"The Ghastly Idea of ‘Equality for All’"

Just when I thought that Vermont secessionists and their very close allies with the racist Southern secesher movement couldn't bite down just a little harder on the hateful, discriminatory bag of shit that they're so very fond of, Kirlpatrick Sale, a co-founder of the Second Vermont Republic, an "editor-at-large" of the Rob Williams' Vermont Commons journal blog, a longtime sufferer of Lincoln derangement syndrome (see right column for current definition) and a present day South Carolina representative to the racist Southern National Congress which is strongly affiliated with the white supremacist League of the South, has blurted out this "pernicious" bullshit at the secessionist website LewRockwell.com:

"Equality is a pernicious and dangerous political policy..."

"..."equality for all"? What could that be? And would you want to live in such a place?"

Really, Kirk? Do you wake some days and say to yourself, "What kind of outrageous crap can I spew out today that my pals at libertaritard, paleofascist LewRockwell.com will promote as though it's comprised of lucid though?"

That Sale should come out against striving for "equality for all," no matter how imperfect the result may be along the way, is no surprise. Afterall, it was Sale who, abetted by Rob Williams, promoted the lie that the South didn't secede over slavery; you'd think that at least one of those two "scholars" might have taken the time to read the Southern state's various articles of secession and to have considered the arguments presented in the various Southern legislatures. The number one issue for the Southern secessionists was slavery.

If you'd like to read Kirk's screed regarding hatred of the struggle for "equality for all," it's here.

What a sad, hateful group of people Kirk Sale and the Vermont seceshers have come to be. Hate has become the foundation of the modern secession movement.

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"The White House Has Answered No to the Secession Petitions."

When right wingers flooded the WhiteHouse.gov We The People petition website with secession petitions created by extremist, fringer elements of the Tea Bagger/Republican sore losers who were unable to accept the fact that the majority of Americans voted to reëlect the United States' first black president, I waited to see how Vermont's own tiny secessionist movement might react.

The person who authored the Vermont petition was a New Yorker and the Vermont petition got barely 10% of the 25,000 required to get a response from the White House, and of that small group a mere 68 of the signators identified themselves as Vemonters.

Vermont seceshers have known for years that because of their early ties to racists that they've maintained through the years, as well as to murderously inclined anti-Semites, misogynists, homophobes and misandrists, including a segregationist as one of their own Vermont Commons blog writers, theirs is probably the most disliked and unsuccessful Vermont fringe groups to come along in decades.

My opinion in November, and it remains today, is that Vermont secesher propagandist, pseudo-historian, faux journalist, and who also suffers from

a chronic case of Lincoln derangement syndrome, Rob Williams, as well as his sidekick, the sham radical and anti-Vermont Army and Air National guard activist, Juliet Buck, have, inspite of their usual stoopid in such matters, somehow managed to correctly assess that the time wasn't exactly ripe for such an unconstitutional challenge to the Union and kept their big mouths shut, sparing Vermonters another embarrassment at their expense from the unhinged secesher camp. That's probably the only thing that they've gotten remotely right in years. Perhaps it's because the handful of secesher candidates that Williams has backed normally finish last and poll in the single digit (or less) percentile; or that none of the one hundred and eighty (150 representatives and 30 senators) members of the Vermont General Assembly's two houses supports even the discussion of secession; or that no statewide office holder or local legislative official supports their call for such a secesher discussion; or that no member of Vermont's congressional delegation will give them the time of day, let alone engage in such an "absurd" discussion; or maybe it's the utter lack of success in getting even one town, let alone the two hundred that they've promised to have by 2015, to put a secession article on a Town Meeting warrant for discussion. You'd think it might have dawned on these clowns that after 10 years of pitching their ridiculous secesher plan that Vermonters (other than their own self-described "small community) aren't buying what the seceshers are trying to sell. Now comes the White House to set back the secesher plans much, much further.

On Saturday the White House responded and the news ain't great for the barely existent Vermont secesher movement. I'd intended to post about the White House response, the constitutional references contained therein and what it was likely to mean for the local secesher dingbats but I don't think I could have said it better than anti-neo-Confederate expert and activist, Ed Sebesta, did in this post. Ed was kind enough to authorize reproduction of his essay from his blog - he said there:

The white house has answered no to the secession petitions. You can read the White House reply here:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/our-states-remain-united

The reply to the petition quotes Lincoln from both his 1st inaugural address and his "Gettysburg Address," refers to the Civil War and secession in 1861, asserts that the Union is indestructible. These issues are brought up in two paragraphs in the White House reply. Links are provided to Lincoln's "1st Inaugural Address," "Gettysburg Address," and the Supreme Court ruling on Texas vs. White in which the court rules that secession violated the U.S. Constitution. In this blog I will discuss the response after the quotation of these two paragraphs with historical references which follows:

Our founding fathers established the Constitution of the United States "in order to form a more perfect union" through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. They enshrined in that document the right to change our national government through the power of the ballot -- a right that generations of Americans have fought to secure for all. But they did not provide a right to walk away from it. As President Abraham Lincoln explained in his first inaugural address in 1861, "in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual." In the years that followed, more than 600,000 Americans died in a long and bloody civil war that vindicated the principle that the Constitution establishes a permanent union between the States. And shortly after the Civil War ended, the Supreme Court confirmed that "[t]he Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States."

Although the founders established a perpetual union, they also provided for a government that is, as President Lincoln would later describe it, "of the people, by the people, and for the people" -- all of the people. Participation in, and engagement with, government is the cornerstone of our democracy. And because every American who wants to participate deserves a government that is accessible and responsive, the Obama Administration has created a host of new tools and channels to connect concerned citizens with White House. In fact, one of the most exciting aspects of the We the People platform is a chance to engage directly with our most outspoken critics.

It should be noted that the White House could have given a reply that didn't have historical references or just limit it to the Supreme Court decision Texas vs. White, but they choose to anchor the reply historically, and specifically in Lincoln's speeches, the Civil War and the secession of slave states in 1861 and one of the most emotionally charged events in American history both then and now.

I don't know if this response will get much coverage in the media, but it is in some ways very historic. I did a study in 2011 and 2012 of presidential statements regarding the Civil War and associated issues, such as the terminology they used, for example "War Between the States" versus "Civil War" back to Herbert Hoover.

Presidents have avoided the issue of the constitutionality of secession since the 19th century as far as I have been able to find. Presidents have avoided saying anything that can be construed as a rejection of the Confederacy in the 20th century since President Hoover who used the term "War Between the States" in the fall before he lost his bid to be re-elected.

However, President Obama White House response directly rejects the constitutionality of secession or any justification for it and thus directly rejects a key argument of the neo-Confederates and the Lost Cause historical mythology. It is a direct rejection of a core belief of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans and millions of Americans many of concentrated in the region of the former Confederate states. It is indirectly a rejection of the Confederacy, the leaders of secession and the supporters of secession in 1861. It directly rejects the very phrase "War Between the States." Though presidents haven't used this term since President Clinton used it once in 2000. Importantly it isn't just a rejection on some general reasoned principles, but a rejection based on the arguments used in the Civil War against secession by Lincoln the president who defeated the Confederacy. Obama is using specifically the historical narrative of the Union in the Civil War to reject these petitions.

Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address contains a lengthy argument of secession which though is an argument that would apply to any effort at secession, is specifically applied by Lincoln to the secession of slave states in 1861. It is a rejection of the secessionists, such as Jefferson Davis, secession convention delegates, and many others.

The response with its reference to the "Gettysburg Address" implies that the defeat of the Confederacy was a great and heroic thing for the world and not just America, for as Lincoln said in that address:

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

In an earlier post I referred to some opinion polls taken about the issues of secession. http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/12/tagging-republicans-as-secessionists.html

It refers to an opinion poll that were taken on secession in Georgia. http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/12/georgia-miscellany.html

I also had an early post on another opinion poll on secession. http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/01/charles-m-blow-new-york-times-columnist.html

Which referred to the following Pew opinion poll result.

http://www.people-press.org/2011/04/08/civil-war-at-150-still-relevant-still-divisive/

The Georgia opinion poll said that 42% of Georgia Republicans would be willing to secede.

When you look at who identifies with the Confederacy in the Pew opinion poll you see that they are primarily white people who identify themselves as Southerners and they mostly live in a former Confederate state. I would hazard to guess that what white votes Obama got in the former Confederate states were largely not from whites who identify themselves with the Confederacy. In short those Obama might antagonize are very unlikely to vote for him anyways.

I blogged on how Obama would respond to these secession petitions at:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-will-obama-respond-to-these.html

Basically I predicted that Obama would make a response that was provocative without seeming to be provocative. His hope would be to provoke the Republicans to respond in a way that would identify them with secession and the Confederacy. I don't know for a fact that Obama's response had this intent. However, if you wanted to get a reaction that would identify your opponents with secession and the Confederacy without seeming to provoke, Obama's reply would be the way to do it.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy will certainly have response to this White House reply. Whether Obama's rejection of secession gets a wider response it remains to be seen.

Incidentally the link on the Politico reporting of the response goes to the wrong petition and response.

To keep a record of this White House reply I quote the entire reply following:

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE TO Peacefully grant the State of Louisiana to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government. and 8 other petitions Our States Remain United By Jon Carson Thank you for using the White House's online petitions platform to participate in your government. In a nation of 300 million people -- each with their own set of deeply-held beliefs -- democracy can be noisy and controversial. And that's a good thing. Free and open debate is what makes this country work, and many people around the world risk their lives every day for the liberties we often take for granted. But as much as we value a healthy debate, we don't let that debate tear us apart. Our founding fathers established the Constitution of the United States "in order to form a more perfect union" through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. They enshrined in that document the right to change our national government through the power of the ballot -- a right that generations of Americans have fought to secure for all. But they did not provide a right to walk away from it. As President Abraham Lincoln explained in his first inaugural address in 1861, "in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual." In the years that followed, more than 600,000 Americans died in a long and bloody civil war that vindicated the principle that the Constitution establishes a permanent union between the States. And shortly after the Civil War ended, the Supreme Court confirmed that "[t]he Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States." Although the founders established a perpetual union, they also provided for a government that is, as President Lincoln would later describe it, "of the people, by the people, and for the people" -- all of the people. Participation in, and engagement with, government is the cornerstone of our democracy. And because every American who wants to participate deserves a government that is accessible and responsive, the Obama Administration has created a host of new tools and channels to connect concerned citizens with White House. In fact, one of the most exciting aspects of the We the People platform is a chance to engage directly with our most outspoken critics. So let's be clear: No one disputes that our country faces big challenges, and the recent election followed a vigorous debate about how they should be addressed. As President Obama said the night he won re-election, "We may have battled fiercely, but it's only because we love this country deeply and we care so strongly about its future." Whether it's figuring out how to strengthen our economy, reduce our deficit in a responsible way, or protect our country, we will need to work together -- and hear from one another -- in order to find the best way to move forward. I hope you'll take a few minutes to learn more about the President's ideasand share more of your own. Jon Carson is Director of the Office of Public Engagement.

The Huffington Post has more on the secessionist, "petulant, tantrum-throwing children" here.

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You Can Help to End the Practice of the Federal Government Honoring Neo-Confederates

A petition effort has been launched at the White House We The People website that asks the White House to end the practice of sending a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument and to end the involvement of white supremacist groups like the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy with the activities of units of the U.S. military.

From the petition:

"This normalizes secession and honors violent secessionists. Stop honoring violent secessionists."

Please take a few minutes to go to the White House website and, if you've yet to do so, register so that you can sign this worthwhile petition that was created by a longtime critic of the neo-Confederate movement, Ed Sebesta.

The link to the White House website is here.

Thanks.

I'll have a post up shortly about the White House response to all those secession petitions (Petition Response: Our States Remain United) that were created by the racist right when they learned that our black president got re-elected. The White House response pretty much screws the pooch for the Vermont seceshers and their dream. It's over, folks.

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Roger Pion, Hero of the Vermont Secessionist Movement, Found by the Vermont Superior Court to be Incompetent

Late last summer what passes for the brain trust at the remains of the Vermont Commons (VC) news journal blog was all atwitter about the convict and would be domestic terrorist, Roger Pion.

In a post promoted by the Vermont Commons web editor, sham

radical, anti-Vermont Army and Air National Guard (VTANG) activist
and trusty sidekick of the Vermont secesher mouthpiece, faux journalist and Lincoln hater Rob Williams, Juliet Buck promoted an absurd piece by another relatively unknown radical, Jasna Brown:

What do Roger Pion, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King have in common? a Guest Post by Jasna Brown, promoted by VC web editor Juliet Buck
Fri, 08/17/2012 - 2:23pm

"I can’t seem to stop believing that Pion, most probably in all of his ignorance, may have started a movement. Could his act, of crushing the whole fleet of Police Cruisers with a giant tractor be a wake-up call for VT farmers..."

[snip]

"The question is when will our farmers get sick of being messed with? When will they get tired of seeing their land stolen by the banks, by Monsanto and the gang? Will Roger Pion be remembered as the first farmer who ignited the spark with his foolish and impulsive act? Maybe not, but I’ll sure remember how big and powerful his tractor was."

The [snip] was of a completely and utterly irrelevant comparison of Pion's violent act of the destruction of $300,000 worth of taxpayer owned property, motivated by his peevish reaction to the local Deputy Sheriff's doing their jobs, to the protests of European farmers over prices. Only a delusional secesher fool would compare Roger Pion's focused act of violence to two of the greatest martyred promoters of non-violent protest, Martin Luther King and Mahatmas Gandhi.

Like the Vermont seceshers at VC, another like minded group that has a reputation for promoting anti-Semitism, anti-miscegenation, segregation, homophobia and racism, the neo-Nazi website known as the Vanguard News Network (No Jews, Just Right) got some serious wood over Pion's terroristic (note that I don't say "alleged" since his supporters and family don't really dispute the known facts of his actions) attack here.

Vermont Commons blogger, fringe activist and self-anointed media critic, William Boardman also prattled on about Pion's terroristic act at VC, noting that one Vermont Senate candidate called Pion a political prisoner. One needn't wonder for long why the self-anointed critic of Vermont's media didn't name the senate candidate since it might have further derailed the "Senator's" already doomed campaign. You see, Boardman is a little regarded activist whose media critiques are only taken seriously by the unhinged crew at VC.  He chronically whines on and on about what he perceives to be conflicts of interest in Vermont media, with little regard for his own crass promotion of the radical, fringe politics of Vermont seceshers while writing about them and their various hobby horses.

This week we learn via the Burlington Free Press here that Pion appeared in Superior Court sporting a new "Travis Bickle" look this Tuesday rather than his late summer, post arrest, "tweaker," ah, ambiance.

Man Accused of Crushing Cruisers Found Incompetent for Trial Prosecutors seek another evaluation in 90 days 5:57 PM, Jan 9, 2013

Pion’s attorney, David Sleigh, said a hospitalization hearing should be held, and that should lead to the dismissal of the charges against his client.

State’s Attorney Alan Franklin said he could not assume Pion’s incompetency is permanent. “The state is not going to dismiss at this time,” Franklin said.

He asked Superior Court Judge Howard VanBenthuysen to order another evaluation in 90 days.

VanBenthuysen said the court will schedule a hospitalization hearing, where the court will determine how and where Pion will receive treatment.

In September, documents filed with the court stated Pion was suffering from mental instability and was being driven to action by voices in his head.

At that time, both the state and Pion’s father and court-ordered custodian, Armond Pion, asked for an emergency mental health evaluation.

Deputy State’s Attorney Jim Lillicrap wrote at the time that he’d obtained information that Pion was being “told by god to harm someone by noon today,” referring to Sept. 14, 2012.

In an attached affidavit, State Police Lt. Kirk Cooper wrote that Pion had told an employee of his family that he was “advised by the gods to start shooting people.”

The man, Josh Hall, told Roger Gagnon, who told sheriff’s deputy Kyle Ingalls that he was getting nervous around Pion because he was “going off the deep end again.”

Why does it come as little surprise that an seemingly unhinged domestic terrorist is a hero to a wide array of Vermont's unhinged secesher movement, not to mention neo-Nazis who've in the past have praised VC's dead godfather and baas of the just about dead Vermont secesher movement, Thomas H. Naylor?

The Vermont secessionist movement has a long history of advocating violence against those they dislike; Vermont secessionist candidate for a 2010 Rutland County state senate seat, Dennis Morrisseau, in addition to advocating shipping Vermont's homeless out of state while repeatedly expressing anti-Semitic sentiments, has also proposed a hit list of Jews; Vermont secessionist candidate for a 2010 Washington County state senate seat, Gaelen Brown, advocated for capital punishment for Vermont legislators presumed guilty of a non-violent crime; Vermont secessionist candidate for a 2010 Addison County state senate seat, Robert Wagner, who although he's never been elected to any Vermont office prefers to call himself "Senator," has outrageously proclaimed that an African-American mother with a substance abuse problem who'd committed a robbery "Needed Killin'" while at the same time ignoring a similar crime committed by a white male. You get the idea.

Williams likes to promote the crap that he spews as "journalism" but don't expect much from his blog or his new venture, Vermont Independence Press, to get anywhere near the whole or even partial truth on this case.  It's not what he or his clown journalists/bloggers/nutjobs do.  I mean by that that Williams, VC's publisher cum journalist, hasn't ever broken a story himself that I can find.  His forté seems to be journalistic and historical fiction.

Much like Pion, Williams' secesher movement seems "incompetent."

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To Secede or Not to Secede?

What remains of the Vermont secession movement since the death of Thomas H. Naylor is a blog run by Rob Williams and his "web editor," the sham radical and anti-Vermont Army/Air National Guard and its F35 program "activist," Juliet Buck. Other than a poorly attended event stunt in September, Williams and Buck's dream of leading Vermont out of the Union is now dead in its tracks. All that remains is a little read blog called Vermont Commons that publishes the pinings of, what has been been described by a founder, Ian Baldwin, the "small community" of Vermont seceshers.

 So, as a New Year's suggestion intended to offer a method whereby they might breath some new life into their moribund movement, as well as really putting their money where their mouth has been for far too long. They could look at my suggestion as "personal secession" with some real skin in the game. And all that they'd have to do is take a two hour drive to Montréal; and, oh yeah, renounce their American citizenship.

 The State Department provides the outline for their "personal secession" process here.

Williams and Buck both know in their hearts that their grandiose dream of Vermont leaving the Union is more than over; virtually no one turns out for their stunts any longer and the tiny group of anti-VTANGers (despite efforts meant to inflate whatever support that they do have) seems destined for the same fate.

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