Archive for the ‘Libertarian’ Category

In Case You Missed It: Augustus Invictus, Education, Rwanda – Being Libertarian

Welcome to this weeks installment of In Case You Missed It,a weekly news roundup that focuses on some of the biggest news stories from around the globe every week. So, in case you missed it, heres your week in review:

An angered Augustus Invictus, former Libertarian candidate for United States Senate in Florida, called his now-former partyan organization fanatically devoted to losing, in a livestream today.

The one time they came to win something at the federal level, it was to stop me to from challenging Marco Rubio for the United States Senate in Florida, Invictus explained.

Invictus went on to cite a number of reasons why he left, including baseless attacks by fellow libertarians. Over the course of his campaign he was called a devil worshiper, a genocidal maniac, a fascist neo-Nazi hate monger, a white supremacist, and a hundred other things. Invictus was a victim of attacks from LP members, all the way up to the former Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Florida, and the national party chairman.

He continued with his statement trying to provide constructive advice about how to fight against statism and fight for liberty. He suggested that libertarians should fight to win, and that if a party is going to exist, that it should play to win. He sees his party switch as a move from the collegiate level, to the big leagues, joining a party that likely will not welcome [him] with open arms but is at least playing to win and fight against the tyranny of the left.

You can watch his full statement here.

President Trumpsignedan executive order Wednesday to begin pulling the federal government out of K-12 education.

This order, dubbed theEducation Federalism Executive Order, follows through on his campaign promise to bring education back down to the state and local levels.

According to The Washington Times, a 300-day review of Obama-era regulations and guidance for school districts will soon begin. The order will direct Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to modify or repeal measures she deems an overreach by the federal government.

This order is a huge move for the Trump administration in terms of advancing the principles of liberty and small government. Getting the federal government out of national education standards leaving it up to the state and local jurisdictions is an amazing advancement for liberty.

Human Rights Watch reports that at least 37 people accused of petty crimes in Rwanda have been executed rather than given a trial, between the times of July 2016 and March of 2017.

According to BBC News, most of the alleged victims were accused of theft in one case stealing bananas. Others were accused of smuggling marijuana, illegally entering the country, or using illegal fishing nets.

Human Rights Watch believes that the executions are part of a plan by the Rwandan government to spread fear, enforce order and deter any resistance to government orders or policies.

The Rwandan government denies that any of the killings took place.

If true, this is an awful display of disregard for human rights by the Rwandan government.

Thats all for this week. Check back next Friday for another weekly news round up, in case you missed it.

Photo Credit: The Miami Herald

This post was written by Nicholas Amato.

The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.

Nicholas Amato is the News Editor at Being Libertarian. Hes an undergraduate student at San Jose State University, majoring in political science and minoring in journalism.

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In Case You Missed It: Augustus Invictus, Education, Rwanda - Being Libertarian

Russia’s global anti-libertarian crusade – Hot Air

Nonetheless, pro-Russian (or at least anti-anti-Russian) arguments have become fairly common not just among conservatives but among a contingent of libertarians, such as former Rep. Ron Paul and Antiwar.com Editorial Director Justin Raimondo. The new Republican affection for Russia is largely a matter of political polarization: Since Putin is the Democrats boogeyman du jour, he cant be all bad. But quite a few conservatives also genuinely see Putins Russia as a Christian ally against Islam, a perspective recently endorsed by Ann Coulter in a March column trollishly titled Lets Make Russia Our Sister Country.

That view manages to ignore not only Russias coziness with Iran but the fact that one of Putins staunchest domestic allies, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, runs a de facto sharia state within the Russian Federation. This spring, Kadyrov was in the news for throwing gay men in prison camps and threatening a fatwa on Russian journalists who exposed the persecution.

Meanwhile, Ron Paulstyle libertarians are inclined to see Russia as a check on U.S. foreign adventurism and Russia hawks as hardcore proponents of the American imperial leviathan. Unfortunately, there is a small contingent who fall victim to the fallacy that the enemy of the enemy is my friend, and if the Kremlin is the enemy of my enemy, then it must be my friend, Palmer says.

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Russia's global anti-libertarian crusade - Hot Air

Why Net Neutrality is a Necessity – Being Libertarian

Net neutrality allows smaller businesses to rise in the ranks of the current ISP market without having to compete with strong monopolies that dominate society. Net neutrality as a concept is inherently libertarian, as it ensures freedom from censorship, as well as ensures that one can do whatever they want on the internet without fear of being stopped or throttled.

Net neutrality is loosely defined as the principle that internet service providers shouldnt be allowed to restrict or throttle internet access. As well as preventing the restriction of internet access, net neutrality put ISPs (internet service providers) into Title II communications group, precisely the common carriers category. Putting ISPs into this category allows for bandwidth to be regulated, or allows it to not be throttled based on internet usage. Net neutrality also ensures that ISPs are held accountable for the things they do, and doesnt allow ISPs to secretly do things.

Organizations such as Netflix were strong supporters of net neutrality when the topic first arose, but as of recent have been relatively quiet, one can assume that they realized it could harm them. Net neutrality would prevent businesses from being able to create a monopoly on certain websites as they could prevent ISPs from being paid out to throttle websites that rival places like Netflix, Google, and others. With this in mind, small businesses would be snuffed out because they couldnt hold a place in the market due to larger businesses holding such strong monopolies.

Rolling back net neutrality would only open the door for more crony capitalism, and would allow businesses like ComCast to legally prevent internet access for any reason they choose. ISPs would legally be allowed to put premiums on anything they deem necessary, and would have no legal repercussion for making it difficult for one to continue watching their favourite porn, watching things on their favourite small time streaming site, or reading things on their favourite independent news sources like Being Libertarian. Not only would it make it more difficult, but would make it so that the things they can access would cost a fortune.

The main argument against net neutrality is that it is the government attempting to regulate more of ones life.

At the moment we are looking at government or private organization controlling us, and in this case government looks more promising. Having zero regulation on ISPs allows them to lie, throttle, and be generally sly without repercussion. Allowing the government to have minor control over ISPs would merely prevent the ISPs from hiding and abusing power as easily, and would help break up monopolies on the current market. Net neutrality isnt suggesting that the government should have a significant amount of control over the market, but that ISPs shouldnt be able to determine the market.

Net neutrality prevents ISPs from being paid out by big businesses, prevents them from shortening bandwidth because they deem it necessary, and prevents them from putting premiums on internet services. Net neutrality isnt the perfect choice, but is the much lesser of two evils in this situation, and would help ensure freedom.

* Rhys Boekelheide is 16 years old and runs the podcast Your Opinion Sucks. Hes been interested politics for years, and has been writing about them for almost as long.

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Why Net Neutrality is a Necessity - Being Libertarian

If Governor Cooper Wins His State Board of Elections Lawsuit, Will Wake Dems Lose? – The Independent Weekly

On Thursday morning, Gerry Cohen, a former special counsel for the General Assembly, made an interesting observation on Facebook: both the Democratic and Republican parties of Wake County missed the statutory deadline to nominate candidates for the county Board of Elections this year.

And that, he wrote, meant that if Governor Cooper was successful in his effort to overturn a law passed last year reconfiguring the structure of elections boards, the Wake board would consist of two Libertarians and an unaffiliated voter. (Cooper has so far been rejected by the courts, but he is appealing.)

Heres why: the old state lawthe one Cooper wants reinstatedallows each party chair to nominate up to three registered voters for each county board. The state board, which is controlled by the governors party, then selects the members of each county board from the nominees presented by the parties but cannot appoint more than two members of the same party to the three-person board.

The law also sets a deadline; this year, it fell on June 12. The Wake GOP submitted its nominations on June 19, a week late; the Democrats on July 10, almost a month tardy.

This sluggishness would be unimportant if it werent for two more key factors: an ongoing legal battle over the structure the N.C. Board of Elections after the legislatures power grab late last year and the fact that, for the first time in history, the Wake County Libertarian Party submitted nominations for the Wake County Board of Electionsand managed to do it a month early.

Cohen says hed been following this closely because he was hoping to earn a spot on the Board of Elections and was surprised to see that the Dems missed the deadline. And since the Libertarian nominees are the only candidates who fulfill all the requirements of the old law, they might be the only candidates available for consideration. (The Libertarians, thinking ahead, also nominated an unaffiliated voter for the third spot.)

If Governor Coopers legal challenge fails, the county board would be made up of two members of the political party with the most registered voters and two members of the party with the second most registered votersi.e., Democrats and Republicans. This would render the candidates put forward by the Libertarian party ineligible.

Of the Libertarian nominees, Jeff Harrod and Amy Howard, both of Raleigh, are registered Libertarians, and Jon Byers, also of Raleigh, is independent. In a press release immediately following the nominations, Libertarian Party of North Carolina Chair Brian Irving stated, We included independents because statewide they represent nearly a third of North Carolina voters.

Byers says via email that the structure put forward by the state legislature would only weaken the power of an already anemic governor and, despite being billed as bipartisan, would really just shut out third parties and independents more than they already are. Byers says he feels representation of independent voters, who make up a third of all registered voters in Wake County, is an important step toward a democracy that reaches beyond party politics.

The state and Wake County Democratic Party offices did not respond to requests for comment, nor did the governors office. The Wake GOP referred the INDYs request for comment to the state party, which did not respond.

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If Governor Cooper Wins His State Board of Elections Lawsuit, Will Wake Dems Lose? - The Independent Weekly

Reason releases hilarious parody video ‘Game of Thrones: Libertarian Edition’ – TheBlaze.com

With season seven of the smash HBO show Game of Thrones debuting on Sunday, Reason has released another hilarious video putting a libertarian spin on the fantasy epic.

ReasonsAustin Bragg, Meredith Bragg, Andrew Heaton, and Remy Munasifihave made libertarian versions of Star Trek and Star Wars in the past. Star Trek: Libertarian Edition won a Southern California Journalism Award forBest Humor/Satire Writingof 2016.

Now Heaton and the Braggs are back. The video features Heaton and Austin Bragg playing numerous roles. Heaton plays theHand of the King attempting to convince the small council that small government and non-interventionism is the key to a more prosperous Westoros.

Heaton and Austin Bragg also play two members of the Nights Watch trying to figure out why their ancestors built a giant wall to keep out the free folk, people who marry whoever they want, live however they please, and elect leaders instead of being under the rule of someone they never approved of.

Also, watch as Heaton attempts to remember what the sayings are for House Republican and House Democrat while attending lessons with Maester Luwin, and learn that the Libertarian sigil is a porcupine humping a pile of money.

Reason releases humorous videos regularly. Some havemockedSaturday Night Live for itsHillary Clinton Hallelujah musical number, and CNN for its biased reporting.

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Reason releases hilarious parody video 'Game of Thrones: Libertarian Edition' - TheBlaze.com