Oath Keepers and More From The Free Vermont Listserv Gift That Just Keeps On Giving

Back in March of 2010, James Duncan (the Dennis Steele contributor who first led this blog to the Free Vermont Framework listserv [1] ) reposted on the listserv a piece from DumpDC about the extremist group called Oath Keepers, a group supposedly made up of present and former law enforcement and military personnel. [2]

At the same time that some listserv participants were about to get themselves all charged up about the Oath Keepers, this piece in Mother Jones was on the newstands and the web.

"Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Pat Buchanan have all sung its praises..."
- Mother Jones

You'll find in Mother Jones that Oath Keepers shares many of the same conspiracy delusions common to some members of Free Vermont, SVR and "Vermont Commons" bloggers - 9/11 Truthers, Birthers, impending round-ups by the Empire, as well as ties to the white supremacist community.

It was already a matter of public record at the time of these listserv posts that one high profile member of the Oath Keepers, Charles Dyer, had been arrested on Federal weapons charges that arose from a sexual molestation investigation and arrest by state authorities. [3] More arrests of Oath Keeper members on a variety of weapons related charges have followed.

Dennis Morrisseau, Foreign Minister of Thomas Naylor's Second Vermont Republic and the Free Vermont candidate for the state Senate wrote on the listserv in response to Duncan's repost,

From: dmorso1 at netzero.com (Dennis Morrisseau)
Date: Fri Mar 12 02:04:31 2010
Subject: [Free Vermont Framework] FW: [New post] Oath Keepers and Oath Takers: Does It Really Matter?
Message-ID: <20100311.210243.24605.3@webmail13.vgs.untd.com>

"I like this Oath keeper group a lot!

Jim, How can we make inroads to them i wonder....and try to get a few of their VT members to join our Senate effort??? Do you know anybody inside?"

Maybe Morrisseau had seen Dyer's YouTube hit (so creepy that YouTube requires a sign-in to view it). Here's a more family friendly version of the Dyer vid that's not quite so high on the nutbar scale:



"Fear of ridicule?" Maybe it's just that mouthguard that's so off-putting to people, son.

Free Vermont Senate candidate Robert Wagner chimed in:

Date: Fri Mar 12 03:25:46 2010
Subject: [Free Vermont Framework] FW: [New post] Oath Keepers and Oath Takers: Does It Really Matter?
Message-ID: <1286712873-1268364341-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-
1349255639-@bda584.bisx.prod.on.blackberry>

"I like this much better than trying to convince servicemen to not serve."

Really? Are we actually talking about a potential alliance between our kookie group of Vermont secessionists and a collection of flipped out militia types that underscore their allegiance to the the US Constitution? (See this also.)

Then comes this from Duncan, one of the few Dennis Steele contributors, alluding to the coming trials(!) in the future Second Vermont Republic :

From: jd882u at hotmail.com (james duncan)
Date: Fri Mar 12 14:25:53 2010
Subject: [Free Vermont Framework] FW: [New post] Oath Keepers and Oath
Take rs: Does It Really Matter?
Message-ID:

"Sorry, my encounters with law enforcement were always of the non-oath keepers types."

"You know, the socieopathic toadies of the plutocracy whose defense when we put them on trial will be ......"I was only following orders"."

"Remember, most of the servants of the Empire oppress and tyrannize you for a mere pat on the back and a Scobby snack from their masters. If you want to pursue making contact, their leader seems to be a Stuart Rhodes and this is his website http://oathkeepers.org/oath/ On the plus side, he is on SPLC shit list along with the rest of us."

All right, now we're getting somewhere! SVR Foreign Minister Denny?! Take us home!

From: dmorso1 at netzero.com (Dennis Morrisseau)
Date: Fri Mar 12 14:36:11 2010
Subject: [Free Vermont Framework] FW: [New post] Oath Keepers and Oath Takers: Does It Really Matter?
Message-ID: <20100312.093431.22003.7@webmail12.vgs.untd.com>

"I am more familiar than i care to say with the ones that you describe....and also second how few twinkies it takes to cement their stupic and brutal loyalty."

"Still, i have met others....always UNheralded, inside....and so i do have some hope for this outfit."

There's more, but you get the idea.

In a later post by Duncan to Morrisseau about some other Canadian secessionists called Atlantica or Novacadia or NewFrance-istan or some other nonsense, Duncan says,

"I agree foreign minister. Has the smell of kooks about it."

I couldn't have said it better, Jim. Of course, I'd be talking about just about everything you guys have said thus far.

Watch for more here in the near future about just how far the Vermont secession crowd has moved forward with their examination and, ultimately, replacement of the present form of governance in Vermont.

Is the Small Free Vermont/Vt Commons/Second Vermont Republic Juggernaut Running Out of Gas?

When the fringers finally made it into a forum (it couldn't really be called a debate), there was plenty to write about in its aftermath. One "candidate" had a proposal that sounded more like a weird take-off, sort of, on The Running Man. Thomas Naylor's hand-picked gubernatorial candidate, Dennis Steele, who's fronting for the Second Vermont Republic while posing as an independent contributed, "Vermont should build an “industrial hemp barrier” around (Lake Champlain) to suck out the phosphorous." Since the lake isn't solely a Vermont body of water, one imagines that the details for Steeles' ambitious "plan" will be worked out by the SVR Foreign Minister (I kid you not) Dennis Morrisseau, the remaining United States (if New York hasn't declared independence by then), the Canadian federation and the Province de Québec. Good times.

While nutty notions aren't exclusively the property of the Free Vermont gang, they've explored quite a few, including tossing around the idea putting out feelers that could lead to alliances with other fringers, Tea Baggers and the always fun to look at, Oath Keepers. Since this post is more about the dwindling relevance of the FVers, those are subjects for future posts.

Those posts will be based on information gleaned from the Free Vermont Framework listserv.

The location of the listserv archive was obtained during the course of research on the true support for secessionists in Vermont (not the junk polling "commissioned" by Naylor - see Polling Section in the column to the right) based on the public records available from the Vermont Secretary of State's website for Elections - Campaign Finance (July, Aug, Sept).

Examining the list of contributions and contributors to the Steele campaign showed the top three to be #1 Naylor - $810; #2 Robert Wagner - $350; #3 (tied) Ian Baldwin/James Duncan - $300 each, and whose contributions constitute more than 80% of the $2175 raised to date from the 9 identified contributors. A third of the contributors give out of state residence addresses (NY/CO/SC). [1] [2] [3]

Seven years of SVR bloviating on and on about its growing support in Vermont; 9 known contributors, most who belong to the group's leadership. The sense of the excitement that's been generated across the state of Vermont is unmistakeable. Who knew?

While researching the backgrounds on the out-of-state contributors by using keywords associated with the Free Vermont group and the contributors names, one Google search caused the listserv for the Free Vermont Framework to show and, voilà, a more detailed look into the crazy of a Vermont fringe group that considers itself poised to assume leadership for all Vermonters.

The listserv, the Mailman.net Pipermail, is known to be an insecure archive. It's sort of The InterTubes version of walking around in public in your underwear, with you seemingly being the only one not aware. You'd have thought that the media and security "experts" on the list would have known that.



More to come.