Monday, June 30, 2014

The Havensteins abide by different laws than the Havenotensteins







The NH Ballot Law Commission ruled 3-2 today that Walter Havenstein, the Maryland resident who is running for governor of NH can run for governor of NH.  Havenstein signed forms in Maryland to get a homesteader tax break, stating that he was a full time resident of the state. Today, we learned (anew) that laws don't apply to the wealthy. 

NHPR:
For months, Havenstein has stressed he’s considered New Hampshire his home since he moved here in 1999.

Oh, well then. Why wouldn't we take him at his word?? 



“The area that I think is most compelling is the fact that I came home. I came home routinely as often as I could. And so the context of domicile was never at issue, certainly not in my mind.”
He visited NH as often as he could! And it was never an issue in HIS mind. The rest of you hacks are just mean spirited, questioning the sterling intentions of this candidate. 
A lawyer for the Democratic party noted that Havenstein signed several documents, including a mortgage and a Maryland tax return, where that indicated a Bethesda condominium as his primary residence. Havenstein called those mistakes.
If I dishonestly filled out a form and then called it a mistake, I'd be disqualified, forced to pay back the money, and possibly be charged with larceny. A mistake? The man signed a homesteader tax deduction saying he was a full time resident. How, exactly, did he do that by mistake? And WHY has no one in the NH media bestirred themselves to ask that question? 
If he doesn't read what he's signing - why would anyone vote for him? 
 Justice really is different for the rich and Republican. 

Friday, June 27, 2014

Score One for the Good Guys in Fryeburg
















Poland Spring/Nestle trucks filling up at the pumping station in Fryeburg, ME.  Nestle pays $10 for that truckload of water. They sell it for $50,000. 

The fight for Fryeburg's water has been going on for many years now. The acrimony has caused deep and permanent rifts among townspeople. Nestle has bullied, intimidated, and harassed the folks who oppose the theft of their water. 

This just happened:






































The entire board of the Fryeburg Water District resigned. This is excellent news for those who actually care about the water. The former board seemed interested only in making sure that there would be no citizen oversight of the water, and kissing up to Nestle. An election will be held in September to replace all of the trustees. Time to get some good folks on the board, who understand the need to protect the water - water that should belong to the town. 

Information about the battle to save the Fryeburg Water District:

August 30, 2012  - starts halfway down the page. 

September 4, 2012

September 20, 2012

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Ruminations on Change


What do we know about change?

He'll never change.

She's so changeable.

I used to really like: he/she/them but they changed.

It's time for a change.

Nothing ever changes around here.

I thought I could change him or her.

Change is constant.

We are bombarded with advertising messages about change all the time. Change your hair color, your car, your deodorant, your image, your décor, your status; with our product!

The gurus of self-help pontificate on how to change from within. After a while it all sounds like bumper sticker slogans.

Then there's the conventional wisdom about change. “People get more conservative as they grow older.” I was happy to find studies that show that just isn't so. More people become far less conservative with age. Time has a way of changing perspective.

On a societal level, change and the future were greatly anticipated when I was growing up. We talked about and imagined the future all the time. We were going to travel to outer space! We were going to put a man on the moon! We would have flying cars and live in round houses with robots. Our fashions, TV shows, movies, and our interior design all reflected the future we were visualizing. We were excited about what was next.

Along the way that excitement faded. We did put a man on the moon. It was incredible. But we also fought wars, perpetuated injustice, and came to accept homelessness and hunger as permanent conditions here in the wealthiest country in the world. We've caused permanent damage to our planet and our ecosystem. We don't talk about the future and the potential for change much any more.

Some wish to return to a fictionalized version of the past. In this idealized version of the past, men were “real” men and women knew their place. No one paid any taxes. Nothing was regulated. The American Dream was within reach for all who worked for it.

That none of it was ever true doesn’t matter.

 Those who think about the future may feel as if they’re treading water, trying to prevent further negative change, while laboring to create a glimpse here and there of something positive and hopeful. 

For most of us, the core values remain. Love is always better than hate. Peace is better than war. Education is better than ignorance. Community is better than isolation. Building strong community is the answer to most of our problems.

We all change and grow throughout our lives. Some of it is biology. Some of it is education. Some of it is in reaction to life experience, and some of it is intentional. If we have self-awareness, we can change how we view the world, how we relate to other people, and replace some of the programming we may have gotten as we were growing up.

We can learn about privilege, and in that learning, change our worldview and our behavior.

We can be the changed.

We bring all that we learn along the way into our families, our circle of friends, our workplaces, and our communities. Along the way, we encounter those who don't necessarily share our views and our values. In our polarized and contentious society, that can lead to conflict. Read the online comment section of our statewide newspaper for a look at clashing world-views.

I’m well aware that I’m part of it. What I write is often focused on that clash and all that is wrong in our world. I have learned this much: a constant diet of cynicism is bad for the soul and the psyche.


Over the last two years I’ve spent a lot of time at the NH legislature. I've seen and heard things that I found upsetting. The ongoing efforts by some to obstruct and disrupt was not pleasant to watch. It seemed their goal was to perpetuate the view that government is broken.

Yet at the same time, I also watched people change their minds about an important issue. They were given new information in a way that they could be receptive to it. A number of legislators changed their minds about the death penalty. A repeal bill cleared the NH House by a huge margin. People were changed. The process was amazing to watch.

It all came down to people acting on principle, finding ways to work with people with whom they had little common ground.


I spoke with a local freshman legislator about her experience in her first term. She talked about the committee she is on. It's one of the larger committees, and filled with some diverse points of view. They have fun, she told me. They treat one another with respect. Everyone is taken seriously. They work together.

It’s easy to make anonymous snarky remarks in the comment section of the UL. Respectfully listening to one another may not always be easy, but makes working together possible, and infinitely more rewarding.

As a Unitarian Universalist, I take my beliefs and values out into the world with me. There are seven UU core principles. The first is a belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Some days that’s a real challenge.


BUT – if we can carry that out into our lives, our workplaces and our communities: we can create positive change. We can focus on the actual common good, not the mythology of rugged individualism and bootstraps.

Big changes are heading our way. The opportunities to do better will keep coming, and so will the need for change.


© sbruce 2014 
Published as a biweekly column in the Conway Daily Sun newspaper. 



Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Big Turd Lands in Free State Project Punchbowl



Poor Carla Gericke, president of the Free State Project. She's desperately trying to keep up the pretense that the FSP is a benign, peace loving bunch of folk, moving to NH to enjoy Freedumb and Libertea. 

That's a hard enough sell, given that the FSP is a bunch of armed miscreants moving to NH to take over the state, dismantle the government, and threaten to secede. 




But for Carla it's been a tough month or so, with all the negative media attention generated by the recent spree of cop killings and the the link to Cop Block  (all of the killers were fans of Cop Block) which was founded by members of the Free State Project. In fact, Free Stater Chris Cantwell was cheering on Justin Bourque, the Canadian who killed 3 RCMPs and wounded a few others:



 Not exactly the kind of publicity that Carla is trying to attract before their big annual festive gathering in Lancaster. After all, she's trying to court the national media to cover the sanitized story she wants to tell - about plucky libertarians and Bitcoin. She wants the national media to ignore the story of violent rhetoric from Free Staters who are vocal about their desire to kill police and use violence to take over.  She's been lucky so far. This story isn't being covered nationally. Hell, it's not even being covered by the NH media, who often function as sycophants for the FSP.


The boys at Cop Block were persuaded to take Cantwell off their page as a commenter/moderator, because it didn't look good.  Cop Block co-founder Adam Mueller acknowledged that this was being done for PR reasons.

Slaves? That refers to all of you misguided folk who post Cop Block memes on your FB pages, and so on. If you aren't one of the FSP cult, they have nothing but contempt for you. 

The dust was settling after all the cop killing, no one picked up on Ian Freeload's opposition to an age of consent for children and adults having sex, and she had survived the contempt of Larken Rose and his friend Josie, the self-styled outlaw:



it looked as if Carla's fantasy of a DIY themed (snort) PorcFest was about to come true. Of course this wasn't exactly DIY home improvement tips. No, this involves workshops on lock picking and building an AR-15, because of course people who come in peace come with AR-15s. One of the boys even put together this attempt at diverting attention from the recent talk of violence. Sad that it needed to be done. But, still, all was fairly quiet on the freedom front. 

Then a big, big turd landed in the Free State Project punchbowl. 


Chris Cantwell  has moved to Keene. Last week he was filmed there by folks from the Colbert Show. In a week or two this is going national! Let's All Welcome Chris Cantwell to NH! 



He's living right near the cult headquarters at the Church of the FreeLoad - and looking for roommates and financial contributions. Ian Bernard and Rich (no longer a Free Man) Paul have been trying to get Cantwell to move to Keene for some time, even though they kicked him out of the "activist center" and were happy to see him leave town just 2 years ago. Ian FreeLoad claimed in 2012 that Cantwell's pro violent rhetoric went against Ian's belief system. 

What happened, Ian? Have you embraced violence as a solution? Was all that talk of peace and nonviolence just a convenient charade? 


Poor Carla. This isn't apt to go well. An unstable, violent, self-admitted drunk, out there in Keene playing to the media? 

This Martha Stewart version of PorcFest she's trying to pull off might not go the way she planned. 






Cantwell kicked out of the FSP because he started talking about using violence when the FSP was wailing at being called potential domestic terrorists. The last thing they wanted was for anyone to find out that the Concord PD might well have been right. 




Friday, June 20, 2014

George Will, Rape Apologist


George Will is a conservative newspaper columnist. He's been writing a twice-weekly column for the Washington Post since 1974. His syndicated column runs in 475 newspapers. To put it another way, one in four daily newspapers in the United States features George Will. He has a huge platform. He's abused it repeatedly over the years, writing occasional racist, sexist, and homophobic commentary. Early this month, he took abusing his platform to a whole new level. 

On June 6, 2014, George Will's syndicated column was titled: Colleges Become the Victims of Progressivism.  It was a look at rape on college campuses. Will announced that "when they make victimhood a coveted status that confers privileges, victims proliferate." 

Where, oh where was George Will to tell my 16 year old self after being gang raped by Hell's Angels prospects, how coveted and privileged my new status was? If only I'd known - I might not have spent a big chunk of my life  trying to recover from the experience. If I'd only understood the PRIVILEGE  that had been conferred upon me, I might not have experienced so much fear, anger, and mistrust in intimate relationships. I would have been filled with pride at having been gifted with a lifetime of PTSD. 

He said this, too: Consider the supposed epidemic of campus rape, aka "sexual assault." 

Because the bitches are lying, amirite George Will? Because after all, it's such a privilege to be raped by one of you men. Every girl dreams of it. 

The Washington Post has said that Will's column was "well within the bounds of legitimate debate." Because rape,  dear readers, is apparently up for debate. Conservatives have been pretending for some time that the bitches are all lying. After all, we have ways of shutting that whole thing down, don't we? If you slutty McSlatterns weren't out at morning/noon/evening/night wearing whore clothes you wouldn't be getting raped, now would you? Well, except for when you're at home alone in bed, and an intruder comes in and beats and rapes you anyway - when you're 75 years old. I'm glad Florence Holway didn't have to hear about how privileged she was to have that experience. 

Whenever it happens, (and that's a big if, because we know you're all lying!) it's your own fault for being dressed slutty, going to his place, going out, going outside...breathing. 

It's also worth nothing that the editors on duty the day George Will turned in this masterpiece were all men. And that, friends, is a big fucking part of the problem.  It's men who think rape is up for debate. 

Two more things. The Union Leader - right here in NH - served up  George Will's column. One can only assume they share George Will's sentiments. I hope you will call them up and ask them. 
Here's the contact information for the managing editor:  John Toole  jtoole@unionleader.com. The phone # for the newsroom: (603) 668-4321 ext. 805 The phone number for the publisher: Joe McQuaid, publisher, (603) 668-4321 ext. 559

Tell them to stop running Will's columns. 

That's what Tony Messenger did. Tony Messenger is the editor of the St. Louis Dispatch, a newspaper that USED to run George Will's column. On June 19, he announced that the paper was replacing George Will with conservative writer Michael Gerson:

The change has been under consideration for several months, but a column published June 5, in which Mr. Will suggested that sexual assault victims on college campuses enjoy a privileged status, made the decision easier. The column was offensive and inaccurate; we apologize for publishing it.


 Erik Wemple of WaPo interviewed Tony Messenger:

“Seeing the reaction and intensity of the hurt in some of social media and the reaction of women I know and talking to people who really were offended by the thought that sexual assault victims would seek some special victimhood — it helped seeing that response and it informed my opinion.


Just like that, he fired George Will. Unlike rape, it wasn't up for debate.  



Thursday, June 19, 2014

NH HRA Ratings and Efffectiveness: Top 15



NH State Rep. JR Hoell earned a 99% rating from the NH House Republican Alliance, for "supporting the party position." In other words, he voted the way he was told. I decided to take a look at the bills Rep. Hoell sponsored and how many of those bills passed. None, as it turns out.

A reader asked me to give the same treatment to some of the other legislators on House Republican Alliance voter scorecard, and I agreed. 

Without further ado, the top 15:

100% rated Moe Villeneuve sponsored zero bills. 

100% rated Ralph Boehm sponsored 13 bills. 7 failed, 3 passed, and 3 went to interim study. 

100% rated Carol McGuire sponsored 25 bills. 7 failed, 12 passed, 2 tabled, 4 went to interim study. 

100% rated Stephen Palmer sponsored 2 bills. Both passed. 

100% rated Jane "Carpetbag" Cormier resigned at the end of the session. Her profile (profiles include a listing of bills sponsored) is no longer online at the State House website, which is true of everyone who resigns. 

100% rated Richard Meaney resigned before the end of session. 

100% rated Gary Azarian resigned before the end of session. 

99.2% rated Pamela Tucker sponsored 17 bills. 12 failed, 4 passed, 1 sent to interim study. 

99.1% rated Gary Daniels sponsored 7 bills. 2 died, 3 passed, 1tabled, 1 died in committee of conference. 

99% rated JR Hoell.

99% rated Jeanine Notter sponsored 13 bills. 7 failed, 4 passed, 1 tabled, 1 interim study. 

99% rated  Laura Jones sponsored 17 bills.  5 failed, 7 passed, 2 tabled,  3 interim study. 

98.3% rated Dan McGuire sponsored 19 bills. 13 died, 6 passed. 

98.3% rated Robbie Parsons sponsored one bill. It failed. 

98.3% rated Emily Sandblade sponsored 20 bills. 10 died, 4 passed 2 tabled, 3 interim study, and 1 died in committee of conference. 

98.2% rated Dan Itse sponsored 39 bills. 33 of them failed, 3 passed, 1 tabled, 2 went to interim study.


This is - at best - a very crude tool for assessing the effectiveness of a legislator. Everything depends on what the legislator's goal is. If the goal is to pass legislation, than some of these people aren't doing very well. If the goal is just to propose a lot of nuisance legislation and gum up the works, those same people are raving successes. 

One final GOP legislator - an old pro,  just for contrast:

82.3% rated Gene Chandler sponsored 33 bills. 11 failed, 17 passed, 2 tabled, 2 interim study, and 1 died in the committee of conference.  

Food for thought. 


ht/li

Is Marching in Party Lockstep Effective Legislating?





The NH House Republican Alliance has released their legislative scorecard. From the Concord Monitor we learn that: 

Area Republican Reps. JR Hoell of Dunbarton and Carol McGuire of Epsom ranked in the top 10, supporting the party position on 118 selected bills 97.6 and 99 percent of the time, respectively.

JR Hoell was ranked as marching in party lockstep 99% of the time. 


What the folks at HRA didn't look at is effectiveness. How effective a legislator is Representative Hoell?

He sponsored 35 bills in 2014. Of those bills, 29 were voted ITL. That means inexpedient to legislate, which means the bill was killed. Another 4 of Hoell's bills went to interim study, which is often where bills go to die. Two of his bills were tabled. 

Not one of the bills sponsored by Rep. Hoell actually passed. 


At the  NH General Court website, you can look up legislators and find the bills they sponsored and their voting records. Click on find your legislator, then house roster, and use the drop down menu to find the list of state representatives. 

Jennifer Horn's Party Loyalty Pledge




WMUR:

New Hampshire Republican Party chair Jennifer Horn has asked Republican candidates for governor, the U.S. House and Senate to sign a pledge that they would support the GOP ticket even if they lose the September primary.
Reaction to the pledge has added a dynamic to the U.S. Senate race especially. Among the candidates, Scott Brown says he will sign the pledge, Jim Rubens said he wasn't sure and Bob Smith hasn't given a response at all.

The House Republican Alliance released its annual scorecard this week, ranking each New Hampshire House member based on how strictly he or she adhered to the alliance’s position on issues ranging from taxation to health care.

Area Republican Reps. JR Hoell of Dunbarton and Carol McGuire of Epsom ranked in the top 10, supporting the party position on 118 selected bills 97.6 and 99 percent of the time, respectively. Other area lawmakers who ranked high on the list include Rep. Dan McGuire of Epsom, with a 98.3 percent rank, and Rep. Michael Sylvia of Belmont, who voted the platform 97.9 percent of the time. 










Sunday, June 15, 2014

Scott Brown, Nuclear Weenie

It started here:



















Scott Brown's "energy plan for NH" called for more "safe, clean nuclear energy." 

As we all know, nuclear power is none of those things - and in fact, one reason NH has such high electric rates is because of Seabrook Station. The financial mismanagement, the bankruptcy, the junk bond bailout - surely I'm not the only one who remembers. NH isn't likely to support the building of another nuke plant. 


















Note the date and time. 

I checked into my twitter account and found this:









Naturally I felt compelled to respond - but much to my surprise:













So Scott Brown's peeps followed me long enough to leave me a direct message, then unfollowed me? 





Saturday, June 14, 2014

Two Free Staters Debate the Merits of Cop Killing






Adam Kokesh and Christopher Cantwell are both Free Staters. Oh, sure - Cantwell was kicked out of the FSP last September, in a big public show, but that's really all it was. He's still their pal. Ian Freeload of Free Keene is constantly imploring Cantwell to move to Keene. The expunging was a charade, aimed at showing the public what nice peaceful folk the FSP are, while they were in the middle of the Concord Bearcat incident, with FSP President Carla Gericke howling outrage and victimhood every day.

As readers may recall, the Concord police chief had filled out a grant form for a Lenco Bearcat citing the potential domestic terrorist threat of the Sovereign Citizens, Occupiers and the Free State Project. The last thing the FSP wanted was to have Cantwell's rhetoric go public to buttress the chief's argument. Cantwell had to be silenced, so that the FSP could continue to spread their bilge about how peaceful they are. It's unfortunate that the complicit media never seems to question how real a commitment to peace a group of armed invaders might actually possess. 

This is hard to listen to. The comment section is painful to read. But you need to hear this discussion about when it's okay to start killing cops, in order to end "the state." This is the real Free State Project, folks. Not the clownchildren chalking on sidewalks in Keene. People who are willing to start shooting cops. Would they stop at cops? I'm pretty sure they'd be willing to shoot anyone who disagrees with their agenda. That's where they're likely to start. 




Asha Kenney Running for Register of Deeds















Asha Kenney is running for Register of Deeds! 

That's one way to solve the County Commissioner problem. 
Carroll County Commissioners Want to Oust Asha Kenney

This, by the way, is a woman who, as secretary of the group, was incapable of taking the minutes of County Commission meetings. 

A reminder of the kind of public servant Mrs. Kenney has been: 







Thursday, June 12, 2014

Our Would Be Liberators


Earlier this month, in New Brunswick, a young man named Justin Bourque killed RCMP Constables Fabrice Gevaudan, Dave Ross, and Douglas Larche. He wounded two other Mounties. Justin Bourque was an angry young man, ginned up on conspiracy theories and fears about gun grabbers. (Definition: anyone believing that not every person should have access to firearms is a gun grabber.) One of his Facebook friends is being detained for threatening to kill police.

A few days ago, two police officers having lunch at a pizza place in Las Vegas were gunned down by Jerad and Amanda Miller, who put a swastika and a Gadsden flag on the bodies of the officers, announced the revolution was starting, grabbed their weapons, and went to a nearby Wal-Mart. They killed a man there. Jerad and Amanda were also ginned up on conspiracy theories and gundamentalist fears that the gummint was coming to take their guns away.

These killings happened in two different countries, and the killings were done by people who didn’t know each other. They did, however, have something in common. CopBlock. If you spend any time on social media, you’ve probably seen CopBlock memes; a picture with some message about police violence or authoritarian overreach. CopBlock claims their goal is police accountability. From their website:

We do not “hate cops.” We believe that no one – not even those with badges – has extra rights. The failure to realize and act on that is to our detriment. By focusing the disinfecting light of transparency on public officials we safeguard not just our rights but those of future generations.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? If only we could take these folks at their word.

A regular writer for CopBlock is a guy named Chris Cantwell. Cantwell was kicked out of the Free State Project (in a big public way) for advocating violence, which goes against what the FSP claims to believe. Cantwell, in his capacity as CopBlock administrator had the ability to use the CopBlock twitter account. While Justin Bourque was out killing Mounties, CopBlock sent out a tweet that read, “What the world needs is more people like Justin Bourque not fewer.” The same CopBlock that claims it doesn’t condone violence, the same CopBlock that claims adherence to something called the “Non Aggression Principle.”

Cantwell has lengthy rants on his blog where he waxes on about the reasons to kill cops. It’s not for the faint of heart or stomach. He’s an angry, angry man who doesn’t kill cops because HE doesn’t want to go to jail. He’d like to incite you to do the work for him. He cheered on Justin Bourque. He eulogized the Millers. And when Officer Stephen Arkell was killed in Brentwood, NH last month, Cantwell not only blamed Arkell for getting killed, he celebrated it. 

Justin Bourque had CopBlock memes on his Facebook page. Amanda Miller had a link to a YouTube video from the CopBlock channel that asks, “When is it Okay to Kill a Cop?” with words from an anarchist/Free Stater named Larken Rose. Jason Stam, the friend of Justin Bourque now in custody for threatening cops, posted Chris Cantwell’s CopBlock support for Bourque on his page.

CopBlock was co-founded by Adam Mueller, who calls himself Ademo Freeman and Pete Eyre. Mueller and Eyre are both members of the Free State Project. The Free State Project is the group of libertarians moving to NH with the intent of liberating us by occupying, colonizing, and taking over and dismantling the state government, and threatening secession. They claim to be nonviolent and peaceful. I serve on the board of a peace organization. We don’t have any videos that address when it would be okay to kill cops. That doesn’t fit into the category of peace – at least not as I understand it.

CopBlock has gotten a lot of negative media attention since the recent cop killing incidents took place. On June 11, they posted a notice on the CopBlock site that Cantwell is now a former author, and they pledged their adherence to the non-aggression principle. It was signed by a number of folks affiliated with the site, including co-founder Pete Eyre. It was not signed by Adam Mueller. He sent out a tweet saying that Cantwell “is no longer an admin of the FB page. Gotta be PC, ya know. Otherwise slaves won't like CopBlock.” In other words, they ditched Cantwell so that they can keep on getting well-intended folks to keep posting their memes and sending them money. That’s what they call non-Free Staters, by the way. Slaves.

Many members of the Free State Project will be appearing on ballots around the state this fall. At least one will be on the ballot in Carroll County. Ed Comeau of Brookfield is running for the NH House. Some of you will recognize Ed as the person who tapes a variety of public meetings, including the Carroll County Commissioners. The level of dysfunction we’ve seen in our county government may well have been nurtured by the FSP. Remember, their goal is the destruction of our form of government. What better way to begin than to ensure chaos, obstruction, and gridlock? It’s happening both in Concord and on the county level, engineered by Free Staters and their fellow travelers in the Tea Party and the John Birch Society. Always research your candidates to find out things like: What do they believe in? How do they support themselves financially? What groups are they associated with?

As for CopBlock, don’t be fooled by their attempt at a whitewash. They’ve allowed Cantwell’s rants all this time. The “When is it Okay to Shoot a Cop” video has been up on YouTube for over a year. If no cops had been killed, Cantwell would still be an administrator, and no one would be the wiser. The underbelly of our would-be liberators does not match their public face.




© sbruce 2014  
Published in the June 13 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper. 

CopBlock Backpedaling Furiously


In the sudden glare of negative media attention, the folks at CopBlock are backpedaling rather furiously:  

We at Cop Block would like to address the article  written and shared to Cop Block’s Facebook page by former author, Christopher Cantwell, entitled Dead Men Don’t Start Revolutions, as it was reasonably and understandably concerning to many of you and many of us.

Suddenly Chris Cantwell's violent rhetoric is a problem, so now he's a "former" author. 

Some of the folks behind CopBlock have signed on to say that they don't support cop killing, they are believers in the non-aggression principle, and so on. One of the signers is Pete Eyre, who is a CopBlock founder. 

Adam Mueller, aka Ademo Freeman is NOT one of the signers. In fact, he tweeted this out:




Cantwell was a CopBlock administrator even after he was ousted by the Free State Project for violent rhetoric.  This sudden ouster is all about keeping the "slaves" (all you nice liberals who post CopBlock memes) from being upset about the violence these folks espouse. 


 Some background.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Cop Killers Love CopBlock



If you have a Facebook page, you've probably seen memes from Cop Block. Many people who are concerned about the militarization of police departments post Cop Block memes, including some of my friends.

 CopBlock claims their goal is police accountability:


We do not “hate cops.” We believe that no one – not even those with badges – has extra rights. The failure to realize and act on that is to our detriment. By focusing the disinfecting light of transparency on public officials we safeguard not just our rights but those of future generations.
Those of us who write for and are responsible for CopBlock.org affirm that violence is not condoned except in the defense of self or others - while we recognize the rights of other individuals to use the CopBlock name, we do not recognize those that do not affirm and live by that statement. [click here for more on the non-aggression principle]
They claim they don't condone violence, but note how they weasel out of responsibility "we recognize the rights of other individuals to use the CopBlock name... but we don't recognize those who do not affirm and live by that statement..." 
Well, except for this guy. Christopher Cantwell is in favor of dead cops. He blamed Steve Arkell, the Brentwood, NH police officer recently killed in the line of duty, for his own death. 
He cheered on Justin Bourque, the young guy who killed three RCMP officers and wounded 2 others. 



As you can see, it says this Tweet is from CopBlock. The same CopBlock that claims it doesn't condone violence. As it happens, Cantwell is a frequent contributor who appears to be entitled to tweet as CopBlock. Given that Cantwell approves of killing cops, it's difficult to take the CopBlock bleatings about nonviolence and the so-called "non-aggression principle" very seriously. 
Amanda Miller, who, along with her husband Jerad Miller went on a spree in Las Vegas where they killed 2 cops in a pizzeria and a bystander in a WalMart, had a YouTube channel where she "liked" a bunch of videos about the moocher rebellion at the Bundy Ranch. She also "liked" this video from CopBlock:
So who IS CopBlock? Adam Mueller aka Ademo Freeman tells us all about it in this history written in 2010. The founders and behind the scenes guys are mostly from the Free State Project, the group of libertarians (or armed miscreants if you prefer) who are attempting to occupy, colonize, and take over NH. 
  • Jason Talley, who donated the theme and his time to get Cop Block off the ground
  • Pete Eyre, who guest blogs and post videos of his police encounters
  • Ian & Mark of Free Talk Live, who have helped spread the message of Cop Block on their show, which lead to an anonymous donor. Who now helps Cop Block sponsor police brutality segments on FTL.

Jason Talley is a Free Keener. Pete Eyre is a Free Stater/Free Keener who comes to us from the Cato Institute, the Drug Free Alliance, and the Institute for Humane Studies - all libertarian enterprises funded by the Koch bros. 
Ian and Mark of Free Talk Live are Free Keeners. Ian is Ian Bernard aka Freeman a trustifarian moocher who claims his home is a church in order to get out of paying taxes, and Mark is aka Mark Edge, though his real name is Edgington. He comes to us from Florida, where he spent 9 years in prison for strangling a motel manager. 
And that's the point. CopBlock is the Free State Project. The FSP loves to tell us that they're here for freedom, and they are peaceful people. Underneath those claims of peace are a roiling, nasty, violent stew - Chris Cantwell, Larken Rose, Vin Suprynowiscz, Muni Savyon and  Darryl W. Perry to name a few. Then there are the Free Keeners who follow meter readers around with video cameras and harass them. That's not the act of peaceful people. It's intentionally antagonistic and bullying. Dave Ridley, the wannabe Stossel (or at least Jimmy O'Keefe) of the Free State Project stalks and harasses female legislators in the Legislative Office Building. Ian FreeLoad urged his followers to "ambush" Representative Janet Wall. 
I am certain that the same people who say guns don't kill people will come by to tell me that CopBlock doesn't kill cops. My friends who put CopBlock memes on their Facebook pages have never watched the "when should you shoot a cop" video, and will be horrified to learn it exists. They'll be horrified to listen to Larken Rose, the tax dodging Free Stater and anarchist whose words are heard in that "when should you shoot a cop" video. 
My friends aren't going to kill cops. But Justin Bourque did. So did Jerad and Amanda Miller. They all had CopBlock in common. And CopBlock comes from the Free State Project in NH - which is the home of the first in the nation presidential primary. In fact, the FSP is attempting to get a big chunk of folks here in time for that primary. Peaceful intent or something more sinister? It's worth pondering. 

Sunday, June 08, 2014

Door Prize - A twitter exchange with the far right







Vermont May Eliminate Entry Fees at State Parks

Vermont. New Hampshire. So close and yet so very far.... 

Last year, NH wanted to make senior citizens pay $20 for a season's pass to our state parks. 

This year Vermont is having an entirely different conversation:
Free state parks? Some Vermont House lawmakers think it's a good idea.
A proposal in the House calls for dropping the day use entry fee for everyone. Visitors over 14 years old currently pay a $3 entry fee or $80 for a season pass

Next weekend it's Vermont Days when residents can visit state parks, historical sites, and the Vermont History Museum absolutely free of charge. And everyone (resident or not) can fish on the 14th without a license. 
Meanwhile in NH - we've got some liquor stores on the highway! Just don't use the bathrooms.


Would Walt Disney Approve of the Robin Hoodlums?

The Robin Hoodlums of Free Keene (aka the Free State Project) are some unemployed youth who prance around all day putting money in parking meters, and harassing the city's parking enforcement employees. 

Free Keene Robin Hood

They find themselves heroic  for making the lives of working people unbearable. Given that they aren't working people (no one knows who is subsidizing the hoodlums, or buying their expensive video equipment) this is especially offensive.  

A recent NY Times story didn't cast them in a flattering light. 

This is their logo:  

























If that looks familiar - it is:



I'm a little surprised that the usually protective and litigious Disney doesn't object to their image being used in this way, by this group. 

I'm even more surprised that they don't object to this use of their movie - because if there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that the Robin Hoodlums didn't ask for permission. (In the real world, we call that THEFT)