This weekend a couple dozen free-faced activists gathered from across New Hampshire at the Monadnock Co-Op in Downtown Keene for a “mask-free flash mob” event. Approximately a dozen of those gathered entered the store and attempted to shop. Why the Co-Op? Organizer Frank “Footloose” Staples said that it was due to the large number of reports of store staff and customers being very unfriendly to people with medical exemptions from wearing masks. One woman even wrote a letter to the editor of the Keene Sentinel about her difficult experience at the Co-Op.
True to form, some customers were downright hostile, including a younger man – wearing two masks – who told a young woman with a baby to “get the hell out of here”, then yelled something similar at me outside the store, despite the fact that I had not gone inside, as I am not a shopper of the Co-Op. I do understand the perspective of those who participated in the shopping: Since the store is open to the public, it should to serve people with medical exemptions. It’s certainly their right to refuse service to people for whatever reasons they want, but if a medical condition is a reason to refuse service, then they should take down their “Everyone Welcome” marquee and become a private club, open only to members.
Another noteworthy character who makes multiple appearances in the video is the self-described “Blue Collar Brawler”. The elderly, double-masked man has words with everyone he comes across, wishing them death and calling the free-faced people “asshole”, and “stupid”. He even loads up his hand with a roll of quarters to white knight for a masked woman who herself is shouting at an unmasked older man in one of the store aisles. It’s a wild video:
To the Co-Op’s credit, the DID allow all the unmasked shoppers to make their purchases, though there were a large number of them. Individuals who attempted to shop at this store prior to this event had reported being made to feel very uncomfortable and even being refused service. I recommend taking your business elsewhere and shopping at places who respect the freedom to choose.
Update 2021-12-15 – the “Blue Collar Brawler” is Tim Congdon of 28 Lee St. in Keene
The supposedly offensive promo has a limited amount of footage that could possibly be objectionable. Was it the scenes of two men being arrested? A photo of a massive 420 rally in Central Square in 2009? A man speaking into a megaphone? A photo of a band playing or people playing a card game in Railroad Square? A large group of people standing around the “Welcome to New Hampshire” sign at the Vermont border? The 4:20 pumpkin?
Two days prior to this strike, another decade-old :15 promo was allegedly found objectionable, this one featuring then-libertarian Penn Jillette saying he should move to Keene to join the Free Staters. I appealed the finding, and YouTube reversed it, once again allowing the video to be played. So, when the subsequent takedown happened this weekend, I also appealed it, asking in my appeal where the supposed “harmful or dangerous” content was. They upheld their decision to block the short promo video and give the account a “strike”. Of course, they declined to state exactly what it was in those scant fifteen seconds that was so offensive.
Odysee.com Logo
The strike would have been a warning, but the account had recently received a warning in late February when YouTube removed a video promoting the new White Rose Society for violating their “medical misinformation” policy. So, that’s two videos taken down within a few weeks, hence the strike and now the account is not allowed to have uploads or live streams, among other things, for a week.
Luckily, we’ve been cultivating our exit plan from YouTube for years.
Now, YouTube has increased its rate of finding things it doesn’t like about our videos. It may not be long before our entire channel is taken down. If you haven’t looked seriously at LBRY yet, now is the time to do it. In 2020, they launched Odysee, a video platform built on LBRY. I’ve created a handy url to take you right to the Free Keene channel on Odysee: video.freekeene.com. Unlike YouTube, LBRY/Odysee has no strikes and videos cannot be taken down. It’s true content freedom, and blockchain-powered. You can get the LBRY app or just follow our channel on Odysee.
From now on, this :30 migrate-to-LBRY promo will play at the end of every upload I am able to make to YouTube before they shut us down completely:
The heroic “Sticker Pimps” arrested by Manchester police are not facing death, but they have been kidnapped by Manchester’s “finest” gang and are being prosecuted for “criminal mischief” for the dastardly “crime” of placing counter-propaganda White Rose Society stickers on so-called “public property”. Here’s what you need to know about them:
Frank ‘Footloose’ Staples – The founder of Absolute Defiance, Footloose has been leading the protests outside NH gang leader Chris Sununu’s home. He was recently arrested in front of Sununu’s home for speaking to a cop.
Jason Gerhard – Jason is currently a candidate for Selectman in Northfield, NH in an election happening TODAY. He’s qualified a warrant article for the town meeting this weekend which – if passed – instructs the Selectmen to ask some very interesting questions of the IRS. We discussed it with him in detail on Free Talk Live this last Saturday. Jason also spent nearly 13 years in federal prison for supporting tax freedom advocates Ed and Elaine Brown and was released in early 2020.
The situation is very reminiscent of what happened in 2011 when eight activists – mostly from Keene – were arrested and charged with “criminal mischief” among other catch-alls, for chalking pro-freedom messages outside Manchester’s police gang headquarters. They were the “Chalking Eight”.
The White Rose has been a very active group on Telegram, with photos posted daily from people placing their eye-opening, thought-provoking, and sometimes amusing stickers on various things all around the world. According to one of the channel’s admins, thus far with perhaps thousands of activists stickering around the world, the first to be arrested were New Hampshire’s “Sticker Pimps” in the supposed live-free-or-die state.
Now, YouTube has struck again and banned a video some amazing editor made about the return of the White Rose Society. I was honored to discover someone from the new White Rose Society had taken some audio from my radio show, “Free Talk Live“, where we were discussing the new White Rose and their amazing counter-propaganda activism. I uploaded it to the FreeKeene YouTube and it was nearly immediately removed for violating their “medical misinformation policy”, which says, “YouTube doesn’t allow content that explicitly disputes the efficacy of local health authorities’ or World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on social distancing and self isolation that may lead people to act against that guidance.”
If you’d like to join the White Rose, you’ll need the Telegram app. Then click this link: t.me/jointhewhiterose Check the pinned post for instructions and the latest sticker pack.
Pho Keene Great is now accepting cryptocurrencies!
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been on a major run up in recent months, but a bunch of Keene-area businesses were ahead of the curve. A variety of locally owned establishments jumped onboard with NH-based crypto payments processor Anypay in 2020 including Keene Barber, YOLO, Pho Keene Great, and the brand-new Mighty Moose Mart. Thus far, in 2021 Rogue Taxi and Lucky 7s Bar and Grille have begun accepting cryptocurrency.
Keene has long been a world-leader in local businesses accepting Bitcoin per capita and it continues to live up to its name of Crypto Mecca. This summer, two downtown businesses located right next door to each other, Keene Barber and YOLO – a local frozen yogurt shop – started accepting crypto. That means Keene has three distinct businesses in a row that are taking cryptocurrency from customers, as YOLO is next to Corner News – which first received Bitcoin in 2013.
Keene’s world-famous Pho Keene Great, which at one time made international headlines for the City of Keene’s attack against the name of their pho noodle restaurant, is now accepting multiple cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), DASH, Bitcoin SV (BSV), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). PKG’s food is fantastic and yet another delicious option of now several food establishments in downtown Keene accepting crypto including indian food, pizza, burgers, and bbq.
Near the end of 2020, Keene added its third crypto-accepting convenience store. Yes, three of the area’s neighborhood stores accept multiple cryptocurrencies. Keene is an amazing place. It started with Corner News all the way back in 2013, then Campus Convenience in 2019 and the all-new Mighty Moose Mart opened its doors accepting crypto in November of 2020. Mighty Moose Mart is offering custom-made sandwiches and other hot, fresh food, as well as beer, wine, tobacco, and the usual convenience store items. They’ll even give you a 5% discount if you pay in cryptocurrency!
The brand-new Mighty Moose Mart at 661 Marlboro St.
Early this year, Rogue Taxi became the first taxi company in the area to accept cryptocurrency and recently Lucky 7s Bar & Grille also began accepting multiple cryptos. Lucky 7s is located inside the Keene Casino and run by the same owner of Thirsty Owl, which had taken crypto for years before closing due to the economic difficulties imposed by the destructive government mandates being forced down peoples’ throats.
Here’s a cool interactive map showing businesses that take cryptocurrency, which cryptos, and how active the business is with crypocurrency sales.
If you own a business and want to accept cryptocurrency at your point-of-sale, first you need a wallet to hold your coins, like Edge Wallet. Then, install the Anypay app and copy your wallet addresses from your wallet to the Anypay settings. Within minutes, you’ll be all set to accept multiple cryptocurrencies of your choice, like BTC, DASH, BCH, BSV, LTC, and now DOGE!
To learn more about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, check out our resources here and visit the Bitcoin Embassy at 661 Marlboro St in Keene right next door to Mighty Moose Mart and sign up for Bitcoin 101.
Porcupine Day is the day the Free State Project reached its goal of 20,000 signers of their pledge to migrate to New Hampshire as a liberty activist.
The original Porcupine Day was in February 2016, which marked the beginning of the FSP’s five-year-long moving window. February 2021 marks the close of that window. However, the Free State Project will not be shutting down and is instead going to continue recruiting more liberty-minded people to make the move to the Shire.
I attended the event and recorded the various speakers. Four full speeches appear below.
First up, Jeremy Kauffman, the founder of LBRY and current member of the Free State Project’s board of directors made a couple of proposals to those watching.
1. That “Free Stater” should be redefined to mean any libertarians in New Hampshire
2. The FSP should return to being a member-voted board of directors.
Reopen NH founder Andrew Manuse discussed organizing Reopen NH and encouraged more libertarians to follow the tremendously successful example he’s set. Reopen NH – now Rebuild NH – was originally built by a petition and has morphed into an organization that endorses candidates and has organized multiple successful rallies in favor of freedom: (more…)
