Carla joins Porc Report to discuss recent news that Donald Trump and RFK are both speaking at the upcoming Libertarian National Convention, and other topics. There’s something for everyone who loves liberty here in the Free State!
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.
What is the fate of free staters who were charged with money laundering using cryptocurrency? The FBI and US Attorney’s office explain their investigation of the case and two of those dubbed “The Crypto Six” share their perspectives from prison.
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.
Looks like April 18th is an auspicious date for me in the Free State!
From the pictures above, from left to right: Anti-lockdown “WE ARE ALL ESSENTIAL” protest in 2020 at the NH State House where I posed in my “TYRANNY RESPONSE TEAM” jacket with unknown patriots; a child to remind us, “Freedom over Fear”; honored as one of NH Magazine’s “Remarkable Women 2014” (in Sept that year, I won my landmark 1st Circuit “filming cops” case); and finally, a 2013 protest against militarized policing in Concord. (They eventually got their tank.)
May this post serve as a reminder that YOUR HUMAN ACTION CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
Step one: Move to the libertarian homeland.
Join us this week for a recap of the Free State Project’s 2024 Liberty Forum, with Tulsi Gabbard, Bryan Caplan, and “Mayor Kane” Glenn Jacobs. Hear more about our surprise guest, Jeanne Dietsch, a one-term NH senator with a penchant for making lists, like Fascists and Commies do. Love what we’re doing in the Free State? Get your tickets for the next upcoming event, the 21st Annual Porcupine Freedom Festival! More HERE…
This headline for a video extolling the Deep State dropped on the NYT website yesterday… the same day the New York Attorney General called for the seizing of Trump’s assets.
I doubt you get more Banana Republic than that!
Never have I been happier with my DECISION to move to the Free State fifteen years ago (hey, I’m an early adopter!) and build the future I want, which does not involve these Permanent DC clowns.
Even in little old NH, there is plenty of “Deep State” activity on a local level, with entrenched political power groups, e.g. Unions and administrators, Municipal Association, etc.
BUT, NH is small enough in population size, and the legislature is large enough (400 House members representing about 3,300 constituents each) to allow an engaged citizenry to counteract the inertia that inevitably sets in when bureaucrats get and stay involved.
What’s life like where YOU live? Are YOU involved on a local level? Do YOU feel like you are able to make a difference? Is that locale trending towards more liberty?
Even in NH, with a large activist community, reversing statism can sometimes feel like a slog, so I can only imagine how hard it must be in the “Authoritarian 49,” as Dennis Pratt likes to call it.
But, here’s the reality: The Free State *is* trending towards more liberty. We ARE becoming freer. Our ideas are being debated and legislated. We ARE winning. The future looks bright. The only thing missing is YOU!
If you want a good quality of life.
If you want to live a solid libertarian community.
If you think you can run your life best and you don’t make bad decisions other people’s problems.
If you understand that YOU are responsible for YOUR life, and it’s up to YOU to be healthy, wealthy, and sane.
Then the Free State is for you.
Live free and thrive.
Live long and prosper.
Live in the Free State and do it all. All YOU CHOOSE to do!
Sign up for the FSP newsletter and let us know when you plan to visit so we can make it super-special!
I can’t wait for Liberty Forum! Do YOU have your tix yet? If you’re planning to attend, please get yours today, and help take some pressure off the awesome organizing team! Thanks!
In looking over the schedule, NOW ONLINE, there’s a lot to choose from, but duty calls.
On Saturday, March 16th at 11:30AM in Ballroom B, I will be speaking about real estate tokenization with Porcupine Real Estate’s Mark Warden, Matthew Ping from Ledgeview Commercial, and Kumar Bukkapatnam of Standard Management. We’ll be discussing the untapped potential of DAOs as a vehicle for buying a slice of the Free State.
In addition, on Friday, I will first be listening to Nackey Loeb First Amendment winner, Laurie Ortolano, followed by a RTK panel discussion with one of the leading First Amendment lawyers in New England, Gregory Sullivan. Also on Friday, there’s a secession/independence panel where Free Staters will discuss their different visions for the future of New Hampshire.
I’d like to extend my personal thanks to Liberty Forum organizers Marian Ward, supported by Tammy Simmons Garthwaite, for all their efforts! It’s never easy, and I appreciate YOU!
The ISFL Conference in Prague in 2016 holds many conflicting memories for me.
On the one hand, I was thrilled to be invited and participating in the conference, especially since I’d never been to the Czech Republic before, but, it was also on this trip that I became aware of how undeniably unhealthy I had become.
Physically, I was overweight, inflamed, and my fat ass was not enjoying hours of walking around a new city, usually a favorite pastime.
Mentally, I was exhausted. I’d been arrested, gone through a grueling court case which I eventually won 4 years later. I’d gotten fired from my day job, canceled if you will, before there was a name for it. I’d just triggered the move, announced at a press conference in February 2016, during the First in the Nation Primary, followed by an iconic Liberty Forum with Edward Snowden as our keynote.
I’d just handed the reins to Matt Philips, who was taking over as FSP president. I’d told the board, for the first time in five years, I would not be checking in at all for the week I was in Prague.
Drama!!! Much drama ensued, which you can read about in my next book.
The point of this post is about CHANGING THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE.
In order to do that, you need:
- An honest reckoning with yourself
- An expressed desire to change
- An understanding about what to change
- Knowledge on how
- Focus on smaller goals
I’m in better shape, healthier, and happier now than I was 8 years ago.
There are many reasons for this, first and foremost an incredible, supportive (and competitive) partner, Louis Calitz.
Together, we changed our diets and lifestyles, including both independently quitting alcohol by December 2017.
Once you eliminate the low-grade malaise that proliferates your life on alcohol (it’s a neuro-toxin and depressant), other things become illuminated.
Things like Individualism.
And Individualism within a group.
Building a community of individuals is hard.
Building a strong community of strong LIBERTARIAN individuals is harder.
Everyone’s heard the joke, “It’s like herding cats.”
Some of you have heard my corollary, “Sometimes, you want to put those damn cats in a pillowcase and drown them by the river.”
But, of course, you don’t, because ultimately, we subscribe to the Non-Aggression Principle.
But you do need a coping strategy for when the collective, the whole, the wild and undefined group, lumped together as “Free Staters” gets blamed for AN INDIVIDUAL’S behavior.
Here’s the truth: I am NOT responsible for another person’s actions. And neither are you. And you should never let the enemies of liberty get away with demeaning a whole group for the acts of an individual. For example: You never see newspaper articles identifying murderers by their political parties, so why would we tolerate the media painting us all under one brush when an individual libertarian does something heinous?
It took me a long time to fully internalize this. Whenever “a Free Stater” does something you don’t like, it is an opportunity to talk about INDIVIDUALISM.
If you don’t like the brand, ask yourself, what are YOU doing to build a better one? How are YOU spreading the message of liberty? How are YOU showing up in the world?
Are YOU wearing a clean shirt today?
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.”