The 2016 New Hampshire Liberty Forum, held this past weekend at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, was the usual gathering of hundreds of libertarians and anarchists for the annual conference. Different this year was the headlining event, drawing the largest crowd of the forum, and featuring a speaker who was occupying the opposite side of the globe. Broadcasting into the parlor via a live video feed was Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower famed for revealing the details of government surveillance operations targeting humans situated both within and without the borders of the United States.
In the approximately fifty minutes that Snowden was linked into the room, he was interviewed by Reason’s Nick Gillespie on a variety of topics from Snowden’s perspective on current events, the United States presidential race, ideological inspirations, and potential paths for the future.
Strangely, an announcement was made before the event requesting that all unofficial filming be suspended. In the interests of objective journalism, I ensured that an audio device was running for the duration of the event, which resulted in poor audio quality compared to what could have been captured without the restriction. Illustrated with images captured by multiple sources from the event, enjoy this presentation of Edward Snowden’s appearance before the audience of the 2016 NH Liberty Forum.
Cointelegraph is the most recognizable news source in the bitcoin universe – each of their articles features a cartoon graphic that is custom-drawn for the piece. One of the reporters for Cointelegraph is Joel Valenzuela, a Free State Project early mover. He’s been cranking out stories that show New Hampshire as a destination for bitcoin users and his newest features yours truly!
His latest piece is about some of the difficulties and objections that business owners have with accepting bitcoin and specifically mentions the Keene bitcoin scene as a place with some level of success in getting local businesses onboard. Plus, I got turned into a cartoon. Check out the full article here.
FSP Founder Jason Sorens Speaks to Nearly 100 This Morning
Nearly one hundred liberty-loving early movers were in attendance for the press conference this morning held by the Free State Project at the Radisson in Manchester. FSP founder Jason Sorens spoke on the creation of the FSP and why the first 5,000 participants chose New Hampshire as the destination. Jason said,
“The free state project is working because it gives people hope”
That’s definitely true for me. When I moved here as an early mover for the FSP in 2006 I was pretty angry about the government. I felt very lonely in Florida, with little more than a handful of libertarians in the area. Now there are more liberty-minded people living at my intersection in Keene than there were in the entire city where I’m from.
With over 1,600 having moved across NH from all around the globe as early movers, (the official FSP move begins today) and having a major impact, it’s clear that there is hope for liberty here in the Shire. I’m not angry anymore and haven’t been for many years. I expect other libertarians who feel isolated or cornered where they live will have a similar transition when they are surrounded by people who actually care about liberty and are willing to do something about it. It’s quite encouraging to be here. Here’s the full video of the press conference:
After Jason Sorens’ speech, FSP president Carla Gericke got up to address the crowd and journalists in the room, officially announcing that the FSP has reached its goal of 20,000 liberty-minded folks signing and promising to move to New Hampshire within five years of today, Feb 3rd, 2016. It’s now been dubbed “Porcupine Day”, and happens right after Groundhog Day. (The porcupine is the mascot of the FSP.) Once here, the FSP movers are to put forth the maximum practical effort to achieve liberty in our lifetime. Carla explained to the audience what it took to get the project to completion, including a sustained, expensive ad campaign on Facebook, for which much credit was given to Vince Perfetto who is well known in the NH liberty community as the producer of the excellent documentary, “101 Reasons Liberty Lives in New Hampshire“. (more…)
Today at 11am, the FSP will be holding a press conference in Manchester to announce the good news. I’ll be there and do my best to tweet it live here via the Free Keene Twitter:
It’s been fifteen years in the making – the official move for the Free State Project will be kicking off this week! With fewer than 150 signers to go, the FSP has reached 99% of its goal of convincing 20,000 liberty-loving people to move to New Hampshire and get active.
Once 20,000 is reached this week, the early mover phase ends and the official move begins. The 20k will have a five year window to get here and get active.
I’ve you wanted to wait until the last minute to see if we’d make the goal, it’s now the last minute. It’s clear now at around 50 signers per day, the FSP is happening! Don’t miss out on helping make history. If you love liberty, you should join the Free State Project now and start planning your move!
If you thought the activism here was awesome and record-setting, you are right, but just wait until thousands more join us! The fun has just gotten started. As shown clearly in the excellent documentary, “101 Reasons Liberty Lives in New Hampshire“, we have a liberty community unlike anywhere else in the world.
Questions still remain. What will happen to the FSP organization after the 20k goal is reached? Will they continue to recruit signers past the goal? Will the organization dissolve after five years? Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on the coming mass migration of liberty activists to the Shire.
Thanks to graphics design pro Johnson Rice of Infinite Twilight, our Bitcoin flyer that we’ve distributed thousands of at various places since 2014 has been updated for 2016 with new info and a new video QR. Now, instead of just one version for the Keene area, we have three total:
Please feel free to download the variant of your preference and send it off to your favorite printer. I recommend color, matte cardstock, but that’s just my preference. Do as you wish and help spread the word about Bitcoin in physical reality!
Manchester, was the usual gathering of hundreds of libertarians and anarchists for the annual conference. Different this year was the headlining event, drawing the largest crowd of the forum, and featuring a speaker who was occupying the opposite side of the globe. Broadcasting into the parlor via a live video feed was Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower famed for revealing the details of government surveillance operations targeting humans situated both within and without the borders of the United States.
