Immigrants are "canaries in the coalmine" said Jill Martin Diaz of Vt Asylum Assistance. They're "a microcosm for what could happen to our democracy if left unchecked, not just for noncitizens, but for everyone” -- Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/09/10/v...

"We shouldn’t trust what’s coming out of the CDC" - pediatrician Dr. Becca Bell @rebeccabellmd.bsky.social on Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/09/03/v...

“There is one good thing happening that actually has the capacity to help not only with the climate crisis but also with the crisis of inequality and democracy” - @billmckibben.bsky.social on Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/08/27/v...

Excellent & chilling analysis of where we are by @vermontgmg.bsky.social

"There were a lot of lies that were peddled by the administration and by my Republican colleagues,” said @senpeterwelch.govpeeps.us, noting that Trump's budget will cost the average Vt family over $2k annually - Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/08/13/v...

“I was flagged and put on some sort of list before I even arrived at that airport,” Chavarria said.

"This is not North Korea taking you into an interrogation room. This is your own U.S. government that’s supposed to be there to protect you” - School Superintendent Wilmer Chavarria on being detained at the US border, on Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/08/06/v...

“There is no preordained rule that America remains a democracy,” said Garrett Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social on the Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/07/30/v...

My story in today's @nytimes.com about an iconic Maine town torn apart by immigration & ICE www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/t...

President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ includes a provision to defund the organization. “It’s about abortion. It’s about controlling people and their ability to make decisions and decide when to have a family,” Clegg said.

In a rare moment of honesty, Dr Oz introduces himself to the world (screenshot of an actual email that I just received)

Vermont Conversation: Sociologist Arlie Hochschild on the rise of the right in rural America - @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/07/09/v...

I covered civil unions and marriage equality in VT for @motherjones.com back in 2000 & 2009. For the 25th anniversary of civil unions, I spoke again with the plaintiffs, Gov. Howard Dean & Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy. They are all concerned that LGBTQ rights won then may soon be lost.

"This is about white supremacy" – Rep. Becca Balint @balint.house.gov on fighting the Trump administration - on The Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/06/25/v...

“I just hope that we’re a country that decides to make sure our people are cared for, rather than giving money to the highest wealth individuals in this country through tax breaks” - on Vermont Conversation vtdigger.org/2025/06/11/v...

"We’re living at a time with fascism on the rise all over the world, a crackdown on truth telling by those in power who do not find the truth convenient" - filmmaker Eugene Jarecki on Julian Assange and the crackdown on truth - Vt Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/06/04/v...

Jasper Hill Farm's Mateo Kehler says that Canadian boycott of American goods caused Canadian cheese sales to go "from gangbusters to a zippo in just the span of a month. It's been a disaster” - on Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/05/28/v...

They just can't quit Trump...even when he screws them. “All the dairy farmers who voted for Trump were under the impression they weren’t going to come on farms and take our guys. This wasn’t supposed to happen.’" But he would vote for him again. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/22/m...

Music is “a respite from all of the difficult stuff that’s going on in the world and the news. We’re offering a kind of salve for the soul." - Grammy-nominated flutist Karen Kevra on Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/05/21/v...

Headline at left, from 'Independent' in UK. Headline at right, from "most prestigious" news org in US. -Hard to believe they're about same event. -All too easy to believe that NYT again went with sane-washing.

“These concerts are kind of a respite from all of the difficult stuff that’s going on in the world and the news. We’re offering a kind of salve for the soul”- Flutist Karen Kevra on The Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social Digger vtdigger.org/2025/05/21/v...

I was in prison, but I was not imprisoned. I refuse to be silenced" - Mohsen Madawi, @columbiauniversity.bsky.social student freed after 2 weeks in Trump's immigration gulag speaks on Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/05/14/v...

"You’re not alone. There are many other people who are like you, feeling afraid from the direction that politics is going in this country. In every situation of darkness, there is always light" - Mohsen Mahdawi on Vt Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/05/14/v...

Remember when the UK took a sledgehammer to Oxford and France crippled the Sorbonne? No...because democracies support higher ed, not destroy it. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/13/m...

A judge in Vermont has ordered Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk immediately released from ICE detention. Öztürk has been held in a notorious prison in Louisiana. She still faces the threat of deportation, apparently in retaliation for co-authoring a piece for her student newspaper about Gaza.

Vt Attorney General Charity Clark sues Donald Trump and warns ‘there are consequences’ for defying courts - Vermont Conversation on @vtdigger.bsky.social @vtattorneygeneral.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/05/07/v...

BREAKING: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump administration’s attempt to delay Rümeysa Öztürk’s transfer to Vermont. The government must now move Rümeysa from a Louisiana detention center to a facility in Vermont within one week. We won’t stop fighting until Rümeysa is free.

A powerful story well told by the incomparable Erica Heilman @rumblestrip.bsky.social about two communities, one in VT & the other in Quebec, picking up the pieces after an authoritarian incursion

“When you’re not part of the same ‘despised minority’ but you say it’s wrong to have discrimination against them, you get attacked as well. [Vt Legislators] chose to stand up. That girds my hopefulness” - Bill Lippert on Vt Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/04/30/v...

On releasing Mohsen Madahwi, judge compared the recent period of migrants and immigrants being detained to the era of McCarthyism and the infamous "Red Scare," saying that those periods in American history are not ones we should be proud of. www.mynbc5.com/article/mohs...

Mohsen Mahdawi was detained earlier this month by federal immigration authorities after attempting to complete the process of becoming an American citizen.

"It is screamingly obvious that antisemitism is just a pretext to attack liberal institutions. Trump and his allies have mainstreamed antisemitism to an astonishing degree." www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/o...

I always enjoy talking with David.

ICE attempted to quickly fly Mahdawi to La. but they missed the flight after he asked to use the bathroom. "ICE agents’ faces fell when they were notified that a judge had granted an emergency motion that stopped the government from moving him out of Vt." www.sevendaysvt.com/news/palesti...

“Authoritarian movements do not persuade with arguments. They bludgeon with images” - Journalist & chronicler of the far right @jeffsharlet.bsky.social talks American fascism -- on Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/04/23/v...

“Everything Trump has said he was going to do, he has attempted to do. It’s time to lay aside the ‘this is just negotiating tactics’. He’s going to negotiate us right down into full fascism.”

Grabbing people off the street by masked plainclothes officers “absolutely bears many of the hallmarks of a kidnapping,” said Lia Ernst, legal director of the ACLU of Vermont, who is on Rümeysa Öztürk’s legal team.

Grabbing people off the street by masked plainclothes officers “absolutely bears many of the hallmarks of a kidnapping,” said Lia Ernst of @acluvermont.bsky.social on Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/04/16/v...

"We are seeing the unwinding of our constitutional system & a collective failure of checks and balances across the board” - Journalist Garrett Graff on Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/04/09/v...

“When disinformation comes from the top, whether it be the HHS secretary or president, it has an impact and it makes our job much harder" - Retiring Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine on threats to public health, on VT Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/04/02/v...

Powerful must-listen reporting by Ariel Goodman on Latino USA 15 Days in Guantánamo - Latino USA www.latinousa.org/2025/03/28/1...

“Thanks to our ambassador, the Trump delegates will have an encounter with Greenlandic nature that they won’t soon forget.” The ambassador’s plans for the visitors include lunch. www.borowitzreport.com/p/greenland-...

Unchecked capitalism has led to “the collapse of our environment, a very hostile climate, and the unraveling of our social fabric" - Ex-Ben & Jerrys leader Will Patten on Vermont Conversation at @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/03/19/v...

"We cannot remain silent in the face of authoritarian attacks on our peers, even if they have not yet come for us." www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Vermont Conversation: ‘Another World is Possible’, says journalist Natasha Hakimi Zapata vtdigger.org/2025/03/12/v...

"President Zelensky is just a chip to be traded, and it looks like the (Trump) administration will be perfectly happy for the war to end on Russia’s terms,” said Yaroslav Trofimov, chief foreign correspondent of @wsj.com on Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/03/05/v...

“When I show up in a space that has traditionally not seen someone like me in that space, I am sending a message, and it’s not always easy. Nature is for everybody." - Mirna "The Mirnavator" Valerio on The Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/02/26/v...

My story in today's NY Times about Bolton Valley, a small ski area saved by committed locals and an iconic ski family. Downhill skiing brought this ski area to life, now backcountry skiing is helping to ensure its future. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/t...

"“Most people who leave their countries to come here don’t leave because they want to" - An asylum story on Vermont Conversation @vtdigger vtdigger.org/2025/02/12/v...

ACLU leader on how freedom and unity will overcome fear and division - the latest Vermont Conversation @vtdigger.bsky.social vtdigger.org/2025/02/05/v...