Carla covers Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and why free speech matters, three tips for fasting, and she launches her Sense of Self Series. But really, she tells it like it is to her Progressive friends whose policies are destroying America.
Wednesday was eventful! Morning: working on the The Carla Gericke Show (catch the latest episode HERE). Early afternoon, walked our future property at Bardo with Emily Smith (you don’t realize how deep in the forest you are till you see how small we are in the pics).
Early evening listening to heroic investigative reporter and now Regime-persecuted James O’Keefe speak at Dartmouth. I was ready for a Free Speech rumble, but everyone was awfully polite. Thanks for all you do, James!
James and I have met over the years, we even had drinks once at The Copper Door back in 2013 or 2014 when I was still drinking. We caught up for a quick “hello” in South Dakota at Freedom Fest too. Yesterday, I had him sign a copy of Muckracker and gave him a copy of my book, The Ecstatic Pessimist with a Free State of NH passport strategically placed to open to my essay about Orwell that I delivered at the launch of Ben Swann’s Truth in Media in 2013.
At last night’s event, James o’Keefe’s talk was mainly a take-down of the “journalism” presented by Kyle Mullins, former editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth. You can watch James respond to a question about Anonymous and conflict of interests in the media HERE.
Here is the piece done by The Dartmouth after the event.
Lastly, we’d planned a late dinner at an old stomping ground Korean restaurant only to discover they now only do take-out… Guess who ate squid in a parking lot last night?
BREAKING! Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $41B in order to take company private. He’s savage! 
UPDATE! Zee plot thickens! From my Twitter feed:
Man, this @elonmusk takeover is turning into Succession meets Billions IRL with some Pentagon Papers thrown in for good measure. #Twatter
ICYMI: Vanguard comes to Regime’s rescue & buys current largest share at 10.3%.
Saudi Arabian shareholders turn down deal (looks like the Regime is finally calling in that favor). Elon calls them out on it.
Progressives cheer AGAINST openness & free speech and FOR Big Money.
If the collapsing Regime is willing to go to these lengths to stop someone from re-instituting CENSORLESS FREE SPEECH, and YOU’RE not wondering what they are trying to hide, you’re not thinking hard enough.
Hint: Connected dots on intelligence agencies’ malfeasance. The corruption rife in DC. The harm caused by the government’s response to C-19. The lab leak. The collusion btw Big Pharma, Big Money, Big Tech & Big Gov against YOU, the “nonessential” little guy.
Then there is this: https://www.nytimes.com/…/twitter-saudi-arabia-spies.html
Turns out: Chairman of Twitter is Salesforce’s CEO, which recently ran an anti-SpaceX/Elon superbowl ad. So this drama has multiple layers
UPDATE 2:
On Friday, Twitter introduced a poison pill rather than accept generous offer. The Twitter board has a fiduciary duty to consider all offers in GOOD FAITH.
By rejecting an offer at 54% PREMIUM, they are screwing their s/holders, and opening themselves to a massive shareholder lawsuit. All this now obviously to continue to suppress free speech and rig elections in favor of their favored candidates.
FYI: Invoking the “poison pill” means if any person or group acquires 15%+ of Twitter’s outstanding common stock without board approval, other s/holders can buy additional shares at a discount <–to fend off a “hostile takeover”. Yesterday, they diluted the stock to reduce Elon’s stake.
The original offer represented a 54% premium, which has now been reduced to 18%. The question investors should ask themselves is why they would continue to hold Twitter stock now that the Board has shown it will BREAK THE LAW and choose SJW/Wokeness over its fiscal duties.
Then Twitter’s Board hires Goldman Sachs–you know, Too Big To Fail guys–to advise them on the offer. They say it’s not a “fair offer in good faith,” BUT, the premium offer of $54.20 is ABOVE their own buy/sell recommendation of $30. This was Elon’s response.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022
Update 4/21/22: Looks like Elon has borrowed enough money to take an offer of $46.5B directly to the shareholders, thus circumventing the poison pill, so currently, in the Saga of Twitter’s Free Speech Suicide Squad: “Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a filing Thursday he has secured $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter — mostly with borrowed money.”
Man, this @elonmusk takeover is turning into Succession meets Billions IRL with some Pentagon Papers thrown in for good measure. #Twatter
— Carla Gericke, Live Free & Thrive! (@CarlaGericke) April 15, 2022
You decide if this SNL skit is funny or not.
WATCH: “Comedy” segment on SNL says @elonmusk wants to buy Twitter so “white guys” can “say the N-word.” pic.twitter.com/YMWc0JRZDB
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 17, 2022
My response to the skit was: “Another “N-word” was censored on social over the past 2 years: the Nuremberg Code, the set of ethical rules for human experimentation that were grossly violated by the introduction of vax mandates during Covid. Mentions received warnings/misinformation labels. #FreeSpeechMatters”
I have been a fan of Ai Wei Wei for a long time and was thrilled to hear him speak in NYC years ago. I’ve caught his exhibits in Brooklyn, Prague, and online, and watched several of his documentaries. My favorite piece of art is his marble surveillance camera, because the incongruity of the marble brilliantly cements Big Brother in such an inconceivable, permanent way.
This week I cover a lot of ground: Was Bob Saget murdered? Is Free Speech dead? What’s up with Canada, and why do Democrats hate school choice? I conclude with some tips on how to get more GRIT in your life!
I’ve never spoken about this publicly, because I eschew victim mentality and, at the time, nine years ago, I couldn’t really believe it was going down the way it seemed to be–this was before there was a term for getting rid of people in the workplace whose opinions you didn’t like.
I made the post below on Facebook, set to my “friends” originally, except most of my work colleagues were, I thought at the time at least, “my friends.” Soon after this post, the chair of the NH Writers’ Project board took me out to dinner to chastise me, telling me my opinion was not acceptable. Honestly I don’t remember all of the details of what was said, but I do know I was sobbing at the dinner table, so it was definitely unpleasant and belittling.
Soon after, my then boss left NHWP, telling me that everything was set up and that I would be appointed as interim executive director, and then officially promoted when the board approved the appointment at the next meeting. Thinking I had just landed my ultimate dream job–running the NH Writers’ Project, putting on exciting arts events across New Hampshire, including Writers’ Day, our flagship annual event, which in my five years with the organization I had revamped from a money-losing mess into a record-breaking, money-making success–I took a much needed vacation to recharge. While on vacation in Honduras, I was informed they’d hired someone else as the executive director but that I could stay on for the time being in my current part-time role.
Now that I understand the socialist playbook is all about silencing people you disagree with instead of debating the actual issues raised, I know I was simply a very early victim of cancel culture. So early, it didn’t even have a name yet!
People who know me know I’m an early adopter of good ideas, which means, like most early adopters, you run the danger of being unpopular until your time comes.
My time will come.
In the meantime, I’m batting pretty well about my predictions for the future, including:
1. NH being the best place to live if you value liberty;
2. Bitcoin and crypto being the best hedge against inflation and money creation;
3. We’d all be better off with less government. Every single one of us;
4. Corona-fascism is real and they are trying to implement a global population/movement control system using vaccine passports as an excuse; and
5. Guns are the only thing making America not look more like Australia or Austria right now. Molon labe.
Somehow, even little ole me got caught up in The Great Deplatforming of 2021. Death to free speech, long live state controlled messaging! /s In other news, the encrypted messenger app, Signal gained 40 million new customers this week. I’d say that means the message of freedom, privacy, and free speech are winning… underground. Suck it, Feds! Suck it, Socialists! Suck it, Authoritarians!
During apartheid-era South Africa, all the cool shit was forced underground. Mixed race bars and jazz in Hillbrow. The authoritarian Regime controlled the movement of people, requiring pass books to travel. This is starting to happen in America, and will escalate. I read in today’s paper that Biden will use an executive order on inauguration day to mandate masks for inter-state travel and in federal buildings. I anticipate soon you will need a vaccine “passbook” to travel internationally.
Fortunately, for now, despite New Hampshire’s misguided governor who is–rumor-warning: possibly planning a VP run with Pence (based on a UNH poll I heard about)–disregarding the people who actually put him back in the governor’s office, here in the Free State of New Hampshire, free staters haven’t seen a significant change in our daily routines.
We still meet in large groups, go mask-less if so preferred, and have continued with our regularly scheduled events. In fact, I am already planning PorcFest 2021, slated for June 21-28, 2021, which should be the biggest and bestest to date. THAT, of course, is ultimately up to you. 🙂
In these frustrating times, it is important to remember one side is spreading darkness, isolation, and fear. Me? I’m just over here reminding people you have one life to live. Live it fully, in lightness, surrounded by people you love and who love you. Live life on your feet. The view is much better up here than down there on your knees. I say it all the time, but here we go again: If you are so scared of dying… how are you LIVING?
My initial, off-the-cuff response to Zandra Rice-Hawkins’ misinformation campaign against the Free State Project, at a public meeting held February 27, 2020 at the Whipple Free Library in New Boston, NH. Rice-Hawkins refused to be recorded, but I didn’t mind. I’m working on a more comprehensive written rebuttal coming soon!
There were, of course, a million things I wished I’d said, but all in all, glad I stayed focused on how progressives and libertarians might work together.
A few things I should have mentioned:
1. There are 49 other states where people can go if they want more socialism. Free Staters wish to preserve and enhance the liberties found in the Live Free or Die state (i.e. *we’re* not the ones trying to change the flavor of the state). Why not allow people seeking more freedom one place to spread our low-tax-low-spending-personal-responsibility wings? America is supposed to be a federation and the states are supposed to allow experimentation. #MakeAmericaStatesAgain 😛
2. The Free State Project is a 501c3 educational nonprofit, and we do not, READ MY LIPS, **do not** do policy work or politics. We attract new movers to NH by showing them how awesome it is here! People who move here DO get involved with all kinds of projects and *other* organizations. E.g. I serve on Right to Know NH, a statewide nonpartisan open government advocacy group.
3. New Hampshire Independence is also a federally recognized 501c3 educational nonprofit that educates Granite Staters about the benefits of peacefully gaining independence from Big Bad Fed Gov. This is also not as “fringe” as Zandra would lead you to believe. In two NH polls conducted when Brexit was announced, with more than 2K Granite Staters polled, 42% (FORTY TWO PERCENT) supported a “free and independent NH.” That said, YUUUUGE SURPRISE, not all Free Staters agree on this approach at all.
4. Reminder! Repeat after me: Free Staters are not a monolithic group who agree on all things. We value individualism and choice. Zandra Rice-Hawkins continues to mischaracterizes almost everything the FSP does. I was particularly struck by the fact that at the end of the evening, after several Free Staters shared their personal stories about their reasons for moving here–e.g. a Chinese immigrant who fled Communist China; a mom with an autistic son who lives in and absolutely loves New Boston (“If it stayed like it was today, it would be still be perfect!”); a high-tech entrepreneur, etc. Zandra must have realized this humanized us after her demonizing presentation, so she straight-up told me she would not give us the opportunity to share our stories at future events. This, to me, says a lot about her motivations…
LISTEN NOW… Twitter is banning political ads, Facebook will drop the ban hammer on a whim, and YouTube has been booting creators left and right in pursuit of a less volatile political brew – but does that mean that free speech is under fire? Dive into the complexities of deplatforming and what it means for the First Amendment with your hosts on this week’s Told You So! LISTEN NOW…
The following first appeared on September 30, 2015 in response to “On Banned Books Week.”
Censorship has always fascinated me–who gets to decide what someone else can read? Why? By what authority can one person tell another what they are “permitted” to know? I reject the legitimacy of censorship out of hand. No one has such authority, and history proves those who wish to control what others consume are, without exception, eventually exposed as the bad guys.
Growing up in South Africa, many things–music, literature, art–were outright banned and censored, from ANC symbols, to most international music, to the movie “Black Beauty” solely because of its title, to certain words in newspapers, yes, literally blacked out on the page like you see in dystopian movies (and, say, in the 9-11 Commission Report), words like “Casspir” (the South African equivalent of “BEARCAT,” the armored trucks now being seeded by the Federales into peaceful communities across America, including more than 20 in New Hampshire) because if you banned the mentioning of the vehicles being used to fight illegal border wars, well then, reporting becomes problematic and difficult to do, and therefore, perhaps, journalists will stop writing about such pesky things, neh?
Under apartheid, South Africa had the “Jacobsen’s Index of Objectionable Literature” which contained a “Complete List of All Publications in Alphabetical Order, Together with Authors, Prohibited from Importation Into the Republic of South Africa, and All Other Banned Literature.” The list is long, and difficult to find online. I have ordered a hard copy of “A Culture of Censorship: Secrecy and Intellectual Repression in South Africa,” secondhand for $0.02 plus shipping from Amazon, which reminds me of two things:
1. How soon we forget our histories; and
2. Thank god for the free market. If only said book could be delivered by an aerobot drone to my door, but alas, the FAA has been spending its time on such important issues as licensing paper airplanes for flight.
South African author Nadine Gordimer wrote in 1968, republished in The New York Times Books section in 1998:
All the work, past, present and future, of an individual writer can be erased by a ban on his spoken and written word. The ban not only restricts his political activity, which is its avowed intention, but negates his creativity–he becomes a non-person, since his form of communion and communication with the society in which he lives is cut…. And so long as our society remains compartmentalized, our literature will be stretched on the rack between propaganda, on the one side, and, on the other, art as an embellishment of leisure.
Some people wonder why I take issue with so many things I see happening in my adopted country, and, frankly, why I refuse to shut up about it, to give up, to cave in, to just say, Nah, this crap is too hard to change, the difference we can make too infinitesimal, so why try?
It’s because I have lived through a police state before, and America is lock-step marching there. This is not hyperbole. I will grant you: America is doing its police state right, “better,” more subtle, more comfortable, of course, it’s what America does, after all. This police state is hidden behind both the “propaganda” arm, and mostly, the “embellishment of leisure”: The sports, the reality TV, the Christmas carol commercials to consumers in September, the debates, the joke of it all.
The bread and circuses, the tinny music piping from the organ grinder while the monkeys dance, while MILLIONS of peaceful people rot in prisons for voluntarily inhaling a plant, while MILLIONS of peaceful people in far away lands are being murdered under the cloak of the Stars and Stripes, while MILLIONS of people are being displaced by state-funded terror raining down from the skies.
Why does Banned Books Week matter? It matters because it creates an opportunity to talk about the bad guys. And, I am afraid to inform you, the US government is a bad, bad guy, he’s the boyfriend who beats you then tells you he can’t live without you–or you can’t live without him?–and you go back. Me? I decided a decade ago that I wasn’t taking the Fed Gov back, that I would take my chances with a smaller wife beater (the state of New Hampshire), and see what kind of difference I can make on a local level.
Given what happened a few weeks ago at the Kilton Library in West Lebanon, NH (in 2015), where America’s first Tor relay node was made operational again after the community decided to disregard the DHS’s scare tactics, I know I made the right decision to make New Hampshire my home.
Will you join me, and fight the good fight with thousands of other freedom fighters in New Hampshire? Join the Free State Project today.