Vermont | September 10, 2021
Youngkin, Carson Spotlight Public School Concerns at Loudoun Campaign Rally
Vermont | September 10, 2021
Loudoun teachers and parents shared a stage with former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin last night at the Save Our Schools rally at Lansdowne Resort.
The rally drew 1,000 people, including School Board member John Beatty (Catoctin), and was presented by Fight for Schools and 1776 Action. The event aimed mobilize Loudouners to push back against the school division’s progressive teachings, and to highlight Youngkin’s proposed plans for the commonwealth.
Parents aligned with Fight for Schools resist the school district’s initiatives to eradicate racial inequity, which, according toa report produced by the Equity Collaborative, permeates every layer of the district, from hiring of staff to treatment of students…. (Excerpts from the Loudoun Now)
District of Columbia, New York, Vermont | August 12, 2021
What’s Inside Sen. Sanders’ $3.5 Trillion Budget
District of Columbia, New York, Vermont | August 12, 2021
On Aug. 11, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) publicly released the full text of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) $3.5 trillion budget proposal. A few hours later, the Senate narrowly confirmed the budget 50-49. Now, the budget must win approval from the House of Representatives after they return from their recess.
The outline is expected to be the first step in the Democrats’ ambitious plans for increased Federal spending on “human infrastructure,” including education, health care, and housing initiatives. However, the resolution does not include an increase to the debt ceiling, setting the stage for another political battle when Congress returns.
On Aug. 9, Sanders discussed the components of this ambitious plan on the Senate floor, saying that that the $3.5 trillion budget proposal and reconciliation bill would be “the most consequential and comprehensive piece of legislation for working people… that [the Senate] has addressed since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
Some of the expenses in Sanders’ budget are nothing new—around $800 billion annually for national defense, $70 billion annually for international affairs and foreign aid, $45 billion for research, NASA, and other scientific pursuits, and $20 billion in subsidies for farmers. Still, many of the expenses listed here are new and ambitious… (Excerpts from the Epoch Times)
Vermont | July 11, 2021
Vermont’s Proposed Reproductive Anarchy Constitutional Amendment
Vermont | July 11, 2021
Vermont already has established an absolute statutory right to abortion through the ninth month, and deprives embryos and fetuses of any rights — whether or not in a uterus — which opens the door to their ready use in experimentation and as suppliers of organs for transplant.
But that’s not enough, apparently. Proposal 5, passed in the Vermont Legislature in the 2019 session, would open the door to reproductive anarchy. Here is the language of the proposal (my emphasis):
Article 22. [Personal reproductive liberty] That an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.
Opponents focused on the unquestionable point that the amendment would make abortion through the ninth month for any reason a constitutional right in Vermont, which would not be a huge change because, as stated above, that is already the state law.
But Proposal 5 could also open the door to reproductive anarchy. Why? A near absolute right to “reproductive autonomy” would mean that any method and means of creating and gestating children would be enshrined in the Vermont Constitution, no matter how extreme or mechanistic. Off the top of my head, that would include the following, all of which have either been proposed, are being experimented on, or have already been done:…
(Excerpts from the National Review)
California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont | June 2, 2021
Red States Top Those with Lowest Unemployment Rates
California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont | June 2, 2021
by Bethany Blankley
Republican-led states and Vermont reported the lowest unemployment rates in April, according to a new report by the U.S. Commerce Department. States led by Democratic governors recorded the highest jobless rates, according to the report.
Unemployment rates were lower in April in 12 states and the District of Columbia and stable in 38 states, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
States with the highest unemployment rates in April were Hawaii (8.5%), California (8.3%), New Mexico and New York (both at 8.2%), and Connecticut (8.1%). All five states with the highest unemployment are run by Democratic trifectas, meaning Democrats control the governor’s office and both houses of the state legislature.
The four states with the lowest jobless rates in April were all run by Republican trifectas: Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota and Utah, with 2.8% each. Vermont, with a Republican governor and a Democratic-controlled state House and Senate, ranked fifth-best with an unemployment rate of 2.9%.
Overall, 31 states had unemployment rates lower than the U.S. national average of 6.1%. The majority – 26 – are Republican-led states. Of the 19 states and the District of Columbia with jobless rates higher than the national average, 14 are led by Democrats…
(Excerpts from the Tennessee Star)
Vermont | May 10, 2021
‘Gay Panic’ no excuse in Vermont with new law
Vermont | May 10, 2021
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed legislation on Wednesday that bans the use of the so-called “gay panic” defense in courts of law.
“With this legislation, Republicans, Democrats and Progressives alike send a message to Vermonters–that your identity should never be an excuse for someone to cause you harm,” the two-term Republican said in a message upon signing the historic legislation. “What this bill does is make sure a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity can’t be used to defend or justify a criminal act, or lower a sentence.”
The defense is a legal strategy used by a defendant on trial for a violent crime in which they typically seek to supplement a temporary insanity defense by arguing that an unwanted advance from a gay person led them to such a state of rage that they admittedly committed a violent crime, up to and including murder.
A companion strategy called the “trans panic” defense is sometimes used by defendants who have sex or otherwise hook up with a transgender woman, attack or murder them, and then claim they were unaware of the victim’s transgender status.
Excerpt from Law and Crime