

    • Mother Nature goes in decades or century cycles. Are you old enough to remember all the media & press in teh 1970’s that we were in Global Cooling…freezing ? The world will freeze to death…crops die, people starve? I will do you a favor…but few indoctrinated Climate Alarmists care to see the facts, of why there are “deniers”. We aren’t
      dumb….we’re smart… and we are something you likely are not…open minded. Do yourself an education FAVOR and watch a mere 13 minute youtube and see the fraud laid bare before your eyes….all data is manipulated, selective or hidden and changed:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8455KEDitpU&t=44s

    • Tony what you’ve been following all these years is a Narrative.

    • As long as the Left continues to straddle the philosophy of “conform or face the fate of demonization” it is difficult to arrive at the truth. Unlike Tony, I pay minimal attention to climate change because I have a formidable inside source who does nothing else for a living but to study it. He explains scientific exploration is ( sadly) mostly financed today by the government. To get the funding, you must toe the line in your application. In academia, it is not allowed without paying a huge price, to deviate from the narratives of those who seek power. He estimates close to 50% of scientists question the existing narrative but say little to dispute it. What I don’t get is why the State of Vermont is so apoplectic when it is the last of all states in the production of CO2 and harsh remedies being considered to lower it further harming its citizens will benefit nothing on the global world scale. Virtue signaling is overrated.

      • I feel that your argument is extremely weak and lacks merit. Very few climate scientists would agree with your “formidable source”. Politicians don’t need facts to backup their statements. Scientists do require facts. Studies by scientists face peer reviews before they are accepted. These peer reviews consist of fellow scientists questioning the data of a study. It is not subject to review by the government. It appears to me that your source does not
        understand the methodology of science.

        • Kevin your argument is weak.

          Do you not understand that all of these studies need to be funded?
          There Is NO Study at all for peer reviewing if someone isn’t funding the study- and guess what happens to the study based upon who funds it Kevin. Suppose Donald Trump and Bill Gates each funded a study looking at the same thing- what do you think the results of these two studies would look like?
          The funding largely comes from places that only fund studies that will produce their desired outcomes to support the narrative.

          This is not new at all. And further, the government, the colleges, BIG whatever, they are united on the same page looking for the same results.
          And this is really the roots of a whole lot of the problems.

          And further Kevin, this goes on with everything today. This has been going on my medicine for over 5 decades now- if not longer.
          My scientist friend has sued the NIH twice and won twice because they would not fund his studies because they were going against the desired narrative. (which he proved in court) THIS prompted him to begin a funding site (this was back in the 80s pre-non profit days) to fund these scientists trying to do work and were unable to get funding secured because the government didn’t want to be disproved!
          There was a desperate need for *Independent Funding with NO Strings Attached*

          We are in an information war today and those with the deepest pockets ‘buy’ the information they want out here.
          This is how they control the narrative.
          This is going on with everything.
          Whenever you take money- there are strings attached and that then taints what you are doing with the money.
          Finding the money without the strings is the challenge.
          Everything we have today from science, to the media, to education, medicine, even Hollywood (I point to Disney becoming groomers) is being destroyed because of the dark money infiltration.
          Everything we are creating is largely now fruit of a poisonous tree.

    • Tony, CJ, Jeffrey, and others: The issue at hand isn’t whether or not the earth is warming and the climate changing. It is. It always has, and always will.

      The debate is first, whether or not human activity has a significant impact on climate change and, if so, what humans can do about it.

      Regarding population: Taking steps to reduce it is a classic slippery slope false premise as well. The World Economic Forum is currently pushing this logic too. The same can be said of the weaponized and toxic climate manipulation described in the video you referenced. It appears that the powers-that-be are using climate phobia to regulate the population.

      Speaking of doing the research, two points come to mind.

      First, who else in the world would accept responsibility for making any decisions in this regard. History is riddled with megalomaniacs who have made a hell on earth in the attempt.

      Second: Many studies on human and animal behavior clearly indicate that populations are self-regulating. Paul Ehrlich got it wrong in 1968 too. Read Edward T. Hall’s book from the same era, The Hidden Dimension. What we’re experiencing today is a textbook behavioral reaction to the stresses of over-crowding. And there is a difference between over-crowding and over-population.

      What’s my point, you ask? We aren’t stupid as a rule. Sooner or later everyone can read the writing on the wall. What is critical for us to consider is that whatever problems confront us, free-enterprise and the resulting entrepreneurialism it creates will find solutions. Those solutions will be varied and numerous. No single person or oligarchy can match the resourcefulness unleashed by free enterprise. I only hope its not too late for everyone to figure this out.

      So, there you have it. Beware the political supermajority imposing its monolithic and maniacal one-size-fits-all policies on us. They don’t have the right to do what they do. Trust the U.S. Constitution – which was created to preserve the individual liberty and freedom that has served us so well for the last 250 years or so, through thick and thin, including the precept:

      “…that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

    • Tony’s response if you believe it or not is WHY the VTGOP always loses in Vermont.

      See his response proves my point, they see us science deniers and not concerned about the condition of the world. Both items are not true. However, when we argue on this point, we lose all the voters.

      The uniparty does not care about the environment, Ohio is but the latest example of their concern. Chem trails…???

      Until we learn how to have discussions without hitting trigger words, traps set by indoctrination we’ll never gain any traction. It will take years for Tony to find other science and resources to change his mind, if ever.

      In the mean time Tony will vote VTDEM, thinking he is doing the environment justice. Meanwhile it will only fill the crony capitalists pockets.

      there is so much we can do to make a difference with the poor, the environment and display the hypocrisy we know well.

      example….

      no tax on cars that get 30 mpg combined
      no tax on motorcycles 50 mpg+
      tax homes over 3500 sq ft differently, higher

      See the uniparty wouldn’t go for this, because it doesn’t help their cause, more money and power for them…..

    • I can bring scientists who call it a hoax and can prove it,so believing the money makers is your loss and I am a man enough to learn what is really going on in our twisted state as a State Rep, so I have the inside details not hearsay!!

      • Please bring the scientists who have the evidence that proves your point.

        • Good grief Kevin go do your own homework.
          How about starting with Christiana Figueres from the UN that did a speech in Brussels admitting that the goal of climate change activism is not about saving the environment but about destroying Capitalism.
          https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/climate-change-scare-tool-to-destroy-capitalism/

          There is mountains of this information out there if you just opened your mind up to the fact that you’ve been fed a steady diet of BS for decades now.

    • I completely agree with you on science as I also have kept track. I have traveled and lived in other states thus lived it. Calling it a hoax shows how ignorance breeds misinformation and ignorance. I have watched and listened for over 60 years. I’m living and seeing it still. I’m born and bred Vermonter and I’m asking where are my winters. Where is my snow.

    • WOW, Tony you really got dumped on. Here is something you should watch, remembering that the only constant is change. The earth’s climate has been changing since the first few dust motes came together to start forming the earth.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lbJrvtxWNE

    • Re: “Studies by scientists face peer reviews before they are accepted.”

      If the CDC’s response to Covid has done anything, it demonstrated that so-called ‘peer review’ of government funded programs is nothing more than a report by a corrupt mutual admiration society. When so much funding is controlled by the government, few of these independent scientists have the courage and where-with-all to criticize the established dogma. Those who do, have their careers are assaulted, they lose their funding, and their ability to practice.

      Sorry. I don’t trust anything sponsored by the government. And that, in itself, is one of the foremost tragedies created by their corruption.

      BTW: clearly, no one has lost ‘any right to be a representative of any part of this country’ through their lying. Just consider the CDC, the FBI, and the many and various politicians in our federal government.

    • Tony: have another glass of liberal kool-aid. I have also been following “global warming” since the 1970s and I know when you remove the money and politics from the equation you get the truth. Which is that the earth goes through warming and cooling periods, and exo-tresterial forces have a greater effect on earth’s climate than cow farts and gas ranges.

11. The moment this gentleman spoke climate hoax is when his opinion meant nothing!!

    • Sure is bringing all the Chicken Little Gorebots out tonight.

12. Vermont’s elected and appointed officials who espouse far-left policies which a person of common sense and a nose for history know are doomed to failure both economically and socially are like junkies or alcoholics. They really have to hit bottom before they realize there is a problem.

13. Sorry Mr. Wilson, but the “die is cast”…and it will be Vermont that “dies”. The injection of at least several billion dollars just obfuscated the soon fiscal calamity. VT is a Socialist State and no way any real conservative thought will EVER be tolerated… for spending sanity, or be able to change it. Vermont voters are indoctrinated to believe all they are told of Climate Change, Equity, Diversity, BLM, CRT, Global warming, Fertilizers bad, farmers bad, Class Envy, Class Warfare, Organic foods only, the “rich” don’t pay taxes…. we need more free stuff, ban fossil fuels, then just raise taxes, again….Then, ignore a $2 billion State debt, ignore a $4.5 billion unfunded UNION pension/healthcare liability…ignore that 42% of VT’s population is over 65 or under 19 and pay little in taxes (only about 340,000 people employed for an OVER $8 BILLION spending budget?…..then…70% of Vermonters get their property taxes subsidized.

    It’s a recipe for financial disaster…a few years down the road. POOF…covid $$$ billions are pissed away on PC & Feel Good, save-the-world worthless notions… Nothing will change until it is too late, Reality will be the last at bat in Vermont. I suggest to all…. get out while you can…before the Wealth Tax or the “Exit Tax” is proposed….just like Calif is proposing to do them.

    • We have not been without the Leahy largesse long enough to realize what it will be like to live without it. Give it time. Welch lacks the clout to bring home the bacon. The party is over.

    • I would leave if I could. I begged my husband to leave this socialist cesspool a year and a half ago, because the writing was on the wall. But no, he is a Vermonter, who refuses to leave. All our monetary resources are now tied up in Vermont. I feel pain every day, as I watch the state slip further into grast of progressive socialist vampires suck the wealth and resources from the working middle class.

14. We either sell our homes for what we can get and move to America (that is still NH, TN, GA, FL, TX, UT), or we contemplate that the answer might well be 1776 again. Of course, the communists in the whitehouse and congress will lead us into WWIII first.

Comments are closed.