The Three Funniest Moments from the 2018 Elections
Politics in America has become a circus and a spectacle sport. While we in the Libertarian Party are wholly committed to fighting against the two party duopoly--progressive special interests vs. conservative special interests--we still have to appreciate the hilarity of some of the things we witness. Sometimes the best way to cope with crazy is to laugh, and these three events definitely earned some good laughs. They're also reasons why we don't take the two parties' "leadership" seriously.
Read moreEsperanza en lo que ganó el Partido Libertario en 2018
PARA DISTRIBUCIÓN PÚBLICA
Algunos partidarios y simpatizantes del Partido Libertario están desanimados después de las elecciones intermedias en Estados Unidos. Yo no. Yo estoy caminando en el aire ahora mismo.
El resultado más importante del martes es que la máquina de Trump ya no tiene mayoría en ambas cámaras del Congreso; los republicanos apenas ocuparon el Senado (51-49) y los demócratas tomaron la Cámara (223-197). El hecho de que ninguno de los dos partidos de programas de bienestar y de guerra sin fin controle el Congreso, ni pueda cumplir su agenda partidista, es la mayor victoria para la libertad humana. Ahora, hablemos del elefante en la sala: el desempeño del PL en esta elección.
Read moreWhat the Libertarian Party gained in 2018
Some Libertarian Party members and supporters are disappointed after last night's midterm elections. I'm not. I'm walking on air right now.
The single most important outcome from Tuesday night is that the Trump machine no longer has a majority in both houses of Congress; the Republicans barely held the Senate (51-49) and the Democrats took the House (223-197). The fact that neither of the two welfare/warfare parties controls Congress, nor can ram their partisan agenda through, is the single greatest win for human freedom. Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room: the LP's performance in this election.
Read moreLos libertarios ganan las carreras locales, logran el acceso a las boletas, prevalecen sobre las iniciativas
PARA PUBLICACIÓN INMEDIATA
7 de noviembre 2018
Las elecciones del 6 de noviembre trajeron varias victorias significativas para el Partido Libertario, incluyendo ganar carreras locales para cargos públicos en la Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota y Tennessee. Incluso en algunos estados sin un candidato ganador, los totales de votos libertarios fueron lo suficientemente altos como para asegurar el acceso a la boleta electoral del partido para futuras elecciones en Indiana, Massachusetts, Nueva York, Oklahoma, Wyoming y el Distrito de Columbia, lo que permitirá que los futuros candidatos se centren en sus campañas en lugar del costoso y minucioso proceso de calificación de la petición. Las iniciativas de boletas de inclinación libertaria también se aprobaron en varios estados, incluida la marihuana medicinal en Missouri y Utah y la marihuana recreativa en Michigan.
Read moreRobert Strawder featured in 'Africa Informer'
Robert Strawder is the talk of the town in Las Vegas. Known as 'Vegas Don' in hip hop circles and celebrated for being a member of Digital Underground, Strawder is taking his message of freedom to the urban community. Just days ago, Robert Strawder was featured in Africa Informer magazine. The Libertarian Party of Nevada is thrilled that an LP candidate is being covered for his run for office, especially in a culture magazine that targets a demographic the LP has a tough time reaching.
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Koreans Declare Peace
Korean leaders Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in met last Friday and declared a historic peace compact between the two countries. While other attempts have been made in the past, this marks the best hope for peace in the Korean Peninsula in 65 years.
This is hopeful news for everyone around the world. One less place where nuclear war could erupt.
Despite the investment Americans have made in Korea, both in terms of lives lost and money spent, very little has been made of this effort in the Mainstream Media.
Instead, we have been inundated with the Kavanaugh hearings which have devolved into a partisan inferno of vile attacks on both sides of the political duopoly aisle.
As a reformed liberal, I left the Democrat Party when they left me. Marching as a child against the Vietnam War, I took comfort in the notion that the Democrat Party was the party of peace. Weary of the endless war policies escalated during George W. Bush's administration, I welcomed the message that Barak Obama carried with him during his election campaign.
I was furious when he doubled down on all the worst things about Bush's warmongering (drone strikes in particular) and walked back his promise to close Guantanamo.
I became a Libertarian because the Libertarian Party has always been the Party of Peace. We have consistently called for the ending of overseas military operations and the closing of overseas bases. There is no reason for American troops to be in Japan or Germany as they have since the end of WWII. As Libertarians, we call for the closing of bases and the return of American troops from Korea as soon as we can.
If you are against endless war for profit and our ever-growing global military presence while maintaining the most powerful defensive military in the world, consider joining us.
Early voting is only 17 days away and the deadline to register to vote is upon us.
Click here to register to vote online. I ask you to consider joining us, the party of peace, by registering or changing your party affiliation today.
Together you and I can make this world a more peaceful place.
Robert 'Vegas Don' Strawder is The Man
Robert Strawder, known to thousands by his hip hop name 'Tha Vegas Don', quite simply is the man. For starters, the hip hop artist and guerrilla filmmaker entered his indie film Checkmate to the Silver State Film Festival in Las Vegas, where he brought home the Audience Award for Best Feature Film. Robert Strawder is also a member of the hip hop group Digital Underground, and squeezes performances in between making movies and music videos.
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Digital Underground's Shock G endorses Robert Strawder
Greg "Shock G" Jacobs, known for being the front man of Digital Underground and a co-producer of several Tupac hits, has endorsed Robert Strawder for U.S. Congress. Robert "The Vegas Don" Strawder is also a hip hop artist and a fellow member of Digital Underground, and running for House of Representatives on the Libertarian ticket.
Read moreJulian Assange and the Future of the Free Press
I read a piece today on Julian Assange by the always thought-provoking Caitlin Johnstone and came to the conclusion (after following some of the links and thinking hard) that America and the Free World’s Free Press is in a fight for its very existence. The next conclusion I came to was the notion that the only ones who can save our free press are independent journalists.
If you think I’m off my trolly, consider:
- Donald Trump is fighting anyone in the press or Twittersphere who levels criticism at him or his presidency.
- Democrats are fighting anyone who is against the FBI and the CIA.
- Corporate America has transmorphed our Free Press into corporate mainstream media conglomerates who parrot the company line to protect the relationship between the government and the media’s corporate ownership. By being cheerleaders for the establishment they have burned their press cards and become public relations agencies.
- Julian Assange is about to be kicked out of the Ecuadoran embassy and perp-walked to jail for “leaking” (reporting) things people in power don’t want you to know.
If you think that any of these things are how it should be, they have won.
Many people think Julian Assange is a child rapist and a criminal secret stealer/leaker. Those people would be wrong. The rape narrative is most assuredly a trumped charge foisted upon us by the system that wants him silenced. The system that insists that players in the journalism game play by the rules the system wrote to retain their stranglehold on the throats of the unwashed masses. Anyone paying close attention to Wikileaks knows it’s a clearing-house for information that someone doesn’t want published.Journalism Is Something Someone Doesn’t Want You To Read
They want Assange silenced for the same reason Lance Gilman wants me silenced; when the people are conned into believing the folks in charge are our benevolent benefactors by the media, those folks in charge can wield power and make money unhindered to the benefit of few at the expense (and on the backs) of the many.Be it on a national scale or right here in “The Richest Place on Earth”, when the purveyors of information are in the pockets of the “establishment”, we as a society are doomed. When the people are told by information sources they consume that the folks in charge are our benevolent overseers, we are all in deep kimchi.
The Times They Are A-Changin’
In my lifetime I have watched our Free Press undergo such change and transformation that it is unrecognizable from its form a generation ago. Consider just the printed version of the news for a moment. When I opened the doors of The Electric Page in Sacramento in 1986, The Sacramento Bee, was a client located a few blocks away. A powerhouse of free ink founded by James McClatchy in 1857, The Bee had a vast reach and influence in Northern California.Purchased by Knight Ridder in 2006, The Bee is now part of a vast corporate media empire forced to morph itself something as weak as rooster soup. Caused in part by arrogance and in part by craigslist.org, the ink on paper pillar of the Fourth Estate is today a shadow of its former self. And the Bee is not alone.
The Reno Gazette-Journal recently sold their presses and slenderized into a teeny printed broadsheet printed at the same Swift Media plant where the Carson Appeal is printed. The Carson Appeal announced this month that it would cut it’s print frequency from six days a week to just Wednesday and Saturday. Minden-Gardnerville’s Record-Courier and the Lahontan Tribune are getting slashed as well.
Print papers all over the county are moving to the digital wasteland of the (don’t believe anything you read on the) internet.
While this shift from print to online is happening like it or not, there is another more sinister change underfoot; the existence of a press that maintains a healthy adversarial relationship with the power structure. Without tough questions being asked of our County Leaders or our National Leaders, followed up by tougher ones when they avoid actual answers with babble-speak and mumbo-jumbo, real truth, and facts remain untold. When a pandering sycophantic collection of pathetic grovelers replace real journalists, the gig is up.
For the most part, the free press gig is already up.
One of my go-to information sources on Tesla was silenced just this week. As the manager of a billion dollar fund, The Montana Skeptic was a vast source of data and insight into the remarkable flimflammery that is Tesla. Maintaining anonymity, Montana was able to distribute insight on Tesla without revealing his identity. Elon Musk called his employer on Monday and on Tuesday Montana deleted his twitter account and vowed to stop writing on Seeking Alpha.“Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves and those we love.” – Julian Assange
When people like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Lance Gilman use their money, power, and influence to quash voices of dissent, we will continue to drift away from the ideals of governance that make The United States the best place to live in the entire planet. When they win, it’s game over, man.
Lucky for us, the game’s not over just yet. As long as people have a chance to read stuff written by courageous keyboard operators, we have a chance. With fearless people like Glenn Greenwald, Nafeez Ahmed, Julia Angwin, Caitlin Johnstone, Julian Assange, and many others keeping it hot and keeping it real, we still have hope.
While my name belongs nowhere near the aforementioned names, I will continue to keep it real in Gold Hill.
Hasta la Victoria, Siempre!
Sam Toll is the Communication Director for the Libertarian Party of Nevada
He operates a hyperlocal news site in Gold Hill Nevada called The Storey Teller where this piece first appeared.
Missives From New Orleans
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