Earlier this evening, Gary Johnson was elected to be the Libertarian Party presidential nominee, achieving a 50% tally in the second ballot and securing his second straight LP nomination. Austin Petersen and John McAfee put up good fights, but weren’t able to attain enough votes necessary to win the nomination, coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
McAfee neglected to endorse Gary Johnson, but Austin Petersen made it clear from the beginning of his campaign that he would endorse whichever candidate the LP elected. While Petersen and Gary often had testy moments with each other in the debates, Austin stood by his word by endorsing Johnson after he won the candidacy.
As a token of good faith, Austin gave Johnson a replica of George Washington’s flintlock pistol, to let him know that he has Austin’s full support in the general election. Tearing up on the front stage of the convention floor, Austin said to Gary as he presented him with the pistol, “You have my sword, and you have my gun.”
Hours later, a number of delegates were reporting on social media that Johnson was seen tossing Austin’s pistol in the garbage. A husband and wife witnessed Johnson throwing out the pistol and retrieved it from the garbage. The pistol has since been returned to Austin Petersen and remains in his possession.
This story has been verified by numerous delegates at the convention, as well as a state coordinator for Austin Petersen. Entrepreneur and tech expert Israel Anderson was present in Austin’s hospitality suite when the gun was returned and can also confirm this story.
So a bunch of Petersenbots confirm this dubious nonstory.
Not concerned. Our new ticket is all over the mainstream media this morning. The Libertarian Party grew up this weekend.
Silly to throw out the gun. Was it a just forgotten, a deliberate act, accident, oversight in the excitement…?
Silly to make it a story.
It looks like a toy. Might be a good prop for Captain Hook in a kiddy production of Peter Pan.
Is this available for donation to an elementary school play?
Our new ticket is all over the mainstream media this morning.
Is it? Drudge has a Trump headline. And as I’m listening to KFI-AM’s Bill Handel Show (Los Angeles’s top talk radio station), they’re talking about Trump. No mention of Johnson or the LP.
http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/want-free-chance-win-george-washingtons-flintlock/
I have no comment but found this mention of the flintlock on the first page of googles for “George Washington’s flintlock pistol”
Root’s Teeth,
LP Stories have been all over FB, which is probably a bigger “news” source than Drudge at this point. Trump’s comments about Weld even made mainstream news, which seems odd to me that the GOP nominee would even comment on a 3rd party VP candidate who hadn’t even won the nomination, let alone get news coverage. People are talking.
As for the pistol, if Johnson trashed it I think that’s stupid and petty. However, it’s pretty much a non-story. Hey, if anything maybe it will make Johnson more likable like Trump, for being “alpha” and not a whiny “nice guy. “
I liked this, “As for the pistol, if Johnson trashed it I think that’s stupid and petty. However, it’s pretty much a non-story. Hey, if anything maybe it will make Johnson more likable like Trump, for being “alpha” and not a whiny “nice guy. “”
A non-story, for sure.
Drudge, the weather wonk, provides a feeder site for disinformation being planted for the NeoCons. Not talking about GJ is the best approach for them now.
It’s highly possible, and perhaps even likely, they the gun was thrown away on accident. Peterson’s people are weirdly attached to him, like a Trump-lite.
Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
May 30, 2016 at 10:32
http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/want-free-chance-win-george-washingtons-flintlock/
I have no comment but found this mention of the flintlock on the first page of googles for “George Washington’s flintlock pistol”
Is that the same pistol? It’s from 2014, so I guess no one wanted it then either.
Just to clarify, I did not write, “Is that the same pistol? It’s from 2014, so I guess no one wanted it then either.” Be Rational contributed the comment.
I can’t wait for this phony Austin Petersen to slither back to the Republican party.
Sorry for my poor punctuation above.
Long weekend. I need sleep.
At the 1979 weekend most of us were at the Bonaventure Hotel for a week and the parties went on continuously. I got 4 hours sleep the entire week. I certainly understand. Is the Oklahoma Caucus still where everyone smokes pot?
Ed Clark or Bill Hunscher?
Are you asking which candidate i was supporting? I’ll assume that is the question.
At the time I evaded saying who had my vote. But I was doing delegate count for Hunscher because Roger, who was a friend of mine, asked me to help out. I had to deliver the message they did not have a chance of winning. It was obvious Roger was shocked and hurt when I gave him the numbers. I knew the Kochs had been paying all the expenses for ‘delegates’ and stacking the delegations. At the time I was Southern Vice Chairman of the LPC and LA County Chairman. I had been researching Crane and the Kochs for a while by then.
Ed Clark was an honorable man and he did not have a clue what was really going on as far as I know. But we did not call it the Crane Machine without reason. No one else seemed to be shocked at the degree of devious behavior and lack of conscience the Crane Machine exhibited. But I could not tolerate it. Lying to activists and volunteers is fraud.
Now that I think about it, I also provided some vote counts for Clark. Someone asked me, so I gave them the numbers I had.
John Hix ran the floor campaign for them. He was the best. He had run the floor campaign for Crane in Dallas in 1974. John would later show Harry Browne how to get the nomination in 1996. Around 2006 I interviewed John for the book I am finally getting around to writing.
I voted for Hunscher. I had reservations about him but he had committed to supporting local activism.
In all, it was a sad time for me. No one seemed to care about real freedom and returning governance to the people locally.
I voted for Bill myself! At the time Michael Emerling was a pal and he was involved with Hunscher.
Gary is learning from Weld that the Second Amendment is a bad thing.
On a more serious note, not to detract from what an atrocious choice Johnson made in shilling for gun grabber Weld, I couldn’t take Petersen seriously if he “teared up” as he handed me a fake pistol. Did they expect Johnson to walk around the hotel with a fake pistol?
Hummm…..Well, actually, Bill fired Emerling because Bill realized he was not competent. Bill told me this directly and in detail. It caused a dust-up between him and Roger since Roger had recommended Emerling to him.
I got to know Bill better around 1999 when I started putting together material for a book on Roger.
I also researched Emerling’s involvement in the attempted take over of the LP of Arizona in the late 90s by National. Emerling’s ex-wife, Vicky, became a friend of mine while they were married and we have stayed friends. She and Marrou’s wife provided the information which surfaced during Marrou’s run for president.
Emerling’s ‘best friend’ was my former husband, Craig Franklin. Craig used to use the speaker phone in our bedroom when he and Michael talked. I listened.
It will all be in the book as it holds invaluable insights from which we can learn. Having a culture awake to honorable behavior matters more than any other factor in determining the success of a movement.
A movement creates an internal culture through compiled actions which are tolerated or encouraged and so duplicated. But if you can’t trust those around you the organization will fail. Being able to trust those around you is the difference between success and failure. Many former activists left because they found out they could not trust those they were working with.
Trust is capital which lowers our transaction costs and so benefits everyone. Calculate the difference between knowing someone is their word and the cost of having an attorney write a contract with every devious ploy disallowed.
Glad you came out of your experience unscathed.
Actually, it cost me a few grand but it was cheap at twice the price! I look forward to reading your book.
Whatever happened to Emil Franzi?
Just a few grand? Boy, were you lucky. My email is themelinda [at] gmail.com. Send me your email and I’ll put you on the list. Liberty! Melinda
Emil is in Prescott, Arizona. Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/emil.franzi I sent him a message.
Melinda- I sent you an email. Thanks!
Sounds like a sour grapes dirty trick after losing the nomination, aka typical Petersen.
Note the lack of non-Petersen supporter confirmation, and note the lack of evidence that Johnson ever had the gun in the first place except by hearsay.
Note also the gun is a replica and a piece of crap–just like its owner Petersen.
Anyone can get one of these toys on eBay for under $80
I noticed that, Steve m, but it seemed rude to point it out when he was tearing up like that.
A Johnson delegate from the MA delegation confirmed to me that he did see Petersen holding the replica pistol later that evening. Make of that information whatever you will.
Even if this story were true, which it probably isn’t, it’s just another attempt by a self-righteous blowhard (Petersen) to show how important he is – which he isn’t. I was so relieved when he didn’t receive the LP nomination. Hopefully he will go away and take his bumper stick slogan talking points with him. When Meet The Press showed a clip of some of the more ridiculous comments from Saturday’s Debate, I knew Peterson would be on there…..and he was..
It’s fringe nuts like Peterson that cause voters to think of Libertarians as Loonatarians. Hopefully Johnson and Weld will bring some sanity to the party and change enough independent voter minds to make a difference.
Perhaps you should come out and just use the word, ‘psychopath.’ The Economist ran their first article about the impact of psychopaths on the financial industry around 2004. Now the FBI acknowledges the problem and provides characteristics on their website. Additionally, fMRIs have been used on prisoners to record their reaction to highly shocking scenes on film. There is no more reaction than to seeing a field of flowers and kittens playing than seeing hideous acts of violence against people.
This is one of many articles on the subject published by the Economist.
http://www.economist.com/node/4008792