The Free Vermont "Israeli Mafia" Problem

One of the recurring issues to face what's been described by former "Vermont Commons" publisher, Ian Baldwin, as the "small community of secessionist(s)" in Vermont, is how to manage the self-inficted image baggage that they've been lugging around for nearly four years.

During that time, the baas of the Second Vermont Republic, Thomas Naylor [1] [2] , has made it a point to maintain his "street cred" with the national Holocaust denial crowd by issuing a series of virulently anti-Israeli essays. They've been so well received at anti-Semitic websites that they can still be found on them years later; here's one titled, "Vermont Secession Movement Gets The Jews".

Recently divulged by The Source is this communication from Free Vermont and SVR propaganda minister, Rob Williams

"I realize that the Israel plank is near and dear to Thomas (Naylor) and he'll no doubt mail me another pointed letter scrawled in green pen with more information about the US-Israel connection and tell me that, because I am raising questions here, he will decide to push the Israeli Mafia phrase even more.

However, Thomas is not running for office. You are.

And, the thing is I agree with Thomas re Israel.

I just don't think it makes much sense to use Israeli Mafia as a
talking point for a Vermont independence campaign.

Why? Three reasons immediately come to mind:

1. Since most Americans have been conditioned by years of corporate media training to associate anti-Israeli sentiment with Anti Semitism, talking about the Israeli Mafia smacks of antiSemitism blah blah. Holocaust, SVR are racists, etc ad nauseum. I have spent 4 years defusing the SVR/LOS nonsense and it is finally done, even in the blogosphere. Why go there again?

2. More importantly, why not keep our eye on the ball the United States?

3. Finally, the Israeli Mafia phrase sounds canned when it comes out of your mouth. Everything else you say sounds like Dennis Steele talking, and kicking ass."

Uh, "kicking ass," Rob? More like he's been "pounding sand." Taking advice from a wannabe political guru like Williams, who is so politically tone deaf that he's now added "antiSemitism(sic) blah blah" to his list of truly dumb statements. Definitely up there with his "Don't Ask, Don't Care" attitude about the racialist attitudes of a present sitting advisory board member of SVR and Naylor's ceaseless interaction with League of the South trash and Holocaust deniers like James Edwards. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

And as for "defusing the SVR/LOS nonsense" as being a "finally done" deal, "even in the blogosphere," well, not by a longshot, Rob, not by a very long shot.

I never can say goodbye, boy.

Kirkpatrick Sale's Gaff(e)

Updated below on 9.29.10

"The Godfather" of the secession movement, such as it is, and head of the Middlebury Institute "think tank," Kirkpatrick Sale, has a years long history of allying with the white supremacist group, League of the South [1] . He runs a tight crew and is not one to take independence streaks lightly, at least not from those that he sees as his minions.

Here's a priceless divulgence that's come from The Source wherein not only does Sale crap all over a Canadian secessionist counterpart, Sebastian Ronin, who's something of a Fredo type character from what I've been able to find, he also then takes a nasty swipe at Harold Thomas' Ohio Republic blog. Harold's essentially a one-man band who's like a gerbil in a wheel, spitting out worthless posts about secession-is-just-around-the-corner almost daily, which is a helluva lot more than "Don" Sale can say. Otherwise, Harold's a decent, well-meaning sort who doesn't deserve such contempt from an equally ineffectual blowhard like Sale.

Sale was responding to an inquiry regarding Ronin's idea to gather "everybody together under a single umbrella" organization.

What's so telling in all of this backstabbing by Sale is what Sale is saying about the real state of the secession movement in this communication from him to his fellow flounderers:

"There have been three North American Secessionist Congresses (NOT conference - a congress implies delegates from real organizations, which is what we strove for) under the auspices of the Middlebury Institute. I decided not to have a fourth this year since I wanted to gauge the movement and find out which groups were real and active and which were only websites and individual toys.

Ronin stepped in last year and proclaimed this 2019(sic) congress, without consulting me or as far as I can see anyone else. He has no real organization, and the experience Thomas (Naylor) and I had with him when he spoke badly at the congress in New Hampshire suggests that he's a loose cannon and an uncollegial type out for his own self-hype.

I would suggest that we have nothing to do with his call for a congress--and indeed I see no sign of any real group supporting him. He has one ally in Ohio, but that's another website individual, not a real secessionist organization.

If I see signs of a revival of secessionist activity, by real groups that are active in recruiting and mobilizing, I will certainly call another congress. At the moment I don't judge the activity sufficient to warrant that, and I think it would be a mistake to waste any energy on Ronin's self-aggrandizing scheme.

That's my opinion.

Regards,
Kirkpatrick

Kirkpatrick Sale
Director, Middlebury Institute
MiddleburyInstitute.org
JKELAS@aol.com"

Three months later Sale published a more rosy assessment of secession at that weird Lew Rockwell website, but his candor in the communication above really says it all. Funny thing though is that in the Lew Rockwell piece Sale seems to like what one-man websites are doing - you know, like Thomas Naylor's one-man website and "think tank," Second Vermont Republic. Perhaps Sebastion Ronin and Harold Thomas just haven't been obsequious enough for Sale's liking.

In all probability Rob Williams' knew of Sale's self-important message, it did not make it into "Vermont Commons" Fall edition. Of course that shouldn't be surprising since truth isn't the underlying mission of a propaganda outlet like VTCommons. Instead, its ever-present "secession is just over the horizon" message was repeatedly spat out again and again in the VTCommons Fall 2010 edition.

Update: 9.29.10



Oh dear, Arnold, er Rob. I've touched a nerve, no,? You're that desperate? Spelling error? That's all you got? All you have with that is a hint of my past life. Fishing is what I still do and I think you know I've gotten a nice haul. Oddly, Herr Döktor, you even lack the sense to know that when applied to a movement political whore like Sale, the definition is of the Kinsley sort, as in,

"A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth."

You see, Rob, here in the blogosphere, when someone who is himself prone to spelling errors plays "gotcha" at that level, and scuttles out from their self-imposed walk-away to play that card and nothing else, it's a given that they've got nothing else. The edit correction to the title should give you something diversionary to talk about at the next circle jerk, er, campaign strategy session.

No, the crap you published by Sale is nothing more than the same secession-is-just-over-the-cliff stuff you've been peddling for years and of the sort he posted to the other crazies at Lew Rockwell that I mentioned. Nothing at your journal by him that corresponded to what I posted, so there was no reason to link to it. But you keep doing that ineffectual proganda thing of yours and let's just see how many votes short of 60,000 Naylor "extrapolated" that translates into.

Interesting though that you didn't link to my post so that the rest of the Sweathogs could read what I said for themselves. Oh, well. With a movement organization that couldn't fill a small classroom, I guess it's important for you to keep them from running from the building should they find out that you've been deceiving them.

I'm glad that you, Matt and the rest of Naylor's flying monkeys still have time, despite the weighty demands of campaigning, to stop by and read this blog. You might want to continue with that since there is so much more to come.

Coming Attractions

I know. I know. Everyone hates a tease but in this instance there's just so much coming in over the transom that I wanted occasional visitors to be aware that much more is in the pipeline coming from The Source.

Thomas Naylor, the Second Vermont Republic's baas, has more than just a perception problem because of his longtime association with League of the South founder and head of Abbeville Institute (named after the South Carolina birthplace of John C. Calhoun, the slavery and states’ rights advocate [1] ), Donald Livingston, who has served for many years on the advisory board for the SVR. [2]

Naylor's next problem will be dealing with a remarkably candid revelation that's been made by Kirkpatrick Sale, who partners with Naylor via the SVR and Middlebury Institute "think tanks," about the state of secessionist affairs in the movement, and, no, I'm not talking about the puff piece he did for LewRockwell.com, whose founder "promotes a type of Darwinian view of society in which elites are seen as natural and any intervention by the government on behalf of social justice is destructive." [3] The more that you learn about Naylor and Sale, the more it's clear that they see themselves as the elites.

Check back tomorrow. It's going to be more than worth it.

Of Petitions and Polls

By now most readers have heard me comment at length about Second Vermont Republic's Thomas Naylor's methodologically flawed polls. If you haven't, check out the polling box in the right column.

Rob Williams, the propaganda minister for the would-be rulers of the future Second Vermont Republic and High Poobah for the secessionist rag, "Vermont Commons" set up a petition back in March devoted to getting signers for a petition to free Vermont, or some such nonsense. As of Sunday, September 26, 2010, there're an overwhelming 39 signators for his petition (40 if you count the guy who signed twice as from CA and VT), 25% of whom don't live here and, it seems, more than half of the rest are the usual suspects comprised of VTCommons bloggers, well-known local secession dead-enders and some, but by no means all, of the 10 candidates supposedly running on the secession ticket. Hell, Vermont secessionist gubernatorial candidate and Connecticut native, Dennis Steele, as well as his campaign manager, Matthew Cropp, haven't bothered to sign it! [1]


"The 39." I kid you not. 39 signers in six months (not counting the guy who signed twice). Here they are:

#40 16:14, Sep 22, Darick Duquette, VT

#39 04:44, Sep 21, Greg Fox, VT

#38 12:18, Sep 18, Eric Rosenbloom, VT.

#37 09:52, Sep 18, Tina Tarani, OR

#36 10:08, Sep 07, Denny Lane, VT

#35 17:07, Sep 02, Preston Wright, NY

#34 08:22, Aug 17, Adam Mitchell, VT

#33 17:58, Aug 12, Jeff Ramsey, VT

#32 18:20, Aug 11, Steve Miller, VT

#31 00:41, Aug 10, Diana Licht, VT

#30 19:03, Aug 08, John Gelineau, VT

#29 03:15, Aug 08, Christopher Mattogno, VT

#28 12:53, Jul 29, Antonio Paoletti, Italy

#27 00:36, Jul 23, George Loehwing, VT

#26 13:58, Jul 16, Charles Sebrell, NC

#25 08:04, Jul 13, Wes Dunn, VT

#24 13:25, Jul 07, Shaun Sintic, NJ

#23 07:13, Jul 04, William Fielding, VT

#22 06:46, Jul 04, Sam Shulman, VT

#21 08:32, Jul 01, Cheryl Diersch, VT

#20 05:47, Jun 30, William Ritke-Jones, VT

#19 08:44, Jun 28, Alec Chalmers, VT.

#18 14:53, Jun 23, Peter McDonald, VT

#17 14:05, Jun 11, Chellis Glendinning, Bolivia.

#16 21:56, May 19, Hector Labbé, Canada

#15 04:59, May 13, Christopher Sol Cruz, MA

#14 18:32, May 09, Charles Sebrell, FL

#13 10:40, May 08, Name not displayed, NC

#12 16:54, Apr 28, Rusty Shackleford, VT

#11 16:52, Apr 28, Rusty Shackleford, CA

#10 12:24, Apr 23, Timothy Lebron, VT

#9 05:34, Apr 23, Maria Korogodsky, VT

#8 19:37, Apr 22, Robert Wagner, VT

#7 11:37, Apr 22, bailey osborne, VT

#6 18:23, Mar 26, Ian Baldwin, VT

#5 15:26, Mar 26, Dennis Morrisseau, VT

#4 14:14, Mar 26, Susie Snow, VT

#3 13:58, Mar 26, Rob Williams, VT

#2 12:55, Mar 26, Cameron Chapman, VT

#1 12:04, Mar 26, Timothy Guiles, VT

Is it any wonder then that I've learned via The Source that former VTCommons publisher, Ian Baldwin, refers to the Free Vermont crowd as "our small community of secessionists."

No doubt, Dennis Steele's backwoods, low-end George Stephanopoulos, Matthew Cropp, who seems also to be afflicted with the Vermont secessionist recessive gene, will plant his foot firmly on his... (well, you know... best to leave the overt, potty mouth stuff to my rumored alter ego) and spin this as a harbinger of the great, great things yet to come since "the only way is up!" Yazz!!!

A neo-Confederacy of Dunces

The chief cook and bottle washer at the propaganda rag "Vermont Commons", Rob Williams, has responded to my request that he show a specific lie on this blog and, as always, like the evasive weasel he seems comfortable to be seen as, he's dodged the request in that full-of-himself manner he favors.

Rather than directly address the request, he spins off into the usual dissembling - read it here. Like Rob, I've been busy and there are a number of other fish to fry. My earlier response was obviously not clear enough. Let's try this: You and I aren't ever going to meet along the lines that you'd like to dictate. Ever. Can you hear me now?

Second: Happy birthday. I hope it'll be a memorable one for you. Since one of your Senate candidates has crowed that Connecticut native, Dennis Steele, will take the majority of gubernatorial votes in the Northeast Kingdom, I'm sure that you're already planning for another shindig in Waitsfield.

Now, if it's true that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, your latest post is a big, long, sloppy, wet one, but the Joseph Goebbels-Big Lie stuff? That'd be over-the-top, even for me. Since you're the Propaganda Minister, and Senate candidate Dennis Morrisseau calls himself the Foreign Minister, and the other Senate candidate, Gaelan Brown, has taken a shine to being appointed the Minister of Commerce and Energy, how 'bout, since we're getting all chatty now, I just call you Herr Döktor - then the circle of Godwin's Law will be complete, no?

As you may by now have probably gathered, but just in case you're too busy to get the obvious, someone's been talking. Lots of locally grown beans are getting spilled.

I'm going to be a very busy blogger.

Thanks for the advice, er, warning regarding "an independent journalist" who's interested in my take on your clown car of candidates. Still waiting on that, but why don't you save her some time and suggest that she read the blog. It's all here.

He's Baaack!

Che Guevara's back in Thomas Naylor's seedy bag of tricks - I kid you not.

Second Vermont Republic founder and the neo-Confederacy's BFF, Thomas "The Magnolia Vermonter" Naylor, has churned out yet another tedious, repetitive secession independence liberación stump speech in which he resurrects, if not quite reanimates, his fallen, murderous hero, El Che.

Naylor closes his drawn-out harangue with one of his predictably stale bromides combined with this weirdly incongruous Che quote:

"Since 'the Gods of the Empire are not the Gods of Vermont,' we should do as Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara once said, 'Be realistic, demand the impossible.'" [1]

He may still be honing his "new and improved" message but he really hasn't helped the optics so much by ditching the Che flag and embracing the murderous Che's muddled, uh, wisdom.

Naylor might best be advised to just consider that "realistic" bit on its own. El Comandante Castro's recent statement on such has shaken the liberación world:

"The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." [2]

Naylor might then want to consider joining us in the 21st century by waking up to smell el café revolucionario. No one's buying it anymore and it is, in truth, very old and stale.

It's Time For Rob Williams To Put Up or Shut Up

Second Vermont Republic propaganda minister and publisher of its card stacking journal, "Vermont Commons", said six days ago that this blog is guilty of "a series of... posts full of so many lies," while at the same time asking that I participate in a thinly veiled effort by him to normalize his small group through joining him in an unnecessary, staged event. [1]

Williams has been asked that he "post one real lie that (he) claim's been posted here on Vermont Secession" and for six days he's remained silent. Odd when you consider how pissy he got when six hours elapsed from his invite, to the blow-off.

Williams wasn't asked for every one of the "lies," since he says there're so many that he "confess(es) to having lost track of them all."

Really, just one will do, Rob. Otherwise, if you can't cite one, you're nothing more than the shill and propagrandist for a failing effort to politically swindle the people of Vermont, capable of little more than glittery generalities.

And of course, who then really is the liar?

"Guilt By Association"

Remember when the Second Vermont Republic founder, Thomas Naylor, used to rave on about being tarred with the "guilt by association" brush? Seems he was against "guilt by association" when he felt his lo-o-ongtime connection to racist and white supremacist groups like the League of the South, a group from which he drew a number of early and continuing advisory board members, was being used to "(tarnish) the Second Vermont Republic’s reputation." [1] Naylor's leveled the same "guilt by association" charge against Seven Day's Shay Totten. [2] He's complained that the Southern Poverty Law Center has guilted him by his associations [3] , along with whining similarly about this and other blogs. [4]

Literally wrapping his supposedly anti-war self in the flag (a war flag associated with Vermont military institutions for more than two hundred years [5] and even now being carried into battle in Afghanistan and Iraq by units of the Vermont National Guard as its regimental flag), Naylor seems to never let an opportunity slip past to show what a duplicitous hypocrite he's capable of being. Naylor has put up a post criticising Vermont Republican gubernatorial candidate, Brian Dubie, for the "the company... he keeps." Naylor's anointed candidate for the same post, Connecticut native Dennis Steele, has launched his "I Don't Get No Respect" tour of the state for this week [6] and Naylor has pulled out all the stops, both rhetorically and monetarily, launching a media blitz seeking to drag Steele across the finish line somehow, and so is nowadays for promoting "guilt by association."

Brian Dubie’s Jean Charest Connection

"If it is true that you can tell a man by the company which he keeps, then the voters of Vermont had better beware. Not content with a recent fund raising rendezvous with former President George W. Bush in the Adirondacks, Brian Dubie is now flaunting his relationship with Quebec Premier Jean Charest in a television advertisement. Dubie is shown warmly shaking Charest’s hand in the opening clip of the television advertisement.

What has not been made clear to Vermont voters is that Premier Charest is currently the object of a major scandal in Quebec. Charest’s former justice minister Marc Bellemare has accused Charest of pressuring him to appoint judges with close ties to Quebec Liberal Party fundraisers as well as the corrupt construction industry.

Dubie presents himself as a cost-cutting, no-new-taxes, political conservative. Jean Charest is no conservative.

What is the exact nature of Brian Dubie’s relationship to Jean Charest and his Liberal Party Quebec government? Who is the real Brian Dubie?

Vive Le Vermont Libre

Thomas H. Naylor"

September 15, 2010 [7]

Now cue "Vermont Commons" and SVR's chief propagandist, Rob Williams, to explain how it's not bad "guilt by association" when Naylor's doing it, but when anyone else points out the stench coming from the white supremacist secessionists at the League of the South that Naylor's conventions and writings support and whose counsel he's sought over the years, it's somehow unfair to suggest that Vermonters should "beware... (of) the company which (Naylor) keeps".

The Second Stringer of Vermont's Secession Movement Has Made an Offer That He Thinks Can't Be Refused

Rob Williams, chief poobah at "Vermont Commons", the propaganda organ for the struggling to stay relevant Second Vermont Republic, has thrown down a desperate challenge.

As tempting as he has tried to make his offer, I've gotten a better one that I'm working on that doesn't allow for him to configure the ambush style setting he envisions (and we've all seen what thugs Naylor and his minions have behaved like at the forums and debate sites they couldn't crash or get themselves arrested at again). I've even passed his and Naylor's names along to the potential organizer this past Wednesday afternoon.

For those of you unfamiliar with the long backstory, see the longish post below. The shortish version is: Rob and Naylor have ridiculously alleged slander; Jon Margolis, the VTNewsGuy blogger was smeared and re-smeared by Naylor and Rob, as well as were the other journalists who had no valid reason to disagree with anything said by Margolis; Rob intimated that he was considering releasing the hounds, er, lawyers on Margolis, VPT, or even, perhaps, the other journalists, although he wasn't terribly clear so I think he was probably just getting off on being threatening; Rob said he'd post something but didn't until he got thwacked here about it, and then screwed it up so bad, perhaps because he looked like a fool over his charge against Margolis and maybe even hoping that his readers wouldn't see it anyway unless they looked harder; VTCommons has been caught "disappearing" a piece from a back issue done by a Holocaust denying, woe-it-is-to-be-white-today early columnist at VTCommons, and that happened after I posted on the guy being around there doing a fluffy review for another historical revisionist at VTCommons liked he'd done a "fawning" biography of the founder of the neo-Nazi National Alliance; Naylor's continued the purge of supporters who don't toe the party line of the day, including the real father of the Vermont secession myth; Naylor continues to keep League of the South past and/or present ideologues on the SVR advisory board while having eliminated nearly all other Vermonters on the board; and last, but certainly not least, Naylor and his Vermont governor candidate, Dennis Steele, started last month to promote the image of a scumbag murderer, Che Guevara, on their websites, that is until I posted about it, and then they ditched Che, with Steele ridiculously suggesting he was only engaging in some kind of ham-fisted consciousness raising and Naylor not even bothering to say anything about the debacle at all.

Can I hear a "Phew," there, Robbie?

That said, here's my reply and counter offer to Robbie:

Dearest Rob

You know, it was just a year ago that your patron and benefactor, Thomas "The Magnolia Vermonter" Naylor, was similarly invited, as you've offered me, to discuss the state of your movement's relations with the neo-Confederates at the League of the South.

Now, what was it he said? Oh, right, "Go fuck yourself." [1]

Will that work for you, as well?

When you have time to take your head out of your ass, do you think you might post one real lie that you claim's been posted here on Vermont Secession? Unlike you, I don't make posts inaccessible so that people have my preferred "take-of-the-day" on the blog. It's still all there for you to peruse from the very first post - and not going anywhere.

Stay tuned, Robbie.

Mor2cum,
Thomas Rowley

Perhaps Rob will consider purchasing one or both of the two reference works that contain reality based facts and documents from the period he professes to know so much about (they're posted in the right column) and stop regurgitating the junk history churned out by his pals at the League of the South Institute for the Study of Southern History and Culture (LSI).

UPDATE: 9.17.10 Okay, Rob, so you don't like the response I gave you. Too bad. It's not very surprising that you, a leader of a group with anti-Semitic, racist and white supremacist ties, would also engage in a bit of repetitive gay baiting. How very "master race" of you.

I've noticed that you gave no link for you fellow Kool Aid drinkers to follow so that they might see for themselves what I actually said in my reply to you. *Sigh* Those control issues are going to be the death of your movement, Rob.

Since you've elected to devolve your rhetoric into a series of dog whistles to the homophobes in your group, allow me to put it to you this way: I'll continue to pull back the curtain on that neo-Confederate wannabe, Naylor, and you, his devoted flying monkey (yeah, a bit mixed metaphory but I'm liking the imagery better than that Che crap you guys started to play around with, right up until I stopped you folks dead in your tracks - again).

Warmest regards,
Toto, er, Thomas

Threats, Purges and Word Games at the Second Vermont Republic and Vermont Commons

(Two Updates have been added below on 9.16.10)

It's been nearly six months since I've written about the Second Vermont Republic and its propaganda journal, "Vermont Commons". Frankly, I'd hoped for the group to have assumed a more appropriate role by now - that of Vermont's most forgettable crackpot group of quasi-academics and cranks - but instead they continue with their charade of relevance.

In a barrage of increasingly shrill, churlish and inaccurate charges, if not outright lies, about alleged slander, they've made a ludicrous reference to a "proclaim(ation) that all 50,000 of the registered voters in Vermont who support secession were racists," allegedly perpetrated and suborned by various members of Vermont media. One need only watch the 1 minute and 20 seconds that starts at the 18:35 minute mark on the embedded Vermont Public Television September 3, 2010 episode of Vermont This Week below [1], to see and hear for one's self what Jon Margolis really said, which is a very fair cry from the "slander" alleged by Naylor and his sidekick, Rob Williams:

WebEditor's (Rob Williams) comment:

"Clearly, blogger Jon NEWS GUY Margolis (a left-leaning Vermont "news" writer I happen to read and often enjoy) has never really read Vermont Commons, nor does he seem to have any nuanced grasp of U.S. history, Vermont's own heritage as an independent republic, or the decentralist "beyond red and blue business as usual" politics of secession. What is particularly troubling here is that Vermont Public Television served as a platform for such nonsense, which any reasonable person would dub "slander." Maybe it is time to unchain the lawyers. More soon, and we'll be sure to post Margolis' clip here with commentary in the days ahead."

Fat chance with the lawyer thing, Rob. You've, as usual, got your facts all bollixed up. Margolis has obviously read your propaganda rag and has got the facts exactly right, despite your efforts to scrub them from the website - more on that below. I had no trouble locating the VPT VTW clip last week that you say that you couldn't locate to post then, and that you've yet to post as you'd promised. Given the content, it isn't surprising that you haven't gotten around to posting it.

UPDATE: 9.16.10 Glad to see that you're reading here again, Robbie! I noticed that you finally added the VPT vid to the body of your post within 12 hours of this blog post. Too bad it doesn't show on your front page, since someone reading your blog might then get to see it. Also, consider letting whoever might go back to see if you'd kept your word know where to find Jon Margolis' statement. I've found the attention span of most of your supporters to be a tad deficient and their minds might get distracted by some shiny thing before they get to the 18:35 minute mark. Just saying.


Fact is, if Margolis is to be accused of anything, it's of not also having been as explicit as he has in the past about VTCommons publishing the writings of a known white supremacist and anti-Semite, UVM professor Robert. S. Griffin. [2] Griffin has written extensively on the plight of white America and his desire for the good old days. [3] The piece Griffin wrote for Issue #2 of VTCommons has been expunged from the online issue but may still be read at Griffin's website or at VTCommons' occasional blogger, Susan Ohanion's website. The Southern Poverty Law Center has more on Griffin here.

Here is what Jon Margolis said about the secessionists on VPT's VTW:

"Two things: First, I'm not sure you'd call it left(ist) because, and I'm not talking about these particular ten (candidates) or Mr. Steele... But everyone should know that Vermont's secessionist movement has an unmistakable tinge of racist attached to it. If your read their journal... What's it called? Vermont Commons or something like that? This is... you see a lot of articles how the Civil War wasn't about slavery at all and things like that."

"The other thing is, I mean, we're not going to secede. I think we had that argument back in the early 1860's and nobody's going to secede and I don't think that very many Vermonters are interested in it."

(Use this link or the [1] above if the player doesn't start - VPT can play funky at times.)

Well, not so, argues Naylor. In fact, he claims that 50,000 registered voters (as opposed to his earlier claim of more than 60,000 voters) support the idea of secession in a recent Seven Days story on his quite shopworn, even to him, notion of Vermont secession. Following the example of his earlier purges of advisory board members and followers who failed to obsequiously follow whatever his theme for Vermont secession was at the time, such as Bill McKibben, Dan DeWalt, Robert Riversong, etc., Naylor has now labeled the thoughts of originator of the idea of Vermont secession, Frank Bryan, as "absurd."

Frank Bryan has joined the ranks of those expelled from Naylor's group by his removal from the advisory board at SVR. Perhaps even more interesting is that Seven Days writer, Shay Totten, has also been, if we're to believe anything Thomas Naylor says by now, eliminated from Naylor's inner circle, possibly because of what Totten wrote in his January 20, 2010 Fair Game column:

Turn On, Tune In, Secede
According to a 2006 poll conducted by the UVM Center for Rural Studies, roughly 8 percent of Vermonters supported peaceable secession from the United States.

On Friday, the pro-secessionist Second Vermont Republic announced a slate of statewide candidates it plans to run in the fall election in hopes of moving secession from theory to reality.

The group’s gubernatorial candidate is fifth-generation Vermonter and Kirby businessman Dennis P. Steele, founder and CEO of the Internet radio station Free Vermont Radio. Burlington-based auto salesman Peter Garritano is running for lieutenant governor.

Longtime political activist and former Burlington businessman Dennis Morrisseau, from Rutland County, is one of the group’s seven state senate candidates. Also running are: Gaelan Brown, Washington County; Bill Cruikshank, Rutland County; Craig Hill, Bennington County; Richard Jeroloman, Chittenden County; Peter Moss, Franklin County; and Robert Wagner, Addison County.

The party wants Vermont to revert to the independent republic it was between January 15, 1777, and March 4, 1791.

What would that look like?

“We seek a peaceable return of Vermont to a small, clean, green, rural, radical, non-violent, communitarian, sustainable, independent republic free and clear of the United States of America,” said SVR founder Thomas Naylor during the Montpelier press conference.

Groovy.

And who is keeping Vermonters from realizing nirvana?

Wall Street, corporate America, environmentalist Bill McKibben and the Israeli lobby. Not necessarily in that order.

Nice touch blaming the Jews, especially since SVR has been chided for its ties to neo-Confederate groups such as League of the South and the Abbeville Institute. These groups would like to see the South returned to its pre-Civil War roots. You know, white, Anglo and Christian. Racist? Nah.

McKibben received multiple mentions at the presser. That’s because he represents the Vermont left obsessed with quaint notions such as food independence and self-reliance, yet is willing to live under the yoke of the evil empire, said Naylor.

“I’m actually pretty close to a supporter of an independent Vermont,” said McKibben in an email to “Fair Game.” But it does strike me as odd to do it from a position of hating the U.S., which I don’t.”

Naylor has a theory about why 92 percent of Vermonters don’t openly support secession.

“Vermonters are in a state of denial,” said Naylor. “They are fat and happy and sassy.”

Now, there’s a campaign slogan.

In this scathing piece Naylor outs what he would have was Totten's close and previously undisclosed relationship with him. I'd had my own suspicions about Totten's ties to the secessionists back when he had assigned a known SVR member, Tim Matson, to write a story in the now defunct Vermont Guardian concerning a March 2007 debate at UVM between Paul Gillies and Frank Bryan, without disclosing Matson's association with SVR. Naylor's attacks on his onetime friends, Bryan and Totten, continued through this past summer [4] [5], though his falling out with his former advisory board member Bryan seems to have begun sometime last year. [6]

If you'd care to read a more concise history of Thomas Naylor and the SVR, rather than wade through the many posts on this blog or the fairytale-like history at SVR, where no mention is made of his numerous purges [7], read the two excellent pieces done by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report from the Summer and Fall issues of 2008.

Despite the suggestion that Naylor has put some distance between himself and the "formerly" racist League of the South, one need look no farther than Naylor's nearly Vermonter-free advisory board to find that neo-Confederate ideologues and longtime, past contributors to the League of the South's Institute for the Study of Southern Culture and History, Thomas DiLorenzo (also known for his disdain for the 14th Amendment) and Donald Livingston, both well-known historical revisionists, continue to remain as SVR advisors, posts they have held for many years now. [8] [9] [10]

Thomas Naylor's Quest For Secession Takes A Turn To The Dark Side

UPDATE: 9.16.10 What a difference a day can make! Sometime early this morning the Dennis Steele campaign ditched the Che image from the banner at the top of their webpage. Here's how it looked last night:

Now if the Steele people would only have the decency to stop using the Vermont National Guard regimental flag while the Guard is under fire in Afghanistan and Iraq as his campaign prop...

Here is the text of Steele's statement published early this morning:

Retiring Che
A few weeks ago, I posted an essay entitled “The Green Mountain Revolution Starts Now,” which was accompanied by an image of Che Guevera superimposed on the Green Mountain Boys flag. It stirred up noticeable controversy among my supporters, many of whom interpreted it to mean that I supported a wide range of things, from communism to a one-party state to political violence. None of that, of course, is true; as I’ve stated publicly many times, I support a non-violent transition to an independent, multi-party Vermont Republic which deeply respects the rights of its citizens.

As such, the purpose of the use of Che’s image was to do what it did: stir up controversy and get the attention of the left-wing press. And it succeeded; shortly after the image went up, the movement received coverage in Counter-Punch and the Huffington Post. Many people on the left have long been deeply suspicious of state sovereignty and secession as a purely right-wing, “reactionary” thing – the Che flag was a tactic to help the readers of those pieces overcome their initial prejudice against secession by introducing it to them accompanied by a symbol of the left counter-culture. By pairing an alien idea with a familiar image, it challenged the idea that secession is the exclusive domain of the right.

Which is not to say that conservatives and libertarians don’t have a place in the secession movement. On the contrary, this movement (and my campaign) is about building a coalition of people of good conscience to oppose and resist the Empire by working for Vermont independence. Our supporters come from a wide variety of political backgrounds, and that diversity can and should be a source of our movement’s strength. In recognition of that, I will be retiring the Che flag for the remainder of the campaign. The only place it will remain will be on a hand-out I’ve produced which has it on one side and the snake of the Gadsden flag on the other, so as to symbolize the breadth of our movement’s diversity. In its place will be the Green Mountain Boys flag, unadorned. It is our hope that, one day, that flag will fly over an independent Republic; in the meantime, it is the banner of *all* of us who are working hard for a Free Vermont!

Dennis Steele [11]

Sure, Dennis. Robbie finally posts a video that was utterly findable when he said he couldn't get it up, and you're just using the image of a murderer to help confused Vermonters to get passed their "prejudices" to consider your floundering campaign. A little less contempt for the opinions of the majority of Vermonters might have kept you from making this dumb mistake in the first place. Nice spin, though.

Recently, Thomas Naylor's Second Vermont Republic website began displaying a disturbing alteration to the Vermont National Guard regimental flag. I say disturbing because Naylor's increasingly angry website rhetoric has grown to include a perverse combination of the Vermont National Guard's Green Mountain Boys flag with the image of Argentine Marxist revolutionary, Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

The use of the Jim Fitzpatrick stylized image [12] based on Alberto Korda's famous photo of Che called Guerrillero Heroico is allowed by Korda only to "those who wish to propagate his memory and the cause of social justice throughout the world" [13] Most will remember Che as an self-professed murderer and as the organizer and perpetrator of numerous summary executions and atrocities. Naylor's record of commitment to "social justice" is sketchily self-proclaimed. One need look no farther than the extensive coverage of the marriage equality debate in Vermont to find that Naylor took no part in that discussion and, so, absented himself from one of the premier "social justice" issues in Vermont of our day. That then leaves Che's record of violent revolutionary conduct for Naylor to memorialize through his use of that photo.

Thomas Naylor's annoited candidate for Vermont governor, Dennis Steele, also displays the Che icon superimposed on the on the Vermont National Guard regimental flag, much to the consternation of many of Steele's would-be supporters on Facebook. Seems his campaign asked for suggestions in addition to the Vermont National Guard's regimental flag about a month ago...

"What are some things that you feel convey the Free Vermont vision effectively. Obviously we've been using the GMB flag quite a bit; what else should we use? What should we avoid? And what's the reasoning behind your suggestions?"

...and got zero response from supporters. So it seems the Steele people took that as a green light for the Che thing which causes continued reaction. One supporter's post, in addition to all the other current negative reaction, is to "wonder about Naylor's sanity."

Gone from Naylor's recent writings are his earlier references to a "Genteel Revolution" or of any pretense at inclusion of the vast majority of the Vermont body politic in his future for Vermont. Naylor now denounces nearly all of Vermont's statewide office holders, legislators, lawyers, clergy, congressional delegation, media, evironmentalists, schools, colleges and its university while urging Vermonters to vote for his slate of secessionists. How very Che-ish of him to do so.

Frank Bryan, Naylor's defrocked longtime advisory board guru, now says:

“One of the problems with all the secessionists is they’re impatient,” says Bryan, who has turned his back on secession. “They want to go to the top immediately with candidates who really don’t have a lot of experience in governing.”

What candidates like Dennis Steele should do, Bryan argues, is run for school board and city council before seeking statewide office, to establish a record, gain experience and earn the trust of voters. [14]

If Naylor won't listen to common sense advice like that, it's little wonder that he's veered off into such batshit crazy imagery.

Naylor continues to peddle his very questionable poll results (see section on Polls in the column to the right) while desperately trying to gin up support for his candidate:

Naylor knows his candidates face an uphill battle. Even though one UVM poll suggested 13 percent of Vermonters favor secession, he doesn’t expect that to translate directly into votes. Naylor would be happy if Steele got 10 percent, he says, itself a lofty goal.

Naylor knows the word “secession” carries some very negative connotations. “Secession is anathema. Secession is failure. Secession is civil war. Secession is racism,” he admits with obvious frustration. “Those are hard things to overcome.” [14]

Yeah, and promoting a murderous scumbag like Che certainly isn't likely to translate into much of a plus at the polls. Be that as it may, Naylor now proposes to abandon the term "secession" in favor of a more trendy word - "liberation." Seems that he thinks since "secession" has an atrocious history and reputation for racism, failure and exclusion, "liberation" will attract more support for his pipedream:

"Unlike secession, liberation connotes success, not failure. [15]

Really? How's that working out for the Che and Fidel "liberation" movement? And does Naylor really have so much contempt for thinking Vermonters that he now thinks we'll be charmed by his use of "liberation" lipstick on his pig?

A true poll on how Vermonters really feel about SVR and Naylor's "secession/liberation" obsession should finally be out on November 3.