All posts by BP

Will Phil Scott need a bigger fig leaf?

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Donald J. Trump had rough week after he questioned an Indiana-born California federal judge’s neutrality due to his Mexican heritage. Many Republicans denounced the presumptive nominee’s comments as racist. While some say they’ve had enough of Trump, many will still vote for him.

Blogger Charlie Pierce  puts it all in context: this contempt of judges is not a defect but a feature of Republican politics, and Pierce correctly says Trump’s behavior is an exaggeration, not an aberration.

Part of the conservative brand within the Republican Party has been to attack the integrity of the judicial process, and of the individual judges working within it, every time a decision comes down that sets the flying monkeys aloft.

Republicans, Feel the Quease? For those Republicans feeling queasy due to Trump’s comments — that Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan (R) characterized as “a textbook definition of a racist” — relief may be at hand. Hillary Clinton’s campaign has a public-service-minded web service for the suffering GOP called Republicans against Trump. Visitors to the site can simply fill out a form, take a pledge and get a free bumper sticker.

And if anyone is wishing to keep score, MSNBC has complied a tally of 64 well-known Republican power brokers and office holders that will never support Trump (but offer no alternative) and a few that will be voting for Hillary.

figleaffPhil 2Here in Vermont the two Republican gubernatorial candidates have taken different tracks dodging Trump. Bruce Lisman is undecided,still apparently withholding judgment on Trump, still “listening to what he has to say.” What do you suppose he will have to hear from the Donald to make up his mind?

And Phil Scott keeps talking about his own common-sense leadership. Apparently though, that “leadership” doesn’t include speaking out against fellow Republican Trump’s racist language.

So for now Scott is reluctant to show much leadership, and he’s looking ever more embarrassingly foolish behind the Jim Douglas for President fig leaf.

Trump U. grifters once charged with fraud in Vermont

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In the beginning, before Trump University there was the “National Grants Conferences” (NGC). This was the business platform Trump University was built on — a classic get-rich-quick scam.griftboybest

It turns out just about the time NGC was shape shifting into Trump Institute (soon to be Trump U.) the company was successfully sued for consumer fraud here in Vermont and 32 other states .

In 2006, NGC [Trump University’s precursor] was sued by Vermont’s attorney general, Bill Sorrell, who said that it had violated state consumer protection laws. The case was settled later that year, with NGC agreeing to pay nearly $325,000 in refunds to Vermont customers, along with attorneys’ fees. [$65,000 worth of legal fees]

NGC traveled the country offering free seminars, heavily advertised in local newspapers and on TV that promised to share the secrets of real estate investment. Gaining access to “hundreds of billions of dollars” in “free government money” was the key pitch to the success they claimed to provide.

At the end of the session, dozens of attendees lined up to buy $999 NGC “memberships,” receiving two thick books full of government programs and the promise of ongoing coaching and support.

It almost goes without mentioning that the coaching, support and wealth never arrived for those who had spent thousands to learn the secrets to success NGC claimed.

Through the 1990’s the business weathered a series of lawsuits from the Texas Attorney General. However NGC was a successful model for Mike and Irene Milin, and Donald Trump caught wind of it sometime in 2006. He simply replaced the lure of imaginary “free” government money with promises to teach enrollees how to run Trump’s imaginary magic money machine. By the way, the Milins were also high rolling Republican donors including to the Romney/Ryan 2008 2012 Presidential campaign.

Eventually a “blizzard of legal woes,” including the 33-state legal action Vermont had joined, brought the original National Grants Conferences to an end. But by then Trump had partnered with the company founders using the existing template NGC provided to form his own huge University — that  he recently compared to Harvard.

And Donald J. Trump, the future Republican candidate for President, moved quickly to raise the old NGC fee from $999 to $1,300 and up.  It has been “classy” and “huge” since. According to the Donald, strictly Ivy-league caliber stuff — truly a record to run on.

Senator McConnell and the all Republican “split ticket”

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If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) persists, he may be running the risk of permanently twisting his brain into the shape of a pretzel. I am still half convinced the childhood story is true, you know, the one  that cautions, if you cross your eyes for too long they stay like that. Maybe that goes for brains like McConnell’s too.mcconnellmoeba

Senator McConnell has publically signed on with Trump and offered what is being called “tepid” support. But on a book tour for his new book, The Long Game, McConnell spent the week kicking Donald Trump in the knees with criticism.

He may fear Trump at the top of the ticket will mean the loss of his slim majority in the Senate.

McConnell’s balancing act with Trump underscores the challenges he faces as he tries to hold onto a Senate GOP majority and defend 24 seats in November, including a handful in states previously carried by Obama.

Trying to put distance between the political fate of his caucus and Trump’s unpredictable campaign, McConnell is downplaying the impact that the businessman might have on other candidates. He told Fox News’s “The Kelly File” that it will be a “ticket-splitting kind of year,” meaning people who vote against Trump might still vote for other Republican candidates.

And McConnell offers this logic-skewing suggestion for down-ticket Republican support in November: “He’s also making the case that Republican control of the Senate would serve as a check on Trump should he win the White House.”

Ticket-splitting voting as McConnell and everyone else well knows is “splitting” votes among different parties in the same election, not at all what he is suggesting.

However McConnell is saying let’s keep the Senate majority in Republican hands so they can “check” Republican Trump — their own candidate — should he win. Can he convince voters that a vote for Trump and a Republican Senate majority is “ticket-splitting?” You know: Vote Republican: We might be able to control Trump!

So stay tuned. Maybe the Senate Majority Leader will self-divide before our eyes like some awful single-cell Republican amoeboid. Think of the ratings!  This deserves undivided attention, it is that kind of year.

Live from Pluto it’s Fox News!

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Yesterday NBC news tweeted about some remarkable space exploration news: NASA releases sharpest images of Pluto ever taken; captured via spacecraft’s flyby in 2015.  Shortly after the NBC report Greta Van Susteren of Fox News tweeted the following:plutotweetWasted salaries and tax dollars?  NASA didn’t wait until NOW, it took until NOW!  Pluto at its closest to Earth is 2.66 billion miles away and at the farthest 4.67 billion miles. It took eleven years for the New Horizons probe just to reach Pluto. And at that distance -eight hours for a single communication session- it is a slow and complicated process to transmit data.

In fairness it should probably be noted Greta Van Susteren isn’t a Fox news science reporter (and speaking of salaries Van Susteren is paid 1.3 million per year). But most people, even those not science-oriented, do know space is big; some even know it is very, very big; and anyone could take the time to Google it- like I did.

Van Susteren’s info-free tweet illustrates that Fox News tracks in a shallow orbit, some odd little planet made of gases — perhaps unstable. As Political Animal blogger Nancy La Tourneau points out [Van Susteren]has adopted a frame of reference about government programs and then jumps on any bandwagon that promotes it without checking her own ignorance on the topic.Pluto

Maybe Fox News should call for a Congressional probe into why Pluto is named after a Disney character.Very puzzling isn’t it ?

EB-5 funded snow making job proceeds

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Well that didn’t take long, just a few short weeks after Bill Stenger and Ariel Quiros’ EB-5 ski resort scandal broke, a similarly funded Vermont project  is on track to proceed like nothing happened.

snowgunsPeak Resorts Inc. (NASDAQ:SKIS), the Missouri based company that owns Mt. Snow (no connection to Jay Peak/Burke Mt.) announced that a $52 million EB-5 funded snow making system expansion will continue now that the Federal government has agreed to release immigrant investor funds held in escrow.

The flow of funds was halted while the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reviewed the EB-5 immigrant investor funded project.  The Federal review process is somewhat mysterious as reports note no further information is available from USCIS because “as a matter of policy, we cannot comment on specific EB-5 projects.

The release of funds is welcome as the resort says they had invested millions of its own money in the expansion project. Mt. Snow is reportedly running short on cash. The resort attributed its need to lay off workers to the snow-starved winter.

Peak Resorts CEO Timothy Boyd commented on the snow making upgrades and expansion projects: “The master plan for Mount Snow is expected to enhance the overall visitor experience at the resort by bolstering snowmaking capacity and adding a new three-story, state-of-the-art ski lodge.”

I suppose it is just standard rah rah boosterish language but Peak Resort’s Timothy Boyd might want to temper his tone so as to avoid sounding so eerily similar to Jay Peak’s alleged fraudsters Stenger and Quiros.

Mt. Snow resort representatives always stress that they have no connection at all with Jay Peak but they do enjoy a very close relationship with state government.

President Dick Deutsch stressed: “It’s important to know that we are in good standing with the state of Vermont,”

No doubts there. Mt. Snow is in good standing with the state. In fact in some cases they are standing so close you could hardly slip a piece of paper between them. You see, in 2015 Mt. Snow hired Brent Raymond — the former head of State of Vermont EB-5 Regional Center —  to run their EB-5 funded expansion. In his job for the state, Raymond was tasked with promoting and monitoring compliance of Vermont’s EB-5 programs, including Peak Resort Mt. Snow’s $52 million upgrade.

However, Patricia Moulton, head of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD  runs VT’s EB-5) characterized Raymond’s departure through the revolving door to the resort business as nothing more than “standard turnover, nothing out of the ordinary.” Raymond parted ways with the agency “amicably and respectfully,”she said.

Oh and ACCD’s Moulton added the reassurance that her brother David Moulton, director of operations at Mt. Snow, was “not involved in hiring Brent,”

Oh well, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to see here — and the EB-5 snow-making job continues.

Campaign dollars to donuts

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Insidegov.com has taken the time to catalog some of the day to day ways the Republican and Democratic presidential primary candidates have spent millions of campaign bucks. Using Federal Election Commission filings they have documented the primary season through the Iowa’s Caucus and New Hampshire primary- from Jan. 1, 2015 to Feb. 29, 2016.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has a slight lead over Bernie Sander’s on the amount they spent at Dunkin Donuts.  However Clinton’s donut and coffee tab of $2,806.00 only slightly exceeds the $2,577.00 Sander’s campaign spent. Some still maintain Sanders will close this gap.doughnuts

In addition to coffee and donuts the Clinton campaign has spent aggressively on pizza. Clinton campaign staffers around the country were treated to $17,000 worth of pizzas –mostly from Domino’s.

While the Clinton team munched, Sanders’ campaign bought his book. Reportedly they spent almost $455,000 at Verso Books on Outsider in the White House, the book Bernie wrote.

Republicans and Democrats combined spent $111,703 on Uber Rides . And the filings show the Trump campaign loves Trump’s businesses. Trump ran up $665,461 in rent and lodging expenses with Trump owned businesses Trump Tower, Trump Grill and the Trump Payroll Corporation. It is all about what’s good for the Donald, who also spent heavily on security, shelling out almost $200,000 for  “security services” and “security consulting”.

Not sure if this spending explains anything of significance about each candidate — other than the Clinton campaign goes for pizza, Bernie bought his own book and Trump is feeding his campaign money back to his business empire .

But I for one would love to know what exactly losing Republican candidate Dr. Ben Carson got out of more than $6 million he spent on various types of consultants, or what fate has in store for $300,000 worth of Rubio bumper stickers, T-shirts, signs, hats and sweatshirts.

I wonder if Vermont GOP leadership (who cleverly supported Marco Rubio) stocked up on Rubio sweats and T-shirts?

Attention early bird voters

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Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos tweeted a reminder today:” All fired up after the state conventions? Early voting begins in 1 month! vote liberal”

Vermont’s Early or Absentee Voting Process

In Vermont we make it easy to vote. If you prefer to vote early or by mail you can! Voting starts as soon as ballots are available—not later than 45 days before the primary or general election and 20 days prior to a municipal election that uses the Australian ballot.

Seems hard to believe – in just a few weeks it starts.

 

Phil Scott supports Hillary Clinton!

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Republican gubernatorial primary candidate Phil Scott is helping Hillary Clinton run for President. It must be true: Newt Gingrich thinks so.ScottHRC

 Gingrich : “You’re either for Hillary Clinton or you’re for Donald Trump.

If you’re not for Donald Trump, you are functionally helping Hillary Clinton. I think it’s just that straightforward.”

He can still frame an issue with the best of them, but it seems Gingrich lifted this concept from the Bush era war on terror refrain: you are either with us or against us.

Scott’s declared presidential choice, former Governor Jim Douglas, could prove problematic for those who agree with Gingrich. Bruce Lisman, Scott’s primary opponent, hasn’t jumped on the imaginary Douglas-for-president bandwagon, and significantly, he hasn’t ruled out supporting Trump.

Notice Rubio carried only six precincts !
Notice Rubio carried only six precincts.

Gingrich’s framing also leaves most of elected VTGOP leadership (who endorsed loser Marco Rubio) at odds with local Trump supporters — the biggest block of VT Republican primary voters.

Considering the GOP’s state of disarray it isn’t exactly farfetched that Vermont’s Trump Republicans may start snarling at Phil Scott’s ploy. After all it isn’t much more than a marginally clever dodge to avoid dealing with his party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

The big elephant in the room, at the end of May when the VTGOP convenes to choose delegates, will be Trump. Rightwing Republican star John “Tig” Tiegen will be the VTGOP’s featured guest. He is one of the “Heros”of Benghazi (depicted in the movie 13 Hours), a conservative rock star of sorts and an avid Trump supporter.

When he endorsed Trump for President, in February Tiegen said: “Americans want a strong leader, one who cares more about the safety and freedom of the American people than he does winning elections, or what the press might think.”

In the face of Republican cries for a strong leader, it may prove a delicate task for Scott to hide behind his Jim-Douglas-for-president ploy. And even more so when, as the general election heats up, like it or not, he will have to run the race for governor under the Trump flag.Trumpjumping

But for now let’s adjust Gingrich’s remark specifically for Phil Scott: If you’re for Jim Douglas, you are functionally helping Hillary Clinton. I think it’s just that straightforward.