Mississippi

I grew up in the 1950s in what author James W. Silver correctly called Mississippi: The Closed Society. Anyone who had the courage to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy of white supremacy and state enforced racial segregation was at risk of being labeled a “nigger-lover” which could lead to ridicule, harassment, loss of employment, violence, and even death.  It was not a pretty sight.

The entire state was consumed by a racist ideology which adhered to a policy of zero tolerance for dissent whether it be in public schools, colleges, churches, or political organizations.  To enforce racial segregation the State relied on demagogic governors such as Ross Barnett and “Little” Paul Johnson, not to mention the State Sovereignty Commission and The White Citizen Council.

Between 1969 and 1974 I was involved in launching the L.Q.C. Lamar Society, an organization committed to helping open the doors of the closed society in Mississippi and the rest of the South.  The underlying premise of the Lamar Society was that it was high time for the South to get off of the race kick, come back into the Union, and start solving its own problems.  Among its members were Jimmy Carter, six other liberal Southern governors, and prominent black politicians such as Julian Bond, Maynard Jackson, Vernon Jordan, John Lewis, and Andrew Young. Forty years later the South is a much more open society than it once was.

Soviet Union

Between 1982 and 1991 I frequently visited the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, once considered to be the most closed societies of all-time.  The visits were the result of the Soviets having illegally translated one of my books on computer based planning models into Russian in 1975.

Notwithstanding its reputation for political indoctrination, the dissemination of Communist propaganda, state controlled schools, a rigid planned economy, an inflexible government bureaucracy, a ruthless military tradition, and an oppressive police state mentality, I found the Soviet Union to be much more open and receptive to change than I could have ever imagined.  Much more so than Mississippi was in the 50s.

In May 1982 I visited ten major Soviet research institutes in Moscow and interacted with over 250 Soviet economists, management scientists, and computer scientists.  Most of them were using my book and state-of-the-art management science modeling techniques to evaluate the effects on the Soviet economy of introducing decentralized planning and marketing, flexible prices and wages, profits and incentives, and credit and banking.  All of this, three years before Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev came to power.

Inspired by this experience and Gorbachev’s attempt to “open the closed society,” I became a self-appointed, nonpaid cheerleader for Gorbachev encouraging the Soviets to move towards a more open political system and a free market.

Vermont

If one were to believe University of Vermont town meeting aficionado Frank Bryan, one would conclude that Vermont is an idyllic, democratic, independent-minded, tolerant, live-and-let-live sort of place with a strong sense of community.  Unfortunately, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Vermont is considered by many to be the most left-wing state in America with two-thirds of its voters having supported Barack Obama in the 2008 election.  The remaining one-third are staunchly neoconservative in their political outlook.  Although Vermont neoliberals are less bellicose in their rhetoric than their neoconservative counterparts, they passively acquiesce to the neocon foreign policy agenda which includes full spectrum dominance, imperial overstretch, nuclear primacy, the right of pre-emptive first strike, and unconditional support for Israel.

Both neolibs and neocons are apologists for globalization and are steeped in the ideology that bigger, faster, and more high-tech make better.  In their heart of hearts neolibs and neocons know that only the federal government can solve all of our problems, failing to realize that the federal government is the problem.  They each embrace corporate socialism, socialism for the rich, and the social welfare state.

Both neolibs and neocons are authoritarian statists each with their own definition of political correctness.  Politically correct neolibs are expected to be pro-abortion, pro-gay-lesbian, pro-affirmative action, pro-Israel, pro-gun control, anti-clerical, pro-big government, and pro-American Empire.  Anyone who does not conform to this litany or who associates with those who do not, is at risk of being attacked by a left wing truth squad such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and accused of the likes of homophobia, racism, anti-semitism, religious fundamentalism, or even hate crimes.  Politically correct neocons are more likely to be pro-life, anti-gay-lesbian, anti-affirmative action, pro-Israel, anti-gun control, pro-clerical, pro-big government, and pro-Empire.  Both are vehemently opposed to secession.

Any mention of secession immediately invokes images of the Civil War, slavery, and charges of racism.  Most Vermonters seem to be oblivious to the fact that the United States was born out of a secession from England in 1776.  Just as white Southerners back in the 1950s were eager to refight the Civil War at the drop of a hat, so too are intolerant Vermonters sixty years later.  Their level of ignorance about secession is almost beyond belief.  Vermont neoliberals are even more rigid and inflexible in their thinking than their right wing neoconservative counterparts.  Both sides are equally intolerant of criticisms of the American Empire – the largest, most powerful, most materialistic, most environmentally destructive, most racist, most militaristic, most violent empire of all-time.

Vermont’s political intolerance is epitomized by what happened to Vermont independence candidate Dennis Steele when he tried to ask a question at the gubernatorial debate in the Barre Labor Hall on April 1.  For trying to ask how an independent Vermont might deal with the state’s $150 million deficit, Steele was dragged out of the Labor Hall by two policemen, handcuffed, arrested, taken to the police station, finger printed, photographed, and charged with disorderly conduct.  All of this for suggesting that if Vermont were to become an independent republic, it would be relieved of its obligation to pay the federal government $1.5 billion per year for its prorata share of the defense budget.  Just like back in the USSR or perhaps Mississippi in the 50s.  A few weeks later local television anchor Gus Rosendale tried to smear Steele by linking him to a convicted sex offender and two unsavory political groups.

As further evidence that Vermont has become a closed society, political gadflies such as Sam Hemingway, Jane Lindholm, Bill McKibben, Shay Totten, and John Odum, routinely hurl frivolous charges of racism against the Second Vermont Republic.  These undocumented charges are based on lies, half truths, and guilt by association.  The smear tactics used by Vermont leftists to undermine the credibility of secessionists are virtually identical to those used by the White Citizen Council to smear integrationists in Mississippi in the 60s and by the KGB to discredit Russian dissidents in the 80s.

Even though the Second Vermont Republic has received an enormous amount of statewide, national, and international media attention over the past seven years, not one person from SVR has ever received an official invitation to speak at Middlebury College, UVM, or any of the Vermont State Colleges.  Nowhere to be found in Vermont are any courses, seminars, or workshops on the possibility of Vermont independence.  It’s as though the concept does not even exist.  This is in stark contrast to colleges and universities in Mississippi back in the 50s and 60s where there would be an occasional lecture or discussion group on integration.  Not so in Vermont.  Secession is absolutely taboo in the academy.  Vermont colleges and universities are totally committed to the American Empire and to the federal grants which are bestowed upon them.

No group is more loyal to the American Empire than are the Vermont clergy.  Not one rabbi, priest, or minister has ever expressed any interest whatsoever in Vermont independence since SVR’s inception in 2003.  Many a Vermont church still has an American flag in the sanctuary.  There was a time when Vermont churches were among the most vocal and most active anti-war activists.  Not so anymore.  Today all of the so-called liberal churches have turned a blind eye towards the death and destruction wrought by the Empire.  It’s as though the Empire itself has become their God.

And then there are Vermont attorneys.  So afraid are they of losing a dollar of billable income that they won’t touch secession with a ten foot pole.

How much worse will our problems have to become before thoughtful Vermonters realize that our government has lost its moral authority and that our nation is unsustainable, ungovernable, and unfixable?  Only then will they be open to the idea that secession is the only morally defensible option available to us.

Imagine…Free Vermont

Thomas H. Naylor

July 21, 2010

Hardly a week goes by in which we do not learn of yet another attack by an American drone (a pilotless remote controlled aircraft) on either Afghan or Pakistani civilians.  These sinister instruments of death are controlled by well-trained, high-tech killers seated in air conditioned comfort in front of sophisticated instrument panels thousands of miles away.  This form of neat, clean, precise, risk-free, bloodless, desktop warfare is waged by gutless technofascists who have never set foot on a battlefield or smelled the stench of death.  Only cowards may apply for this type of work.

Drones do only what they have been programmed to do by their malevolent masters.  But aren’t we all drones?  We do only what our corporate and government handlers tell us to do.

Take President Barack Obama, for example, or any of his recent predecessors.  They have all marched to the beat of the drums of Wall Street, Corporate America, and the Israeli Lobby.  So too is the case with the U.S. Congress as well.  They are all drones.

Shortly after the liberation of Paris in 1944, French writer Albert Camus said, “The people of Germany are sleeping.  They remain stolid, stubborn, and silent as to the crimes committed in their names, as if the entire world and its destiny had become alien to them.” Camus’s insightful description of life in Nazi Germany applies equally well to life in the United States today.  Although we are indeed awake, we behave as though we were drones.

While claiming to be world-class individualists, millions of Americans behave like robots—remote controlled, automatic devices which perform repetitive tasks in a seemingly human way.  We pretend to be “the captain of our ship and the master of our soul,” even though we all march to the beat of the same drummers.  Not only do we appear to be content with our plight, but we consistently try to convince others that they should be just like us.

Even though we all have different genetic maps, most of us think the same, vote the same, watch the same TV programs, visit the same Web sites, and buy the same consumer goods.  While subscribing to an ideology that raises individualism to godlike status, most Americans are conformists.

We live in a one-size-fits-all world in which the U.S. government, Corporate America, Urban America, the media, Internet service providers, public schools, colleges and universities, health care providers, social service providers, and religious institutions want all of to be the same, just like they are.

Most influential American newspapers and the five major television networks are owned by huge conglomerates.  Nothing better illustrates the enormous influence of television than the overwhelming political support which American TV networks afforded Presidents Bush I and Bush II in their respective high-tech invasions of Iraq in 1991 and 2003.  It was the Middle East equivalent of “cowboys and Indians.”  Americans were mesmerized by the one-sided patriotic hype and the apparent precision of the bloodless missile strikes.  Iraqi casualties were treated as non-events by the media.

Although there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Microsoft’s Bill Gates claims that the Internet leads to empowerment and enhanced democracy.  But who is being empowered by whom?  As e-mania has exploded, voter turnout has declined, as well as every other form of civic participation including involvement in religious groups, town meetings, local school activities, civic clubs, union meetings, and political organizations.  People transfixed by PCs have little time to participate in anything and are a threat to no one.

If one surfs the Internet one can find thousands of Web sites espousing every conceivable political philosophy.  There are endless blogs and chat rooms devoted to the discussion of politics.  But is anyone really listening to all of this electronic chatter?  Above all, what the Net does extremely well is keep us busy – distracted from noticing what our drone masters are doing to us in the name of freedom and democracy.

While individual Internet junkies pretend to be doing their own thing, in reality they are insignificant pawns in a vast global experiment in commercially controlled anarchy.  They are, in fact doing precisely what their corporate and government masters would have them do.

Just to make certain that those Americans who have not yet become drones have the opportunity to do so, President Obama has proposed to introduce required civilian service in America.  “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded as the military.”

Not even independent-minded Vermont has been able to escape the drone syndrome.  All of our politicians are drones—Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Patrick Leahy, Congressman Peter Welch, Governor Jim Douglas, Lt. Governor Brian Dubie, and the Democratic candidates for Governor.  They march in lockstep with the Empire.  Neoliberal Vermonters are still so mesmerized by Obama that they utter hardly a whimper when 1,500 Vermont National Guard troops are deployed to Afghanistan or when another Vermonter is killed in either of the two illegal wars in which we are engaged.  Few question the immorality of the lies on which the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are based.  Vermonters behave as though they were experimental mice on an electric floor after experiencing learned helplessness—never challenging what they are told by Washington, New York, or Tel Aviv.

No longer the land of the free and the home of the brave, America has become a giant electronic meganetwork of remote controlled robots and drones which do exactly what their technofascist masters want them to do.  Have a good day!

Imagine…Free Vermont

Thomas H. Naylor

July 9, 2010

Critics of secession in the United States often summarily dismiss it with the following reference to the Civil War.  “We’ve been there, done that, and it didn’t work out so well.”  What that myopic view overlooks is the possible relevance of five highly successful, nonviolent political movements in the second half of the twentieth century, two of which were outright secessions and the other three possessing secession-like characteristics.  These radical political movements include:  (1) the American Civil Rights Movement, (2) the Vietnam War Protest Movement, (3) the Eastern European Anti-Communist Movement, (4) the Soviet Union Anti-Communist Movement, and (5) the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement.  Although there were isolated pockets of violence in each of these political movements, they were, for the most part, nonviolent.

Without exception each of the five political movements adhered to the following five-step paradigm:  (1) Identification of the principal opposition political leaders to be targeted.  (2) Challenging their legitimacy and moral authority.  (3)  Ridiculing them and their supporters.  (4)  Publicizing their improprieties.  (5)  Completely discrediting them.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court decision of 1954 outlawing racial segregation in the public schools was perceived by many as a declaration of war against Southern segregationists, the Civil Rights Movement did not really get underway until the early 1960s after a series of high-profile acts of violence against black children and civil rights workers in the South.  Civil rights activists, the clergy, and liberal Northern political leaders began challenging the moral authority of well-known Southern segregationists such as Governors Ross Barnett of Mississippi, George W. Wallace of Alabama, and Lester Maddox of Georgia.  Although The Movement was never very unified, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of nonviolent confrontation soon became the paradigm of choice.  With the death of President John F. Kennedy and the ascendancy of Lyndon B. Johnson to the Presidency, the credibility of racial segregation plunged, paving the way for the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, the metaphorical trophies of the Civil Rights Movement.

Almost from the outset the Anti-War Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s was far more militant than its predecessor, the Civil Rights Movement.  The marches and demonstrations were larger, more frequent, and more intense.  The lives of many of the college age demonstrators were on the line, since they faced compulsory military service and the possibility of being shipped off to Vietnam.  The targets were President Johnson, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the Pentagon, and the military-industrial complex.  This was not kid’s stuff.  It was not about sweetness and light.  It was hardball!  Anyone supporting the war in Vietnam was subject to ridicule.  Apologists for the war were called “mother-fucking , fascist pigs.”  The Anti-War Movement was energized by images of body bags and flag-draped coffins each night on the evening news, innocent civilians being torched by napalm in Vietnam, and college kids fleeing to Canada.  By the time President Richard Nixon called an end to the war in 1973, the moral authority of the U.S. Government was at an all-time low.  The White House, the Congress, General William Westmoreland, the Pentagon, the CIA, and the entire military-industrial complex had been thoroughly discredited.

The six Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were all brought down by effectively discrediting the leaders of these regimes—by demonstrating unequivocally that they had lost their moral authority.  The Communist government of Poland was not toppled in 1989 by Solidarity Leader Lech Walesa politely suggesting that President Wojciech Jaruzelski should step down.  Rather it, as well as the five other Eastern European Communist governments, was brought down by a sophisticated mixture of confrontation, negotiation, and testing of limits spread out over several years.  Ultimately it was a question of political will.  The political will of the people trumped the will of the government to stay in power.  The emperor was found to have no clothes both in the Soviet Union as well as in its Eastern European satellites.  The Soviet Union nonviolently imploded in 1991.  Earlier that year tiny Slovenia seceded from Serbia employing a similar strategy with a minimum loss of life.

South Africa followed much the same paradigm to rid itself of its apartheid government and replace it with a democracy.  Both South Africa and Poland attracted huge international political support for their respective independence movements.  There can be little doubt that the international boycott of companies doing business in South Africa helped bring down the racist regime.

If an American state is to be successful in its attempt to secede from the Union, its Congressional Delegation, its Governor, its Council of State, and its other major political opinion leaders must be thoroughly discredited to the point of ridicule.  They and the people in the state who support them with their votes must personally be held morally responsible for:

1. The illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2. The acts of genocide perpetrated by our ally Israel against the Palestinians with our unconditional support.
3. The presence of 1,000 American military bases in 153 countries.
4. Our continued development of weapons of mass destruction and the so-called missile defense system.
5. The Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act.
6. The illegal practices of rendition of terrorist suspects, prisoner abuse and torture, and citizen surveillance.
7. The highly racist war on terror.
8. Multi-trillion dollar deficits.
9. A failing health care system whose costs are totally out of control.
10. A one size fits all immigration policy.
11. A government which is owned, operated, and controlled by Wall Street, Corporate America, and the Israeli Lobby.
12. A government which panders to the rich and powerful.
13. A government which has lost its moral authority, is unsustainable, and unfixable.

Secession is not for the faint of heart.  If you are into wanting to make everyone happy, then secession is not for you.  But secession just may be the only morally defensible game in town!

Imagine…Free Vermont

Thomas H. Naylor

June 30, 2010

The American Empire is arguably the most racist and most violent empire of all-time.  It was built from land stolen from Native Americans on the backs of African American Slaves.  We are currently engaged in a racist war against Islam worldwide which includes the immoral, illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  We provide unconditional support for the racist policies of our ally Israel in its genocidal war against the Palestinians.

• Until Vermont confronts its relationship with the American Empire  and its racist genocidal policies, it is very difficult to speculate on the effects of specific policies aimed at assisting Vermont’s minority population.

• I am a Vermont Abenaki living in an empire owned, operated, and controlled by Wall Street, Corporate America, and the Israeli Mafia.  The only moral option available to Vermonters is peaceable withdrawal from the Union.

As an Abenaki I will work to improve communications and cooperation among the various Abenaki clans so that they can present a united front in dealing with the State.

• I will encourage the State Legislature to pass a resolution apologizing to the Abenakis, French Canadians, and others coerced into sterilization by the State’s 1931 sterilization law.  The State should pay damages to those affected by the law inspired by the insidious Eugenics Project.  But again it’s hard to think about specific racial policies so long as we remain a part of a truly racist empire.

It’s hardly surprising that there are racial hate groups in America when you consider that racial hatred is the official policy of the United States Government.  Our government promotes the hatred of all Muslims as well as Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, and Iranians.

• Vermonters should rebel against the racist policies of the United States by calling for the peaceable secession of Vermont from the American Empire.

If Vermont were once again to become an independent republic, it is likely to be overwhelmed by the number of people of all ethnicities moving here.  Among other reasons, they will be motivated to escape the racism of the American Empire.  Vermont is not a racist state, but America is a racist empire.

Why is it surprising that bullying, harassment, bigotry, and hate crimes take place in our schools?  The Pentagon is the world’s foremost global bully engaged in bigotry, harassment, violence, and hate crimes worldwide.  The U.S. has over 1,000 military bases in 153 countries.

• Major General Michael Dubie, Brian Dubie’s brother, devotes all of his time to recruiting Vermont bullies into the National Guard so they can become trained killers and bully the people in Iraq and Afghanistan all in the name of freedom.

• If we are serious about bullying and hate crimes, then we must stop the immoral, illegal wars which serve as role models for Vermont’s youth.

As a Native American I am unconditionally opposed to the racism and violence of The American Empire and will do everything in my power to lead Vermont out of the quagmire of death and destruction in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

Dennis Steele

June 23, 2010

Prepared for the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity.

Once again, with the full knowledge and complicity of the White House, the Israeli military machine has engaged in an illegal act of terrorism consistent with its long standing genocidal aims against the Palestinians.  This time the Israeli’s heinous crime took the form of piracy and murder on the high seas directed at an unarmed flotilla of ships loaded with food and medicine bound for besieged Palestinians in Gaza.

Although the international outcry against Israel was loud and clear, the pro-Israeli American media response was muted and short-lived, easily trumped by the hype surrounding veteran pundit Helen Thomas’s admonition to Israel to “get the hell out of Palestine.”  No one seemed to care about the merits of her assertion.  She had to be taken out, and along with her went the story of the Gaza bound flotilla.

But what, if anything, does this have to do with Vermont?  Why should independence-minded Vermonters care what’s happening in Israel?  We should care because the U.S.-Israeli relationship gets right to the very essence of what the American Empire is all about.  The United States and Israel are the two foremost technofascist nations in the world.  That’s why there is such a close symbiotic relationship between the two war mongering nations.  The answer to the question, “Who controls whom?” remains in doubt.

The so-called Middle East peace process supported by all American presidents since Israel’s inception in 1948 is a complete sham.  The only way to stop Israeli terrorism is for the U.S. to discontinue all economic and military aid to Israel.  Only then will the fighting stop.  But this will never happen so long as the Empire remains intact.

Well-known Vermont liberals such as Ben Cohen, Bill McKibben, Anthony Pollina, Bernie Sanders, and Shay Totten have maintained their usual position of stony silence in response to the recent Israeli atrocities.  Criticism of Israel is not considered to be politically correct behavior in Vermont.  Neither is support for the downtrodden Palestinians.

Neither Republican Brian Dubie nor any of the Democratic candidates for governor in Vermont have uttered a peep about the flotilla incident.  Only Vermont Independenista candidate Dennis Steele has expressed any concern whatsoever for the plight of the Palestinians.

Duplicitous Vermont taxpayers who remain loyal to the American Empire cannot escape the fact that they too are accomplices to the Israeli acts of genocide.

The Israeli Mafia will remain in charge of American foreign policy until either the American Empire collapses or peaceably dissolves.

Under the leadership of Dennis Steele, Vermont Independenistas will carve out their own foreign policy independent of Washington and Tel Aviv.

Imagine…Free Vermont

Thomas H. Naylor

June 15, 2010

Shelburne businessman Peter Garritano has been certified by the Secretary of State as an official candidate for Lt. Governor in the 2010 Vermont election to be held on November 2^nd.  Peter obtained the 500 necessary signatures and turned them into the Secretary of State’s office on June 8^th.  In announcing his candidacy, Garritano said:

“It is time to stop the insanity.  The war on terror.  And the war on drugs.  It is also time to develop a clean, non-nuclear fossil fuel-free energy policy.  To return our freedom by nullifying the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act.  People before profit.  Power to the people of Vermont.”

Garritano is one of twelve candidates seeking election in November who favor Vermont once again becoming an independent republic.  His running mate for Governor is Kirby businessman Dennis Steele.  Nine candidates supporting Vermont independence are running for the State Senate and one for the House.

Imagine… Free Vermont

Thomas H. Naylor

June 10, 2010

If I were not the father of two children, I would probably not be running for governor.  Concern for their future in an empire which has lost its moral authority compels me to act.

My views on pre-kindergarten programs are no different from my views on public education in general.  Public education should be financed and controlled by local communities, not by the State.  If a local community deems it desirable to have a pre-k program, then it should organize such a program and finance it out of local tax funds.

As for Act 62, I have no opinion.  Over the long run, I favor the elimination of all forms of federal and state control of public education.  I support a form of public education based on the Swiss system in which public schools are financed and controlled by cantons, towns, and villages.  Switzerland has one of the best public education systems in the world.  Vermont could do a lot worse than emulating the Swiss model.

If one truly cares about the well being of Vermont’s children, then one does not send them off to fight in immoral and illegal wars in which they risk injury and death.  If elected governor, because I do care about all of Vermont’s children, I would order those serving in the National Guard in Iraq and Afghanistan to be returned to Vermont immediately.

Vermont’s prorata share of the Pentagon’s annual budget amounts to over $1.5 billion per year.  If Vermont were to become an independent republic, it could support a lot of children’s educational programs with an additional $1.5 billion each year.

Imagine…Free Vermont

Dennis Steele

June 15, 2010

Statement delivered at the Turrell Fund Landon Awards Day in Burlington, VT on June 15, 2010.  The event was sponsored by the Vermont Children’s Trust Foundation.

What is the biggest challenge facing Vermonters?  Is it Vermont Yankee, jobs, declining milk prices, energy, high taxes, or the state’s mounting deficit?  It’s none of the above.  By far the biggest challenge confronting Vermont is the American Empire itself – the largest, wealthiest, most powerful, most environmentally insensitive, most racist, most militaristic, and most violent empire of all-time.

Two of the most vehement Vermont supporters of the American Empire are none other than Lt. Governor Brian Dubie and his brother Major General Michael Dubie.  Brian is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, and Michael is Adjutant General of the Vermont National Guard.

As Adjutant General, Michael Dubie is Vermont’s principal promoter of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Both his budget and his political clout are closely linked to the number of Vermonters deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.  He has absolutely no incentive whatsoever to call for an end to these wars or a return of Vermont troops from overseas.  War is his business.

If elected Governor, what is the likelihood that Colonel Brian Dubie will call for an end to the illegal and immoral wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?  I believe the chances are virtually nil that he will ever challenge the authority of either his brother or the Pentagon.

Will he continue to serve in the Air Force Reserve and as an American Airlines Captain?  How is it possible to be loyal to Vermont, if you owe your soul to the American Empire?

To increase the number of jobs in Vermont, Brian has expressed an interest in trying to attract more military contractors to Vermont.  One can imagine a scenario in which the Dubie brothers promote more wars, send more Vermonters overseas to fight in these wars, and attract more defense contractors to Vermont to support even more wars.  Vermont could become a tiny military state under the absolute control of the American Empire.  Its position as the state with the highest per-capita combat death rate in Iraq would remain unchallenged.

Unfortunately, the Dubie brothers may not be stoppable.  There is little evidence to suggest that any of the Democratic challengers for governor can defeat Brian Dubie.  None of them have the guts to confront the American Empire, the wars of the Empire, or those who promote and support these wars.  They have no vision of the future without the Empire.

However, Vermont independence gubernatorial candidate Dennis Steele and his running mate Peter Garritano just might be able to stop the Dubie brothers’ military madness machine.

Dennis is a fifth generation Vermonter from the Northeast Kingdom, a U.S. Army veteran, and a strong supporter of second amendment rights.  He and Peter know how to cut through the military bullshit.  Unlike the Dubie brothers, Dennis and Peter are both independent businessmen who are unaccustomed to taking orders from anyone, least of all the U.S. Government.

It’s high time peace loving Vermonters stood up to the American Empire, to Brian and Michael Dubie, and the ghastly wars which they condone.  The Gods of the Dubie brothers are not the Gods of Vermont.

Imagine…Free Vermont

Thomas H. Naylor

June 10, 2010

Vermont – that precious and beautiful land of independence

And ferociously fierce freedom-mindedness

Vermont – that great Green Mountain Republic

With freedom and unity for all its citizens

Over the years Vermonters have taken many stands

Against slavery, against nuclear arms madness

And against terrible Federal tyranny

The fiercely free people of Vermont

Stand always for what they believe in

Always the ferociously free people of Vermont

Hate the horrors of tyranny, corruption, and injustice

In the future the Second Republic of Vermont

Will be a brilliant beacon of freedom and fairness

For multitudes of Freedom-longing people everywhere.

Harold M. Frost IV

Sheffield, Vermont

April 23, 2010

Since Vermont independence candidate Dennis Steele announced his candidacy for governor on January 15 at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Montpelier, there have been at least a dozen debates involving the five Democratic candidates.  Lt. Governor Brian Dubie has been invited to most of these debates, but has cleverly declined so as to avoid being the target of the Democrats, since he is the lone Republican candidate.

Even though secessionist Dennis Steele has collected over 600 signatures for his candidacy (only 500 are required), he has not been invited to a single debate.  What is particularly reprehensible is the fact that Dennis has been snubbed twice by Middlebury College and UVM, both of whom have each sponsored or hosted two debates.

Without exception the debates have been unbelievably boring.  All five of the neoliberal Democrats are unconditionally committed to the American Empire – the largest, most powerful, most materialistic, most racist, most militaristic, most violent empire of all-time.  They have no interest whatsoever in facilitating the return of Vermont’s National Guard troops from Afghanistan or Iraq.  They seem to be oblivious to the fact that the U.S. Government has lost its moral authority, since it is owned, operated, and controlled by Wall Street, Corporate America, and the Israeli Lobby.  None of them grasp the fact that the United States is unsustainable, ungovernable, and, therefore, unfixable.  While they are long on job creation rhetoric, they are abysmally short on specific strategies.  They all march to the beat of the same drummer.  There is no sense of urgency – just blah, blah, blah.

Of what are these lackluster, spineless wimps so afraid? Why are they unwilling to engage Dennis Steele in a conversation about the pros and cons of Vermont once again becoming an independent republic?  If one of them is elected governor, will he or she sit idly by and watch Vermont go down with the Titanic?

Is there a genuine fear that Dennis may not be just another know-nothing, do-nothing governor like Jim Douglas, but rather a governor who will lead the United States of America into disunion?  Maybe Susan Bartlett, Matt Dunne, Deborah Markowitz, Doug Racine, and Peter Shumlin actually know that the emperor has no clothes, but they are clueless as to what to do about it?

Just as the economy of the European Union and its currency the euro are going down, so too could the U.S. economy and the dollar be next.  Contrary to what we were told by CNBC, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, the 1,000 point drop in the stock market on May 6 was not caused by random error, neither was the surge in the price of gold.  While Bill McKibben and his preppie Middlebury College students are running around shouting “350.org,” the world is running out of oil, and President Barack Obama is preparing to invade Iran.  Meanwhile, Vermont’s impotent clergy and gutless college professors sit silently on the sidelines afraid to utter a single politically incorrect word.

The American Empire is all about separation, meaninglessness, powerlessness, and death.  If French existentialist Albert Camus were still alive today, he would call it “absurd.”  Dennis Steele is the only Vermont gubernatorial candidate who has the guts to rebel against the Empire.  That’s why he’s not invited to the debates.

“It is those who know how to rebél, at the appropriate moment, against history who really advance its interests,” said Camus.  Dennis Steele is such a person.

Imagine…Free Vermont

Thomas H. Naylor

May 10, 2010