New, Corporate Free State Project Begins Cleaning House

Poor Ian Freeman.

Ian moved to NH in 2006, as part of the Free State Project. He bought a house and set up a studio for his radio show. In no time at all, he became the leader of the subset of the Free State Project cult, known as Free Keene.

He's relentlessly shilled for Free Keene and the Free State Project. He's also been a big embarrassment to the FSP. Any time there was an obnoxious story in the news about the FSP, it originated in Keene. The Free Keeners did a lot of embarrassing stuff. They drew penises on the sidewalks of Keene with chalk. They vandalized the war memorial. They pranced around with cameras, harassing meter readers. They smoked pot in the park every day at 4:20. SO edgy. They had topless protests. They were people with no visible means of support, who fed parking meters downtown and called their activism "work." Some of them kept getting arrested.

They weren't a good image. And Ian - well Ian's image was pretty tarnished. In 2010, on his radio show, he espoused the opinion that there doesn't need to be an age of consent for adults wanting to have sex with children.




There were grumblings about that over the years. I grumbled about it, here at my blog, in 2014.

Then came Kyle Tasker.  State Representative Kyle Tasker was arrested when he went to the meeting place he'd arranged over Facebook, for the purposes of having sex with a 14 year old girl.

Suddenly, sex with children is a topic of discussion in the state of NH. One of the first people to defend Kyle Tasker was Ian Freeman.  And again.

Ian wasn't the only Free Stater to defend Tasker in public. State Representative Max Abramson was quite vocal on social media and in the comment section at the Union Leader.

Meanwhile, the Free State Project has undergone a transformation. They're now officially a 501 (c)(3) non-profit. They were promoting a campaign for the last few years to "trigger the move." When the FSP reached the magic number of 20,000 signers, the trigger would be pulled (an apt analogy for the armed miscreants) and just like that they would suddenly appear.

The Free State Project began in 2001, when Jason Sorens wrote a rant about gathering like minded individuals to move to a state, take over and dismantle the government, then threaten to secede from the rest of the nation.  In 2001 they voted to move to NH.

Since then, the goalposts have shifted numerous times. They were all supposed to be here in 2006. Then they were all supposed to be here by 2010. It's 2016, and there are still fewer  than 2,000 of them here.

But, Trigger the Move was good PR. They got tons of publicity, and one thing Free Staters love is publicity. Even the mainstream media began showing up at their big events like Porcfest and Liberty Forum. President Carla Gericke was a relentless media hound. She sued the town of Weare. She shrieked and sobbed at the City of Concord when they wanted to buy a Bearcat armored vehicle. She was a necessary figurehead for the FSP, given that libertarian groups are populated by mostly men, and those men are of a somewhat misogynistic persuasion. Having a very visible female figure at the helm was a way of eliminating the discussion of libertarian misogyny.

Carla Gericke, former FSP President 

The move was triggered. And suddenly everything changed. Carla was kicked upstairs, and given a position on the board. Her image wasn't right for the new improved FSP. Millionaire businessman and NH-come-lately, Matt Phillips is the new president of the FSP. He moved to NH in 2014. Matt was an intern at the CATO Institute with Jason Sorens. The Koch funded CATO institute. Also on the board are Aaron Day - an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, businessman Rich Goldman, scientist and management consultant Séamas Ó Scalaidhe, and Jason Sorens who is currently on faculty at Dartmouth. He moved to NH in 2013. There are two women on the board: Carla Gericke and Jody Underwood. Mrs. Underwood is a farmer in Croyden, and likes to dance! Carla likes cooking, hiking, and yoga! 

It seems that the FSP is triggering an entirely different sort of move - a move away from scruffy potheads and sidewalk chalkers - a move toward business suit wearing legitimacy. They don't want to be labeled as "fringe" or "cult" any longer. Nope, they're going full on libertarian corporate. The irony is delicious. 

Carla Gericke, Jason Sorens, and Matt Phillips 

Back to Ian Freeman. Adult men advocating sex with children is not respectable or legitimate. The reaction to Kyle Tasker's attempts to solicit sex with 14 year old girls horrified most residents of our state. It happened at the same time the FSP is making their bid toward becoming FSP Inc. Ian's been an embarrassment for years, and suddenly, they have the means to ditch him. The FSP announced that they were severing ties with Ian's media empire, and that he was not welcome to appear at FSP events. He resigned from the FSP shortly thereafter. And right after all that, the FBI raided the Church of the Free Load and took a boatload of computers and electronic devices.  The new story in the media is that Ian was expelled from the FSP, just as his buddy Chris Cantwell was expelled a few years ago. Both of them were victims of political expedience. Cantwell started making noise about how he thought killing police officers was a wonderful thing at the very same time Carla Gericke started shrieking in public about the Concord Bearcat. The Concord police chief called the FSP potential domestic terrorists on his application. The LAST thing they needed was for the media to discover that Cantwell was proving the chief right. So, they made a big public show of expelling him. Ian became a liability long ago - he just provided the FSP with an opportunity at exactly the right time, thanks to Kyle Tasker. I suspect we'll see more FSP house cleaning in the weeks and months ahead. 

I can't help but feel badly for Ian. He's worked hard to put the FSP on the map for the last 10 years. He's been used and very publicly
cast aside by the very people he worked with and trusted. 

Union Leader: FSP Propaganda Pipeline

On Feb. 28, the Union Leader  published a story about how the Free State Project is now claiming responsibility for 26% of the migrant population growth in NH from 2010 to 2014. 

It's part of a UL feature called NH Angle, which is featured on the front page of the electronic edition of the UL. 

All of this would combine to make one think that this is a UL story. It is not. The story was lifted right from the Free State Project's Free Keene blog, as you find if you "click to view the source material." The UL is presenting the FSP's  unsourced (and questionable) numbers as fact. 

We all know that the UL has been little more than a mouthpiece for the NH GOP, but this is different. This is the UL serving as a propaganda pipleline for the Free State Project, while giving them free publicity and a sort of credibility. 

Cop Killing With Cantwell

This is Chris Cantwell. This is his Halloween costume, worn at a recent Free State Project convention in Keene. 

He moved to NH as part of the Free State Project, the armed band of miscreants that are moving, en masse, to colonize NH, take over and dismantle our state government, then threaten secession. 

Cantwell wants to kill cops. Well, not really - he wants to "inspire" other people into killing cops. Cantwell lacks the courage of his convictions. He doesn't want to go to prison, because he's too important. The lesser folk should do his dirty work for him. It's all part of his desire to violently overthrow the US government.

The FSP publicly kicked him out in 2013, but that was all for show. He's still part of the cult, living in Keene (at the behest of the Free Keene cult leader Ian Bernard) across the street from the Church of the Free Load. Cantwell was on the CopBlock panel at the recent convention in Keene. We are asked to believe CopBlock has good, nonviolent intentions, yet Cantwell was part of the panel. One of these things is not like the other. 


I've written about Cantwell before:

Free Stater Blames Brentwood Cop for His Own Death

Cop Killers Love CopBlock

CopBlock Backpedaling Furiously

Big Turd Lands in Free State Punchbowl

He's eulogized a number of cop killers. The latest is Eric Frein, who killed one cop and wounded another, then hid out in the Poconos for almost 2 months. Frein was recently captured, and Cantwell waxes on about what Frein should have done:


I can’t help but think that his efforts would have been better spent moving to New Hampshire, and joining a community of people who also see law enforcement as a threat to their safety. He could have trained others to shoot, and survive. Instead of laying down his own life for the cause at such a young age, he could have been a force multiplier for all of us.

Yeah, I'm sure we all agree that it's a real shame Frein didn't move to NH. 

By the way - we're always told that Free Staters are peace loving folk. How does talk of "force multipliers" fit in with that peace loving stuff? Wouldn't you need "force multipliers" if you were planning an armed takeover? 

The only reason I’m alive is because I saw an alternative. I saw a way to do more for the cause of liberty by staying alive, than I could by dying. I can’t help but think the world would soon be a better place if people like Eric Frein, Jerad and Amanda Miller, Justin Bourque, Paul Ciancia, Tim McVeigh, and others, had seen that alternative too. What I wouldn’t give to today be surrounded by such brave warriors…

Jerad and Amanda Miller killed 2 cops and a bystander. Justin Bourque killed 3 RCMP officers and wounded 2 others. Paul Ciancia killed a TSA agent, wounded 2 other agents and a teacher. Heroic might not be the term you'd use to describe these folks. 

Cantwell refers to Timothy McVeigh as a "brave warrior." In 1995, Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and wounding 450 others. Nineteen of those killed were children - children that were in the day care center on the second floor. 

A man who blows up 19 children is not a "brave warrior." That Cantwell and his acolytes can justify that act, and treat McVeigh as some sort of hero is monstrous. 

The Free Staters love to tell us they come in peace. People who come in peace don't come armed to the teeth. People who come in peace don't bring guys like Chris Cantwell. 

FSP President Carla Gericke's cries of outrage reached the ionosphere last year when the FSP were called potential domestic terrorists in an application for an armed vehicle filed by the Concord PD.

Were the Concord PD  wrong? 

"We call them ‘libertarians” because ‘sociopath’ is such an ugly word." ~ TBogg

Free State Project Exploits Keene Suicide

On Tuesday night (July 1) Keene police were attempting to arrest Matthew Snow on a bench warrant for violating parole and receiving stolen property. He had a gun. There was a stand-off that lasted for hours. Finally, Snow shot himself in the chest, and later died at the hospital. 

The Free Staters in Keene were there, trying to insert themselves into the process somehow. One of them was arrested for refusing to stay behind police lines. James Cleaveland, who fancies himself A) Robin Hood and B) a journalist, had a little tantrum and was arrested. 

Free Keener Garret Ean, seen in the above meme, was there, filming away. The video of Matthew Snow's death is posted on their website. I am not linking to it. One hears the gunshot clearly, sees Snow's body fall, and moments later one sees the bloody exit wound. 

The Free Staters/Free Keeners posted this on their website. Members of Matthew Snow's family have asked them to take down the video. They have refused. 

Obviously, this is in the worst possible taste. Obviously, by refusing the family's request to take it down, they lose any claim to having pretensions of being human beings, never mind "journalists." 

What is most abhorrent is this - they're exploiting this man's suicide. They're bleating about "the state" and "the police" and blaming them for a situation they know little or nothing about.  

The FSP didn't know or care about this man, and they have refused the Snow family's request to take down the video. These selfish sociopaths will exploit anyone and anything to further their agenda. 

I urge you not to go to their website. Don't give them the page views, or the satisfaction. They're going to use this (the way they use everything) to raise money. It's a whole new level of vile. 

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) 

Free Keeners Deface War Memorial

This is the Civil War Monument found in Keene NH's Central Square. It's an infantryman, cast in bronze, honoring the men of Keene who fought in the Civil War. More on the history of the monument can be found here.

No matter how one feels about war, this is a memorial to the dead. It is a work of art. And it is in a public park. 

That's why it is distressing to see this:

The Free Keeners have defaced the  monument, and not for the first time. If you look behind the current graffiti, you can see a faint peace sign underneath that won't wash off. Just before Memorial Day, too. 

In 2009, Ian "Freeload" Bernard proudly boasted on the FK website that "heroic activists" had defaced the statue. 

Some heroes. Right up there with Rosa Parks. 

These heroic activists are not employed. They do not pay taxes. Taxpayers pay for the upkeep of the pubic parks that these heroes vandalize on a regular basis. 

The self-proclaimed heroic activists seem to be under the impression that sidewalk chalking is a daring form of civil disobedience, as opposed to a nuisance and an eyesore. Chalk easily washes off sidewalks. 

Vandalizing a memorial is something else entirely. 

Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney were heroic activists. 

The FKers are stuck in perpetual delayed adolescence, spending their days engaging in bullying meter readers and defacing public property. 

Heroes?  Not so you'd notice. 

Free Stater Ian Bernard Opposes ANY Age of Consent

Ian "Freeload" Bernard of the Free Keene sideshow of the Free State Project, speaking on air - on his radio call in show, expounds on his view that children are able to decide for themselves when to be sexually active. Apparently children can't be exploited - they're perfectly capable of deciding for themselves. He doesn't believe in any age of consent. He doesn't give a cut off age, either. Would an infant be capable of consent in the twisted view of Ian Bernard?  

This is libertarianism taken to the extreme edge of the extreme. 

Notice how pissy he gets with the caller - and how uncomfortable his cohost becomes. (Note: his cohost is a convicted murderer.)  It seems "Pastor" Freeload thinks that if adults want to schtup children, it's nobody's business. 




Thanks Free State Project - you've really brought the cream of the crop to NH.  


h/t to SFK    This is a clip from the January 7, 2010 Free Talk Live show.

The Importance of Punctuation

Yesterday the Free Keeners were out striking a blow for freedom and liberty with sidewalk chalk:

Puts you in mind of Dr. Martin Luther King, doesn't it?  


Then was this:

A plea for help? Get US out of NH? Most of NH would be in favor of that! 

Big h/t and many thanks to Josh Erickson at Stop Free Keene for allowing me to use his photos.



A few Free Keene stories:

http://susanthebruce.blogspot.com/2014/04/cult-leader-urges-followers-to-harass.html

http://susanthebruce.blogspot.com/2013/03/free-state-astroturf.html

http://susanthebruce.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-state-people-lied.html

Cult Leader Urges Followers to Harass NH State Rep.

Fresh from a  jail cell, Pastor Ian Bernard of the Church of the Free Load in Keene,  is taking up the cause of harassing female legislators. He posted two of the videos I posted yesterday  and had a little tantrum to go with them, which you can see at their website: Free Keene

Ian whatever-his-name-is-this-week begins by referring to Rep. Wall as a "slimy politician" in his heading. The first sentence is where the fun begins:

"What does state rep Janice Wall have to hide and why is she so unfriendly?"

For starters, she's State Representative Janet Wall. Also - not wanting to be followed by a creep with a camera doesn't mean she has anything to hide. She asked him to stop and he kept on badgering her. In some places that might be considered a crime.  

"Dave Ridley of the Ridley Report returns to the state house to attempt to hold members of the judicial committee accountable on what, if anything, they are doing about Thomas Ball’s self-immolation nearly three years ago."  

It's clear that Ian Bernard hasn't troubled himself to learn anything about the legislative process in his adopted state. Like any three year old who wants something RIGHT NOW, he's having a petulant little tantrum. It's not Representative Wall's fault that Tom Ball killed himself in 2011. Nor is it the job of the House Judiciary Committee to stop the actual 2014 legislative work to have a gabfest about Tom Ball, just because Ian Bernard thinks they should. 

The cherry on this shit sundae: 

"I sure hope I recognize her next time I’m in the state house, because I’ll be sure to grab my camera and ambush interview her as well.  In fact, any activists living in the Madbury area should also try to interview her about why she’s so unfriendly to independent media." 

Pastor Freeload announces his intent to hound Rep. Wall, and he urges his fratboy followers to do the same. All because Rep. Wall refused to speak to his fellow FreeLoader, Dave Ridley. That's all she did. And for that, they're threatening continued persecution. What is wrong with these people?


They'd never, ever, in a million years do any of this to a man. 



The Multiple Identities of Ian Bernard

h/t Nashua Patch

Free Keeners Lose Again

From the Keene Sentinel: 

A judge has dismissed a petition against the Keene School District, ruling that voter-approved changes to seven petition articles were lawful.   Judge John C. Kissinger Jr. denied a request from residents Conan Salada, Darryl W. Perry, David Crawford and Eric LaRoche to find amendments made at the district's deliberative session illegal and to give residents a chance to vote on the original articles. The four had claimed the amendments changed the purpose of the articles and made them useless.

The judge disagreed:

When examining the language of state laws, the court has to follow "the plain and ordinary meaning to the words used," Kissinger wrote.In this case, the petitioners argued that the subject matter was eliminated because the amendments created a "nullity" where it made no difference whether residents voted "yes" or "no."

This is how the Free Staters often get into trouble. Plain and ordinary meanings of words seem to be problematic for them. 

A lot of them were unable to grasp the concept of censor vs. censure back in 2013.

Making Friends and Keenely Influencing Politics

It's that time of year in New Hampshire - the time when we move toward town meeting, and the cities and towns that adopted SB 2 have their deliberative sessions. 

One such session took place in Keene yesterday - the deliberative session for the school budget. 

From the Keene Sentinel 

A majority of Keene voters had a clear message Saturday for a small group that sought to slash the budget and reduce some of the school board’s powers:

No, thank you.

Most voters showed their disdain for the ideas, amending each of seven warrant articles and describing most of them as a waste of time or irresponsible. 

Who was this small group?  It was future POTUS  Darryl W. Perry  Conan Salada, and Ian Freeman of the Keene branch of the Free State Project. 

Freeman tried to reduce the budget by $5 million, saying that rising taxes are driving people from Keene. His motion failed 75-15.

And

Some wondered aloud why, if taxes in Keene are so high, they haven’t driven out Freeman or Perry. Others groaned at their proposals or laughed at some defeated amendments.

When the Free Staters started moving to NH, they waxed on  about how much they loved town meeting as a form of government. It's listed as one of their 101 reasons to move to NH. I'm sure that from a theoretical standpoint, it seemed like the bestest thing ever. 

Town meeting is the bestest thing ever. Most of the time ridiculousness gets a sound thrashing, as Messrs. Perry, Salada, and Freeman experienced on Saturday.

The Church of the Free Ride - Praise the Shire!

From the Keene Sentinel:

A Keene City Council candidate with a history of staging protests says his group won’t pay taxes on its Leverett Street residence, claiming it’s a parsonage.

Ian Freeman, a prominent part of the Free Keene movement, an anti-government group, identifies himself as a minister of the Shire Free Church. He and two others have put the city “on notice” that 73 and 75 Leverett St. are ministers’ parsonages for the church, and he will no longer pay property taxes.

This is a new one. The Free Staters are claiming their cult is a religion to avoid paying taxes. 

In a Sept. 2 letter to city officials, Freeman, Wendy French and Darryl W. Perry, who are all identified as ministers, wrote that the Shire Free Church is an interfaith ministry with peace as one of its central tenets.

“Historically, people calling themselves ‘The City’ or ‘The State’ have engaged in systematic threatening of peaceful people. You have jargon for this like ‘taxes,’ ‘statutes’ and ‘ordinances,’ ” the letter says.

Freeman, French and Perry further wrote that, as ministers, they have dedicate their lives “in service of god and peace,” and “are no longer participating as victims under your coercive schemes.”

These people live in Keene - a city with public roads, libraries, schools, water, and sewer. I'm certain that none of the Free Keeners have chosen to discontinue their use of any of these public amenities. 

What they worship is getting a free ride. They're moochers. 

There are people of principle who refuse to pay their taxes becuse of opposition to war and military spending: National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee 

These are people who will go to jail for their beliefs. 

Whereas the Free Staters beliefs and principles add up to this: 
someone else can pick up my tab.