Here is our open thread for February. If you have something you want to share with the IPR community, and it doesn’t fit into any of the existing conversations, you can post it here. Hopefully it will have something to do with independents or third party politics, but you’ll be okay as long as you don’t plagiarize someone or otherwise cause problems for the owner of our site.
However, if you are as sick of the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates as I am, perhaps we should use this thread for humor. I’ll start. Here is my song to the “frontrunners”, Trump and Clinton:
Stewart,
However, the dude from SC has sent me a fundraiser as direct mail, meaning he as one of the most competent campaigns going.
Remember, a third of our members do not use email for politics–there are no email addresses in the datadump–so campaigns using electrical thingies are handicapped relative to his approach.
And for those of you familiar with the Libertarian Millennial Caucus, I have pointed this little problem out to them, and they still want to abolish the paper newsletter.
Regarding the “dude” from South Carolina: first, I must repeat my previous statements that the SCLP has in no way encouraged, supported or endorsed him. He is not a delegate to the national convention, and I seriously doubt he will be.
I have personally advised him that his “birth loop” plan is both un-libertarian and possibly the largest increase in expansion of both the federal government and the debt ever proposed by anyone.
Andy,
The core issue, which was brought up at the last LNC meeting via questions by Josh Katz, is that the claim that those reports are reports of the Ballot Access Committee is a fraud. They are private reports from one LNC member, with support by one committee member. In order for an object to be a committee report, the committee must by some means have met, or each member must separately have approved it. I am advised by some committee members that they have not even seen the report, let alone met on it, for the report before last.
George
Today, at the Libertarian Party of Virginia convention, 5 POTUS candidates participated in a candidate forum. Gary Johnson and Darryl Perry did pretty well. The other three (Smith, Reid, and some dude from SC) were terrible.
I’d say that Darryl did the best. Everyone that I spoke to agreed that it was Johnson and Perry with the best performances, with the others being difficult to watch.
I am disappointed that McAfee and Kerbel didn’t attend. I’d really like to hear from both of them in person.
Though I don’t see myself giving real support to Perry, due to his crypto-currency only gimmick, I’m glad that he was there to put forth a real libertarian message.
“George Phillies
February 29, 2016 at 21:36
I would suggest that there are a variety of issues with the LNC, including people who have been on it for decades, people who do no work (note IT Committee discussion at last LNC meeting),”
How about the LNC’s Ballot Access Committee, which has only had one meeting, which was in March or April of last year, in which nothing of substance came out of that meeting, and has done NOTHING since then? Mysteriously, the Ballot Access Committee has been submitting reports to the LNC, even though the committee has not had any meetings since March or April of last year, and even though all but one member of the Ballot Access Committee had any input in the reports, and even though the committee never voted to approve the reports.
What’s the point of having a Ballot Access Committee that does nothing?
If the Libertarian Party were a sports team, like say a football team or a basketball team, would you keep sending the same coaching staff back season after season, if all of those seasons they were coaching were losing seasons?
If the Libertarian Party were a business, would you keep the same management team if they continually lost money and failed to grow the business?
“Matt Cholko
February 29, 2016 at 20:52
Also, I’d like to see some turnover on the LNC. I’ll have to think hard about voting in favor of anyone that has served on the LNC for a good portion of the last decade or so. The party is moving in the wrong direction in some respects, and it has been for a while.”
Let’s see, the Libertarian Party has lost 2/3 of its membership over the last 15 years. The party is about the same size it was in terms of dues paying members back around 1994 or 1995 in terms of number of dues paying members, yet the population of the country has increased quite a bit since then. Fundraising is down. The number of elected Libertarians is down.
So you think that maybe, just maybe, there’s something wrong with the way that the party has been run for the last 15 years that just might have something to do with this?
nbc: Interesting pickup. Did Ventura mention which party he would inflict himself on? Did he explain where he gets his time machine, in that the primaries end way late relative to the time needed to start petitioning?
Gov. Ventura is now saying he will run for President if Sen. Sanders fails in the Democrat primaries.
Steve Forbes’ book is noteworthy as suggesting through its existence that he may try another run.
I would suggest that there are a variety of issues with the LNC, including people who have been on it for decades, people who do no work (note IT Committee discussion at last LNC meeting), a lack of ideas,… Most current LNC activities are recognizable from 20 years ago. However, not 30 years ago, when the LNC had a stack of committees tasked with doing real work.
Also, I’d like to see some turnover on the LNC. I’ll have to think hard about voting in favor of anyone that has served on the LNC for a good portion of the last decade or so. The party is moving in the wrong direction in some respects, and it has been for a while. I don’t know the cause of this problem. But, there are some common denominators that I will need to consider.
I agree with Moulton, regarding the Chair’s race.
I am very likely to support Nick’s reelection. However, there will need to be a turnaround in the membership decline, or it will be difficult for me to support him in 2018. I know that’s not all on Nick (maybe none of it is). But, he’s the top dog, the buck must stop with him.
Looks like Roger Stone is making some waves for the GOP:
http://usadailypolitics.com/bombshell-ted-cruz-makes-plan-to-drop-out-of-the-race/
I have started seeing signs of the third party candidate, namely all these ads for State Forbes new book.
Larken Rose on Donald Trump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm8yEJ1_8tc
California Resolution Would Provide Nonpartisan “Public Ballot” Option for Presidential Primaries
http://ivn.us/2016/02/26/ca-resolution-would-provide-nonpartisan-public-ballot-option-for-presidential-primaries
Another third party effort: Republican conservatives organizing an alternative to Trump, as reported on Red State and Politico. They think they need a half-million valid signatures, meaning perhaps 3/4 of a million raw signatures, meaning they would only need five or ten million dollars to put the candidate on the ballot. However, they need a candidate, and they need to get cracking on organizing.
I think Nick has done a great job on transparency, public statements, etc.
However, the membership decline is a real problem and could be an issue in the chair’s race.
My belief is that the LNC has been more transparent under Sarwark than it has been. I’m not aware of any unfair treatment of presidential candidates, or any specific issues where transparency wasn’t there. Admittedly, though, I no longer read the email communications of the Executive Committee.
Two things I applaud from Mr. Sarwark are his timely and sometimes bold press releases regarding events in the news. I also think he has handled the nonsense from the Judicial Committee in a reasonable manner.
I definitely hope he gets re-elected.
the question I would ask of Libertarians here on IPR…. is….
has the Nick Sarwark chaired LNC been more or less transparent then previous LNCs?
has it been transparent enough or too much? why?
has the LNC under Nick treated candidates for the Libertarian Presidential Nomination equally? if not who, when, where and how?
where has the LNC under Nick not been effective?
where should or what should the LNC been doing to be more effective?
He is.
Some LP news for today:
http://amthirdpartyreport.com/2016/02/25/mark-rutherford-announces-he-is-running-for-libertarian-party-chair/
Does anyone know if Nick Sarwark is running for reelection?
LAMA seems to have made an accidental positive discovery.
LAMA launched an issue campaign, regular statements on Facebook. The page is Peace Now! End the Warfare State!
We run statements. We do advertising boosts so lots of people see the page. We get “likes” for the posts and page.
It’s our page. We can see who the likes are. We can message many of them, and are doing so.
Interesting issue: On Facebook, for most people you can see them. We are getting large numbers of responses from Hispanics. From African-Americans. From women. Large numbers? Try: 2/3 of the total likes are from people who are not white males.
OK, exactly when is the last time you saw a Libertarian event electronic or in person in which 2/3 of the turn out was people of color, people who are differently gendered,…?
Peace Now! End The Warfare State!
Peace can happen. The warfare state, the glorification of defense welfare and crony capitalism, can be brought to an end. But it won’t come to an end by itself. You will only come to an end when we, the patriotic people of the United States, bring it to an end.
You can do your part. No one of us can bring peace and prosperity, but together we can make it happen. Our individual voices can be the drip drip drip of water that eventually creates vast and beautiful valleys and canyons.
What can you do right now? No matter where you live, there are newspapers. There are Facebook pages. There are political blogs. You need to speak up. You need to stand up for peace, without having to stir from your computer keyboard or put down your mobile device, and start sending the world short messages: we want peace, and we want now.
For this week, a good message is:
“It’s 15 years we’ve been in Afghanistan. We’re still bobbing and strafing and killing them. We should just stop. We should bring our boys and girls home, not leave them to rot in Afghanistan and suffer pointless death.
“As a patriotic American I reject the Washington policy of perpetual war. Some of us like President Obama. Some of us like President Bush. It doesn’t matter what you thought of. Their foreign-policy, the same policy of war for both of them, is wrong. Good Americans should reject that policy. End our wars and bring the troops home. Stop wasting our money on pointless wars and keep it here in America.”
You should try saying that in your own words. But remember to close the letter “Peace now! End the warfare state!” That common ending sends a message that the American people are united against pointless wars and against defense welfare.
Jill Pyeatt wrote:
I like that the way it is now. Can’t you just right click a link to open it in a new window? What annoys me about links that automatically open in a new window is there is no similar way to easily overrule that behavior and open them in the same window (like I want 99% of the time).
Here’s an article about that dirty trickster, Roger Stone:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/02/22/diva-bitch-stupid-negro-cnn-rewards-trump-suppo/208723
If Warren is going to change settings, I would like to suggest a change. Now, if I click on a link, I go there from IPR. I would prefer that a new page opened, so I won’t lose IPR if I close the page the link took me to. Any reason we can’t do that?
Well, I guess Warren has much to answer for!
Me too. And when my comment is held for moderation on an article that I am the post author on it is even more GAHHHHH
I agree with Chuck. I have a long email address, and I have to make sure I type it just right every time, or else my comment will get held up for moderation. That’s a major pain in the ass.
It’s really friggin’ annoying that I have to retype my name, email, and website practically every time I leave a comment.
For over 7 years IPR saved this information in a cookie. This is a core feature of WordPress. IPR has disabled that feature. The reason for continuing to leave it disabled remains a mystery to me… unless Warren is just saddistic.
Just minutes ago, a presidential candidate debate for three Constitution Party candidates for president ended on Blog Talk Radio:
http://amthirdpartyreport.com/2016/02/22/american-statesmen-blog-talk-radio-show-currently-hosting-constitution-party-presidential-debate/
Now, since it’s open thread, here’s a great song from liberty musician Jordan Page (one of my favorites by him):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlZldWmmDTY
After the Oregon Occupation
I find this article highly disturbing. The concern has nothing to do with the Oregon stand-off, or even Pete Santilli (I’m actually not very familiar with him. My concern is the constant deriding of alternative media, and those people who might have other views than the MSM dictates.
For example:
Then:
“The prosecution played 20 minutes of clips from Santilli’s show for the court, dating as far back as last June, in which Santilli discusses burying illegal guns, dying a free man and shooting federal agents if they came through his door uninvited.”
Then, this:
“What he does is dangerous. He’s speaking out against the United States government, and he’s an activist,” Reynolds said — an activist drawn to the stories of people he feels are oppressed, “whether it’s ranchers, townspeople, black people, yellow people, green people.”
Apparently, only the Mainstream Media journalists have “ethics”, according to this:
“Youm said the difference between a shock jock and a journalist is objectivity, and some sense of ethics. ”
It’s very clear to me now that any thinking outside of the 2 dimensional news that’s reported is under attack.
@William Saturn wrote February 4, 2016 at 19:52
“Marc Allan Feldman’s Wikipedia article was just deleted.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Marc_Allan_Feldman
Not exactly deleted, but merged into the Libertarian Party presidential primaries, 2016.
The same has been done with Austin Petersen’s page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Austin_Petersen
Krzysztof Lesiak,
I’d be glad to do an interview with you.
J.R.
*This was by far the highest total number of website views and visitors ATPR has ever had in a SINGLE day. We’ve had over 17,000 website views and 6,000 viewers total.
By the way, I’m going to try an interview all Constitution Party candidates with websites and contact information for ATPR. I’d like to start with J.R. Myers. Mr. Myers, if you’re reading this, would you be open to doing an email (or Facebook) interview? I’d email you the questions and you could answer them. Then I’d publish your answers on ATPR. Would you be interested in this?
Thanks in advance!
J.R. Myers’ comment above has been published on American Third Party Report (ATPR) as an article.
http://amthirdpartyreport.com/2016/02/18/constitution-party-chairman-frank-fluckiger-gives-update-on-the-cps-ballot-access/
By the way, speaking of ATPR, February 16th, 2016 was a record breaking day for us. On that day, ATPR had 667 views and 542 visitors. This was by far the highest total number of website views and visitors ATPR has ever had! If anyone wants to help IPR’s companion site expand by becoming a contributor, contact Paulie or William Saturn or me at [email protected].
February 18, 2016
Dear Fellow Constitution Party Members:
Thanks to the support of those states that have paid their $1,000.00 annual assessments, we have been able to make significant progress in achieving ballot access for the 2016 presidential election.
In 2014, we succeeded in getting on the ballot in West Virginia, Wisconsin, Alaska, and in two counties in Alabama. We then ran candidates for office in each of those states and garnered enough votes in Wisconsin and in one county in Alabama to retain ballot access there. We fell short in Alaska and West Virginia, but last year we succeeded in re-qualifying in Alaska and this year are very close to re-qualifying in West Virginia.
We currently have ballot access in the following states for 2016: Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Nevada, Alaska, and Utah.
Last year, in addition to regaining ballot access in Alaska, we also gained ballot access in Arkansas. We should complete our ballot access drive this week in Hawaii. None of these states were on the ballot in 2012. One of our party members opened his home up to provide lodging for the petitioner, thereby making it possible for the party to afford to send someone to that state.
We are also nearing completion of our ballot access drives in West Virginia and South Dakota. The latter state needs 6,936 valid signatures, and, at present, they have gathered just over 7,400. Our goal is to reach the 10,000 signature mark by the deadline of March 29th. Other states we hope to target as quickly as funds are available are New Jersey, Ohio, Iowa, North Dakota, Montana, Kansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and, hopefully, Nebraska and New York.
Being able to achieve these goals is largely dependent upon the states paying their annual assessments. In particular, we rely on support from those states that already have ballot access. Currently, five states have paid fully the $1,000.00 annual state assessment and three states have paid some portion of their assessment. We are grateful to the leadership of those states and readily acknowledge the sacrifice that is being made.
We encourage the leaders in states not ballot qualified to help with the preliminary work necessary to qualify their states. The Secretary of State’s office will guide you in the requirements and provide you with the necessary forms for attaining ballot access in your state. It is critical that all this be done in advance so that when funds do become available, we can begin the ballot petition process immediately. We simply do not have the manpower for the national party to lay the background work that is needed.
The purpose of this update is to encourage our state leaders to do all they can to remit to the national party their state assessments as quickly as possible. We ask that you forward this information on to your leaders and party members in your states. Have them earmark the donations for your state assessment and have them remit their donations to the national party at Constitution Party, P. O. Box 1782, Lancaster, PA 17608.
We ask that your members remit whatever amount they can now, but, even more critical is the need for regular monthly donations in the amount of $5.00, $10.00, $25.00, $50.00 or $100.00 where that is possible. Some are already doing this.
Donations have also been received that are earmarked solely for ballot access. Thus far this year, North Carolina leads in such monthly donations. Other states from which significant donations for ballot access have been received are Florida, Montana, Oregon, Missouri, Texas and Utah. We are grateful for such donations.
Time is of the essence. The sooner we are able to raise the funds to begin the ballot petitioning process, the more reasonable the cost will be.
Again, I ask that you do all you can to help get your state assessments paid as soon as possible
Sincerely,
Frank Fluckiger
National Chairman
Constitution Party
We don’t actively solicit for the building fund in even-numbered years, but we happily accept donations to it at any time. When we have cash in the building fund, it gets sent in to reduce the principal on the mortgage.
If anyone would like to help pay down the mortgage, please feel free to donate here: http://www.lp.org/office-fund
” Recall that the building is covered by a balloon mortgage with a big payment due at the far end, and we are making no progress toward covering that balloon.”
I am assured that while we are not currently — because this is an even-numbered year — making any progress toward the balloon payment, we do make progress in odd-numbered years, with the intent that we make it go away in a timely manner.
The North Star, a nonaligned socialist blog, that has a focus on electoral politics has started their series of interviews with Leftist candidates for POTUS. TNS is starting with the Socialist Party USA’s candidate.
http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=12445
I wish they had asked ehat states the SPUSA is going to seek ballot access in.
Esteemed Fellow State Chairs and Others!
Let me amplify on my comments on our national party’s financial situation. I am primarily listing numbers from the financial report for Saturday’s LNC meeting, which can be found here
http://www.lp.org/blogs/staff/lnc-meeting-february-20-21-2016-in-phoenix-az Page references are to that report.
From page 3 of that report, for January 2016, Income was $75,000 (I am rounding), fundraising costs were $10,000, and hence $65,000 was available for everything else. We actually spent $86,000. Part of the problem is that the LNC income was not the budgeted $110,000, but instead $35,000 less.
The Treasurer reported (page 3, line entries in the bottom graph) that $44,000 of that amount was for the building, payroll, and governance, leaving only $21,000 of that amount for everything else. The $44,000 does not include office supplies, telephone and data services, equipment leases, and IT costs, without which we would not function, for about $9000, leaving $12,000 in surplus. Readers perusing the LNC budget may note other items that it would be challenging to forego.
From page 9 of that report, we have $105,000 cash on hand, but of that $71,000 is restricted funds, mostly for the convention (money received, big bill coming in June), leaving only $34,000 cash on hand. If we had not drawn down the bequest by its legal limit ($34,400) we would have approximately no cash on hand.
We therefore have $34,000 cash on hand, plus $12,000 a month, less any other expenses we can’t skip such as the FEC consultant.
However, the estimated ballot access cost is $272,500. That’s form the Ballto Access Committee report. In my experience, that estimated number is sometimes too low, e.g., Oklahoma, not to mention that the number happens to match exactly the current budget. However, those expenses must be paid over the next six months or so.
Add it up. At our current fundraising levels, over the next six months we will have $34,000+ $12,000 x 6 = $106,000 to cover that $272,500 in ballot access charges, and anything else the LNC might want to do, such as $20,000 for a new web site.
If we actually made budget on raising money, we would have $34,000 + 47,000 x 6 = $316,000 available over the next six months, barely adequate to cover ballot access expenses, with a very thin safety margin for ballot access cost overruns and any other costs beyond the building, payroll, and governance. Recall that the building is covered by a balloon mortgage with a big payment due at the far end, and we are making no progress toward covering that balloon.
Historically, we had a larger income, not to mention that in prior years the LNC set aside funds to cover ballot access expenses when it mattered.
The situation is unsatisfactory.
We need to strengthen the LSLA, if for no other reason than to cover the contingency that at some point in the too-far future we will be the only functioning national Libertarian Party organization.
George Phillies
Chuck,
The LNC is way too out of money to afford the web site proposal.
That does not mean they will not do it.
George
I will have a post on this later.
Austin Petersen’s Wikipedia page in danger of getting deleted:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Austin_Petersen
I’m not sure where else to discuss this… I could wait until there is a LNC meeting thread posted, but I think this topic bears some discussion beforehand.
Kevin Ludlow of Texas has been proposing a new lp.org website for a cost of about $20,000. He has posted many messages about this on LNC discuss… the latest such message is here:
http://hq.lp.org/pipermail/lnc-business_hq.lp.org/2016/004226.html
I agree with him that the site is in dire need of an overhaul and could be designed much better.
However, Ludlow seems to value style over substance. I have grave concerns this will be a repeat of past website overhauls wherein a decade of useful material is removed, supposedly in the interest of messaging and branding. For example, the Success 97 and Success 99 seminar materials were removed when the website was overhauled a decade ago. The meeting minutes archive was removed that same time. Nothing Ludlow has said so far gives me any confidence he cares about the content generated for a decade… if anything, he seems embarrassed by it. For example, he says “Other information is buried – as it should be – as lp.org also does not comprehend.”
I hope LP members tell their representatives not to vote for any website overhaul without assurances content won’t be wholesale thrown away.
J.R.:
While our politics are a bit remote, I shall offer the positive suggestion that you list the states where the CP is on the General Election ballot at this point.
The campaign needs your financial support NOW! We have been invited to several venues, and will only be able to participate as funds allow.
So far, I’m now officially on the primary ballots in two states for a total of 59/270 Electoral Vote potential count goal. They are Idaho (4) and California (55).
The Constitution Party is currently on the ballot in 14 states, and is working on expanding ballot access in more. Currently the CP ballot access represents 137 Electoral Votes.
If nominated by the CP, as of today, I would be on 15 states representing 192 Electoral Votes.
We need to gain more states to add at least 78 more electoral votes, which would bring us to the 270 Electoral Votes.
Thank you for your valued support!
J.R.Myers
I just finished an interview with Dimitri:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/1dimitriradio
“George, I often disagree with you, but your comments on Afghanistan and Snowden are right on the money. The LP and its candidates should discuss both those topics as often as possible.” – langa
I couldn’t agree more, langa. Those are two absolutely fantastic statements from the Libertarian Party of Massachusetts. Too bad the Bay State LP doesn’t have a favorite-son in the presidential race.
Ten of the 12 stories currently on the front page are about one political party…
George, I often disagree with you, but your comments on Afghanistan and Snowden are right on the money. The LP and its candidates should discuss both those topics as often as possible.
Massachusetts Libertarians in action. From our Facebook pages “Peace Now! End the Warfare State!” and “End the Surveillance State!”, two new posts with $150 in boost behind them”
Two New Massachusetts Issues posts:
Afghanistan…End the Eternal War!
Fifteen years ago, George Bush invaded Afghanistan, because the Afghani government refused to extradite Osama Bin Laden. We tried to overthrow the Afghani government and capture Bin Laden. Bin Laden died in 2011. We kept bombing the Taliban, anyhow, even though they can’t possibly hand over Bin Laden.
It is fifteen years later. We still have ten thousand troops on the ground in Afghanistan, still launching their own military operations. Are they advisors? Last Summer our forces attacked local leader Jan Ahmad in Parwan Province. The Afghan government was not even told in advance what happened.
The war on Afghanistan has become an unAmerican religious war, a war on Islamic sects that the American political establishment hates. They say “we’re at war with radical Islam.”
We say: If you’re at war with a religion, you’re at war with our Constitution, whose broken promise reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” But that’s what the war on Islam is. It’s acts of Cognress trying to establish a religion. It’s totally against our Constitution.
Readers may remember the Thirty Years War, a war of religion that went on for three decades, devastated central Germany, and impoverished most of the combatants.
The War on Afghanistan is not yet the Second Thirty Years War, but we are close to half-way there. We have not devastated America. Afghanistan has been far less fortunate. The trillions we spent, and the trillions more we will spend in veteran’s benefits, have not yet impoverished us. They have surely made us far poorer than if the war had not been fought.
Peace Now! is the answer. There are three roads to peace:
The ballot box!
The donation box!
The soap box!
They only work if you take them.
We’re Massachusetts Libertarians, the party that was against perpetual war from the beginning. We welcome your support.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Edward Snowden revealed the truth to the American people. Our government is spying on us.
As amazing as it seems, there is an issue on which we have bipartisan agreement, as voiced at the time Edward Snowden fled America:
Vice President Dick Cheney: Snowden is a “traitor”.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calf.): “I think it’s an act of treason.”
Republican Speaker of the House Boehner: Snowden is a “traitor”
Democratic Senator Bill Nelson on Snowden: an “act of treason.”
Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton: “Edward Snowden is a “traitor” who has “committed an act of war against the United States”
Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss “If he is not a traitor, then he’s pretty darn close to it”.
But if Snowden’s deed was treason, who was the enemy he helped?
It is we, the people of America, who learned that we live in a police state. The NSA records all our telephone calls, all our internet messages, and all our bank and credit card transactions.
The NSA may search electronically for anything, anywhere.
Cheney, Feinstein, Boehner, Bolton, Chambliss, Nelson, and all their friends have revived the Writ of Assistance, the general search warrant of King George III that was a primary cause of the American Revolution.
Cheney, Feinstein, Boehner, Nelson, Bolton, Chambliss, and all their establishment friends made very clear what the establishment thinks:
Americans are the people they do not trust. Americans are the people who must be watched and monitored and spied upon. Americans are the menace. Americans are the enemy.
But that coin has a second side.
If we are their enemy, it must be the case:
They are our enemies.
Cheney, Feinstein, Boehner, Nelson, Bolton, Chambliss and their establishment cronies. They’re the enemies of all Americans.
We need to correct matters, with the boxes that count:
The soap box.
The donation box.
The ballot box.
We brought you this message. We’re the Libertarian Party. We’re here to restore a free America. Please help us. For more information http://LPMass.org
The redacted 28 pages are not from the “9/11 Commission Report,” but from a Congressional committee report. People should really get their facts together before publishing.
With Scalia gone and Ruth Bader Ginsberg in bad shape it looks like the progressives will get a chance to shape the court for years to come.
Scalia died… this will change the composition of the court to 5-4 liberal, which will likely have a dramatic effect on campaign finance (citizen’s united).
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/americanstatesman/2016/02/23/constitution-party-live-online-2016-presidential-debate
Not directly related to “independent politics” per se, however it’s interesting to hear the DNC Chair explain how they stifle grassroots activism within their convention & nominating process.
“Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don’t have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists. We are as a Democratic Party really highlight and emphasize inclusiveness and diversity at our convention, and so we want to give every opportunity to grassroots activists and diverse, committed Democrats to be able to participate, attend, and be a delegate at the convention. And so we separate out those unpledged delegates to make sure that there isn’t competition between them.” ~ Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democratic National Committee chair
http://ivn.us/2016/02/12/dnc-chair-superdelegates-exist-to-protect-party-leaders-from-grassroots-competition/
I just looked over the write-in votes from the NH Primary. Three current LP Presidential candidates, and one possible candidate, received write-in votes in the NH First in the Nation Presidential Primary.
Gary Johnson received 42 total write-in votes, 33 on Republican ballots, and 9 Democratic write-in votes
Darryl W. Perry received 2 write-in votes in the GOP Primary
Austin Petersen received 1 write-in vote in the Democratic Primary
Jesse Ventura received received 1 write-in vote in each Primary, for a total of 2 write-in votes.
results can be viewed/downloaded at
sos.nh.gov/2016DemPresPrim.aspx
sos.nh.gov/2016RepPresPrim.aspx
I have to agree with Jill. He would have been the “least bad” of the prospective major party nominees or “leading independent” candidates.
Well, I’m disappointed, for some reason, that Webb won’t run. It would have brought some interesting new dynamics into this strange (I think) campaign year.
For those who were following Jim Webb, this update:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/jim-webbs-non-campaign-finally-over
Jeb Bush Runs Scared From 9/11 Truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EyjFHJvuOM
New Gallup Poll: We are the Plurality Party:
http://www.cato.org/blog/gallup-finds-more-libertarians-electorate
The Gallup Poll has a new estimate of the number of libertarians in the American electorate. In their 2015 Governance survey they find that 27 percent of respondents can be characterized as libertarians, the highest number it has ever found. The latest results also make libertarians the largest group in the electorate, as compared to 26 percent conservative, 23 percent liberal, and 15 percent populist.
John McAfee, Libertarian candidate for President, is currently being interviewed on The Alex Jones Show.
Tune in:
http://www.infowars.com/
Also, check out our new website, a work in progress, at http://www.McAfee2016.com!
This glowing critique of Obama’s accomplishments was just posted in a forum I frequent:
“Obama (his second term especially) brought a great deal of change. The ACA? It’s not perfect, but things are much better and social programs like that don’t find their feet for many years, e.g. social security. I could go on.We also had eight years of level-headed foreign policy people take for granted or selectively ignore.”
To think that, here I was, thinking this would be the craziest thing I read all week:
“Hello everyone.
I’d rather not make a poll for this, since there could potentially be many answers. It is not simply a Yes or No question. Some people have mixed and/or many opinions about such a question like this. Do you believe in the existence of Werewolves? Half man, half wolf. (I.E my profile picture).
Personally, I think they are real to a certain extent. They’re not the bloodthirsty killers that go out on full moons. They’re pretty much normal people that live with a shapeshifting superpower. That is my opinion. Although science can argue this, science can argue biblical (Holy Bible) events that seem like BS as well (like the red sea parting or Jesus reviving himself). Anyways, I’m going a bit too in depth with this paragraph. What do y’all think? Do you believe in Lycanthropes (Werewolves)?”
These are the unofficial numbers in NH. They should be on the SOS site in the next day or so
http://www.wmur.com/politics/2016-full-new-hampshire-presidential-primary-election-results/37649066
“George Phillies
February 9, 2016 at 16:30
Andy claims: ‘George, I know that the Gary Johnson campaign paid out money for ballot access, but that it was documented in the FEC reports as being to “Political Advisors,” so there is no breakdown ‘
If you would bother to look it up before you opened your mouth, you would have found that there was tons of breakdown.
\
In fact the breakdown is right here:
Senior Political Advisor 50 hours at $16,250 ($325.00/hour)
Creative Advertising $13,500 for 60 hours ($225.00/hour)
Press relations $21,358 for 194 hours ($110.00/hour)
Mid-level Management $38,873 for 311 hours ($125.00/ hour, a 30% increase)
Mid-level Management $28,262 for 397.5 hours ($71.00/ hour, nearly a 75% increase)
‘Outside subcontracts per agreement’ $9,400.”
There is no breakdown of how much they spent on ballot access. “Outside subcontracts per agreement” does not necessarily mean ballot access, and I know that they spent a lot more than $9,400 on ballot access. Also, this does not indicate to whom they paid the funds they spent on ballot access and for which states they spent it.
I looked at the Gary Johnson FEC filings a while ago, and I never saw any such breakdown in there, and you have not shown evidence that such a breakdown exists. If it is in the reports, maybe it was added later, but I have yet to see it. So if it is available, show me something that says a payment was made for ballot access, how much it was, who the payment was made to, and for which state.
221 votes with 82.3% reporting. Good for 4th place out of 28 candidates on the ballot. 3rd place if you discount O’Malley as having dropped out.
http://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president/new-hampshire?lo=ut_d1&lo=ut_a1
Does anybody have a link to actual NH vote totals? I am curious as to how well Vermin Supreme and Sam Sloan did in the democrat race.
PEACE
Andy claims: “George, I know that the Gary Johnson campaign paid out money for ballot access, but that it was documented in the FEC reports as being to “Political Advisors,” so there is no breakdown ”
If you would bother to look it up before you opened your mouth, you would have found that there was tons of breakdown.
\
In fact the breakdown is right here:
Senior Political Advisor 50 hours at $16,250 ($325.00/hour)
Creative Advertising $13,500 for 60 hours ($225.00/hour)
Press relations $21,358 for 194 hours ($110.00/hour)
Mid-level Management $38,873 for 311 hours ($125.00/ hour, a 30% increase)
Mid-level Management $28,262 for 397.5 hours ($71.00/ hour, nearly a 75% increase)
“Outside subcontracts per agreement” $9,400.
Vermin Supreme is a printed ballot candidate in the New Hampshire Democratic primary today.
http://sos.nh.gov/DemBal16PP.aspx?id=8589953410
http://freekeene.com/2016/02/06/in-tuesdays-primary-vote-vermin-supreme-not-rand-paul/
How many write-ins will Vermin Supreme get in NH?
http://articles.latimes.com/1992-02-18/news/mn-2483_1_libertarian-candidate
Today is the New Hampshire presidential primary. Here is a bit of history from 1992.
Town Casts First Votes; Libertarian Wins
George Phillies said: “There were also payments to ‘Political Advisors’.”
George, I know that the Gary Johnson campaign paid out money for ballot access, but that it was documented in the FEC reports as being to “Political Advisors,” so there is no breakdown for exactly how much they paid out for ballot access, or to whom they paid it, or to where it was spent.
I have heard that somebody from the Johnson campaign claimed that they spent $205,000 on ballot access. If this is true, I do not know where most of that money went. I know that I only received a small percentage of it.
I see that the Gary Johnson Facebook sock puppets have accused me of using lies and innuendo against John$on. Thank you for motivating me to complete my next books “Scampaigns”. And here are some of those lies and innuendos, based on Johnson campaign filings available in 2013:
The Johnson Campaign, February 2012
We now resume our historical series on the Johnson 2012 campaign. Readers may correctly assume at least some of the Johnson 2012 campaign’s former associates are honest libertarians, and that we have received representations on their behalf that they are not pleased with what they are now learning about the campaign. In particular, we have a specific statement from a former campaign associate that the $325 at 50 hours a month to the campaign’s ‘Senior Political Officer” was paid to the campaign manager and not as has been suggested in some circles to an eminence grise from Florida or New York.
For February 2012 , the Johnson campaign had income of $41,879, spent $40,917, and had its total debts increase from $901,219 to $984,535.
In February 2012, the Johnson campaign gave $1075.01 to Merchant Service of 455 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, for merchant services, $150 to Media Temple of Culver City for web hosting fees, $51.49 to Zions Bank for bank charges and merchant fees, $3491.25 to Daines Goodwin in payment on obligation, and $36,150 to Political Advisors of Salt Lake City as payment on obligation. This time the various payments to Political Advisors were all round numbers, almost all round numbers of hundreds or thousands of dollars.
There were new debts for the period:
Invoice #104975 covering line 46942 covered everything identifiable as political outreach. It came to $12,509.75. Invoice #104979 covering line 46943 covered Johnson’s staff salaries. The salary invoice came to $107,374.31, almost nine times as much as the politics invoice.
#46942 includes (numbers rounded)
$856 for placing web ads,
$6509 for candidate and staff travel,
$616 for miscellaneous/supplies/office,
$812 for shipping, and
$3717 for email marketing costs.
#46899 included:
Senior political officer, 50 hours at $325.00 per hour totalling $16,250
Mid-level management 600.7 hours at $125.00 per hour totalling $75087.50
more Mid-level management 88.27 hours at $95.00 per hour totalling $8385.65
general clerical hours 65.83 hours at $95.00 per hour totalling $1876.16
10 hours of creative advertising at $225.00 per hour for a total of $2250.
That’s about four FTE staff members. Also in here was $3525 of ‘outside subcontracts as per agreement’.
The campaign paid off some of its old debt. The payments to Daines Goodwin for accounting services covered all of lines 46859 and 46864 and $2378.75 toward the debt of $5700 on line 46913. These three lines all correspond to debt that was created in January 2012 during Johnson’s Libertarian campaign.
There were also payments to “Political Advisors”. The entire $36,150, all from donors to Johnson’s Libertarian Presidential campaign, went toward paying part of line 46743, debts that the Johnson campaign created in Summer 2011 for his Republican nominating drive. And what were those debts? Line #46743 for $127,645, none of which was paid in the period. Costs included:
Senior Political Advisor 50 hours at $16,250 ($325.00/hour)
Creative Advertising $13,500 for 60 hours ($225.00/hour)
Press relations $21,358 for 194 hours ($110.00/hour)
Mid-level Management $38,873 for 311 hours ($125.00/ hour, a 30% increase)
Mid-level Management $28,262 for 397.5 hours ($71.00/ hour, nearly a 75% increase)
“Outside subcontracts per agreement” $9,400.
That’s right, your February 2012 donations to Johnson 2012 went toward the campaign manager’s $325/hour salary, and down the line.
As it turns out, Trump is dumped, and I am one of seven on the CA AIP Primary Election ballot in June. – J.R.Myers
http://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/…/2016-generally-recognized…
The Libertarian Party of Texas is fundraising using a straw poll. Every dollar is a vote. Top five get invited to debate at the LP Texas convention. Deadline is midnight tonight, I believe. The current totals are (for people who got at least one dollar)
Gary Johnson $2,276
Marc Allan Feldman $1000
Austin Petersen $362
Rhett Smith $223
Shawna Sterling $216
John McAfee $170
Darryl W. Perry $50
Steve Kerbel $45
Cecil Ince $30
Joy Waymire $20
https://www.libertynow.org/event-info/presidential-straw-poll
The marketplace provides debates that many have been asking for.
“Behind The Trump Vs Sanders Debate Tour That Brings Your Political Fantasy To Life”
http://www.fastcocreate.com/3055740/behind-the-trump-vs-sanders-debate-tour-that-brings-your-political-fantasy-to-life
Mark Passio – A Message to the Military
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gWCajGSwpY
Bern Your Enthusiasm – SNL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn4tP7ogWIA
Okay, thanks Jill.
Article on my campaign in the Washington Jewish Week.
http://washingtonjewishweek.com/28748/no-votes-for-sale/featured-slider-post/
Darryl W. Perry devotes a podcast to
“Thoughts on Marc Allan Feldman asking Kanye West to be his running mate”
https://soundcloud.com/fpp-cc/pll-radio-279
Presidential Debate Series: Marc Feldman vs. J. R. Myers
First debate in the season. Technology problems even for a first run.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN0t8Q5GbtQ
JR, I can post the above comment as an article, if you’d like.
The 2016 campaign season is heating up, and the Constitution Party National Delegates will have several candidates from which to choose their nominee when
in Salt Lake CIty this April. Voters and CP members will have several opportunities to see the three leading CP POTUS candidates together for the first time
this month.
On Monday, February 22, there is a planned Skype debate to be hosted by Sally Baptiste on American Blog Radio, 3-4pm Alaska Time, 7pm EST. Call-In number
347-857-4364. This can be heard at:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/americanstatesman/2016/02/22/constitution-party-live-online-2016-presidential-debate
On Saturday, February 27, the first in person meeting and debate of the current three CP front runner candidates will take place at the Public Library in
downtown Boise. Candidates Copeland, Myers and Ockander will also appear one week later, March 8 on the Idaho CP primary ballot, another historic first for
Idaho. In Idaho in 2016, only the Constitution and Republican parties will have primary elections.
The Constitution Party of Idaho is now gathering questions from the public for the upcoming Boise Debate. Three Constitution Party presidential
candidates–Scott Copeland, Patrick Ockander a nd J.R. Myers–will participate in the debate on Saturday, February 27, 2016, from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the
Boise Main Library (Hayes Auditorium) 715 South Capitol Boulevard. The debate will be open to the public. Visit the Constitution Party of Idaho website to
submit your question at this link: http://www.cpidaho.org/archives/submityour-boise-debate-questions-for-cp-presidentialcandidates/
The debate will be followed by a meet and greet dinner with the three POTUS candidates.
Tentatively, the Minnesota CP will hold their statewide convention in Minneapolis on Saturday, March 12. They also hope to host a CP POTUS Candidate
Debate.
Then, on Saturday, March 19, the CP affiliate in Michigan, The U.S. Taxpayer’s Party is holding their convention and a CP POTUS Candidate Debate in Lansing.
CP state affiliates are holding their conventions over the next three months. Then it is only a few short weeks away until the 2016 CP National Convention in
Salt Lake City, April 13-17. These are your opportunities to learn more about, and to support the CP POTUS Candidate of your choice!
I can also sign people up to write there, or here at IPR.
Marc Allan Feldman’s Wikipedia article was just deleted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Marc_Allan_Feldman
Anybody seen Jim Webb lately? I’m worried about him.
Techniques talked about in this article have been used by trolls right here on IPR.
Disinformation Part 1: How Trolls Control an Internet Forum
http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/01/27/disinformation-part-1-how-trolls-control-an-internet-forum/
Those numbers are good up to the end of 2015.
Up to “someone filed late” the only Libertarian Presidential candidate that I could find who raised more than $5000, based on FEC filings, was Austen Petersen.
The FEC has not yet accepted Johnson’s proposal to dump his 2012 debt.
It seems that 2016 will be the Most Important Election in the History of America: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/01/phyllis-schlafly-2016-america-wont-get-another-chance/
Anyone interested in writing for American Third Party Report please contact me at [email protected] and I will sign you up.