In and Out; the Loser Edition

The outcome of the 2015 Burlington, VT mayoral election was never in doubt; the only question was how strongly would the Democratic incumbent, Miro Weinberger win by and how badly would the Vermont secession flack Greg Guma lose by.

Weinberger defeated Guma by a factor of ten, garnering more than two thirds of the votes cast. Guma's distant third place showing was only matched by the last place loser who's campaign consisted primarily of hanging out at a coffee shop. Guma credits his miserable showing to "Matt for the strategic intelligence and social media savvy." That would likely be Matt Cropp who has yet to run an open campaign that was ever been even remotely successful. My personal favorite campaign was his stint as campaign manager for the 2010 secesher gubernatorial candidate Dennis Steele for whom far fewer than one percent of Vermont registered voters cast a ballot. Subsequently, Cropp penned a not quite concession posting that promised a lot for the future, declared Hancock, VT to be the secesher provisional capital, and then disappeared until his next electoral loss. Cropp went on to lose a bid for a board seat at City Market and for a local credit union. The Guma shellacking will be another significant notch on Matt's electoral guns.

Maybe Matt can craft a Guma concession message that proposes an outsized role for Guma in the next three years of the Weinberger administration. Certainly as the only candidate to run a negative ad in the campaign, Guma's earned something.

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In and Out - Part III

Vermont secession flack Greg Guma is back again. His on again, off again plan to run for Burlington's mayoral job is now back on with a quiet last minute signature roundup for inclusion on the ballot. That's not as hard a job as it might sound; one need only stand with a clipboard in front of the Post Office and the one hundred and fifty signatures will probably be had in a few hours. Hell, I've signed nominating petitions for people I thought hadn't a prayer to win since I believe even a loser deserves a grab for the brass ring.

Guma has embraced the Vermont secessionist establishment by having his mayoral campaign announcement posted at Rob Williams' anti-Semitic hate blog this week (no, I don't link to Rob's hate site). In it Guma outlines his aginner, largely revanchist intent for Burlington's future.

It's apparent that Guma's decided to run a negative campaign from the start. He's already indulged in name calling by dredging up a slur from the 70s to call Mayor Miro Weinberger a Republicrat. He's constructed a "thumb-on-the-scale" unscientific poll about Weinberger. Despite having participated in the Progressive Party caucus in early December of 2014' Guma now "dismissed the suggestion that as another Progressive-minded candidate, he risked taking votes away from Goodkind (the winner). "I don't think those kinds of labels make as much sense as they used to ..." Right. Guma got one vote at the caucus, presumably his own, and now the results don't mean shit about his appeal to progressive voters. For further evidence of the sour campaign Guma intends run, one need look no further than his blog. Outrageously he equates the development plans for the Burlington College property to heinous crimes committed by priests against children; his over the top rhetoric suggests equivalency between a land deal and the rape of children by both priests and the institution of the Roman Catholic church:

"So, the "school without walls" and the cloistered catholic campus near the lake. How did they get entangled? The answer begins with secrets, the first about what went on in the church -- and on that property."

"In the end dozens of former residents came forward, and revealed a dark, sordid history of physical and sexual abuse by nuns, priests and staff. Like other parts of the church, the diocese ultimately found itself under attack and in serious financial trouble. By May 2010, it had paid almost $20 million to settle 26 lawsuits. More were to follow. Selling the land was urgent to help cover up to $30 million in legal settlements for the abused..."

[snip]

"This land has seen more than enough secrets, loss and pain."

Such an disgracefully contrived connection makes a little more sense when you factor in Guma's reliance on an endorsement and help from failed political operative Matt Cropp:

"Matt Cropp, outreach coordinator of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center and an NPA (Neighborhood Planning Assembly) leader, writes, "By joining the race, he's bringing some vitally important issues to the conversation, such as reversing the de-funding and marginalization of the Neighborhood Planning Assemblies over the last decade, ensuring that the temptation to cut sweetheart deals with politically connected developers is tempered by a robust, transparent, and participatory review process, and devolving certain powers (such as the appointment of commissioners) from City Hall to Burlington's neighborhoods."

In return for such a ringing endorsement at a Cropp event, Guma promised to support giving the group $5,000 in walking around money should he become mayor (as if the decision to do so was to be his alone).

Here's what I've said earlier about Cropp the political apparatchik:

"I noted in his blog post that Guma seemed to rely most heavily on the counsel of Matt Cropp. That's a mistake that most Burlingtonians will get to breath a collective sigh of relief over. For those of you (and that's probably most of you) unfamiliar with Cropp, he's a political loser of the first order. Among, but certainly not all of Cropp's failures was his failed effort to gain a seat on the City Market board of directors; his failure to takeover a credit union's board; his failure to make a go of a provisional capital for his secessionist, so-called Second Vermont Republic in Hancock, VT in 2010; his failure to follow through on any of his promises made after his disastrous management of the 2010 secesher campaign of Connecticut native Dennis Steele's gubernatorial effort (99.24% of the voters gave their vote to someone other than Steele); and, perhaps most tragically, when Cropp was Thomas Naylor's secesher embed in the Burlington Occupy group, his group's advisory to the City of Burlington that they'd be assuming responsibility for the homeless in City Hall Park was followed within a day of their letter to the City by the suicide of one of the homeless (nice one there, Matt!)."

"Looks like everyone gets to dodge a bullet here. Imagine a Guma administration with a loser like Cropp in some position of importance. According to Guma, Cropp is now setting his sights on Burlington's neighborhoods. My advice to the residents of those neighborhoods - MOVE!!!"

Having watched secesher campaigns like these bumble along over the years my money's on a disappointing last place finish for Team Guma.

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In and Out

After a couple of weeks of offering "the peeples" to lead them to his vision for Burlington if asked nicely enough to do so, Greg Guma, faux journalist and all-around political crank, has given us his decision.

He'd gotten very little news buzz over his public political pondering of a potential political challenge to incumbent Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger. Fact is, most of the coverage came in the form of his own Facebook page and his blog. He'd said that he'd meet with "the peeples" on Tuesday, Dec.2 at what remained throughout his musings an undisclosed location. I would have gone for a look at his political fan dance just for the giggles but he never let "the peeples" know where the friggin' meeting was being held!

Accordingly, he found support to be insufficient for him to consider a run for office at this time. No doubt in his own mind he coulda been a contenda. With a position of opposition to virtually every development plan on the horizon and a call for an unrealistic back-to-the-past platform with no jobs plan or any appeal to present day Burlingtonians actual desires, Guma's bowing out seems to be the only realistic aspect to his candidacy.

I noted in his blog post that Guma seemed to rely most heavily on the counsel of Matt Cropp. That's a mistake that most Burlingtonians will get to breath a collective sigh of relief over. For those of you (and that's probably most of you) unfamiliar with Cropp, he's a political loser of the first order. Among, but certainly not all of Cropp's failures was his failed effort to gain a seat on the City Market board of directors; his failure to takeover a credit union's board; his failure to make a go of a provisional capital for his secessionist, so-called Second Vermont Republic in Hancock, VT in 2010; his failure to follow through on any of his promises made after his disastrous management of the 2010 secesher campaign of Connecticut native Dennis Steele's gubernatorial effort (99.24% of the voters gave their vote to someone other than Steele); and, perhaps most tragically, when Cropp was Thomas Naylor's secesher embed in the Burlington Occupy group, his group's advisory to the City of Burlington that they'd be assuming responsibility for the homeless in City Hall Park was followed within a day of their letter to the City by the suicide of one of the homeless (nice one there, Matt!).

Looks like everyone gets to dodge a bullet here. Imagine a Guma administration with a loser like Cropp in some position of importance. According to Guma, Cropp is now setting his sights on Burlington's neighborhoods. My advice to the residents of those neighborhoods - MOVE!!!

Buh-bye Greg.

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Vermont Secessionist Losers and Their Trail of Broken Political Promises and Bullshit

"Never give up, Never give in, Never surrender"
"Senator" Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner, November 13, 2012

With those words, two time loser for an Addison county Vermont state senate seat, closed his 2012 campaign, seemingly promising to rise again from its ashes to wage another fruitless campaign. He even immediately renamed his Facebook page, "Robert Wagner for Vermont Senate 2014" where on March 13, 2013 he wrote,

"I remain your candidate..."

Well, maybe not so much. That was the last thing he's posted on the matter. More than a year later, June's 2014 filing date for independent Senate candidates came and went with no petition submitted by Wagner. Even his "Senator Wagner" website has gone dark.

Likewise, Wagner's self-described "friend," the proudly misogynist and the inveterate anti-Semite at Rob Williams' hate blog, Dennis "Hit List" Morrisseau, also failed to register for an independent run for a Rutland county Vermont Senate seat but he still has a 2014 campaign website. Go figure.

Morrisseau was the architect of plan to replace each and every one of Vermont's senate incumbents with secesher Kool-Aid drinkers. I guess that's now on hold too.

In a fashion similar to Wagner's, Vermont's 2010 secesher gubernatorial candidate Dennis Steele, while acknowledging that more than 99% of Vermonters voted for someone else, pledged,

"Today represents a beginning, not an end. When I agreed to take on the difficult and exhausting task of running for Governor as an independent this year, I did so with the hopes that my actions would serve to help lay the foundations for a robust, grass-roots movement that will carry the message of a Free Vermont forward. Towards that end, I’ve been collaborating with several supporters to found a democratic, state-wide organization. Dedicated to spreading the ideas of Vermont Independence, providing support for Independence-minded candidates for public office, and organizing volunteer activities that both serve our neighbors and help lessen our communities’ dependence on the Federal Government, it will serve as our movement’s new center and engine of growth. It will be organized by county, and I encourage anyone who supported my campaign to get involved in their county committee."

And since then no one has heard shit from Dennis Steele. According to one published report, it indicates that he's presently engaged in peddling an addictive and possibly carcinogenic substance in the NEK. So much for "serv(ing)... neighbors" and reducing "dependence," eh?

After their miserable showing in 2010, the seceshers declared their "independence" and established a provisional capital in the sparsely populated central Vermont town of Hancock. Most of the VT secesher movement's luminaries attended the convening session of their, uh, congress - their hate blog publisher, Rob; Gary "The Rocket Scientist and Public Bankster" Flomenhoft; Matt "Never Won An Election Yet" Cropp; you know, the usual suspects.

A promised run by a Fairfax, VT secesher insider has also failed to materialize. Secesher outliers like "Terry" Jeroloman, Gus Jaccaci, James Merriman and Gaelan "Aliens-NASA Conspiracy on the Dark Side of the Moon" Brown are again sitting this election cycle out.

The fact is that the only secession supporters left running are kooks like Ben Eastwood, Emily Peyton and Peter Diamondstone (who raised secession in a debate with Bernie Sanders in 2012), and there isn't a snowball's chance in hell that any one of them will eke out more than a low single or fractional digit electoral result.

It's beginning to look more and more like Thomas Naylor's dream of an independent white homeland called the Second Vermont Republic or Novacadia or some such nonsense, is nearly as dead as he is.

"Ex nihilo, in nihilum"

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Thomas H. Naylor Sticks A Shiv Into A Longtime Ally

Over the past five years and nine months I've seen Thomas Naylor do some pretty despicable things - repeatedly consorting with racists, Holocaust deniers and like minded anti-Semites. Obviously, this has always been a path that he'd like for Vermonters to join him on.

He has repeatedly denounced the vast majority of Vermonters - the more than 99% of Vermonters who'd voted for someone other than his handpicked candidate for governor; the Vermont National Guard; virtually every statewide elected official that he's written about on his website; all of Vermont's congressional delegation; Vermont's clergy & churches, including his own in Charlotte; Vermont's non-profits who do more in a single afternoon for Vermonters than Naylor's ever done in his whole miserable life; Vermont's schools and institutions of higher education; the Vermont Occupy movement (except for his toadying embed, the notably ineffectual Matt Cropp), anti-war activists (except for the frothing ragers like his also unsuccessful handpicked candidate for Lt. guv, Peter Garritano and the chronically pissed off, sham radical Juliet Buck), the entire environmental community, and anyone else who doesn't get serious wood when they hear the word "secession."

But again, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'd thought that with my last post about the significantly poor showing at Naylor's repetitively contrived, yet-one-more-time Secesher Statehouse Stunt last Friday on behalf of his foundering Second Vermont Republic, that I was done with the prattling old fool.

Nuh-uh. Yesterday I opened the old email inbox to find another of Naylor's tedious, deranged screeds. He titled it, "La-La Land Liberalism in Vermont and Elsewhere."

You see, Vermont's problem is that it's too liberal; it's agenda is too liberal; and he's identified the sources of the problem which he takes great care to enumerate in his bad-tempered piece.

In a harangue that only omits the usual conservative complaint about "latte drinking, sushi eating, Volvo driving, New York Times reading" liberals, Naylor identifies the "six factors which have contributed to the demise of Vermont liberalism" in his estimation:

1. Senator Bernie Sanders
2. Ben & Jerry's
3. Phish
4. Bill McKibben
5. Bread & Puppet Theater

and, drumroll please...

6. Marijuana

Apparently, the the Dixie singin' Naylor, baas of SVR feels that Bread & Puppet event schedule and act don't meet his high standard of success. Never mind that he's never gotten a single secesher elected to office in any of their abysmal runs or that he was unsuccessful in getting even one of the "200 Towns in 2012" that his group promised to get to put articles for consideration on their Town Meeting warrants or, and you don't need to be a psychic to predict this one, that his plan to have Articles of Secession before the General Assembly by 2015 is, uh, on hold.

Nope, Peter Schumann, who founded and directed the successful Bread and Puppet over the past 50 years, and who has, even if reluctantly, stood by Naylor even as Naylor deepened his ties with racists, Holocaust deniers, homophobes, misogynists, anti-Semites and neo-Confederates, is one of the six sources of Naylor's problem in failing to sell more than 99% of Vermonters on his bigoted bullshit. It's not hard to figure out why; Naylor's sought to piggyback his lame secession movement on those whose efforts have been demonstrably more successful than he is ever likely to be.

And, as if he couldn't get any slimier, here's what a low-life Naylor can be; he waited until after Bread and Puppet had appeared as a part of his tiny turnout of around 50 (of which B&P accounted for about 20%) for his most recent Secesher Statehouse Stunt, where he and his cronies passed a manifesto that formalized his brand of racism in the Green Mountain state, to publish his attack on Bread and Puppet.

What. A. Duplicitous. Scumbag.

If I were Thomas Naylor, I wouldn't be expecting anyone in Vermont to be sharing a bong for the forseseeable future. As a friend who's read Naylor's latest dump said, "...we're all just a caricature, apparently, too stupid for our own good."

I'm thinking that it's true to the extent that it's really all just projection on Naylor's part. Maybe the shrink in his house can help him with that.

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One Last Wipe...

The Secesher Statehouse Stunt that occurred last Friday proved that the Vermont secessionist movement is, for all intents and purposes, roadkill; as dead as their 2007 "200 Towns by 2012" campaign promise. Similarly, the seceshers have promoted a plan to have Articles of Secession before the Vermont legislature in 2015 - my prediction, don't hold your breath on that one either.

At their sideshow to memorialize their anti-Semitism there was no mention made that their previous 6 year quest to have a secession question on at least 200 Town Meeting warnings this past March had been an utter failure, as in not one town has had a secession question put before their voters. Did they try? That's impossible to determine since the link to their website setup in furtherance of that goal is now dead too.

In 2005 (and I'm reluctantly giving them this one for the moment) their first "convention" attracted 250 people that included secessionist proponents for racist and institutionally homophobic states. The 2012 secesher shindig attracted maybe 50 participants, of whom perhaps as many as half were from out of state. Today's present state of affairs was presciently foreseen in this early Seven Days article from 2007. Less than a month later a 40,000 copy distribution deal for the secesher publication Vermont Commons was cancelled by Seven Days.

Despite sending out press releases to everyone and their brother for this year's anger fest, the seceshers got zero coverage except from their own delusional websites like this one.

Photos published by one attendee confirm the low turnout. Here's the group photo that was scheduled for the end of the event:


There was one bit of news to report. Richard "Terry" Jeroloman, who's had an on again, off again relationship with the seceshers, and who is now a Progressive Party candidate for the Vermont Senate from Chittenden County, snagged a front row seat with perennial secesher losers, Matt Cropp and Peter Garritano. Since there are few Burlington votes to be found at a secesher shindig in Montpelier, one can conclude that wouldbe Senator Jeroloman's sympathies may lie with the seceshers. Perhaps he'll explain to his potential constituents why he felt compelled to attend a session intended to formalize the Second Vermont Republic's embrace of anti-Semitic bigotry.

Here's Jeroloman with Cropp and Garrtano (l-r front, Cropp, Garritano & Jeroloman):


The next few months promise to reveal more losses for the Vermont secesssion movement. You can check back here for updates.

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Matt Cropp, Who is Perhaps the Second Vermont Republic's Most Incompetent Organizer...

... is to speak at the SVR third Secesher Statehouse Stunt this Friday in a group in which economic and political loser Gary Flomenhoft will also be speaking.

Figures.

Matt Cropp has established a reputation for failure and irrelevance that's hard to beat.

He's one of those campus radicals that makes your head hurt if you hear he's going to show up where you're headed.

He was one of the participants in the super secret, highly controversial 2009-2010 Free Vermont listserv. The searchable mirror may be found here.

Cropp was campaign manager for the profoundly unsuccessful (99.24% of Vermonters voted for someone else) Vermont secessionist gubernatorial candidate Dennis Steele. Under Cropp's management, the Steele campaign embraced imagery associated with the self-professed murderer Che Guervara. Despite promises from Steele and Cropp to remain involved with Vermonters in very specific ways, both disappeared faster than guys who weren't able to get laid on a date. Cropp set up a secesher website and did nothing discernible with it. Green Mount Militia commandante Steele's just plain gone.

Cropp was one of the founders of a new, secesher provisional capitol in Hancock, VT where he and a colleague spoke of modeling their effort after Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood. Heard of that? Yeah, well no one else has either.

Last year Cropp ran for the Board of Directors of the City Market/Onion River Coop, another big loss for him there.

More tragically, Cropp was part of Second Vermont Republic's Thomas H. Naylor's embedded leadership in the Occupy Burlington group at Burlington City Hall Park. A day after the Occupy Burlington group notified the city in writing that it was intiating a program of care for Burlington's needy and homeless at the park, a homeless individual died in the park camp structure maintained by Occupy Burlington.

Then Cropp laid plans to takeover credit unions in Vermont and across the country. The short story is that he lost his bid for a Vermont Federal Employees Credit Union board seat (yeah, like the Onion River Coop) but, get this, Cropp had called his takeover group the “Vermont Federal Credit Union Members Assembly.” He'd obviously been seeking to piggyback on the VFECU's name but, incompetent as he is, forgot to do one thing - register the name. He probably would have lost a legal challenge to the name usage but, silly boy, didn't even register the tradename properly, which the VFECU promptly did in early July. Despite being notified to cease and desist use of the VFECU trademark, Cropp continued the tradename usage on a blog he maintains as recently as Aug. 27.

Perhaps Cropp's economic plans to be outlined at the Secesher Stathouse Stunt that they're calling the Vermont Independence Party will have less lethal results than his Burlington City Hall Parl escapade or be less incompetent than his political campaign and credit union takeover schemes - we'll see.

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Media Notes

Congrats to the Burlington Free Press for receiving a breaking news coverage award from the Society of Professional Journalists regarding the shooting in the Occupy Burlington camp last fall that I posted about here and here.

At first the Dixie singin' baas of the Vermont secessionists, Thomas H. Naylor, bragged about his having embedded secesher leadership into the Vermont Occupy movement but then as Occupiers other than his embeds failed to surrender to his siren call for Occupiers to become secessionists , a miffed Naylor soured on the group and made his dissatisfaction known.

More on Naylor's mixing it up with the Occupy movement in the future.
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Matt Cropp Comes In Dead Last in The Voting in His Credit Union Takeover Attempt

Ardent Vermont secessionist Matt Cropp and fellow Burlington Occupier Eric Davis got a gift of sorts with the untimely death of an incumbent Vermont Federal Credit Union board member who was on the slate of those recommended by VFCU for re-election to the board of directors. Of the four board members elected, Davis came in a very distant fourth with less than 40% of the votes of any of the three other elected members; Cropp came in dead last with barely 20%, thus maintaining his significant losing streak in matters electoral.

Cropp and Davis have been engaged in a battle to takeover the vacant seat for some time now and, for the moment, Davis sits on the VFCU board. Davis already has trouble brewing with the board on a trademark infringement issue related to his and Cropp's Occupy Burlington committee group that's been targeting VFCU.

This CUrfuffle (sorry) has captured the attention of the National Credit Union Administration. The Credit Union Times has a piece headlined, "Occupy Activist Elected to Vermont Federal Board" here. Davis' winning manner is on full display in CUTimes piece's comments.

What the Cropp/Davis cabal wants comes down to this: 30 members of an inept Vermont Occupy group in Burlington group intend to tell the 33,000 members of VFCU what their priorities should be. Sounds like one tenth of the 1% telling the 99.9% what's to be, no? Cropp has been plotting an extreme minority takeover of Vermont's credit unions for months, as first revealed on this blog last February.

I'd just want to know why someone always seems to end up dead when the Occupy Burlington people get involved.

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Vermont Secessionist and Occupy Vermont Activist, Matt Cropp, Plots Takeover of Vermont Credit Unions

Matthew Cropp, the 2010 campaign manager for one of the most inept, unhinged gubernatorial campaigns in recent memory, that of the middle-finger waving Dennis Steele; one of the founders of the secessionist provisional capitol in Hancock, VT; maintainer of an inneffectual website that has apparently met none of the goals he set for it; recipient of an internet head pat from the baas of Second Vermont Republic, the Dixie singin' Thomas Naylor; an editorial board member of the defunct Vermont Commons newsletter secessionist propaganda rag where he still blogs on their unpopular website; stunningly failed candidate for the board of directors of City Market/Onion River Co-op in Burlington; and one of the leaders of disastrously operated Occupy encampments - one dead - in City Hall Park, Burlington, and he's now got a new idea. He intends an Occupy Vermont takeover Vermont's various credit unions. He even scheduled to be held this past Saturday his first organizing meeting for the takeover of credit unions by Occupiers at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, VT between 1:00 and 3:00 PM.

Really.

I don't know whether to laugh or pee or both.

Here's Matt Cropp's plan:

Occupy Your Credit Union! A Tactic for Activist Members
"...Being a credit union member is not basically the same as being a bank customer who gets better rates and fewer fees; rather, at its core, credit union membership means that you own your bank. With that ownership comes not simply a claim to your fair share of the profits that Bank of America would otherwise have shipped off to its shareholders, but the right to have an equal say in determining the policies and priorities of your credit union."

[snip]

"In order to wield that power to effectively advance our interests against the plutocracy, however, requires that we push for more participatory and responsive democratic processes in our credit unions. As long as the democratic deficit remains, credit unions will remain a passive counter-balance to the excesses of the Wall Street model; once we resolve it, however, I believe credit unions have the potential to become champions that can lend an enormous amount of weight to the struggle for a just financial order."

"Though there are many possible ways to increase the empowerment of credit union members, I propose that one effective strategy would be the formation of "Credit Union Members Associations." Open to all members of a particular credit union and run on the consensus model popularized by the Occupy movement, each Members Association will initially serve as a bi-monthly forum at which members can get to know each other and discuss their the credit union. Then, as the credit union's annual meeting approaches, members of the Association will nominate a slate of "Association Delegates" from their own ranks to challenge the incumbent members of the board of directors whose seats are up for election."

"To receive the endorsement of the Members Association, prospective candidates must meet a few requirements. As in credit union board elections, they must receive the support of the majority of Association members, and, if successfully elected to the credit union board, they must pledge to fulfill several key responsibilities. First, Association Delegates will be responsible for organizing a general meeting (run on the aforementioned consensus process) open to all members of the credit union every two months at which they will report on important news and developments. Second, during such meetings, should the assembled members come to consensus on a proposal (which any member is empowered to bring before the body), the Association Delegates will be obligated to do everything in their power to push for the enactment of the policies called for by the members. Finally, the Association Delegates will commit to pushing for the incorporation of the participatory processes of the Members Association into the structure of the credit union itself, with the aim of eventually making the Association redundant."

"This final goal will likely take time, since, in most credit unions, only a third of the board seats are up for reelection each year. Nonetheless, since credit union annual meeting attendance is (for complex historical reason, and with some exceptions) abysmally low, those seats should be easy pickings for the delegates of a well organized Members Association (as long as they make sure to check the credit union's bylaws to see if you have to turn in a petition in advance to be on the ballot; many credit unions don't allow for nominations from the floor at their annual meetings). In all honesty, a committed block of 25-50 people in a credit union of 20,000+ members would likely be sufficient for success, and, with a few seats at the table, the new board members could start successfully pushing for new initiatives to increase member engagement and participation right off the bat (one such idea: democratizing community giving)."
Source

Great! If members want any say in how their credit union's run they'll need to attend one of those dopey finger wiggling General Assemblies that Ocuppiers think all decision making groups should be reduced to or lose their say as a credit union member. Matt's a little vague on who'll benefit most in this sweeping takeover but I think his focus on "community giving" is a hint. A small group of Occupiers - "25-50 people in a credit union of 20,000+ members" - calling the shots using their governing model and standing the local credit unions longtime very good relationship with its members on its head, all in furtherance of goals of what must be one of the most incompetent Occupy groups in the country, Occupy Burlington-Vermont. Matt's process outlined in his statement in bold is based on the anarchist model or principles called "direct democracy", not unlike the governing principles of a "dictatorship of the proletariat".

Like most of what Matt does, this probably will go nowhere and hopefully with no casualities this time, but it's interesting that Matt proposes that less than 1% of credit union members control the assests of the remaining more than 99% of credit union members. Odd, no?

If you are a member of one of Vermont's credit unions, you may want to let yours know what Matt Cropp is planning. You can find yours in this online list of 27 Vermont Credit Unions. Our Vermont credit unions have 290,000 members and assets totaling $2.4 billion. Wouldn't Matt just love to control that?

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Mother Knows Best

Earlier this fall during the onset of the incipient Occupy Wall Street movement and its local incarnation in Burlington, I was struck by what was clearly a blatant and historical revisionist bent to the group, not unlike some of the group's members previous and continuing involvement with the tiny Vermont secessionist movement. Not only did some embrace the conspiracist nonsense of racists and anti-Semites like Eustace Mullins, author of "Adolph Hitler An Appreciation", but they also engaged in creating fictions that evolved as need required. For instance, first the local Occupiers blamed a widely honored and acclaimed housing and homeless assistance group for having sent homeless people to live among the Occupiers, forcing the assistance organization, which has a sterling 30 year record of achievement on behalf of Vermont's homeless to issue a public denial of the baseless charge, to the Occupiers then claiming "solidarity" with the assistance provider. Flip, flop.

When the local Occupiers stumble, miscalculate or just plain screw the pooch, they resort to lies, misrepresentations or simply make shit up.

But it's been the ongoing undercurrent of anti-Semitic conspiracism displayed by some Occupiers similar to that of a Vermont secessionist blowhard, Thomas Naylor, who has claimed that a secession activist, Matt Cropp, was one of the "principal organizers of Occupy Vermont," as well as their sad continuance of making claims against Jews that's been going on for thousands of years that caught my attention. You'd think that the Occupiers, especially one in particular who's repeatedly contacted this blog, could pull their heads out of their asses and come up with something newer than age old Jew hatred.

That said, I thought I'd share something that recently appeared on the endpage of The Sunday New York Times Magazine:

Grabbing Life by the Horns
By Shalom Auslander
Published: December 16, 2011

When I was a child, my mother told me that everyone in the world hated me. They hated me, she said, because I was a Jew.

So? I asked.

So nothing, she replied. So they hate you.

Not just the people on our street, who were “classic Jew-haters”; not just everyone in the town nearby, who were “card-carrying anti-Semites”; not just everyone in the world now, but everyone who’d ever lived, ever: Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Spaniards, Italians, Germans, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims.

I was sure she was wrong. I was sure they just hated her, which I could very well understand. She told me this when I was 6, when I was 13, when I was 15 and when I was 17. At 18, I went on a trip through Europe with some observant Orthodox friends; it was something of a symbolic trip, because we were at the age when we were getting ready to leave home, to head out into that strange new world outside the narrow religious one in which we were brought up. I was determined to find a new home for myself, something broader, more enlightened, less paranoid, less terrified.

One morning, we were on a train headed, I believe, for Paris, when we decided to pray. We had on our yarmulkes, zizit, phylacteries, the whole outfit. A U.S. Marine, in full camouflage, was seated in front of us, and he kept turning around, looking at us and smiling warmly. When we finished praying, he turned around again, and in a heavy Southern accent, with absolutely no malice or hatred whatsoever — in fact, with an almost endearing, childlike curiosity — asked me if I wouldn’t mind too terribly showing him my “Jew horns.”

Not, he added, if it’s like a big deal or something.

My first thought was that he was kidding.

My second thought was that he was serious.

My third thought was, Oh, no — Mom was right.

If he had just called me a dirty Jew, it would have been O.K. If he had just held me down and carved a swastika on my head — no biggie, I’ll wear hats. But he went all the way to horns — to the Middle Ages, Christ-killing, money-lending, shape-shifting stuff.

That was going to be a problem.

Not because of anti-Semitism. I could probably make it in a world fouled with ignorance. I could probably get by on a planet poisoned with petty prejudice and institutionalized hatred. But a world where my mother was right?

That was going to be a problem.

Source

Shame on the Occupy Vermont group in Burlington for never having called out the bigoted, racist anti-Semites among them.

Shame on them!

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

This Is What Democracy Looks Like?

I took a personal look this week at the Occupy Wall Street site and found myself not very impressed.

Certainly the actual participants are sincere but the whole setting has taken on a carnival-like atmosphere, complete with breathless Amy Goodman "interviews" and her irritatingly repetitive questions that start with "talk about" and then suggest the answers that interviewees should head to.

Occupation "peepers" vastly outnumber the not quite on Wall Street occupiers.

While some reports depict the various Occupy groups throughout the US as acting on behalf of 99% of Americans, that seems to be an inflation of representation on a par with some of the stratagems, tactics and imagery used by secessionists and Teabaggers. For instance, the Burlington group headed by (if you're the one quoted usually most frequently, you're the head/spokesperson, like it or not) Matt Cropp/OB uses an image from no, not Burlington, but rather an arrest in NYC. No context, no verifiable facts, just an arrest takedown with no other information.

Was a crime committed? By whom? What happened immediately before that arrest? Is there some relationship to the Burlington PD? Nope, just an image from somewhere else meant to evoke, you know, whatever it's hoped might be seen in it by whoever, although there's no absolutely relationship whatsoever to the Burlington PD.

Did Cropp or someone else slap that image onto their Facebook page for its emotional value? Who's to say? But its relevance to the Burlington PD or any inference regarding their treatment of the occupiers here would be a bullshit conclusion. It's just the sort of misinformation that can make the Occupy Burlington group as irrelevant to Vermonters as the secessionist organization that Cropp represents (or not, depending on who he's trying to stroke) has done to themselves over the years with their misrepresentations. Fostering bad relations with the Burlington PD without any basis can't serve Vermonters or the would-be occupiers. Any such movement must be based on truth if it's to take off, unless, of course, Cropp, et al, are following the Teabagger model.

Given "the amount of print and face time" that Cropp's managed to garner for himself up to now, he's most definitely the "spokesperson" for the Vermont Occupy groups.

Cropp has said,

"(T)he vast majority of people I met (at OWS NYC) were from places other than NYC; on the second trip it was majority New Yorker"

While the first statement by Cropp may have been true, his second statement is sheer bullshit. Zuccotti Park is crawling with tourists and tour buses clog the area streets to see the "action." If Cropp's actually been there, he'd know that or he's just lying to promote a political disinformation campaign.

What's missing from the OWS locale are any advocates of Cropp's signature issue - secession. I looked hard for any sign of secessionist sentiment and it ain't there. For those of you who've forgotten or who now wish to, Matt was the campaign manager of one of the most unsuccessful gubernatorial efforts in recent Vermont history, the secessionist campaign of the middle finger waving Connecticut native Dennis Steele; Occupy Burlington might want to take note of that fact.

Cropp is seen grinning here in an early warning by Occupy Burlington to the Burlington PD. With no problem yet having presented itself with the Burlington PD, why did the group seek to draw kind of some line in the sand? Looking for an incident that you think will inspire, Matt? Back in the day we use call that being a provocateur, not leadership.

The posturing by Cropp on behalf of Occupy Burlington seems to be pretty obvious, including the field trips to OWS that he's now involved in promoting while soliciting contributions. Hopefully there'll be a full, transparent, public financial accounting of this fundraising effort by Cropp's group and given its complaints about taxes one hopes that they'll make the necessary income tax declarations (I don't think that road trips to NYC will qualify as a charitable expenditure by an as yet to be applied for 501(3)(c) status).

In fact, when a Occupy Burlington supporter complained repeatedly about the junkets to New York, Matt sought to silence the public, transparent discussion on Facebook by directing the discussion to himself personally:

"Before throwing around baseless accusations imputing the goodwill of people who've been working damn hard to help build this movement, why don't you actually try and talk to us - I'm around this afternoon and available to talk through either skype or on the phone. Send me a private message with your contact info and let's discuss your concerns"
Source: Occupy Burlington, Matt's 10/11/11, 1:17 PM response to -Zach #AntiSec's 10/11/11, 11:14 AM complaint

According to tonight's news reports, the City of New York intends to assist the owner of Zuccotti Park assert its management rights in the park tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM.

Occupy Wall Street "spokesman" Patrick Bruner has "called on people to come to the site at 6 a.m. tomorrow, an hour before cleaning is scheduled to begin, 'to defend the occupation from eviction.'”

Here's an idea for Occupy Burlington spokespersons and organizers, Matthew Cropp and Jonathan Leavitt; instead of just "be(ing) here, strong and standing together in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street.," they get on the road and be there in Zuccotti Park at 6:00 AM as is being asked for by OWS.

It's time to fish or cut bait, boys. You may want to download this app on the way there.

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

A Vermont Secessionist Seeks a Position As a Director at the City Market / Onion River Co-op in Burlington

Matthew Cropp's electoral ambitions (read: power needs) continue. He's now offering his vast experience in pretty much nothing useful to the Board of Directors of the Burlington City Market / Onion River Co-op, to serve in one of three available positions on the Board as a new director.

I've read his candidate statement here and was surprised that he hadn't fleshed it out a bit more with some of his more recent endeavors, one being his stint as campaign manager for the 2010 Vermont secessionist gubernatorial candidate, Dennis Steele. Perhaps that was because the Steele campaign serves as an example of the most inept, most incompetent and most incoherent campaign in recent memory. While Cropp can't be held entirely responsible for Steele's erratic behavior, he must have had something to say about the images attached to that campaign. One particularly disturbing image was of the self-professed murderer, Che Guevara, superimposed on the Vermont National Guard battle flag that was used on the campaign website and campaign literature. Under Cropp's "stewardship" the campaign was able to "function" so "efficiently and rationally" that Steele eventually garnered barely three quarters of one percent of Vermont's 2010 gubernatorial vote, something that I'm sure that Cropp would rather re-frame as third place.

Cropp's commitment to a "trans-ideological" Vermont independence (read: secessionist) movement has included deep participation in what was called the "Free Vermont Framework listserv", which was set up, in part, as a way to avoid interference from "the pigs." (See "Free Vermont Framework listserv" archive at the bottom of the post and then search Feb. 2010 archive page 192) That commitment to "trans-ideological" involvement included remaining silent when one listserv member made repeated hateful statements directed at race-mixing and lesbians. Eventually, Cropp's Steele campaign accepted its largest out-of-state campaign contribution from this hateful individual, and when the matter was exposed on this blog the campaign chose to keep the bigot's money.

Cropp also said in his City Market / Onion River Co-op campaign statement,

"...I've had previous experiences ...including having served ...on the editorial board of several publications"

I don't know why he wasn't more forthcoming about who those editorial boards were that benefited from his expertise but I suspect that the one that I do know about, "Vermont Commons", and its reputation for harboring the written work of white supremacists, neo-Confederates and anti-Semites in its pages is something that Cropp would have difficulty explaining. Maybe it's just that "trans-ideological" thing at work again.

In addition to his work organizing the campaign of the handpicked gubernatorial candidate of the the Dixie singin' Thomas Naylor's Second Vermont Republic, Cropp interests now include central participation with the #OccupyVermont movement.

One certainly has to wonder how Cropp's unrevealed and varied interests and "perspective," as well as his experience in "cultivating working relationships" with some of society's more odious and hateful elements, will serve the Co-op, not to mention his own personal "aspirations."

As a measure of Cropp's dedication to his undisclosed ideals and the degree to which he's advanced his personal goals, one need look no farther than his creation of the Vermont Independence Alliance ten months ago and his statement of purpose,

"We are therefore dedicated to supporting service projects which strengthen our communities and strive to meet local needs with local resources."

"...In order to advance these shared principles, VIA chapters will first be organized in each of our state's counties. These groups will serve as local hubs of both political activism and community service, forming the movement's sturdy, grass-roots foundation. Once a sufficient number of counties are organized, a convention will be held to constitute a state-wide organization. While most resources and responsibilities will remain at the county level, the state organization will take the lead in coordinating large events and supporting state-wide candidates for public office."

...as well as Cropp's lengthy announcement at the Vermont secesher homebase website, Second Vermont Republic, here. The question then would be, "How's that going for ya, Matt?"



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