What if Vermont treated surplus money like capital instead of a buy-down band-aid? $118M + $75M could build housing, be sold, reinvested, and scaled. Assets compound. One-time buy-downs don’t.

Frost writes lace on barns more intricate than any hand could weave.

Giant frosted mini wheats for breakfast.

Imagine if the previous $118M property tax buy-down and the proposed $75M buy-down were used to build housing instead. The state could build, sell, reinvest, and repeat…creating permanent value instead of lighting cash on fire.

Today's comic strip is all about grifters and wise men. Check out my newsletter for more comics.

Is there a moral difference between farming the land and farming attention? Asking for a friend.

true wisdom in giving comes from sacrifice, not material value

If teens get pushed off mainstream apps, where does their creativity go next? Zines, group chats, or somewhere wilder?

Hope. Stupid, reckless, annoying hope. Still breathing in the corner.

Year-end recaps would some times be fun. This year feels downright traumatic.

It’s not only a Vermont problem, but the problem is much more dire in Vermont.

I’m working on my annual “how much money the farm made” video. What questions do you want me to try to answer this year?

If the system’s broken, it’s because somebody’s getting paid every time it doesn’t work.

Pablo Barn Cat is cranky this #caturday

Looking for a way to get into the holiday spirit? I made a 2025 retelling of a Christmas Carol. substack.com/@morgangold/...

It’s ironic that the first photo I’ve ever seen of Noam Chomsky smiling makes me so friggin’ sad.

“We intend to continue to grow in Vermont,” CEO Kyle Clark said. “The nucleus will stay here.”

Just had an awesome conversation with the guys over at the Homestead Shop Talk Podcast. They're such a good bunch of dudes. It was so much fun hanging out with them again. youtu.be/52WckohYA4U?...

Elevators hold strangers who all agree to pretend mirrors are more interesting than faces.

Last year, I started closing all my browser tabs before I went to bed at night. It made such a difference in how I view the world.

Racism can be profitable...

This isn’t an “I hate Vermont” piece. It’s “I love this place enough to be honest about where it’s heading.” If you care about rural places, I think this will resonate beyond one small state. open.substack.com/pub/morgango...

I love the state of Vermont. I also think it’s on a path that doesn’t pencil out. Demographics, housing, taxes, schools…they’re all part of the same story. I tried to tell that story here.

This is appalling

Let's talk about The Green Mountain Death Spiral and why Vermont has become unlivable for regular folks youtu.be/quXxp-smWfo

Working on a new video about Vermont. I got to go back to my childhood comic-drawing roots and make a Simpsons rip-off, just like I used to when I was 12.

Why I Can’t Leave Vermont By Anonymous Oh how I love Vermont When the snow’s up to your butt You take a breath of winter air And your nose, it freezes shut. Yes, the weather here is wonderful So I guess I’ll hang around. I could never leave Vermont Cause I’m frozen to the ground.

Frostbite nips my fingers until they feel borrowed, like they don’t belong to me.

New comic out today. A Christmas Carol that I think a lot of folks can relate to in 2025.

Bingo, Bluey and Pablo

Drew some Sunday funnies this morning. If you want more comic weirdness, you should check out my email newsletter.

Karen’s and Cairns

Financialize everything.

Boss makes a dollar. I make a dime. That’s why I poop on the company time. 

The gang’s all here

Anyone can bang on a vending machine. What they can’t do is convince me that knowing exactly how to bang on it to get a Twix is a culinary art.

New comic and essay today explores the frustration things like Spotify wrapped and why it makes us so mad when we feel like we’re being misunderstood by robots. open.substack.com/pub/morgango...

New album just dropped

It’s called being overclocked in the wrong directions: encyclopedic knowledge of medieval agrarian policy, zero ability to remember why you just opened the fridge.

Next week’s Substack comic is a Christmas Carol.

Meatloaf water boards himself.

Holiday music review (2 of 25) “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is a kickoff anthem. The sound of a million holiday shopping season montages, I t’s best heard in the kitchen when doing the Thanksgiving dishes. The deeper into the season you get, the more it starts to spoil.

From my latest weekly comic strip… And yeah, the cat drawing was Ginny-based. open.substack.com/pub/morgango...

When accommodations boost performance instead of just access, people will game them. Build exams like ramps. Everyone can use the ramp. Wheelchair users just need it to get in. It doesn’t make them faster.

I’m slowly realizing my posts have the tone of: What if Wendell Berry had intrusive thoughts?

Gotta file this one away for next year’s annual bad faith “Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Price” discourse.

Cue the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song...

It’s time to discuss the old man’s retirement plans. youtu.be/sDQlObDXyYQ

What gets me is how many folks want that information because they’re trying to make one big, fragile decision about where to live. The platform looked at that need and said, “Yeah, but what if we helped make more closings?” That’s a specific kind of sad.

In 30 years, children will look at old music videos and whisper, “People weren’t scared of that?”