Monthly Archives: April 2026

Come One, Come All to Dr. Gregory’s Patent Medicine Road Show

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The Poppin’ Fresh of Vermont’s far right, Gregory Thayer, is at it again. He’s hitting the road with a clown car’s worth of extremists ready to yammer about the conspiracy theory du jour.

For the record, the grammatically-challenged* (“Townhall” one word? Two “opportunity”?) twice-failed candidate for lieutenant governor is the mastermind who gave us a dismally under-attended series of pro-Trump rallies in 2025, He was also a featured speaker at a 2025 “Parent’s (sic) Rights in Education” (read: anti-trans and DEI) event in the Statehouse. And he spoke at a 2022 anti-critical race theory bitchfest in Montpelier.

*A southern Vermont correspondent points out that it’s the “Fullerton Inn,” not the “Fallerton.” Seriously, this guy is an accountant. Would you hire him to do your taxes?

Oh, and how could we forget the Klar Klan Kruiser, the Thayer-organized anti-critical race theory traveling circus of 2021? And of course, Thayer’s masterstroke: the CovidCruiser that took a busload of mask-free Trump defeat denialists to Washington, D.C. for the January 6 insurrection.

The guy gets around. And here he comes again, with a pair of “Townhalls” (sic) next week in Chester and Montpelier on the subject of ELECTION INTEGRITY, a.k.a. them damn Democrats are tryin’ to steal the vote!!! And just look at this Murderers’ Row of participants.

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A Couple More Tidbits from the Phil Scott Presser

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Last week’s edition of Gov. Phil Scott’s weekly bitchfest press conference centered on his opposition to the House’s FY2027 budget, which basically involved the governor defining “compromise” as “forsake your own position and do what I want,” and also featured him continuing to complain angrily about “bias” in a Vermont Labor Relations Board whose members are (1) appointed by himself and (2) bound by law to be “neutral” and “impartial.”

But there were a pair of passages that should not be allowed to fade into the impenetrable murk of Phil Pressers Past. So before we move on to new business (a competitive race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, hooray), let’s enter them into the public record.

First, we have Scott reiterating his commitment to nuclear energy, which he’s never actually proposed with any specifics because it’d be politically radioactive (see what I did there). And second, we have Scott claiming that any homeless people who are unsheltered in Vermont are doing so voluntarily. Because sleeping in a car is such an appealing lifestyle?

Let’s start with nukes. “I’ve long been a supporter of nuclear energy,” Scott said. “Even back in my days in the Senate, I voted in opposition to shutting down Vermont Yankee.”

Ah yes, Vermont Yankee, the trouble-prone, mismanaged power plant that left nuclear energy with a permanent black eye to most Vermonters. Yeah, that’s what we need: another Vermont Yankee!

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The Soft Megalomania of Phil Scott

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It’s been quite a while since I forced myself to endure one of Gov. Phil Scott’s weekly press conferences. I know, it ought to be appointment viewing for Your Political Observer, but I’m my own boss here and I feel free to follow my muse and limit the self-sacrifices. Every gubernatorial presser takes a couple nibbles out of my soul.

But after his angry, neo-Trumpian press release about this week’s Vermont Labor Relations Board decision, I felt like I had to see how he’d follow up in his weekly presser.

And boy, did he ever. It was a festival of self-pity and blamecasting. Nothing is his fault; every problem we face is because of the incompetent spendthrifts in the Democratic Legislature.

(After seeing this performance, I’ve upped the odds on whether he will seek another term; if the chances of him running were 95%, they’re now at 99. And it’s gonna be a nasty campaign, although swaddled in his famously avuncular style. He’s got such a collection of receipts to cash in, he’s gonna need at least one more election cycle to clear his cache. Hell, he might stick around out of sheer spite until we’re asked to re-elect Phil Scott’s Head in a Jar in the year 2050.)

It’s the governor as innocent bystander. Which is a real stretch, considering that he is by far the most powerful person in state government. He is the chief of an executive branch with thousands of employees. His appointees run every department and agency. The Legislature, by contrast, consists of everyday people who get paid a pittance and have little to no staff support.

Let’s count ’em, shall we? The leaders of the House and Senate have one full-time staffer apiece. Each chamber has a small central staff to handle operations and paperwork. Each committee has a single staffer. The entire Legislature has two small support operations: the Joint Fiscal Office and the Legislative Counsel. Compare that to the small army of administrators, bureaucrats and line workers at Scott’s beck and call.

He runs the joint. If he can’t find ways to work across the aisle, that’s on him. I realize it’s no fun to face Democratic majorities for nearly a decade. But it’s his job to find common ground with opposition lawmakers who, after all, have as much of a mandate as he does. He has failed to do so, and that’s why so many of our problems have gotten worse during his tenure.

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Signs of Strife in Democratic Circles

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I don’t know if there’s a fire, but there’s suddenly a hell of a lot of smoke around the Vermont Democratic Party. It’s not a great look at the beginning of a very important election season.

Within the last few days, some harsh criticism of party policies and leadership has come from four Democrats not known as troublemakers. Three are longtime Democrats who have held positions of responsibility in the party or in public office. The fourth is a respected figure in local politics whose bid for higher office had been strongly promoted by the party. The list in brief, followed by details:

  • One of the two leading Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor has accused the VDP of actively favoring the other top contender.
  • One of the Democrats’ best hopes for regaining a state Senate seat has cut short his campaign, citing “irreconcilable differences” with the party over fundraising and strategy.
  • A current Senate candidate has accused the party of violating the tradition of neutrality in primary contests and effectively selling its favor to chosen candidates.
  • A 2024 Senate hopeful says the VDP failed to deliver promised support to his candidacy through its much-touted “Coordinated Campaign.”

If one or two of these things had happened, you might chalk it off to sore losers or misunderstandings. But four, in a matter of days? That’s either a remarkable coincidence or a troubling pattern.

Now, let’s get to the particulars.

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