WVTK's Addison County Candidates Debate

Port Henry, NY based WVTK, which calls itself "Addison County's Radio Station," is broadcasting a candidates' forum today, Thursday, October 25, 2012, between 8:00 AM and 9:30 AM that is being hosted by the Addison County Chamber of Commerce in the Ilsley Library Community Room in Middlebury.

The candidates attending were for Addison County's contested and uncontested races for its two Vermont Senate seats as well as the House Representative seats in the General Assembly for the 2012 election cycle. Due to the number of candidates present WVTK is keeping the group on a tight time schedule.

The first question to the candidates pertained to funding for health care. Each candidate answered on topic except for would be "Senator" Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner. As he so often does, Robert Wagner pivoted to what he likes to refer to as a "Gund Institute" report or study that has already been shot down in the General Assembly for its unreasonable economic assumptions and prescriptions. The junk economics proposed by this "study" were rejected by governments early in the 20th century. In short, the plan is based on the economics of Henry George, a contemporary and rival of Karl Marx. What Wagner, Gund and the rest of the Georgists propose is nothing less than a mass grab of private property in Vermont on such a scale that it would bring a smile to Joseph Stalin's corpse. As Great Britain found when it began to ease into Georgism in the early 20th century, business investment ceased. That was the end of Georgism in Western Europe. History tells us what confiscatory private property grabs did to the Soviet Union, Maoist China, Nazi Germany, Khmer Cambodia and Cuba, to name only a few - scores of millions died.

By 9:00 AM, Wagner, continued to pivot away from specific questions to ride his various Vermont secession movement hobbyhorses - the "Gund Institute" nonsense; a state bank (an economically unsound idea that has already been dismissed as impractical in the General Assembly); the notion that the Vermont economy is in a complete state of collapse (despite VT's triple A bond rating and one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country); an unfunded education plan - and generally sounded like the sole tinfoil hat guy on the room.

You can watch the forum here.

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

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

Here's Something Odd

SEE THE OCTOBER 24 UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF THIS POST

It seems that Senator Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner's campaign for one of the two Addison County Vermont State Senate seats has, well, all but disappeared.

Why is that, and why more than a month out from election day? The last muddled post at his Senator (he's never been one) Wagner Facebook page made this unsubstantiated, paranoid claim:

"End war... including the 'war on drugs' in Vermont. The State's marijuana-spotting helicopters, which were unavailable for Hurricane Irene relief, could then be turned to humanitarian purposes such as medevac."

Wagner's campaign website hasn't had a campaign post since August.
The one bit of media coverage that Wagner got this past July was in the way of a profile at the Addison Independent is buried behind the Addy's paywall.

Certainly, Wagner's courting of Vermont's own neo-Confederate supporting secessionist movement, his promoting the seizure of private property, his espousal of Teabagger values and his nasty and negative comments about his opponents hasn't been a winning strategy. Maybe this prolonged campaign silence is some kind of strange, desperate tactic - an October surprise of sorts.

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

UPDATE, 10/24/12 4:00PM: What a difference a day makes. Apparently the post above roused the-not-ever-likely-to-be Senator Wagner from his months long torpor. This morning he threw up several by now useless posts stating that he's mounting his long awaited door-to-door campaign this week and next week; he re-iterated his support for Addison-2 independent candidate Tim Ryan and made this statement on Ryan's Facebook page:

"Same here; I asked the incumbent (Wagner's Ripton, VT neighbor, Rep. Willem Jewett (D-Addison 2)) to discuss some facts that I had uncovered about Vermont's finances, and to help me get a chance to testify before the House Ways & Means Committee. He kept changing the subject, said he'd get back to me; but never did. Flatlander is as flatlander does."

"Flatlander is as flatlander does?" What an odd derogatory term for a more recent arrival to Vermont as he is, Brooklyn, NY native Robert Wagner, to use. Perhaps more than a little tellingly, the negativity of his support went unanswered by Ryan. I doubt that Ryan is counting on there being much of a "bump" with support from "Senator" Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner's comments and endorsement. Fact is, in 2010 Jewett received more votes (1595) in his four town representative district than the votes (1128) Wagner got throughout the entirety of the then twenty-four towns of the Addison County senate district; while Jewett swept the vote (257) in their common hometown of Ripton, VT, Wagner only managed to get a handful of votes (37). Figures.

You can see Wagner's meaningless flurry of lame, negative posts here, here, here and here.

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

Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Especially Thomas Naylor

Fresh from the failure of yet another of his Vermont secessionist movement confabs that attracted fewer attendees than any of his previous events, other than scheduled participants and some kid from

Cavendish, VT, and zero media to his September Secesher Statehouse Stunt , after which he gave the shaft to a longtime supporter, the founder of the Second Vermont Republic has come up with an even more ridiculous "proposal."

Thing is, Tommy Boy has an unbroken string of failures, stunts, grandiose  plans that all come to nothing, each being buttressed by lies that would even have embarrassed his racist father, the guy who made the economic trains run on time for the segregationist Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, Tommy Pére.

The would be Prince of the Second Vermont Republic, Vermont's most hidebound secessionist, now wants to convene a meeting of "small" states to unseat and utterly disempower the authority of the majority of the world, or as he likes to call them, the "meganations."  This despite the fact that from his aforementioned "radical consultations," manifestos, phony polls, phony handpicked, angry candidates, empty "conventions" and meetings, as well as his own angry denunciations of virtually every Vermonter for not joining him on his own personal path to self-imposed irrelevancy, he has delivered on nothing.  Notably, he and his tiny group announced big plans in early 2007 to get "200 Towns in 2012" to place secession articles in their Town Meeting warrants to demand that the Vermont General Assembly pursue secession from the Union. Results: Not one of the more than 1400 town meetings conducted in the intervening six years has had a secession question on the ballot. Maybe it's because in early 2007 this blog revealed for the first time anywhere that Naylor had a tight relationship with the racists at the League of the South.

So, having failed here in Vermont as miserably as he has to create his dream Empire called the Second Vermont Republic, he's poised to move on to what promises to be even more barren pastures - the entire world.

In what he calls "A Proposed International Convention on Small Nation Self Determination," Naylor's announced that he wants approximately 40% of the world's population to hold a convention devoted to "delegitimiz(ing)" and the "dissolution of countries such as the United States, China, Russia, India, Japan, and Brazil." In all, he claims authority to disband eleven nations whose population exceed 100,000,000 people each (two with more than a billion people each) as, I guess, the convener of "the 40%."

Well, Tommy Boy being an emeritus economist and all, which is short for lazy and stupid, failed to use 2012 census figures - the Philippines have joined the group of meganations that he loves to hate, making the number he intends to dissolve 12, not 11. Jeezum crow, Tommy Boy, a 100 million here, a 100 million there, you're starting to talk about a lot of people.  And god knows Filipinos and Bangladeshis, each a meganation as you say, have a "hammerlock control over international financial markets, international finance and banking" that must be dealt with tout de suite.

If Naylor's past record of accomplishment is any measure of his likelihood of success in this new endeavor, in 6 years his new scheme will be in exactly the same place as his "200 Towns in 2012" plan - the crapper.

Now, would Naylor's caretaker please take his green felt tip pens (he spams people's mailboxes with his crazed, green missives since he's forsworn the Intertubes) from the old codger before he convinces the entire world that he's as unhinged as Vermonters have come to know him to be?  Besides, the postage and airfare for this latest disturbed brainstorm of his will probably blow the retirement fund, even if he is one of Vermont's 1%.



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

The Ohio Republic - R.I.P.

Earlier this year Harold Thomas, sole proprietor and citizen of the Ohio Republic, began to exhibit signs of a coming change.  He'd dumped a perfectly good blog hosting service and started with a new blogging platform that a little research might of informed him that it wasn't going to be a good choice. At the same time he lessened the distance between himself from (and I say this knowing full well the tautological implications of the expression) some of the more odious elements of the secession movement.

It seemed an odd thing for Harold to do since he'd always struck me as someone with at least one foot in the real world, even as he intellectualized some of the batshit crazy that is the foundation of the whole nullification "and-if-that-doesn't-work-we-still-have-the-option-to-seceed" nonsense.

Anyway, Harold's decided to call it a day and shut down his blog.  I guess that he just wasn't feeling enough love for his worldview and political antidotes.  I'd always thought him to be a harmless, if somewhat hapless sort, until he started to pal around with a racist at the League of the South.

In his wordy, overly long way, Harold wrote this at the conclusion of his swan song:

"The Ohio Republic has been a wonderful experience. It has led me to many friends, a few critics, and one very interesting enemy in Vermont. They kept me going when I wanted to quit the blog or leave the book unfinished."

While I'm happy to have been some sort of inspiration to you, Harold, if I could offer you four truths to take with you into retirement, they would be:

- Ayn Rand wrote fiction; she was not an economist.
- The Gilded Age was an interlude, not the foundation of American economic principles.
- The Constitution was a compromise with more to come.
- I was never your enemy; my enemies can explain the difference to you.

Rester soif, mon ami.

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

So-called Independent Addison County Senate Candidate, "Senator" Robert "Needed Killin'" Wagner, Tries to Finess the Unions and Addison County Voters

I wasn't very surprised when I saw this post on "Senator" Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner's rambling Facebook page.  Wagner is the Vermont secession movement's candidate for one of Addison County's Senate seats who poses as an "independent."  Wagner is, in truth, a committed, hardcore secesher who, beyond having said that one Addison County resident "needed killin'", hates the Union, Vermont's governmental institutions, virtually all statewide office holders and the legislative community (people who have been elected by their neighbors to serve in a variety of offices, something Wagner has never done), private property and assets, as well as all of the Vermont school system

Typically, the not ever likely to be "Senator" Wagner doesn't tell the whole truth, much like when he gave his position on education to the Addison Independent during his decidedly failed 2010 run for the Vermont Senate here.

You can find what Wagner really thinks by going through the archives of the Vermont secession movement's super secret "Free Vermont" listserv, a place where the seceshers chatted unguardedly since they thought Vermonters wouldn't find them out.  At the time of this beaut, Wagner was using one of his pseudonyms on the listserv, Roderick Sticomythia; it comes from his "Position Papers 8. Education":

"This won't make me any friends, but I am against public education. It is a bad idea and a drain on community wealth, and it should be abolished. The large central schools which require mass driving and busing should be re-purposed; perhaps as shelters to house the suburbanites whose single-family homes in the sprawl will become worthless without affordable fuel to get there and back."

"I am in favour of a return to small community-based and community-run schools, the smaller the better. Children need to be able to walk to school or be a short enough distance to make the trip economically feasible in post-peak-oil Vermont."

"I am against government-imposed standards of any kind, whether they be directed at the classroom, at the administration, or at the physical building itself. Montpelier has far exceeded its authority in the extension of standards into schools; first consolidating schools into large districts and closing down the small schoolhouses, and then failing to block US standards such as 'No Child Left Behind' and 'Race to the Top'. It all ends here and now."

"Government may not impose standards; however, Vermont's children lag behind the rest of the world in many areas. We should be providing tools and funds for schools to re-introduct(sic) young Vermonters to the rest of the world; through cultural exchange, language learning, the metric system, and many other areas. This is where public investment draws huge dividends."

Monday, December 14, 2009 13:18:21

Dennis "Hit List" Morrisseau chimed in later that day with a reply to Wagner's pseudonymous post:

"I happen to agree. Only people that might not is the entire teacher's union and all present overloaded bureaucratic (personal profit oriented!) structure."

"I strongly agree with this. Further, I will bet most Vermonters do."

"But if we provoke the T(eacher)'s Unions too early in our campaign they will be a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS.....AND A VERY BIG BLOCKING FORCE. (ALL CAPS Denny's) This is one of the few places where i might want us to hold our punches until later....... Your thoughts?"

Monday, December 14, 2009 20:04:58

Naturally, there was no objection from Wagner/Sticomythia or any of the other secesher boneheads on the thread to Denny's design to hide what they intended until they were elected.  Wagner is right about one thing though, he's not going to be making any friends by opposing public education.  No wonder he hid his position at the secret listserv rather than tell the press or put it on his websites during his 2010 run or this go around by him for 2012.  Figures.

Wagner's Democratic opponents in this year's run for Addison County's two Senate seats, incumbent Claire Ayer and running mate Chris Bray, would do well to research some of Wagner's other positions on the searchable listserv.

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

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