Daily Archives: March 31, 2023

House Democrats Are Told How They Could Avoid a Humanitarian Disaster, and They Said “No Thanks”

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If there’s anyone on this earth who could understandably be Sick Of This Shit, it’s Anne Sosin, pictured above in a space that Room Rater wold give at least eight out of 10. (“Nice window, background not too busy, solid but unpretentious bookshelf.”) Sosin has gone from arch-critic of Gov. Phil Scott’s Covid policies to interim head of the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, where she’s taken on the thankless task of developing plans to tackle the housing crisis that House Democrats routinely ignore.

On Thursday morning, Sosin appeared before the House General & Housing Committee with an articulate, well-researched and professional presentation on why it makes moral, political, and financial sense to address our crisis of housing insecurity. Her presentation was entitled “The Cost of Inaction on Homelessness and Eviction.” (Video available here; Sosin begins at the two-minute mark. Her presentation is downloadable here.)

The committee listened politely and sent her away. And within roughly 12 hours, the full House had approved a budget that ignored her testimony.

In other words, the cake was baked before Sosin got into the kitchen. Her appearance was nothing but window dressing.

(I’ll also note that committee chair Tom Stevens mispronounced her last name, which betrays a certain lack of engagement, especially since this wasn’t her first appearance before his committee.)

(It’s SOSS-in, not “SO-sin.”)

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We Regret to Inform You That Gregory Thayer is Interested in Your Children

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I don;t make it a practice to write about conservative commentators very often because that way lies madness and far too many words about Rob Roper and John McClaughry. But once in a while, an entry in this sad parade is just impossible to resist.

You may recall Gregory Thayer, failed candidate for lieutenant governor, organizer of a series of “educational” events exposing the dangers of critical race theory, co-organizer of a bus trip to the January 6 insurrection, and founder of Vermonters for Vermont, a seemingly defunct organization devoted to dog-whistling all the livelong day. Well, in the wake of yet another school shooting, Mr. Thayer Has Some Thoughts.

His message is that the Legislature isn’t doing nearly enough to protect our schoolchildren. His nifty five-part solution, left over from his lite-gubernatorial campaign: Turn the schools into armed camps full of metal detectors, surveillance cameras, lockdowns, active shooter drills, and guns, guns, guns everywhere.

Yeah kids, have fun at school!

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