Is a Secession Supporter Running in the Burlington, VT Mayoral Race?

UPDATE: Wednesday, Dec. 3, 4:00 PM Secession flack and political drama queen Greg Guma to announce Burlington mayoral election bid on Thursday, Dec. 4. Yawn...

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Well, certainly stranger campaigns have occurred in Burlington's past. But this year's musing by longtime political wannabe and unsuccessful influence on the body politic, Greg Guma, deserve a look if not much more.

Guma's been on the edge of the Burlington political scene for what seems like forever. One news organization even made the mistake of using him for past Burlington political campaign coverage and learned that with Guma's "journalism" comes his inevitable slant.

Last week I learned of Guma's latest ploy in a post of his at the Second Vermont Republic hate site (and, no, I don't link to there). I then found a similar advisory on the all-Guma-all-the-time blog here. In a tired and typical pol style, Guma self flogs his importance to the political scene despite his abundant lack of real accomplishment; it's like he's made it notwithstanding his never having done so. His brief tenure at Pacifica was wracked with conflict that led inevitably to his departure with little to show for his time there. Hell, he once had a largely self written Wikipedia article that Wikipedia dropped due to his "lack of notability."

Guma gives himself a backslapping blurb in the announcement post from some other non-notable and even hints at his crucial role in the ascent of Vermont's star and possible presidential contender Bernie Sanders.

Guma goes on at some length about a December 2 meeting without providing a link or a place whereat some might ponder the importance and relevance of a Guma candidacy to the public weal.

"In short, the question I am now considering is whether to proceed anyway or, as I did 35 years ago when Bernie Sanders and I were both organizing mayoral campaigns, step aside for someone else. I'll be listening, watching closely, and thinking it over between now and Dec. 2. In the meantime, I have asked my current supporters to spread the word, invite others, and let me know what they think. If the prevailing sentiment is that Steve (Goodkind) is the right person and the only challenger needed, I need to hear why. The responses, along with discussion on Dec. 2, will be a significant factor in my choice."

Okay. We can probably agree that for such a non-player on the political scene Greg Guma has a pretty inflated sense of self-importance. But by this point one or two of you may be asking why-TF does Rowley give a shit about this loser? Well, Guma comes from a short list of flacks for the so-called "Second Vermont Republic." It's a really short list that includes basically Christopher Ketcham and Shay Totten. Ketcham's published a book on the topic that's gone nowhere, acknowledged that he snuck in a piece for Time that he later admitted was "a favor" for his Vermont Secesher friends and Totten now flacks books since Thomas Naylor is no longer his meal ticket - you'd of thought they might have gotten together on it but seceshers aren't exactly the brightest bulbs. In 2008 Guma wrote one piece that pushes what he thought were the strengths of secession without really telling the whole truth; some "muckraker," as he likes to characterize himself. Here's how he colored the controversy that sent SVR into its death spiral:

"... The controversy began when the Southern Poverty Law Center accused (Thomas) Naylor and the group of talking to an allegedly racist group, the League of the South. Critics pounced, and Seven Days, a liberal weekly in Vermont that was distributing Vermont Commons as an insert, decided to end the arrangement. Labor groups soon demanded the removal of offensive web links on Second Vermont Republic's website, disassociation from certain groups or individuals, and the release of a statement clearly opposing racism, fascism, bigotry, and discrimination. Although there is no evidence that Vermont secessionists condone such things, they've been pressured to prove it."

Actually, Greg, the"critics pounced" before the Southern Poverty Law Center took an interest in SVR and Naylor, and there's nothing "alleged" about the overt racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism and homophobia of the League of the South, in fact they're quite proud of their various hatreds. This blog and two others published extensively and were quite involved in petitioning the SPLC to take a look at Naylor and his flying monkeys. And there was plenty of evidence at the time that SVR condoned institutionalized homophobia, segregation, anti-Semitism and racism; all one had to do was read their publication, Vermont Commons, and Naylor's own website.

Guma has written other dishonest representations of the Vermont secesher movement but that could be the basis for a future post - who knows? Until then Guma will be consumed with his bloatedly self-important decision.

"This is an important moment for Burlington. In the next few years, decisions will be made that could transform the community for generations. If I do run, my goal will not be just to win, but to challenge complacency, provincialism, gentrification and the current redevelopment push, and to open up debate on crucial choices facing the city we love. What I find out in the next two weeks will determine whether that happens. I look forward to hearing what Burlington residents have to say and how they feel about a real independent voice in the race."

Yes, Greg. I'm sure that there are tens of Burlingtonians awaiting your decision.

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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.

"A Rose by Any Other Name..."

Followers of this blog know that the name that I use here, Thomas Rowley, is a pseudonym. Blogs that are singular efforts devoted to exposing racists, anti-Semites and the like often are posted anonymously for reasons that often have to do with safety. I learned that lesson early on when another blogger who was identifiable and assisted in exposing the deep ties of the Second Vermont Republic to the racist, white supremacist League of the South was attacked by the SVR chairman, Thomas H. Naylor, at his job. Naylor sought to end that blogger's employment and healthcare for his family.

As things heated up for the SVR crowd because of the exposure of their ties to bigots and for their having provided a platform at their various websites for the writings of racists, conspiracists, segregationists, anti-Semites, misogynists and homophobes, so did their anger come to a boil. One of the leaders urged that crimes be committed against those that exposed them. Another sought to normalize their group by demanding that they be debated at a venue of their choice and using a moderator who'd been secretly associated with their leadership for years. Despite those and other efforts, the SVR leadership never came close to successfully refuting a single fact presented here and at other blogs. Most of the links that I have provided to their posts no longer work because of a more than year long effort by the SVR leadership to purge their websites of the evidence. Thankfully, the screen caps all remain.

I mention the above to give some context to a recent incident regarding the efforts of racists and anti-Semites to reveal the identity of one similarly successful blogger who I've mentioned here a number of times. He/she goes by the name Spelunker. A New Yorker who uses the pseudonym BoyHowdy and is a sustaining member of the hate website Stormfront.org mistakenly identified a supposedly Jewish journalist as being Spelunker. Stormfront posters have been tied to more than 100 murders so this is no little matter. Online haters like the website Occidental Dissent ran with the Stormfront misinformation that you can read about here. So consumed with the notion that they could "out" the identity of Spelunker the haters failed to notice that they lacked one element - facts. Apparently, thinking that a purportedly Jewish journalist looked as they would imagine that their nemesis Spelunker might look was all that the haters needed to dox him. Despite denials by Spelunker and others, the haters remained convinced that they had their man. I'd even pointed out to them that they lacked "incontrovertible evidence" but that didn't matter.

This week the story took a decidedly ironic turn. Stormfront's supposed outer of Spelunker, the pseudonymous BoyHowdy, was himself outed in a damning exposé published by the Southern Poverty Law Center. BoyHowdy is in fact a Manhattan Web designer named Robert H. DePasquale and his cyber target was erroneously identified as Jewish, although DePasquale's supporters could agree that the target looked Jewish, whatever the fuck that means. SPLC reports,

"His victim, who asked not to be identified, told the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) he is not Spelunker, just someone who is now caught up in the vindictive and racist underworld of Stormfront. Spelunker, who has not revealed his identity to the SPLC, also said that the journalist is not him."

It gets better. According to the respected anti-fascist website One People's Project, in 2013 DePasquale ran for the NJ U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Frank Lautenberg. Although he his a NY resident, DePasquale claimed NJ residency by using the Butler, NJ post office box of the racist American Freedom Party. You couldn't make shit like this up. Read the One People's Project report outing DePasquale here.

Spelunker has demanded that the racist nutters take down their erroneous information but I don't think we should be holding our collective breaths for that for long.

UPDATE: 4:30 PM I posted a comment at the Occidental Dissent hatesite today on their "Who Is Spelunker?" post suggesting that they update their post correcting the erroneous information about who Spelunker is and the comment wasn't approved, natch. And so the lie of the racist Brad Griffin, aka Wallace Hunter, and son-in-law to the racist founder of the Council of Conservative Citizens Gordon Baum lives on.

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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.

Vermont Secessionists Lose Big In 2014 Gubernatorial Race

While the 2014 election cycle in Vermont produced little in the way of candidates from the secessionist camp, what is most notable is how little Vermonters are buying into the secesher message.

Self-declared secessionists Peter Diamondstone, a longtime serial loser (20+), and three time loser Emily Peyton vied for last with a knot of three other losers at the bottom of the percentile poll. According to unofficial results 98% of Vermonters voted for someone other than the seceshers. Those that did vote for Diamondstone and Peyton likely did so for reasons other than secession. In Diamondstone's case it probably had more to do with his longstanding Marxist message, while with Peyton it likely had to do with her promises to giveaway land and homes and to coddle child molesters and murderers.

One can only hope that these two secessionists will listen to the voters and retire their fruitless campaigns for good.

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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.