[Mini-podcast] Trump Supporters are the Sheep from 'Animal Farm'

From 'My LPeeps! Libertarian Mini-podcast'

Yes, you read that right! Pro-Trump libertarians like how Donald Trump called out the media for being biased. Cool, I can appreciate that too. But what do they call Fox News, Breitbart, and Info Wars?  The Republicans and libertarians who support Trump are the sheep from Manor Farm.  Zach explains what makes Donald Trump's election and first 100 days so similar to an episode from the George Orwell novel. 

Listen at Soundcloud

[Mini-podcast] What the Libertarian Party Won in the 2016 Election

From 'My LPeeps! Libertarian Mini-podcast'

Many Libertarians feel demoralized after the general election.  One of the two authoritarian demagogues was going to win no matter what.  The most painful part is that our national ticket couldn’t clinch that 5% (and even people on the Gary Johnson campaign are unhappy with Governor Bill Weld).  Regardless of the disappointment, LP Nevada still applauds Governor Gary Johnson for bringing the Libertarian Party up to new milestones and for carrying forward the message of our platform.  Here are some of the victories the Libertarian Party won this election.

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Libertarian Party of Russia joins international movement to free libertarians in Cuba's Gulag

The Libertarian Party of Russia has joined the international movement of dedicated libertarians calling for the freedom of jailed activists.  Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velazquez Visea were arrested February 2, 2017 by State Security.  The Cuban libertarians are interned at the prison Melena II, part of Cuba's Gulag-style labor prison system.  The Libertarian Party of Russia published the following statement:

It has come to our attention that human rights situation in Cuba has just made a turn for the worse. Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez, a human rights activist in Cuba and a member of the Mises Institute Cuba, and Manuel Velazquez Visea, a Cuban libertarian activist, who were arrested by the regime on February 2nd, are incarcerated in Cuba's most infamous Melena II prison. Various human rights groups compare conditions in this prison to Soviet Gulag. Activists are charged with "attempted assault" although there is little doubt they are being targeted for dissident activities and promoting ideas of liberty.

Libertarian Party of Russia strongly condemns political repression and demands release of political prisoners. We urge Cuban authorities to set Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velazquez Visea free immediately!

The Libertarian Party of Russia has joined an international movement to free these two political prisoners.  LP Russia now stands with the Libertarian Party of Spain (P-LIB), the independent Mises Institutes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Colombia, and the American Libertarian state parties of Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Indiana, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Florida.  The state parties in North Carolina and Florida are the latest American affiliates to get on board.  They're joined by the Libertarian Party of Chicago, whose leaders are leading the way on this just cause inside the Illinois LP.

LP Nevada is honored and humbled that the Libertarian Party of Russia, of Spain, and of multiple states would stand with us in fighting on behalf of our oppressed libertarian brothers.  Libertarians aren't trying to send the Marines to Havana, but simply to call international attention to an abuse that's hurtful and wrong in countless ways.

There is something YOU as an individual can do to help!  You can directly contact Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Relations on Facebook and Twitter and demand the release of Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velazquez Visea.  You can also lobby your regional representative on the LNC (actually, ALL members of the LNC) to vote YES on the U.S. LP's resolution calling on Cuba's government for their release.  Finally, you can share this news with as many people as you know, especially those on the Right who love to hate Communism; this is their chance to back up talk with action and do something, and from the safety of their own homes!

Never give in to evil, but proceed ever boldly against it.  This is the time for everyone who loves liberty to proceed boldly.

#TodosSomosMisesCuba

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This article was first published by the Libertarian Party of Nevada

Libertarian parties of Florida and North Carolina call on Cuba to act!

Two Cuban libertarian activists, Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velazquez Visea were arrested on February 2, 2017 by Cuba's political police.  The two activists were convicted of attempted assault and facing new charges for distribution of "enemy propaganda."  This "enemy propaganda" was in fact the writings of Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and other laissez-faire economists and philosophers--all of which threatens the Castro regime and Communist Party's grip on the island nation.  Herrera and Velazquez are both imprisoned in the Melena II labor prison, Cuba's equivalent of the Soviet Union's Gulag.  

The Libertarian Party of Nevada issued a press release on February 9 condemning the Cuban government and the Communist Party of Cuba, and demanding the immediate release of Herrera and Velazquez.  Shortly after, this became a movement.  The Libertarian state parties of New Hampshire and Oklahoma jumped on board, also calling for the release of Herrera and Velazquez.  We were then joined by LP Indiana, LP New Mexico, and the Libertarian Party of Spain.  In the last week LP Florida and LP North Carolina have joined the international movement to free these libertarian political prisoners.

James Hines, at-large Executive Committee member of the Libertarian Party of North Carolina, said

“As libertarians, we condemn our own government's interference in Cuba's domestic affairs.  Cubans had a right to revolt against the dictator Fulgencio Batista, who overthrew a democratic government in 1952 coup d’etat.

“Even more, we mourn for the Cuban people because Fidel Castro, the man they trusted to lead the resistance against Batista, and his brother Raul, have proven far more brutal tyrants than the dictator they replaced.”

“Today, the members of the Libertarian Party of North Carolina lament that Cubans live under a government which will arrest, or threatens to arrest them, by characterizing any expression of dissent in economic or political matters as an attack upon itself.

“We pray for the safety, happiness, and freedom of Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velasquez Visea as we pray for all of the people of Cuba and as we wish all of these things for ourselves.”

In the Libertarian Party of Florida's condemnation of the Cuban government, LPF Chairman Char-Lez Braden said today,

“The Libertarian Party of Florida, and all free people, find the existence of political prisoners abhorrent and call upon Cuba and all nations with such prisoners to free these folks and stop this practice. The LPF strongly encourages the Cuban government to release Hernandez and Velasquez immediately and apologize for their arrest. In addition, the LPF strongly urges the Cuban government to rid itself of all laws which limit Cuban citizens from expressing their opinions in public."

The Libertarian Party of Florida also dutifully points out that this is not a practice found only in Communist republics. "Just this year, there have been several Americans arrested for doing nothing more than exercising their right of free speech. Earlier this year two students were arrested in Michigan for simply handing out free pocket-sized U.S. Constitutions."

LP Florida and LP North Carolina are joined by the Libertarian Party of Chicago.  Rather than wait for the Illinois party's Executive Committee to act, LP Chicago is leading the way in Illinois!  The Libertarian Party of Russia and the Libertarian Party of Spain join 7 American LP state affiliates in a growing movement to free these innocent men.  Whether governments are persecuting nonviolent dissidents in Michigan or in Cuba, We the People will call out oppression and stand for freedom and common decency.

There is something YOU as an individual can do to help!  You can directly contact Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Relations on Facebook and Twitter and demand the release of Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velazquez Visea.  You can also lobby your regional representative on the LNC (actually, ALL members of the LNC) to vote YES on the U.S. LP's resolution calling on Cuba's government for their release.

#TodosSomosMisesCuba

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This article was first published by the Libertarian Party of Nevada

Women, the Anti-Trump March, and Gun Rights

If more women owned guns, perhaps they'd fear the government less.

** As an instructor trained by the NRA and licensed by the BSA, I professionally teach children how to shoot, and what their responsibilities with guns are. I've turned teenage girls into sharpshooters. Feel free to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about.

Many angry people on the Right severely criticized the national women’s protest march against Donald Trump. But the march was a Rorschach test - it's whatever people want it to be. The Right seems to want it to be a man-hating event. We're talking about over 3 million people around the country, though. I absolutely love and respect the marchers, including the majority that come from the Left, but I have to speak up about this notion of dreaming that someday "women might have the same rights as guns".

Though this is not the intention of the protesters, the original idea scrawled on the pickets logically translates into a desire to be owned by men, to have to register with the local government, to be locked up indoors until men are ready to USE you, and to be banned from going to school or even most public spaces. In California, it would also include background checks and a 10 day waiting period just for having sex. That's how deep runs the spread of misinformation on guns and gun rights.

Read more at The Swamp

Star Wars and the Austrian School I: A Brief Overview

EPISODE I: A BRIEF OVERVIEW

Star Wars is unquestionably a brilliant saga that touches the hearts of many through its incorporation of timeless literary archetypes and humanist themes.  Adventure, love, loss, spirituality, good vs. evil, and the triumph of the human (and humanoid) spirit…

Yet there are other characteristics standing out that demand attention and respect, such as the saga’s inclusion of patterns of history (great wars and economic or political disasters) and of the interactions and exchanges of societies and individuals.  One could practically point to passages from Mises’ Human Action or Theory and History while watching any given Star Wars episode!

Everyone knows the basic story line that spans seven (now eight) episodes, 2 spinoff movies (The Clone Wars theatrical pilot and Rogue One), and numerous television and novel tie-ins.  A once prosperous and peaceful republic decays over time from corruption and then war.  Victory over secessionists in a great galactic war only serves to undermine the Republic’s ideals of liberty and hastens its demise and overt reorganization into the Galactic Empire.

Following two decades of imperial rule and repression, a guerrilla army dedicated to reestablishing the Republic and maintaining its founding principles of liberty fights a lengthy campaign, pursuing only the help of willing parties, eventually destroying the Empire and restoring republican democracy to the galaxy.  (We just won’t talk about the Holiday Special or the Ewok movies, but everyone SHOULD check out Episode I.I: The Phantom Edit.)

Read more

Cuban libertarian activists sent to the Gulag!

The civil rights and human rights case regarding the two jailed Cuban libertarian activists just took a dark turn.  As of this afternoon, Mises Cuba reports that Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velazquez Visea are incarcerated in Cuba's infamous Melena II prison.  Various human rights groups have documented conditions at Melena II, and it's Cuba's equivalent of the Gulag in Soviet Russia and the labor camps in North Korea.  

Five Libertarian state parties (Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Indiana, and New Mexico) and the Libertarian Party of Spain (P-LIB) have already published denunciations of the Cuban government and the Communist Party of Cuba, and these parties are calling for the immediate and safe release of the political prisoners.

Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velazquez Visea were originally arrested by State Security (the secret police) and the National Police on the night of February 2 and were being detained at a jail facility in Mayabeque Province.  Less than 2 hours ago Mises Institute Cuba (an independent Cuban organization based on the American Mises Institute) reported that Herrera and Velazquez are believed to have been convicted of attempted assault.  In truth, Herrera was targeted for his "dissident activities" of getting people together in a room to discuss limited government, civil liberties, and free markets. Velazquez had the misfortune of being with Herrera when both men were challenged by a plainclothes undercover State Security agent who demanded to see their ID.

Mises Cuba staff members Nelson Rodriguez Chartrand and Heriberto Pons Ruiz both testify that Herrera and Velazquez have been transferred to Melena II, a labor prison outside of Melena del Sur, near Havana.  Thanks to refugees like Esteban Marcial Mosqueda, whose testimony was published by retired U.S. immigration judge Susan Yarbrough, we know exactly what conditions the two jailed libertarian activists are facing.

"There were no beds and no sheets so I slept on the floor with the other men.  The toilet was a hole in the floor, and it overflowed everyday.  At night the rats and roaches came through it, and sometimes a snake.  Our food was beans once a day, and it was always filled with insects and worms.  We got a pail of water every other day; it was for drinking, but it was so dirty it made us sick...  Many months and many guards went by.  Most of them would call me negro azul [blue-black, because of his dark skin]...  I was very thin by then, and it was very easy for them to pull down my pants."

In 2011 the Committee to Protect Journalists confirmed the existence of Melena II, and the labor prison's appalling conditions.  The Spanish-language Cuban-American news venue Let's Talk Press reported appalling conditions and human rights abuses in the Melena II prison as recently as 2015.  The Spanish-language Cuba news venue Café Fuerte reports on the forced labor conditions.   "'We are subjected to a twelve-hour work day in the sun, melting and raising blocks or working in the field,' said a labor convict at the Melena II prison's collective farm...  The Melena II prison houses more than 600 convicts, mostly young black men. They work by making cement blocks."

Now that the Cuban libertarian activists Herrera and Velazquez are in the Gulag, it's now more important than ever for supporters of human rights across America and around the world to take action.  Libertarians from around the world are already taking the fight back to the Cuban government. In one example, a French supporter demanded their release on the Ministry of Foreign Relations' French-language Facebook page.

All concerned citizens in all countries can help by doing these things:

1. Publicly condemn the Cuban government and the Communist Party of Cuba, and demand the safe release of the libertarian prisoners,
2. Ask the US State Department to place diplomatic pressure on Cuba for their release,
3. Call Senators, Congressmen, Governors, and State Legislators to make their own statements of support for these political prisoners and to ask the State Department to diplomatically pressure the Cuban government. Find your Congressman here and contact his or her office, and tweet at your governor.
4. Directly contact Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Relations and demand the safe release of Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velazquez Visea. Send them a message on Facebook and tweet directly at them.

The Libertarian Party of Nevada isn't advocating for sending the Marines to Havana; we're simply rallying free people around the world to call out a human rights abuse against one of our own flock.  We the People must never give in to evil, but fight boldly against it. #TodosSomosMisesCuba

For further inquiries contact Zach Foster at zach.foster@lpnevada.org 

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Melena II prison photo courtesy of CIH Press.  This article was first published by the Libertarian Party of Nevada.