Christmas, Food, Family, and Farmers
This week, Bill and Mike discuss what we are thankful for this Christmas season: holiday meals, family gatherings, & a farmer’s independent spirit.”
Christmas, Food, Family, and Farmers
This week, Bill and Mike discuss what we are thankful for this Christmas season: holiday meals, family gatherings, & a farmer’s independent spirit.”
Planned Parenthood Wants More Taxpayer Funding
Vermont’s largest abortion provider wants the 2025 Legislature to make up a projected $8.6 million, three-year shortfall. According to the Planned Parenthood of Northern New England Action Fund PAC 2024 candidate survey, the culprit is stingy, unsympathetic state and federal government services. “In recent years, Planned Parenthood patients’ access to care has been under attack … Read more
Hoodwinked by the Public Education Blob Again!
Act 183 establishing The Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont (a name almost as convoluted as the system it’s supposed to reform) is charged by law to, among other tasks, submit “a written report containing its preliminary findings and recommendations, including short-term cost containment considerations for the 2025 legislative session, [emphasis added] on or … Read more
Climate Council Doubles Down on Carbon Taxes
While the question remains to be seen if a majority of elected legislators got the message on November 5th that Vermonters want nothing to do with home heating taxes or any other fees and charges that make life in our state more unaffordable than it already is, one entity assuredly did not get the message: the … Read more
Fallout from Ruling on Unauthorized Vaccinations
In 2021, Leo Politella’s parents were specifically assured by their local Vermont public school officials that their 6-year-old son would not be vaccinated with a novel Covid-19 vaccine at an upcoming school clinic. Leo’s father visited the school the week before to ask whether he should keep his son home the day of the vaccination … Read more
Young Republicans, Healthcare And Pork Pies
Right Side Up is a weekly radio show/podcast covering local politics in Vermont and New Hampshire. This week, Bill and Mike discuss the Young Republicans, subsidies for healthcare premiums, and … pork pies for the Christmas holiday.” Follow The ‘Grok on Rumble. Donate to the ‘Grok to keep the content coming.
Vermont’s Minimum Wage Set to Break 14$/Hour
Vermont has a law that jacks the minimum wage up every year. Either 5% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower, which makes you think the Dems running the place (for the most part) would want a bit more honesty when it comes to reporting inflation, and that’s not happening (maybe Trumps DOL will … Read more
Taxpayers Subsidize Vermonters’ Highest-In-The-Nation Health Insurance Rates
While it’s recently been announced that Vermont will have to pay the highest premiums in the nation for health insurance for 2025, much of the tab for those struggling to pay will be picked up by taxpayers. “This year, many Vermonters will be eligible for better coverage plans at lower premium costs due to increased … Read more
Ideologically Driven Electrification Mandates Make Life Unaffordable Too
Vermont’s unaffordability crisis is most visibly driven by high taxes that come directly out of our pockets: sky-high property taxes, above-average sales taxes, fees on our electric bills, the new payroll tax, etc. A “clean heat” surcharge on fuel bills would be easy to spot. But the mandates our legislators saddle local businesses with – … Read more
Girls in Montpelier Sexually Harassed By Street People
Montpelier’s Progressive-minded City Council repealed a ban on panhandling in 2018 and refused requests to ban loitering in 2019. In 2021, it adopted a “general non-involvement approach” towards emergency (read: homeless) encampments, except for those located in ‘high-sensitivity areas.’ In 2023, former City Councilor and newly elected House member Conor Casey argued on behalf of homeless city residents … Read more
Instagram page “Burlington looks like s–t” depicts Queen City homeless/drug epidemic
An Instagram page has taken the initiative to publicize some concerning imagery and videos of the Queen City’s homeless and drug epidemics. The page is crudely titled “burlington_looks_like_shxt”, it has at least 36,300 followers and more than 300 posts. There are numerous public comments. Generally, folks are upset but not surprised. Some are ready to take this … Read more
More Bad News for Unworkable Environmental Standard
Act 18, the Clean Heat Standard law, required the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to design the detailed rules for how the program’s carbon credit market would work in practice. That plan is due, and the PUC’s draft report indicates it doesn’t. Work that it. One main component of the PUC’s task is to determine who … Read more
The Freest State vs. The Least Free
We discuss the freest state vs. the least free, Education taxation, and Whether the majority misinterpreted the message from voters. Editors Note: If you have a podcast, we have an audience. Email steve@granitegrok.com for consideration. . Follow The ‘Grok on Rumble. Donate to the ‘Grok to keep the content coming.
Parents Appeal To U.S. Supreme Court After Vermont Courts Ruled Schools Can Vaccinate Kids Against Parents’ Wishes
A Vermont family whose 6-year-old son was vaccinated with an experimental Covid-19 intervention against the family’s wishes has appealed a Vermont Supreme Court ruling. The Vermont court had ruled that the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP) prohibits such claims, granting immunity to school and government personnel when they mandate vaccinations. Stunningly, the Vermont … Read more
Economic Freedom: NH No. 1, Vermont 46th.
Granite Staters have been celebrating another number one. No, it’s not the lowest tax burden, the safest state, or the lowest poverty level, though it consistently ranks best (or one of the best) for those. It is economic freedom, and New Hampshire is number one again—not just in the US but in all of North … Read more
Dem Majority Leader Blames Losses on Voters Who “Didn’t Understand”
In an interview on WVMT’s Morning Drive, the newly elected Democrat Majority Leader in the Vermont House, Lori Houghton (D-Essex), blamed their historic election losses on (drumroll) poor communications. Asked by host Kurt Wright what lessons she took from November 5th, Houghton replied, “Vermonters didn’t understand that what we passed will help them. And we … Read more
Why Are Property Taxes Absurdly High?
Sane people are puzzled over the question of how our Vermont public school system can lose roughly twenty-five percent of its student population since Act 60 “reform” in 1997, yet now cost three times as much – and return worse results for students. But conversations in the Commission on the Future of Education in Vermont … Read more
Thanksgiving Listed As a Day of Mourning …
This week, we talk about the war on Thanksgiving, how DEI is harming our students’ mental health, and how Firewood is in the government’s crosshairs.
NH Man Lucky To Be Facing Vermont Justice, VT Judge Says
A Vermont judge on November 3 told a New Hampshire man pleading guilty to nine crimes that he was lucky to be in a Vermont courtroom instead of facing sterner justice his home state. Judge Michael Kainen’s remarkable admission about Vermont’s criminal justice system was reported by Caledonian-Record editor Dana Gray in the Nov. 4 edition of … Read more
To Solve Education Funding/Quality Crisis, Look to Independent Schools
As I have noted in past observations of the Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont, this collection of special interest group lobbyists has no real desire to solve the property tax/education finance crisis facing Vermonters today. Their objective, quite to the contrary, is to keep the money flowing unhindered and unquestioned into … Read more