News
Don’t Mind Me (11/03)
I received 18% of the votes in my hometown, which is pretty good considering my budget, my means, a largely destructive press, and my time frame. I’m quite happy about that! And 14 % from Richford – awww. Thank you to everyone in every town and city who voted for me!
Don’t Mind Me (10/29)
Because everybody loves an incessant bragger… https://www.wcax.com/2020/10/21/campaign-countdown-vt-attorney-general-sec-of-state/
Seven Days Election Guide (10/01)
This weeks issue of Seven Days includes a pull out Election Guide. I love this idea and I participated – see pictures below. I think my little ad stands out – “little but prominent, small but mighty”. I think they did a great job :).
Town Meeting – Doug Hoffer for Auditor (09/30)
CCTV’s Town Meeting TV’s Auditor debate ended up being an interview of Doug Hoffer alone. I did not actually have an impression of Doug Hoffer at all before but now I think I’d call myself a fan. He came off as intelligent, thoughtful, ethical, communicative and more than competent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f-cIIpIWtA&list=PLljLFn4BZd2OI-C3GSb34MUbVS4FZ-5rv&index=2.
He talked about the cost of Health Care not going down as expected in Vermont. I just made up this chart but it is an illustration of ‘how I remember’ a point made in multiple health care courses I took at UVM (that also used a scatterplot but one that was based on the exact numbers but looked something like this)- the point being that there is a misconception that the US Health Care system is very sound. If you compare it in terms of what health care costs to what we get out of it (life expectancy) we actually fare the worst – BY FAR – in terms of the difference between these levels and in what direction (and it may have been only been comparing affluent countries or industrialized countries – I can’t recall) but in multiple classes with different professors this analysis was presented. There is a real good amount of room for improvement.
Town Meeting TV Debate (09/24)
Town Meeting TV (09/22)
CCTV’s Town Meeting TV’s Secretary of State debate will take place at 6:15 pm this Thursday (09/24). You can watch it live at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLljLFn4BZd2OI-C3GSb34MUbVS4FZ-5rv and it could also be showing live on a variety of the Vermont Access Network of TV channels (public television channels). If time permits, they will be taking questions from the public.
Town Meeting TV (09/20)
This Thursday I will be on a Secretary of State live debate on CCTV’s Town Meeting TV’s You Tube channel.
There will be at least one other candidate there. During the debate I will not be speaking of my workplace, pitting people against each other, implying any particular role in society makes someone above the law, or invalidating others’ rights. (The first three videos below are from Cris Ericson’s YouTube Channel and the last is from Vermont PBS’ ‘Vermont Votes 2016 Gubernatorial Debate.)
Martin Cohn’s ‘Meet the Candidates’ (09/15)
I really enjoyed meeting and interviewing with Martin Cohn this morning for his “Meet the Candidates” program on Brattleboro TV. See the interview here.
Thank you Brattleboro Reformer (09/12)
Thank you Brattleboro Reformer for publishing my Letter to the Editor (and moreover for calling it my vision – I like it!). I’d also seen that the Chester Telegraph had published it as well so a belated thank you to them too.
Keep Vermont Weird – Let’s go yellow.
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_of_state_(U.S._state_government)
Old News – from Bush v. Gore on Wikipedia – 2000 was also sad (08/21)
H. Brooke Paige – The Man Who Has a Tendency to Sue (08/19/20)
But besides that, he could well really be more interested in Money and Religion than Politics at all in the end. Below is a picture of part of his comments (from his personal Facebook page) on 08/15 about John Klar.
We’re good thanks.
That Time When…
That time when Jim Condos brought the wrong results to the Statehouse. What could go wrong?
Vermont’s Medical Practice Board
Here is video of a recent interview of David Herlihy, the Executive Director of Vermont’s Medical Practice Board and below are thoughts I had after watching it. https://www.vote802.com/davidherlihy
- It seems to me that there is no good reason that complaints and the actions taken or not taken can’t be anonymized (e.g. “Doctor x said/did this and Patient x said/did this…”) and posted on the website publicly. This would be a valuable check on the board itself – leading to greater accountability.
- Regarding my proposed web presence of professional service provider reviews (Seen in this video or in text format ): This functionality would lessen the need for professional service provider complaints made to boards. Citizens feel the need to provide a public service by making complaints – some of this could be served by my proposed initiative. There will surely be concerns by professional service providers – I have thoughts regarding what I imagine these would be and a valid response – 1) respondents’ (positive/neutral/negative) anonymous id will persist across responses – their history of responses across professional service providers will be visible as well and 2) I think there should be two response frameworks – one for up to six months after service provision and also one for more than six months after service provision – this way both short and long term effects of the service provision can be accounted for (if need be).
The id they get at service provision is a session id associated with the service provider and confirms the appointment was had. Their private personal id (and authentication) allows them to record their input and associate it with that appointment.
Customer reviews are necessary and expected.
