Second Vermont Republic Uses a Glorified Fortune Teller for Economic Prognostication

Many sesechers from Vermont and elsewhere frequently tout the baas of the
Second Vermont Republic, Thomas Naylor, as an economist, as though "he's an economist, so what he says must be true."

I've been examining some of the "economic" underpinnings of the proposed Second Vermont Republic, an idea that garnered support from fewer than 8/10ths of 1 percent of Vermont's voters when they got a look at Naylor's hand-picked candidate for governor, Connecticut native Dennis Steele.

One I found was Paul Craig Roberts, who, like SVR advisory board member Thomas J. DiLorenzo, has had his writings published in anti-Semetic, Holocaust denying publications. In addition to the anti-Semetic, hate sites VDARE.com, the Institute for Historical Review and American Free Press, Roberts is a contributor at website called Trends Research Institute.

The Trends Research Institute and its journal are cited repeatedly at Naylor's SVR website, as well as at Rob Williams's "Vermont Commons", and is published by Gerald Celente, a longtime Fox News contributor and a Glenn Beck favorite.

You see, Celente specializes in a particularly dark, doom and gloom, fear mongering form of prognostication so favored by seceshers, tea baggers, Beckdroids and others who know the so-called "truth." But, like most fortune telling scams, there's always evidence to undermine the con, if only the mark will look for it. Of course, if the mark did trouble himself to look for it, he'd find ample evidence that would tell him that whole thing is a fraud. Here's just one source.

Consider the Peak Oil theory. Energy shortages and conversions to new sources have been with us for ages. So have hardships, wars, political dominance, you name it. But, as the seceshers would have it, the effect will apocalyptic. Therein lies the scam. Were it true, there'd be no need to seceed; the result will almost certainly be the same as secession - micro communities on their own, Mad Max style. And secession won't prevent the result of their dire post Peak Oil land, so why the hurry?

These types have been there to cry that the sky-is-falling for a very long time. Like all fortune teller swindles, this one relies on the tried and true, "you got a problem, I got the cure," except with an Internet age edge. You buy Celente's publication from the Trends Institute, and he guarantees to scare the shit out of you. He even has an office full of globes so that you get that he has a worldview. Naylor and his crowd then promise to lead the way to salvation, that is, secession.

Fortunately, Vermonters have better sense and are unlikely to become the grifter Naylor's "marks."

Naylor's SVR has always been a con whose aim is political power. And in the end, he only convinced 10 of his Charlotte neighbors to go along with the secesher gubernatorial candidate in 2010.

That's 0.48% of the 2041 votes cast in Charlotte. In Waitsfield, home to "Vermont Commons" publisher and über propagandist for the SVR and Free Vermont crowd, Steele got 9 votes. Perhaps worst of all, Steele got only 5 votes in his present hometown of Kirby, VT.

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Another Anti-Semite's Work Has Been Featured Repeatedly at the Second Vermont Republic and VTCommons

As I searched through the braintrust publications of the Vermont secesher community, it struck me the other day that I was finding more and more frequently that I was coming across an increasing reliance on the contributions of known anti-Semites. Last week I wrote about one VTCommons blogger's long, distatsteful history of anti-Semitic writing and activism.

The most recent find was of a woe-is-me, the-sky-is-falling, economic type of article, much favored by the Vermont secesher community, by one Paul Craig Roberts.

Vermonters are supposed to read this stuff, climb into the secesher clown car and head for the nearest cliff. After all, according to "Vermont Commons" publisher, Rob Williams, and Thomas Naylor, baas of the Second Vermont Republic, there is no god but secession and through secession thou shalt be saved. And heck, Naylor's got that whole Israeli Mafia and the possibility of the Mossad running operations here in Vermont running around in his head.

Paul Craig Roberts was once a writer for national publications and
had served in the Reagan administration. No more, for in 2006 Roberts took a very hard turn to the dark side. Now his work is more often published in VDare.com, a white supremacist, anti-Semitic website where his archive of hundreds of pieces may be found among this nation's most virulently anti-Semitic writers.

VDare is designated as a hate site by the Southern Poverty Law Center; more on VDare.com is to be found here, here and here. In addition to his despicable contributions at VDare, Roberts writes for American Free Press, successor to the racist, anti-Semitic, Holocaust denying Willis Cato's earlier hate publication, The Spotlight. Roberts' work on the Jews and Israel has been frequently highlighted at Cato's well known Holocaust denial website, Institute for Historical Review.

The Anti-Defamation League has an extensive report on Roberts promotion of anti-Semitism here

Naylor has featured Roberts' squirrelly February 7 piece, The Official Unemployment Rate; an “Official” Lie at the SVR website. Naylor had earlier published Roberts' stuff here and here. Like Naylor, Roberts has been a repeat visitor to the racist, anti-Semitic, Holocaust denying web radio program, The Political Cesspool. The Political Cesspool's host, hatemonger James Edwards,
polled readers of his blog in late December, 2010 about who some of the first guests of the year should be on his show; among other top vote getters like David Duke and Pat Buchanan was none other than SVR's own Paul Craig Roberts. Roberts got one of the coveted early appearance spots on January 15, 2011.

Thus it was hardly a surprise then when I found that Paul Craig Roberts work had also been featured by no less than VTCommons publisher Rob Williams himself. Why wouldn't Naylor and Williams have their respective toes dipped into the same ideological cesspool? After all, when Naylor's problem with the Israeli Mafia first reared its head, Williams said that he agreed with Naylor about Israelis.

"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?"

"... the thing is I agree with Thomas re Israel."

Fact is, as time goes by, the "small" Vermont secesher crowd more and more resembles the usual bigoted suspects.

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