All posts by BP

Donald Trump is an EB-5 funded developer

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It seems Donald Trump and Vermont’s NEK mega developer Bill Stenger have something in common-they both love EB-5 investors from China.

Considering all his anti-immigration and China is “killing us,” stealing our jobs and money rhetoric, Trump surprisingly has no qualms accepting Chinese investor financing for a development project in New Jersey under the Trump® name. chairmantrump1

The Federal EB-5 visa program provides foreign investors with a US green card, for them and their families, and (after two years) permanent resident status in exchange for agreeing to invest $500,000 in an approved US business.  In recent years the majority of EB-5 foreign investment funds have been from wealthy Chinese. EB-5 provides a “safe” place for their cash outside of China. Is it possible Donald’s EB-5 immigrant investors are issued a Trump visa card?

The Trump investors’ EB-5 money is for a 50-story luxury apartment building in New Jersey only a short distance from Lower Manhattan. It is licensed under the Trump name and run by the Kushner Company. Jared Kushner is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

Kushner Companies is a New Jersey-based real estate firm built by Kushner’s father Charles, a former rainmaker in New Jersey Democratic politics who pleaded guilty to a federal campaign finance violation, filing false tax returns, as well as attempts to silence a witness. Charles was sentenced in 2005 to a prison term of two years. He remains active in the company. Jersey City is the first and, so far, only Trump project for the company.

About the Chinese funded NJ development, a Trump spokesperson says: “This was a highly successful license deal but he [Trump] is not a partner in the financing of the development.”

In his campaign for the Republican nomination for president Monday, Trump took a break from beating up on China, and in remarks the NYTimes.com called “unusual, if not anachronistic,” went after Japan for currency manipulation. And the band — or at least its bombastic tuba — plays on.

Dog Pack on the Hunt for Lt. Gov.

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There is already almost half a dozen members of the pack in the hunt, by my count, and now one more will try to fit their collar and tags in the clutch to run for Lt. Governor. And now perhaps sniffing an opportunity Sen. John Rodgers (D-Essex/Orleans) is considering it.

The NEK’s Rodgers wants to see if a run for Lt. Gov. makes sense: “I’ve got some folks looking at numbers and figuring out a path forward. If it looks doable and feasible I’ve got to figure out if it fits into my personal life.”

The field as of today – Randy Brock will as of now is the only Republican. Boots Wardinski of Newbury will be running as a Progressive and Dr. Louis Meyers who is new to politics will run as an Independent.hatnring

On the Democratic side, current office holders Sen. David Zuckerman P/D,  Rep. Kesha Ram D have announced their candidacies. Brandon Riker of Marlboro who has never held elected office is reportedly also running. Earlier former Politico.com editor Garret Graff explored making a run but dropped out. The former Montpelier resident’s plans were disrupted when — to his shock — he discovered that he did not meet eligibility rules, after a ten-year absence from Vermont — a state he claims as his “mental home.”

Maine and New Hampshire are two of five states that find no reason to have an office of Lt. Gov. at all, but here in Vermont people are falling all over themselves to run for the part-time job. The official duties are limited but include being acting governor in the governor’s absence and being President of the Senate, except when exercising the office of Governor. And of course, in the event of the death of a serving governor, the Lt. Gov takes over.

Significant in terms of the Senate, the Lt. Gov. also serves as the third member on the powerful Committee on Committees. The three-member leadership Committee on Committees hand-picks senators to serve as chair-people on standing committees. The chairs in turn influence much of what gets a hearing in the legislative sessions. Currently the C of C’s is made up of alleged Democrats Dick Mazza (Grand Isle) and Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell (Windsor) and their BFF, Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott.

Although he may not be well known outside of the Northeast Kingdom, Senator Rodgers previously served in the State House for 8 years. He achieved some notoriety around the state in 2015 when he introduced legislation to designate the beagle the official state dog of Vermont.

In the Senate, his “Beagle bill” was called “a source of amusement if nothing else.” However PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) expressed concern over whether naming a specific breed was “a step backwards” and worried the designation would encourage the growth of “puppy mills.”

Senator Rogers defended the bill and explained how else he intends to spend his time in the Senate:

“the Beagle Bill” that I introduced for a constituent. I assure you that it literally took about two minutes. If you want to talk about a waste of time let’s talk about the new gun control proposal that I am busy trying to stop. […].

In addition to shouldering the burden of naming a state dog and stonewalling gun control, Senator Rodgers sits on the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy, as well as being vice chair of the Committee on Institutions. According to the American Conservative Union, Rodgers is one of two highest-rated Democrats on conservative issues. At 43% he is a top conservative dog compared to other Democratic senators, to whom the ACU inaccurately refers as a “coalition of the radical left.”

All the actual and potential candidates a for Lt. Governor stress the agenda-setting capacity of the job. If Rodgers chooses to run he might be the perfect boutique candidate for Democratic beagle fans with a strong conservative bent.

It’s not clear what kind of state dog might be favored by Committee on Committee heads Senators Mazza and Campbell. For now at least, there is a wide array of possible future Lt. Governors seeking to wear the collar.

VTGOP, Rubio flunk at Trump U.

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Marco Rubio finished third yesterday behind Donald Trump and John Kasich. And thirty Vermont GOP leaders may be a little red in face today after deciding at the last minute to back Marco Rubio for President “because of his uplifting message”.havinalaugh

Phil Scott briefly seemed to wiggle toward Kasich but followed that with a barely visible, embarrassed nod from a distance to conservative Marco Rubio.

History could have guided them. Had they given it any thought beforehand they might have looked back in the state’s Republican past: “What would Calvin Coolidge do?” Vermont’s famous taciturn Republican  would likely have kept his mouth shut .

Rubio’s supposedly positive message the VTGOP thought they heard quickly proved an illusion.The endorsement risks alienating centrist Vermont voters in the general election due to Rubio’s conservative positions on women’s issue and climate change.

Today the New York Times describes Rubio (and Ted Cruz) in no uncertain terms:

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio — are not only to the right of Mr. Trump on many issues, but are embracing the same game of exclusion, bigotry and character assassination. That Mr. Rubio would make double entendres about the size of Mr. Trump’s hands and talk about Mr. Trump wetting his pants shows how much his influence has permeated this race and how willingly his rivals are copying his tactics.

Coolidge once said, “I have noticed that nothing I have never said ever did me any harm.”  

Vermont’s gang of Rubio supporters might update Silent Cal’s observation : “No one we never endorsed could ever do us any harm.”   Phil Scott, Kurt Wright, and Randy Brock failed history at Trump U.

Antonin Scalia: International Order of Friendly Sons of the Raccoons

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Well sadly no, the late Justice Scalia was not a member of the fictional working class lodge the International Order of Friendly Sons of the Raccoons*. ninonorton 2

Scalia was a member in good standing in the very real International Order of St. Hubertus, a kind of a Raccoon Lodge for the 1%’ers — perhaps just as silly.

The US chapter of the Order of Hubertus was established in 1966 at the infamous Bohemian Grove in California. Originally the order was founded in Eastern Europe by Habsburg Count Franz Anton von Sporck in 1695. Now members of the worldwide, male-only society wear dark-green robes emblazoned with a large Iron Cross and the motto “Deum Diligite Animalia Diligentes,” which means “Honoring God by honoring His creatures.” Members hold titles, such as Grand Master, Prior, and Knight Grand Officer. And the Order of Hubertus is an IRS non-profit, too — tax free for the Prior and Knights.

That’s as brief a history as possible for fear of falling into a tangled web of well known conspiracy involving Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, flaming owls, and perhaps even lizard people.

Before his death Scalia flew on a private plane for his free stay at the exclusive remote Texas hunting “camp” with fellow Hubertians[?]. Scalia was a frequent flyer: between 2004 and 2014 he traveled 258 times on privately subsidized trips.

His companion on the Texas jaunt, C.Allen Foster, is a prominent Washington lawyer. Foster may be just a Hubertus Knight, but he threw himself a 65th birthday bash fit for Count Von Sporck.

In 2006, Foster was featured in The Post when he celebrated his 65th birthday with a six-day celebration in the Czech Republic. He flew his family and 40 Washington friends there to stay in Moravia’s Zidlochovice, a baroque castle and hunting park. The birthday bash included “tours of the Czech countryside, wine tasting, wild boar and mouflon (wild sheep) hunts, classic dance instruction and a masked costume ball.”

A strange semi-secret society with roots in Eastern Europe and the surprise death of a Supreme Court Justice at a remote Texas hunting camp is the stuff of more than a few conspiracy theories.

But plots and murder are less likely than the simple explanation about the Order of Hubertus. The truth is often odd and pedestrian:

“The main purpose of the International Order of St. Hubertus is to provide a venue for hunters who have been successful in their lives to gather and enjoy each other’s company outside of their normal business, social or religious groups.”

And of course there’s prestige and privilege. Among the privileges the Honored Raccoon Brothers enjoy are opening the first clam at the annual clambake and free burial with spouse at Raccoon National Cemetery in Bismark, North Dakota.

The equivalent in the International Order of St. Hubertus might be opening the first oil drilling rig in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. But I am sure the Knights and Grand Masters would stress the camaraderie at the exclusive society is simply a venue for hunters who have been successful in their lives to gather enjoy each other’s company outside of their normal business.”

Well sure there’s all that. However, should the need ever arise; a good quiet way to subtly nudge a court case this way or that is just a quail hunt away.

But who believes all this conspiracy stuff anyway?

*For those too young to remember or old enough to have forgotten the Raccoons were the fictitious working class lodge of TV’s Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton on the Honeymooners.

Vermont conservatives perched on three legged stool

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The fabled moderate Vermont Republican has pretty much vanished, and if you believe the American Conservative Union, that respected personage of the past has been replaced by a small pocket of Reagan conservatives.

The American Conservative Union and the American Conservative Union Foundation were founded by William F. Buckley after the presidential election in 1964 (Barry Goldwater’s huge loss to LBJ). Along with a host of other activities they sponsor the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) once chaired by Carly Fiorina.

And now, the American Conservative Union says it is thrilled to announce “a small pocket of conservatism exists in Vermont: 33 out of 150 Representatives and 5 out of 30 Senators will receive ACU’s conservative award.”. ACUvt 1Vermont’s small conservative pocket is mostly Republican but a lone Democrat did well in the ratings: One outlier in the legislature is Representative Browning, a Democrat who will receive the ACU Conservative Excellence award for her 100% rating.

Rep. Cynthia Browning (D-Arlington) made the grade. She often votes with Republicans and has tangled with the Shumlin administration over access to healthcare funding details. And two NEK state senators, Bobby Starr and John Rodgers D-Essex-Orleans, hardly starting out as part of what the ACU termed the “coalition of the radical left,” might find their way into the conservative pocket with a little effort.ACUvt2

The ACU judged legislators on a wide range of bills from the 2015 session, selected to reflect an adherence to certain conservative principles.

We select bills that focus on former President Ronald Reagan’s philosophy of the “three-legged stool”: 1) economic: taxes, budgets, regulation, spending, healthcare, and property; 2) social and cultural: 2nd Amendment, religious freedom, life, welfare, and education; and 3) government integrity: voting, individual liberty, privacy, and transparency.

That seems to me less a description of a simple three-legged stool than some elaborate Empire dining room suite of issues. But who would know Ronald Reagan’s stool better than ACU and CPAC.

Trump’s BFF racist wake-up call to Vermonters

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Vermont GOPer’s it is past time to speak out.

Here is the text of the racist robo call that Comrade Rutherford mentions in his diary below.klanflamable

The American National Super PAC makes this call to support Donald Trump. I am William Johnson, a farmer and white nationalist.

The white race is dying out in America and Europe because we are afraid to be called “racist.” This is our mindset: It’s okay that our government destroys our children’s future, but don’t call me racist. I am afraid to be called racist. It’s okay to give away our country through immigration, but don’t call me racist. It’s okay that few schools anymore have beautiful white children as the majority, but don’t call me racist. Gradual genocide against the white race is okay, but don’t call me racist. I am afraid to be called racist. Donald Trump is not a racist, but Donald Trump is not afraid.

Don’t vote for a Cuban. Vote for Donald Trump. (213) 718-3908. This call is not authorized by Donald Trump.

Many people (mostly those with landlines perhaps) got American National Super PAC’s chilling call for Trump here in Vermont last night. It was lurking on my answering at work this morning.

Rightwingwatch.com has a bit more on Trump’s fan William Johnson and he isn’t exactly a farmer: “In the 1980s, Johnson put considerable effort into promoting his plan to strip the citizenship of and deport all but a small number of non-white people from the United States.”

One of my neighbors said she was in tears- half anger and half sadness after getting that call. What will happen if/when Republican Trump runs – it can’t happen here?

VY fuel rods: behind the barn or deep in the heart of Texas?

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In a recent visit to Brattleboro Vermont Rep.Peter Welch suggested a solution for Vermont Yankee and other location’s spent nuclear fuel storage problems may be at hand.wcsgmd

A location to store/dispose/bury high level nuclear waste is desperately needed for the federal government to avoid nuclear power industry related lawsuits. This would be since the US Government’s long promised Yucca Mountain radioactive storage site appears locked permanently in limbo.

Welch said he and some congressional colleagues are making a fresh push for an interim storage area – possibly in Texas – that could accept spent fuel from plants like Vermont Yankee.

“Here’s what’s changing: There are more communities that are having their plants decommissioned … so it creates the potential for me to work with allies,”

In the US House and Senate proposals to adjust laws that regulate storage of high level nuclear waste may soon make possible a solution of sorts.

Texas Congressman Michael Conaway (R), perhaps Welch’s key ally, has introduced legislation called the Interim Consolidated Storage Act in 2015. (Conaway, by the way, is also champion of federal legislation that would kill Vermont’s GMO labeling law.) The nuclear waste storage bill amends existing regulations so government agencies can partner with private companies for storage of deadly high-level nuclear waste. Draft language makes more than $30 billion from the Nuclear Waste Fund available. The NWF consists of fees charged to nuclear customers and was intended to fund the federal Yucca Mt. waste facility in Nevada.

This will work a real sweet deal for one of Rep. Conaway’s district’s largest businesses — Waste Control Specialists LLC — which will reportedly apply for high level waste storage permitting. WCS happens to own the country’s only for-profit, private facility that handles low-level waste. Slightly misnamed ‘low level waste’ covers a very wide range from slightly radioactive trash to highly radioactive activated metals from inside reactors. The thousand-plus-acre nuclear waste dump is located in Andrews, Texas, just over three-hundred miles from Dallas.

The daughter of WCS founder billionaire Harold Simmons now controls the business. Simmons, who died in 2013, was heavily involved in conservative national politics. He provided funding for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and was a top conservative super PAC contributor in the 2012 Presidential race. Notably he referred to President Obama as the “most dangerous man in America”

The state of Vermont has for many years enjoyed its own sweet deal in Texas, a near-exclusive agreement with WCS to accept “our” low level nuclear waste. There are two Vermonters and one alternate (also from VT) who sit on the board of the Texas Low-level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission that oversees some of what WCS can do. Looking out  for our low-level nuclear disposal needs deep in the heart of Texas are: Peter Bradford, a former NRC official, and Richard H. Saudek,  former Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service; Jane O’Meara Sanders is an alternate board member.

The environment around Andrews County, Texas, will bear the long-term effects of the nuclear dump.

However, senior Project Director of the WCS Commercial Interim Storage Facility Mike McMahon sees quick  Texas sized profits: “We can de-inventory these sites quickly, in a straightforward way – we get a very high [return] for it, we get very strong political support,”

In 2013 The Texas Observer online wondered whether WCS or Andrews County, TX, could cover potential liabilities and potential future costs associated with the private nuclear dump.

“It’s an important question because although the dump’s profits flow to its owner, Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, the state and federal governments will eventually own the dump and its millions of cubic feet of radioactive waste. In other words, the taxpayers could be on the hook for a lot of dough. What’s to guarantee that Waste Control won’t take the profits and run?”

After reports about plastic swimming pools filled with contaminated water at the  Vermont Yankee power plant, Vermonters will probably be fine if the spent nuclear waste gets buried in Texas – never to be seen here again. And deep in Texas, “Swift Boat” Simmons’ WCS may just take the money and run.

Vermont Yankee Entergy: wading in the shallow end of safety

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This may be a sign of just how responsibly and seriously Entergy intends to take safety concerns while the plant prepares for what the NRC calls SAFSTOR (SAFe STORage)for up to 60 years.

From VtDigger.com: The Intex “Easy Set” swimming pool retails for anywhere from $35 to $500 depending on its dimensions and it’s billed as one of “the easiest family and friend-sized pools to set up in the world.”

But in Vernon, the Easy Set is serving a much different purpose than the one advertised on the manufacturer’s colorful website: It’s being used to help manage a complex groundwater-intrusion problem at Vermont Yankee.

That news about Vermont Yankee will likely not surprise anyone who remembers how Entergy let the operating boiling water reactor’s wooden cooling tower deteriorate so badly that that by 2007 it collapsed into a pile of timber leaking water.vermontcoolingtower

Well give them credit; rushing out to Home Depot to buy a bunch of cheap plastic swimming pools for this is better than just mops and buckets.  However they might want to use the term SOTASAFSTOR (SOrT Aa SAFe STORage) to be more accurate about Vermont Yankee’s condition.

The NRC reports the kiddie pools are located in the lower level of the turbine building and are “[…] placed such that any leakage would drain into the plant’s radioactive waste treatment system,” And no need to worry: the low level radioactive kiddie pools are only temporary — until the technicians come up with a better plan.

No worries. Entergy Vermont Yankee spokesman Marty Cohn echoed that, saying “there is no health or safety impact to the public or employees from this issue.” The swimming pools are a temporary measure, he added.

“The integrity of the pools was found to be adequate and the water found to be acceptable for those types of pools,” Cohn said. “Drains near these pools lead to sump pumps, which in turn lead to a waste-processing system.”VYkidpool

And while they mop up the contaminated water, Entergy and the plant’s surrounding town are “condensing” their emergency plan capacity. Beginning in April the emergency zone shrinks to the nuclear power plant site’s boundary, and one person on site is trained to extinguish basic fires and act as liaison to local agencies

Only a “catastrophic” event — like if all the water is released from the cooling pools and the fuel then reheats — would require a response from outside towns. And even then, according to plant owner Entergy, an emergency would unfold slowly.

“We’d have anywhere from 10 hours to 10 days to react,” said Brattleboro Fire Chief Mike Bucossi, “and reverse the process of those fuel rods.”

Yes VY, fill up the pools! Even in a catastrophe — according to Entergy — there is “anywhere from 10 hours to 10 days to react” — time enough to wade in the shallow end.

Kakistocracy: when the worst rule

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Are you coming to grips with the fact that we live in a world where pondering the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency is no longer considered completely delusional?WYLXUS~E

Well, journalist David Clay Johnson suggested in the National Memo.com that kakistocracy is a helpful but underused descriptive word to keep in mind.

We can see a troubling future looming for America in two seemingly unrelated events — the water crisis in Flint and the Republican presidential primaries.

Both suggest that America is moving away from the high ideals of President Kennedy’s inaugural address — “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Instead we see politicians who say they love America, but hate the American government.

There is a word to describe the kind of government Michigan has and America is at risk of developing. It’s called kakistocracy.

It means government by the worst men, from the ancient Greek words kákistos, meaning worst, and kratia, meaning to rule.

And in the Republican party, currently full of the worst, front runner Donald Trump might be the biggest kakistocrat ever.

Ground Hog Day: De-Bugging the F-35

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It seems the F-35 fighter; aka the most expensive weapons system ever, hasn’t been in the news too often lately. And most of the news out that is out there is awful, according to reports in early February. If or when the jet fighters do fly on a regular basis, at some point in the future some will be used by the Vermont Air National Guard and based at the Burlington airport. This is over objections from residents in nearby towns over possible noise levels during take-off and landings — so, here’s a heads up for Vermonters. f-35model

If you care to read more details, that can be done here. But these three descriptive headlines provide a more than adequate, quick summary: The Version That the Marines Are Using Is Very Buggy;  ALIS [Autonomic Logistics Information System] Is Still Terrible, Perhaps Even Getting Worse; and my favorite,  Lockouts, Confusion, etc.

From Lockouts,Confusion,etc.:

  • The F-35 fails to detect if it’s been flying too fast or what effect that might have. “The Integrated Exceedance Management System, designed to assess and report whether the aircraft exceeded limitations during flight, failed to function properly.”
  • The plane “randomly prevented user logins into ALIS.
  • The plane doesn’t know how broken parts are: “The maintenance action severity code functionality…designed to automatically assign severity codes to work orders as maintenance personnel create them—did not work correctly.”
  • The plane’s crews need to phone Lockheed Martin tech support because the plane can’t handle the data it needs to process in order to run missions. “Managing data loads associated with mission planning required extensive contractor support.”

I think it was on Ground Hog Day that the Pentagon’s office of testing’s recent evaluations made their way into the news. So if the report sees its shadow and tax money is allowed to flow on and on, there will likely be six more months of testing for the most expensive weapons system ever. One does wonder how many crashes and injured or killed pilots will it take to ground this hog.