There’s not much good one can say about the FBI’s raid on the LRN.FM studio that occurred a week and a half ago now, but there is one great thing that has come from it all. Thanks to the FBI’s raid of 19 properties over the supposed use of cryptocurrency the story has garnered national and even international attention. It has brought together a community that some would even say was in disarray. We have seen a significant amount of support from both inside and outside of the libertarian community even. Not only has this attention helped to raise a significant amount of money to fight bogus charges, but it has brought attention to the larger freedom migration movement. This spike in interest can be directly tied to these raids and many people who had not previously known about the Free State Project or the larger liberty migration movement are now looking into moving. In the first week of the raid I talked to a handful of people who expressed a desire to move to New Hampshire and some of which have already begun putting bids on houses, initiated rental contracts, and one has even already made the move as of today. Even should everyone be convicted I can’t conceive of any way in which these raids will end up being a detriment to what we’re trying to achieve in New Hampshire. For every arrest we see dozens of new movers. To those who were arrested I want to say thank you for being the leaders we should all strive to be.
Free Talk Live & LRN.fm Studio Raids:
Backup video link (particularly in case of further YouTube censorship) on IPFS:
This past Tuesday new mover Bonnie got fully initiated into the community with her first FBI raid. It was 6 am, and her roommate was yelling “get down stairs” and the whole house was loud. She grabs a robe and Coconut, her dog. She does not have time to grab her glasses. A rifle held by an FBI agent was pointing into the now broken window as Coconut, not accustomed to this type of chaos, runs out the broken down door. Bonnie is instructed NOT to take time to put her robe on before coming down stairs. They are ordered outside by the FBI agent. Bonnie is naked, as instructed by the FBI agent, and tries to put her robe on. The agent insists she comes out now and naked, until Ian objects “she’s naked; what are we going to do about this?” She is then graced with the highest kindness the Federal Government can provide- permission to put on a towel type robe before walking into the New Hampshire cold. Records show it would have been just under 20 degrees at the time. Ian had a robe and slippers on.
This weekend a couple dozen free-faced activists gathered from across New Hampshire at the Monadnock Co-Op in Downtown Keene for a “mask-free flash mob” event. Approximately a dozen of those gathered entered the store and attempted to shop. Why the Co-Op? Organizer Frank “Footloose” Staples said that it was due to the large number of reports of store staff and customers being very unfriendly to people with medical exemptions from wearing masks. One woman even wrote a letter to the editor of the Keene Sentinel about her difficult experience at the Co-Op.
True to form, some customers were downright hostile, including a younger man – wearing two masks – who told a young woman with a baby to “get the hell out of here”, then yelled something similar at me outside the store, despite the fact that I had not gone inside, as I am not a shopper of the Co-Op. I do understand the perspective of those who participated in the shopping: Since the store is open to the public, it should to serve people with medical exemptions. It’s certainly their right to refuse service to people for whatever reasons they want, but if a medical condition is a reason to refuse service, then they should take down their “Everyone Welcome” marquee and become a private club, open only to members.
Another noteworthy character who makes multiple appearances in the video is the self-described “Blue Collar Brawler”. The elderly, double-masked man has words with everyone he comes across, wishing them death and calling the free-faced people “asshole”, and “stupid”. He even loads up his hand with a roll of quarters to white knight for a masked woman who herself is shouting at an unmasked older man in one of the store aisles. It’s a wild video:
To the Co-Op’s credit, the DID allow all the unmasked shoppers to make their purchases, though there were a large number of them. Individuals who attempted to shop at this store prior to this event had reported being made to feel very uncomfortable and even being refused service. I recommend taking your business elsewhere and shopping at places who respect the freedom to choose.
The supposedly offensive promo has a limited amount of footage that could possibly be objectionable. Was it the scenes of two men being arrested? A photo of a massive 420 rally in Central Square in 2009? A man speaking into a megaphone? A photo of a band playing or people playing a card game in Railroad Square? A large group of people standing around the “Welcome to New Hampshire” sign at the Vermont border? The 4:20 pumpkin?
Two days prior to this strike, another decade-old :15 promo was allegedly found objectionable, this one featuring then-libertarian Penn Jillette saying he should move to Keene to join the Free Staters. I appealed the finding, and YouTube reversed it, once again allowing the video to be played. So, when the subsequent takedown happened this weekend, I also appealed it, asking in my appeal where the supposed “harmful or dangerous” content was. They upheld their decision to block the short promo video and give the account a “strike”. Of course, they declined to state exactly what it was in those scant fifteen seconds that was so offensive.
Odysee.com Logo
The strike would have been a warning, but the account had recently received a warning in late February when YouTube removed a video promoting the new White Rose Society for violating their “medical misinformation” policy. So, that’s two videos taken down within a few weeks, hence the strike and now the account is not allowed to have uploads or live streams, among other things, for a week.
Luckily, we’ve been cultivating our exit plan from YouTube for years.
Now, YouTube has increased its rate of finding things it doesn’t like about our videos. It may not be long before our entire channel is taken down. If you haven’t looked seriously at LBRY yet, now is the time to do it. In 2020, they launched Odysee, a video platform built on LBRY. I’ve created a handy url to take you right to the Free Keene channel on Odysee: video.freekeene.com. Unlike YouTube, LBRY/Odysee has no strikes and videos cannot be taken down. It’s true content freedom, and blockchain-powered. You can get the LBRY app or just follow our channel on Odysee.
From now on, this :30 migrate-to-LBRY promo will play at the end of every upload I am able to make to YouTube before they shut us down completely:
The heroic “Sticker Pimps” arrested by Manchester police are not facing death, but they have been kidnapped by Manchester’s “finest” gang and are being prosecuted for “criminal mischief” for the dastardly “crime” of placing counter-propaganda White Rose Society stickers on so-called “public property”. Here’s what you need to know about them:
Frank ‘Footloose’ Sparks – The founder of Absolute Defiance, Footloose has been leading the protests outside NH gang leader Chris Sununu’s home. He was recently arrested in front of Sununu’s home for speaking to a cop.
Jason Gerhard – Jason is currently a candidate for Selectman in Northfield, NH in an election happening TODAY. He’s qualified a warrant article for the town meeting this weekend which – if passed – instructs the Selectmen to ask some very interesting questions of the IRS. We discussed it with him in detail on Free Talk Live this last Saturday. Jason also spent nearly 13 years in federal prison for supporting tax freedom advocates Ed and Elaine Brown and was released in early 2020.
The situation is very reminiscent of what happened in 2011 when eight activists – mostly from Keene – were arrested and charged with “criminal mischief” among other catch-alls, for chalking pro-freedom messages outside Manchester’s police gang headquarters. They were the “Chalking Eight”.
The White Rose has been a very active group on Telegram, with photos posted daily from people placing their eye-opening, thought-provoking, and sometimes amusing stickers on various things all around the world. According to one of the channel’s admins, thus far with perhaps thousands of activists stickering around the world, the first to be arrested were New Hampshire’s “Sticker Pimps” in the supposed live-free-or-die state.
Now, YouTube has struck again and banned a video some amazing editor made about the return of the White Rose Society. I was honored to discover someone from the new White Rose Society had taken some audio from my radio show, “Free Talk Live“, where we were discussing the new White Rose and their amazing counter-propaganda activism. I uploaded it to the FreeKeene YouTube and it was nearly immediately removed for violating their “medical misinformation policy”, which says, “YouTube doesn’t allow content that explicitly disputes the efficacy of local health authorities’ or World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on social distancing and self isolation that may lead people to act against that guidance.”
If you’d like to join the White Rose, you’ll need the Telegram app. Then click this link: t.me/jointhewhiterose Check the pinned post for instructions and the latest sticker pack.
