Today, Newsweek covered the launch of NHExit Now, the new independence site which aims to create a true grassroots independence movement in New Hampshire.
In the Media
On Monday night, in what I will now call a PorcFest Miracle, I was thrilled to see a post by Stella Assange about Julian’s release. Unbelievable!
I have held Assange as hero from the start. A journalist exposing war crimes. A honest, idealistic man doing the right thing against War Pigs. Why did we think it would end differently? That they would force a humiliating plea deal from him as the cost of exposing the truth. Over many years, they wore him down. They tortured him. They kept him in solitary confinement. They destroyed his health. They put him in Belmarsh, the worst prison in the U.K.
For telling the truth.
That’s it. No one disputes the truth of the revelations.
They hate him for embarrassing them with the truth of WHO THEY ARE for the whole world to see.
The plea deal finds him guilty of one count of violating the Espionage Act. This sets a dangerous precedent, potentially criminalizing any journalism the government decides they don’t like in the future.
The press should fight back about this precedent now to vociferously undermine it, and call it what it is: the price (blackmail, one might argue) to get a stubborn, principled, truth-telling man home. Said Assange’s wife, Stella:
“I hope journalists and editors and publishers everywhere realise the danger of the US case against Julian that criminalises, that has secured a conviction for, newsgathering and publishing information that was true, that the public deserved to know.
That precedent now can and will be used in the future against the rest of the press. So it is in the interest of all of the press to seek for this current state of affairs to change through reform of the Espionage Act.
Through increased press protections, and yes, eventually when the time comes – not today – a pardon.”
Stella Assange
The plea deal is also a possible political gambit by the Democrats, since Biden will claim this as a win during this election cycle, and yet, also, the 2016 leaked DNC documents have allegedly disappeared from Wikileaks. (Huh.)
I did a spicy radio interview this morning about Julian’s release. LISTEN NOW. (My part starts around minute 22 through the end.)
Here’s ChatGPT’s summary of the disclosures that landed Assange in confinement for more than a decade:
Why they persecuted Julian Assange, a short summary…
— Carla Gericke, Live Free And Thrive! (@CarlaGericke) June 26, 2024
1/Diplomatic Cables (Cablegate, 2010): Over 250,000 classified US State Department cables were released, revealing candid and often unflattering assessments of world leaders, as well as details of behind-the-scenes…
Here’s my questions to ChatGPT on Monday (after Assange’s release but before the AI had been informed, apparently)
Summarize what happened to Julian Assange since he started Wikileaks using the frame of an honest journalist being persecuted by an immoral government hiding war crimes
ChatGPT: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has faced significant persecution from various governments, particularly the United States, since he began his whistleblowing activities. Assange started WikiLeaks in 2006 with the aim of providing a secure platform for whistleblowers to leak classified information. The organization’s most notable release came in 2010 when it published a trove of U.S. military documents and diplomatic cables, exposing war crimes and human rights violations.
Following these disclosures, Assange became a target of intense scrutiny and legal pressure. The U.S. government, angered by the exposure of its secret activities, initiated a rigorous campaign against him. In 2010, amid these pressures, Assange faced allegations of sexual misconduct in Sweden, which many viewed as a pretext to detain him and facilitate his extradition to the U.S. Fearing extradition, Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012, where he remained for nearly seven years under increasingly restrictive conditions.
During his time in the embassy, Assange’s health deteriorated, and he continued to face psychological stress. Despite these hardships, he continued to advocate for transparency and the protection of whistleblowers. In 2019, Ecuador revoked his asylum, and British authorities arrested him. Assange was subsequently held in Belmarsh Prison, a high-security facility, under harsh conditions often described as punitive and detrimental to his health.
The U.S. government formally requested Assange’s extradition, charging him with multiple counts under the Espionage Act for publishing classified materials that revealed war crimes and government misconduct. Many journalists, human rights organizations, and advocates for press freedom condemned the charges, arguing that they posed a grave threat to journalistic practices and the public’s right to know.
Throughout this ordeal, Assange has been portrayed by supporters as a courageous journalist persecuted for revealing the truth about governmental abuses and war crimes. His treatment is seen as a stark warning to others who might seek to hold powerful entities accountable, highlighting the ongoing struggle between transparency advocates and governments seeking to conceal their wrongdoings.
Now write a version the government would approve of
ChatGPT: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has faced legal and judicial scrutiny due to his involvement in the unauthorized release of classified information. WikiLeaks, established in 2006, became widely known in 2010 for publishing a large number of U.S. military documents and diplomatic cables, which the U.S. government contends compromised national security and endangered lives.
Following these disclosures, Assange faced legal charges unrelated to his publishing activities. In 2010, Swedish authorities issued a warrant for his arrest on allegations of sexual misconduct. Assange denied the allegations but avoided extradition to Sweden by seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012. While in the embassy, Assange was accused of using his position to avoid facing justice in Sweden and disregarding legal processes.
In 2019, Ecuador revoked Assange’s asylum, and he was arrested by British authorities for breaching bail conditions. Subsequently, the U.S. government requested his extradition, charging him with multiple counts under the Espionage Act for his role in obtaining and disseminating classified information. The charges reflect the U.S. government’s stance that Assange’s actions went beyond journalistic activity and constituted a severe breach of national security protocols.
Assange is currently held in Belmarsh Prison while his extradition case is being considered by the British legal system. The U.S. government has consistently emphasized that its actions against Assange are based on legal principles and the need to protect national security, not an attempt to stifle press freedom. The legal proceedings are ongoing, with the U.S. maintaining that Assange should face justice for his alleged crimes under due process of law.
RFK comes to Porcfest, members partake in the nude Olympics, a new secession bill is voted on in the House, board shakeups bring a new Executive Director: These are just a few big moments from this past year in the Free State Project. We check in a year later, in the 20th anniversary of the birth of the Free State Project, to see how much progress the libertarian migration has made.
How New Hampshire Became the Freest State in the Union | Guest: Carla Gericke | Ep 276
Sprouting from a graduate student’s thought experiment in 2001, over the last 20 years, the Free State Project has made a significant impact on the state of New Hampshire by gathering like-minded, liberty-loving folk who share a passion for freedom and independence. At this year’s New Hampshire Liberty Forum, Matt Kibbe sits down with Carla Gericke, president emeritus of the Free State Project, to discuss the history of the project, where it is today, and where it’s going in the future. In addition to making substantial legislative changes in the state, the Free Staters are also attracting the attention of major figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, indicating that the real gains for liberty are yet to come. Subscribe to Kibbe on Liberty everywhere you get podcasts. The revolution is here. A movement of people free to live, work, and choose. We won’t tell you what to think, we just demand that you think for yourself.
Read the whole article HERE…
“Carla Gericke is acting president of the Foundation for New Hampshire Independence and a spokesperson for the Free State Project (FSP), a movement which encourages libertarian-leaning individuals to ‘move to New Hampshire for liberty.’
To join the FSP, which it claims more than 20,000 people have already done, individuals are required to ‘state my solemn intent to move to the State of New Hampshire’ then ‘exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of civil government is the protection of individuals’ life, liberty and property.’
Justifying the policy, the FSP states: ‘By concentrating our numbers in a single state, we are maximizing our impact as activists, entrepreneurs, community builders, and thought leaders.’ While not all FSP activists support outright independence for the Granite State, Gericke certainly does, telling Newsweek: ‘It’s an idea whose time has come and a reflection of the frustration everyone on the political spectrum is feeling.’
On January 3, Representative Jason Gerhard, a Republican in the New Hampshire legislature, introduced a bill stating that should the federal debt ever reach $40 trillion, around $6 trillion more than at present, the state “shall declare independence and proceed as a sovereign nation.”
Even as someone who despises the federal government enough that I think we can do better on our own, I’ve learned to appreciate the First in the Nation Primary in NH… It’s been described as the “Superbowl of politics,” but this time round, it’s just not what it used to be…
With Grandpa too senile and The Party too demented to bother to put Biden on the ballot, the circus element from the left is somewhat lacking.
#sad
— Victoria Sullivan (@VictoriaSul21) January 23, 2024
He’s not that into you. pic.twitter.com/rTnrL4Z0f6
Add to that, DeSantis and Vivek dropping out, and the circus on the right is also hamstrung.
If FITN is our Bread & Circuses, this Primary reflects more bread lines, less ringmasters.
That said, there are always opportunities to be seized.
FSP founder Jason Sorens, our new executive director and Maine Senator Eric Brakey, and I did a walk-and-talk segment with Lawrence Jones from Fox & Friends in downtown Manchester yesterday.
By happenstance, Andrew Sylvia of Manchester Ink Link was on a corner and snapped a pic of the crew following me to Hanover Street.
.@CarlaGericke has a media entourage near Amherst and Elm #NHPolitics pic.twitter.com/rjnd3uaiBd
— andrewsylvia (@andrewsylvia) January 22, 2024
The 3-minute segment airs today and is a profound gift to spread the message of the Free State Project to a massive new audience.
After the shoot, we stopped for lunch at the DoubleTree, where in years past, Radio Row was buzzing, and TV news trucks would be lined up in front of the hotel.
On Sunday, Eric and I did sit down with Granite Grok to discuss our views on the upcoming Primary and the future of liberty in New Hampshire (see OP pic of Eric, who got pulled into a second interview with students from Franklin Pierce School of Law), but compared to the past, on Monday, Radio Row was bleak and there were no news trucks.
But, Andrew Yang showed up (he’s behind Jason in the photo), then Lily Tang Williams popped in to say hello, and I had a good conversation with Federation of Republican Women stalwart, Augusta Petrone, whose fantastic “pinkie up” High Teas at her beautiful mansion are always worth attending.

While I was talking to Augusta, I had my parking ticket in my hand but somehow lost it on the way to the car.
I was unnecessarily angry at myself about this, mad because my “pre-planning” (having the tix out) had backfired and now I’d have to pay a gazillion bucks for a quick lunch stop.
Me to parking attendant: “I lost my fucking ticket. But if it helps, I parked at 12:08.” He never said a word or acknowledged my statement but I only paid $8 not $22. Grateful!
Then I stopped in at the Quill and met with comedian and podcaster Andrew Heaton. Eric and Joshua Holmes sat down for an interview and I headed home to help clients who are in the market for a house.
Here’s Heaton and co at a podcast recording over the weekend.
Right now in New Hampshire —@JustinRYoung, @MightyHeaton, and @JenBriney up for the NH Primary, recording a live podcast episode of “We’re Not Wrong” at @ToShareBrewing in Manchester, NH. pic.twitter.com/43zvuFwmkP
— The Free State 🦔 (@FreeStateNH) January 21, 2024
As I drove home, I thought how thankful I am that our movement has arrived.
That Free Staters are now an embedded part of NH’s political landscape. That what we have accomplished, and will accomplish, is undeniable.
That the community we’re building is growing.That our human action is making the Live Free or Die state more better.
Our time has come.
Let’s not squander it on a strategy of being assholes. Let’s leverage it to become the people other people want to be like!
Let’s emulate our principles in a way that ATTRACTS not repels. Marcus Aurelius said: “Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if you will ever dig.”
Let’s live free… and thrive!
Manchester Ink Link: Could New Hampshire become an independent country? Yes, if this proposed legislation succeeds
Coverage of CACR 20 and HB 1130 from Manchester Ink Link.
“For Carla Gericke, Chairwoman and President Emeritus of the Free State Project, one of the primary reasons is a fear of the United States dollar losing its status as the world’s reserve currency, which would drastically harm the U.S. economy if it occurred.
Both Gerhard and Gericke believe that the separation would be peaceful with Gerhard stating that the move would emulate portions of the New Hampshire Constitution already in place such as Part 1, Article 10, which guarantees the “right of revolution.”
Gericke told the committee that the state should have the right to peacefully secede from the United States through democratic means and felt that the violent is a tool of authoritarianism, something she believes this legislation is meant to circumvent. Following the hearing, she stated that if federal response to secession was violent then it would serve as proof that secession was needed, comparing it to a domestic abuse victim blaming themselves for being abused.
“If the answer (to secession) is that (the federal government) is going to murder us because they don’t agree with our positions, then it’s probably a good time to leave the relationship,” she said. “When someone is abusing you and then tells you, ‘You can’t leave or I’m going to kill you,’ that doesn’t seem like a healthy relationship.”
She added that with the ability for people to “vote with their feet” making it easier for many to reject the values of governments in places where they might currently reside, Gericke agreed with Gerhard that the move toward greater local autonomy of some sort everywhere is inevitable.
“I think we’re just so caught up in these fear paradigms and in these little boxes that we just look at the world and we’re like ‘this is how it was and this is how it must be’, but I’m like ‘no, what can we do?’” she said.