A Second Vermont Republic Founder Joins The Culture War

I know, it's been months since I last posted but, really, the Vermont secesher movement is pretty much dead here. Other than the occasional post at his hate site (no, I won't link to it), publisher Rob Williams, hasn't really been doing much of anything. Sure, he's tried to get his tired message out about "the Empire" out by piggybacking at other's events but Vermonters have pretty much got his number: hate. He's also been waging a bizarre anti-Bernie Sanders campaign, relying on the past writings of failed secessionists like the still dead Thomas Naylor, a lightweight by the name of Greg Guma, and his own whiny scribblings that point to the attacks of anti-Semite Stephen Lendman. Secesher Peter Diamondstone has played along with the campaign; you can read about Diamondstone's failure here.

I'd figured that this was the end of the line for the largely ineffectual SVR crowd and, for all intents and purposes, it is. It's founder dead, his successor completely failed, and the original SVR leadership scattered and silent. All except for Kirkpatrick Sale.

Sale was part of the 60's era SDS organization. He writes useless books devoted to his cramped worldview and, of course, secession. And he writes letters to his now local paper in Charleston, SC, about, of course, secession. He retired to SC from NY State a few years ago as things unraveled for his friends here at SVR in Vermont. In his retirement, Sale followed his dead friend's lead and has published some really dumb stuff but probably nothing quite as stupid as this recent op-ed in Charleston's The Post and Courier. In it, Sale offers secession as the solution to the U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefel v. Hodges marriage equality decision.

"That is why I believe that the death of states’ rights is really a clarion call for states to defy the federal government and assert their rights independent of Washington and its minions."

"I care not how it be done..."

In his piece Sale essentially says "to hell" with the 5th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and cavalierly proposes conflict between Americans and their government. How'd that work out the last time around, Kirk? 500, 600 or 800 American dead, right?

I have little doubt Sale won't find takers for his proposal among the evangelical nutters that have spent the summer fuming over SCOTUS's decision. Sale's op-ed closes with:

"For if it is not done now, it will not be done ever."

That's probably the only thing that Sale got right in his op-ed.

You can read the op-ed here and a very good response can be found here. 'Course, Sale has been whining about "gay power" to whoever who'll listen for months.

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

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

Secessionists Mount an Ill Fated Write-in Campaign for the August 28 Primary

As followers of this blog are aware, I've been baiting the Vermont secessionists for a little bit now, urging at least one to consider mounting a write-in campaign for his indisputably loser candidacy for the Addison County Vermont Senate seat, wannabe "Senator" Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner.

Last week the seceshers associated with the anti-Vermont Army and Air National Guard sham radical dirtbag and Vermont Commons web, content editor and airbase nimby queen, Juliet Buck, announced a belated write-in campaign by the "constantly pissed off," in-vehicle screamer Peter Garritano; the fact challenged South Burlington pol Rosanne Greco and (I'm not quite why she'd want to squander her environmental cred by getting in bed with'em) Annette Smith, for U.S. Senator, U.S. congressional representative and governor respectively on their ineffectual websites here, here but not yet at the primary anti-VTANG website maintained by Buck. Maybe she hasn't had the time or thoroughness yet to do so. It's clear though that this write-in effort was hastily thrown together. The MSM is also reporting that Annette Smith is a write-in candidate but, you see, the thing is that the proponents of her candidacy are saying that they haven't bothered to get her official okey dokey for the effort.

"We have not cleared our use of Annette's name as a write-in with her.  Given her public comments about a write-in campaign, we did not think that was necessary. The primary is upon us so this all has to happen fast."
Write In Annette Smith for Governor website

The proponents of this write-in scheme admit that their effort is devoted to their desire to "simply... cause a disturbance in the process for the Democrats and the Republicans" and to gain a spot in the debates to ride their various hobbyhorses by "get(ting) enough votes to be included in the debates." Hunh?

That'd be a first for a Vermont debate where a write-in candidate who was unsuccessful in getting enough votes to become a candidate for any party, major or minor, would then be included in a debate because they'd met some threshold of "enough votes" that I'm guessing will be determined by the write-in proponents and be awfully low like, say, "any votes." Certainly a last minute stealth write-in attempt to hijack the credibilty of the Progressive Party will deservedly be viewed with contempt by most. In 2010 a remarkably unsuccessful Vermont secessionist candidate for governor tried to crash one party's candidate forum and got his ass arrested. This setup promises the same potential - much political theater on behalf of goals that have yet to gain traction in a meaningful way with Vermont voters. The tiny anti-VTANG group has, according to press reports, proven itself capable of "turning out dozens of vocal, attention-grabbing protesters with little advance notice." The write-in tally for Smith may be a double edge sword for the seceshers in that it may serve to re-confirm the utter lack of interest among Vermont voters for the fringe issues that excite the wingnuts.

Having successfully achieved the goals of a write-in campaign myself where the candidate couldn't possibly win or even serve, the one thing I can pass along to these amateurs is that you don't start a write-in a week or two before a primary date unless it's your intention to establish your renown as losers with no clue about how to make a real statement work.

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

It's Independents Day!

No, that's not a typo although I make my fair share. Sometimes it takes years to notice and correct them but the point here is to mention a few, if not all, of the independents running for congressional, statewide and legislative offices in the 2012 election cycle.

First though, as many of the regular readers of this blog know, I've been poking fun at the wouldbe "Senator" Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner's boast that he had 6 people lined up to run for the Vermont Senate (although he could only name 5) and that he was seeking 24 more to replace the whole Senate with secessionists for the past year. Wagner never got around to naming his sixth person but he has spent a lot of bandwidth spouting off about topics where he clearly has nailed down the fringe position, such as his Marxist-Lenist-Stalinist-lite economic pablum called Georgism. But more on that at another time.

The Vermont Secretary of State's Office has just released its draft list of independent candidates here containing the typical 30+ names of many well intended sorts who'd like to make a difference but who are for the most part clueless as to how to go about doing so. True, there's the occasional political tiger like Bernie Sanders but he's very much the exception to the rule.

This year's slate contains a mother and son congressional duo; a few candidates seeking multiple seats, one of whom favors acronym encrusted solutions while another claims disability from an STD; others are bona fide independents who have contributed to their community and serve in the legislature; and then there are others who'd just like to get to play politician too but haven't figured out the system is geared to Duverger's Law.

"In political science, Duverger's law is a principle which asserts that a plurality rule election system tends to favor a two-party system."

The only secesher that I can find thus far in addition to Wagner is his pal Peter Moss. I've gone over the Secretary of State's draft list here and can't seem to find the three other names that Wagner had listed for the past year as being part of his "The Vermont 30" scheme - the murderously anti-Semitic Dennis Morrisseau, the very angry Peter Garritano

"My name is Peter Garritano. I am constanly pissed off but don't show it. I bite my tongue quite often and vent by writing and screaming at other drivers while alone in my car..."

Source

and the nobody Michael Patno who is a longtime pal of the baas of the Second Vermont Republic, the Dixie singin' Thomas H. Naylor.

From Wagner's website:

I'd thought that I'd be spending the next four months introducing Vermonters to "The 30" secesher wannabes with facts that they'd rather Vermonters not know about them but I guess that's not to be. Looks like I'm left with one befuddled old man and Wagner's raging id - he's announced that he's targeting Addison County's senator who has an impressive personal history of contributing to her community and county, Claire Ayer (D-Weybridge) with what he's promised will be one of the most negative campaigns in recent memory. It'll do.

Meanwhile, in another matter related to Wagner's conflicting positions, there's been no word yet about whether Wagner will be returning the $288.30 Federal subsidy he received while flying out of the airport in Rutland, VT, which is exactly the kind of subsidy that he "is strongly opposed to" and has argued harms Vermonters that I revealed he'd hypocritically availed himself of (as in sticking his snout in the federal money trough) here. Wagner must publicly give back that Federal subsidy money or he'll be exposed for the hypocritical fraud that many of us Vermonters know him to be.

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

Facts? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Facts!!

Just when I start to think that Peter Garritano, the handpicked 2010 Lt. Governor candidate of the baas of the Second Vermont Republic, the Dixie singin' Magnolia Vermonter, Thomas Naylor, couldn't become more paranoid, more incoherent and more detached from the real world, he belts out another factless conspiracy theory.

In a blog post at Rob Williams' nearly defunct "Vermont Commons Journal" website titled Wall Street Hit Squad, Garritano asserts that,

"Nobody likes to be ridiculed and the con men on Wall Street have had enough of the protests. The recent allegations that the Mexican drug cartel teamed up with an Iranian to hatch a terror plot has all the markings of the made for TV events that the FBI has been sponsoring for the last ten years..."

"Wall Street was tired of the parades and signs questioning the integrity of the wealthy, so they made a call to members of their personal police force in the FBI. The people who once pretended to protect and serve us are now stuck writing bad scripts for the 49% of the population that still believes in Muslim boogie men. Wall Street has decided to show the 99% who’s boss by calling in a hit on Iran."

The only thing to be ridiculed in that hodge podge of unconnected dots is the thought processes of the declared 2012 secessionist candidate for one of the Vermont Senate seats of Chittenden county, Peter Garritano.

Back in May of this year in another of his rants here about the US gubmint and things he think have or haven't happened, Garritano said that,

"The Hall of Fame of (U.S. government) Fakery includes underwear bombs..."

Earth to Garritano: The so-called underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, pled guilty after opening arguments at his trial began to all eight of the charges lodged against him, including conspiring to commit terrorism.

To paraphrase Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Garritano is entitled to his own opinion but he is not then supposed to create his own facts to support his alternate universe. This should be of interest to all Chittenden voters who may find Garritano's independence spiel even slightly appealing - facts promoted by a would-be legislator should not be independent of reality. Little wonder then that during his last political go-around in 2010 he garnered barely more than 3.6% of the statewide vote. And to think that his superiors believed that he might do better, according to Thomas Naylor's (13%) and Jim "Ethan Allen" Hogue's (18%) estimation of statewide voter support for secession.

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

I'm Back to "Having a Good Time..."

... and "there's no stopping me."

Irene in Vermont is now headed well into the recovery phase at this moment and absent another flood watch in the area, the clean-up here has progressed to the point where I'm getting my vibe back.

Google has been such an integral source of what I've found, for getting onto five years now, about Vermont's secession movement and, also, this week would have been Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday, so... (turn it up and go to full screen)


(For Freddie Mercury and Queen purists who'd prefer the full-length original [as I do], that's here.)

It's been apparent for a very long time that the Vermont secesher movement, which now likes to euphemistically call itself an independence movement, is essentially a hot-air machine posing as political substance that'll get into bed with any low-life, racist, anti-Semite or homophobe so long as it'll get them to their goal post, no matter who may possibly end up getting hung from it.

They've chosen to keep it vague and label themselves as "independents" and then cheesily presumed to draft in their pronouncements very real independent candidates as their supposed running mates simply because they all use that term "independent." At least one of their actual 7 candidates (not the 40 that some of them have claimed) during their 2010 across the board failure actually disavowed secession for Vermont.

This week is also the 10th anniversary of the lunatic conspiracy theory that they've also chosen to anchor their "movement" to, the 9/11 Truther nonsense. That's not such a surprise since at least one of their past Senate candidates, Gaelan Brown, believes that there's been collusion with aliens and the US government regarding resource extraction from the darkside of the moon.

"Personally I believe that it's likely that NASA has been collaborating with beings from other planets to mine the dark side of the moon in exchange for them giving us some of their technology."

"(I've seen unexplainable UFOs several times and I know a man who works for Carlisle who says there is heavy investment going on re infrastructure to mine the moon for titanium, H3 (nuclear fuel), and other minerals that are rare on earth.)(SIC) I have also studied the chem.-trail and HARPP systems/history and there's a lot of sketchy activity in this category as well."

"But I'm not going to focus on these issues in my campaign. Vt independence is enough of a reach without pushing people on issues that they'll never grasp."
Gaelan Brown, September 1, 2010, on the super top-secret Free Vermont Framework messageboard

Right, Gaelan. Your fellow Vermonters are too stupid to get the whole UFOs on the darkside of the moon thing; keep it simple: secede from something that Vermont sought 3 times to become a part of 220 years ago.

And at least one VTCommons blogger, Simha Bode, worries that Burlington's bike paths are really part of a UN directed, one world government conspiracy trap here, that is when he's not exploring fringe legal theories espoused by sovereign citizen movement types here. Yeah, really.

My focus tonight is on the seceshers response over the last week and a half to the Irene disaster and its wake.

Rob Williams
This week is also the one year of anniversary of "Vermont Commons" news poseur and half-assed media wiz, Rob Williams, declaring on his super top-secret, hidey-hole messageboard:

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

It's also Rob Wiliams' 4½ year anniversary of his infamous "Don't Ask, Don't Care" policy regarding the former director of the white supremacist's League of the South "scholarly" Institute for the Study of Southern Culture and History:

"Is ("Don") a racist? I don't know. And frankly, it is none of my damn business"

It seems that my post a few days ago here may have prompted Williams to finally do something on his blog. We learn that his vast, massive organization has limited its Irene response to his backyard and setting up a Facebook page. Oh yeah, he tweets too. Fabulous! And hyper-irrelevant.

Oh! And there's this:

"I've sent many of you who have been asking to Anne Galloway's VermontDigger - she and her crew are doing a fine job of aggregating press releases, official government response documents, and original reporting there."
Source

That's interesting since here's what he was saying on that same top-secret messageboard mentioned above specifically about Galloway in May-June of last year:

"CIA spook that she is..."
[snip]
"Most reporters regurgitate press release as "fact," and call it objective journalism, friends."
"When they dare to have an opinion, they put it on the OP/ED pages."
"It ain't right, and we need to challenge it (as everything else...)"
Source

Ahhh, what a difference a year can make for a not so smooth talking secesher when he's back to trying to woo a member of Vermont's press corps.

Williams' blog post on the Irene disaster surprisingly evoked a militaristic spirit ("boots on the ground") from our anti-miltary Williams, who then slithered off into a Larry-the-Cable-Guy catch phrase ("Git'er done"). Faux militarism with a dollop of insipid inspiration - that's our Robbie.

At times it seems as though Williams can't see his own blatant hypocrisy as others easily can, so it eludes him as to why he and his movement are getting no traction. Nothing on his website but ads and self-promotion. His denial of reality is on a scale that rivals Harold Camping's delusion, except that when Williams stands on a Waitsfield corner wearing his sandwich board, his reads, "Secession Is Near!"

Matthew Cropp
Like Williams, another elite, academic, former campaign manager for one of the most ineptly run gubernatorial bids by a Connecticut native, Dennis Steele (for whom Williams was a primary adviser). Steele was also the former self-commissioned commander of the Green Mountain Brigade (of One?) who then flip-flopped into a "Peace Candidate" of convenience. Cropp set up this spring what he calls the Vermont Independence Alliance. Again, we're presented with the usual gauzy generalities that seceshers have become known for; non-specifics designed to include whatever they think the reader would like to hear, but this one piece jumped out at me:

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

So I've watched and waited but nothing's happened. And then I thought that maybe with Irene that the posturing Cropp would drop the crap and finally step up with some real substance rather than the empty words he's become so well known for but, you guessed it, he's not "supporting" shit.

The scary part of Cropp's plan is this nugget:

"In a free Vermont, on the other hand, our own political vision(s) might or might not be adopted, depending on the will of the people, but they’d certainly have the opportunity to be honestly considered and rationally debated."

Did this smart-ass just fall off the intellectual, democratic despot truck? According to his scenario, "the will of the people" can certainly include segregation, reëactment of discriminatory laws based on sexual orientation, age discrimination, resurrection of "restricted public accommodation" laws from the late 40's in Vermont regarding Jews, all in the name of "the will of the people." He never allows for otherwise in his elaborate plan for his New Vermont Order. Just make it attractive to all the baser instincts and it'll get traction, eh Matt?

How can Cropp have so such contempt for Vermonter's instincts that he'd make such thinly veiled appeals to the bigots and knuckledraggers that has been the unravelling of his mentor, Thomas Naylor? And, of course, he's not announced any "service projects which strengthen our communities and strive to meet local needs with local resources" regarding the Irene tragedy at his empty website.

As J.D. Ryan over at fivebeforechaos.com once so aptly described Cropp:

"...(Cropp has an) overinflated and underfunctioning mind..."

"I had the dubious honor of meeting Matt Cropp at some get-together a while back; I can’t remember the specifics. He’s not hard to point out, as he oozes that “I’m the smartest guy in the room” vibe (which is readily apparent if you can stand reading his blog… he is soooo much smarter than you – just accept that). In actuality, he’s more like a politics version of the comic book guy on the Simpsons, with better hygiene- socially inept, arrogant as hell, and well, even though you can tell he’s read a lot of books, you just know that… he’s read a lot of books. Not much else. And, also like the comic book guy on the Simpsons, if you even bothered to notice that he left the room, you’re more likely to be wondering if he’s ever gotten laid than being amazed and humbled at how much smarter he is than you."

"So, I’ve come to find out how Matt’s mind works, and it says a lot about what we can expect in terms of how Dennis Steele’s campaign will be managed."

There's much more by Ryan on the mind of Matthew Cropp here. Fact is that Cropp was so-o-o smart that his campaign management garnered barely ¾ of one percent of gubernatorial vote which I believe may have been the smallest vote percentage of any secesher candidate. Amazingly, Cropp has characterized his candidate's miniscule showing as "momentum." Sure.

Thomas Naylor
The baas of the Second Vermont Republic, vintage über elitist, as well as an economic/academic bullshitter and longtime friend of the white supremacist League of the South hasn't even bothered to note this devastating event that's shattered the lives of so many of his Vermont neighbors. Perhaps it's because that from his redoubt in Charlotte the matter is out of sight and, so, out of mind.

Interestingly, what he did choose to post at his website the very next day after Irene struck so many was another of his banal essays entitled, "Ciphers: People of the Lie." SVR's baas tells us:

"a cipher is a secret message deliberately encoded to mislead unintended recipients."

That pretty well sums up everything that Naylor's published over the last 20 years.

He also says:

'A person, such as a (would be) political leader, who transmits misleading messages is also a cipher.'

That's Naylor to a T.

The point is that Naylor's SVR is silent and doing nothing at all for Vermonters in the wake of Irene. His dreaming of secession now doesn't count for anything except to his own "small community."

Jim Hogue
Possibly the most clueless, acting out, conspiracy addled (although probably tied in that arena with the "Very Foreign Minister" Denny Morrisseau [below]), clown reënactor in the entire "small community" of seceshers.

In his 2009 video Hogue moves up the claim of secession supporters in Vermont from 13% to 18%, which would by his calculation be 110,000 or so people. All this in front of an audience of Naylor, dullard Dennis Steele, a "producer & videographer," and three other losers.

Here's his 9/11 Truther as well as additional secesher, delusional nonsense - don't bother. It's really all a conspiracy against Vermonters, don't ya know, the Feds taking down the Twin Towers to get us in Vermont or something like that (see more below in Denny Morrisseau's segment).

Dennis Morrisseau
At the self-declared "Very Foreign Minister" of a dead in its tracks Second Vermont Republic campaign website for yet another to be miserably failed run for the 2012 Senate seat in Rutland County, so hard hit by Irene - crickets.

As we all know, Denny has a fondness for sappy 60's glurges and sexist ravings, and here's Morrisseau chicken-wire engineering explanation conjecture about what really happened on 9/11. The only thing missing is evidence:



What so many in hard hit Rutland county don't know, where people have been rendered homeless by Irene, is that Denny is a longtime advocate of shipping the homeless out-of-state so that he and his wife don't have to endure their presence. In fact, he feels that his endeavours in that area have been deserving of non-profit status, so much so that he's sued to obtain that benefit for his odious scheme.

"Senator" Robert Wagner
Like Williams, Wagner is keeping his Irene response hyper-local, which means basically his street, the Ripton-Lincoln Road.

This is a guy who wants a senate seat so bad that he's taken to calling himself "Senator" a year before the election for the Addison County-Brandon seat, yet he appears to have had no real, effective presence in the surrounding county since the disaster. His website has some pictures from outside of the Addison County-Brandon area that someone else took; he advises to read the local paper (Addison Independent) where his newsworthiness has apparently escaped the writers and editors; he has no report on the state of his self-declared provisional capitol, Hancock, VT; and his website has only a reprint of a more than week old CVPS press release on the storm. His top post is for some New Age drumming crap. I'm not even going to link to such a waste of bandwidth.

Michael Patno
The other declared secesher candidate from Bristol for the second Addison County-Brandon seat hasn't a damn thing at his website about what his county's residents can do or where they might obtain assistance. Perhaps more than any of the other politically ambitious seceshers, Patno truly is what Papa Naylor has called "a cipher" - one having no influence or value; a nonentity.

Peter Garritano
At the failed 2010 Lite Guv secesher candidate who's now got his sights set one of the Chittenden County senate seats website - ungotz.

Dennis Steele
Who can forget Vermont secesher gubernatorial candidate Dennis Steele? Well, apparently Wikipedia has since they ditched the article he, contrary to Wikipedia conflict of interest rules, put up about himself. Here's what Steele said on November 3, 2010, when he crashed and seriously burned in his 2010 bid for guv:

"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."

Odd, that sounds suspiciously like the crap that his former campaign manager, Matt Cropp, spouts up above.

Anywho, there's zip at his website here tonight about Irene or what can be done to help those in need.

It'd be easy to say that all these "independence" guys are completely full of shit, but let's just say that for all their puffery and grandstanding, when it came right down to it, well, okay, they're completely full of shit.

If there's any good to come from Irene's passage, it'll be the complete exposure of the Vermont secession and independence movement's utter irrelevance at any level to the lives and well-being of Vermonters.

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Eye On "The 30" - Their Senate Campaigns Are To Be Buttressed With Sappy Glurges

Oy!!

After running two of the most lackluster, over-the-line stoopid campaigns for the Vermont Senate in 2010, the neo-Confederacy of Dunces comprised of "Senator" Robert Wagner (Addison-I) and the Second Vermont Republic's "Very Foreign Minister", Dennis Morriseau (Rutland-I), apparently think that a mawkish strategy based on sheer bullshit about the past is now the way to go.

Their distorted view of the 1960s is so appealing to these two secesher Mad Men that Denny passed along an urban legend, commonly called a "glurge," that's been getting chain emailed everywhere during the past six months. It's about recycling and such, and is called "The Green Thing." The "Senator" asked for the author of the original email chain letter to contact him so he could provide attribution for the piece. This one is so new that Snopes.com hasn't written about it yet but already, as the "Senator" could have easily found for himself, you get 230,000 hits for "The Green Thing."

Email chain letters like "The Green Thing" often have a sappy ring of truth to them that ignores the reality of such times. The "Senator" goes so far as to suggest that court ordered reapportionment in the 1960s, designed to eliminate disproportionate control of the legislature by small towns, was a bad thing and mistakenly suggests that it was the legislature that "usurp(ed) the authority of Town Meeting." No, "Senator." It was as a result of a "one person, one vote" ruling and order from the federal court in Buckley v. Hoff (1964) that the stranglehold of small towns like Ripton, VT on the legislature was eliminated.

Some of the other cool things that the "Senator" and Denny have forgotten or misremembered about the 1960s that don't get a mention in "The Green Thing" are: both Kennedys, Malcom X and the King assassinations; anti-miscegenation laws to protect against race mixing, something that at least one major SVR financial supporter, James Duncan, has a problem with even today; Jim Crow Laws; riots everywhere, from Detroit to Stonewall; the treatment of women (more on that below); ramping up the Vietnam War; raw sewage being piped directly from individual homes and businesses into Vermont's streams and rivers, as well as untreated waste and industrial chemicals, so much so that in many areas the streams and rivers had ecological "dead zones"; lesbians and gays being legally proscribed and medically defined as mentally ill; job and housing discrimination was legal; poll taxes; "Hey Jude"; the Voting Rights Act (the "debt crisis" political fight of its day); and, smokers were everywhere. Good times, eh guys?

You can find handy tips about how to spot an urban legend here.

Regarding women, it appears that Denny's views about them haven't evolved much since the 1960s. On February 16 of 2010, as he became aware that Anne Galloway at VTDigger was not going to agree to publish promotional material on behalf of the views of the "Very Foreign Minister" of the Second Vermont Republic, he wrote in that ALL CAPS way of his of her publication:

"WITH OUT A DOUBT, Digger is excrescence of CIA.......
Still....we gotta use the MAN'S media to extent that we can.
While biulding(sic) our own internal and external communications..."

On May 27, Denny wrote in response to a sexist nickname used by the "Senator" who had referred to Galloway as "VT GoldDigger":

"The Lady is CIA, and if she wants to sue me for the remark, she is welcome to."
DM/VFM (Very Foreign Minister)

On May 30, VTCommons publisher/editor Rob Williams chimed in about Galloway:

"CIA spook that she is..."

In a later exchange on June 1, between the "Senator" (who complained that his pithy comments were being deleted from VTDigger) and VTCommons publisher Rob Williams, Williams wrote something that explains the lack of any objective quality at his propaganda rag:

"Most reporters regurgitate press release as "fact," and call it objective journalism, friends."
"When they dare to have an opinion, they put it on the OP/ED pages."
"It ain't right, and we need to challenge it (as everything else...)"

Following in his "she's-a-CIA-operative" theme, Morrisseau responded about Anne Galloway:

"a sycophant or sucking for a job......or earning her little stipend now......What's the difference?"
"Spooks come in many varieties as do the rest of us.

But this tone had been set back on February 16 when Morrisseau wrote of how to handle VT Digger publisher, Anne Galloway:

"We will seduce her."

To which James Duncan, the racist and homophobic contributor to Dennis Steele's campaign responded:

"You are such a womanizer Denni."

But the real Morrisseau, vis-à-vis how he today sees a professional journalist who happens to be a woman, shines through in this comment to the rest of what Dixie singing Thomas Naylor likes to call his "Internet cowboys":

"Because I savaged her in our first few exchanges."
"Now I am making nice. And she likes that better. So she is liking me better......"
"Before I punched her, she did not know me or care a fig........"
"Now she sees I can laugh, I am playful....possibly intelligent...and I differ with her........"
"She begins to be intrigued."
"We have to be lovers to these sorts...... I know that is a little crass....but it's DO OR DIE time."

And so on May 28, under the subject line, "I've had enough of Galloway. VT GoldDigger" Morrisseau wrote:

"No reason for her to breathe OR DO WHAT SHE DOES.....unless she is a SPOOK."
"NOBOCY(sic) is that venal from stupidity."

To date, not one of Naylor's "Internet cowboys" who were active recipients on the secesher listserv has made any public statement condemning Morrisseau's outrageous, violence laced, sexist diatribes. Not the publisher of VTCommons, Rob Williams; nor Washington Senate candidate Gaelan Brown; nor educator & rocket scientist Gary Flomenhoft; nor the very strange Franklin County perennial loser, Peter Moss; nor homophobe and racist bigot James Duncan; nor the failed lite guv candidate, and now the present day candidate for a Chittenden County Senate seat, Peter Garritano; nor, of course, Morrisseau's self-described "friend," Addison County's Senate wannabe, "Senator" Robert Wagner.

Unless the secesher boys club take steps to address their indisputable sexism problem, they are destined for another round of exceptionally failed electoral campaigns. No doubt that VTCommons' anti-Semitic blogger and sometimes ardent feminist when it suits her agenda, Carol Moore, will be taking the boys club to task over their vile, long-running wallow in misogyny - yeah, right.

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

Eye On "The 30" - 5 ≠ 6

Apparently "Senator" Wagner was a bit stung by my observation in the August 1 Eye On "The 30", that only two of the six candidates that he's bragged about are announced as running as the "Gang of 30."

The "Senator" intends to sweep the 2012 Vermont election cycle and Take Back the Senate® in the name of secessionist, constitutional strict constructionism and, after my criticism, he's put up the list of the other four announced candidates names on his website. He just forgot to put himself on his list but that still wouldn't have brought the total to the six that he announced on his website on July 20:

"So lobbying around the legislature for a few word changes in this or that amendment isn’t really going to take us anywhere or save our bacon. If you want to live free here and be able to make an honest living too, in agriculture or at all, you need to get into this fight."

"WE NEED TO RUN 30 DECENT VERMONT NON-POLITICIANS FOR THE VT SENATE NEXT YEAR AND WE NEED YOUR HELP TO ACCOMPLISH THIS…..SO WE CAN STOP MONSANTO & LOCKHEED’S TAKEOVER OF OUR STATE. STOP IT COLD WITH A ‘NO’ VOTE IN OUR SENATE……OURSELVES." (All caps his)

"Because no one else is going to have the integrity and courage to do this… no one now sitting will do this for us. They have all already caved."

"If we do this… when we just get near the goal, I am telling you the whole world will notice, and help for our cause will come gushing in. So far we have six of the Thirty." (emphasis mine)

"Please join us. Help recruit those 30 decent Vermonters."
Source

Get it? The present members of Vermont's Senate are all indecent. He's called his neighbors who serve in the legislature thieves, so why not indecent? I suppose that's what "Senator" Wagner's baas of the Second Vermont Republic, our own Magnolia Vermonter, Thomas Naylor, was refering to when he told Boston Globe columnist, Alex Beam:

“In a left-wing state like Vermont, politics are basically grounded in anger and fear."

That Naylor's slate of candidates in the 2010 election cycle had injected a theretofore unheard of degree of rancor and invective into the campaign is undisputed. His handpicked gubernatorial candidate, Connecticut native Dennis Steele, had gone so far as to "(thank) the Vermont Press Association 'for allowing (him) to take pot shots at 'Colonel' Dubie'" at a debate [1] - almost as classy as when gubernatorial candidate Steele stood at the side of a road and waved his middle finger at Vice President Biden. [2] or when Steele openly accepted campaign donations from an out-of-state bigot. [3]

And still wincing from his own utterly failed campaign for the lite guv slot, "Vermont Commons" blogger Peter Garritano, one of the five announced candidates for the Vermont Senate, ironically pronounced civil rights as "irrelevant" to Vermonters just days before Martin Luther King Day. [4]

In all my years I'd never seen such a persistently negative degree of campaigning from such an irrelevant group, the Vermont seceshers, to the Vermont body politic. True, there have been instances in the past when Vermont pols have drifted into such negative territory, normally only seen in the national campaigns, but invariably they all pull back and resume the civil exchange that Vermonters are accustomed to. Not so the seceshers. From the time they announced in January 2010, the barrage of negativity was the staple of their various campaigns. No doubt that given Naylor's homage to campaigns "grounded in anger and fear" above, we should expect much more of the same from his lackeys again this time around.

Problem is, even if you use the Teatard math and economic reckoning that "Senator" Wagner relies upon so heavily or how many times he changes the graphics at the Robert Wagner for Vermont Senate 2012 website, five still does not equal six.

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

9-11 Truthers Are a Staple of the Purported Vermont Secessionist Movement

Part of the problem with the Vermont secessionists' leadership is that they seem to believe that if their ideological inspirators get away with peddling lies, they can peddle the same lies as true because, you know, someone says so and no one's going to challenge their junk.

The "Vermont Commons" publisher, an exporter of boutique meats of the non-native sort, a campaign advisor to failed secesher gubernatorial candidate, Connecticut native Dennis Steele, and a lead propagandist for the supposed Vermont secession "movement," Rob Williams, is a good example of this sort of secesher self-delusion.

It's kinda like when Williams bragged last year on his "super-secret" (until exposed on this blog [1] [2] ) listserv regarding this blog's revelations regarding his secesher movement's cozy relationship with the racist, white supremacist League of the South:

"I have spent 4 years defusing the SVR/(League of the South) nonsense and it is finally done, even in the blogosphere."

Spoken too soon, eh, Rob?

Not only do Vermont seceshers continue to maintain ties to the racist LoS, they also keep in their ranks racists and homophobes like Steele's largest out-of-state campaign contributor and Second Vermont Republic essayist, James Duncan, and VTCommons anti-Semitic blogger, Carol Moore.

In a wordy, overwrought and insipid come back, Williams relies on the "exhaustive research and writings," better described as troofer nonsense, of known 9-11 Truther, David Ray Griffin.

Grifter, er, Griffin is well-known for his tin-foil hat conspiracy representations, so much so that he is a featured crank in Jonathan Kay's (the managing editor and columnist at Canada's National Post newspaper) Among The Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground. Jacob Heilbrunn, a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review and a senior editor at The National Interest wrote of Kay's recent book:

"Some of Kay’s most illuminating passages center not on what conspiracy theorists believe — even to dignify it with the word “theory” is probably to grant them more legitimacy than they deserve — but on why they are attracted to such tedious rubbish in the first place. He divides them into different camps, including the “cranks” and the “firebrands.” Cranks are often reacting to male midlife crises — combating conspiracies, Kay says, offers a new sense of mission. Cranks, he adds, are frequently math teachers, computer scientists or investigative journalists."

"A leading case, according to Kay, is David Ray Griffin, a former professor at the Claremont School of Theology who has devoted his retirement to writing no fewer than 11 books that examine each minute of the 9/11 timeline. Then there is Paul Zarembka, a professor of economics at the State University of New York, Buffalo, who has scrutinized “such arcane subjects as the price of individual airline stocks in the run-up to 9/11, and the tail numbers of the hijacked 9/11 aircraft.” And Barrie Zwicker, a mainstream Canadian journalist turned truther, insisted on interviewing Kay while Kay was interviewing him, hitting buttons on a chess clock to regulate the amount of time each had."

"Once upon a time such people would most likely have operated in relative anonymity. But with the emergence of the Internet, Kay says, they have established their own cult followings, along with the sense of superiority that is created by seeming to enjoy direct access to what actually makes the world tick. Kay writes: 'Many true conspiracy theorists I’ve met don’t even bother with Web surfing anymore. . . . From the very instant they first boot up their computer in the morning, their in-boxes comprise an unbroken catalog of outrage stories ideologically tailored to their pre-existing obsessions.' ”

Heilbrunn's complete review may be read here. See also the Publisher's Weekly review here.

A quick search of the VTCommons website revealed more than a score of references to Griffin's "cogent" research by various inhabitants of the VTCommons blog nutsack. Six other references can be found on the website for Griffin's 9-11 "exposé" The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 911. Here's what Chip Berlet, a noted investigative journalist who studies the spread of conspiracy theories in the media and on the Internet, as well as white supremacists, homophobes, political cults and anti-Semites, has to say about Griffin's book:

"This book by David Ray Griffin is largely a compilation and restatement of materials from a variety of print and electronic sources, as the author points out in his Introduction and Acknowledgments. Griffin’s book reflects a relentless disregard of substantial evidence from multiple sources that contradict the claims he is making. Griffin repeatedly uses classic Fallacies of Logic (a Wikipedia article in progress on Fallacies of Logic may be read here) in his presentation rendering whole sections of the book refutable on this basis alone..."

[snip]

"Griffin is constantly stating that he does not know what actually happened, but that he is just analyzing possible scenarios that need to be investigated. This is disingenuous at best. While Griffin repeatedly refers to the “claims” of “critics” of the “official” account of the events of 9-11-01, he is clearly endorsing these views. In a number of cases Griffin becomes an apologist for authors (such as Thierry Meyssan or Illarion Bykov and Jared Israel) whose assertions have been thoroughly demolished by an armada of writers across the political spectrum. Griffin accomplishes this by selectively highlighting certain aspects of their work while sidestepping their most lurid and outlandish conclusions in which they claim the functioning of vast conspiracies on the flimsiest of evidence..."

[snip]

"Many of Griffin's cites track back to unsubstantiated claims..."

The complete, lengthy review of Griffin's paranoid hodge podge of conspiracist "pyramiding, a process used by conspiracists whereby an unproven allegation in a prior section is converted into a factual basis to introduce a following section" may be read here.

'Course, there's nothing that prevents conspiracist whackjobs like Griffin, Rob Williams and Vermont secesher Jim Hogue from churning these unsubstantiated tall tales. Where it does become truly vile is when Griffin suggests that the cell calls received by family members of the passengers were faked and that somehow multiple call receivers, including Ted Olson, a United States Solicitor General at the time who had been married for five years to Pentagon Flt 77 victim Barbara Olson, were fooled into thinking a faked electronic voice was a loved one. You'd think that the Vermont seceshers would be capable of some modicum of decency and would not give the improbable claims of Griffin such prominence in their endeavours. You can read more on this mean-spirited, vile act by 9-11 Troofers at VTCommons here.

Some of Griffin's conspiracist crap is based on French conspiracist, Thierry Meyssan, "work," neatly disposed of by Snopes.com here.

I look forward to reading in future VTCommons journal issues and blog post updates from Rob on the Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping Hoax, the Apollo Moon Landing Hoax, the Real story behind the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Illuminati Freemason Conspiracy, as well as something new on the Lincoln Assassination Hoax. Some guy says that he saw Lincoln shot but he's dead now so the assassination is unconfirmable - prob'ly just another gubmint plot, no?

"And as for "defusing the SVR/LOS nonsense" as being a "finally done" deal, "even in the blogosphere," well, not by a longshot, Rob, not by a very long shot. I never can say goodbye, boy."



(Editor's Note: David Ray Griffin is not to be confused with another contributor to the VTCommons journal, Robert S. Griffin, a white supremacist author ["Rearing Honorable White Children" published in the racist journal American Renaissance], a "professor" at University of Vermont and who has written for the racist journal, The Occidental Quarterly [3 - scroll way down]

Additionally, VTCommons publisher and all around douchebag, Rob Williams, incorrectly asserts on his blog that I have called him a "stoopid moron." In fact, I called Peter Garritano a "moron."

One need only read Garritano's barely comprehensible blog posts for confirmation that this secesher, political wannabe operates largely in the conspiracist realm, with a distinct fixation (or hatred, really) for members of today's Vermont National Guard. Maybe it's an effort to increase his cred among the small community of Vermont sovereign citizen and Oath Keeper types.

I'd described their conspiracist nonsense as "stoopid." Ya'd think Williams, a so-called publisher, would be capable of fact checking and proofing his own post. Maybe he's just incapable of "read(ing). Or just (is)n't thinking clearly."

I'd also suggested that "Williams and Garritano (were) locked in contest with Douglas Feith to see who'll be "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth."

Clearly, Williams is the hands down winner in that contest with his fellow political bottom feeder, Garritano. His promotion of inexcusably hurtful jerks like Griffin [either one] puts him over the top with that sort of vile, conspiracist, racist douchebaggery.)

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

Vermont Secessionists Refuse to Give Up...

... on one of the stoopidest conspiracy theories since the whole Birther nonsense gripped the Teabagging community.

It goes like this: Osama Bin Laden isn't dead and the Obama administration is lying and there is no proof of Bin Laden's death. This now from Peter Garritano. Moron.

That one's dumber (if that could be possible) than Rob Williams' overtly racist attack on Obama last week where he pictorially blended the president with the al-Qaeda bogeyman, Osama Bin Laden. Get it? Obama and Osama sound similar - what could be funnier? If you can look past the insipidly dull, racist undertone to such a conflation, you gotta say, "That Williams - what a funny guy. He's a real hoot."

Earth to two of the most needy attention seekers that I know of, Williams and the utterly delusion Garritano, try this:

"Al-Qaeda has confirmed the death of its leader, Osama bin Laden"
Al Jazeera, May 6, 2011

Maybe the CIA has tricked the entire Bin Laden family into believing that Osama Bin Laden is dead as well.

Williams and Garritano - locked in contest with Douglas Feith to see who'll be "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth."

My money's on Williams - he'll be the last guy to ever back down when it comes to being stupid in the face of easily obtainable facts.

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

Vermont Birthers Move Over, There's a New Game in Town

Or more to the point, there's a new "pig" for the Angry Birds© over at the "Vermont Commons" blog to hurl themselves towards.

Led by VTCommons publisher Rob Williams, the nattering nabobs of nuttiness there have dived headlong into the latest conspiracy theory - "The Death of Osama Bin Laden Is a Lie!"

Amongst all the other bird-brained ideas that spin out from the VTCommons propaganda machine, 9/11 Truthiness has been a constant staple feeding the wingnutters.

Williams lobbed this bit'o bird crap today, as a follow up to his attack on Monday.

Monday's offering from Williams here sports this rant from last Fall's secesher Lieutenant Governor candidate and all around fowl ball, Peter Garritano - it's a beaut:

"Osama Bin LadenObama poll numbers falling!!! Time to kill the boogie man In one of the most unbelievable stories ever to come out of the White House, Osama Bin Laden has been killed and his body dumped at sea. Don’t worry we got some DNA to prove it!! In the age of guilty before proven innocent, and torture to provide evidence, wag the dog has provided us with yet another timely news item. After 9 years of fake audio tapes made on a cassette recorder from the 50’s, we can now put an end to this sad chapter of CIA fakery. It is sad that Osama’s body was dumped at sea because he should have been buried with military honors. The Pentagon propaganda machine kept him alive and the military industrial complex raked in the dough. Osama’s time had come though because Obama is feeling the heat with the bad economy, endless military aggression, foreclosures, and plunging dollar. Nothing better than a lynching to pep up the population. The five seconds of news(sic) video I was able to stomach seemed like a clip from an old Frankenstien movie, burning torches and wild eyed hungry people. It’s time to focus people. Osama is not the reason for your woes. Corporate terrorists have caused the condition that now grips the world economy. Guantanamo’s inmates should include the CEOS from Goldman Sachs, Monsanto, Lockheed Martin, Pfizer, and Halliburton to name a few. Osama’s funeral at sea is only a temporary fix and like most news items, it will have little effect on our daily lives.. The carnival will leave town and the naked truth of the creeping fascist state will emerge once again. Big brother is watching, he’s well armed and well paid, and will be forever indebted to Osama Bin Laden."

Submitted by Peter Garritano on Mon, 05/02/2011 - 7:15pm.

Whew!

Betwixt the Williams posts comes this one from Jim Hogue, reënactor horribilis, also spinning the Osama lives/been dead/never happened or whatever myth.

No doubt the other little Angry Birds© will be chirping it up soon, what with all this new seed...

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

A Vermont Commons Blogger Blogs From The Hip

I've been trying to make sense of the most recent blog post by Peter Garritano "Injust" Rewards. Garritano was handpicked by Thomas Naylor, baas of the Second Vermont Republic, as his candidate for Lt. Governor, the office for which he too failed to get any traction among Vermont voters (he calls not getting 96% of the vote "coming in third").

Garritano wrote:

VERMONT UNCENSORED: "Injust" Rewards by Peter Garritano on Wed, 02/02/2011 - 12:18pm.
"Why is Michael Dubie getting an honorary degree? Does UVM really need to help the 200 billion dollar a year propaganda machine of the Pentagon by giving General Dubie a degree? It’s bad enough that every minute of every day the public is forced fed, support the troops, they are doing a great job protecting our country and keeping us safe. Really?"

"... All the better for war profiteers like Sandia and Lockheed Martin."

"One thing for sure is that Dubie is a good soldier, because good soldiers don’t ask questions, they obey orders. He’s supported thirty years of illegal invasions by the U.S. including Iraq, and Afghanistan to name a few. Does the pending Lockheed Martin deal being brokered by President Fogel and Bernie Sanders and supported by Dubie somehow have a role in this fake degree?"

"During the 60’s counterculture movement General Dubie would have been refered to as a fascist pig. His degree would have been met with loud massive protest. Hopefully the situation in Egypt will empower people in the U.S. It’s time for the citizens of the world to stand up for each other and promote peace by calling out institutions like UVM who reward bad behavior with honorariums and business contracts."

VTCommons publisher Rob Williams commented:
"Thanks for raising such important questions here, Pete...I am discouraged by a number of recent developments tying the Vermont economy more closely than ever to the US of Empire's military-industrial complex. I appreciate your candor here."
Submitted by Rob Williams on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 4:52pm.

Then it came to me that he's merely playing Renfield to the baas' most recent meme/tirade that can be read here. The tirade sought to twist the responsibilities of the Vermont Adjutant General's Office, an elected position conferred by the Vermont General Assembly, into nothing more than he's guy who locally operates the military sausage grinder for the Pentagon.

Both Garritano and "Poppa" Naylor question why UVM should give
an honorary degree to Dubie and seek to turn the entire matter into another of their conflated conspiracy theories. To their way of thinking, such as it is, there can only be diabolical intent on the part of:

• VT Sen. Bernie Sanders


• UVM Pres. Dan Fogel


• UVM Board of Trustees


• Maj. Gen. Michael Dubie


• Burlington VT Mayor Bob Kiss


• Sandia National Laboratories


• Lockheed Martin


• The Pentagon


• Goldfinger


• The Tooth Fairy?

Okay, maybe not the last two; that'd just be crazy.

"Poppa" Naylor went so far as blatantly misquote a piece from the Burlington Free Press:

BFP: "at a public forum last month (April), Air Guard Maj. Gen. Michael Dubie said the economic impact of a possible loss of a fighter wing at the South Burlington base was not clear cut: The more advanced F-35’s presence at the base actually might shrink the current payroll — but it almost certainly would shrink further if the Guard’s mission morphed exclusively into maintenance, or became a center for unmanned aircraft."

Naylor: "Last April General Dubie expressed the hope that the Vermont National Guard might be morphed into a center for unmanned aircraft, otherwise known as drones."

That's just a flat out lie. Seriously, who's ever heard of any branch of the military expressing hope for a smaller mission and budget - ever?

Fact is both Garritano and "Poppa" Naylor rely on dishonest arguments, such as:

• Questioning the motives of their perceived opponents


• Hearsay


• Citing irrelevant facts or logic


• Playing on widely held fantasies & scapegoating


• False premise


• Straw man


• Innuendo


• Insinuation


• Mopery


• The Tooth Fairy?

The last is also likely true since their argument is so transparently reliant on fooling their reader that they might as well trust their reputations on another fiction.

If either Garritano or "Poppa" Naylor had been honest with their readers, they'd have mentioned that:

• Dubie is a UVM alumnus


• UVM has established honorary degree criteria


• Garritano and "Poppa" Naylor really had no evidence, merely their tinfoil hat speculations


• The Tooth Fairy told them so?

Their assembly of mischaracterizations and falsifications could most certainly be used against them. How about this: one of them has a family member at UVM who has received more than a million dollars in grants from the same government agency that has provided millions to Sandia (True). The other one sells used cars (Also true). Now insert a logical fallacy or loaded question and you'd be suited to be a VTCommons blogger or an internet blowhard emeritus.

Extra credit questions for Rob Williams: in addition to factually identifying "recent developments tying the Vermont economy more closely than ever to the US of Empire's military-industrial complex," WTF is "Injust"? I know I'm having difficult time understanding how Garritano can reconcile
what's happening in Egypt with his statement, "It’s time for the citizens of the world to stand up for each other and promote peace by calling out institutions like UVM who reward bad behavior with honorariums and business contracts." What's presently occurring in Egypt is hardly the Vermont way of "calling out institutions," but I'm sure you can spin the narrative so that'll make sense to the "small" Vermont secesher community, no?

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