The successes of the freedom migration to New Hampshire keep piling up. So much that our statist opponents cannot ignore or laugh at us anymore. Their posts on social media are a constant stream of frustration at their failures to impose more tyranny on the Granite State. Recently, leftist group “Granite State Matters” posted, “FREE STATERS plotted to invade and take over NH two decades ago. Their plan is working.”, when announcing a podcast episode about it. This, not long after the Hillsborough Democrats gave a 90-minute infomercial about the amazing success of the Free State Project and the various organizations libertarians have started or engaged with here in New Hampshire. There are a lot more such caterwauling posts from the statists than I can put here. To see it all, I recommend following @FreeStateNH on Twitter.
Granite State Matters is right. The Free Staters’ plan is working. It’s actually been working for quite a while, but since COVID happened the migration has kicked into overdrive as libertarians, voluntarists, and liberty-loving anarchists have begun moving here sooner and faster, thanks to state governments becoming super-tyrannical virtually overnight.
Concentrating liberty activists in one small, low-population state is effective. The Free State Project is no pie-in-the-sky, fanciful idea. It’s a real movement with nearly two-decades under its belt. It’s a proven success. Anyone paying attention knows the freedom migration to NH has had more wins in 15 years than the entire Libertarian Party has nationally in 50 years.
It’s no surprise that with the world’s largest concentration of libertarians on the planet, New Hampshire is the freest place in all of North America, and arguably the entire world. Indeed, recently released studies from CATO and the Frasier Institute bear this out with hard numbers and research.
NH #1 in 2021 “Freedom In the 50 States” Study
CATO’s study, Freedom in the 50 States, looks at both economic and personal freedoms in multiple categories, coming up with rankings for each category and the overall score. Overall, New Hampshire has reclaimed the number one spot, defeating Florida, which had somehow snagged the top slot from NH in the 2020 rankings. Though the study is released in 2021, anything that actually happened in 2020 and 2021 are not factored into the study as it takes time to gather the statistics. The study’s authors point out in their NH analysis that New Hampshire had some major advances in freedom in 2021, like Education Savings Accounts, and lowering and eliminating taxes, and they expect NH to put some distance between it and #2 Florida in the coming years. These advances are largely due to the dozens of Free Staters who have been elected to the state house and the tireless efforts of groups like the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance.
Not only did New Hampshire beat Florida in the CATO study, but in the 2021 Economic Freedom of North America study by the Frazier Institute – with data from 2019 – NH again took the top spot, beating #2 Florida when all US states, Canadian provinces, and Mexican states were considered. New Hampshire also took number one in their separate ranking looking at just state and local laws affecting freedom, with Tennessee taking the #2 spot there and Florida dropping to #3. The difference in the results are that the overall North America freedom rankings factors in Federal government restrictions and the rankings of just the states ignores Federal controls. New Hampshire wins in both rundowns!
We’ll even help you move-in!
Finally, thanks to the Free State Project‘s newsletter for pointing this one out, the “Taxpayer Return-on-Investment” rankings from Wallethub for 2021 show New Hampshire as the number one state, meaning not only do its inhabitants have an overall low tax burden, but that its government “services” are relatively high quality considering their low cost.
As the numbers of liberty migrants to NH continue to grow, it will get harder for the little tyrants to have any success expanding the state. They will continue to be frustrated and eventually, they’ll quit, as many already have. They they will leave New Hampshire for places where their meddling ways are common and welcome, like Massachusetts and New York. New York, by the way, is number 50 in both the Frazier and CATO studies. Libertarians who want a better life instantly and who are willing to work towards more freedom should move to New Hampshire as soon as possible. Here are 101 reasons why you should.
Don’t be fooled. Florida is not going to get more free and libertarians there have zero influence. Florida a police state. If you’re a conservative, move to Florida or Texas. If you’re a liberal, move to California or the other West Coast states. If you love liberty, there’s only one place on the planet with the largest and most successful liberty community, and that’s New Hampshire.
Six months after arresting a grandmother and Sunday School teacher Kathleen Bossi for not wearing a mask at their meeting, the Timberlane School Board once again has arrested another peaceful parent. At this week’s meeting, Nolan Pelletier, who is also the chairman of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, was arrested for “criminal trespass”. Why? For sitting with his wife in the main seating section instead of the segregated seating section for unmasked people. Here’s video, including some of what happened before and after his arrest:
Pelletier has been to every meeting this year and was witness to Bossi’s arrest in May. He and his wife Jessica have a child in the government school district and are not happy about the mask mandate being forced on the school kids. In an exclusive interview for Free Keene, Pelletier told me that at school board meetings, they even have a separate, segregated entrance for maskless people, who are then told they must sit in a segregated area of the auditorium.
Dr. Kimberly Farah, local sociopath and head of Timberlane School Board
The Pelletiers and some other freedom-loving parents refused to enter via the “separate but equal” doors and eventually were allowed in the front door, and then rather than sit at the “back of the bus” – as one woman referred to the segregated zone – the Pelletiers sat quietly in the main seating section, where no one was seated anywhere nearby.
Within moments of the start of the meeting, the chairman of the school board, Dr. Kimberly Farah, issued a threat to the audience, saying that anyone who in unmasked and not seated in the segregated section will be charged with “criminal trespass”, which is a misdemeanor that could carry up to one year in jail. After issuing the board’s threats, Farah said, “We sincerely hope to avoid taking the above actions during our board meetings, as we believe that such a decision would not serve the district.” Seconds later, board member Sheila Lowes requested the meeting be halted, “until people are complying with what we are stating”. Farah then “asks” that unmasked people move to the segregated area. Fifteen seconds later, she “asks” again, as no one had apparently moved.
Clearly she wasn’t just asking, as nine seconds later, she says to the mask-free people that she is going to order them to leave the premises, and tells the police present that she wants their assistance removing unmasked people as she “considers those to be in criminal trespass”. The two police make a beeline for the Pelletiers, focusing on Nolan. The masked, armed men continue to use terms like “asking” and “guidelines”, though obviously these are not simply kind requests. One officer attempts to get Pelletier to claim he doesn’t want to follow the “guidelines” before turning back to Farah and asking if she wants Pelletier criminally trespassed. She affirms and moments later the officers tell him if he doesn’t leave on his own, he’ll be charged with resisting arrest in addition to criminal trespass. Beating a resisting arrest charge is quite difficult, so Pelletier understandably complied with the threatening gang members.
LPNH Chair Nolan Pelletier Arrested at Timberlane School Board Meeting
Strangely, Pelletier told me the officers later claimed that he was never under arrest despite being handcuffed outside, put into a cruiser, and transported to the police station for booking before being released on “personal recognizance” bail. His arraignment is set for November 29th, 8am at Salem District Court.
Also, none of the other maskless people in the main seating area were charged, including Jessica Pelletier, who was seated right next to Nolan and left sitting there by police when they removed him. Others in the segregated section spoke out, including a man who told the school board they are slimeballs who belong in Massachusetts. He promised they would be publicly shamed and told them that they are disgusting. I hope he is right. People like these scum need to be shamed so much they quit their jobs and move out of New Hampshire. Eventually the government schools need to be ended entirely, but for now the best choice for freedom-loving parents is to get their kids out of the government schools, as soon as possible.
Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on the sociopathic school board and the Pelletier case as it develops.
A recent post over at NHexit.US reveals some of the interesting demographic breakdowns of the St. Anselm College poll from this month, which showed 68% of New Hampshire voters think the United States is on the “wrong track”.
That number alone is impressive, but some categories of voters were even more likely to say “wrong track”, like younger voters, people in the North Country, republicans and the much-coveted undeclared voter.
A couple of weeks ago, hundreds of freedom-loving activists made headlines when they converged on a meeting of New Hampshire’s governor and the “executive council”. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss accepting $27 million taxpayer dollars from the federal gang to promote COVID vaccinations. Cowardly state employees walked out of the meeting claiming they were in fear for their safety and the lone democrat on the executive council called the activists’ behavior “insurrectionist”. Sununu canceled the meeting and it was rescheduled for this morning.
Again, hundreds of activists gathered this morning at a larger venue, the New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord, for the rescheduled meeting to consider accepting the $27 million bribe. This time, the state gang was prepared for mass arrests with at least 50 state troopers on hand as well as multiple police prisoner transport vans. During today’s meeting, there were indeed several arrests, with activists facing “Disorderly Conduct” charges.
In New Hampshire, the executive council is a check on executive power. There are five councilors and any contracts valued over $10,000 must be approved by the council, which is why the $27 million offer from the federal goons has to get the nod from a majority of the executive council. Despite tyrant-king “governor” Chris Sununu advocating the council accept the COVID bribe money, surprisingly the council voted 4-1 down party lines to REJECT the money!
Sununu issued a whining press release after the meeting, saying, “today’s vote by members of my own party on the Executive Council was a total disservice to the constituents we serve…The vote showed a reckless disregard for the lives we are losing while they turn away the tools our state needs to fight and win this battle against COVID.”
Meanwhile, dozens of activists visited the Merrimack County Spiritual Retreat where the nine people arrested were processed and released. I spoke with Absolute Defiance founder Frank “Footloose” Staples about the arrests. He says they were charged with the police favorite catch-all, “Disorderly Conduct” and one caught a “Resisting Arrest” charge. One of the arrested is a 70-year old woman.
When asked about the rumor that he was arrested on a warrant from the PRIOR meeting, Footloose said he isn’t sure as despite the fact that he was arrested, processed, and released from jail, at no point was he issued a “COMPLAINT” with any details regarding his charge. Prior to his arrest and the arrest of another leader, nurse Terese Grinnell, neither were asked to leave or warned in any way.
Footloose also explained that the meeting room had a large plastic curtain dividing it and behind the curtain were dozens of state troopers – presumably waiting to make arrests. So, by dividing up the room into an area for the audience and an area for potential mass arrests, the gang was able to keep a large chunk of activists from entering the building. Very sneaky.
Regardless, the executive councilors got the message from the people and they did the right thing and rejected the federal bribe, an act of nullification – proving again that New Hampshire is a special place where freedom actually has a chance to win.
Normally, the Keene mayoral primary is pretty uneventful. This year, however, according to the Keene Sentinel, a major bombshell just dropped regarding one of the three candidates, 66-year-old Mark J. Zuchowski, a newcomer to Keene politics.
Zuchowski has been accused of stalking by city clerk office worker Heather Fitz-Simon. Though Zuchowski hasn’t been charged criminally in the matter, he has been no-trespassed from Fitz-Simon’s home and is facing a hearing on a stalking petition brought by Fitz-Simon on October 6th at 2:30pm in Cheshire Superior Court. According to the Sentinel story, Zuchowski spent inordinate time hanging around the city clerk’s office, rambling about his dead mother and shaking a seltzer bottle, then explaining to Fitz-Simon his habit of creepily watching a young woman who works near his home. Zuchowski allegedly emailed city staff about his observation of the woman, explaining he’s watching her daily to make sure she is able to get inside her workplace safely. He emailed Fitz-Simon inviting her – a married woman – out on a date, later claiming it was only to discuss his campaign.
If all Zuchowski did was make a awkward pass at a city employee, that wouldn’t be so bad. However he then showed up at Fitz-Simon’s house, blocked the driveway with his car, took photos of the home, and rung the doorbell, allegedly multiple times. When police were called, he was given a no-trespass order and still didn’t leave immediately. He tried to claim he was just looking to see if Fitz-Simon had received his email invite, bizarrely excusing his photographing the home by explaining he thought he’d been there before while apartment hunting in the past. He claims he wanted to give her a small pumpkin and a note complimenting her appearance and reiterating his invite to an antiques show.
Obviously, there are two sides to every story, but I can personally confirm the dude is weird. When I was filing to run for at-large city council in early September, Zuchowski was in the clerk’s office being overly-friendly with the city staff. He was acting like he belonged there. Since he’s relatively new to town, I only know it was him because he introduced himself to another person who happened to walk into the office at the same time. At the moment, I chalked his behavior up to being a little-too-enthusiastic about being the next mayor, though he did strike me as odd at the time.
Mark J Zuchowski, Alleged Creep
Plus, check out the rambling twenty-four page bio he submitted to the city clerk’s office regarding his campaign for mayor of Keene. On just the first page he explains he feels like he has a father-and-son relationship with current mayor George Hansel and excoriates Hansel for attending protests last summer during the governor’s “stay at home” order, then uses math formulas to calculate how protestors violated social distancing. Apparently, Zuchowski was an engineer prior to retiring to Keene from his original home in Massachusetts. He worked for defense contractors developing weapons for the military to murder innocents around the world, yet claims to be a lifelong Christian.
In a post responding to the news about Zuchowski, DiMezzo said, “Look, when you’ve made someone uncomfortable, you should notice that, and stop making them uncomfortable. The only misunderstanding here is that you’re a creep who is creepily creeping on some chick, and you refuse to recognize that. Stop being a creep.” Zuchowski claims the whole situation is a misunderstanding. The primary election is this Tuesday, October 5th. One of the three candidates will be eliminated Tuesday and two move on to the November 2nd general election.
Please come out Tuesday and vote for Aria DiMezzo. Polling place information is here on the City website. You can register to vote at the polls if you aren’t registered yet. Remember voting in a primary means your vote counts even more than normal, since almost no one ever bothers. You can get more information about Aria at the Reformed Satanic Church blog, of which she is the High Priestess and her official campaign website, KeeneQueen.com.
Thanks to two heroic state representatives, New Hampshire has now taken the lead nationally in the independence movement. Yesterday, five-term state rep Mike Sylvia filed the text of a constitutional amendment that would, if passed, declare independence from the United States:
“Are you in favor of amending the first part of the New Hampshire Constitution by inserting, after article 7, a new article to read as follows:
[Art.] 7-a. [Independent Nation.] New Hampshire declares itself as independent from the United States and peaceably, immediately proceeds as a sovereign nation. All other references to the United States in this constitution and state statutes and regulations are nullified.”
To pass, it must first receive over 60% of the vote in both the state house and senate. If it does, it will then be placed on the 2022 ballot and then must receive over 2/3rds of the vote to be enacted. If so, it goes into effect immediately. There would be no political games like with United Kingdom’s “Brexit” from the European Union, which took several years to hammer out after the vote. New Hampshire will instantly declare our independence and nullify all standing agreements with the federal government gang. Compare this to the thus-far unsuccessful attempts in other US states.
In recent years, secession movements around the country have sprung up and made headlines in California and Texas, but with very little legislative support. In Texas, a state rep filed a bill this year that if passed, would merely have placed a non-binding referendum on the ballot for Texas voters to register their opinion on whether the Texas legislature should begin an arduous process of figuring out how to leave the United States. This bill’s filing resulted in plenty of media coverage and discussion, however, it died before even receiving a committee hearing. A key reason that New Hampshire was chosen as the destination for the Free State Project is that EVERY bill gets a public committee hearing, no matter how much support it has from the state reps. Most states are like Texas, where it’s a political game whether a bill even gets a hearing.
New Hampshire Independence
In California, a left-leaning group called “Yes California” has been trying for years to get an independence question on the ballot by gathering the hundreds-of-thousands of required signatures. If passed, the measure would require the legislature to declare independence from the US and become its own republic. So far, they have been unsuccessful despite garnering significant media coverage. Currently their website is offline, though their Twitter is still active. Even if they do get the question on the ballot and it passes, they may not survive the inevitable court challenge given the CA state constitution provides that California, “is an inseparable part of the United States of America.”
While I want to see both Texas and California exit the United States, it’s clear that with the filing of this constitutional amendment bill – called in NH a “CACR” or, “Constitutional Amendment Concurrent Resolution” – that New Hampshire has taken the clear lead in the race to see who will leave the union first. Plus, unlike California, the NH constitution clearly protects the “Right of Revolution” in Article 10 and “State Sovereignty” in Article 7 of the NH Bill of Rights.
Representative Sylvia, in an exclusive interview with Free Keene, had this to say on why he filed the proposed amendment, “The people of America have forgotten their history, if we take the time to look at our roots we can see that our constitutions have received ‘lip service’ for far too long. While I can not change the direction of the federal government, I can hold up the New Hampshire constitution and demand that we honor its clear directives. Article 10 reads in part, ‘whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government.'”
The 2018 liberty “Legislator of the Year” representative Sylvia is joined by freshman state rep from the Keene area, Matt Santonastaso as the co-sponsor of the amendment. Other state reps have been approached and have expressed support and a full list will be released when the amendment is assigned a CACR number and moves onto a committee.
NH Independence NOW!
The process is just beginning, with Sylvia submitting the proposed text to NH Legislative Services on Monday. It may take several weeks for them to officially draft the CACR and send it back to Sylvia for final approval. It then is assigned to a committee which will then hold a public hearing sometime in early 2022. What happens from there is up to the committee and will largely depend on how much public support the amendment receives at its hearing.
Even if it doesn’t pass this time, it will get many conversations started about the evil federal government and why peacefully declaring independence is the best solution. Minds will be persuaded and changed. Many media and political attacks will be brought against us, as the power-seekers will be desperate to keep the status quo. Potential migrants to New Hampshire will be energized and make-the-move.
To help the movement, you can contact your local state reps in support of the amendment, connect with other supporters online, and more. Visit the “How You Can Help” page on NHexit.us for a full list of ideas.