Archive for the ‘Libertarian’ Category

Schmidt exploring Libertarian congressional run – Glens Falls Post-Star (blog)

Christopher Schmidt, a political activist from Washington County, on Monday announced he has established a committee to explore running for Congress in the 21st District in 2018 on the Libertarian Party line.

Schmidt said he is hoping as soon as possible to formally announce his candidacy once his committee finishes its analysis.

The momentum is building right now. As a Libertarian in the North Country, I know I can change the narrative, he said in a telephone interview on Monday.

Schmidt, age 30, is a day laborer, writer and political activist who has been vocal on redrawing voting districts in Queensbury and Glens Falls, and in opposition to Glens Falls Police Department using tasers.

He is temporary chairman of the newly-formed Washington County Libertarian Party and was a co-founder of the Warren County Libertarian Party.

Schmidt, if he gets on the ballot, would challenge U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro.

Patrick Nelson of Stillwater, a political activist and Bernie Sanders delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, is seeking the Democratic nomination.

At least two Green Party members are seriously considering the congressional race, Matt Funiciello, the Green Party candidate in 2014 and 2016, has said.

Schmidt, in a press release, said nearly a dozen individuals are serving on his exploratory committee.

He would not identify committee members on Monday.

Theres a range of people. Im hoping that we can get our official list for the media in the future, but definitely people that have been involved in the Libertarian movement from here out to Jefferson County, even surrounding counties, he said.

At first it was going to be a write-in (campaign.) But then I got some support and now theres some people that want me to be on the ballot and theyre willing to get the 3,500 signatures, he said.

Because the Libertarian Party does not have ballot status in New York, the partys House candidates must run as independents, which requires at least 3,500 valid signatures on nominating petitions, a daunting task in comparison with established political parties.

Republican and Democratic candidates need collect only 1,250 valid signatures from enrolled party members in the congressional district to get on the ballot.

Candidates on other established ballot lines in the 21st District require from three to 1,237 signatures 5 percent of enrollment based on current enrollment statistics.

The most recent local Libertarian congressional candidate was Eric Sundwall in the 2009 special election after Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Greenport, was appointed to the U.S. Senate.

Sundwall was disqualified from the ballot when the state Board of Election ruled that only 2,900 of 6,730 signatures on his nominating petitions were valid.

Sundwall, at the time, said the Board of Elections invalidated many signatures based on minor technicalities.

Follow staff writer Maury Thompson at All Politics is Local blog, at PS_Politics on Twitter and at Maury Thompson Post-Star on Facebook.

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Hull’s Libertarian candidate Will Taylor on what the party is all about – Hull Daily Mail

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First-time general election candidate Will Taylor is raising the profile of the fledgling Libertarian Party in his home city.

He is one of only four party candidates standing across the country.

Living off Anlaby Road, he's challenging for the Hull West and Hessle seat.

READ MORE: Libertarian Will Taylor aims to break election mould in Hull

While he doesn't expect to win, the campaign has given him the opportunity to get his party's message across to a wider audience.

He said: "The Libertarian Party is all about live and let live as long as you are not doing any harm.

"We don't think the government has any right to interfere with your life.

"We have five basic principles that we want to see introduced.

"We want to see the amount of tax we pay reduced as we currently pay around 37 per cent of our income in tax. To do that we have got to cut out a lot of wasteful government spending.

"In terms of immigration, we are very much pro-Brexit but we don't mind people coming into the country so long as they fit in and are prepared to work.

"We would like to see businesses get on and allowed to be businesses. There is too much bureaucracy and red tape, I see and hear that all the time from local businesses in Hull.

"Finally, I want politicians to be made accountable. They spend far too much time down in London in their ivory towers."

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Hull's Libertarian candidate Will Taylor on what the party is all about - Hull Daily Mail

10 Ways Not To Make Your Friends Libertarian – Being Libertarian

Libertarians are, in all honesty, the cringe lords of Facebook. Theyve become the Jehovahs witnesses of the internet.

Libertarianism is a movement with a ton of wonderful people in it, many simply read paperwork on economics and policy, are very smart and go on to living productive and happy lives. That said, it seems like these are only one in every dozen. The rest are a combination of Chris Cantwell, James Weeks, and a bunch of people somewhere on the spectrum, they are not the best marketers.

Ive made a list of ten things libertarians seem to be doing (common and bizarre trends) which are not helping in making their movement a thing.

Lets explain something very basic. If you want to be a person, be a freaking person! Theres nothing more bizarre, or weird, than when someone sees a Facebook profile of a dude they know, went to school with, or are related to, and its just some ugly Facebook profile photo of a dumb meme saying some libertarian buzzword.

Have a photo with friends!

Have a photo looking good!

Have a photo visiting a cool location!

Do not be some junk mass produced meme!

This is something that belongs higher on the list, but its something to just get out of the way early on.

I have questions for many libertarians: Do you hold a masters or PhD in economics? Are you some sort of successful business owner? Are you someone of really any relevance in this world?

Look at the podcasts, the blogs, the candidates, and more. Its all people who, wellarent anybody.

However, its all Oh, like my Facebook page devoted to me! I have a dozen of them!

Its great to be smart. Its great to want to be a face in a movement. Its not great to come off as an egotistical prick Im looking at you Steve Patterson.

This one I just dont really get, the economy and world is a wonderful place, and Ive noticed a lot of libertarians (more so the Ron Paul people) saying the world will come to an end if libertarianism doesnt take over. Ive flat out had people say America is in the verge of becoming a third world nation, and thats just silly.

Life is awesome, and whether its Trump, Bernie, Clinton, or whoever, America and the world has a positive future.

This is where we enter the world of creepertarians.

Yes, I want prostitution to be legal. Yes, I think it is a big issue for some people. However, unless you are a woman, just dont make this your issue. The numbers of creepy people I see who fixate on this random issue (all of whom tend to be socially autistic males) needs to stop.

This is a Libertarian Party problem and its a big one. The LP, to survive, needs big and powerful names.

We need to get on the phone with every millionaire and billionaire who didnt vote for Trump or Clinton and find out if they are compatible with libertarianism. We need to go beg Jeff Flake, Rand Paul, Bill Weld and Justin Amash to be in the liberty movement.

When I see these non-candidates being taken as serious contenders, I laugh and so do non libertarians.

I have never had a drink of alcohol. I have never smoked pot. I have never smoked a cigarette. I have never consumed any caffeine. I dont plan to.

This is where I sadly had an issue with Gary Johnson, a guy I really admire.

I idolize Gary Johnson as the libertarian governor who would climb mountains and build companies. Im not so fixated on him running around talking about how much he loves marijuana.

Now, with Gary its kind of cool. Having a guy that successful actually saying how he has casually smoked marijuana and is still a giant success is cool. However, when less successful libertarians run around talking about their bag of pot, we have an issue.

Remember, every time a libertarian wears a fedora, three Bernie backers are born.

Julie Borowski is probably the best speaker in the liberty movement now who actually makes good content. To see a bunch of freaky dudes online say very perverse things to her in the comments on her Facebook is gross.

Also, this goes beyond Julie into how a lot of libertarians treat women in general. Some just need to grow up.

Want libertarianism to work?

Talk about deregulation in the energy markets cutting costs to ten bucks a barrel.

Talk about making it so undocumented workers will get amnesty.

Talk about the FDA being restructured to allow for massively lower priced pills.

Talk about a practical plan to cut taxes in half.

Talk about how great itd be to have a generation that didnt have to go to war.

The NAP is a philosophical BS statement that no non- libertarian understands and those who run on about it should just get a community college philosophy class to teach at.

Taxation is theft is a meme, taxes need to exist. This is a dumb radicalism.

And the biggest of them all, number one

One big mistake, is that too many libertarians get obsessed with this and become little else than someone obsessed with politics. Travel the world. Succeed in academics or business. Take up cool hobbies such as music, art, archery or whatever. Do not be that jackass posting twenty times a day on Facebook about some stupid topic.

Thats all Ive got.

This post was written by Charles Peralo.

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

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10 Ways Not To Make Your Friends Libertarian - Being Libertarian

UK Elections: The libertarian issues no one is mentioning – Being Libertarian

Its election time in the UK. And in between driving over peoples feet, tripping up on national TV, and locking journalists in a room, the candidates have actually found the time to release some policies.

The quickest of skims over these policies reveals that, as is traditional, libertarians have drawn the short straw. For all the different views being presented this time round (What should happen with Brexit? Whats level of immigration should Britain have? Should the state be large or very large?) theres still no party with a substantial commitment to liberty.

There are bright spots. The Liberal Democrats want to legalise cannabis and treat drug addicts like human beings (insane, I know). But for the few freedoms that get a nod, there are countless others that get the shaft.

Ill be writing about the specific parties and how they stack up for libertarians over the next couple of weeks. But in the meantime, heres a handful of the massive issues for which no party is even pretending to care about:

In June 2016, the European Union announced plans to force IT companies into removing access to online hate speech. Considering that the EU has defined hate speech to include disrespectful public discourse, and the internet doesnt really deal in respectful public discourse, thats a pretty major blow.

So, whatever else you think about Brexit, it should at least be a chance to reaffirm Britains commitment to free speech, right? Nah.

There are no signs whatsoever that a post-Brexit Britain would become a haven of free expression. The Lib Dems and the Greens want to sneak Britain back into the censorious EU. The Conservatives are responsible for bringing in Extremism Disruption Orders (EDOs), which allows the government to ban anyone who shows a lack of respect for the rule of law from using social media.

Worst of all are UKIP, who pretend to support free speech up until a meme creator or musical comedy act picks on them.

It may not surprise you to learn this, but nuclear missiles are dangerous. Really, really dangerous.

As such, theres never a bad time to have a debate about whether or not the state should keep wasting taxpayer money on potentially world-ending, outdated, dick-measuring apparatus.

Thats not the debate were having in Britain, though. The debate were having is between one side (The Conservatives) whose leader wont rule out pre-emptively nuking other countries, and another (Labour) whose leader has said hed never push the button but wants to keep spending billions on nukes anyway.

The first of those is crazily sabre-rattling. The second is mind-bogglingly wasteful. Neither is great for libertarians.

On the subject of throwing money away, the Lib Dems, Labour and the Conservatives have all pledged to meet the NATO target of spending 2% of budget on defence. Only spending 2% of a countrys money on defence might sound like a dream to American conservatives, but Britain is an island surrounded by allies. The rest of the EU clubbing together to invade Britain might be Nigel Farages greatest fear/secret dark fantasy, but its never going to happen.

To the credit of Jeremy Corbyn (the aforementioned Labour leader), hes an anti-royalist. Presumably the only reason the Queen hasnt chopped his head off for treason is because hes repeatedly said he wont campaign on getting rid of her.

Apart from that? All the other parties bloody love her. Sorry freedom lovers, democracy supporters, and people who think our nation should stop cosplaying as an enchanted kingdom, were going to be stuck with an unelected head of state for a long, long time.

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Helen Milenski Appointed Acting Chair Of Los Alamos County Affiliate Of Libertarian Party Of New Mexico – Los Alamos Daily Post

Helen Milenski visits the Los Alamos Daily Post world headquarters Friday to announce that she has been appointed acting chair for the Los Alamos County affiliate organization of the Libertarian Party of New Mexico, which has just qualified as a major political party in the state. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

By MAIRE O'NEILL

Los Alamos Daily Post

Just as the Libertarian Party of New Mexico announced it now meets the requirements to qualify as a major political party in the state, beginning with the 2018 election cycle, Helen Milenski announced that she has been appointed acting chair for the Los Alamos County affiliate organization of the LPNM.

According to State Chair Elizabeth Hanes, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Elections Director Kari Fresquez have confirmed that as long as the Libertarian Party maintains or increases its voter registration numbers, it will be designated as a major party on the date of the Governors primary election proclamation in January 2018.

Today marks a historic day for the Libertarian Party of New Mexico, Hanes said. We look forward to representing the ideals of thousands of New Mexicans who believe in living their lives peacefully and free from government interference.

The Libertarian Party of New Mexico will be able to participate in the primary election process in 2018 instead of having to nominate its candidates in convention and Hanes said the party is already identifying potential candidates for local, state and federal offices.

Milenski says she has always been a Libertarian at heart. Turning 18, she says she registered as a Democrat because of the social issues of the time. The country was coming out of the Reagan era and the Democratic Party had an altruistic feeling that she liked. She says liberalism called to her but not in the way Libertarianism speaks to her.

Milenski worked hard on Gary Johnsons campaign for president last year, coordinating a sign-waving campaign at the junction of Trinity and Diamond drive for several weeks. She feels she has a common- sense approach to politics and has been encouraged to get more involved. She just recently got involved at the state level.

Today there are 134 registered Libertarians in Los Alamos County which is up 14 from the time of the Gary Johnson campaign. Milenski said there are currently 6,000 affliate members statewide and that the party grew by at least 50 percent in 2016 largely due to Johnsons presidential campaign. She said Los Alamos County has the highest percentage of registration in the nation.

A public meeting has been slated for 6-8 p.m. June 21 at Mesa Public Library.

This will be a preliminary planning and interest meeting, Milenski said. We want to gauge peoples interest in the Libertarian Party and answer any questions people may have. We also want to elect a chairperson in a more permanent manner.

Milenski, 43, is a graduate of Los Alamos High School and UNM-LA. She has an Associates Degree in Engineering and is employed by Los Alamos Nation Laboratory, working in Chemistry Chemical Diagnostics and Engineering. She has one grown daughter and another daughter in high school. She and her husband Scott live in Los Alamos.

According to its news release, the Libertarian Party stands for individual freedom and responsibility. In New Mexico, the party advocates defending and expanding civil rights; eliminating government regulations that stifle economic growth; and lowering or eliminating taxes of all kinds. LPNM also is opposed to any restrictive immigration reform measures and supports the free movement of law-abiding citizens throughout the region.

For more information about the Libertarian Party of New Mexico, visit http://www.lpnm.us. For information about the Los Alamos group specifically, email helen.milenski@gmail.com.

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Helen Milenski Appointed Acting Chair Of Los Alamos County Affiliate Of Libertarian Party Of New Mexico - Los Alamos Daily Post