Pretty obvious move today. We made a donation to the brand-new Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund, launched on Thursday by a group of prominent political figures. Mostly Democrats, but Thom Lauzon, the mayor of Barre and longtime Friend of Phil, is on the “Team,” as is former Republican lawmaker turned lobbyist Patti Komline.
Oh, heck, here’s the whole list, in the order they appear on the VILDF website.
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Yeah, I think Thursday’s May Day rally on the Statehouse lawn went a little better than Wednesday’s pro-Trump “honk and wave” in Barre. I’d say the attendance was about a hundred times better, anyway. My guesstimate is that the crowd hit four figures with some room to spare. (It was impossible to capture the entire crowd in a single photo because they were so spread out.) Pretty good for a weekday afternoon.
The rally wasn’t specifically targeted at the authoritarian Trump regime as has been the case for other recent protests. Since it was May Day, the focus was on organized labor. At first I was a bit disappointed, but as the event went on, it was kind of nice not to hear the same familiar litany of terrible things our government is doing under the orange usurper.
Also, the labor movement is accustomed to fighting through setbacks and playing the long game. I mean, one speaker brought up the Haymarket affair, which occurred 139 years ago. In the context of labor’s long struggle, a few years under Trump takes on a fresh bit of perspective.
There was also a piece of well-timed good news on offer.
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Today I stopped by a “honk and wave” event in downtown Barre, held by fans of Donald Trump to mark the 100th day of his second term. And there, pictured above, is the “crowd.” About a dozen people at most.
Pretty sad, right?
They didn’t exactly get the response they were hoping for. There was plenty of rush-hour traffic at Barre’s busiest intersection, but the vast majority of drivers ignored the gathering; Once in a while, someone honked their horn in a show of support.
This was one of 11 Vermont events organized, if that’s the right word for it, by Gregory Thayer, failed Republican candidate, critical race theory scold, and sponsor of the CovidCruiser bus trip to the January 6 insurrection. Perhaps he attracted more sign-wavers at other events around the state, but the Barre event was a bust.
One more thing, which ought to embarrass any American who loves their country.
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The Democratic Legislature is looking at ways to limit, or end, an agreement allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (and other federal agencies) to house detainees at Vermont prisons. There’s a real itch for action because, well, Donald Trump’s enforcement regime is so thoroughly toxic, from the masks and the unmarked cars to the rank unconstitutionality of it all.
No argument there. But if you object to our complicity in Trump’s crackdown, what about our ongoing relationship with CoreCivic, the for-profit prison operator that’s making a fortune off Trump’s regime*? If we don’t want to be part of an arbitrary and punitive immigration enforcement system, well, isn’t CoreCivic an enthusiastic participant? Haven’t the company’s fortunes shot through the roof because of Trump?
*CoreCivic’s stock price basically doubled right after Trump’s election and has held its value since then. In spite of the Trump-triggered stock market swoon.
For those just tuning in, Vermont contracts with CoreCivic to house some of our inmates in a private prison in Mississippi. We’ve been doing this for years, with one for-profit operator or another. We’ve been told that we just don’t have enough space in our own prisons.
That may have been true in the past, but now? The numbers simply don’t add up.
So let’s end the contract, stop sending our inmates 1,400 miles from everything and everyone they know, and stop enriching an evil corporation.
Continue readingHad a bit of a busy day and almost let this slip by. But no! Today I made a donation to the Pride Center of Vermont, which I’m sure is busy as all getout what with Shitler’s war on trans folk and all.
I attended this morning’s Statehouse press conference slash rally slash call to arms in a packed Cedar Creek Room, and I’ll be writing about it. But something else has come up, and I think it’s even more urgent.
While dozens and dozens of like-minded people backstopped a group of lawmakers and advocates at the Statehouse, something very different had happened 24 hours earlier on a Franklin County dairy farm. According to a press release from Migrant Justice, agents of the U.S. Border Patrol entered the farm on Monday and dragged away eight farmworkers. The advocacy group called it “one of the largest worksite enforcement actions in recent Vermont history.”
The eight were taken to Vermont’s Northwest State Correctional Facility, which is where Mohsen Mahdawi is being held, illegally, without any charges against him.
Your taxpayer dollars at work. Doesn’t it make you feel proud to be a Vermonter?
Continue readingYesterday’s installment of “Doing Something,” my daily report on Doing Something Every Day in response to Trump’s assault on the government, democratic norms, and the rule of law, was about emails I had written to the chairs of the Vermont House and Senate Judiciary Committees. I suggested that one or both of the panels should hold hearings on how various state agencies and departments cooperate with (or are complicit in, your choice) Trump’s crackdown on people of color who are in the United States legally. I provided a starter list of questions and state agencies that should be included in such hearings.
Credit to both chairs, Sen. Nader Hashim and Rep. Martin LaLonde, for getting back to me within hours. More is likely to come, but I wanted to report back on what I’ve learned so far. Which is that neither of them needed my encouragement to become actively engaged on these issues.
Continue readingContinuing my resolution to do something every day, however big or small, to hit back at Donald Trump’s antidemocratic agenda. Today I wrote a letter to the editor of the Times Argus about the kidnapping of Mohsen Mahdawi by a gaggle of Fascist cosplayers. Not the biggest blow against the empire, but one day at a time.
This is a social media post from VTDigger spotlighting the top story in Friday’s “Final Reading,” about Vermont politicians taking a stand against a U.S. House-passed voter ID bill that would make it harder, especially for women, to register to vote. Great, fine, a nice little space-filler on Friday afternoon.
The photo features Democratic Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas and Republican Gov. Phil Scott. (The photo also sits just below the headline of “Final Reading” itself.) Here’s the problem: Copeland Hanzas is quoted in the article, but Scott does not appear. At all. No quote, not even a passing mention. In fact, not a single Republican is quoted or mentioned, while Democratic U.S. Rep. Becca Balint is quoted and Democratic Attorney General Charity Clark is mentioned.
But you combine the photo with the headline’s reference to “Vermont Leaders” panning the bill, and you come away with the distinct impression that Phil Scott is on board with this effort.
He is not. At least not publicly. But you wouldn’t realize that unless you read the article carefully and kept track of who is actually quoted.
Most people don’t even click the link, they only see the social media post. Of those who do click the link, relatively few pay close enough attention to notice the presence or absence of one “Vermont Leader.”
By using this photo, VTDigger did Phil Scott a big fat favor in terms of bolstering his “moderate” bona fides, a favor he did nothing to earn.
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Hooray, Phil Scott is going to get what he wants. Again.
Every time there’s an inflection point in the General Assistance Emergency Housing program (d/b/a the motel voucher program), it’s always the same thing. Scott takes a hard line against spending a dime more on vouchers… we get close to a mass unsheltering… and then he does a last-minute walk-back, offering a compromise to keep at least some people in the program.
But he simply cannot include everyone. Some folks just HAVE to be unsheltered. It’s like his one and only bedrock principle when it comes to vouchers. Some folks have gotta lose.
And here we are again. Scott rejected the Legislature’s move to extend winter eligibility rules through June, and later — as he always does — he offered a partial extension, which belies his supposedly principled argument against spending any more money on vouchers.
This is nothing new. So for the rest of this post, my attention turns to the Republican Senate caucus’ role in backstopping the governor, and the deeply misleading press release put out after the vote by caucus leader Sen. Scott Beck.
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The Vermont Political Observer. 