Libertarian Discussion

Cellphone plan requiring nothing but a zip code to sign up.
https://wired.com/story/new-anonymous-phone-carrier-sign-up-with-nothing-but-a-zip-code/

Many people on the left think that profit is “theft” or immoral in some way. This includes not just the authoritarian crowd but also some libertarian, free market anarchists. This is unfortunate because profit is not only morally justifiable, but also essential for human life.

For those of you wondering if the Free State Project is successful in New Hampshire, read this post written by a Democratic State Representative sounding the alarm about the Libertarian influence in the state capitol.

You’ve probably heard of the Free State Project — but you might not realize just how much control its followers now wield in Concord. Their libertarian ideology has spread quietly but effectively through the Legislature, shaping decisions on taxes, education, and public services. What began as a fringe movement has become a political machine. The question now is: how do we take our state back?

https://search.freestater.org/

SearXNG is free open source software that privately searches multiple search engines at once -- Google, Bing, Brave, DuckDuckGo and more.

This instance of SearXNG is hosted by Free Staters (Libertarians) in New Hampshire. Enjoy some private search!!

Launching a New Era for the Free State Project

As torches of liberty dim all around us, our flame in New Hampshire grows brighter every election cycle.

With so many losing hope for liberty in their states on November 4th, November 5th was the perfect time to launch our new website (details below) and welcome video — inviting liberty seekers to come home and join us in the birthplace of American liberty.

Watch our newly launched Free State Project promotion video — introducing new people to a better way to build liberty.

Thank you to our FSP Video Strategist, Reinita Susman, for producing this new video — utilizing footage and interviews from her upcoming documentary on the Free State Project.

Free State Project Website FSP.org

https://x.com/Sarah_Scott95/status/1985875610242335010

The Free State Project has already moved thousands of pro-liberty people from across the US to build a stronghold of voters in New Hampshire. FSP.org

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/49010403

There is a dangerous willingness among too many political, civil, and community leaders — and, anecdotally, far too many everyday citizens — to sacrifice civil and human rights on the altar of authoritarianism. It’s as if the mere mention of “crime” is enough to justify rolling back the very constitutional protections that are supposed to keep us safe.

This is exactly what has happened with the rollout of the so-called Memphis Safe Task Force initiative. From the beginning, its justification has leaned more on anecdotes than on actual data, relying on propaganda released by law enforcement agencies designed to reassert law-and-order politics every time a semblance of progressive criminal justice reform begins to take root. And disturbingly, it’s working.

We don’t have to speculate about what over-policing looks like in Memphis. We have the receipts. The 2024 United States Department of Justice pattern and practice investigation of the Memphis Police Department laid it out in black and white: MPD has engaged in unconstitutional policing tactics, including racial profiling and broken-windows policing, that disproportionately target Black communities. The DOJ made clear that these practices not only violate civil rights but also fail to reduce violent crime in any meaningful or sustained way.

In short, the report confirmed what many Memphians — especially Black Memphians — have long experienced: a system more invested in control than in safety. And now, instead of breaking with that harmful legacy, the Memphis Safe Task Force has doubled down on it by expanding the very practices the DOJ condemned.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/53210854

cross-posted from: https://ibbit.at/post/79747

The Trump administration is drawing up “secret lists of terrorist groups inside the United States,” Senator Elissa Slotkin said on the floor of Congress yesterday — the first such reference to the effects of National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7). The directive, as I’ve reported, lays out Donald Trump’s policies with regard to equating “anti-Christian” and “anti-capitalist”…

...

“The Trump administration define[s] domestic terrorism incredibly broadly,” Slotkin said. “It suggests that any group that talks about anti-Christian values, views they don’t like on migration or race, differing views on the role of the family, religion, or morality could all be grounds for labelling an organization as domestic terrorists.”

Larry Bushart, a 61-year-old former police officer, posted the offending meme last month. In response to a Facebook post about an upcoming vigil for Kirk, Bushart shared an image of President Donald Trump with the quote, "We have to get over it," which Trump said in January 2024 after a shooting at Iowa's Perry High School. Text added to the image said, "This seems relevant today."

Bushart did not elaborate, but the context seems clear: Why should I care about this shooting, when the sitting president said I should "get over" this other shooting?

The image was one of several Bushart posted, and it was far from the most offensive. Still, it certainly feels crass; as people mourned a brutal public murder, Bushart snidely used the occasion to make a partisan political point. But it's certainly well within the bounds of average social media discourse, and you certainly wouldn't expect it to bring the attention of the local police.

According to the Perry County Sheriff's Office website, Bushart was arrested the following morning on a charge of Threats of Mass Violence on School Property and Activities—a class E felony punishable by between one and six years in prison and up to a $3,000 fine. Worse, Bushart's bail is set at an astonishing $2 million.

Under a Tennessee law that went into effect July 1, anyone posting bond must put up at least 10 percent of the total amount, and bail bondsmen must charge a "premium fee" of at least five percent of the total bond amount. Even just to get out of jail ahead of trial, state law says Bushart would have to pay a bondsman at least $210,000.

Bushart posted the Trump meme "to indicate or make the audience think it was referencing our Perry High School," Weems told The Tennesseean in a statement. "Investigators believe Bushart was fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community." Weems also told local radio station WOPC the meme "eluded [sic] to a hypothetical shooting at a place called Perry High School."

This justification is downright laughable. In its entirety, the post consists of a direct quote of a statement by the then-former president about a newsworthy event, with text providing context, plus a four-word phrase added. Bushart didn't even create the meme: The Tennesseean's Angele Latham noted it had been "posted numerous times across multiple social media platforms not connected to Bushart going back to 2024."

Bushart's arrest would be humorous if it weren't so serious. He now faces a potential years-long prison sentence for reposting a Facebook meme that doesn't come anywhere close to qualifying as an exception to the First Amendment. Even if the case gets thrown out, he has already spent two weeks in jail and is set to spend two more months until his first hearing.

Titled “The Least Among Us,” his speech focuses on the men still in prison today and how our prison system needs change.

Socialists being socialist. Kudos to Apple.

We need a chainsaw in Europe.