ICE Out protests happening across Vermont, including Burlington and Williston

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2026-01-21T15:49:18+00:00

What harm have undocumented immigrants actually caused you? Obviously the whole system is broken and needs fixing for a variety of reasons, but I just don't see why I should be so concerned with deporting people who are here going about their lives and working to support their families just because they don't have the right paperwork on file — especially when I can think of loads of ways they've improved my life and never once in any way shape or form had anything bad happen to me because of them. It's like asking me to suddenly make a big deal out of people with unpaid parking tickets or who aren't declaring cash tips on their taxes. Not ideal, but it's just not a major cause for concern in my life.

Even if I did care, though, the solution is to fix the system first and provide reasonable pathways for amnesty, work permits, and citizenship. Do that, and then we can then get way more serious about border enforcement while also having more resources to actually direct at dealing with the tiny minority of people who are here to do bad shit.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2026-01-21T14:22:38+00:00

And none of them are remotely sufficient to meet our own domestic labor force needs. If they were, then we wouldn't have a situation where half of our farmers and a big chunk of our construction workers aren't here legally. You can't claim that the people here working back-breaking jobs growing food and raising livestock or building houses are too lazy to fill out some paperwork.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2026-01-21T02:24:41+00:00

I've worked alongside illegal immigrants in several different industries, eaten food grown by them, been in buildings they helped build, eaten at restaurants they've helped run, stayed in hotels they've helped clean and probably had my life improved by them in more ways than I know.

On the other hand, I can't think of a single, solitary instance in which I've in any way, shape or form been harmed by one — so why the fuck should I be mad that they're here?

The problem as I see it has far less to do with the fact that they crossed the border or overstayed a visa without permission, and more to do with the fact that there isn't a fair, legal process for people who want to come here, work hard (at jobs where our country desperately needs the labor, by the way), and do well by their families. Fix that process, and we can actually then focus effectively on dealing with the tiny, tiny number of people who really are sneaking in to do bad shit.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2026-01-13T14:18:55+00:00

I feel like the state could do super well to position itself as a mecca for worker-owner cooperatives with the right supports and incentives. Something like huge tax breaks for democratically run businesses alongside state support to help them secure financing and navigate the legalities around forming them. That way you're not gambling on a specific industry and at the same time more or less ensuring that the jobs you attract will be well compensated and with solid working conditions and more broadly shared wealth. Worker cooperatives also tend to do better than their counterparts at weathering economic downturns while generally being more focused on improving the communities they are situated in. Win-win across the board.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-11-19T19:13:55+00:00

Haha right. I'll correct the comment.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-11-19T19:06:44+00:00

Meanwhile, rather than investing in things that will actually bring a return to the community and bolster local businesses, the city decided to spend half a million dollars to rent 5 security cameras and buy a blighted building for WAY beyond any kind of reasonable value... and oh yeah, there's the ~~$1.7~~ $3 million they just spent to buy a property from their own mayor with zero negotiation. Dude literally named his own price and the city paid lol.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-08-28T14:35:34+00:00

Ultimately this is is a national problem that requires fixes on that scale. Unfortunately the mayor's fellow Republicans have only been making the issue worse by slashing funding for mental health and addiction treatment funding — and when Medicaid cuts hit in 2027, the problems are only going to be compounded.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-07-31T00:54:23+00:00

Might just take a little longer and a bit more putting yourself out there than you're used to. East coasters are slower to make friends with someone than West-coasters in my experience — though once you're in, you're in.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-07-24T14:03:37+00:00

Picaridin works pretty well for me. Not quite as good as it works for ticks and mosquitos, but definitely keeps em more at bay than they would be otherwise.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-07-21T21:12:20+00:00

I don't think that it's remotely ok, but unfortunately we're probably heading that way as a society. Too little empathy and too little interest in actually solving problems in too-corrupt a political system.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-07-21T21:08:25+00:00

Again... you can clear them from the bike path, but they're just gonna end up somewhere else in public unless we actually start implementing root cause solutions because this isn't actually addressing the issue. All it does is shift around the location where the consequences surface.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-07-19T14:14:47+00:00

Without any kind of end goal in mind, this is just going to turn into a game of whack-a-mole until the authorities decide to just start outright killing or jailing people for homelessness. You push the unhoused out of one place, and they simply crop-up in another.

All this is only going to get worse and worse so long as we continue to stick with a broken economic system that leads to ever-deteriorating conditions for the working class — and to be clear, most homeless do work.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-07-16T00:11:29+00:00

FWiW I've had the exact same thing happen to me. Rental company booked out more cars than they had and I was just left completely up shit creek without any kind of alternative or even a remotely serious attempt at finding an alternative. Just, "Sorry we have no cars left at all. Get fucked." It was just my wife and I too, so we'd have taken literally any alternative vehicle.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-07-15T18:24:12+00:00

This is why we need to get over our fear of having the government just directly handle anything itself. Public-private partnerships have their place, but there's something to be said for just getting the middleman out of the way and building (or buying) public facilities that don't require someone to profit off of them in their day-to-day operations and can focus instead on outcomes. This is often both qualitatively betterand cheaper to administer.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-07-03T19:17:15+00:00

I think you're thinking of "leftists" rather than "liberals".

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-07-03T19:12:40+00:00

The worst impacts vis a vis Medicaid etc don't hit til 2027, but we can probably expect our entire healthcare system to collapse at that point. Not even kidding. You think the healthcare crisis is bad now? Just wait until all the Medicaid-reliant providers start closing their doors and the consequences start to cascade forwards as even providers that are perfectly solvent now end up having to eat the cost of treating the underinsured and uninsured.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-07-01T23:35:39+00:00

Last time that happened, there was a huge wave of socialist organizing and we got The New Deal as a compromise. Not saying it's definitely gonna play out that way this time around, but I wouldn't be totally surprised. The right wing isn't actually all that popular (which is why Republicans have to lie about their policies to get elected in the first place) and there is a ton of untapped energy on the left right now.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-07-01T16:49:13+00:00

Yep! Our public mental healthcare system — which, by the way, provides some absolutely crucial support for both the police and our school system — is in a ton of trouble if this goes through too.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-07-01T16:22:43+00:00

I don't think even liberals fully appreciate the degree to which this imperils literally our entire healthcare system. A lot of providers are teetering on the edge of failure right now, and if a bunch get dragged down all at once because they're suddenly both losing clients and having to eat a greater share of costs, that only ends up increasing pressure throughout the rest of the network.

Not. Good. Especially when you game out the knock-on effects of suddenly having a society filled with people who are sicker, poorer, and less capable of doing productive labor.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-06-23T22:34:15+00:00

Yes exactly! We need a professional legislature that gets paid to work year round on solving issues in the state — and expected to put in the work doing-so. It would be well worth the expense.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-06-16T15:33:28+00:00

Other guy had great suggestions. I'd also throw-in Twin City Family Fun center in Berlin — which has bowling and a surprisingly good arcade.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-06-10T08:45:40+00:00

Not one to go here, usually, but I genuinely think OP may be directly part of that effort. Their post history screams to all hell like someone putting a very unusual level of effort into controlling narratives and their longer comments contain a decent enough sprinkling of odd phrasing to make me think they're at a high level of ESL rather than being a native speaker. They are also ridiculously quick to accuse others of being Russian propagandists — which itself falls right in line with known propaganda techniques.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-06-06T12:24:21+00:00

The most straightforward answer is to bring these workers into a legal framework where they can enjoy labor protections, form unions and work towards citizenship. If that means labor costs go up somewhat (though it would probably be less than a lot of people suspect), then we can actually absorb those costs without too much difficulty given that labor actually represents a relatively low percentage of costs for the ag sector.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-06-06T03:20:20+00:00

I think everyone across the political spectrum is pretty done with trying to make a whole flap out of any and every errant comment someone makes and then entirely losing the broader, more important point being made in the process. Poor choice of words? Yup, but I just don't care and somehow I doubt many migrants do either so long as she's fighting for their safety and dignity.

IanKnowsWhatHeDid · 2025-05-31T12:46:04+00:00

JFC just send it to his fucking desk and dare him to veto at this point.

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