As The Second Vermont Republic Sputters to Its End...

... apparently the new plan to attain relevance in our time by the secesher brain trust is a concerted anti-Bernie Sanders campaign by Vermont's flailing secessionists.

The publisher of SVR's hate blog, Rob Williams, points us to this piece by longtime secesher flack, Bill Kauffman, as though it isn't a piece of transparent, partisan "analysis." Kauffman "analysis" relies entirely on the musings of, at one time or another, three of Vermont's best known crackpots. (I've written before about Kauffman here. Kauffman is also a contributor to the notoriously anti-Semitic, neo-Confederate and racist Chronicles magazine. Williams suggests to us that he has a relationship with Bernie - that's a laugh since Bernie has a short fuse around assholes like Williams. Although he is well aware about his Dixie singing founder of SVR, the quite dead Thomas H. Naylor,, Kauffman never discloses what he also knows about the SVR-Williams'-Naylor's many, many ties to racists and homophobes like the declared anti-Semites and racist League of the South, delegates from the racist Southern National Congress, and Williams past publication of the ravings of racist UVM prof. Robert S. Griffin, anti-Semites like Carol Moore and Dennis Morrisseau (too name only two of his Jew loathers), the racist LoSer board of director and convicted felon Franklin Sanders (no relation to Bernie), as well as the particularly nasty homophobes at South Carolina's Christian Exodus who Rob invited to Vermont because they like him.

In short, with no successes that he in the more than ten years that he's been fluffing the secesher hog - a failed publication; a rejected distribution deal; the goal of distribution throughout Vermont never even came close; although he promised them in all towns there has been no meaningful effort to get Vermonters to vote for secession at town meetings; despite his saying seceshers would be in the legislature and proposing legislative articles of secession by 2015, no secesher has come even remotely close to something exceeding a single digit showing when people knew it was a dyed in the wool secessionist running - Williams is now apparently orchestrating anti-Bernie campaign aided by a tiny group of usual suspects (former Bernie friends and/or allies Peter Diamondstone, Greg Guma, Robin Lloyd, Ben Dangle, to name just a few - all seceshers and lifelong losers.

The biggest laugh I got from the piece is that Williams might possibly believe that Bernie Sanders might see him as something better than (as in advisor) the neo-Confederate, anti-Semitic, racist enabler that he is. Next time you see him remember that Bernie sees you for exactly what you are.

"... support for the Pentagon’s F-35 Burlington-based joint strike fighter baffles and infuriates me. I find his cozying up to Lockheed and Sandia Labs perplexing, and his support for Israel maddening.”

“Bernie knows I am a secessionist,” says Williams. “I have often suggested he run for president of the 2nd Vermont Republic. I’m not sure he appreciates this.”

Right, Rob. Anyone is bound to be sweeped away by the pleadings of a neo-Confederate, racist and anti-Semitic enabler rather than the platform for the presidency. Williams really is a completely delusional, narcissistic asshole, and Bernie knows it. What Williams didn't say was that more than five years ago Thomas Naylor sought to get Bernie to run as the secesher gubernatorial candidate but who they eventually got to stick his neck out was Dennis Steele, a bad caricature of the Brawny Towel Guy. Although conventional wisdom has long held that Bernie hasn't a chance in the Democratic 2016 primary, the seceshers own track record for failure may push Bernie over the top. Wouldn't that be a trip?

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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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How Unlike The Secessionists At The Scottish National Party Are The Weenies At The Secesher Second Vermont Republic?

In recent months the baas of the Second Vermont Republic, Rob Williams has been making thinly veiled comparisons between his moribund group and the Scottish National Party. Let's take a look at that comparison.

SVR has existed for about a decade; the SNP has existed for more than eight decades. The SNP holds 10% of the seats in the Scottish House of Commons; SVR has never occupied a legislative or statewide office, ever. Secessionists (Dennis Steele, Peter Diamondstone and Emily Peyton) have repeatedly failed to inspire public support beyond the single percentile; in fact, in their most ambitious attempt, the Steele gubernatorial campaign of 2010, the seceshers failed to do better than three quarters of one percent of the vote - more than 99% of Vermonters voted for someone other than the secesher Steele. The SNP's widespread support in the Scottish body politic is contrasted by SVR's utter lack of support from the public, political institutions, public bodies, educational institutions, clergy and, well, just about anyone you can think of. Other than its strident antipathy to rule seated in London at Westminster Parliament the SNP has never engaged in the establishment of alliances with racist, white supremacist or homophobic hate groups as the SVR has in furtherance of its goals; nor has the SNP engaged in and promoted the base anti-Semitism as SVR's "small community" of crackpots has.

One similar strategy of the two groups has been opposition to popular military projects. In SNP's case it's the Trident nuclear sub base 40 miles from Glasgow; in SVR's case it's opposition to basing of still to be developed F35s with the Vermont Air National Guard. In SVR's case the opposition has taken a distinctly anti-VTANG tone, while the SNP has engaged in no such demonizing of the military in general. Further, the SNP has sought to establish common ground with the Labour Party, if not with the Conservative Party, in the upcoming election which will have the base as an issue, while the SVR has fostered terrible relations with Vermont's congressional delegation, virtually all of its political parties (except for the Liberty Uniontards who never count), its statewide and legislative officials and Burlington's city administration (the F35s will be based at the city's airport). Hell, Williams can't even get his wife to support his movement.

The SNP's opposition to the nuclear fleet is based on real world considerations of affordability and Britain's future role in the world if it's to keep Scottish participation, while SVR is basing its opposition to the F35s based on the loose interpretations of a patent attorney's thoughts on a limited number of documents received by a narrow FOIA request.

The SNP could very well shape the future of Britain's nuclear fleet, while the SVR has virtually no chance of affecting the outcome of the F35 basing.

While the SNP supports marriage equality SVR proposes to set aside Vermont's now long established law based on its constitutional requirements on the matter in favor of a referendum majority decision on minority rights; likewise, it seems to want to take no position on women's reproductive freedom. Kinda makes one wonder what SVR intends to do with Vermont's constitution which predates by more than a decade and a half its statehood.

"(T)he Second Vermont Republic takes no official position on such controversial issues as abortion, gay marriage, school prayer, and legalizing marijuana. These are issues for the citizens of the independent republic to decide." SVR website FAQ, 3.28.15

Oddly, SVR's failed lieutenant gubernatorial candidate recently, according to SVR, spoke to the South Burlington Rotary about... Wait for it... legalizing marijuana - go figure. Apparently the South Burlington Rotary thought so little of Peter Garritano's remarks that they made no mention of the attendee on their website as they normally do.

The SNP proposes expanding voter access while SVR proposes curtailing and suppressing voter access through an outdated and archaic town meeting scheme. The SNP stands for the eradication of poverty, the building of affordable social housing, free higher education as a matter of governance, while SVR vaguely stands for such but only through a trickle down fashion from a poorly thought out public bank scheme.

The SNP first gained traction with the voting public with a influx of Labour Party members (kinda like Democrats), trade unions and the nuclear disarmament movement; SVR has experienced no such influx, particularly among Vermont Democrats, unions and Vermont's small demilitarization movement with the exception of the aforementioned patent attorney and a sham radical, Juliet Buck, tied to SVR's hateblog.

In short, the Second Vermont Republic isn't even remotely comparable to the actually secessionist movement Scottish National Party.

The SNP has widespread community support as a political enterprise; the weenies at SVR are a statewide standing joke.

More on the SNP nuclear fleet issue here.

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Liar, Liar, Carol Moore's Anti-Semitic Pants (Sweats Really) On Fire!

Every so often I take a gander at the Second Vermont Republic's favorite misandrist, transphobic and anti-Semitic hate blogger's DC based website, The Carol Moore Report for a taste of whats au courant among Jew loathers. Carol never disappoints.

In a phallus festooned post (NSFW) Moore once again promotes the anti-Semitic exaggeration that Jews control Congress and the likely presidential candidates. Here's a taste:

"Look at Congress applauding their true leader (Benjamin Netanyahu), the one who is willing to destroy America if it's good for Israel; and makes sure they know they are out of office if they don't support him. (Perhaps Carol can point us to the precise area in Netanyahu's speech where he says that) I wonder how many non-attending Democrats will face stiff electoral challenges supported by Israel-directed money machines for boycotting his speech."

I strongly doubt that either Bernie Sanders or Pat Leahy are exactly quaking in their boots over such a supposed threat. I'd defy Carol to show us proof when 2016 rolls around of her cocksure prediction of even one Democratic boycotter getting such treatment from the "Jewish cabal." I'll remind her when the time comes to provide evidence of such nefarious contributions from Jewish or Israeli "money machines."

'Course, Carol goes on to anoint Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas billionaire casino owner and Jew to be the ultimate Republican Party King maker. Putting the lie to Moore's racist premise was this piece from a year ago in the Washington Post:

"Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who along with his wife plowed more than $92 million into efforts to help mostly losing candidates in the 2012 elections, is undertaking a new strategy for 2016 — to tap his fortune on behalf of a more mainstream Republican with a clear shot at winning the White House, according to people familiar with his thinking."

"In 2012, Sheldon and Miriam Adelson spent so much of their money on long-shot candidate Newt Gingrich that they helped extend an ugly intraparty fight that left the eventual nominee, Mitt Romney, severely bruised by the time he faced President Obama in the general election."

Newt who? Must have all been a part of a secret plan to secure the field for President Obama, if I got my conspiracist thinking right. Carol's never been one to let the truth get in the way of one of her anti-Semitic tropes, for instance, the view she shared will Holocaust denier Kevin Barrett that Jews were "definitely" involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers. Among her periodic discharges of racialized anti-Semitism has been her championing of segregation, positing that such a thing is okay when secessionists are the ones doing the segregating. Thing is that she hasn't posted much recently at the SVR hate blog operated by the new baas there, Rob Williams. Links from her Twitter account to her articles at VermontCommons/SVR from as little as two years ago are now deadlinks. I wonder why that is? Maybe it's because she's such an out and out liar? That's probably the safe bet. Or maybe it's because she has declared SVR to be "defunct." It's certainly not because of her blatant anti-Semitism since anti-Semitism has been a touchstone of the Vermont secession movement ideologues for more than a decade.

Previously published on this Vermont Secession blog about the lying anti-Semite Carol Moore: Vermont Secessionist Blogger Carol Moore's "Jew Counting," "Jew Washing" and "Jew Lubing", A Vermont Commons Blogger's Anti-Semitic Rant, More on James Edwards (Thomas Naylor's Hate Radio Friend) & Others and Vermont Commons Blogger (Carol Moore) Now Calls Second Vermont Republic "Defunct".

Corbett - Sitush - Steeltrap - SPECIFICO?

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The Quack Is Back

I'd thought that we'd seen the last of the homeopathic quack, Jennifer Stella, back in the 2012 session of the Vermont General Assembly. But apparently she's concerned that there may again be a move this year to finally remove the dangerous exposure to unvaccinated kids in our schools by the legislature, finally killing the "philosophical exemption" to vaccinations. This despite the fact that it's clear that the session is to be taken up by more pressing matters, at least for this term of the biennium.

True to the extremist nature of her agenda, I found that she has posted misleading material at Rob Williams anti-Semitic hate blog called the Second Vermont Republic (as a rule, I no longer link to Williams' hate site) from a similarly committed anti-vaxxer by the name of Bob Sears. Essentially, such anti-vaxxers believe that despite the proof and the science their poorly acquired doubts trump reason because "Freedom!", your child or immunocompromised relation or grandparent be damned.

Stella has incorporated Sears' misleading material into an essay that she addressed to Governor Shumlin. I'll tackle some of the deception via a dissection of Sears' essay from a piece published last Friday at Scienceblogs (there's that pesky "science" that doubters like Stella and Sears so rue) called "Blowing the Antivaccine Dog Whistle Again."

Here's a taste:

"There’s a term I coined reading Dr. Bob (Sears') nonsense: The antivaccine dog whistle. In politics, a “dog whistle” refers to terminology that sounds benign to most people but in reality tells those holding objectionable viewpoints that the speaker is sympathetic to them (or even one of them). In other words, most people can’t “hear” the message, and only those for whom it’s intended can “hear” it, recognizing for what it is. Let’s just put it this way. Dr. Bob is very good at antivaccine dog whistling. (So is Rand Paul.) Now, in a “point-counterpoint” pair of editorials, Dr. Bob does it again. Now, don’t get me started on the idiocy of false balance that presenting point-counterpoint editorials represents about a scientific topic like vaccination. Unfortunately, lately false balance has been rising from the grave again. (Apparently, like Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, it never dies.) Dr. Bob’s editorial is entitled Mandatory vaccination is not the answer to measles and it starts out with some serious dog whistling right out of the box:"

"Measles. It used to be just a disease. Now it’s become a banner under which politicians gather to threaten one of our most sacred rights – the right to give informed consent for medical treatment."

"Whether you are for vaccines, against them, or neutral, allow me to ask this question: Is vaccination a medical treatment which should fall under the protection of informed consent, or does the government have the right to force them on every American?"

"See what I mean? Right out of the box, Dr. Bob is trying to reframe the debate over a bill being considered in the California legislature that would eliminate non-medical exemptions to school vaccine mandates. I realize that often the editorial writer doesn’t pick the title (usually the editor does), but the very title “mandatory vaccination” helps Dr. Bob frame the issue not as one of public health but rather personal freedom, just as Rand Paul did. Notice how obviously but nonetheless rather cleverly he does it, with a little rhetorical prestidigitation in which he’s saying, “You know, what’s important is not whether you’re for vaccines or antivaccines or “neutral” (whatever that means in this context), it’s that the government can’t take away our FREEDOM!"

In addition to the measles anti-vaccine dog whistling, Stella has engaged in guilt by loose association attacks on legislative opponents of her philosophical scam. We can expect to see more of these if, by chance, legislation is actually introduced and begins to move forward. It's how she rolls.

More from Scienceblogs on the Stella/Sears' junk science:

"The issue thus reframed, Dr. Bob launches into a list of the horrors of vaccination and the joy of measles. OK, I’m exaggerating, but not by a heck of a lot. It’s the same stuff Dr. Bob’s been spewing all along since the measles outbreaks began, antivaccine tropes about how the measles isn’t that bad and how vaccines are “dangerous,” all in the form of bullet points. For example:"

About 2,000 severe reactions are reported to the CDC each year which result in prolonged hospitalization, permanent disability, or death. Most reactions aren’t even reported, so the true number may be even higher. Yet, because they can’t be proven, the medical community denies that they can happen. Over $3 billion have been paid out to victims of vaccine reactions. Not $3 million. Not $30 million. Not even $300 million. But $3 billion. Are we paying that much money to victims of pretend reactions? I think not.

"Dr. Bob should change that last sentence from “I think not” to “I don’t think,” as in “I don’t think,” a general statement of Dr. Bob’s intellectual prowess with respect to vaccines. I’m guessing that 2,000 severe reactions a year is probably referring to the > (VAERS) database, which, as regular readers here know, is an open database to which anyone can report any “reaction” to vaccination, whether it’s actually related to a vaccine or not. VAERS is not authoritative, and the adverse events are not generally verified. Indeed, as has been reported before, one pro-vaccine blogger, Dr. Jim Laidler, reported that the influenza vaccine turned him into the Incredible Hulk. True, the VAERS staff did contact this blogger and ask him about it, but, as he noted, if he had refused to remove the entry, it would still be there. Another pro-vaccine blogger, Kevin Leitch, verified that VAERS lets you enter basically anything by reporting that a vaccine had turned his daughter into Wonder Woman. That’s why VAERS is the antivaccinationist’s favorite database, and I like to refer to dubious correlations reported from VAERS as dumpster diving. Not surprisingly, antivaccine lawyers have made the database almost worthless as a source of information over the incidence of adverse events due to vaccines by encouraging their clients to enter all sorts of reports, in particular reports claiming that vaccines caused autism. Most recently, the Toronto Star completely misinterpreted how VAERS data should and shouldn’t be used in its utterly botched story falsely linking all sorts of horrific reactions to Gardasil. Then Dr. Bob lists a bunch of bullet points, all consisting of tired antivaccine misinformation that was old when Dr. Bob was in medical school, including (my favorite) the claim that measles isn’t dangerous, a claim rebuked by medical science. For instance:

It has killed no one. It can kill about 1 person in every 1000 cases. Will someone die of measles in the United States in the years to come? Maybe. But it hasn’t killed anyone in the past 15 years or more. The last time measles hit us hard was 25 years ago. Not last year, not this year, yet. It’s measles, people. It’s not the plague. It’s not polio. It’s not Ebola. It’s measles. If the plague hits, let’s force everyone to vaccinate. But measles? Measles? We need something a lot more dangerous than that if we are going to rob each and every patient of the sacred right of informed consent.

"So, measles is no big whoop, even though it can kill one out of a thousand children who get it. Of course, Dr. Bob neglects to note other, more common, complications of the measles that can be very serious, such as pneumonia (which he at least mentioned in his earlier rants) and he very much failed to mention how about one in four victims of this year’s measles outbreak have had to be hospitalized."

"But notice the overall construction of Dr. Bob’s argument. To him, measles isn’t serious (which he explicitly states multiple times) and the vaccine is dangerous (which he implies with his listing of “severe complications” of vaccination in general); so to him it follows that “forcing” vaccination is an unacceptable affront to freedom"

Stella and her partner in the crime of disinformation, Dorian Yates, have been on a media push that includes misstating vaccine statistics, following the Bob Sears model for screwing with the facts. I just have to wonder why she thinks posting her crap at a well known anti-Semitic hate blog like Williams' is going to do her much good except with the bigoted misogynist, homophobe and racist demographic. But perhaps it's expecting too much in the way of rational thought from a quack.

The entire piece at Scienceblogs is well worth the read and I recommend it.

More, undoubtedly, to come.


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Snake Oil, Vermont Secesher Style

Some of you may remember the imbecile who ran as the failed Vermont secession gubernatorial candidate of the Second Vermont Republic back in 2010, Dennis Steele (more than 99% of Vermonters voted for someone other than Steele). Being the sharp political strategist (not) that he was, he used imagery in his campaign honoring the admitted murderer Che Guevara.

Well, he's back as a distributor of an addictive product, nicotine laced e-cigarettes whose marketing has been roundly condemned by the Vermont Health Department . And he wants a state subsidy for his nicotine peddling. Here's what he had to say to WCAX:

"In my opinion they (the state) should subsidize what we are doing or just leave us alone (by not taxing e-cigarettes like tobacco products) and let us help people get off the analog or combustible cigarettes (emphasis mine).

Yet at his NEK Vapor website Steele emphatically states in his FAQs:

Will I be able to quit smoking using the e-cig?

"The electronic cigarette is an alternative to smoking and is not a smoking cessation device. Some people have quit smoking using the electronic cigarette but we make no such claims as to effectiveness for that purpose and e-cigs are not sold for that purpose."

Really? Which is it, Dennis? Talking out of both sides of your mouth is a common failing of most secessionists. If it's bad for Vermonters - secession, imagery of an admitted murderer (which he continued to distribute after his campaign said he was dropping the Che crap), or an addictive nicotine product - Steele's right there to peddle it to you.

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Second Vermont Republic Ally Celebrates the Sesquicentennial of a Murder for Presidents Week

Longtime Second Vermont Republic ally, advisor and friend at the neo-Confederate hate group called the League of the South, by way of its president and champion of the Southern War of Treason, Michael Hill, has issued this proclamation at its website:

Honoring John Wilkes Booth

"The League of the South looks to the present and future. However, from time to time we do look back at our past.

This 14th of April will mark the 150th anniversary of John Wilkes Booth’s execution of the tyrant Abraham Lincoln. The League will, in some form or fashion, celebrate this event. We remember Booth’s diary entry: “Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment.” A century and a half after the fact, The League of the South thanks Mr. Booth for his service to the South and to humanity."

"Stay tuned . . ."
"Michael Hill"

I know I should probably give up trying to get him to do it but I'm going to ask Rob Williams, the last remaining Vermont secesher, one more time to renounce and denounce the League of the South and once and for all end SVR's ties to the racist hate group.

UPDATE: 11:00 PM, 2.17.15
Almost six and a half hours after I put the above post up, Green Mountain Daily's Jack McCullough added his voice to the call for SVR to put some daylight between themselves and the racist hate group, the League of the South. It's likely, though, that all we'll get from Rob Williams will be one of his trite aphorisms or homemade secesh bromides.

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He-e's Ba-ack!

Second Vermont Republic honcho and the self-described "Very Foreign Minister" of the secessionist movement, Dennis Morrisseau, has been keeping a very low profile for months. Yesterday he popped up at the Vermont State House to protest the General Assembly even having a hearing on proposed gun control legislation. Morrisseau went so far as to threaten the removal from office of any legislator who dared to support such legislation.

"Anyone voting ‘yes’ for that bill, according to opponents, will pay for it with their political lives. On the Statehouse lawn, an orange, 10-foot-tall sign greeted people arriving at the hearing Tuesday with a message: “We will vote you all out.”

“And it means everybody – all of you,” Dennis Morrisseau said, waiting in line outside the House chamber before the hearing. “These bills need to disappear.”
Source

You see, in Morrisseau's world of crazy the only thing that counts is his point of view - no discussion.

This isn't Morrisseau's first or even second time to the "vote'em all out" rodeo. In 2009, 2010 and 2012 he secretly conspired with secesher candidates to replace all of Vermont's senators. He called his plan "The 30." He never recruited more than a half dozen half-hearted candidates. He's also repeatedly claimed to have a plan to "Fire Congress." He's failed at that too. You can read some of his crazy about all of that here. Morrisseau has proposed capping the number of children that brown people can have in Vermont to two; he's given free one way (out of town) tickets to Burlington homeless people in the 1980's; he proposes capping income and assets in Vermont; he proposes replacing teachers with older students.

You can read much, much more about Morrisseau's desire to be the "Very Foreign Minister" of SVR here.

But what should be a concern to legislators and the security staff at the Vermont State House is Morriisseau's history of advocating for "hit lists" of people he hates. I wrote at length about that here. Here's just a small sample of what Denny had to say then:

"I have suggested here and elsewhere that we should begin to post the perps’ names and physical addresse on a permanent electronic board somewhere, so that nature can begin taking it’s course. [On the thoery(sic) that a few such take downs would have some chance of stopping what is coming if we do not act.]"

"I include “international financiers” and certain Likudniks and media moguls on my personal list."

To me, a nationwide assault on the entire sitting Congress en masse, and known to all, pitched to all as the only possible peaceful revolutiong(sic), does have a shot if presented right that might allow us to regain the power of we the people. Thus it could defeat what I agree is a massive and evil zionist design. And it would save decent people of all cultures……" d m, w pawlet, vt By: dennis morrisseau . February 12, 2012 . 5:35 pm

Morrisseau has been wildly unsuccessful in all of his various elective runs during the past four decades and was 100% unsuccessful in replacing any of the members of Vermont's Senate in 2010 and 2012, his candidates finishing in the single or less percentile but he has been a threatening presence and State House security would be wise to take note of his visit.

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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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The Vermont Secession Movement Winds Down

It's been apparent for some time that what remains of the Vermont secession movement is drawing justly to a close. Long a movement founded in deception and of lies and of hatred it could only go this way.

Some trace the beginning of the end to the first revelations in 2007 that the Vermont secesher movement was joined at the hip to racists at the anti-Semitic, white separatist group called the League of the South, which is affiliated with the KKK and the Council of Conservative Citizens (formerly known as the White Citizens Council and commonly called the "Uptown Klan"). Like the LoS the Vermont seceshers, who call themselves the Second Vermont Republic, are vehemently anti-Semitic. That is a fact, as well as the racist, segregationist and conspiracist leanings, that has been exposed here at this blog by way of the writings of SVR bloggers like the Dixie singin' founder of SVR Thomas Naylor who had fantasized about creating an anti-Semitic white homeland, convicted felon and LoS Board of Directors member Franklin Sanders, neo-Confederate Lincoln historical revisionist Thomas DiLorenzo, failed secesher candidates for the Vermont Senate Dennis "Hit List" Morrisseau, Gaelan Brown, a conspiracist loon, and Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner, Kirkpatrick Sale (who argues that Israel should be "undone"), Robert S. Griffin (UVM's own white nationalist professor), conspiracist anti-Semite Jacqueline Brook and Carol Moore, to name only a few.

Over the past year or so the SVR publisher, Rob Williams (who is also a member of the adjunct staff at Burlington's Champlain College), has been busy rhetorically cleansing his various secesher sites of the grossly bigoted posts of his bloggers. There are now a zombie like collection of rotten links that abound at his sites but he just can't help himself since new anti-Semitic posts have found their way onto his site, along with increasingly vicious anti-American, and in that way anti-Vermont, posts.

I had to smile when he posted a false claim that he had "invented" the idea that Vermonters get outdoors to enjoy the snow by attaching a numerical requirement to be recognized for doing so. He's calling his effort "#VT99". In doing so he betrays his roots from away since apparently he's unaware that such numerical recognition for how much a Vermonter might be enjoying the outdoors has been a part of the Vermont scene for many, many years. Probably the most notable was the Vermont 100 Club at Killington from a couple of decades ago that had to do with how many days a year that you used your season pass. He calls for 30 minutes of snow related activity on 99 days - sound familiar? Around Vermont that's called getting the mail and taking out the compost. He's even created a euro style bumper sticker to go with it that he's offered for free to his readers, for which, I have it on good authority, that there have been few, if any, takers. That's just a small measure of how mammothly unsuccessful his secession related endeavors - his print journal distribution and conventions featuring bigots from out of state and his plan to get secession articles on 200 Town Meeting ballots by 2015 (so far zero) and his constitutional convention scheme - have been for years. SVR founders Naylor, Ian Baldwin and Williams were all famously unsuccessful in getting their families, spouses and local communities to join them in their secesher delusions.

Hilariously, on Wednesday Rob posted the ironically titled "Secession, the Reasonable Option Everyone Resists" by Thomas E. Woods, Jr., a neo-Confederate founder of the League of the South. Rob signs off his post with his trite "Long Live the UNTied States," to which I'd ask, "Exactly what state or states are those, Rob?" - delusional asshole.

Rob Williams is now pretty much all that remains of the membership of 20 or nutjobs in the SVR. Don't forget to shut off the lights as you leave, Rob.

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Is This Any Way To Run A Republic's Gift Shop?

Occasionally on Rob Williams' hate blog he plugs a small assortment of geegaws selling for grossly inflated prices at his Vermont secessionist website. For instance, he has a collection of stale articles and commentaries from his defunct print journal that he'll sell ya for a cool $19.95; the only thing is that you can get it at Amazon for $6.35 where it's their 2,174,272nd best seller - ugh. Robbie-boy will also clip you for $30 for a half size replica of the Green Mountain Boys flag that he now claims is the flag of the non-existent Second Vermont Republic. The problem for Rob is that it's been the official battle flag of the Vermont Air and Army National Guard for decades before he and the Dixie singin' Thomas H. Naylor (who's still dead, btw) started fantasizing about ruling Vermont, and which in just the past decade or so alone has been carried into combat from Macedonia to Whatthefuckistan on numerous occasions.

Perhaps the most juvenile item that he has for sale is a "sovereign citizen" like Vermont Republic passport - "Use this commemorative parchment passport to gain access to VIP special events! Declare your support for decentralism at all border crossings!" - which is guaranteed to get you detained if you attempt to use it At a point of entry or as identification to board an aircraft.

Here's where Williams' internet savvy really got to shine in a not so good way recently. A mark, er, customer by the name of Gary W. Potter wrote on August 25, 2014 that,

I ordered a Republic of Vermont passport several weeks ago and never received it. I wondered if there was a problem.

Lightning fast - not - Williams' 2ndvtrepublic store shot Potter back a reply to his query on December 9, 2014,

Hi Gary – turns out, our Paypal link was broken. Email us at publisher@2VR.org with your address, and we’ll get one in the mall to you right away – on the house. Sorry for the delay!

I'm sure that Gary gave up checking on a reply to his problem months ago and that's probably spared him a night in the lockup at Border Patrol's Highgate crossing in the meantime. Oh, and since it's obviously an Internet ripoff site I'm not providing a link.

If Williams were to run his empire or republic like he runs his gift shop we'd all be fucked.





#JeSuisCharlie #JeSuisAhmed #JeSuisPolicier #raiseyourpencilforfreedom




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Jacqueline Brook: Second Vermont Republic's World Class Anti-Semite

Late this past summer and into the early fall Jacqueline Brook published frothingly nasty and tendentious anti-Jew pieces in the letters section of the Keene (NH) Sentinel. One response to her screed got her panties firmly tied into a knot when the writer, Elliot Greenblott, nailed her thusly,

"In the 1920s and 1930s, Adolph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels used “the Big Lie” as a means of spreading venomous lies and hatred. It is clear Ms. Brook has studied this approach and revels in it. (Her) letter does not employ satire or irony to make a point. Nor does it use valid research or sources. It promotes hate and prejudice through lies, false insinuations and misinformation."

While precisely true, I can not agree with Mr. Greenblott's conclusion that the Brook letter should not have been published, though slander and "over-the-top anti-Israeli (ranting)" it certainly was.

Nor was this Brook's first foray into selectively presenting and altering the truth in service to her odious cause, the public exposition of anti-Semitic reasoning. Swinishly, she roots around for a fact or two that she can misrepresent or frame in such a way that someone will infer "facts" not in evidence. Such as when she sought to show that Jews "benefited" from the horror of 9/11 in a letter to the Brattleboro Reformer dated Dec. 8, 2012 here (scroll to second letter). She lied when she said that Larry Silverstein "benefited" from the attack on the twin towers "to the tune of billions" - an insurance settlement isn't a benefit, it is a compensation for loss for which premiums were paid and for which no tax liability incurs due to it being just compensation. She also partially and deceptively quoted Benjamin Netanyahu to have said that "Israel had benefited from 'the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq,'" based on a report from "the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv." I checked her source and both the beginning and the conclusion of the quote that she left off was

"We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq." Ma'ariv further quoted the former prime minister as concluding by saying... "swung American public opinion in our favor." Something quite different from Brook's edited quote from Netanyahu.

Clearly, the Netanyahu quote points to a singular "benefit" having to do only with public opinion based on the heinous acts of America haters. Another quote of Netanyahu's that would have relevance here is,

"(I)f Israel were to put down its arms there would be no more Israel. If the Arabs were to put down their arms there would be no more war."

Unbelievably, Brook's bullshit has gotten me to the point where I, of all people, find myself quoting Bibi Netanyahu approvingly. Remarkable, really.

In the same paragraph Brook compounds her dishonesty by misstating a well debunked lie promoted by 9/11 Truthers like herself when she says,

"Witness the jubilant Israelis who recorded the demolition of the WTC towers... from a N.J. rooftop that morning."

She can't even get her lie straight. The FBI investigation of that incident reported that (1) the five young Israelis were on the roof of a van with hardly the room to dance, (2) that the person who reported the incident had animus toward the owner of the van, and that (3) the Israelis were engaged in the same thing that thousands of others did that morning, that is filming the aftermath of the attack. What did not make it into the "research" for Brook's letter was the fact that in the aftermath of the event that took 2,977 innocent lives on 9/11, at the hands of the 19 Saudi attackers, tens of thousands of Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza took to the streets, and yes the rooftops, to dance and hand out celebratory sweets honoring that ghastly occasion. If we were to use Brook's thinking we might speculate on the real reason for her omission but that would be to be just like her.

Elliot Greenblott got it exactly right when he compared Brook to Hitler and Goebbels. Godwin's Rule notwithstanding, I don't believe that he lost the argument when he aptly compared Brook's reasoning method to Goebbels when he was framing the argument about using Judenrats to further anti-Semitic policies. Brook's is a natural at that sort of hate argument.

As I said, I disagree with Greenblott about whether the Brook's letter should have been printed. I only wish that the Keene Sentinel had labeled the letter as an example of the sort of "venomous lies and hatred" that lay at the foundation of Brook's vile brand of historic anti-Semitism.

So that we're clear here, I'm not accusing Brook of attempting to mainstream Jew hate at Rob Williams' Second Vermont Republic hate site. Anti-Semitism is a well established fact at SVR. Brook's method is no mere "dog-whistle" Jew bashing; oh, no, this is the the real deal, David Duke style modus operandi. Brook's "over-the-top" style of lying anti-Semitism and "anti-Israeli ranting" fits quite nicely in with the group of America hating slime balls at the SVR hate site.

Related.

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False Flags in Boston, by Jacqueline Brook (RESEARCH)

"Jacqueline Brook is an occasional artist and writer, a perpetual student, a full-time wannabe spiritual seeker, and an enthusiastic killer of sacred cows (the metaphorical ones).
Jacqueline Brook's very own "2VR" bio

Ah, yes. Jacqueline Brook is a longtime contributor to the defunct secessionists rag, Vermont Commons, since at least 2005, on such hefty topics as mind control and the 9/11 insights of conspiracist nutter and widely debunked crackpot David Ray Griffin (Griffin is a favorite of Vermont Commons publisher Rob Williams, Second Vermont Republic guru Jim Hogue, etc.) and the U.S. Space Command mixing it up with ETs. Brook is no simple headcase, nuh uh. She's got real conspiracist cred and was a contributor to the conspiracist issue of Vermont Commons in September 2005 that was dedicated to 9/11 nutter theories.

So in the latest installment of Jacqueline Brook wingnuttery we learn that the Boston Marathon bombings were a Jew inspired false flag attack, not unlike the 9/11 Jew organized false flag attack against the Twin Towers. And no, I'm not going to link to the hate filled websites of Williams; it's easy enough to find and includes the ravings of Jim Hogue on 9/11. I'll just provide a little taste of the most recent mind droolings of Jacqueline Brook on the Boston Marathon Bombing thing.

"Then there’s the uncle’s connection with CIA agent Graham Fuller. Then there’s the fact that both brothers were transported all the way across town to Beth Israel Deaconess hospital. BID’s CEO is a Zionist, Kevin Tabb. Then there’s Dr. Schoenfeld’s [of BID, at the time] utterly bizarre interview with NPR. Then there’s Ron Dermer, saying that the bombings would be good for Israel. Then there’s the fact that the scenario was almost identical to the 2013 Boston Urban Shield Drill, run by Cytel Group, which is using the bombings as advertising on their website, and the fact that Urban Shield events have been supported by Israel in 3 different ways. Then there’s Cytel Group’s connection with Hollywood effects company Strategic Operations, run by Stu Segall, allegedlya former porn king with mob ties. They are also using the bombings as advertising on their website. [The Boston Urban Shield drill was subsequently cancelled because the Marathon bombings had just happened and because the bombings had unfolded in such a similar manner to the planned drill.]"

"I actually drove to the scene of the shootout, because I couldn’t reconcile 2 eyewitness statements and was surprised to see so many bullet holes in houses at 2nd floor level. [OK. Maybe they were shrapnel holes.] Then I was astonished when I saw the house where the boat was parked. I had listened to a young woman tell an Infowars reporter: “My friend on Franklin St., ummm, lived across the street, and the army people did a huge search in their garage, ummm, but the boat was directly across the street; they didn’t search the boat, not once. They didn’t even go around it.” Presumably they didn’t go near Dave Henneberry’s carriage house behind the boat either, or either of the detached garages in the neighbors’ backyards. Then, there’s Leah Flynn, who, according to online white pages, lives at 20 Franklin St., a block and a half past Henneberry’s house on the L-shaped street, who said that law enforcement officers were in her backyard. So, we’ve been lied to about the ‘perimeter’ and its relationship to the boat. I actually think the site was being guarded until that incredible experiment with martial law was over."

"Then there’s the HUGE omission in Dave Henneberry’s story with regards to the giant door that was built into the shrink wrapping on the boat. There’s a video online at businessweek.com in which you can watch a police vehicle/apparatus peel back the door – which I’m assuming is what Henneberry pantomimed rolling up, in his interview with WCVB’s Ed Harding. I think the whole boat story is fishy – including the note allegedly scrawled therein, which seems to get longer and longer and which we only first heard about a month after the bombings."

"That quickly summarizes much of my earlier research."

Ri-i-ight. Stitch together disparate "facts," know absolutely nothing about layered law enforcement search protocols, throw in a few handy, nearby Jewy operatives and ya gotch yerself a bonafide false flag op. Nevermind all the evidence of the lone wolfpack nature of the Tsarnaev brother's murderous plans; just lay it all on the Jews.

According to a report published this past week by The New Yorker's Masha Gessen, "both the defense and the prosecution have acknowledged not only that the first phase (trial over guilt or innocence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev) will be short but also that its outcome is all but preordained." Obviously, using Brook's thinking the defense, prosecution and possibly Gessen are all in on the false flag operation.

And Williams, Brook, Hogue, William Boardman and virulently Jew loathing and segregationist hate blogger Carol "The Jew Loather" and Waco Whacko Moore, et al, all wonder why they get the rap for operating the most anti-Semitic, conspiracy addled hate site in Vermont.

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Hate Site Publisher Rob Williams Has Lost His Mind. More.

Lately the publisher of the defunct anti-Semitic and America hating site Vermont Commons/Second Vermont Republic, Rob Williams, has taken to fancying himself as a book and movie reviewer. And no matter what the book or movie, they're all about secession. That includes Hobbits, of whom Williams sees a resemblance to himself and his life. Seriously.

I try to not link to hate sites like Williams' or Stormfront or Occidental Dissent or Daily Stormer, so you'll find no link here. Each of those sites has promoted racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and the like and are easy enough to locate if you feel the need.

Hobbits? Really, Rob?

Get help and get well.

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Public Banksters - Part XI (DECEMBER UPDATE)

ADDITIONAL 12/18 UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF POST

Eight months ago unregistered lobbyist for the Public Banking Instititute Gwendolyn Hallsmith boasted in a tweet that

"The Day of the Dollar is probably over. Hold on to your hats."

She based her insight on an article from the website globalresearch.ca, a site well known for its anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism and promotion of Holocaust denialism (and also, coincidentally, a site where Vermont secession flack Greg Guma publishes). Hallsmith wishes for the demise of the dollar in favor of the ruble. Well, that wasn't even remotely true when she promoted the idea then and it's even less true (if possible) today. Today, due to the free fall of the ruble, Russians are investing and converting their remaining, increasingly worthless rubles into imported refrigerators, XBoxes, Apple products, etc., all of which are not accepting rubles for purchases but are insisting on real currencies like dollars and euros only for the import purchase transactions. When Hallsmith was making her prediction of the imminent death of the dollar against the ruble via her Russian source, the ruble was trading at an all time high for the dollar of approximately 36 rubles per dollar (against a low of.93 rubles per dollar in 1993). This month the dollar doubled its value by grabbing 72.45 rubles per dollar. Hallsmith proved her incompetence to provide economic advice and observations to Vermonters eight months ago; her degree of stoopid is twice as true today.

Related posts:
Public Banksters - Part XI
Public Banksters - Part XI (UPDATE)

UPDATE DECEMBER 18, 5:30 PM General Motors, Audi, Land Rover and Apple have temporarily suspended sales inside Russia. Snork!

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Racist Writer for White Supremacist, neo-Confederate Website Outed by Southern Poverty Law Center

During the past few months there's been a back and forth of outing and doxing going on that's shaken the racist right to its jackboots. The racists at Occidental Dissent have been on an outing campaign of their own which has produced not very compelling results. Yesterday the SPLC dropped the latest bomb - a writer and moderator for the avowedly racist and virulently anti-Semitic mouthpiece for the neo-Confederate League of the South supporting website mentioned above, Occidental Dissent, who goes by the pseudonym "Jack Ryan" is in fact John V. Ellis of Hyde Park, Chicago. SPLC has the whole story here.

Tit for tat, eh Jack?

Speaking of the racist League of the South, we've been waiting for months for the current head of the so-called Second Vermont Republic, Rob Williams, to renounce and denounce SVR's past and present ties to the LoS and its militia. Well, one can always cling to the wistful hope that Williams will one day come to his senses.

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In and Out - Part II

UPDATE: Friday, Dec.5, 11:00 AM Okay, Greg's starting to give me whiplash. Here's the latest on his aching for relevance from his FB page yesterday:

"FYI, I posted a statement this a.m. saying no Independent run. Then a reporter calls & asks about accepting the Prog nod. I say well, uh, I'd be honored, thought surprised -- but only if it came after a real process / debate. Will that happen? Guess we'll find out Sunday when the Party caucuses. Feel like Pacino in Godfather III."
21 hours ago

I guess that Guma's heard my criticism of his not telling "the peeples" where TF he and his vast army of supporters are meeting so he tells us,

"Pick BTV candidates: Sunday, 5-7pm, Champlain Senior Ctr: potluck & caucuses for March candidates, including Mayor and City Council. Progressive Burlington residents are encouraged to attend."

Actually, the meeting is open to the public but what's a little caucus voter suppression if it's all for the cause. Guma supporters will caucus at the empty table.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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"A Rose by Any Other Name..."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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