Wednesday, May 19, 2010

THE LIFEBOAT MOVEMENT IN VERMONT -- Must Watch

Something to P--- Off Everbody!

May 19, 2010, 1300 PDT -- This is my first real large talk since 2005. I held nothing back. In it, I say things that are certain to tick off almost everybody out there. That was intended. What I want now is for anybody to challenge me to back up anything that I said here on mainstream media. (Special thanks to George Galloway. You showed me how to do this.) Vermont is a very special place. It is one of only two states in U.S. history that were independent republics before voting to enter the Union. The other, of course, was Texas. I just spent almost a week in Vermont on a whirlwind tour that included major speaking engagements in Burlington, Montpelier and Brattleboro; two TV appearances (including this one); two in-studio radio interviews, and many smaller appearances at a number of venues. Vermont is unique among all the states in that, by itself, it could be made into a lifeboat as a state. I met with both the Gubernatorial (Dennis Steele) and Lt. Governor candidates as well as candidates for the state senate. As I listened to them I heard that their concerns -- as well as their emerging platform -- are taken from the pages of the collapse of human industrial civilization.

What you will see here is explosive and controversial. I guess you could say I'm really back now. It's time to bring this to a head because there is no more time to waste. From now on I will refer to the Peak Oil/Sustainability movement only as the Lifeboat Movemement, because that's what it is. It belongs to all mankind.

MCR

http://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/programs/author-and-peak-oil-activist-michael-ruppert

41 comments:

Ex Pluribus Unum said...

Am watching the video now. Have posted it elsewhere times four, and e-mailed it to my children. Thank you for "being".

Unknown said...

Mike is reiterating what is in his film "Collapse".Except,correct me if I misheard, he's saying Industrial Civilization is going over the fuel supply cliff this year,that is we will not just have another oil price spike but a permanent increase say to speculate to $200 a barrel where it will never come back down but rather increase,this would permanently end the cheap fuel regime we have had for over 100 years and do in our economies permanently. I admire his courage, if I did his stuff I'd probably be having a nervous breakdown every 6 months!This peak oil stuff is like having someone get into your mind and screw it over for ever cause its plain terrifying. The Romans must have been pretty upset when their civilization was over. Anyway hope he's wrong and the evil day comes as late as possible. But a lot is happening since 2008 and I wouldn't be surprised if he's right. Back to my safe,warm gopher hole folks.

Ex Pluribus Unum said...

How do I get more info about and sign up for CollapseNet?

I Trust My Gut said...

THANK YOU MIKE

I Shared the Link on FB, and emailed massively. Kick Ass Talk!

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting this link, Mike. Just finished watching it. My favorite "button" was your indignation toward MSM propaganda against the peak oil movement.

Some other reflections: I saw Collapse in Dec 09 (hey I paid for a theater ticket!). That seems like half a lifetime ago. Events continue to accelerate. I'm looking forward to CollapseNet.

A big heartfelt thanks to everything you do.

eternal pessimist said...

I've recently seen the movie, and am now painfully enlightened about what's really happening vs. what we're being told is happening. Thank you Mike for your commitment to this, and for helping me "think critically" about the eerie headlines we're seeing everyday.

I'll admit, I did not pay to view "Collapse", but I want to help. I've ordered the book, and want to know how I can go about donating to CollapseNet. Anyone know?

Unknown said...

hi Jenna,
my name is otis and i am interested in volunteering with the CollapseNet project. I live in Mar Vista and have many computer-related skills including web development, network admin, social media, blah blah blah.

Please contact me either through these comments or my website www.funkmeyers.com

thank you
otis

Brendan Carmody said...

Great Talk!
Been on my last (working) holiday in Vancouver, the job market here is as you would expect, I got work but the pay is not enough to cover my rent so I'm headed back to Taiwan to study Chinese (Mandarin)

Good thing is I have been talking to some people that work in student bodies (one at UBC) and have redirected them to your material with a great response

Unknown said...

Yeah okay, I guess I'll start preparing. I'll try to beat you to the punch by looking for and finding fellow Lifeboaters before CoLLapseNet or CoLLapseNetwork reaches me - I am so far behind.
Funny what having the bejesus scared out of one will do.
Thank you, Mr. Ruppert.

Tantive said...

Watching the video now. Facts and fairytales alike, they all are benefited by having you as a speaker Mike. Thanks for the video.

Paul said...

Just Like 9/11? Oil Spill Responders Are Getting Sick ... But Are Being Told They Don't Need Any Safety Gear


Has nothing changed….?

Namaste

Unknown said...

Many thanks to Mike, and also to the members of the audience, who were good enough to ask some of the very questions that occurred to me while listening.

I'm trying to reach out with these sorts of ideas to (possibly) receptive ears within and on the edges of my present-day network, and I really do hope that collapsenet will, here (=Austria) as well, prove to be a good tool for putting together networks that are fit for our very uncertain future. Austria is a weird mix of smug, self-assured rich-European-nation confidence on the one hand, and a (relatively speaking) huge organic farming sector and lots of old-fashioned craftsmanship skill and small regional/local structures (=post-collapse potential) on the other. I think that while the general potential of this country is great, the awareness of the developments being highlighted by the cutting edge of the Peak Oil/Collapse/Lifeboat movement (or of the existence of folks like Mike and the other figures we all know here) is relatively low -- although the former nobility and monastic orders of the Catholic Church, the former probably more out of tradition than for any other reason, still own vast tracts of farmland and woodland, as they always have, and certainly aren't thinking of giving that up ... they may soon be surprised to find themselves once again the masters of a revived feudal system. It's to be hoped that enough "commoners" will get wise and form a counterweight before this can happen...

Chris Roth
An American in
Vienna, Austria

Unknown said...

I've been following the blog for years, saw Collapse on movies on demand and have read Rubicon. Thanks for posting this Mike. I live in Charlotte, NC and am really looking forward to CollapseNet.

There is a really cool BBC documentary on youtube called Requiem for Detroit, don't know if you're familiar with it but I think it's worth the hour to watch.

Alana said...

I am halfway through the talk. I've already started emailing the link to friends and family and I'll be posting to my blog. All I can say is holy shit. Thanks for telling it like it is Michael.

RanD said...

"The U.S. government is not alone in ceding responsibility to the oil industry for the design of key safety features on offshore rigs, a trend coming under scrutiny worldwide following the deadly blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Across the globe, industry-driven regulation is the norm, not the exception - and critics are calling for a re-examination of a system that puts into the hands of corporations crucial safety decisions motivated by profit."

http://apnews.myway.com/
/article/20100520/D9FQGDKG0.html

The phrase "...decisions motivated by profit..." applies to ANY decision motivated by ANYONE interested in making MORE from ANYTHING that is already working perfectly.

With this Lifeboat we're ALL in it's a matter of think to-the-top or sink to-the-bottom.

Weaseldog said...

Peter David said of Mike Ruppert's talk...
"but a permanent increase say to speculate to $200 a barrel where it will never come back down but rather increase,this would permanently end the cheap fuel regime we have had for over 100 years"

I can't watch the video at this time. I'll try to watch it tonight.

I can address this assumption as written though.

Colin Campbell was saying similar things in the 1990s. When I first read the article in Scientific American, May 1998 (co writtin by Jean Laherre) called the "The End of Cheap Oil" I thought it made sense.

But as I got to thinking about it, and came to understand better how economics actually works, I came to the conclusion that we can't expect constant stability and growth in oil prices, anymore than we can expect long term stability in any other system, where growth and depletion matter.

But in the idea, is still a nugget of truth. Oil will become increasingly unaffordable, simply because as the world population continues to grow and oil supplies shrink, oil will become unavailable to an increasing percentage of the population.

In economics as taught today, the assumption would be that this rationing would be accomplished by ever increasing prices. This assumption tends to come from the idea that as oil prices rise, business and economics in general will remain unaffected. And this comes from the notions of infinite substitutability and the idea that oil is just a commodity and not the actual source of wealth in our civilization. We've been trained to think that money is the source of wealth, when in fact, wealth comes from leveraging work or labor. And oil has a huge quantity of potential to do work, in every barrel.

So my thinking was that every time supply and demand begin to close, prices would rise. The rising price would then start bankrupting businesses. This would cause supply chain interruptions, and the pain would be felt all up and down the industrial and dry goods sectors.

When enough businesses have been killed off, or forced to countries with cheaper energy, (DOW, DUPont moving to Asia), demand for oil slacks off and the price drops.

continued...

Weaseldog said...

But even with the price dropping. there is lag time before demand can pick up again. With the destruction of business, the unemployed former employees can't afford to buy gasoline in the quantities they once did. Gasoline could go back to the former price level, but when your pockets are empty, price doesn't matter. you can't buy it. $1/gal or $100/gal, doesn't matter if you don't have any money.

In this view, as we approach the peak oil plateau, I expected to see oil and gasoline prices oscillate. And with every high, to see evidence of demand destruction. This would be followed by a drop in prices and economic happy talk about how good times are back to stay.

At the peak, I expected it to begin devastating the side of the economy that actually does work.

Following the peak, I expect it to become a cycle of catastrophes.

One of the side effects of this cycle, that I expected to occur is that money would increasingly leave the industrial sector and would be used to invest in market gambling instruments.

The logic is simple.

Industrial businesses in the this view will repeatedly default on loans when fuel prices rise. Banks will soon figure out that it's stupid to loan money to businesses. Because businesses can't grow in a declining environment and repay loans with interest. But if you invest in debt leveraged on debt, leveraged on debt, then take out insurance against you losses, you can keep raking in the dough as long as the Fed is pumping out %trillions a year. The real money is in siphoning off a share from the infinite money machines.

And this is exactly what we've been seeing.

What I think we're see in the near future is an unwinding collapse of the traditional business model. Increasingly, gray and black markets will replace conventional businesses and the government will become a source of leaked goods. bought high with gov funds, then accidentally left in pasture in a trailer to be looted by friends of the people in charge of procurement.

As the traditional business models fail, the government will try to fill the void, to keep the population from rioting. People will still demand food, water and shelter. And with children suffering and folks spending less time working and watching television, you'll see people becoming increasingly belligerent. so the printing presses will be opened up again to solve this next temporary crisis. All the while, the banks will continue to post record profits from the free money the gov gives them.

There is only so long though, that even this could last.

This is all going to get very exciting.

I Trust My Gut said...

I have one question..for the posters, Mike.. anyone..

Is the Soviet Deep Well oil tech stuff that had come out a number of years ago... valid at all.. or was it really just smoke? or is it just another net energy loss?

Thank you, and I apologize if it has been answered before

I pray all that become aware..are Blessed! I also hope the IQD RI may actually happen..and a few of us..able to make final adjustments in preperation.

Unknown said...

I just searched WPTZ.com, the Burlington Vt affiliate of NBC. Nary a word on Mike's visit.

Figures.

Buddy the Cat said...

Mike-

I've watched this twice already, once after midnight and then again this morning. I've forwarded to everyone I know. One or two of them might watch.

Thank you for everything. Very much looking forward to COLLAPSENET's launch, hope it's soon.

I'll be packing up my cat and leaving here soon to go back home to Michigan, hopefully before gasoline prices go to the moon.

Jenna, thanks to you, too. You do great work. See that Mike gets my thanks, please.

Unknown said...

Would like to send a donation of some fiat money while i still can where do i send it to?Paypal ok?or i can mail Cash.

Weaseldog said...

Donald Turner, the Soviet Deep Well stuff comes out every now and then.

The idea comes from the theory of abiotic oil. A theory that still has no evidence to support it. No deposits of oil have ever been discovered that lack biological markers. IE: chemicals produced by the breakdown of algae into oil over a span of millions of years.

Further, oil breaks down into natural gas under such extreme heat and temperature. The theory doesn't explain why natural gas would climb up the energy well to form a more complex hydrocarbon with more embodied energy. It simple takes for granted, that it could happen.

This story really picks up steam when crude oil prices are high, and the project's founders are looking for a new round of investors.

Soggy Bottom said...

I have just discovered an interesting website called
odiousdebts.org
An odious debt is one that is incurred by a government or regime,(or those acting on their behalf),which does not serve the interests of the people.
In which case the 'people' are not liable for the debt.
A most interesting concept. If Wall Street and speculators around the globe were the ones to repay the trillions of dollars now owed by the people of the world, justice might be served.
Have a look and see what you all think.

Unknown said...

I'm interested what is your opinion on science community regarding "peak oil"
http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_sears_planning_for_the_end_of_oil.html

stu said...

A big heart-felt thank-you to Mike, Jenna, and Rice Farmer for all they do to keep us informed here on the blog. I finally have some of my family understanding the issue of "Peak Everything" and what's coming our way. The talk in Burlington was amazing... I really think the info is starting to sink in with people and you explain it so well. I've been following FTW and the Blog since 2003, right major combat operations in Iraq ended and WMD weren't found. I was starting to investigate why our government was so corrupt and found Mike... You truly have changed my life!

I would love to help you out as a volunteer for CollapseNet.... I didn't know all the tools you were making available and am excited to see it in action. It would truly be an honor to be of assistance as you move closer to a launch date. You have done so much to change my worldview. I have many computer skills but my primary training is in Communication and Media, Management, and Marketing. Is there an email address for CollapseNet where I could further this inquiry?

businessman said...

Brilliant talk, MCR! You seemed very at ease and comfortable in discussing subjects that clearly are not comfortable.

Anonymous said...

I love being from Vermont, it is a great place and it will be a place that can be used as an example for the rest of the world!

Jenna Orkin said...

otis
pls contact wesleytmiller@comcast.net

Jenna Orkin said...

aaron

for now, mcrfinaid@gmail.com
thx

I Trust My Gut said...

Weaseldog -

Thank you for the repsonse. I figured as much, but it was one I had been meaning to ask this blog, and the previous FTW .. for a while..

Abiotic is just smoke n mirrors

Oh ya, I thanked Mike, but not Jenna. Jenna.. thank you for your efforts on this site. I lurk..rarely post..but am better for the info ya'll deliver.

I will also parrot a previous poster above.. Mike..what a Solid Talk brother. Solid. At ease..delivering info...that contains No ease.... other than getting to watch the veil of corruption...be finally lifted.....but at such a cost /sigh regardless, I celebrate this truth, regardless of cost.
God Bless

Unknown said...

I have a good mind and excellent intuition - and gut! I am grateful to all of you for bringing Mr Ruppert and allowing us to hear him. I respect his intelligence, his eloquence, and his honesty. I purchased his movie through Itunes. Question: Is the movie translated into Spanish? other languages? Is it possible that he can profit directly if he allows in his website to come in and pay a fee to watch the movie? Then I can ask people from outside the US to watch it and pay him a fee! He is brilliand and unfortunately so right.

Unknown said...

I am so glad you are back....very nice to hear you and instructive as ever.

thanks once again......

Unknown said...

Perhaps the scariest movie I've ever seen, "Collapse" has more than any other argument or speaker moved me towards buying the Peak Oil story. This talk was particularly good, especially since Mike declared his shared economic philosophy with Ron Paul.

Lifeboat building begins today.

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

MCR, hey, gotta love the embellishment on the Intro re “…no amount of lefty, touchy-feely, feel-good, Green, kumbaya, etc.” is going to be able to soften the hit! From where in God’s world did you pick up such outrageous and blunt propaganda hooks?

If you wish to send a real political message should coLLapse be shortlisted for an Oscar, then why not tell Hollywood (and its masters) to kindly blow it out their ears?

PhilBest said...

A friend of mine who is an admirer of Ruppert persuaded me to watch this video. I typed the following comments as I watched, then expanded some points afterwards.

I would be grateful if someone would please bring these comments to the attention of Mr Ruppert himself. I respect his intelligence, and cannot say the same for most of the "peak oil" environmentalist types I encounter, including many commenters here who are certain to take exception to a lot of what I say.

First turn-off in the first few minutes of intro: the visit and speech are co-sponsored by 2 organisations with words like "global peace and justice" in their title. Translation: commie front organisations. Also, the introducers talked waffle and buzzwords.

Next few minutes: Ruppert has his head screwed on about the importance of fossil fuels to human population and progress. I don't disagree with his analysis of this.

I like his putdown of liberal PC touchy-feely kumbayah "solutions".

I like his respect for Ron Paul and libertarian economics. He has his head screwed on about the monetary system. I think, though, he has missed the conection between land regulation, housing bubbles, and the financial crises. (Ron Paul has missed this connection and so have all the libertarian economists, who all advocate a gold standard as their sole solution. This will not solve the problems caused by land supply restrictions. Interested analysts should check out what Wendell Cox, Randall O'Toole, Ed Glaeser, and Ronald Utt have been writing about this).

Ruppert has "got it" about credit default swaps - the way the few clever people left in the world are using their cleverness to profit from everyone else's stupidity. I actually am non-committal about blaming them for the problems. Stupid people and the politicians they vote for, have set up a situation in which it is almost impossible to make an HONEST million dollars. (Regulations, taxes, unions....) Then people like Ruppert grizzle because some clever people work out how to profit from this stupidity? The collapse was coming anyway, thanks to the stupidity; the greed is peripheral.

Credit default swaps actually need two to tango. One clever person bets on collapse, some other person "takes the bet". If no-one "takes the bet", the credit default swap doesn't happen. Not only are the stupid people pushing their economies into collapse, they are so ignorant about that reality, that many of them are "taking the bets" that it isn't going to happen. Ruppert puts far too much blame on the betters "on" the collapse. But he's still right about the collapse and the fact that some people are going to benefit from it. (He might be wrong about which "side of the bet" Goldman Sachs is on. They were on the wrong side last time - that is why they needed bailout money).

Note, too, that clever buyers of credit default swaps, like John Paulson and Steve Eisman, were making bets against Mortgage Backed securities PRECISELY IN THOSE AREAS WHERE LAND USE RESTRICTIONS HAD CAUSED PROPERTY PRICES TO BUBBLE. These bubbles were NOT indiscriminate - areas without tight urban limits did not have them, and Paulson and Eisman and others did not bother betting against mortgages in these areas. Texas' major cities are an outstanding example; they grew in population and economic activity without their property prices going up at all.
(TO CONTINUE)

PhilBest said...

One of the crowning absurdities of the enviro-fascist crowd telling us that we must live in apartment blocks and catch trains because of "peak oil", is this. The JOBS we might either drive to or catch trains to, simply will not exist once we can no longer run our economies on cheap fossil fuels. At least Ruppert understands this. Furthermore, it is people living in apartments who will starve to death en mass and fight and kill each other. Ruppert knows this, but he is being careful not to offend his enviro-fascist fans by telling them how intellectually feeble they are.

Ruppert says he is right 80% of the time. I think he is right about 80% of the stuff he is saying, as well.

He makes an interesting point about clever big money investors like Buffett going back to 1800's investment patterns; also about wealthy people building "fortresses" on Martha's Vineyard.

I agree with his comments about human nature, and things that come out that are "as old as mankind"; and what we are going to see eventually. Christianity has actually been the source of all the amazing blessed change in recent human history; apostasy has a lot to do with the coming tribulation.

I think this time around, gold will end up worth nothing, even if it has been a "fall-back" currency in past civilisational collapses. I note that Ruppert makes the connection between monetary folly and past civilisational collapses; he should stick to this connection regarding our civilisation too; peak oil is now a diversion from the real problem.

I like his response to the question about what government should do; "get out of the way and let us save ourselves".

I am interested that the subject of local, old nuclear reactors came up. Surely it is in the interests of the local communities to keep these running for at least local benefit? The same applies to areas that run on hydroelectricity. Enviro-fascist opposition to hydro dams in the face of the coming crisis, shows how inherently anti-human and eugenistic they are.

I think one thing Ruppert is overlooking, is what a completely totalitarian nation like China might do. While the USA might fragment into a whole lot of feudalisms, China will probably retain a government and its armed forces after murdering most of their own population, and will be able to invade and conquer at will, all the more humanitarian nations that have not imposed order like they will have.

I like his comment about more and more people becoming "scofflaws" to the banks over the money they owe; and how the next phase is that they will become scofflaws to the government.

All in all, I am pleased to have got what Ruppert stands for; I think he is a Peter Schiff/Gerald Celente/Max Keiser type with "peak oil" tacked on unnecessarily. I think he is wrong about the consequences of "peak oil", but right about the coming crash, and right about government monetary follies; why on earth he doesn't just connect the monetary follies and the coming crash and leave the peak oil out of it, I don't really understand. But my friend tells me now that "peak oil" has been Ruppert's main thing all along, so he is really now trying to connect the other stuff to his long standing predictions, when in fact, the monetary follies are what is going to destroy us BEFORE oil runout and slow, costly adaptation actually might have wrought its havoc. I think Ruppert is smart enough to have seen this crash coming, but has had to try and save his "peak oil prophet" role.

PhilBest said...

"Methanol is a net energy loser". Full marks, Ruppert.

I do think Ruppert under-rates the rebound of ecosystems after oil spills. I will go on the line here and suggest he is wrong about the eventual sum total effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil well leak.

I disagree with his connection between $147 per barrel oil and the financial crash. He has missed the essential role of the housing bubble mechanism. Incidentally, almost every nation in the first world has had its own housing bubble, caused by exactly the same thing: urban planning subsequent on global warming mania, forcing property prices up. Read the OECD Report "Birds-Eye View of Housing Markets".

It is an absurd, America-centric notion, that the whole global financial crisis is a consequence of the Wall Street crash. Every nation is in trouble today to the extent that ITS government had failed to balance its books, and to the extent that its property prices had been forced into bubble situations by urban planning. While events on Wall Street may have been a trigger, Ireland, Greece, Spain et al would have "got theirs" anyway before long.

Ruppert is right about government bonds and risk and interest rates. We have only got to the point we have so far, because people are so stupid about this. When the penny drops, there will be a HUUUUGE crash in the "government bond" bubble. I enjoy Ruppert's comment about people who "deserve to be Darwinially selected against".

What Ruppert has missed about the price of oil per barrell, is that this does not flow on proportionally to "pump prices" of petrol. Most of the "pump price" is refining, handling, profit, taxes, etc.

I am impressed that Ruppert is up to date about the "Chinese bubble" (including Chinese real estate). But he has left out what Newt Gingrich has called the "Government Bubble".

I think his predictions might be right, about the crash that is about to come, but I think his underlying reasons for it are wrong.

I think he is talking to the wrong people about how to "build a lifeboat" - he needs to be talking to the "gun freedom" people, not the touchy-feely organic commune people.

He doesn't seem to have got the connection between Nanny State, tax-and-spend governments and economic unsustainability. California is about to collapse, Texas is not. I suspect he is a bit of a liberal lefty, or has some other reason for despising "freedom" States like Texas, and is therefore reluctant to admit this reality. "Peak Oil" is just a diversion from the REAL reasons for the coming collapse.

All of a sudden, he starts talking about high-tech answers to the oil runout problem, and how we need to "share the knowledge". But the collapse is coming because of tax-and-spend, big government; high tech solutions to oil runout are peripheral. I actually think "peak oil" is peripheral. Because, oil prices per barrel are not pump prices; and because coal-to-oil is viable; South Africa runs on this already. He does not suggest South Africa is not going to collapse because of this advantage.

I like his comments about useless young people who don't know anything about the real world or anything practical.

I agree about the insufficiency of police and troops to actually impose martial law in the final collapse.

He talks about people's survival strategies differing by the region where they live. But he fails to condemn the last few years of urban planning forcing people to live at high density. Although this mania has been based on ideas LIKE his about peak oil, this is exactly the opposite to the real solution, as I have said before. Ruppert should dissociate himself from it and condemn it.
(TO CONTINUE)

The Prudent Prepper said...

Thank you, Michael!!! Loving the tone of this talk. Shared it on my Facebook. Keep it real, buddy. I'm doing my damndest to put a new-paradigm lifeboat together in my area. Here's to the future... (Clicks glasses.) Love you, bro.

The Prudent Prepper said...

P.S.

As painful as the collapse of industrial civilization is, it's our best bet for avoiding the collapse of the BIOSPHERE. If the biosphere collapses in earnest, you might as well light up a joint and wait for the jackals...

Alejandro said...

Hi.

Someone in the audience asked you what would happen if the Internet collapses, your answer is about cyberattacks, My concern would be: large parts of Internet traffic is done through private "backbones" what if those companies fail? Will the smaller ones keep up with the traffic? Will they be able to pay their huge energy bills when the oil price rise dominoes electricity costs? Web server farms have huge power requirements. (Rice Farmer, May 24, 2010) What if the satellite companies go bust?

IMHO, it would be good to develop alternative, descentralized, local, non-online lifeboat chapters.

Matt said...

If anyone wants to learn more about the VT secession movement (or perhaps would like to throw a few Federal Reserve Notes our way), check out http://www.governorsteele.com and http://www.vermont30.net

We can use all the help we can get in our attempt to "lifeboat" Vermont...