Border Patrol Agent Salutes Camera at NH Internal Oppressive Checkpoint
On Friday, several Forkfest 2018 attendees drove an hour South of Roger’s Campground to I-93 around Woodstock, NH – the site of the repeating temporary internal Border Patrol immigration checkpoints. Based on activist reports, the checkpoint appeared to have been operating that day from noon until 7pm. As is typical of these checkpoints, they were stopping every car to ask occupants if they are “US Citizens“. They also had a dog they were walking up and down the line of waiting cars.
As it turns out, a car full of people with video cameras wasn’t welcome in their secondary screening area. After one agent orders me to pull into their secondary screening for refusing to answer questions, his commanding officer intervenes before I can even cross over a single lane of traffic, and even apologizes for not wasting more of our time with their invasive screening! In hindsight, I should have told him to apologize to all the cars without camera-toting occupants for wasting everyone’s time with their oppressive police state checkpoint. Here’s the ridiculous video:
No one in the car was planning to answer the agents’ questions, given one has a right to remain silent (that the US Supreme Court has now required be invoked in police encounters). Obedience to tyrants only encourages them. Besides, as someone who believes in liberty, I don’t believe in government borders. Peaceful people should be allowed to enter a free country. Of course, we all know by now the United States is not a free country, and in fact has been dropping on the various international freedom rankings.
Also this weekend, NH Libertarian Party candidate for US Congress NH-2, Justin O’Donnell also traversed the checkpoint while live streaming to facebook. His friend in the passenger seat obediently answered the agent’s inquiry while O’Donnell debated with the agents, ultimately admitting to having been born in Boston, MA. Prior to this, the agent threatened to detain O’Donnell until he answered the question. (more…)
Liberty-oriented campers hanging out by the LRN.FM broadcast tent, Day One of Forkfest 2018
Forkfest 2018, the decentralized liberty camping event has started small but strong, kicking off yesterday at Roger’s Campground in the beautiful White Mountains of Lancaster, New Hampshire.
Like the first event last year, this year started slow on Thursday while many are still at work. By my estimates, more are here already this year than were here last year by this time. Not only that, the geographic variety of attendees is more pronounced. This year already has visitors from Lithuania and the United Kingdom as well as a couple from Virginia. Plus many others have indicated they intend to be here no later than Saturday.
What’s happening at Forkfest 2018? Good question! Parties, athletic events, a wedding, a letter-writing event for Ross Ulbricht, a Mesh Networking session, and others have been announced by various attendees. Of course, plenty of socializing and just hanging out by a campfire. There are already a couple of competing calendars that have popped up for attendees to use to promote whatever events they’re involved with. You can find those calendars via the unofficial Forkfest Forum.
Tavern Owner Laura Hardiman Poses with the Anypay App and Cryptocurrency-Loving Forkfest Attendees
If you’re in the area, come on up to Lancaster and join us. There are no tickets to Forkfest (and no organizers or board of directors)! Your only expenses to enjoy your time with other libertarians, voluntarists, and liberty-loving anarchists are your camping costs from Rogers Campground.
Forkfest continues through Monday the 18th and is expected to grow throughout the weekend. Of course, it’s not going to be the size of the fifteen year event that it was spawned from, the Porcupine Freedom Festival (aka Porcfest), which begins on Tuesday the 19th at noon and runs through Sunday the 25th
Great news! As of 2016’s election, the Libertarian Party of NH regained ballot status equal to the Rs and Ds for the first time in two decades! I’d previously been registered as a Democrat for the purposes of running for office but this year I made the switch to Libertarian, since it was the first time I’ve been able to do that since moving here in 2006.
That’s the short version of the story. There’s more, however. In addition to re-registering to vote as a Libertarian, I also modified the voter registration form to reflect my “state citizen” status and put the Keene City Clerk and Secretary of State of NH offices on notice of that.
What is a “state citizen”, you ask? Good question. Here’s my understanding, which the clerk and S.O.S. didn’t contradict. I present to you the notice I sent to the clerk and S.O.S. and the video of my visit to the clerk’s office to change my voter registration and notice them of my state citizen status, under duress. Below the video, I’ll discuss in more detail.
First, beware that there are a lot of “paytriots” out there who will sell you information purported to get you out of the state system if you just file the right papers in the right order in the right places. It’s all a bunch of crap, from what I can tell. If you try their methods and they don’t work, they’ll just claim you did something wrong. You didn’t study enough, didn’t buy the advanced course, etc. (more…)
Now, the gigolo-turned-television star-turned voluntaryist talk show host and now published author has made the move to New Hampshire!
When I asked him to comment on what pushed him over the edge to deciding to move over 2,700 miles for more freedom, he said, “Your talk at Anarchapulco 2017 first sparked my interest. I ended up meeting [then Free State Project president] Matt Philips the next day and he invited me to speak at PorcFest. That got me intrigued. Then I was invited to speak at FreeCoast Fest and Liberty Forum. With my involvement in crypto and the ability to really ‘live it’, along with people I liked asking me to make the move. I just decided to go for it. I’m glad I did.”
Here’s the first episode of Vin’s show that he’s released since making the move where he and his co-host cover moving to NH, cryptocurrency, psychedelics, and liberty as a spiritual evolution. Great show! Welcome home, Vin.
P.S. You’ll be hearing more from Vin this week as he’ll be guest co-hosting Free Talk Live with me and Mark Edge this Tuesday evening from 7-10pm Eastern. You can listen live at Free Talk Live’s site, or watch our video feed via the LRN.FM Twitch.
The speeches from the Concord 4/20 just keep coming! This time it’s two videos featuring two of the New Hampshire state representatives who are actual Libertarian Party of NH members, Caleb Dyer of Pelham and Joseph Stallcop of Keene. Both flipped to Libertarian after being elected as Republican and Democrat in 2017, respectively. (Here are articles about Caleb and Joseph’s historic party changes.)
New Hampshire has more Libertarian Party state reps (three) than all other states combined (zero)! Oh, and in case you missed it, here’s footage from 2017’s event, including the reps enjoying the celebration: (more…)