Last year I had the pleasure of attending and broadcasting my talk radio show, Free Talk Live, from the third annual NH Hempfest! This year it’s back, rebranded to the “NH Cannabis Freedom Festival“, again at the beautiful Roger’s Campground from August 25th-27th. Like last year’s event, this year promises to be packed full of wall-to-wall live musical performances by some great bands. (And this year they are accepting bitcoin – get your tickets here!) If you were wondering what this excellent festival was like last year, Free Keene blogger and radio host Robert Mathias was there and spent the last year of his life putting together a feature-length documentary about it!
Set to the music of the live bands that were recorded professionally throughout the weekend and filled with gorgeous aerial shots of the vistas at Rogers Campground, the new NH Hempfest Documentary features plenty of footage giving you a taste of what it was like to be there in person. Mathias’ lovingly crafted, somewhat trippy feature film shows the beginnings of the festival from the setup day, through the weekend, including three full music videos recorded live from performers “Pigeons Playing Ping Pong”, “Zach Deputy”, and “Twiddle”. The documentary also keeps viewers up-to-date on the latest developments regarding cannabis decriminalization in New Hampshire, and does an excellent job portraying a solid anti-state, pro-liberty message to the cannabis crowd, a demographic ripe for the ideas of freedom. Kudos to Spirit Love Productions‘ Robert & Ann Mathias and Justin Campagnone for the stellar job putting this together.
The NH Hempfest Documentary is the third feature-length documentary produced by people who’ve moved to New Hampshire as part of the NH Freedom Migration. Prior to this was 2014’s “101 Reasons Liberty Lives in New Hampshire” and 2012’s “Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree“. New Hampshire is the destination for freedom lovers from around the globe. Nowhere else has this solid level of media and activism coming out of it. Join us here, ASAP!
Before the 2017 Legislative Session began, Liberty Lobby LLC CEO Darryl W Perry began identifying bills of interest. This was initially done based solely on the titles of the Legislative Service Requests (LSRs), which are made public shortly after being filed. The text of the LSRs are then made available once the wording is finalized and has a signature from the sponsor. Not every LSR gets a bill number; a Representative or Senator can ask to withdraw the LSR. This often happens if there are multiple LSRs on the same topic with the same objective, or if the sponsor learns there is little chance of passage.
Of the LSRs marked as “of interest” by Liberty Lobby LLC, 39 were withdrawn before the text became available. Another 3 were withdrawn after the bill text became available, but before being assigned to a committee. Once committee hearing began in January, bills could not be withdrawn. However, the sponsor of SB82 (relative to labeling for maple syrup) requested the bill be deemed “Inexpedient to Legislate,” and the public hearing lasted less than one minute.
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.
This Independence Day, I am pushing the meme of New Hampshire Independence. It is its own country of 1,331,000 people with a unique set of cultural, economic, and philosophical values. It’s about time you and I start referring to NH as a country. Forget “draining the swamp” — Leave the swamp!
Just-Flipped-to-Libertarian State Representative Brandon Phinney
The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire held another press conference today announcing the awesome news that now a THIRD sitting state representative has flipped parties to the LPNH! The LPNH has already made two previous historic announcements earlier this year with state representatives Caleb Dyer of Pelham and Joseph Stallcop of Keene changing from republican and democrat respectively to the Libertarian Party of NH and then forming a Libertarian caucus in the state house for the first time in twenty years.
Representative Brandon Phinney, who was elected in 2016 as a republican, said during his official announcement at today’s press conference, that the republican party leadership has been chastising their legislators for not following the leadership’s demands. Phinney said in his speech that he was stifled by party leadership and that he and the other liberty minded reps were labeled “terrorists”! He said, “What I found was that both parties were seeking to manipulate the potential legislation and the legislative process for political gain…I was not elected to do the bidding of a political party at the expense of my principles.” He finished his speech by saying, “Integrity and a clear conscience is desperately needed in the New Hampshire house and together with representatives Dyer and Stallcop, I believe that our cause will ignite a shift in political affiliation in this state”.
Phinney was joined in speaking by the chairman of the national Libertarian Party, Nicholas Sarwark, who came up from their offices in DC to help commemorate the occasion. In his speech, Sarwark delivered an invitation to legislators, politicians, and others saying, “if you’re tired of living a lie, if you’re tired of standing up for things you don’t believe in, come out of the closet. Become a libertarian. Come home. ” It was Sarwark’s first time visiting the Live Free or Die state. Here’s the full press conference from this morning in Concord:
On May 24 2017 I attended, “Exposing the Free State Project,” 90 minutes of slander and lies by Zandra Rice Hawkins. Hawkins is a propagandist with Granite State Progress, a political arm of the New Hampshire Democrats. She apparently missed her calling as a preacher of the fire and brimstone variety, given the fear, mistrust, and terror she attempted to sow throughout the crowd. In the end, attendees seemed rightfully doubtful of Hawkins’ spurious claims that Free Staters are wolves in sheep’s clothing, secretly plotting to dismantle every beloved societal institution they can. Instead, Free Staters were seen as open, willing to engage others on the issues that matter most to them, and find common ground where possible to make a better life for everyone.
The event was advertised as “free and open to the public.” In case you missed it, a generous attendee provided me with a 90-minute audio recording:
