Monthly Archives: April 2018

VT, NH, ME opt out of regional gun research coalition?

National, ,

It looks as if Vermont has not joined a group of northeast states and Puerto Rico that according to CBS/AP recently  have announced they will join together to conduct research into gun violence. As of now participating states are Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Delaware. The goal is for academics and law enforcement officials to collect data in order to supply legislators with accurate information with which to formulate policies to reduce gun violence.

The new consortium announced Wednesday [4/25/18] will bring together researchers from the partnering states and territories […] They’ll analyze different types of gun violence and collect data in the hopes of gathering information policymakers can use to decrease gun violence.

Data on this issue is scarce because at the federal level, since 1996 the gun lobby successfully worked through Congress to prohibit the Centers for Disease Control from using any funds to study gun violence as a public health issue. This prohibition was altered in the latest budget, but left without funding, researchers are skeptical any serious changes are coming soon.

 In our neck of the woods you’ll notice that along with Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire have not joined the group. Live free and die New Hampshire sitting this out one may not be particularly surprising, and as for Maine, well you know Governor LePage. oddonesout

However, Governor Scott’s absence is a little puzzling. As we all know, Scott made headlines by his generally well-received shift from opposing to supporting some limited gun control measures. Shortly after that change Scott was unanimously elected to serve as chair of the bipartisan Coalition of Northeastern Governors (CONEG). For those who may not know what CONEG does, there’s this from their website:  CONEG is a forum through which the Governors and their senior advisors keep abreast of national and regional policy and program initiatives important to the economic, environmental, energy and social well-being of the Northeast.  CONEG works with the governors and their staff and policy advisors to examine current and emerging regional issues, develop effective solutions, and undertake cooperative actions that benefit the individual state and the region.

Governor Scott often speaks about the desirability of state-to-state regional co-operation on environmental and healthcare issues. I wonder if sooner or later as head of CONEG he will have to come around to support the nation’s first consortium to conduct gun violence research and recommend policy changes. But for now Governor Scott seems to be keeping Vermont among the odd ones out.

Gather ‘round Scott Pruitt’s EPA bonfire

National,

EPA head Scott Pruitt will be testifying before two Congressional committees today. He will face questions about his efforts to roll back Obama-era environmental rules and regulations as well as about a sizable list of ethical problems. These complaints include Pruitt’s costly first-class travel, outlandish security expenses, and allegations that he accepted a sweetheart condo rental from an oil industry lobbyist. The NYTimes.com is reporting Pruitt’s defense strategy will be “[…] to blame both career and political staff members as well as his security detail for myriad spending decisions.”

Scott Pruitt Tosses Another PVC Tube On Campfire
Scott Pruitt Tosses Another PVC Tube On Campfire at TheOnion.com

For those who wish to follow along CNN has thoughtfully compiled a list of Pruitt’s controversial regulatory actions and his alleged ethical lapses. The one ethical question most people have heard of — which in a pre-Trump political universe would have been more than enough to trigger his firing — is of course Pruitt’s sound-proof booth. Dubbed “the cone of silence,” it was created in his office at cost of $43,000, even though secure telecommunications facilities are available in the same building a few floors below.

So, follow along but don’t let the toxic smoke get in your eyes given that Trump and company are still determined to gut the EPA.

Now showing: Burlington Free Press unfortunate juxtaposition

local/regional, , ,

Friday’s online Free Press has an unfortunate placement of headlines.stupid troopers too

That’s right, USA Today’s Burlington Free Press is not only pimping out Super Troopers 2 but as if it was part of a quirky Vermont double feature they also headline : new video Montpelier fatal police shooting That’s the all too real and tragic shooting by police of a robbery suspect outside Montpelier High School.

What do we call the movie, “the lighter side of policing?” And how many “police-involved” shootings have there been in the past year?

Uh-huh.

 

GOP State Rep. “Burma-Shave Bob” Frenier will not seek re-election to VT House

local/regional, Uncategorized, , ,

Orange County GOP Rep Bob Frenier will not run for re-election. Frenier, an aggressive conservative newcomer from Massachusetts, entered Vermont politics with a splash and is now calling it quits with a bit of a thud. For his first race in Orange County he set his sights high. He challenged and lost to longtime incumbent Sen. Mark MacDonald (D). frenierburmashaved

He did manage to make a name for himself. Armed with a bucket load of money from the Koch-funded Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) he blanketed the rural county roads with a series of Burma-Shave style campaign signs with a misleading fear-mongering message about Medicare.

Following up in 2016, after winning a GOP primary write-in campaign, he took aim at and won a seat in Vermont House. However, Frenier beat incumbent Progressive Susan Hatch Davis by a razor-thin margin of just over half a dozen votes-in the final count. And that came after a bitter recount and several vigorous legislative debates about it in early 2017.

Now, not much more than a year later he’s thrown in the towel. The Valley News reports part of the reason for quitting his hard-won seat is his frustration with the recent passage of three gun regulation bills-all of which he voted against. “I thought it was an insult to traditional Vermont culture … and so was the coyote bill,” said Frenier, referring to a bill that passed the Vermont House that bans coyote-killing tournaments.

As a resident of Orange County I couldn’t be happier than to see him head down the road. But it sounds like Burma shave Bob may not be done making waves in Vermont politics. From the Valley News: he [Frenier] may try to bring a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of some of the legislation that has passed, and said it would be easier to do once he is no longer a lawmaker. No word at this early stage where he might get funds for such expensive legal actions-maybe his Burma shave pals at Koch’s RSLC.

But for now: Bye – Bye – Bob

For What It’s Worth

Uncategorized

In honor of the students who spoke out and organized; the legislators who took action after years of sitting on their hands (with a few exceptions); and the governor who has promised to sign three gun accountability bills on Wednesday, April 11:

Lyrics:

There’s something happening here/What it is ain’t exactly clear/There’s a man with a gun over there /Telling me I got to beware

I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound /Everybody look what’s going down

There’s battle lines being drawn/Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong/ Young people speaking their minds/Getting so much resistance from behind

It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound/Everybody look what’s going down.

What a field-day for the heat/ A thousand people in the street/Singing songs and a-carrying signs/Mostly say, hooray for our side

It’s  time we stop, hey, what’s that sound/Everybody look what’s going down

Paranoia strikes deep/Into your life it will creep/ It starts when you’re always afraid/You step out of line, the men come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what’s that sound/Everybody look what’s going down/Stop, hey, what’s that sound/Everybody look what’s going down

Stop, now, what’s that sound/Everybody look what’s going down

Stop, children, what’s that sound/Everybody look what’s going down

“Visitors are an ideal captive audience” VT. Commissioner of Tourism and Marketing

Business, local/regional, National, , , ,

Stay to Stay — the Vermont state tourism agency’s planned series of four weekends in different locations designed with the intent of turning tourists into full-time residents — got off to a “chilly start” this weekend according to Vtdigger.com: Like the recent weather, the first-blush level of commitment for the state’s campaign to entice nonresidents to move to Vermont has been cool.

Organizers note, however, that this is but the first of four scheduled weekends for people interested in becoming Vermonters to be formally welcomed as part of the Stay-to-Stay initiative.

Think! Vermont, Scott’s Department of Economic Development promotional webpage slogan, describes the events in terms not unlike a vacation timeshare real estate sales pitch weekend. Vermont commissioner of Tourism and Marketing Wendy Knight says her inspiration for the promotional campaign happened when: “I got to thinking; visitors are an ideal captive audience,”

Sure sounds like timeshare pitch, only (befitting the Vermont brand) a bit more refined — sweetened with real maple syrup: [Stay to Stay] gives tourists the opportunity to relax and also to network with business leaders and tour Vermont communities with real-estate experts to learn more about relocating to Vermont.

It is all part of Governor Scott’s unproven million-dollar effort to boost Vermont’s population and address the state’s worker shortage. But attendance at the Department of Tourism’s weekend premier in Brattleboro, Bennington, and Rutland is expected to be less than even the modest numbers hoped for. Half of the dozen potential visitors signed up for the Rutland and Brattleboro areas cancelled and no one who signed up will be visiting Bennington.

Undaunted by the dismal turnout Knight noted one positive — the free media she had gotten nationally for the first event. Bloomberg.com does indeed have nice blurby press release style bit about “Stay to Stay” headlined:This Weekend, Aging Vermont Will Try to Make Tourists Into Residents.

But the thing about free media is you give up a certain amount of control of the whole message.Vermont taps tourists

The U S News piece about Stay to Stay starts with what I hope is unintentionally a funny headline: Vermont Taps Tourists to Bolster Workforce. That headline sounds to me as if Governor Scott, desperate to boost our workforce, intends to force visitors to pick apples, milk cows, turn cheese curds, or tend sugar houses.Vermont taps tourists2

But the “great” thing about the US News bit is the targeted sidebars, as you can see from the two screen shots, which all tout other states — Massachusetts best for women and children, Connecticut high school record graduation rate,  and a list of the U S News top five states not including Vermont.

Maybe it was just the weather that ruined this Stay to Stay, so spin it however you want. But you can’t spin away from the out-of-proportion amount of taxpayer-funded effort it took to get a half dozen out-of state “captive” visitors to sit still for a Think!Vermont sales pitch in April.

Maybe some nice sticky sugar-on-snow painted on the seats would help.

Trump is “floating” below the surface

National,

President Donald Trump (I’ll never get comfortable writing that) was thrilled a couple days ago and twitter bragging about a Rasmussen poll that showed his approval rating hitting 50% — the first time he’s polled that high since February. Rasmussen’s results are recognized as historically being more favorable to the GOP and Trump.

But now some other polls are showing Trump’s ratings are still bobbing along below the 50% surface. In fact The Hill.com reports on several polls that show him at record lows.Trumpshipsinking

Morning Consult’s 50-state approval tracker finds 41 percent of registered voters approved of Trump’s job performance during March.

A majority, 54 percent, disapproved of the president’s job performance.

The data from March surpasses [sinks below] the president’s previous lows in the Morning Consult poll. In October and November, 42 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s job performance and 53 percent disapproved.

Other results from an average of poll numbers by RealClearPolitics show a recent approval rating of 41.8 percent for Trump.

A majority, 53.3 percent, disapprove of the job Trump is doing in office, according to the average.

Donald Trump may not be sinking like an anchor but he looks to be swamped, with some polls showing over half of those surveyed disapproving of his performance in office. In the nautical world swamping typically means that a boat fills with water (often from capsizing) but often will remain barely floating, filled to the gunnels  — for a while — before finally sinking.

And from what we’ve seen of Trump he’s more likely to head out for a round of golf than to bail his sinking ship.

Has Hell Frozen Over?

local/regional,

When I began writing on GMD a number of years ago, as I learned the hard way, the topic of gun control was a third rail even among progressive thinkers.  

Further conversation on the subject was commonly dismissed with the slightly smug assertion that “we don’t have a gun problem here in Vermont.”

After a few tries, I learned that even pointing to the obvious: that Vermont isn’t an island, magically immune to the evils beyond its borders, was an exercise in futility.  Vermont didn’t have a gun problem and there would be no further discussion.

Well, times have definitely changed.

No one would argue that the legislative fixes to gun law that passed on Friday are perfect, but it behooves us to recognize what a significant and profoundly brave development this is in the maturing of our state.

S.55 is part of a package of gun legislation that is on the way to the governor. On Thursday, the House passed S.211, known as a “Red Flag bill,” which permits law enforcement to seize guns from a person deemed an “extreme risk” to themselves or others.  Also, Senate of Thursday approved H.422, known as “the domestic violence bill,” which sets in place a process for police to confiscate firearms from people cited or arrested on domestic violence charges.   S.221 received final approval in the House on Friday morning and H.422 passed a third and final reading later in the day in Senate.

 

Phil Scott, who has promised stop sign all three bills into law, deserves some extra credit for rising above NRA pressures and standing behind some commonsense measures to curb the spread of mass shootings before Vermont “has a gun problem.”  

I can’t say I’m disappointed in Franklin County Republican legislators who did not support this historic moment.  I’m not disappointed because I expected little else.  While ultimately voting against the bill, Corey Parent (R) and Lynn Dickinson (R) pushed for an amendment to the House bill  that exempts Florida-based gun manufacturer, Century Arms from the ten-round limit on the manufacture and sale of magazines if larger capacity magazines are only sold out of state.  Century Arms employs about 100 Vermonters in its Franklin County location and I am sure Parent’s 2018 bid for the senate can count on generous NRA support. 

While it seems rather immoral to export a mass shooting hazard to communities outside of the state while unequivocally recognizing it as such with an in-state prohibition, I cannot quibble with the terms under which any movement has miraculously come to pass on gun control in Vermont.

For this we have to thank the voters of tomorrow who stepped into the void and made their voices heard.

True: Today is the 2nd annual International Fact-Checking Day

Business, International,

Just as a hammer goes with a nail, peanut butter with jelly, and the Trump administration with lies and falsehoods* April Fools Day for the past two years has been paired with  Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Day, April 2nd.

The International Fact Checking Network (IFCN) are calling  for a broad coalition of journalists, students and everyday media consumers to arm themselves with the tools and methods needed to decipher what’s real and what’s not all year long.factsfacts

 

Alexios Mantzarlis,  Poynter’s Director of IFCN says: “International Fact-Checking Day is meant to be lighthearted, but practical. Our hope is that we can all commit one day to paying extra attention to the accuracy of what we read and especially of what we share.”

*According to the Washington Post as of January 2018 Trump’s total number of false or misleading claims stood at 1,950 claims in 347 days, or an average of 5.6 inaccurate claims per day.

Trump hires “ideal” replacement for Hope Hicks

Uncategorized, , ,

The departure of so-called Trump Whisperer, Hope Hicks, from the West Wing has left many staffers anxious about what new chaos tomorrow will bring.  It was therefore with great relief that they received the news that a new “Communications Director” has been hired.

The almost preternaturally silent Hick’s replacement will be a giant PEZ dispenser in the image of…you guessed it, Donald Trump.  

311924350743The lanky orange and yellow sweets dispenser will be aided in sartorial responsibilities for the president by a Deluxe Personal Valet Station from Hammacher-Schlemmer.

Henceforward, the Commander in Chief will be alternately soothed and steamed by the best team of passive enablers he could ever hope for.