Note to readers

Temps de dire au revoir

Since January,I’ve been in and out of hospitals.

I’ve been unable to sit for and length of time and finally working on the blog became more than I The reason was a Perianal abscess slightly smaller than Rhode Island. The MD’s finally drained it which gives some relief.

Now to the real news; I won’t be posting on Loon Watch for quite a while, if ever again. I’m 10 years removed from Vermont and have little knowledge of the daily political BS, taxes and the minutia that makes the blog work. I started this blog in Aug of 2008. It’s time to move on to newer things. I intend to paint and draw, something which I have deprived myself for too long.

Three more of my friends died this year. Another moved to NY in preparation of selling their business. This leaves a couple of Vietnam brothers and the editor of the local paper.

This blog will stay open, maybe a post may show up. I’m tired, worn out from all the medical problems attendant to old age a rather wild younger age and the crap that came home with every Vietnam Vet.

If I start another blog, the name and URL will appear in Loon Watch.

Thanks for the following and your readership.

 

Mélange

Three days into the new year and the Jackass stupidity commences.

The new batch of clowns entering the House same as the old batch: Mushwits.

The ‘Green New Deal’: A Radical Mandate for Government Control of American Society

‘Ocasio-Cortez sees this plan is being a vehicle through which social equality might finally realized, as it will use reparations to right historical injustices’

Incoming New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez brings with her a massive online following, influence she says she’ll deploy only in support of candidates who support her plan for a “Green New Deal.”
“The Green New Deal” is something Ocasio-Cortez invokes frequently in media appearances and rallies.

So what’s actually in it?

Her office recently released the text of a proposed House rules change outlining the plan.

The proposed rule change for the upcoming 116th Congress would require the creation of a “Select Committee for a Green Deal” that would be responsible for creating the plan by January 1, 2020, with corresponding draft legislation soon after. The text of the rule change lays out the committee’s jurisdiction and required areas of action. [snip]

Early on, under “Jurisdiction,” the document makes clear its grandiose philosophical vision: “The select committee shall have authority to develop a detailed national, industrial, economic mobilization plan for the transition of the United States economy to become greenhouse gas emissions neutral and to significantly draw down greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and oceans and to promote economic and environmental justice and equality.”

In addition to achieving its goal of “meeting 100% of national power demand through renewable sources,” the document also repeatedly states the Green New Deal will advance non-environmental projects, such as, “social, economic, racial, regional and gender-based justice.” [snip]

All this ffrom the fool who killed the place where she worked and cost her co-workers loss of employment too.

 

Take it from someone who fled my native state, these have to all be Progressives who cannot wait to give the state their moey.

Vermont has a higher proportion of people moving there from out-of-state than anywhere else in the U.S., study says

Vermont’s population is among the smallest in the U.S., but a high proportion of people are moving to the New England state from elsewhere in the U.S., according to a new study.

United Van Lines, a St. Louis-based moving company on Wednesday released its 42nd annual National Movers Study, which tracks customers’ state-to-state migration patterns.

Vermont has the second-smallest population among states, exceeding only Wyoming, yet it saw the highest percentage of inbound moves in 2018 – at 72.6 percent. However, it’s worth noting that was out of 234 total moves.

A majority of people moving to Vermont cited jobs (34.4 percent) and retirement (31.2 percent), while 85 percent of the people leaving the state said they did so for a job. [snip]

Wait until they get a taste of the cost for utilities and food.

 

The Oscars, a show with a lower rating than the Chartered Life Underwriters salesman of the year extravaganza.

Oscars: It’s January, So Why Is There Still No Host?

As the holiday break comes to an end and Hollywood’s denizens stagger back to their offices, it is dawning on many that the Academy still has not found someone to host the 91st Oscars on Feb. 24 — just 53 days from now.

The Academy thought it solved this problem back on Dec. 4, when it announced that Kevin Hart would do the honors. But Hart withdrew just two days later amid an outcry over homophobic tweets that he had posted years earlier and his initial reluctance to apologize for them. Since then, Donna Gigliotti, who is producing the telecast for the first time, has been hunkered down in closely-guarded conversations with Academy CEO Dawn Hudson and president John Bailey.

Sources within the Academy’s 300-person staff and 54-person board of governors have told The Hollywood Reporter that they have no idea how things are progressing, but they are growing concerned as Hollywood’s biggest night rapidly approaches. Indeed, not since Jon Stewart was announced as the host of the 78th Oscars on Jan. 5, 2006, and only once before that in the 21st century, when Whoopi Goldberg was announced as the host of the 74th on Jan. 7, 2002, has the search for a host extended into the calendar year of the show itself. [snip]

Their problem is the difficulty in finding someone untainted in the pigpen called Hollywierd.  There is an answer:

Observations

Joe Stalin’s idea of holding elections and the results seems to have found a strong and secure position in Vermont elections. It isn’t the vote that counts but the people who count the votes; Vermont’s Progressives just want to insure that the election returns are favorable.

Brooke Paige to Condos: 70,000 more on voter rolls than eligible

In a debate forum Friday, Republican candidate H. Brooke Paige said incumbent Secretary of State Jim Condos’ initiatives to increase voter registration have caused the state to sign up 70,000 more people to vote than there are eligible voters.

By the end of the day, however, he retracted his statement, saying he made “miscalculations.”

Vermont is heading into the general election with about 481,111 people listed on its voter rolls, the highest number of registered voters in the state’s history. On the campaign trail, Condos has cited the statistic as proof that newly enacted policies such as automatic voter registration (AVR) and Election Day registration are working as intended.

But during the debate hosted by VPR’s Vermont Edition, Paige attacked Condos’ record, saying his office has out-registered the eligible-voter population in the state by about 70,000. According to his calculations based on census data, only 407,390 Vermonters are qualified to vote. [snip]

Condos, apparently surprised by the challenge, responded that there is no evidence to support Paige’s claim. He added that the voter registration system was updated in 2015 and is very robust, and that it’s largely the role of town clerks to keep voter rolls clean and accurate. [snip]

Late Friday, however, Paige retracted his challenge, saying his numbers were wrong. He now estimates Vermont has 497,394 eligible voters. [snip]

According to official state registration data, there are around 16,000 more eligible voters for this election than in 2012. As of mid October, there were 481,111 residents on Vermont’s voter rolls, amounting to 92.5 percent of the state’s 520,000 eligible voters. [snip]

If Vermont has more registered voters than people eligible to vote, it wouldn’t be the only problem encountered by states that adopt policies like automatic voter registration through the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Elections expert Bev Harris, founder of BlackBoxVoting.org, told True North that automatic registration “fairly regularly” puts noncitizens on the voter rolls.

That glitch appeared in Vermont as soon as automatic voter registration was implemented at the start of 2017.

“Green card holder and Burlington resident Luke McHale was one of those affected by the glitch in the DMV system,” the Burlington Free Press reported back in February 2017. “McHale’s wife, Becca, said Thursday her husband was surprised to pick up the mail and find a letter from the Burlington city clerk’s office saying he was now registered to vote.”

The Orange County Register said Vermont’s DMV registered 1,500 voters by mistake, including noncitizens. [snip]

Those extra names are handy when one needs to, ahem adjust election results. Like in Minnisota, when they ‘needed’ some extra votes in the Al Franken race, they can find boxes of ‘misplaced votes.

Duplicates on the checklist

Harris said motor voter registration also can lead to names showing up more than once on voter rolls.

“There are significant problems with merging two data bases — then overlap will occur,” she said.

She explained that if someone already registered as a voter goes to the DMV and updates name spelling with any change from the original, it creates a duplicate voter registration.

“You’re gonna end up with a bunch of extra people on the list,” she said. “If you are an insider then you can pull out those extras that aren’t really voters, and you can cast absentees in their names.”

Condos has come out before and said that people owning second homes in Vermont should be allowed to vote

I wonder if he also means all the illegals in Vermont working the farms and the ‘french fry factories’ like MacDonald’s. Chick-fil-A isn’t included; they’re racist and homophobes and they close on Sunday.

Idiot’s Corner

America: Progressive in habits, choices and carnage. There isn’t an iota to recommend living near this insanity.

Stoned Driver Crash Risk Grows As Legal Pot Spreads In The U.S.

As the push to legalize marijuana gains momentum, so is evidence that more permissive policies on the drug are putting motorists at risk.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found, in a study to be released on Thursday, that traffic accidents are rising in states that have legalized recreational marijuana. That followed stark warnings from the National Transportation Safety Board, which on Tuesday issued several recommendations to combat drug-impaired driving.

“The last thing in the world that we want is to introduce another legal substance where we may be adding to that toll and to the carnage on our highways,” said David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute. “With marijuana impairment, we’re just now starting to understand what we don’t know.”

After retail sales of recreational cannabis began, the frequency of collision insurance claims in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington State rose about 6 percent higher than in nearby states where marijuana is still illegal, the IIHS said in the study. [snip]

As the push to legalize marijuana gains momentum, so is evidence that more permissive policies on the drug are putting motorists at risk.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found, in a study to be released on Thursday, that traffic accidents are rising in states that have legalized recreational marijuana. That followed stark warnings from the National Transportation Safety Board, which on Tuesday issued several recommendations to combat drug-impaired driving.

“The last thing in the world that we want is to introduce another legal substance where we may be adding to that toll and to the carnage on our highways,” said David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute. “With marijuana impairment, we’re just now starting to understand what we don’t know.”

After retail sales of recreational cannabis began, the frequency of collision insurance claims in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington State rose about 6 percent higher than in nearby states where marijuana is still illegal, the IIHS said in the study. [snip]

The NTSB’s recommendations followed an investigation of a 2017 crash in rural Texas that killed 13 people. The accident was caused by a pickup truck driver who was high on marijuana and an anti-anxiety medication and slammed head-on into a church bus. Video shot by another driver showed the pickup repeatedly veering onto the shoulder and across the double-yellow line for 15 minutes. [snip]

It is hard to know just who the morons are. The ones driving impaired or the idiots who passed this legislation.

Wonder what they will say if/when they or a family member meet one of these cretins head on.

CPUSA and the $15/hr wage

In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

The Communist Vermont Legislature believe that the State knows best and they are going to pay back those that vote for them. Everyone else – BOHICA.

From the Vermont Eagle

Seniors vs. the $15 min. wage

The $15 minimum wage is an increasingly hot topic in the election debates.

Proponents have faith that artificially increasing the cost of labor will be a benefit to low-wage workers.

Opponents can point to evidence that the $15 minimum wage will force employers to lay off employees, cut hours or go out of business entirely, damaging the overall economy. But the group that will be hurt and here’s why.

According to UVM economist Art Woolf, a majority of Vermonters living below the poverty line do not work. That’s 31,000 non-working poor. [snip]

Businesses would have to pass on the higher cost of labor to their customers in the form of higher prices for goods and services.

Senior citizens living on fixed incomes would, therefore, have to pay more for things like food, nursing care, household help, and so on, with no boost in income to help cover those costs. In other words, fixed incomes would not stretch as far under a $15 minimum wage.

State Sen. Richard Westman, R-Lamoille, raised an example from his own life experience in that he would no longer be able to afford in-home nursing care for his aging parent if the $15 minimum wage became law.

Westman also noted that Lamoille Home Health and Hospice would have to raise or charge an extra $80,000 to cover wage increases for their visiting nurses, and that money will have to come from someone, most likely in the form of higher bills to the people in need of the service.

Vermont is the second oldest state in the union when it comes to the average age of its residents, which would mean implementing this experiment here would come with a disproportionately high level of pain.

Turning the page will give you the ‘adjustment’ for seniors: A tax rise on businesses to subsidize the below poverty line residents.
The money has to come from somewhere so the Communists will go after anyone making a profit. In Vermont, that is a felony worse than wearing a straw boater after Labor Day.  (See Sartorial regulations for the Legislators and the rich.)

Vermont has much more in common with Venezuela than just the letter V.

Cretins, Morons and Dolts

A couple of days ago, Sen Patrick Leahy (Sap Vt) posited that the “Senate is the greatest deliberative body in the world”. Age has taken it’s toll on Leahy’s cerebrum; he has the same grasp of reality as Nancy Pelosi.

An elucidation of the Senator’s comment is best by posting other’s view of the Senate during the Kavanaugh hearings. Perfect examples follow:

Leahy is full of raw maple sap.

Tax’em until they can’t move

One ,but not the only, reason We left Vermont is their revenue policy of taxing Social Security and military pensions. The one item they can’t tax is disability. And that is only because the Federal government pays that and forbids attachments.

Why the Progressive legislature decided to give an exemption, is not known this side of sanity but probably to stop the taxpayer outflow.

Exemption making eligible Vermonters happy

Nearly 40,000 Vermonters receiving Social Security benefits will keep more of their income due to an income tax exemption. This change, included in Act 11 of the 2018 special session, created a personal income tax exemption for Social Security beneficiaries below certain income thresholds.

The law takes effect in calendar year 2018 for tax returns filed in 2019.

According to Vermont Commissioner of Taxes Kaj Samsom, “The governor and the department… have worked with the Vermont Legislature on an initiative that will help many Vermonters keep more of their Social Security benefits. With this change, Vermont joins the overwhelming majority of states, including all of our neighbors in the Northeast, in granting additional state-level exemptions to Social Security income, which is taxed federally.”

At the federal level, Social Security benefit exemptions range from fully exempt to 15 percent exempt, depending on income. Benefits that are federally taxable become part of a taxpayer’s adjusted gross income (AGI). The new Vermont tax exemption allows eligible taxpayers to exempt all or some of these federally taxable Social Security benefits on their Vermont returns. [snip]

For singles, heads of household, married filing separate, and surviving spouse filers, Social Security benefits will be fully exempt if their AGI is less than $45,000 and partially exempt if their AGI is between $45,000-$55,000.

For married joint filers, Social Security benefits will be fully exempt if the AGI is less than $60,000 and partially exempt if their AGI is between $60,000-$70,000.

The federal tax on Social Security is the work of the liberal idiot Ted Kennedy who believed that money really wasn’t yours. It makes no difference if you worked all your life, paying into that Ponzi scheme; he wanted to give your money to people who never worked for it.

The Legislature in Vermont believes the same way. More than likely this new exemption is given because so many Vermonters who were being dunned heavily, moved out of state. The population in Vermont is now more welfare recipients and junkies that the Progs had to do something to stem the outflow.. Stay tuned; there will be more to this before long.

OK, Who left the seat down

Another legislative absurdity that demands compliance, isn’t getting any. But this is Vermont where such doltish thinking is commonplace. Here it is very important that all those gender varieties know that all pee in the same pot.

We here at Vermont Loon Watch wondered why the Legislature didn’t mandate all have a window to toss it out. Or are they saving that for the next session so they’ll have some work to do. Most likely since keeping the interference in community life is all they do.

Government acted on gender-neutral bathrooms, nobody cared

So, it hit the news today that Vermont businesses are not complying with the new “gender neutral” bathroom law. This went into effect a little less than two months ago on July 1, and mandates that all single occupancy, lockable bathrooms be labeled as “restroom” and not use gender specific icons, such as the typical male and female silhouettes. Put another way, it bans restaurants, gas stations, etc. from having private men’s and women’s/boys’ and girls’ rooms. [snip]

Virtually every business. Wow! This must have sparked general outrage because, as Gov. Scott said at the signing ceremony for the bathroom bill, “For many transgender and gender non-conforming Vermonters, having bathrooms labeled male or female creates social stress and discomfort or instances where you face hostility and mistreatment.”

That sounds awful. These folks must have really been looking forward to the day when businesses complied with this critical new law and must have been outraged to discover it was being universally flouted. Nope. You know how many complaints were filed about “virtually no businesses” complying with this law? One. (emphasis added)

What does this tell us? That this law, for all the hoopla and drama in the Statehouse, was an unnecessary solution in search of a non-existent problem. Everybody continued relieving themselves in public restrooms without issue, just as they did before the law was passed. Government acted boldly, the law changed nothing, and nobody cared. Life went on just fine for everyone. [snip]

On the downside, rather than recognize that their law is unnecessary and repeal it, you can bet the state will now go out of its way to force businesses to get in line because… well, just because. After all, it was a helluva bill signing ceremony.

Ever wonder why the State is in such serious trouble when the Legislators are “Doing the People’s Business” Better they mind their own business.

Laissez le bon temps rouler

My astute readers will be quick to note that this usual gang of idiots belong to the Jackass Party. What they face isn’t redolent of roses; it’s more like NY harbor at low tide.

There is one salient point. Under federal banking law, ALL pensions must be paid even though the funds are not there. That means somebody (read taxpayers) is going to told to bend over and grit their teeth. frankly we believe they have it due. They voted for the gangsters in office.

Drowning In Debt: These States Are Approaching A Point Of No Return

Having grown up in New Jersey, you understand that Democrats are a tax and spend party and even liberals in the state understand it. The Garden State is a case study in mass exodus; it’s just too expensive to live there anymore. Are there signs that the Democrats get it?[snip]

Still, I doubt Demorats in these states will find rational solution to their fiscal woes. After decades of irresponsibility, these states are approaching a day of reckoning. It’s the usual blue state madness crew: New Jersey, New York, Illinois, and California. For some, pension payments are a struggle (via Fox Business):

Connecticut may be the richest state in the country, on a per capita basis, but it’s racked up a sizable debt worth more than $53 billion – and it could be taxpayers who are forced to bail out the Constitution State, according to the former governor of Indiana.

“Someone’s going to the barbershop,” Mitch Daniels, a Republican, said during an interview with FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on Thursday. “The first will be the taxpayers, already beleaguered in some of these states.”

And Connecticut isn’t the only state struggling with a debt crisis: California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York are unable to make pension payments to retired government workers.

In Illinois, for instance, vendors wait months to be paid by a government that’s $30 billion in debt, and one whose bonds are just one notch above junk bond status, according to Daniels. New York’s more than $356 billion in debt; New Jersey more than $104 billion; and California more than $428 billion.

My suggestion: if you live in these states, run!

Not too far in the future, Vermont will join this coterie of profligate Progressive elected. They face the same fiscal policy of squander economy. Worse, the population base to pay for this is in the range of a 400,000 persons.

Lovely!

More from the Watermelons

Vermont has it’s share of Loons, both in Congress and out.Those not in office line up to follow the prevaricating Piper.

Rep. Welch looks to expand subsidies for electric vehicles as ‘green’ claims fade

Last week at an electric car charging station in Burlington, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt, announced legislation to expand subsidies for the electric vehicle market. The federal program currently has a cap limiting the taxpayer dollars that may be used to incentivize EV purchases.

“Transportation is the single largest contributor to greenhouse emissions in the United States. It is urgent that we transition to cleaner, more efficient modes of transportation,” Welch said at the event.

“My legislation will make electric vehicles and their charging stations more affordable while saving Vermonters money at the gas pump and reducing their environmental footprint.”

While buyers of electric vehicles currently may receive a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 to offset the higher cost of the cars, automakers each have a cap that limits the offer to only 200,000 cars. Some automakers expect to hit that cap this year

To free up even more taxpayer subsidies, Welch’s legislation, H.R. 6274, would eliminate the cap for 10 years and enable buyers to get the credit at the time of the purchase instead of having to wait until they filed their annual income tax return, as the law currently requires. [snip]

The news comes on the heels of an announcement from Tesla Motors last month that the EV manufacturer is laying off 9 percent of its workforce, about 3,600 workers. [snip]

H.R. 6274 is cosponsored in the U.S. House by Reps. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Jared Huffman, D-Calif. In the U.S. Senate, Sen. Rep. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., is expected to introduce similar legislation.

All this of course is the dream of the Watermelon Nation. Vermont as part of this group is destroying the views of the mountains and solar farms blight the once green farmland. Most Vermonters cannot afford a windup car much less a Tesla. As usual, the Progressives don’t care who gets wounded in the fight for a totally petro-free lifestyle.

The peasantry has trouble finding work; the Legislators work hard to drive out small for profit businesses by mandating a $15/hr wage for those flipping burgers or smoking their brains out. One can’t believe that the dopers need or want a Tesla to motor around looking for the next score.