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February 2015 Open Thread

By on February 1, 2015 10:40 AM

Our monthly open thread. Post news tips about alt parties and independent candidates, discuss any story that should be posted here but has not yet been posted, or even delve into completely off-topic stuff….just avoid quarantined thread subject matter and things that could get us and/or you into legal trouble such as threats, libel, and copyright infringement.

News tips can also be sent to the IPR writers who have chosen to make their contact info available at https://independentpoliticalreport.com/about/.

It’s also become an IPR tradition to post videos in the open threads. This month, an ironic take on love from Scuzz Twittly:

120 Comments

  1. paulie February 26, 2015

    I forwarded a bunch of the state chairs and LNC conversation about this to IPR writers. A lot was said about the issues on those lists today and probably I would think much more to come.

  3. George Phillies February 26, 2015

    Source: From one of the Nevadans on the State Chairs list.

  4. George Phillies February 26, 2015

    Someplace out there is the thread being used for LSLA discussions, but I cannot find it.

    In any event, it seems that the LSLA gave Mr Pojunis’s LPEX event $8000 out of its Treasury to help pay for the event. Whcih will allegedly cost over $150,000.

    Some of you will recall the event on the Future of the Libertarian Political Movement, which I ran some years ago. That cost under $4000 and had a good range of speakers and panels.

  9. paulie February 23, 2015

    I think that’s been kind of well known for a long time, but it’s nice to see them admit it 🙂

  13. paulie February 21, 2015

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXctA2BqF9A&feature=youtu.be

    “I Can’t Breathe” is the group’s first English single, and is dedicated to “all who suffer from state terror – killed, choked, perished because of war and police violence – to political prisoners and those on the streets fighting for change”.

  15. paulie February 20, 2015

    Jesse Ventura For President?

    Boy who cried wolf?

  17. paulie February 19, 2015

    Nader lost a lot of friends and supporters over that. I can see why other people would not be too eager.

  18. Trent Hill February 19, 2015

    Can I ask a third party question? How is it that former Labor Secretary Robert Reich hasnt run third party yet? I mean holy hell–he’s clearly the successor to Nader.

  20. Deran February 19, 2015

    This the Left electoral unity conference I’ve mentioned before. It’s finally been officially announced.

    tt’s mainly initiated by three socialist groups, and some Greens are involved as well. I have been assured this will not be an annointing of Jill Stein as the Left standard bearer for 2016.

    From what little I know of it so far it reminds me of the much vaunted, but ultimately illfate, Independent Progressive Politics Network summits of the 1990s?

    http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4361

  23. paulie February 17, 2015

    I don’t know what the magic number is. The more you have, the better your chances…

  24. Nicholas Sarwark February 17, 2015

    Keep up the good work. In a couple of decades there may be enough Sarwarks to make a major difference in a legislative race 😛

    Thank you for the congratulations. Mom and baby are doing well.

    On the other hand, how many Sarwarks do you think you need to make a major difference in a legislative race? 😉

  26. Mark Axinn February 17, 2015

    Thanks Jill.

    Please give credit to Columbia Journalism School student Deborah Vincent D’Souza, a delightful Indian woman with lots of inciteful questions.

  27. Jill Pyeatt February 17, 2015

    Mark, that deserves its own article. I’ll try to get to it this afternoon.

  28. Mark Axinn February 17, 2015

    A Columbia Journalism student did some filming at last week’s Manhattan LP meeting and then interviewed me in my office Thursday to make a short video on Libertarianism.

    The final procuct can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/119795061

  29. paulie February 16, 2015

    No worries. And no need to delete anything.

  30. Losty February 16, 2015

    Paulie,

    Sorry, Didn’t know, and didn’t know you don’t use the name occasionally (Though it is funnier as a campaign sign.)

    You can delete that message and this one. Also didn’t know you weren’t qualified. Meant as humor.

  31. paulie February 16, 2015

    I did not post the above [deleted] response to Joe Buchman. It was posted by a piece of garbage troll.

    I see it now in the trash. I don’t think anyone would have thought you posted it.

    IPR commenters who are not trolls and not IPR editors: Please do not respond to comments left by trolls. We will delete them as soon as one of us is on here. I delete a lot of them, as does Jill and maybe a few other people, but all of us sleep, eat, and have other times when we are not on here for one reason or another. Please be a tiny bit patient, don’t respond to trolls, and their comments will be gone – usually in minutes, but sometimes it may take a few hours.

    IPR editors: when zapping troll comments, please mark them as SPAM rather than as TRASH, and then immediately empty the spam file to delete them permanently. It trains the automated spam filter to detect comments from those same sources and place them in the spam file so they never appear and have to be deleted in the first place. This doesn’t always work, but the more you do it, the less the troll comments will appear to the readers, and hopefully the trolls will get discouraged as a result and go somewhere else.

    IPR trolls: Please fuck off and crawl back under the rocks you crawled out from under.

  32. paulie February 16, 2015

    Cannoli/Keyes ’16.

    I haven’t used the cannoli nickname in years except on facebook, where I can’t get rid of it. I am not constitutionally qualified for the US presidency or VP as I was born in the USSR…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE91UduvNwo

    Or is that the Governor?

    Too Soon?

    Well, let me put it this way: if we all live to be a billion years old you’ll still be much, much, much more likely to catch me running from an officer of the government than to catch me running for government office.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7dnxYtr0t4

  33. paulie February 16, 2015

    Congrats!

    Keep up the good work. In a couple of decades there may be enough Sarwarks to make a major difference in a legislative race 😛

  34. Jill Pyeatt February 16, 2015

    Excellent news for the Sarwark family! There’s a new member today–Ava Melanie Sarwark.

  35. Andy February 16, 2015

    I did not post the above response to Joe Buchman. It was posted by a piece of garbage troll.

  36. Losty February 15, 2015

    Cannoli/Keyes ’16. One has to get the other one on, and the other was Born To Run, and get into Debt Running.

    Or is that the Governor?

    Too Soon?

  38. paulie February 14, 2015

    I can’t find the thread we were discussing this on recently, but this is interesting:

    That could almost be the Mt. Rushmore of crappy presidents.

  39. Jill Pyeatt February 14, 2015

    Absolutely, we need to protect whistleblowers. That would apply to pharmaceutical professionals who may choose to speak out against vaccines, also.

    Sibel Edmonds of “Boiling Frogs Post” is a very interesting woman to know about and follow. I’m pleased to say she is a FB friend, and I know she reads my posts sometimes.

  40. Joseph Buchman February 14, 2015

    Jill,

    I am for any party, any politician that begins with:

    1) Protection of whistleblowers. What has happened to Manning and Snowden IMO is criminal. I don’t see any politicians or parties being as loud and adamant about that as I would like.

    AFTER that protection is firmly in place,

    2) OPEN HEARINGS on federal waste, fraud, criminal activity. IMO, IF there are whistleblowers who have testimony (under the penalties of perjury/dishonesty) about ET contact and this has been withheld, it is a criminal act. If we are not alone in the Universe and if they are here (and there is IMO compelling evidence that we were not exactly gracious hosts to those visitors (eg, we shot at them without provocation), the every human being has a birthright to know that. Hiding a truth that would transform the planet (end nationalism? cause humans (especially the younger ones) to start seeing themselves as earthlings and not as (insert nationality, race, etc here) is a great good.

    Seems to me any party that calls for whistleblower protection and transparency on a BUNCH of “high crimes and misdemeanors” would generate a lot of potentially transforming traction, this issue included.

    Joe

  41. Joseph Buchman February 14, 2015

    LibertarianGirl @ February 14, 2015 at 3:11 pm

    I was in town for CES and expect to be back for NAB. Not sure about Freedom Fest. Will let you know.

  42. Jill Pyeatt February 14, 2015

    It seems to me a couple years ago, a lot more people were talking about this issue. It was so noticeable to me that I wondered if there was going to be some kind of announcement/admission from someone important (not necessarily our government). Then, it seemed to die down.

    I have never thought the issue of UFOs and the possiblity of life elsewhere was associated with any political parties, or with conservatives or progressives. It’s an issue that some people from all walks of life have interest in. Libertarians are known for welcoming people who “think outside the box” (since we all do), and I think discussing something like this from time to time is fine.

  43. LibertarianGirl February 14, 2015

    Buchman , are you coming to LPEX or Freedom Fest?? miss you !!

  44. Joseph Buchman February 14, 2015

    From Friday 03 May 2013, Citizen Hearing on Disclosure:

    Buchman: Gentlemen, while you were speaking I went to http://www.whitehouse.gov where there remains this statement:

    “The United States government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye.”

    (Laughter.)

    Buchman: I assume that if I would ask the gentlemen and women of this committee to vote on whether they would agree with that statement as a premise on which to base their future lives that answer would be, “No.”

    (Laughter.)

    Buchman: Is there anybody in this room who would support that statement? Here’s your opportunity to stand up for our White House. Anyone want to stand up for the White House?

    (Laughter.)

    Buchman: The problem is that outside of this room virtually everyone else in this building would agree with that statement.

    I’d like to have a moment of silence for the end of what was once a compound constitutional republic by and for the people. It has died; it is gone.

    Buchman: How do we get it back?

    Bassett: May I speak to that; I would like to toss out another possibility.

    President Obama selected for his transition chair John Podesta the current chairman and the founder of the Center for American Progress. John Podesta was the key advisor to President Clinton during the Rockefeller initiative to have Clinton release all the files in the government hands regarding these phenomena. He was noted X- Files buff, watched all the shows. In 2002 he called for the release of all those files. He must have known what the impact of that might be.

    He called for the release again in 2003, and then President Obama appointed him the chair of his transition team. By the way, when they released the logs of the first 90 days of visitors, he was the most frequent visitor to the White House in the first 90 days. I’d like to suggest another possibility; purely speculation.

    I think that President Obama is well aware there’s an extraterrestrial presence. He was probably tipped off by John Podesta, but he can’t do anything about it. When we successfully petitioned the White House and they had to respond, it is possible that they gave such a rigid, fixed, almost indefensible position not because they are ignorant, but because that was the best they could do to help us out, as opposed to a wishy-washy statement they could have danced around. By giving us such a fixed position like that we could pound, we can break it; if we break it, we break the Truth Embargo. It is just possible that the opposite interpretation is that this is an administration trying to help us reach in to help them.

  46. Joseph Buchman February 14, 2015

    So I find it absolutely FASCINATING that the Drudge report (as one example) has linked to this story about UFOs and Bill Clinton’s former Chief of Staff, key Obama adviser and current Hillary campaign manager, John Podesta.

    http://news.yahoo.com/outgoing-obama-adviser-john-podesta-s-biggest-regret-of-2014–keeping-america-in-the-dark-about-ufos-234149498.html

    I also find it interesting that while the major parties can talk about UFOs and ETs without apparent significant negative blowback (eg: Reagan at the UN)


    Or Ford as a congressman, Carter during his campaign, or Clinton in retirement

    the idea that some Third Party candidate (even a former governor of New Mexico) would mention UFO’s or ETs would be “death to the party.” And that anyone calling for such a call for whistleblower protection on this (and other issues of waste, fraud and criminal activity), and then open Hearings is — “perhaps paid to destroy the party.”

    Really? How common is that perspective? What do other readers of IPR think? What would be the effect of a legitimate Third Party candidate call for Disclosure on this issue? Indifference (most likely I think), increased popular support, or ridicule (“They will never take us seriously on anything.)

    And if the latter, how come Podesta is willing to take that likely hit against his candidates (currently Hillary).

    Anyone, . . . anyone?

  47. paulie February 14, 2015

    It could happen. I’ll start by yelling “Jesus!” out loud repeatedly and sprinkling holy water.

  48. Losty February 14, 2015

    Paulie,
    Get your mind out of the gutter? Next thing you’ll tell me you’re running in ’16 on the Constitution line.

  49. paulie February 14, 2015

    Well, she said she doesn’t want to be hit on, she prefers to be the one doing the pursuing (she discusses these things with numerous people on her FB). However, she must not mind being admired, or she would not post that picture, so I don’t feel too embarrassed about visibly drooling just a wee tiny little bit. She’s too beautiful to not share, and every bit as beautiful on the inside.

    Also, the photo is making me think about running for chair, as negligible as my chances might be (state party chair….get my mind out of the gutter!)

  50. Jill Pyeatt February 14, 2015

    Avens O’Brien is single, gentleman (the redhead pictured above). She’s thin, pretty, and smart as can be. Who will be her next suitor? (This is big drama in LA County, but I do like Avens and I wish her well.)

  52. Dave Terry February 13, 2015

    Yes, I could see how the Dondero connection creates some suspicion, but he had a falling out with Dondero (as do many people who associate with Dondero) and he has not spoken to him since around March or April of 2013. I’ve talked politics with Mark Herd more than enough to know that his views are far from Dondero on a lot of issues. Herd is an anti-war guy, and he hates the establishment Republicans, although he does like Ron Paul (who Dondero has been on a jihad against for years). Herd is also a 9/11 Truther. I just don’t think that he fits the profile of a government troll.

    Has anyone here had the misfortune of “associating” with Dondero and NOT had a falling out?

    I don’t think that is possible!

  53. paulie February 13, 2015

    An infiltrator could pretend to believe literally anything. The Dondero connection only raises my suspicions more. And the falling out could be staged. Remember how Eric pretended not to have anything to do with Wayne’s campaign any more but then it turned out they were sharing a room at the hotel and in constant communication?

  54. Andy February 13, 2015

    “paulie Post author

    February 13, 2015 at 10:16 pm

    The pattern was eerily familiar. Have you considered that part of the operation may have been sent in to observe you up close as well as to disrupt LPCA?”

    Mark Herd started out as a mercenary petitioner in 2012. He did not start out with the intention of getting involved in the Libertarian Party. He heard the word libertarian from Eric Dondero while talking to him on a petition drive in California. Yes, I could see how the Dondero connection creates some suspicion, but he had a falling out with Dondero (as do many people who associate with Dondero) and he has not spoken to him since around March or April of 2013. I’ve talked politics with Mark Herd more than enough to know that his views are far from Dondero on a lot of issues. Herd is an anti-war guy, and he hates the establishment Republicans, although he does like Ron Paul (who Dondero has been on a jihad against for years). Herd is also a 9/11 Truther. I just don’t think that he fits the profile of a government troll.

  55. paulie February 13, 2015

    The pattern was eerily familiar. Have you considered that part of the operation may have been sent in to observe you up close as well as to disrupt LPCA?

  56. Andy February 13, 2015

    “paulie Post author

    February 13, 2015 at 3:24 pm

    Both.

    No racist stuff, but there was something familiar about the pattern of the way the comments were structured internally and the way they were getting posted that reminded of the nazi troll. He was also saying things like ignore the nazi troll and there is no nazi troll. I am starting to come around to the theory that some people have mentioned to me that he may be the nazi troll or part of the group of people that plays the nazi troll character/strategy here.”

    I seriously doubt Mark Herd has anything to do with the “Nazi Troll,” or that he is in any way connected to any government trolling.

    I worked on petition drives he was on in Nevada and California. I roomed with him part of the time in California (along with a couple of other guys).

    Maybe he posted a few comments under a fake name here now, but I just do not think that he is the so called “Nazi Troll,” nor do I think that he is part of any kind of government trolling operation.

  57. Martin Passoli February 13, 2015

    “If they really wanted to raise as much “revenue” as possible, they’d be better off applying the “head tax” to whorehouses.”

    The cops would just get a lot of head and the state would never get its tax loot.

  59. paulie February 13, 2015

    They have all our emails and facebook messages, texts etc….

  61. paulie February 13, 2015

    Got it.

    And in other news…

  64. Jill Pyeatt February 13, 2015

    BTW, his lplac website has NOT been approved, Maybe he finally heard from LPLAC management to take down the site, and that made him angry all over again.

  65. paulie February 13, 2015

    Both.

    No racist stuff, but there was something familiar about the pattern of the way the comments were structured internally and the way they were getting posted that reminded of the nazi troll. He was also saying things like ignore the nazi troll and there is no nazi troll. I am starting to come around to the theory that some people have mentioned to me that he may be the nazi troll or part of the group of people that plays the nazi troll character/strategy here.

  66. Jill Pyeatt February 13, 2015

    I’m glad I missed the comments. Were they specific, as far as naming names, or just stupid, disruptive stuff like the “Red-Neck Libertarian” comment?

  67. Jill Pyeatt February 13, 2015

    Thanks for cleaning up the comments, Paulie. There was a reason administrators each made the decision to block him from FB.

  68. langa February 13, 2015

    A $10 head tax for strip clubs? If they really wanted to raise as much “revenue” as possible, they’d be better off applying the “head tax” to whorehouses.

  69. paulie February 13, 2015

    That last part about “censorship” sounds a lot like the junk Mark Herd has been spamming on IPR this morning (comments removed). The first comment he left as “red neck libertarian” on the Nevada thread is still up but the subsequent ones got spam-canned as they got worse and worse. Spam box cleared each time.

  72. Dave Terry February 11, 2015

    Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeez, who are we going to believe? The Nazis or the Communists?

    macht nichts!!!

  73. Root's Teeth Are Awesome February 11, 2015

    >> (3) Nazi general Franz Halder also testified at the Nuremberg trials that Nazi leader Hermann Goering admitted to setting fire to the German parliament building in 1933, and then falsely blaming the communists for the arson. <<

    Really? Yet after the fall of the USSR, I read that some finally opened documents in the Soviet archives proved that it was indeed Communists who set the parliament building on fire

  75. Andy February 10, 2015

    http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/41-admitted-false-flag-attacks.html

    42 ADMITTED False Flag Attacks

    Posted on February 9, 2015 by WashingtonsBlog

    Governments from Around the World Admit They Do It

    There are many documented false flag attacks, where a government carries out a terror attack … and then falsely blames its enemy for political purposes.

    In the following 42 instances, officials in the government which carried out the attack (or seriously proposed an attack) admits to it, either orally or in writing:

    (1) Japanese troops set off a small explosion on a train track in 1931, and falsely blamed it on China in order to justify an invasion of Manchuria. This is known as the “Mukden Incident” or the “Manchurian Incident”. The Tokyo International Military Tribunal found: “Several of the participators in the plan, including Hashimoto [a high-ranking Japanese army officer], have on various occasions admitted their part in the plot and have stated that the object of the ‘Incident’ was to afford an excuse for the occupation of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army ….” And see this.

    (2) A major with the Nazi SS admitted at the Nuremberg trials that – under orders from the chief of the Gestapo – he and some other Nazi operatives faked attacks on their own people and resources which they blamed on the Poles, to justify the invasion of Poland.

    (3) Nazi general Franz Halder also testified at the Nuremberg trials that Nazi leader Hermann Goering admitted to setting fire to the German parliament building in 1933, and then falsely blaming the communists for the arson.

    (4) Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev admitted in writing that the Soviet Union’s Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila in 1939 – while blaming the attack on Finland – as a basis for launching the “Winter War” against Finland. Russian president Boris Yeltsin agreed that Russia had been the aggressor in the Winter War.

    (5) The Russian Parliament, current Russian president Putin and former Soviet leader Gorbachev all admit that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered his secret police to execute 22,000 Polish army officers and civilians in 1940, and falsely blame it on the Nazis.

    (6) The British government admits that – between 1946 and 1948 – it bombed 5 ships carrying Jews attempting to flee the Holocaust to seek safety in Palestine, set up a fake group called “Defenders of Arab Palestine”, and then had the psuedo-group falsely claim responsibility for the bombings (and see this, this and this).

    (7) Israel admits that in 1954, an Israeli terrorist cell operating in Egypt planted bombs in several buildings, including U.S. diplomatic facilities, then left behind “evidence” implicating the Arabs as the culprits (one of the bombs detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to identify the bombers, and several of the Israelis later confessed) (and see this and this).

    (8) The CIA admits that it hired Iranians in the 1950?s to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its democratically-elected prime minister.

    (9) The Turkish Prime Minister admitted that the Turkish government carried out the 1955 bombing on a Turkish consulate in Greece – also damaging the nearby birthplace of the founder of modern Turkey – and blamed it on Greece, for the purpose of inciting and justifying anti-Greek violence.

    (10) The British Prime Minister admitted to his defense secretary that he and American president Dwight Eisenhower approved a plan in 1957 to carry out attacks in Syria and blame it on the Syrian government as a way to effect regime change.

    (11) The former Italian Prime Minister, an Italian judge, and the former head of Italian counterintelligence admit that NATO, with the help of the Pentagon and CIA, carried out terror bombings in Italy and other European countries in the 1950s and blamed the communists, in order to rally people’s support for their governments in Europe in their fight against communism. As one participant in this formerly-secret program stated: “You had to attack civilians, people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security” (and see this) (Italy and other European countries subject to the terror campaign had joined NATO before the bombings occurred). And watch this BBC special. They also allegedly carried out terror attacks in France, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the UK, and other countries.

    (12) In 1960, American Senator George Smathers suggested that the U.S. launch “a false attack made on Guantanamo Bay which would give us the excuse of actually fomenting a fight which would then give us the excuse to go in and [overthrow Castro]“.

    (13) Official State Department documents show that, in 1961, the head of the Joint Chiefs and other high-level officials discussed blowing up a consulate in the Dominican Republic in order to justify an invasion of that country. The plans were not carried out, but they were all discussed as serious proposals.

    (14) As admitted by the U.S. government, recently declassified documents show that in 1962, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff signed off on a plan to blow up AMERICAN airplanes (using an elaborate plan involving the switching of airplanes), and also to commit terrorist acts on American soil, and then to blame it on the Cubans in order to justify an invasion of Cuba. See the following ABC news report; the official documents; and watch this interview with the former Washington Investigative Producer for ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.

    (15) In 1963, the U.S. Department of Defense wrote a paper promoting attacks on nations within the Organization of American States – such as Trinidad-Tobago or Jamaica – and then falsely blaming them on Cuba.

    (16) The U.S. Department of Defense even suggested covertly paying a person in the Castro government to attack the United States: “The only area remaining for consideration then would be to bribe one of Castro’s subordinate commanders to initiate an attack on Guantanamo.”

    (17) The NSA admits that it lied about what really happened in the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 … manipulating data to make it look like North Vietnamese boats fired on a U.S. ship so as to create a false justification for the Vietnam war.

    (18) A U.S. Congressional committee admitted that – as part of its “Cointelpro” campaign – the FBI had used many provocateurs in the 1950s through 1970s to carry out violent acts and falsely blame them on political activists.

    (19) A top Turkish general admitted that Turkish forces burned down a mosque on Cyprus in the 1970s and blamed it on their enemy. He explained: “In Special War, certain acts of sabotage are staged and blamed on the enemy to increase public resistance. We did this on Cyprus; we even burnt down a mosque.” In response to the surprised correspondent’s incredulous look the general said, “I am giving an example”.

    (20) The German government admitted (and see this) that, in 1978, the German secret service detonated a bomb in the outer wall of a prison and planted “escape tools” on a prisoner – a member of the Red Army Faction – which the secret service wished to frame the bombing on.

    (21) A Mossad agent admits that, in 1984, Mossad planted a radio transmitter in Gaddaffi’s compound in Tripoli, Libya which broadcast fake terrorist trasmissions recorded by Mossad, in order to frame Gaddaffi as a terrorist supporter. Ronald Reagan bombed Libya immediately thereafter.

    (22) The South African Truth and Reconciliation Council found that, in 1989, the Civil Cooperation Bureau (a covert branch of the South African Defense Force) approached an explosives expert and asked him “to participate in an operation aimed at discrediting the ANC [the African National Congress] by bombing the police vehicle of the investigating officer into the murder incident”, thus framing the ANC for the bombing.

    (23) An Algerian diplomat and several officers in the Algerian army admit that, in the 1990s, the Algerian army frequently massacred Algerian civilians and then blamed Islamic militants for the killings (and see this video; and Agence France-Presse, 9/27/2002, French Court Dismisses Algerian Defamation Suit Against Author).

    (24) An Indonesian fact-finding team investigated violent riots which occurred in 1998, and determined that “elements of the military had been involved in the riots, some of which were deliberately provoked”.

    (25) Senior Russian Senior military and intelligence officers admit that the KGB blew up Russian apartment buildings in 1999 and falsely blamed it on Chechens, in order to justify an invasion of Chechnya (and see this report and this discussion).

    (26) According to the Washington Post, Indonesian police admit that the Indonesian military killed American teachers in Papua in 2002 and blamed the murders on a Papuan separatist group in order to get that group listed as a terrorist organization.

    (27) The well-respected former Indonesian president also admits that the government probably had a role in the Bali bombings.

    (28) As reported by BBC, the New York Times, and Associated Press, Macedonian officials admit that the government murdered 7 innocent immigrants in cold blood and pretended that they were Al Qaeda soldiers attempting to assassinate Macedonian police, in order to join the “war on terror”.

    (29) Senior police officials in Genoa, Italy admitted that – in July 2001, at the G8 summit in Genoa – planted two Molotov cocktails and faked the stabbing of a police officer, in order to justify a violent crackdown against protesters.

    (30) Although the FBI now admits that the 2001 anthrax attacks were carried out by one or more U.S. government scientists, a senior FBI official says that the FBI was actually told to blame the Anthrax attacks on Al Qaeda by White House officials (remember what the anthrax letters looked like). Government officials also confirm that the white House tried to link the anthrax to Iraq as a justification for regime change in that country.

    (31) Similarly, the U.S. falsely blamed Iraq for playing a role in the 9/11 attacks – as shown by a memo from the defense secretary – as one of the main justifications for launching the Iraq war. Even after the 9/11 Commission admitted that there was no connection, Dick Cheney said that the evidence is “overwhelming” that al Qaeda had a relationship with Saddam Hussein’s regime, that Cheney “probably” had information unavailable to the Commission, and that the media was not ‘doing their homework’ in reporting such ties. Top U.S. government officials now admit that the Iraq war was really launched for oil … not 9/11 or weapons of mass destruction (despite previous “lone wolf” claims, many U.S. government officials now say that 9/11 was state-sponsored terror; but Iraq was not the state which backed the hijackers).

    (32) Former Department of Justice lawyer John Yoo suggested in 2005 that the US should go on the offensive against al-Qaeda, having “our intelligence agencies create a false terrorist organization. It could have its own websites, recruitment centers, training camps, and fundraising operations. It could launch fake terrorist operations and claim credit for real terrorist strikes, helping to sow confusion within al-Qaeda’s ranks, causing operatives to doubt others’ identities and to question the validity of communications.”

    (33) United Press International reported in June 2005:

    U.S. intelligence officers are reporting that some of the insurgents in Iraq are using recent-model Beretta 92 pistols, but the pistols seem to have had their serial numbers erased. The numbers do not appear to have been physically removed; the pistols seem to have come off a production line without any serial numbers. Analysts suggest the lack of serial numbers indicates that the weapons were intended for intelligence operations or terrorist cells with substantial government backing. Analysts speculate that these guns are probably from either Mossad or the CIA. Analysts speculate that agent provocateurs may be using the untraceable weapons even as U.S. authorities use insurgent attacks against civilians as evidence of the illegitimacy of the resistance.

    (34) Undercover Israeli soldiers admitted in 2005 to throwing stones at other Israeli soldiers so they could blame it on Palestinians, as an excuse to crack down on peaceful protests by the Palestinians.

    (35) Quebec police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest were actually undercover Quebec police officers (and see this).

    (36) At the G20 protests in London in 2009, a British member of parliament saw plain clothes police officers attempting to incite the crowd to violence.

    (37) Egyptian politicians admitted (and see this) that government employees looted priceless museum artifacts in 2011 to try to discredit the protesters.

    (38) A Colombian army colonel has admitted that his unit murdered 57 civilians, then dressed them in uniforms and claimed they were rebels killed in combat.

    (39) The highly-respected writer for the Telegraph Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says that the head of Saudi intelligence – Prince Bandar – recently admitted that the Saudi government controls “Chechen” terrorists.

    (40) High-level American sources admitted that the Turkish government – a fellow NATO country – carried out the chemical weapons attacks blamed on the Syrian government; and high-ranking Turkish government admitted on tape plans to carry out attacks and blame it on the Syrian government.

    (41) The former Ukrainian security chief admits that the sniper attacks which started the Ukrainian coup were carried out in order to frame others.

    (42) Britain’s spy agency has admitted (and see this) that it carries out “digital false flag” attacks on targets, framing people by writing offensive or unlawful material … and blaming it on the target.

    In addition, two-thirds of the City of Rome burned down in a huge fire on July 19, 64 A.D. The Roman people blamed the Emperor Nero for starting the fire. Some top Roman leaders – including the Roman consul Cassius Dio, as well as historians like Suetonius – agreed that Nero started the fire (based largely on the fact that the Roman Senate had just rejected Nero’s application to clear 300 acres in Rome so that he could build a palatial complex, and that the fire allowed him to build his complex). Regardless of who actually started the fire, Nero – in the face of public opinion accusing him of arson – falsely blamed the Christians for starting the fire. He then rounded up and brutally tortured and murdered scores of Christians for something they likely didn’t do.

    We didn’t include this in the list above, because – if Nero did start the fire on purpose – he did it for his own reasons (to build his palatial complex), and not for geopolitical reasons benefiting his nation.

    So Common … There’s a Name for It

    The use of the bully’s trick is so common that it was given a name hundreds of years ago.

    “False flag terrorism” is defined as a government attacking its own people, then blaming others in order to justify going to war against the people it blames. Or as Wikipedia defines it:

    False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one’s own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and have been used in peace-time; for example, during Italy’s strategy of tension.

    The term comes from the old days of wooden ships, when one ship would hang the flag of its enemy before attacking another ship. Because the enemy’s flag, instead of the flag of the real country of the attacking ship, was hung, it was called a “false flag” attack.

    Indeed, this concept is so well-accepted that rules of engagement for naval, air and land warfare all prohibit false flag attacks.

    Leaders Throughout History Have Acknowledged False Flags

    Leaders throughout history have acknowledged the danger of false flags:

    “A history of false flag attacks used to manipulate the minds of the people! “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.”
    ? Friedrich Nietzsche

    “Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death”.
    – Adolph Hitler

    “Why of course the people don’t want war … But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship … Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
    – Hermann Goering, Nazi leader.

    “The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry out acts of terror. [The public] will clamor for such laws if their personal security is threatened”.
    – Josef Stalin

  78. Jill Pyeatt February 9, 2015

    Thanks, Paulie! That’s what I was looking for.

  80. Jill Pyeatt February 9, 2015

    Does anyone remember the link that I know has been posted somewhere here on IPR that illegal put more into the economy than they take? I’m caught up in a discussion on illegal immigration on Facebook–

  81. paulie February 9, 2015

    Libertarian Party shared a link.
    Posted by Matt Hasty · 3 hours ago at https://www.facebook.com/libertarians/posts/10153061148012726

    The Libertarian Party of Virginia has some insightful words on a good article:
    https://www.facebook.com/LPVirginia/posts/1011989002162533

    KAREN DE COSTER writes this week about how the bureaucrats are developing “depression / mental disorder” detection technology for your smartphone. And probably for your smart refrigerator and microwave, too.

    Office of Pre-Crime, anyone?
    http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/the-industrial-depression-complex/
    There really is no question that the psychiatric industry has become a path for the state to strip rights from people without having to go to the trouble of holding a pesky trial for them.

    It’s worth studying the constitution of the USSR. People supposedly had “rights” but the quickest path to being slammed in the nut house (and thus be stripped of those rights) was to try to invoke them.

    Leftist revolutions (Russian Revolution, Chinese Revolution, etc) have almost always been followed closely by massive expansions of psychiatric “hospitals” into which the leftist elite throws its opposition.
    That is, when they don’t just shoot them outright (which the left has no problem doing either).

    Western governments also do this. Even in the United States, it has become fairly commonplace to define so many normal behaviors as “mental illness” that basically any American can be stripped of all constitutional rights at the whim of any one of a legion of government functionaries.

    And of course, as the below article describes, your government is now actively phishing your electronic devices to give them an excuse to declare you nuts.

    Of course, your Facebook profile is also scanned by the same bureaucrats who have nothing better to do, for the same purpose.
    Bureaucrats are obsessed. Apparently, it isn’t enough that all Americans now commit “Three Felonies a Day” (search your favorite bookstore for that title!). They need to be declared loopy, also.

    Frankly, we think it’s the government bureaucrats who are nuts. Libertarians think the best way to keep people safe from over-reaching bureaucrats is to eliminate their jobs and find them productive work in the honest sector.

    Anyway, check out Karen’s provocative article at the link.
    — end —
    —————————
    VOTE LIBERTARIAN – 800-ELECT-US – http://www.LP.org/
    Join today: http://Join.LPVA.com/
    The Industrial-Depression Complex – LewRockwell.com

  83. paulie February 8, 2015

    As do I, on both counts.

  84. langa February 8, 2015

    Paulie, you have a point. What I meant was that I don’t agree with him that often, compared to how often I agree with the average libertarian. I certainly agree with Phillies more often than I agree with the average non-libertarian.

    In any case, I definitely agree with this particular comment of his, and I’m glad to see that it has been turned into an article.

  85. paulie February 7, 2015

    I suspect you agree with each other more often than you realize or care to admit. Points of disagreement may stick out in your mind more; they have a way of doing that.

  86. langa February 7, 2015

    It’s not that often that I agree with George Phillies, but his comments above about Keystone and the Olympics are 100% correct, and very well said.

  88. Nicholas Sarwark February 7, 2015

    Here’s hoping Boston can have as successful an Olympic bid as Denver’s 1976 bid. 😉

  90. George Phillies February 7, 2015

    Advancing Liberty by taking stands on real issues. As some of you may have heard there is a Boston bid for a future Olympics. We’re starting with Keystone, which is almost as bad for similar reasons:

    Vote Nolympics!
    Vote Libertarian!

    Eminent domain for private gain is public pain

    Libertarians across America should condemn the Keystone pipeline bill as a scheme to use eminent domain to seize massive amounts of private property for the private gain of a select few oil interests. There should be no wonder that some so-called libertarian think tanks are cheering for the pipeline, because they are in fact owned or funded by some of those oil interests.

    Eminent domain for private gain is un-American. It’s using the government to loot private property for the benefit of a few individuals, the individuals who invested in America by buying a congressman or three.

    To add insult to injury, the pipeline bill comes with liability limits. Not only may you have a hole torn out of the center of your property to install a pipeline, but when the pipeline leaks as they inevitably do the people who own the pipeline have a very modest legal liability for repairing the damage they have done. That’s the exact opposite of the libertarian belief in individual and corporate responsibility.

    Eminent domain for private gain is the mark of the beast that our federal government has been turned into a proprietary tool of the corporate plutocratic interests who see the purpose of government as to rewrite the rules in their personal favor. Thus, during the financial crisis of the Great Recession, individuals in deep debt because of home mortgages were left to their fates. Banks with deep debt because of irresponsible and incompetent management were given vast bailouts so that they would stay in active business.

    That’s the exact opposite of the way a proper government is run. Our modern federal government is operated like the English government from the time of King John and Robin Hood. The English government stole from the many, looted the producers, oppressed all and sundry, all to produce income for the wealthy and powerful. Robin Hood was thus the first libertarian hero. He stole from thieves like the Sheriff of Nottingham and returned the money to the people who had actually earned it.

    Now we see, a future editorial, the public pain of eminent domain being brought to Massachusetts, not for private gain but for circus entertainment for the world’s billionaires. Almost every Olympic event over the decades has devastated local property, and left taxpayers with a bill in the billions.

    Hopefully the good thrifty Yankee people of Massachusetts will realize that Olympic looting for private entertainment is unacceptable. The Olympic Games should be shipped permanently back to where it came from, beautiful Mediterranean Greece. Reusing the same facilities will be vastly cheaper. Besides, the people of Greece, having been looted by German bankers, could really use the money.

    Only Libertarians have the working solution to massive government corruption and theft of private property. Eminent domain for private gain is totally lame and should go back from whence it came: the addled imaginations of corrupt politicians with no understanding of the legitimate role of government in society. The Libertarian Party would ban takings under eminent domain for the benefit of private persons.

  91. Martin Passoli February 7, 2015

    One argument I’ve seen in that regard is that a big chunk of Nader’s vote in Florida came from Arab-Americans who usually vote Republican.

  92. Deran February 6, 2015

    I was listening to Democracy Now! today, and the fellow they focus the show on, former Univ S Florida prof, Sami al-Arian (sp?), said that in the 2000 US Presidential election Bush came out in favor of a Congressional bill outlawing “secret evidence” particularly as it was/is used against Muslims in the US as a means of getting the generally socially conservative Muslim American community to support him against Gore. Mr. Al-Arian said that because Bush did this, US Muslim leaders and orgs met and agreed to endorse Bush in 2000. They identified six states that were swing states with a relative high Muslim voter demographic. Mr. Al-Arian claims that they were able to prove that this Muslim pro-Bush effort in Florida got Bush an additional 14,000 + votes, and a win in Florida.

    I’ve never heard this argument. 14k votes is far less than Nader got, but also less than the Buchanan vote in FL.

    Does anyone have any thinking if this is a legitimate argument for why Bush won FL? I’m always interested in reasons why Nader did not cost Gore the election.

    The part of the interview where Al-Arian talks about this starts at about 51:00 and goes on for four or five minutes, I think.

    The link should go straight to the audio for Friday, 02/06/15 DN show,.

    http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/a/a/d/aadd23f75f085b55/dn2015-0206-1.mp3?c_id=8314231&expiration=1423267641&hwt=cd7fe85270cdf875356bb0eabb62a0d7

  93. paulie February 4, 2015

    I might post it later. If you post it, I would recommend cutting out the comment and just using a shorter caption that spells out the LP connection, plus the video.

  94. Jill Pyeatt February 4, 2015

    If you think so, Paulie, you’re welcome to post it, unless you think my comment isn’t necessary. It’s too editorial for me to post it.

  95. paulie February 4, 2015

    Totally wish I was there. And since Judd is former LPCA ex com I guess that could be an article too.

  96. Jill Pyeatt February 4, 2015

    Jordan Page is a musician who many of you in the Liberty community may know about. He’s a young man who has taken a lot of what we say in our movement and puts it into music. This is how he makes a living. He came out to CA the 24th of January and performed at Judd Weiss’s house in Bel-Air. Judd is a member of the LP, and was on the Ca Ex Com until he resigned in December. This set in the video was Judd performing with Jordan at the end of the evening.

    This was a great event! Lots of Los Angeles liberty personalities were there. I’d like to recommend the second song in the video, which is a cover of one of my favorite songs: “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd. Jordan articulates the lyrics well. They are profound (I think). Example: Did you exchange a walk-on part in the war, for a lead role in a cage?”

    Anyway, this is what activism in LA looked like in January 2015! I’ll bet you all wish you were here!!!

    http://youtu.be/sQoMARvNosI

  99. Jill Pyeatt February 3, 2015

    Get well, Andy!

  100. Jill Pyeatt February 3, 2015

    On Andy Craig’s FB page:

    “health update: currently in the ICU. Panicked at work today with sudden onset chest pains, numbness in the arms, etc. along with acute nausea and headache. Initial diagnosis is blood chemistry issues related to rapid-onset DKA (a diabetes complication I’ve had often), even though it was nothing like the DKA i’ve known before. Might also potentially be related to an irregular heartbeat I had an ablation for as a teenager.

    Currently feeling much better than when I staggered into the ER and almost collapsed from the pain (the special cocktail of feel-good they gave me certainly helped) Hope to be back on clear liquids by morning, maybe gone home by the day after or tom. evening.”

  101. paulie February 3, 2015

    Arvin Vohra

    11:06 AM (4 hours ago)

    to LP-State

    Hi guys –

    If anyone knows of any good candidates or county chairs that would be available tomorrow (Wed) from 230-3 to appear on the LP’s radio show, please let me know or forward them my contact info ([email protected]).

    Tomorrow’s show will feature local activism.

    -Arvin

    _______________________________________________
    Statechairs mailing list
    [email protected]
    http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/statechairs_hq.lp.org

  102. Dave Terry February 3, 2015

    The latest “Inanity” from Dailykos;

    “MISSISSIPPI, California’s got nothing on you.

    Mississippi has the highest vaccination rate for school-age children. It’s not even close. Last year, 99.7 percent of the state’s kindergartners were fully vaccinated. Just 140 students in Mississippi entered school without all of their required shots.
    Compare that with California, epicenter of the ongoing Disney measles outbreak, where last year almost 8 percent of kindergartners — totaling 41,000 children — failed to get the required immunizations against mumps, measles and rubella

    So clearly, conformity equals correctness and nonconformity equals mental deficiency.

    OR MAYBE NOT!

    When I got full custody of my daughter in Orange County, California she was not quite of school age yet, and when time came to enroll her in Kindergarten, this is the first time I was aware of these requirements. Even though I had made certain that she received the necessary inoculations, I couldn’t lay my hands on the required certificates.
    Needless to say, the school administration was LESS than understanding, but as the discussion progressed, I became increasing aggravated and then, SUDDENLY, like a bolt of lightning the vice-principal had a gestalt and suddenly asked me if I had a religious objection
    to immunization.
    I reasoned that whereas my “religion”: exalted logic above all other forms of cognition and since I could NOT find any logical reason for compulsory medication and even though I had already concurred that such inoculation is, IN FACT, desirable, the “forced” submission to this
    regimen was contrary by my commitment to FREE WILL!

  108. NewFederalist February 1, 2015

    Wouldn’t it be a shame (or an opportunity) if we were given a “choice” between another Bush and another Clinton? If we are going to have royal families there should be a Kennedy or a Roosevelt in the mix!

  109. paulie February 1, 2015

    I didn’t see anything about Jeb Bush in that comment. Not sure if that means anything or not.

  110. Jill Pyeatt February 1, 2015

    Thanks. So, I guess we don’t know who he supports yet.

  111. Martin Passoli February 1, 2015

    Posted on facebook:

    “Wayne Allyn Root
    January 25 at 3:27pm ·
    ROOT: GOP Prez field is fantastic. Scott Walker is a favorite of mine. Just heard Bobby Jindal- he’s GREAT! Marco Rubio has star power. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are my kind of guys. Mitt is one of best businessmen in USA. What a DREAM TEAM! What do Dems have? Over the Hill-arry?”

  112. Jill Pyeatt February 1, 2015

    I’m genuinely curious: Now that Romney has stated he won’t be running for President in 2016, does anyone know how Wayne Allyn Root feels about Rand Paul?

  113. Nicholas Sarwark February 1, 2015

    Legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado was more popular (by vote totals) than President Obama in 2012.

    There have now been three years in which the sky has not fallen.

    If the GOP wants to ignore those facts, good. I always appreciate people who help recruit for the Libertarian Party.

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