Issues | Free Keene

Poker Legalized In-Home in New Hampshire!

by Ian | Jul 20, 2017 | 3 comments

Home Poker Games Legalized in NH!

The political wins for libertarians in NH just keep coming! Home poker games will become legal in New Hampshire on September 16th! Last week, the new governor, Chris Sununu, signed HB 164 which makes legal:

A poker game held in a private residence so long as the house takes no compensation from the prize pool, no admission fee or seat fee is charged, no one receives any money or anything of value for conducting the game, for allowing the use of his or her residence for the game, or for any other reason except his or her own winnings as a player, the game’s odds do not favor a “house” or any player, there is no house bank, the game is limited to no more than 10 players, and the game is not advertised to the public.

Thus far in 2017 we’ve seen lessened penalties on cannabis, concealed carry with no permit, bitcoin and cryptocurrency protection, legalized firecrackers, and now this news. New Hampshire is clearly on a positive trajectory towards freedom. It’s thanks in part to the ongoing NH Freedom Migration and the liberty-loving natives who’ve lived here for generations, protecting NH from the ravages of big government.

We need more liberty-minded people to move here, ASAP and help us end prohibitions entirely. Here are 101 reasons why you should join us in the Shire.

It’s Official: NH Governor Signs Cannabis Decriminalization!

by Ian | Jul 18, 2017 | 11 comments

Libertarian Party of NH Chairman Darryl W Perry Takes a Rip

After it passed with veto-proof margins for the first time in New Hampshire’s history, cannabis decriminalization was signed today by new NH republican governor Chris Sununu.

Marijuana decrim is the latest feather in the cap of the NH Freedom Migration that has been tipping the political scales of the state in favor of more liberty. This year alone, there have been multiple political wins, from multiple elected state representatives flipping to the Libertarian Party of NH, to the constitutional carry bill passing, the bitcoin/cryptocurrency protection bill, and even legalizing firecrackers!

This isn’t the best decrim bill possible, but it’s a big step in the right direction for the Live Free or Die state. Police have sixty days before the bill goes into effect to arrest as many users as possible, because after sixty days, they’re only allowed to ticket for cannabis possession. HB 640 eliminates criminal penalties for the possession of up to 3/4 of an ounce of cannabis and/or up to five grams of hashish for those age 18 or older. Under the new law, first time offenders will receive a civil violation punishable by a $100 fine. Unfortunately, if the person is caught three times in three years, then the fourth ticketing would be a class B misdemeanor, but the person still cannot be arrested. The first offense is fined at $100, but subsequent offenses within that three year period would be $300 each.

New Hampshire Loves Bitcoin and Cannabis!

Hopefully, after a year of this decrim, the state reps and senators will see that the world in NH has not turned into a satanic hellscape, and we’ll see further decriminalization in the future, right down to the total elimination of all penalties for possession, growing, or sale of any amount of cannabis. Ideally, New Hampshire, if it were truly a free place, would have no regulatory or taxation structure around the cannabis plant at all. If that miraculously happened, the cannabis industry would explode in the Shire and we’d all be better off for it.

If you like that vision and you’re a libertarian, voluntarist, or liberty-loving anarchist, we need you here to help make NH the best state for cannabis freedom. Sure, other states have legalization, but there’s an insane amount of regulation and tax around the industry. What if NH could be the one state without that legal garbage? It could happen if you were here to help. We need more people to move here and join the most successful freedom migration in the world. Here are 101 reasons why you should.

Why We’re Temporarily Shutting Down Bitcoin Vending Machines on July 31st

by Ian | Jul 15, 2017 | 20 comments

Will Bitcoin “Fork” on August 1st?

In a recent, in-depth article, I discussed the out-of-control fees to send bitcoin. The executive summary is that Bitcoin is somewhat broken due to the high fees that have been caused due to the Bitcoin network not being able to scale to consumer demand. The reason for this is because there has been an ongoing “geek war” for a couple years now behind the scenes that centers over some fundamental disagreements over how Bitcoin should handle its growing pains with scaling up. Meanwhile, the fees have been rising over the last six months and have killed off the previous usefulness that Bitcoin had for microtransactions, or even small dollar transactions. Again, see my original piece for more about the fee difficulties.

Now the ugly Bitcoin not-so-civil war that has been playing out behind the scenes on message boards, reddit, and social media for months and months is going to come into public view on August 1st. Here’s my non-technical explanation for what’s happening and how, if you’re a bitcoin holder or bitcoin-accepting merchant, it could affect you: (more…)

City Commits Civil Disobedience Against Feds By Painting Blue Line Down Marlboro St.

by Ian | Jul 10, 2017 | 20 comments

Keene Signals its Support for Secession by its Recent Peaceful Civil Disobedience

In case you aren’t aware, the police have their own gang symbol. It’s called the “thin blue line” – a blue line horizontally sandwiched between two black bars. You’ll frequently see it on the back of vehicles presumably containing police or their immediate relatives. Of course, anyone can buy these stickers now, so police have other ways of recognizing their own, like these family “professional courtesy” passbooks, but regardless, the blue line is still seen on their cars, their clothing, and now flags. It helps create the “us vs them” mentality that some police have. Worse still, some people insist on treating the police as though they are better than the rest of humanity. Their word is gold in court, they get special burials when mass calamity happens, deferential treatment in many of the crimes the corrupt officers commit, and more.

In a recent Keene Sentinel piece about multiple city councilors gushing over their recent decision to paint a horribly garish blue line down the middle of Marlboro St, local commenter Johnson Rice points out that the city is actually committing civil disobedience against the federal government: (more…)

The Jail Paper Keene’s Video Interview of Free Keene Founder

by Ian | Jul 9, 2017 | 8 comments

Free Keene Founder Ian Freeman Interviewed by The Jail Paper Keene

New courtroom video/photo blog The Jail Paper Keene has been reporting from Keene’s district and superior courts recently, covering various criminal cases. This week, The Jail Paper Keene posted some of my mugshots and asked for comments on whether I am a hero or villain. Since I’ve been a longtime, publicly visible activist who has done a bunch over the decade plus I’ve been here in Keene, naturally some of the haters came around to post their uninformed vitriol.

I did my best to correct their misinformation and was amazed as some haters also attacked the Jail Paper Keene for even posting my photo to their page, accusing the page of being run by me or one of my supposed “puppets”. Their paranoia knows no bounds.

Today, I had the pleasure of meeting The Jail Paper Keene’s Thomas Parisi and he conducted an interview on my front porch. You can watch it here on The Jail Paper Keene’s facebook page.

Bitcoin fees are WAY down! What happened, and why is virtually no one talking about it?

by Ian | Jul 4, 2017 | 13 comments

Charlie Shrem, COO of Jaxx, stumbled onto the lower fees, he told Free Talk Live.

I saw the headline in Coin Telegraph and couldn’t believe it: “Bitcoin Transaction Fees Significantly Decrease, Charlie Shrem Pays $0.25 Fee”. Even though I know and trust Charlie Shrem, I still thought this news was a fluke.

For those who haven’t been following the ugly geek war happening behind the scenes of Bitcoin, here’s a recap, oversimplifying a complex situation:

As little as two years ago, Bitcoin’s median transaction fee was as low as $0.02 worth of bitcoin. That means half of all bitcoin transaction fees cost less than $0.02 and the other half cost over $0.02.
With Bitcoin, there are fees to send, not receive. (This is the reverse of credit cards, where the merchant pays a fee to receive.) In the past, if one wanted, one could send bitcoin with no fee and it would go through, just without any priority. As you can see from this chart, the median transaction fee has shot up mostly in the last six months or so, and it has risen has high as $3.00 worth of bitcoin!

That means that had I wanted, in the last few months, to go buy a $2.00 drink at Corner News with bitcoin here on Main Street in Keene, NH, it might cost me $3 just to send the $2, making it a $5 drink! No sane customer would pay a crazy fee like that. This dramatic rise in fees has destroyed bitcoin’s previous usefulness for microtransactions. No more bitcoin-operated snack machines, no more using bitcoin for small online tips, no more Watch-my-Bit micro-donation video streaming service. (more…)