Free Keene

Why We’re Temporarily Shutting Down Bitcoin Vending Machines on July 31st

by Ian | Jul 15, 2017 | 20 comments

Will Bitcoin “Fork” on August 1st?

In a recent, in-depth article, I discussed the out-of-control fees to send bitcoin. The executive summary is that Bitcoin is somewhat broken due to the high fees that have been caused due to the Bitcoin network not being able to scale to consumer demand. The reason for this is because there has been an ongoing “geek war” for a couple years now behind the scenes that centers over some fundamental disagreements over how Bitcoin should handle its growing pains with scaling up. Meanwhile, the fees have been rising over the last six months and have killed off the previous usefulness that Bitcoin had for microtransactions, or even small dollar transactions. Again, see my original piece for more about the fee difficulties.

Now the ugly Bitcoin not-so-civil war that has been playing out behind the scenes on message boards, reddit, and social media for months and months is going to come into public view on August 1st. Here’s my non-technical explanation for what’s happening and how, if you’re a bitcoin holder or bitcoin-accepting merchant, it could affect you: (more…)

City Commits Civil Disobedience Against Feds By Painting Blue Line Down Marlboro St.

by Ian | Jul 10, 2017 | 20 comments

Keene Signals its Support for Secession by its Recent Peaceful Civil Disobedience

In case you aren’t aware, the police have their own gang symbol. It’s called the “thin blue line” – a blue line horizontally sandwiched between two black bars. You’ll frequently see it on the back of vehicles presumably containing police or their immediate relatives. Of course, anyone can buy these stickers now, so police have other ways of recognizing their own, like these family “professional courtesy” passbooks, but regardless, the blue line is still seen on their cars, their clothing, and now flags. It helps create the “us vs them” mentality that some police have. Worse still, some people insist on treating the police as though they are better than the rest of humanity. Their word is gold in court, they get special burials when mass calamity happens, deferential treatment in many of the crimes the corrupt officers commit, and more.

In a recent Keene Sentinel piece about multiple city councilors gushing over their recent decision to paint a horribly garish blue line down the middle of Marlboro St, local commenter Johnson Rice points out that the city is actually committing civil disobedience against the federal government: (more…)

The Jail Paper Keene’s Video Interview of Free Keene Founder

by Ian | Jul 9, 2017 | 8 comments

Free Keene Founder Ian Freeman Interviewed by The Jail Paper Keene

New courtroom video/photo blog The Jail Paper Keene has been reporting from Keene’s district and superior courts recently, covering various criminal cases. This week, The Jail Paper Keene posted some of my mugshots and asked for comments on whether I am a hero or villain. Since I’ve been a longtime, publicly visible activist who has done a bunch over the decade plus I’ve been here in Keene, naturally some of the haters came around to post their uninformed vitriol.

I did my best to correct their misinformation and was amazed as some haters also attacked the Jail Paper Keene for even posting my photo to their page, accusing the page of being run by me or one of my supposed “puppets”. Their paranoia knows no bounds.

Today, I had the pleasure of meeting The Jail Paper Keene’s Thomas Parisi and he conducted an interview on my front porch. You can watch it here on The Jail Paper Keene’s facebook page.

Area Police Chief Sentenced to Decades in Prison for Multiple Rapes

by Ian | Jul 8, 2017 | 9 comments

Former Police Chief and Convicted Child Rapist Robert K Chambers Sr.

The reason why the government police can be so corrupt and violent is because they have a monopoly on violence. There’s no competition allowed in the marketplace. Worse, you’re forced to fund the police, even if they are doing things you disagree with, like arresting people for possession of cannabis, teens for alcohol, or committing multiple counts of rape against a child.

Area former police chief Robert K Chambers, Sr, who’d been the head of both the Gilsum and Marlow New Hampshire departments was recently convicted on several counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault and sentenced to decades in prison, according to the Keene Sentinel. Chambers is 65. Here’s video of the harrowing victim impact statement his victim made at Chambers’ sentencing, as published by The Jail Paper Keene, a new court videographer on facebook.

Many people mistakenly believe all Cop Blockers are against the police. The truth is, I’m not against the police. I’m in favor of when police protect people from real crime involving a victim. I have even assisted the police when they were investigating real crimes. However if police are arresting people for victimless crimes, I will oppose that. I’m a police accountability activist, which means holding the cops to their promise of doing good by reporting on the bad ones. The worst cops are those like Chambers, who are clearly people in search of power over others, as this recent despicable example sadly proves.

It’s of course, not the first time that NH’s top cops have been caught up in ugly news, revealing some of them as corrupt, power seekers. Don’t forget the New London, NH chief who allegedly coerced college girls to take nude photos in the police basement when they were arrested for some victimless crime or another. Or how about the Canterbury, NH chief who allegedly used his position of power to engage in sexual acts with a female teen police explorer? There’s the Haverhill, NH chief who resigned after being busted for DUI. Obviously not all chiefs are low-life hypocrites, but you have to wonder how many of them are corrupt. There’s no way to stop a corrupt officer from rising through the ranks of power, since if you withhold taxes in protest, the very same police will come and attack you and your family. (more…)

Patriotism Displayed At Somaliafest

by Shire Dude | Jul 4, 2017 | 10 comments

Shire Dude wishes you a happy Secession Day!

To celebrate, please watch this beautiful display of nation-love. It’s episode 2 of Shire Dude’s new season!

Bitcoin fees are WAY down! What happened, and why is virtually no one talking about it?

by Ian | Jul 4, 2017 | 9 comments

Charlie Shrem, COO of Jaxx, stumbled onto the lower fees, he told Free Talk Live.

I saw the headline in Coin Telegraph and couldn’t believe it: “Bitcoin Transaction Fees Significantly Decrease, Charlie Shrem Pays $0.25 Fee”. Even though I know and trust Charlie Shrem, I still thought this news was a fluke.

For those who haven’t been following the ugly geek war happening behind the scenes of Bitcoin, here’s a recap, oversimplifying a complex situation:

As little as two years ago, Bitcoin’s median transaction fee was as low as $0.02 worth of bitcoin. That means half of all bitcoin transaction fees cost less than $0.02 and the other half cost over $0.02.
With Bitcoin, there are fees to send, not receive. (This is the reverse of credit cards, where the merchant pays a fee to receive.) In the past, if one wanted, one could send bitcoin with no fee and it would go through, just without any priority. As you can see from this chart, the median transaction fee has shot up mostly in the last six months or so, and it has risen has high as $3.00 worth of bitcoin!

That means that had I wanted, in the last few months, to go buy a $2.00 drink at Corner News with bitcoin here on Main Street in Keene, NH, it might cost me $3 just to send the $2, making it a $5 drink! No sane customer would pay a crazy fee like that. This dramatic rise in fees has destroyed bitcoin’s previous usefulness for microtransactions. No more bitcoin-operated snack machines, no more using bitcoin for small online tips, no more Watch-my-Bit micro-donation video streaming service. (more…)

The New Secessionists Declare Independence!

by Derrick Horton | Jul 4, 2017 | 4 comments

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!