Jared Goodell is a Keene native and local independent journalist. Yesterday he was the host for EIGHT hours during Pumpkin Fest 2014 on Cheshire TV, the local public access channel. Jared also put thousands of dollars of his own money into producing the all-day event coverage. For this amazing effort to cover the yearly festival (it would not have been covered on CTV without him), he is rewarded with an evening visit by Pumpkin Fest organizer Ruth Sterling who behaves in a ridiculous manner:
Sterling attempts to grab his microphone multiple times, as well as block the camera’s view of Jared, accuses him of frightening the guests of the festival and demands he stop talking about the riots happening just a few blocks away in the college neighborhood.
Since Jared is a newsman at heart, he feels obligated to report on what is happening in-town, and tangentially related to Pumpkin Fest. He defends his right to be the media and she responds by telling him she’ll “pull the plug” (which she has no control over) and that he should behave because she gave him the physical location for the CTV remote studio. As though she somehow was doing him a favor – he’s the one who spent over $5,000 of his own money to make the coverage of her event happen!
At one point in the beginning of the video, Sterling accuses Jared of being a “Free Stater”, this is the new pejorative to describe anyone who stands up for their rights. It’s not Jared’s first time causing controversy for reporting the news. Earlier this year he stirred it up for reporting from the scene of this Summer’s suicide and on the resignation of a despised school principal. Jared is not afraid to break the official city narrative of Keene being a perfect, blemish-free New England town, and is willing to take the heat. Keep up the good work, Jared – we’re all Free Staters now!
Pumpkin Fest 2014: I’d heard there were police with riot gear breaking up a party so I headed down to the college neighborhood yesterday around 6pm after a successful afternoon of handing out Foundation for NH Independence fliers and Bitcoin fliers. Blake Street was packed with people when I arrived, but police were at about a block away in each direction. I asked one house if I could get up on their porch to get a better shot of the crowd and he was gracious enough to invite me up into his room to get a shot from the second story. In the few moments it took to get up there, the large crowd had split and bottles were being thrown. While I don’t think the police should be arresting people for victimless crimes, this was actual criminality. People were getting hurt, property was destroyed and littered upon. Of course, because they have no obligation to protect you, Keene Police decided to stay safely down the street. Here’s video from the middle of the bottle war:
More Pumpkinfest Riot coverage to come here at Free Keene.
When hearing stories about how high tensions have risen in Keene regarding activist adventures, one ponders the many indicators of derision. There’s the fear and hate mongering at STOP FREE KEENE!!!, which when boiling over to violent rhetoric or threats thereof, occasionally gets censored. Then there’s the realistic incidents of actual violence in Keene’s streets regarding activist related activities. Two violent clashes on consecutive evenings tangentially related to Central Square chalkings led to one person’s hospitalization and earned another a felony charge. It would be nice to believe that the xenophobic posturing that has been aimed at individuals were to have reached its climax long ago, but judging by a shouting match in the streets of an otherwise quiet suburban neighborhood, it seems there are those who are making it their life’s effort to embody the forces of antagonism.
This synthesis of negative energy came together after recent re-mover to Keene Christopher Cantwell decided to have a word with neighbor Matthew (more…)
I am sad to report that Gary Chase allegedly hung himself in his home last week. Longtime readers of this blog will remember that Gary was constantly under attack by bureaucrats in the notoriously corrupt town of Winchester, NH. Gary and his former wife owned a valuable piece of property in the heart of downtown and Gary believed the town gang wanted to take his land for their downtown redevelopment “master plan”. Years ago, the town thugs made their first move against Gary and his wife by targeting the property for zoning violations, claiming it was a junkyard and ultimately coming in and stealing over $300,000 of various construction equipment, and allegedly appropriating some of it to themselves and their buddies.
The endless court struggles and follow-up threat against his home led his wife to leave him. Despondent, he reached out for help, but no one wanted to stand against the corrupt goons calling themselves the “Town of Winchester”. On top of this stress, he also was suffering the physical pain of a spine injury. No compassion came from the “town” – they continued to press him. He pleaded to the Cheshire superior court to listen to him. Ultimately, more of his property was stolen by the town gang and liens placed on his home.
“Town of Winchester” Gang Members Smirk as Gary’s Property Is Stolen
The constant harassment pushed Gary over the edge into paranoia. At one point he told me that he believed that the town criminals were hacking into and reading his emails. Of course, when they really are out to get you, you can’t blame someone for being paranoid. Gary met with me in person and spoke to me by phone – his case was persuasive, but there was so much to it, it was hard to really grasp it all. I wanted to do more for him, but I’m not an attorney so I brought the story out here on the blog in three posts (linked here in this article) over the last couple of years since I first met him in early 2013.
Now Gary is gone from this world, dead by allegedly hanging himself in his own home. (more…)
Over the last couple of weeks many in the liberty movement have been discussing the disturbing news about Stefan Molyneux, the popular liberty-oriented internet philosopher.
A few years ago, Molyneux was criticized (in The Guardian and elsewhere) for being a cult leader. Several aspects of Molyneux ring several cult red-flags, like jargon, a charismatic guru, encouraging followers to completely disassociate with family and friends who don’t agree (the jargon for this is “de-fooing”), and also the suppression of dissent within and without the group.
It is the last of those on which I focus here. Recently, Molyneux has admitted to his business manager using Youtube’s copyright claim system to lodge complaints against, and shut down two channels that were critical of Molyneux and his followers. One of them was “TruShibes”. Thankfully, someone had all the videos and have since re-uploaded them to new channel TruMirror. Molyneux has not apologized for his manager’s actions and allegedly excused them by claiming that he was protecting his listeners. The claim is some callers were supposedly being doxed and harassed by one of the offending channels (not TruShibes, another one called FreedomainDamon). Even if that were true, as a talk radio host, it’s not my responsibility to protect my callers. If you become part of my show, you’re becoming a public figure and someone listening to the show might want to know more about you. If that bothers you, don’t call at all, or if you do, be careful about what you reveal.
Former fans of Molyneux have said they’ve been ostracized and banned for dissenting on Molyneux’s forums and former “inner circle” (another cult red-flag) members have spoken out.
Recently, “PaulieDoyle” posted an article to Buzzfeed entitled, “Holy Moly: The Bizarre Online Cult Of Stefan Molyneux”. It was widely shared. Today it mysteriously disappeared from Buzzfeed (and I am reposting it below from its google cache). (more…)
Free State Project participant Andrew Michael Jones of Norfolk, Virginia was arrested in December of 2013 along with others accused of being the operators of the Silk Road underground marketplace. Andrew is alleged to be the longtime site administrator, “Inigo”. Thus far, almost all of the news headlines about the Silk Road arrests have gone to Ross Ulbricht, who is accused of being the infamous site’s creator and head admin, “Dread Pirate Roberts”. Andrew is accused of similar allegations as Ross, “conspiracy to commit money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and hacking” and is facing spending the rest of his life in federal prison.
While Ross Ulbricht was not offered bail, Andrew was able to get out on $1,000,000 bail thanks to his parents, who did not have anything close to that amount of money, so they put up their house and retirement incomes to secure a bond. His bail conditions include 24/7 house arrest at his parents’ house and being strictly forbidden from using any internet capable device. His girlfriend, Birdie, (who is also a Free State Project participant) is the one who reached out to me and she and Andrew’s family have set up a website to accept contributions to his legal fund, as they can use all the help they can get.
Birdie and Andrew
Andrew’s mother, Judy Jones, 68, told me this about him, “He’s very bright, kind, generous and has always been an idealist. When he first told me about bitcoins, he helped me envision a world where the central banks are no longer in charge of money. If it were instead a peer-based monetary system, so much good can come from that. I have hope for a better world thanks to his generation (the Millennials).”
Unlike Ross’ case, Andrew does not face the “kingpin” charge. Plus, he has not been libeled with allegations of murder for hire, as Ross has. Hopefully, that will help with this fundraising ability. He has retained the services of attorney Samuel M. Braverman and the bill will likely be very expensive.
As have many activists looking at moving to New Hampshire, Andrew and Birdie made the pilgrimage to Keene in December of 2012 and came to visit Social Sunday. I met both of them there and truly hope he can get through this difficult time with the minimum damage possible. If Andrew did not administer the Silk Road, then he’s a man wrongfully accused, but if he did, he’s a hero. The Silk Road was (and is) the most important development to happen to the black market in our lifetimes. (more…)
